University Libraries Newsletter
July/August 2021
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Fall Semester Building Hours |
Marx Library Hours
Mon. - Thurs. 8:00 am - 10:00 pm
Fri. 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sat. 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sun. 1:00 pm - 10:00 pm
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Alma Platt, Administration Assistant, USA Libraries Administration, Retires |
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Congratulations to Alma Platt on her retirement!
Alma retired on June 30, 2021. Although she was only at the library for three years, Alma has worked for the University for 23 years. Transferring to the library from Continuing Education in February of 2018, she served as the Administrative Assistant in the USA Libraries Administration Office until her retirement.
It has been an absolute pleasure working with Alma. She will be greatly missed.
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The University of South Alabama welcomes you home for the first in-person Alumni Reunion Weekend, September 30 – October 3, 2021. Whether you graduated in 1967 or 2021, South will always be your University. From tailgates to campus tours and class reunions, there is no better time to reconnect with your South Alabama family.
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McCall Library Interim Director Selected as Faculty Fellow |
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McCall Library Interim Director, Deborah Gurt was recently selected as a Faculty Fellow in Community Engagement for 2021-22. The goals of this program include increasing opportunities for students to apply their learning to real-world problems, expand their civic knowledge, increase their ability to become agents of positive change, experience diversity, and better understand themselves in relation to others; developing new opportunities for students to learn in collaboration with community partners; and developing sustainable and impactful relationships with community partners.
Gurt was selected through a competitive process and will join a cohort of other USA Faculty for the yearlong program that will produce a course or research project redesign and expanded community collaborations. This work aligns well with the mission of the McCall Library to promote learning through engagement with a documentary representation of Mobile's diverse populations and to actively pursue community partnerships to this end.
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McCall Library Announces New Blakeley Oral History Collection |
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The McCall Library announces its newly available panel exhibit, The Blakeley Oral History Project Interviews, 2019. This collection contains interviews with 14 narrators conducted by Honors College students and faculty. The selected community members and experts explore aspects of personal history and the environmental and historical importance of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, America's Amazon. The interviews are part of a funded research project of the Honors College of the University of South Alabama sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life.
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Liz Finamore, LTA I, and Stephanie Ard, Social Sciences Librarian, Present at the SELA Summer Conference |
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In Fall 2019, the University of South Alabama’s Marx Library sought a way to encourage empathy on campus through the library’s programming. Inspired by a “Week of Kindness” display at Starbucks, the library’s Public Relations Committee initiated the Semester of Kindness to encourage students, faculty, and the community to reflect on the importance of practicing compassion. The first activity asked people to write Notes of Kindness to be displayed in the library atrium. This display quickly became very popular, and the Marx Library Public Relations Committee used the momentum to plan activities for the 9/11 Day of Service and Veterans Day, as well as a drive for the university’s food pantry.
In this presentation, Liz Finamore and Stephanie Ard discussed how the committee planned and implemented the Semester of Kindness. The presenters provided examples of programs that occurred during this semester, including responses shared on the Semester of Kindness wall. They also discussed how the Semester of Kindness became a valuable model for student connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Spring of Connection in 2021.
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McCall Library Partners with PASSAGE USA |
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The McCall Library is delighted to be partnering with PASSAGE USA (Preparing All Students Socially and Academically for Gainful Employment), a post-secondary, non-degree, certificate program. This program is designed for students who need extra support to be successful in our community. This semester the McCall Library will serve as an internship site for a PASSAGE USA student. We look forward to welcoming them to the Archives as a member of our team.
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Kristina Polizzi, Library Technical Assistant II, McCall Library, Appointed Co-Chair of the Society of American Archivists Diversity Award Committee |
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Kristina Polizzi, Library Technical Assistant II, McCall Library, was appointed co-chair of the Society of American Archivists Diversity Award Committee.
Established in 2011 and intended to address the SAA's strategic priority on diversity, this award recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record.
Nominees will have demonstrated significant achievement in the form of activism, education, outreach, publication, service, or other initiatives in the archives field. The award is given based on the long-term impact on improving and promoting diversity as defined in the SAA Statement on Diversity and Inclusion.
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Cambridge University Press & USA Read & Publish Agreement |
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To alleviate the problem of exorbitant open access author fees, the University of South Alabama Libraries and Cambridge University Press have partnered to provide USA faculty opportunities to publish in Cambridge’s nearly 400 Gold and hybrid open access journals without having to pay any publishing fee. This agreement is active until December 31, 2023.
Papers submitted under the Read and Publish agreement still undergo the same peer-review process that any manuscript submitted to a Cambridge subscription journal does, guaranteeing the same high quality of research across all Cambridge Journals.
The journals covered under this agreement span a wide variety of disciplines, including history, business, language, psychology, mathematics, classics, biology, medicine, engineering, music, and literature, among others.
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In order to take advantage of this opportunity, all submitted articles must meet the following criteria:
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Have a corresponding author who is affiliated with USA (see definition of corresponding author)
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Be original research. This can include research articles, review articles, case reports and more (see article types definitions).
- Be accepted for publication in a Cambridge Journal included in the agreement.
- Be accepted for publication between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2023.
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USA Libraries Community Recordings for July/August 2021 |
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CommonRead: So You've Been Publicly Shamed
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The Common Read/Common World book selection for 2021-2022 is Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed. In this work, Ronson discusses several cases of public shaming on the internet and social media and includes some history of public shaming.
Jon Ronson is a journalist who is also the author of Men Who Stare at Goats, Them, and Lost at Sea. He has also worked on films, including The Last Days of August, Okja, and The Men Who Stare at Goats. Events featuring this book will be scheduled in the fall and spring semesters.
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The USA Libraries have two ebook copies and one print copy of So You've been Publicly Shamed.
Resources
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USA Libraries Social Media Links |
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Have you checked out our Social Media sites?
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