What's New

Twitter & Marketing: Making Your Feed Work for You

Getting a Twitter account going for one’s department or organization is relatively simple. But it’s quite another thing to really make the most of the social-media platform.  How does one tap into Twitter’s potential as a powerful publicity tool?

Washington University librarians Jaleh Fazelian and Erin Leach will explore this challenge in an interactive workshop at Olin Library from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 2011. Titled “Twitter & Marketing: Making Your Feed Work for You,” session registration is free and open to WUSTL students, faculty, and staff, as well as people from other institutions and non-profit organizations. The class will be held in the Arc Technology Center on Level A.

Fazelian and Leach will offer tips for integrating the micro-blogging tool into existing organizational marketing plans targeted at incoming and current students, as well as alumni. This workshop will encourage both novice and experienced Twitter users to consider the needs of their audiences and create a plan for marketing their department’s services. Attendees will leave with a strategy for creating a more exciting and engaging Twitter feed.

To see the Libraries’ own Twitter efforts in action, go to www.twitter.com/WUSTLlibraries. To register for the June 21 session, go to http://twittermarketingjun21.doattend.com/. View other free classes offered by the Libraries at http://wulibraries.doattend.com/.

Digital Data Management: What Faculty Told Us

WU Libraries would like to thank the more than 150 Danforth Campus faculty who participated in the Digital Data Management Survey this semester. The Library Service Quality Survey, completed last fall, showed that support for digital scholarship was a high priority among graduate students and faculty. In an effort to better understand this priority, WU Libraries asked faculty to complete a short survey regarding the digital data and/or digital objects that are generated in the course of their research. The survey was aimed at understanding existing digital data practices, as well as possible gaps in support and service.

The majority of the respondents (58.2 percent) indicated that their research had generated unique/original digital data and/or objects. Of those who did not generate digital data, approximately half (51.6 percent) indicated that they maintained data in a non-digital format.

Among those respondents who did generate original digital data, the survey showed the following:

•       Digital data/objects took a wide variety of forms, including, but not limited to, .txt files, images (.tiff and .jpeg), GIS files, audio files, spreadsheets, moving image/video formats, and SPSS.

•       53.1 percent indicated that there were outside entities (e.g. collaborators or funders) which had some rights to the data.

•       When asked how their data was currently stored, the two most common responses were on a Local Area Network or Server and on a USB flash drive or external hard drive.

•       45.7 percent said that they expected their data to have value for more than 10 years.

•       Approximately half (50.7 percent) indicated that they were not required to have a data management plan, while 40 percent responded that they are currently required to have one or know that they will be in the future.

•       The majority (81percent) responded that they would allow researchers outside of their own team access to their research data under some conditions, either now or in the future.  The most common response was to offer negotiated access.

When asked what, if any, additional data management services were needed at WUSTL, the highest priority issue was data storage and backup, followed by making data findable and useful to others.

This survey was an important first step in addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by the increase in digital data on campus. Thanks again to all who participated!

Zotero 101: Organize Your Research

Join WU Libraries at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 26, 2011, or 12 p.m. Thursday, June 16, 2011, for a free class titled "Zotero 101: Organize Your Research."

Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself. In this hands-on workshop, we will cover account creation, installation, gathering references, organizing your references, crea 
ting citations, and sharing or working collaboratively.

 For more information on Zotero, see http://www.zotero.org. To register for the WU Libraries session on May 26 or June 16, see http://wulibraries.doattend.com/.

Changes to Printing and Copying in the Libraries

Beginning in mid-June, the Libraries will be replacing our current print management system with the PaperCut system used across campus. At the same time, we will be removing and replacing all of our existing printers and copiers in public areas. After the changes, the current copy card service will no longer be used. If you have a copy card with a remaining balance, you may contact the Library Business Office (Olin Library, Level B, 314-935-4013) during regular business hours for a refund.

Kranzberg Book Studio Open House Draws Crowd

WU Libraries and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts hosted the annual open house of the Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Studio for the Illustrated Book in Walker Hall on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Visitors toured the Book Studio, met students and faculty, enjoyed refreshments, and congratulated this year’s Nancy Award winners -- graduate student John Allen and undergraduate Michelle Nahmad -- for their outstanding student achievement in book design.

Professor Makes Investment in WU Libraries

On Wednesday, May 4, 2011, Washington University announced a generous gift from Mark S. Weil, the E. Desmond Lee Professor Emeritus in the Department of Art History & Archaeology, to support Arts & Sciences and programs in the humanities. The $2.5 million gift includes the establishment of a $250,000 endowed fund for Washington University Libraries.

Read the full announcement in the May 4 issue of the Record.

Semeiology Collection on Display through June 2

One of the Libraries’ most fascinating collections has been on display in Olin Library's Ginkgo Reading Room and Grand Staircase this semester. The special exhibition, which is free and open to the public, ends Thursday, June 2.
 
Titled Language, Signs, Meaning, Applications, it showcases 62 items from the Philip Mills Arnold Semeiology Collection. Among them are the first printed book on cryptography, charts of early communication systems for the deaf, schemes for a universal language of symbols, and an ambitious 17th-century history of language that includes a famous depiction of the Tower of Babel.

The wide-ranging collection, which continues to grow, was donated to the Libraries in 1969 by Mr. Arnold, one of the Libraries’ greatest benefactors. Now numbering more than 2,300 items, the collection has proved useful to countless scholars over the years.

For more information about Mr. Arnold's collection, see the article titled "Inside a Well-Worn Suitcase: Philip M. Arnold's Exemplary Collection" in the Spring 2011 issue of the Libraries' magazine, Off the Shelf. Also available online and in hard copy is an extensive catalog showcasing 138 items from the collection.