Author Archives: Stephanie Davis-Kahl

Wishing you all a safe and relaxing winter break!

Today is Giving Tuesday – a global day of giving where philanthropic-minded individuals give back to the causes most near and dear to them. Today, we’re paying homage to IWU’s 17th president, Minor Myers jr., who encouraged all Titans to “Go into the world and Do Well. But more importantly, go into the world and Do Good.” 

This Giving Tuesday, we ask for your support to keep the Do Well, Do Good legacy alive by making a gift to Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund!  (NOTE: Be sure to select “write in my designation” on the giving form and type in “Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund”)

Our goal is to raise $4,000 to fund two students’ participation in our
successful Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program. 

What are the Digital Humanities, and why is the library leading this program? Digital Humanities (DH) combines digital tools and humanities approaches to ask new questions of traditional and new data. If you’d like to see examples, visit our website to view projects from past cohorts. The Ames Library is leading this program because we are perfectly positioned to provide strong connections between technology and soft skills, between students and faculty, and between asking great questions and exploring the abundance of information online and in print.

Students who participated in last year’s program noted the ways that the experience reinforced the liberal arts education they were receiving. “DH… made us really consider how the values we wanted to inform our work were actually reflected in it,” wrote one student:  “because of this we learned to constantly be taking a step back and looking for the best possible approach and solution to our problems in order to maintain those values and achieve our goals.” 

Another student noted “For me I think just an awareness of the existence of DH and the possibilities that come with it…are what’s going to benefit me the most. I think DH gives a great approach to different humanities topics that could bring new approaches to questions people have been struggling with for a long time.” The same student also noted the soft skills they developed through the program: “I think in class and in my future career I’m going to need to effectively collaborate and I think DH has given me the skills to do that.”  

Your contribution to the Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund is supporting the best of IWU: thoughtful, engaged research that prepares students to do well in future jobs and do good in the world.

This Giving Tuesday, we ask for your support to keep the Do Well, Do Good legacy alive by making a gift to Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund!  (NOTE: Be sure to select “write in my designation” on the giving form and type in “Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund”)

Give $50 or more and you’ll get a custom Minor Myers jr. sticker for your water bottle, laptop, etc.!

Visit iwu.edu/giving-tuesday to make your gift, check out volunteer opportunities, and follow along with the day’s live progress. 

Every gift makes a difference in the lives of current and future Titans. Thank you so much for helping us Do Good today!

Stephanie Davis-Kahl
University Librarian & Professor, The Ames Library, Illinois Wesleyan University

Brought to you by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI)

CARLI’s Open Educational Resource Committee invites you to celebrate Open Education Week, March 6-10, by attending a series of free webinars, sharing your successes, and contributing your OER Aspirations and Takeaways during Open Education Week on our community padlet. Find all events and activities on the CARLI Open Education Week 2023 website.

Upcoming Webinars:

Making Sense of “Affordable” Course Materials Models

March 8, 2:00-3:00 p.m. Central Time

Institutions are continuously hearing about new models and strategies for making course materials more affordable to students. The ever changing nature of technology and digital resources can make it hard to cut through the buzzwords and understand the real details of each “pitch” and the potential impact on students. Presenters Nicole Allen and Katie Steen-James, SPARC, will outline the facts and characteristics of common models to make course materials more affordable and untangle some of the arguments that come up in meetings with outside vendors. The goal is to help participants establish a deeper understanding of each model and develop effective strategies for engaging in discussions about these models on campus that center students and equity.

OER in Practice: A Faculty Discussion

March 8, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Central Time

Faculty members from College of DuPage, Columbia College Chicago, and Moraine Valley Community College share their experiences implementing Open Educational Resources in their courses. 

Panelists include Jeanne Petrolle, Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of English and Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago; Professor Joel Quam, chair of the Geography Department at College of DuPage; and Nicholas Hackett, associate professor of biology at Moraine Valley Community College.

Get to Know the New, Upcoming Illinois SCOERS Open Educational Resources

Please join CARLI and the Open Educational Resource Committee for a series of programs highlighting the upcoming publications of Illinois SCOERs Round One awardees. The Illinois SCOERs awards are made possible because of a generous grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the United States Department of Education’s Open Textbook Pilot Program. 

Program 1, March 6, 10:00-11:15 a.m. Central Time

Dr. Diana Zaleski from the University of Illinois Springfield discusses The Psychology of Exceptional Children, an OER textbook that will be used in undergraduate exceptional child courses. Ancillaries included with the textbook include a 3D printing assignment encouraging students to develop assistive devices and adaptive equipment.

Also, Dr. Karen Vuckovic from the University of Illinois Springfield with speak on Essentials of Pharmacology, an original open access textbook intended for nursing students using an innovative visual approach.

Program 2, March 7, 2:00-3:15 p.m. Central Time

Dr. Jacqueline Samuel from National Louis University will discuss her project Cultural Humility in Public Administration. The addition of Cultural Humility as lens for framing various approaches to Public Administration is what makes this text unique.

Health Sciences Librarian Amber Burtis, together with Professor Tim Davis from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, will outline Davis’ Anatomy and Physiology for Allied Health Professions.

Dr. Lonetta Oliver, Dean of Humanities at Illinois Central College will discuss Nurse Assistant Training. The OER focuses on nursing and elder care students, filling gaps that current texts do not address, such as life and soft skills.

Program 3, March 9, 12:00-1:15 p.m. Central Time

Barbara Anderson, the Head of the Instruction/Learning Library at Roosevelt University will elaborate on a collaborative project between Roosevelt University, DePaul University, and Harper College entitled Development and Implementation of Open-Access Problems and Activities for Health-Focused Chemistry Courses. The OER materials will be used for chemistry classes that are taught for nursing students as well as other health science majors.

Professor Juhelia Thompson from Morton College will elaborate on her work in the area of Diverse Approaches to Language Development, which educates students about the developmental stages of humans from a cognitive, physical, cultural, and biological perspective.

The Female Reproductive System and Women’s Health Through a Multidisciplinary Lens is a collaborative project between a Carle Illinois College of Medicine/ the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign team led by Dr. Samar Hegazy and Professor Judith Thorn, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Assessment at Knox College. This OER will serve as a hub for learning about the conditions affecting the female reproductive system and women’s health throughout the lifespan from different perspectives.

Illinois SCOERs programs are made possible through funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

OER Success Stories

The CARLI OER Committee is gathering OER Success Stories to celebrate how CARLI members have furthered OER initiatives on your campuses! To add your success stories to this list, please send your description to CARLI Support!

OER Aspirations and Takeaways

Share on the OER Aspirations and Takeaways padlet what has inspired you during OpenEd Week! What have you learned? What great things are you planning?

Due to the construction on our front plaza, The Ames Library will be accessible by appointment only starting late May/early June. Please contact the Library Services Desk (309-556-3350) to set up an appointment. Entrance to the library will be via the loading dock on the west side of the building; parking is available on N. East Street. Materials can be returned using the book drop on the west side of the building, in the traffic circle near the School of Art.

Over the summer months, librarians and staff can be contacted by the usual means, via email or phone. We will continue to provide consultations, provide interlibrary loan service, loan materials, and will be hosting scheduled events such as campus tours, the inaugural Digital Humanities Fellowship Program, and second language placement testing during Rising Titan advising. We are happy to host additional activities, if needed, with notice. Our summer hours remain the same as in previous years, 8 am – 4 pm, Monday – Friday. 

Many thanks to our colleagues in Physical Plant for their work on this project, and for installing a ramp and lighting outside our west entrance!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact University Librarian Stephanie Davis-Kahl.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and consideration as our plaza is improved.

Off-campus access has been restored to Kanopy. After you login through the proxy server with your NetID and password, please click the “skip” button to access IWU-licensed films.

If you have any questions, please contact the University Librarian.

Thank you for your patience!
SDK

After the I-Share update on Sunday, April 3, a few I-Share libraries have reported that the I-Share request form is no longer pre-populating bibliographic data like the title and the author for some requests placed by users. This error has been reported to our vendor and they are working to resolve the issue.

Until the issue is resolved, please copy/paste title, author, date, etc. into the I-Share request form and submit as usual.

If you need any assistance, please contact your liaison librarian for assistance.