It has been a challenging year for the residents of Planet Earth. We’ve all had to make adjustments to nearly every facet of our lives. The United States has been at war with itself over its past and for its future. Undeniable fundamental and systemic racism is being laid bare, and it is an unfortunate part of our culture that we will continue to have to confront and correct. An example of it sits in our own Special Collections Archive…
I am excited to share with the Island Community that Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi recently joined forces with 26 other universities from across Texas to form the Texas Library Coalition for United Action (TLCUA). Unified fronts such as this provide greater leverage when negotiating with publishers who often hold all of the cards. Similar to action taken by the University of California System and MIT, Texas as a state is acting together to push back against unsustainable business models that…
If you’re watching the news or any live tv show, you’ve probably noticed that folks like to have a bookshelf in their background. It makes them look cultured, literate, or sometimes downright scary (C’mon Betsy, what’s going on over there?). Some folks on twitter and in the New York Times have taken up sleuthing through the images to see if they can identify any of the books and thus learn glean a fuller picture of the books’ owners. Since I was at my…
Ideas can be unpredictable. You never know where they might lead. This is the story of how an idea became a conference, and how the simple question “Why not?” set off a chain of events that, nine months later, has brought the libraries of the Texas A&M University System closer together and set the stage for future collaborations. TAMU-CC belongs to a large university system which includes 11 universities and eight state agencies. Each of those universities has at least…
The Library, along with everyone else, found itself in new waters this past March when a pandemic came to our door. Stay at Home orders and a regard for everyone’s safety necessitated moving the classroom—along with all accompanying learning and academic support—online to ensure social distancing. We all hoped that this then new reality would be short-lived, yet it continues to evolve and change at a feverish pace. While going back to a pre-pandemic reality seems a distant dream, we strive, along…
One of the reasons I love history is because I love a good story. History tells us the stories of individuals, families, groups, nations—stories that help us understand our own lives and our place in the world. Archives are often called “the raw stuff of history,” the voices out of which the historical narrative is woven. But some voices ring more loudly in the archives than others. The term archival silence describes a gap in the existing historical record. It is particularly…
Recently, there has been much discussion around the Black Lives Matter movement, systemic racism in the United States and around the world, and other issues related to race and representation. Just the other day, a scholarly communication blog I follow posted about researchers exploring issues around race. As a scholarly communication librarian, I have been reading not only on research around race, but about representation in research and publishing. Questions such as “who is doing the research?” and “who is being…
Within the last two months, a lot has changed around the university and the world. Despite the changes, the I-Create MakerSpace Supervisors and Library Staff are hard at work to make a difference for those in need during this Pandemic. Sylvia Sanchez, MakerSpace Coordinator, and David Jones, MakerSpace Technician, have been spending their time, along with volunteers and library staff, at the closed I-Create Lab to utilize one of the labs' favorite pieces of equipment, the laser cutter. The laser…
A team shout-out to Administration, Research and Learning, Library Technology Services, and RM&D for preparing us to work remotely during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. By attending the training sessions offered by my colleagues, I learned to navigate and familiarize myself with Cisco Jabber and the features it offers. WebEx, another tool we use for video conferencing, has allowed me to collaborate in an online environment. The quick tips and tricks I learned helped me smoothly and seamlessly transition from working together…
While the I-Create lab is full of neat gadgets and gizmos, it is nothing without our student workers. This month we are spotlighting one of our student workers, Skally Benitez. Skally has worked in the I-Create Lab for nearly a year and is a Senior here at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She is working on her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA). Skally received her Associates in Arts from South Texas College in 2018. Her focus in art is traditional art;…