Your paper is due at midnight. Your roommate just got dumped and needs to talk it out. And the status of your group project is a mystery to all.
Don’t worry. You’ve got this.
Here are 5 reasons why:
ASU librarians. Helping you succeed is not just a thing they’re good at – it’s in their job description. Let them help you. They want to help you. It’s why they’re here.
Online help. Your questions about citations, keywords and research databases already have answers, and you can find them on our FAQs page, where librarians are also available for online chat. Relax – if you have a connection to the internet, there is hope.
Group study rooms. Maybe it’s time to figure out what’s going on with your group project. Several types of group study spaces are available at our libraries to support those necessary conversations and collaborations. Gather your group and get it done.
Quiet and silent study. No signs of your roommate quieting down any time soon. Have no fear – ASU Library quiet and silent study is a thing, and it’s here for you. It’s a magical place where devices go silent and your thoughts thank you.
Counseling. Not a library service, but a great resource nonetheless, offered to ASU students who may be feeling like they need to talk to someone. You’re not alone. Also, you may want to suggest it to your roommate.
When Hayden Library, Arizona State University’s largest library, re-opens in 2020, its open-stack print collections will have a whole new look.
The future display, curation and delivery of books at ASU, and how those books interact with the heavily digital-dwelling community in which they are present, is the focus of the Future of Print initiative, an exploration into the behaviors, needs and expectations of 21st-century academic library users.
Led by ASU Library, the initiative addresses specific needs of today’s public universities, and has resulted in a widely shared white paper and a three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Lorrie McAllister, Associate University Librarian for Collections Services and Analysis, and Shari Laster, Head of Open Stack Collections, is now leading the Future of Print into its next phase: experimentation.
Here, Laster discusses these experiments and how they aim to inspire new thinking around the design of inclusive, high quality and user-focused print collections for research and learning.
Question: This fall, the library is experimenting with a series of collection experiments. Can you tell us more about them?
Laster: ASU Library has a lot of ideas about how people and books get connected together. We came up with a list we are calling “10 Compelling Ideas” and we’re trying out some of these ideas in different library locations and in other spots on campus. This fall, we have several mini-projects, or experiments, in motion.
Surprise Me! is a collection of poetry and drama at Fletcher Library on the West campus. The books in this collection are being shelved spine-backward in order to invite students to explore an unexpected collection.
Another project, Vamos Argentina! Books, Tango and Meteors, is an exciting series of talks and events that is drawing attention to the collection of Argentine literature currently housed at Noble Library on the Tempe campus.
At the Downtown Phoenix campus, we are featuring Health Humanities Horizons, a collection curated in collaboration with faculty whose research and teaching intersects with the CLAS certificate program in interdisciplinary health humanities.
We’re also cooperating with Barrett, the Honors College to assemble a mini-library in a student-friendly environment, in addition to planning a mini-collection for Hayden Library that’s all about the act of collecting, what we collect and why we collect.
Q: With digital interfacing consuming more of our time and attention, what are some unique strengths of the print medium?
Laster: Books mean different things to different people. While digital content certainly has many advantages, accessing and using a book in print format is a specific experience that can bring about a different form of interaction with the content. We all have different ways of learning and absorbing information. We hope that allowing for the possibility of a book to “catch the eye” of a passerby will enrich the experience of our spaces.
Books also have a physical presence in library spaces. Print books are often considered an essential component to creating a thriving learning environment. For example, they can make a room more conducive to study and focus. This project takes into consideration which books we are presenting in and around spaces where students study and learn. By making parts of our collections more visible, we add another layer of learning where users can physically be immersed in the collections.
Q: University libraries have always been a source of academic support for students. How does this initiative, focusing on print materials, connect to the success of ASU students?
Laster: When Hayden Library re-opens in 2020, it will be a destination on the Tempe campus for studying, research and classroom learning. It will also be a place for the campus community to relax, take a break and explore new ideas. We want to create collections that make library spaces more welcoming and inviting. We also want to use print books to present new perspectives on academic disciplines and research, and to inspire innovation and discovery. By helping everyone who enters the library to see our collections in a new light, we also give them a new way to explore ideas that matter to their success at ASU.
Q: How can people participate in these experiments/mini-projects?
Laster: Visit the collections and leave us feedback! Visitors can expect to see emoji stickers for a quick shortcut to speaking your mind. Anyone can borrow the books on display, so pick up and check out what looks interesting to you.
We also want to hear from the ASU community about the library collections that make you feel welcome in our spaces. Anyone is welcome to send me a note at shari.laster@asu.edu.
A new book display of poetry and drama at Fletcher Library is encouraging the ASU community to take a chance on a book.
Immune from judgment, all books in this display are shelved spine-backward in an effort to encourage discovery and serendipity. Featured poets include Joy Harjo and Juan Felipe Herrera.
“Surprise Me” is the first book display in a new series of collection experiments, part of the Future of Print initiative at ASU, which looks at new and innovative ways to present print materials to library visitors.
Students, staff and faculty are invited to "explore the unknown" during normal library hours at Fletcher. "Surprise Me" will be located on the ground floor of the library through October 15.
Come speak out on behalf of the books, ideas and works of art that have been banned, censored or challenged throughout human history.
In recognition of Banned Books Week, an annual celebration of books and our right to read them, ASU Library is hosting a Read Out, a public reading of books, newspapers, plays and other texts that have been banned, challenged or restricted in some way, or that speak to the issue of freedom of speech.
The Read Out will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 25, on the north side of the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus.
The theme for this year’s Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), is “Speak Out.”
Events related to Banned Books Week are set to take place at all ASU libraries on all campuses during Banned Books Week, which is September 23-30, 2018.
It’s no secret that college is demanding of your time and energy – but with the right supports, the journey can be incredible and well worth the investment.
Here are 7 ways to get help from ASU Library:
1/ Check out materials. Information resources can be delivered right to your device or preferred library location. If we don’t have what you’re looking for, we will find a way to get it (often within 24 hours) through Interlibrary Loan.
Also, did you know the library has more than just books and articles? You can check out games, movies, calculators and culture passes.
2/ Connect with a librarian. ASU Library has more than 30 liaison librarians who are all experts in their fields. They are available for in-person meetings and research consultations in addition to quick questions via email. Have a quick question? You can also connect via instant chat!
3/ Get help with your research. When it comes to research, ASU Library provides comprehensive support – everything from primary sources and citations to data management and copyright assistance.
4/ Be creative. ASU Library is home to a suite of makerspaces and audio/video production studios, where access to high-tech tools and opportunities for creativity collide. Learn some new skills, make some new friends and take advantage of our free 3-D printing.
5/ Find your space. Sometimes you just need some space. Across four ASU campus locations, ASU Library is home to a variety of outstanding spaces for quiet study, group study, collaboration, research, training and teaching, art installation, exhibits and even meditation/prayer.
6/ Think outside the box. Explore all the possibilities through two interdisciplinary research centers: the Map and Geospatial Hub and the Unit for Data Science and Analytics. Connect with a growing and diverse community of students, researchers, faculty and practitioners in the pursuit of innovative research and novel discovery methods.
7/ Explore the archives. ASU Library is home to several world-class collections, including the Greater Arizona Collection and the Child Drama Collection, the largest theatre for youth repository in the world. Access to collections can deepen learning, spur new thinking and bring your studies to life.
Don’t forget our hours and locationsand your Sun Card for late-night library access.
And check out our ASU Digital Repositoryfor full access to our online archives, including image downloads, documents and other historic materials.
For the first time ever, thousands of high-quality archival materials – photographs, documents and correspondence – chronicling the early history of Grand Canyon National Park (1890-1940) have been made digitally available to the public through a partnership between ASU Library, Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library and Grand Canyon National Park.
Coined 100 Years of Grand, the project commemorates the upcoming centennial of the legislative creation of Grand Canyon National Park in February 1919 and aims to enhance public understanding of the park’s history by weaving together several decades of cultural, geospatial, entrepreneurial, documentary and administrative archival history.
“Materials made accessible through this project will be of benefit to visitors to the park who may want to enhance their experience and historical understanding of the Grand Canyon,” said Rob Spindler, university archivist for ASU and the project’s director. “Students, teachers and historians at all educational levels will be able to acquire and reuse these materials for class lectures, assignments and related writings and research. Arizona businesses that rely on Grand Canyon tourism will also be able to use these materials in the development of their advertisement and marketing efforts.”
The archival materials – photographs, documents, ephemera, maps, correspondence and original manuscripts – have been digitized, presented and delivered via three Arizona repositories.
“The public can gain access to the materials through various ways, but the easiest would be through lib.asu.edu/Grand100,” Spindler said. “Many of the materials in the digital repositories have rarely been seen since they were created. These amazing artifacts tell a bigger story about Grand Canyon National Park.”
This project is supported by the Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records, a division of the Secretary of State, with federal funds from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.
New online processes for requesting materials through ASU Library’s One Search will become available May 14 on lib.asu.edu in an effort to expedite delivery of materials from outside libraries and give users more options in requesting them.
For items owned by ASU Library, the initial process for placing a request on an item will remain the same. However, when requesting materials that are not available at ASU Library, a new function will allow users to select from a set of preferences indicating how they would like to proceed.
This is a change from the previous One Search setting that automatically processed requests for materials from external libraries through Interlibrary Loan, a supplemental service that is used when the material needs of students, faculty and staff cannot be met with ASU Library resources.
Now, users will receive a notice providing options for how, where and when they would like to receive the desired materials not owned by ASU Library before requesting them — giving the user more control and enhancing the efficiency of library processes.
To learn more about requesting items through Interlibrary Loan, visit the ASU Library Guide.
If you want to know something about scholarly activism and indigenous communities, the office of David Martinez would be a good place to start.
It’s the collective home of every book ever nominated for the Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award, now in its 10th year. (Check out a full list of Labriola book award winners.)
As chair of the selection committee, Martinez has literally surrounded himself with a decade’s worth of research — as many as 200 books — by indigenous scholars, Native and non-Native, around issues of environmental justice, sexual violence, historical representation and tribal sovereignty.
“We get anywhere from 12 to 20 nominees each year,” said Martinez, an Arizona State University associate professor of American Indian studies, who was recruited in 2008 by ASU Foundation Professor Donald Fixico and Regents Professor Peter Iverson to create a distinguished book award that honored scholarship in American Indian history and related fields.
At the time, there were few book awards within American Indian studies, but this has changed. From year to year, Martinez has seen a notable increase in opportunities for indigenous people-focused projects.
“Now more than ever, American Indian studies is relevant to the national discussion on democracy, which has come under assault. Nobody knows that better than tribal communities who have not always had their voices heard or counted toward policy decisions made on their behalf,” he said. “This is a time to pay attention to those voices.”
On the importance of visiting
Criteria for the Labriola book award emphasizes that the research be developed out of a meaningful relationship with the community on which it’s focused.
“The research must serve some need the community has, as opposed to research for the sake of research,” said Martinez, explaining that the idea stems from “our own intellectual history” — a standard set by Vine Deloria Jr., in his “Indian Manifesto” ("Custer Died For Your Sins," 1969), in which he criticized the social sciences for generating research that didn’t do the communities any good. “His belief was that work on Native communities must also work for Native communities.”
Deloria’s philosophy of socially embedded, use-inspired research — certainly a driving force at ASU — guided the work of Elizabeth Hoover in her 2017 book, "The River is in Us: Fighting Toxics in a Mohawk Community," this year’s winner of the Labriola award.
Hoover said the book came out of “kitchen-table conversations” with friends, workers, leaders and scientists in the remarkable upstate New York Mohawk community of Akwesasne, along the St. Lawrence River, who partnered up to develop grass-roots programs aimed at fighting environmental contamination and the threats it posed to their land, health and culture.
“There is something to be said for the importance of visiting and how it can impact a project,” said Hoover, the Manning Assistant Professor of American Studies at Brown University. “These slow-simmering conversations gave me the impetus for wanting to look at these health studies and how people were responding to them. I had friends working in a gardening group who made me want to think more about the impact of food and the way that contamination has these collateral impacts as well, such as concerns over exposure that cause people to avoid food.”
Hoover, the fourth consecutive Native American woman to receive the Labriola book award, says she wants people to find her work useful and for other Native communities to see what Akwesasne has accomplished.
“I want people to have this information and for other people to be inspired by this work, including scientists,” she added. “Some have written me to say they’re thinking about their work in a different way now.”
‘An ongoing awareness’
Martinez said Hoover’s book is an elegant example of a project that brings together the best in indigenous scholarship with the real-world needs of the community.
“Hoover is becoming one of the leading figures on the issues of food sovereignty and environmental justice for American Indians,” he said. “In the next five to 10 years, her work will be as important as Winona LaDuke’s.”
For most people, environmental crises emerged in the 1960s — but from an American Indian perspective, tribes have been deeply concerned about the impact of development on the environment since the first settlers appeared.
“The diverting of rivers and streams, the changing of non-farm land into farm land, the impact of mining and the railroads — Native people have always been alarmed by what’s going on,” Martinez said. “Hoover’s book represents an ongoing awareness among American Indians that the development that has been occurring in their lands since the time of colonialism has been creating this ever-going environmental crisis.”
In the face of such crises, the books that practically spill over the shelves of Martinez’s office are proof of indigenous resilience and, more importantly, resistance.
“It’s one thing to overcome the hardships that come with living in a colonial system,” Martinez said. “It’s another thing for those tribes to enact a political agenda that rebels against power and brings about real change.”
You can learn more about Hoover and her book at a special reception and Q&A session, hosted by ASU Library’s Labriola Center, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in C2 of Hayden Library.
When ASU alum Rachel Sims learned of ASU Library’s Giving Day effort to digitize hundreds of hours of ASU sports film footage, she immediately thought of her father.
Sims’ father is Mike Sims, No. 42, who was part of the ASU men’s basketball team from 1975-1980, under ASU Coach Ned Wulk.
Growing up, Rachel and her sister heard their father’s many stories about his days playing basketball with the Sun Devils, and was excited about the possibility of getting to see him play.
“My sister and I have always wanted to see our dad play, and now we actually can,” said Rachel, who is pledging her support today for Unlock the Spark, a library effort to preserve ASU sports history and make it accessible to the public.
Mike Sims’ athletic career at ASU took place during some of ASU basketball’s finest years, including the 1979-80 season when they finished second and made it the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“He has said there is footage of him getting a fast break dunk. He remembers watching that film after a game, so my hope is that his memory is correct!” Rachel said.
The archival materials, soon to be digitized, include some of the seasons Mike played for the Devils:
Basketball Highlights 1979. Title “The Year of the Young Devils” – 16MM Motion Picture
Following his basketball career, Mike went on to get his PhD in engineering at ASU, and Rachel is now living with her husband in the same house her dad lived in – in the Maple Ash historic neighborhood of Downtown Tempe – the same house that hosted her dad’s infamous post-game parties, she says.
Do you have an ASU sports story? Share it with us! Email britt.lewis@asu.edu.
The Juste family church tipi has been in service, helping heal the Salt River Gila community, for over 25 years.
“This tipi has a real history. A lot of people have received a lot of help,” says ASU’s Henry Quintero. “Its scars tell a story of this community and what it’s been through, and our perseverance.”
That history made its way to Arizona State University last week, when the church tipi was set up on the Tempe campus, by church roadman Glen Juste, himself, for the 10th annual Simon Ortiz RED INK Indigenous Speaker Series, formerly known as the Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community.
The new name follows its new director, Quintero, an assistant professor in the Department of English and the editor of RED INK, an International Journal of Indigenous Literature, Arts & Humanities. The journal is just one part of a larger initiative by the same name to enhance access to higher education for Indigenous communities, as well as global access to Indigenous creative and intellectual expression and discourse among Native and non-Native communities on Indigenous issues.
“RED INK is great, and it’s here to stay,” says Quintero, who is affiliated with American Indian Studies. “Part of what’s here to stay is sharing a kind of creative beauty that is intrinsically woven into Indigenous people’s lives.”
How we understand our stories and the relationships around us underscored this year's speaker series, which included a demonstration and talk on "Indigenous Epistemologies of Sustainable Geometries: Stories of the Cradleboard and Tipi" and a discussion of the development of the Native American Church and the tipi's evolution alongside.
Storytellers included Juste (Gila River Tohono O'odham), Sarita and Mac Nosie (White Mountain Apache), and Ksaws Brooks (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation).
The annual series, now a decade old and sponsored by ASU Library’s Labriola National American Indian Data Center – home to thousands of books, journals, Native Nation newspapers and primary source materials, such as photographs, oral histories and manuscript collections – "seeks to create and celebrate knowledge that evolves from an inclusive Indigenous worldview and is applicable to all walks of life."
It has featured such speakers as Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), Peterson Zah (Navajo), Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee) and last year’s Myron Dewey (Newe-Numah/Paiute-Shoshone).
Quintero sees the series as an act of decolonization, passed down to him by his predecessor and mentor Simon J. Ortiz, an ASU Regents' Professor, who donated his personal papers to the Labriola Center in 2013.
“It’s a testament to the Labriola’s family commitment to Indigenous people and the understanding that Indigenous people have a philosophy and voice as well as the ability to share and integrate our incredibly valuable knowledge,” he says.
Ortiz encouraged Quintero to share his knowledge about Indigenous plant medicine and the Native American Church back when Quintero was a graduate student at ASU.
“He said, ‘you've got to write about this,’” recalls Quintero, who now researches Native American Church music, better known as “peyote music.”
“Peyote music is a philosophical, musical and literary system that dates back older than any of the Abrahamic traditions, and belongs to a larger tradition of indigenous plant medicines that we utilize to navigate the human experience,” says Quintero. “It’s like any other glorious representation of everything in our human experience. It’s a way of understanding interrelations with what’s around us – our earth, our families, other human beings.”
In peyote ceremonies, the tipi plays a foundational role, from the way its constructed to the stories that are embedded and the relationships interwoven.
“Anyone can take a pill, anyone can take a drug,” Quintero says. “When it truly becomes a medicine, from an Indigenous perspective, is when it integrates with your life, beliefs and culture. In this way, the tipi is a kind of ‘cultural container,’ a way of utilizing time, place and space with plant medicines to facilitate the best outcome."
Traditional teachings around Indigenous culture, the tipi and the cradleboard, a protective baby carrier, were all part of the spring speaker series events. Through these valuable teachings and new avenues of scholarship, Quintero says we begin to understand this time and space we’re living in now, differently.
"ASU is the place for RED INK and for Indigenous studies," he says. "Many Indigenous scholars see President Crow's commitment to the 2020 initiative as active decolonization for the benefit of the ASU and international community, but also, in a larger sense, as being the innovation that changes everything in that gentle, good way."
The Sun Devils’ selection in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, otherwise known as March Madness, marks the first time since 2014 that both men's and women's teams are competing in their respective tournaments, and follows what has been an unforgettable season for ASU basketball, particularly for men’s hoops, which included an upset victory over the No. 2 ranked Kansas Jayhawks and a perfect 12-0 season start, the first in the program’s history.
ASU basketball, according to ASU Library’s Rob Spindler, university archivist, is part of a long tradition of excellence that predates the national rise of the Arizona Wildcats and even the NBA’s arrival to the Valley of the Sun.
“Before Coach Hurley, before James Harden and before the "Curtain of Distraction," Arizona State University was home to a basketball powerhouse that produced NBA players like Joe Caldwell and Lionel Hollins,” Spindler said. "Particularly strong years for ASU men’s basketball occurred between 1957 and 1982, under the leadership of Coach Ned Wulk, for whom the court in Wells Fargo Arena is named, when the Sun Devils recorded 16 winning seasons and made nine NCAA appearances, three of which were Elite Eights."
As the university’s historian, Spindler is looking to bring this history to the forefront through a project to digitize and make publicly accessible hundreds of hours of athletics film footage, capturing some of Sun Devils’ greatest moments on the field, in the pool and on the court.
A significant portion of the archival material, which Spindler began acquiring in 1997, originates from ASU’s early winning basketball years.
Vintage hoops
“One of the greatest Sun Devil basketball teams was from the 1981–82 season,” said Spindler, who has the tape to prove it.
Titled “Arizona State Men’s Basketball Highlights, 1981,” the 16mm motion picture, soon to be added to the Intercollegiate Athletics Film and Video Collection, spotlights the talents of such famous athletes as Lafayette “Fat” Lever, Byron Scott and Alton Lister.
Scott, who ended his career as ASU’s all-time leading scorer, was the first Arizona State inductee into the Pac-10 Hall of Honor in 2002, after having been inducted into the ASU Hall of Fame in 1988 along with Lever, a three-year starting point guard for ASU who earned All-Pac-10 honors in 1980-81 and 1981-82. Lister was inducted into the ASU Hall of Fame in 2000. All three players’ jerseys have been retired.
“These are significant athletes who went on to compete in the NBA, but first made their mark here at ASU,” said Spindler, who hopes to shine a light on these and many other ASU athletes through his preservation efforts, part of Sun Devil Giving Day on March 22.
Through ASU Library’s crowdfunding campaign, called “Unlock the Spark,” Spindler aims to raise enough funds to facilitate the digitization of the entire collection — a big job that grows more urgent by the day, as the media format these materials live in are vulnerable and nearing end of life.
“Videotapes decay faster than most motion picture films, so prompt action is necessary to save the videos produced from 1980–2000,” Spindler said. “Older motion picture films are inaccessible until they are digitized and made available online.”
'These stories matter'
Spanning decades, the films awaiting digitization in ASU Library’s University Archives offer a window into the cultural experience of sports at a major public university, and are positioned to be valuable resources to historians, researchers and alumni looking to connect with their Sun Devil roots.
Once complete and made accessible on the ASU Digital Repository, the collection will include a variety of sports, such as men and women’s track and field, swimming, diving and gymnastics — as well as reflect the evolution of women’s athletics at ASU, brought on by the passage of Title IX.
“While we go ‘mad’ for March Madness, plenty of additional ASU athletes, past and present, achieve sporting excellence during the month of March,” said Victoria Jackson, ASU lecturer and sports historian in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. “These stories matter and also deserve a place in our collective memory and to be preserved in an official capacity, in University Archives.”
A former student-athlete herself, Jackson competed as an ASU graduate student in cross country and track and field, and was a national champion for the Sun Devils at 10,000 meters. (“She would like her ASU school record in the 5,000 meters to be broken ASAP,” reads her ASU Directory bio.)
“Let's not forget there are two NCAA basketball tournaments. The Sun Devil women's basketball program makes regular appearances in the national tournament, and earned a No. 7 seed this year,” Jackson said. “The track and field program has become a fixture at the NCAA indoor championships for decades. Over the weekend, shot-putter Maggie Ewen added yet another individual NCAA national title to her collection. And, 10 years ago, in 2008, both the men and women earned national team titles — a rarity in the sport and an awesome moment for the Sun Devils.”
For more information on how to support the preservation of ASU sports history, visit ASU Library's Unlock the Spark.
Digital technology offers unprecedented means to transmit, store, and utilize information. While a growing number of individuals and communities are able to benefit abundantly from the expanded opportunities that new technologies offer, many people live in regions where access to the internet is rare, inadequate, or non-existent. The resulting divide hampers opportunities for educational, cultural, economic, and social development.
A growing number of independent organizations and individuals strive to provide digital information access where internet access is limited. While making significant headway, such organizations are often unaware of others' efforts, thus missing opportunities and technical advances that could be leveraged.
In order to explore these issues and to pursue solutions, Arizona State University Library and Bibliothèques Sans Frontières / Libraries Without Borders, with the involvement of IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations), organized an international summit, Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, 2018, at the ASU Library in Tempe, Arizona, USA.
Many of us have experienced the dramatic potential of the "offline internet," meaning the systems and services designed to bring internet-accessible content to people and places without existing, adequate, and/or affordable network access. Participants perceived "offline internet" solutions as a key step towards enabling access to and mastery of digital information and education, as well as preparing users to participate fully in global communications.
At the ASU Tempe Summit, 30 participants representing 15 organizations discussed the key factors affecting major aspects of providing "offline internet" information to communities, institutions, and regions that currently do not have robust (or any) internet access.
As a result of these discussions, the active participants framed the following "Tempe Principles":
Access to the information commons should be recognized as a fundamental human right. We share a deep commitment to bringing meaningful, sustainable access to information resources for communities not well served by conventional access to the internet. This commitment is very much in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
We are forming a consortium that comprises people and organizations working together to identify common solutions, setting standards for software development, content indexing, and metadata, in the service of leveraging digital resources for communities that are not currently connected to the internet.
We share the belief that common development of standards and practices can help all interested parties to achieve their goals and meet their information needs more easily and effectively. We therefore seek a more integrated, easily-mastered user experience of offline internet.
We judge that open source and open access tools and content best meet the interests of the communities we seek to support. We also see a need to champion the sharing of copyrighted materials to underserved populations.
Communities of interest to our consortium include mainly those the internet fails to reach: certainly those in remote locations, post-conflict or emergency situations, and refugee communities, as well as those whose disadvantage is political (governments do not support infrastructure and access), economic (lack of resources for easy access to broadband or data plans that support information access), and social (members do not have the education or experience to access digital information).
We recognize the value of experimentation and exploration in developing and creating hardware devices that can function effectively in a range of challenges, from the personal to the enterprise.
We will engage and empower our partners in underserved communities to design and develop technologies, as well as create content collections, as peers alongside consortia members.
We expect to work in the space of not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations, while welcoming conversations with, on the one hand, governmental entities and, on the other, commercial enterprises that can focus attention and resources on this work in ways compatible with our principles and commitments.
We will not, at this time, seek legal standing. Our governance will emphasize participation and collaboration and be open to organizations and individuals that share our principles and commitments.
We believe that this collaboration can help us identify potential funders and make the case to them that there are good reasons to invest in our activities.
Our next steps are to proceed along three tracks:
(1) A governance group has been formed to propose overall structure, process, and identity.
(2) Working groups have been formed to propose objectives and goals in areas of software, hardware, content, operations, and advocacy.
(3) Meanwhile, certain agreed tasks will proceed on an informal basis.
We warmly invite additional players, participants, and collaborators to endorse these Principles and join in this crucial work. The summit's organizers are strongly supportive of this effort and pledge to remain actively involved.
# # # # #
Arizona State University Library: The university charter expresses our ambition for our success to be measured not by whom we exclude, but by whom we include and how they succeed. The aspirations of those who work on ‘offline internet’ are exactly in that spirit. Empowered learners, master learners, and inspired teachers hold the future in their hands, and we believe this project extends the planet’s capacity to shape that future effectively.
Bibliothèques Sans Frontières: Libraries Without Borders works to ensure that regardless of their circumstances, people throughout the world can live with dignity and the opportunity to thrive through access to information, education and culture. This effort is not one that any one of us is able to take on single-handedly. This coalition unifies our voices in order to raise the voices of those who are not connected to internet.
IFLA: IFLA is the global voice of the library and information profession. Our key objectives include promoting high standards of provision and delivery of library and information services, and encouraging widespread understanding of the value of good library & information services. This coalition actively furthers our core goals, and we are honored to play an organizing role.
Distinctive Collections and Archives books and manuscripts formerly housed in Hayden Library and formerly accessible at the Luhrs Reading Room will remain accessible during the Hayden Library renovation, to be complete in 2020.
While most materials will be available, ASU Library cannot guarantee that all items will be accessible at this time.
Archival specialists will make every effort to get researchers the materials they need from the library’s Distinctive Collections and Archives, currently stored offsite to preserve and protect these unique resources, which include manuscripts, books, photographs, media, ephemera, oral histories and artifacts from the following repositories:
· Greater Arizona Collection
· Benedict Visual Literacy Collection
· Child Drama Collection
· Chicano/a Research Collection
· Labriola National American Indian Data Center
· Design and the Arts Special Collections
· Special Collections
· University Archives
Due to the relocation of these collections, all requests to view materials must be made at least five (5) business days in advance to allow for identification and movement of items. Items can be requested via Ask an Archivist.
Archives staff will respond to all requests within 24 hours during normal business hours (not including weekends). Scheduled visits are subject to availability of staff and reading rooms on the Tempe, West and Polytechnic campuses. Additionally, ASU Library staff can help field requests by calling (480) 965-4932.
ASU Librarians Dan Stanton and Lisa Kammerlocher had the opportunity to travel to Rwanda as part of the SolarSPELL team, delivering information resources to places that lack internet connectivity.
A former Peace Corps Volunteer, Stanton is passionate about local community development. Here, Stanton writes about his involvement with SolarSPELL, "contributing to the creation of the low-cost, rugged, solar-powered boxes could bring dramatic change to education in remote places," in addition to his recent trip to Rwanda.
"Two of my greatest passions in life are travel and being a librarian," writes Kammerlocher, who works at the intersection of student success and e-learning. Here, she describes her "Top 10 Magic Moments" from her time teaching information literacy skills to students in Rwanda.
Arizona State University has been awarded a $381,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a three-year implementation project to reinvent the library’s strategy and practice for open-stack print collections.
The work will enable ASU Library to design and develop inclusive print library collections for ASU Library to engage, educate and inspire scholars and learners of the ASU community.
Under the leadership of University Librarian Jim O’Donnell and Associate University Librarian for Collections and Strategy Lorrie McAllister, the project – titled “The Future of the Arizona State University Library Print Collection: A Collaborative and Data-driven Approach to Stack Design and Curation” – follows a year-long planning process supported by the Mellon Foundation in which ASU Library identified issues and options affecting the design of the next generation of open-stack print collection for a research library.
As libraries adapt to new pathways for organizing information and access in the digital age, institutions face the important challenge of preserving print collections in ways that best serve the public. What becomes of the print collection that users see on open shelves in an age when more and more of libraries’ collections are shelved offsite? Rather than viewing these new forms of access as a threat to print, ASU Library recognizes a vital opportunity to leverage the design and curation practices in ways that engage a broader spectrum of students and scholars in new ways.
“All the scholarly work of the last generation on the history of the book has shown that physical books have always had many functions and complex social dimensions,” said O’Donnell, principal investigator. “Reading a print volume closely and attentively remains a powerful practice for learning and research at every level, but flipping the pages of a print volume in slightly more than idle curiosity remains powerful as well. Print volumes give visibility and visual character to the past and present artifacts of culture. If ‘out of sight, out of mind’ is a true-enough proverb, then what is in sight will be what is in mind – and we can control that in our libraries. How can we best shape the experience of our users in approaching our libraries by the resourceful use of print?”
“ASU is committed to serving a diverse student body and fostering a community wherein the accessibility of education is a guarantee,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “We look for ways to unlock access to knowledge and information for the broadest cross-section of students in our community, who in turn reflect the diversity of our surrounding communities. This project will not only create a sustainable model for ASU’s print collections lasting into the future, but it will also extend the depth and breadth of our students’ access to information literacy and tools for independent inquiry.”
The vision for revitalizing public engagement with print comes at a key moment in the University’s plans to renovate its largest library – Hayden Library – and grow student enrollment to 200,000 by the year 2025. As a result, ASU Library must rethink every aspect of its services in order to innovate and scale support for scholars and learners who come from a variety of backgrounds and take many approaches to their education.
“Traditional library practices often indicate the retention of books in open stacks according to highest circulation, English language and authors recognized as being part of the mainstream. ASU seeks to create a local collection designed to inspire and engage our users with more inclusive collections that more accurately reflect the user populations within ASU and our surrounding communities,” said McAllister, co-principal investigator. “We aim to keep our open stack collections as active, living, growing entities. The books our students see on our shelves should not be treated as furniture, wallpaper, or relics not to be touched and used, but as a vital set of tools of sustaining value for the future.”
As materials move out of Hayden Library, in preparation for the library’s renovation, the Labriola Center will be moving to a new, temporary location during Hayden’s remodel, to be complete in 2020.
Beginning January 8, the Labriola Center will welcome students, faculty, staff, researchers and the public to its new location in room 305 of Fletcher Library on ASU’s West campus.
Open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Labriola will continue to provide its same high level of service to the ASU community and beyond – offering access to its unique collections, specialized reference assistance, library skills instruction for classes and co-sponsorship of various public events.
While we understand the inconvenience this may cause, we are excited about the future of ASU Library and Labriola’s place in it.
ASU Library has entered a lively phase of its reinvention, with many books, collections and materials in transit as Hayden Library prepares to undergo a major renovation, slated for 2018-2020.
While all libraries will be impacted, students, faculty and staff can expect to see the most disruptions at Hayden Library and Noble Library on the Tempe campus.
Plans to redesign Hayden Library include adding multiple points of access, with greater indoor-outdoor connection; dedicating space for community gatherings; breaking the library up thematically to better facilitate navigation and research discovery; featuring and enhancing special collections; and building a smaller, highly curated academic print collection that draws from the library's 4.5 million volumes.
Questions about the Labriola move? Contact Joyce Martin at joyce.martin@asu.edu or 480-965-6490.
As of December 9, the Luhrs Reading Room will be closed through January 7, in preparation for the Hayden Library renovation.
Reference services for University Archives and Distinctive Collections will also be suspended during this time.
Access to materials belonging to the Child Drama Collection, Greater Arizona Collection, Chicano/a Research Collection and Special Collections will resume January 8.
Questions about reference services may be directed to archives@asu.edu or (480) 965-4932.
ASU Library has entered a lively phase of its reinvention, with many books, collections and materials in transit as Hayden Library prepares to undergo a major renovation, slated for 2018-2020.
While all libraries will be impacted, students, faculty and staff can expect to see the most disruptions at Hayden Library and Noble Library on the Tempe campus.
Plans to redesign Hayden Library include adding multiple points of access, with greater indoor-outdoor connection; dedicating space for community gatherings; breaking the library up thematically to better facilitate navigation and research discovery; featuring and enhancing special collections; and building a smaller, highly curated academic print collection that draws from the library's 4.5 million volumes.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
When the Daniel E. Noble Science and Engineering Library officially opened its doors on August 22, 1983, it became a kind of second home for Linda Shackle, who worked as a Science and Engineering Librarian for 35 years at Arizona State University.
Shackle was known for her enthusiasm, curiosity, thoroughness, insight and her desire to teach and be of service to others.
“Linda's passion and enthusiasm for science librarianship were contagious,” wrote Katherine O’Clair, an Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Librarian at California Polytechnic State University, who worked with Shackle during her career at ASU.
Shackle died on November 18, 2017, after a long illness with pancreatic cancer. She was 65.
Considered by some as “the soul of Noble Library,” Shackle took great joy in learning, serving students and faculty, and helping her colleagues, many of whom knew her as a valued mentor and colleague, always willing to offer advice and answer questions.
“I remember Linda’s warm laugh, long insightful emails, deep knowledge, generosity and kindness,” wrote ASU Librarian René Tanner. “She offered her expertise when any of us needed it. She reviewed CVs, cover letters, and shared her annual reviews and other professional materials with anyone who asked. She would spend as much time with you as you needed and mentored many of us through the continuing appointment process. She sincerely wanted us to be successful.”
Shackle's devotion to academic librarianship was evident throughout her career, particularly when a need emerged at ASU for an Engineering Librarian and Shackle took it upon herself to learn the field and curriculum so as to fill in the gaps in supporting a growing number of students majoring in the field.
She went on to become one of the first Engineering Librarians at ASU and arguably one of the most successful.
“She was an inspiring ambassador for ASU, academic librarianship, continuous learning across any and all disciplines,” wrote retired ASU Librarian Sheila Hofstetter. “Her interests and knowledge base were profound. She was delighted to learn something new and loved the ‘hunt.’”
In addition to her vast knowledge, Shackle will be remembered for her kindness and generosity, which was displayed daily through her interactions with students, faculty and fellow colleagues.
“She was generous and kind. She was brilliant,” wrote ASU Learning Services Manager Christina Peck. “She was devoted to the students and loved her job getting to help them every day and took that responsibility seriously."
For many who knew her well, she was synonymous with Noble Library and its strong sense of collegiality among librarians who worked there.
"She was infinitely patient when explaining anything, as well as infinitely charitable with her time," said retired ASU Librarian Julie Tharp. "The most valuable thing she taught me, just through example, was her unflusterability. She didn't panic or overreact, but took things in stride and figured out how to make them work."
Shackle is survived by her husband, Ron, of 35 years.
Back by popular demand, ASU Library’s recall service has returned, giving ASU students, faculty and staff the option to request an item that is checked-out by another user.
When an item appears as “on loan,” library users may now recall that item – a process by which the loan period for a checked-out item is shortened when a request for that item is made by another user. Once the item has been recalled and returned, the item is reserved for the user who recalled it.
Starting this week, the request option “Request ASU Copy” will appear on the One Search page to reflect this service update.
Alternatively, users still have the option to request checked out items from an external library through ASU Library’s Interlibrary Loan service. This short-loan option often provides a quicker delivery time to the user making the request. Look for the link labelled “Request External Copy.”
