Promote Critical Thinking

The Human Library Project

The Human Library Project consists of individuals of various backgrounds that make themselves readily available to scholars on campus, as a “book” to be checked out and interviewed as a means of exploring diversity through open minded conversation. The goal of the Human Library Project is to provide a safe space for our scholars to gain perspective and understanding of individuals with unique experiences and stories. Many university libraries across the world are hosts for the Human Library, see FAU’s example.
Strategic Alignment
Enhance Research & Scholarship
Ensure Equitable Access to Information
Establish the Library as a Center of Intellectual Community
Promote Critical Thinking
Initiative Leads
Priscilla Hunt, former Government Information Specialist
Updates
2023
We have successfully acquired licensing to host the event. Additionally, we have selected "books" for the event and have started the training process. The event was a success.

Library Spatial Data and GIS Services

The development and implementation of GIS and spatial data services within the library are designed to enhance data information literacy and critical thinking skills throughout the FSU community but with a focus on STEM scholars. This will be done through educational and research services to students and faculty that enhance their data information literacy competencies. These services compliment existing GIS services in other campus units and departments by providing open source alternatives as well as integrating open science concepts into spatial data research and teaching.
Strategic Alignment
Enhance Research & Scholarship
Establish the Library as a Center of Intellectual Community
Promote Critical Thinking
Initiative Leads
Kelly Grove, GIS and Earth Sciences Librarian
Updates
2023
The GIS for Success Workshop Series is still occurring each semester and has lead to some one-on-one consultations with graduate students working on dissertations and thesis so that they may make their own maps. The number of request for class instructions sessions focused on GIS related tools has increased. Finally with the title change of the initiative lead from STEM Research and Learning Librarian to GIS and Earth Sciences there have been more questions about library GIS and spatial data services along with request to meet to learn more about how the library may be involved in projects. In both the spring and fall semesters of 2022 two GIS for Success workshop series have been held. Additionally Kelly Grove has successfully been accepted to participate in the IMLS grant funded program‚ Developing Specialized Data Curation Training to Address Needed Expertise in Focused Areas‚ hosted by the Digital Curation Network (DCN). Kelly Grove has also had two book chapters published in the new ACRL Data Literacy Cookbook that came out in the fall of 2022. These two chapters provide the steps and necessary tools required to put on two different QGIS workshops.

2022
A survey has been sent out to Association of Research Libraries and select FSU faculty departments regarding GIS and spatial data services. The results have been collected and analyzed. There is ongoing work to compile the results into reports to share with senior leadership and also into an article to submit for publication to a journal. GIS workshops have been held, with plans for more workshops in the spring.

Library Digital Preservation System

Create a preservation system for born digital and digitized materials to meet the needs of the FSU Libraries Digital Preservation Framework in AWS using Archivematica (AM), an open source software. Enable AM to work with the FSU Digital Repository to allow for simplification of ingest processes for both access and preservation. Enable Ringling Museum to access AM as a test case for further expansion of service to other organizations.
Strategic Alignment
Enhance Research & Scholarship
Ensure Equitable Access to Information
Establish the Library as a Center of Intellectual Community
Promote Critical Thinking
Initiative Leads
Krystal Thomas, Digital Archivist
Katie McCormick, Associate Dean for Special Collections and Archives
Malcolm Shackelford, Systems Administrator
David Rodriguez, Digital Services Librarian
Louis Brooks, Head of Systems
Digital Infrastructure
Updates
2023
This initiative is completed. Archivematica (AM) is fully deployed and operational. The system is successfully being used to process preservation packages for the Ringling Archives and for Special Collections materials on a regular basis. Development to have AM interact with the FSU Digital Repository has been moved to a future project to follow migration of the FSU Digital Repository to a new platform in the near future.

2022
Archivematica (AM) is fully deployed at this time. The system is successfully being used to process preservation packages for the Ringling Archives and for Special Collections materials since this fall. Moving all materials out of Glacier through AM and into Glacier Deep Storage will be a priority in the spring semester. The development to have AM interact with the FSU Digital Repository is still forthcoming.

2021
A production instance of Archivematica (AM) went live in mid-July 2021 with organization for FSU Libraries and the Ringling Archives to have their own storage using the same interface. In the next few weeks, we'll begin the loading of materials that were being stored in Glacier. This involves using the Bag-It tool to package and ingest into AM and helping Ringling start their loading processes as well.

Improving access to collections through Inclusive Metadata Implementation

This initiative seeks to redress inequities and injustice in the descriptive language and narrative framing of archives, special collections, and the institutional repository. In this phase of work, we will apply conscious editing principles to metadata in ArchivesSpace and the FSU Digital Repository. Conscious editing is an active, critical awareness of bias, privilege, and power and an ethos of deliberate care used in the assessment, creation, and refinement of descriptive texts. One outcome of conscious editing is the increased accessibility of our collections in unserved and underserved communities seeking meaningful connections with their histories. Collection and object descriptions will undergo a metadata gap analysis to identify harmful and outdated terms and prioritized for remediation. The analysis will require a combination of computational queries and manual analysis. After the initial analysis, a small collection will be identified for a pilot remediation project and a prioritization document will be produced along with documentation for workflows and practices to remediate legacy collections and to incorporate conscious descriptive practice in work going forward.

This initiative supports ethical and inclusive descriptive practices at Florida State University Libraries by encouraging the ongoing, reflective examination of legacy descriptions, by engaging colleagues in a continuous dialog about that examination, and by connecting practice with scholarship, theory, and contemporary social justice activism.
Strategic Alignment
Enhance Research & Scholarship
Ensure Equitable Access to Information
Invest in People
Promote Critical Thinking
Initiative Leads
Keila Zayas Ruiz, Sunshine State Digital Network Coordinator
Updates
2023
We have continued to review and update records identified in our priority list. We posted a statement in the FSU Digital Repository about the work and how to provide feedback.
Launched feedback form in the FSU Digital Repository for reporting language and content concerns. Over 5,000 records have been reviewed and 1500 records updated from five different collections.

Project milestones include:
*A sub-collection of Bradford Eppes
*Pride Student Union
*Holocaust Collection
*Davis Houck Papers
*HUA Photographs
*Updated the Seminole Symbol finding aid in consultation with the Head of Manuscripts.
*Documentation that has been created include:
*Annotated bibliography
*Guidelines
*Decision tree
*Priority lists for the FSU Digital Repository and ArchivesSpace
*Recommendations for Inclusive Cataloging practices.
*Posted statement in the FSU Digital Repository about the work and how to provide feedback.
*Launched feedback form in the FSU Digital Repository for reporting language and content concerns."

Enhancing Online Learning at the Libraries with Articulate 360

Led by the Teaching, Learning & Engagement Instruction & Reference Unit, the Reference & Instruction Librarian and Library Instruction Specialist will use Articulate 360, a suite of e-learning authoring applications, to create online learning objects, such as web-based lessons and modules that can integrate with Canvas. This work will meet the information literacy-related instruction needs of FSU learners in an accessible and mobile-friendly format. We will also use the software to create asynchronous internal training materials. These materials will support employee onboarding processes as well as library-wide projects. Other library personnel will also be trained on how to use the software if they identify a need to create online learning materials related to their operations and areas of expertise.
Strategic Alignment
Enhance Research & Scholarship
Ensure Equitable Access to Information
Establish the Library as a Center of Intellectual Community
Invest in People
Promote Critical Thinking
Initiative Leads
Liz Dunne, Instruction and Reference Librarian
Lisa Play, Library Instruction Specialist
Updates
2023
Based on evaluation data (both assessing the efficacy of the instruction by measuring how many learners met the stated learning objectives and assessing learners' attitudes towards the tutorial), we made substantial updates to our ENC2135 Library Research Basics Tutorial. We also conducted a focus group with ENC 2135 instructors to collect in-depth feedback on the tutorial to make further improvements to it. The tutorial continues to meet learner needs and be well received by students and instructors alike. In continuing to use this tutorial to cover more rote database instruction, we have been able to launch a new in-person synchronous instruction offering for ENC 2135 classes that is more discussion-based and allows learners to get personalized feedback while practicing research skills to complete their assignments. Outputs include significant updates made to all of our existing online instruction materials in response to collected assessment data. We have begun planning a new tutorial geared towards teaching learners about ethical attribution and citing sources in the major citation styles, and we have identified opportunities for developing content pertaining to AI and digital literacy. We have also started talks with our peers in charge of the new Dirac Media Suite about working together to create training materials instructing folks on how to utilize all the Suite's features.

2022
In the last six months, the Teaching, Learning & Engagement Instruction & Reference Unit, the Reference & Instruction Librarian and Library Instruction Specialist have created and distributed multiple interactive tutorials with Articulate 360. These tutorials include ENC 2135 modules, a Reference Associate training module, a Crafting a Research Question for UROP students, and other projects in progress.

Diverse Voices in STEM

The Diverse Voices in FSU STEM project seeks to call attention to the challenges faced by diverse and underrepresented groups in STEM as they progress through their academic career. This program aims to engage the entire FSU community in conversations that highlight what it means to be a STEM scholar in terms of one’s STEM identity. As part of the project, we will establish an in-person speaker series during which individual speakers will share their stories about what it means to them to be a STEM scholar.
Strategic Alignment
Enhance Research & Scholarship
Establish the Library as a Center of Intellectual Community
Promote Critical Thinking
Initiative Leads
Kelly Grove, GIS and Earth Sciences Librarian
Emily McClellan, Student Engagement Specialist
Denise Wetzel, former STEM Research & Learning Librarian
Updates
2023
A Diverse Voices in STEM Symposium was held on March 2, 2023. This symposium will featured two faculty speakers and a graduate student panel with three current graduate students. Additionally we will be adding three blog and video posts featuring other STEM scholars here at FSU.

2022
Diverse Voices in STEM Speaker Series held three online speaker events in the fall of 2021, where we saw 82 attendees over the three events. For the spring of 2022, there are two scheduled speaker events to be held virtually. More information can be found at https://diversevoices.create.fsu.edu/
Related Links

https://diversevoices.create.fsu.edu/

Build a Community of STEM Data Scholars

Building a community of STEM Data Scholars at FSU will increase data literacy by allowing the Libraries to expand the reach and impact of research data services across the STEM community. This will be achieved through the creation of a STEM data fellowship program where paid student employees will teach and collaborate with STEM scholars. It will also allow the Libraries to leverage the expertise of our community in order to solve data related problems, enable interdisciplinary collaboration, and foster engagement around topics related to open data and open science.
Strategic Alignment
Enhance Research & Scholarship
Ensure Equitable Access to Information
Establish the Library as a Center of Intellectual Community
Promote Critical Thinking
Initiative Leads
Nick Ruhs, Research Data Management Librarian
Updates
2023
The data fellows have made several noteworthy accomplishments over the course of the program. The fellows have embedded into FSU Libraries' ongoing data instruction efforts and have created several Canvas modules on various data tools and programming languages, including MATLAB, R, and Unix. In Spring 2022, one data fellow served as a co-instructor for an Introduction to MATLAB workshop. In Fall 2022, another data fellow designed, developed the curriculum for, and taught an Introduction to R workshop, in collaboration with the Academic Health Data Librarian. Furthermore, the data fellows are involved outreach and engagement with the FSU community around data services. To this end, the fellows have authored several blog posts on trending data topics. One of these posts, which discussed the critical evaluation of data, was highlighted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) News. Finally, the fellows provide direct support to the FSU student population through weekly walk-up hours--which are now offered both virtually (through the "Ask a Data Librarian" chat) and in-person.

2022
There has been significant progress in the first year of this initiative. Two undergraduate Data Fellows have successfully been hired as part of the initial group of fellows. The fellows have received training and have participated in discussions about data reference, instruction, outreach, and open data. Weekly virtual data reference hours have been started in conjunction with Libraries colleagues, which includes a channel on the Virtual Reference platform devoted to data. The fellows also co-wrote a blog post for the FSU Libraries blog on Big Data, with more posts planned. Finally, the fellows have begun work on two long-term projects, which include creating a CANVAS module for MATLAB and a survey gauging awareness of our data services among undergraduate students.

2021
*Creation of a STEM Data Fellowship program where FSU Libraries hires student employees who will teach data related curricular to STEM Scholars
*Development of a peer-to-peer teaching and consultation model where data fellows provide direct support to peers in academic departments.
*Development of a library data services model that leverages the expertise of the FSU community to educate and advocate for principles related to data information *literacy and open science.
*Development of data related curricular that encourages engaged learning and post graduation success.
*Development of training materials in response to data related researcher needs.
*Documentation of solutions to research challenges by contributing to existing documentation and expanding documentation in response to researcher needs.
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