Kenneth Pierce, vice president for information technology and CIO, attended the virtual EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in October 2020. The conference calls together the best thinking in higher education IT to become even better at what they do. Professionals and technology providers from around the world gather at the conference to network, share ideas, grow professionally, and discover solutions to today’s challenges.
Kenneth Pierce, vice president for information technology and CIO, attended the virtual Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2020, in October. The conference explored the most critical trends impacting IT and how to use technology to respond to adversity and achieve business continuity.
Kenneth Pierce, vice president for information technology and CIO, attended the virtual Gartner CIO Leadership Forum in May 2021. CIOs join Gartner experts to share valuable insights on crafting new digital business ecosystems that ensure superior customer experiences, leading the modern IT organization, and more.
Kenneth Pierce, vice president for information technology and CIO, attended the virtual Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC) annual conference in August 2020. TASSCC provides its members with programs, conferences, and summits as ways to connect IT professionals in state agencies and higher education to leverage best practices, innovative technology solutions and creative approaches to meet technological needs.
Kenneth Pierce, vice president for information technology and CIO, attend the virtual Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC) State of the State conference in December 2020. The TASSCC State of the State conference is a one-day event that brings together directors from Texas state agencies and institutions of higher education to discuss the strategic direction of technology in Texas.
Kenneth Pierce, vice president for information technology and CIO, attended the virtual Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC) Technology Education Conference (TEC) in March 2021. TASSCC TEC is a one-day event where technology professionals from Texas state agencies and institutions of higher education gather to review specific topics of interest and drill down for an in-depth look at challenges and opportunities on relevant issues.
Lauren Goodley, archivist for The Wittliff Collections; Nicole Critchley, librarian; Laura Kennedy, librarian; Jason Long, programmer analyst I; Todd Peters, administrative librarian; and Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian, attended the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, May 2021. The group presented “Digital Preservation Steps with Archivematica: A Cross-Departmental Approach.” This presentation told the tale about the process deciding on Archivematica through installation and implementation.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian, presented “Accessibility of ETDs: Raising the Bar” at the Texas Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association as part of the April 2021 webinar series. The presentation described the status of accessibility in institutional repositories (based on a 2020 survey), about gaps in accessibility for ETDs, and shared templates and workflow ideas for improving ETD accessibility.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian, Todd Peters, administrative librarian; Erin Mazzei, digital media specialist; and Jason Long, programmer analyst I, attended and presented at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries in May 2021. The “Providing Broader Assess: Texas State retrospective ETD Digitization Project” provided information on the modification in the DSpace repository, workflows, and processes for a project to digitize and make available theses and dissertations submitted prior to 2014.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian, attended and served as a panel member during the “A Consortium Approach to Library Publishing Via the Open Journal System and the Texas Digital Library” session at the Library Publishing Forum in May 2021. This talk focused on the function of the user group, as well as the costs and outcomes associated with a consortium approach to library publishing through the OJS system.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian, attended the Texas Library Association annual conference in April 2021. Laura served as a panelist on “The Evolution of Open Access” presentation, which reviewed evolution and changes in open access, emerging trends, and potential considerations moving forward.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian, gave a presentation at the Southern Mississippi Institutional Repository Conference in April 2021. The “Exploring Accessibility Practices in Institutional Repositories” provided an overview of findings from a 2019 study conducted by a team of librarians from six universities on accessibility efforts for digital content in institutional repositories.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian; Jessica McClean, research, instruction and outreach librarian; Dianna Morganti, research, instruction and outreach librarian; Stephanie Towery, copyright officer; and Amanda Price, monograph acquisitions librarian, attended and presented at the Open Texas Conference in March 2021. The group’s presentation, “Community Building: Using Peer Review to Engage Librarians and Faculty in the Design of an OER Community of Learning” provided an overview of the approach by members of the Texas State University Libraries’ Scholarly Communications Committee to design and incorporate peer review in the development of an Open Educational Resources Community of Learning program.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian; Jessica McClean, research, instruction and outreach librarian; Dianna Morganti, research, instruction and outreach librarian; Stephanie Towery, copyright officer; and Amanda Price, monograph acquisitions librarian, attended and presented at the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference in March 2021. The group’s presentation, “Community Building: Using Peer Review to Engage Librarians and Faculty in the Design of an OER Community of Learning” provided an overview of the approach by members of the Texas State University Libraries’ Scholarly Communications Committee to design and incorporate peer review in the development of an Open Educational Resources Community of Learning program.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian; Jodi Brown, librarian; Laura Kennedy, librarian; and Stephanie Towery, copyright officer, attended the Charleston Library Conference in November 2020. The group presented “Chronicling COVID: Capturing Expression, Promoting Resources,” which provided a review of the collaborative project to document and archive shared experiences by the Texas State and San Marcos community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nicole Critchley, librarian; and Mary Aycock, database and metadata management librarian, presented “Bulk Uploading to Wikidata” during the University of Texas Linked Data Working Group conference in December 2020. The presentation showed documentation Texas State created on uploading bulk data using two different platforms.
Nichole Critchley, librarian; Mary Aycock, database and metadata management librarian; and Amanda Scott, library assistant IV; presented “Gateway into Linked Data: Breaking Silos with Wikidata” at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries in May 2021. The presentation provided an in-depth overview of Wikidata and the successes and challenges of the projects.
Erin Mazzei, digital media specialist, presented “Session 1C: TDL Imaging Group Birds-of-a-Feather” during the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries in May 2021. Attendees of this birds-of-a-feather meeting discussed amongst peers their imaging specific issues and triumphs, including, but not limited to, how the field has coped and adapted during the pandemic.
Erin Mazzei, digital media specialist, presented “How it’s Going: Creating and Modifying Camera Capture Stations at Texas State University” at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries in May 2021. Her presentation covered the on-going development of stations, an overview of the benefits and risks of implementing a custom camera station, and lessons learned.
Erin Mazzei, digital media specialist, presented “TDL Imaging Group: Virtual Lab Tour of Texas State University” at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries in April 2021. The facilities are part of the Digital and Web Services department at the Alkek Library. The informal tour provided an overview of the physical space and equipment used for still image capture as well as other topics related to the lab.
Steven L. Davis, curator, presented “The Essential J. Frank Dobie” during an author presentation for the Texas State Historical Association in March 2021. The presentation provided an overview of the life, work, and enduring influences of Texas writer J. Frank Dobie.
Steven L. Davis, curator, attended the 9th annual San Antonio Book Festival in April 2021. He also moderated a panelist discussion of Bud Shrake’s book, “Hollywood Mad Dogs” at the “Tales of Hollywood Madness: A Lost Manuscript from a Texas Literary Legend” session, during the event.
Steven L. Davis, curator, attended “Author S.C. Gwynne in conversation” at the Boerne Book and Arts Festival in October 2020. Davis also moderated the conversation with author S.C. Gwynne on his book, “Battle Hymns of the Republic.”
Steven L. Davis, curator, participated in “The Wittliff Collections and J. Frank Dobie” discussion about Dobie’s comeback in recent years at the Dobie Dichos conference in November 2020. At this event, Texas writers/authors and storytellers read from, discuss, debate and/or tell stories from Dobie’s works.
Steven L. Davis, curator, presented “Texas Literary Outlaws” during a Life and Literature of the Southwest course at the University of Texas in February 2021. Davis discussed Texas literature in the 1960s.
Tricia Boucher, user experience librarian, presented “From Start-up to Scale-Up: Building a Student-Centric Technology Ecosystem” during a breakout session at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in October 2020. The session provided participants an insider view into how staff at Texas State created Alkek One.
Tricia Boucher, user experience librarian, presented “Games and Learning Roundtable Discussion” during a breakout session at the Educause Annual Conference in October 2020. The session provided first-hand experience using learning games as learning tools, how to get started, and what worked/what didn’t work.
Dr. Ray Uzwyshyn, director of collections and digital services, presented “Open-Source Digital Ecosystems for Accelerating Global Research, Innovation and Collaboration” during a Lightning talk at the Joint Roadmap for Open Science Tools conference in December 2020. The presentation discussed the robust open-source digital ecosystem to support research and collaboration from open source, global development and research perspectives.
Dr. Ray Uzwyshyn, director of collections and digital services, presented “Digital Research Ecosystems for Open Spaces” during a Lightning talk at AI for Data Discovery, Reuse & Open Science Symposium in October 2020. He presented virtually on the digital research ecosystem from open science and STEM perspectives.
Dr. Ray Uzwyshyn, director of collections and digital services, presented “Digital Scholarship Ecosystems” at the Connect 2020: Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian Joint Conference in September 2020. The presentation was on digital scholarship ecosystems from general library perspectives and provided an overview of methods of connecting scholars and students with research, raising online research access and retrieval possibilities, synergies among digital systems and how libraries can enable new creative possibilities for research online.
Jess Williams, administrative librarian, presented “The Library Connection 2021: Short Story Club” at The Connection: A Library Collective Conference in March 2021. The Library Connection virtual conference featured live and asynchronous sessions. This was a monthlong guided discussion of curated thematic short stories. Session creators provided discussion prompts, moderated weekly asynchronous discussions, and hosted a live virtual discussion.
Carla Ellard, curator, presented “Tour of The Wittliff Collections: Recent Renovations & Expansion” at the Art Libraries Society of North America Texas-Mexico chapter meeting in November 2020. Ellard provided a tour of the recent renovations and gallery expansion at The Wittliff and Buck Winn mural installation on the 2nd floor of the Albert B. Alkek Library.
Dr. Khoi Nguyen, emerging technology supervisor, presented the Keynote speech, “Interactive Arts in the Age of Activism,” at the Tennessee State University’s Center Stage Event in August 2021. Nguyen shared about his art installation of President Obama and Harvey Milk, which includes the largest collection of fingerprints from civil rights activists forming the image of Obama and Milk.
Stephanie Towery, copyright officer, presented “Context, not checklists! Workshopping a collaborative, context-driven approach to evaluating journals” at the Library Publishing Forum Conference in May 2021. A group of librarians banded together to try to address concerns about predatory or questionable journals. The heart of the session was facilitated conversation using Mentimeter to gather and discuss recommendations, critiques, and other feedback from participants.
Jessica McClean, research, instruction and outreach librarian, presented “OER Community of Learning: Lessons Learned & Future Considerations” at the Greater Western Library Alliance Dean Forum on July 19, 2021. McClean’s presentation gave an overview of the library’s OER Community of Learning project.
Laura Waugh, digital collections librarian; Jessica McClean, research, instruction and outreach librarian; Dianna Morganti, research, instruction and outreach librarian; Stephanie Towery, copyright officer; and Amanda Price, monograph acquisitions librarian, presented “Community Building: Using peer review to engage librarians and faculty in the design of an OER Community of Learning” at the Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference in March 2021. The presentation gave an overview of the approach by members of the Texas State University Libraries’ Scholarly Communications Committee to design and incorporate peer review in the development of an Open Educational Resources (OER) Community of Learning program.
Amanda Price, monograph acquisitions librarian, presented “Spinning Plates: Managing Multiple Ebook Access Models” at the Texas Library Association Conference in April 2021. The panel presented and discussed ebook management and acquisition issues.
Dr. Nathaniel Dede-Bamfo, GIS services specialist, presented “Spatial Analysis of Food Inspection Scores in Austin, TX – 2016-19″ at the Texas State University Health Scholar Showcase in April 2021. This research examined the spatial distribution and patterns of food establishment inspection scores in Austin, Texas between 2016 and 2019. Using GIS techniques such as Geocoding and hot spot analysis determined where restaurants with low health inspection scores tended to cluster.
Scott Pope, continuing resources librarian; and Ginger Williams, head acquisitions librarian, presented “You Can’t Just Take a Vote: Collaborating and Communicating to Make Serial Budget Cuts During a Pandemic” at the Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference in March 2021. The presentation discussed tools and strategies for developing tiered subscription lists early in the pandemic, in preparation for rapid decisions about renewals and cancellations during a period of great budget uncertainty.
Jess Williams, administrative librarian, served as a moderator for the “Online Learning Librarians: Findings from a National Study” presentation at the Distance Library Services Conference in November 2020.
Jennifer Johnson, user services consultant II, presented “Making Digital Room for the Neurodivergent in Classes” at the Texas State University TEDx event in February 2021.
Atkins Fleming, assistant director for learning spaces, was a featured speaker on the Higher Ed AV Podcast in July 2021. The podcast is dedicated to building the AV/IT tech manager community in higher education through discussions on classroom technology and audiovisual support. The episode focused on how evaluating services from the user’s point of view can and should inform AV decisions.