General Library News

With a librarian’s help, Isabell Ott’s research project grew exponentially into a complete history of an understudied group of viruses comprised of 300 sources of information. Jeri Sasser learned sophisticated methods for an extensive literature search that are key to her new adventures in graduate school, and Lauren Boyd discovered new sources and new ways of thinking critically that lead to summer field research in Baja Big Sur, Mexico.

These three students are just a few examples of the influence that the UGA Libraries Undergraduate Research Award has had on students in the past year.

Since 2007, the Libraries’ Undergraduate Research Award (LURA) has encouraged and

rewarded research excellence and growth as a scholar.

The exhibition hall in the University of Georgia’s Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries will be named in honor of CNN founder, environmentalist and longtime Atlantan Ted Turner, subject to UGA Cabinet approval, thanks in part to a $550,000 donation made by WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner), an entertainment and media conglomerate that merged with Turner Broadcasting in 1996.

 GIL Express online requesting will not be available from December 16, 2019 through January 1, 2020. Service will resume on January 2, 2020.

Our lists of databases by subject, our alphabetical list of databases, and our subject guides are currently down. This is due to a nationwide technical issue at the host site. We hope they will be back up soon and apologize for the inconvenience.

In the meantime, search our databases at https://www.galileo.usg.edu/

University of Georgia students can now develop—and play—virtual reality from the comfort of their dorm rooms. Two Oculus Rift VR headsets and accompanying Alienware 15 R3 gaming laptops are now available for checkout from the Science Library Makerspace. Any UGA student may borrow the equipment for a 72-hour loan period. The gaming laptops are enabled for VR prototyping and exploration and loaded with Oculus Rift, Steam and Unity Game Engine software.

This equipment is on loan from Kyle Johnsen, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering.

“The systems will help students work on virtual reality projects anywhere, without requiring access to a specialized laboratory,” Johnsen said. “[They] are specifically designed to be self-contained, with all required software and hardware to get started.”

University of Georgia Libraries’ books will soon transcend shelves and be available online to students, faculty and members of the community in Athens and around the world.

Through a new partnership with Google, about 120,000 of the Libraries’ 4.5 million volumes will be digitized, allowing further access to literary, historic, scientific and reference books and journals through UGA’s library catalog as well as one of the largest digital book collections in the world.

“The University of Georgia Libraries’ collection of 4.5 million volumes is a vast resource for students and scholars at our campuses, and the Google Books partnership extends those benefits to people across the globe,” University Librarian and Associate Provost Toby Graham said. “The ability to search through the full text of these digitized materials will make it even easier for researchers to gain access to the knowledge that helps them to better understand our world.”

Pat Mitchell, a renowned journalist who broke barriers as the first female president of PBS and the first president of CNN Productions, will discuss her career at an event launching her new book, hosted by the University of Georgia Libraries.

For years, Anna Lee Robbins has enjoyed going to the Main Library at the University of Georgia to find a quiet place to study. But this year is different.

Thanks to new study rooms, Robbins and her classmate Alyssa Knowles set up their laptops nearly every day after class to go through their notes and work together toward their master’s in international policy.

“I’ve always been a big library person, but it’s a lot better now because we can collaborate,” said Robbins, who said she frequented the facility during her undergraduate studies as well. “It’s such an improvement over what it was, and I’m really appreciative.”

Finishing up her bagel from the Benson Collaboration Café, Knowles said the changes have made the Main Library a new favorite study venue for her. “We can discuss things, and it doesn’t bother anyone else,” she said. “It’s really open, and you can always find a place to focus.”

A statewide initiative is underway to document the contributions the Latino and Hispanic communities have made to the landscape of modern Georgia politics.

The project is being spearheaded by the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia Libraries and the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials and GALEO Latino Community Development Fund.

To ensure the most comprehensive documentation and accessibility of the political history of all of Georgia’s citizens, the Russell Library and GALEO will work to identify and document people and organizations representing the interests of the Latino and Hispanic communities. This effort will preserve traditional records and manuscripts and capture oral histories with elected officials, activists and business leaders.

UGA Libraries is hosting the 2019 Capturing Science Contest to encourage STEM communication in a diversity of formats. Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible for $3,000 in prizes.

Guidelines: Explain a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) concept to a broader audience using any medium of your choice.

Prizes: The top three undergraduate and graduate submissions each receive prizes of $1,000, $350, and $150.

Deadline: 5:00pm, December 2, 2019

Eligibility: All currently-enrolled UGA undergraduate and graduate students are eligible. Students may submit works used for other class assignments. Multiple entries are acceptable.

Contest Criteria: Submissions will be evaluated according to the following criteria: