Transforming Collaborative Collection Development and Pedagogical Practice: Connecting Art and Special Collections to Authentic Student Learning

This presentation discusses the intersection of collaborative collection development and pedagogical practice, specifically detailing how the creation of a new collection of Renaissance-era art prints in a university special collections department has transformed and blossomed into a multifaceted research opportunity for students. This print teaching collection became a central resource for the creation of an advanced print history course that engaged students in deep art historical research and professional development as they created and launched an original exhibition and accompanying digital publication including works from the print teaching collection. Throughout this process, students gained an understanding of both individual and team contributions to such projects, as well as hands-on experience with handling art, writing for different audiences, publishing, and exhibit design, along with exposure to designers, curators, librarians and other art-world professionals. The librarians (presenters) collaborated closely with the art history professor to guide students along the way, particularly in the areas of enhancing one\u27s research skills and archival intelligence, using digital publishing platforms, and planning for eventual installation of the exhibit within the university library. This presentation will walk participants through the entire process and evolution of this collection and project, including grant-writing, print selection, collection development policy, and collaboration with teaching faculty and other library colleagues, with an emphasis on the librarians’ role in providing an authentic learning experience leading to the creation of a real-world exhibition and publication by students

Come Together: The Rise of Cooperative Art and Design

Review of Come Together: The Rise of Cooperative Art and Design, Reviewed March 2015 by Heather Koopmans, Head Librarian for Research, Instruction and Special Collections at the Savannah College of Art and Design, [email protected]

Use of the Web by Visual Artists: An Exploration of How Online Information Seeking Informs Creative Practice

Visual artists' information-seeking behavior takes place in a broad context, involving interaction with a range of visual, textual, environmental, process-related and interpersonal sources. The World Wide Web (or Web) is one such resource that artists turn to within this vast information setting, but to-date, no known studies have examined how artists interact with information online. The present study addresses this gap by exploring non-academic visual artists' use of the Web as it relates to their creative activity. Diaries and interviews were used in order to understand participants' artistic practices and related information needs, as well as their sources, search strategies, and motivations for Web use. The artists' overall information needs matched those identified in previous studies. This study discovered that they use the Web primarily as a tool to promote their art, identify opportunities to further their careers, and socially network. Their use of the Web is connected to various offline information-seeking behaviors, showing that it serves to complement, rather than supplant, many of the sources they consult

Color Our Collections

#ColorOurCollections is a website and social media-driven international “coloring festival” hosted by the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Each year, libraries, museums, and archives are invited to develop and share free digital coloring books (PDF files) that highlight public domain works from their collections. The festival has occurred annually the first week of February since 2016 and to date, over six hundred coloring books by more than three hundred participating institutions are available on the #ColorOurCollections website

Transforming Collaborative Collection Development and Pedagogical Practice: Connecting Art and Special Collections to Authentic Student Learning

This presentation discusses the intersection of collaborative collection development and pedagogical practice, specifically detailing how the creation of a new collection of Renaissance-era art prints in a university special collections department has transformed and blossomed into a multifaceted research opportunity for students. This print teaching collection became a central resource for the creation of an advanced print history course that engaged students in deep art historical research and professional development as they created and launched an original exhibition and accompanying digital publication including works from the print teaching collection. Throughout this process, students gained an understanding of both individual and team contributions to such projects, as well as hands-on experience with handling art, writing for different audiences, publishing, and exhibit design, along with exposure to designers, curators, librarians and other art-world professionals. The librarians (presenters) collaborated closely with the art history professor to guide students along the way, particularly in the areas of enhancing one's research skills and archival intelligence, using digital publishing platforms, and planning for eventual installation of the exhibit within the university library. This presentation will walk participants through the entire process and evolution of this collection and project, including grant-writing, print selection, collection development policy, and collaboration with teaching faculty and other library colleagues, with an emphasis on the librarians’ role in providing an authentic learning experience leading to the creation of a real-world exhibition and publication by students

Low-Intensity Blast Induces Acute Glutamatergic Hyperexcitability in Mouse Hippocampus Leading to Long-Term Learning Deficits and Altered Expression of Proteins Involved in Synaptic Plasticity and Serine Protease Inhibitors

Neurocognitive consequences of blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) pose significant concerns for military service members and veterans with the majority of invisible injury. However, the underlying mechanism of such mild bTBI by low-intensity blast (LIB) exposure for long-term cognitive and mental deficits remains elusive. Our previous studies have shown that mice exposed to LIB result in nanoscale ultrastructural abnormalities in the absence of gross or apparent cellular damage in the brain. Here we tested the hypothesis that glutamatergic hyperexcitability may contribute to long-term learning deficits. Using brain slice electrophysiological recordings, we found an increase in averaged frequencies with a burst pattern of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs) in hippocampal CA3 neurons in LIB-exposed mice at 1- and 7-days post injury, which was blocked by a specific NMDA receptor antagonist AP5. In addition, cognitive function assessed at 3-months post LIB exposure by automated home-cage monitoring showed deficits in dynamic patterns of discrimination learning and cognitive flexibility in LIB-exposed mice. Collected hippocampal tissue was further processed for quantitative global-proteomic analysis. Advanced data-independent acquisition for quantitative tandem mass spectrometry analysis identified altered expression of proteins involved in synaptic plasticity and serine protease inhibitors in LIB-exposed mice. Some were correlated with the ability of discrimination learning and cognitive flexibility. These findings show that acute glutamatergic hyperexcitability in the hippocampus induced by LIB may contribute to long-term cognitive dysfunction and protein alterations. Studies using this military-relevant mouse model of mild bTBI provide valuable insights into developing a potential therapeutic strategy to ameliorate hyperexcitability-modulated LIB injuries

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2023

Report of Milner Library\u27s activities and initiatives related to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access in Fiscal Year 2023.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/mlp/1035/thumbnail.jp

COSPAR Sample Safety Assessment Framework (SSAF)

The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Sample Safety Assessment Framework (SSAF) has been developed by a COSPAR appointed Working Group. The objective of the sample safety assessment would be to evaluate whether samples returned from Mars could be harmful for Earth's systems (e.g., environment, biosphere, geochemical cycles). During the Working Group's deliberations, it became clear that a comprehensive assessment to predict the effects of introducing life in new environments or ecologies is difficult and practically impossible, even for terrestrial life and certainly more so for unknown extraterrestrial life. To manage expectations, the scope of the SSAF was adjusted to evaluate only whether the presence of martian life can be excluded in samples returned from Mars. If the presence of martian life cannot be excluded, a Hold & Critical Review must be established to evaluate the risk management measures and decide on the next steps. The SSAF starts from a positive hypothesis (there is martian life in the samples), which is complementary to the null-hypothesis (there is no martian life in the samples) typically used for science. Testing the positive hypothesis includes four elements: (1) Bayesian statistics, (2) subsampling strategy, (3) test sequence, and (4) decision criteria. The test sequence capability covers self-replicating and non-self-replicating biology and biologically active molecules. Most of the investigations associated with the SSAF would need to be carried out within biological containment. The SSAF is described in sufficient detail to support planning activities for a Sample Receiving Facility (SRF) and for preparing science announcements, while at the same time acknowledging that further work is required before a detailed Sample Safety Assessment Protocol (SSAP) can be developed. The three major open issues to be addressed to optimize and implement the SSAF are (1) setting a value for the level of assurance to effectively exclude the presence of martian life in the samples, (2) carrying out an analogue test program, and (3) acquiring relevant contamination knowledge from all Mars Sample Return (MSR) flight and ground elements. Although the SSAF was developed specifically for assessing samples from Mars in the context of the currently planned NASA-ESA MSR Campaign, this framework and the basic safety approach are applicable to any other Mars sample return mission concept, with minor adjustments in the execution part related to the specific nature of the samples to be returned. The SSAF is also considered a sound basis for other COSPAR Planetary Protection Category V, restricted Earth return missions beyond Mars. It is anticipated that the SSAF will be subject to future review by the various MSR stakeholders

SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems

Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS DR8 (which occurred in Jan 2011). This paper presents an overview of the four SDSS-III surveys. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Lya forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the BAO feature of large scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z<0.7 and at z~2.5. SEGUE-2, which is now completed, measured medium-resolution (R=1800) optical spectra of 118,000 stars in a variety of target categories, probing chemical evolution, stellar kinematics and substructure, and the mass profile of the dark matter halo from the solar neighborhood to distances of 100 kpc. APOGEE will obtain high-resolution (R~30,000), high signal-to-noise (S/N>100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51-1.70 micron) spectra of 10^5 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for ~15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. MARVELS will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 m/s, ~24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. (Abridged)Comment: Revised to version published in The Astronomical Journa

Setting a baseline for global urban virome surveillance in sewage

The rapid development of megacities, and their growing connectedness across the world is becoming a distinct driver for emerging disease outbreaks. Early detection of unusual disease emergence and spread should therefore include such cities as part of risk-based surveillance. A catch-all metagenomic sequencing approach of urban sewage could potentially provide an unbiased insight into the dynamics of viral pathogens circulating in a community irrespective of access to care, a potential which already has been proven for the surveillance of poliovirus. Here, we present a detailed characterization of sewage viromes from a snapshot of 81 high density urban areas across the globe, including in-depth assessment of potential biases, as a proof of concept for catch-all viral pathogen surveillance. We show the ability to detect a wide range of viruses and geographical and seasonal differences for specific viral groups. Our findings offer a cross-sectional baseline for further research in viral surveillance from urban sewage samples and place previous studies in a global perspective