Welcome to IAS: Striving for a Global Perspective

As this academic year begins, the University of Illinois community, the nation, and the world continue to strive toward diversity, respect, and inclusivity. Recent events like the January travel ban and the discontinuation of DACA have motivated the University to reaffirm its commitment to serving a diverse population of students. The various departments across the University Library support our school’s mission to “be proactive in supporting all of our students, faculty, staff and visiting scholars, whether domestic or international” and to “build a campus culture of inclusion,” as stated in a campus-wide email from Chancellor Robert Jones on September 9.

As a student, these events and topics can sometimes feel overwhelming. With so much information and media available, how do we begin to understand these complex issues? How can we find reliable information and context on these topics? How can we celebrate and respect diverse perspectives and experiences?

In addition to participating in a variety of campus initiatives, individuals on campus can make an effort to learn about changing policies and social climates, cultural histories, national identities, and individual experiences. The commitment to value and support diversity enlightens us about people and places different from ourselves, while simultaneously creating safe, creative, and respectful environments.

Campus Resources and Support

The University of Illinois offers many resources for students wanting to learn more about these topics or who are looking for help navigating these experiences. These include, among others:

Open Illinois: http://open.illinois.edu/support-daca-students/

Illinois International: http://international.illinois.edu/students/support.html

International Student and Scholar Services: http://www.isss.illinois.edu/

Counseling Center: https://counselingcenter.illinois.edu/

International and Area Studies Library

The subject librarians and the collections at the International and Area Studies Library are fantastic resources for insight and primary sources on global topics.

The International and Area Studies Library serves the campus community by providing information about specific regions across the world. As detailed on the about page, IAS is committed to “connecting students and scholars to the knowledge crucial to developing global competencies through the study of distinct nations and regions, as well as transnational issues and global concerns.” IAS strives to increase awareness of international histories and current events through its collections, staff, and activities.

Contact IAS

Visit the International and Area Studies Library: Room 321, Main library; 1408 W. Gregory Dr.; Urbana IL, (217) 333-1501; Email: internationalref@library.illinois.edu

IAS Event Calendar – Keep an eye on the calendar; we will be adding more events, such as lectures and exhibits, as the semester continues.

International Reference Services – Contact regional librarians for research assistance. Subject librarians can provide expertise on certain topics and suggestions for research tools and materials. You can also complete the Reference Information Request Form to ask a specific question.

How to use the library – guides on the IAS homepage provide library guidance in a variety of languages.

We at the International and Area Studies Library hope to see you this year!

 

Laura Rocco

Graduate Assistant | International and Area Studies Library

MSLIS Candidate | School of Information Sciences

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Why I Think You Should Meet Elizabeth Wickes

By Matt Hendrick

If you’ve ever lost a folder or spent hours trying to find an old file, Elizabeth Wickes (who works with Heidi Imker, the Head of the Research Data Service (RDS), and her colleagues Elise Dunham, Colleen Fallaw, and Qian Zhang) can help you. Elizabeth is a Data Curation Specialist at the RDS who helps researchers and students learn how to properly organize and manage their data.

Help from Elizabeth can even be the reason you receive or do not receive federal funding. If you ever plan on applying for a federal grant, you will likely need to create a Data Management Plan (DMP). If you have no idea what a Data Management Plan is, the RDS can help you. If you do know what a DMP is, but don’t know how to create one or want some feedback on a draft, the RDS can help you.

Last semester, I had the opportunity to interview Elizabeth and ask her about the RDS, Data Management Plans, and the best practices for organizing data.

  1. What is the Research Data Service?

The Research Data Service is dedicated to helping Illinois researchers manage and steward their data throughout the research process. When I say data, I can mean whatever you are using to base your conclusions off of. People often say “I don’t have data.” You do. Everyone has data. You are basing your conclusions on something. This can be books, specimens, interviews, statistics, etc.

  1. What services does the RDS offer?

We have three core services: data management workshops and consultations, Data Management Plan creation help, and the Illinois Data Bank. Our workshops and one-on-one consultations are usually the best place to get started with data management and gives us an opportunity to discuss your specific situation and give you personalized advice on how to manage your data. You can book a personal consultation at http://go.illinois.edu/bookRDS. The RDS also holds regular workshops (in collaboration with the Scholarly Commons) covering various data management and data publishing topics. In addition, we offer customized data management talks or workshops to fit the needs of teams of all sizes and disciplines. We’ll be talking about the Illinois Data Bank and Data Management Plans later on.

  1. Who can use the RDS and attend its workshops?

Everyone is welcome to attend the RDS workshops; no I-Card is required. The RDS is designed to help research and data management from all individuals, at all stages. Undergraduates, graduates, and faculty have access to all of the RDS’s services.

  1. How should researchers handle data that is either confidential, private, or proprietary?

We help a great many researchers with sensitive data, but our advice is very dependent on the type of data and the context. For example, for scholars with sensitive humanities data the RDS recommends our institutional Box for storage. UIUC’s Box is approved for IRB storage and, when permissions are set up appropriately, it is one of the easiest ways to manage and share IRB data with a project team. When it comes to sensitive data and human subjects, the IRB is always the final word. We would not give the same recommendation to scholars with HIPAA data (health data), as that has very explicit legal requirements. Whatever issues you may have with sensitive data, we will walk you through the process and give you advice tailored to your specific situation.

  1. What are the best practices of data management?

Among the two most important data management steps an individual can take are: keeping secure backups of all their data (Box or an encrypted external hard drive) and maintaining personal computer security (see our library’s “Computer Security Tips” and the Technology Service’s information on security for more information).

Some general best practices for organizing your data include: having consistent and unique file names, avoiding special characters and spaces (use underscores instead), and including a version number and date for all your files (with consistent formatting). See the RDS’s pages on “Saving and Sharing Your Data” and “Organizing Your Data” for more detailed information. We also offer private consultations to help you develop and implement an organizational system.

  1. What is a Data Management Plan (DMP) and why would someone create one?

In 2013, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a memo mandating that federally funded research programs must be open access and have a plan for data management (beginning in 2015). Today, many federal grant applications must have a Data Management Plan (DMP). So if you haven’t submitted a grant in the last couple years, this will probably be new to you.

While DMP requirements do differ from funder to funder, they are usually one or two page documents that answer the specific questions of the funder. The general purpose is to explain how you will manage, secure, acquire, and share your data. You will also have to explain what your data will be, how you’ll manage it during the project, and how you’ll store it after the project is done. The level of detail they expect varies by funder and some funders place higher levels of emphasis on the DMP. Some funders consider it a key element of the grant portfolio, while others do not. You cannot simply presume the DMP is not going to matter; an increasing number of funders who initially didn’t place a great deal of emphasis on the DMP, now do.

It is primarily faculty who are applying for these funding opportunities and are required to create a DMP, but we are seeing more grad students and post-docs needing to submit ones for fellowship project applications. Also, any graduate student who is planning to remain in academia and applies for a federal grant will have to create a Data Management Plan. Sometimes graduate assistants working for a faculty member may also be involved in this process, but every team works differently. The DMP creation plan process can also be valuable for a team as they create new projects, because it makes you ask and answer many tough questions. Pain points can be discovered early on in the process rather than during crunch times.

  1. How can RDS with the process of creating a Data Management Plan?

If you send us your proposal, the call you are responding to, and a draft of your Data Management Plan, we will take a look at all those documents and provide you with expert advice. We have an entire network of subject specialists that we bring in who know your subject and your funders. The process is entirely confidential and is as simple as sending out an email to researchdata@library.illinois.edu. We also have a short list of best practices that goes over the biggest pain points we see coming in on a regular basis.

  1. What is the difference between IDEALS (Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship) and the Illinois Data Bank?

IDEALS and the Illinois Data Bank are our institutional repositories for research and scholarship. You can think of them as sibling repositories. They are intentionally separated as it is more efficient. In short, IDEALS is primarily designed for texts (dissertation, theses, papers, presentations, manuscripts, etc.) while the Illinois Data Bank is primarily designed and optimized for data. This method of dividing our data storage allows us to maximize the metadata that is being transmitted; essentially, this makes your data more discoverable and reusable.

  1. What can scholars of the humanities deposit in these repositories?

You cannot deposit anything that is under copyright or data that is sensitive (such as protected human subject data), but this is something that we can help you navigate. You do have the ability, as an alternative, to deposit your derivative data files. For example, if you are doing topic modeling on copyrighted novels, you can’t deposit the novels, but you can deposit the topic modeling information that you have created and are basing your research on. Additionally, you can deposit any field notes that you have; you can de-identify these to whatever extent you wish (so long as you are in compliance with the IRB and your participant consent).

  1. Do you have any general advice for students regarding the RDS and our library in general?

I want to encourage all students to look at all the services the library offers outside of just the collections. The library is a lot more than simply books. In addition to the RDS, we have a many experts and services that can help with a broad range of issues related to your research. I also advise students and faculty to take advantage of our library’s consultation services; these can be a tremendous resource and they are often overlooked.

The Research Data Service is on the south side of the third floor of the Main library in the rooms of 310-312. They do not have a patron-facing area and usually use the neighboring Scholarly Commons area for their meetings. You can set up a meeting by calling their phone number (217-300-3513) or sending an email to researchdata@library.illinois.edu.

In addition to Elizabeth Wickes, the staff of the RDS includes Heidi Imker (Director), Colleen Fallaw (Research Programmer), Elise Dunham (Data Curation Specialist), and Qian Zhang (CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation with CIRSS).

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Hispanic Heritage Month

Every year, Hispanic Heritage Month is observed here in the United States. It is September 15th through October 15th. Throughout this month, the culture, history, and contributions of Hispanics in the United States is celebrated. Whether it is the history of people from Spain, Mexico, Central & South America, or the Caribbean. So, how did Hispanic Heritage Month come to be?

It began in 1968, when there was a Hispanic Heritage Week. Although it started under the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson, it expanded under President Ronald Reagan in 1988. According to the Government Printing Office, it became a law (Public Law 100-402) in August of 1988. This month is celebrated in many different ways.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month pic

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Photo courtesy of Texas A&M University-Commerce Marketing Communications Photography.

Nationally, the Library of Congress has events, exhibitions, and stories. Among the events, a book talk by Carmen Boullosa, who is a Mexican poet, novelist, and playwright. Others who are being honored are author Cindy Trumbore and illustrator Susan L. Roth of Parrots over Puerto Rico.” They will be awarded the 2014 Américas Awards for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. For more information, be sure to visit the Official Page of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Locally, UIUC has a couple of events going on around campus and the community. Among them are:

CLACS (The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies) has organized the 2014 Latin American Film Festival. This Festival began on September 19th and will go all the way through September 25th. Seven films will be showing. The countries and cultures from these films are diverse and showcase that while the countries may be in Latin America, each one has their own unique language/dialect and culture. For the movies and showings, check out the schedule.

There is also a Lecture Series that provides talks and lectures on many different subjects and interests related to Latin America and the Caribbean. Topics such as, “Big Business as Usual: the 2014 World Cup.” For more information, be sure to check out the full schedule.

For more events, La Casa Cultural Latina has a whole schedule for the month. La Casa was part of the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations’ (OIIR) initiative to the “recruiting and retaining underrepresented students, diversity education, civic engagement, and fostering the leadership skills necessary to develop global citizens.”

Just because Hispanic Heritage Month is just that, for a month, it doesn’t mean that it stops there. The University and Library offer many resources for students of Latino descent, or for those who would like to learn more about Hispanic Culture and/or language. Lucky for you, we compiled a list for you.

UIUC Mi Pueblo: This a Spanish-conversation group. They meet at different parts of campus for 1-hour sessions led by UIUC students. For more information about the sessions. Check out their website.

La Casa Cultural: Founded at UIUC in 1974, La Casa Cultural Latina has been committed to Latino/a students on campus, as well as the community [.

Browse through the Registered Student Organizations (RSO) and pick which ones would be the best for you.  For a complete list of RSO’s, browse a whole list of them.

Don’t forget that your library also has some great resources. Did you know that the International and Area Studies Library has a collection of Latin American books? Not only books, but newspapers and journals as well, so that you can keep up with the news. A lot of them in Spanish!

The Undergraduate Library also has a media collection with many movies and documentaries in Spanish and Portuguese, ranging from many different countries in Latin America. Some examples include, “Diarios de Motocicleta” (The Motorcycle Diaries), “Maria Full of Grace“, and “El Norte” (The North), just to name a few.

The Undergraduate Library’s QB (Question Board), has received questions from students since 1989. There have been many different questions throughout that time. Among them:

“Could you come up with a list of native women writers (novelists) writing at the early part of this century in Mexico? Preferably titles that have been translated into English”

“I was recently in New York, being a salsa person like myself, I went to a salsa nightclub. I heard of a band that was originally from Japan and came to New York to learn Spanish in order to become a salsa group. Their name was Orchestra de la Luz. Can I have some more info please? Signed, Inquiring Minds Want to Know”

“There is a popular song in Spanish called “La Macarena” (I think). There are different versions (2 that I know of). Can you tell me what “La Macarena” refers to and where did the song originate? Thanks. Signed Curiosita”

The above are just a few of the different types of questions that QB receives. To browse, search, or even submit your own question, visit QB!

For more resources that the library has to offer, browse through the subject guide offered.

There are so many things, that even we can’t list all at once in this blog post. We hope that you have found some new activities to take part in and new resources around the library.

 

 

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Introducing Be Global

An image of the Be Global homepage.

Interested in pursuing international opportunities but have no idea where to look?

Eileen Walz, a recent UIUC Civil Engineering graduate and a current master’s student studying Library & Information Science felt the same way. Having herself studied abroad and participated in numerous service trips Eileen has tried to make the most of the international opportunities provided by the University of Illinois, but admits they were never easy to find.

Throughout her academic career, Eileen has been to Peru on a service trip, Croatia with U of I’s Entrepreneurs Without Borders program, and twice to Kenya for study abroad and an engineering class trip. After some reflection Eileen realized that she found out about these trips in four very distinct ways:

  1. Hours of searching Google and seeking a summer program that would be the right fit (Peru)
  2. Word of mouth from a friend who was also interested in the Entrepreneurs Without Borders program (Croatia).
  3. Information session sponsored by the Study Abroad Office (Kenya)
  4. A class trip for engineers taking CEE 449 (Kenya).

The Internet is full of information on international opportunities available to students, but all this information requires a lot of timely research and sorting. So, in the summer of 2012 Eileen set to work on creating the website Be Global.

The goals of Be Global are threefold:

  1. Create a site that combines all of U of I’s international opportunities in one easy to locate space.
  2. Increase student involvement in internationally oriented activities both on campus and abroad in order to foster global awareness.
  3. Provide a forum for students to share their global and international experiences.

Busy with classes, work, internships, homework, and everything else in between college students are hard pressed for time. In response, Be Global tries to capture anything and everything international and related to U of I. This includes everything from service trips, traditional study abroad, course trips, etc. With the help of a professor and a research specific topic, students can even self-direct an independent study that can take them overseas. The world is really a student’s oyster, and Be Global helps encourage students to make the most of it.

Eileen’s credits her own international experience to shaping the person she is today. From shaping her future career goals in community informatics, to simply inspiring a deeper understanding of history and humanity. This is why Be Global will soon introduce “Do Global,” a space where students and faculty can collaborate on future projects and share the lessons they learned form their own experiences abroad.  Eileen describes “Do Global” almost like an online catalog or database, that can be searched by categories.

Perhaps the key to Be Global‘s success will be student participation and interaction. If anyone knows of an international event, cultural dinner, linguistic event, or even a visiting international speaker Be Global wants to know about it. Such events help bring an international awareness to on campus students, and may ignite a desire for further exploration be it on campus or abroad.

For my information and to explore international opportunities please see:

Be Global: http://www.communityinformaticsprojects.org/beglobal/

Do Global: http://www.communityinformaticsprojects.org/doglobal/

Blog Written By: Christina E. John

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