Library Blogs

This project, supported by the Library Engagement Fellows Program, asked itself: what are the needs and opportunities within graduate curricula in the humanities and social sciences for co-curricular digital scholarship education that could be offered by the University Michigan library? This project defines digital scholarship as “Scholarship enabled by and shared through digital media and tools, that is able to ask new questions through digital methods.” While there have been various past and current efforts related to digital scholarship (programming as well as initiatives to improve resources currently offered), this research project sought insight from graduate students in particular. Insight gathered from this project would provide the library with information on what graduate students need as well as possible changes that could be made to satisfy these needs.

Idealized Cuban Family Structures is a research based project that uses humor, the Cuban Family Code, the ASCE Steel Construction Manual, and my own family history to start a conversation about social engineering. It is presented as three sculptures, or “corrective devices” for the steel structure shown above, which represents my family’s dynamics. The sculptures will be accompanied by a series of 2D graphic works which assist the viewer in understanding the absurd translation of my family’s interpersonal relationships into this steel structure. The 2D pieces will also sarcastically illustrate where the family went “wrong” according to the Code. Humorous caricatures of engineering drawings depict where the corrective devices would bolt into the family structure and how the corrective devices would physically work to “fix” the family.

PILOT is a student organization founded in 2010 with the mission of empowering students from underrepresented communities. We work to develop campus leaders through various project initiatives, one of which is Dreams2Reality. Dreams2Reality is a social justice outreach program that hosts bi-weekly workshops with first- and second-year Metro Detroit high school students that center around different social justice topics, as well as on-campus Dream Day. Our program aims to build community between multi-ethnic students of African, Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, and European descent from under-resourced high schools, to promote social awareness and consciousness about topics including, but not limited to, social identities, privilege, and discrimination.

An 1861 map of New York City, now worn with age, the delicate paper permanently creased from its life in a file-folder, shows the familiar landscape of upper Manhattan. Two hand-drawn lines, remnants of its previous handling, cross the page – a red line runs along sixth avenue, and a yellow one cuts across 86th Street, intersecting just below the reservoir. Aside from a few cosmetic changes - “Bloomingdale Road” has been straightened out into Broadway, the Great Lawn is now decorated with baseball fields – much of this landscape, detailed over a century ago, remains today. For over a century, millions of people have traversed these same paths, unknowingly following each other through the unremarkable progression of days and years.

Over the past academic year, Anthony Erebor, Lyse Messmer, and I have worked as library engagement fellows. We have been working with Librarian Rebecca Price to exhibit a growing collection of 20th-century house catalogs held in the Art, Architecture and Engineering Special Collections. The catalogues, which focus on residential construction in the Midwest from the 1910s through the post-war building boom of the 1950s and 60s, tell many stories: the historical story of Michigan's industrial past transitioning from lumber to automobile; an architectural story about changing patterns and arrangements of domestic space; a sociological story of the gender roles within and outside the household; a racial story of exclusion and expectations; an urban story of the development of suburbia, a transportation story of the impact of the family car form and road systems; a technological story as appliances were integrated into the home; a materials story from construction to furnishing to decoration; and a communications tory in the visual presentation of house plans and their promise.

Our project is to update the existing Plain Language Medical Dictionary (PLMD) to help people with a non-medical background better understand the medical terms. The first version of this website was designed in 2011 and published in three versions: website widget, iOS mobile application, and Android mobile application. As two international students whose first language is not English, we deeply feel overwhelmed when we receive any document from the doctor. We both are Masters students from the school of Information and we’re aiming to redesign and update the new PLMD to a sustainable product with an updated user interface and user-friendly interactions. This project started at the beginning of Fall 2019 and lasted for two-semester.

Michigan Active Citizens Alternative Spring Break is a program through the Ginsberg Center here on campus that provides opportunities for students to engage in meaningful service as they enter into a community over spring break. In our specific topic and site, we will be exploring Youth Disabilities in Burton, TX, through Camp For All, a barrier-free camp for youth around the country.

The goal of #MenToo is to investigate the influence of masculinity and gender breakdown of the work environment on the psychological outcomes of men who experience sexual harassment at Michigan Medicine. Three waves of data have been collected for the Michigan Medicine #MedToo project; and this current project focuses on the third and final wave, which concentrates on people at lower positions of power (e.g. low socio-economic status). I argue that these individuals are often understudied in research (e.g. security, social workers, environmental service/janitorial service) and are the most vulnerable. The importance of this project is to solely focus on men and how masculinity plays a role in their experiences of sexual harassment (more specifically gender harassment, since it is the more prominent form of harassment men experience). Sexual harassment in general is hard to detect if we ask direct questions such as “have you been harassed?”, this is also the case when studying negative psychological outcomes (e.g. depression). Therefore, I used the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ) which relies on behaviors specific to sexual harassment rather than one sole inquiry of sexual harassment. We additionally, measured masculinity in three different forms including masculinity norms within workplace, gender breakdown, and gendered personality traits. Men are held to the expectation that they must not show weakness, hence, rarely do they report sexual harassment. This project hopes to shed light on men who experience sexual harassment and the outcomes that come with it.

STEM Society is a student organization that aims to expose K-12 students in lower socioeconomic areas to inquiry-based learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We hope to displace common stereotypes that students may have about accessibility to STEM education and careers, as well as increase their awareness about the diverse opportunities available in these fields. In addition, we strive to provide our organization members with a chance to advance their interests in teaching and sharing their passion for STEM. Through presenting STEM in an engaging and interactive manner, we hope to broaden students’ knowledge, challenge any beliefs they may have about the inaccessibility of STEM, and spark excitement and passion for pursuing a STEM education. We also hope to promote diversity and inclusion in the STEM fields by reaching out to groups that have historically been underrepresented in higher education or STEM careers and showing them that if they have a passion for STEM and motivation to pursue it, that they belong in these fields as much as anybody else.

The Latinx Student Psychological Association (LSPA) is a graduate student organization affiliated with the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. We were awarded a Library Mini Grant to support our write-ins during the Winter 2020 semester. Our write-ins have strengthened our strategies for collaboration and have resulted in a supportive relationship with library staff, and specifically with Jesus Espinoza, a relationship we hope will continue in the future.