Library Blogs

A reflection on working in a pair on a multifaceted project in a remote setting as part of the Michigan Library Scholars internship.

Creating the "Hispanofilipino Literature: Translation as Repa(t)r(i)ation" exhibit as part of the Michigan Library Scholars internship.

During the summer of COVID-19, Michigan Library Scholar Yifei Yao contributed to the Askwith International Media Awareness Project by curating an online exhibit that highlights Asian film collections. This remote working experience provided an opportunity for Yifei to learn and grow. Through combining her passion for film and the new professional skills she learned, Yifei became more clear and confident in her career path after graduation.

The Michigan Library Scholars application jumped out at me back in February. I’m a rising junior studying economics & communications with a minor in Spanish, hoping to ultimately work for a non-profit one day. I saw the Askwith project and was immediately drawn to it because the majority of my classes this past semester were on globalization. Slowly I began to understand the necessity of being culturally aware and maintaining diversity in a world where homogeneity is often expected. Knowing I had been confined to my own “single-story,” or was truly only familiar with my home country, became an impediment to my perspective on the global community. The MLS program stood out to me then, and now, because I got to be part of a team of classmates and mentors working to end narrow-mindedness at UM.

Michigan Library Scholars intern Sophie Shao provides a glimpse into her experience of creating an animated video about the library's services and resources while working in a remote environment. This project underscores the importance of accessibility with a multilingual lens as well as the need for communication and problem solving in this new era of virtual work.

I Always Loved You is a beautifully-written historical novel about the American Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt and her complex relationship with Edgar Degas in Paris in the late 19th century. She suffers from self-doubt and receives devastating reviews from the critics before her art finally gains recognition.

American Spy is a brilliantly-written Cold War thriller about a black female FBI agent, Marie Mitchell, who is constantly being turned down for high-profile assignments because of her race and gender. When a CIA agent offers her an assignment in Burkina Faso, she accepts it, even though she suspects she was offered it because she's a black woman. She is supposed to help the CIA bring down Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso's president. Then she falls in love with Sankara, and starts to question her beliefs. Will she continue with her assignment, even if it means betraying the man she loves?

U-M Library’s Library Search launched in 2018 as a unified search engine application containing five previously distinct interfaces: Catalog, Articles, Databases, Online Journals, and Library Websites. Library Search was a big change for users, and an increase in user support requests suggested that further exploration was needed to pinpoint user pain points. The authors began an exploratory study that helped understand users’ experiences and identified areas for continued work.

Digital Content & Collections (DCC) relies on content and subject experts to bring us new digital collections. This year, 16 digital collections were created or significantly enhanced. Here you will find links to videos and articles by the subject experts speaking in their own words about the digital collections they were involved in and why they found it so important to engage in this work with us. Thank you to all of the people involved in each of these digital collections!

Did you know that August is American Artist Appreciation Month? Learn about 50 American artists with help from the Library!