Library Blogs

Design Lab Resident Hallee Thompson reflects on her year as an Open Accessibility Resident.

Tomorrow is our final Special Collections After Hours event of the year! This month's theme is "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been," where we'll be displaying material from the Joseph A. Labadie Collecton related to marijuana. This includes material on recreational and medical uses of marijuana, as well as manuals on its cultivation. Here's a preview of a couple of items we'll have out for the event.

Design Lab Resident Sophie Niu discusses a workshop she attended on Sketch.

Design Lab Intern Ana Cuza discusses her work looking at applying machine learning to ecological studies of animal populations.

Design Lab Intern Ana Cuza reflects on a talk from Dr. Kristie Dotson about combining research and activism.

EARTH-RISE is a multidimensional project focusing on bridging the gap between high school and tertiary education in STEM, particularly earth sciences, and addressing the leaky pipeline for students in high schools that are under-funded and lack resources. The earth sciences are generally excluded from most high school curricula. Many earth science majors discovered the track upon entering college; most people are unaware it is a discipline throughout secondary school and beyond. In order to attract the attention of more students, it is important to strengthen earth science secondary (and primary) education. Additionally, two of the major components that promote retention through college and beyond is whether students identify as a member of the scientific community, and whether students have access to mentors they respect who are also enthusiastic. This project hopes to rectify both issues by introducing major topics in earth sciences in an accessible and exciting way (in the high-school classroom, in the laboratory, and in the field).

This program focuses on hands-on experiences (in-class, research and in field) for high school students to encourage retention in earth sciences. EARTH-RISE is designed to form a long-lasting relationship between Ypsilanti Community High School (and Ypsilanti public schools in general), Detroit public schools, and the University of Michigan Earth department. It focuses on encouraging high school students to engage in hands-on activities and research in Earth Sciences. The students at Ypsilanti Community High School received little science education in middle school and, lacking enthusiasm and encouragement from teachers during formative years, have ruled out pursuit of STEM in later years.

In November 2108, I was fortunate enough to travel to Fudan University (Shanghai, China) to be a “Foreign Expert” at their library.

The April display of Undergraduate Library books in the Shapiro Lobby is focused on news. We have selected books on journalistic ethics, the impact of social media on news, "fake news," and books about reporting of specific types of events or topics.

The Next Event in the Deep Dive into Digital and Data Methods for Chinese Studies is April 4-5

Interested in creating adaptive and accessible video game technology? Looking to learn which video games are the best of the best when it comes to accessibility? Just looking to game? The library is hosting two accessible and adaptive gaming events in April! The CVGA is also working to add more accessible and adaptive gaming equipment to its collection.