Library Blogs

To help conclude our 10th anniversary celebrations, we wanted to highlight an online exhibit that we originally put together five years ago called CVGA Disassembled. It summarizes many of the different generations of game systems, and how they've evolved since they first became popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It also takes a look at how game systems have evolved on the inside, including several images of partially disassembled game systems in each game generation.

1. What brought you to the Shapiro Design Lab?
I was first introduced to the Shapiro Design Lab two years ago when the director, Justin Schell, served as my mentor for a U-M Library mini-grant project. Justin’s mentorship of our misfit group of wide-eyed, wanna-be social entrepreneurs was nothing short of pivotal to keeping our group together through our first pitch competition, Innovation in Action. In 2017, Justin told me that the next year he would be starting a graduate student residency program concentrating on video games and I have been lucky enough to be part of the Design Lab ever since.

Machine learning is changing the world around us and it will continue to dramatically shape our future. Complex computer algorithms are slowly starting to define our interactions with vehicles, social media, and Netflix. That’s right, even the shows Netflix recommends for you are, in part, the result of a complex machine learning algorithm.

Despite the omnipresence of machine learning in the world around us, the mystique that surrounds these two words is palpable. Many people forfeit trying to understand how machine learning works upon reading the word algorithm. I, however, decided to delve into the topic through an online course. In an attempt to better understand just what is happening during a machine learning program, I completed the Lynda.com course, “Machine Learning and AI Foundations: Value Estimations,” taught by Adam Geitgey. Participating in the course left me believing that, although machine learning is a highly complex process, one does not need to understand exactly what is going on under the hood of the algorithm, so long as they can navigate the program.

The Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce a new exhibit celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Visit the Special Collections Exhibit Gallery in our 6th floor space (660J Hatcher South) to see the exhibit, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Linocuts by Meredith Stern, on view now through February 1, 2019.

In the latest entry in Louise Penny's popular mystery series, Armand Gamache, former head of the Sûreté de Québec, now living in the tiny village of Three Pines, is named as the executor of the will of a woman he's never met. Soon afterwards, the body of her oldest son is found in a collapsed farmhouse. Gamache's investigation of the murder uncovers secrets, including a long-lasting family feud. Meanwhile, Gamache searches for a deadly drug he allowed to slip through, and which is about to hit the streets of Montréal.

Did the busy school year eat up all your time for leisure reading? No problem! The Shapiro Book Display will feature some of 2018's most popular reads, so you can still catch up on the books everyone's been talking about in the past year. Have a great winter break, and Happy New Year!

A new book on diversity and inclusion in higher education.

Asia Library invites you to an event celebrating their 70th anniversary.

Imagine you slipped on a wet floor and fractured your feet. The doctor recommends you not to exert any pressure on your feet for the next 2 months. You still have classes to attend, assignments to submit and exams to write in these 2 months. You decide to stay strong and be brave enough to continue to go to school, instead of skipping the whole semester.
On your first day of class after the accident, you reach to your school only to realize that your class is on the third floor and the lift is out of order. What do you do?

In an age where everything is digital—from the ways we communicate to grocery shopping—it is not only a challenge, but also irresponsible to not consider the digital in design. While the concept of design is inherently innovative, it quickly becomes obsolete if it does not enhance or complement the lives of those who the design is intended for. Design that has not been tested or piloted in a digital environment is not trusted to be built. But does it mean to design digitally if not simply that? How do incorporate the “digital” not only in the process, but in the product as well?