Special Collections News

Modern research tools such as artificial intelligence and text and data mining can open up data in ways that researchers are only beginning to imagine. Yet the complex and intense legal landscape can be so daunting that some projects are stifled by concerns of copyright and restrictive terms of use.

On April 11, the UGA Libraries will host one of the nation’s top experts on the fair use of AI and text and data mining to help researchers and librarians understand how to avoid the pitfalls. The 90-minute workshop will be led by Dave Hansen, executive director of Authors Alliance and co-principal investigator of the Text and Data Mining: Demonstrating Fair Use Project, which is supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Story from our partners at the College of Family and Consumer Sciences 

The University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries will host a Native college president and a lauded Black history professor during Women’s History Month this March.

First, Dr. Sandra Boham, president of Salish Kootenai College and an accomplished leader in American Indian higher education, will present the annual Jeannette Rankin Legacy Lecture in honor of the nation’s first women in Congress. The free event will be held Wednesday March 13 at 3 p.m. and is sponsored by the Jeannette Rankin Foundation and the Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.

In the 21^st century, libraries don’t just store information on shelves — they also use servers. UGA Libraries recently reached a major milestone in its digital preservation of unique materials, eclipsing 1 petabyte of storage in its ARCHive.

UGA Libraries is marking Black History Month this February by sharing e-resources and other unique materials about African American contributions through scavenger hunts at the largest campus library locations.

New University of Georgia Libraries’ agreements have expanded free open access publishing opportunities for UGA researchers, now covering more than 3,000 titles from prominent academic journal publishers.

Increasingly, researchers prefer open access options in order to expand the visibility, use, and impact of their work, and federal funding agencies require that grant-funded research be made openly available. UGA Libraries’ agreements with eight publishers cover the open access charges normally passed to researchers. These new arrangements are called “publish and read” agreements, as they address terms both for subscriptions to a publisher’s e-journals and support for open access. 

Three UGA professors have been named the inaugural recipients of UGA Libraries’ Fairchild-Holcomb Awards for Innovation in the Humanities. The seed grants, totaling $8,600, will kick-start projects aimed at creating educational materials and a podcast or documentary drawing upon archival materials from UGA’s Special Collections Libraries.

UGA Special Collections Libraries were highlighted as part of the Georgia Association of Museums Conference, held in Athens this January.

In addition to several workshops and tours hosted by our archivists, the conference featured Ryan Lewis, the Georgia Music Exhibit Coordinator for the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, as the keynote speaker for the event. 

The University of Georgia Libraries are pleased to announce the naming of three new leaders who join University Librarian and Associate Provost Toby Graham in providing direction-setting and oversight for the libraries.

Newest to UGA is Sara Wright who started her role as Associate University Librarian for Learning Services and Academic Engagement in January. Wright formerly served as director of Cornell University’s Mann & Science Cluster Libraries, and her career at Cornell included stints as Academic Technology Librarian; Head of User Services and Engagement; and Head of Learning, Spaces, and Technology.

Part history lesson, part ecological treasure trove, a new exhibit on display at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries explores the marine lives of coral and the expeditions and efforts to document the curious creatures over centuries, from Darwin to modern day.