Announcements
Announcements
Data visualization — the representation of data through charts, plots, infographics, and other visual media — can be a powerful tool in communicating research to a variety of audiences.
In this three-workshop series, Ashley S. McGuire, STEM librarian and liaison to the School of Engineering and the Department of Chemistry for UAB Libraries, will introduce participants to all things data visualization for both quantitative and qualitative research.
All workshops take place noon-1 p.m. in Sterne 16; bring a laptop or borrow one from the HUB Desk or loaner kiosks. Registration is required.
Feb. 5 — Getting Started with Data Visualization: Tools for Research
McGuire will discuss choosing the right tools for representing various kinds of data, plus provide guided practice in creating a variety of data visualizations, from classic charts and graphs to more sophisticated, interactive media.
March 5 — Getting Started with Data Visualization: Elements of Visual Design
McGuire will share best practices and common pitfalls to ensure accuracy and clarity in data visualizations and for understanding audiences, selecting the right type of visualization for your data, and how to use your data to tell a story.
April 2 — GIS for Data Visualization
Guest speaker Ariann F. Nassal, director of Geospatial Data Visualization at the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, will give an introduction to geographic information systems and discuss tools available at UAB to create sophisticated visualization tools with your data.
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Employees and students interested in learning how to use UAB’s 3D printers can sign up for one of 10 upcoming training sessions offered by UAB Libraries this spring. Completing a training session is required before users can begin printing their own projects — but at just 1.5 hours long and offered both online and in-person, the rewards far outweigh the relatively small time investment, said Technology Labs Manager Patrick Boggs, who leads the training session.
“3D printing lets users be creative in so many ways,” Boggs said. “Lots of people print for fun — they make game figurines or intricate pots for plants, things like that — but what’s special about printing at UAB is that we’re uniquely placed to help with research and other campus initiatives.
“Folks at UAB have discovered really unique ways to incorporate 3D-printed items into their projects, like making molds for silicone tools used in heart research, or cases for GPS units the football team uses. The options really are endless.”
Sign up for a training that works for you
During the training, Blazers are given access to printer queues for both Sterne Library and Lister Hill Library 3D printing via 3DPrinterOS. 3DPrinterOS is a cloud-based system that lets users monitor the ongoing print queue to see when printers are available and check the progress of their jobs; several of the 3D printers managed in 3DPrinterOS have cameras attached so users can watch how their prints are coming along. Users also automatically receive a time-lapse video of their items being printed via email once the objects are complete.
Sessions continue through April 18; you also can find them on the Campus Calendar.
Introductory 3D Printer Training
- Feb. 6, noon-1:30 p.m., Lister Hill Library Virtual Reality Studio (110)
- Feb. 12, noon-1:30 p.m., LibLab (Sterne Library 112)
- Feb. 21, noon-1:30 p.m., virtual
- March 6, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., LHL Virtual Reality Studio (110)
- March 21, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., virtual
- April 3, noon-1:30 p.m., LHL Virtual Reality Studio (110)
- April 9, 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m., LibLab (Sterne 112)
- April 18, noon-1:30 p.m., virtual
Introductory SLA 3D Printer Training
- Feb. 25, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., LHL Virtual Reality Studio (110)
- March 25, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., LHL Virtual Reality Studio (110)
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Through a continued membership with Unity Academic Alliance, UAB students and employees can earn industry-recognized certifications in programming, artistry and game development from Unity, a real-time software development platform used to create content for virtual, augmented and mixed-reality, AI-driven simulations, and 2D and 3D video games.
The membership enables UAB students, faculty and staff to request no-cost, voucher-based access to Unity courseware, practice test content and certification exams. Available certifications include Certified Associate Programmer, Certified Associate Artist and Certified Associate Game Developer. Certification vouchers are available on a first-come, first-served basis; UAB’s Unity Academic Alliance membership will conclude when all vouchers are claimed.
“Unity developers remain in high demand in a variety of industry, from engineering, to film, to animation,” said Kevin Hebert, associate dean for Technology and Technical Services in UAB Libraries. “When we launched this program in spring 2024, we saw huge interest, so we know folks are interested in the skills these certifications encourage. We’re excited to offer it again and continue to support students as they combine what they learn in class with specific skills to develop portfolios for their post-graduation job search.”
Certified Associate Game DeveloperHow to get started
Blazers can begin earning Unity certifications by requesting vouchers through the UAB Libraries partnership; remember, the number of certifications available is limited and will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Once an employee or student has selected a learning pathway (Programmer, Artist or Game Developer), they can request courseware, practice test and certification exam vouchers through UAB Libraries.
Employees also can request Unity Academic Alliance member portal access to view curricular frameworks and other materials to support instruction and classroom use of Unity for different applications.
Visit the Unity Academic Alliance page in the Library Technology Labs research guide to learn more.
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Register for the spring 2025 Business Research Toolkit course to learn business research skills and discover no-cost online resources and subscription databases available through UAB Libraries. Available to all UAB students and employees, the asynchronous Canvas course is self-paced, enabling enrollees to fit it into any busy schedule. Registration is open now; the course runs Feb. 3-March 30.
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Join librarians from UAB Libraries’ Clinical, Academic and Research Engagement team to learn how to use three key tools available at no cost to faculty, staff and student researchers.
Curious what else is available to bolster your research skills? Researchers also can access nearly 650 more research tools and information databases online at no cost through UAB Libraries.
CINAHL
CINAHL is an index of English-language and selected other-language journal articles about nursing, allied health, biomedicine and health care.
By the end of a workshop, you’ll be able to:
- Build a basic search by developing search concepts
- Use Boolean Operators to connect search concepts
- Use Automatic Term Mapping in a search (Advanced course)
- Utilize Medical Subject Headings (Advanced course)
- Use Field Codes in a search (Advanced course)
Open workshops (all online):
- Jan. 23, noon-1 p.m. — Introduction to CINAHL
- April 16, noon-1 p.m. — Introduction to CINAHL
EndNote
EndNote is a bibliographic management platform designed to help users collect citations in one place and update them easily and quickly from one style to another.
By the end of a workshop, you’ll be able to:
- Create and organize a library of citations
- Send citations from various databases to EndNote
- Use EndNote to find PDFs of your citations
- Insert and edit EndNote citations in a Word document
Open workshops (all online):
- Jan. 28, noon-1 p.m. — Introduction to EndNote
- Feb. 20, noon-1 p.m. — Introduction to EndNote
- March 20, noon-1 p.m. — Introduction to EndNote
- April 9, noon-1 p.m. — Introduction to EndNote
PubMed
PubMed is one of the most robust medical literature databases, comprising more than 37 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books.
By the end of a workshop, you’ll be able to:
- Build a basic search by developing search concepts
- Use Boolean Operators to connect search concepts
Open workshops (all online):
- Feb. 11, noon-1 p.m. — Introduction to PubMed
- March 19, noon-1 p.m. — Introduction to PubMed
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Many university libraries suspend their Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services during the holidays, making it difficult for us to fill our patrons requests.
For that reason, UAB Libraries will suspend our ILL services for borrowing between Friday, December 20, 2024 at 5:00 pm and Wednesday, January 1, 2025.
During that time, new requests cannot be accepted, but previously requested materials may be picked up as usual, and previously requested photocopies will be e-mailed as usual.
Patrons may check the status of their requests at any time. Some requested materials may not arrive until after the new year.
We will resume normal ILL operations by mid-day on Thursday, January 2, 2025. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.
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Many university libraries suspend their Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services during the holidays, making it difficult for us to fill our patrons’ requests.
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Blazers who need a laptop to complete coursework or take online exams can check one out from new kiosks located near the HUB Desks at Sterne Library and Lister Hill Library. Portable power banks also are available for on-the-go studying around each library if other power sources are unavailable.
In Sterne, six 13-in. Macbook Pro laptops and six 13-in. Dell Lattitude 5440 laptops are available, along with 12 portable battery chargers. An additional six 13-in. Dell Lattitude 5440 machines and 12 battery banks are available in Lister Hill.
“We hope these kiosks make it even easier for students to hunker down and focus on their homework or exams while in one of our libraries,” said Patricia West, assistant dean for Public Services in UAB Libraries.
Any UAB student or employee with a current ONE Card can check out devices for a four-hour period on a first-come, first-served basis; one laptop and one battery pack can be checked out simultaneously. All laptops are compatible with Proctor Testing software for online exams, and students can print from the laptops using UAB Libraries’ WEPA printers in both Sterne and Lister Hill. Each machine resets and clears all personal information and data when returned to the kiosk; laptops and battery packs should be returned to the kiosk from which they were borrowed.
There is a $25 late fee per item per day, and borrowers are responsible for a $1,500 replacement cost if not returned.
In addition to the laptop and battery kiosks, UAB Libraries’ has a robust collection of circulating technology available for checkout from the Sterne and Lister Hill HUB Desks, the LibLab at Sterne, and the Lister Hill Library Virtual Reality Studio — including additional laptops, headphones, webcams, iPads and creative tablets, portable projectors, charging cables, and more. See the full collection online.
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Three displays from UAB Archives on the third floor of Lister Hill Library exhibit a curated selection of materials highlighting both the history of UAB and the Birmingham community.
One case features unique items from Birmingham’s history, including materials on arts and entertainment, tourism, society and culture, and business — and a selection of items spotlighting the city’s Mardi Gras festivities from the past 130 plus years.
The second case holds materials related to Martha E. Pugh, one of just three women in a class of 67 to graduate from UAB’s medical school in 1965. Pugh donated materials from her time at UAB to the UAB Archives in 2007.
The third case features material related to Charles McCallum Jr., D.M.D, M.D., UAB’s third president and former dean of the School of Dentistry and vice president of Health Affairs. The selections highlight McCallum’s decades-long service to the university — including the establishment of both UAB Football and the UAB Archives.
Displays are viewable by appointment only 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; email uabarchives@uab.edu to schedule.
See a selection of featured items below.
“Mardi Gras Souvenir March,” by Phil Memoli, 1899.
This rare sheet music was printed in Birmingham and was dedicated to the grand marshall of the Birmingham Carnival Society, which held annual carnival celebrations beginning in 1896. The first Mardi Gras parade in BHM was held in March 1886 and was sponsored by the German Society of Birmingham.
UAB President McCallum takes the field at a Blazer football game, circa 1991
Football at UAB was established during McCallum’s presidency. He authorized the creation of a club-level football program in 1989, and in 1991 announced that the university would field a NCAA Division III team. In 1993, the team was moved into competition at the Division I-AA level, again under the leadership of McCallum. In 2013, McCallum was inducted in the UAB Athletics Hall of Fame in honor of his long devotion to Blazer Athletics.
Sterne Library Director Dr. Jerry W. Stephens shows Dr. Charles A. McCallum Jr., the new computer terminal at Sterne Library.
When Mervyn H. Sterne Library acquired a new computerized cataloging system in 1994, the system was named “Scotty” in honor of McCallum, a long-time library supporter. The former university president helped fund the acquisition of the system during his presidency from 1987-1993.
UAB selected as a top university, 1992.
In the Sept. 28, 1992, issue of “U.S. News & World Report,” UAB was selected in the magazine's annual best colleges collection as the No. 1 Up and Coming University in the nation. To celebrate, UAB staff placed a banner on the 13th Street pedestrian bridge over University Boulevard.
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“The ability to make decisions, communicate and govern effectively is on the line without access to political communication. We need to be able to understand what information is meant to inform, to influence, and to interfere.” —Brooke Becker, media literacy librarian for UAB Libraries
Social media posts, viral videos, emails, news articles — the incoming tide of seemingly limitless information can seem overwhelming at any time, but especially during an election season, says Brooke Becker, media literacy librarian for UAB Libraries.
“To find stable footing in that flood, it’s important to cultivate skills to determine if what you’re consuming is accurate,” she explained.
The intent of political advertising is to rally votes, generate enthusiasm for a candidate or issue, define (or redefine) a candidate’s image, and provide general information. Each of these enables constituents to make informed decisions — a crucial aspect of democracy, Becker says.
“The ability to make decisions, communicate and govern effectively is on the line without access to political communication,” Becker said. “We need to be able to understand what information is meant to inform, to influence, and to interfere.”
Consuming inaccurate information can negatively impact one’s ability to make important decisions around issues such as health, finances, business, and education — in all aspects of life, Becker explains, not just during an election season. Understanding how to determine a reliable source from an unreliable one enables consumers to make informed decisions.
Becker stresses that one of the key factors to remember in the era of social media and email is that “clear and effective communication isn’t just about exchanging information quickly.” The most important factor is the quality of a piece of information.
“Great communication requires making valid points while providing accurate examples that others can easily follow and understand,” she said.
Positivity, negativity and neutrality
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“Great communication requires making valid points while providing accurate examples that others can easily follow and understand.” |
Understanding the basic intent behind a political advertisement is crucial, Booker explains. A key component is understanding whether an ad is positive (presenting the candidate, campaign or policy in the best light), negative (emphasizing deficiencies), or neutral (presented without clear bias for or against). Here are a few questions she recommends asking when viewing an ad:
- What is the ad about?
- Is it positive, negative or neutral?
- What do you learn from it?
- Who do you think created it?
- Who do you think is the target audience?
Remember regulatory rules
The regulations on political advertisements also are necessary to keep in mind, Becker says. According to the American Bar Association, lying in political advertisements is legal — political ads are considered political speech, which is protected by the First Amendment: “The rationale behind this is that voters have a right to uncensored information from candidates, which they can then evaluate themselves before making their decisions at the ballot box,” according to the ABA website.
There are some caveats: Certain advertisements in newspapers and broadcast media require disclaimers, per the Federal Election Commission. Search engines have their own sets of specific policies (see Google’s online), and social media is governed by the terms of each platform’s specific usage agreements.
“Being familiar with the regulations around political ads and the channels you see them on is crucial to being able to separate fact from fiction,” Becker said.
The CRAAP Test
The humorously named CRAAP Test is an easy and unique way to evaluate the media one consumes, Becker says: Be sure to note an advertisement’s Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose of Sources.
- Currency: Is the source up to date? Time-sensitive topics need current information; pay attention to words like “today” or “Tuesday” and be sure to connect them to a specific date.
- Relevance: Sources should address the intended audience’s needs.
- Authority: Consider whether the author or publisher is considered trustworthy in their field and evaluate credibility by validating their expertise or reputation in a specific industry.
- Accuracy: Check that the information is supported by evidence and cited correctly; look for documented sources with specific facts and precise details.
- Purpose: Ask the question, “Why does this information exist?” Consider the motive behind publishing; the most reliable sources explain or pass along information, rather than work to persuade or sway.
Bonus tip: Remember the SIFT Method
Using the SIFT Method is another way to ensure you can differentiate between the good, the bad and the ugly when evaluating media sources, Becker explains. Developed by Mike Caufield at Washington State University, Vancouver, the method encourages consumers to Stop, Investigate, Find and Trace information when reviewing for mis- or disinformation.
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Three agreements made between UAB Libraries and top journal publishers have saved authors more than $1.1 million in costs associated with publishing in open access journals since 2021.
Read-and-publish agreements with publishers Wiley and Springer Nature have saved UAB authors more than $718,000 and $311,000, respectively. They enable lead or corresponding authors affiliated with the university to publish open access in any fully open access or hybrid open access Wiley or Springer Nature journal at no cost to the author — nearly 4,000 journals in total. An additional smaller, yet significant read-and-publish agreement with Cambridge Publishing has saved more than $76,000.
The cost-saving mechanism in these agreements waives the article processing fee (APC) for UAB authors. Unlike traditional publishing systems, open access journals do not require a subscription to access paywalled resources, so to offset that loss of revenue, most collect a charge in order to publish. The average APC cost is just over $1,600, according to an article published earlier this year in Sci Ed. Through UAB Libraries’ agreements, 197 APCs have been funded for Wiley publications since Jan. 1, 2023, with 73 funded for Springer Nature publications since Jan. 1 of this year and 26 funded for Cambridge since January 2021.
With a click of a button or swipe of a phone, UAB employees and students can access millions of online resources with just their BlazerID and password — but those same resources would come at a high cost to unaffiliated individual scholars, clinicians, patients, consumers, policymakers and others who could benefit from accessing resources. When scholarship is published as open access — such as in well-known and highly cited journals like ones published by Wiley and Springer Nature — it removes that financial barrier and better facilitates the sharing of important information.
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“We are committed to furthering our campus culture of collaboration and innovation through collaborations with external partners — and the significant financial impact of these read-and-publish agreements is a clear demonstration of that.” |
Continuing to prioritize a commitment to open access publishing is crucial for UAB’s mission to drive research and innovation across the enterprise, as outlined in UAB’s strategic plan, Forging Ahead, said Jeff Graveline, J.D., associate dean for Research and Scholarly Communication and director of the Office of Scholarly Communication in UAB Libraries.
“These agreements help ensure that UAB’s scholarly research is available at no cost on a global scale,” Graveline explained. “We are committed to furthering our campus culture of collaboration and innovation through collaborations with external partners — and the significant financial impact of these read-and-publish agreements is a clear demonstration of that.”
Authors from across disciplines have utilized these agreements to publish their work open access — from the schools of Nursing and Education to the Collat School of Business and Heersink School of Medicine. Read testimonials from five faculty researchers who have had one or more APCs waived — and why they feel OA publishing is so important.
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“Making my research open access is very important to the applied science of management. Too often, our intellectual contributions are hidden behind paywalls, where practitioners cannot access them. In Collat, we strive for impact, and there is no greater impact than seeing our ideas put into action in the business communities that we serve. Making our research open access is essential for us to truly have impact in our communities.”
— Allen Gorman, Ph.D., associate professor of management and chair of the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Quantitative Methods in the Collat School of Business
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"Making my research available through open access was a deliberate decision rooted in the belief that knowledge should be accessible to all, regardless of institutional affiliations. My work focuses on mental health, a field where the implications of research extend far beyond academia. By ensuring that practitioners, particularly those without access to university libraries, can read my articles, I hope to bridge the gap between research and real-world application. Open access allows for wider dissemination, which is crucial for supporting mental health professionals who need up-to-date research to inform their practice and ensure mental health care."
— Yusen Zhai, Ph.D., assistant professor of counseling in the Department of Human Studies and director of the UAB Community Counseling Clinic in the School of Education
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“Making my research available open access has improved my visibility as an early-stage investigator and promotes equitable access to our research findings.”
— Jenni Wise, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Family, Community, and Health Systems in the School of Nursing
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"The support we’ve received for making our article open access has been invaluable. Our research weaves together the history of midwife training, early nurse-midwifery education, and the contributions of public health nurses in the early 20th-century Alabama. By publicly sharing and disseminating this research, particularly the history of midwifery education at Tuskegee University and early nurse-midwifery in Alabama, we have already seen readers express how crucial they find this work. We chose open access because we believe making our research available to a wider audience ensures that the important stories and lessons from our history can reach and inspire more people."
— Sharon Holley, DNP, associate professor in the Department of Acute, Chronic, and Continuing Care in the School of Nursing
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“Translational biomedical research aims to make significant discoveries with high potential to advance medical knowledge and improve human lives. The quickest way to achieve these goals is to make research publication widely available to all through Open Access. I decide to make my article Open Access not only because we made an important discovery on molecular mimicry in peripheral nerves with broad implications to human autoimmune disease and transplant rejection, but due to the relationship between Wiley and UAB Libraries that covered the costs. For me, this was a win-win situation that demonstrates UAB's commitment to sharing faculty scientific discoveries globally for the benefit of humankind."
— Eroboghene Ubogu, M.D., professor in and director of the Division of Neuromuscular Disease in the Department of Neurology in the Heersink School of Medicine
Got questions? UAB Libraries can help
Do you have questions about making your work more accessible through Open Access publishing? The Office of Scholarly Communication can help. And that’s not all they do — the OSC can answer questions from Blazers working to establish publishing agreements and understand copyright guidelines, plus provide guidance on incorporating affordable instructional materials into courses.
During the last year, the OSC expanded to include research data management services, offering consultations with researchers to prepare data management plans or select repositories for data. The office also provides instruction on how to organize, document and properly safeguard research data to benefit both research teams and the wider research community long-term.
Learn more about the OSC online.
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Want to see the entire Presidential Campaign Collection of William L. Benoit? UAB Archives and the Digital Services team have made the 600-plus-piece collection available for viewing online through UAB Digital Collections.Selections from a new-to-UAB collection of flyers, pamphlets, brochures and leaflets from presidential primaries and general elections now are on view through December on the first floor of Sterne Library in the main group study area.
“Spot the Spin: Politics and Public Relations” features items from the Presidential Campaign Collection of William L. Benoit, which was donated by Benoit, now-retired Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, to UAB Libraries in 2022. The materials span dozens of elections, from the 1936 campaign of Alf Landon to the 2000 campaigns of George W. Bush and Al Gore. The UAB Archives and Digital Services teams have made the items available for online viewing, and the physical items are held in the UAB Archives and are available for viewing by appointment.
Examining campaign materials from elections gone by can encourage viewers to reflect on how they and others consume media relating to current elections, said Brooke Becker, media literacy librarian in UAB Libraries.
“Using print media to share messaging has always been a part of candidates campaigns,” Becker said. “The biggest difference in today’s world is that it’s not just print media: The world of electronic communications opens up even more opportunities for engaging with disinformation and misinformation.”
To combat mis- and disinformation and empower Blazers to identify fact from fiction — both during and outside of election cycles — Becker has created a “Spot the Spin: Politics and Public Relations” research guide, which includes relevant information from the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization News Literacy Project, voting information for Alabama residents, topical books and databases from UAB Libraries’ collections, and best practices and policies for the practical design of political campaign materials.
“It’s really a one-stop shop for high-level info useful to being discerning when you encounter information online and out in the world,” Becker explained. “There’s seemingly endless information out there to sort through, and we wanted to make it easy.”
Click through the slideshow below to see some examples from the collection.
- Goldwater For President Widget 1964
- Blood Blunders Billions Widget 1952
- Why Generals Are Scared Widget 1956
- Eisenhower Nixon Widget 1956
- Gop Victory Wheel Widget 1960
- 100 Million Lives Widget 1964
- The Extremists Widget 1964
- Lets Compare Widget 1964
- Shirley Chilsolm Widget 1972
- Reagan For Pres Widget 1980
- Mondale And Ferraro Widget 1984
- The Shadow Lingers On Widget 1976
- Keys 2000 Widget 2000
- W Stands For Women Widget 2000
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"Sanity! Solvency! Security! Goldwater for President", 1965
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"Blood! Blunders! Billions!", 1952
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"Why the Generals are Scared!", 1956
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"Forward with Eisenhower-Nixon Comic", 1956
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GOP Victory Wheel, Interactive Campaign Tool, 1960
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"100 Million Lives in One Hour", 1964
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Extremists, AFL-CIO, 1964
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Let's Compare, Wheel Campaign Material, 1964
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"I am Running for the Office of President to Represent All Americans", 1972
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"Let's Make America Great Again, Reagan for President", 1980
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"9 Good Reasons to Vote for Mondale & Ferraro", 1984
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"Shadow Lingers on... Watergate, Pennsylvania", 1976
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"Alan Keyes 2000", 2000
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"W. Stands for Women and Family", 2000
Hands-on experience for students
To provide students a chance to learn by doing, Becker, along with Marliese Thomas, fine arts librarian and liaison to the Department of Art and Art History, have designed an exercise and contest designed to combine student creativity and media literacy while utilizing the unique resource of the Presidential Campaign Collection.
Participants will redesign for a modern audience one of three specifically chosen poster advertisements (shown below) from the collection using a design platform such as Adobe Creative Cloud (which is available at no cost to all UAB students), and should consider whether they intend their advertisement to be an “acclaim,” or a positive message about the candidate; an “attack,” or a negative message about the candidate; or a “defense,” a response to an attack.
Students can choose from one of these three posters:
Posters can be designed for any medium — print, social media, email distribution, etc. — but must be printable in its final form at 8 in. by 10 in. The use of generative AI is allowed, but in moderation and only with permission from a student’s instructor; students also must acknowledge the prompt(s) used and the percentages of work self-created and created by AI. (For more information on AI in education, see Becker’s additional research guide.)
Becker and Thomas recommend thinking on several questions before and during the design process:
- What is the message you intend?
- Who is your audience, and does this affect the message you intend to send?
- What elements work best to get your intention across? What would your audience engage with more, visual or text? Flashy or subdued? Pulling on heartstrings or straight facts?
- Do you want to control your message or open it up for wider sharing/distribution?
Students also are encouraged to peruse the “Best Practices and Policy for Design” tab in the Political Advertising section of Becker’s “Spot the Spin: Politics and Public Relations” research guide.
Submissions are due by Nov. 5; submit using this form. (The original submission deadline was Oct. 25.)
Submitted designs will be voted on by a three-member jury panel of College of Arts and Sciences faculty, and winners will be printed, framed and displayed alongside the official memorabilia from the Presidential Campaign Collection in Sterne. All submitters will have the option to allow their work to be shared on the UAB Libraries Instagram @uablibraries, as well as permanently stored in the UAB Digital Commons, the repository for research and scholarly output submitted by members of the UAB campus.
“We want to enable students to exercise their media literacy knowledge in a creative and tangible way,” Becker explains. “These concepts are things we all, student or otherwise, encounter on a daily basis and in real time. Stretching the mental muscle that asks questions about the meanings behind messaging is more important now than ever.”
For more information about the “Spot the Spin” student exercise, visit the research guide.
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See a complete list of all UAB Libraries’ digital collections online. Did you know that UAB Libraries is home to more than 30 collections of materials digitized by the libraries’ Digital Services team, including photographs, illustrations, books, videos, and audio recordings? UAB Libraries’ Digital Collections are a collaboration between several library departments, including the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, the Reynolds-Finley Historical Library and the UAB Archives — each of whom house much of the digitized materials in their physical collections — and the Digital Services Team, whose technical expertise on digitization and digital preservation continues to keep the Digital Collections online and available for browsing. Collections also have been contributed by other UAB units, departments and divisions, as well as by members of the wider Birmingham community.
Collections span a wide variety of topics, from UAB-specific history, such as a collection documenting the COVID-19 pandemic at UAB, to large-scale, culturally significant information, such as a large collection of letters by Florence Nightingale.
Recently added collections include the Presidential Campaign Collection of William L. Benoit, the Entrepreneurship Oral History Collection, and the UAB Town and Gown Theatre Programs and Playbills collection.
Exploring these collections is now more user-friendly than ever following a switch to Alma Digital, which integrated the digital collections into UAB Libraries’ existing platform.
"As an extension of our existing library services platform, Alma Digital enables us to seamlessly integrate digitized materials into our user's search results, enhancing the user experience and improving the overall discoverability of UAB Libraries' digital collections," said Kevin Hebert, associate dean for Technology and Technical Services in UAB Libraries.
See a selection of some of the new digital collections’ unique items and learn more about each collection below.
Presidential Campaign Collection of William L. Benoit
The newest addition to UAB Digital Collections, the Presidential Campaign Collection of William L. Benoit was donated to UAB Libraries in 2022 by William L. Benoit, Ph.D., now-retired Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The collection consists of flyers, pamphlets, brochures and leaflets from presidential primaries and general elections, with materials spanning from the 1936 campaign of Alf Landon to the 2000 campaigns of George W. Bush and Al Gore. The UAB Archives and Digital Services teams have made the items available for online viewing, and the physical items are held in the UAB Archives and are available for viewing by appointment.
A selection of items also is on display through December on the first floor of Sterne Library; look for the “Spot the Spin: Politics and Public Relations” display case in the main group study area.
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"Abe & Ike in Deed Alike," 1952
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"I Run for the Presidency Because I want the United States to Stand for Hope," 1968
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"Shirley Chisholm Speaks Out, Presidential Campaign Position paper, No. 1," 1972
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"Can You Afford Richard Nixon?," 1972
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"Bill Clinton and Bob Torricelli, Meeting Our Challenges," 1996
Entrepreneurship Oral History Collection
The Entrepreneurship Oral History Collection is a collaborative oral histories project between UAB’s J. Frank Barefield Jr. Entrepreneurship Program, UAB Libraries, and the Academy of Management’s (AOM) Entrepreneurship Division. AOM is the preeminent professional association for management and organization scholars, and its Entrepreneurship Division (ENT) is nearing 40 years of formal history. In 2022-2023, Patrick J. Murphy, Ph.D., Goodrich Endowed Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, professor in and founding director of the J. Frank Barefield Jr. Entrepreneurship Program, and ENT historian, initiated the oral history collection project to capture primary source historical accounts of ENT’s formations and the development of the entrepreneurship field — all directly from professors who have made foundational contributions. While the project is projected to take several years to complete, it is intended to offer insight into the entrepreneurship field’s early history and development for present and future academics and researchers.
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Oral history interview conducted with Barbara J. Bird by Ellen Brooks for the Academy of Management, 2024; Bird is a professor emerita of management in the Kogod School of Business at American University.
UAB Town and Gown Theatre Programs and Playbills
Established in Birmingham in 1950 by the University of Alabama and led by founding director James F. Hatcher, the Town and Gown Theatre gained a reputation for its excellent production quality and combination of local community talent and veteran Broadway and Hollywood stars. This collection contains programs and playbills from Theatre productions, including both local and some traveling performances. The UAB Archives and Digital Services teams have made the items available for online viewing, and the physical items are held in the UAB Archives and are available for viewing by appointment.
Want to learn more about Town and Gown’s extensive history? University Archivist Tim Pennycuff has compiled the rest of the story online.
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“Born Yesterday,” 1950, the program from Town and Gown Theatre’s first-ever production
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“Anything Goes,” October 1960
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“Peter Pan,” 1966
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“Follies,” 1978
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“On Golden Pond,” 1997
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“Cabaret,” May 1999, the program from the group’s final production
See a complete list of all UAB Libraries’ digital collections online. Digital Services welcomes new collections and projects from UAB departments and the wider Birmingham community to expand UAB Libraries’ digital offerings and ensure the preservation of valuable resources; email digital-collections@uab.edu to inquire about adding additional items.
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