Books in the Public Domain

This is some news to be thankful about, and possibly to ring in the new year!  A lot of books are now entering the public domain here in the U.S.  For 20 years this process was frozen thanks to the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 (also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act and Sonny Bono Act).

The process of new books coming into copyright began in January 2019, for titles with a publication year of 1923.   And this coming January we’ll get another installment for titles published in 1924.

The HathiTrust public domain content, an archive of publicly available books numbering in the millions, has been fairly static for a number of years.  However, the number of public domain titles in HathiTrust have increased by 11% (!) and the number of 1923 titles in the public domain jumped by 313%.  Keep in mind that this applies to music and songs too!  In fact, here is a list of holiday carols that shows which songs are in the public domain. Be sure to check this if you’re making any social videos featuring holiday music.

This appears to be a clear sign of what we have to look forward to in coming years!


College Colloquium Guides

Each fall our librarians put together amazing web pages for each College Colloquium freshman class to customize library resources and services.  The topics vary from class to class, and represents the interests of the faculty instructor who teaches the course.  We’d like to highlight some of these library guides (click here to view all 27 of our library college colloquium guides).

 

Harry Potter and the Ethics of Difference

Harry Potter is undoubtedly a cultural phenomenon which all stemmed from that original magical series. Part of what makes this book series so interesting is that it addresses social (un)justice through the eyes of the main character Harry Potter (HP), through his interactions with the cruel Dursley family in the Muggle world, to his dealings with classroom bullying, and a corrupt wizarding government. This Harry Potter-themed course investigates the social hierarchy of the wizarding world and how it overlaps with the real world.

Our librarians had a lot of fun pulling together useful and fun resources to support this course.  References to HP are woven throughout this resource, such as a Harry Potter name generator, unofficial HP recipes and cookbooks, popular mobile games (e.g. Wizards Unite and Hogwarts Mysteries), related books (e.g. The Psychology of Harry Potter, and Legilimens–the spell that allows wizards to see into another person’s mind), quotes from the characters (“It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be,” Albus Dumbledore, Goblet of Fire), HP-inspired conceptual art (from Van Gogh styles to stain glass and anime art styles), and ideas for pumpkin carving.  Even the tabbed pages are labelled with well-known spells from this classic series!

 

Asia in Oregon 

This colloquium explores the experiences of people of Asian heritage who call Oregon home and examines Asian influences on the land and culture of the state.  One of the fun aspects of this class are the field trips to local archives to experience first-hand (primary) sources in Archives and Special Collections.

The library guide for this course highlights a nice selection of Asian-related books (e.g. Encyclopedia of Japanese American History, and Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest) and films, including feature films (e.g. Snow Falling on Cedars), Asian-American documentaries (e.g. Between Two Worlds: The Hmong Shaman in America), and Oregon-based documentaries (e.g. 7,500 Miles to Redemption). The guide also features resources from our Archives including Willamette’s newspaper The Collegian, The Campus Photograph Collection (2,700+ photos of Willamette’s campus), The Willamette Scene (alumni publication), the Wallulah (Willamette yearbook), and the Germaine Louise Fuller Papers which offers the designs for Willamette’s Japanese Garden.  Willamette also has a long and rich history with the Tokyo International University of America (TIUA), and the library has the archival collections for TIUA (1973-2016) and the Barry Duell TIU collection (1975-2015).

 

Games: Design, Strategy, Philosophy, & Society

Games come in an almost endless array of strategies, goals, designs, etc. In this colloquium, students create their own games as a final project.  During the semester, they learn to play a variety of games, some classic games and many that students probably haven’t even heard of that push boundaries of design and play experience.

The guide for this course features a small selection of cool, board game-related books from our collection, such as Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, Games and Decision Making, and The Mathematics of Games and Gambling.  Some articles from the Academic Search Premier database have been highlighted (e.g. Manipulation in Board Game Interactions: Being a Sporting Player; and Using the Board Game Borel to illustrate probability calculations).  The “Trivial Pursuit Fun Stuff” page highlights a website that lists Board Games by Decade as well as Collectible Games between 1900-1950.

 

Hidden Bodies of Art

Art of the human body goes back several millennia, even prehistorically such as the caves of Lascaux, France. Each culture expresses their values, beliefs and conventions through their artistic renditions of the human body, such as the Renaissance depictions of the highly idealized body or sometimes the complete absence of the body as is often the case in abstract art.

Since the human body is a classic area of study, there are many outstanding books and encyclopedias on or related to this topic, some of which are included in the library guide for this college colloquium and include The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture, Michelangelo and the Reinvention of the Human Body, and Despotic Bodies and Transgressive Bodies.  There is a useful list of Library of Congress general call numbers (classifications) which allows users to browse our book collection. This guide also lists films from our collection: Feature films (e.g. Warm Bodies), Documentaries (e.g. Cave of Forgotten Dreams), Related Arts films (e.g. Against the Odds: the Artists of the Harlem Renaissance), and Foreign Language films (e.g. The Skin I Live In). All of our colloquium guides include a list of helpful databases to use when looking for articles, a page for interlibrary loan explaining how to request materials not available at Willamette, and a citation style guide appropriate to the class.

Knitting Culture

There is a lot that goes into knitting, from the procurement of materials to the end product. Students really learn how to knit in this class as well as examine the impact and value of knitting through a multidisciplinary approach of history, fashion, politics, science, psychology, and philosophy.

This library guide has cleverly used a knitting theme; its tabbed pages use knitting terminology (e.g. “purlwise” for books, “whipstick” for articles, and “frogging” for fun stuff).  Also, instead of the standard Facebook logo, a knitted blue letter “F” is used, and a knitted stocking cap with an American flag is included with the course description. The page for books offers some wonderful titles from our collection such as Knitting School: the Complete Guide to Becoming a Confident Knitter, Crochet One-Skein Wonders: 101 Projects from Crocheters Around the World, and The Close Knit Circle: American Knitters Today.  Some of the fun things listed on the Frogging page are YouTube videos of how to turn wool into yarn by hand, and how to change yarn colors.  Local yarn and fabric shops are lists (Teaselwick Wools), as well as popular thread-themed games (Unravel and Run Sackboy! Run!), and the highly rated Ravelry.com website for knitters and crocheters which provides free patterns and tips.

 


Charles E Larson Chemawa Indian School Collection

Max Turetsky, the Sybil Westenhouse Intern for Spring 2019, was engaged this past semester with the work of digitizing and creating metadata for the Charles E. Larsen collection. See brief description below along with link to the digital collection and link to the finding aid.

The Larsen collection, measuring 2 linear feet, is our most used manuscript collection. Larsen’s granddaughter, Mary Ann Youngblood, donated the collection and has been supportive of getting the collection digitized. We’re thrilled to be able to make these important materials available to the public and want to acknowledge Max’s wonderful work on this project. Thank you, Max!

Charles E Larsen Chemawa Indian School Digital Collection
Charles E Larsen Chemawa Indian School collection (finding aid)

Brief collection description:

The Charles E. Larsen Chemawa Indian School collection is a compilation of Chemawa Indian School and Northwest Native American history dating from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Materials in this collection give a look at student and employee life on the Chemawa campus. This collection includes newspaper clippings, correspondence, photographs, handbooks, graduation lists, and historical monographs written by Larsen.

There are two scrapbooks that will be digitized this fall and that will complete the collection. 

Please contact Sara Amato (samato@willamette.edu) or Mary McRobinson (mmcrobin@willamette.edu) if you have any questions. This is an amazing collection!


Using Free Photos

By John Repplinger

Not everyone has the time, resources, or talent to make their own graphics.  So for those of us who fall into this group, below is a list of some incredible tools that will help you locate millions of free images that can be used legally.  You may not know that an artist who takes a photo or creates a graphic has the legal right to share or distribute copies of their work.  This legal right is known as copyright, and permission must be granted by the artist to legally use the image.

It is important to note that there are some limits to copyright, such as the Fair Use guidelines (details at copyright.gov).  Nonprofit educational purpose is probably the most common copyright exception.  For example, students may use images for a class paper and instructors are in most cases allowed to use images for class instruction since it is for educational purposes.  Just make sure to cite where you found it so you don’t plagiarize!

Pexels – This site offers hundreds of thousands of high quality professional-grade photos.  All photos on Pexels are free for personal and commercial purposes, and each picture has been reviewed for high quality.

Pixabay – Over 1.5 million royalty-free professional stock photos and videos are shared by the Pixabay community.

Unsplash – Similar to Pinterest, the images on Unsplash can be browsed by keyword on a single ever-scrolling page of photos.  All of the 550,000+ images are free.

Flickr Creative Commons – With over 55 million images, Flickr is one of the largest photo-sharing platforms around.  Most Flickr users have chosen to offer their work for free under a Creative Commons license.  This means you are free to use the photos by attributing the artist, not changing the photo, and not using it for commercial purposes. Anyone can upload photos, so some of the images are not high quality.

Every Stock Photo – Over 29 million free photos from various organizations such as NASA and the Library of Congress.

Stock Vault – This is a free community where photographers and artists share their own high quality photos and illustrations.  There are thousands of high quality images that range from people, animals, plants, buildings, landscapes, textures, and even concepts.

Google Images – Major search engines such as Google can usually limit results to specific usage rights (e.g. free to use, share, or modify, even commercially).  These limits are typically found under the advanced search option. Bing is another search engine that offers this same feature.

Free Images – Browse through thousands of professional photos, some of which may require attributing the photographer.

Ancestry Images – Besides genealogical info, Ancestry Images includes historical maps, images, and prints, most of which come from around the 1800s.

Free Digital Photos – This site has thousands of high quality photos of people in settings that range from weddings to business, but the results can sometimes blend with the professional for-profit work.

Photo Pin – Photo Pin is an image search engine for the Creative Commons, and also suggests high quality for-purchase images.


Zotero – Citation Tool

This past year, the Hatfield Library replaced RefWorks with Zotero. This is the first semester that we have been actively teaching the Willamette community how to install and use Zotero.

Zotero is a free citation tool that helps you cite, manage, and share your literature research. You can install a browser extension (available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Explorer–it sometimes has problems with Safari) and work entirely with the online version of Zotero.  You can also download the desktop version which embeds itself within MS Word and works with the browser extension (we suggest downloading both desktop and browser extension).   You can also drag and drop citations into Google Docs from the desktop Zotero.

It work with both Macs, PCs, and Linux. While there is a little learning curve, it is fairly easy to catch on. Zotero is a powerful and handy tool for any academic researcher, and will serve you well in you academic and professional career.

For additional information, such as installation instructions and a video tutorial, visit http://libguides.willamette.edu/zotero.

For questions about Zotero or to setup an appointment to learn more, contact Bill Kelm (bkelm@willamette.edu) or John Repplinger (jrepplin@willamette.edu)

 


Oregon Coast and Highway History

The Oregon Coast is filled with unexpected history. Prior to World War I, most of the Oregon coast was inaccessible. As a response to World War I and perceived need for emergency preparedness, the concept of the Roosevelt Coast Military Highway was created and named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1919, Oregon voters approved the sale of $2.5 million in bonds for the project, but matching federal funds failed to materialize. But Oregonians still wanted access to the coasts, so the Oregon’s Highway Department began work on 400 miles worth of road, bridges, and tunnels in 1921 and continued through the 1920s & 30s. The road became U.S. 101 in 1926 and then renamed in 1931 as the Oregon Coast Highway.

This is also the 50th anniversary of Oregon’s Beach Bill which was signed into law on July 6, 1967 to safeguard beaches from development.  Our beloved coast could look much different had the bill failed and a few private developers won. Thankfully as Oregonians began to hear what they stood to lose, the trickle of public support turned into a tidal wave.  After months of  battle, the bill was signed into law.  And the rest is history.  Your experience of our wonderful Oregon Coast line and access to the miles of beach that people around the world come to visit is a direct result from this important legislative bill.  Know that our beautiful beach is for the public to treasure and protect.  Forever!

Below are just a few of the dozens of images from the Oregon Encyclopedia that describe the history of Highway 101, the Oregon Coast Highway (https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/highway_101_oregon_coast_highway_/#.WWOvVojyuUk).  The following link also goes to a page of activities and events connected to the Oregon’s Beach Bill (http://visittheoregoncoast.com/oregon-beach-bill-50th-anniversary-celebration).

   
 
   
   

WU Alumni Publications

The Willamette University Alumni Publication collection comes from the University Archives & Records collection area, which contains publications, images, administrative records, research materials, and scrapbooks dating from Willamette’s beginnings.

It includes the Willamette University Bulletin (1919); The Willamette Alumni Magazine (1922-1923); The Willamette Alumni Bulletin (June, 1925); The Willamette University Alumnus (1926-1970); The Willamette Scene (April 1967 – Spring 2014); The Willamette Magazine (Fall 2014 – Summer 2016)

Also available are materials relating to Freshman Glee, one of Willamette’s longest running – and most beloved – traditions. This collection can be browsed or searched.

http://libmedia.willamette.edu/commons/collec/102


New Faculty Works Collection

faculty-researchThe Hatfield Library is beginning an exciting new project.  We are collecting digital copies of Willamette faculty research in our Academic Commons.  This includes past and current research papers other works.  It also includes data sets that Willamette Faculty may have created during their research process.

Here is a link to the current collections (click FACULTY RESEARCH on left side of screen): http://libmedia.willamette.edu/commons

Since these collections will be publicly available, faculty need to make sure that their publication contract allows for general public access.  If the faculty member is not sure, they should contact their publisher.  If the publisher does not allow for the final copy to be made publicly available, often times they allow pre-publication drafts instead, so this collection may include a number of pre-publication drafts too.

Once the faculty member has verified that it is okay to include their work in these collections, all you need to do is email a copy of your work to either Bill Kelm (bkelm@willamette.edu) or John Repplinger (jrepplin@willamette.edu).  They will upload it for the faculty member.  All Willamette faculty from all departments are encouraged to submit their publications in digital form to be included in these collections, so these collections will grow over time.

This is a wonderful way for faculty to get their publications and research work out there for others to read and use.  Students, current and prospective, may be interested in these works.

For questions about these collections, contact Bill Kelm (bkelm@willamette.edu), Systems Librarian or John Repplinger (jrepplin@willamette.edu), Science Librarian at Willamette University.