News & Blog

March marks Women’s History Month and St. Patrick’s Day, and the Downtown Campus Library is celebrating. 

Our Women’s History Month exhibit features four women who have significantly contributed to four of the fields that Downtown Campus students study: Urban Planning, Culinary Sciences, Health Services, and Digital Media. Come see who we have featured and read about their inspiring careers. 

Included in the festivities is a paper doll craft. We have different body types to choose from, with clothing stencils that correspond to each body type. You can trace the stencils onto various patterned paper, or you can completely design your own style. Come make a mini-me or a replica of a woman who inspires you. 

If you stop by the Library during March, don’t forget to make a wish on a four-leaf clover. Our Library Leprechaun might just grant you one desire. 

All WomanFest 2020 events for March 19 will be rescheduled for the Fall 2020 semester. Date to be announced in a few weeks.

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UCF Libraries and the Women’s & Gender Studies Program are proud to announce the 4th annual WomanFest! Join us for four events featuring amazing women from around campus and in history.

Thursday, March 19, 2020
John C. Hitt Library 223

Women in Academia panel
10:00 – 11:00 am

UCF faculty members Dr. Linda Walters (Biology, Center for Success of Women Faculty), Dr. Amelia Lyons (History), Dr. Nessette Falu (Anthropology), and Dr. RoSusan Bartee (Educational Leadership and Higher Education) discuss their career paths, how to find a work/life balance, and their struggles faced and battles won as women in higher education. Panel moderated by Dr. Leandra Preston-Sidler (Women & Gender Studies).

Women and Body Image
12:00 – 1:30 pm

The Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders will provide lunch and a presentation on body image, health, and wellness. Event is limited to 50 participants. Please RSVP at: Eventbrite: Women and Body Image

Women’s History Trivia Contest
2:00 – 3:30 pm

How much do you know about women’s history? UCF Libraries and the Women & Gender Studies Program are hosting a rousing pub-style trivia game featuring questions about interesting women in history, female firsts at UCF, and songs by well-known female musicians. Make new friends as we play in teams. Will you come out on top?

Women & Leadership with Rep. Anna Eskamani
6:00 – 7:00 pm

Florida Representative and UCF alumnae Anna Eskamani discusses women, politics, activism and leadership.

*These workshop have been cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Data Visualization Tools, Data Sources & Data Clean-Up

Monday, March 16, 2020
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
John C. Hitt Library, Room 223

Data visualization tools can be useful when considering sharing data and data analysis in visually compelling ways. Yet, understanding how to use these tools and determining which are useful for your research can be a challenge. Equally challenging is locating existing data sets and how to assess such data for clean-up when utilizing data visualization tools. This session will explore both of these aspects. The first part of this session will highlight several data visualization tools being used by UCF researchers, including ArcGIS, Leaflet, and Tableau. The second part of the session will explore data sources and discuss data clean-up considerations.

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Women’s History Month began as a week-long celebration in Sonoma, California in 1978 which was centered around International Women’s Day on March 8. A year later during a women’s history conference at Sarah Lawrence College, participants learned how successful the week was and decided to initiate similar in their own areas. President Carter issued the first proclamation for a national Women’s History Week in 1980. In 1987, Congress (after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project) passed Pub. L. 100-9 designating March as Women’s History Month. U.S. Presidents have issued proclamations on Women’s History Month since 1988.

The University of Central Florida community joins together to celebrate Women’s History Month across multiple campuses with a wide variety of activities including the Women in STEM @ UCF panel discussion, a special screening of the student-produced film, Filthy Dreamers, and WomanFest 2020. You can also view the Women First at UCF Project on the display wall at the John C. Hitt Library. The project was a collaboration between UCF Libraries Special Collections and University Archives, Dr. M.C. Santana from the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and Dr. Robert Cassanello from the Department of History. Full details about the project, exhibit reception information and the UCF Celebrates the Arts Panel can be found on the Libraries blog.

Here at the UCF Libraries, we have created a list of books about women, both history and fiction, suggested by staff. Please click on the read more link below to see the full book list with descriptions and catalog links.

Featured Bookshelf: Women’s History Month

And don’t forget to stop by the John C. Hitt Library to browse the featured bookshelf on the 2^nd (main) floor near the bank of two elevators for additional Women’s History Month books and DVDs.

Not being able to afford a textbook shouldn’t get in the way of learning. In recognition of Open Education Week (March 2-6), UCF Libraries are spotlighting the efforts of just a few faculty who have made course materials available to students at no cost.

Course: AML 3031

Professor: Farrah Cato created this textbook as part of the Challenge Florida: Open Access Grant.

“Open Anthropology of American Literature” (No Longer Available)

Semester started: Fall 2019
Students Impacted: 36
Potential Savings: $ 2,641

Course: ENL 2012

Professor: Christian Beck

“Anthology of Medieval Literature”

Semester started: Fall 2016
Students Impacted: 493
Potential Savings: $ 34,510

Course: ANT 2000

Professors: Michael G. Callaghan and Lana Williams created this textbook as part of the Challenge Florida: Open Access Grant.

“Exploring Our World: Biological and Archaeological Principles of General Anthropology” 

Semester started: Fall 2019
Students Impacted: 508
Potential Savings: $ 45,443

Course: POS 2041

Professor: Bruce Wilson

“American Government” by OpenStax

Semester started: Summer 2018
Students Impacted: 1223
Potential Savings: $ 138,100

Course: AST 2002

Professor: Thomas Brueckner

“Astronomy” by OpenStax

Semester started: Fall 2017
Students Impacted: 1466
Potential Savings: $ 306,394