News & Blog

*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

Wednesday, March 4, 2020
2:00 – 4:00 pm
John C. Hitt Library room 223

Join UCF Libraries for a film screening of the College Television Emmy award winning documentary, Filthy Dreamers. This student-produced project focuses on efforts to restrict academic freedom for women who attended Florida State College for Women in the late 1920s. Project faculty advisers Dr. Robert Cassanello and Dr. Lisa Mills with be joined by narrator Dr. Connie Lester to facilitate a discussion after the screening.

Exhibit: Friday, February 28th through Thursday, April 30th, 2020

Reception: Tuesday, March 3, 2020, 4:00 – 6:00 pm, John C. Hitt Library room 223

The Women First at UCF Project is a collaboration between Dr. M. C. Santana (Women’s and Gender Studies), Dr. Robert Cassanello (History), Mary Rubin, Eli Jimenez, and Christopher Saclolo (Special Collections & University Archives). In this interdisciplinary project, the exhibit team envisioned documenting the legacy of women who occupied a rank, position or graduation as first in their field. Our desire was to create awareness of the impact and work of hundreds of women in our university’s history.

The first part of the project was to complete an exhibit as well as conduct oral histories, with the help of Dr. Anne Bubriski’s students from WST 3371 Woman and Leadership (fall 2019) and WST 3371H Woman and Leadership courses (spring 2020).

The design of the banners and the exhibit logo were done with the help of Dr. Joo Kim’s students enrolled in GRA 3202C Type and Design courses (spring 2020). The logo was created by Courtney Metzger. The banners were created by Horus Moreno, Mikayla Vendryes, and Markis Zarate (1970s banner), Nathalie Deligero, Daniel Denison, and Macey Humphrey (1980s banner), Tyler Berget, Daisy Dixon, and Justine Vadnais (1990s banner), Isabel Hernandez, Valeria Loyola, and Valan Tune (2000s banner), and Jawn Roppoccio (2010s banner).

All historical documents and photos were provided by Mary Rubin and Eli Jimenez in Special Collection & University Archives with help from the Digital Initiatives unit of the UCF Library. The exhibit team is responsible for the curation and wall design. All oral histories will remain in STARS, UCF’s digital repository, as well as in the University Archives at the John C. Hitt Library.

UCF Celebrates the Arts Panel: Friday, April 10, 2020 at 6:30 pm in the DeVos Family Room-Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

A panel discussion will be held during UCF Celebrates the Arts on April 10^th at 6:30pm in the DeVos Family Room-Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Several of women represented in the exhibit will discuss the exhibit and the lives of women at UCF. This will be the final event associated with this project. We hope listening and discussing the lives of these women will serve as inspiration for generations to come.

We realize that in our research and outreach we inadvertently overlooked important voices for this exhibit. We apologize for any oversight on our part and ask that you contact us and tell us your stories. Please share your stories with M. C. Santana at santana@ucf.edu.