News from @umnlib

Gopherbaloo was back in person for 2023, after a couple of years being virtual-only due to the COVID pandemic. A special, one-day collaboration between the Minnesota Historical Society and the University of Minnesota Libraries, Gopherbaloo brings to families of History Day contenders a Mooster History mascot, opportunities to win prizes, and plenty of expertise to make their projects the best they can be.

By Allison Campbell-Jensen Adger Cowans earned his degree in photography from Ohio University, one of the very few institutions of higher education that offered this art degree to Black students in 1958. The university recognized...

Jessica Reza is a bit of a U of M triple threat: English, Spanish, and Technical Communications combine in her B.A.; she shone on the Ivory Tower literary magazine publication team as an undergraduate; and, more recently, she earned an MBA from the Carlson School of Management. On the Friends of the Libraries board, Reza serves as co-chair of the Events committee. “The events are just so fun and eclectic,” she says.

Decades of summertime bird records have been made accessible to researchers online through the foresight of Librarians Shannon Farrell and Julie Kelly. With donor support, Farrell and Kelly trained student library workers to read the reports, create metadata about which bird species were seen where and when, and put the information in a format to make that data searchable online. 

UMN Libraries Winter Open House At Walter Library Thursday, January 12 at 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Walter Library, basement level (in the Toaster) Have you been to Walter Library lately? Are you new to campus? The...

The top stories of 2022 in the Libraries’ continuum news portal make the past come alive, outline present achievements, and forecast the promise of the future for the Libraries and its student, faculty, and community users.

We’re celebrating 2022 with a look back at our favorite stories of the year that feature the innovative, impactful, fun, and purpose-filled work at the Health Sciences Library and the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine. 

Science Librarian Megan Kocher, Curator of the University of Minnesota's Kirschner Cookbook Collection, recommends “What's for Dessert” and “Baking School” for those wanting to whip up some holiday baked goods. Kocher is joined on this installment of Read This Book by host Lisa Von Drasek.

Mary Moore Easter offered a captivating presentation on Dec. 6. With her co-presenters — Joan Hepburn, a retired Professor of English, with a concentration of West African theater, from St. Olaf College, and Siddeeqah Shabazz, actor at Pillsbury House Theater and the Guthrie Theater, as well as Executive Director of Kulture Klub Collaborative — Easter quoted from Winston’s brief court testimony, along with her own poems, to recreate the life of a woman who escaped to freedom in Minnesota.

On Dec. 9, 2022 we lost a giant. Jean-Nickolaus Tretter, avid collector and founder of the Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, died. At 76 years of age, Jean left an indelible mark on LGBTQ history thanks to his persistent collecting of LGBTQ history that began in the 1970s.

Alee Schmeirer and Lisa Von Drasek discuss “Leave the World Behind,” a novel by Rumaan Alam, about two families — strangers to each other — who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.

As winter daylight fades and the cold wind fingers its way through tiny cracks into your abode, a feline companion may be appealing. If so, check out thees 10 cats for your catappreciation from various collections within the Libraries — UMedia, the James Ford Bell Library, and the Minnesota Digital Library.

If you plan to follow the “four-gift rule” this holiday season — something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read — experts from the University of Minnesota Libraries can help you find a perfect present for that last category. They recommend choosing books from a wide range of new releases.

To understand the current conflict in Ukraine, you don’t have to know all the details about Ukraine’s history — but it doesn’t hurt and might help. That is why Brian Vetruba, European Studies Librarian, turned to his University of Minnesota colleagues serving on the From Our Collections committee to curate a new book display in Wilson Library’s basement: "Ukraine, Its Culture, History, and Literature."

The Health Sciences Library and the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine are known as collaborative partners in the interprofessional Health Sciences Education Center, but the roots of the Health Sciences Libraries started 130 years ago. Enjoy this photo history that spans the 1892 collections funding from the Board of Regents to our 2022 expertise and resources that advance the research and education needs of today’s health professionals!

Librarians, data curators, and colleagues from around the country — from Duke University and Pennsylvania State University to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University of Nevada, Reno — recently gathered in Wilson Library’s Research Collaboration Studio for two days of energized exchanges and mini-seminars with other experts in their field of data curation.