• Fall 2024 Message from the Dean school Dean's Communication

  September 16, 2024

  Please allow me to extend a hearty welcome to you all as we enter the new academic year! I hope that the summer months provided a chance to recharge and relax. The MSU Libraries is happy to see our students back on campus, and I wanted to take a moment to share some important updates as we look ahead to an energetic semester.Fall semester hours: The MSU Libraries Main Library is typically open 24 hours per day on Monday through Thursday, with later opening and earlier closing times on the weekends. The Business Library located in the MSU College of Law Building is regularly open from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. Monday through Thursday, with modified weekend hours. Please note that for safety and security purposes, all students, staff and faculty are required to scan their MSU ID to access the MSU Main Library building between 10:00 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. on Sunday – Thursday. A complete schedule for the MSU Libraries hours is available here.Special Collections closing/move to 3-East: This past August, the MSU Libraries Stephen O. Murray & Keelung Hong Special Collections began the process of relocating to the third floor of the Main Library’s East Wing. To accommodate this exciting and necessary move, which includes hundreds of thousands of delicate and valuable materials, access to the MSU Libraries’ Special Collections will be closed for about 16 weeks beginning Monday, Aug. 12. For more information including timely updates, please visit our Move to 3-East page.We are looking forward to supporting your learning and research needs this fall (and in all seasons)! As a reminder, if you are unable to find an answer on our website or would like to speak to someone in person, we are available at our information desks as well as by phone at (517) 353-8700.With warm wishes for a productive semester,Neil Romanosky, Ph.D. Dean of LibrariesView All News Articles

  
• MSU Libraries receives $1M in congressional funding to support digitization of early WKAR film footage

  October 04, 2024

  Elise Jajuga

  EAST LANSING, Mich., Oct. 2024 – The Michigan State University Libraries was recently awarded a Congressionally-Directed grant through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in the amount of $1 million to support a unique digitization project that will ensure the preservation of early Michigan public television footage for years to come.The $1 million award will go toward highly specialized digital media preservation equipment as well as the creation of a dedicated media preservation lab, which will be used to restore and digitally preserve MSU Libraries’ historical media collections. This specific project will focus on the archive of early public television at MSU, which dates back more than 70 years to when WKAR-TV first aired on East Lansing’s television broadcasting channel 60 on Jan. 15, 1954. WKAR-TV is the second oldest continuously operating public television station in the country, and the oldest east of the Mississippi River. It is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to East Lansing and owned by Michigan State University under the WKAR Public Media umbrella.MSU Libraries Associate Dean for Research Engagement Terri Miller said she was approached about the grant by the Federal Relations team within MSU Government Relations over a year ago when Miller was interim dean. She emphasized the intention behind highlighting the historical media collection project for the award submission. “Our Media Preservation faculty selected this film for preservation and digitization because of both MSU’s deep roots as the state university of Michigan and the alignment with MSU’s ideals as the nation’s premier land-grant institution,” Miller said. “The programming on the reels emphasizes both the rural agricultural heritage of the state as well as its industrial strengths. WKAR is such an important part of broadcast history and the history of Michigan itself, so bringing these reels back to life and sharing them with the world is an exciting project that the Libraries are uniquely qualified to do.  Our media preservation faculty are incredibly knowledgeable, and the new equipment made possible by this grant will allow them to do this really important work in a way that is accessible to all. When completed, this project will provide a fascinating window into early television history, as well as a glimpse of Michigan everyday life in the 1950s. We are thrilled that our congressional delegation shares our enthusiasm for this project with this support.”MSU Libraries Head of Media Preservation Sarah Mainville is ecstatic about the impact of the award on both the WKAR film digitization project and the media preservation possibilities for future initiatives. “Preservation goes beyond digitization, and that was something that I wanted to stress during the application process,” Mainville said. “Because once we digitize the film, we're going to continue to have to take care of it. Digital files are vulnerable, and in addition to thinking about how to preserve them, we have to consider the best way to provide access. If people don’t see this stuff and use it, then it’s not really preservation, because it doesn’t exist to most people. So there is also an access piece that is important to ensuring people will be able to see materials we digitize and otherwise preserve.”Along with the G. Robert Vincent Voice Library, which is the largest academic voice library in the U.S. with over 100,000 hours of spoken word recordings dating back to 1888, the University Archives & Historical Collections (UAHC) at MSU Libraries is home to a vast array of film archives. The UAHC has nearly 300 film reels within the WKAR early public television archive. According to Audiovisual Archivist Matthew Wilcox, each of these 16 mm reels has between 550 and 1100 ft. of film equaling approximately 15-30 minutes of content. Wilcox will be working to digitize these films with Media Preservation Specialist Melanie Goulish, who, along with Mainville, comprise the MSU Libraries Media Preservation Unit. The film currently scans in real time, but Wilcox noted that in addition to the time it takes to digitize the 15-30 minutes of content is the work necessary to prepare the digitized file for distribution, which can take an hour or longer. The grant will allow the Media Preservation team to work on the films much more quickly with support for an additional film scanner, which could also potentially improve resolution in the digitized files.The WKAR early television archive also includes kinescopes produced prior to the advent of the first commercially successful videotape format, the 2-inch quadruplex videotape, in 1956. Wilcox explained that the process of recording the early 1950s kinescopes began with the filming of an educational program at the WKAR studio, which was then played back onto a television monitor; this monitor would also have a 16 mm camera pointed at it, recording the moving images and audio onto the film. This process allowed the studio to make copies for distribution across additional television networks. Wilcox said that WKAR initially began creating kinescope content in the early 1950s in anticipation of going on the air in 1954, and that he has seen films in the collection dating as far back as 1952. Two of the 12 kinescopes within the early WKAR collection that Wilcox has already digitized include a film currently available online called “La Fiesta Mexicana” (1958), featuring music by musician, composer and MSU Professor Emeritus H. Owen Reed. This piece, Wilcox noted, is often used by the Spartan Marching Band, while the film itself is actually a televised staged performance including costumes and dancing. The second kinescope is an episode of an early 1950s program called “Country Crossroads” (1953) where the host brought in a Michigan state representative to help him understand the laws of deer hunting.Wilcox said he hopes that the digitization project will have a large impact on not only scholars of early modern television, but on those who might be looking to connect with the past on a more personal level as well. “I’m hoping that by making the films more accessible, the collection will be more than just a novelty,” he said. “I’m hoping that it will benefit film studies or students who want to learn about the early history of television. I’m hoping that researchers not just locally but across the country can benefit from the performances throughout the materials. I’m also hoping that people have memories about maybe their dad who really loved this program, or their grandfather who appeared on this show, and then they never thought they’d see it again. And then now you've got it available.”Dean of Libraries Neil Romanosky shared his excitement about the grant, noting the importance of preserving this piece of our state’s history along with the University’s place within it. “The support that this congressional grant will provide toward the digitization of our WKAR early television archive is incredibly significant, not only because it is helping to preserve the very first public television programming to air in Michigan, but also because it demonstrates how essential the role of MSU is to our state’s history and future.”View All News Articles

  
• MSU Libraries’ textbooks and course materials programs offer variety of no-cost, low-cost options for classroom resources

  August 20, 2024

  Elise Jajuga

  EAST LANSING, Mich., Aug. 2024 – The start of the semester can bring a variety of stressors, but one that Michigan State University Libraries is helping to mitigate is the high cost of course materials for both students and faculty.For the last several years, the MSU Libraries have offered an increasing number of classroom resources to students enrolled in courses at MSU at low or no cost. Both electronic and print materials are available to students through the Course Reserves program. Course reserves are textbooks put on hold at the MSU Libraries by professors, allowing students to borrow or share classroom resources rather than having to purchase them. The Libraries also makes a concerted effort to identify and purchase required materials that are utilized by MSU classes from its collections funds. A recent significant collections acquisition was the Libraries’ subscription to Cambridge University Press’ electronic textbook package, which provides access to over 1,000 Cambridge textbooks. While the Libraries selects electronic formats whenever available, print materials can be found at the Main Library or William C. Gast Business Library. Last year the Libraries offered over 2,600 books for more than 1,015 classes at MSU through Course Reserves. More than half of these titles were provided electronically. MSU Veterinary Nursing Program Director Taylor Epp cited the impact of these low-cost options for students in the College of Veterinary Medicine.“As a medical professional program, the textbooks required for our courses can be quite pricey,” Taylor said. “Having the textbooks placed on reserves in the MSU Libraries is a wonderful way for students to gain access to a course textbook without having to purchase the textbook themselves.”   Students and faculty can also find several cost-effective course materials outlets through the MSU Libraries’ Open Education Resources Program. Open education resources (OER) include teaching, learning and research materials that live copyright-free in the public domain or have been released under an open license that allows for reusing, revising, remixing, retaining and redistributing them. The Libraries’ OER Program, which was implemented in 2019, aims to reduce educational costs by providing free or low-cost learning materials; encouraging and supporting the adoption, adaptation and creation of OER and other free and low-cost materials such as textbook alternatives; providing multidimensional support for instructors to implement OER in coursework; and empowering instructors to engage in new pedagogical models made possible by OER and the open education approach. In 2022-23, the OER program had an estimated $1,507,600 in cost savings for 15,076 students enrolled in OER courses, with 126 participating instructors. MSU Libraries also offers an OER Award Program for instructors interested in adopting, adapting or creating OER that provides financial, technical and other types of project support. Applications for the 2024-25 OER awards will be open from Sept. 3 to Oct. 11, 2024. The call for applications and application forms will be available on the Libraries’ Online OER Guide after Sept. 3.The MSU Libraries’ Course Materials Program is another low-cost course pack alternative to resources like textbooks. All materials sold to students are produced at cost on a nonprofit basis. Course packs are available in both printed and electronic format and sold through partnering bookstores and MSU’s D2L platform. This program also provides faculty with research, referrals, and production support for course packs, online library resources and contacts within the Libraries. MSU College of Nursing Senior Instructor Kathy Forrest spoke about the support that Libraries liaisons like Health Sciences Librarian Jessica Sender can provide through these types of initiatives.“I have worked with Jessica Sender in her role as library liaison in the College of Nursing since 2016,” Forrest said. “As a faculty member, she is my first contact when preparing a course for the next semester. She is quick to provide updates to the library folder in D2L to assist students with resources, literature search tips and exemplars for APA formatting. When developing new courses or making major course revisions I have contacted her to assist with textbook suggestions, student resources and library materials specific to the course’s content and outcomes. Jessica is a highly knowledgeable library liaison and a consummate professional, advocating for nursing students and faculty. I couldn’t ask for a better faculty partner to educate nursing students for the future.”To learn more about the MSU Libraries’ textbook and course materials programs offering, please visit the Textbooks Programs & Information page.View All News Articles

  

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