WILSON G.

BRADSHAW LIBRARY SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER

LIBRARY NEWS FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY

In This Issue . . .
03 A Message from the Dean

04 Welcome New Employees

06 FGCU Scholar Series

07 Authors & Artists Awards

08 By the Numbers

10 Makerpalooza

11 Farewell to FGCU and Southwest Florida

12 Archives & Black History Society

14 Open Educational Resources

15 Giving to the University Library

Photography

Michelle Cardenas
James Greco

Contributors

Anna Karras
Abigail Muth
Lucia Navarrete
Heather Snapp
Melissa Minds VandeBurgt
Dawn Workman

For more information visit: library.fgcu.edu

2 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
 A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

While we had grand plans for the fall semester, some of which have been archived
within this issue of Library News, we were inspired by how the students and faculty have
maximized our efforts. We had a record attendance at our monthly Scholar Series event. We
also had local media coverage of student use of our Makerspace equipment. The collection
of faculty and student scholarship in our research portal, ScholarsCommons@FGCU,
has reached over 7,000 assets, representing a 20% increase. Finally, we were incredibly
proud to host over 80 librarians and staff from libraries throughout Southwest Florida for
Makerpalooza, which we co-hosted in our new and exciting spaces in Library West with the
Southwest Florida Library Network.

We will not be outdone this spring. Read about our annual Authors & Artists Awards
ceremony that was held Feb. 8, where we celebrated the accomplishments of our faculty
who have published books and created significant works of art. The FGCU Scholar Series
event will continue this spring. The exhibit They Were Children: Rescue as Resistance, which
chronicles the story of the Oeuvre de Secours Aux Enfants’ (OSE) harrowing rescue of
Jewish children during World War II, will be open until March 31, and represents two years
of research by library faculty, staff and students.

This is also a bittersweet spring semester for the Wilson G. Bradshaw Library as we extend
a fond farewell to two of our faculty and staff members, Melissa VandeBurgt, Director of
Academic and Community Engagement and Head of the University Archives and Special
Collections, and Bailey Rodgers, Archives Coordinator, as they move on to prestigious
positions at Temple University and Connecticut College, respectively. Their work, which can
be sampled in the current archives exhibit, is only a taste of the incredible legacy they have
created for FGCU. We have no doubt they will continue to build upon the contributions they
have not only made to the university and Southwest Florida, but also to the global library
and information profession.

io tt
Tracy Ell
Tracy Elliott, Ph.D.,
Dean, University Library
SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER 3
 Welcoming the
Janice Kwiatkowski,
Administrative Assistant
Our new Administrative Assistant,
Janice Kwiatkowski, loves getting
to work with students and has
been a part of the University
Library team since June 2023.
Previously, she worked on
campus in Procurement Services
but wanted to work closer with
students and experience the
academic side of the university.
Outside of work, Janice enjoys
reading, gardening and
vacationing with her grandsons.
4 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Amy Craig, Research and
Instruction Librarian
Amy Craig started her position
as Research and Instruction
Librarian in August 2023. After
working in various other libraries
for over 10 years, Amy now enjoys
the opportunity her position
grants her to work closely with
students and connect with them
in their classrooms. “The best
part of this position is working
with faculty across campus to
collaborate for library instruction,”
she said. Outside of work, Amy
enjoys spending quality time with
her family.
Welcome to the team, Janice,
 New Employees
Elise Carnes, Budget
Specialist II
Elise Carnes joined the library
as a Budget Specialist in
October 2023. Her favorite part
about the library and her new
job is that it brings students,
professors, employees and the
community together. Outside of
work, she enjoys going on walks
and bike rides, and she recently
got a new puppy! “Everyone
at the library has been so
welcoming, and that makes for
an easy transition,” she said.
Amy, Elise and Karen!
Karen Contreras, Library
Collections Management
Specialist
Joining us as Library Collections
Management Specialist, Karen
Contreras said her favorite part
of the new job is “feeling the
collective effort of the entire
library team working to ensure
the library is accessible to all
patrons.” Karen started in January
2024 and previously worked
in small music libraries in Los
Angeles. Outside of work, she is a
multi-instrumentalist, composer,
arranger and gamer.
SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER 5
Scholar Series
Our monthly Scholar Series event has once
again been a hit. In the fall semester, the
University Library hosted three scholarly
presentations led by faculty experts in their
field. These faculty members are doing great
research within and outside of the FGCU
community.

In January, Terry Leary, Ph.D., and Senthil

Girimurugan, Ph.D., presented “One’s
Propensity to Serially Kill: A Behavioral and
Statistical Perspective,” and in February,
Anna Koufakou Ph.D., presented “Decoding
Emotions in Human-written Language: AI
and Machine Learning Explorations.”

We look forward to hosting two Rob Sillevis, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,

more upcoming events this spring! Physical Therapy and Human Performance,
speaks in September 2023.

11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Library West, first floor

March 27

Amir B. Ferreira Neto, Ph.D.,

Assistant Professor of
Economics and Director
of the Regional Economic
Research Institute for the
Lutgert College of Business,
“Firm Mobility and
Hurricanes: Evidence from
Florida Gulf Coast University”
April 24
Roy Arnab, Ph.D., Assistant
Professor of Later World
Literature, “The Postcolonial
Bildungsroman: Rethinking
Narratives of Youth and
Coming of Age from the
Global South”

For more information contact Heather Snapp at

239-745-4224, hsnapp@fgcu.edu

6 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
 Authors &
Artists Awards
Faculty and staff were honored Feb. 8. with our annual Authors and Artists
Awards ceremony. Running the gamut between different colleges and
departments, our honorees were recognized for publishing works from
philosophy to nursing and wetland ecology to hospitality.

After a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception, Provost Mark Rieger presented
certificates to the honorees and closing out the ceremony, two recipients
gave brief keynote talks about their works. Loureen Downes, Ph.D., from
the School of Nursing talked about her book, Health Promotion and
Disease Prevention for Advanced Practice, and Myra Mendible, Ph.D., from
the Department of Language and Literature spoke about her research for
the book American Fury: Essays on Moral Outrage in Culture and Politics.

Loureen Downes, Ph.D., was one of the 15 authors recognized Feb. 8 for her
outstanding work at the Authors and Artists Awards ceremony.

SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER 7

By the Numbers:

8 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
HOW WE STACK UP

Total Equipment
Loans 29,960
9,710
Chargers
Loaned

Help
Questions
Answered

SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER 9

Makerpalooza
In December, the University
Library hosted the Southwest
Florida Library Network’s
Makerpalooza. Local librarians
from around Southwest Florida
were able to spend the day
playing with technology, learning
new skills and ideas or checking
out the library’s Makerspace. VR
sets, 3D models, games and other
hands-on activities were available
for use. Additionally, librarians
were treated to a host of lectures
and demonstrations on various
topics ranging from “AI in Library
Programming” to “Creating Maker
Curriculum.”

Matthew Losey, the library’s

Creative Commons Lab Coordinator, was present during the event to show off
our recently renovated Makerspace. SWFLN Executive Director Brian Chase said,
“Makerpalooza was a great opportunity for attendees to learn new content, connect
with colleagues from different types of libraries throughout our region and grow their
awareness regarding how emerging technologies can be used in libraries.”

10 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Farewell to FGCU and
Southwest Florida
Dear Southwest Florida community,

It is with a grateful heart that I

bid farewell to Southwest Florida
and FGCU. In 2012, I was greeted
by a small but mighty handful of
collections that would become the
basis for the University Archives and
Special Collections. Nearly 12 years
later, the Archive consists of 47
collections valued at $2 million and
a digital repository that currently
makes 16,000 collection items
globally accessible. Our reading
room and gallery have greeted
thousands upon thousands of
students, scholars and community
members. Many visit to view our
museum-quality exhibitions, which
garner national and international
press.

I am immensely proud of the small

team of faculty and staff that have
upheld and continue to champion
our commitment to:

• Develop archival collections that are equitably representative of all communities

residing within Southwest Florida in hopes of spurring crucial conversations and
scholarship while contributing to the historical record.
• Collect critical resources pertaining to the environmental ecology of Southwest
Florida.
• Foster partnerships through fundraising and donor engagement in an effort to
expand access to unique and rare primary resources.
• Deliver diverse and inclusive educational programming to FGCU and the
Southwest Florida community.

Of all the department’s accomplishments, I am most humbled and honored by the

dozens of student interns, archival assistants and wonderful humans who have shared
part of their academic career with us. The University Archives and Special Collections
has impacted our students’ lives, and they have indeed impacted mine.

Take good care, Southwest Florida! Sláinte!

Melissa Minds VandeBurgt

SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER 11

Archives & Black
History Society
The success of our 2022 exhibition, The Black Experience in
Lee County, points to the community’s interest and cultural
relevance of the historically Black neighborhood of Dunbar.
The University Archives and Special Collections continues
to partner with the Lee County Black History Society to
make their collections globally accessible through our digital
repository, DigitalFGCU.

Thanks to the generosity of Madelon and Samuel Stewart and

FGCU’s WiSER Eagle Research Assistant Program, the Archive
was able to hire two students last year, each for a 16-week
period to digitize and make the materials accessible. If you
would like to contribute and financially support the project,
please contact Rochelle Jackson at rjackson@fgcu.edu.

12 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER 13
 OPEN EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES
The University Library has
purchased Leganto, an
online course materials
platform, that brings
library-owned and
licensed materials together
with open educational
resources, videos, websites
and professor-owned
materials into one list that
can be easily integrated
into Canvas courses.
Canvas is the course
management system that
all FGCU professors and
students use as an online
learning platform.
Anna Carlin demonstrates to faculty how
to build reading lists using Leganto.

One of the library’s goals for the reading list platform is to save students
money on textbooks. We are working on reaching this goal by identifying
course texts that the library can provide in print or electronic formats and
creating reading lists with links to these texts for instructors to use in their
courses. It has been estimated that students have already saved nearly
$25,000 in textbook costs this academic year (2023-24) by accessing
materials on their reading lists rather than buying a textbook.

The library will be offering workshops and online training for faculty in the
upcoming months.

“With a library reading list, students don’t have

to go search for e-books or articles they have
been assigned to read; everything is there in
one place.”

~ Anna Carlin, Instructional Technology Librarian

14 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
GIFTS TO THE FGCU UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Giving to the University Library Fund is one of the most important ways to
support the FGCU Library. These dedicated funds can be used to provide new
equipment and support other services that the faculty and staff in the library
provide.
Creative Commons — an
interdisciplinary learning space.
Students utilize these resources
to create tangible versions of
their ideas with a variety of
technology and equipment
including 3D printers, scanners,
electronics kits, laser cutters and
industry-standard audiovisual
production software and
hardware.

Research Commons — a collaborative space for research and instruction

librarians to engage faculty and students when promoting the production
of exciting research, scholarship and innovation. Services include: research
support, funding search tools, publication assistance and next steps to
establishing a scholarly identity.

University Archives and Special Collections — the preservation and

promotion of collections especially relevant to Southwest Florida. Unique
opportunities exist for
exhibitions, collection
acquisitions, gallery/
reading room lighting and
vault expansion.

Please consider making your gift today to support our efforts.

Visit library.fgcu.edu/giving or contact either Rochelle Jackson
at rjackson@fgcu.edu, 239.590.1099, or Dr. Tracy Elliott at
telliott@fgcu.edu, 239.590.7602.

SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER 15

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