The season of spring always brings to mind fresh starts, renewal, and opportunity. It is no different here at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library as we look forward to an exciting spring semester. For the first time in my tenure as dean, we will launch a multiyear plan for the library. The plan will focus on our mission to inspire learning, advance knowledge and build community. With this new plan, ZSR will work to ensure our ongoing commitment to excellence while continuing to adapt to a rapidly changing higher education landscape. At Wake Forest University, these changes include new initiatives, new campuses and an increasingly diverse and international student body. To accomplish this goal, we will take a fresh look at our services and structure by “reimagining” them. Many things will likely stay the course, but without renewal and assessment, even the most successful operations will eventually become obsolete.
One key area is replacing our aging library systems to improve discovery and improve the user experience of our extensive electronic collections. We will also participate in planning for new and innovative teaching, learning and research methodologies in partnership with the University community. And we will strengthen the library’s contributions to student success by responding to and supporting the changing curriculum. Beyond our campus, ZSR will participate in and provide support for engaged research initiatives affecting the local community. We will launch a Friends of the Library group to engage young alumni, local retirees and others in the Winston-Salem region.
I hope you will find new and traditional ways to engage with ZSR—we are your library and we are here to support your research, teaching and intellectual curiosity.
January means new things: new year, new semester, new entries to the public domain. Wait, what was that last one? The public domain?
January 1, 2019 marked the first time in more than 20 years that an entire year’s worth of copyrighted works entered the public domain. Until this year, the public domain had essentially been frozen at 1923, with no works published in 1923 or later entering the public domain. Why is this such a big deal?
The public domain encompasses all the works that are not subject to copyright. That means that anyone can take those works and use them freely, without needing permission or paying fees. These works can be republished, rewritten, recreated, restaged, reproduced or reused however one can imagine. We see reuses of public domain works all the time, from performances of classical music to derivatives of Jane Austen novels (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, anyone?) to wall calendars of Van Gogh’s art. More ›
Are you looking for a way to organize your research or streamline the citation process? Are you ready to migrate from Endnote or RefWorks to an open source solution? Perhaps you want to encourage your students to compose better citations. Zotero can do all these things, and ZSR is once again offering numerous Zotero workshops this spring! We have both weekday and Sunday afternoon sessions scheduled to meet the needs of students, faculty and staff.
Mark your calendars for the second annual DH@Wake Summer Institute the week of May 13-17. The focus of this year’s institute will be textual data and digital texts, with experimentation at both the micro and macro levels. Participating Reynolda campus faculty will receive a $500 stipend for attending the weeklong workshop, with lunch and coffee provided daily. Registration information and additional details coming soon!
Let Me Hear from You
If you ever have comments, complaints or kudos about the library and its services, please let me know.
For ways to support the library and its mission, please see Giving to the Library.
