Library and Information Science Commons^™

More Than A Name: Reparative Description For Women’S Archives, Allison Mccormack, Hallie Oines

Journal of Western Archives

This article describes a reparative description initiative at an academic library aimed at improving access to women’s archival collections. By hiring a metadata specialist through grant funding, the project revised legacy MARC records to update, expand, and standardize collection descriptions. Prioritizing inclusive language and accurate subject headings, the team addressed gaps that previously hindered discovery of women’s materials. Over two years, 818 records were remediated, enhancing creator, topical, and genre/form access points. The article discusses project challenges, strategies for respectful description, and the resulting improved discoverability, offering a replicable model for reparative archival work.

Review Of Selecting And Appraising Archives And Manuscripts, Laura Uglean Jackson

Journal of Western Archives

Review of Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts edited by Audra Eagle Yun and Chela Scott Weber.

Review Of An Archivist’S Guide To Copyright: Navigating Risk Management, Kimberly Anderson

Journal of Western Archives

Review of An Archivist’s Guide to Copyright: Navigating Risk Management by William J. Maher.

Queer, Hybrid Participatory Design: Relational Practices And Norms For Coalition Building With Rural, Lgbtq+ Communities, Luettamae Lawrence, Maureen Boyle, Chasity Mayo, Catherine A. Rushworth, Moira Anderson, Dorothy Wallis, Jayme Walters

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper examines the first year of collaboration between the Bear River Region LGBTQ+ Community Coalition and queer residents in rural northern Utah, United States, using a hybrid participatory design (PD) approach. Using Yep’s queer relationality theory, we examine how hybrid spaces were designed and iteratively adapted to support inclusion, care, and collective agency among LGBTQ+ community members. Drawing on Community Coalition Action Theory and queer PD, we analyze four cases from May 2024 to June 2025 including workshops and regular meetings to explore how relational practices evolved across different formats and phases of coalition development. In this paper, we …

Archiving In Advance Of Mission Completion, Molly Stothert-Maurer

Journal of Western Archives

This paper presents a detailed case study of the born-digital archiving efforts associated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) Asteroid Sample Return Mission at the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections. From the perspective of an archivist, the project exemplifies the integration of digital archiving into an active scientific mission, conducted in collaboration with multiple departments across the university. By preserving mission-critical content, including project management documents, social media interactions, and web content, this initiative serves as a model for resource light digital products utilizing batch descriptive techniques. The paper …

Brief Reviews Of Books And Products: Theses On The Metaphors Of Digital-Textual History, David Advent

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Theses on the Metaphors of Digital-Textual History is an exploration of seven key metaphors that Martin Paul Eve, Professor of Literature, Technology, and Publishing at Birkbeck College, University of London, argues have structured our cultural and linguistic understandings of the world around us. Eve organizes the book around eight chapters (“theses”), with each metaphor comprising a separate chapter. The theses are connected thematically in pairs, save for the closing chapter. Eve decodes each metaphor into its basic elements and interweaves the complex digital and textual histories behind each metaphor. Overwhelmingly, Eve wants readers to recognize how striking the parallels are …

Are You Lost? Developing A Map (Metadata Application Profile) For Your Institutional Repository, David Advent, Connor Murphy

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Developing a MAP (Metadata Application Profile) for your Institutional Repository.

Providing Access To Historic Aerial Photographs At The University Of Montana’S Archives And Special Collections, Donna E. Mccrea, Bruce Godfrey, Elizabeth Singh-Search

Journal of Western Archives

Archives and libraries hold significant collections of historic aerial imagery; improvements in geographic information system (GIS) technology and computer vision, a field of artificial intelligence, are dramatically expanding their research potential. This case study describes the activities of the University of Montana’s Archives and Special Collections to facilitate access to a collection of 1930s aerial images, outlines the rationale for investing time and effort in the project and offers considerations for other repositories with historic aerial photography collections. The authors encourage archivists and librarians to be involved in creating both best practices and technological tools that meet the needs of …

Creating An Identity: Analyzing The Journal Of Western Archives, J. Gordon Daines Iii, Ryan K. Lee, Cory L. Nimer

Journal of Western Archives

The Journal of Western Archives was created as a "manifestation of a Western regional identity for archivists" and to "foster the continuing development of a unique regional identity for archivists working and living in the American West by promoting an improved discourse about archival work and providing another venue for the socialization of new archivists." The journal was founded with the explicit purpose to "provide a venue where archivists working in the West can highlight their unique contributions to the archival profession." The Journal of Western Archives is now fifteen years old and has established itself as an important voice …

From Fragments To Cohesion: Developing A Sustainable Online Course For Foundational Information Literacy Instruction, Katie Strand, Shawn Hall, Lara Petersen, Sara Szobody

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This poster session will discuss the strategies we employed to build a sustainable online learning program and the lessons we learned along the way. We will address common challenges associated with maintaining and updating online learning resources, highlighting the logistics and ongoing commitment required. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of how to create an effective and sustainable online learning program that enhances student engagement and success. By sharing our experiences and outcomes, we hope to inspire other academic libraries to rethink their online learning strategies and embrace innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of their students.

Mexican Bracero Railroaders In The United States During World War Ii: An Endangered History, Emily Mizokami

Journal of Western Archives

Mexican citizens came to the United States during World War II to work the most grueling railroad jobs through a contractual agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments. These 136,000 Mexican men, however, have been the focus of less academic research than other groups during World War II. The railroaders were part of the larger bracero program which primarily employed farm workers. The railroad arm of the program lasted only two and half years, while the agricultural branch went on for 22 years. The short duration of the program, combined with the difficulty of accessing archival records documenting living and …

Faxes, Emails, And Cad: A Case Study Of The Changing Landscape In Born-Digital Design Records, 1994-2006, Julia D. Larson

Journal of Western Archives

The article examines the technological changeover from analog to born digital design records in the mid-1990s, and is a case study in how one San Francisco Bay Area landscape architecture firm navigated the paradigm shift. The firm retained extensive documentation of the project management/construction administration for large scale projects, and this case study shows how archivists can utilize the analog documentation (like faxes and printed emails) to gain a greater understanding of how design firms began using Computer Aided Drafting and how CAD changed design and the process of archiving.

Changes To Utah State University's Open Access Fund, David Advent, Yassin Nacer

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Utah State University (USU) Libraries established an open access (OA) fund in 2012 with the goal of helping USU authors offset the costs of publishing OA articles. The fund proved to be enormously popular, and funds were expended quickly each year—most recently being exhausted in less than 72 hours. In recognition of this unsustainability, as well as concerns about the rapidly changing role of OA and copyright in scholarly publishing, USU Libraries initiated significant changes to the fund. This lightning talk will share how we identified and assessed challenges with the existing OA fund, the modifications we implemented, our plans …

Seamless Transitions: Enhancing Information Literacy Through Collaborative Professional Development, Katie Strand, Jen Kirk, Paul Daybell

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

This paper presents a case study of an initiative to create an open dialogue between secondary educators and academic librarians through the establishment of the biennial conference “Bridging the Gap” (BtG). The conference fosters collaboration, promotes professional development, and enhances the continuity of Information Literacy (IL) instruction through three distinct tracks: IL, Primary Source Literacy, and Digital Resources. The IL track focuses on collaborative strategies to enhance IL instruction and address the challenges faced by first-year university students. The Primary Source Literacy track highlights the importance of primary sources and how to integrate them into coursework. The Digital Resources track …

Hybrid Conferences As The Standard Offering Of Archival Organizations, Portia Vescio, Regina Bouley Sweeten, Kathleen Dull, Dylan Mcdonald, Jonathan Pringle

Journal of Western Archives

This case study documents the effort to plan and execute a fully hybrid annual meeting for the Society of Southwest Archivists in 2023. By making the conference accessible to both in-person and virtual attendees, the society moved toward greater inclusivity and equity by offering a professional development opportunity that was affordable and within the ability of a volunteer organization. The case study provides a blueprint for any archival organization to follow in creating hybrid meetings.

Creating A Sense Of Belonging Through University Archives, Kelly Rovegno, Katie Strand, Katie Luder

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Creating a Sense of Belonging

Can University Archives be used to create a sense of belonging on university campuses?

What avenues were/could be available to connect students to campus history and university archives?

How do you assess a sense of belonging and impact of university archives?

Mulberry Leaf Disease Detection By Cnn-Vit With Xai Integration, Mohammad Asif Hasan, Fariha Haque, Hasan Sarker, Rafae Abdullah, Tonmoy Roy, Nishat Taaha, Yeasin Arafat, Abdul Karim Patwary, Mominul Ahsan, Julfikar Haider

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Mulberry leaf disease detection is vital for maintaining the health and productivity of mulberry crops. In this paper, a novel approach was proposed by integrating explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) techniques with a convolutional neural network (CNN) and vision transformer (ViT) for effective mulberry leaf disease classification with three disease classes. Initially, in this proposed CNN-ViT model, features are extracted using a customized CNN architecture, and then the extracted features are fed into ViT for leaf disease classification in a more streamlined approach. The CNN-ViT model achieved promising results with a projection dimension of 64, utilizing 8 heads and 8 transformer …

Review Of Records And Information Management (3rd Edition), Kathleen Broeder

Journal of Western Archives

Review of the third edition of Records and Information Management by Patricia C. Franks.

Review Of Stories On Skin: A Librarian’S Guide To Tattoos As Personal Archives, Steven Bingo

Journal of Western Archives

A book review of Terry Baxter and Libby Coyner-Tsosie’s book Stories on Skin: A Librarian’s Guide to Tattoos as Personal Archives.

An End-To-End Concatenated Cnn Attention Model For The Classification Of Lung Cancer With Xai Techniques, Fariha Haque, Mohammad Asif Hasan, Md. Abu Ismali Siddique, Tonmoy Roy, Tonmoy Kanti Shaha, Yamina Islam, Avijit Paul, Muhammad E. H. Chowdhury

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In the field of medical imaging, deep learning (DL) techniques have made significant contributions to the detection and classification of various cancers. Identifying the precise regions in medical images containing cancerous cells plays a crucial role in the diagnostic process. Early and accurate cancer detection is essential for effective treatment and improved patient outcomes. However, manual diagnosis is labor-intensive, requiring the specialized expertise of radiologists, and the increasing number of cancer cases presents challenges in processing large volumes of image data efficiently. To address these challenges, an end-to-end concatenated Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) attention model has been proposed for automatic …

From Paywalls To Practice: Accessing And Using Evidence For Community Impact, Jayme Walters, Becky Thoms, Kacy Lundstrom, Rachel Blume

Utah Conference on Community Engagement

Leaders and practitioners have a responsibility to utilize reputable, up-to-date research to inform their work in communities. However, peer-reviewed literature is often hidden behind paywalls, with an average cost of $30-$50 per article. An increase in predatory publishing has also made it difficult for readers to decipher reliable articles from those that are of poor quality. Additionally, even when openly accessible to readers, peer-reviewed articles are generally written by academic researchers for other academic researchers, resulting in articles that are too dense both in length and readability. This workshop will equip participants with practical strategies for locating and identifying quality, …

All The Presidents' Papers, Kelly Rovegno, Abbie Chelsey, Mara Kenison

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Prior to 2018, approximately 25% of University Archives material was available electronically (mostly published works cataloged in Sierra, 2% of collections had electronic finding aids)

Building Connections: Enhancing Primary Source Literacy And Student Success Through Canvas Modules, Darcy Pumphrey, Katie Strand, Sarah Berry, Jen Kirk

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

This presentation outlines how Utah State University has used Canvas modules and multi-discipline workshops to promote primary source literacy and organizational skills to students and instructors. Collaborations beyond Special Collections have led to the creation of online modules that guide students in using finding aids and digital repositories while strengthening their research habits. Archivists from various institutions will gain practical strategies for building similar resources and forming cross-department partnerships. The session highlights how these efforts enhance student confidence and create deeper connections between archives and other academic disciplines.

Integrating Human-Centered Design Into Undergraduate Stem Capstone Courses: A Food Product Development Case Study, Saadeddine Shehab, Dawn Bohn, Lucas O'Bryan, Luettamae Lawrence, Mike Tissenbaum

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study examines the integration of human-centered design (HCD) in a Food Science capstone course and explores its impact on students’ learning outcomes and skill development. This case study investigated how 42 undergraduate students engaged with HCD processes—including understanding, synthesizing, ideating, prototyping, and implementing—to develop innovative food products. Through pre- and post-surveys, interaction analysis, and performance assessments, the findings revealed that HCD activities significantly enhanced students’ knowledge, collaboration, creativity, and metacognitive skills. Additionally, students demonstrated improved food science competencies, such as product formulation and sensory evaluation. This study highlights the benefits of embedding HCD within STEM curricula to foster authentic, …

Hidden Heroes: Honoring And Preserving Memory Through Oral Histories, Joe Kinzer

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

What we collect and produce at the Fife Folklore Archives

• Local and regional history
• Cache Valley and the Intermountain West
• Immigrants, refugees, farmers, ranchers, old-time fiddlers, community activists, religious communities, Native American voices, veterans, cowboy poets, and more.

Buyer Beware: Pay-For-Play Research Outreach Services, Erica Finch, Cameron Nielsen

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Shortly after completing a groundbreaking study, a researcher receives an email from a science news website offering to promote their findings to a wider audience. But there’s a fee attached, and they want to know if the library will help cover the cost …

Lung Segmentation With Lightweight Convolutional Attention Residual U-Net, Meftahul Jannat, Shaikh Afnan Birahim, Mohammad Asif Hasan, Tonmoy Roy, Lubna Sultana, Hasan Sarker, Samia Fairuz, Hanaa A. Abdallah

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Examining chest radiograph images (CXR) is an intricate and time-consuming process, sometimes requiring the identification of many anomalies at the same time. Lung segmentation is key to overcoming this challenge through different deep learning (DL) techniques. Many researchers are working to improve the performance and efficiency of lung segmentation models. This article presents a DL-based approach to accurately identify the lung mask region in CXR images to assist radiologists in recognizing early signs of high-risk lung diseases. Methods: This paper proposes a novel technique, Lightweight Residual U-Net, combining the strengths of the convolutional block attention module (CBAM), the Atrous …

Artificial Intelligence In Research, Erica Finch, Stephanie Western

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Has your paper been used to train an AI model? Almost certainly

Artificial-intelligence developers are buying access to valuable data sets that contain research papers – raising uncomfortable questions about copyright.

Assessing The State Of Archives And Archives Workers In The California State University, Stef Baldivia, Tanya M. Hollis, Ellen E. Jarosz, Laura Sorvetti, Heather M. Steele Gajewski, Diana Wakimoto

Journal of Western Archives

This article presents findings from an environmental scan of archival work at California State University (CSU), the largest public university system in the United States. Using an online survey to collect qualitative and quantitative data, the researchers were able to create a snapshot of the current state of the archives across the CSU system's campuses. This included information about staffing, compensation, collections, duties and responsibilities, and budgets, as well as challenges. While all of the archival workers are part of the same university system, there were many differences in staffing levels, staff and faculty ranks, budgets, and duties assigned to …

Ethics Of Care: Applying Cultural Protocols To Indigenous Sound Recordings, Jolene D. Manus

Journal of Western Archives

The University of New Mexico, College of University Libraries and Library Sciences, endorsed The Protocols for Native American Archival Materials in 2020. This case study explores the use of an Ethics of Care approach, prioritizing Indigenous cultural protocols for Indigenous sound recordings housed within the archival collections of the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections (CSWR). The CSWR staff sought guidance from local tribal nations when CSWR patrons requested the duplication of cultural songs, cultural oral histories, and/or interviews. Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, tribal cultural rights departments, and specified tribal persons identified by tribes as cultural experts reviewed the …