The University of Vemont Libraries: Bailey/Howe Library

Hi, my name is Gary Atwood and I am the Health Sciences Education Librarian here at Dana Medical Library. Prior to UVM, I worked at Springfield College in Springfield, MA as a Reference and Instruction Librarian. I hold a BA in Political Science and an MA in American History from the University of Maine and a MSLIS from Simmons College.

Like all librarians, I have a wide variety of job responsibilities. I provide reference and instruction services to students, faculty, and staff as well as the clinicians at Fletcher Allen Health Care. In addition, I am the liaison to the Department of Nursing, Psychiatry, and Neurological Sciences as well as the College of Medicine’s Clerkship program. I am also involved in expanding the library’s education efforts in areas such as the use of technology in teaching and in teaching online.

In my spare time, I like to read, explore Vermont with my family, and work with our dog Bady. I am also a passionate Liverpool Football Club supporter.  Go Reds!

The current exhibit in Special Collections features postcards that document Stowe’s development as the Ski Capital of the East during the 1940s-1950s. For many years, Newport, Vermont photographer Harry Richardson traveled around Vermont and took thousands of pictures of people, places, and activities. He published many of the images as real photo postcards. The postcards in this exhibit are from a sample book that Richardson may have used to sell his cards to Stowe retailers. The cards promoted Vermont skiing with images of deep snow, downhill descents, modern facilities and traditional landscapes, and above all, happy skiers.

On exhibit, January-March 2013, in the lobby of Bailey/Howe Library, “Jean-Michel Basquiat: An Intimate Portrait,” offers a portal into the life of an artist on the threshold of taking the art world by storm. As photographed by Nicholas Taylor, these images of a 19-year-old Basquiat capture his emotions and personality, which, in turn, reflect his struggle for fame and respect. The accompanying text panels, written by Taylor, document the friendship the two shared and also serve to contextualize the historical significance of Basquiat in the early eighties.

This exhibition is on loan from the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University, and was curated by Michael J. Beam, Curator of Exhibitions at the Castellani Art Museum.

Come learn about tools that can help you to keep track of research materials, collaborate with classmates and colleagues, take notes, format citations, and create bibliographies for papers in a variety of styles.  All workshops are free and open to UVM students, faculty, and staff.  No registration is required.

Introduction to Zotero

Learn how to keep track of research materials, organize note-taking, and format citations and bibliographies using this easy-to-master, open-source solution.

Location:  Bailey/Howe Library Classroom (Room 123)

Facilitators:  Daisy Benson and Daniel DeSanto

• January 25 (Friday) 2-3pm
• January 30 (Wednesday) 4-5pm
• February 6 (Wednesday) 4-5pm
• February 8 (Friday) 2:30-3:30pm
• February 12 (Tuesday) 4-5pm
• February 20 (Wednesday) 3-4pm
• March 15 (Friday) 2:30-3:30pm
• March 22 (Friday) 2:30-3:30pm

Advanced Zotero

Come and build on your existing Zotero knowledge.  Learn how to use shared folders for collaboration and more.

Location:  Bailey/Howe Library Classroom (Room 123)

Facilitator:  Daisy Benson

• March 11 (Wednesday) 4-5pm
• March 22 (Friday) 3:30-4:30pm

Contact Daisy Benson (daisy.benson@uvm.edu) to arrange for a customized workshop on Zotero for your class, lab, or other group.

EndNote workshops

Learn how to use EndNote (a software program) to keep track of research information, organize notes, and insert citations into your papers.

Location:  Bailey/Howe Classroom (Room 123)

Facilitators:  Laurie Kutner and Jake Barickman

• January 23 (Wednesday) 3-4pm
• January 29 (Tuesday) 4-5pm
• February 5 (Tuesday) 4-5pm
• February 14 (Thursday) 4-5pm
• February 22 (Friday) 3-4pm
• February 26 (Tuesday) 4-5pm
• March 13 (Wednesday) 3-4pm
• March 19 (Tuesday) 4-5pm
• March 29 (Friday) 3-4pm
• April 3 (Wednesday) 3-4pm
• April 18 (Thursday) 4-5pm

Additional EndNote workshops can be scheduled upon request.  Send requests to: laurie.kutner@uvm.edu

01-07-2013
By Megan Morley Thomas

Users might not realize that uvm.edu has drastically changed, that is unless they are looking on a tablet or mobile device where they’ll see a more streamlined, easily navigable and appropriately-sized site (device-dependent). The Web Team launched a responsive uvm.edu on Jan. 7 after concluding that the higher ed web landscape was on a precipice.

“Institutions are increasingly aware that the public front door of their university — their website homepage — is being accessed from any number of devices now: smartphones, desktop computers or tablets — all of varying screen sizes,” says Tatjana Salcedo, Web Team strategist. “In order to provide the best possible user-experience, we opted to rebuild the site in a responsive way.”

“Responsive web design” is a method of web design developed by Ethan Marcotte that uses CSS and other techniques to allow the layout and content of pages on a website to respond according to the screen resolution and orientation of the device viewing the site. This means making your design and images shrink and grow to the browser window and altering the layout (often the number of columns) at specified resolution thresholds. Additionally, responsive web designs allow easy interaction when using a touchscreen and contain video and audio that plays across a wide range of devices. The result, when implemented well, is a highly functional and attractive website that scales elegantly, regardless of the device used to access it.

The project — completed in-house by the Web Team — had to consider every aspect of the homepage, from buttons better sized to fit fingertips to navigation appearance and behavior to content prioritization.

“Responsive design keeps the visual integrity of a page as it changes shapes and rearranges content. This allows the user to have a better experience on any device,” says Deb Goller, Web Team graphic designer.

Enrollment management implications

Of the many audiences who visit uvm.edu, there’s one audience in particular whose mobile usage is skyrocketing.

A 2012 E-Expectations Report* conducted a survey of 2,000 college-bound juniors and seniors about their expectations for college websites, mobile usage, e-mail, and social media. The report indicates that 67 percent of college-bound students have access to a mobile device. Fifty-two percent of college-bound students have looked at a college site on a mobile device while 20 percent of them have looked at a college site on a tablet.

The Jan. 7 responsive launch included the undergraduate admissions web pages.

Bringing your unit into responsive design

Starting Monday, Jan. 14, the UVM Web templates offered online will be responsive upon download. Retrofitting an existing site is a different story, although if a site has stayed true to the offered publishing system features, the transition to responsive should be fairly simple. Webmasters can view online documentation and make appointments with the team for support. In addition, the Web Team will host an open info session on Monday, Jan. 28, 2013 from 9-10 a.m. in the 113T Waterman computer lab. Highly customized sites, such as the colleges, will be addressed one at a time with a great deal of assistance from the Web Team.

“The more customized a site, the more complicated the transition,” says Megan Hack, team developer. “We’ll plan to tackle those sites one at a time.”

For more information, see:

• UVM Web Guide responsive info
• 2012 E-expectations report
• A few words on responsive design from its creator

*E-Expectations Report conducted and published by Noel-Levitz, OmniUpdate, CollegeWeekLive, and NRCCUA® (National Research Center for College & University Admissions).

The University of Vermont College of Medicine Office of Diversity and Inclusion is hosting an open house and tour at the “RACE: Are We So Different?” exhibit at the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center in Burlington, Vt., on Wednesday, January 16, 2013, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. UVM College of Medicine staff, faculty, students are invited to attend this free event by showing their UVM i.d. Guests, accompanied by a UVM i.d.-holder, are welcomed.

The newly-restructured Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the College of Medicine is led by Margaret Tandoh, M.D., associate professor of surgery, who became assistant dean of the on November 1, 2012. She oversees the plans, policies and initiatives for diversity and inclusion at the College and is supported by Tiffany Delaney, M.A. Ed., director of admissions and outreach, who focuses on the development, implementation and assessment of diversity and inclusion initiatives that are integral to medical student recruitment, outreach initiatives and campus climate. Tandoh also serves as chair the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.

Learn more about the UVM College of Medicine Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Strategic Action Plan for 2012-2017.

Visit the ECHO RACE: Are We So Different? website.