Award to Transform Learning through Open Educational Resources

A new award sponsored by the Digital Intelligence & Innovation Accelerator (DI2) aims to encourage WashU instructors to develop freely available digital course materials that will improve student success. The DI2 Accelerator Award for Open Education Resources provides incentives for WashU teaching faculty to create, adapt, or adopt Open Educational Resources (OER) to advance learning.

Three tiers of funding will be offered:

Adoption ($2,500): For switching to an existing OER
Adaptation ($5,000): For modifying an existing OER
Creation ($7,500): For developing a new OER

Applications for the Accelerator Award for Open Educational Resources are currently open and will be reviewed on a rolling basis through December 31, 2024.

Learn more

Winter Break Closures

Most locations of WashU Libraries will be inaccessible to patrons from Saturday, December 21 through Wednesday, January 1 during winter break.

Becker Medical Library, the Brown School Library, and the Law Library will be operating with alternate schedules.

Full details

Upcoming Events

Monday, November 11
5:30-7 pm
Olin Library, Ginkgo Room

International Writers Series
New Poetry from Europe

Join WashU Libraries and the Department of Comparative Literature and Thought for an evening of new poetry from Europe. Poets Efe Duyan, Marko Pogačar, and Ales Steger join us under the auspices of Versopolis, an online European poetry platform for emerging European poets. They will read poetry in their original languages (Croatian, Turkish, and Slovenian) and in English translation, and discuss the work of creating lyric connections across borders and languages. The discussion will be moderated by Matthias Goeritz..

Learn more & sign up

DataLab Workshop
Large Language Models in Python Series

Tuesday, November 12 | 2-3:30 pm | Olin Library, Instruction Rm. 2

In this three-session seminar, we will delve into neural network/deep learning approaches that have become dominant in NLP in recent years. The course will cover concepts in the rapidly evolving state-of-the-art, with a focus on transfer learning using pretrained language models and transformers such as BERT and GPT.

This class will be fully in-person, and participants will use their own laptops. Enrollment is limited to 30.

Faculty Book Talk: Bronwyn Nichols Lodato

Wednesday, November 13| 3:30-5 pm
Olin Library, Rm. 142

Join us for a faculty book talk featuring Professor Bronwyn Nichols Lodato (Education & African & African American Studies). In this event, she will explore the impact of shock events like COVID-19 on African American communities, identity development, and education outcomes among adolescents and young adults. Nichols Lodato’s recently published book, COVID-19, the Great Recession and Young Adult Identity Development, introduces a new, shock-sensitive framework for diverse young adult identity development after high school, offering a paradigm shift in how identity development is framed.

Free and open to all, registration requested.

Learn more & register

Thursday, November 14
4-5:30 pm pm
Olin Library, Rm. 142

Capturing Nature

The human relationship with plants is ancient and profound. Plants are so ubiquitous in our lives that many of us may not notice them anymore, but it is time to see them again, both for our own well-being and that of the earth. All are invited to join us for a panel discussion that will highlight three aspects of the plant-human association—art, medicine, and science.

Panelists

Jody Williams, botanical artist and Director of the American Society of Botanical Artists
Elizabeth Brander, Head of Rare Books, Becker Medical Library, WashU
Jordan Teisher, Herbarium Director, Missouri Botanical Gardens

Learn more & sign up

Faculty Book Talk: Patty Heyda

Tuesday, November 19 | 4:30-6:30 pm
Olin Library, Rm. 142

Join us for a faculty book talk with Professor Patty Heyda from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Heyda will discuss her new book, Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA. The book delves into the structural contradictions and racial inequalities inherent in market-based planning in the American first-ring suburb, as seen through the lens of Ferguson, Missouri.

Free and open to all, registration requested.

Learn more & register

Geography Awareness Week 2024

Nov.

Native Space: Mapping, Expulsion, and Confinement in 19th-century North America

Nov. 18, 4-5:30 pm, Olin Library, Rm. 142

The fall meeting of the Geospatial Working Group features Balraj Gill, an Indigenous Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at WashU, who will discuss Native relationships with space and place as settlers colonized and transformed Native space during the 19th century in what is called North America. The talk will explore Native epistemologies of space alongside settler mapping, the expulsion of Native peoples from their homelands, and their confinements in concentrated spaces when tribal nations and communities evaded expulsion. Presentation will be followed by group discussion and light refreshments.

Nov.

Protecting the Cultural Resources of the Seminole Tribe

Nov. 19, 10-11 am, Zoom

Join us as we celebrate Geography Awareness week with a virtual presentation and discussion with guests from the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Juan J. Cancel, Assistant Director of the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, and Joseph Nicholas Butler, Chief Data Analyst, will discuss their work in helping to protect and preserve cultural resources tribal lands in the southwest.

Nov.

GIS in Indian Country

Nov. 20, 2-3:30 pm, Olin Library, Rm. 142

Join us as we celebrate Geography Awareness Week with a discussion featuring Garrett Couch, GISP, President of the National Tribal Geographic Information Support Center (NTGISC), also known as Tribal GIS. Couch will discuss topics related to GIS activities in Indian Country, including defining Indian Country, exploring the geography of federally recognized tribes today, examining the intersection of geospatial activity in Indian Country from historic to modern times.

Sato Research Competition
Now Open

For the fifth year, the WashU Libraries are excited to announce the call for entries for the Mendel Sato Research Award designed to engage students’ research with collections from the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections.

The Mendel Sato Research Award seeks submissions from students who are engaged in original research with special collections materials in courses taught in departments on the Danforth Campus of WashU during the current academic year. Submission deadline: May 16, 2025.