Libraries & Digital Learning

Microsoft has released a new quarantine feature which you may receive an email message with the Subject: Microsoft 365 security: You have messages in quarantine.

Regular (safe) junk mail will continue to go to your Junk folder.

Phishing scams or malware emails deemed more dangerous will be placed in quarantine.

You can release any legit messages from quarantine. If you do nothing, messages get deleted after 15 days.

More information about quarantine and releasing emails to your Inbox can be found on our website: https://www.trincoll.edu/lits/technology/tech-support/email/quarantined-email/

This year’s theme for International Open Access Week is “Community Over Commercialization.” It encourages a candid conversation about which approaches to open scholarship prioritize the best interests of the public and the academic community—and which do not.

Please visit a poster display in the atrium of Raether LITC, for facts, statistics, and quotes, meant to inspire thought and conversation about how Trinity scholarship can most equitably reach a global audience.

See also:

• A compilation of articles and resources on Open Access issues, curated for Trinity faculty
• A list of the ways in which Trinity Library is contributing to Open Access efforts, including some publishers that waive APCs for Trinity authors with our subscriptions.

Applications for the 2023-2024 Student Advisory Board are now open! If you’d like to be a part of it, please submit yours by Wednesday, September 20.

The Library & Information Technology Services (LITS) Student Advisory Board empowers stellar Trinity students to advise us on ongoing programming and initiatives. In past years, the board has advised on our annual Day of Digital Scholarship, open educational resources, and using an anti-racism and equity framework to assess and evaluate library collections, services, and outreach. Students also help us create a welcoming space that meets the needs of our community.

Please note that from Wednesday, August 2 through Friday, August 4, the building will be closed (including 24-hour zones).  Please call for remote support : Faculty & Staff: 860-297-2100; Students & Alumni: 860-297-2007.

This Spring, we announced that Trinity is joining the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) as of June 1, 2023. As BLC members, we will enjoy expanded access to resources and services, better pricing for library materials, and many other advantages.

Because all three institutions under the CTW (Connecticut College, Trinity College, and Wesleyan University) consortium will be members of BLC, the CTW library consortium as a distinct organization is coming to an end. As CTW’s operations are folded into the BLC, we are making some necessary changes to the materials requesting process.

• As of July 1 2023, materials from Connecticut College or Wesleyan found in the OneSearch catalog will only be requestable using the link that says “Request through Interlibrary Loan”; you will no longer see an option to request the item specifically from Connecticut College or Wesleyan.
• You will continue to see catalog records for Connecticut College and Wesleyan materials, through Fall 2023.
• After July 1 2023, items borrowed from BLC Libraries will have a 16-week loan period for all users, renewable upon request.

If you have any questions please contact Amy Harrell amy.harrell@trincoll.edu, or Ann Marie Krupski Annmarie.krupski@trincoll.edu.

The College now subscribes to Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), which provides a blanket license for many sources used in course packets. An online workshop on Thursday May 11th at 11:00 will discuss how to use the CCC, and answer questions regarding course packet creation through the campus bookstore. Register for the workshop here.

Starting in Fall 2023, faculty may order course packets through the bookstore. While technically an option in the past, the cost was often prohibitive due to the copyright fees associated with printing.

The potential cost of course packets has been substantially lowered by the college’s new subscription to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), which offers blanket copyright permissions for many sources to be used in course packets. Faculty will be able to search the CCC database to see if their readings are covered by this license. Costs of course packets containing covered material will be the cost of printing plus a modest surcharge per packet to cover the annual licensing fee. (Faculty participating in a pilot in Spring 2023 found their course packets ranged from $34-$55, depending on length).

This subscription allows a way for interested faculty to use course packets, which many prefer for pedagogical reasons. It also allows students to buy course packets along with their other books, which is more convenient and allows students whose scholarship covers books to purchase course packets more easily.

Course packets for Fall 2023 can be ordered by emailing a full pdf of the course packet to bookstore@trincoll.edu by August 1 to ensure time for printing.

Trinity faculty and staff can access the CCC database (The Copyright Clearance Center RightFind tool) by visiting https://academic.copyright.com/rs-ui-web/welcome and registering as a new user. A workshop demonstrating the CCC database and answering questions about course packet creation will be held on May 11 at 11:00am via Zoom.

Please register to attend the workshop.

For course packet printing and logistics, please contact Doug Stewart, at bookstore@trincoll.edu.

Please direct questions about the CCC to Amy Harrell amy.harrell@trincoll.edu.

Small local bookshops are rare gems and Trinity is lucky to have several close by.  Earlier this year the library set up an account with one, the River Bend Bookshop in West Hartford, and have started purchasing books from them for the Wellness, Leisure Reading, and Graphic Novels collections.  In the last two months the library has purchased more than twenty books from the River Bend Bookshop and we look forward to buying many more.

The River Bend Bookshop is an independent small bookstore with locations in Glastonbury and West Hartford.  Both locations are quintessential cozy bookshops, visiting either is a wonderful way to spend the afternoon for any book lover.  But if you can’t make it to their physical stores they also have a website that offers lists of staff picks, upcoming releases for pre-order, best sellers, indie books, banned or challenged books, and digital audiobooks.  You can place orders for pickup or delivery, and even order signed copies of certain titles.  You can visit their website at the following url: https://www.riverbendbookshop.com/

As an official collection development policy takes shape this summer the library will discuss our commitment to supporting small local businesses and finding alternative vendors to large corporations that dominate the industry.  We hope that this partnership with River Bend Bookshop is not only the start of a long relationship, but also the precursor to others as the library works to directly support small businesses in the Hartford area and beyond.

The Library is expanding its resources for our maker-minded students. Creativity is a wonderful way to express ideas and de-stress, and we want to provide the space, how-to, and supplies for you to make something new!

The new library of arts & crafts supplies in the RLITC was inspired by Trinity’s Nest Artists and funded in part by a grant from the Wikimedia foundation on behalf of Art+Feminism. It includes a variety of materials for you to borrow or keep, such as paints, papers, brushes, easels, paint by number kits, hot glue gun, sewing machine, yarn, knitting needles, and more.

The arts & crafts library is located in room 134, RLITC Level 1, Center for Educational Technology, and is accessible 24 hours with your student ID.

Nearby on Level 1 right outside the Blume center, there is a new Creative Technology book collection! Here you will find a range of books to provide inspiration on podcasting, paper crafts, sewing, writing, and more. All books can be borrowed for 28 days.

Finally, if you are looking for a crochet or knitting group, bring your current work-in-progress Fridays from 3 – 5pm in RLITC Room 181.  You and your student colleagues can unwind, listen to music, work on your projects, and plan your weekend! Need Lessons? Contact Amy Harrell ahead of time and we’ll make sure you learn the skills you need.

As part of an ongoing initiative to develop photogrammetry capabilities for teaching and scholarship in collaboration with an alumni request, several LITS staff members [Dave Tatem, Amanda Matava, and Benny Bauer] worked to generate a 3D model of an antique Trinity doorknob using high-resolution photographs, a lightbox, a mechanized turntable, and Nikon camera this past September.

Some of the final images of the doorknob, which were successfully used to create the model. Click on the image to see animation!

Staff acquired the lightbox prior to the beginning of the semester in order to test the photography using  the camera on a tripod. The doorknob was manually turned 360 degrees and then turned upside-down, turned 360 degrees, and finally, turned on its head and photographed again, generating around 80 photos of the item. Unfortunately, manually turning the doorknob did not generate the results hoped for in Agisoft Metashape, the software used to generate the 3D model. Staff attempted to photograph the doorknob again using a makeshift turntable, and then finally, with an automated turntable. The automated turntable, which can will turn at even intervals using a remote control, provided the most consistent results. Dave also printed out a photogrammetry marker, upon which the doorknob sat while being photographed, to provide more data once the images were ingested into the software.

By photographing the 3D object from all angles, an object can be measured and analyzed in photogrammetry software, which extracts data from the digital photographs and allows for construction of a 3D model, wrapping the images over a mesh to the exact size and shape of the physical object. The photographs must be taken with 60-80% overlap, in order to ensure that all data of the object is captured. In this case, as the item was a doorknob, turning the object upside-down allowed for photographs to be taken of areas that were in shadow during the first pass, and turning the doorknob on its face allowed for more data to fill in any missing gaps.

In this case, the third time was the charm — and a wonderful 3D model was made! Dave posted the model to SketchFab, where it can be accessed publicly. After the success of the first photogrammetry session, Amanda and Benny plan to photograph and create models of the other two antique doorknobs.

The 3D model