Libraries & Digital Learning – Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut

Trinity Launches New Digital Repository

February 10, 2025 / Amanda Matava

The Trinity Library recently announced the new Digital Repository, a site in JSTOR which houses and provides access to scholarly and creative works by Trinity College community members and digitized materials from the College Archives and Watkinson Library Special Collections. As part of the launch, library staff members Christina Bleyer, Amy Harrell, and Amanda Matava held an informational session on January 23 during Common Hour for faculty, staff and students to show the new site, demonstrate its functionality, and answer questions.

Trinity’s Digital Repository was initiated in 2011 to collect faculty and student scholarly and creative works such as papers, publications, and theses. Over time, it grew to include digitized textual materials from the Watkinson Library Special Collections, College Archives like the Tripod, Ivy, Bulletins and Catalogues. The new Repository totals 77,000 items, and old URLs have been redirected to the new site. Items are also indexed in Google for discoverability.

The Repository can be accessed in several ways:

https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu

https://jstor.org/site/trinity

https://jstor.org — Browse (on the right) — Your Institution’s Collections.

The decision to change platforms was considered for some time due to cost, functionality, and open access considerations, but put on hold until a suitable replacement could be found. JSTOR offers a more modern, intuitive experience and can support multiple formats including text, audio, video, and images. This has consolidated Trinity’s digital collections to one platform instead of multiple. The new repository is also a digital asset management system with a preservation component, so hosted materials and their metadata are monitored and stored in perpetuity. Continue reading

AI-Based Library Research Tools

January 16, 2025 / Amy Harrell

There are many AI-based tools in development that purport to help you with “research.” A non-exhaustive list would include: Semantic Scholar, Elicit, Research Rabbit, Perplexity, Consensus, and Scite. They vary in the types of sources they index and the format of their search results, but they commonly attempt to summarize and distill large and complex amounts of information for you.

On the surface they seem tremendously helpful, but can they replace JSTOR or your favorite library database? Not yet. Here are a few tools to look at more closely – they all draw on Semantic Scholar’s corpus of sources, but they present content in very different ways.

Semantic Scholar: In existence for a few years already, Semantic Scholar partners with publishers in STEM and social sciences to access scholarly content. When you type in a search, the results will look similar to Google Scholar, with the exception of the TLDR article summary. Click “Expand” at the end of the summary and you can read the article’s abstract. If you click on the article title you can follow the citation network for the paper: its references, citations, and “related papers.” The drawback appears to be its search algorithm, which does not always understand your search string or question. Nevertheless, you can potentially discover different sources than if you use Google Scholar alone.

Elicit: Elicit borrows Semantic Scholar’s corpus of literature and puts an entirely different user interface and searching algorithm on top of it. It synthesizes the “Top” 4 papers on your topic and also provides summaries of the papers themselves. Look closely at the paragraph synthesis, however, and compare its conclusions with the article summaries: they may be at odds. Elicit also admits that it cannot always distinguish a good study from a bad one. The natural language searching feature is very good though, and it can be useful to students exploring topics.

Research Rabbit: Research Rabbit also borrows content from Semantic Scholar. It is primarily a citation explorer, rather than a search engine, and works best if you “feed” it a few papers first. For this task, it can sync with Zotero and upload collections or folders. From there, explore references, citations, and “similar work.” Confirmation bias is a risk, of course, but nevertheless and it can be revealing to “go down a rabbit hole,” as it were, as you uncover the scholarly communication thread.

Overall, literature research stands to greatly benefit from AI-based tools, especially when you are navigating citation networks, uncovering buried sources, and exploring research topics. But don’t remove your JSTOR bookmark yet.

Cookies, Comfort, and Campus Wellness: Reflections on “Snacks & Support”

November 20, 2024 / rberanis

Earlier this semester, our library hosted Snacks & Support, a new event designed to blend academic assistance with wellness for our student community. Students were invited to drop by for snacks, in-person research help, and wellness resources like stress busting tips, recipes, and health center giveaways. It was a blend of nourishment for the mind and body, and a way to show that seeking support doesn’t have to feel overwhelming.

While we had carefully curated health-focused snacks and thoughtfully organized resources, it wasn’t the popcorn or the fruit that stole the show. It was the homemade cookies.

The Unexpected Power of a Cookie

I didn’t expect the level of joy a cookie could spark. But there it was… person after person, pausing mid-bite, their faces lighting up. Some lingered to chat, sharing fond memories of baking at home or thanking us for what felt like an unexpected treat. These weren’t just cookies. They were moments of comfort, reminders of care, and tiny invitations to slow down in the middle of a busy hour.

The cookies in question? Chocolate chip oatmeal with toffee—chewy, sweet, and just the right amount of indulgent. But more than their flavor, it was the unexpectedness and the personal touch that resonated. They inspired me to think about the broader idea of wellness: how simple, intentional acts (or snacks!) can bring comfort and connection to our lives.

A Recipe for Wellness

The success of Snacks & Support wasn’t just in the snacks, though. It was in the atmosphere we created: one of care, comfort, and community. Inspired by this experience, I wanted to share a “wellness recipe” for the end-of-semester season—a guide to finding joy, relaxation, and balance, with some inspiration drawn from the library.

Start with a daily dose of mindfulness. Find a quiet place to sit and reflect—perhaps in the leisure reading area, surrounded by cozy chairs and great books. Or take a moment to gaze out a library window with a serene view of campus, letting yourself pause and breathe.
Mix in movement. Take a walk through the library’s stacks, exploring new books and topics. A bit of wandering can clear your mind and spark curiosity.
Sprinkle in kindness. Leave a kind note in a shared space, recommend a book to a friend, or simply share a smile with someone you pass in the library. These small gestures can brighten everyone’s day.
Add balance. Reserve time for focused study in one of the library’s quiet spaces, then reward yourself with a warm drink from Peter B’s. Balance is about work and restoration.
Top with gratitude. Reflect on the small joys around you—a productive study session, a favorite chair by the window, or a comforting buzz of activity in the library. Gratitude helps shift our focus to the positive.

The Joy of Sharing Wellness

As we wrap up the semester and look toward the holidays, I hope these reflections encourage you to find small ways to prioritize wellness… whether it’s baking a favorite treat, practicing mindfulness, or simply pausing to connect with others. Wellness isn’t just about what we do for ourselves—it’s about what we share with our communities.

Here’s to finding joy in the small things and building a campus culture where everyone can thrive.

Trinity now has access to the Hartford Courant website

November 11, 2024 / Amy Harrell

Trinity users can now access the entire Hartford Courant website for free. Just go to https://courseguides.trincoll.edu/courantsite and select “Anonymous Access 24h” from the welcome page.

To access the Courant historical archive and read articles published from 1764 – 1998, go to https://courseguides.trincoll.edu/couranthist

Color Our Collections 2024 – Calling all creators!

October 22, 2024 / Joelle Thomas

#ColorOurCollections is an initiative from the New York Academy of Medicine to transform library, museum, and archival collections into free coloring pages. Trinity College Library & Information Technology Services participates in this initiative by publishing an annual coloring book featuring a mix of scans of our archival material and student-submitted artwork. Our digital repository hosts PDF versions of our previous coloring books.

Our theme this year is Touch Grass: Experience the Natural World. In honor of the library’s new seed library and our status as an arboretum, we’re celebrating the natural world at Trinity and beyond. This can include depictions of flora, fauna, landscapes, or any other part of nature.

Feeling inspired? All Trinity students are invited to participate by submitting their original artwork for inclusion in this year’s coloring books. See the guidelines below for details. If you have any questions, please direct them to trinitywellness@trincoll.edu.

We’re also hosting an event called Pumpkins and Pencils tomorrow, October 23, from 4:15-5:15pm in room 182 of the library. Drop by for a chance to work on your coloring book submissions and enjoy some sweet treats!

To enter the contest, be sure to submit your artwork in coloring book style to trinitywellness@trincoll.edu by NOVEMBER 15, 2024.

Bantam Research Roost

September 30, 2024 / Susan Chatham

Our research & instruction librarians are flying the coop and setting up temporary roosts around campus to bring research support right to you!

Our Bantam Research Roost program, which debuted during the spring 2024 semester and has returned this fall, is a traveling librarian initiative designed to increase the library’s visibility and accessibility on campus, fostering a more inclusive environment and supporting student academic success. Whether you’re a student working on an assignment or a faculty member seeking new resources, the Bantam Research Roost brings the library’s expertise directly to you, making it easier than ever to tap into our wealth of resources and expertise, wherever you are on campus.

Once a week, throughout the semester, our research librarians and peer research assistants will visit a different campus location between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Stop by our table to get answers to research questions and learn about exciting resources, services, and events in the library.

Our friendly librarians can help you at any stage in your research, whether that’s brainstorming or focusing research topics or questions, finding relevant sources, evaluating sources, or citing and managing your sources. Faculty are also invited to begin a conversation about how we can support your courses through instruction sessions or assist with your own research needs.

As an added incentive the first student to speak with us each week will receive a $5 Peter B’s gift card (while supplies last)! We will have additional goodies including stickers and (usually) candy for everyone to enjoy when you visit our roost.

The Research Roost schedule can be found on the Campus Calendar and our location will be posted as a story on our Instagram account (@trincoll_library) each week.

Lastly, remember our friendly and knowledgeable librarians and peer research assistants are available to help you with your research beyond the roost. You can make an appointment to meet with us at a time that is convenient for you or send us an email. We are always happy to chat and help you find the answers you need.

Image of first Bantam Research Roost table.

Research & Instruction Librarians, Rosie (left) and Susan (right) sit at the Bantam Research Roost table in Mather during its launch in the spring 2024 semester.

Image of outdoor Bantam Research Roost table

Peer Research Assistant, Alex Golz sits at the Bantam Research Roost table on the Long Walk during the second roost of the fall 2024 semester.

New E-Resource Selection: What Makes the Cut?

September 12, 2024 / krinaldo

The bulk of the library’s collection budget goes towards purchasing perpetual access or maintaining subscription to e-resources of many varieties. But how do librarians decide which new resources to add? There are three main factors that drive our electronic resource acquisition: enhancing the existing collection, proactive selection of resources that relate to Trinity’s unique scholarship needs, and responses to requests of students and faculty for research support.

Streaming video resources are in high demand and when librarians learned that a new set of videos was being offered as an add on to the PBS Video Collection the library already owned we jumped at the opportunity. Experience told us these videos would be well used and a preview of the title list showed they were logical compliments to the videos already in the collection. In addition, this collection is often the only place where PBS releases some videos for streaming, so we knew there would be exclusive content unavailable anywhere else. All these factors told us that the purchase would be a direct enhancement to the library’s existing streaming video offerings.

PolicyMap was a statistical database the library considered in the past, but declined due to content overlap with similar resources like Social Explorer. But when a representative reached out with exciting updates on unique new datasets relevant to urban studies, climate studies, and environmental justice studies, among others, librarians thought it prudent to request a trial to take another look. This new data clearly supported the research needs of several disciplines and this combined with PolicyMap’s more user-friendly interface compared to our other statistical databases convinced the librarians this would be a worthwhile subscription.

It can be said that the most valuable resource helping librarians identify new electronic resources to purchase is the Trinity community itself. This is how librarians learn about some truly unique specialty resources like Human Relations Area Files: World Cultures, an ethnographic database with information on all aspects of cultural and social life for a wide variety of cultures and ethnic groups. Similarly, it was due to a faculty member’s report that librarians learned a previously open access journal incredibly important to ethnographic theory in anthropology, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, was placed behind a paywall and a subscription was duly purchased. Just as librarians are an irreplaceable resource for students and faculty research projects, students and faculty are also invaluable partners in helping librarians identify relevant and useful resources that fulfill our collection development goal of supporting current scholarship.