Binghamton University’s libraries: an expanse of literature and artifacts available for the education of BU students. To only use Glenn G. Bartle Library as a resource to take out the occasional book, though, would be to let its resources go underutilized. Not only does the library employ dozens of experienced staff members to assist with students’ research, but it’s also host to a number of more leisurely activities each semester. Since National Library Week, an annual celebration of the use and support of the public literary resources of the United States, kicked off this week, Pipe Dream put together a roundup of some of these exciting offerings from the University’s own research centers.
Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon — If celebrating National Library Week by itself isn’t enough, stop into another national event this month: the Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. This is the fifth year of Art+Feminism’s campaign to remedy the fact that fewer than 10 percent of Wikipedia’s editors are women. The Edit-a-thon is a national movement to both increase visibility for the women editing the internet’s most prominent encyclopedia and generate pages or improve accuracy for the content about women and women artists. Many college libraries conduct their own iterations of the Edit-a-thon, but this year will be the first that BU’s libraries will participate. The event will run from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 21.
Library Special Exhibitions — A perfect activity for when you need to take a break from studying in the library to stretch your legs is to walk through some of BU’s Special Collections exhibitions. Each exhibition is compiled from documents and materials within the library’s own collection, and there are typically exhibitions in each of BU’s library centers — Bartle Library, the Science Library and the University Downtown Center (UDC) Library — so that no matter which site you’re studying at, you can take a break and browse the selections. At Bartle Library, the theatre department has contributed artifacts from the backstage of its productions for “Behind the Curtain: The Art of Theatre Design and Research,” which is on display until May 31. The exhibition contains materials from productions new and old, including “Castle on the Hill,” which has yet to premiere. Meanwhile, at the Science Library, you can learn about “Hidden Messages: Steganography, Cryptology and Digital Watermarking” from books and virtual materials that discuss internet encryption; at the UDC, you can read the collection “Government Documents: Use the Past to Plan Your Future,” which combines local, state and federal documents to showcase the current political climate.
Library Seminars — In addition to the exhibition materials that can be found at Bartle Library, the center also offers regular seminars for students. One such class coming up is “Anyone Can Learn Web Scraping,” a two-hour workshop that aims to teach students how to create data sets from social media sites. The program is sponsored by the Data Science Transdisciplinary Working Group, the School of Management and the political science and economics departments, and will be held on Friday, May 11, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The class is open to all students in undergraduate and graduate departments.