Somehow summer 2023 is already half over! We want to pause and mention some interesting items from our network and beyond.

Projects

First up, a podcast by CLIR has won an award! The third season of the Material Memory podcast won the 2023 Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). The 8-episode season explores the libraries at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

If you’re hungry for more podcast action from our region, check out the newly-launched Ascent Archive! This podcast presents oral histories with rock climbers. Congrats to University of Utah, Marriott Library librarians Tallie Casucci and Rachel Wittmann and the American West Center on the launch!

The DLF Assessment Interest Group, Content Reuse Working Group has released D-CRAFT, the Digital Content Reuse Assessment Framework Toolkit. Visit the toolkit to learn more on methods and tools available to measure the use and reuse of digital objects. The project team included investigators from several MWDL members.

Finally, DPLA has launched a Banned Book Club through The Palace Project ebook platform. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Transitions

We’ve had several changes with our Governing Body in the past few months. Emily Boss (University of Nevada, Reno) became Chair at our most recent meeting in May. Congratulations, Emily!

We also welcomed two new members to the Governing Body. Kathleen Broder (Southern Utah University) took over from Julie Wood and Tyler Clarke (Morgan County Historical Society) took over from Anthony Morris (formerly of Orem Public Library). Thanks to Julie and Anthony, and welcome to Kathleen and Tyler! The current membership roster can be found on our website.

Finally, University of Utahm Marriott Library welcomed its newest Dean of Libraries, Sarah Shreeves, in mid-June. You can learn more about Dean Shreeves in At the U’s article, 6 Things to Know About the U’s New Dean of Libraries. Welcome!

Conferences & Events

In case you weren’t able to attend the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) Annual Conference in Naples, Italy, the proceedings are now available free.

Be sure to check out upcoming MWDL events for calls for proposals, participation, webinars and events.

Fun: Barbenheimer!

Call it the Barbenheimer effect, but we noticed an uptick in July’s search statistics for phrases like Manhattan Project and nuclear test. So far no one’s searched for Barbie, but maybe we just haven’t made it out of Barbieland yet. 😉