osu_archives

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Helen Gilkey: Master Botanist

Botanist Helen Margaret Gilkey earned a master’s degree in botany from Oregon Agricultural College in 1911 and the next year enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of California at Berkeley. She was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Botany at Berkeley when she completed her degree in 1915. She continued as a scientific illustrator at Berkeley until 1918, when she returned to OAC as an assistant professor. She was also appointed Curator of the Herbarium, a position she held for 33 years, until her retirement in 1951.

Under Gilkey’s watch, the college’s herbarium grew from 25,000 to 75,000 plant specimen. Gilkey wrote more than 40 articles and books during her academic career and was one of the world’s leading experts in underground fungi (truffles) and tubers.

In 1996, Gilkey was inducted into the Berkeley Women’s Hall of Fame.

In 2003, Sharon Rose, Willamette University Biology Professor, curated an exhibit of Gilkey’s botanical illustrations at Willamette’s Hallie Ford Museum of Art (Read full story about Sharon Rose’s research.).

The Helen M. Gilkey Papers are available to researchers in the OSU Archives.

General notes and thoughts about Online Northwest 2007 (Feb 16, 2007).
Elizabeth Nielsen
OSU Libraries were well represented on both sides of the podium. I attended the keynote and 3 sessions A full program summary is available here:
http://www.ous.edu/onlinenw/2007/2007OnlineNorthwestProgramSummaries.pdf

Highlights (take-aways) of the sessions I attended:

Keynote by Stephen Abram
** added values of libraries (and librarians) is to improve the “quality of the question” and the user experience
** Google (commercial search engines) can answer “who, what, when, where” questions; libraries do best at answering “how” and “why” questions
** in academic setting, library “instruction” needs to be linked at the “lesson” level (assignment, project, or task)

Session One: Creating Online Library Tutorials with Macromedia Captivate: Process and Product (Karen Munro, UC Berkeley)
** strongly recommends flash files (*.swf) for delivery of tutorials — are seamless for user
** keep tutorials short (3 minutes max; 1 minute may be better)
** Captivate now an Adobe product
** develop tutorials that can be used for a variety of purposes (across classes, courses, or disciplines)
** adding audio doubles the development time
** storyboard each action and write script
** importance of tying tutorial to an assignment
** put tutorial at the point of need

** link to her powerpoint: http://lib.berkeley.edu/~kmunro/ONW/prez.ppt
** sample tutorial (in beta testing): http://lib.berkeley.edu/~kmunro/captivate/LCSH.swf
** link to her own “post mortem” of the session: http://karenlibrarian.wordpress.com/2007/02/19/online-northwest-post-mortem/

Session Two: Observing Student Researchers in their Native Habitat (John Law, Proquest)
nothing astounding here
** qualitative research (observing students doing research for class research project) and quantitative (survey)
** used FaceBook to place ad to solicit research participants (didn’t mention library or Proquest in ad)
** many students started their research at course website
** little evaluation of whether resource was appropriate for the specific task (used what they were familiar/comfortable with)
** strong brand recognition
** student researchers chose library resources because librarian visited class; professor required or suggested it; or brand awareness
** students use google for primary research; to supplement research (make sure they didn’t miss anything); quick reference to get background information; or to locate known resources (known websites; major newspapers; library resources)
** why students chose google for primary research: unfamiliar with library e-resources; bad experience with library (trying to search catalog for article; authentication issues; e-resources web page unclear)
** students indicated do NOT use myspace or facebook for coursework or research — might use for group projects
** once in library databases, users don’t have difficulty conducting research
** full text is prerequiste; abstracts are essential

Session Three: Digital Archiving on a Shoestring: Development of the Oregon Documents Repository (Kyle Banerjee and Arlene Weible, Oregon State Library)
presentation outline: http://library.state.or.us/onlinenw/
document repository: http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/GRES/REPOS/
** difficulty of distinguishing between publications and public records (perhaps a reason to use same repository for both)
** use MARC records for description/metadata — allow integration of description of paper/electronic document
** returning native file format not essential; most important to retain content
** not trying to preserve the experience of using the original format
** design determined by workflow