Hello May!

Still in quarantine mode, but luckily the weather allows for some walking at the sunshine – don’t forget to follow social distancing 😉

April 23, 2020 marked the centenary of the founding of the First Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) which carried out the struggle for Independence and this current issue is devoted to it. Despite these hard times following the end of the World War I, the occupation of Istanbul by the Allies of World War I and the abolishment of the Meclis-i Mebûsan, there was a light that lit the darkness in the middle of Anatolia, in Ankara. This light called “the First Turkish Grand National Assembly” which gave hope to struggle for national independence, has become the stronghold of democracy and sovereignty. The First Turkish Grand National Assembly was not just an assembly which had legislative and executive powers, it was also equipped with extraordinary powers and adopted union of powers. Thus, the assembly was rejecting the legitimacy of the Ottoman Sultanate and became the “true and only representative of the Turkish nation.”

During the Turkish War of Independence, the First Turkish Assembly with its right decisions, won a historic victory. Establishment of the regular army, and victories on the Eastern, Southern and Western fronts changed ill fate of the Turkish nation. The Assembly also adopted the "İstiklal Marşı", the Turkish National Anthem, on 12 March 1921 in the beginning days of the Turkish War of Independence. In the diplomatic arena, the Assembly managed to end the Turkish War of Independence by signing the “Armistice of Mudanya”. After this success, the representatives of the new independent and sovereign state signed “The Treaty of Lausanne’, finally concluding World War I. Last but not least, the other very important act of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey was the abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate on the November 01, 1922 which ended the Ottoman Empire, and there was no obstacle on the foundation of a new state, “Turkish Republic” after this change. Today, we are celebrating the foundation of the First Turkish Grand National Assembly as National Sovereignty and Children's Day. This important day was dedicated to all children of the world by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Library Digital Exhibition: From Inauguration to Liberation: 1st Turkish Grand National Assembly

“…The first necessity was to establish a legitimate basis of action. A parliament, the Grand National Assembly, met at Ankara on April 23, 1920 and asserted that the sultan’s government was under infidel control and that it was the duty of Muslims to resist foreign encroachment. In the Fundamental Law of January 20, 1921, the assembly declared that sovereignty belonged to the nation and that the assembly was the “true and only representative of the nation.” The name of the state was declared to be Turkey (Türkiye), and executive power was entrusted to an executive council, headed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk...”

From Inauguration to Liberation: 1st Turkish Grand National Assembly digital exhibition is a selection of photographs of the 1st Turkish Grand National Assembly from the Ankara Photography, Postcards and Engraving Collection as part of the events planned on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

Highlights from our Digital Collections

How else could you travel in the past, exploring historical, cultural, social and personal valuable traces if not through digital items that tell a story? You can always discover our collections from anywhere you might be.

Are you interested in restoration and architecture? Explore a variety of archival materials of more than 150 historic buildings of Byzantine and Ottoman architecture in Marmara Region mainly in Istanbul through the Cahide Tamer collection. And if your main interest is Byzantium,GABAM brings to you a rich collection of Byzantine monuments located in Istanbul, as documented and seen from the eyes of five different photographers. Another view is offered through the Mehmet Nihat Nigizberk Collection, which bears witness to the Late Ottoman and early republican era in Turkey and reflects the conditions of the historical monuments (primarily examples of Anatolian Seljuks, Ottoman, Mamluk and Arab architecture). Moving on to more recent times, enjoy the Civil Architectural Heritage of Ankara collection where you can find photographs and architectural designs of identified structures which were built between 1930-1980, in Ankara’s Çankaya, Altındağ, Mamak, Keçiören, Yenimahalle districts.

New Digital Collection: Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha Documents

The new digital collection of Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha Documents illustrates the political, economic, and socio-cultural athmosphere of the fin-de-siècle Ottoman Empire. Starting its processing and digitizing project last summer, the main protagonist of this collection, Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha (1855 - 1922), was the Ottoman statesman and imperial administrator, twice the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in the reign of Abdülhamid II (during the 31 March Incident, between February 14, 1909 and April 13, 1909) and in the reign of Mehmed V (between May 5, 1909 and December 28, 1909) around the time of the Second Constitutional Era.

The collection includes records of the correspondence retained by Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha himself for his personal archive and newspaper clippings. That being said, these records can be divided into two periods: the first phase coinciding with his post as governor of Yemen where most of the letters and telegrams were highly classified documents as suggested by their encryptions, whereas his second phase as the Head of the General Inspectorate of Rumelia was mainly made up of newspaper clippings, which were collected about the Balkan conflict that he collected in 1903-1919 from two European news agencies, "Le courrier de la presse" founded in Paris in 1889 and "Observer," established in Vienna in 1896.

The Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha Documents Collection is now accessible through Suna Kıraç Library Digital Collections website.

Faculty Select Database

The Library offers the Faculty Select database for Open Educational Resources.

Faculty Select, provides access to more than 12,400 Open Educational Resources and abstract information of 225,000 DRM-free ebooks. It is designed to support distance education and help faculty to locate relevant course materials.

Please limit your search to only see the Open Education Resources by selecting the OER Only button from the filter panel on the left of the screen.

Access Link: Ebsco Faculty Select

*Please remember that KU VPN should be active for remote access to all electronic resources.

For further questions, please e-mail us at liberesources@ku.edu.tr

Freely available Textbooks

In these challenging times, it’s hard to both trying and keep a balanced mind and body and continue with research, studying and teaching by accessing necessary resources. Many publishers have changed the access status of some or all their resources, providing free online access as a way to help researchers during this pandemic.

We have put together a long list that includes more than 150.000 interdisciplinary and medicine focused resources (mainly e-books) from VitalSource-Pearson Textbooks, Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, JSTOR, De Gruyter, SpringerNature and Project Muse. Content is provided freely during the Coronavirus pandemic and you can access it directly from our website.

As you can see from this list, all Koç University faculty members and students are eligible to use the VitalSources System once they register using their institutional email address. Each student can access and actively use up to 5 books published from Pearson. For faculty members who want to access more than 5 books, we kindly request them to get in touch with us so that we arrange their quota accordingly.

For material requests you can contact us at libarticlerequest@ku.edu.tr or email directly Rana Otur at rotur@ku.edu.tr.

For support on electronic resources you can contact us at liberesources@ku.edu.tr.

Meet our Staff: Onur Yılmaz - Electronic Resources and Serials Librarian

Hello all, my name is Onur and I am the Electronic Resources and Serials Librarian at Suna Kıraç Library. I have started working on this position in August last year and I have passed my rookie term with support from my colleagues.

I am responsible for all activities associated with electronic resources and serials collection including new acquisitions or subscriptions, licensing, online access, budget management, making cost-effectiveness analysis and evaluation of electronic resources. After all these processes are completed, electronic resources become accessible to you. I’m also trying to respond to requests for print subscription to journasl, magazines and newspapers when possible. My position also includes communicating with publishers, setting up trial accesses, evaluating usage statistics, solving the access problems you might face, collaborating with colleagues in various tasks and and supporting other library services when necessary.

I think the best thing working on this position is that there are always new developments to learn and the ability to support the research and training activities of the end users. This always motivates me while fulfilling my tasks.

You can always contact me for questions, requests and suggestions at liberesources@ku.edu.tr

SKL Open Access Resources Libguide has been updated

Welcome to our newly updated (OA) Resources LibGuide! This guide will provide the latest on (OA) resources including books, journals, theses, audio-visual archives, free educational courses and more. You will also find detailed information about the (OA) team and the (OA) & scholarly communication services of Suna Kıraç Library beside a reading list on (OA) literature. Scholarly outputs such as post-print articles, reports, conference proceedings, theses & dissertations of Koç University faculty members and researchers that are provided by Koç University Institutional Repository (KUIR) can be accessed through the libguide. In addition, it presents a complete list of (OA) resources, audio-visual archives and (OA) collections from different disciplines and (OA) publishers. To view the content featured in this LibGuide click on the tabs on the left side.

Please contact Open Access Team via openaccess@ku.edu.tr for your questions.

ANAMED Library Talk with a Twist!

Our montlhy Library talk was held on April 14th remotely, adjusting to current circumstances. Benefitting from technology, we provided the talk via Zoom and that was the 1st online event being held at any of the KU Libraries.

The talk lasted for 2 ½ hours with the participation of 232 individual persons from different parts of Turkey and there was even a participant joining from England. Dear prof. Oğuz Tekin talked about the presence and importance of Agora and coins in the Hellenistic period. The talk was moderated by prof. Aliye-Erol Özdizbay from Istanbul University.

You can find the recording of the talk (in Turkish) in ANAMED Library’s SoundCloud account and a list of previous talks in ANAMED Library’s website .

May’s talk will also be held remotely. Register here.

PressReader Remote Access – EXTENDED

If you haven’t used Press Reader yet to read journals, magazines and newspapers, now is the time to do it! The platform now offers remote access to its rich variety of publications in many different languages and from different countries around the globe for 60 days, from just 7.

All you must do is create your personal account and set your preferences.

Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Free Images for Broader Public Use

Enjoy some 1^st class images from a prime league cultural Institution! Smithsonian now offers available a vast number of images under the Smithsonian Open Access, an initiative that removes Smithsonian copyright restrictions from about 2.8 million of its digital collection images and nearly two centuries of data. This means that people everywhere can now download, transform and share this Open Access content for any purpose, for free, without further permission from the Smithsonian.