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                                          Issue: 2020 - 22
Welcome

We are already in the heart of summer and in many ways it seems like we pushed fast forward in the previous months. Class of 2020 graduated – CONGRATS TO ALL!, summer school is starting remotely and home office is still our daily practice.

COVID-19 has infected people globally and has affected our social life with psychological effects. Additionally to this, the pandemic has been changing the research world bringing researchers on a halt or on a big step forward, depending on their scientific field. A recent report is highlighting the global research landscape trends and cultural changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis includes publication trends, regional focal points of research, collaboration patterns, and top institutional producers of research in COVID-19.

Koç University Libraries team maintains its motivation and productivity as a fierce response to this new reality. Take a look below to learn about our activities and work.


Virtual posters session
Academic & Research Libraries in the whirlwind of the covid-19 pandemic


Trying to put together the experience and strategic actions of academic libraries in Turkey and worldwide towards Covid-19, we decided to organize and host a virtual poster session as a freely accessible pool of evidence. Showcasing our “survival” skills under the current circumstances can help us engage with each other to share experience, difficulties, best solutions and unsuccessful attempts, upcoming plans and lessons learned.

The session was active for comments and interaction with the poster authors for 3 days, between June 10-12. At the end, we concluded on the 3 best posters, based on their content, the design and the number of comments they received, and we held a live presentation, to give their authors the chance to present once more their work and experience. We uploaded both recordings on our Youtube channel and you can now watch both the “3 best international posters” and the “3 best national posters” videos.



Time for your feedback!
Survey: Research Data Management Practice


Koç University Suna Kıraç Library is currently conducting a 10 min survey about the “Research Data Management Practice”.

The survey, which is mainly addressed to researchers and faculty members, has been prepared in cooperation with the Subworking Group of Turkey Research Data and Open Data Task Force under YÖK and the TU Delft University Library which is one of our internationally important stakeholders.

We need your support to understand your information and research needs, as well as the level of awareness in terms of the research data management process within Koç University.

Your feedback is essential to ensure the development of Koç University Institutional Research Data Repository (KU-RDR), improve and further develop the training/data support services and present a data management plan tailored to the requirements of many funding organizations.

Complete the survey now!

We thank you in advance for your support and contribution by completing this survey study. It will remain open between June to August 2020. Please contact us at openaccess@ku.edu.tr for your questions.



VEKAM Digital Collections
Ankara State Conservatory Collection


The Music Education Teacher School, in present day the Ankara State Conservatory, was established in 1924 to educate music teachers for the secondary schools by order of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who placed importance to the development of music and performing arts. The school was being constantly developed and between 1924 and 1982 it was divided into branches. In 1982 it was combined with the Hacettepe University Fine Arts Faculty. Today, the school is maintaining its activities as Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory.

The Ankara State Conservatory (Musiki Muallim Mektebi) Collection which is one of the digital collections of Koc University VEKAM, mainly consists of students applications documents dated between 1934 and 1956. The applicants who wanted to enroll in the Theatre and Opera departments and students who desired to become music teachers, expressed themselves through these correspondence which includea photographs and documents. These items reflect the socio-economic state of the country as well as the education system between 1925 and 1956. There are approximately 15000 materials which comprise different types of documents, for eaxample the students applications between the years 1934-1937. The digitalization of the Ankara State Conservatory Collection is an on-going process, with the addition of new materials.

Based on the Collection, we also created a digital exhibition titled “The Sound of the Republic: Musiki Muallim”



GABAM Digital Collections
Byzantine Musical Instruments Collection


Koç University – Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (GABAM) and the Music Library of Greece “Lilian Voudouri” of the Friends of Music Society in Athens launched a new research project, focusing on Byzantine musical instruments in partnership with Koç University Suna Kıraç Library. The main objective of the project was to thoroughly document the depictions of Byzantine musical instruments. All these depictions were fully integrated in a fully functional and fully database freely accessible to researchers.

The Byzantine Musical Instruments research project was conducted by Dr. Antonios Botonakis, a Post-Doctorate researcher based at GABAM, under the scientific supervision of Prof. Nikos Maliaras. As part of it, Dr. Botonakis examined numerous visual representations found on artefacts such as bowls, caskets, wall paintings, pitchers, mosaics, wooden icons etc., dated between the 2nd and the 16th century, originating from the wider geographic area of the Byzantine Empire.

During the second phase of the project, Greek manuscripts containing illustrated miniatures were systematically studied. These included 369 manuscripts located at the Library of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Fener, along with 19 Greek manuscripts found at the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. This research revealed more than 400 visual representations of musical instruments, which are spread across 136 different cultural institutions such as museums, churches, libraries, monasteries and research institutes in 27 countries around the world.



Holding a Conference on Digital Archives in the Midst of the Pandemic

On June 9, the International Archives Day, KU Libraries organized an online-conference entitled “Digital Transformations: Analyzing Archives from Multiple Aspects.” This was the first online conference that KU Libraries organized as a response to the pandemic. The online character of the conference enabled us to go beyond physical borders. Distinguished experts from different sectors joined us from the US, the UK and different parts of Turkey and offered their insights on the topic of the digitization of archives. The conference aimed at discussing the different issues that surround digital archives. There were three sessions covering, respectively, the aspects of education, donation and archival practice, users and the legal dimension of digital transformation. Together these three sessions managed to cover significant ground within the vast array of issues that surround digital archives. More than 200 people attended the conference. You can find more information about the program and the speakers in the conference brochure and you can watch the video recording on our YouTube channel.



Share your side of the story during the pandemic
Koç University Community Archive


As you know, we are initiating the COVID-19 Koç University Community Archive (active link) aiming to record this unique historical event with your participation. The first items have been already added to the archive and we would like to give you a glimpse(a list of boks & a poem), to motivate you to submit yours!

All Koç University members including Faculty members, Students of all levels, Administrative staff, can send us items which reflect your feelings and thoughts during this process. It’s never too late to be part of this historical moment for future generations.

Koç University Community Archive Submission Form Link



Meet our Staff!

The Reference team: Last month we introduced to you Çığdem and Naz and in this issue we continue with the other 2 members of the team.

Ebru Çinar Ebru Çinar - Instruction and Reference Librarian

Dear all, my name is Ebru and I am an Instruction and Reference Librarian. I graduated from Marmara University Information and Record Management Department in 2016 and I now continue as a master’s student at the same department. I have been working at Suna Kıraç Library since 2016 and in this position since 2019. My responsibility is primarily to organize and hold library instructions and I’m also responsible of creating and updating the content for our LIB101 lesson in Blackboard. I’m serving as the liaison librarian for the College of Sciences, which means that you can contact me would you need help with your teaching, research and studies. As a member of the Reference team I’m contributing in our Institutional Repository by gathering and adding metadata.

In addition to these, I help planning campus engagement activites, working closely with the Libary’s Student Ambassadors team. We have been organizing many events to bring our campus community together such as the Library Book Club and Storytelling Sessions for our KU community children. It is always a pleasure working with our students.

If you need a library instruction please send me an email or fill in the online form. I am always here to help.

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Ersan Dur Ersan Dur - Scholarly Communication & Reference Librarian

I graduated from the department of Information Management at Istanbul University. I have been working as the Scholarly Communication & Reference Librarian at Suna Kıraç Library and I also serve the Koç University members, particularly the College of Engineering, in the subjects of research support, e-resources, academic writing, Open Access publishing and Open Science.

I participate in the Library’s Instructions program by providing several Library trainings: EndNote reference management tool, Turnitin & iThenticate (Campus Admin), plagiarism detections tools, ACRW. I’m the contact person for Turnitin & iThenticate, which means I help faculty members and researchers to generate their accounts.

As a member of the Library’s Open Access Team I participate in the development of an Open Access policy, as well as the creation of procedures and services for the community. In addition, I’m responsible for the collection development process for the Koç University Institutional Repository (KUIR), which means I regularly browse academic indexes to locate published scholarly works that belong to Koç University researchers.

You can always contact me at erdur@ku.edu.tr



Burada Konuşmak Serbest
The first 2 ANAMED Library podcasts are here!


ANAMED Library Podcasts series “Burada Konuşmak Serbet” are open to anyone interested in libraries, archives and research with İrem Ünal taking over on librarianship, while Defne Gier covers subjects about archives. June was the starting point with the first 2 podcasts which hosted dear colleagues from Koç University Suna Kıraç Library and MEF University Library.

In the librarianship broadcast of this month, İrem’s guests were İpek Yarar from MEF University Library and Sina Mater from Koç University Suna Kıraç Library. The conversation was about "Design and Libraries" with the guests explaining how the balance their Librarian responsibilities and tasks with required designing tasks based on their skills and talents. Those interested in design or wanting to combine their love for design with their current work, can find some useful tips from the speakers!

Defne started with the Koç University Suna Kıraç Library Archive Specialists, Senem Acar and Mustafa Ergül, who talked about the Suna Kıraç Library Digital Collections success recipe. The talk offers to the listeners an insider’s information on the process of digitizating collections, their management and curation – if you curious to find out what is happening behind the scenes, then don’t miss this talk!

*current podcasts were conducted in Turkish



ANAMED Library talks – July talk
The first 2 ANAMED Library podcasts are here!


July Library talk will host Mrs. Buket Kitapçı Bayrı (post-doc researcher at GABAM, Koç University) who will talk about her latest book “Warriors, Martyrs, and Dervishes: Moving Frontiers, Shifting Identities in the Land of Rome (13th- 15th Centuries)”. In the book, Greek martyrdom stories written by the Byzantines between 13th and 15th centuries, as well as epic heroes such as Battalname and Danişmendname, written in Turkish in Medieval Anatolia, and the hero of Abdalan-ı Rum dervish such as Saltukname, are examined. The talk will be moderated by Mr. Haris Theodorelis-Rigas ( Koç University ARHA Faculty member).

The talk will be held remotely through Zoom and you can register by filling in the online registration form.


Social Media
Koç University Suna Kıraç Library
Rumelifeneri Yolu, 34450, Sarıyer-İstanbul
T:+90-212 338 13 17 F: +90-212 338 13 21
libinformation@ku.edu.tr