June marks the end of the 2020-2021 academic year. This first summer issue is devoted to all of us – faculty, researchers, students, administrative staff – for overcoming difficulties and completing successfully one more academic year despite all! Warm congratulations to all those graduating this year and best wishes for a bright future!

New addition in the collection: Prof. Ulla Johansen Book Donation

The cataloging and processing of the very important book donation we received by the late Ulla Johansen, has now been completed. Users can browse more than 700 books, catalogs and journals of ethnological interest through the library’s online catalog.

Philanthropy in Anatolia Through The Ages

The “Philanthropy in Anatolia through the Ages” Conference was held in Antalya 26-29 March 2019 in cooperation with Koç University research centers AKMED, ANAMED and GABAM in the occasion of the 50th Anniversary Year of Vehbi Koç Foundation. Product of this Conference was a proceedings publication with the same title, published both in Turkish and English. The Turkish edition can be found here.

YÖK ORCID ID Requirement for Graduate Students and Registration to YÖK National Thesis Center

In line with the decision taken by the Council of Higher Education in May 2020 (NO: 36054236-299-E.32771), all students enrolled in graduate programs with thesis are required to obtain an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). Based on the relevant decision, Koç University students enrolled in graduate programs with thesis are required to register their ORCID numbers in YÖK National Thesis Center.

For this, after logging in as a member at YÖK National Thesis Center:

• Students who do not have an ORCID number can get one by entering "My Membership Information" or "Thesis Data Entry Form" and clicking on the "Get ORCID Number" button.

• Students with an ORCID number can enter "My Membership Information" or "Thesis Data Entry Form”, click on the "Get ORCID Number" button, select the sign-in option on the screen that opens and save their existing ORCID numbers.

• Students who register their ORCID number in YÖK National Thesis Center can match their previous publications (postgraduate theses, articles, congress and symposium papers, books and all kinds of scientific publications) with the ORCID number.

For more information see the “Registration of ORCID iD to YÖK National Thesis Center” guide on the Library Video Hub.

International Archives Conference

On June 9, the International Archives Day and during the International Archives Week, Koç University Suna Kıraç Library will organize an online-conference entitled “The Promises of Archives: Exploring Diversity in the Digital Age” with the participation of international and local scholars and field experts from Belgium, Italy, the US, UK and Turkey. Separated in 3 different sessions as “Digital Possibilities”, “Archives in the Visual Age” and “New Technologies on the Horizon”, the conference aims at discussing the current issues that surround digital archives by covering digital humanities projects, insights from different audio - visual archives and applications of new technologies as digital preservation and usage of block chain in archives.

• To register to the conference, please click here.
• You can find more information about the program and the speakers in the link .

June Book Club

June’s book choice is Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Read the book to find out how Scout and her brother learn valuable life lessons. This month let’s have a trip to the fictional town of Maycomb, to this "tired old town" and try to understand things from a child's perspective. Join us to talk about this book on the 17th of June at 16:00.

• Registration Link
• Books List for 2021

ANAMED Library Talk

The ANAMED Library talk of June will host Evangelia Balta and Sada Payır, on Tuesday June 1. In this talk, Balta and Payır will discuss “The Transfer of Greek Fiction Ottoman Literature via The Karamanlides”. The novel Beyoğlu Sırları, the Turkish translation of the novel Mysteries of Pera [Πέραν Απόκρυφα] by Epaminondas Kyriakidis (İstanbul 1861 - Athens 1939) was published in instalments in the Karamanlidika newspaper Anatoli owned by Evangelinos Misailidis (1888–1889). Misailidis managed in his role as a translator to reproduce the original without a hint of foreignness in the linguistic means he chose, to give his Turcophone Anatolian readers the feeling that the text had been conceived and written in the Turkish language. The talk will be moderated by Sada Payır. This month's talk will be in English and will take place online. To register, please click on the link.

Suna Kıraç Library Podcast

This month’s guest at the Suna Kıraç Library “İstanbul'u Dinliyorum” podcast is Nilay Özlü, Assistant Professor of Architectural History at Altınbaş University and Chevening Postdoctoral Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. The title of this podcast is “19. Yüzyılda Topkapı Sarayı'nda Sergileme Pratikleri”. In this talk, you can learn about the 19th-century life of the Topkapı Palace, exhibition practices within the palace grounds, and different approaches towards museums during the late Ottoman era. Do not miss this podcast if you are curious about the Topkapı Palace during the long-nineteenth century and learn more about the history of Istanbul. Enjoy the talk from the Suna Kıraç Library Spotify account.

ANAMED Library podcasts

3 podcasts this month, featuring different institutions in Turkey and abroad.

Cengiz Kotan from the Nesin Foundation Library is the guest of the month in the Library topics podcast. Serving as the Foundation manager between 2014-2018, he presents the foundation’s operations and the Library in specific and explains how it is to contribute now as a volunteer. Our discussion also includes information about the rare materials in the library’s collection, Aziz Nesin's idea to establish the foundation and the environment the foundation provides for children. Enjoy!

“The Relation Between Archive and Researcher” is the theme of this month’s podcast on Archives. In this podcast, Gökhan Akçura shared with us the creation process of his archive, the historical changes in the importance of visual materials, and the significance of the history of daily life. If you want to learn more about the researchers’ alliance with archives, do not miss this podcast. Listen to our conversation here.

The international guest of the month is Peter Bae, Assistant University Librarian for Scholarly Collections Services at Princeton University. Drawing upon his long experience in academic libraries, Peter highlights the pivotal role of resource sharing among the library services, discusses about the importance of partnerships in document delivery – especially during the pandemic – and describes the current situation in the US and how libraries have been trying to overcome difficulties. Listen to the podcast and learn how beneficial resource sharing can be for libraries with limited resources and exciting stories of document delivery.

#KULibTreasureGallery – Library Travelogues

The 3-month subject exhibition focusing on rare travel publications included in the Library collection, continues with more activities. Read the blogposts about the food and drink culture in the 19th century Istanbul and the epidemic diseases in capital Istanbul in the 19th century, through the eyes of travelers. To have a glimpse of our rare material, browse the related digital exhibition Following the footsteps of travelers… We host secret witnesses of history. Professor Dr. Sinan Sülüner from Hacettepe University was the guest of the 1^st podcast and with him the discussion focused on how understanding travelogues is important for researchers. More podcasts, blogposts, talks and digital exhibitions are coming soon. Follow the footsteps of travelers and discover the library's unique collections.

Mindfulness Activities

Suna Kıraç Library, the Stanford University Innovation Fellows (UIF) and the Global Learning Leadership for Sustainability (GLLS) group organized a joint event series with the support of instructors and administrative staff in our campus. Before the finals week, during May 24-27, events included some yoga and breathing techniques, mindfulness and stress management workshop and tips to discover character traits!

Apart from the live daily sessions, KU students can also benefit from short exercise and yoga techniques videos, to have a healthy study break and to increase their productivity. Suna Kıraç Library is always here to support the students’ wellbeing, by organizing various events like book club talks, mindfulness sessions and games activities.

MELCOM International Conference

The European Association of Middle East Librarians organized its annual conference during May 18-19, bringing together Library staff members from different countries to present their libraries’ unique material and related tasks and activities. Suna Kıraç Library participated with 2 presentations, as follows: “Finding Istanbul in the Archives of Suna Kıraç Library” by Mustafa Ergül and Naz Özkan and “A 19th-century provincial mufti’s outstanding manuscripts collection in Koç University Suna Kıraç Library Manuscripts Catalog” by Senem Acar and Sami Arslan.

Archives Portal Europe

The Archives Portal Europe provides access to information on archival material from different European countries as well as information on archival institutions throughout the continent. In addition, the portal acts as a data aggregator for Europeana which displays digital heritage objects held in a wide range of cultural and scientific institutions around Europe, thereby helping to preserve knowledge about European cultural heritage for future generations. Koç University Suna Kıraç Library received funds from the Archives Portal Europe (APE) Foundation for a digitization project and joined the Foundation. As a result of joining the APE, not only will a military history collection on World War I be integrated into Europeana, which is held in the Special Collections of Koç University Suna Kıraç Library, but also Koç University will be the first institution that will represent an international aggregator of Europeana in Turkey.

Selected Sessions for Researchers in LIBER’s Annual Conference

LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) is the voice of Europe’s research library community. The 50th Annual Conference will take place online during 23-25 June and it is digitally co-hosted by the University of Belgrade Library in Serbia. The goal of the conference is to identify the most pressing needs for research libraries, and to share information and ideas for addressing those needs. The program includes many sessions with informative presentations on Open Science issues, especially important to researchers. We present to you some selected sessions, you can attend and benefit from:

June 23

Working with Software & Data

Open Access: a Case for Diversity and Inclusion

Research Professional News: Developing themes as the research sector emerges from Covid-19

June 24

Open knowledge?... darling, we need to talk (again)!

The Future is Open: Democratisation of Knowledge

Hand in Hand: Supporting Strong OA Communities

June 25

Enhancing Digital Teaching & Learning: Opening Educational Resources

Rocky Road: Opportunities & Challenges in Open Publishing

The Latest Features in Your New Web of Science - Enriched Cited References

Selected articles now offer enriched cited references with additional context designed to capture the author’s intent when citing references. These include the number of citations in the references included in the article, which other references are cited in proximity, in which part of the content is a reference used. A visualization accompanies these enriched cited references and provides more information and easy navigation.

Meet our Staff - VEKAM Library & Archive

Duygu Kevser Karadağ – VEKAM Branch Librarian

Hello everyone,
I am Duygu and I am a trained librarian.
I graduated from the Information Managment department at Hacettepe Universiyt in 2011. In 2012, I started working at Koç University - VEKAM within the scope of a project. Since 2014, I have been working as a Branch Librarian at VEKAM Library and Archive. I received trainings in various fields such as Endnote, Information Literacy, Access IT, RDA within the scope of Library and Archive studies. Cultural heritage, urban culture, digitization, digital preservation and exhibition are among my interests. I completed my master's degree in Hacettepe University Department of Information and Documentation Management in 2019 with a thesis titled "Development of Content Management Systems for Museums in Turkey within the framework of Digital Cultural Heritage Management’s Digital Curation Applications". In general, I am responsible for all activities and studies related to the library and the archive. My duties include collection development, archive management, budgeting, library and archive administration.

Meet our Staff - VEKAM Library & Archive

Nalan Aslıhan Köksalan – VEKAM Archive Digitalization Assistant Specialist

Hello everyone,
I am Nalan, the VEKAM Archive Digitalization Assistant Specialist.
I graduated from Hacettepe University, the department of Information Management in 2017. At the same time, I graduated from the associate degree program of the Anadolu University Geographical Information Systems Department. I'm currently a master student at Eskişehir Technical university in Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems. I gained my experience in librarianship by working in various Institutions. I worked as a scholar at Hacettepe University Beytepe Library and as an information and document manager at KodA Informatics. I completed my internship at VEKAM and then I joined the VEKAM team in the context of a project in 2017. I am responsible for digitizing materials for Koç University VEKAM digital collections, creating metadata, entering data into digital collections and I also support the library collection maintenance. I also contribute to the cataloging process of printed publications, I provide research support and guidance to library and archive users, I promote new publications and archive materials to VEKAM's website and social media accounts. The library remains temporarily closed since March 2020, but as the VEKAM Library team we continue to support our researchers in various ways. I'm looking forward to meeting again with all colleagues and researcher at the beautiful VEKAM Orchard House.