Issue: 2021 - 32
Welcome

“Winds of May, that dance on the sea,
Dancing a ring-around in glee
From furrow to furrow, while overhead
The foam flies up to be garlanded.”
(Winds of May, James Joyce)

Dear readers,

To serve your interests better by identifying easier and faster the news you are mostly interested in, we decided to group our news under major categories. Depending on the content available every month, we will try to fill in every section with useful news and updates. As the country entered a strict lockdown, we also adjusted some of our services. For the following weeks until May 17, we suspend the following services: Mediated Book Lending, Scan & Deliver, ILL, ICLS.

We wish you a healthy May, full of energy for the upcoming final exams.



Library Trackit – How to Videos

We recently presented to you the new Library Trackit, the new automated Library helpdesk that will elevate the resolution of your requests and questions. To assist you more in the usage of it, we created three “How to” videos which include step by step instructions about the Libtrackit interface, the menu, the necessary fields you must fill in and more. You can find the videos in the Library Video Hub.



Brill Online Journal Collection

The focus of Brill’s publications are Humanities and Social Sciences, International Law and selected areas in the Sciences. Brill publishes over 330 journals titles, including 22 electronic titles and 24 fully Open Access titles with topics covering African Studies, American Studies, Ancient Near East and Egypt, Art History, Asian Studies, Book History and Cartography, Biblical Studies, Classical Studies, Education, History, Jewish Studies, Literature and Cultural Studies, Languages and Linguistics, Media Studies, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Social Sciences, Theology and World Christianity, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, International Law, International Relations, Biology. For a better structured search, you can specify the publication type, the language of the publication and publication date or the time range. Off-campus access to full text is possible from the SKL Databases webpage.



Library Week SKL Event & Participations

The National Library week during the last week of March, is an important annual celebration of Libraries and their role in education, research and technology. For the past 2 years we have been organizing and participating in activities distantly, without losing our motivation and energy. During the week March 29 – April 2, in the context of the 57th National Library week, SKL organized a major event and our Library director and staff members participated in 4 other events. To learn more about our activity, you can read the Blog post our colleague, Harika Baş Güler, prepared.


AKMED Library Week Event

As part of the National Library Week activities, on April 12-13, Koç University AKMED Library held the workshop “Archaeology and History libraries in Turkey” online, with the participation of 11 library staff members from different libraries. Presentations and a round table discussion covered the 2 days program offering the participants the chance to exchange practices, plans, concerns and ideas. You can find more information in the Blog post, written by Remziye Boyraz Seyhan, our colleague at AKMED Library.


Library Travelogues Thematic Exhibition

Koç University Libraries, hosting valuable material in their collections, decided to launch a 3 months activity under the theme "Library travelogues". Current publications, rare material, digital exhibitions, blog posts, podcasts, seminars and talks, format this initiative as an attempt to enhance visibility and attract the attention of a wider audience. SKL, ANAMED, AKMED and VEKAM joint forces to follow the steps of travelers, explorers and scholars who monitored their travel experiences in Anatolia until the 19th century. To join us in this, take a first taste browsing the LibGuide which includes information about travelers, related current publications from our print collection, unique material from our rare collection, suggested scholarly resources, digital humanities projects, podcasts and blogposts.


“İstanbul'u Dinliyorum” Podcast Series

Naz Özkan, Outreach and Reference librarian at SKL, initiated the “Koç Üniversitesi Suna Kıraç Library Podcast: “İstanbul’u Dinliyorum…”, which intends to bring researchers and academicians together to discuss a variety of topics concerning the history, culture, tradition of İstanbul, the capital of both the Byzantine and the Ottoman Empire. The aim of “İstanbul’u Dinliyorum…” podcast is to bring new content and richness to Istanbul and to recognize the historical heritage of the “Queen of cities". The podcast is open to anyone interested in İstanbul. You can access our monthly podcast series from the Suna Kıraç Library Spotify account.


May Book Club

Dear booklovers in KU Community, this month’s book is The Atlas of Misty Continents by İhsan Oktay Anar, a novel like a romp through history, with a host of colorful characters, a wildly historically inaccurate scenario, lots of improbabilities and lots of fantasy/magic realism. In Hulki Aktunç's preface, Anar's works are described as an attempt “…to extract a new novel from the historical one and to re-historicize the novel...”. Read this book with us to find out how fantasy and magic combine with history and come discuss your thoughts and learn how others found the novel, in the next Book Club, in May 20, at 16:00.

*This event will be held in Turkish, as there is no English translation of the novel.

Registration Link
Books List for 2021


ANAMED Library talks

May’s ANAMED Library talk will focus on the 1875 panorama of Dimitriadis Efendi and Marmara Walls, based on the work titled "Dimitriadis Efendi's Marmara Coast Walls Roll" (Istanbul Archeology Museums, 2019) and the information provided by this important visual. The Roll is a unique work, reflecting the last period in which the Marmara Walls, which extend along the southern shores of historical Istanbul, preserved their continuity and focus only on the coastal walls. Guest speakers are Nisa Semiz and Üzeyir Altekin and the talk will be moderated by Barış Altan. To register, please use the following link.


ANAMED Library podcasts

At the ANAMED Library Podcast’s Archives theme talk in April, we hosted Kerim Altuğ, the Director of Istanbul’s Municipal Council Directorate for Libraries and Museums. The theme of this podcast was "Exploring the History of Istanbul in the Archives: Istanbul’s Municipal Council Directorate for Libraries and Museums". In this talk you can learn about the institutions affiliated with the Directorate, their collaborations and new projects. Do not miss this podcast if you are curious about preservation and accessibility of Istanbul’s archives and memories! Enjoy!

Suggested websites:
Atatürk Kitaplığı IBB Miras Twitter Account

April’s Libraries themed podcast hosted the ANAMED Branch Librarian and podcast speaker N. Defne Gier. With her, we mutually discussed about archives and the importance of archivism, librarianship perspectives and various applications. We also introduced to the audience how ANAMED Library Podcast broadcasts started and where they are headed through new speakers and topics. We hope you will enjoy our conversation with Defne, whom we hosted in the guest speaker chair this time, in this different podcast.

Suggestions:
Defne - Wayback Machine
İrem - İsmail Erünsal: Libraries and Librarianship in the Ottomans: Historical Development and Organization


Preservation Week Activities

Preserving Oral History talk

Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Library and Suna Kıraç Library together organized, within the scope of the Preservation Week (April 25 – May 1), a talk with Arzu Öztürkmen and Selçuk Esenbel entitled “Preserving Oral History” on Tuesday, April 27. The Preservation Week is an awareness week founded by the American Library Association (ALA) in 2005 and it aims to raise awareness of the preservation of different topics that concern the libraries, archives, cultural and educational institutions. As Koç University Libraries, this year we decided to focus on the preservation of oral history. Arzu Öztürkmen and Selçuk Esenbel are two distinguished academics from Bogaziçi University, who contributed immensely on the foundation of oral history studies in Turkey. At the talk, Arzu Öztürkmen discussed about the importance of oral history within our society, the key aspects of oral history and its crucial role in social sciences. Selçuk Esenbel, explained the significance of oral history in the field of history, by telling us her anecdote from a village in Japan during her research. The talk then continued with various and very engaging questions from our listeners. You can find the talk on Anamed Library Youtube and Soundcloud pages.

Archive Preservation Libguide

For the Preservation Week, ANAMED Library Branch Librarian Defne Gier created a LibGuide on archive preservation. Preservation is a term like an umbrella which encompasses all activities that ensure the lifespan of the documents. This LibGuide contains information on all the sub-topics, sources and events, preservation encircles. If you want to learn more about the resources from the library, accomplishments and events on this topic, check this LibGuide!



GLAMI Awards

The GLAMi Awards (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums Innovation awards) recognize and celebrate the most innovative projects in the cultural heritage sector annually. This year we are proud to announce not only our participation in the “Resources for Scholars and Researchers” category, but also our selection as one of the finalists for the 2021 awards. With this recognition, among other notable participants, the KU Libraries resources are promoted and recognized for the significant support to researchers.



Meet our Staff - AKMED Library

Remziye Boyraz Seyhan, Library Senior Specialist

Hello Everyone,
I am Remziye, and I am an Archaeologist. I have known AKMED since 1997 when I started my studies at Akdeniz University, at the Archaeology department. The Faculty Library collection included nice publications about Archaeology, available only to the department’s students, but it was very limited. At AKMED Library, I have always felt like I’m swimming in a sea full of books, and as a user I always received useful information and references – I’m trying to do the same since I started working at the Library. Later in 2005, while I was trying to finish my MA at Akdeniz University, I received a grant from AKMED and since then I’m part of the AKMED team. I am responsible for the library in general, working on collection development, budget coordination, reference, the archive and many other daily tasks. I also support with the preparation of exhibitions when needed. Additionally, I am involved in the redaction of some AKMED publications and I was the coordinator of the “History of Money and Numismatic” Congress which was held twice by AKMED, in Antalya: from the organization to publishing the proceedings.


Meet our Staff - AKMED Library

Emrullah Can - AKMED Branch Librarian

Hello everyone,
I'm Emrullah, Koç University AKMED Branch Librarian. We are working with Remziye Seyhan at the AKMED Library.I am an expert, who completed the Classical Archeology department. After graduating from Akdeniz University, I completed my master's degree in the field of "Water Structures and Fountains in the Ancient Period" at Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, also in the Classical Archeology Department. My areas of interest in Archeology are architectural archeology, water supply and use of water structures, archiving and documentation in archaeological sites, field studies, 3d and 2d modeling. As a branch librarian, after studying on archiving, referencing, cataloging, document providing and technical issues, I have been working in these fields. Before joining the AKMED Library Team, I worked at the Patara Excavations as an expert archaeologist, also at the "Antalya Directorate of Survey and Monuments" I served as Autocad, 3D Max technician. I will be very happy to share my experiences and expertise in these fields with you. I joined the AKMED Team towards the end of 2012. As a unit branch librarian, in my duties and responsibilities are: providing articles and documents, providing training for the use of the library by giving reference support to researchers, developing collections in line with the library's collections and the demands of researchers, contributing to international and national events and organizations to be held by AKMED, contributing to corporate identity and memory, archiving our materials in international standards and cataloging the books taken into the library and making them ready for use. After AKMED was temporarily closed due to COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to remote library operations, I am also contributing to online organization of AKMED activities, such as the summer school and the certificate program. I hope we can welcome you again at AKMED as soon as possible. Until then, for your requests and questions, you can reach us either by sending an email at akmedlibrary@ku.edu.tr or through the Library Trackit system.



TurkeyInH2020 II Events: Open Science & Research Data Management workshops are on Youtube now!

The event is a 2-day intensive online workshop focusing mainly on researchers and other participants of Horizon Europe framework programme with little experience, as well as more experienced researchers that would like to learn about the new Horizon Europe Open Science initiatives and the management of research data. The Speakers present the routes and mandates of Open Science publications and the necessary tools and repositories that can help the researchers adopt the FAIR principles. The European Open Science Cloud is also presented along with best practices and instructions on how to prepare Data Management Plans. The sessions are structured in such a way to help participants grasp the fundamental concepts of Open Science and Research Data Management and learn how to best apply them in their own projects. The content is enriched with presentations, training notes, curated literature from the EU, and useful templates.

We highly recommend our researchers who will prepare Horizon Europe or TUBITAK projects to watch these useful videos. You can find them on TurkeyInH2020 II Youtube Channel below:

Open Science & Research Data Management (RDM) - 1st Day
Open Science & Research Data Management (RDM) - 2nd Day


Turnitin: Draft Coach Now Available for Students

Turnitin has released a new Draft Coach service that connects to Google Docs. With the help of Draft Coach, a student (or lecturer, researcher) at Koç University can check the originality and correctness of their text at any time while writing. The Draft Coach also provides a familiar originality report that shows the similarities of the texts from Turnitin’s extensive databases (Internet, student work, publications), reviews any references in the text, points out any deficiencies and it guides you in making corrections. This corrections guidance is regular while writing the text, therefore it is easy for the students to see their possible mistakes, correct them instantly and restore them again if necessary. It is all about learning in a positive way, and saving the teacher some time.

For more information on Turnitin Draft Coach please visit the related LibGuide, through the library’s website.


European Commission Launches Open Research Europe Platform, Making Scientific Papers Free to All

The European Commission has launched Open Research Europe, a platform for scientific papers that is freely accessible to everyone. Open Research Europe presents the results of research funded by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme for 2021-2027. Open to both researchers and the everyday person, the platform addresses some of the major difficulties often surrounding the publishing of scientific research including delays and barriers to the re-use of results and high costs. Some 40+ scientific papers from a wide range of fields of research including engineering, mathematics, social sciences, arts, and humanities have already been submitted and are ready for consumption.

Send us your questions and requests using the libtrackit.


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