March heralds the start of Spring! Spring means flourishment of new ideas, energy, and motivation! After a refreshing break and two weeks online classes we welcome you all back to our beautiful campus.

Koç University Libraries entered March with two major grant applications! For increasing digitization and preservation capacities in 2022 and 2023, Suna Kıraç Library and its branch library VEKAM completed the application of 2 major grants. Suna Kıraç Library applied for the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) grant with its newly acquired collection, Keskin Color Postcard Collection. The grant application will be evaluated by UCLA Library. The MEAP grant aims to digitize and make accessible endangered archival materials dated after 1950, including print, photographic, film, audio, ephemeral, and born digital objects.

VEKAM Library applied for the Engandered Archive Programme (EAP) grant with its valuable collection, Ankara Consenvatory Collection (Musiki Muallim Mektebi). The grant application will be evaluated by British Library. The EAP grant aims to digitize and make accessible endangered archival materials dated after 1950. Both grants are funded by Arcadia - a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. The grant winning institutions will be announced in June 2022 for both application.

This month has also another significance for libraries. Every year, on the last week of March, the Library Week is celebrated across Turkey. As Koç University Libraries we will hold multiple exciting events, stay tuned for the announcements!

SKL’s New Individual Graduate Study Rooms Opened!

The library had a busy semester break. We have prepared new study spaces for the needs of our users. With the new semester, we opened our Individual Graduate Study Rooms for usage. Suna Kıraç Library’s new rooms for Graduate Students provide a quiet environment for their research and writing studies. There are 8 individual study rooms available for daily checkout on the Library’s first floor. Graduate Students can reserve the rooms for up to 7 days per month.

It is important to note that reservations must be made 24 hours in advance. After the submissions, a Librarian will approve/deny the booking. When you received the approval e-mail, you can check out the room key from the Information Desk at the Library entrance.

More good news from the Library! Two Graduate Students who completed the “2021 Suna Kıraç Library Graduate Student Survey” and entered the drawing may win one of the Individual Graduate Study Rooms usage rights for 3 months. Click on the hyperlink to access Survey Link and the Booking Page.

LIBR500: A New Mandatory Course for Newly Enrolled Graduate Students

Suna Kıraç Library (SKL) is pleased to announce its online course, LIBR 500, designed to support our graduate students in their research. The course has two main objectives.

1. To introduce SKL’s resources and services to graduate students and ensure that they are well-equipped to conduct research utilizing these resources and services. The relevant modules include training and tips for literature review and reference/ citation management tools, such as Mendeley, Endnote, and Zotero.

2. To provide essential information about the key principles of Open Science & Open Access Resources, publishing scholarly articles, creating researcher profiles, and fostering research visibility.

As of Spring 2022, this course is mandatory for all incoming graduate students. In total, there are four modules consisting of 24 videos. The instruction will be held in English, and the course modules will be made available weekly. There will be an online Q/A session related to that week’s subject. Do not hesitate to contact us via Library Trackit System if you have any questions or concerns.

Library Treasure Series: Civil Architecture theme’s two new digital exhibitions are now available!

The Civil Architecture theme of Koç University Libraries Treasure Series continues at full speed! Two digital exhibition entitled An Example of Ottoman Civil Architecture: The Fountain of Ahmed III and Civil Architectural Memory Ankara 1930-1980 Structure Inventory Exhibition have been created and we wish that you will enjoy both of them. The Fountain of Ahmed III is one of the most important examples of Ottoman civil architecture. A large part of the fountain, which looks like a gilded jewelery box with its decorations, reliefs and inscriptions, has survived to the present day. For more details visit this wonderful exhibition!

The second exhibition of the theme is the Civil Architectural Memory Ankara 1930-1980 Structure Inventory Exhibition. This exhibition is has been compiled from the Civil Architectural Heritage of Ankara between 1930-1980: Research, Documentation and Conservation Standards Developing Project. The project is carried out by Prof. Dr. Nuray Bayraktar and supported by TÜBİTAK and Koç University VEKAM. In this exhibition viewers will discover the monumental civil architectural heritage examples of Ankara. Click here to find more about the civil architecture of Ankara.

Virtual Book Club

Virtual Book Club continues this March its discussions with the booklovers of KU Community with "Veba Geceleri" written by Orhan Pamuk. In his lastest novel, Pamuk tells the stories of an Ottoman governor, a doctor and an army major, together fighting a plague epidemic on the imaginary Ottoman island located in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. If you are admirer of Orhan Pamuk or want to know more about him and his writings, join us on March 24, at 7PM.

• Registration Link
• Books List for 2022

SKL Podcast

This month, at the Suna Kıraç Library “İstanbul'u Dinliyorum” Podcast, we hosted Müge Telci Özbek in a discussion entitled “Güvencesiz Hareketler, Güvencesiz Hayatlar: Geç Osmanlı İstanbul’unda Yalnız ve Yoksul Kadınlar (1850-1914) [Precarious Movements, Precarious Lives: Lonely and Poor Women in Late Ottoman Istanbul (1850-1914)]”. We discussed the experiences of lonely and poor women who were separated from their homeland and families, and came to Istanbul in the late Ottoman period. Trying to live and survive without traditional family ties and support systems, professions they practiced, and the emergence of maid service as an “institution”. Click here to find out more about the lives of women who faced great struggles in Istanbul in this podcast!

ANAMED Library Talks

ANAMED Library Talks organized by the ANAMED Library continues with Marta Musso and Kerstin Arnold from Archives Portal Europe (APE). APE Archives Portal Europe is the largest online archival repository in the world, a digital service that aggregates the archival material of more than 1100 institutions across 34 countries, and in more than 25 languages – all searchable through a simple search engine. In this talk will our guests will present the portal and its network, showing how to contribute to the central repository, and the functionalities that facilitate research in such a vast virtual space. The talk will be moderated by Mustafa Ergül. Click here to register to the talk.

Date: March 1, 2022
Time: 6-8PM

Second European report: Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Libraries

The European Bureau of Library (EBLIDA) released the 2nd European Report on sustainable development and libraries. This report provides ideas on how SDGs are perceived in libraries and how libraries can be perceived in society. The report contains a series of 17 country profiles. Each of these profiles includes a general background, SDG priorities and policies, a selection of the best SDG-oriented projects and some hints about the funding sources and evaluation.

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