April started with great enthusiasm! The last week of March is the annual Library Week. Koç University Libraries hosted and contributed to various events of this year’s 58th Library Week. On Monday, March 28th, ANAMED Libraries hosted the Collaborations of University/Research Libraries event in which ANAMED Library’s Branch Librarian Defne Gier moderated the talk. On Tuesday, March 29th ANAMED Library’s Branch Librarian and Turkish Librarians Association’s Istanbul Branch board member İrem Ünal moderated the opening of the week hosted at the Pera Museum. On Wednesday, March 30th, a panel was held with IFLA President Barbara Lison, Koç University Libraries director Tuba Akbaytürk Çanak moderated the panel. On the same day, a Round Table Meeting was hosted the ANAMED Library. On Thursday, March 31st, Suna Kıraç Library Scholarly Communication & Reference Librarian, Ersan Dur contributed as a speaker at The Role of Libraries in Academic Institutions' Bibliometrics and Research Data Management Studies event. Lastly, on Friday, April 1st, the Career Fair organize by Koç University Libraries took place. In this event, 20 librarians with different specializations shared their experiences with the students of the Information and Records Management Department, new graduates and new professional colleagues. This wonderful Library Week has been a source of motivation for us for the upcoming years!

April has also another significance. April 23, the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, which Atatürk made a present to all the world’s children, will be celebrated with the same enthusiasm as every year!

Spring Term Course Integrated Library Instructions and Workshops

Suna Kıraç Library always supports KU community during the semester with a variety of instructions and workshops! With the start of the new semester, the Library started working and organizing to support users’ research processes by promoting Library resources and services.

Thanks to the collaboration with the Academic Writing Program, so far, we have completed 43 sessions and reached 606 students. In those sessions students learned how to identify their information needs, format a successful search strategy and locate the necessary resources. ACWR10X students learned how to locate resources in their majors.

Faculty members always embed librarians and library resources to their courses. Liaison librarians assist faculty members in introducing research processes to their students. In February, the Library team organized 4 Integrated Library Instructions for BUSA 499 & ARHA 325 which 88 students attended.

In addition to these online classes, the Library team completed LIB101 on Blackboard in February with the participation of 1207 undergraduate students. The Library’s first OpenEdX course, LIBR500 is compulsory for all new graduate students and will be completed in April.

Please keep in mind that you can always get custom support by the Library team any time by using Research Consultation Appointment Form.

Library Trackit or librarytraining@ku.edu.tr emails may be used to organize a Library session for your class or inquiry.

arXiv Database

arXiv is a free distribution service and an open-access archive for 2,041,934 scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. You may access this database through Suna Kıraç Library Databases page. As a latest news arXiv readers can now benefit from new, experimental access to the article collection converted to responsive HTML5. For a quick preview, users can replace the “X” of arXiv in any article link to the “5” of ar5iv and be redirected to a corresponding arXivLabs page! To read more about this new feature of arXiv database click here.

Treasure Gallery Series - 5: Holding on to the Future: Protecting Cultural Heritage

Koç University Libraries launched a new theme entitled Holding on to the Future: Protecting Cultural Heritage. From April to June 2022, the theme will focus on the ways to conserve cultural heritage assets, including architecture, art & museum objects and archival documents. The theme aims to raise public awareness about the protection of cultural heritage assets through various activities, including podcasts, panels, workshops, and social media posts. Follow and keep an eye on our social media accounts not to miss any of these exciting activities.

Image: View of the tomb and public fountain of Olanlar (Oğlanlar) Dervish Lodge, 1960s, CTA_S068_A01_phg_01, Cahide Tamer Historic Buildings Restoration Projects Collection, Koç University Suna Kıraç Library.

Treasure Gallery Series - 4: Civil Architecture Theme

The 4th theme of the Koç University Libraries Treasure Series, entitled Civil Architecture, ended with a panel that received great interest from researchers, students and academics! The panel entitled "Building Block of Cultural Heritage: Civil Architecture" started with the opening speeches of Koç University Suna Kıraç Library Director Tuba Akbaytürk and Koç University VEKAM Director Filiz Yenişehirlioğlu. Prof. Nuray Bayraktar moderated the panel and distinguished speakers from the the field of civil architecture attended the panel. In the first session of the panel, Assoc. Prof. Umut Şumnu presented "İkramiye Apartments in Ankara", Assoc. Prof. Deniz Demirarslan and Asst Prof. Emine Begüm Savçın contributed to the panel with presentation entitled “Istanbul Themed Wall Paintings of the Westernization Period”. In the second session, Assoc. Prof. Mesut Dinler, Prof. Neriman Şahin Güçlühan and Assoc. Prof. Elif Selena Ayhan Koçyiğit presented the following presentation respectively “Heritage of Civil Architecture and Conservation Efforts at Urban Scale”, "The Loss of Civil Architecture in Historical Ankara: 2022" and “Civil Architectural Memory: Ankara Project”.

Virtual Book Club

This month’s book is The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. The Dispossessed tells the story of its protagonist Shevek’s journey from his home, Anarres on a desolate, isolated moon to the abundant planet, Urras around which his society revolves.

If you are wondering about this dystopian novel by one of the most prominent authors and you would like to share thoughts, join us on April 21 at 7pm for one more virtual talk. This event will be held in Turkish.

• Registration Link
• Books List for 2022

SKL Podcast

At the Suna Kıraç Library “İstanbul'u Dinliyorum” Podcast, this month we hosted Nilay Ulusoy in a discussion entitled Tarihin en eski moda şehri İstanbul [Istanbul, the oldest fashion city in history]. In this podcast we discussed textile production, especially silk production in Istanbul and Bursa, the clothing culture in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, the changing understanding of fashion in the 19th century, the first shopping malls of the city, and how "fashion" changed the lives of Istanbulites. We also focused on the changes in clothing culture in Istanbul after the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the competition with the 20th and 21st fashion between Istanbul and capitals of fashion such as Milan, Paris New York, and London. Also, the questions of how Istanbul can adapt to the changing and developing dynamics of the fashion industry in the 21st century, and why Istanbul is not mentioned together with fashion cities as an international fashion centre were answered. Click here here to listen to this podcast to discover the history of fashion in Istanbul.

ANAMED Library Talks

ANAMED Library talks organized by the ANAMED Library continues in April with Lucienne Thys-Şenocak and Uğurgül Tunç. The talk is entitled Koç University Medical and Health Humanities Initiative. This month's talk will be in English and will take place online. For registering to the talk please click here.

News from the Library Team

Çiğdem Yıldırım has been appointed as the new ANAMED Head Librarian! Yıldırım worked at Koç University Suna Kıraç Library for long years as a Senior Reference and Research Liaison. Her experience areas consist of Collection Development, Research Support, Information Literacy, E-Resources, Document Supply Services, Reference Management Tools, Bibliometric Analysis and Research Data Management (RDM). She continues to work on open science policy and service development in the Library’s Open Access Team. She takes part in RDM Working Group within the scope of Koç University Digitalization Program and carries out projects on behalf of Koç University under the Turkey Open Data and Research Data Task Force within the body of YÖK. We wish her all the best in her new position!

Suna Kıraç Library’s new team member, Academic Engagement Librarian Dr. Burak Başaranlar introduces himself and shares journey in academia and libraries in his new blog. Click here to read it.

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