UW Libraries Blog

April 21, 2021

In your words: students and faculty ‘HEART’ UW Libraries

UW Libraries

UW Libraries just announced the winners of the 2021 I HEART UW Libraries Student Video Contest!   First place winner, undergraduate student Jillian Templeton shows us that no matter what – the Libraries are always here to help!

Thanks to all the students for your creative ideas, highlighting the many ways UW Libraries supports students, especially during remote and hybrid learning.  You can view all the winners here on the Libraries YOU TUBE channel including these additional award winners:

AND because April includes National Libraries Week AND National Libraries Worker Day, we’d like to take the opportunity to continue to celebrate the contributions of Libraries staff through the words and stories of students and faculty.  Thanks to everyone who shares their experience and input with us through email, interviews, surveys and social media—we love hearing from you! We appreciate your time and effort to acknowledge the Libraries’ contributions to your work and to UW excellence!

“ILL remains a lifesaver. This morning, while I was running errands on campus with a toddler (after dropping off two kids at school and leaving the other home on Zoom), circulation staff brought out a book outside of pick-up hours. This is a wonderful example of their flexibility, diligence, and kindness. The pick-up service is outstanding. I love it. Both my Spring and Autumn Quarter classes were remote. I want to recognize the Libraries’ outstanding efforts – and outstanding success – at securing a huge range of electronic materials.

“I want to recognize the Libraries’ outstanding efforts – and outstanding success – at securing a huge range of electronic materials…The range of electronic resources is huge and opens up so many new possibilities – and has kept my own research going.

I’d particularly like to call out staff for quickly securing a book I wished to assign that was part of Oxford online when I composed my syllabus, and was then dropped from the Oxford online catalogue during the course. I don’t know if students recognize what an amazing service you provided to everyone teaching – and learning – at the UW. We are a long way from badly photocopied course readers! The range of electronic resources is huge and opens up so many new possibilities – and has kept my own research going. Finally, I just want to say thanks to you and all library staff. You do so much on an ever-shrinking budget. A university without a library would be a wretched place indeed.”  – Tyler Lange, Affiliate Assistant Professor UW History Department

“Shout out to @uwlibraries, especially Elliott Stevens! I emailed last night with a request for an e-book that isn’t technically within English. By 10:50am today, Elliott, our subject librarian, had already connected with other librarians, and the book was ordered! Thank you!!! – Belgian PhD candidate @UW Engl dept

“Librarians and library staff were central to the successes of Spring 2020 instruction. Fortunately for UW students, faculty, & staff, the UW Libraries has been a global and local leader in digital initiatives, including online teaching and learning, for many years before pandemic.  Librarians always partner with departments and faculty to support student learning, achievement, & engagement. Those existing partnerships were key to instruction in Spring 2020.  At the start of pandemic, UW Libraries web sites were already robust & interactive, with research guides specific to particular courses & topics, and a full range of ways that faculty members & students could contact librarians for help. Librarians at UW have always done more than visit classes for ten minutes to talk about databases or how to use the libraries. They often partner with faculty members and provide a team-based approach to instruction, which provides students with even better, more seamless instruction. Librarians offer sessions and workshops year-round for faculty. They are especially valuable when collaborating on assignment design. This expertise was core to teaching & learning in Spring 2020. – Beth Kalikoff – Director, UW Seattle Center for Teaching and Learning

“Libraries expertise was core to teaching & learning in Spring 2020.”

“I’ve taken two online workshops offered by the Libraries staff – Data Management, and the Graduate Student Research Institute. These have been incredible resources and the format is perfect – free, online, on our own pace. I’m grateful for all the work and insight provided by the Libraries in these events. They’ve helped me develop better research practices and opened my eyes to new ideas and resources that are invaluable to success in graduate school and beyond.”  –UW Seattle graduate student

“I am reaching out to let you know about the fabulous experience I am having collaborating with Librarian Teresa Jewell. I am a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology and recently reached out to the Health Sciences Library seeking assistance with a literature review that my colleague and I are performing. Teresa responded to our request and has been doing a stellar job ever since. We have learned a lot from Teresa so far, and I suspect we will continue learning throughout our collaboration. Teresa’s proactivity, responsiveness, and skill are much appreciated. I hope her excellence in this project is recognized…We are very lucky to have access to such talented library scientists!”

“[My librarian’s] help in devising manageable undergrad research projects integrated into my courses, a few years ago, revolutionized how I teach. These small research projects have also broadened my own knowledge of my area of expertise and have fed into my own research and publications. – UW Seattle Faculty

[A librarian] gave an excellent presentation on research skills for my senior seminar History 498. The information she presented helped me find the books I needed to prepare my research papers. The most important information was about using advanced search options and reading research guides. – UW Seattle Undergraduate

“The libraries, or those who work in them, already do a terrific job helping devise and plan research sessions for my students. Unstinting with their time, responsive to student learning, and willing to tackle new subject areas or issues, UW librarians consistently demonstrate an unimpeachable standard of service and care.” – UW Seattle Faculty

“Experience with data librarians, those working around open data and open science have all been great in promoting our work and making resources available for larger community.” – UW Seattle Associate Professor

“I was searching for an article and could not find it ANYWHERE. I used the online chat function to ask a librarian for help. They sent me the article in 5 minutes!”   – UW Seattle Graduate Student

“Being able to get whatever paper I need from anywhere is really important for my grant submissions, thank you for all your hard work!” – UW Seattle Professor

“I appreciate all the help I continue to receive when I need it from librarians. I needed help to find a source for my research topic about maternal health in Yemen, and my online chat with a librarian was so helpful and I ended up getting full points on my work! So thank you!”  – UW Seattle Graduate Student

“Our librarian has been a wonderful asset to [our department’s] faculty and students. She contributes in multiple unexpected ways, including helping us to understand and choose impact metrics for RPT, gathering faculty publications and sharing titles quarterly with the school community, educating us about how to negotiate with journals to be able to deposit work in the UW repository.” – UW Seattle Assistant Professor

Has a UW Librarian supported your teaching, learning and research in a meaningful way?  Let us know—send us an email or a note on social media #IHeartUWLibs!

Thank you for your support!