2023 Samford Student Research Colloquia -- This Friday

 

The Samford University Library is proud to once again host the Samford Student Research Colloquia this Friday starting at 9:30 am!  

The colloquia is sponsored and organized by the Research Advisory Collaborative, in partnership with the Office of Research. It is a public forum where Samford students (undergraduate and graduate) present their scholarship and research.  The library hosted the first-ever colloquia on April 22nd of last year with an impressive turnout in terms of both submissions and visitors -- and this year looks like it'll be the same.

Please be advised that noise levels in the building will be elevated during this time due to the colloquia.  DBH 112, DBH 113, and Brock Forum will be available next door if you desire a quieter place to study.  We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation.

Click here to visit the colloquia website, including links to lists of both 2022 and 2023 abstracts.

Our NEW Digital Archive... is LIVE!

The library is proud to announce our NEW digital archive, powered by Quartex!

 Accessibility at the heart of new Quartex digital archive, documenting Samford University’s place in Alabama history

Marlborough, UK – December 2022. Historically significant collections documenting the history of Samford University and religious life in Alabama are among those featured in Samford University Harwell Goodwin Davis Library’s new digital archive, the Samford University Digital Collections.

Alongside collections containing hundreds of photographs of Alabama churches and religious life, the digital archive also includes the William E. Hull Sermons Collection, which is comprised of over 500 sermons, notes and presentations by Hull, a world-renowned theologian and former provost, university professor and research professor at Samford University.

Jennifer Taylor, chair of Samford’s Special Collection & University Archives, said, “Serving the university’s faculty, students and alumni, genealogists and researchers of Baptist and Alabama history, the Samford University Digital Collections will make these materials more accessible and easy to use for people across the world.”

The new digital archive, which provides free access to users around the world, launched this month using the AM Quartex digital collections platform and also documents the history of campus life at Samford University, including the full run of the Samford Crimson (the university’s student-run newspaper, first published in 1915) and a growing collection of oral histories featuring faculty, alumni and voices from Alabama’s religious community.

The project is the result of over two years of planning, after a review in 2020 concluded that the library’s existing digital asset management platform was no longer capable of delivering the team’s vision for its digital collections.

Kim Herndon, dean of the Samford University Library, said, “We are very excited to present such a dynamic, user friendly and well-designed website for users to research Samford University and the religious history of Alabama. Having learned about Quartex through other institutions with Baptist archival materials, it immediately seemed a more robust and flexible solution; features such as digital exhibits give us more scope for how we present our collections and efficient workflows are already streamlining the way we work.”

The ability to generate transcriptions in-platform for all digitized assets heavily influenced the library’s decision to adopt Quartex.

“All of our oral history collections have been transcribed in-platform and the impact in terms of efficiency is huge. It’s also an important point of accessibility; having the time-coded transcript on screen alongside the asset is incredible,” said Burns Kennedy, user services archivist at the Samford Library.

Martin Drewe, Head of Customer Experience at AM, said, “With the launch of this new digital collections website, Samford University’s holdings of material relating to Baptist life in Alabama are now more easily accessible than ever before. The library team is already working to make new collections available, including more oral histories and church records that are in desperate need of preservation and digitization. We look forward to supporting them in making these important materials more accessible.”

University Library front entrance is closed due to ongoing roof work

Please be aware that our front entrance is closed due to ongoing roof work. Our Einstein Bros. patio door will need to be used for entering or exiting the building.

Meet Us Monday - Lauren Young

 

Of all the resources the Samford University Library makes available to its users, among our most important and valuable are our people! Our #MeetUsMonday series offers a weekly glimpse behind the scenes by spotlighting the various people who work tirelessly every day to proactively support the University's mission by providing scholarly resources, research and information services, a welcoming environment, and collaborative alliances to promote learning and teaching.

Lauren M. Young

Library Instruction Coordinator

Reference Librarian

Liaison Librarian for:

Moffett and Sanders School of Nursing
School of Health Professions

(Physician Assistant Studies)

Master of Information and Library Science, University of Southern Mississippi

MA English, University of Mississippi

BA English, University of Mississippi

Joined Samford in 2015

• What do you like best about working here in the library? The space is beautiful and my colleagues are wonderful, but the very best thing is helping students grow in confidence in their research skills. Each day brings new students to my office with unique research topics that I get to spend a little time with. It's so fun to see what interests students and to learn along with them.
  
  
• What do you do on your commute to and from Samford? I often opt take my first grade son to school in the mornings rather than send him by school bus. It adds extra time to my commute, but chatting with him one-on-one is special time well spent. Once I drop him off, I flip between the talk radio presets on my FM radio dial, learning about the day's news topics from a variety of perspectives. So many of the tidbits I hear end up being leads for research questions students have.
  
  
• What are some of your interests outside of work? I love to work with plants and have indoor and outdoor favorites. I spend a lot of time with my family - my husband and our daughter (12yo) and son (7yo). We play board games, work puzzles, build with Legos, ride bikes, and love to host get-togethers with friends. We are active in our church, Shades Mountain Baptist, and I enjoy volunteering at the kids' schools. We like to visit Oxford, Miss., home to our alma mater, Ole Miss. Hotty Toddy!
  
  
• What is your favorite book? So many books are warmly familiar; it would be tempting to choose one of those. On the other hand, there are so many new stories to get lost in and to learn from. And who can resist the charm of a beautifully illustrated children's book shared with your children? Nothing, though, comes close to the Bible. As Christians, we are to live on mission for God. He shows us how through His word. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
  
  
• Who is one of your heroes and why? My father was an officer in the Army Medical Corps, retiring at the rank of colonel. We moved every two years of my childhood. My mother, a teacher, devoted her teaching abilities to her children and nurtured us through all of the transitions. Our home was warm and happy and transcended location. My mother- and father-in-law faithfully raised a son who would become a wonderful husband and father to our family. These individuals modeled putting God and family first. They served our country selflessly, continuing family legacies of patriotism and sacrifice. They continue to actively pour into their children and grandchildren. For that and more, they are all my heroes.
  
  
• What’s the one thing people likely don’t know about you, but should? My father's work with tropical diseases led our family around the globe. I was born in Brazil and lived in Kenya as a teenager, and we lived in several regions in the US. Experiencing different cultures at a young age was formative for me, instilling both a heart for other countries and a profound sense of gratitude for my own. I cannot overstate the benefit of traveling and experiencing the world (safely!) for young people.

Meet Us Monday - Carla Waddell

 

Of all the resources the Samford University Library makes available to its users, among our most important and valuable are our people! Our #MeetUsMonday series offers a weekly glimpse behind the scenes by spotlighting the various people who work tirelessly every day to proactively support the University's mission by providing scholarly resources, research and information services, a welcoming environment, and collaborative alliances to promote learning and teaching.

Carla T. Waddell

Chair, Reference & Research Service
Government Documents Librarian

Liaison Librarian for:

Brock School of Business
Howard College of Arts and Sciences

(Biological & Environmental Sciences)

Master of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama

BA  Intercultural-International Studies, University of Montevallo

Joined Samford in 2000

• What do you like best about working here in the library? Our community! How we nurture and support our students and each other.
  
  
• What do you do on your commute to and from Samford? I listen to the radio and podcasts.
  
  
• If you didn't work here in the library, what and/or where would you like to be doing? I would love to work for the U.S. Department of State. 
  
  
• What are some of your interests outside of work? Running, cycling, and camping.  
  
  
• Do you have any favorite podcasts? Too many to list!
  
  
• What app is your favorite discovery? Calm app because the sleep stories are fantastic!
  
  
• What’s the one thing people likely don’t know about you, but should? I do not like mushrooms.

10th Annual BIG GIVE -- "For the Love of Samford's Story!"

 

April 5-6

samford.edu/give/big

The 10th annual Big Give event starts tomorrow! During his inauguration, Samford University President Dr. Beck Taylor set renewed intentions for the University with Ephesians 3:16-19 ‘rooted and grounded in love.’ He asks that we make such love the foundation of any vision we might cast together, for love to be the cornerstone of all we do at Samford.  During the Big Give, the library will be asking for your support with “For the Love of Samford’s Story!”

The Samford University Archives houses over a thousand audio tapes, many on open reel formats. With time, these types of tapes break down. Each day, they degrade more. 

The voices on these tapes offer unique opportunities to hear the words of Samford leaders, theologians, activists, politicians and even astronauts as they relate to topics such as community, race, religion, historical events, and education.  These are voices from the past that together tell the Samford story. 

Currently these recordings are not easily accessible nor well documented. With your help, these recordings can be digitized and made publicly available.  

Each tape costs approximately $125 to have the content professionally restored and migrated from the unstable magnetic tape to a digital format. With each tape funded by your donation to the Big Give, a voice from Samford’s past, from Samford’s story, will be saved and heard again.

Please consider making your gift online via the Big Give website and helping us reach our goal to make these snippets of the Samford story available to this and future generations. While we’re passionate about the library’s project in particular, you can direct your gift to any area of campus most meaningful to you.