Brown University Library News

Providence, RI [Brown University] – Brown University Library will host a Commencement Forum in the new Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab of the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, on Saturday, May 25 at 9am. Professor James W. Head III will present “Postcards from Other Planets.”  Utilizing the Lab’s 7X16 foot high definition video wall, Professor Head will lead guests to the mountains of the Moon with Apollo 15, allowing them to see the invisible lunar interior with GRAIL spacecraft gravity data, cross the floor of Gale Crater on Mars with the Curiosity rover, and join Brown planetary geoscientists as they explore the Mars-like Antarctic Dry Valleys for months at a time.

Professor Head is the Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences. He came to Brown University in 1973, following his work with the NASA Apollo program. His current research centers on the processes that form and modify the surfaces, crusts and lithospheres of planets, how these processes vary with time, and how such processes interact to produce the historical record preserved on the planets. Since 1984, Dr. Head convenes the Vernadsky Institute/Brown University microsymposia, held twice yearly in Moscow and Houston. He is a co-investigator for the NASA MESSENGER mission to Mercury and Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), as well as the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Mission. He has previously served as an investigator with NASA and Russian Space Missions, such as the Soviet Venera 15/16 and Phobos missions, and the US Magellan (Venus), Galileo (Jupiter), Mars Surveyor, Russian Mars 1996, and Space Shuttle missions.

This talk is free, open to the public, and morning refreshments will be provided. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The Digital Scholarship Lab is located on the first floor of the Rock.  Enter through the circulation gates, take your first right, and pass through the two glass doors into the Periodicals Reading Room.

The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world.

Contact: Jennifer Braga |  401-863-6913

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – On Monday, May 13, from 4-6pm, join students from Tyler Denmead’s Digital Storytelling course in the Digital Scholarship Lab of the Rock for “Digital Stories / Analog Brownies.” This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

What exactly is digital storytelling? Over the course of the Spring semester, students in Digital Storytelling have tried to answer this question while exploring the narrative possibilities of new media.  Because some things just can’t be digitized, this event will also feature brownies.

New digital tools have made it easy to create and share information with a wide audience. But these media – websites, digital shorts, even PowerPoint presentations – also have narrative potential that can reinforce or alter traditional storytelling formats. Students have explored these digital tools through a range of story structures, including place-based and non-linear stories. Works range from personal family history to an interpretive album of astronomical images.

To learn more, please check out the exhibit website http://digibrownies.weebly.com/ and look for #digistory on Twitter. And join us on May 13^th! For a preview, check out this personal story from Public Humanities superstar Elon Cook: http://youtu.be/sknWXF-e4IE

Center for Public Humanities at Brown University fosters education, research, and public engagement initiatives to connect individuals and communities to art, history, and culture.

The Brown University Library is home to more than 6.8 million print items, plus a multitude of electronic resources and expanding digital archives serving the teaching, research, and learning needs of Brown students and faculty, as well as scholars from around the country and the world.

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On Friday April 19th, the Reading Room of the John Hay Library will have limited hours. Due to a scheduled event, the Reading Room will be open from 10am-3pm The building will remain open until 5pm but collections will not be available for consultation.