Brown University Library is hosting four Interdisciplinary Opportunities Fellows for students in the humanities and social sciences who will be entering their 5th or 6th year of doctoral study in 2023-2024.
Fellowships are available in these areas at the Library:
Interdisciplinary Opportunities Fellows will draw on their own interests and areas of expertise to conduct research, contribute to Library programs, and engage with students, faculty, and staff to support Library initiatives. Fellows will be provided with office space in the Library.
Applications are due by Wednesday, March 1, 2023.
See the Graduate School website for contact information about the different opportunities, and instructions on how to apply.
The John Hay Library will host its first celebration of Black Joy Day on Wednesday, February 15. The Hay invites the Brown community and members of the public to enjoy the full day of activities.
Schedule of events:
9 – 10 a.m. – Guided Meditation by Jasmine Johnson (Black Zen co-founder), one of the few Black meditation experts (Lownes Room, 2nd floor)
10 a.m. – 12 p.m. – Special Collections Display (Gildor Family Special Collections Reading Room, 1st floor)
Soulfood bites (snacks and drinks) (Lobby, 1st floor)
12 – 1 p.m. – “Celebrating the Joy in Your Journey” presentation by Janelle Clarke-Holley, Strategic Coach (Lownes Room, 2nd floor)
1 – 1:15 p.m. – Performance by Becky Bass, Vocalist and Steel Drummer (Willis Reading Room, 1st floor)
7 – 8:15 p.m. – “The Rhythms of Black Joy” – Panel Discussion (Englander Studio, Granoff Center). Join artists and scholar-practitioners Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, Becci Davis, Kiana Murphy, and Deirdre Braz for a conversation about how they engage the spirit of Black Joy in their creative and scholarly practices. This program has been organized by the Black Music Lab at the Brown Arts Institute. (Note: This event takes place at the Granoff Center for the Arts, 154 Angell Street, not the John Hay Library.)
Presented by the Association of American Publishers, PROSE awards recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing
The Association of American Publishers has named Shadow Plays: Virtual Realities in an Analog World by Professor of Italian Studies Massimo Riva the category winner in eProduct for the 47th Annual PROSE Awards. PROSE awards recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by celebrating the authors, editors, and publishers whose landmark works have made significant advancements in their respective fields of study each year.
Shadow Plays was published in June 2022 by Stanford University Press. The open access book explores popular forms of entertainment used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to transport viewers to a new world, foreshadowing present-day virtual, augmented, and extended reality experiences (VR, AR, and XR). Typically studied as part of the pre-history of cinema or the archaeology of media, analog technologies such as the mondo nuovo or cosmorama, the magic lantern, the moving panorama, and the stereoscope evoked shadow-copies of our world long before the advent of digital technologies and exercised a powerful pull on minds and imaginations. Through six case histories and eight interactive simulations, Professor Riva explores themes of virtual travel, social surveillance, and utopian imagination, shedding light on illustrious or, in some instances, forgotten figures and inventions from Italy’s past.
Questions about Shadow Plays can be addressed to Allison Levy, Director of Brown University Digital Publications ([email protected]).
About Brown University Digital Publications
Brown University Digital Publications — a collaboration between the University Library and the Dean of the Faculty, generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities — creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown’s novel, university-based approach to digital content development is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age.
Inspired by a “theory to practice” mindset, the event offers four sessions over two days and is designed to reach beyond discourse and criticism of the current data ethics landscape to offer tangible principles, methodologies, and frameworks for participants to experience what more equitable approaches to technology creation feels like in action.
The structure combines lecture presentations and lab activities which ground theories of contextual technology development through curated learning examples and brings to life how embedded assumptions can distort the structures, interpretations, and impacts of data. Examples of learning material may include case studies, real datasets, dataset imaginaries, schema samples, simulated project environment elements, and hypothetical or gamified scenarios.
Sessions Overview
Keynote: Sonia Gipson-Rankin, “The Details are in the Data: Igniting the Catalyst for Transformative Change”
WORKSHOP #1 Lecture: Architectures of Friction and Flattening Immersive Lab: “Les Deliverables”
WORKSHOP #2 Lecture: Data Constituent Engagement Immersive Lab: “Data-Driven Gaslighting”
Registration is REQUIRED for each session and it is recommended to register early. Capacity for the keynote with Sonia Gipson-Rankin and Architectures of Friction and Flattening is capped at 40 in-person and 100 online participants. Capacity for sessions #2, #3, and #4 and “Les Deliverables,” the workshop portion of session #1, are capped at 25 participants, with additional spots which may be made available via waitlist.
Workshops are designed to be modular, and you may register for one session or attend multiple/all sessions. Lecture attendance is mandatory for participation in the associated lab exercise.
No prerequisites are necessary, and we encourage participation from faculty and graduate students from all disciplines. There will be something to learn for everyone, and the workshop structure provides opportunities for multidisciplinary collaborators to be creatively engaged and challenged in different ways.
9:15 – 9:30 a.m. – Welcome and Opening Remarks from Brown (in-person and live streamed)
9:30 – 10:15 a.m. –Keynote: Sonia Gipson-Rankin, “The Details are in the Data: Igniting the Catalyst for Transformative Change” (S#1 Lecture) (in-person and live streamed)
10:15 – 10:45 a.m. – Catherine Nikolovski,Architectures of Friction and Flattening (in person and live streamed)
In this workshop, participants will learn to shift mindsets from data being objective and neutral to recognizing how cultural and environmental factors impact how we perceive information. We will present strategies to bring attention to what is lost in the gap between reality and what can be captured by information structures, in particular, embracing intersectional representation and lived experience.
We invite participants to imagine (and experience) how processes that center equity and impact not only improve industry-standard models, but are intrinsically necessary to break barriers and achieve the next stage of modern innovation.
“Les Deliverables”
An experiential game that simulates the experience of building and trying to successfully deliver an equity-based software product. The scenarios (dramatic, thrilling, and sometimes treacherous) are based on composites of real case studies and projects.
Session #2
Data Constituent Engagement
This session expands on concepts from traditional human-centered design to include the role of “data constituents” and presents examples and case studies which illustrate how inclusive practices are not a marketing or PR strategy, and can measurably inform data structures, validation cycles, and interpretation of analytics.
“Data-Driven Gaslighting”
Focusing on questions of information provenance, the participants will investigate the culture of confidence in data-driven decision-making with special emphasis on elusive ways that confidence may be misplaced when key constituents are left out of the process and the structures of accountability are not properly in place.
Session #3
Beyond Performative Dashboards
In this session, we will deconstruct how data visualizations are a product of decision-making processes influencing what gets prioritized, obscured, or made hyper-visible—with a special emphasis on how cookie-cutter practices and constraints of the genre can perpetuate harmful distortions without proactive awareness.
“Dashboard Glow Up”
Working in teams, participants will get a chance to work with their hands (paper prototyping: craft kits will be provided) to redesign a real open data dashboard, applying the concepts around key metadata from the earlier presentation. Teams will come together at the end to present their changes “before and after” style and share how their decisions impact the narrative and perceptions of the data.
Session #4
Remediating Bias with Contextual Metadata
Datasets can become distorted by misplaced assumptions or biases, and when overlooked they can compound into larger problems—rendering your data unusable or actively inflicting harm to a constituency. Particularly when those assumptions are deeply rooted in a legacy system and amplify race, gender, or historic marginalization factors, action can feel unclear and overwhelming.
In this session, we will present the CIVIC Contextual Metadata schema as a method to uncover and critically assess datasets, demonstrating how it can be applied to annotate datasets, discover bias, and increase the integrity of future use cases.
“Hansel and Gretel Bias”
Participants will work in teams to navigate a series of questions and prompts in order to author inputs for metadata schema fields. Each team will be assigned a specific scenario and related sample data. Following “breadcrumbs,” the teams will go through a guided investigation as the workshop facilitators role-play data custodians, stakeholders, and/or constituents to aid teams in completing all questions.
The Doctoral Certificate Program in Digital Humanities offers an opportunity to currently enrolled Ph.D. students interested in adding expertise in digital methodologies and techniques to their research portfolio.
Brown University Library’s Center for Digital Scholarship and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities are pleased to partner together to offer the doctoral certificate, which will provide students with a foundation in digital methods and skills for their research, as well as an understanding of the broader theoretical questions that digital approaches to scholarship offer. The certificate is aimed at Ph.D. students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences though Ph.D. students from all disciplines are welcome to apply. Visit the Center for Digital Scholarship’s Doctoral Certificate page for complete information including how to apply.
Spring 2023 workshops that count towards the doctoral certificate:
Where: Online via Zoom Instructor: Karen Bouchard, Scholarly Resources Librarian, Art & Architecture Description: This class will focus on the use of copyrighted images in an academic setting, including teaching, presentations, and publication. We will also discuss how to locate Creative Commons and public domain images and how to obtain permission to publish. Attention will be paid to such topics as dissertations and image use, how to track down copyright owners, and how to make judgement calls based on the principle of fair use.
Intro to GIS with QGIS
REGISTER When: Saturday, February 25 at 10:15 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Where: Digital Scholarship Lab, Rockefeller Library Instructor: Frank Donnelly, Head of the GIS and Data Program Description: This day-long, hands-on workshop provides a thorough introduction to geographic information systems (GIS) using the free and open source software QGIS. You will learn how to navigate a GIS interface, perform geographic analyses, and create thematic maps. Participants must bring a laptop and install the software prior to the workshop day. More details.
Recording, Editing, and Publishing Podcasts
REGISTER When: Tuesday, March 28 at 1 – 2:30 p.m. Where: Digital Studio, Rockefeller Library Instructor: Patrick Rashleigh, Head of Digital Scholarship Technology Services Description: Come to the Library’s digital studio to get an introduction to recording, editing, and publishing a podcast in the Library’s own recording room (which you are free to book for your own projects). It’s not hard to get started, and in 90 minutes we’ll get you up and running, even if (ESPECIALLY if) you are a complete beginner.
Wikidata for Digital Humanities
REGISTER When: Wednesday, April 5 at 1 – 2 p.m. Where: Online via Zoom Instructor: Mairelys Lemus-Rojas, Head of Open Metadata Production and Initiatives Description: The Wikidata for Digital Humanities workshop will offer attendees an opportunity to learn about Wikidata — an open platform of structured linked data. This crowdsourced, language-independent knowledge base stores a wide range of subjects and releases its data under an open license, allowing their reuse. The low barrier for interacting with the Wikidata platform makes it a great candidate for linked open data (LOD) representation and facilitates collaboration from the global community of users. This session will provide an overview of Wikidata as well as selected tools and services that can be used to explore, contribute, and export data.
Gathering and Analyzing Social Media Data for Research
REGISTER When: Wednesday, April 12 at 2 p.m. Where: Online via Zoom Instructor: Ashley Champagne, Director of the Center for Digital Scholarship and Lecturer in Humanities Description: This workshop will offer attendees an overview of scraping social media posts on Twitter and Facebook, as well as how to download the information in csv format, clean it, and do basic analysis such as word frequency.
Applying
Please apply to the Digital Humanities Doctoral Certificate Program using UFunds. To access the application, log in to UFunds, and select Doctoral Certificates, then Digital Humanities. Applications are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis throughout the year. (Deadlines in UFunds are administrative: a new application cycle will open as soon as the previous one comes to end.)
The applicant’s home department DGS approval is required. Please note that the program is open only to Ph.D. students currently enrolled at Brown University. For more information, please contact Professor Steven Lubar.
This illustration featured in the poster above is by Khyati Trehan, an Indian graphic designer and 3D visual artist based in New York. As part of Trehan’s “Digital Biology” series, the illustration “uses scaffolding as a metaphor for AI’s quest in unearthing the underlying logic and structure of complex organic matter” (via Unsplash). For more about this image and to see Trehan’s other work, visit Trehan’s page on the Visualising AI website and Trehan’s website.
On March 3 – 4, 2023, History and Theory,partnering with Brown University Library, will bring the contributors to the December 2022 theme issue, “Digital History and Theory: Changing Narratives, Changing Methods, Changing Narrators,” together for an open exchange inspired by their contributions but focused on the ways to make that change happen now. Digital history has provided us with an incredible array of tools for acquiring and processing data, but critical theoretical reflections have been few and widespread imaginative historical innovations are scarce. The tools have changed, and the possibilities have changed, but the discipline of history is in danger of using them to simply replicate its old ways. Of course, in the end, it is not the tools that will lead to a change; it is ideas and imagination.
At #DigitalHT2023, our contributors will reflect on their past work and offer concrete suggestions as to how the digital can change the way we research, write, and teach about the past—that is, the way we do history.
Operations are founded on the most up-to-date, reliable safety protocols to ensure a healthy environment for our patrons and staff. Please follow all Healthy Brown steps to keep yourself and our community well. If you aren’t feeling well, please make use of the Library’s robust slate of digital resources.
Masking is optional in all Library spaces unless requested by class instructor or meeting host. Wearing masks is strongly recommended for all Brown community members when indoors with large numbers of people, regardless of vaccination status, including on the Brown University shuttle. For information on when masking may be required, see “Return to Campus: Health Precautions and Resources,” a message to returning students from Koren Bakkegard, Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Students, and Vanessa Britto, Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Executive Director for Health & Wellness.
Locations, Hours, and Access
Visit Library Hours for the full, updated list of locations and hours.
A Carnegie Library, the John Hay Library is open to the public Monday through Friday. Please note that reservations are required for the Gildor Family Special Collections Reading Room. Email [email protected] to make a reservation. You must also request materials through Aeon one week (5 full business days) in advance of your reservation. See Visiting the John Hay Library for more information.
Alumni and Other Visitors
Individuals who are not current Brown ID holders or current RISD students but who are affiliated with Brown University and would like to enter a University physical location, including all Library facilities, are considered visitors. Please visit Library Visitor Guidelines for complete information before heading to a library location.
Visitors who anticipate using the Rockefeller, Sciences, or Orwig Libraries on an ongoing basis must obtain a Brown University Library card. Alumni can use their alumni card to access the libraries.
Library Support
In-person
Patrons can schedule in-person (and online) consultation appointments with a Library expert by contacting the relevant expert directly. Not sure who to contact? Email [email protected]u for general inquiries and [email protected] for Special Collections inquiries.
Online
Please continue to request materials online through BruKnow. Requested materials will be held at the service desks. Patrons will be notified when the item is available and where it should be picked up. The Library is providing document delivery through the ILLiad system.
Self-checkout
Self-checkout of circulating materials is available at the Rockefeller Library and Sciences Library!
Graduate and Medical Student Carrels
Study carrels are available to graduate and medical students. Interested persons should inquire at the Rockefeller Library service desk.
Guides and videos with information about how to use the Library, conduct various aspects of research, and more are available online.
Feedback
Your Brown University Library is committed to providing all patrons with the best possible academic library experience. Throughout your engagement with Library collections, physical spaces, patron services, instruction, and web-based tools and content, you should be welcomed, valued, and respected, and be provided with equal opportunities to pursue scholarship in a spirit of free and open inquiry.
We encourage your feedback about any aspect of Library services, resources, and facilities. Feedback can be made through this anonymous form, which has an option for inputting your contact information, or you can email [email protected]
“Using Scalar to Illuminate the Fragments Controversy”
Jonathan Fine, Lecturer in German Studies
The Fragments Controversy was the most significant theological conflagration of the German Enlightenment. This Scalar project is the first introduction to the controversy that pairs commentary with digital copies of the main texts. It features texts digitalized previously by European libraries as well as digitalizations especially commissioned for this project. It takes advantage of numerous features available to users of Scalar to display the many intertextual networks in operation. It additionally includes visualizations such as timelines and maps that show the longevity and wide dissemination of Lessing’s polemics.
Jonathan Fine is a lecturer in the German Studies Department at Brown. He studied German, comparative literature, and critical theory at New York University and the University of California, Irvine. He previously taught at Gettysburg College and Pacific Lutheran University and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Patrick Rashleigh, Head of Digital Scholarship Technology Services
Rebecca Kartzinel, Lecturer in Biology, Interim Director of the Plant Environmental Center, Director of the Brown University Herbarium
The Herbarium User Experience (HerbUX) project is designing an interface to critical digitized herbarium collections with non-expert audiences (such as students, museum visitors, and the general public) in mind, for use in classrooms, museums, and other public spaces. This interface will be easy to use, encourage non-directed exploratory browsing, directly support pedagogical methodologies and learning outcomes, and be aesthetically engaging.
“Unsettling Boundaries: Envisioning a Database for Caribbean Feminist Creative Writing from the 1990s”
Warren Harding, Diversity in Digital Publishing Postdoctoral Research Associate (2022–2023)
In this discussion, Warren Harding will share insights and progress on creating a digital database of Caribbean feminist creative writing from the 1990s. He will reflect on the central questions, structure, scope, and challenges to coordinating this collaborative project.
Warren Harding (he, him) is currently the Diversity in Digital Publishing Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University Digital Publications. He holds a Ph.D. in Africana Studies from Brown, and is working on his manuscript tentatively titled, “Migratorial Reading: Black Caribbean Women Writers and the Work of Literary Cultures.” In Fall 2023, Dr. Harding will begin his appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, General Literature, and Rhetoric at Binghamton University.
“Interpretive Frameworks and Visualizations of Historical Vietnamese Texts and Drawings”
Cindy Nguyen, David Laidlaw, and Kailiang Fu
How do digital humanities and computational methods open up alternative interpretive frameworks for historical texts? This will be a conversation sharing how collaborative humanities visualization contributes towards critical and transparent research analysis and communication. As a case study, Nguyen, Fu, and Laidlaw examine a 1909-1910 multilingual visual encyclopedia of Vietnamese crafts, cultural practices, and technologies using a hybrid methodology of close reading, content analysis, and vector space models. As a focused case study, we conducted a layered analysis of visual-textual representations of gender and labor, with a focus on childbirth and female childcare. This project envisions decolonial interpretive frameworks that center historically marginalized agency, invisible authorship, and non-linear narrative forms.
Cindy Nguyen is a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Diego in the departments of Literature and History. She specializes in the history of Southeast Asian print culture, digital humanities, and libraries. She was a Brown University Cogut International Humanities Fellow from 2019 – 2021. To learn more about her historical scholarship, teaching, and digital humanities work, see her website cindyanguyen.com.
David H. Laidlaw is a professor of computer science at Brown University. His research interests revolve around visualization and modeling applications of computer graphics and computer science to other scientific disciplines. He is working with researchers in, for example, archaeology, developmental neurobiology, evolutionary biology, medical imaging, neuropathology, orthopedics, art, cognitive science, remote sensing, and fluid mechanics to develop new computational applications and to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Kailiang (Kail)Fu is a senior at Brown studying Applied Math – CS and History. He is interested in Asian culture, data visualization, and virtual reality.
“Building GeoPACHA, A Collaborative Digital Platform for “Virtual” Survey in Archaeology”
Parker VanValkenburgh, Associate Professor of Anthropology
The Geospatial Platform for Andean Culture, History and Archaeology (GeoPACHA) — see geopacha.org — is a tool developed in collaboration with Dr. Steven Wernke of Vanderbilt, designed to facilitate the identification of archaeological sites and features over extensive areas of South America through “virtual survey” of satellite and historical aerial imagery. In this presentation, I will briefly discuss the project’s problem orientation and design, before moving on to reflect on how its implementation during the global pandemic created both new challenges and opportunities for collaborative research and pedagogy. While virtual archaeological survey is no replacement for conventional field-based methodologies, it offers new possibilities for collecting data at scale, while also scaling up international collaboration and student learning in ways that are nearly impossible to emulate in the excavation trench and the laboratory.
Parker VanValkenburg is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brown. His research and publications employ archaeological methods to address anthropological research questions, with a particular focus on the long-term impacts of colonialism and imperialism on Indigenous people and environments in Andean Peru. In this work, he draws amply on digital methodologies, including the tools of geographic information systems (GIS), to map and analyze social, political, and environmental change in space and time. He also applies a critical lens to the study of digital media and methodologies, asking not just how these techniques facilitate archaeological scholarship, but how digital mediation transforms the ways we work with collaborators, research subjects, students, and public audiences.
“New Frameworks to Preserve and Present on Born-Digital Multimedia Art”
Ashley Champagne, Director of CDS
Patrick Rashleigh, Head of Digital Scholarship Technology Services
Cody Carvel, Digital Scholarship Technologist
John Cayley, Professor of Literary Arts
Hilary Wang, Digital Archivist
Andrew Majcher, Head of Digital Services and Records Management
This project is developing new frameworks for the long-term preservation and presentation of born-digital art with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Preserving born-digital work can be challenging because platforms, hardware, and software are often updated or replaced, changing and even degrading how the original art is displayed. Through “containerization” — a portable, low-cost method of preserving and presenting the code, operating system, and text for experimental, born-digital art — future readers will still be able to view, distribute, collaborate on, and experiment with the original work even if its infrastructure has been altered or discontinued. In this presentation, we’ll share a project update on the models we’re drafting to preserve innovative, experimental born-digital and born-computational art.
Roundtable: “Artificial Intelligence in Humanities Research”
Lindsey Caplan, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture
Holly Case, Professor of History
Kiri Miller, Professor of American Studies
Sydney Skybetter, Senior Lecturer in Theater and Performance Studies
New AI tools hold out the promise of new techniques for research, writing and presentations in the humanities, as well as new challenges to originality and ethics. A group of Brown faculty will consider some of the history and future of AI in the humanities.
Operations are founded on the most up-to-date, reliable safety protocols to ensure a healthy environment for our patrons and staff. Please follow all Healthy Brown steps to keep yourself and our community well. If you aren’t feeling well, please make use of the Library’s robust slate of digital resources.
Masking is optional in all University spaces, including the Library. For information on when masking may be required, see “Approach to Academic Instruction for Fall 2022,” a message to the Brown community from Provost Richard M. Locke.
Locations, Hours, and Access
Visit Library Hours for the full, updated list of locations and hours.
Please note that reservations are required for the Gildor Family Special Collections Reading Room at the John Hay Library. Email [email protected] to make a reservation. You must also request materials through Aeon one week (5 full business days) in advance of your reservation. The Hay’s visiting webpage has more information. A Carnegie Library, the Hay is open to the public Monday through Friday.
Visitors who anticipate using the Rockefeller, Sciences, or Orwig Libraries on an ongoing basis must obtain a Brown University Library card. Cards will be issued upon receipt and approval of a completed Brown University Library Visitors request form. The Library must approve requests for visitors, excluding those with IDs sponsored by a department or program at Brown, Brown alumni, and visitors attending a Library public event. More information.
Library Support
In-person
Patrons can schedule in-person (and online) consultation appointments with a Library expert by contacting the relevant library expert directly. Not sure who to contact? Email [email protected] for general inquiries and [email protected] for Special Collections inquiries.
Online
Please continue to request materials online through BruKnow. Requested materials will be held at the service desks. Patrons will be notified when the item is available and where it should be picked up. The Library is providing document delivery through the ILLiad system.
Graduate and Medical Student Carrels
Study carrels are available to graduate and medical students. Interested persons should inquire at the Rockefeller Library service desk.
Guides and videos with information about how to use the Library, conduct various aspects of research, and more are available online.
Feedback
Your Brown University Library is committed to providing all patrons with the best possible academic library experience. Throughout your engagement with Library collections, physical spaces, patron services, instruction, and web-based tools and content, you should be welcomed, valued, and respected, and be provided with equal opportunities to pursue scholarship in a spirit of free and open inquiry.
We encourage your feedback about any aspect of Library services, resources, and facilities. Feedback can be made through this anonymous form, which has an option for inputting your contact information, or you can email [email protected]
Brown University administration has generously planned an extended Winter Break from the close of business on Thursday, December 22, 2022 through Sunday, January 8, 2023. In order to maintain support of students, faculty, and researchers during this time, while giving dedicated library staff members well-deserved time off, the University Library will be offering limited building hours and services. Please take note of the time-sensitive services listed below so that you can plan ahead and obtain the materials you will need in advance of the break.
Please consult Library Hours for up-to-date hours for each location.
Place orders for Annex, Borrow Direct, and Holds by Dec. 20
Please place orders for materials from the Library Annex and through Borrow Directby 5 p.m. on Tuesday, December 20 for pickup on Thursday, December 22. We will be unable to place items on hold during the break. Note that delivery of Borrow Direct materials may vary depending on the operations of our partner libraries.
Which locations will be open? Who can use the buildings?
The Rockefeller Library will be open (without services) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (see exceptions below) with swipe card access for current Brown ID holders only. Visitors without a current Brown ID will not be able to access the buildings. Please see the Library Hours and Locations page for details.
The John Hay Library, Sciences Library, and Orwig Music Library will be closed during the break.
Will you close completely for some days?
All University Library locations will be closed with no on-site or online services on Friday, December 23, Christmas Eve (Saturday, December 24), Christmas Day (Sunday, December 25), and New Year’s Day (Sunday, January 1).
Self-checkout
Self-checkout of circulating materials will be available at the Rockefeller Library and Sciences Library during break and continuing with regular operations.
How can I get help from a library expert?
Limited support for the Brown community and researchers working on time-sensitive projects will be available on the days when we are not fully closed via email at [email protected]. Please allow 12 – 24 hours for a response.
Will Interlibrary Loan be available?
You may continue to place orders through Interlibrary Loan for electronic journal articles. Note that delivery dates and times will vary depending on the operations of our partner libraries.
Can I view special collections material?
Requests for special collections material can be made at any time through Aeon. John Hay Library staff will respond to requests that come in over break beginning the week of January 9. Thousands of items have been digitized and are available for view at any time through the Brown Digital Repository.
Who will be on-site when the buildings are open?
The Library will have security guards in the buildings when they are open by card swipe access. Please note that security guards are not Library employees. They are not able to answer research questions and cannot retrieve library materials.
Happy Holidays!
Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and restful winter break from your Brown University Library!
