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The 2018 Undergraduate Research Symposium @UMN

By Kate Peterson

Undergraduate Services Librarian

The Undergraduate Research Symposium — an annual research fair at the University of Minnesota — gives all UMN undergraduate researchers a chance to share their research, and scholarly and creative projects with the University community.

We were so pleased to be able to talk with students about their great research at the April 20, 2018 Undergraduate Research Symposium. The U Libraries support students in many aspects of their research — along with many units around campus including the Office of Undergraduate Research and in all the Colleges.

How we support students

Students access our article databases like Web of Science or PubMed to find scholarly and academic articles which form the foundation for their own research.

We have a workshop called “Think Like a Researcher” for first- and second year students to get introduced with how to get started with faculty sponsored research and creative projects.

We help students connect with the Experts@MN tool — which students can use to connect with potential faculty mentors and research projects.

We meet one-on-one with students while they work on research or UROP proposals to find articles written by faculty members and seminal articles on their research topics

We help students connect with data they can use in their projects. For example, Alicia, our government documents librarians helps find data created by government agencies. Ryan, our map librarian, helps students create maps and add data layers based on their unique projects.

We can help students with research tools — from learning about tools like Zotero or Mendeley which organize PDFs and automatically create bibliographies to creating logical file naming structures for long term access to data.

Our Archives and Special Collections have been the inspiration for research projects including analysis of documents or historical records in our collections.  

We teach workshops for students on designing scientific posters and have created an online tutorial on Communicating Your Research with Posters. Our Map Library also helps with student poster printing.

We select posters to display in our coffee shops and around the Libraries to help share the great work by students.

The completed posters are also archived in the University Digital Conservancy. Browse or search over 1000 posters. These posters are used by students to get a sense of what research can look like and for ideas for their own projects.

Photos from the Symposium

Margaret Hasse read from her most recent publication, Between Us, as well as other works at the Pankake Poetry Reading on April 11, 2018 at the University of Minnesota's Andersen Library. 

Hear about the experiences of two University of Minnesota Grand Challenges Research teams as they spent four days conducting research with a team of University of Minnesota librarians. It's all part of the U of M Libraries' Research Sprints program.

The projects highlighted in the video are: 

The CREATE Initiative: 

Co-developing Research and Engaged Approaches to Transform our Environment, which is led by Kate Derickson. 

The CREATE Initiative supports solutions-oriented research and graduate training designed to address the Grand Challenges of “Assuring CleanWater” and “Fostering Just and Equitable Communities.”

* More about CREATE

Wild rice in Minnesota and the Great Lakes region:

A flagship for environmental preservation and Indigenous resource sovereignty. Crystal Ng and Diana Dalbotten from the research team were interviewed for the video. 

* More about the Wild rice project

Hear about the experiences of two University of Minnesota Grand Challenges Research teams as they spent four days conducting research with a team of University of Minnesota librarians. It’s all part of the U of M Libraries’ Research Sprints program.

The projects highlighted in the video are: 

The CREATE Initiative: 

Co-developing Research and Engaged Approaches to Transform our Environment, which is led by Kate Derickson. 

The CREATE Initiative supports solutions-oriented research and graduate training designed to address the Grand Challenges of “Assuring CleanWater” and “Fostering Just and Equitable Communities.”

* More about CREATE

Wild rice in Minnesota and the Great Lakes region:

A flagship for environmental preservation and Indigenous resource sovereignty. Crystal Ng and Diana Dalbotten from the research team were interviewed for the video. 

* More about the Wild rice project

Margaret Hasse read from her most recent publication, Between Us, as well as other works at the Pankake Poetry Reading on April 11, 2018 at the University of Minnesota’s Andersen Library. 

In the video above, Lisa Vecoli reflects on her tenure as curator of the Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies. The full conversation can be viewed on the University Libraries YouTube channel. See below for the complete blog post.

By Mark Engebretson

As a child, Lisa Vecoli played “hide-and-seek” with her brother in the library stacks at the University of Minnesota, while waiting for her father to finish his work day at the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC). Rudi Vecoli had moved his family to Minnesota in 1967 to become the first director of the IHRC — a position he held for 38 years.

Rudi Vecoli pictured in the cavern beneath Andersen Library for "Minnesota," a University of Minnesota publication.

Over the years, he dreamed of a state-of-the-art building to preserve the IHCR archives and his dream was realized in 2000 when the Elmer L. Andersen Library opened — five years before Rudi retired.

Now, Lisa Vecoli is retiring as curator of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies — which is also housed in the Andersen Library.

“Andersen Library is now 19 years old, but it’s been part of my life for 50 years,” Lisa Vecoli says. “The fact that my father played a role in getting the building built that now houses the GLBT collection is a source of pride for me.”

Lisa Vecoli in the cavern.

That pride is evident in two photos that Lisa holds dear — one of her father, who passed away in 2008, and one of her — standing with arms wide in the middle of the archival stacks in the cavern beneath Andersen Library.

She likens her father’s work at the IHRC to that of her own with the Tretter Collection.

“For him, it was about the recognition and inclusion of Italian-Americans in particular but the immigrant voices more generally. … So it felt real natural for me to say, ‘I’m doing the same thing,’ she says. I’m serving the GLBT community, but it’s the same mission — it’s to allow people to articulate their own authentic experience and to demand that history include that.”

Making the Tretter collection more diverse 

In June 1972, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter and friends organized the first Twin Cities commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Forty-six years later TC Pride has grown into one of the largest celebrations in the country — and the Tretter Collection continues to host a history pavilion at Pride.

In 1983, Tretter — concerned that  "Our Gay history was disappearing as fast as we were producing it" — consciously started collecting anything he could about the GLBT community. In 2000, Tretter donated his collection to the University of Minnesota Libraries, realizing that it no longer was manageable in his apartment.

“Jean started with a good base of material, but Lisa has certainly done a lot to broaden the collection,” says Kris Kiesling, director of the U of M Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections. “It was essentially a gay male collection with a smattering of lesbian content and an even smaller smattering of bi-sexual and transgender materials. And Lisa has really built those components of the collection.”

Perhaps the highlight of Vecoli’s tenure at Tretter was her leadership in creating, developing, and managing the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. Since 2015, the project has focused on documenting the experiences of transgender and genderqueer people in the Upper Midwest.

By Mark Engebretson

As a child, Lisa Vecoli played “hide-and-seek” with her brother in the library stacks at the University of Minnesota, while waiting for her father to finish his work day at the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC). Rudi Vecoli had moved his family to Minnesota in 1967 to become the first director of the IHRC — a position he held for 38 years.

Over the years, he dreamed of a state-of-the-art building to preserve the IHCR archives and his dream was realized in 2000 when the Elmer L. Andersen Library opened — five years before Rudi retired.

Now, Lisa Vecoli is retiring as curator of the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies — which is also housed in the Andersen Library.

“Andersen Library is now 19 years old, but it’s been part of my life for 50 years,” Lisa Vecoli says. “The fact that my father played a role in getting the building built that now houses the GLBT collection is a source of pride for me.”

That pride is evident in two photos that Lisa holds dear — one of her father, who passed away in 2008, and one of her — standing with arms wide in the middle of the archival stacks in the cavern beneath Andersen Library.

She likens her father’s work at the IHRC to that of her own with the Tretter Collection.

“For him, it was about the recognition and inclusion of Italian-Americans in particular but the immigrant voices more generally. … So it felt real natural for me to say, ‘I’m doing the same thing,’ she says. I’m serving the GLBT community, but it’s the same mission — it’s to allow people to articulate their own authentic experience and to demand that history include that.”

Making the Tretter collection more diverse 

In June 1972, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter and friends organized the first Twin Cities commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Forty-six years later TC Pride has grown into one of the largest celebrations in the country — and the Tretter Collection continues to host a history pavilion at Pride.

In 1983, Tretter — concerned that  “Our Gay history was disappearing as fast as we were producing it” — consciously started collecting anything he could about the GLBT community. In 2000, Tretter donated his collection to the University of Minnesota Libraries, realizing that it no longer was manageable in his apartment.

“Jean started with a good base of material, but Lisa has certainly done a lot to broaden the collection,” says Kris Kiesling, director of the U of M Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections. “It was essentially a gay male collection with a smattering of lesbian content and an even smaller smattering of bi-sexual and transgender materials. And Lisa has really built those components of the collection.”

Perhaps the highlight of Vecoli’s tenure at Tretter was her leadership in creating, developing, and managing the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. Since 2015, the project has focused on documenting the experiences of transgender and genderqueer people in the Upper Midwest. Vecoli hired Andrea Jenkins, who conducted nearly 200 interviews covering identity, family, love, and experiences. These oral histories are posted online.

In November 2017, Jenkins became the first openly transgender African-American woman elected to public office when she won the Eighth Ward seat on the Minneapolis City Council.

Around that same time, Vecoli was granted funding for Phase 2 of the project, which will examine transgender community organizing, policy development, and political activism around the country.

Two national awards

Vecoli’s accomplishments at Tretter have received national attention. In the last two years,

By Rebecca Toov

You are listening to U of M Radio on your Historic Dial!

From 1938-1979, the Minnesota School of the Air brought educational programs into the classrooms of Minnesota and beyond over radio airwaves and through tape transcription. During the 1977-1978 season, School of the Air produced a series of radio “field trips” called Look What We Found, a program that introduced students to people and places in Minnesota. Join us this season as we revisit these radio field trips. Today’s episode takes listeners to the zoo, and ends with an important lesson.

Season 2: Episode 5. At the Zoo.

You are listening to U of M Radio on your Historic Dial podcast. Welcome to Season 2: Episode 5.

Hi, this is Rebecca from University Archives.  Today’s featured broadcast of the program Look What We Found is titled, “At the Zoo.”  It is an interview with a zookeeper from Como Zoo in St. Paul who introduced listeners to some new animals.  Normally on this podcast, I give a short introduction and then we listen to the historic broadcast. Due to something that happened after this program originally aired on March 30, 1978, we should meet the animals and hear from the zookeeper first. I’ll come back at the end to conclude the program.

Audio reel box for "Look What We Found... At the Zoo," March 30, 1978. Minnesota School of the Air.

 

Broadcast Transcript

[Music]

Various voices: I don’t believe it. You’ve got to be kidding… Whew… oh wow!

[Group exclamation] Look what we found!

Announcer: Come on you’ve been sitting there far too long. Join the Minnesota School of the Air as we take a field trip in sound to someplace you’ve probably never been, somewhere in and around the Twin Cities. And here to go with you are your hosts Walter, Patty, and Bill.

[Animal sounds]

Walter: Ok Patty, what’s that?

Patty: It’s guessing game time.

Bill: Well it’s definitely something alive.

Patty: That’s right Bill.

Walter: Sounds like a baby of some kind.

Patty: You’re right too Walter. It’s the voice of St. Paul’s youngest celebrity. He’s a lion cub that was born at Como Park Zoo last week.

Bill: Well, tell us some more.

Patty: Why don’t we listen instead to someone who really knows what she’s talking about. Joanne is a zookeeper at the zoo.  We talked about it and she told me that spring is her favorite time at the zoo and it’s because spring is the time for baby animals.

[Animal sounds]

Joanne: Pretty big ostrich… [Laugh]

Patty: What are the best parts of the job?

Joanne: The best parts… um, well some of the easiest… like right now in the springtime it’s, uh, duckling season, and baby cat season, and baby chicken and baby rabbit season. It’s time for babies, and that’s really my favorite time of the year because everything is kind of opening up and springtime in Minnesota is beautiful anyway and then when the animals are kind of adding to it it’s really nice and sometimes you get to bottle feed the babies and take care of our little zoo animals, so it’s really interesting.

Patty: Wasn’t there a new arrival here? A couple days ago?

Joanne: Yes, we had the birth of one lion cub which was male and he was born Friday. We’re not too sure. He wasn’t here Thursday night but he was here Friday morning.  So he was born Friday during the early hours of the morning. Um, Saturday throughout the day we had 3 tiger cubs born, and… Alexandra’s good at this… she usually picks a busy Saturday or Sunday always, and she usually starts about 9 in the morning and then she finished by a...

By Rebecca Toov

You are listening to U of M Radio on your Historic Dial!

From 1938-1979, the Minnesota School of the Air brought educational programs into the classrooms of Minnesota and beyond over radio airwaves and through tape transcription. During the 1977-1978 season, School of the Air produced a series of radio “field trips” called Look What We Found, a program that introduced students to people and places in Minnesota. Join us this season as we revisit these radio field trips. Today’s episode takes listeners to the zoo, and ends with an important lesson. 

Season 2: Episode 5. At the Zoo.

You are listening to U of M Radio on your Historic Dial podcast. Welcome to Season 2: Episode 5.

Hi, this is Rebecca from University Archives.  Today’s featured broadcast of the program Look What We Found is titled, “At the Zoo.”  It is an interview with a zookeeper from Como Zoo in St. Paul who introduced listeners to some new animals.  Normally on this podcast, I give a short introduction and then we listen to the historic broadcast. Due to something that happened after this program originally aired on March 30, 1978, we should meet the animals and hear from the zookeeper first. I’ll come back at the end to conclude the program.

 

Broadcast Transcript

[Music]

Various voices: I don’t believe it. You’ve got to be kidding… Whew… oh wow!

[Group exclamation] Look what we found!

Announcer: Come on you’ve been sitting there far too long. Join the Minnesota School of the Air as we take a field trip in sound to someplace you’ve probably never been, somewhere in and around the Twin Cities. And here to go with you are your hosts Walter, Patty, and Bill.

[Animal sounds]

Walter: Ok Patty, what’s that?

Patty: It’s guessing game time.

Bill: Well it’s definitely something alive.

Patty: That’s right Bill.

Walter: Sounds like a baby of some kind.

Patty: You’re right too Walter. It’s the voice of St. Paul’s youngest celebrity. He’s a lion cub that was born at Como Park Zoo last week.

Bill: Well, tell us some more.

Patty: Why don’t we listen instead to someone who really knows what she’s talking about. Joanne is a zookeeper at the zoo.  We talked about it and she told me that spring is her favorite time at the zoo and it’s because spring is the time for baby animals.

[Animal sounds]

Joanne: Pretty big ostrich… [Laugh]

Patty: What are the best parts of the job?

Joanne: The best parts… um, well some of the easiest… like right now in the springtime it’s, uh, duckling season, and baby cat season, and baby chicken and baby rabbit season. It’s time for babies, and that’s really my favorite time of the year because everything is kind of opening up and springtime in Minnesota is beautiful anyway and then when the animals are kind of adding to it it’s really nice and sometimes you get to bottle feed the babies and take care of our little zoo animals, so it’s really interesting.

Patty: Wasn’t there a new arrival here? A couple days ago?

Joanne: Yes, we had the birth of one lion cub which was male and he was born Friday. We’re not too sure. He wasn’t here Thursday night but he was here Friday morning.  So he was born Friday during the early hours of the morning. Um, Saturday throughout the day we had 3 tiger cubs born, and… Alexandra’s good at this… she usually picks a busy Saturday or Sunday always, and she usually starts about 9 in the morning and then she finished by about 5 in the afternoon… and she had 3 this time and we tried to keep them with her.  It was hopeful that she would nurse them and attend to them as she should but, unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky this time. And we had to take the cubs from her, but they are all being bottle raised right now. All 4 of them… well, unfortunately, one of the tiger cubs has already passed on. But,

Lisa Von Drasek discusses a book by Beatrice Ojakangas called: Homemade: Finnish Rye, Feed Sack Fashion, and Other Simple Ingredients from My Life in Food in this installment of Read This Book! from the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Libraries that have this book

University of Minnesota Libraries

* Hennepin County Library

Saint Paul Public Library

About Lisa Von Drasek and Read This Book!

Lisa Von Drasek is the Curator of the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries and host of Read This Book!

Read This Book! is a video podcast produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries. It is available on YouTube and iTunes.