Another Great Year for Our Research Data Services Team

Session Attendees graph
Average number of attendees by session

The University Library’s Research Data Services (RDS) Team provided over 50 workshops for students, faculty, and staff over the last academic year, with a total of 320 attendees. They also conducted custom sessions for graduate students (152 total attendees) as well as custom sessions for the GSU College of Education & Human Development faculty and a research team comprised of GSU African American Studies and Clark Atlanta University faculty, reaching a grand total of 481 people. RDS Team Leader Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh has recently published a “data story” on Tableau Public about their successful workshops, custom sessions, and consultations over the last year. Nice job!

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Some Data on our Research Data Services

The Library’s Research Data Services (RDS) Team supports research projects and learning across multiple disciplines involving quantitative, qualitative, business, and spatial/GIS data. We collaborate with and advise Georgia State University’s researchers across the entire research lifecycle, including accessing and using unique data, using data analysis software, managing data, and sharing data for reuse by other researchers. Find out more about our specific services at http://library.gsu.edu/data.

In our inaugural year (FY17), the Research Data Services Team, led by Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh, provided over 250 consultations to Georgia State University’s researchers. Check out some statistics and visualizations, generated here by Mandy in Tableau from the data we logged for our research data services (RDS) consultations, which illustrate the breadth and depth of our experiences during our inaugural year.

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Image of digital exhibit case with artifacts and 3D model

3D Modeling GSU Library Special Collections

Right now, on the eighth floor of Library South, you can visit Georgia State University Library’s Special Collection exhibit about Eastern Air Lines, a major airline that operated out of Atlanta from 1930 until 1991.  Georgia State University Magazine included an article about Eastern in their December 2016 issue, complete with interviews and oral histories about the airline. The University Library holds an extensive collection of Eastern materials thanks to Carolyn Lee Wills, who donated her personal archive from her years working in public relations with Eastern. Wills graduated from Georgia State in 1959 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.

Image of Carolyn Lee Wills, public relations officer for Eastern Air Lines
Carolyn Lee Wills in the 1980s

Part of the Library’s exhibit is our digital exhibit case, which allows you to see original artifacts and also interact with digital content from the Eastern collection, such as photographs, travel flyers, training manuals, and much more.  Many of the items in the collection can be found in the Eastern digital collection, but some of the items are so unique that we chose to use photogrammetry to capture the object in 3D.

One example is a baseball that was given to Wills, presumably by the Atlanta Braves. As you can see in the picture below, the ball is covered with hand-written notes, each of which refers to a landmark in Georgia, such as Stone Mountain, Six Flags, Golden Isles, and Okefenokee Swamp.

Image of an Atlanta Braves baseball given to Carolyn Lee Wills
Atlanta Braves baseball given to Carolyn Lee Wills

When on display in the exhibit case, the baseball can only be viewed from one or two angles, but with a 3D model, visitors can turn the ball to see each of the locations. The high-quality model has 1.6 million individual polygons meshed together to create an accurate reproduction of the baseball. Just like a real baseball, the stitching and seams are raised to give (virtual) pitchers a better grip on the ball.

We don’t know who signed the ball, but it was clearly someone associated with the Atlanta Braves who presented the ball to Wills. Eastern was known to promote the Atlanta Braves, and management members attended games in the 1970s and 80s.

Eastern Air Lines management attend an Atlanta Braves game in 1979. Some photos seem to be taken in the locker room.
Eastern Air Lines promoted the Atlanta Braves with posters such as this one from the 1980s

To view the baseball alongside other artifacts and documents from the Eastern Air Lines collection, and to check out our interactive digital exhibit case, visit Special Collections on the 8th floor of Library South!

Image of digital exhibit case with artifacts and 3D model
GSU Special Collections Digital Exhibit Case with Aircraft and Baseball Displayed with 3D Model of Baseball
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Bill Gates Visits GSU and CURVE

Bill Gates and representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation visited Georgia State University and CURVE on June 12 to learn more about how Georgia State has leveraged technology and data to eliminate achievement gaps and become a national model for student success. Gates spoke with Dr. Timothy Renick, vice provost and vice president for enrollment management and student success, Dr. Allison Calhoun-Brown, associate vice president for student success, and a group of students and recent graduates who shared their success stories.

Gates in CURVEGates in CURVE 2

More pics here.

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