Library Collections Enhancement Initiative

by Lisa Carter, Vice Provost for Libraries

I am happy to share that the Library Collections Enhancement Initiative (LCEI) program was extended for a second round. Offered as a pilot program through the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education with additional support from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the LCEI strengthens campus research capacities by advancing partnerships between librarians and faculty to address collection building that enhances UW-Madison scholarship.

Each project is led by at least one faculty member in partnership with at least one librarian with subject expertise. This year’s funded projects include a wide variety of special topics:

Collection Development of Digitized Chinese Local Gazetteers.  Partners: Joseph Dennis, Associate Professor of History; Anlin Yang, East Asian Studies Librarian; Rania Huntington, Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures; Anatoly Detwyler, Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures; Viren Murthy, Associate Professor of History; and Judd Kinzley, Associate Professor of History

North American Print Culture in the German Language: Growing the Collections of the Max Kade Institute at UW–Madison.  Partners: Mark Louden, Professor of Germanic Linguistics and Director of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies; Kevin Kurdylo, German Language Humanities Librarian; and Antje Petty, Outreach Program Manager for the Max Kade Institute of German-American Studies

South Asian Non-Violence and Religion Collections.  Partners: Mou Banerjee, Assistant Professor of History; Todd Michelson-Ambelang, Senior Librarian for South Asian Studies; Anthony Cerulli, Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures; Darshana Mini, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts; and Mitra Sharafi, Professor of Law and Legal Studies

Critical Editions/Additions for the French and Italian Collections, 12th to 20th Centuries.  Partners: Anne Vila, Professor of French; Laura Martin, Ibero American Studies and Romance Languages Librarian; Jan Miernowki, Professor of French and Italian; Martine Debaisieux, Professor of French and Italian; Ernesto Livorni, Professor of French and Italian; Alex Taylor, Graduate Student in French and Italian; and Andrea Quaini, Graduate Student in French and Italian

Social Justice in Southeast Asia: Primary and Secondary Source Collection Development.  Partners: Tyrell Haberkorn, Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, and Larry Ashmun, Southeast Asian and Hmong Studies Librarian

Strengthening Psychedelic Collections: From Classic to Underrepresented Resource.  Partners: Lucas Richert, Associate Professor of Pharmacy; Micaela Sullivan-Fowler, Co-Principal Investigator and Curator/History of Health Sciences Librarian; Ramzi Fawaz, Associate Professor of English; Alberto Vargas, Associate Professor of Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies; Cody Wenthur, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy; and Paije Wilson, Librarian, Ebling Library

Early Modern Resources at UW-Madison.  Partners: Elizabeth Bearden, Professor of English; Nina Clements, English Humanities Librarian; Mark Vareschi, Associate Professor of English; and Robin Rider, Curator of Special Collections, UW–Madison Libraries

South Asian Film and Media Collection.  Partners: Darshana Sreedhar Mini, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts; Todd Michelson-Ambelang, Senior Librarian South Asian Studies; Anirban Kapil Baishya, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts; and Mou Banerjee, Assistant Professor of History

The LCEI provides a wonderful opportunity for the Libraries to leverage librarian and faculty collaboration to enhance our collections and support emerging research. I would also like to recognize our many Libraries colleagues who are involved as either a co-principal investigator or a co-investigator for lending their expertise to these projects.