Nearly 50 faculty and staff scholarly and creative works were on display at the fifth Author Showcase, which is a collaboration between Tomlinson Library and Academic Affairs.
“Author Showcase is an opportunity to take a break and celebrate our accomplishments as faculty and staff at CMU,” said Reference and Distance Services Librarian Laureen Cantwell, who coordinated the collection of work and submitted her own book chapter on digital badging and using micro-credentialing in higher education settings to the showcase.
Author Showcase has evolved during the last three years, starting as a celebration of books in fall 2016, the showcase then featured articles in spring 2017, the fall 2017 showcase highlighted art work and performance content and last spring included sabbatical and Fulbright research.
“This was our first instance, though, of combining all these content types into one Author Showcase,” Cantwell said. “This truly is a showcase and recognition effort at the institutional level and we were so excited to see what a productive, creative and vibrant community of faculty and staff we have by all the submissions covering just 2017-2019.”
There were 12 academic departments represented as well as the library and information technology department. In total 144 works were included in the showcase including books, book chapters, articles, conference abstracts, reports, memoir essays, handmade sketchbooks, a sabbatical-focused slideshow, original music composition, handmade wooden typographical materials and a theatre lighting/set design slideshow.
Prior to the showcase, the library staff works to acquire as many of faculty and staff publications to add to CMU’s library collection.
“Some folks may not realize that we take that extra step of trying to add their content to our collection here, but that’s a really important element for us,” said Cantwell “I also like, as a Library staff person and a submitter, the interdepartmental quality — where we leave those common boundaries behind and celebrate collectively, see folks we may not often cross paths with, learn more about each other and become closer as a university community.”
Moving forward Author Showcase will be an annual spring event.