Princeton University Library staff are offering the following courses during Wintersession 2022. Registration for all undergraduate students, graduate students, staff and faculty began Thursday, December 1. Please check back here for session updates. For a full list of offerings, visit the Wintersession website.

19th Century American Whaling. Where is the Risk Premium? 

Whaling evokes images of great mansions, tragic losses and fearless sailors. While much has been written about the voyages little has been written about the financial returns. Data from the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Mystic Seaport facilitated an updated view of the financial returns garnered by these voyages. Also, analysis showed that returns were not uniform across harbors, location did matter.

Facilitated by Bobbi Coffey, Finance Research Librarian

Archives for Historical Research (Part 1 of 2) 

Are you planning to work in the historical professions? Are you planning to do research in an archive? Are you unsure where to begin when it comes to archival research? These kinds of research skills are invaluable to a professional historian. In this workshop, librarians from Firestone Library will be providing a systematic introduction to a variety of topics in archival research including: · Identifying archives relevant to your area of research · Understanding finding aids, shelf lists, and other tools used in archives and special collections · Creating research plans to increase the efficiency of a visit to one or more archives or special collections · Finding funding opportunities for a research trip

Facilitated by Librarians Steve Knowlton, Sara Logue, Deborah Schlein, and Alain St. Pierre

Be the Curator: Princeton 275

Join us for a hands-on journey through the history of Princeton University! The first session of this workshop will take participants through a curatorial tour of the Princeton 275 exhibition at Mudd Library, alongside a tactile exhibition of additional materials brought out from the University Archives for the day. At the conclusion of the first session, participants will choose a topic from a diverse list of options that they want to explore individually at the next session.

Facilitated by Special Collections Assistants April C. Armstrong and Rosalba Varallo Recchia

Financial Literacy Workshop (Part 1 of 2)

In this workshop, participants will learn important information about taxes, tips for building credit and maintaining a good credit score, basics of savings and investing, and participate in an interactive exercise to create their own budget. The session will be a combination of lecture-style with presentations, as well as hands-on exercises.

Facilitated by Suzanne Bellan, Associate Director, Strategic Initiatives, lead for Princeton Financial Literacy and Bobbi Coffey, Finance Research Librarian

Financial Literacy Workshop (Part 2 of 2)

In this workshop, participants will learn important information about taxes, tips for building credit and maintaining a good credit score, basics of savings and investing, and participate in an interactive exercise to create their own budget. The session will be a combination of lecture-style with presentations, as well as hands-on exercises.

Facilitated by Suzanne Bellan, Associate Director, Strategic Initiatives, lead for Princeton Financial Literacy and Bobbi Coffey, Finance Research Librarian

Finding your roots--An introduction to genealogy Part 1

In this two part session (you can attend either or both), we introduce you to the library's subscription to Ancestry Library, which allows you to locate records on your family members. In our second session, we will work in small groups to explore census records, military records, immigration records. We will also introduce our subscription to Newspapers.com which can be a tremendous genealogical resource. Please be aware that the majority of records available in Ancestry are from North America and Europe. However, if you are researching other places we can try to point you in the right direction.

Facilitated by Librarians Elana Broch and Jeremy Darrington

Finding your roots--An introduction to genealogy Part 2

In this two part session (you can attend either or both), we introduce you to the library's subscription to Ancestry Library, which allows you to locate records on your family members. In our second session, we will work in small groups to explore census records, military records, immigration records. We will also introduce our subscription to Newspapers.com which can be a tremendous genealogical resource. Please be aware that the majority of records available in Ancestry are from North America and Europe. However, if you are researching other places we can try to point you in the right direction.

Facilitated by Librarians Elana Broch and Jeremy Darrington

Forever Wild with Earth!

In this three-hour journey of the Princeton University campus, Emily will give participants classroom instruction, an introduction to library research of the Princeton University Library geosciences collections, and provide an outdoor walking tour of the vegetation, stone buildings and rock outcrops around the Princeton University campus and in the Princeton, NJ community. Additional library research information will be provided for native plants, hydrology and geology of New Jersey and New York for hiking, walking, canoeing or biking excursions. The outdoor walking tour will be held, snow or shine, and will be stair-free.

Facilitated by Emily Wild, Chemistry, Geosciences and Environmental Studies Librarian 

From Oracle Bones to Ebooks: Short Overview of the Tradition of Chinese Books

Chinese writing and books have a tradition of more than three thousand years. In this session, we will be looking at the various formats they took throughout those millennia, looking at intriguing and spectacular examples in Princeton's collections. No knowledge of Chinese necessary.

Facilitated by Martin Heijdra, Director of East Asian Library

Glimpse into Chinese Rock and Punk

The workshop will offer a glimpse into the Chinese Rock and Punk scene. Participants will hear about the development of Rock and Punk in China and then be able to listen into a wide variety of songs by known and unknown artists from the 1980s to the present. There are no language requirements.

Facilitated by Joshua Seufert, Chinese Studies Librarian

Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die: Preserving Your Digital Legacy

How do you want to be remembered? Who will tell your story? Digital files are more at risk of being lost than any other format -- and sooner than you’d think. Whether you are new to organizing your digital life or a seasoned Marie Kondo with your stuff, knowing where your content lives and how to access it in the far future is important. This session will help you identify and preserve your most important digital records, including your social media feeds (because social media is not an archive!) 

Facilitated by Valencia Johnson, Archivist for Student Life

Indigenous Studies: What we know about what is here today

Our library has a powerful collection for learning more about Indigenous Studies, especially in Indigenous languages that need revitalization. However, finding items and understanding what they mean can be a challenge. We will discuss how to discover what we have in our stacks, how to situate items in a more appropriate historical context, how to understand what an item might mean for different observers, and how to be fully in that learner mode as we re-examine our history. Librarians connect objects in our collections - books, manuscripts and more - with classes and provide suggestions for student research projects. Join us to meet some of the people involved and to explore powerful and inspiring objects with a community of learners.

Facilitated by Anu Vedantham, liaison for Indigenous Studies for the Princeton University Library

Information Access, Wikipedia, and You

Wikipedia - you use it, I use it, and the world uses this rich resource for free access to information. Join this workshop to get an overview of the scope of Wikipedia, from portals to projects, Talk pages to assessment, and to associated groups like WikiData, WIkiJournals, and WikiEdu. Learn about how to engage with Wikipedia in your everyday life and consider the implications of having access to credible, free information, and who is creating this information.

Facilitated by Biology Librarian Kelee Pacion

Japanese Spirits and Demons

Many kinds of spirits and demons called “Yokai” or “Bakemono” have appeared throughout Japan's history. They play a role in Japan's mythology and the stories have scared and amused us from the ancient to now. I will show several examples of these spirits and demons in pre-modern Japan from our library’s rare book collections.

Facilitated by Setsuko Noguchi, Japanese Studies Librarian

Jewish Art and Craft: a Sampling with Research Recommendations

The session provides an overview of many Jewish art and craft traditions from Antiquity to Contemporary: bookmaking, ceremonial objects and religious practices (like haggadot), embroidery and other textile arts, regional differences and some geographic diversity, folk art and anything else worth mentioning. A survey of Jewish art and artists will be included. A substantial list of resources will be provided for follow-up, along with a potential hands-on activity.

Facilitated by Rebecca Friedman, Assistant Librarian, Marquand Library

Life and Death Masks at the Library: Face Casting at PUL Makerspace (Part 1 of 2)

Join us for a two-day mask casting workshop at the PUL Makerspace. This workshop will introduce students to the alginate method of life casting, including material preparation, material mixing, and application. Students will have the opportunity to create masks casted from their own face or hands. Bring a friend! Please note that this activity is not recommended for people prone to claustrophobia or breathing issues, unless you are applying the casting materials on another person. Participants will have the option to cast hands instead of face.

Facilitated by Ariel Ackerly, Makerspace Specialist, and Emma Sarconi, Reference and Outreach Specialist

Phenakistoscope or the 19th Century Predecessor of the Animated GIF

The phenakistoscope is an optical device involving a disc with a sequence of images that, when spun and viewed through an aperture, create the illusion of continuous motion. It was invented around 1833, after several scientists had observed and published their findings on stroboscopic effect. The phenakistoscope was quickly patented and mass marketed, becoming an entertainment sensation. As the first widely available device to convert still images into moving images, the phenakistoscope led to advancements in other optical devices and eventually motion pictures. This mini-workshop will include an examination of a selection of phenakistoscopes and related pre-cinema optical devices from the Library's Graphic Arts Collection. Participants will then design their own phenakistoscope animations. No drawing experience is necessary. Workshop is open to all skill levels, and all materials will be provided.

Facilitated by Molly Dotson, Graphic Arts Librarian

Princeton, Hot Dogs, and Apple Pie: Baseball Gems in Special Collections

While the Library’s Special Collections Department is famous for many treasures including its Gutenberg Bible and the Toni Morrison Papers, its vast holdings also contain extraordinary items related to America’s pastime. Join us for 9 innings of fun seeing, holding--but not tossing!--some of these treasures, including early tobacco baseball cards, 19th C. Princeton college baseball team ephemera, rare books depicting the game (including a first edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” that mentions “base ball”), a document listing World Series bonus payouts, select holdings from Moe (“The Catcher Was a Spy”) Berg papers, and other major and minor league baseball documents and memorabilia. This session will last about 90 minutes but with the possibility of “extra innings” for questions and answers. Participants should also come prepared to share something about their interest in the great game.

Facilitated by Dan Linke, Charles Doran, and Eric White

Solr for Newbies 

This is an introductory workshop to Apache Solr (https://solr.apache.org/), the fast and open source search platform that powers the search feature behind many websites around the world. Do you have a ton of structured or unstructured information and want to allow users to perform a variety of searches on it? Will you like to slice and dice the information in facets? Come and join us! This workshop is geared to anyone that has never used Solr, or uses it, but has not looked under the hood to see how it can be configured or explored some of the features that Solr offers out of the box. We'll start the workshop with a quick review on how Solr stores data and the process that it goes through when a search is submitted.

Facilitated by Hector Correa, Research Data Infrastructure Developer

Stitching the Collection: Discovering Embroidery Inspiration at PUL

This workshop will introduce you to the craft of embroidery and empower you to discover sources within Princeton University Library’s collection to use as inspiration. We will teach you how to search the catalog for materials, bring you to Special Collections to view some embroidered items, and then teach a few basic stitches.

Facilitated by Librarians Jen Hunter, Emma Sarconi, and Gabriella Karl-Johnson

This Sculpture Rocks!

In this three-hour journey of stone sculptures, Emily will give participants classroom instruction, an introduction to library research of the Princeton University Library geosciences collections, and provide an outdoor walking tour of the stone (and metal) artwork around the Princeton University campus and in the Princeton, NJ community. Additional library research information will be provided for the geology (natural resources) and chemistry (metal and element properties) of sculptures in the Princeton University Art Museum (https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/), Grounds for Sculpture (https://www.groundsforsculpture.org/) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art collections. The outdoor sculpture walking tour will be held, snow or shine, and will be stair-free.

Facilitated by Emily Wild, Chemistry, Geosciences and Environmental Studies Librarian

Published on December 2, 2022

Compiled by Brandon Johnson, Communications Specialist
Media Contact: Barbara Valenza, Director of Library Communications