January 8, 2019

The Drexel University Libraries is pleased to announce the first appointed 2019 Library Faculty Fellows. Selected fellows will participate in pursuing the Libraries’ strategic directions to ensure access to authoritative information with a focus on managing Drexel-generated research output and containing costs of higher education with focus on lowering student costs to access required course readings.

The following members of the Drexel community will serve as 2019 Library Faculty Fellows for the winter/spring terms:

• Douglas H. Baird, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of Curricular Innovation and Student Success, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies of the College of Medicine, will serve as an advocate for Open Textbooks on campus. Dr. Baird will prepare and submit a review of at least one open source textbook to the Open Textbook Network (OTN) for publication. He will also share his experiences and the benefits of Open Education Resources during presentations and discussions with Drexel faculty, staff and administrators.
   
• Antonios Kontsos, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of Theoretical & Applied Mechanics Group (TAMG), College of Engineering, will work with two graduate students to design a new freshmen course focusing on digital design and advanced manufacturing offered by the College of Engineering. Dr. Kontsos and the graduate assistants will create a course curriculum that utilizes both open textbooks and materials licensed by the Drexel Libraries. His team will also design and adapt test measures to assess the impact of the use of Open Textbooks and licensed resources on teaching practices and learning outcomes.
   
• Vito Gulla, Adjunct Professor, Department of English & Philosophy, College of Arts & Sciences, will develop a new open textbook and/or utilize open education resources, including materials licensed by the Drexel Libraries and resources from the Open Textbook Network, for use by Drexel faculty who teach first- and second-level composition courses. He will also prepare and deliver OER information sessions for interested faculty in Drexel’s Department of English.
   
• Kathi Martin, Professor and Director for the Drexel Digital Museum Project, Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, will participate in the Esploro Early Adopter Program. As a Library Faculty Fellow, she will test and critique the preparation and deposit of high-resolution digital images from the Drexel Digital Museum data collection into a repository. She will also assess the applicability of the DMP Tool (Data Management Plan Tool) with Esploro workflows to manage research outputs for NEH grant application requirements.
   
• Mark D. Zarella, Research Assistant Professor and Technical Director for the Advanced Pathology Imaging Lab, College of Medicine, will also participate in the Esploro Earl Adopter Program. He will assess the use of Esploro to manage and discover pathology images, exploring the potential for collaboration with pathology image management systems and Esploro to provide discovery, access and practices for depositing pathology images.

The Libraries will continue to accept submissions of interest during the 2019 winter term. Please visit the Library Faculty Fellows Program page for complete details and submission instructions.