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Sun, Jan 25 2026

Library Enhancement Initiative

Purpose

The purpose of the Library Enhancement Initiative is to provide current UTC students, faculty, and staff with an opportunity to grow and enhance the Library’s collection of resources in a focused way, be it a new class, a fresh take on an old topic, or a developing research interest.

Apply Now: Library Enhancement Grant 2025

Application Materials and Helpful Tips

The proposal will comprise three elements:

  • A completed form;
  • A list of the items you would like the Library to purchase;
  • A response to the following in 250 words or less:
    • The UTC Library values the success of students, faculty, and staff. How will these materials promote lifelong learning and/or the achievement of educational, personal, or professional goals for members of the UTC community?

Helpful Tips

  • This initiative funds only one-time purchases, such as books and films;
  • Make sure that the Library does not already own these resources by searching for them through the Library’s Quick Search;
  • Provide an itemized list of requested resources including title, author, publisher, ISBN or other identifying information.

Past Library Enhancement Grant Recipients

2025
2024
2023
  • Dr. Chris Acuff, Political Science and Public Service
    • E-books focused on affordable housing used for two University Honors Innovation Labs courses, as well as one public policy course in Political Science and Public Service. Each of these courses focuses on affordable housing and urban planning, and will be used as affordable primary texts for the classes. Additionally, these books will be used in at least one future Master of Public Administration course, and potentially other courses focused on urban politics and policy. The topic of affordable housing also intersects with Dr. Acuff’s future research agenda, as well as a potential partnership with the City of Chattanooga in developing solutions to one of the key problems the mayor has identified as one of his policy priorities.
  • Sarah Edgar, Financial Wellness Center
  • Dr. José Luis Gastañaga, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
    • This request focuses on different authors and literary works of the Spanish Middle Ages and Renaissance. They are intended to support courses and research. Some of these titles will be suggested readings for classes and, in some cases, chapters of these books will be required readings in courses (e.g., SPAN 3130, SPAN 3230, SPAN 3310, SPAN 4010 and SPAN 4030). Most of these books will be bibliography for compositions and final essays.
  • Sandy Morris, Music
    • The Daniels' Orchestral Music, 6th Edition, is an invaluable resource for anyone researching orchestra music. The online version is searchable by composer, instrumentation, category, and length which helps conductors and instrumentalists search for orchestral works with specific search criteria (instrumentation, ethnicity/gender of composers and music, length, etc.). This edition includes composers never before included, providing a diversity of orchestral music available to be performed.
  • Dr. Fang Yu Hu, History
    • A collection of primary and secondary sources to enhance students' ability to conduct research on East Asia and to learn more about East Asian history, from the ancient to the modern periods. Primary sources are important in my teaching and student learning, in particular to group research projects in lower-division classes and individual research projects in upper-division courses. There is a focus on reading and analyzing primary sources in lower-division courses where students are asked to contextualize primary sources by using secondary sources, including readings and lectures. Reading primary sources in history class is essential to students’ liberal arts education and increases their understanding of diversity and inclusion, two values in the UTC’s strategic plan. Conducting research using primary sources contributes to "a culture of creativity, scholarship and innovation” as well as the pursuit of excellence, two values listed in the UTC’s strategic plan.
  • Andrew O’Brien, Art
    • As art students develop their research and creative practice, many naturally gravitate toward an investigation of their backgrounds and identity within their work. For those who identify as queer, non-white, immigrant, or female, it can be difficult to find examples of photographers exploring topics related to their identity in the collection. The UTC Library has a strong and growing collection of contemporary art and photography books, but the collection still lacks significant representation from artists with these backgrounds/identities. The acquisition of these titles will begin the process of diversifying our collection such that it can serve the needs of student-artists within the Department of Art.
    • These books will serve over 300 Art majors within the Department, and they will be especially significant for students who are enrolled in Photography I, Photography II, Web and Book for Artists, and Photography and Media Art Studio I, II, III, and IV. Together these courses represent an annual enrollment of over 100 students who will directly and immediately benefit as they frequently engage with the stacks to see newly published fine art photography work. By maintaining an active and diverse collection of photography books, the library stacks will continue to be a vital source of research material in the visual arts. Students have plenty of options when it comes to doing online research, but the physical experience of moving through a book allows for a unique form of attention and experience that is wholly different from online viewing. Given that bookmaking is also taught as part of the curriculum it is especially critical that students can experience contemporary examples of the special relationship between photography and the book form.
    • Finally, these acquisitions will also support UTC’s Diversity and Inclusion goals including the Strategic Plan objective to “Provide opportunities for the campus community to listen with empathy, learn from diverse points of view and engage each other with civility and respect.” These acquisitions represent the work of leading contemporary art practitioners with a diverse set of backgrounds, identities, and fine art practices. Their inclusion in the collection will serve our student body by providing new points of view, and by affirming their own diverse backgrounds and experiences.
  • Dr. Andrew Spanger, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
    • For UTC’s many Latin students, these books will add significantly to the diversity of Latin authors and texts. All three will allow students studying Latin to read texts in Latin that were written in and about the Americas. Rather than only experiencing the language in a relatively small set of texts set in a distant and remote time and place, they would also be able to read Latin literature that was written much closer to home. Furthermore, Landivar’s ‘Epic of America’ has value beyond just Latin students. The poem is an extremely valuable, but under-recognized piece of literature and source for the history and culture of Mexico and Guatemala. It will be of great use for students of Spanish, and Latin American history and culture. While digital editions of all of these texts would be the most useful, since multiple students could use them at once, the digital edition of Landivar’s ‘Epic of America’ would be the most important due to the wide variety of students and professors who may use it. The other two volumes would still add significant value to UTC’s collection even as physical copies.
  • Dr. Julia Cummiskey, History and Africana Studies Program Group Award
    • The CAMP database provides access to primary sources, especially African periodicals, that we would otherwise have to travel to use at a number of different research libraries at an expense that far exceeds the cost of the database. These sources will be critical to the research of one faculty and could provide sources for faculty members teaching world history and other courses in the history department and the Africana Studies Program.
  • Dawn Ford, Health and Human Performance Group Award
    • This proposal is designed to grow public health resources in the library to support both faculty and students. The HHP department has an MPH program and two newly approved general education courses focused on public health: Essentials of Public Health and Introduction to Epidemiology. These resources will also support a new Public Health Certificate and public health minor as well as, global climate change and health course for the Honors College. Together, these offerings greatly expand upon UTC’s programs that enhance public health knowledge and skills so that graduates can help address public health concerns such as chronic disease, infectious disease, global climate change, and emergency preparedness and response.
2022
  • Dr. Fang Yu Hu, History
    • The development of a collection of primary sources to enhance students' ability to conduct research on East Asia and to learn more about East Asian history, especially the ancient and medieval periods. The few items that cover the early modern and modern periods are regularly used in all my classes on East Asian history. Students are interested in war history (WWII and Korean War) and people’s memoirs during the war can be used by students who work on related research topics. I teach at least one East Asian history class every semester: HIST 2820, HIST 3620, HIST 3640, HIST 3940R, HIST 4500R.
  • Dr. Sarah Einstein, English
    • This film, which is only available from this source, documents the process of discovering lost family history through a variety of research techniques. It's useful to my research, because I'm currently working on a book (under contract with WVU Press) on not just this sort of research, but on retracing my Lithuanian Jewish family's past, just as this filmmaker does. It's also useful to my classroom practice, because I plan on showing it to students in a course designed to teach them how to do personal research in advance of asking them to write creative nonfiction that draws from their own lives and histories.
  • Dr. John C. Swanson, History
    • Requesting three streaming films for a course on the Holocaust, which includes a study tour to Europe in May. The students in the course are reading a number of books and articles, and I am requiring them to watch the films. These films will prepare them to engage better with the reading as well as to better understand what they will see and hear in Europe. The material is very important for the outcomes of my course. The library may have access to these films on DVD, but it is more important right now that the students have access to them via streaming. Covid prevents them from watching the films as a group, and I would also like to prevent them from having to check out the physical DVDs. The intended audience are the students in my course this semester, but I believe that other UTC faculty and students may be interested. I also teach a course on the Holocaust every other year or so. It is true that I am always changing the syllabus (readings, films, etc), but I will probably use these again.
  • Dr. Jennifer Boyd(Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science), Dr. Morgan Smith (Social, Cultural, and Justice Studies), Dr. Lucy Schultz (Philosophy and Religion), Catherine Meeks (English): Environmental Studies Group Award
    • Dr. Jennifer Boyd: Science for the Anthropocene course (EVST 2020) is an exploration of the lasting mark that humanity has made on the natural world from a primarily scientific perspective with consideration of more diverse and multidisciplinary approaches to contemporary environmental issues. Students will utilize an assortment of readings from the peer-reviewed literature and general news sources from scientific and non-scientific perspectives. The magazine and journals that I listed will all be used in the course. The titles listed are all ones that I would like to read to expand my own thoughts about the Anthropocene - especially in non-scientific directions - and may incorporate into the course in the future.
    • Dr. Morgan Smith: For class, ANTH 2800. This is the most authoritative text on underwater archaeology, which includes a review of how lands submerged in prehistory were used by people before being inundated by climate change. Students will become more aware of a niche but crucial area of study, which includes the underwater realm.
    • Dr. Lucy Schultz: I am developing two new courses for the EVST program (Philosophies of Food and Farming, and Environmental Art), and I am writing a book that will build on the research for these classes. I currently teach Values and the Environment every fall, and many of these titles will be relevant to that course as well. The books will be important for me as I research and develop the new classes, and they will benefit students enrolled in these courses in the future, either as references or as sources of readings that they can access without having to purchase the books themselves. EVST is a relatively new field, but it is growing quickly and promises to be increasingly important as time goes on. The older titles are ones that are essential to the field, thus bolstering the quality of the Library’s collection. The newer ones are important works that the Library should hold in order to stay current. Though the Library has several good films, the titles I am requesting are all brand new and, therefore, the most up to date. In EVST it is extremely important to have the most up to date media since the state of the environment, politics, and scientific research is changing rapidly. These titles are all related to food, so they will be applicable to several other classes/areas of study, including a new food studies minor which is being discussed presently.
  • Catherine Meeks
    • These titles are all relevant to my new course, EVST 2000: Nature and Society: Introduction to Environmental Studies, and to the new Environmental Studies minor more broadly.
    • I intend for these materials to allow Environmental Studies students to delve more deeply into their particular area(s) of interest within the interdisciplinary field of Environmental Studies, and to demonstrate the dynamic, evolving nature of this field of study.
2020
  • Dr. Annie Tracy Samuel, History
  • Dr. Fang Yu Hu, History
  • Heath Schultz, Art
  • Heather Palmer, English
  • Dr. Irving Resnick, History
  • Dr. Jaclyn Michael, History
  • Dr. José Luis Gastañaga, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
  • Dr. Julia Cummiskey, History
  • Dr. Olivia Wolf, Art
  • Shane Ward, Art
2019
  • Aggie Toppins, Art
  • Dr. Annie Tracy Samuel, History
  • Charlie Remy, Library
  • Fang Yu Hu, History
  • Heath Schultz, Art
  • Jaclyn Michael, History
  • Jessica Miller, English
  • Dr. Julia Cummiskey, History
  • Katie Hargrave, Art
  • Dr. Michelle White, History
  • Dr. Oliva Wolf, Art
  • Spring Kurtz, English
  • Squoia Holmes, Veteran Student Services

Guidelines

Grant Amounts

  • The library has allocated a total of $7,500 to be awarded among group and individual proposals.

Important Dates

  • Application submission cut off:
    April 11, 2025
  • Review of applications begins:
    April 14, 2025.
  • Award notifications:
    on or by April 17, 2025.

Online Materials

The UTC Library prefers to purchase materials in online format.  Unless otherwise specified in the proposal, we will purchase electronic or streaming options of titles requested if available.  Links to these resources will be provided to you for use in Canvas or on program websites.

Questions?

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