Secrets of the Century

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Oklahoma A&M College, a time capsule was created that would hold the Secrets of the Century. Messages and University documents from 1941 were placed in a secure location and rediscovered at OSU’s centennial celebration.

The Secrets of the Century were gathered during a weekend jubilee lasting from Dec.13-15, which was less than a week after the tragic events at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. A large portion of the capsule’s contents were notes, letters and memorabilia that related to the times; 527 note cards were written by those who attended the 50th anniversary dinner hosted by OAMC President Henry G, Bennett.

Many of the hand-written submissions reflect the air of uneasiness in which the country stood. With World War II looming overhead, there was not much hope for students to cling to.

Velma Ellene Henricks wrote, “none of us know what the future holds in store for us, and in the crisis of a war-torn world, we only hope and pray that God Almighty will carry us through.”

However, David Peters, assistant professor of the University Archives, felt that despite the disparaging mood of that time, some notes held a positive light.

“It's nice because people wrote these notes with the belief that the world would go on, and they would be read, despite the uncertainty of that time,” David said.

Heartfelt notes, like the one from Eleanore Kieffer, wish their successors well and display their hope of a more steady future for the country.

“Dear Aggies, I have no idea to whom this will be. May you have as much fun and as many troubles as we are. I hope one of your troubles isn’t a war as we have just entered our second world war. Wishing you the best of luck. Eleanore Kieffer, Stillwater, 131 N Husband,” she wrote.

The time capsule containing the stories of the '40s was implanted into the south wall of Edmon Low Library. Fifty years later, the class of 1991 would have the pleasure of opening the capsule and finding what their predecessors left for the world of the future.

They could discover the secrets from people of the past and determine the accuracy of their predictions for the future, such as those of Olan H. Hamilton.

He wrote, “To Mr. Walter Clark Hamilton, I hope you have had a nice half century. I predict you have made a success in some branch of science. I also predict 1. The present war ended in 1943. 2. A world state organized after the war has prevented any war since 1943! 3. Atomic energy has not been released in large quantities ever. 4. No one has been to the moon.”

In the coming year, Spears School of Business will be creating a 50-year time capsule for the dedication of its new Business Building. In 2067, Oklahoma State University will be able to see how the world looks through the eyes of current students. They may even discover the secrets of our century.

Post by Jennifer Barnett, E-Communications intern for OSU Library Communications

Data Management Research

In 2016, the Research & Learning Services department took on a campuswide research project. The goal of this project was to determine how new, tenure-track faculty manage their data. We recently spoke with Cinthya Ippoliti, Associate Dean for Research & Learning Services, about this research into data management and how to better the management process across the Oklahoma State campus.

For this research, the group interviewed 31 faculty across campus. They were pleased to receive feedback from 12 percent of those who received an invitation.

Participants were asked questions like:

• Do any of your funding sources require you to draft a management plan?
• What type of data do you generate?
• How often and how do you share your data with others?
• What happens to your data after the research project has concluded?

Once all the feedback was collected, the faculty responses were divided among RLS librarians, examined and condensed to a spreadsheet for ease of access. Upon its completion, the group met to discuss the results that surfaced during the interview process. They found that most of the participants did not have a data management plan in place and mainly stored their data on hard drives.

From this, the group discovered several needs. These included data storage solutions for smaller data sets; training on creating data management plans, file naming conventions and file organization schemas; and answers to questions about data sharing and re-purposing methods and tools.

Using a design-thinking process, the group developed ideas to better the Research Data Services program and provide data management solutions for researchers. There is now an outlet of resources for managing data and developing the skills necessary to increase impact of research findings.

The services offered by the Research Data Services are data information literacy, data storage and management support; metadata & documentation, institutional repository and data visualization; research impact, workshops and consultations.

Cinthya Ippoliti specializes in the workshops, consultations and data management plans, and Nicole Sump-Crethar works with metadata, institutional repository and data curation. Both can be contacted through Research Data Services.

Post by Jennifer Barnett, E-Communications Intern for OSU Library Communications