News and Stories
Get Ready for Dawg Daze with UW Libraries
UW Libraries is always a big part of welcoming students to campus during UW’s Dawg Daze. This year has a terrific lineup of tours and fun activities including game night, karaoke, reading parties and more.
View all Libraries Dawg Daze events.
Region 5 National Library of Medicine Grant Reinstated:
The University of Washington Health Sciences Library announced the court-ordered reinstatement of the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) Region 5 grant, effective through April 30, 2026. The order for reinstatement is in response to the original grant cancellation initiated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in March of this year.
Now Open: ‘Indigenous North Americans’ Collection
UW faculty, students, and staff now have open access to a new 100-book collection centered on Indigenous North Americans, available in digital form to read and reuse at no cost to the reader or author. This collection was created through the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) in alignment with BTAA’s vision for the BIG Collection, which seeks to unite the collections of the BTAA academic libraries into one collection, shared and fully networked. This is the second collection created via BTAA, with plans to launch three more collections over the course of 2025 and 2026.
BTAA institutions have invested significantly in their shared mission to advance public knowledge through open publishing, and together (BTAA institutions, including UW) they produce roughly 15% of the research publications in the United States. Since its inception in 2023, books in the collection have been used in over 210 countries with over 400,000 downloads.
New “Chill” Space in the Tateuchi East Asia Library:
The Tateuchi East Asia Library is pleased to introduce the Chill & Recharge Area, a comfortable space on the main floor designed to support student well-being. There is comfy seating, relaxed lighting and access to the growing collection of graphic novels, including Korean webtoons and Japanese manga. Stop by the new space (Gowan Hall 3rd floor) to take a break, relax, and reset—no reservation needed!
Recommended Reads
The Recommended Reads for Equity Collection grew by 63 titles during 2024/2025, with 48 individuals recommending 68 books. Since the start of the collection in 2018, 189 students, faculty, staff and alumni have recommended 291 books! UW Libraries McKinstry Fellow and co-project manager during this time period, compiled all the new recommendations into an artful e-zine that shares book summaries and personal comments from readers.
What Does Metadata Have To Do With It?
This spotlight features a graduate student’s work to address some of the global challenges faced by cataloging and metadata departments in academic libraries who are working to address inconsistencies and inefficiencies in library metadata, prioritizing ethical descriptive practices, and addressing resource challenges.