This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.

University of North Texas Libraries established an innovative centralized system designed to increase transparency, evidence-based decision-making, and user-centeredness. A series of internal focus groups have revealed that traditional structures continue to silo and homogenize collections. How can libraries better design electronic collections to serve the needs of underserved users? It was presented at the Electronic Resources & Libraries conference held on March 8-11, 2021.

Much of the history written about the Vietnam War overlooks the U.S. Marine Corps Combined Action Platoons. These CAPs lived in the Vietnamese villages, with the difficult and dangerous mission of defending the villages from both the National Liberation Front guerrillas and the soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army. The CAPs also worked to improve living conditions by helping the people with projects, such as building schools, bridges, and irrigation systems for their fields. In War in the Villages, Ted Easterling examines how well the CAPs performed as a counterinsurgency method, how the Marines adjusted to life in the Vietnamese villages, and how they worked to accomplish their mission. The CAPs generally performed their counterinsurgency role well, but they were hampered by factors beyond their control. Most important was the conflict between the Army and the Marine Corps over an appropriate strategy for the Vietnam War, along with weakness of the government of the Republic of South Vietnam and the strategic and the tactical ability of the North Vietnamese Army. War in the Villages helps to explain how and why this potential was realized and squandered. Marines who served in the CAPs served honorably in difficult circumstances. Most of these …

This presentation explores building your own community of practice, addressing mindsets that may limit ideas, and discusses different approaches and frameworks for forming and maintaining communities of practice within online professional development. It was presented at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA) held on March 25-28, 2019 in Galveston, Texas.

Presentation discussing the challenges and opportunities in making unique collections available online. Part of a webinar hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder for the Curating the Campus speaker series, on March 31, 2021.

Changing Perspectives charts the pivotal period in Houston’s history when Jewish and Black leadership eventually came together to work for positive change. This is a story of two communities, both of which struggled to claim the rights and privileges they desired. Previous scholars of Southern Jewish history have argued that Black-Jewish relations did not exist in the South. However, during the 1930s to the 1980s, Jews and Blacks in Houston interacted in diverse and oftentimes surprising ways. The distance between Houston’s Jews and Blacks diminished after changing demographics, the end of segregation, city redistricting, and the emergence of Black political power. Allison Schottenstein shows that Black-Jewish relations did exist during the Long Civil Rights Movement in Houston.