Data Visualization Championship for Love Data Week
For the first time, Rutgers is participating in the Big Ten’s Data Visualization Championship for Love Data Week 2026! Rutgers students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to submit entries. Rutgers University Libraries are partnering with OIT, Enterprise Analytics, and IDRIS to hold a data visualization contest, and the winner will move on to represent Rutgers and compete against entries from other Big Ten institutions!
Go to the Rutgers Data Viz Championship website for links to the student dataset and submission form. More information about the contest guidelines, including a scoring rubric, is available on the website.
The submission form is open now and will close on January 21, 2026. Winners will be announced during Love Data Week, February 9-13, 2026. The Rutgers first place student winner will receive a Lego Mosaic Maker set, and two runners up will get Rutgers merch! All prizes are being provided by Rutgers University Libraries, and the BTAA grand prize winner will receive $400.
Open and Affordable Textbooks Program Update
The Open and Affordable Textbooks (OAT) Team welcomes two new members this year. Tajah Ebram joins as a team liaison for Rutgers–New Brunswick, and Rich Jutkiewicz joins as a team liaison for Rutgers Health (Newark). They join Matt Bridgeman, Abbey DiPaolo, Naomi Gold, Lara De Meo Hoyt, Rhonda Marker, Amanda Presler, Lily Todorinova, and Zara Wilkinson. Paige Morgan is the liaison to LLT for the OAT Team.
Applications for the next cycle of OAT awards will open in January 2026. Libraries employees were invited to participate in the evaluation process, which will require approximately five hours per week for a week in March and a week in April, plus a mandatory training session in early February. Antonio Barrera, Maria Deptula, Ann Marie Latini, John Powell, Alfreda Richardson, Quionne Scott, and Victoria Wagner will serve in this capacity. Non-Libraries faculty and students will round out the OAT reviewer ranks. The OAT Team is grateful for the generosity of all who are contributing their time and expertise to ensure the success of the OAT Program.
