Celebrate International Love Data Week with William & Mary Libraries and our partners in the Mason Business School, Studio for Teaching & Learning, the Center for Geospatial Analysis, and the Writing & Communication Center. We have a full week of events and engaging activities to showcase the many ways data shapes and impacts our world. During the week, you can show your love for data by joining in all of our activities. Check out the full schedule below.
Schedule of Events
Week-long Events to Checkout at Swem and McLeod Business Library
- Contribute to our Data Visualization Question
Help us create live visualizations of your favorite parts of Swem Library and Mcleod Business Library. Each library will have their own visualization table with a new question posted each morning. -
Love Data Week Buttons and Stickers
All week you can grab our special Love Data Week Buttons and stickers in the Swem Lobby, McLeod Business Library, or Miller Hall Atrium
Monday, February 10th
Blind Data With a Book Display – McLeod Edition
McLeod Business Library Reading Room
Take a chance on a new genre or topic by checking out our display of wrapped books in the reading room of McLeod Business Library. We've added keywords on the covers of each book to spark your interest, plus some data points to help you choose. The books go fast, so stop by McLeod early!
Tuesday, February 11th
Button Making
Center for Geospatial Analysis, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Go to the Center for Geospatial Analysis to make buttons of various sizes. We will have button templates that celebrate data, GIS, and mapping as well as materials for DIY making. Happy creating!
Hosted by the Center for Geospatial Analysis
Wednesday, February 13th
Blind Data With a Book Display – Swem Edition
Swem Lobby
Take a chance on a new genre or topic by checking out our display of wrapped books in the lobby of Swem. We've added keywords on the covers of each book to spark your interest, plus some data points to help you choose. The books go fast, so stop by Swem early!
Button Making
Center for Geospatial Analysis, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Go to the Center for Geospatial Analysis to make buttons of various sizes. We will have button templates that celebrate data, GIS, and mapping as well as materials for DIY making. Happy creating!
Hosted by the Center for Geospatial Analysis
Thursday, February 13th
Love in the Archives Open House
Special Collections Research Center, 12:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Come celebrate Valentine's, Galentine's, Palentine's, or just another Thursday with a love-themed Open House from Special Collections. Love letters, zines, photographs and more will highlight some of our best collections to celebrate Valentine's Day. Light refreshments will be available. Free and open to all!
Hosted by Special Collections Research Center
Friday, February 14th
Douglass Day Transcribe-a-Thon
Dulin Learning Center, 11:30 AM - 3:00 PM
This year for W&M Libraries' Love Data Week Transcribe-a-thon, we are participating in Douglass Day hosted by The Center for Black Digital Research at Penn State and the Library of Congress with their By the People crowdsourcing platform.
Douglass Day is an annual program that marks the birth of Frederick Douglass. Each year, thousands of people gather to help create new & freely available resources for learning about Black history. They frequently focus on important Black women’s archives, such as Anna Julia Cooper (2020), Mary Church Terrell (2021), Mary Ann Shadd Cary (2023). Learn more about the history of Douglass Day.
Bring your own laptop or tablet. We will have a limited number of devices available. Please join us for this fun community event which requires no previous transcribing experience.
Schedule
11:30 am Lunch
12:00 pm Opening Presentations
12:30 pm Focused Transcription Time
1:00 pm Happy Birthday Song & Reading
1:30 pm Focused Transcription Time
2:00 pm Community Discussion
2:30 pm Closing Announcements
3:00 pm End
2025 PwC Lecture: The Interplay of Human and AI Attention
Miller Hall 1027, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Please join the McLeod Business Library and the Mason School of Business Faculty Research Committee for the first PwC Lecture of 2025, delivered by Isabel Ramos, PhD.
Dr. Ramos is Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Information Systems (DSI), School of Engineering, University of Minho, Portugal. Her talk introduces the concept of artificial attention, an innovative framework that bridges human cognitive attention with the attention mechanisms of AI systems. Through metaphorical reasoning, we will explore parallels between human attention— such as selective focus, prioritization, and adaptability—and AI's capacity to process and prioritize vast datasets in complex, dynamic environments. By examining these analogies, the discussion will shed light on how AI attention mechanisms can complement, enhance, or even challenge traditional patterns of organizational attention. The session will focus on how these insights pave the way for optimizing joint human-AI systems, enabling organizations to better navigate the increasing complexity of decision-making and resource allocation.
Hosted by McLeod Business Library and the Mason School of Business Faculty Research Committee
Tuesday, February 18th
Unmasking AI Book Chat
Ford Classroom, 12:15 PM - 2:00 PM
“The conscience of the AI revolution” (Fortune) explains how we’ve arrived at an era of AI harms and oppression, and what we can do to avoid its pitfalls.
Unmasking AI goes beyond the headlines about existential risks produced by Big Tech. It is the remarkable story of how Buolamwini uncovered what she calls “the coded gaze”—the evidence of encoded discrimination and exclusion in tech products—and how she galvanized the movement to prevent AI harms by founding the Algorithmic Justice League.
Join Candice Benjes-Small, Lori Jacobson, Kaitlin Wargo for a book discussion over lunch.
Hosted by W&M Libraries, the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation, and the Writing & Communication Center