Daily Archives: June 3, 2013

LionCash payments coming to branches and campuses

By Chris Holobar

In a few weeks, LionCash terminals (see below) will be shipped to all campus and branch libraries, allowing staff to accept LionCash payments for library fees. Currently, this is a two-step process and staff will need to accept payment on the LionCash terminal and again in Workflows using the payment type LIONCASH. Detailed instructions, including information about adding funds to LionCash accounts, are available at: https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/lending/intranet/lioncash.html

This popular service has been available at the Pattee Commons Services desk and used by more than one hundred borrowers since Jan. 2012. Contact Chris Holobar (jch4, 814-865-1886) if you have any questions.

device showing lioncash payment

Hayya designated proxy for students with disabilities

Susan Hayya, Penn State University Libraries’ coordinator for Adaptive Technology and Services and a long-time champion of services for individuals with disabilities, has been designated Penn State’s proxy for HathiTrust users with print disabilities. Through this program, eligible users at HathiTrust partner institutions will receive special access to in-copyright materials contained in HathiTrust, rather than having to physically search for the items through another library or store.

The HathiTrust is a cooperative shared digital repository using the Google Books project collections—now with upwards of 10 million books accessible online. It was developed at the University of Michigan, a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the academic arm of the Big Ten Conference. For out-of-copyright books in the public domain, there is access to the full text of the book online through both Google Books and the Hathi Trust. Books still in copyright are not freely available online to the general public, but with the new proxy service, they will be accessible to individuals with disabilities. HathiTrust is in the process of naming proxies for more than 80 universities to use this service.

For more information about the program, see: http://www.hathitrust.org/accessibility

For more information about the services at Penn State, contact Susan Hayya at shh2@psu.edu or 814-865-0284.

Apply now for a microgrant

Now is the time to consider applying for a University Libraries Microgrant. The Microgrant Program funds small projects that foster innovation in support of the University Libraries strategic initiatives. This is a great opportunity to experiment with new services, processes, diversity initiatives, technologies, or sponsor exciting workshops. University Libraries staff and faculty are encouraged to apply.  Visit the Microgrant Program website for more information and see what projects were successfully funded in the past. The application deadline is Friday, June 21, 2013.

Testimonial from 2011-2012 Innovation Microgrant recipients:

“Our migrogrant, Screen Reader’s Guide to Online Library Resources, was investigated by Binky Lush (principal), Linda Klimczyk, Karen Schwentner, and Janice Hodge. The outcomes from this microgrant project included eight JAWS Screen Reader User Guides for popular online library resources.

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Rimland awarded Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning scholarship

Emily Rimland, the Sally W. Kalin Early Career Librarian for Learning Innovations, has been awarded one of two scholarships for the 2013 Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL).

The institute, which attracts diverse faculty and online learning professionals from around the world, is sponsored by the Center for Online Innovation in Learning (COIL), Penn State Outreach, under the direction of Lawrence C. Ragan, and the Sloan Consortium, under the direction of Bruce N. Chaloux. Rimland adds, “I am looking forward to both the networking opportunities that the Institute will provide and the chance to think purposefully about the future of online learning related to the University and the Libraries.”

The schedule includes:
July 15-26: Two-week IELOL Online
August 5-8: Immersive experience at Penn State
September 16-October 4: Three-week IELOL Online
November 20: IELOL Workshop, at the Sloan-C Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida

For more information, contact Larry Ragan at lcr1@psu.edu or 814-863-3114.

Tech Update June 4

3:00 – 4:00 p.m., Foster Auditorium

Topics include:

  • User and Support Operations Group + Newly Hired — Michelle
  • New Libraries Helpdesk System — Michelle and Alexa
  • Online Account System – Michelle
  • Web Stakeholders Group — Binky
  • Web site next steps — Update by DAST: Discovery, Access, and Web Services Team
  • Update on CMS Version 5.6 — Update by DAST: Discovery, Access, and Web Services Team
  • Library Management Systems Requirements Working Group — Dace

New CMS login page

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

With the release of the new version of the CMS 5.6 on June 10, one of the first items you will see updated is the CMS login screen.

cms home screenshot

 

This new interface has the Website and Digital Assets consoles located on the left-hand side of the screen. Just choose the Website console to work on your web pages or Digital Assets to upload content.

On the right-hand side of the screen are Quick links to CMS Information Resources, the updated CMS Manual for training, CMS questions — where you can ask for help with your CMS pages, and a CMS Feedback link to provide feedback to the CMS team.

Esposito to participate in Harvard Leadership Institute

Jackie R. Esposito, University archivist, has been selected from a national applicant pool to participate in the 2013 Harvard University Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians, in July.

Institute attendees review important leadership concepts and apply them to practical challenges of leading and managing the contemporary academic library. The curriculum addresses three areas — planning, organizational strategy and change, and transformational learning — with an overarching goal of increasing leadership and management capacity.

LHR News for June 3

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Full-time:
6/5/13 Angela Davis, Engineering Liaison Librarian, Engineering Library
Vanessa Eyer, Engineering Liaison Librarian, Engineering Library

Part-time:
Mehdi Goutr – Penn State Harrisburg Library
Sean Bradley – Tombros McWhirter Knowledge Commons

Annual ESSIC Attendance System Reminder

Please note that the Office of Human Resources will be conducting their annual attendance system audit in July. All records must be correct and up to date by the end of June. Please make sure that you and any employees reporting to you have current attendance records.

As a reminder, the following should be considered when reviewing records:

Personal Holiday hours – Full-time employees should have added eight hours of personal holiday time when submitting the January attendance records each year. This is done on the accruals page that comes up when you click “Submit.” New employees must wait until they have completed their first two full months of employment before they may add in the personal holiday time.

Holiday Compensatory Time – Any compensatory time earned should be used prior to any vacation.

Vacation Maximums – Please be reminded of the vacation accrual maximums, found in HR-34 and the Libraries’ Faculty Sick and Medical Leave Policy. At the end of the month when you submit your attendance record, you must be at or below the maximum, or you will lose any time over that amount. If this occurs, when submitting the record, you must only mark the number of hours that will leave you at the maximum for your ending balance, rather than the actual time you would normally accrue.

Submission and Approval – Employees should be submitting their attendance records at the end of every month (unless your supervisor has requested more frequent submissions). Supervisors are reminded to review information and approve the records on a monthly basis. It is extremely important that these records are completed, reviewed, and approved monthly.

Recording Time Worked – As a reminder, all non-exempt employees must record all time worked using the “Time Worked (normal hours)” selection, plus account for any time missed. Exempt employees should only record time used to account for time missed (vacation, sick, etc.).

These reminders apply to all full-time employees. Part-time employees do not have access to the Attendance System and should be completing LabMan, or some sort of paper record for part-time exempt (staff or faculty, such as Fixed Term II appointments). All supervisors, of all types of employees, should be ensuring that their employees keep appropriate records and submit them on a timely basis in order review their time.

If you have any questions, please contact our office at 814-863-4949.

Events: June 3 and beyond

Summary of upcoming events:

June 4: 10 a.m., Mann Assembly Room: Assessment and Metrics Council-sponsored discussion on Ithaka S + R US Faculty Survey 2012, on June 4, from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., in Mann Assembly Room or via Adobe Connect. Remote viewers log on to https://meeting.psu.edu/ithaka

June 4: 3:00 – 4:00 p.m., Tech Update, Foster Auditorium and Mediasite Live. Read full details.

June 7: 3:30–6 p.m., Grand opening of “Healthy Plants for a Healthy World: 50 Years of Plant Pathology at Penn State,” and a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the beginnings of the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology in Foster Auditorium, followed by a reception in Mann Assembly Room.

June 13: 11 a.m., Chris Bourg of Stanford University Libraries to present “Beyond Measure: Valuing Libraries” in Foster Auditorium. See last week’s story.

June 13: UPLEA (University Park Libraries Employees Association) and Safety Committee picnic, more details to come. Please sign up to help set up, clean up, or bring a dish!

June 13: 3–4:30 p.m., Sir John Daniel to present “Making sense of MOOCs and other emerging models in higher education,” Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library