Monthly Archives: January 2014

Events: Week of Jan. 20

January 20, 10-11 a.m. and 3-4 p.m.: “Have You Heard? Notable Speeches at Penn State” Audio broadcast of Martin Luther King Jr.’s address at Rec Hall on January 21, 1965, Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. Special event for 29th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration 2014.

January 21, 4 to 6 p.m.: Grand opening reception of the Student Financial Education Center, Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library

Tuesday, January 21, 1:30–3 p.m.315 Pattee Library, west: Introduction to Zotero

January 21, 6–7 p.m. “Budgeting—a presentation by SFEC Peer Educators.” The Peer Educators are students who have been trained in specific areas of personal finance (budgeting, credit cards and student loans), who will work one-on-one with students in the Financial Education Center to improve and sustain financial literacy at Penn State. Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library

January 22, 12:15 p.m.: Science Under Attack: Has the public lost faith in scientists? (film – 52 min.) The consensus of the world’s science academies is that climate change is real, and that it’s caused by human activity. Why, then, do so many people doubt these findings? EMS Museum,  Deike Bldg

January 22, 5:30–7 p.m.: “Wage and Tax Fundamentals,” a workshop on taxes for students and part of “MoneyCounts: A Financial Literacy Series” by SFEC Advisers Dr. Daad Rizk and Dr. Cathy Bowen. Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library

January 23, 5:30–6:30 p.m.: “Student Financial Aid,” by SFEC Adviser Brad Yeckley. Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

January 23, 10–11:30 a.m., 302 Paterno Library: Introduction to Mendeley

January 28, noon -1:00 p.m.: Brown Bag Talk on “Visualization of Historic Maps and Special Collections to Optimize Teaching and Research,” by Kathy Weimer, Coordinator of Map and GIS Library at Texas A&M University Library. Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library

January 29, 12:15 p.m.: Secret Life of Ice (film – 49 min.) Ice may be one of the strangest substances in the world. Full of contradictions, it is powerful enough to shatter rock but can melt in the blink of an eye; it is transparent, yet can glow with color. EMS Museum, Deike Building.

 January 30, 2–3 p.m.: Visiting scholar Ellen Gruber Garvey will give a presentation, “Hidden Histories: African American Scrapbooks Talk Back to the White Press in the 19th Century.” Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library

** Save the Date** Annual Dean’s Diversity Forum, Monday, February 24, 1:30-2:30 p.m., Foster Auditorium (and on Media Site). Mark Puente, director of Diversity and Leadership Programs at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) will be the speaker. More information will be forthcoming.

Library News: Jan. 13

Exhibition highlights rich political, cultural, and historical contributions of African Americans

“Historical figures from The Charles L. Blockson Collection of African Americana and the African Diaspora,” an exhibition, is on display January 13 to March 3, 2014, in Sidewater Commons, 102 Pattee Library.

Celebrating Blockson’s Penn State legacy, the current exhibit highlights a wide variety of rich political, cultural, and historical contributions of African Americans. Charles L. Blockson, born in 1933 in Norrristown, Pennsylvania, is a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus and a black bibliophile. When he was in the fourth grade, his teacher claimed that African Americans had not made any historical contributions. In disbelief, Blockson embarked on a lifelong quest to collect books and artifacts on the African American and the African Diaspora experience.

While at Penn State, Blockson played football and was recruited by the New York Giants, whose assistant coach was Vince Lombardi. Blockson recalls, “Vince Lombardi said that he could really use me, but I chose collecting books.” He has built a legacy to the African American experience and made an important contribution to African American history by building two library collections that are important cornerstones and testaments to his work.

In 1983, he donated the Charles L. Blockson African American Collection to Temple University in Philadelphia. In addition to serving as the curator of the Temple University collection, he has written a dozen historical guides on African American history, including several devoted to black Pennsylvania history: “Philadelphia’s Guide. African-American State Historical Markers” (1992), “Pennsylvania’s Black History” (1975) and “The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania” (1982).

Zora Neale HurstonPictured here: One historical figure featured in the exhibition is Zora Neale Hurston, an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the Harlem Renaissance. She is best known for her novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” but she published more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays. She received a scholarship to Barnard College, Columbia University, in 1925, and at the time, she was the college’s only black student. After graduating, she traveled extensively to work on her anthropological research. Continue reading →

Author to discuss 19th century African American scrapbooks

scrapbook presenterVisiting scholar Ellen Gruber Garvey will give a presentation, “Hidden Histories: African American Scrapbooks Talk Back to the White Press in the 19th Century,” on Thursday, January 30, 2–3 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The presentation will also be available for viewing live online.

Garvey is the author of “Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance,” a recent book from Oxford University Press that breaks new ground analyzing and discussing scrapbooking as an historical and cultural practice. A book signing in Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, will follow the presentation and books will be available for sale.

Continue reading →

Events: Week of Jan. 13

January 14, 10–11 a.m., 315 Pattee Library, west: Introduction to LionSearch

January 14, 3 – 4 p.m., Mann Assembly Room: First UPLEA meeting of the year.

January 15, 10–11 a.m., 302 Paterno Library: LIbrary Research Basics

January  15, 12:15 p.m., EMS Museum, Deike Building: What is One Degree? (film – 50 min.)
Beginning with a visit to Britain’s National Physical Laboratory, the institution tasked with formally defining one degree, the video looks at the atomic aspects of temperature and their fundamental relationship with molecular energy.

January 21, 4 to 6 p.m., Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library: Grand opening reception of the Student Financial Education Center

Tuesday, January 21, 1:30–3 p.m.315 Pattee Library, west: Introduction to Zotero

January 21, 6–7 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library: “Budgeting—a presentation by SFEC Peer Educators.” The Peer Educators are students who have been trained in specific areas of personal finance (budgeting, credit cards and student loans), who will work one-on-one with students in the Financial Education Center to improve and sustain financial literacy at Penn State.

January 22, 12:15 p.m., EMS Library, 105 Deike:: Science Under Attack: Has the public lost faith in scientists? (film – 52 min.) The consensus of the world’s science academies is that climate change is real, and that it’s caused by human activity. Why, then, do so many people doubt these findings?

January 22, 5:30–7 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library: “Wage and Tax Fundamentals,” a workshop on taxes for students and part of “MoneyCounts: A Financial Literacy Series” by SFEC Advisers Dr. Daad Rizk and Dr. Cathy Bowen

January 23, 5:30–6:30 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library: “Student Financial Aid,” by SFEC Adviser Brad Yeckley

January 23, 10–11:30 a.m., 302 Paterno Library: Introduction to Mendeley

January 29, 12:15 p.m., EMS Museum, Deike Building: Secret Life of Ice (film – 49 min.)
Ice may be one of the strangest substances in the world. Full of contradictions, it is powerful enough to shatter rock but can melt in the blink of an eye; it is transparent, yet can glow with color.

 January 30, 2–3 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library: Visiting scholar Ellen Gruber Garvey will give a presentation, “Hidden Histories: African American Scrapbooks Talk Back to the White Press in the 19th Century.”

Call for proposals: Indigenous Knowledge research awards

Penn State University Libraries and the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK) announce a call for proposals for the 2nd annual Student Indigenous Knowledge Research Awards. The application deadline is March 1, 2014. Two awards of up to $2000 will be presented. All full-time Penn State students, undergraduate and graduate at any Penn State campus, including Penn State World Campus, are eligible to apply. Research, to be conducted between April 2014 and January 2015, must be related to approved undergraduate coursework (e.g. capstone courses) or honors, masters or doctoral thesis topics. This is a competitive award process and proposal requirements are available at icik.psu.edu/psul/icik/IKGrants.html.

Continue reading →

Apply now: Undergraduate award for sustainability and the environment

Penn State’s University Libraries announce an “Award for Undergraduate Research in Sustainability and the Environment,” open to Penn State students at all campus locations, including the World Campus. Penn State’s Social Sciences Library, Cengage Learning and Penn State’s Sustainability Institute have partnered to award a total of $4000 to Penn State undergraduates to be presented on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, 2014.

The deadline for submitting application, paper or project and supporting materials is March 31. Two $1,000 prizes and four $500 prizes will be awarded. Award money was provided by Cengage Learning and the Penn State Sustainability Institute.

Both traditional papers (text) submissions and multimedia projects are eligible. In addition to the research project, students are required to submit a nominating letter from a faculty member, an essay outlining their research methods, plus a bibliography of works consulted. Librarians and other appropriate faculty and staff will judge the submissions based on the research strategy essay, nominating letter, and technical criteria. Full details are available at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/socialsciences/sustainability_award.html#about

Continue reading →

Libraries launch Research Hub

Penn State University Libraries have recently launched a Research Hub  to provide upper-division students and faculty researchers with access to specialized consultants in subjects such as GIS, data, statistics and research methodology. Located on the second floor of Paterno Library, appointments are recommended to ensure availability of the Research Hub consultants. Make an appointment online.

Services will help researchers:

  • collect, manage, and cite research;
  • find data and statistics;
  • design quantitative and qualitative research studies;
  • use statistical analysis and
  • use geospatial data.

To contact the Research Hub service desk, call 814-865-4861 or email ul-rschhub@lists.psu.edu To contact the Data/Statistics Consultant email ul-up-statconsult@lists.psu.edu.

Statistical Consulting Service hours set for spring

A Statistical Consulting Service for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and research staff offers assistance with quantitative and qualitative research, including research design, data collection, data manipulation and statistical analysis.

The service, provided by Penn State’s University Libraries, is located in the Research Hub, in 208 Paterno Library and hours for spring, beginning the week of January 13, include:
Tuesday: 2:30–4:00 p.m.
Wednesday: 1:00–6:30 p.m.
Thursday: 2:30–5:30 p.m.
and by appointment as well as virtual assistance to campuses, please email UL-UP-STATCONSULT@lists.psu.edu

Continue reading →

Jan. 31 deadline for Stand Up Award nominations

January 31 is the deadline for nominations for the 2014 Stand Up Award at http://rockethics.psu.edu/leadership/stand-up-award/nominations. Nominators can mail the forms to The Rock Ethics Institute, 131 Sparks Building, University Park, PA 16802 or submit them by email at rockethics@psu.edu.

Any faculty, staff, student, or community member at any Penn State campus may nominate undergraduate students who are ethical leaders and have accomplished much during their time at Penn State. Selected honorees will receive an award of $1,000 each, be recognized at a spring 2014 ceremony and in a short video, and highlighted in traditional and digital publicity throughout the University. Questions: Rob Peeler at rjp218@psu.edu.

Gmail to allow Google Plus users to send anyone an email

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

Google announced last week a new feature that allows anyone on Google+ to email fellow users without having to find their actual Gmail address. These messages from strangers will arrive in your Gmail inbox just like emails, but the stranger won’t know your email address unless you respond. If you don’t want to start receiving emails from compete strangers, you need to go into your Gmail settings:

1. Open your Gmail account. Click on the gear icon in the top right and select Settings from the menu.

2. In the General tab on the Settings page, look for the section that says: Email via Google+.

3. Click on the dropdown menu next to “Who can email you via your Google+ profile?” You can pick one of four choices: Anyone on Google+, Extended Circles, Circles, or No One. Make your selection and then click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Google has also posted a help page to explain how to change this setting if you are interested. This new feature will roll out this week so change this setting before it takes effect if you are interested.

ILLiad redesigned!

By Barbara Coopey

Next time you log into ILLiad you will see a simple menu of four choices to request items:

  • Article/Book Chapter
  • Book/Loan
  • Other Formats
  • Annexed Items

These forms can be used to request items not owned by Penn State, as well as items owned by Penn State. This simple menu can be presented to users now that Interlibrary Loan extended article delivery from locally owned print material to undergraduate students. We no longer need different ILLiad pages for each user status with a convoluted selection of forms since the article delivery service is now offered to all of our Penn State affiliated users – faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

Instead of having a separate article request form for requesting articles from locally held journals, this option has been incorporated into the Article/Book Chapter request form. There is a section in the form that states, “If the journal or book is owned by Penn State, adding the Call Number and selecting a Location from the drop down menu will speed up your request. Otherwise, leave these blank.” When the Call Number and Location of a print journal held locally is filled in, the request will be routed within ILLiad to that branch or library location for processing.

The “Other Formats” request form is to help users identify and explain what format is needed. And the “Annexed Items” request form allows users to request several volumes of a journal on one form; when submitted, this request goes directly to Annex staff for processing.

The simple interface moves the “View” Options up to a noticeable level to help users know that they can view their outstanding requests or cancelled requests or update their profile. Penn State Hershey ILLiad is not included in this revision. Please send comments or questions to Barbara Coopey (bmc4@psu.edu).

Discovery Day 2014: More information on registration coming soon

Discovery Day 2014 at University Park is set for Friday, March 7

You suggested and we listened. You suggested classes in movie making, catching up with pop culture, what happens in the libraries while you sleep, and much, much more, and then you voted on your favorites.

The Discovery Day planning committee is hard at work to make the 2014 event an exceptional experience for all participants. You will soon be receiving regular announcements about these Discovery Day classes and how to register for them, so save March 7 on your calendar. — submitted by the Discovery Day Project Team

Library offers $1,500 research travel grant awards

Four $1,500 travel grants are currently available to researchers who use collections from The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, located in 104 Paterno Library, within the University Libraries at Penn State University Park. The application deadline is Friday, February 28, 2014, and grant recipients will be announced March 31. The grants cover expenses incurred with travel between June and August 2014, to use University Park resources. Any faculty member, graduate student, or independent scholar with a research project that utilizes the Special Collections Library and lives beyond a 100-mile radius of State College, Pennsylvania, may apply for the grant. More details coming soon.

LHR News: January 13

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Part-time:
Life Sciences/EBSL – Laura Egan, Kayla Montgomery
PS Behrend John M. Lilley Library – Kyle Bowden, Alexander Chasar, Nicole Greene, Monique LeBrun, Matthew Washburn
PS Schuylkill Ciletti Memorial Library -Lauren Gullberg, Bryan Underkoffler

Reminders for Employees Using the ESSIC Attendance System:

A few reminders for the Attendance System, for both users and approvers: Continue reading →

Library News: January 6

Dean’s News

By Barbara I. Dewey, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications

Happy New Year! 2014 is starting out with a bang for the University Libraries. We are on the cover of two magazines – State College (http://statecollegemagazine.com/) and The Penn Stater (http://pennstatermag.com/) with featured stories inside. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to these stories and especially to Catherine Grigor for making them happen.

I am pleased to announce that Interim Vice President for Research Neil Sharkey has agreed to place a library representative on the Research Council. Mike Furlough will take on this liaison role providing the Libraries with a seat at this very important table. Likewise Interim Dean of the Graduate School Regina (Jean) Vasilatos-Younken has agreed to have library representation on the Graduate Council Curriculum Committee. Eric Novotny will take on this role that will greatly enhance communication and information flow between the Grad School and the Libraries.

Spring Semester 2014 also brings the opening of two new centers both featuring important campus partnerships in the Pattee and Paterno Library complex. The Student Financial Education Center (SFEC) located in 309 Paterno Library (in the William and Joan Schreyer Business Library) will open later this month and is a partnership with the University Park Undergraduate Association and the University Libraries. Lauren Reiter provided important leadership in getting the center started. Additionally, the Census Research Data Center will open in the Research Hub later in the semester and is a partnership with the Social Sciences Research Institute. Look for more information on this center in the coming weeks.

We are, of course, engaged in strategic planning this semester. Look for opportunities to participate and links to resources as the semester rolls out. I know that we share Provost Jones’ vision to take Penn State to higher levels of excellence, innovation, and knowledge creation to improve the human condition. The library is at the heart of this vision.