Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:
Full-time:
3/24/14
Christopher Herlein – Records Maintenance Specialist, Annex
Mark Kretsinger-Harries – Music/AV Cataloger, Cataloging and Metadata Services
Monthly Archives: March 2014
Adaptive Technology and Services at Work
By Susan Hayya, coordinator, Adaptive Technology and Services
In the last few years Penn State has tripled the enrollment for students who are blind or visually impaired. Adaptive Technology and Services (ATS) plays a major role in providing services for these students, as well as those with other disabilities. First, a student must go to the Office for Disability Services (ODS) where he or she is assigned a counselor, a disability specialist, who assists the student by identifying the appropriate accommodations. For example, the student could be granted extra time for exams and quizzes and be assigned a quiet place to take exams, a service sometimes provided by ATS. There is always a proctor assigned when a student takes exams away from the classroom and I have sometimes proctored exams. The student may also be approved to receive textbooks in an alternative format and that is where ATS joins in. Reformatting textbooks is a very big part of our work.
How to check your UCS quota and free up additional space
By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator
When logged into UCS, look for where it shows your name at the top right(near the “Log Out” button. Your quota is shown graphically as a bar below your name. If you put your mouse over your name for a moment your storage usage(as a percentage of your maximum storage and the absolute value in GigaBytes) will show up.
Faculty News
Jane Ingold, reference librarian at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College, was recently elected to the board of the Harborcreek Historical Society. Penn State Erie is located in Harborcreek Township.
Library News: March 17
Tombros Lecture to highlight linked open data in the humanities
The University Libraries will hold a lecture on “Linked Open Data and Humanities Scholarship: A Report from the (Archaeological) Field,” on March 20, at 4 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. This is the first Tombros Lecture on the Ancient World and will be presented by Sebastian Heath, clinical assistant professor of ancient studies, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), New York University.
Heath is project manager of the NEH-funded Linked Ancient World Data Institute, which describes linked open data as “an approach to the creation of digital resources that emphasizes connections between diverse information on the basis of published and stable web addresses that identify common concepts and individual items.” Read the full story on Penn State News.
Events
March 19, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.: Diversity Potluck, Mann Assembly Room.
March 19: Geologic Journey–Tectonic Europe (film). Traverse the Eurasian plate from Iceland to the Alps. (50min). EMS Museum, Deike Building.
March 19, 6:30 p.m.: ‘Girl Rising’ film screening, Foster Aud. Film will be followed by student panel discussion.
March 20, 1p.m.: User Services Training Curriculum roll out. User Services Training Coordinator Rita Buhite will roll out the new Services Training Curriculum. The presentation will provide insight into the training modules already completed and the goals for User Services Training. Upcoming training activities will also be presented. Foster Auditorium.
March 20, 4 p.m.: “Linked Open Data and Humanities Scholarship: A Report from the (Archaeological) Field,” Foster Auditorium. This is the first Tombros Lecture on the Ancient World and will be presented by Sebastian Heath, clinical assistant professor of ancient studies, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), New York University. More information next week.
March 24, 3:30-4:30 p.m.: “The Gender of Memory: Rural Women and China’s Disappearing Collective Past.” Presenter: Gail Hershatter, Distinguished Professor of History and Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This event is sponsored by the Asian Studies Department, and co-sponsored by the History Department, the Women’s Studies Department, the Center for Global Studies, and the Penn State University Libraries. Foster Auditorium.
March 25, 2-3 p.m.: Dan Cohen will give the 2014 Kaplan Institute talk “Inside the Digital Public Library of America”. Foster Auditorium and MediaSite.
March 26, noon: “Using Indigenous Knowledge-Based Narratives to Facilitate Ukrainian Immigrants’ Adaptation to Life in the United States” will be presented by Svitlana Iarmolenko, Foster Auditorium. This is the latest seminar in a series on indigenous knowledge that examines ways of knowing passed down orally from generation to generation. Following the presentation, a small reception will be held in the Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, sponsored by the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. The event is free and open to the public and can also be viewed live online.
March 26, 7:30 p.m. Public Poetry Project reading, Foster Auditorium. This popular annual event is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.
Exhibit highlights album covers from Blockson Collection
“Breaking Barriers through Music: Albums from The Charles L. Blockson Collection of African Americana and the African Diaspora,” an exhibition, is on display March 17–June 30, 2014, in Sidewater Commons, 102 Pattee Library. “Music can create powerful connections between people, help us learn about different cultures, shatter stereotypes, question social injustices, and inspire us to create the world as it should be. Its purpose extends beyond entertainment to educate, inspire, represent people, influence and change society, and provide social commentary.” (from Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center)
The albums in this exhibit helped to change the way people viewed each other from the 1930s through the civil rights movement and into the decades that followed. Through music, poetry, rhetoric, and comedy, the albums allow the listener to appreciate and oftentimes experience viewpoints, different from their own.
“Negro Prison Songs,” recorded in work fields by Alan Lomax in the 1940s, tell the story of the slave gang, the sharecropper system, the lawless work camp, the chain gang, and the pen. Dick Gregory’s comedic album, “In White America,” changed the way white America perceived African-Americans through his satiric political messages on segregation. Read the full story on Penn State News
LionSearch update
Submitted by Binky Lush
The following newly indexed content is now available in LionSearch!
- NBC Learn Higher Ed: collection of primary source videos, newsreels, and documents that can be used for research, projects and in classroom and online teaching. Includes over 10,000 resources – short 2 to 5 minute videos aligned to 28 Higher Ed courses – topics range from Biology, Chemistry, Physics, U.S. History, Global Studies, Health & Nursing, Psychology, Business, Marketing, Journalism, Sociology, and more.
- Oxford University Press: Oxford Scholarly Editions online. (not all titles, but a significant number)
- Slack Inc.: Covering more than 20 health care specialties, SLACK publishes leading medical journals and newspapers, more than 250 medical and allied health books, and creates custom projects for a growing number of clients. (4 journals out of 16 total available at Serials Solutions – not sure why they state “more than 20.”)
Questions or comments about this content or anything related to LionSearch?
Please contact the Discovery and Access Working Team (ul-dawt@lists.psu.edu)
Tech Tip: Minor SelectSurvey changes
By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator
Select Survey was updated last week. Below are the two minor changes you will see in the user interface:
1.) The Manage Surveys screen now has a column to show you how many completed and incomplete responses you have when analyzing your results. You will still need to delete the incomplete responses as usual but now you have the option to view quickly how many you may have. An incomplete response occurs when someone logs in but doesn’t complete the survey. SelectSurvey counts this as a response.
2.) On the Create Survey screen, if you choose the option Copy Existing, you can also now choose to copy the responses into the new survey as well.
Diane Kurtz to retire after 35 years
Diane Kurtz, collections care supervisor in the Digitization and Preservation Department, has announced her retirement from the University Libraries after 35.2 years of service. Diane’s last day will be March 31, 2014. — Sue Kellerman
Patricia Pottle leaving University Libraries
Patricia Pottle, the acting head Librarian at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, will be leaving the University Libraries in May 2014. Her last day will be May 9. Patricia will be relocating to Austin, TX . We wish Patricia and her husband well in this next adventure and will miss her at Penn State. — Christine Avery
Penn State librarian named executive director of HathiTrust
Mike Furlough, associate dean for research and scholarly communications in the University Libraries, has been named executive director of HathiTrust, an international partnership of more than 90 academic and research institutions that owns and operates a digital repository containing more than 11 million public domain and in-copyright volumes, digitized from partnering institution libraries and other sources.
Furlough, who will leave Penn State in April, noted, “HathiTrust has dramatically increased access to the published record, and created a membership structure that governs a shared, distributed infrastructure for preservation and innovative use. We’re poised now to build upon those achievements and to transform the ways that research libraries collaborate to produce knowledge.” Read the full story on Penn State News
LHR News: March 17
Staff Advisory Council Seeks Members
The University Staff Advisory Council is now accepting applications for new members. USAC is a great way to get involved at Penn State; and serve your fellow staff members. The membership term is three years, beginning on July 1, 2014. The application is posted on the USAC website: http://ohr.psu.edu/university-staff-advisory-council/get-involved. All applications must be submitted no later than March 31, 2014 for consideration. If you have any questions regarding the application or membership, please contact the Membership Committee co-chairs, Susan Apfelbaum at sua2@psu.edu or Siobhan Brooks at snb106@psu.edu
Library News: March 10
How to access Roo when you’re not at your work computer
By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator
Have you ever been at a Podium machine in the libraries and you need to access a committee space on Roo or your user space to access a file? You can access these files very quickly by following the steps below:
1. Click the Windows Start Button. Continue reading
Researcher examines how Ukrainian immigrants adapt to US life
“Using Indigenous Knowledge-Based Narratives to Facilitate Ukrainian Immigrants’ Adaptation to Life in the United States” will be presented by Svitlana Iarmolenko on March 26, at noon, in Foster Auditorium, first floor, Paterno Library. This is the latest seminar in a series on indigenous knowledge that examines ways of knowing passed down orally from generation to generation. Following the presentation, a small reception will be held in the Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, sponsored by the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. The event is free and open to the public and can also be viewed live online.
Iarmolenko conducting archival research
Iarmolenko is a PhD candidate in the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management. Her scholarly inquiry is grounded in the fusion of American academic tradition and Eastern European traditional indigenous knowledge. Her research project, supported in part by a 2013 Marjorie Grant Whiting Student Indigenous Knowledge Research Award, was aimed at finding ways to help Ukrainian immigrants to the United States cope with immigration-related stress. In a description of her research, she says, “Different ethnic groups have unique histories of immigration which impact their ability to acculturate into the host country. However, adjustment programs provided for immigrants often fail to address the need for social and economic assistance.”
Talk to focus on Digital Public Library
Dan Cohen will give the 2014 Kaplan Institute talk “Inside the Digital Public Library of America” from 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The presentation is open to the public and will be broadcast live on MediaSite.
Cohen is founding executive director of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), which is bringing together the rich resources of America’s libraries, archives and museums, and making them freely available to the world. In his talk, he will give a behind the scenes look at how the DPLA was created, how it functions as a portal and platform, what the staff is currently working on, and what’s to come for the young project and organization.