Daily Archives: April 28, 2014

PA Center for the Book selects Baker’s Dozen

Among the many children’s books published last year, 13 were chosen by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book to form A Baker’s Dozen: The Best Children’s Books for Family Literacy for 2014.

Winners include: “Alphabet Trucks” by Samantha R. Vamos, illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke (Charlesbridge); “Bear and Bee” by Sergio Ruzzier (Disney/Hyperion); “Come Back, Moon” by David Kherdian, illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian (Beach Lane); “Daisy Gets Lost” by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade); “Flight 1-2-3” by Maria van Lieshout (Chronicle); “Hank Finds an Egg” by Rebecca Dudley (Peter Pauper Press); “Hero Mom” by Melinda Hardin, illustrated by Bryan Langdo (Amazon Children’s Publishing); “Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives” by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal (Chronicle); “The Long, Long Line” by Tomoko Ohmura (Owlkids); “Mr. Tiger Goes Wild” by Peter Brown (Little, Brown); “Take Me Out to the Yakyu” by Aaron Meshon (Atheneum); “That is Not a Good Idea!” by Mo Willems (Balzer + Bray); and “This Is Our House” by Hyewon Yum (Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus, Giroux). For the full story, see Penn State News

Information Literacy awards announced

Information literacy for all students is a goal of Penn State’s University Libraries, and to help highlight its importance, the libraries have funded cash awards as part of the 2014 Undergraduate Research Exhibition, co-sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Education and the Schreyers Honor College in partnership with the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, the University Libraries and Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Society. Read the full story on Penn State News

 

Research travel grant winners announced

The Eberly Family Special Collections Library has announced the winners of the 2014 research travel awards program.

Dorothy Foehr Huck award winners include:

  • Georgia Aquilar, architect at the University of Naples “Federico II,” for use of the A.E. Bye and Francis Ferguson Papers in her proposed book on natural evolutive logics as strategic principles for designing landscapes and architectures.
  • Professor David Frank at the University of Oregon for his proposed research in the Robert Oliver Papers for his project, “Ghostwriting South Korea: Syngman Rhee, Robert Oliver, and the Symbolic Construction of the Cold War,” as well as his research in the Kenneth Burke Papers.

Helen F. Faust Women Writers award winners include:

  • Professor Lucinda Damon-Bach of Salem State University in Massachusetts for research in multiple literary collections for her ongoing project of a complete inventory, transcriptions, and likely digital project of Catherine Marie Sedgwick’s letters.
  • Professor Alan S. Kornspan of Akron University for research in the papers of Penn State Professor Dorothy V. Harris for his project on her seminal role in the field of sport psychology.

Albert M. Petska Eighth Air Force Archives award winner is:

  • Richard Muller, professor of military history, United States Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, for his in-depth research on the 452nd heavy bombardment group of the Eighth Air Force during and after World War II.

The winners will give a short, informal presentation to the public about their research this summer.

Dewey joins NIH advisory committee

Barbara I. Dewey, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications, Penn State, has accepted a four-year appointment to the PubMed Central (PMC) National Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As a committee member, Dewey will advise the NIH on the content and operation of the PubMed Central repository and help to establish criteria: to certify groups submitting materials to the system, to monitor the operation of the system, and to ensure that PMC evolves and remains responsive to the needs of researchers, publishers, librarians and the general public. Read the full story on Penn State News

Events: Week of April 28

April 28, 3:00-4:00 p.m.: UPLEA meeting, Mann Assembly room .

April 29, 3-4:30 p.m.: Cultural and Economic Perspectives of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,” Foster Aud. Presented by Kyunghwa Lee, University of Georgia.

May 1, 11-4pm: Arts and Craft Sale benefiting the Centre County United Way, Mann Assembly room.

May 6, noon to 2 p.m.: Film Fest to Celebrate 100 Years of Cooperative Extension, Foster Auditorium.

May 9, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: MediaTech Expo: This year’s Technology Expo will feature showcase what’s new for 2014, President’s Hall, Penn Stater Conference Center, University Park campus.

Library Annex receives Penn State Green Paws Certification Level 1

By Verne Neff and Steve Houck

annex team

Annex team posing with the certificate

In April 2014, the Library Annex completed level one of the Penn State Green Paws Office Certification program and received a certificate signed by Penn State President Rodney Erickson and the Director of the Sustainability Institute Denice Wardrop for completion of this level.

In addition, the Cato-2 Library facility has been 100% “Green” to the Penn State standard since opening in 2008.

To earn Green Paws Office Certification, 75% of all employees in your office or administrative unit must complete all the “actions” on the checklist. By going through this program with others, you help to create community and a common commitment to creating a “green” work environment. For more information, see http://sustainability.psu.edu/greenpaws#overview.

The Green initiative is part of their orientation process when new staff is assigned to the Annex.

Guide to better password practices

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

techtippasswordsWith the recent Heartbleed bug it’s a good time to think about your password strength for your many passwords including your Penn State Access password. Creating a strong password is so important these days to protect your personal information.

Information Technology Services at Penn State has created Password Best Practices web page to help you create a strong, secure password. Some of the recommendations include:

  • Use two numbers in the first eight characters.
  • Pick long passwords, at least 8 characters in length if the system allows it.
  • Don’t use a common dictionary word, a name, a string of numbers, or your User ID.

Processing of items marked missing/lost to begin mid-May

By Lisa Moyer

At the April 4 Access Services Council meeting, the missing items subgroup presented to Council members documented procedures regarding the processing of items marked missing/lost. In accordance with these procedures, it is recommended that in-May of this year, all libraries run Director’s Station reports for items that have been marked missing/lost prior to October 1, 2013. Staff at each library is to perform and complete final searches for all missing/lost items by July 15. (Staff may want to refer to the Power Point presentation on recommended search strategies at https://www.libraries.psu.edu/content/dam/psul/up/access/intranet/trainingfindingmissingbooks.pdf.) Staff is to discharge in Workflows all missing/lost items found, and refer all missing/lost items not found by July 15 to appropriate subject selectors for replacement decisions. On October 1, all searched items still marked missing will be globally updated to the ZREMOVED library and WITHDRAWN home locations.* Reports will be globally generated for last copy items and for items with a serials format. These reports will be forwarded to the cataloging department for OCLC edits.

A training session concerning the creation and running of Director’s Station missing /lost reports will be offered to all staff during the Supervisor Action Team (SAT) Retreat May 19. Details regarding this training session and directions on the creation and running of missing/lost reports in Director’s Station will be announced prior to May 19.

*Due to billing issues, the missing items subgroup is still working on the Workflows processing of items marked lost.

Questions regarding this new procedure should be directed to the following missing/lost items subgroup members:
Barb Kopshina
Lisa Moyer
Verne Neff
Trish Notartomas