Monthly Archives: May 2014

New Access Services training bulletin for collecting statistics – Training Bulletin 40

By Barb Kopshina

Did you ever wonder if you are keeping paper statistics that could be entered electronically? Or maybe you are curious as to whether or not you are keeping a statistic that is already available from another source and doesn’t need to be kept manually at all? There is a recently completed training bulletin titled “Library Systems Used by Penn State University Libraries” that can help you with those questions.

A subgroup for the Access Services Council created this training bulletin that outlines the different systems that are currently being used by the University Libraries. For each system, there is an overview describing what it is used for along with examples of statistics that can be added or extracted. Links to contact and general information are also provided.

The Training Bulletin page in CMS is located at: https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/access/intranet/trainingbulletins.html See: Training Bulletins Statistics
40 Statistics: Library Systems Used by Penn State University Libraries

LHR News

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Full-time
6/1/14 Alyssa Carver – Kidd Collection Archivist, Special Collections

Part-time
News and Microforms Library – Mahlet Atnafu
PS Schuylkill Ciletti Memorial Library – Floyd Seltzer, John Shoener

Anytime, anywhere library service

Library users who need help finding materials, have research questions, or want to learn more about resources and services, should consider the “Ask a Librarian” online service, which instantly connects users via live chat to a Penn State librarian. “Ask a Librarian” is available 24 hours a day from Sunday at noon, to Friday evening, during fall and spring semesters. Over summer, live chat is offered from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. To start a chat, click on the ‘Ask a Librarian’ button that appears on every Libraries webpage, or go to ask.libraries.psu.edu, which provides more details on the service and also provides answers to the most frequently asked questions. For the full story, go to Penn State News.

Libraries join Academic Preservation Trust

Penn State’s University Libraries is among the increasing number of institutions concerned with the long-term durability of digital materials. Facing this pressing concern, Libraries and university technologists are working across institutions to find solutions for preservation of digital scholarly work, research data, digitized collections, digital AV materials, born-digital archival collections and more. Even though university data centers have IT backup, digital information is so fragile—much more so than paper.

Penn State’s Libraries recently joined the Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust), a growing consortium of 20 academic institutions developing shared best practices, policies and technical infrastructure to support the long-term stewardship of digital material. Committed to the creation and management of a preservation repository that will aggregate academic and research content from many institutions, the APTrust will base solutions on respected open source technologies that are scalable, sustainable, and provide audit functionality.

Dean of Libraries Barbara I. Dewey notes, “The University Libraries’ recent membership in the Digital Preservation Network (DPN) makes us a part of a national strategy for long-term preservation, and at the local level, APTrust will provide a preservation environment for us, including disaster recovery services. By leveraging the expertise and resources of multiple institutions, APTrust will realize economies of scale and increase value for all members.”
The consortium will work together to determine the shape of future services and best practices as they align around solutions for the common good. Ultimately, APTrust will enable academic libraries to protect the scholarship produced by the academy, a value to all.

For more information about the APTrust, see http://aptrust.org/about/why-aptrust/
For more information, contact Ben Goldman, digital records archivist, at 814-863-8333.

Penn State Laureate discusses The Beatles

“Textualizing The Beatles,” a discussion on the nature of scholarly research related to the band, will be presented by Dr. Kenneth Womack, on Tuesday, June 10, 1:00 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library and on MediaSite Live.

beatles

2009 Music Book of the Year

Womack, an award-winning novelist and author, is editor of three books devoted to The Beatles. “The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles,” edited by Womack, was named the 2009 Music Book of the Year, by UK news source The Independent. He is the sixth Penn State Laureate and is a professor of English and integrative arts and senior associate dean for academic affairs at Penn State Altoona.

Womack is also editor of “Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory,” published by the Penn State University Press, and co-editor of the English Association’s prodigious “Year’s Work in English Studies,” published by Oxford University Press. Over the years, Womack’s work as teacher and writer has earned numerous awards, including the Grace D. Long Faculty Excellence Award (2002), Penn State University’s Alumni Teaching Fellow Award (2006), Northern Illinois University’s Golden Anniversary Alumni Award (2009), Penn State Altoona’s Honorary Alumni Award (2009), and the Kjell Meling Award for Distinction in the Arts and Humanities (2010). He served as the chair of the Academic Council on Undergraduate Education this past year.

The presentation, sponsored by the University Libraries’ Colloquia Committee, is free and open to the public.

Events

May 27, 2-3 p.m: ACRL webinar on data management plans, Paterno 403. Curious about what data management plans (DMPs) are? Interested in learning what kinds of data repositories and preservation options there are for data produced by our researchers? Or are you simply in need of a refresher on DMPs? The University Libraries are sponsoring this upcoming ACRL webinar which introduces the concept of a DMP and addresses what’s involved in creating a plan. http://www.ala.org/acrl/datamanagementplans

May 28, 2-3:30 p.m.: Insights into adult learning and learning styles workshop, Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library. This class is now full and has a waiting list, for more see TECH-Smart. If you have any questions, please contact Rita Buhite, user services training coordinator at rbb21@psu.edu.

May 28, 5:30 – 7 p.m.: Mortgages: The Financial Process of Owning a House, Foster Aud. Additional details available at http://bit.ly/1rzz1Jw. Registration is available at http://bit.ly/1jYpnNh. Presenter Dr. Daad Rizk, a Penn State financial literacy coordinator, offers practical step-by-step instructions on financing a house purchase as well as tips and ideas to make the experience more enjoyable. Starting with understanding your budget and calculating how much you can afford in a monthly payment and a mortgage loan, she will explain the dos and don’ts of mortgage exploration and how to steer away from first-time home buying mistakes such as not sticking to your budget, choosing a costly type of loan, skipping inspections, not evaluating your non-negotiable items and not being financially prepared.

The presentation is part of the Money Counts: a Financial Literacy Series, a collaborative effort of the Penn State Commission for Adult Learners and the University Libraries.

Use Box @ Penn State to store your bookmarks for lifecycle

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

Have you ever lost your important bookmarks during Lifecycle or at another time? One feature of Box (http://box.psu.edu/) you may have overlooked is the ability to save bookmarks. I’ve created a folder in Box just for my Bookmarks.

box screen

When you are in this or any other folder in Box, you can click on the New dropdown menu and select New Bookmark.

new folder  This will launch a new window where you can save the website address, name the location and give a description of your bookmark.

new bookmark in box
Enter the information and click OK. Do this for all your important bookmarks and now you have a folder in Box with all your important website locations.

bookmark folder in box

Upcoming Green Paws orientation

By Cathy O’Connell for the University Libraries Green Team 

Office Composting has not quite begun in Patee/Paterno, but if you are anxious to become a little greener in your office and use your resources more efficiently, you can earn your Green Paws Office Certification while you wait. This program is designed so that offices with 75% participation can complete a checklist to earn certification at multiple levels. The staff at the Annex have already earned their Level 1 certification, and you can, too! Sign up for the next orientation session, below:

Thursday, June 12: Stepping into Green Paws Orientation: 1p.m. – 2p.m. in 214 Business Building. Be sure to register or join the conversation via Adobe Connect!

Get started now!

LHR News

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Full-time:

5/28/14 Rory Ansel – Information Resources & Services Support Specialist, Tombros McWhirter Knowledge Commons

Part-time:

Penn State Harrisburg Library – Matthew Anthony and Dung Nguyen
Tombros McWhirter Knowledge Commons (Welcome Desk) – Kayla Montgomery and Lamiaa Mouhine

Wishing the following employees well as they leave us:

5/30/14 Christine Newberry, George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library, Penn State Hershey

Access Services holds annual luncheon

AccessSvcs2014_1082-72

Access Services employees celebrated another productive year. Photo by Wilson Hutton

Submitted by Barbara Coopey

Access Services held its 11th Annual Service Service Awards and Luncheon on May 21.
Staff recognized for reaching library service milestones were:
35 years: Janelle Sigel
25 years: Greg Berky, Earl Houser, Bernie Whitehill
20 Years: Tracy Deitrich, Dong Hahn, Chris Holobar
10 Years: Amy Pfeffer
5 Years: William Emerick, Herb Motter, Carolyn Muse

New staff members Christopher Herlein, James Keyzer-Andre, Steve Houck, and Rita Buhite, plus Paula Contreras were welcomed to Access Services.

Following the luncheon Eric Novotny, acting head, Arts and Humanities Library, and Steven Woods, social sciences librarian, presented on the changes and initiatives in their libraries.

Congratulations to recipients of 2014 Libraries Awards

A reception was held last week to honor the 2014 recipients of the University Libraries Awards. Pictured below are the award recipients. All photos by Wilson Hutton, University Libraries Public Relations and Marketing

Rob Harris

Robert Harris, manager, Human Resources, received the University Libraries Award

Dewey and Gilpin

Dean Barbara I. Dewey presented the Margaret Knoll Spangler Oliver Libraries Award to Megan Gilpin, outreach coordinator

Marcus Fowler

Marcus Fowler, associate director of Development, University Libraries, also received the Margaret Knoll Spangler Oliver Libraries Award

Dewey and Smith

Dean Dewey presented the University Libraries Diversity Award to Paula Smith, associate librarian, reference, Abington Campus

Reiter

The University Libraries Teaching Award was presented to Lauren Reiter, business liaison librarian

Library News: Week of May 19

For weekly Pattee and Paterno Libraries construction updates for staff, go to: http://sites.psu.edu/libconstruction/

Is Firefox printing blank PDF pages?

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

Firefox has recently introduced its own built-in PDF viewer. If this is causing viewing or printing issues, follow the steps below to change Firefox’s default back to Adobe Reader.

1. Click the Menu button (the three gray lines) and choose Options:

firefox commandsNote: if you have a version earlier than Firefox 29, you may need to click on the Firefox button to find options.

2. Select the Applications panel. You will see many Firefox options in this window. Type PDF in the search box to narrow the list options.

3. Click on the drop-down arrow in the action column and select Use Adobe Reader (default) instead of Preview in Firefox.

print from firefox

4. Click OK to close the Options window.

LHR News

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Part-time:
Beakal Degefa – News and Microforms Library
Michael Fairback – Fletcher L. Byrom Earth & Mineral Sciences Library
Cindy Withjack – Penn State Harrisburg Library
Andy Ye – Penn State Lehigh Valley Campus Library

Highmark Website Enhancements
Highmark has made some significant enhancements/updates to the Claims and Spending Account areas of their website. Benefits has provided a PDF guide of the changes, available here. Anyone with questions or concerns should be directed to Highmark at 800-914-4384, as they have access to the accounts and will be able to assist.

Events

May 22, 9-10am, Dean’s Forum on administration transitions, Foster Auditorium and Media Site Live. Dean Barbara I. Dewey will provide information in draft form about associate dean porfolios, AD search processes, and other organizational opportunities.

May 27, 2-3 p.m: ACRL webinar on data management plans, Paterno 403. Curious about what data management plans (DMPs) are? Interested in learning what kinds of data repositories and preservation options there are for data produced by our researchers? Or are you simply in need of a refresher on DMPs? The University Libraries are sponsoring this upcoming ACRL webinar which introduces the concept of a DMP and addresses what’s involved in creating a plan. http://www.ala.org/acrl/datamanagementplans

May 28, 2-3:30 p.m.: Insights into adult learning and learning styles workshop, Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library. Please register in TECH-Smart. This 90-minute workshop will include the following topics:
– Who are adult learners and why are they different from traditional students?
– Ten principles of adult learning
– Learning styles and the VAK model
– Meeting the learning styles of adult learners
During the workshop, participants will learn about their personal learning style and discover methods for meeting the learning styles of the adult learners. This workshop is designed for supervisors and their staff trainers. If you have any questions, please contact Rita Buhite, user services training coordinator at rbb21@psu.edu.

May 28, 5:30 – 7 p.m.: Mortgages: The Financial Process of Owning a House, Foster Aud. Additional details available at http://bit.ly/1rzz1Jw. Registration is available at http://bit.ly/1jYpnNh. Presenter Dr. Daad Rizk, a Penn State financial literacy coordinator, offers practical step-by-step instructions on financing a house purchase as well as tips and ideas to make the experience more enjoyable. Starting with understanding your budget and calculating how much you can afford in a monthly payment and a mortgage loan, she will explain the dos and don’ts of mortgage exploration and how to steer away from first-time home buying mistakes such as not sticking to your budget, choosing a costly type of loan, skipping inspections, not evaluating your non-negotiable items and not being financially prepared.

The presentation is part of the Money Counts: a Financial Literacy Series, a collaborative effort of the Penn State Commission for Adult Learners and the University Libraries.

Archive opens in honor of Sister Joan D. Chittister, OSB

Sister ChittisterEverything we do changes the future, not the past. We all have a responsibility to do this,” noted Sister Joan D. Chittister, OSB, in her remarks at the recent dedication of the Helen Boyle Memorial Archive in Honor of Joan D. Chittister, OSB at Mercyhurst University in the Hammermill Library in Erie, Pennsylvania. Chittister, an internationally renowned writer and lecturer, is one of the most articulate social analysts and influential religious leaders of this age. In 2013, The Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State, Mercyhurst University in Erie and the Benedictine Sisters of Erie began a collaboration to archive and make accessible books, articles, reviews, presentations, speeches, homilies, interviews and newspaper columns related to her life and work.

Among the displays of photos and archival materials in the Boyle archive are copies of the 50 books authored by Chittister and a number of her hand-written journals. The room also includes a 70-inch screen to allow for an interactive experience. More on the dedication is available at https://www.eriebenedictines.org/story/dedication-helen-boyle-memorial-archive-joan-d-chittister-osb.

Libraries join Digital Preservation Network

Formed to ensure that the complete scholarly record is preserved for future generations, the Digital Preservation Network (DPN) has more than 50 current members from throughout the U.S., including Penn State’s University Libraries. The group held its inaugural meeting in April 2014.

A long-term preservation solution shared across higher education, the organization’s mission is to protect materials against all types of catastrophic failure and to allow the academy to own, maintain and control the scholarly record throughout time. Although commercial entities may partner with the DPN to contribute to its efforts, the final control will remain within the academy.

Pleased that Penn State is among the founding members, Dean of Libraries Barbara I. Dewey notes, “The DPN provides an essential framework to preserve digital materials, to retool publication workflows for a digital world, and to efficiently build a national preservation cyberinfrastructure (e.g., network, computation, and transient storage needs). DPN also provides the path to supplement and connect our current best efforts into a complete preservation solution.”