Monthly Archives: September 2014

Campus-wide initiative brought to the Libraries

Many students and others using Pattee and Paterno Libraries are asking, “Where’s the trash can?” The University Libraries are the most recent participants of a campus-wide sustainability initiative aimed at recycling and waste management. Dubbed “Mobius,” Penn State’s waste system has no beginning and no end, according to the Sustainability website.

Penn State is committed to closing the loop on waste because:
• Solid waste isn’t a stream that starts in one place and ends in another.
• It’s a loop of valuable resources.

Change is challenging but with everyone’s effort, the initiative will succeed. Penn State currently diverts 65 percent of its solid waste from landfill. With campus-wide composting, the goal will be 75 percent. Miscellaneous plastics will take the goal to 85 percent.

Dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications Barbara Dewey notes, “For the sake of the environment and the welfare of future generations, I’m willing to use the bins on the fifth floor of Paterno Library or those that are centrally located at entrances to Pattee and Paterno to properly dispose of waste.”

Additional recycling stations on every floor of Pattee and Paterno Libraries will help Penn Staters reduce waste. We can do it with your help.

For more information, please call Public Relations and Marketing at 814-863-4240.

Libraries create MOOCs research guide

As MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) continue to gain in popularity, Penn State’s University Libraries have taken a proactive stance to provide research guides that will assist the teachers helping and the many students enrolled in the wide variety of classes.

These free MOOCS typically include students who are not registered Penn State students, and thus may not use the Libraries’ numerous licensed online databases or course reserve content restricted to Penn State credit classes.

Lisa German, associate dean for Collections Information and Access Services, notes, “As Penn State continues to develop MOOCs, the University Libraries are pleased to be of assistance to all learners.”

To support all MOOC students who need resources, the Libraries have launched a new research guide, MOOCs for Learners. The approach and content of this guide is targeted to both experienced and novice students and to other learners navigating the world of MOOCs. This guide complements the MOOCs for Educators guide, targeted to faculty who may be seeking resources they can link to, or use, in their MOOC as alternatives to content from our licensed databases or other copyrighted content for which they are not able to obtain permission to use.

Head of Library Learning Services Loanne Snavely observes, “Our goal as librarians is to connect people to quality information resources and this is one more of the many services that we offer to students, faculty and others.”

Questions, suggestions and comments on the MOOCs for Learners and MOOCs for Educators guides are welcome, please contact Lori Lysiak at lal29@psu.edu or 814-867-4924.

How to put your brain on the Internet

You check your iPhone so often that it might as well be a part of your body, so why not skip the tiny screen and clunky keyboard. In “How to put your brain on the Internet,” author Michael Chorost will show emerging technologies that allow brain activity to be read and altered in unprecedented detail. The program will be on Tuesday, October 21, 3:00–5:00 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, and also on MediaSite Live.

Dr. Chorost will outline what a future “World Wide Mind” (http://michaelchorost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/WorldWideMind-Chorost.pdf) could look like, and he asks, “Would you want to be part of it?” His talk will include audio simulations of what he hears as a cochlear implant user and videos of cutting-edge neuroprosthetic technologies. His book, “Rebuilt: How becoming part machine made me more human,” (http://michaelchorost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/rebuilt-excerpt-chapter1.pdf) has been instrumental in helping people who are deaf to consider getting cochlear implants.

The presentation, one of several events on campus during October for Disabilities Awareness Month, is open to the public, but seating is limited, so attendees are urged to arrive early. It is sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities; the Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity; the College of the Liberal Arts; the Presidential Leadership Academy; The Schreyer Honors College; Teaching and Learning with Technology; the College of Communications; the School of Engineering Design, Technology and Professional Programs; the Office of Disability Services; the College of Health and Human Development; the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders; and Adaptive Technology Services in the University Libraries.

For more information or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Susan Hayya at shh2@psu.edu or 814 865-0284.

Actress Geri Jewell to speak in Libraries

Geri Jewel will give a presentation, “Walking Straight: Transcending Disability and Embracing Sexual Identity,” on Thursday, October 16, 7:00–8:30 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, Penn State University Park. The presentation will also be on MediaSite Live (http://tinyurl.com/JewellPS). Jewell, an actress, comedienne, disabilities advocate, is the author of the autobiographical, “I’m Walking As Straight As I Can.” A book signing will follow and the book will be available for sale.

Jewell’s presentation is one of several events on campus during October for Disabilities Awareness Month. The presentation is sponsored by the University Libraries’ Adaptive Technology and Services; LGBTA Student Resource Center; Educational Equity Office of the Vice Provost; and the Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Equity.

For more information or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Susan Hayya at shh2@psu.edu or 814-865-0284.

LHR News: September 29

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Part-time:
Shanice Simmons Commons Services
Arjona Ali Commons Services
Shekira Piard Interlibrary Loan
Leah Davis Penn State Mont Alto
Ashley Peters Penn State Altoona
Suzanne Shultz Harrell Health Sciences Library, Penn State Hershey
Angela Turri Harrell Health Sciences Library, Penn State Hershey
Rachael Brown Harrell Health Sciences Library, Penn State Hershey

Wishing the following employees well as they leave us:
9/30/14 William Harnish, Commons Services

Events: September 29

September 29, 2 p.m.: Engaging with Ojibwe communities, Foster Aud. and MediaSite Live

September 30, noon-1 p.m.: “Data Curation in the Research Library,” presentation by Sarah Pickle, Social Sciences Data Curation Fellow (a CLIR postdoc position), Mann Assembly Room

September 30, 11a.m.–noon: So HELP Me Part 2: Workshop on Improving Customer Service. This two-part workshop will consider some of the challenges of customer service and how best to handle them. You will learn techniques that will help you solve customer problems quickly and to the customer’s satisfaction. The video, “So HELP Me,” along with the training session, will not only demonstrate techniques for solving customer problems, but will also make the customer service experience more satisfying to our customers and to you. Register in TechSmart Additional dates are located on the Training Opportunities page of the Libraries Intranet (https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/groups/intranet/training.html).

October 1, 1 p.m.: Mapping Applications Workshop, W315 Pattee Library. Details

October 1, 12:15 p.m.: “The Price of Sand,” 18 Deike Bldg. EMSL Film Series. The impacts of silicon mining on the local economies of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

October 6, 1:30 – 3 p.m.: Introduction to Mendeley, 203 Paterno. Registration and more information here.

October (multiple dates): “Queering Penn State History”: Penn State Archivist Doris Malkmus will be traveling to Penn State campuses this fall to present “Queering Penn State History.” Using a game setting and primary sources from The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, she will help attendees discover the tumultuous history of Penn State’s first gay student organization, circa 1968–1974. The presentations are free and open to the public. First stop is Penn State York on October 1. Full schedule here.

Note: The Oct. 9, 7 p.m. presentation by Civil rights leader the Rev. Jim Lawson on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 will now be held in Room 101, Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building. Full story on Penn State News

October 14, 7:30–8:30 p.m.: Meet Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of ‘Americanah,’  in an interview conducted by Ellysa Cahoy, librarian and assistant director Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Days Inn Penn State, 240 South Pugh Street, State College. Open to the public.

October 22, 12:15 p.m.: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises (Peak Moments TV episode 192) and Collapse of the Titans (Peak Moments TV episode 202), 18 Deike Bldg. EMSL Film Series. Interviews with Daniel Lerch and Dmitry Orlov about the future of America’s energy instabilities. (56 min. total)

October 23, 3-4 p.m: Getting to Know International Patrons, Mann Assembly Room and Adobe Connect. There are over 7,000 international students from around the world enrolled at Penn State. These students bring with them a broad range of cultures, languages, backgrounds, and expectations. This discussion-based workshop will present effective strategies for communicating with our international patrons.

October 23, 2014, 7:30 p.m.: The Emily Dickinson Lectureship in American Poetry presents Marilyn Nelson, Foster Auditorium. Marilyn Nelson is a three-time finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Newbery and Coretta Scott King awards. She is the author or translator of 15 poetry books for adults and children and five chapbooks. In 2013 she published a memoir entitled “How I Discovered Poetry”—a series of 50 poems about growing up in the 1950’s in a military family. Part of the 2014-2015 Mary E. Rolling Reading Series.

October 29, 12:15 p.m.: Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean StewardshipSeries of three short episodes on the ocean and sustainability, 18 Deike Bldg. EMSL Film Series. Featuring:

  • Ocean Blueprint in the Florida Keys (11 min.)
  • Saving Whales at Stellwagen Bank (27 min.)
  • Iowa Farmers & Gulf of Mexico (22 min.)

External collaborated folders in BOX @ PSU

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

The Box @PSU web app was recently updated so externally-owned folders will be shown in grey. This will help users easily distinguish content that is owned by those external to Penn State. Additional colors in Box are represented Personal folders owned by you as a manila color while Collaborated folders are blue.

box screen

Library News: September 22

Dean’s News

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

I hope you had a chance to attend or view Provost Nick Jones’ presentation related to strategic planning. You can see his slides at https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/admin/intranet.html. The University Libraries plan (still in draft) is available in a brochure form with enough copies for all Libraries’ staff at all campus locations. Stop by 510 Paterno and pick up some copies or let Emma Davidson (emd21@psu.edu) know if you would like her to send some copies. The Provost is in the process of reading 47 plans and will come back to us with suggestions and a template so that unit plans have a similar format.

I had the opportunity to hear President Barron talk about his initiatives related to economic development and student success. You can view his slides on the Dean’s intranet at https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/admin/intranet.html.

The associate dean searches are moving forward with most of the phone interviews completed. Stay tuned!

RPC: Remind students about this handy tool

A Research Project Calculator (RPC) at www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/toolswidgets/rpc_instruct.html gives a simple and comprehensive step-by-step model for navigating the research process and allows students and others to enter a due date for a research assignment and in return the calculator breaks the project into steps, providing sources for help and information along the way.

Student and teacher accounts may be set up with a Penn State access id number or with a Friends of Penn State account. Details are included in the web site above.

This tool offered by Penn State’s University Libraries can be customized to add new assignments, to send e-mail reminders and to add notes as well as share the calculator with others such as in a group project.

Recently an Honors Thesis Template has been added and is available at (https://ac.libraries.psu.edu/rpc/). It offers Penn State honors students as a time-management and information guide to completing an honor’s thesis. It offers milestone reminders and helpful links along the way. It can also be used effectively for other major projects such as senior and capstone projects. Please note that a Penn State access account is required.

Center offers unprecedented access to restricted data

Penn State researchers in many fields of the social sciences can now tap a rich source of restricted government data through the Penn State Census Bureau Research Data Center (RDC), located on the second floor of Paterno Library. The RDC, which opened earlier this year, contains data collected by the Census Bureau, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Center for Health Statistics. Unlike public-use data, these datasets are not anonymized, offering new opportunities for innovative, in-depth statistical analysis by scholars in many fields including economics, sociology, health services and demography.

Due to the secure nature of the RDC, researchers need to first discuss their proposed projects with the RDC administrator, Chris Galvan (chris.a.galvan@census.gov /301-763-0342). Once a project is considered feasible, a proposal must be developed that focuses on the benefits of the project to the Census Bureau, its scientific merit, the data required, proposed methodology and disclosure avoidance. If the internal reviewers at the Census Bureau approve the project, the researcher must then apply for Special Sworn Status—a federal security clearance that enables the holder to enter the RDC. Once this status is achieved, the researcher can schedule a time with Galvan to use the RDC.

The RDC is located in two rooms on the second floor of Paterno Library, within the University Libraries’ Research Hub that offers a suite of services for faculty and graduate students, including statistical consultations and advanced library research. For more information on the RDC, go to www.psurdc.psu.edu. For information on the Research Hub, go to www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/researchhub.html.

Public Poetry Project poet selected for MacArthur Fellowship

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book is pleased to announce that one of its 2006 selections for the Public Poetry Project, Terrance Hayes of Pittsburgh, has been awarded one of this year’s MacArthur Fellowships. Hayes, a professor of writing in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh, is a poet who reflects on race, gender, and family. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.

William S. Brockman, Penn State’s Paterno Family Librarian for Literature, notes, “Hayes’s selection as a MacArthur Fellow confirms the increasing strength of the Public Poetry Project’s backlist of poets and of the continuing importance of the program, fast becoming one of Penn State’s Libraries’ most prominent outreach activities.

In 2006 when the jury selected Hayes’s poem, “Gun/Women/Sons,” they said, “The poem’s excavations of origin, set against the backdrop of a troubled America, are strikingly memorable in their rawness, their energy, their push to construct a habitable identity.” Now in its 14th year, the Public Poetry Project focuses on poets with a connection to Pennsylvania and displays the poetry in public places to make it a part of the daily lives of a greater number of people. Since the project began in 2000, sixty-five poems have been printed and placed in public places throughout Pennsylvania.

The project, under the direction of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, is supported by the Paterno Family Librarian for Literature, William S. Brockman; the University Libraries; the Department of English in the College of the Liberal Arts; and the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

For more information, please call Public Relations and Marketing at 814-863-4240.

Cheng wins the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award

Penn State University Libraries and the Pennsylvania Center for the Book are pleased to announce Andrea Cheng as the winner of the 2014 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award. Cheng will accept the award for her book, “Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet,” at a presentation and Q and A, on October 23, 1–2:30 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. A book sale and signing will follow. This event celebrates poetry for young people, and is open to the public.

“Etched in Clay,” published by Lee and Low Books and illustrated by Cheng, tells the story of a slave in South Carolina around 1815, who becomes a noteworthy potter and displays courage, creative inspiration and triumph by daring to protest slavery with inscriptions and poems that he adds to his pottery.

Continue reading

‘When I was at Penn State …’

“When I was at Penn State … ,” a Penn State University Archives exhibit, is on display through Jan. 13 in Robb Hall, Hintz Alumni Center.

Whenever two or more Penn Staters gather together, the listener will hear “When I was at Penn State … ,” always followed by a story depicting some aspect of student life. Whether the narrator is describing classes, socials, clubs, activities, friends or sporting events, every Penn Stater has a memory that brings a smile to their face and a twinkle to their eye. This exhibit of photographs from the Penn State University Archives attempts to capture some of those momentous occasions. Among the scrapbooked images, the exhibit features dinks, Lion’s coats, songs, mascots, scraps including pushball and tug-of-war, dances, bonfires, tailgating, class registration, moving in, guarding the shrine, May Day queens, Spring Week flings, student rules, freshman proclamations, military drills and more.

Visit this exhibit and bring your memories of the days when you were at Penn State. Story on Penn State News

LHR News: September 22

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Part-time:
Angela Santucci, Engineering Library
Anta Sime, Public Relations and Marketing
Autumn Dugger, Digitization and Preservation
Lanrell Watson, Interlibrary Loan
Sarah Tabaka, University Archives
Melanie Ray, Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library
John Feret, Penn State Altoona
Rubaied Alam, Penn State Brandywine

A reminder about flu vaccines: Office of Human Resources Announces Flu Vaccine Schedule:

The Office of Human Resources Employee Benefits Division reminds you it is that time of year for all Penn State employees and their spouse/partners to get their Flu vaccines. The flu vaccine clinic dates are open for registration. To make an appointment go to https://app3.ohr.psu.edu/emPower/frm_login.cfm Flu vaccines are free to any current Penn State employee and their spouse/partner enrolled in health benefits. If an employee’s spouse wishes to receive a flu shot and does not have Penn State health benefits, the cost of their flu shot is $24. Retirees are not eligible for this program. If you have any questions, e-mail Pam Glanert, pjg138@psu.edu

How to download iOS 8 without deleting any of your data

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

If you’ve tried downloading iOS 8, you’re probably noticed that the download is huge. It’s not that iOS 8 occupies a ton of storage on your iPhone or iPad (iTunes says the file is about 1.2GB), but rather that the download itself needs up to 5.7GB of free storage to be completed.

Before you start deleting everything you’ve ever saved, there’s a very easy solution: Sync your iPhone or iPad to the computer and download iOS 8 directly from there. This won’t suck up any space on your device, and you can manually transfer the new software back to your device. Updating via your PC or Mac is more reliable way to upgrade, versus OTA (over-the-air), which is performed directly on the device.

If you’re taking this alternate route, be sure to select check for update when the prompt pops up on iTunes — not restore iPhone. The latter option will indeed wipe all content from your device. Also you may want to back up your data via iCloud.

ios8