Monthly Archives: November 2014

Diversity Resident finds her niche working with students

In August 2013, the University Libraries appointed Rachel Smith and Mohamed Berray as  resident librarians under a new two-year Diversity Residency Program, designed to help  prepare recent graduates for leadership positions in the field of librarianship. This week, Smith talks about her experience at Penn State.

Smith has an MLIS  from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and a bachelor’s degree in theatre performance from North Carolina Central University. She was an Academic and Cultural Enrichment Scholar from 2011 to 2013 and an ARL Career Enhancement Program Fellow in 2013.

Rachel Smith

Smith restoring old issues of Penn State Froth in Digitization and Preservation. — photo by Ann Passmore

Please talk about some of the initiatives and activities that you have been working on in the past year.
Over the past year, I have worked via rotations in various departments within the Libraries. I have worked in the University Research Hub providing advanced research help for upper-level students and faculty researchers in business and the behavioral and social sciences. I have led two specialized library instruction sessions for courses in the African American Studies department as well as four specialized library instruction sessions for the SAIL program (Student Athletes in Libraries). I have and continue to create video tutorials for databases such as ThomsonONE and Hoover’s Online as well as tutorials for library tools, such as the Research Project Calculator. I have also completed a rotation in Adaptive Technology Services, during which I translated textbooks into accessible formats for blind Penn State students and facilitated library visits from visually impaired Pennsylvania high school students.

What responsibilities are you currently assigned to?
Currently in the department of Digitization and Preservation, I am managing a digitization project for The Penn State Froth , a student-led magazine published from 1910 to 1982 that will soon be loaded and accessible for the public online. I am also heavily involved with library instruction within the department of Library Learning Services, I have taught over 30 sessions this year alone.

What have you learned about yourself during this appointment? Has it changed you, and if so, how?
I have learned so much about myself during this residency. I came to Penn State in August of 2013, only three months after graduating from library school. I knew then that I wanted to pursue academic librarianship, but I had no idea of the particular area in the field I would call my own. I have since realized that I absolutely love interacting with students via instruction and reference assistance. I have also learned that I am much more of a self-starter than I had previously believed myself to be. One of the wonderful things about the Diversity Residency Program is that Mohamed and I have been able to fulfill our rotations based on our own interests. I have never experienced that level of freedom in a professional sense and it has led to self-discovery.

At the completion of your residency in 2015, what will you hope to have accomplished?
At the completion of my residency, I hope I will have accomplished all of the goals and expectations set by my supervisors and administrators, both concrete and abstract. The great thing about being an inaugural resident is that you can blaze your own trail and lead the way for others. I hope that I will have made all of my colleagues proud.

Copy list of files from Windows Explorer as text into an application

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

This was forwarded to me recently as a good tip. Have you ever wanted to copy a list of files from a Windows Explorer directory into another application, such as Microsoft Office or Email? This handy tip will allow you to this.

Capture(28)1. Highlight one or more files for which you’d like to know the path in Explorer.
2. Hold down the shift key, and right-click any of the highlighted files.
3. When the context menu pops up, left click on the Copy As Path entry that has magically appeared because you’re holding the shift key down.

Finally, select paste in the application you want to use and you will have a full path listing of the files from your windows directory.

Hands-on activity for library staff and faculty in Special Collections

Of all the Trees that ‘were’ in the Woods! Staff and faculty are invited to explore Pennsylvania Forest history through a hands-on, primary source activity, on December 10, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., in the Special Collections Library. Engage your inner child this holiday season by joining in a trivia-scavenger hunt with Special Collections photographs, letters, rare books, diaries and pamphlets. Enjoy an hour of fun with colleagues and learn something new about Pennsylvania leadership in forest conservation suitable for this “wonderful time of the year.” — Doris Malkmus

Typical non-PSU accounts/types of access at the University Libraries

By Rita Buhite, user services training coordinator

In order to best serve our patrons, a list of the typical Non PSU Accounts has been created that describes the type of access granted with each account. This list contains information on the requirements to obtain an account, length of access, the purpose of the account and whether access is available to physical materials and electronic materials. The lists covers STARR, Alumni, Resident PA, Friends of Penn State, and Visiting Scholars as well as what access is available at the visitor station.

The information can be found on the Access Services Page under Training (https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/access/intranet/non_psu_accounts.html). It is also available in pdf format for printing.

Tech Update on December 3

Tech Update: Dec. 3 from 10-11 a.m. in Foster Aud.

Libraries Technology 2.0 – Come here what’s new in I-Tech and how it will impact the Libraries.

  • The new face of Library IT
    1. User Support and Operations Unit – Michelle Dzyak
    2. Applications Development and Systems Support Unit – Linda Klimczyk
    3. Discovery, Access and Web Services Unit – Binky Lush
    4. IT Projects and You – Linda Klimczyk and Dace Freivalds
  • ScholarSphere 2.0
    1. What’s New, and What’s Coming – Patricia Hswe

Library News: November 24

 

LHR News: November 24

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:
Full-time:
11/24/14: Brett Spencer –Reference and Instruction Librarian, Penn State Berks
11/25/14: Charlie Morris –Programmer/Analyst, I-Tech

Part-time:
Ashlee Yealy, Penn State Harrisburg Library
Katie Barrett, Penn State Harrisburg Library
Daniel McLaughlin, George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library

Wishing the following employees well as they leave us:
11/26/14: Tony Sanfilippo, Penn State Press

Honors student to present on goat production in Rwanda

field of goatsSchreyer Honors College senior Kira Hydock will present “Analysis of Traditional and Modern Approaches to Goat Production and Management in Rwanda” on Dec. 3, from noon to 1:00 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, first floor, Paterno Library. Hydock, who is majoring in veterinary and biomedical sciences and African Studies, with a minor in international agriculture, is a recipient of the 2014 M.G. Whiting Student Indigenous Knowledge Research Award and the first undergraduate to be selected. She will be introduced by her advisor, Clemente Abrokwaa, senior lecturer in African Studies. The seminar is free and open to the public and can be viewed live online

Kira Hydock (center) during her visit to RwandaHydock (pictured here, center) says that after visiting Rwanda during the summer of 2012, she left the country with many questions, one being, “Why are there so many goats in a country with a ‘one cow per poor family’ program?” Her interest in traditional goat production and management in Rwanda’s Muhanga district became the impetus for her honors thesis. She compiled a literature review of traditional goat production methods and combined the review with personal accounts and opinions from Rwandan goat herders. Access to this information allowed Hydock to generate several conclusions about goat herding in Rwanda and enabled her to formulate recommendations for the preservation of traditional practices that simultaneously increased the productive capacity of the goat herds. These observations will be presented in her seminar. Hydock will attend the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine in fall 2015.

This presentation is the latest in a series of seminars on indigenous knowledge co-sponsored by the Penn State University Libraries and ICIK, the Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge. For more information, or if you anticipate needing accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, contact Helen Sheehy, 814-863-1347 and hms2@psu.edu in advance of your visit. For more on ICIK, including a link to past seminars, go to http://icik.psu.edu/.

Events: November 24

December 3, 10-11 a.m.: Tech Update, Foster Auditorium. Libraries Technology 2.0 – Come hear what’s new in I-Tech and how it will impact the Libraries.

  • The new face of Library IT
    1. User Support and Operations Unit – Michelle Dzyak
    2. Applications Development and Systems Support Unit – Linda Klimczyk
    3. Discovery, Access and Web Services Unit – Binky Lush
    4. IT Projects and You – Linda Klimczyk and Dace Freivalds
  • ScholarSphere 2.0:  What’s New, and What’s Coming – Patricia Hswe

December 3, noon: Analysis of Traditional and Modern Approaches to Goat Production and Management in Rwanda, Foster Aud. ICIK seminar presented by Schreyer senior Kira Hydock.

December 3 – 1–2 p.m. So HELP Me, Part 1. Register in TechSmart.

December 3, 12:15 p.m.: Mind Your Mind (film). How subliminal messages from advertising, politicians, and mass media shape the way we think. 18 Deike. See schedule

December 3, 2–4 p.m.: Introduction to Git, 140 Pattee Library (Knowledge Commons)
Instructor: Dan Coughlin, director of SaS Development. To register, visit the Humanities Lab website.

December 3, 6 p.m.: Identity Theft: Protecting Yourself, a workshop, Mann Assembly Rm.

December 4, noon–2:00 p.m.: Digital Literary Studies Seminar Series Part III. Digital Scholarly Editing, 23 Pattee Library (News and Microforms Library). Instructors: Dawn Childress and James O’Sullivan. To register, visit the Humanities Lab website.

December 5, 1-2 p.m.: So HELP Me, Part 2. Register in TechSmart.

December 9, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Penn State Press Holiday Book Sale, Kern Building lobby.

December 10, 12:15 p.m.: Truth about Exercise (film). Not all exercises “work out” equally. 18 Deike. See schedule

December 10, noon -4 p.m.: Holiday Arts and Craft sale to benefit United Way, Mann Assembly room.

December 11, 3-4 p.m.: So HELP Me, Part 2. Register in TechSmart.

Use the Snipping Tool to take a screen shot in Windows

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

Window 7 and 8 offers an easy to use tool to take screenshots. Whether you are creating documentation, sending an email with images or creating a helpdesk ticket and you want to capture an issue you are experiencing, a screen capture can be a very useful tool.

You can access the snipping tool by going to the Start Menu and choosing All Programs->Accessories and click Snipping Tool or the easier option may be simply typing snipping in the Start Menu search box and click Snipping Tool when it appears.Capture2(8)

Main Interface
The Snipping Tool window has three important buttons: New, Cancel and Options.Capture1(10)

The New button allows you to select the type of screenshot that you want to take and then take a screenshot. The Cancel button allows you to cancel the current action. The Options button allows you to customize different aspects of the application.

How to Take a Screenshot
There are four types of captures available when pressing the New button:

Capture3(3)The Free-form Snip enables you to draw an irregular line around an object or area.

The Rectangular Snip allows you to take a screenshot shaped as a rectangle, by dragging the cursor around an object. I use this the most to capture parts of my screen.

Window Snip allows you to select a window (e.g. your Internet browser) or dialogue box (e.g. error message received from an application) and capture it.

Full-screen Snip enables you to capture the entire screen, like the old-fashioned Print Screen key.

Simply choose a selection and create your area to snip.

The captured area of the screen appears in the mark-up window, where you can write or draw on it, save it, and send it to someone in an email.

Workshop on identity theft protection planned for Dec. 3

“Identity Theft: Protecting Yourself,” a workshop, will be presented on Wednesday, December 3, 6:00–7:30 p.m., in Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library.

Identity theft can compromise your personal and financial records and disrupt your life, and it can take years to restore your good name. Dr. Daad Rizk, Penn State’s financial literacy coordinator, and Amy Shuey, Penn State Federal Credit Union’s marketing and member education coordinator, will help you learn how to protect yourself and what to do if identity theft happens to you.

Refreshments will be provided.

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.

Additional details are online at http://bit.ly/1rzz1Jw.

The presentations are available in the MoneyCounts: A Financial Literacy Series, see the left-hand column listing, at tinyurl.com/FinLitMCSeries.

For more information or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Lauren Reiter at lmr29@psu.edu or 814-865-4414.

Cards available to alert parents of unattended children

cardPlease contact the Public Relations and Marketing Office if you need business-size cards to distribute to parents of unattended children. These cards reference Policy UL-AD28, “Safety and Well-Being of Children in the University Libraries.” They are printed in hot pink to attract attention. For more information on the policy, please go to: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/policies/ulad28.html

New part-time reference librarian at Greater Allegheny

I’m pleased to announce Jessa Darwin has begun as the part-time reference librarian at Greater Allegheny. Darwin is a graduate of of the University of Pittsburgh LIS program and currently works part-time as a reference librarian at Chatham University. She also holds a BA in philosophy and English from Eastern University and during her junior year of college attending the Best Semester’s Scholars’ Semester (SCIO) program at the University of Oxford. She can be reached at jcd18@psu.edu. Please join me in welcoming Jessa to the University Libraries! — Courtney Young

Save the date: Penn State Press Book Sale on Dec. 9

picturing dogsPenn State Press invites the University community and the public to our annual Holiday Book Sale. This year’s one-day-only sale will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, December 9, in the Kern Building lobby. emilie davis diaryShop the sale in person and receive a 30% discount! (Or purchase books through the Press’s website, using the code HS2014, for 25% off.) Visitors to the sale at noon can get their copies of Field Guide to Wild Mushrooms of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic signed by the author, Bill Russell. And don’t forget to check out the $5 book table! We offer free shipping to on-campus addresses; regular shipping charges apply everywhere else. For information on any of Penn State Press’s titles, visit http://www.psupress.org or call 865-1327.

Library News: Nov. 17

Dean’s News

I know it has been a while since I wrote some news. It’s been an amazing fall. We are still in the midst of associate dean searches and I want to thank all of you for participating and making our candidates feel welcome. All of them have applauded your efforts. I appreciate your participation for future candidates and I know you will come through. Your hard working search committees and chairs are thrilled by your participation. Thank you!

In addition, we’ve had a lot of activity with guests, donors, and friends of the library coming through during the always busy football season. Kudos and congratulations to Jackie Esposito and her team for an incredibly successful event this past Friday, “Moving the Chains: Preserving Penn State Football History.” This amazing program attracted more than 100 Penn State faithful.

I hope you will join me for the Dean’s Diversity Forum on Tuesday from 10–11a.m., in Foster and on Media Site. We welcome Janice Welburn, Dean of Libraries, Marquette University (located in the polar vortex of Wisconsin), who will bring us into the future of diversity initiatives for research libraries.

In mid-October the Library Development Board gathered in Foster Auditorium and enjoyed presentations by Ben Goldman (digital preservation) and Lauren Reiter (financial education). The Board was very excited about these new directions and enjoyed meeting Ben and Lauren. Although the campaign has ended we are now in a new mode for raising money. Many thanks to the library development team for their efforts. Stay tuned!

Strategic planning continues in earnest at Penn State and in the Libraries. You will receive regular updates but I wanted you to know that I am on one of the university-wide strategic planning groups to work on Provost Nick Jones’ theme – Leveraging Our Digital Future. This group is under the leadership of Dean Marie Hardin (College of Communications) and Chancellor Kevin Snider (Penn State New Kensington). Other groups have formed as well.

I am thankful for each of you and for this great library in many locations. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with safe travels and many good memories. — Barbara I. Dewey, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications