Daily Archives: November 18, 2014

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

Events: Nov. 17

November 18, 10 a.m.: Dean’s Diversity Forum with Janice Welburn. Foster Aud. and MediaSite Live. Welburn has a very distinguished career in research librarianship including holding the designation of ACRL Librarian of the Year. She has written and presented extensively on diversity and a number of other topics.

November 19, 12:15 p.m.: Asbestos Connection (film). The discovery, production, and health effects of asbestos. 18 Deike. See schedule

November 19, noon: “Indigenous Knowledge: The Nile and the Egyptians,” Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

November 19, 1:30 p.m.: “Indigenous Knowledge for International Education,” Foster Aud. Presented by representatives from ICIK, the Libraries and Centre County UNA (see this week’s story)

November 19: GIS Day. The University Libraries is co-sponsoring an event with the Department of Geography to raise awareness of geospatial information and the many possibilities and opportunities of geographic information systems (GIS). Check out the GIS Day webpage for more information: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/researchhub/gis-day.html
Information Fair: 1-4 p.m., Mann Assembly Room, Paterno Library
Poster Display: The Atrium of Pattee Library
GIS Networking Reception: 4–5 p.m., 208 Paterno Library
Please encourage students, staff, and faculty to attend to learn about what is GIS and its many application areas.

November 19, 4 p.m.: Presentation by graphic novelist Jim Woodring, Foster Aud. Woodring won the Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year for 2014 for “Fran,” published by Fantagraphics Books. Read the full story on Penn State News.

November 20, noon–2 p.m.: Digital Literary Studies Seminar Series Part II. Network Analysis, 23 Pattee Library (News and Microforms Library). Instructors: Dawn Childress and James O’Sullivan. To register, visit the Humanities Lab website.

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 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 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.

Prominent Egyptian scholar to present talk on people living along the Nile

Arthur Goldschmidt, professor emeritus of Middle East History at Penn State, will present “Indigenous Knowledge: The Nile and the Egyptians” on Wednesday, November 19, at noon, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The seminar is free and open to the public and can also be viewed online.

The one-hour presentation will delve into Egypt’s history through the ages, the symbiotic relationship between the Egyptian people and the River Nile, the effects of two millennia of foreign rule and the recent efforts of the Egyptian government and people to modernize their country. Goldschmidt is best known for his “Concise History of the Middle East,” a popular textbook whose eleventh edition is now in preparation. Continue reading →

SciTech Connect indexed in CAT/LionSearch

Submitted by Angela Davis, engineering Librarian

Records for the SciTech Connect database are being loaded into the CAT/LionSearch.

SciTech Connect contains free, publicly available Department of Energy (DOE) research and development results. It contains over 65 years of energy-related citations created and/or collected by Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI).

It includes technical reports, bibliographic citations, journal articles, conference papers, books, multimedia, and data information sponsored by DOE from the 1940s to today.

The records for the early years represent a comprehensive worldwide collection of nuclear science literature. In addition to reports from the Atomic Energy Commission and other U.S. Government agencies, includes numerous non-governmental publications, as well as foreign and foreign language material. In the mid-1970s, the scope of the database expanded to cover all forms of energy-related scientific and technical information.

SelectSurvey: Tips for managing your surveys

By Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator
To maximize SelectSurvey’s efficiency, it’s recommend that you periodically clear out survey data that you no longer need. This will optimize the software, especially for surveys that contain large data sets or which are no longer relevant and won’t be reused by anyone. For archival purposes, you easily can print and/or export your data. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Log in to your SelectSurvey

2. Printing your survey results: From your list of surveys, select a survey by clicking the Analyze button. The Analyze – Reports for This Survey Screen displays; there you can select Results overview. From the Results Overview screen you can select Print Overview.

3. Exporting your data: From your list of surveys, select a survey by clicking the Analyze button. The Analyze – Reports for This Survey Screen displays; there you can select Export Data, You can export the data in either of these formats: CSV (which opens in any version of Excel) or SPSS format. Select the Response data and User data that you would like to export.

After you have exported your survey, go back to the Manage Surveys screen, and either Clear the survey, which deletes survey responses only, or Delete the survey, which deletes the survey and all responses. To delete the survey you will need to Archive the survey first.

If you plan to reuse your survey questions, you should use Clear, which clears the only data, but retains the survey itself.

LionSearch updates and newly indexed content

By Binky Lush, manager, Discovery Access and Web Services

Newly Indexed Content

American Society of Civil Engineers – eBooks and Journals
World Bank – Development Indicators
New Alexander Street Press collections

Performance and Usability Updates to LionSearch

Improvements to reduce 404 errors
Improved notifications to the end user related to browsing with cookies disabled
Accessibility—Revised link colors to be fully WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 compliant!!
Prioritize full-text records over citations when selecting a record to drive linking behavior

Tips for circulation staff: Training bulletins for daily processing

By Peg Tromm, information resources and services supervisor-manager
Robert E. Eiche Library, Penn State Altoona

As with every profession, library staff perform specific procedures on a daily basis. Since all Penn State libraries vary in size, staffing, and workload, it can be difficult to determine which daily procedures all circulation staff must perform. It is also difficult to gain quick access to instructions on performing these duties.

To assist staff, a Libraries Intranet (staff only) page has been created with links to training bulletins about daily processes. Topics include how to mark items used, how to process missing items, and how to process the daily clean hold shelf list report, among other daily duties.

To access these training bulletins, go to:
https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/access/intranet/minsaccesscouncil/trainingbulletins/bulletinsDAILY.html

Fall 2014 Data Gathering Week Report

Submitted by Alan Shay, data analyst

For one week each fall and spring semester, the University Libraries requests faculty and staff to diligently collect and record both gate counts and reference transactions using the Desk Tracker system. From October 12–18, faculty and staff of the Penn State University Libraries participated in the Fall 2014 Data Gathering Week. The figures collected during these weeks are extrapolated over an entire academic year and then used as official figures reported to external constituents such as ARL and ACRL. For more information on the Data Gathering Week and to see the results from each library and location, please visit the Fall 2014 Data Gathering Week page on the LAMC website.

Speakers to present ‘Indigenous Knowledge for International Education’

On Wednesday, Nov.19, at 1:30 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, ICIK, the University Libraries and the Centre County United Nations Association (CC UNA) will present “Indigenous Knowledge for International Education.”

Norma Keller, representing CC UNA, Helen Sheehy, representing the Libraries and Audrey Maretzki, representing the ICIK (the Interinstiutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge), will discuss collaborative international educational initiatives.

Since 1995, The Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK) has engaged faculty, students and community residents in programs that bring indigenous and local knowledges into the classes, research programs and outreach initiatives of Penn State and community-based organizations. This event will illustrate how “other ways of knowing” can enhance the global learning experiences of students, expand the educational horizons of faculty and provide meaningful educational opportunities involving community residents.

New displays focus on GIS

GIS day is Wedesday, November 19. In honor of that day, the Maps Library and the Research Hub have displays highlighting GIS along with some examples. Please stop in at either location for a look. Also on Wednesday from 1-4 p.m., stop in Mann Assembly Room to see how Penn Staters are using GIS or browse the posters in Franklin Atrium. — submitted by Heather Ross

Bookcase in the Social Sciences Library

Display outside 2nd floor Paterno Library

Maps Library display

LHR News: Nov. 17

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Full-time:
11/17/14 Linda Ballinger, Metadata Strategist, Cataloging and Metadata Services

Part-time:
Keneil Hercules, Penn State Mont Alto
Brenda Meyers, Penn State Berks
Christopher Wolf, Knowledge Commons

Strategic Plan implementation updates

The University Libraries are beginning to implement the 2014-2019 University Libraries Strategic Plan. There are three working groups and a steering committee made up of the chairs of the working groups with the addition of Kimlyn Patishnock and Chris Avery. The working groups mirror the three programmatic areas of the plan and much the same process will be followed in seeking input from stakeholders and communicating regularly about progress. The charges for the three working groups can be found on the Libraries intranet at https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/admin/intranet/strat_plan_groups.html

The three working groups are:

Working Group for Advancing University Research

Diane Zabel, (Chair) Louis and Virginia Benzak Business Librarian and Head Librarian, William and Joan Schreyer Business Library
Nan Butkovich, Head, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library
Angela Davis, Engineering Librarian
Glenn McGuigan, Business and Public Administration Reference Librarian, Penn State Harrisburg
Jennifer Norton, Assistant Director, Penn State University Press
James O’Sullivan, Digital Humanities Research Designer
Tom Reinsfelder, Reference Librarian, Penn State Mont Alto

Working Group for Discovery, Access, and Preservation

Matt Ciszek, (Chair) Head Librarian, Penn State Shenango
Derrick Beckner, Information Resources and Services Supervisor-Manager, Music and Media Center
Jackie Esposito, University Archivist
Ben Goldman, Digital Records Archivist
Chris Holobar, Manager, Lending and Reserve Services
Bonnie Imler, Head Librarian, Penn State Altoona
Binky Lush, Manager, Discovery, Access and Web Services

Working Group for Teaching and Learning

Jennifer Gilley, (Chair) Head Librarian, Penn State New Kensington
Dawn Amsberry, Reference Librarian, Library Learning Services
Carrie Bishop, Reference Librarian, Penn State DuBois
Megan Gilpin, Outreach Coordinator, Library Learning Services
Lauren Reiter, Business Liaison Librarian
Sandy Stelts, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts
Alessia Zanin-Yost, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Penn State Altoona

— Submitted by Chris Avery, director of Commonwealth Campus Libraries

Event highlights graduate assistants’ work in Libraries

University Libraries staff and faculty had the chance to meet the current group of graduate assistants and hear about their work at a small reception in Mann Assembly Room recently. Pictured below, standing from left are Carl Cornell, Alex Brown, Victoria Raish, Helene Huet, and Xin Xin Li. Seated, from left: Ann Walton, Michelle Huang and Yao Ziong.

Photo by Wilson Hutton