Daily Archives: April 16, 2015

LHR News

submitted by Wendy Stodart

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

 

Full-time:

4/23/15   Delia Tash  – Information Resources & Services Support Specialist, Penn State Abington

 

Part-time:

 Ayesha Ali – George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library

Madeline Leo – George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library

Temitope Adebayo – George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library

 

 July 4 Holiday

Friday, July 3 will not be a University holiday; however, classes at University Park and several other campuses will not be held July 3.  University policies provide that if a University holiday falls on an employee’s regularly scheduled day off, the employee receives holiday compensatory time to be used at another time. Employees who normally do not work Saturdays will receive holiday compensatory time for the Independence Day holiday.

Note: Dickinson School of Law Libraries and George T. Harrell Library employees are provided with this information as employees of the University Libraries; however, day-to-day operational practices are guided by their respective Colleges.  Dickinson and College of Medicine Library employees should speak to their immediate supervisor or local HR Representative for guidance, as necessary.  Conditions of employment for Technical-service employees are further described in the “Agreement between The Pennsylvania State University and Teamsters Local Union No. 8.”  Technical-service employees should refer to the Agreement for information related to the above topics.

April Events

April 20, 2-3 p.m.: “Inch by Inch… Building Institutional Capacity for DH Through Inter- and Trans-disciplinary Collaboration”, presented by digital humanities scholar Orla Murphy of University College Cork, Ireland, Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. Open to the public and will be followed by a reception in Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library.

April 21, 10-11 a.m.: Panel Discussion-Assisting Patron with Disabilities
Susan Hayya leads this panel discussion in Foster Auditorium on assisting patrons with disabilities. Members of the Libraries Disabilities Services Committee will serve as panelists and will share their perspective as well as knowledge and experiences.  Panelists include: Dawn Amsberry, Binky Lush, Rachel Smith, and Alexa Schriempf.

April 21, noon – 1:30 p.m.:“Creepy, Crawly, Crunchy: Can Insects Feed the Future?”
A panel of experts will discuss the use of edible insects to attain greater global food security in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. “Creepy, Crawly, Crunchy: Can Insects Feed the Future?” will focus on insects as a nontraditional livestock, potential barriers to insect rearing and insect eating, or entomophagy, in the developed and developing world. The program is free and open to the public and will also be available for viewing live online.

April 21, 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.: Dean’s Forum with speaker Jon E. Cawthorne, dean of Libraries at West Virginia University. Cawthorne will speak about strategic planning and new initiatives at the West Virginia University Libraries. Foster Auditorium or on MediaSite Live

April 22: “What is financial literacy?,” a workshop. 5:30–6:30 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. In this workshop, Penn State Financial Literacy Manager Dr. Daad Rizk will discuss the skills that students need to acquire. She will present an overview of financial literacy and give specific steps and tips to examine and alter core attitudes and beliefs about money management as a prelude to reaching a successful financial life. Additional details are online at http://bit.ly/1rzz1Jw. Registration is requested at http://bit.ly/1sQ0Zkp

April 23, 10 a.m.: Lan Xue, doctoral student in the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management, will present “Tourism development and changing identity in rural China,” in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. This indigenous knowledge seminar is free and open to the public and can be viewed online.

April 23, noon–4:00 p.m.: Workshop on Mapping in the Humanities Classroom, 23 Pattee Library. Workshop registration required: http://sites.psu.edu/litmaps/

April 23, 5:00–6:00 p.m.: Reception with speaker Janelle Jenstad, Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library. Jenstad is an associate professor of English at the University of Victoria. She directs The Map of Early Modern London (MoEML), a SSHRC-funded project that maps the streets, sites, and significant boundaries of late sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century London (1560-1640). Registration required: http://sites.psu.edu

April 23, 6:00–7:30 p.m.: a public talk by Janelle Jenstad, “Wayfinding in Shakespeare’s London: MoEML’s Literary GIS and Interactive Map,” in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. No registration is required for this free and open presentation.

April 29, 2-3 pm: Research Data Working Group Kick-Off and Planning Meeting, 126A Paterno (Adobe Connect at https://meeting.psu.edu/rdwg/, audio 866-636-8004). All faculty and staff welcome! More information about the group is available at http://tinyurl.com/psuRDWG.

** Also see “Training and Enrichment Opportunities” for additional staff events.

Tech Tip: Security Reminder

submitted by Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is any Information which can be used to uniquely identify or trace an individual’s identity, such as their name, Social Security number, Driver’s license number, or Financial and Medical information, alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.

Since its Tax Time, I-Tech would like to remind you that ALL your official tax forms contain Personally Identifiable information (PII). Please DO NOT save a copy of any of these forms to your UL computer or to the network (Roo).

Today’s multifunction copiers contain hard disks that store data about the documents copied, printed, or scanned. This is another place where PII could be stored. It is recommended that you do not use UL copiers/printers/scanners to duplicate your materials.  If you do, be sure to remove or blacken out any personal information, such as a social security number prior to duplication.

Copiers/printers/scanners that are part of the Copier Management service have their hard drives removed and secured before the device leaves campus, all other copiers/scanners/printers should be submitted to I-Tech for proper data removal before being salvaged.

 

Examples of official tax forms:

  1. W-2 Wage and Tax Statement            3.   1098 Mortgage Interest Statement
  2. 1099-INT Interest Income                   4.   1098-T Tuition Statement

 

If you do open any of your tax forms on a UL computer, please remember to make sure your UL computer is clear of PII once you are done.

 

To clear your UL computer, follow these steps:

  1. DO NOTsave any tax forms to your UL Computer
  2. Clear your browser cache

Firefox Instructions

Chrome Instructions

IE Instructions

 

  1. Clear all computer temp files

Start -> Type in the search box (Disk Cleanup) -> In Disk Cleanup check all boxes and press OK

Capture

  1. Manually run Identity Finder scan and Remediate all Matches

Identity Finder Documentation

 

If you have any question or need further assistance, please contact the Service Desk.

New Space Assignment and Move Request Form and Process

The University Libraries now has a new form titled “Space Assignment and Move Request Form”. The form can be found on the Facilities Intranet Web Site.  The purpose of this form and the process is to allow space to be assigned for new, approved positions in an orderly fashion and in advance of new employees arriving, as well as to create an approval process for employee moves.  Requests for space for new employees must be accompanied by an approved request to fill form for new positions.

Green Tips: Answers to your recycling questions

Screen Shot 2015-04-08 at 2.04.54 PM

Green Tips

Q:  I have a question about candy wrappers, potato chip packages, and other such materials.  Do they go into the “plastic bottles and film,” “miscellaneous plastics,” or trash containers?  The webpage says there is a container for food wrappers in the 126 Breakroom, however there is presently only a compost container in this location.

Thanks for any info you can pass on.

 

A:  Typically, if there is not a specific container for them, they should go in the trash.  Penn State cannot recycle cellophane or the quasi-foil wrappers that many candy bars and chips come in.  In addition, TerraCycle no longer has a candy wrapper brigade.  However, there are still brigades for snack bags and energy/granola bar wrappers.

 

If you are at University Park, these items can be collected and sent to the HUB Green Team.  See the TerraCycle web page on the Sustainability Institute’s web pages for more information and where to send these hard to recycle items.  If you are at a campus, and are aware of Terracycle brigades collecting these items, let us know.  We’ll get our web page updated soon.

Correction:  The HUB Green Team is not currently accepting snack bags.  They are on the waiting list for TerraCycle’s new snack bag brigade and will resume collecting these items if/when they get on the new brigade.  They are still accepting energy bar wrappers.

 

 

 

Q:  There are some noxious weeds ending up in the State College Borough’s compost bins, along with general yard waste from the big Spring Clean-ups going on.

I’m leery about purchasing compost from the Borough because of this.

So my question is:

Is the temperature compost pile reaches high enough to kill these noxious weed seeds? or will they just end up getting planted along with the compost?

— Anonymous

 

A:  The temperature in the compost piles reaches high enough to kill off any weed seeds which are in the pile but not high enough to kill any beneficial microbes.

Answer submitted by Ryan McCaughey, Manager, Grounds & Equipment, Office of Physical Plant; and UL GreenCommittee member

 

Sincerely,

the UL Green Committee

Panel Discussion – Assisting Patrons with Disabilities

disabilitlies

Join us on Tuesday, April 21 from 10-11AM in Foster Auditorium as Susan Hayya leads this panel discussion on assisting patrons with disabilities. Members of the Libraries Disabilities Services Committee will serve as panelists and will share their perspective as well as knowledge and experiences.  Panelists include: Dawn Amsberry, Binky Lush, Rachel Smith, and Alexa Schriempf.