Daily Archives: August 10, 2015

LibGuides migration update

by Amanda Clossen, learning design librarian

The LibGuides Expert Team would like to thank everyone for your dedication to the LibGuides migration! This is new territory for us, and there’s been a lot that needs to be addressed as we move such an enormous amount of content from one system to another. When we set up the processes and procedures for our ambitious timeline, the LibGuides Expert Team had three goals in mind. First, was to ensure the continued quality of our guide content, second was to ensure that this transition was feasible for the Libraries’ faculty and staff, and third, to see that as much as possible could take place before classes started.

We understand that for many units, full migration will have not taken place by the fall semester. We want to let you know that this is no cause for alarm. The hard deadline for guide migration is January 1, 2016. At that point in time, we will be well on our way to changing our Guides landing page from solely an alphabetical list to a tool that allows for more browsing flexibility (as WELL as an alphabetical listing of guides). Many of the current requirements for guides are in anticipation of this transition. As guides are submitted and approved, the current links in the A-Z guide list are changed to redirect to the new guides. This means, for instance, if you link to the APA citation guide in one of your old OR new LibGuides, the link will continue work, linking to the current guide, and then linking to the new guide when it is migrated.

Due to the diligence of our campus colleagues, a number of the campus course guides are already transitioned! We also commend the campuses who have started to build course guides for the first time. Since they have done so much work, we are looking to migrate the campus course guide pages for each campus to the LibGuide version before the beginning of the semester.

Take a look at the Shenango page for an example of a campus course guide page.

If you are just getting started with your own migration, take a look at a few stellar guides as an example:

As always, please let the LibGuides Expert Team (ul-lget@lists.psu.edu) know if you have any questions.

Power up in Life Sciences Library

Submitted by Sherry Roth, information resources and services supervisor-manager

Students returning fall semester will find that there are very few places in the Life Sciences Library where they do not have power at their fingertips. Facilities worked hard to find an economical way to bring power to the students studying on fourth floor Paterno. Kirk Lake found a new technology that allows a flattened electrical wire to run below the carpet tiles and pop up where needed — at almost all tables. The addition of a multi-plug surge protector with USB ports plugged into the new outlets allows multiple students to power up multiple devices at the same time. Summer students found these additions within minutes and plugged in immediately. Also added to Life Sciences Library just in time for finals last semester were 10 new tables and 40 new chairs, giving the library a total of 301 seats for students. Visit Facilities Administration’s Projects web page to see how the electrical wires were installed and to see pictures of the new powered-up tables.

tables2

Ready for fall…the Life Sciences Library added tables and power outlets — photo by Sherry Roth

Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office

by Ryan Johnson, technology training coordinator

googledrive
Previously I’ve shown you how to install Box for Office which is a very useful plug-in to Open, Save and Edit your Microsoft Documents directly from Box.
Google recently launched a new plug-in for Microsoft Office that give you access to all your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents in Google drive right from Microsoft Office. The plug-in also lets you save files directly to Google Drive as well.
Note: Currently, this is only available for PC Users.
Simply download the plug-in for Microsoft Office and run the file with Privilege Guard.

driveforoffice

Next, you will need to Sign in with your Google Account and Accept the terms and conditions. Once this process is complete, you will see Google Drive as one of your options in Microsoft Office.

Events: August 10

August 12:  Libraries United Way Trash to Treasure sale,  Mann Assembly room: Mann Assembly room will be open from 8am–5pm on Tuesday, August 11, for you to drop off your items. Please don’t unpack your boxes/bags, the United Way committee will be sorting and setting up the room in the afternoon. (Items also accepted on the day of the sale.) The sale is open to the public: please tell your friends! Cash or check only. All proceeds benefit the Centre County United Way. Note: Whoopie pies available for sale, $1.50 each.

August 14, 2:00-3:30 p.m.: From Roman Centurions to Academic Researchers: Integrating Traditional Scientific Knowledge of Bordeaux Wines, Foster Auditorium and MediaSite Live. Learn how vintners and scientists have worked with the wine industry to maintain and improve the quality of the Bordeaux wines, in this presentation by Serge Delrot, University of Bordeaux professor of plant physiology and French National Institute for Agronomical Research director. This seminar is organized by the Interinstitutional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and the University Libraries.

August 26, noon – 1 p.m.: Travel Research Award presentation by Albert M. Petska Eighth Air Force Archives winner David Cain, of the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library and the University of East Anglia, England, Mann Assembly Room. Cain will highlight his research on the social interaction of the 8th USAAF with local people in the East of England between 1942 – 1945.

August 27, noon – 1 p.m.: Travel Research Award presentations by Helen F. Faust Women Writers award winner Amanda Stuckey, from the College of William & Mary, and Dorothy Foehr Huck award winner Bob Hodges, of the University of Washington, Mann Assembly Room. Stuckey will talk about her research on bodily behavior in the nineteenth-century boy book. Hodges will talk about his use of the library’s collection of 19th and 20th century utopian literature for his dissertation “Figurations of Modernity in Antebellum U. S. Romances.”

LHR News: Aug. 10

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Full-time:
8/12/15 Joel Burkholder – reference and instruction librarian, Lee R. Glatfelter Library, Penn State York

Part-time:
Candice Miller – Earth and Mineral Sciences Library
Jennifer Chesworth – Commons Services
Poe Kyaw – Research Hub, Maps, and Knowledge Commons
Viktorija Nargi – Research Hub, Maps, and Knowledge Commons
Katherine Alonso – Research Hub, Maps, and Knowledge Commons

Internal Moves:
Leah Oakes – monographs cataloger
Sara Hassinger – project cataloger
Jason Shaffer – music/AV team cataloger

Wishing the following employees well as they leave us:
Gail Wyberski – information resources and services support specialist, Nesbitt Library, Wilkes-Barre
Rita Buhite – user services training coordinator, Access Services