Monthly Archives: August 2016

Provost Jones to share presentation at Sept. 1 Dean’s Forum

Please mark your calendar and plan to join us as Provost Nick Jones will share his presentation at the Dean’s Forum at 2 p.m. on Thursday, September 1, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, and on MediaSite Live.

Anime exhibit showcases Libraries’ collection

The Penn State University Libraries’ 2016-17 exhibit season begins with “Japanimation: Exploring Anime,” on display through Friday, Dec. 16, in the Pattee Library central entrance exhibit cases and adjacent Sidewater Commons, located on the first floor of Pattee Library. The exhibit, which highlights perspectives ranging from anime’s historical origins to scholarly analysis and pop culture impact, is free and open to the public and available for viewing during regular fall semester Pattee Library operating hours.

The exhibit, curated by Penn State Information Literacy Librarian and anime expert Glenn Masuchika, samples the library’s comprehensive collection of books and documentary films about anime. Masuchika will present a talk on anime from 2 to 3 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 29, in the Mann Assembly Room, 104 Paterno Library, University Park. Attendees should note that some content for the talk includes adult themes and grotesque imagery.

Read the full article on the exhibit on the Penn State University news site.

Open House volunteer training sessions held this week

Volunteer training sessions for the University Park Libraries Open H ouse will be held this week in Foster Auditorium 10-11 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 30, and 3-4 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 31. Please plan to attend one of the sessions and get involved in this important and rewarding event!

There are a few timeslots during the two-day event, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 7-8, which could benefit from additional volunteer help!

Check with your departmental supervisor to obtain approval then join your colleagues by signing up on this volunteer page.

Please note that hours spent helping with Open House are considered hours worked for our non-exempt employees, and count toward total hours worked during the workweek. Your total hours should not exceed 40 in a week. If it appears that volunteering for Open House will result in you working more than 40 hours, please talk to your supervisor or Libraries Human Resources.

Deadline approaching for “I Love My Librarian” award nominations

The deadline for nominations for the “I Love My Librarian Award” is approaching as Friday, Sept. 16, is the last day for submittal. The electronic nomination form is available online at ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.

This prestigious award will recognize the service of 10 exceptional public, school, college, community college, or university librarians who have transformed lives and communities through educational opportunities and lifelong learning.

Each winner will receive $5,000 and a $500 travel stipend to attend an award ceremony held in their honor at Carnegie Corporation of New York on Nov. 30, 2016.

Embedded librarians in online courses offer perspectives this fall

This semester, select librarians are either embedded in online courses or are planning on being embedded in future semesters. These librarians will be writing a perspective piece on how it has been to be embedded in an online course, any challenges with being embedded, and how they feel about the whole experience. These perspectives will appear as a regular feature for Library News this fall.

I am very thankful to these librarians who have jumped right into being embedded during the delivery of an online course and am excited to share some of this information with you through their perspectives in the hopes that this program continues to grow.

– submitted by Victoria Raish, Online Learning

USTEAC Library Professional Development Series – Week 6

The User Services Training Employee Advisory Council (USTEAC) video recommendation for this week outlines primary areas of cultural differences to help inform your actions and respond effectively. The video can be viewed individually with the option to continue with the full week’s module.

Week 6
Developing Cross-Cultural Intelligence
“Being able to work across cultures is an increasingly necessary skill for all employees.” The video entitled: Time is a great introduction to this informative class. As you have time, view the remainder of this course and learn how to respond effectively to everyone.

Tech Tip: How to keep safe from spam

by Ryan Johnson, I-Tech

Despite best attempts to reduce spam, it is not going away any time soon. Every employee of the University Libraries and Penn State needs to be careful when clicking on links in emails, attachments, and online ads.

Below are some basic items to keep in mind to help keep your machine and the Libraries’ network safe:

Do not open or respond to emails that look suspicious or unusual, are from someone you don’t know, or that generally ask you to take an action, such as making a payment or giving information or credit card details. If the email claims to be from a genuine company, but originated from a free web-based email service, it is likely spam.
Do not open an attachment you weren’t expecting, especially if you don’t know the sender. Often malicious code masquerades as zip files or Word documents or some other file type. Scammers can easily change an the .EXE extension of a malicious file to .DOC.
Just as you should not open attachments, do not click on a link in an email unless you are 100 percent sure it is safe to do so. It is easy to interject an infected hyperlink into the body copy of an email. If in doubt, delete it (or check with the sender or the Helpdesk).
Don’t be fooled by phishing attempts. Someone, somewhere, will try to get personal information from you. You should never give out personal details over email or fill in a form that pops up when you open up an email. May times throughout the year, you may receive an email that threatens to shut down your email account unless you provide your Penn State password. Penn State will NEVER ask for your password.
On the phishing front, you shouldn’t open or interact with messages from businesses to which you haven’t given your address and be wary of messages from companies that already have your address. A popular tool among spammers is to act as if they were from your bank, for instance, suggesting you need to change your password. In cases such as these, it is best to check the banks’ website for details or call their helpdesk to ensure your account is in order — better safe than sorry! Banks and other organizations should not be contacting you via email for security purposes.

These are just a few of the best practices to help keep you safe. If you are unsure about an email link, attachment, or website, please feel free to contact the IT Helpdesk for further assistance.

LHR News: Aug. 29

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Full-time:
Deborah Martin – Information Services and Support Specialist, Penn State York

Part-time:
Kevin Peretic – Penn State Shenango
Merlin Philip – Penn State Abington
Fatima Abdulrahman – Penn State Abington
Radhika Navdiya – Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Samantha Mack – Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Donald Collett – Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Mikaela Yori – Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Danielle VanSteenberg – Penn State DuBois
Evana Mullet – Penn State Altoona
Timothy Blake – Penn State Altoona
Suzanne McElvenney – Penn State Altoona
Natalie Zetts – Penn State Altoona
Michael Ferrone – Penn State New Kensington
Natasha Roberts – Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library
Moriah Pierre-Louis – Commons Services
Niranjana Sundaresan – News and Microforms Library
Elaine Otieno – Research Hub, EBSL, Maps, and Knowledge Commons
Luz Sanchez-Tejada – Research Hub, EBSL, Maps, and Knowledge Commons

Events: Aug. 29

Fall 2016

Through Friday, Dec. 16: “Expanding Horizons: Penn Staters in the Olympics” exhibit, Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, University Park.

Through Friday, Dec. 16: “Japanimation: Exploring Anime” exhibit, Sidewater Commons and central entrance, Pattee Library, University Park.

Monday, Aug. 29: “Japanimation: Exploring Anime” exhibit talk, presented by Glenn Masuchika, 2-3 p.m., Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, University Park.

Tuesday, Aug. 30: Coffee with Carmen, the Libraries’ User Services Training Coordinator, noon-1 p.m., Mann Assembly Room, University Park.

Wednesday, Sept. 1: Dean’s Forum, 2 p.m.-4 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park, and MediaSite Live.

Monday, Sept. 5: Labor Day, no classes.

Wednesday, Sept. 7: Hazleton Library Open House, noon-4 p.m., Hazleton Library.

Wednesday-Thursday, Sept. 7-8: Open House, 10 a.m-5 p.m., University Park library locations.

Thursday, Sept. 8: Abington Library Open House, 11 a.m-2 p.m., Abington Library.

Wednesday, Sept. 14: Getting to know maps: map literacy, 3:30-5 p.m., Donald W. Hamer Maps Library, W13 Pattee Library, University Park, and on Adobe Connect.

Tuesday, Sept. 20: Coffee with Carmen and pastry decorating, presented by Ann Thompson and Linda Struble, 1:30-2:30 p.m., Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library, University Park.

Tuesday, Sept. 20: Margarita Engle accepts the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for Children’s Poetry, 4-5 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park.

Wednesday, Sept. 21: Space planning brown bag session, noon-1 p.m., Libraries’ Space Steering Committee open discussion and Q & A, 510A Paterno Library, University Park.

Wednesday, Sept. 21: Building evacuation training for University Park, 3-4 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park, and MediaSite Live.

Thursdsay, Sept. 22: Recognition of University Libraries colleagues with 25 years of service, 2-3 p.m., Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, University Park.

Tuesday, Sept. 27: Discovery Day Webinar Series: Office Yoga, 10-11 a.m., presented by Rebecca Peterson, Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park, and MediaSite Live.

Thursday, Sept. 28: Occupant safety, a panel discussion , 3-4:30 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park, and MediaSite Live.

Friday, Sept. 30: University Libraries Donor Reception and Celebration, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Paterno Family Reading Room, 201 Pattee Library, University Park.

Tuesday, Oct. 4: Disability Awareness Month Event: Working with patrons with disabilities, Carmen Gass, Libraries’ User Services Training Coordinator, 10 a.m.-noon, Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park, and MediaSite Live.

Thursday, Oct. 6: Nick Sousanis will give a talk after accepting the Lynd Ward Prize for his graphic novel “Unflattening,” 4-5 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

Wednesday, Oct. 12: Getting to know GIS: GIS literacy, 3:30-5 p.m., Donald W. Hamer Maps Library, W13 Pattee Library, University Park, and on Adobe Connect.

Thursday, Oct. 13: Tech Update, by Libraries I-Tech staff, 10:30-11:30 a.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park, and MediaSite Live.

Tuesday, Oct. 18: Discovery Day Webinar Series: What the Library Can Do for You, presented by Liz Long and Megan Gilpin, 1-2 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park, and MediaSite Live.

Sunday, Oct.16: Penn State Parents Weekend events, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Pattee and Paterno Libraries Open House featuring a gallery talk, book discussion and tours, University Park.

Wednesday, Oct. 19: Space planning brown bag session, Libraries’ Space Steering Committee open discussion and Q & A, noon-1 p.m., 510A Paterno Library, University Park.

Wednesday, Oct. 26: Penn State Beaver Library Open House, noon-1:30 p.m., Beaver campus library.

Friday, Oct. 28: Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Morrison Gallery, Penn State Harrisburg Library.

Wednesday, Nov. 2: Archaeological Institute of America Public Lecture, 5:30-7 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park.

Wednesday, Nov. 16: Space planning brown bag session, Libraries’ Space Steering Committee open discussion and Q & A, noon-1 p.m., 510A Paterno Library, University Park.

Sunday-Saturday, Nov. 20-26: Thanksgiving holiday, no classes.

Friday, Dec. 9: Last day of fall classes.

Sunday-Tuesday, Dec. 11-13: DeStress Fest, 3-8 p.m., University Park library locations.

Monday-Friday, Dec. 12-16: Final exams.

Wednesday, Dec. 14: Tech Update, by Libraries I-Tech staff, 1-2:30 p.m., Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, and MediaSite Live.

Saturday, Dec. 17: Fall Commencement, University Park and several Commonwealth Campus locations.

Wednesday, Dec. 21: Space planning brown bag session, Libraries’ Space Steering Committee open discussion and Q & A, noon-1 p.m., 510A Paterno Library, University Park.

Please submit event information to Public Relations and Marketing via the Library News submission form.

Libraries improves access to online course reserves, guides through Canvas

horizontal screen capture of Canvas showing white vertical navigation bar with "Library Resources" area selected and highlighted in blue

The new “Library Resources” section in Canvas will direct users to e-reserves and course guides.

Fall 2016 will see improving access to University Libraries course resources, as content on reserve and guides for research are integrated into the Canvas learning management system. In addition, the Libraries has moved online course reserves into a more user-friendly system, E-Reserves.

While reserve requests from faculty will be submitted using the same forms, content integration with Canvas will enable Libraries staff to embed all online reserves directly into the Canvas course. Each course’s reserves and guides can be accessed directly from the Library Resources section in the left navigation area.

All faculty, whether using ANGEL or Canvas, also will be emailed direct links to reserves lists for their convenience and for them to embed in courses using ANGEL. Reserves links in ANGEL under the Resources tab, “Penn State Library Tools,” will no longer function. Instructions for faculty Libraries to remove these tools and replace with a direct E-Reserves link will be available through ANGEL.

Library guides relevant to each course and related subjects also will be automatically included under the Library Resources section in Canvas, providing students with a quick and easy list of tools to guide them to reliable resources for their assignments. These guides will be automatically generated according to course, but faculty members can easily request alternate guides for the specific needs of each course by contacting their subject librarian.

The University Libraries offers more than 800 course and subject guides of curated sources of information to support learning and research. Guides provided by the Libraries online have been viewed more than 1 million times in 2016 alone.

Each semester, the University Libraries typically supports nearly 600 courses with about 10,000 online items on reserve, and additional courses with physical materials on reserve, at all library locations. For more information about course reserves or to look up reserve materials by course number, visit https://libraries.psu.edu/services/course-reserves.

Welcome new Diversity Residency Librarians Tuesday, Aug. 23

Please stop between 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 23 in the Dean’s Administrative Office Conference Room, 510A Paterno, to welcome our second cohort of Diversity Residency Librarians — Alia Gant and Jose Guerrero. Coffee and light refreshments will be available.

Inside Access: Best practices for tracking orders

by Peg Tromm, Robert E. Eiche Library, Penn State Altoona

The Access Services subgroup investigating new books workflow updated Access Services Training Bulletin #32 to include best practices in tracking book orders. The revised document is Using Inventory Wizard to Track New Items and Best Practices for Tracking Orders.

Training Bulletin #32 can be found on the Access Services Training Bulletins intranet page at https://staff.libraries.psu.edu/access-services-council/access-services-training-bulletins under the Item Maintenance heading.

Inside Access: Migration of electronic reserves from The Cat/Workflows to Springshare E-Reserves

by Chris Holobar, Lending Services

Fall 2016 will be a transitional period for electronic reserves as we migrate from The Cat/Workflows to Springshare E-Reserves, while also supporting courses in both ANGEL and Canvas:

Requests
All new and reactivated E-Reserve requests are being created in Springshare. For now, this will be done centrally and Nicolle Nicastro (is now being copied on all new requests for all libraries submitted through our online forms.

Please be sure that online requests forms are submitted for all new requests, even those for walk-in requests and email. If you’ve received new requests for fall in the past month, please forward them to Nicolle.

All faculty, whether using ANGEL or Canvas, will be emailed direct links to
reserves lists in Springshare.

ANGEL
For this fall, the ANGEL reserves links under Resources, Penn State Library Tools will no longer function. Instructions for faculty will be available through ANGEL and the Library to remove these tools and replace with a direct E-Reserves link.

Canvas
Courses in Canvas should have both LibGuides and E-Reserves links available automatically on the Library Resources tab. If these do not display, please have faculty contact us at libraryreserves@psu.edu.

Books/DVDs/CDs
All physical reserve materials will continue to be processed in Workflows and searchable in The CAT. Please note that there are now two separate searches, one for Books/DVDs/CDs on reserve and one for E-Reserves. Library public pages are being updated to reflect this.

While we’re still transitioning, E-Reserves processing in Springshare will be centralized primarily to staff at UP and Harrisburg. Later in the fall we will begin offering Springshare training to other campus staff.

Thanks, please share this information as needed and contact Chris Holobar or
Nicolle Nicastro if you have any questions.

Look for updated information about E-Reserves for fall here:
https://staff.libraries.psu.edu/course-reserves-services

Volunteer timeslots remain for Open House Sept. 7-8

If you can spare an hour, or more, of your time, volunteers are still needed for several timeslots and positions for our 15th Annual University Park Libraries Open H ouse, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 7-8!

Volunteer training sessions will be held next week in Foster Auditorium 10-11 a.m. on Aug. 30
and 3-4 p.m. on Aug. 31. Please plan to attend one of the sessions and get involved in this important and rewarding event!

Staffing help is needed to set up and take down signs and decorations, greet students, provide directions, and assist with surveys and giveaways at the Finish Line located in the Mann Assembly Room.

The Libraries Open House is our biggest outreach event of the year, and we will welcome our more than 3,000 guests over these two days! Your enthusiasm and friendliness are what makes the difference in creating a welcoming environment for new students, and it’s what makes them
want to come back.

Check with your departmental supervisor to obtain approval then join your colleagues by signing up on this volunteer page.

Thanks so much for considering this volunteer opportunity!

– submitted by Ali Zawoyski on behalf of the University Libraries Open House committee

USTEAC Library Professional Development Series – Week 5

This week’s Lynda.com training video from the User Services Training Employee Advisory Council (USTEAC) explains how to connect with peers in the workplace. The video can be viewed individually with the option to continue with the full week’s module.

Week 5
Connecting with Peers in the Workplace
“Great communication means connecting, not just getting your point across.” In this short course, coach Todd Dewett outlines helpful techniques for forging those important connections that make it easier to come to work every day. We encourage you to invest 25 minutes and view this informative class.

The USTEAC recommended list of videos and modules is available for viewing at any time.

Tech Tip: Navigating back to the Libraries’ homepage

by Jill Shockey, guest columnist

Navigating to and from the Libraries homepage and Penn State’s main website, www.psu.edu, may require some attention to where you place your mouse or track pad cursor.

Penn State policy AD54, “Web Page Design and Image,” requires that University websites include the Penn State shield at the upper left corner of each webpage, and that the Penn State mark must always link back to the University’s homepage, www.psu.edu.

When the University Libraries unveiled its new homepage design, it was determined that the shield and “Penn State” text portion of the mark would redirect to the main University website, while the words “University Libraries” would redirect back to the Libraries’ homepage.

The image above illustrates where the URL redirects are segmented.

LHR News: Aug. 22

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Part-time:
Ryan Stanga – Penn State New Kensington
Naomi Rybalov – Penn State Abington
Sol Mendoza – Penn State Abington
Candice Driver – Intern, Preservation, Conservation and Digitization/Special
Collections Library
Angelina D’Ambrosio – Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library

Events: Aug. 22

Fall 2016

Through Friday, Dec. 16: “Expanding Horizons: Penn Staters in the Olympics” exhibit, Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, University Park.

Through Friday, Dec. 16: “Japanimation: Exploring Anime” exhibit, Sidewater Commons and central entrance, Pattee Library, University Park.

Monday, Aug. 22: First day of classes.

Tuesday, Aug. 23: Welcome and coffee for new diversity residency librarians Alia Gant and Jose Guerrero, 10:30-11:30 a.m., 510A Paterno Library, University Park.