It’s hard to believe, but the fall 2016 semester starts one week from today! As students dive back into their studies, classes will begin to visit the library for information literacy workshops. The schedules for the nine classrooms in Pattee and Paterno Libraries and the three classrooms in our branch libraries are already starting to fill up, especially since starting this semester, the Paterno 302 and Davey 211 classrooms have converted to General Purpose Classrooms (GPC). GPCs can be scheduled for all sorts of classes, including English 15 classes, so we will be welcoming many students into Paterno and Davey for a different type of learning experience than our library classrooms have usually hosted.

Although GPCs are scheduled through the new campus space scheduler, CollegeNET, you can still view classroom schedules for all of our classrooms, including Paterno 302 and Davey 211, in UCS. The schedules are all available here: https://libraries.psu.edu/services/rooms-spaces/classroom-schedules.

More information about CollegeNET is available in this Library blog post from June 2016: https://sites.psu.edu/librarynews/2016/06/06/coming-soon-collegenet-space-scheduling-platform/.

Basic information about all of our classrooms, including seating, technology options, and other information, is all available via our classroom web page.

For questions about our classrooms, their capabilities, and the future of our classrooms, don’t hesitate to contact Rebecca Miller (email link). For questions about the new space scheduler on campus, CollegeNET, touch base with Ann Thompson. Finally, for help with scheduling classrooms or anything else related to our classrooms, contact Rebecca Peterson at rmr28@psu.edu or 814-865-9257.

Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we work toward creating supportive learning environments for PSU faculty, staff, and students.

submitted by Rebecca Peterson, Library Learning Services

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

Are you curious about what’s going on with space planning in the Libraries? Please join representatives from the Libraries Space Steering Committee at the monthly brown bag session scheduled for noon-1 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug.17, in the Dean’s Conference Room, 510A Paterno Library, to discuss and ask questions about any space-related issues.

There is no set agenda — we want to hear what’s on your mind. To help facilitate discussions we will have floor plans of Pattee and Paterno libraries on display.

The brown bag sessions are held from noon to 1 p.m. every third Wednesday of the month and will be on the following dates:
August 17
September 21
October 19
November 16
December 21

Volunteers are still needed for several timeslots and positions for our 15th Annual University Park Libraries Open House, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 7-8!

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!

What do students have to say?

“I really liked learning about certain areas of the library that I had never been to, and it was a really fun way to do it!”

“I liked how helpful the people at each of the stations were in answering questions or directing you to what you needed to do to get additional help.”

Can you spare an hour or more? Staffing help is needed to set up and take down signs and decorations, greet students, provide directions, and assist with computer surveys and giveaways at the Finish Line located in the Mann Assembly Room.

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.

Volunteer Training sessions will be held 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 find out how you can get involved in this important and rewarding event!

Your enthusiasm and friendliness are what makes the difference in creating a
great welcome to the Libraries for new students, and it’s what makes them
want to come back.

Thanks so much for considering this volunteer opportunity!

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

SirsiDynix has replaced Director’s Station with a new hosted product called BLUEcloud Analytics. In response, we will decommission Director’s Station at the close of business on Aug. 31, 2016. BLUEcloud Analytics is live and ready for our users to utilize.

BLUEcloud Analytics provides expanded functionality to create powerful reports with a drag-and-drop user interface that requires no complicated query language. Users can run library-specific reports created by SirsiDynix or utilize reports tailored to their needs and see report results in seconds.

Current users of Director’s Station should ensure that an account has been requested for BLUEcloud Analytics and attended training or consulted training materials.

Not a user yet? No problem, just have your designated supervisor request an account for you at https://staff.libraries.psu.edu/libraries-technology-i-tech/account-request-system-supervisors-only.

Training and online documentation are available at: https://staff.libraries.psu.edu/libraries-technology-i-tech/bluecloud-analytics. The next scheduled training session is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 24.

If you have any questions or concerns or need help please contact the BLUEcloud Analytics Expert Team at: UL-BCATEAM@LISTS.PSU.EDU.

– submitted by Linda Klimczyk, I-Tech

Due to the availability of other survey tools and ongoing maintenance issues with SelectSurvey, SelectSurvey will be decommissioned at 8 a.m. on Aug. 17. Survey owners were notified in advance and have worked with I-Tech to either export their data or move their surveys to other systems. We appreciate their willingness to make this change and their effort to analyze their content and migrate as needed.

The Library Assessment Department has contributed to this successful migration by creating new accounts in Qualtrics and providing assistance to those people who transitioned from SelectSurvey to Qualtrics.

A big thanks to our project manager, Sherry Lonsdale, our trainer, Ryan Johnson, all of our survey authors and Library Assessment for their help in making this transition possible!

A list of currently available survey tools is available at https://staff.libraries.psu.edu/libraries-technology-i-tech/survey-tools-comparsion.

If you need a Qualtrics Account established please have a designated supervisor make the request for Qualtrics using the Account Request Form.

If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact I-Tech or Library Assessment.

– submitted by Linda Klimczyk, I-Tech

Ten University Library employees from the Maps Library, Maps Cataloging, and Preservation, Conservation, and Digitization traveled to Harrisburg to meet the staff of the State Library of Pennsylvania and tour the facilities. The staff of 16 full-time state employees provides reference for the state, including legal research for the legislature, manages a collection of 4.2 million volumes including many newspapers, catalogs acquisitions, and digitizes and creates metadata.

Our group met with Iren Snavely, State Library rare books librarian, Rare Books Reading Room, to view rare maps and manuscripts. Highlights included the 1632 copy of John Smith’s account of his adventures in the New World and the first known map of Harrisburg. Kathy Hale, head of public services, guided the group on a tour of the Law Library and recently renovated law reading room, the main reading room, and the “Pulp” vault, which holds its rare collections. This state of the art vault is temperature-controlled to a chilly 50 degrees, has compact movable shelves, and has a waterless fire suppression system. The tour also included a visit to the digitization processing room and a walk through the maze of the closed stack.

University Libraries staff members who attended were:
Paige Andrew
Sue Kellerman
Steve Kroger
Tara LaLonde
Bill Minter
Nathan Piekielek
Heather Ross
Albert Rozo
Maps interns Jack and Miranda

The next Selector’s Forum, a bimonthly session to provide information for librarians who select materials for collections, is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, August 10 in Foster Auditorium and Mediasite.

The agenda for the August 10 Selector’s Forum includes the following:

• Meeting Wendi Keeler, external relations assistant in the Dean’s Office, and learning about her role in working with selectors and Development (5-10 min.).
• Development overview (Nicki Hendrix) (30 min.)
• How to let Development know what we are doing (so they can share with potential donors).
• How to suggest ideas for development proposals.
• Helping identify potential donors.
• Working together to steward donors/donations — selector role and Development’s role
• Creating lists of endowment purchases (Heather Benner) — Heather will discuss and demonstrate ways to generate lists of materials that have been purchased using gift or endowment funding. (10 min.)
• Comments from the floor— open microphone for comments or discussion

submitted by Linda Musser, Fletcher L. Byrom Earth and Mineral Sciences Library