Do you push off your writing projects as the semester gets busier? Do you wish for a world in which everyone could write together, in harmony, with snacks?

Join Penn State’s chapter of the International Write-In between 8 p.m. and midnight on Sunday, Dec. 4, in the Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno LIbrary. Sponsored locally by Penn State Learning, University Libraries, and the Graduate Writing Center, the International Write-In is a global event that brings together members of the academic community to write.

For those trying to finish a term paper, dissertation, poem, or cover letter, the Write-In provides space, sustenance, and support. The event is free and open to Penn State undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and staff. Quiet writing spaces and areas for small-group collaboration will be available, and writers can drop in anytime during the four-hour session. Snacks, caffeine, reference librarians, and writing consultants will be provided.

Register for our Write-In event here.

– submitted by Hailley Fargo and Alia Gant, library representatives, International Write-In Committee

Helen Sheehy, the embedded librarian for a political science course, is featured in our Embedded Librarian fall blog series. The students are lucky to have her expertise in the course and she has tried some really innovative approaches in her embedded role. Enjoy reading!

by Helen Sheehy, social sciences librarian

We are about halfway through fall semester and halfway through my first semester embedded with the World Campus course PL SC: 455 Western European Politics. This is a course I’ve taught many times as a resident class. I also have some experience with credit teaching online with Library Studies 370 (Federal and Legal Information) and I’ve been embedded with CED 400
(Exploring Indigenous Ways of Knowing in the Great Lakes Region) for a few years. So, it is interesting to reflect on the many similarities — and a few differences among those experiences.

So, how did being embedded in a resident class differ from the World Campus experience? Being embedded in CED 400 meant I attended all the classes and had the opportunity to participate personally in the class discussions. Most important, I got to know students in a much more personal way by talking with them weekly as they worked on their papers. Teaching in the online world lacks that in-person interaction, and it would be fun to explore ways to be more involved. On the other hand, students in the online class regularly reach out at their point of need, more so, I think, than in a typical library setting. Perhaps because that is how they interact with the course instruction.

As an embedded librarian online you can reach out multiple times over the course of the semester with hints about how to tackle a particular project or assignment. A question from one student has more than once prompted a general email to the entire class. I chose to do a course guide with five short embedded videos. The videos range from one introducing myself and the course guide and one on how to approach using think tank literature, to more practical more practical demos, e.g. the one on how to extract data from the OECD iLibrary. I also took advantage of several videos produced by Library Learning Services. There was also a “library assessment” exercise, where they were given an article to read and then they are asked to follow up on some of the information and data in the article.

In retrospect, there are ways I would tweak the exercise, and I’ve talked to the instructor about some ideas, but overall I think the approach was successful. Overall, it has been a very positive experience working with the World Campus class. Certainly working closely with the instructor early on has been a worthwhile experience. The workload has been manageable, though it would have been useful to start a bit earlier in the summer. I could have spent months on the video instead of an hour or so for each one. Are they perfect?  No. Do they get the job done? Based on feedback from students I think that they do. I have also repurposed the videos in other guides.

Some things to think about when planning your class:

• Start early if you can. Everything takes longer than you think it will to pull together and you will be working with an instructor who may not be available for in-person meetings, as well as working with an instructional designer who will need time to get things loaded.
• If you are not comfortable with making videos, ask for help. Leave enough time to add closed captioning.
• Keep track of when assignments are due. Like everyone else, World Campus students
  are working on assignments at the last minute, and you need to be available to help at odd hours. Class assignments for PL SC 455 are due Sunday evenings, so that means checking emails on the weekends.
• Be ready to consult via different media. I’ve used Zoom to work with faculty and students. I’ve also done quick and dirty Jing videos to send to students to show how to use a database.

Overall, working with World Campus has been fun and rewarding. I believe students gain a lot from having an embedded librarian and hope we can do more courses like these. I look forward to a discussion with the instructor when the class is done on what worked well and what didn’t.

Viewing of the Election Day 2016 coverage on Nov. 8 will be available in the News and Microforms Library on the ground floor of West Pattee Library on the University Park campus. Three televisions and the Film Video Viewing Room with its large screen will feature coverage by four networks, representing the diversity of political viewpoints. Coverage includes live reports, commentary and updates of election results from state and national races on the ticker. The viewing will conclude at midnight.

The full article about the viewing of Election Day 2016 media coverage is available on Penn State News.

Members of the Maps Cataloging Team in the Cataloging and Metadata Services Department recently achieved a major milestone with the completion of the cataloging of the Pennsylvania maps. The team began cataloging the entire maps collection to full level standards in 1995 and a decision was made at that time to start the process by working on maps of international places beginning with Australia and New Zealand. After completing the international maps, in 2010, team members began cataloging those maps in the collection that cover the United States starting with Maine and continuing through New England and the Northeast then began work on the Pennsylvania maps collection.

This project included:

• creating bibliographic records for previously uncataloged maps
• enhancing existing minimal-level records created decades ago
• adding titles and headings to make retrieval easier
• adding or correcting call numbers to allow maps to be filed properly
  and quickly found in maps drawers
• adding subject and form genre headings that collocate maps with intuitive terms
• adding coordinates which will facilitate future geographic searching

Record creation and enhancement work was done from the start using the international cataloging standards until a major change in standards occurred in 2013 across the profession to RDA. Five years later the Donald W. Hamer Maps Library has the most completely cataloged collection of Pennsylvania maps in the country. Completing this important work means that our entire collection Pennsylvania is accessible through OCLC’s WorldCAT.

Click on the image above to view at full size.

In all the team touched 8,766 titles over a five-year duration in this project. The team additionally worked on 2,317 Sanborn Fire Insurance titles and 2,800 Flood Insurance Rate titles, for a total of 13,883 titles/52,973 sheets over seven years.

To put this accomplishment in perspective, the project encompassed 93% of the Pennsylvania map collection in the Maps Library and Annexes while the team also worked on other projects simultaneously for the Maps Collection and the Earth and Mineral Sciences Library’s cartographic collections.

Click on the image to view the graphic at full size.

Other notable Pennsylvania collections previously cataloged in the Maps Library include:

• Topographic series maps – 9,621 sheets/1,088 titles
• Aerial photographs – 2724 sheets/4 titles

The Team recently finished cataloging all Maryland and Washington, D.C., maps.

Congratulations to the Maps Cataloging Team on this accomplishment. Now on to the rest of the country! Westward Ho!

– submitted by Heather Ross, Donald W. Hamer Maps Library

The second librarian to be featured in this series on embedded librarianship in a World Campus course is Emily Mross, a business and public administration liaison librarian who is located at the Penn State Harrisburg campus. She is embedded in PLSC 439: The Politics of Terrorism taught by Christopher Cook and designed by The Filipelli Institute for e-Education and Outreach. Emily has had a lot of interest in getting embedded in other courses as an off-shoot of this course and she shares her reflections of what it is like to be embedded below.

by Emily Mross, business and public administration liaison librarian

I am new to Penn State and new to embedded librarianship. A program within my liaison duties, Homeland Security, is a World Campus program. Because I knew that many of my students might be solely online, I jumped at the chance to be a part of the embedded librarianship pilot in Spring 2016, soon after starting my position at the Penn State Harrisburg campus.

I am currently embedded in two sections of PLSC 439: The Politics of Terrorism. This course has many undergraduate students in the Homeland Security minor and a number of Homeland Security graduate students. My primary activities for the course have involved creating a video about library resources with the instructor prior to the start of term, building a course guide, and managing a message board throughout the semester to help students with their research for a term paper.

The first thing I noticed about my students is how far flung they are–located in numerous states, countries, and time zones. I originally had ideas about providing online office hours, but it quickly became clear that could be a distinct challenge due to timing. They are also incredibly varied in terms of academic and career experience. Some are traditional college students, but those students are divided between non-residential online students and residential students taking an online course. A majority of the students are non-traditional. Many are older than 25 and have significant work experience, much of which is military-related.

PLSC 439 is an upper-level class, and these students, in addition to their work and life experience, are nearly finished with their degrees. However, it seems like many students still struggle with the research process and writing advanced academic research papers, which is the primary reason the course instructor requested an embedded librarian.

What I have enjoyed most is becoming very familiar with the course, the instructor, and the students. I spend some time each week checking up on student assignments for the week and browsing through some discussions to stay up to date on the course and any questions that may arise from the students as they work. I do not have to feel blindsided by requests for assistance with an assignment, because I have access to the course and a good line of communication with the instructor.

The preliminary work for the research paper was recently assigned, so I do expect an uptick in my interaction with the students as they really dig into their research in the coming weeks. The interaction with PLSC 439 students has largely been online via email or message board, and has been manageable. Due to their global locations, many do not expect an immediate answer, though I do make sure to respond as soon as possible.

I really enjoy being embedded. I feel that it allows me to grow more in my liaison duties and build relationships with students and faculty. Since the start of this course, I have received several requests to embed in future courses, and I am looking forward to new opportunities in this area of librarianship.

The Libraries will be hosting the virtual accessibility conference, Accessing Higher Ground Virtual Conference 2016. AHG focuses on the implementation and benefits of:

• Accessible media, Universal Design, and Assistive Technology in the university, business, and public setting
• Legal and policy issues, including ADA and 508 compliance
• The creation of accessible media and information resources, including web pages and library resources

For institutions of higher education, there is a strong focus on campus accommodation, universal design, and curriculum accessibility.

For more information and details about the streaming sessions, please visit the Accessibility at Penn State website at http://accessibility.psu.edu/2016/10/accessing-higher-ground-virtual-conference/.

– submitted by Binky Lush, I-Tech