The final report of the Penn State Open Educational Resources (OER) is now available online at http://oer.psu.edu. The OER Task Force was charged in February 2015 by Provost Nick Jones to pilot OER adoption, examine consortial opportunities for OER, and to develop a plan for university-wide support in support of President Barron’s Access and Affordability imperative. The report was accepted by Provost Jones on Dec. 8, 2016.

The OER Task Force was chaired by Dean Barbara Dewey and included three additional University Libraries faculty colleagues, Joe Salem, John Shank and Ann Snowman, among university-wide representation. Among its key findings, the Task Force discovered that there is already significant work underway to reduce cost through OER and other affordable course content adoption, but that no central coordination currently exists. University Libraries and Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) were found to be the two central units providing the most support and coordination and the most innovative work in affordable course content at Penn State was underway at the Commonwealth Campuses.

The Task Force recommendations include lead positions designated by both University Libraries and TLT to coordinate affordable course content initiatives throughout Penn State. Those initiatives are recommended to include joining the Open Textbook Network and OERu, leveraging the Unizin consortium, and creating faculty development programs.

Since the competition of the report, University Libraries has launched the new Electronic Course Reserves platform from Springshare to better integrate that service into Canvas and has started to pilot a proactive course reserves project for World Campus courses. The University Libraries is working with TLT to embed affordable course content as one supported element in the faculty seed grant program for General Education course revisions in partnership with the new Office of General Education. During the spring semester, a search will commence for the Open Education Librarian position described in the report.

Please feel free to direct any questions to any member of the OER Task Force:

• Barbara I. Dewey (Chair), Dean, University Libraries and Scholarly Communication
• Fred Aebli, IST Instructor and Internship Coordinator, Penn State Worthington Scranton
• Kate Domico, Executive Director, Learning Design and Public Media, Penn State Outreach and Online Education
• Steve Falke, Head, Penn State Barnes & Noble Educational Operations
• Yvonne Gaudelius, Assistant Vice President and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
• Lee Giles, David Reese Professor, College of Information Science and Technology
• Andrea Gregg, Online Learning Researcher, Penn State World Campus
• Emily Miller, student representative, University Park
• Przemyslaw Maslak, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University Park
• Joseph A. Salem, Jr., Associate Dean for Learning, Undergraduate Services, and the Commonwealth Campuses, University Libraries
• John Shank, Head Librarian, Penn State Berks
• Ann Snowman, Head, Access Services, University Libraries
• Jennifer Sparrow, Senior Director of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Information Technology Services

– submitted by Joe Salem, associate dean

Commemorating the centennial anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize, the new University Libraries’ exhibit “100 Years of the Pulitzers: Celebrating Our Humanity” will be on display through Aug. 30, 2017, in the Diversity Studies Room, 203 Pattee Library. The exhibit, which features Pulitzer-related materials from the University Libraries’ arts and humanities collections, is free and open to the public during Pattee Library’s Arts and Humanities Library operating hours.

A companion exhibit, “100 Years of the Pulitzers: Celebrating our Musicality,” is located near the entrance to Pattee Library’s Music and Media Center on the second floor of West Pattee Library. It highlights several Pulitzer winners for music and award-winning scores and recordings in the Libraries’ collections and will be on display through the spring 2017 semester.

“100 Years of the Pulitzers: Celebrating Our Humanity” and “100 Years of the Pulitzers: Celebrating our Musicality” is curated by the University Libraries’ Knapp; Alia Gant, diversity resident librarian; Jose C. Guerrero, diversity resident librarian; and Pembroke Childs, information resources and services support specialist. The exhibit is part of a Penn State campus-wide commemoration of the Pulitzer Prize centennial, including events sponsored by the College of Communications, the School of Music, and the Center for Performing Arts, and supports the spirit of “All In at Penn State: A Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion.”

The full article about the “100 Years of the Pulitzers: Celebrating Our Humanity” exhibit is available on Penn State News.

Save the dates for the following Spring 2017 COP discussions:

• Wednesday, Jan. 11: Instruction Steering Committee updates
  (Rebecca Miller and Instruction Steering Committee members)
• Wednesday, February 22: Digital badges and micro-credentialing
  (Emily Rimland and Torrie Raish)
• Wednesday, March 15: Ithaka Survey results and instruction
  (Steve Borrelli and Rebecca Miller)
• Wednesday, April 12: ACRL 2017 debrief (TBA)

All COP meetings will be held at 2 p.m. We’ll be moving our discussions from Adobe to Zoom. So, in order to join these discussions, join our Zoom room at https://psu.zoom.us/j/6791385247.

Please also save the date for the Learning Showcase on May 9, 2017. Registration information will be sent out very soon!

In case you missed it, recaps of discussions from fall 2016 are available:

• December 2016 — Supporting international students
• November 2016 — Many different perspectives on information literacy
• October 2016 — Canvas: How does it work? What should I do? Why should I care?
  (no recording available, but speak with to Amanda Clossen if you want a recap).

Want to join the COP listserv? Email Rebecca Peterson (rmr28@psu.edu) with your PSU access ID.

– submitted by Rebecca Peterson, Library Learning Services

As the semester wraps up, we hope plenty of students are utilizing the research skills they gained at the library. Library Learning Services (LLS) taught more than 2000 students in 123 sections. Focusing on foundational instruction, the department primarily taught ENGL 015, ESL 015 and CAS 100 classes.

Library instructors focused on various learning outcomes which, among others, included  helping students recognize the variety of resources available to them, determining appropriate information sources and using information resources to gain an understanding of their research topics.

In an effort to assess the effectiveness of the instruction sessions, LLS sent surveys to both the students and instructors. While still gathering feedback, the reviews have been positive with 96 percent of instructors agreeing that the library session helped their students identify a variety of library databases as potential sources of information.

We’ve received some of the following praise from instructors:

“Library instruction at Penn State is top notch.”

“I always enjoy taking my students to the library session!”

“Most of the freshmen are more interested in using google than doing serious research. I feel it was very helpful to expose them to the databases and to show them the ways you need to evaluate sources.”

Library Learning Services greatly appreciated the help of Paula Contreras, John Meier, Jade Atwill and Jose Guerrero for teaching sixteen of the sections. The remainder of the classes were taught by eleven LLS librarians.

Interested in teaching a few first-year sections next semester? Please contact Anne Behler at acb10@psu.edu, LLS’s instruction coordinator. New to teaching? No worries! LLS will work with you to get started.

– submitted by Rebecca Peterson, Library Learning Services

A limited number of openings remain for the Thursday, Jan. 5 CPR/AED training at University Park. Two classes are scheduled, a morning class (9 a.m.-noon) and afternoon class (1-4 p.m.). As an incentive for your participation, there are no out-of-pocket costs to you as a Libraries employee. The Libraries Health and Safety Committee is sponsoring these training sessions.

Please contact Len White at lmw6@psu.edu to register for the CPR/AED training sessions and indicate your preference for the morning or afternoon class. Once class maximums have been reached, a “stand-by” list will be maintained in case there are any participant cancellations.

More information about these training sessions can be found in the Dec. 5 edition of Library News.

Before the end of the year, please remember to turn in your payroll deduction form which allows you to make a pretax contribution to the United Way. Payroll deductions provide a stable source of income for the United Way and its 38 partner agencies.

You may designate how your money can be used by selecting (or deselecting) agencies or sending your donation to another county. Undesignated funds are best since they go where the need is, but the choice is yours.

The need in Centre County for assistance is increasing, and with that increase in need, our goals and the amount we need to raise has increased as well. The Libraries and Penn State have both set goals to raise the funds needed by our community.

• Libraries – $21,000
• PSU – $832,000
• Centre County United Way – $2.2 million

If you didn’t get an envelope with a payroll deduction form, please contact Ann Kopesky (ask190).

Thank you in advance for your contributions and for helping the LIbraries and Penn State try to meet our United Way goals!

– submitted by Heather Ross, United Way Committee co-chair

Please join us for finger foods and fun from 4:30-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18 in the Mann Assembly Room, 103 Paterno Library, at University Park! Representatives from the State College Young Professionals (SCYP) will be our special guests at Pattee Library and Paterno Library.

SCYP strives to enhance the community by providing an opportunity for professionals to network, volunteer, socialize and have fun. They work from the ground up by promoting local businesses and organizations, and volunteering their services to make Happy Valley a great place to live, work and play.

Members are typically between the ages of 22 and 40, but there is no age requirement. If you are young at heart and have a passion for our area, you’re welcome—and encouraged—to join.

Learn more at: http://www.scyoungpros.com.