Daily Archives: October 21, 2019

The Iconic Modern Chair Collection kickoff

By: Henry Pisciotta

Iconic Modern Chair Collection kickoff flyer

Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 5:30 p.m. in Stuckeman Family Building Jury Space (1st floor)

Prof. Craig Zabel of the Department of Art History was honored with the Penn State Teaching Fellow Award: Alumni Association and Student Award Recognizing Teaching Excellence, which includes funding to be used “for the improvement of undergraduate teaching and learning.” He chose to start a teaching collection of historically significant modern chairs for the Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library. Prof. Zabel will present an illustrated lecture about the history and design of these seven chairs and two stools.

A reception will follow in the Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library, where testing chairs is encouraged.

Save the Date! Tech Update

By: Melody Gehlbach

Please join us on Oct 30th at 2pm in Foster Auditorium and online on Mediasite Live for the Fall Tech Update.

Topics will include updates on:
• Workstation Changes and updates
• Green Glass
• Simba
• Lib Staffer
• Libraries Website
• Catalog
• New Software Request Form

See you then!

Data Visualization Session: Monday, Oct. 28

By: Tara Anthony

Members of Research Informatics and Publishing will be presenting an Introduction to Data Visualization session open to any student, faculty, or staff member on Monday, October 28th from 1-2pm, 315 Pattee Library and via Zoom.

Introduction to Data Visualization
This data visualization session highlights services from multiple areas of Research Informatics and Publishing, including statistical, geospatial, scientific and software data visualizations. This session is aimed to provide an introduction to the resources and expertise for above mentioned areas.  Presenters will introduce software applications for which we provide consultation services, such as ArcGIS, ArcMap, ArcPro; JMP, RStudio, Adobe Illustrator; MS SQL Server/BI, Tableau; and Interactive Visualizations using Jupyter Notebooks, BinderHub, Zenodo, and ScholarSphere. A tour of the Digital Lab of Research Informatics and Publishing will follow after the session for those who are interested.

Contact: Presenters: Tara Anthony/GIS Specialist, Lizhao Ge/Statistical Information Specialist, Briana Ezray/Research Data Management Librarian, Xuying Xin/Data Analyst, Seth Erickson/Software Curation Librarian

Tech Tip: Fill in the blanks in Excel

By: Ryan Johnson

Let’s say your boss wants you to apply a specific formula to every blank cell in a column.  If this was only a few cells this would be easy but what if a sheet had thousands of rows, what can you do?

To fill in any blank cell with the string “N/A” for example, follow the steps below:

  1. Select all the data in a column. Then go to the Home menu, select the Find & Select icon, select Go To Special.

2. In the next window, select Blanks.

tech tip screen shot

3. On the next window, you can enter the formula into the first blank cell. In this case, you’ll  just type N/Aand then press Ctrl + Enter so that the same thing applies to every blank cell found.

If you wanted to, instead of “N/A”, you could type in a formula into the first blank cell (or click on the previous value to use the formula from the cell just above the blank one), and when you press Ctrl + Enter, it’ll apply the same formula to all of the other blank cells.

This one feature can make cleaning up a messy spreadsheet very fast and easy.

Customer Service Tip: The top 5 viral moments In customer service from 2019

By: Blake Morgan (submitted by Carmen Gass)

In a world often filled with chaos and negativity, people love to share positive, uplifting stories. Stories of people caring for others and showing great customer service often go viral. These great acts aren’t performed by employees looking to make it big on the internet, but by people who genuinely care about customers and want to make their lives easier and happier. Here are five stories of great customer service and caring that have gone viral in 2019.

Read more here.

Events: October 21

Fall 2019
Academic calendar information for all campuses is available online.

Roots/Routes: Contested Histories, Contemporary Experiences exhibition graphic

Sept. 16 – Mar. 15, 2020, Exhibit: “Indigenous Roots/ Routes: Contested Histories, Contemporary Experiences.” Special Collections Exhibition Space, 104 Paterno Library. Reflections on the past five centuries of colonization and cultural exchange between Indigenous Peoples. Europeans, Africans, and later, Americans.

Thursday, Sept. 12-Thursday, Nov. 21, Fall Scholarly Communications Workshops. Featuring in-person workshops at Penn State Behrend, Penn State Scranton, and Penn State Harrisburg, as well as a full roster of Zoom workshops, including our popular trainings on complying with public access policies from federal agencies. Specialized workshops for thesis and dissertation writers, instructional designers, and scholarly authors are included.
Monday, Sept. 30-Friday, Nov. 1, Libraries Short Edition fall writing contest: “Brunchin’ Around.” Submissions are being accepted for the  Short Stories’ fourth writing contest , open to all Penn State students, faculty and staff on the theme “Brunchin’ Around.” Winners will have their short stories or poetry displayed on all Penn State Short Edition story dispensers and win $100.
Monday, Oct. 28, Data Visualization Session: Introduction to Data Visualization. Services from multiple areas of Research Informatics and Publishing, including statistical, geospatial, scientific and software data visualizations. 1-2 p.m. in 315 Pattee Library, University Park.
Thursday, Oct. 31, Dungeons & Dragons/Halloween Secrets in the Archives. Visit the Special Collections Library at 4-5 p.m. for a Dungeons & Dragons Character building workshop for new players, then join a quest to discover the halloween secrets within the archives from 5-7 p.m.—including your chance to examine the Aliester Crowley papers.
Wednesday, Nov. 6. Docunight: Iran Via Documentaries.On the first Wednesday of every month, Docunight features a documentary film about, around, or in Iran, or made Iranians. All events are open to everyone, and all films have English subtitles. Co-sponsored by the Iranian Student Association and the University Libraries. 7 p.m. in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park.
Tuesday, Nov. 12, Penn State GIS Day. Open to faculty, staff, students, and the public, an event to bring together those who work with GIS, geospatial technologies, remote sensing, maps and location-based research across disciplines. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. in various locations throughout Pattee and Paterno Libraries on the University Park campus. Visit Penn State GIS Day for information and schedule of events.
Wednesday, Dec. 4. Docunight: Iran Via Documentaries.On the first Wednesday of every month, Docunight features a documentary film about, around, or in Iran, or made Iranians. All events are open to everyone, and all films have English subtitles. Co-sponsored by the Iranian Student Association and the University Libraries. 7 p.m. in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, University Park.
Saturday, Dec. 21, Commencement

Please submit event information — and all Library News submissions — to Public Relations and Marketing via its Staff Site request form and selecting the “Library News blog article” button.