Author Archives: Jennifer Marie Kunkel-gill

Behrend to Welcome Diaz

submitted by Russ Hall

We are pleased to announce that Stephanie Diaz will be joining us at Behrend as our new tenure-track Reference and Instruction Librarian.  Stephanie comes to us from Penn State York where she has been since 2013.  Prior to that she worked at Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina.  She received her B.A. from Bowling Green State University and her MLIS from the University of South Carolina.  Her anticipated start date is July 15.

Zabel: ‘Students are my number one priority’

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Zabel received her award from Penn State President Eric Barron at a recent ceremony.

Diane Zabel, head of Penn State’s William and Joan Schreyer Business Library, has received the President’s Award for Engagement with Students, in recognition of her dedication to students during her 30-year career.

The award honors a faculty member who has demonstrated deep caring and involvement with students’ learning in the academic, social and professional realms. Zabel received her award from Penn State President Eric Barron at a recent presentation ceremony.

Over the past decade, Zabel, who is the Louis and Virginia Benzak Business Librarian, has conducted 650 course-related instructional sessions, reaching 17,000 students, and 64 workshops and orientation events, reaching over 6,300 students. During the 2014–15 academic year alone, she worked with 669 patrons. For Zabel, students are her “number one priority.”

“The aspect of my job that I have always enjoyed the most has been working with students. Librarians have faculty status at Penn State, however, librarianship is what we value the most. It’s not sufficient to be producing research and scholarship or to be active in the national and professional associations, you have to focus on doing your primary job well,” she notes.

Zabel teaches students at every stage of their academic career—from those starting out in first year seminars, to others working on their capstone projects. She also provides consultation help to MBA and doctoral students. Whether providing one-on-one research help or instructing large groups of students, Zabel tries to ensure that enough time is devoted to helping her students understand how to find the materials they need.

“It’s important to be empathetic. I think that one forgets how large the University is and how complex it is, and it takes very little time out of one’s day to be helpful to a student. Rather than have them spin their wheels and spend hours looking for something, we can help find it for them. That is important to understand – they come first. In the Business Library, our philosophy is that students take priority, so it’s not uncommon for everyone in this unit to drop what they’re doing and help a student,” she notes.

The Business Library has been actively participating in on-site consultation sessions in the Penn State Smeal College of Business for several years, providing research help to students at their point of need. This dynamic collaboration now extends to coursework—in 2013, the Library developed a business research analysis component for the required entrance-to-major course MGT 301, where students are tasked with preparing a report on a company using five core library resources. Students who consult librarians on their projects receive extra credit. This collaboration has proven very successful and it is one that the Library plans to continue.

Zabel says that she is honored to have received the award. “It shocked me, because I had no idea I had been nominated, which makes it more special,” she adds.

Tech Tip: Find out what’s hogging RAM in Google Chrome, and close it

submitted by Ryan Johnson

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Google Chrome is a great browser but sometimes it can be a memory hog. If you want to monitor what is using so much memory, try using Chrome’s Task Manager.

To start, open Chrome and press Shift+Esc. This will open Chrome’s own Task Manager, which will give you a more accurate look into how much memory each tab, plugin, and extension is taking up. You can click the top of the “Memory” column to sort it by highest RAM usage to lowest.

Once you do so, you should have a good idea where to start. Maybe you need to close a particular tab, or maybe an extension isn’t really worth the RAM usage. If that’s the case, uninstall it from Chrome’s extensions page.

Tech Update

Tech Update
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Foster Auditorium

Agenda

1.  Creative Commons Licensing:

Brandy Karl will be discussing creative commons licensing, including what they are, how to use them and what license to select, along with
the records management requirements associated with placing PSU-owned material under a CC license!

2.  Drupal Update:

Timeline, Behind the Scenes and More …   – Binky Lush, Linda Klimczyk

3.  Libguides:

Amanda Clossen will discuss the online training that users need to become authors, as well as how to submit a request to be an author.

4.  New I-Tech Staff:

Introduction of Vicki Brightbill and Jeff Friday.

If you cannot participate in person please join us via MediaSite Live: Login with Username: Library; password: Foster and then click I-Tech in the Mediasite catalog section

Knapp elected to leadership role on ALA’s Library Instruction Round Table

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Foster Communications Librarian Jeff Knapp was recently elected vice president/president of ALA’s Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT). LIRT is an organization that advocates for library instruction, information literacy and lifelong learning within all types of libraries (academic, public, and school). “It is a much smaller group than ACRL’s Instruction Section and covers similar subjects, but the fact that LIRT includes all kinds of libraries rather than just academic libraries makes it somewhat unique,” says Knapp. Some of work includes the “LIRT Top Twenty” list of top 20 library instruction-related articles each year; the LIRT Librarian Recognition Award and Innovation in Instruction Award and committees that work on issues like students’ transition to college from high school, and working with adult learners.
Knapp has been involved with LIRT since 2004, when he first became active in ALA, and has held a number of positions in it since then. A few years ago, he led the effort to stop printing the organization’s quarterly newsletter and going electronic, saving  almost $15,000 a year, which was used to create the LIRT Librarian Recognition Award and Innovation in Instruction Award and fund some ALA Spectrum Scholarships for library school students of color. “I’d like to see those programs continue and grow, and find some new ways to reach librarians who don’t have the resources to attend conferences in person,” he says.

Top family literacy books for 2015 announced

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Among the many children’s books published last year, 13 were chosen by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book to form A Baker’s Dozen: The Best
Children’s Books for Family Literacy for 2015.

Winners include: “Adventures with Barefoot Critters: An ABC Book” by Teagan White (Tundra); “Blizzard” by John Rocco (Disney/Hyperion); “Five Trucks” by Brian Floca (Atheneum); “Found” by Salina Yoon (Walker/Bloomsbury); “The Girl and the Bicycle” by Mark Pett (Simon); “I Spy in the Sky” by Edward Gibbs (Candlewick/Templar); “I’m My Own Dog” by David Ezra Stein (Candlewick); “Little Humans” by Brandon Stanton (Farrar); “Nana in the City” by Lauren Castillo (Clarion); “Shh! We Have a Plan” by Chris Haughton (Candlewick); “This Book Just Ate My Dog” by Richard Byrne (Holt); “Tugboat” by Michael Garland (Holiday); and “Two Tough Crocs” by David Bedford, illustrated by Tom Jellett (Holiday).

Selection criteria, annotations, tips for using the books, and more are available at A Baker’s Dozen website.

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, sponsored by Penn State’s University Libraries, is one of 51 similar organizations nationwide established by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Its mission is to study, honor, celebrate and promote books, reading, libraries and literacy to the citizens and residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

For more information, visit The Pennsylvania Center for the Book website or contact Caroline Wermuth, outreach coordinator, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, at 814-863-5472.

Stern Cahoy wins Best Article of the Year award

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Education Librarian Ellysa Stern Cahoy was recently announced winner of the Best Article of the Year by portal: Libraries and the Academy, for “Personal Library Curation: An Ethnographic Study of Scholars’ Information Practices,” which she co-authored with research anthropologist Smiljana Antonijević. This recognition gives each author a cash prize of $250 and a plaque from the Johns Hopkins University Press.

The article focuses on the research outcomes from a 2012 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant of $143,000 that investigated how faculty create and manage personal information collections. It details results of ethnographic interviews with Penn State faculty across the sciences, humanities and social sciences on their scholarly research practices. The results showed that faculty most often faced difficulties when finding and accessing new information, and when organizing and archiving research articles and other significant data or artifacts.

Announcing the award, portal: Libraries and the Academy editor Marianne Ryan noted, “Volume 14 of portal is a very strong collection of content; the competition for this selection was stiff. In judging the articles, the committee applied portal’s stated criteria of sound research methodology; the extent to which an article places library issues within a broader academic context; the quality of the writing; originality; and timeliness. All of the articles nominated, of course, meet or exceed these basic criteria, since they were chosen for publication in portal in the first place.” Ryan said that Stern Cahoy’s article stood as it demonstrated excellence in all categories, and best met the criteria of significant contribution to the literature and advancement of knowledge. The award will be presented in person at the Annual ALA Conference in San Francisco, in June.

Libraries hold annual award presentation

Libraries staff and faculty recognized for their outstanding work were honored at a reception recently in Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library. Barbara Dewey, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications, introduced the recipients and presented the awards. Honored at the event were:

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University Libraries Award: Bonnie Imler, head Librarian, Robert E. Eiche Library, Penn State Altoona

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Margaret Knoll Spangler Oliver Libraries Award: Megan Mac Gregor, information resources and services support specialist, Wilkes-Barre Nesbit Library, and Verne Neff, manager, Collection Maintenance and the Annexes

Awards2015_Berray_4458 (1) Awards2015_Smith_4456University Libraries Diversity Award: Mohamed Berray and Rachel Smith, Libraries Diversity Residents

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University Libraries Teaching Award: Amanda Clossen, learning design librarian

 

May Events

Thursday, May 21 2:00-3:30 pm: The University Libraries Diversity Committee presents the 2015 Diversity Research and Programming Colloquium on  and on MediaSite Live in Foster Auditorium . Faculty and staff from throughout the Libraries will discuss their diversity related projects. Please join us!

 

** Also see “Training and Enrichment Opportunities” for additional staff events.

LHR News

submitted by Wendy Stodart

Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

 Part-time:

Maria Landschoot    Bednar Intern, Social Sciences Library

Sun Son    Bednar Intern, Research Hub

Tech Tip: Track and Review Changes in Microsoft Word

To turn Track Changes on or off in a Word document, switch to the Review toolbar and click the Track Changes button (or press Ctrl+Shift+E). When it’s turned on, Word automatically marks all of the changes made to the document. Formatting changes are noted in balloon text in the right column.

When multiple people work on a document with Track Changes turned on, different peoples’ changes are marked in different colors so it’s easier to tell who did what. To find out which person made the change, just hold the pointer above a change for a moment to display a popup showing the author, date, and type of the change. All changes in the document (including formatting changes) are also marked with a vertical bar outside the left margin to make it easier to scan for changes.

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At some point, you’ll need to review changes and decide whether to accept or reject them. Word provides a couple of ways to do this:

  • Toolbar. The reviewing options are on the Tracking and Changes sections of the Review toolbar. Use the Previous and Next buttons to move through changes in the document. Use Accept to make a change permanent and move automatically to the next change. Use Reject to revert to the original text or formatting.
  • Context menu. You can also right-click any change to open a context menu with options for accepting and rejecting changes. I actually like this way the best because I’m usually hovering with my pointer anyway in case I need to make any last minute corrections. Since I’m usually reading the document as I review changes, using the context menu seems to interrupt my reading flow the least.

You can also accept or reject multiple changes at once by selecting text and using the buttons on the toolbar. For example, you might prefer reading a whole paragraph at a time, selecting that paragraph, and then accepting all the changes that has several changes throughout it and then deciding to accept (or reject) all the changes in the paragraph. Unfortunately, you can’t use the context menus this way because, for some reason, the reviewing options do not appear if any of the selected text is not a marked change.

submitted by Ryan Johnson