“The Way is in the Heart,” an exhibition of publications from the Charles S. Prebish Buddhism Collection, is on display January 6 to March 6, 2015, in the Franklin Atrium, first floor Pattee Library, Penn State University Park. Charles S. Prebish will discuss his collection, “The Swans came to Penn State too,” on Wednesday, February 4, noon to 1 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

Prebish is professor emeritus of Religious Studies at Penn State, where he served on the faculty from 1971 until 2006. He is also Charles Redd Chair in Religious Studies Emeritus at Utah State University, where he served from January 2007 until December 2010.

His formal training in Buddhist Studies initially centered on early Indian Buddhism, with special attention to the disciplinary literature known as “Vinaya” and the development of the monastic system. At Penn State he became interested in Buddhism’s development on the North American continent. He has published over twenty books and nearly one hundred articles and chapters on Buddhism.

In addition to his research at Penn State, he has been extremely active in a number of professional societies and was one of the initial officers in the International Association of Buddhist Studies. He is the co-founder of the Buddhism section of the American Academy of Religion and is considered a pioneer in the study of western forms of Buddhism.

With colleague Damien Keown, Prebish co-founded the “Journal of Buddhist Ethics.” He and Keown also created a project that focused on creating affordable eTextbooks for courses in Religious Studies. Known as the “Journal of Buddhist Ethics eBook Project,” it has made a major impact on textbook publishing in religious studies.

For more information on the exhibition and talk or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Jackie Esposito at jxe2@psu.edu or 814-863-3791.

“Everything Not Made by Nature Is Design,” an exhibition from the Chip Kidd Archives, on display January 12 through April 24, in The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, features the archives of award-winning graphic designer and Penn State Distinguished Alumnus Charles “Chip” Kidd (’86). Hours are Monday to Thursday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday: 1 to 5 p.m..

With praise like “the world’s greatest book-jacket designer” (from author James Ellroy) and “design demigod” (from “New York” magazine), it is easy to forget that Chip Kidd is still in the prime of his career. The Pennsylvania native was born in 1964 in Lincoln Park, a suburb of Reading. After studying graphic design at Penn State with Distinguished Professor Emeritus Lanny Sommese, Kidd went to work at publishing house Alfred A. Knopf in 1986. Twenty-eight years later, Kidd has designed over a thousand book covers for Knopf and other freelance clients, for authors such as John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, Donna Tartt, Haruki Murakami and Michael Crichton—including the iconic cover of “Jurassic Park.” Kidd is the recipient of numerous awards, notably the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Museum National Design Award, in 2007, and the American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal for lifetime achievement in 2014.

Art by Chris Ware for “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” by Haruki Murakami, 1st American Edition, 1997, published by Alfred A. Knopf, NY; jacket design by Chip Kidd

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A visitor to Penn State University Park will notice the many blue signposts on campus. These Penn State Historical Markers note significant achievements made by Penn State and Penn Staters and are reminders of the University’s role in the history of higher education and in influencing scientific and societal changes. An exhibition of a selection of these markers, “A ‘Marked’ Tradition: Historic Innovations in Science and Technology at Penn State,” is on display in Sidewater Commons, 102 Pattee Library, December 3 through February 19, 2015.

The exhibition focuses on achievements related to STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and medicine. They show Penn State as a global leader in STEM fields. Among the many highlights are atmospheric research, the first-seen atom, biomechanics applied to real-life sports action, the heart-assist pump and more.

Penn State’s libraries specializing in STEM—the Earth and Mineral Sciences Library, the Engineering Library, the Life Science Library and the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library—remain central to the STEM advancements, providing researchers with print and online collections that help them to access critical sources of information.

The exhibition is open during regular library hours, available at 814-865-3063. For more information or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, contact Jenna Gill, exhibits coordinator, at jmk441@psu.edu or 814-865-9406.

“Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves,” an exhibition in the B. and H. Henisch Photo-History Collection Exhibition Room, 201 A Pattee Library, is on display through March 31, 2015.

The exhibition coincides with the publication of a new book by the Penn State Press, “Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves: Vintage American Photographs,” by Ann-Janine Morey, Volume 4, in the series Animalibus: Of Animals and Culture. Books in the Animalibus series share a fascination with the status and the role of animals in human life. Crossing the humanities and the social sciences, these books ask us what thinking about nonhuman animals can teach us about human cultures, about what it means to be human, and about how that meaning might shift across times and places. (full story on Penn State News)

“When I was at Penn State … ,” a Penn State University Archives exhibit, is on display through Jan. 13 in Robb Hall, Hintz Alumni Center.

Whenever two or more Penn Staters gather together, the listener will hear “When I was at Penn State … ,” always followed by a story depicting some aspect of student life. Whether the narrator is describing classes, socials, clubs, activities, friends or sporting events, every Penn Stater has a memory that brings a smile to their face and a twinkle to their eye. This exhibit of photographs from the Penn State University Archives attempts to capture some of those momentous occasions. Among the scrapbooked images, the exhibit features dinks, Lion’s coats, songs, mascots, scraps including pushball and tug-of-war, dances, bonfires, tailgating, class registration, moving in, guarding the shrine, May Day queens, Spring Week flings, student rules, freshman proclamations, military drills and more.

Visit this exhibit and bring your memories of the days when you were at Penn State. Story on Penn State News

“Over There . . . And Here,” an expeditionary exhibition on World War I, is on display September 18 through January 9, in The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, Penn State University Park. Hours are Monday–Thursday, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.; Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.; and Sunday, 1:00–5:00 p.m., through December 21.

The exhibition documents the World War I experience though the rich primary resource collections in the Special Collections Library and includes as a centerpiece World War I patriotic and propaganda posters, now available as a digital collection. Popular sheet music for songs that defined the Great War generation are on display, as well as rare books, pictorial publications, photograph collections documenting the World War I experience at home and abroad. Selections from the “Ernest Hemingway Letters to His Family Collection” highlight the central role that the war played in shaping Hemingway’s worldview and maturation as a writer and intellectual. The impact of the war on Penn State and Centre County is chronicled through photographs and collections contained within the Penn State University Archives.

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A new exhibition, “Exploring Electronic Resources,” is on display through November 30, in the Sidewater Commons, 102 Pattee Library. With more than 700 electronic databases, the University Libraries offer resources serving a wide-range of disciplines and subject areas. This exhibition focuses on those databases that undergraduate students will find useful for writing papers, preparing speeches and other research projects. Among those on display are: Newsbank (Access World News), CAB Abstracts (agriculture, nutrition and global health), PsyINFO (via Proquest) and MLA International Bibliography (literature).

Each framed panel in the exhibition names a resource, outlines its major focus, lists the subject areas and includes an image that offers a quick and easy way to visualize a database’s content.

Services to access information abound in the Libraries, and there are a host of resource listings on the web for undergraduates at www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/infosvcs/undergrad.html as well as publications, such as the Quick Start Guide for Undergraduates and the Guide to the Libraries, available at all service desk. Libraries faculty and staff are also happy to help. The exhibition is open during regular library hours, available at 814-865-3063.

If you were a Chicago Cubs fan you might not want to wear your jersey in certain neighborhoods in Chicago. A New York Times.com article used Facebook baseball team likes to generate a map by zipcode that allows you to zoom into see which neighborhoods to avoid. It also shows that Boalsburg Facebook users are more likely to be Pirate fans while Bellefonte Facebook users are more likely to be Philly fans. The grey everywhere means that you can’t really escape Yankee fans.

Come down to the Donald W. Hamer Maps Library to see our baseball display including historic photos of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia baseball parks and then go online to the map to explore why you can’t see Mets fans or Oakland As fans.

A selection of baseball-related items, including materials from our collections. — photos by Heather Ross

The maps provide a fascinating insight into baseball team allegiances.

Kurosawa’s work has been a source of inspiration to many

“Sumi and Samurai: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Akira Kurosawa,” an exhibition, by Glenn Masuchika, is on display July 3 through September 2, 2014, in the Sidewater Commons, 102 Pattee Library.

Sumi is the black ink used by Japanese artists in calligraphy and cartooning, and the samurai are the famed warrior class of Japan. Information Literacy Librarian Glenn Masuchika notes, “Both are essential elements of the film history of Japan.”

The exhibition is a celebration of two masters of Japanese cinema: Hayao Miyazaki, creator of animated movies such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away and Akira Kurosawa, director of samurai classics such as Seven Samurai and Rashomon. Miyazaki has officially retired, bringing an end to his illustrious career as a beloved animator and director. Kurosawa passed away in 1998. Yet the magic created by each man lives on in their works, whether as images of a gigantic, supernatural, part-badger, part-rabbit creature that protects children from the hardships of human existence or as seven samurai battling dozens of bandits in the freezing rain to protect a poor peasant village.

Penn State’s diverse and extensive movie collection in the University Libraries is a treasure to both film scholars and lovers of the art. The collection has the “greatest hits” of top directors but also lesser-known and obscure films that deserve notice, as demonstrated by this exhibit.

Films in this exhibit as well as many others can be borrowed through The CAT, the online catalog, at www.libraries.psu.edu. At University Park, the films are shelved for browsing as well. Due to building repairs, they are temporarily located in 203 W Pattee Library through August 21, and then they will be moved back to the permanent location in the Music and Media Center, 211W Pattee Library.

Viewers are urged to explore the Libraries’ film collection to discover or rediscover the life’s work of these two masters of the art but also to seek films by other artists, writers, and directors that will bring joy and excitement into their lives.

For more information or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, contact Jenna Gill, exhibits coordinator, at jmk441@psu.edu or 814-865-9406.

photo: Penn State University Archives

“The Power of Agricultural Cooperative Extension: 100 Years of Penn State Service,” an exhibition, is on display June 17 through September 15, in The Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, Penn State University Park. A special lecture, “The Impact of Cooperative Extension at Penn State,” is scheduled for Sept. 3, noon to 1 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

In 1914, Congressman M. Hoke Smith (D-Georgia) and Asbury Lever (D-South Carolina) sponsored legislation to enhance the nation’s land-grant university system created under the Morrill Act in 1862. Signed into law on May 8, the Smith-Lever Act established the cooperative extension system. The system partnered federal, state and county governments with land-grant institutions, such as Penn State, to translate and share scientific information with farmers and in communities across the country and the Commonwealth.

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“Penn State Presidents: Leaders, Innovators and Visionaries,” an exhibit, is on display June 2–September 15, 2014, in Robb Hall, Hintz Alumni Center.

From the earliest days of Evan Pugh’s tenure as President of the fledgling Agricultural College of Pennsylvania through the pioneering days of the newly appointed President Eric Barron, Penn State’s Presidents have been challenged to envision a future featuring academic excellence, superior research, outstanding service to the community and superb opportunities for the institution’s student body. The Presidents highlighted in this exhibit provided vision during the dark times and innovation across decades, and they led the institution toward the heights of achievements each and every time they were challenged to step up and reach beyond the boundaries. Continue reading →

Everything we do changes the future, not the past. We all have a responsibility to do this,” noted Sister Joan D. Chittister, OSB, in her remarks at the recent dedication of the Helen Boyle Memorial Archive in Honor of Joan D. Chittister, OSB at Mercyhurst University in the Hammermill Library in Erie, Pennsylvania. Chittister, an internationally renowned writer and lecturer, is one of the most articulate social analysts and influential religious leaders of this age. In 2013, The Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State, Mercyhurst University in Erie and the Benedictine Sisters of Erie began a collaboration to archive and make accessible books, articles, reviews, presentations, speeches, homilies, interviews and newspaper columns related to her life and work.

Among the displays of photos and archival materials in the Boyle archive are copies of the 50 books authored by Chittister and a number of her hand-written journals. The room also includes a 70-inch screen to allow for an interactive experience. More on the dedication is available at https://www.eriebenedictines.org/story/dedication-helen-boyle-memorial-archive-joan-d-chittister-osb.

“In Support of Sexual Assault Awareness Month,” an exhibit on display through April, aims to make a difference to someone in need who may view it near the service desk of the Education and Behavioral Sciences Library, floor 5 Paterno Library.

The book display highlights authors who have explored the topic and are featured in the Literary and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania available on the Pennsylvania Center for the Book website at http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/.

The works of Ellen Bass and Tobias Wolff and others are showcased alongside excerpts from their texts, quotes from their biographies featured on the map and free informational handouts provided by the Centre County Women’s Resource Center (CCWRC). The exhibit was created by Nicole Miyashiro, copy editor for the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.

For more information or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Nicole Miyashiro at nmm16@psu.edu or Steven Herb at slh18@psu.edu or 814-863-2141.

“No Nobler Effort: Evan Pugh, Penn State’s First President” is on display from January 28 to June 10, 2014, in Robb Hall Exhibit Gallery, Hintz Alumni Center. The exhibit takes a closer look at the remarkable life and achievements of Pugh, a leader and advocate for public higher education, whose life was cut short by typhoid fever at the age of 36.

Pugh was an intellectual giant from Chester County, Pa. who completed his Ph.D. in 1856 and joined the Rothamsted Agricultural Research Station, in England, where his research won him membership to the prestigious London Chemical Society in 1859.

In October 1859, at age 31, Pugh left England to serve as the President of the Farmers’ High School (now Penn State) in Centre County. His goal was to educate new generations of agricultural scientists and conduct practical research in support of American farmers. He was president, teacher, researcher, registrar, bursar, construction superintendent, curriculum organizer, promoter, lobbyist, disciplinarian and procurer of supplies. In 1861, the school produced the nations first graduates (11 students) with a degree in scientific agriculture.

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