Congratulations to our seniors!

The Weinberg Memorial Library would like to congratulate our senior work study students on their graduation! We’re so grateful for all of their hard work, and we’ll miss them all dearly.

The students were honored today with a luncheon, where they received a certificate of appreciation.  Each student also will have a book in their major added to our collection in their honor (ask them which book is theirs!).

Faculty Publications

All are invited to the 2011 Faculty Publications Exhibit, now available at the Weinberg Memorial Library Heritage Room, on the 5th floor of the library, through May 27th.  Come see the wide variety of interests the University of Scranton faculty have studied and written about in the last few years.  These interests have been expressed in scholarly articles, conference presentations, book reviews, essays or chapters in books and sometimes entire books.  For a fun twist, see if you can find the novel in the display.  Let’s celebrate Scholarship Month!  See you in the Heritage Room!

Earth Week 2011 Wrap-up and Green Team First Year in Review

This year marked the second year the library celebrated Earth Week in order to raise awareness about sustainable issues…

Even though I’m happy to report our structural engineering skills have improved from 2010; unfortunately, our sustainable use of paper did not. However, the increase paper usage is likely because all computer labs on campus have eliminated student printing. Considering almost all students (excluding personal printers) were sent to the library to do their printing, its probably safe to say our “paper awareness” and educational outreach efforts  throughout the year had probably payed off.

The good news is that immediately after Earth Week we installed double sided printers throughout the building. Part of the credit for double sided printers should be given to the anonymous student who wrote on our 2010 Earth Week student suggestion page which asked “How should the library Go Green in 2010?”

For Earth Week 2012 we fully expect the paper tower to be a fraction of the size of it’s ancestors thanks to a combination of duplex printing and outreach by the Green Team.

The “wasted paper” display is a tough comparison for a number of reasons. In 2010, we didn’t have the clearly labeled WedgeCycle recycling bins throughout the building and by and large most people weren’t sorting their recyclables. So, paper that otherwise might have ended up in a trash last year is now being properly placed in a paper recycling bin this year. Also, this year we did 10 days worth of recycling whereas last year we did 7 days.

Speaking qualitatively, it would seem that this years “wasted paper” display was an improvement over last years. It was approximately the same amount of paper, but there was no trash mixed in with the paper.

Curbing the amount of wasted paper, unnecessarily duplicated prints, and print jobs left at the printers is definitely a priority for the Green Team.

New for 2011, we had a Craft Night where students, staff, and faculty had a chance to come to the library to make Origami figures out of reused book covers. Pictured above is a display of some of our masterpieces.

This year we hosted our first ever Environmental Art Show as an alternative way to educate about sustainable issues and to reach out to the community. Considering this was our first time hosting an Art Show, we think it turned out pretty good. We are looking forward to see what Environmentally themed art our Students, Staff, and Faculty will have prepared for next years Environmental Art Show! Click the following link for more pictures from the Reception for the Environmental Art Show.

In this poster we displayed all of the library Green Team’s many accomplishments. Some of which include the selling of Reusable Water bottles at the same price it cost us to make them, the installation of a Water Bottle Filling Station, the installation of double-sided printers, tri-colored recycling bins, the adoption of a section of the LHVA’s Heritage trail, collaborating with the Communications department to make Sustainability PSAs which air on our TVs, and collaborating with students for their poster board session at the University’s Sustainability Fair.

The Green Team knows it has a lot of work to do if we are going to to accomplish as much as we did in our first year, but we welcome the challenge!

Environmental Art Show Reception

The Reception for the Environmental Art Show will be held tonight (Monday April 18) from 7 to 9pm. Please come by the Heritage Room (5th floor of the library) for a chance to meet and greet the artists. The Reception is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served at this event.

Second Call for Art

The deadline to submit your Environmental or Sustainability related art is quickly approaching!

Please have your artwork delivered to the library (either the Circulation or the Reference Desk) before Monday April 11!

All types of artwork are invited to be submitted to the Environmental Art Show. The exhibit will run from April 14th to the 21st in the Heritage Room. On Monday April 18th at 7pm there will be a Grand Opening event for a chance to meet the Artists and discuss their work. Refreshments will be served.

For more information about the Environmental Art Show please visit the original blog post: Calling All Artists

Calling All Artists

This year the library will be hosting its first ever Environmental Art Show. The purpose of the art show is to promote sustainability and to raise awareness about environmental issues. The Library Green Team is asking any interested students, staff, or faculty to submit their environmentally themed art.

All types of environmentally themed art are welcome, this includes photography, painting, sculpting, graphic design, altered images, fashion, film art, and any other areas of creativity. Submissions must be environmentally themed. Examples of environmentally themed art include nature scenes, animals, humanity’s effect on the environment, and creative messages about sustainable issues. Any questions about specific themes or ideas could be directed to george.aulisio@scranton.edu. There is no limit on submissions. However, not all submissions will necessarily be displayed.

Submissions are asked to be ready for display (within reason) This means, for example, that photographs and paintings are to be matted or framed, TVs and additional devices for film art will be provided by the library, any artist who has special display needs should contact George Aulisio. The Environmental Art Show will be held in the Heritage room of the library and will coincide with the University’s celebration of Earth week. All artwork will be returned by the end of the semester.

For any additional questions please contact george.aulisio@scranton.edu.

UofS Alum Aided Displaced Persons

If you’ve been on the 5th floor lately, you might have noticed that we have some of our special collections materials on display as part of the When Humanity Fails exhibit being held at the MAC Gallery.  This exhibit “celebrates the American GIs who liberated Europe and helped nurture the survivors of Nazi persecution back to life,” according to Tova Weiss, director of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Holocaust Education Resource Center.

If you’d like to learn more about displaced persons and the aftermath of the Holocaust, be sure to browse our new digital collection on Abe L. Plotkin, a 1935 graduate of St. Thomas College (before it became the University of Scranton) who witnessed the liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp and later became a liaison between displaced persons and their relatives and friends in America.  The fully-searchable collection includes Plotkin’s photographs of Ohrdruf and of Holocaust survivors, as well as his correspondence with friends and contacts in American about his experiences abroad.

You can also see some of Plotkin’s original photographs and letters in the 5th floor Heritage Room display cases, now through November 20.

Helen Suzman Exhibit comes to the Heritage Room

Helen Suzman: Fighter for Human Rights Exhibition
The University of Scranton Weinberg Library Heritage Room
August 31 to October 25, 2010

A traveling exhibit on Suzman’s four decade political career as one of South Africa’s most vociferous and energetic opponents of apartheid.

You are invited to the Opening Reception at 5:30 PM on Wednesday September 15 in The University of Scranton Weinberg Library Heritage Room (5th Floor) featuring a lecture by George Washington University Assistant Professor of Sociology Fran Buntman.   Reception to follow lecture.

Professor Buntman is the author of Robben Island and Prisoner Resistance to Apartheid.  She will be speaking on “Suzman the Pioneer.” The reception is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by The University of Scranton Schemel Forum, the Office of Equity and Diversity, and the Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library.  For more information, please contact Professor Michael Knies at (570) 941- 6341.

400 Years of the Jesuit Province of Lithuania

The Heritage Room in the Weinberg Library will serve as host for the traveling exhibit “400 Years of the Jesuit Province of Lithuania” from July 16 through August 13. The panel exhibit documents the Jesuit presence in Lithuania from their arrival in 1569. By 1579 the Jesuits had founded the University of Vilnius and by its peak, the province had more than 1000 Jesuits, almost 2 dozen schools, and more than 60 Mission stations. The exhibit documents the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, their survival through the 19th century, and the reestablishment of the Jesuit school and province in 1923. The effects of World War II and the Iron Curtain are also examined.

The exhibit is being held in conjunction with Lithuanian Heritage Day at the Anthracite Heritage Museum and is being provided by the Baltic Jesuit Advancement Board. Lithuanian authors who were formerly instructors at the University will also be featured: Sister Virginia Vytell, CSC, Dr. Antanas Kucas and Juozas Venchas S.J.

You are most cordially invited to attend the reception for the Exhibit on Saturday, July 31st from 5-7 pm, Heritage Room, 5th Floor, Weinberg Memorial Library, University of Scranton.