Gun Violence Victims and the News Media: Film Screening and Panel Discussion

Join us on Wednesday, October 30 at 5:30pm in Pearn Auditorium in Brennan Hall for a film screening and panel discussion on gun violence victims and their subsequent portrayals in the news. Meet gun trauma survivor Oronde McClain in-person and through The Second Trauma documentary screening. Oronde and other gun violence researchers and survivors will participate in a panel-style Q & A giving their perspectives from their experiences in Philadelphia.

Admission is free and light food and beverages will be provided. Refreshments will be served from 5:30-6pm, followed by the film screening and panel discussion. The event will end at 7:30pm.

Weinberg Memorial Library Honored as 2024 Library of the Year by the Pennsylvania Library Association

The Pennsylvania Library Association has named the Weinberg Memorial Library as the 2024 Library of the Year!

Each year, the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) honors the service of their members, as well as those community volunteers, who go above and beyond the call of duty to support the work of libraries throughout the commonwealth.

The Weinberg Memorial Library’s vision is to promote “an accessible, inclusive, supportive, and welcoming environment where everyone can learn and grow creatively, intellectually, and spiritually.” The library staff embodies this vision in their day-to-day operations, and prides themselves on service to the community, professional development, and service to the Pennsylvania Library Association.

Over the past year and a half, the Weinberg Memorial Library has accomplished much in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. They collaborated with campus groups, offices, and faculty to host a series of films to celebrate Black History, Arab American Heritage, and Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander months for both students and the Scranton community at large. Library staff created new research guides for gender and sexuality and accessibility, and a Statement on Harmful Language to address systemic problems in the Library of Congress subject headings. They also created an Accessibility/Sensory Map to highlight the library’s spaces and features with general accessibility, types of lighting, and noise level. The guide is helpful to all, but particularly valuable to neurodiverse students. From library support for open educational resources to a collection diversity audit focused on children’s books to support the greater Scranton community, and to hiring an outside consultant to review DEI efforts, the Library has demonstrated their ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Deserving of recognition is the Library’s focus on professional development. The Weinberg Memorial Library has been a long-time institutional member of the Pennsylvania Library Association as well as supporting their staff both financially and with time as personal members of the Association. They not only support their own staff, but were a 2023 conference sponsor so that all librarians could have an enhanced experience through coffee and conversation.

Many staff attend, volunteer, and lead within the Association. Sylvia Orner served as conference chair in 2020 and is currently President. Kate Cummings was previously Treasurer on the statewide board of directors and is now serving as Intellectual Freedom Committee Chair. Rebecca Dzikowski is the current Mentorship Subcommittee Chair. Ian O’Hara serves as the College and Research Division grant funds manager and is on the EDI Committee. Sheli Pratt-McHugh was 3rd Vice-President, Membership Committee Chair, and served on the conference committee and EDI committee. Marleen Cloutier was the 2023 Conference Chair for Technical Arrangements and is now the vice-chair elect for the Technical Services Round Table. Melissa Gallo is the treasurer for the Northeast Chapter. As the nominator indicated, “We all individually have gained so much from our time and efforts within and for the Association, and it has collectively contributed to the Weinberg Memorial Library’s ability to serve its community in impactful ways.”

Trail Cleanup–Volunteer Opportunity

The Library will be holding its annual Spring Trail Cleanup on Wednesday, May 1st at 2:30-4:30pm. We’ll meet at the Broadway St. Trailhead, 300 Broadway St. Scranton, 18505, next to the University’s Quinn Athletic Complex. To RSVP, visit RoyalSync.

This is a great volunteer opportunity! If you have questions or need transportation, contact Sheli Pratt-McHugh at sheli.pratt-mchugh [at] scranton [dot] edu.

Alumnus Author: Brendan Deneen, “Alien Uncivil War”, Reading and Q & A

Alumni author Brendan Deneen will be visiting campus Thursday, April 18th at 5:30pm in the Weinberg Memorial Library, Heritage Room.  He will read from his latest book “Alien Uncivil War”, followed by a Q & A!

ABOUT BRENDAN DENEEN

Brendan Deneen is the author of the award-winning coming-of-age novel THE NINTH CIRCLE, the horror novel THE CHRYSALIS, and MORBIUS: BLOOD TIES, an original novel set in the Spider-Man universe for Marvel/Titan. He’s also the author of the bestselling four volume NIGHT NIGHT GROOT picture book series for Marvel; the original middle grade graphic novel GREEN ARROW: STRANDED for DC Comics; the upcoming novel GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: ANNIHILATION for Marvel/Titan; and the upcoming sci-fi romance novel TRACER for Blackstone Publishing. His other graphic novel work includes multiple volumes of FLASH GORDON, an original ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS book, a CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST reboot, PHOENIX (with Jim Krueger), SOLARMAN (a reboot of a Marvel/Stan Lee series), SCATTERBRAIN, and two upcoming graphic novels, THE BONES OF THE GODS and MORTIMER THE LAZY BIRD. His short stories and essays have been published by St. Martin’s Press, Reader’s Digest Books, 13Thirty Press, and Necro Publications.

Heritage Room wins March Madness Library Edition

Congratulations to the Charles Kratz Scranton Heritage Room on winning our first Library March Madness!! Thank you to everyone who participated! We hope you had fun and learned about many of our great study spaces available in the Weinberg Memorial Library!


Library March Madness Bracket Update

It was a thrilling Sweet Sixteen competition for Library March Madness! Here’s who will be competing in the Elite Eight!

The Second Floor High/Low Tables vs. The Brody Chairs

The Heritage Room vs. Study Carrels

First Floor Reilly Pods vs. Second Floor Computer Lab

Second Floor Wood Tables vs. Reilly Group Study Rooms

Visit our Instagram Stories (@UofSLibrary) to vote for your favorites after Easter Break!

March Madness: Library Edition

Announcing the very first Weinberg Memorial Library March Madness! We will be holding a competition on Facebook and Instagram Stories to vote for your favorite spaces, seating types, and desks in the Library! The competition will be fierce! Do you like the Heritage Room? Or Reilly Learning Commons? Do you like the Brody Chairs? Or the big wooden tables on the 2nd floor? Who will take home the prize as the best study spot, seat, or desk in the Library?

Check out the full bracket below and start to decide how you will choose between your most beloved study spaces! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to vote starting in March!

Black History Month Film Series

The Weinberg Memorial Library and the Louis Stanley Brown Black Student Union are proud to co-host a Black History Month Film Series.

Judas and the Black Messiah, February, 7th at 7:30pm, Moskovitz Theater, Denaples Center

The Hate U Give, February 14 at 7:30pm, Moskovitz Theater, Denaples Center

Scranton Stories: Black Voices, February 21 at 6:30pm, Black Scranton Project, 1902 N. Main Ave, Scranton

Cooley High, February 28 at 7:30pm, Moskovitz Theater, Denaples Center

All films are free and open to the public. Dr. Melissa Anyiwo and Dr. Anthony Betancourt will introduce and contextualize the films in the Denaples Center. We hope to see you every Wednesday in February!

 

Open Access Week and Affordable Learning at WML

By now you’ve heard about open access and open and affordable education resources. We also hope you’ve heard how important, transformative, and helpful they can be for students and the community. Open Access Week this year asks us to consider community over-commercialization and at the library, we always have the community in mind. A community with access to information makes more informed choices, is not punished for lacking resources to move beyond paywalls, and has the power to create a more just society. When education is thought of as something for only the privileged few and not a right for all, misinformation is born at rapid rates as we take any information found with easy access as truth, without knowing the entire story. Open-access resources have the potential to remedy the pitfalls of paying for valuable information while establishing a more equitable research field for the community at large.

This is why the University of Scranton’s Weinberg Memorial Library supports the adoption of open and affordable education resources in our classrooms and across our campus. According to the College Board’s Annual Survey of Colleges, undergraduates at private 4-year nonprofit universities spend an average of $1,240 per year on textbooks. Numerous studies suggest that the high cost of textbooks leads many students to forgo purchasing course texts, which can affect students’ participation and success within the course.

One of the ways we at the library are supporting affordable and open learning is through our Affordable Learning Implementation Grants, open to all members of campus who teach a course to consider implementing OER in their classroom. The deadline for submission is December 1st, 2023. Additionally, check out our OER LibGuide for a wealth of resources to see just how easy it can be to utilize open and affordable learning tools in your courses. More information can be found at the following links:

 

https://guides.library.scranton.edu/OER

https://www.scranton.edu/academics/wml/infolit/oer-grants.shtml

Heritage Hunt–Sign up Now!

First year students, join us at the Library for the Heritage Hunt! As part of New Student Orientation, incoming first-year students participate in the Library’s Heritage Hunt. The Heritage Hunt is an interactive introduction to the Library and its resources. First-year students must register for a time slot to participate and receive credit. There are a limited number of sessions held during the first week of classes. There will be no sessions held after Friday, September 1, 2023.

Visit our webpage for more information and to sign up!