On October 22nd, Northeast Pennsylvania native Michael Greenberger, who served with the Clinton Administration, discussed new developments in U.S. terrorism enforcement.
And on October 27th, Goodwin Cooke, Professor Emeritus of International Studies at Syracuse University spoke about “China Today: What We Need to Know.”
There’s just one more luncheon scheduled for this fall – Suraya Pakzad, founder and executive director of the Voice of Women Organization, will speak on Monday, November 16 at 12pm. Be sure to contact Kym Fetsko at fetskok2@scranton.edu if you’d like to attend!
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.
The Weinberg Library’s Green Team met yesterday to talk over some new ideas and projects. Here’s a taste of what we have in store for the next few months:
Keep an eye out for a new water bottle filling station in our 24 hour space…
…where you can use your custom-designed Weinberg Memorial Library reusable water bottle.
Mark your calendar for Earth Week 2011. The Library will be celebrating with our first ever environmental art show and a recycled material craft night.
Everyone loves the new double-sided printer in the new 24-hour space. No guarantees, but we’re working on getting another one for the Pro Deo room.
Recycling should be easy… so we’ll be adding some holders by our bins to remind you to remove your bottle caps before recycling any plastic bottles.
Many thanks to all of the students, faculty, and staff who have been giving us suggestions on making the Library greener!
We’ve heard from a few students lately about not being able to access my.scranton from their Android phones. When they try to log in, they get an error message that looks like this:
uPortal Error
Sorry, but uPortal encountered an error that is preventing it from rendering. The error must be corrected by system administrators. Try again later.
We talked to our friends over in the University’s Planning and Information Resources office, and they said that the problem isn’t the Android OS but Chrome — so if Android users download Firefox as their mobile browser instead, they should be able to get into my.scranton just fine. Spread the word, Android owners! And thanks for the tip, PIR!
Too often, we see students printing out page after page of PowerPoint lecture slides, with just a few words on each page. Why not save money AND save paper by printing multiple slides per page?
The Weinberg Library Green Team will be posting these fliers (printed on reused paper, naturally) around our computer labs to remind all of our students and patrons to be conscious of how much they’re using. If you have any trouble with mutiple-slide printing, just ask for help at the Reference Desk!
We’ve had a lot of good times in our Technology On Your Own Terms series this fall. Bonnie taught us how Google search works; Tim showed us how we could make collaborative drawings in Docs. We even made our own custom maps in Google Maps. But before the Fall 2010 series to comes to an end, you still have one more chance to learn a little more about Google products and services.
On Thursday, November 4 from 12pm-1pm, CTLE’s Eugeniu Grigorescu will teach our last Fall workshop, titled Does Google Give You A Voice? He’ll guide you through an exploration of Google Voice, a recently-made-public service of the search giant. Google Voice offers one central phone number, which can be setup to call your other phones based on caller, time of day, etc. Other features of the service include visual voicemail, personalized greetings, voicemail transcription, international calling, and a lot more. It is easy to set up… Learn how!
As usual, we’ll be in WML 306. Remember, all faculty and staff members are welcome, but seats are limited – so please register for sessions you plan to attend at www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration (select Special Event).
The Weinberg Memorial Library has been working hard lately to make sure that our building is as sustainable as possible. We set up a green team, we’ve upgraded our lights with more energy-efficient bulbs, and we’re really pushing recycling.
But the Library faculty and staff have also been chatting lately about the best ways that we can go green in our personal lives. Many of us have started carrying reusable water bottles and coffee mugs instead of using disposable cups. Some of us have switched to buying recycled paper towels and napkins for our homes. The more you think about going green, though, the more confusing it can get. A lot of products these days advertise themselves as green, but which ones are really best for the environment?
Enter GoodGuide, a website created by a University of California-Berkeley professor of environmental policy that rates commonly used products on how environmentally friendly and healthy they are. GoodGuide uses a pretty intense methodology to examine each product, from its contents to the impact of its manufacturing processes. But they also translate that information into scores that are easy for consumers to understand, and their website makes it easy to compare product types across brands. (For example, I compared brands of contact solution – only to find out that the product I’ve been using for years got one of the worst rankings!)
GoodGuide's picks for the best and worst toothpastes
GoodGuide is a “B Corporation,” which means that it’s a for-profit company that has made a public commitment to environmentalism and social justice. The company makes money by selling its analysis results back to manufacturers or retailers who want to use it for market research or to improve their products (see this recent Newsweek article on GoodGuide’s business strategy). So their business depends on the accuracy of their information, which makes me feel a little more comfortable trusting their website. I also like that if you want more information about a product, you can drill down to see how GoodGuide assigned its score and get details on how the ingredients and life cycle assessment were judged. And of course I’m excited to try GoodGuide’s free iPhone app – you can scan barcodes of products to get environmental ratings on the go, while you’re shopping.
So take a second to search for some of your favorite brands – you might find that a greener option is just another step down the grocery aisle!
This Health Care Reform Panel Discussion will be held on Monday, October 18 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the DeNaples Center on the campus of The University of Scranton. The discussion will feature nationally known speakers Douglas Hastings, Mark Lutes, and Adam Solander, who will look at the issue from four perspectives: the employer, the consumer, the medical professional and the underwriter.
Douglas Hastings is the Chair of the Board of Directors for Epstein Becker & Green P.C. and is a member of the firm’s Health Care and Life Sciences practice in Washington D.C. Mr. Hastings provides a wide range of health care organizations with legal guidance in responding to the challenges and opportunities in the rapidly changing U.S. health care system.
Mark Lutes is a senior member of EpsteinBeckerGreen’s health law practice. He counsels health insurers on reform and compliance issues, and a variety of health care businesses about reimbursement issues and regulatory trends. He has led multidisciplinary teams developing and implementing regulatory and public policy strategies for health care companies.
Adam Solander recently joined EpsteinBeckerGreen from the ERISA Industry Committee where he was Health Policy Counsel. He worked on behalf of Fortune 500 employers concerned with legislative and regulatory developments affecting their employees’ welfare benefit plans. He counseled employers on the impact of health reform legislation and emerging regulation.
The cost for the event is $10 for Chamber members and Schemel Forum members and $15 for all other attendees. A continental breakfast will be served. Please RSVP to Karen Durkin by October 13 at 570-342-7711 or kdurkin@scrantonchamber.com, or visit the Secure Registration page of www.scrantonchamber.com.
October is GLBT History Month, and the Scranton Inclusion student group will be celebrating the achievements of GLBT icons throughout history. If your interest is piqued by the flyers you’ll be seeing around campus, why not stop by the Library to learn a little more about GLBT history?
Image courtesy of Lars Ploughmann, under a Creative Commons license
Our Technology On Your Own Terms series continues on Tuesday, October 12 from 12pm – 1pm in WML306 with a workshop titled Get Where You’re Going with Google Maps, taught by digital services librarian Kristen Yarmey:
Many people know that you can use Google Maps to get driving directions from one place to another. But did you know that you can also use Maps to scope out a vacation destination, find the closest Italian restaurant, or make a custom map for a friend or a project? In this workshop, you’ll explore specialized features and tools available in Google Maps to help you get where you want to go.
Remember, all faculty and staff members are welcome, but seats are limited, so if you plan to attend, please register at www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration (select Special Event). Hope to see you there!
