Category: News

The Weinberg Memorial Library is pleased to offer $1,000 Affordable Learning Implementation Grants to successful faculty applicants.

What is Affordable Learning?

Affordable Learning aims to reduce the financial burden on students by replacing expensive for-cost textbooks and course materials with no-cost or low-cost educational resources. For the Affordable Learning Implementation Grants, faculty may opt to use existing open educational resources (OER), open-source software, open access e-books or journals, or appropriately licensed Library materials to replace all, or some, for-cost course materials.

Accepted applications can also use an additional fund (up to $200) to purchase library materials not currently owned. If you are interested in purchasing new material, please contact Sylvia Orner (sylvia.orner@scranton.edu) prior to submitting your application to ensure that appropriate licensing options are available.

If you are interested in learning more about OER, please visit the Library’s OER Research Guide.  For more information about the Affordable Learning Implementation grants, including reports from previous recipients, please visit the Library’s webpage.

To apply…

Fill out the Application Form.

Awards

The library will award up to four $1,000 Affordable Learning Implementation Grants for Fall/Intersession courses. The Implementation Grants do not need to fund purchasing course materials. The grants are faculty incentive stipends that are subject to taxes. For joint applicants, the stipend will be divided.

A group of Library faculty and teaching faculty representatives will review all applications. The multidisciplinary judging panel will use a rubric that can be found on the OER Research Guide.

Upon completion of the course, recipients must submit a report documenting the impact that the Affordable Learning Implementation Grant had on their section(s) and whether they will continue to use Affordable Learning or OER materials for future classes. Final reports must be submitted to the Dean of the Library and will be published on the Library’s website.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please consult with the librarian liaison to your department to help you prepare your proposal. For more information, contact the Committee at affordablelearning@scranton.edu.

Application Deadline: Friday, April 28, 2023

The Library is proud to host, in cooperation with the Department of English and Theatre, Alumna Author Liz Alterman. Since graduating from The University of Scranton with a B.A. in English, Liz has published three well-received books.

On March 30th, at 5:00 pm in the Charles Kratz Scranton Heritage Room (Library 5th Floor), Liz will deliver a reading from one of her works and answer questions. Liz will also discuss her time working as a journalist and freelance writer. We hope you can join us!

The event is open to the community, and light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP here: Alumna Author Liz Alterman

 

Please join us during Open Education Week for Coffee and Conversations on Affordable Learning.  The OER Committee will be hosting drop-in sessions on Thursday, March 9 (1pm-3pm)  and Friday, March 10 (11:30 am-12:30pm) on the 2^nd floor of the Weinberg Memorial Library (WML 202).  Coffee and cookies will be served.

Feel free to stop in any time during those hours to ask questions or to learn more about the Library’s Affordable Learning initiatives including Affordable Learning Implementation grants and our new open access publishing agreements with Cambridge University Press and the American Chemical Society.

We are also pleased to announce that applications for Affordable Learning Implementation grants are now being accepted for courses to be taught in the Fall 2023 or Intersession 2024 semesters.  All faculty members are welcome to apply, and applications will be accepted until Friday, April 28^th.    Please see the Library’s website for more information or click here to apply.

On Sunday, February 26 from 2:00pm – 3:00pm, Information Technology will be performing maintenance on the Virtual Desktop environment. During this time, thin clients in campus labs and the Library will be unavailable, and connections to https://remote.scranton.edu will also be unavailable.

Labs with regular computers will be unaffected.

This maintenance should address the recent campus-wide issue requiring users to log in multiple times.

We will provide an update after the scheduled maintenance period.

In partnership with the Center for Anti-Slavery Studies, the Weinberg Memorial Library has acquired a selection of books and media for the collection. This generous gift from Sherman and Cindy Wooden will be called the Center for Anti-Slavery Studies Collection. The resources include important works on Black Pennsylvanians and will enhance our collection in the areas of Black history and culture, the underground railroad, the abolition movement, and the civil rights movement.

The entirety of this collection can be discovered in our online catalog by keyword searching “Center for Anti-Slavery Studies Collection”. 

The Center for Anti-Slavery Studies (CASS) works to promote historical research, preserve relevant history, and educate the public on the activities surrounding the Anti-Slavery Movement in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Since its founding in 1996, CASS works closely with interested individuals, families, and partner organizations to find the physical documentation and historic sites relevant to the Anti-Slavery Movement in Pennsylvania’s northeast. CASS is housed in a historical 1816 home and the site of the former Silver Lake Bank in Montrose, PA.

Pride, Passion, Promise: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Presidency of the Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S. J.

This Weinberg Library Heritage Room exhibit celebrates the University of Scranton career of Rev Scott R. Pilarz, S. J. (1959-2021) on the 20th the anniversary of his appointment as the 24th President of the University of Scranton in 2003. The exhibit focuses on the dramatic expansion of campus facilities spearheaded by Fr. Pilarz under his 2005-2010 Strategic Plan – Pride, Passion, Promise: Shaping Our Jesuit Tradition.

The exhibit was curated by Special Collections Librarian, Professor Michael Knies with assistance from Digital Services Assistant David Hunisch, Special Collections Assistant Bridget Conlogue, Assistant to the Dean of the Library Kym Fetsko, and Digital Services Librarian, Professor Colleen Farry.

The exhibit will run through April 23, 2023. For more information, please contact Michael Knies at Michael.Knies@Scranton.edu or 570-941-6341

February is Black History Month which offers us a chance to reflect on the contributions African Americans have made to the United States and the history of our country. Here is a short list of films from some of the Library’s streaming media collections that are available to current University of Scranton students, staff and faculty.

The Souls of Black Girls  is an award-winning news documentary that raises the question of whether women of color may be suffering from a self-image disorder as a result of trying to attain the standards of beauty that are celebrated in media images. It features interviews with young women and social commentary on the disconnect between the people in control of mainstream media and the lives of Black girls and women.

I Am Not Your Negro

I Am Not Your Negro is an examination of racism in America through the lens of James Baldwin’s unfinished book, Remember This House. Intended as an account of the lives of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., each of whom James Baldwin personally knew, only a 30-page manuscript of the book was ever completed. Combining Baldwin’s manuscript with footage of depictions of African-Americans throughout American history, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO uses Baldwins words to illuminate the pervasiveness of American racism and the efforts to curtail it, from the civil rights movement to #BlackLivesMatter.

Description from Kino Lorber.

Boss: The Black Experience in Business

From award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson comes a film that examines more than 150 years of African American men and women who have embodied the qualities that are at the heart of the American entrepreneurial spirit.

John Lewis: Good Trouble

A fascinating look at the life and times of U.S. representative and activist, John Lewis. Using interviews and archival footage, the film delivers an intimate account of Lewis’s legacy and contribution to the Civil Rights Movement.

Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom

Go beyond the legend and meet the woman who repeatedly risked her life and freedom to liberate others from slavery. One of the greatest freedom fighters in U.S. history, Tubman was an Underground Railroad conductor, a Civil War scout, nurse, and spy. Directed by Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson and Nicole London, the film is narrated by Emmy® Award-winner Alfre Woodard.

Description from PBS.