Category: News

November is National Native American Heritage Month. This observance commemorates the history, heritage, and culture of Native Americans and Alaskan Natives. It is during this month we acknowledge the vast achievements of America’s original indigenous people. This month is also a time to educate, examine, and raise awareness about the unique challenges and sufferings Native people and communities have faced historically and continue to contend with.

Land acknowledgment is a traditional custom that dates back centuries in many Native nations and communities. Today, land acknowledgments are used by Native Peoples and non-Natives to recognize Indigenous Peoples who are the original stewards of the lands on which we now live.The University of Scranton has officially adopted a Land Acknowledgment Statement to recognize and honor the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Lenape, the Munsee, the Shawnee and the Susquehannocks in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Statement reads:

The University of Scranton acknowledges the original inhabitants and nations of this land: the Lenape, the Munsee, the Shawnee and the Susquehannocks.  May we be ever mindful of their legacy and contributions and commit ourselves to stewarding this land with care and compassion as we navigate our communities towards faith and justice.

The Weinberg Memorial Library faculty, staff, and administration join University President Fr. Marina and the broader university community in acknowledging the land as an act of reconciliation that honors the authentic history of the original people of this territory.The library has chosen to add this land acknowledgement to our website under the “About the Library” section.

The library also wishes to recognize Dr. Adam Pratt, associate professor of history,  and his research students, Peter Burke and Katia Ramirez, for assisting with the development of this statement. The Land Acknowledgement will also be posted on the University’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion website and on the Office of Equity and Diversity’s website. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to read the university land acknowledgement statement at the start of events whenever possible. For more information on land acknowledgement, see the US Department of Arts & Culture’s Honor Native Land.

Our vendor Wiley is currently experiencing some issues with EZproxy and third party linking. For this reason, you may encounter a message reading “This web property is not accessible via this address” when trying to connect to material from the Wiley Online Library from off campus.
Wiley is aware of the issue and is working on restoring service for all.
Thank you for your patience as we await a resolution.

Due to the power outage that happened today, the Pharos printing is down within the library. Signage has been posted. The library is working with IT and Networking are working to fix the problem.

Just in time for Open Access Week, the Library has started a trial for CloudSource OA.  We invite all students and faculty to take a look at this exciting new resource which makes searching for open access books, journals, and open educational resources a breeze.  This new search platform curates and aggregates open access content from leading publishers and scholars around the world in one convenient and easy to use location.

The trial period will last until October 31st, 2021 so please take some time to explore.  You can link to the resource here or visit our A to Z Database list and click on “Trial Databases”.  If you have any questions or feedback about this database, please contact Sylvia Orner (sylvia.orner@scranton.edu).

Thanks to a generous gift from the Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library, the Library recently completed phase 1 of its second-floor renovation plan. The $100,000 gift from the Friends Endowment allowed us to redesign the student area at the top of the grand staircase, refresh and update the open computer lab, and create a Collaborative Teaching Space for Information Literacy Instruction and research consultations. The gift went toward improving the carpeting, lighting, and color palettes as well as a variety of new seating options, writing surfaces, and technology layouts.

Students enjoy the new counter height laptop tables as well as the dining room height tables, with power outlets built-in.

The computer lab area is refreshed with new built-in tables and fewer desktops to provide students with more table space for their course materials and research. The printers and book scanner are conveniently located on the left side of the room, and students have the option of utilizing dual monitors or plugging their personal computer into a library-provided screen.

The new Collaborative Teaching Room provides librarians with another classroom for small group Information Literacy Instruction as well as a new space for librarian-hosted research consultations and meetings.

On behalf of the Library faculty and staff, we wish to express our sincere gratitude for the fundraising efforts of the Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library. The gift from the Friends’ Endowment is a spectacular start toward our overall plan to renovate the second floor.

Network resources, including access to the Internet, will be unavailable campus-wide on Saturday, October 9 from 10am – 2pm EDT, for scheduled maintenance.

This outage includes access to library databases via single sign on, and printing services in the library. Those resources will be unavailable until the network maintenance is complete.

Yes, the Library will be open by swipe over Fall Break. However, on Saturday Oct. 9 the grand staircase and adjoining lobby areas will be re-carpeted. If you plan to use the library on Saturday Oct. 9, please plan to access the building through the door to the Reilly Learning Commons.