You are cordially invited to attend the Weinberg Library/Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence award ceremony that will be held Thursday, May 8, 2014 at 2:30pm in the Library’s Heritage Room. The winner of the CTLE’s Rhetorical Analysis Competition and the winners of the Library Research Prize will be honored. A reception will follow.
The Weinberg Memorial Library’s got a brand new cloud – and unlike Mick Jagger’s, on ours, not even two terabytes are a crowd.
Thanks to our new partnership with DuraCloud, the master files from our digital collections are now being preserved in a more robust repository, where we can monitor the health of our bitstreams, discover and repair any corruption or damage, and automatically back everything up offsite in Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier cloud storage.
This is a pretty important step up for us. Since our beginnings in 2008, our digital collections have expanded from 0 to 1.75 terabytes (that’s about 1,792 gigabytes!), with no signs of stopping anytime soon. At that scale, it was getting difficult for us to manage our own local and remote backups, and we were quickly running out of local storage space. The move to DuraCloud not only smooths out our workflow, it also gives us plenty of room to grow for the future.
As an added bonus, thanks to interoperability between DuraCloud and our Archive-It web archiving service, all of the web content that we capture for preservation from University-related sites will be automatically backed up in DuraCloud, too.
All of these changes are on the back end, so users won’t notice any difference – you can still search and browse our digital collections at www.scranton.edu/library/digitalcollections.
During the month of May, the Weinberg Memorial Library is hosting its annual Faculty Scholarship Exhibit in the Library’s 5th floor Heritage Room. The exhibit features books and articles produced by University of Scranton faculty members since 2011. The exhibit, organized by academic department, provides an overview of the diversity and quality of scholarly accomplishments by the University’s faculty. Please take a few minutes to visit the exhibit. For further information please contact Michael Knies, Special Collections Librarian, 570-941-6341.
One of our ongoing projects at the Weinberg Memorial Library is thinking about and planning for the future. Our WML+10 project is an attempt to envision what the Library’s building, collections, staff, and services will look like in 10 years. Working with representatives from the Library Advisory Committee, we’ve drafted a report summarizing our discussions so far, and we’re now looking for broader feedback from the University community.
If you’re interested in the future of the Library, please take some time to review our progress report and share your thoughts with us. We’re holding an Open Forum on Friday, May 9th from 12pm-1pm in the Heritage Room (please RSVP to kym.fetsko@scranton.edu) to begin the discussion, but if you can’t make it, please send questions, comments, suggestions, and concerns to us via email at digitalcollections@scranton.edu. We look forward to incorporating your input into our vision!
You may have seen the article in the April 28th issue of Aquinas about the changes coming to the Reilly Learning Commons. In addition to collaborative spaces, high-end computers and larger study surfaces, there will be additional group study rooms, a lecture capture room and CTLE Writing Center satellite service. You may be wondering what will happen to the furniture that is now located in this first floor room. We are looking throughout the building to match places where a person might enjoy studying or sitting that currently do not have seating. If you have some suggestions, please email reference@scranton.edu
The Library will be hiring new TechCons, student work study positions, to provide technical support to students within the new Reilly Learning Commons. The Learning Commons will open in August on the first floor of the Library.
TechCons (technology consultants) are highly skilled student workers who are technology savvy, self-driven, reliable, and able to work independently as well as in a team environment. They work approximately ten to twelve hours each week, with flexible scheduling, and gain valuable real-world experience and training.
The Learning Commons TechCons will:
Apply Online and be sure to select Learning Commons when selecting the job that you are applying.
Please join us on Friday May 2, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 305 of the Weinberg Memorial Library for a free presentation of the Mauritanian/French drama Waiting for Happiness. Dr. Annie Hounsokou will lead an engaging discussion following the film.
New Yorker Films describes Waiting for Happiness as the story of the diverse people of the small transit city of Nouadhibou in Mauritania which serves as a resting stop for people from all over the world. The lives of its inhabitants are pared down to two basic choices: adaptation or exile. In the latter category is Abdallah, a citified college student who temporarily returns home and, unable to speak or dress like a native, becomes painfully, comically alienated. Opposed to him is Khatra, an alert, curious boy apprenticed to the wizardly local electrician, who demonstrates how apparent oppositions (such as magic and technology, tradition and modernity) might be reconciled through improvisation and patience. Waiting for Happiness spins its overlapping stories and intersecting characters into a prismatic cascade of enigmas, epiphanies, deadpan gags, and haunting images: a light bulb glowing in the middle of the desert, a low window disclosing passersby from the knees down, huge ships bobbing in the offshore haze with the tantalizing promise of distant happiness.
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako Waiting for Happiness is in French and Hassanya with English subtitles.
This event is open to faculty, staff, students and the public. Please email sharon.finnerty@scranton.edu for reservations.
Please join us in the Heritage Room tonight from 5-7PM to admire this year’s Environmental Art Show submissions. Light refreshments will be served.
ATTENTION: GRADUATING SENIORS
2014 University of Scranton Teacher of the Year Award
Each year the Graduating Senior Class selects its “Teacher of the Year.” Beginning Monday, April 28th, please vote for the faculty member who you believe best exhibits the following characteristics:
The award will be presented during Class Night on Friday, May 30th, 2014.
HOW TO VOTE: To cast your electronic ballot, access www.scranton.edu/toy
WHEN TO VOTE: Monday, April 28th, 9:00 a.m. – Friday, May 2nd,5:00 p.m.
Remember a Faculty Member Whose Teaching Has Inspired You!
(Posted on behalf of our CTLE colleagues)
