Come CELEBRATE the Library’s 20th Anniversary And Get Gifts, Prizes and Information!

When: Thursday, September 13th  10 a.m. – 12 Noon or  1 p.m. – 3 p.m.

and Friday, September 14th 10 a.m. – 12 noon

Where: 24 Hour Room Library First Floor

What gifts, prizes and information?  Our leading database vendors will be on hand to answer your toughest questions and queries.   There will be giveaway gifts and refreshments too!

We will be holding free raffles every 15 minutes for some extra, special prizes:

Leather Portfolio cases

Stainless Steel travel mugs

T-Shirts

Rosewood, 2-GB flashdrive/pen combo

iPod Nano

Barnes & Noble gift cards

Each day there will be a special drawing for a Kindle Fire!

Don’t miss this special opportunity to hear about Library resources from the source:

ProQuest

Ebrary

Springer

SAGE

EBSCO

JSTOR

Oxford University Press

GALE / Cengage Learning

Drop by, stay and talk to the vendors as long as you like.  No reservations are necessary.

Technology on Your Own Terms – Fall 2012 Workshops

On behalf of the Weinberg Memorial Library and the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, we invite University of Scranton faculty and staff to our Fall 2012 Technology On Your Own Terms (TOYOT) workshops. Here’s what we’ve got planned for this semester:

Digital Photography: Part 1
Thomas Leong (CTLE Math Specialist) &
Brian Snapp (Associate Director of CTLE, Instructional Designer)
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 – 12PM-1PM in WML305

How serious are you about your digital photography? Which device or camera fits your needs?
Brian Snapp and Tom Leong from the CTLE will provide an overview to help you make these decisions. In this workshop there will be a short review of current digital devices and common uses; best practices for taking digital pictures including subject, lighting, composition and shutter speed; and creative uses in digital photography. A light lunch will be provided.

Digital Photography: Part 2
Sheli McHugh (Cataloging and Metadata Librarian)
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 – 12PM-1PM in WML305

Traditional photo-sharing sites, like Flickr and Picassa, have been studied in previous Technology on Your Own Terms sessions. In this session, we will explore the next generation of digital photo sharing with apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic; the photo blogging site Tumblr; and the virtual/visual bulletin board, Pinterest. Sheli McHugh, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian, will provide an overview and introduction to these sites, while demonstrating their various features and functions. A light lunch will be provided.

Both sessions are open to all University faculty and staff, but seats are limited, so please let us know you are coming You can register at www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration – under Technology on Your Own Terms.

Rescheduled Downtime Alert for Alexander Street Press VAST Collection

The originally scheduled maintenance for the Alexander Street Press VAST Collection for Sunday, August 19th, has been rescheduled to Wednesday, August 22, 2012, between the hours of 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm EST.

Alexander Street Press apologizes for the short notice and for any inconvenience this may cause.

Pinterest, Posterity, and the 125-Year History of the University of Scranton

 

This summer, we’ve been experimenting with new ways of displaying and sharing all of the interesting items from the University Archives that we’ve uploaded into our digital collections. With the University’s 125th anniversary coming up next year, we’re especially looking for fun ways to share our campus history with University of Scranton students, alumni, and friends.

The Library’s Digital Services department has been putting together Pinterest boards to highlight some of our favorite photographs – and even our favorite Aquinas headlines – from the last 125 years. We’re still experimenting, so check out our pins and let us know what you think!

Follow Me on Pinterest

Letterpress Library Christmas Card

It may be 90 degrees outside today, but we’re too excited to wait until December to share our latest project – letterpress printing our Library Christmas card!

Back in 2010, the Zaner-Bloser Company donated a rich collection of 19th and early 20th century penmanship materials to the University of Scranton Weinberg Memorial Library’s Special Collections.  In addition to original artwork by the masters of the Golden Age of Penmanship, the collection also includes some of the printing blocks used to publish their work.

We’ve partnered with Samantha Urbanick of Clarks Summit-based letterpress studio Hand Deliver Press to put some of those printing blocks back in action.

Our first project, the Library’s 2012 Christmas card, uses a Zaner-Bloser printing block from Christmas 1912. The block is based on a pen and ink drawing by master penman E. L. Brown and was used in the publication of the December 1912 issue of the professional penmanship journal The Business Educator.

Check out our photo set and video to see Hand Deliver Press and our Zaner-Bloser block in action!

Samantha Urbanick of Hand Deliver Press, with the Weinberg Memorial Library's first letterpress printed Christmas card

Public Services Librarian to speak at Pages & Places Café

You might know him as our evening Public Services Librarian, but George Aulisio is also a philosopher.  On top of his master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Drexel University, he holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree in Philosophy and Metaphysics from the University of Pennsylvania.

On July 12, he’ll share some of his research on technological determinism, or how technology affects and drives society in different directions, at the Pages & Places Café in the Radisson Hotel’s Platform Lounge.

The Café program begins at 7pm, but you can also come early for a 6pm happy hour. Admission is free. We’ll see you there!

 

 

Library Research Prize Reception

           

The Weinberg Memorial Library held its second annual Library Research Prize Reception yesterday afternoon to honor the winners of the 2012 Library Research Prize.  The prizes were given to one graduate, Colleen Achatz, and one undergraduate student, Stephanie Pisko, who demonstrated exemplary research skills and use of library resources.  The library also presented certificates to two  honorable mentions in the undergraduate category: Allison Carey and Ryan P. Pipan.  Read all about our winning students and their research projects. We are very proud of all of the essays that were submitted and look forward to next year’s Library Research Prize.  Please visit our Flickr page to view all of the photos from yesterdays reception.

2012 Library Research Prize Winners

The Library is pleased to announce our two winners of the 2nd Annual Library Research Prize competition, one in the Undergraduate category and one in the Graduate category.

Congratulations to Stephanie A. Pisko, a senior double major in History and Women’s Studies, whose submission, “Murder and Turmoil: Honor and Crimes of Passion in Two Nineteenth-Century Murder Trials,” was selected as this year’s winner of the prize in the Undergraduate category. Stephanie’s supporting faculty member was Dr. Susan L. Poulson in the History Department.

Stephanie wrote in her essay describing her research process:

Throughout the entire process, the library and the librarians helped me with all my questions, and there were many. […] As an undergraduate I had never taken on extensive research like this before and their guidance was invaluable. From learning to use the microfilm machine to locating articles in a bound journal, the library was there every step of the way. The research skills I gained are as sophisticated and as numerous as those of a graduate student. I feel confident of how to research, how to evaluate scholarly sources, and how to integrate the sources. This research project would not have been of the same quality without the librarians’ extensive knowledge and constant assistance.

Congratulations as well to Colleen Achatz, a student in our Graduate Program in Occupational Therapy, whose submission, Part I: “Evolution of Sensory Integration with Children” and Part II: “Jean Ayres’ Impact on the Past, Present, and Future of Sensory Integration,” was selected as this year’s  winner of the prize in the Graduate category. Colleen’s supporting faculty member was Dr. Rita Fleming-Castaldy in the Occupational Therapy Department.

Colleen wrote in her essay describing her research process:

The resource in the library that most surprised me was the microfilm; I had no idea about it until I learned about it for this assignment. I did not know what the microfilm section of the library even was and I wound up using microfilm for a key portion of my research. The journals in the library were also very helpful. In the past I had only used the databases on the library website to retrieve articles from the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and other journals but it only goes so many years back. I was surprised to see how many years’ worth of journals were physically in the library. I never realized how extensive the resources, tools, and services the library had to offer until this assignment. […] Through this assignment and the research process with the use of Weinberg Library’s resources and services, I learned a significant amount of knowledge in the methods and process of research as well as the importance of research in the profession of occupational therapy. This experience also helped me with my ability to more competently participate in my faculty mentored research course.

The Weinberg Memorial Library inaugurated the prize to recognize excellence in research projects that show evidence of significant knowledge in the methods of research and the information gathering process, and use of library resources, tools, and services. The prize is in the amount of $500 for the winning submission in each category: Undergraduate and Graduate.

In addition to our winners, two students were selected to receive Honorable Mentions in the Undergraduate category: Allison Carey for her submission, “Dynamics of Recent Trade Relationships with China,” and Ryan P. Pipan for his submission, “Much Ado about the Archer-Shee’s: Shakespearean Signatures in Terence Rattigan’s The Winslow Boy.”

Winners will be honored at a reception and awards ceremony on Thursday, May 10, 2012 in the Library’s 5th floor Heritage Room.