Apply Now for the Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize

The Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize

Are you working on a research project in a course this semester? Did you use the library’s resources, services, collections, or spaces in order to complete your research? Then the Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize is for you!

The Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize recognizes 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.

Three prizes of $500.00 each will be awarded to the winning individual student or group in the following categories: Undergraduate Foundational (100-level courses), Undergraduate Upper-level (200- to 400-level courses), and Graduate. If won by a group, the award will be split equally among the group members. All you need to do is write a 500- to 700-word essay describing your research process and how you used the Library in completing the project. Check out our Tips web page for updated advice on how to craft the best 500- to 700-word essay you can about your research. 

The application deadline for projects completed in Summer or Fall 2023 courses is Monday, December 11, 2023 at 4:00 pm.

A statement of faculty support from the instructor who assigned the research project is also required for each submission.

Winners will be announced in May after the deadline for Intersession and Spring projects. Although there are two different dates to submit an application, only one judging will take place.

For additional information on how to apply, what to include in a completed application, and to access the application, visit the Bonnie W. Oldham Library Research Prize page: www.scranton.edu/libraryresearchprize

Bike Lackawanna 2023 Ends Today

The 2023 Bike Lackawanna Season has ended today. We were happy to be participants in this green initiative again this year. Plan to join us again next April!

Job Announcement: Administrative Assistant to the Library / Slattery Center (10-months, full-time)

The Weinberg Memorial Library and the Slattery Center for the Ignatian Humanities are seeking to hire a full-time, 10-months Administrative Assistant who will jointly support the structures and programs of the Weinberg Memorial Library (including Schemel Forum, Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library, Department of Faculty Librarians, and the Hope Horn Art Gallery) and the Slattery Center for the Ignatian Humanities.

The position will be advertised until November 15, 2023, or until a qualified candidate is hired.

To apply for this position, please visit: https://universityofscrantonjobs.com/postings/7143 

Find Library Spaces Now Available to Provide Accessibility and Sensory Information for Library Study Spaces!

The Weinberg Memorial Library’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility (DEIA) committee in collaboration with the Library Systems department is pleased to announce our sensory and accessibility map of our library spaces. In recognition of the ever increasing diversity of our population of Library users, the committee recognized the need for our users to be able to have a clearer picture of what our Library spaces provide and how our Library spaces may meet their specific needs. In the Spring and Summer of 2023, the DEIA committee membership audited and collected accessibility and sensory data for each study space in the library. The committee then examined what both our peer institutions and Libraries at many larger institutions were doing in order to provide this information in an accessible and understandable format. We settled on a few specific design ideas we wanted to emulate.The committee then turned our findings over to Library Systems Coordinator & Developer Jennifer Galas, whom created an interactive web application which includes photos of our Library spaces, coupled accessibility, and sensory information for each of the study spaces within the Library. This web application is also linked to our study room reservation system, so users can find a space that suits their needs based on the information within the application and then immediately reserve that specific study room if it happens to be one of our reservable spaces. Find Library Spaces can be accessed via the library homepage by clicking on the button labeled “Find a Study Space” on the right-hand side of the page. You can also find links to it on the Library SPaces page, and the Library’s DIversity Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility page.

An image of the Library homepage with the Find Study Spaces button on the right hand side of the screen highlighted with a black rectangle and pointed to with a black arrow

Find Library Spaces was intentionally designed for all users of our library to be able to find the ideal study space that meets their learning needs. The Find Library Spaces application features a number of filters that can help users limit to a preferred lighting type, find a space that has  specific furniture available, or look for a study space that is quiet and distraction free. Each space has associated icons that notate access to power, wheelchair accessibility, and noise level demonstrated by a loudspeaker icon with varying degrees of sound waves to indicate more or less noise typically found in that space. Users should keep in mind that noise level information may change depending on semester dynamics, such as during finals week when the library is quite crowded.

 

It is a priority for Library faculty, staff, and administration to continually provide an environment of inclusivity, accessibility, and belonging and the Find Library Spaces application provides another tool for students to access in order to meet their specific learning needs within the Library environment. The Library DEIA Committee is currently comprised of Prof. Kate Cummings, Research & Instruction Librarian for Business; Prof. Colleen Farry, Digital Services Librarian, Prof. Sheli Pratt-McHugh, Research & Instruction Librarian for Technology & Outreach, and Library Department Chair; Prof. Ian O’Hara, Research & Instruction Librarian for Health Sciences; Sharon Finnerty, Media Resources Coordinator; and Kevin Kocur, Interlibrary Loan Coordinator. The committee would also like to thank Mackenzie Machell, G ’23, who served as a student representative on the committee during the work on this project, and Jennifer Galas for her collaboration and development expertise in implementing the Find Library Spaces application.

Uniprint is back online

Printing is now available to users. The Uniprint system experienced a minor issue that required a reboot of all systems tied into the service.

Uniprint currently unavailable

The Uniprint system is currently offline and unavailable to users. All steps are being taken to work through this issue and have the Uniprint system back online in a timely manner.

Affordable Learning Implementation Grants for Faculty – Applications are open for Spring/Summer 2024

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

Affordable Learning aims to reduce the financial burden on students by eliminating expensive for-cost textbooks and course materials with no-cost or low-cost educational resources. OER stands for Open Educational Resources, which includes online textbooks, media, and other materials freely available and can be remixed/reused for educational purposes. For the Affordable Learning Implementation Grants, faculty may opt to use existing OER and open-source software or may compile course materials from open access e-books and journals or appropriately licenses Library materials to replace all, or some, of their for-cost course materials.

For a list of links to available OER and appropriately licensed Affordable Learning resources, visit the Library’s OER Research Guide. Please visit the Affordable Learning Implementation Grants web page for more information and reports from previous recipients.

The library will award up to four $1,000 Affordable Learning Implementation Grants for Spring/Summer courses.

Application Deadline: Friday, December 1st, 2023

For more information and the application form, visit the Affordable Learning Implementation Grants web page.

Open Access Week and Affordable Learning at WML

By now you’ve heard about open access and open and affordable education resources. We also hope you’ve heard how important, transformative, and helpful they can be for students and the community. Open Access Week this year asks us to consider community over-commercialization and at the library, we always have the community in mind. A community with access to information makes more informed choices, is not punished for lacking resources to move beyond paywalls, and has the power to create a more just society. When education is thought of as something for only the privileged few and not a right for all, misinformation is born at rapid rates as we take any information found with easy access as truth, without knowing the entire story. Open-access resources have the potential to remedy the pitfalls of paying for valuable information while establishing a more equitable research field for the community at large.

This is why the University of Scranton’s Weinberg Memorial Library supports the adoption of open and affordable education resources in our classrooms and across our campus. According to the College Board’s Annual Survey of Colleges, undergraduates at private 4-year nonprofit universities spend an average of $1,240 per year on textbooks. Numerous studies suggest that the high cost of textbooks leads many students to forgo purchasing course texts, which can affect students’ participation and success within the course.

One of the ways we at the library are supporting affordable and open learning is through our Affordable Learning Implementation Grants, open to all members of campus who teach a course to consider implementing OER in their classroom. The deadline for submission is December 1st, 2023. Additionally, check out our OER LibGuide for a wealth of resources to see just how easy it can be to utilize open and affordable learning tools in your courses. More information can be found at the following links:

 

https://guides.library.scranton.edu/OER

https://www.scranton.edu/academics/wml/infolit/oer-grants.shtml