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
Welcome to Open Access Week!
What is Open Access?
Open access is an international effort to see free and open online access to information and resources (both scholarly and otherwise). According to International Open Access Week, a publication is considered open when there are no monetary, legal, or technological barriers to access. When people can read, download, copy, distribute, print, and search within information freely, or use it for educational purposes, the information is considered open.
Why is Open Access Important?
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), a huge proponent for open access, believes that open access is important because “to further the development of knowledge, people need to have access to relevant literature. But without dissemination, knowledge remains invisible…Open Access is a powerful tool of education by reinforcing people’s information and helping their creativity”.
In addition, the open movement is about more than just reducing the cost of materials for students. Open aims to create a more equitable playing field allowing for the inclusion of diverse voices that have often been shut out of commercial publishing. Advocating for and utilizing open access is a step toward a more socially just society.
For an overview of open access watch this video from PHD Comics:
To learn more about the greater open access movement visit SPARC https://sparcopen.org/open-access/ or International Open Access Week https://www.openaccessweek.org/
Want to know more about Pennsylvania’s efforts in affordable learning? Visit Affordable Learning PA https://www.affordablelearningpa.org/
For more information about open educational resources and the Library’s Affordable Learning Implementation Grant visit https://guides.library.scranton.edu/OER
Pharos System update completed
The Pharos printing system update is complete and all printing is available.
Pharos system update – Tuesday, October 10
The Pharos printing system will receive an update on Tuesday, October 10, around 9:00am. The update is expected to require less than one hour of downtime. We will post again if there are any issues that require longer downtime, and will also post when the update is complete and tested.
Royal Search is back online
The issue affecting Royal Search and several other services has been resolved. Everything appears to be functioning normally now.
If you notice any further issues, please contact Library Systems at library-systems@scranton.edu.
Royal Search is currently down
The library’s Royal Search system is currently down. This is a system-wide issue. The vendor is aware of the issue and is working on a resolution.
Some EBSCO databases may also be affected.
Publication Finder is not affected by the current outage.
Until the problem is resolved, please use the resources here, including 24/7 chat, phone, and in-person assistance, to reach a librarian for help:
https://www.scranton.edu/academics/wml/ask-librarian.shtml
We will post an update as soon as more information is available.
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.
Reilly Learning Commons printing returns
Printing has been restored to the RLC, thank you for your patience.