Opening Reception for the Environmental Art Show!

The Library will be hosting its annual Environmental Art Show in conjunction with the University’s celebration of Earth Week. The Exhibit has a grand opening and reception which will be held on Monday April 16 at 7pm to approximately 9pm.

All are welcome to attend.

Please come stop by to admire the Artwork, you will also have the opportunity to discuss the various pieces with the artists themselves. Refreshments and snacks will be served!

Final Call for Art — Environmental Art Show

The Library is still accepting submissions for its annual Environmental Art Show! You now have until Sunday April 15th to bring your Environmentally themed artwork into the library.

The purpose of the Environmental Art Show is to promote sustainability through outreach and artwork. By submitting a piece (or pieces) to the Environmental Art Show you are showing your support for the Environment and letting the local community know that The University of Scranton cares about Sustainability.

Environmental Artwork can be broadly interpreted and includes, but is not limited to: Photographs oil paintings, water colors, acrylics, mixed media, recycled goods. Environmental subjects include, but is not limited to: flowers, nature scenes, trees, animals, environmental degradation and destruction, etc.

I strongly urge you to show your support for sustainability and submit artwork to the Art Show.

Calling All Artists

In honor of Earth Week, the library will be hosting its 2nd Annual Environmental Art Show. The purpose of the Art Show is to promote sustainability and raise awareness about environmental issues. In addition, the exhibit will showcase the talents of the University community. This is an open call for artwork, so any student, staff, or faculty member interested in submitting to the Environmental Art Show is welcome.

All types of environmentally themed art are welcome, this includes photography, painting, sculpting, graphic design, altered images, fashion, and any other area of creativity. Submissions must be environmentally themed. Examples of environmentally themed art include nature scenes, wildlife, humanity’s effect on the environment, clothing made from recycled or re-purposed goods, and creative messages about sustainable issues. For photos from last years exhibit please see our flickr album. Any and all questions should be directed to george.aulisio@scranton.edu. There is no limit on submissions. However, not all submissions will necessarily be displayed. All artwork will be returned by the end of the semester.

Submissions are asked to be ready for display (within reason). This means, for example, that photographs and paintings are matted or framed, any artist who has special display needs should contact George Aulisio. Please bring your submissions to the library’s Reference Desk or Circulation Desk before April 13, 2012.

The Environmental Art Show will be held in the Heritage room and runs from Monday, April 16 until Wednesday, April 25. There will be an opening night reception on the evening of April 16th for a chance to meet the artists and discuss their artwork.

For any additional questions please contact george.aulisio@scranton.edu.

Open Access Simplified

Due to what many consider to be unfair business practices, the Open Access movement continues to grow, but what is Open Access anyway? In order to better understand the movement, the library created an Open Access page on our Research Guides. However, one important thing to keep in mind is that though libraries and librarians are usually the ones asked to explain Open Access (and often run Open Access programs on campus) , the decision to adopt Open Access is a campus wide issue, not one the library can make unilaterally.

On the page you can find a definition of Open Access, its subtle nuances, the various issues, and the multiple roads toward knowledge that is more open and accessible to everyone.

For more on Open Access, check out our previous post “Princeton, Open Access, and the Evolution of Scholarly Communication.”

Princeton, Open Access, and the Evolution of Scholarly Communication

Yesterday, the faculty of Princeton University unanimously voted to adopt a new policy for scholarly publications (PDF). In support of open access, the policy prohibits faculty members from signing away exclusive rights to publishing companies. Instead, the policy assigns to the University a nonexclusive right to copy and provide access to faculty publications. The policy only covers journal and conference articles (not unpublished works, books, or other scholarly works), and faculty members can request that this policy be waived for articles, on a case-by-case basis.  With this vote, Princeton joins a growing coalition of higher education institutions that have enacted open access policies.

What does this mean for the Weinberg Memorial Library?  This increasing support for and interest in open access has a lot of important implications for academic libraries.  Princeton’s new policy (and the media attention it’s getting) may be a harbinger of major change in the world of scholarly communication.  As Karin Trainer, university librarian at Princeton, noted to the Chronicle:

“Both the library and members of the faculty, principally in the sciences, have been thinking for some time that we would like to take a concrete step toward making the publications of our extraordinary faculty freely available to a much larger audience and not restricted to those who can afford to pay journal subscription fees.”

We, too, have high hopes that movement towards open access will make scholarly works more accessible and more affordable for our University community. So tomorrow at our Library Advisory Committee meeting, we’ll be starting a conversation about open access with our faculty members to hear their questions, concerns, and suggestions.

Princeton’s report also points out another significant implication for libraries:

“Although it makes sense to adopt such a policy even if the University does not establish an open-access repository of its own, we believe that the University and its faculty will benefit most from this policy if it does establish such a repository… An open-access policy without a ready means for faculty to post their scholarly articles and an equally ready means of retrieval would be of very limited value.”

In some fields, well-integrated open access repositories already exist – like arXiv.org for physics, math, and computer science. But in other disciplines, especially the humanities, these types of repositories are unusual.  So universities all over the country have started to create their own institutional repositories to host the scholarly works of their faculty and students, and academic librarians with expertise in information organization and preservation have stepped up to create, manage, and maintain them.  Here at the Weinberg, we’ve been thinking about an institutional repository over the past few years – but when we asked our faculty about it, we didn’t hear much demand for that kind of service. Now, after Princeton’s announcement, it seems like a good time to ask again.

To join in our campus conversation about open access, post a comment here or talk with a UofS librarian. We hope to hear feedback from our students, faculty, and community.

Open Access resources:

Faculty Publications

All are invited to the 2011 Faculty Publications Exhibit, now available at the Weinberg Memorial Library Heritage Room, on the 5th floor of the library, through May 27th.  Come see the wide variety of interests the University of Scranton faculty have studied and written about in the last few years.  These interests have been expressed in scholarly articles, conference presentations, book reviews, essays or chapters in books and sometimes entire books.  For a fun twist, see if you can find the novel in the display.  Let’s celebrate Scholarship Month!  See you in the Heritage Room!

Calling All Artists

This year the library will be hosting its first ever Environmental Art Show. The purpose of the art show is to promote sustainability and to raise awareness about environmental issues. The Library Green Team is asking any interested students, staff, or faculty to submit their environmentally themed art.

All types of environmentally themed art are welcome, this includes photography, painting, sculpting, graphic design, altered images, fashion, film art, and any other areas of creativity. Submissions must be environmentally themed. Examples of environmentally themed art include nature scenes, animals, humanity’s effect on the environment, and creative messages about sustainable issues. Any questions about specific themes or ideas could be directed to george.aulisio@scranton.edu. There is no limit on submissions. However, not all submissions will necessarily be displayed.

Submissions are asked to be ready for display (within reason) This means, for example, that photographs and paintings are to be matted or framed, TVs and additional devices for film art will be provided by the library, any artist who has special display needs should contact George Aulisio. The Environmental Art Show will be held in the Heritage room of the library and will coincide with the University’s celebration of Earth week. All artwork will be returned by the end of the semester.

For any additional questions please contact george.aulisio@scranton.edu.

Information Literacy Stipends for 2010-2011

Call to University Faculty:

Do you want to enhance your students’ research skills? Then an Information Literacy Stipend may be just what you need!

This is an opportunity for you to strengthen students’ research skills in your discipline.

If you are awarded one of the five (5) stipends available for 2010-2011, you will collaborate with a faculty librarian to develop assignments that focus on information literacy skills, and you will also receive a $1,000.00 stipend.

What is information literacy? Why is it important?

Information Literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has developed competency standards as a guide to help faculty integrate information literacy into their courses.

To apply…Submit a proposal, not to exceed 2 pages, that includes the following:

  • Course name and number
  • Student learning outcomes related to Information Literacy Standards

(http://academic.scranton.edu/department/wml/infolit.html)

  • Assessment plan to determine how student learning outcomes will be evaluated
  • Projected Timeline (Spring/Fall 2011 or Spring 2012)
  • Name of the Library Faculty member with whom you will collaborate

Proposals will be reviewed by the Library Advisory Committee’s Information Literacy Subcommittee. Stipends are subject to taxes. Upon completion of the course, you must submit a report documenting the impact that the information literacy component had on student learning outcomes to the Dean of the Library and Information Fluency. This report will be posted on the Library’s Web site.

If you are interested, we can schedule an information session as well as connect you with someone who has completed a successful grant. Examples of previous stipends are posted on the Library’s Web site. For more information, contact Bonnie Oldham, Information Literacy Coordinator at 941-4000 or bonnie.oldham@scranton.edu.

Please submit applications via campus mail to:

Charles Kratz

Dean of Library and Information Fluency

Weinberg Memorial Library

941-4008

charles.kratz@scranton.edu

Application Deadline:

Monday, November 1, 2010

Faculty Scholarship Exhibit in Library’s Heritage Room

During the month of May, the Weinberg Memorial Library is hosting its annual Faculty Scholarship Exhibit through Thursday May 27 in the Library’s Heritage Room. The exhibit features books, articles, and conference presentation announcements produced by University of Scranton faculty members since 2008. 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.