Call for Artists

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The library will be hosting the 3rd Annual Environmental Art Show during the University’s Earth Week Celebration (April 18-25). The purpose of the Art Show is to showcase the artistic talents of our students, staff, and faculty while promoting sustainability and the environment.

As always the Art Show is comprised solely of University of Scranton student, staff, and faculty submissions, so the success of the show relies on the number of submissions we receive. All types of artwork are accepted for display in the Art Show, but they must be your own creation, and they must be environmentally themed. Our definition of “environmentally themed” is understood very liberally and includes: nature scenes, animals, environmental degradation, sustainability messages, recycled goods, and so on.

Please consider submitting to the show before April 12 and attending the Art Show’s Reception on Monday April 22 from 5-7 pm. All submissions will be returned to the artists before the end of the Spring semester.

A TRIP TO THE MOON and THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE

Photo courtesy of Flickr.com

Were you enchanted by the 2011 silent film The Artist?  Did you find your imagination sparked by the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret or the Academy Award winning film Hugo? Then The International Film Series’ presentation of the 1902 silent film A Trip to the Moon is for you!

A Trip to the Moon is considered a timeless masterpiece of French filmmaker George Méliès.  The film tells the story of an expedition of astronomers to the moon and the mysteries they discover.  The Extraordinary Voyage, which gives a behind the scenes account of the making of A Trip to the Moon and its restoration, will also be shown.

 Make your own expedition to Room 305 of the Weinberg Memorial Library at 7:00 PM on Thursday November 15, 2012 for this free screening.  Professor Kevin Norris will lead a discussion following the film.

Don’t miss this exciting opportunity. The film is open to the University community and the public.  Seating is limited so contact Sharon Finnerty at (570) 941-6330 or sharon.finnerty@scranton.edu for reservations.  English subtitles are provided for the French language portions of the film.

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!

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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!

 

 

Digital Collections, New and Improved

We’ve just put a shiny, new interface on our digital collections, and we’d love for you to take a look!  Some of the new features we’re excited about:

  • A new homepage for Digital Collections
  • A new University History page where you can cross-search all of our University-related collections
  • Improved browsing, searching, and viewing
  • Easier ways to download and print photos and documents from our collections
  • Tagging, commenting, and sharing

Take our new collections for a test drive, and then let us know what you think! There are still a few quirks we’re working out, so if you run into any problems, just let us know at digitalcollections@scranton.edu.

Mobile access to Library resources

University of Scranton students, faculty, and staff now have two ways to access the Weinberg Memorial Library’s resources from their mobile devices:

Whichever way you go, you’ll find a mobile-friendly version of our Library catalog and quick links to Ask a Librarian, as well as the Library’s hours, location, and latest news.

Try it out and let us know what you think! And let us know what other mobile features you’d like to see – we’re working right now on providing mobile-friendly access to our databases, and we’re daydreaming about a Java City webcam.

Preserving Your Family Memories – Workshop

Next week is our spring break, and even though our students will be gone, the rest of the University will still be open and working. This year, we decided to take advantage of the  break as a good time to host one of our Technology on Your Own Terms series workshops.  While we usually focus on forward-looking emerging technologies and how we can create and explore new information, we thought it would be interesting to take a different view this time and learn about how we can preserve existing information.   In a two-part workshop, we’ll examine how to preserve physical records (Part I) and digital records (Part II) of your personal and family history.

Preserving Your Family Memories: Part I (Physical)
Tuesday, March 13 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm in WML305

Special Collections Librarian Michael Knies will discuss the basic preservation problems relating to personal collections of books, photographs, negatives, personal papers, audio/visual recordings, and other paper-based collectibles.  Limited attention will be paid to three dimensional objects. Proper storage and handling will be emphasized. A light lunch will be provided. (Taught by Michael Knies, Weinberg Memorial Library)

All faculty and staff members are welcome, but seats are limited, so please register for sessions you plan to attend at www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration (under Technology On Your Own Terms).

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.”

Technology On Your Own Terms Spring 2012 Workshops

Each semester, the Weinberg Memorial Library and the Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence (CTLE) offer a faculty and staff advancement series called Technology on Your Own Terms. The series introduces University faculty and staff to emerging technologies in order to encourage innovation in the workplace and in the classroom. We’re continuing the series in Spring 2012 with three new workshops:

Facebook Timeline: What You Need to Know About the New Facebook Profile (or, Facebook Gets a Face-Lift)
Wednesday, February 15 from 1:00pm – 2:00pm in WML305

If you’re a Facebook user, you may have heard of a new feature on the popular social networking website called Timeline: the newest version of the Facebook Profile. You may have even converted your own Facebook Profile into this new format, or visited the Profiles of Facebook Friends who have already converted to Timeline. Whether you have already opted-into the new Profile format, or are holding out until you learn more, there is a lot of information about this radical new feature that all Facebook users need to know in order to use it with purpose and control. During this presentation, Librarian Donna Witek will give an overview of Timeline, including information about its design, functionality and use. She will demonstrate the key tools within Timeline that will enable users to get the most out of the new Profile format. And, she will cover the relationship between your Privacy Settings and Timeline. Attendees who own tablets or laptops are encouraged to bring them to the session; however, this session does not require that attendees have a computing device. A light lunch will be provided. (Taught by Donna Witek, Weinberg Memorial Library)

Preserving Your Family Memories: Part I (Physical)
Tuesday, March 13 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm in WML305

Special Collections Librarian Michael Knies will discuss the basic preservation problems relating to personal collections of books, photographs, negatives, personal papers, audio/visual recordings, and other paper-based collectibles.  Limited attention will be paid to three dimensional objects. Proper storage and handling will be emphasized. A light lunch will be provided. (Taught by Michael Knies, Weinberg Memorial Library)

Preserving Your Family Memories: Part II (Digital)
Thursday, April 5 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm in WML305

Increasingly, we capture moments to remember in digital rather than physical format: we document our lives in digital photographs, videos, social media, email, and websites.  In this workshop, Digital Services Librarian Kristen Yarmey will introduce you to the concept of digital preservation.  We’ll talk about common misconceptions (for example, why digitizing your photos is not the same as preserving them), some of the major challenges involved in maintaining digital files over time, and some basic strategies you can take to help make your digital memories last.  A light lunch will be provided. (Taught by Kristen Yarmey, Weinberg Memorial Library)

All faculty and staff members are welcome, but seats are limited, so please register for sessions you plan to attend at www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration (under Technology On Your Own Terms).