Closed for Thanksgiving, then Open Late for Finals

The busiest time of the semester is upon us, and so, here are the holiday and extended hours for the Library:

Thanksgiving Weekend:

November 26, Wednesday — 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
November 27-29, Thursday-Saturday — Closed
November 30, Sunday — 12 Noon-11:30 p.m.

Extended Hours:

December 1 – December 4, Monday-Thursday — 8:00 a.m.-12 Midnight
December 5, Friday — 8:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
December 6, Saturday — 9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
December 7, Sunday — 12 Noon-12 Midnight
December 8 – December 11, Monday-Thursday — 7:00 a.m.-2:00 a.m.
December 12, Friday — 8:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
December 13, Saturday — 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
December 14, Sunday — Closed

All of us here at the Library hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Christmas in the Library: Pics with Santa and Tag Sale

December is a stressful month – our students have final exams to study for, not to mention holiday shopping to do and travel to plan. So what better than an excuse to take a break? Come to the Library for an early celebration of Christmas!

Santa strikes a pose

On December 2nd, come to the Weinberg Memorial Library for Pictures with Santa. Yes, the jolly old man himself will be in the Heritage Room on the 5th floor for a limited engagement – 12pm – 5pm. You can get a *framed* photo of yourself with the man in red for just $7.00.  Your donation will help bring the magic of Christmas to a family in our area.

Then, between December 3rd – 19th, check out our Christmas Tag Sale.  Christmas decorations, CDs, books, toys, collectibles, baskets, mugs — all will be on sale at affordable prices.  Find that unusual gift that you’ve been looking for, on the 1st floor of the Weinberg.

Library Computer Lab

Busy writing that paper, but can’t find a computer in the Library? Well, beginning on Wednesday, November 19^th, the Library Computer Lab (WML 306) will be open for student use. The bad news is that there is no printer in this lab. The good news is that you can send your print jobs to the UNIPRINT Station on the 2nd Floor. When the Printer Menu pops up, select ‘WML 2nd FloorQ on UNIPRT2-K3.” Oh, and by the way, there are different containers in the lab as well as throughout the Library, for Recycling paper (these are Green), Recycling plastic and cans (these are Blue), and for trash. Please put your garbage and trash only in the trash cans and remove the plastic caps from plastic bottles and place the empty bottles only in the Recycle bins.

Podcasts for Aural Learners and Cool Kids – Now Available

Wish you had a way to spend the next 6 minutes laughing, rolling your eyes, and learning all at the same time? Well, do I have the thing for you…

The Weinberg Memorial Library is proud to present a series of Podcasts on Information Literacy.

The goal of these podcasts are to be informative and interesting. Our “60 second lecture” on Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary sources should help you get a handle on what the differences are between these three types of sources and all in 74 seconds! (Yes, I know, “60 second lecture” is somewhat of a misnomer, but bear with me). 

The other podcast which is up and running is actually our first. This podcast, entitled “What’s the Matter with Wikipedia?” guest stars, Library Student Worker and campus celebrity, Allen Zelno. Tune into this podcast to hear Allen say things like, “Gee Whiz, George” and find out if Allen ever figured out if America was or was not founded in 1492!

These two podcasts both feature me as a speaker, but future podcasts will certainly have different librarians and more student volunteers sharing their voices.

I was volunteered as the guinea pig for this experimental run, in turn, I volunteered Allen because the man knows not of fear.

Overall, experimental or not, these podcasts turned out to be fun and interesting to listen to, so don’t be the only one on campus who is missing out. Listen here:

http://academic.scranton.edu/department/wml/bihp.html

Just click the Podcasts link and the two titles should just pop right up for you. Click them and they will stream right from your computer.

The podcasts are also available on the Facebook page! Why aren’t you a fan yet?!?! No excuses now, go to the following link and show your love for the Library:

The University of Scranton Weinberg Memorial Library – Fan Page

Please send your suggestions and comments my way! I want to know what you think and what you would like to hear in the future. Happy Listening!

Taking Care of Your Stuff

If you’ve been in the Library this semester, you have probably seen signs like the one above, perched on many of the group study tables and in the group study rooms. The reason for these signs is simple: we (your team of intrepid librarians) have noticed the tendency for students to leave their personal belongings — including laptops (both personal and those checked out from the Library), textbooks, cell phones, USB drives, RoyalCards, wallets and purses — unattended while working in the Library.

Now, on the one hand, this is a sign that you guys feel at home here at the Library, which is a very good thing. It means we’re doing our job, and the Library is fulfilling one of its many purposes, so yay for that!

However, last semester there was a very bad situation during finals where textbooks were being stolen when left unattended in the Library, and were presumably resold as used textbooks, for a profit. And it wasn’t just one or two textbooks — it was entire classes who were stuck, the day before they were due to take the final, without a textbook to study from. It was a bad, bad situation.

We also sometimes find Library laptops left completely after they’ve been used, and the poor student who checked out the laptop for 3 hours suddenly gets charged a huge overdue fine (around $70!) when the laptop finally gets checked back in at the end of the night. Now, imagine if you left your personal laptop unattended and then it were stolen — the expense would be even worse! (Not to mention all your lost files…)

And along the same lines, we also sometimes notice Library computers (PCs) which no longer have a student working at them, but are often left logged in, and sometimes even have websites with personal, sensitive information left on the screen for anyone to see, copy or steal. And I’m talking social security numbers, FAFSA information, and the like! Not good! With the risk of identity theft already being high in our digital world, I strongly encourage all of you to close out of browsers and documents, and then log out of the Library computers before walking away. By logging out, you make it so the next PC user can’t inadvertently stumble upon the website or file with your personal information during their time on the computer following yours, since all files and browser history are wiped out when you log out.

So, please, don’t leave your personal belongings unattended — or do so at your own risk. (And the risk is high!)

And remember to close browser windows and documents, and log out of Library PCs before walking away.

This has been a Public Services Announcement provided by your Friendly Neighborhood Librarian.

:-)

Blessing of the Books

Two of my favorite words are “blessing” and “books” — and the U sponsors and runs an annual event that involves both of these things!

From today’s issue of Royal News:

Have books been a blessing in your life? Pass the blessing on! New and gently used children’s books, suitable for toddlers through young teens, as well as Spanish language books are being collected by the Panuska College of Professional Studies. On December 1, at 3:00 P.M. in the McGurrin Reading Room, Father Pilarz, S.J. will be blessing the books. The books will then be shared with the children of Scranton, and beyond!

Other useful information:

Collections boxes are located in: McGurrin Hall lobby, Weinberg Memorial Library lobby, Brennan Hall second floor, DeNaples Center by the Community Outreach Office and the John Long Center in the Exercise Science area. If you need books picked up from your office or if you would like a collection box placed in or near your office please call 941-6390.

As you can see, the Library is a great place to bring your books for kids who may not have any other opportunities to get books this year. It works out nicely — come to the Library to access the abundance of books and resources we’ve been blessed with as Scranton students, staff and faculty, and if you have any books lying around that you think the children of the greater Scranton area would enjoy, offer that blessing back by donating those books to the Blessing of the Books event! Everyone wins!

***

And a special “Thank you!” to our U.S. soldiers — past, present, and future — who have served our nation selflessly and bravely, on this day in which we honor our Veterans! May God bless you and your service!!

Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligences

On Thursday, October 30, 2008, the annual Harry Mullin M.D. Memorial Lecture was given by Howard Gardner, PhD, Harvard University, who is also a native of Scranton.  His lecture, titled “Multiple Intelligences: The First Twenty Five Years… and Beyond” was open to the public in the Houlihan-McLean Center.  I was among those that traveled to see Dr. Gardner speak.  The basic interpretation of Gardner’s theory is that we all possess intelligence in a number of different areas to varying degress.  No person is alike, not even identical twins when it comes to intelligence.  Our intelligences interact and communicate with each other just as a series of computers can interact and communicate with one another when programmed to do so.  I knew the basics of his theory of multiple intelligences, but I wanted to hear more.  Over the course of his lecture, Gardner did say that it was difficult to truly measure intelligence and that traditional tests of intelligence only measured an individual’s abilities to read and calculate.  This made sense as I thought about how each person is gifted in different areas and reasoned that IQ tests were flawed because they only assessed math and reading abilities.  I was not disappointed as Gardner described how he came up with his theory and how he believes that in the future education will be customized or tailored to the individual student in order to strengthen and improve a student’s multiple intelligences and enhance a student’s overall learning and abilities.  This revolutionary man and his theory will continue to spark debate and influence how humans think, learn, and act for years to come.  I look forward to seeing who the speaker for next year’s  Harry Mullin M.D. Memorial Lecture will be here at the University of Scranton.

Howard Gardner – Theory of Multiple Intelligence

 

Book-to-Movie

I think it goes without saying that usually, the book is better than the movie. But that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy seeing our favorite stories played out in front of us — it’s like a concrete manifestation of our imagination! Or, maybe it isn’t, if the movie doesn’t do your imagination justice… Though this is usually the case, I find that often the best movies are the ones based on books. Maybe it’s because the source material is fleshed out so well, simply because it was first in book-length format.

Either way, I came across a neat website that has movie trailers for soon-to-be released movies, which are based on books. The book covers are side-by-side with the trailers. And I’d say there are some awesome sounding movies coming out in the upcoming year!

So, check it out here. And let us know what books-to-movies you’re looking forward to this year!

For my part, the one I anticipate the most is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This isn’t on that website, but you can see the latest trailer here. But out of the movies on that side-by-side website, I’d say the most interesting-sounding of the lot is The Reader.

What do you think?

Did you know?

The Weinberg Memorial Library has several Dell and Gateway laptops that University of Scranton students can borrow, for free!  You can check out a laptop at the Circulation desk and use it anywhere in the Library, for up to three hours.  All you need is your Royal Card.

Circulation coordinator Pat Savitts gave me a few pointers for laptop borrowers:

• If your three hours are up and you haven’t finished your work, you can call down to the Circulation desk from your cell phone to renew your loan – as long as no other students are waiting for a laptop.
• Don’t leave your borrowed laptop unattended.  If you need to step away from it, ask a friend to keep an eye on it for you.
• Be prepared to either save your work to a flash drive or email it to yourself.  To protect your privacy, your files will be automatically deleted when you shut down the laptop.
• Our laptops aren’t connected to the UniPrint system, so if you need to print your work, either save it to a flash drive or email it to yourself, and then use one of the computers in the Pro Deo room or the second floor computer lab (or any other computer lab on campus) to print.

Happy borrowing… and don’t forget to vote today!