Technology on Your Own Terms Spring Workshops

In Fall 2009, the Weinberg Memorial Library and the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) started a new series of workshops for University faculty and staff called Technology on Your Own Terms.  Since we heard a lot of positive feedback about the Fall sessions, we’ve decided to continue the series with an additional four workshops this spring!

Technology on Your Own Terms is all about giving faculty and staff a chance to get some hands-on experience with new technology, so all classes are held in the Weinberg Memorial Library computer lab (Room 306).  All faculty and staff members are welcome, but seats are limited, so please register for any sessions that interest you at www.scranton.edu/ctleregistration (look under Special Event).

Pictures, Pictures Everywhere: The Magic of Compression
Wednesday, January 20, 12-1pm

As digital cameras become ubiquitous, users will be confronted with the issue of image storage and management.  This session will show you how to organize and manage the images you capture on your camera or phone, how to compress them, and how to make them email friendly. (Taught by Eugeniu Grigorescu, CTLE)

Can You See Me Now?: Creating Digital Web Albums to Share with Family and Friends
Friday, February 19, 12-1pm

Participants in this workshop will use Google’s Picasa Web Album to store and share digital photos on the web with family and friends. Utilizing 1 GB of free storage you will create an online album, add name tags to your photos, sort your collection by name, and then create a custom slideshow. In addition, you will learn how to create a collaborative web album that allows family and friends to contribute photos and video to your album. Other topics will include a review of several account settings, email notification, and how to upload photos using an email account. (Taught by Vince Yanusauskas, Library)

Share with Surety: Facebook Privacy Settings for the Casual Facebook User
Wednesday, April 7, 12-1pm

Confused about the ever-changing privacy settings in Facebook? Want to have more control over the content you share? In this workshop, you’ll learn about the latest version of Facebook’s Privacy Policy. Librarian Donna Mazziotti will walk participants through customizing their own Facebook Privacy Settings, armed with the knowledge of what each setting means. It is assumed that participants in this workshop already have a Facebook account, and will have their login information with them when they attend. (Taught by Donna Mazziotti, Library)

Wiki Wiki WHAT!?: What You Need to Know to Understand, Create, and Maintain Wikis
Wednesday, April 28, 12-1pm

A wiki is a webpage where all of the code and underlying framework is already in place, out of sight and out of mind. In this session, you will learn what exactly a wiki is and how to use a wiki to quickly and easily create a dynamic webpage, collaborate on projects, or just share personal content over the internet. Participants will set up a free wiki account and will learn how to hit the ground running by adding content and organizing a new wiki. (Taught by George Aulisio, Library)

Stay Alert! Keeping Your Research Up-to-Date

Our next Technology on Your Own Terms  workshop is coming up on Thursday, October 29, from 11:30am – 12:30pm in WML room 306. If you are a University faculty or staff member doing research–this workshop is for you.

In “Stay Alert! Keeping Your Research Up-to-Date,” Bonnie Oldham will explain how to set up e-mail alerts and use Rss Feeds to gather scholarly information.

Seats are limited, so be sure to register (under Special Events).

Really Simple Steps for Managing the Web

Our next Technology on Your Own Terms workshop is coming up next Tuesday, October 13, from 12pm-1pm in WML room 306.   If you’re a University faculty or staff member who has trouble keeping track of all of your favorite websites – this workshop is for you.

In “Really Simple Steps for Managing the Web: An Introduction to RSS,” we will explain how RSS feeds and RSS readers can help you manage the abundance of information available on the web. You’ll create a Google Reader account and will learn to import, organize, search, and share up-to-date content from your favorite websites.

Seats are limited, so be sure to register (under Special Events).

Curl up with a Kindle

If you’re a University of Scranton faculty or staff member and you love to read, be sure to come to our next Technology on Your Own Terms workshop! “Curl up with a Kindle” will be held on October 1, 2009 from 12pm-1pm in Weinberg Memorial Library Room 306.   CTLE Instructional Technology and Enrichment Specialist Aileen McHale will introduce you to Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader and will demonstrate some of the Kindle’s features, from digital highlighting to note taking.

Seats are limited, so be sure to register (under Special Events).

Tweet Your Words

Our first Technology on Your Own Terms workshop is coming up on September 15th!  If you’re a University of Scranton faculty or staff member and would like to learn how to use Twitter, come join us – just be sure to register (under Special Events), since seats are limited.

Update: Did you miss “Tweet Your Words”? Notes from the workshop, along with lists of University of Scranton and Scranton-area tweeters, are posted on the Library’s Research Guides wiki.

Summer Workshops for University Employees

The Library would like to invite all University of Scranton employees to two workshops that will be held in July.

Researching the Moving Image
This workshop, presented by Kevin Norris, will look at some of the new developments that Web technology and social networking have brought to researching the moving image and motion pictures on the Internet. Attendees will explore some of the more useful and interesting Web sites and networks.

Light refreshments will be served.

When: July 8 from 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Where: Room 306 in the Weinberg Library

Do you speak Web 2.0?
Presenters Kristen Yarmey-Tylutki and George Aulisio will introduce attendees to the language of Web 2.0. A few of the topics that will be included are photo sharing, Facebook and Twitter.
Light refreshments will be served.

When: July 14 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Where: Room 306 in the Weinberg Library

Update from the Schemel Forum

It’s now week three of this semester’s Schemel Forum on the American Presidency, and the debates just keep getting more interesting.  Today, we were talking about the extents of executive power, and two of the philosophers present mentioned John Locke’s views on the power of a sovereign.  Locke wrote in his Treatises of Government that a sovereign could act beyond the law under certain conditions – for example, if no laws yet existed to provide rules for a certain circumstance, or if the preservation of the public welfare were at stake.  The hope was that the sovereign would be a wise enough ruler that these decisions could safely be left up to his discretion.  We talked about how this idea could apply to the American presidency today – how far can the president go beyond stated laws in a time of emergency to protect the public?

We only have two weeks left, and lots of material left to cover.  I’m anxious to hear the debates about executive privilege and “signing statements.” The last session on Guantanamo Bay also promises to be intriguing.

If you’re interested in the Schemel Forum, now is a great time to sign up for two of the upcoming Forums — Dr. William V. Rowe from the University of Scranton’s philosophy department will present a five-week forum in October on “Think World: Reflections on our Times,” and Father McKinney, also from the philosophy department, will present a three-week forum in November called “The Role of Drama in the Jesuit Tradition.”  For more information, or to sign up to participate, contact Kym Fetsko at 570-941-7816.

The American Presidency – Schemel Forum

One of the unique programs that the Weinberg Memorial Library offers is the Schemel Forum, a series of lectures and courses that are open to members of the Scranton community.  The idea is that people from all different generations can continue their educations by discussing new ideas together.

There are several different courses being offered this Fall (see the full offerings on the Schemel Forum website) – the one I’m participating in is The American Presidency, taught by Morey Myers.  We just had the first of five sessions this evening on the third floor of the Library, and the room was PACKED – Morey’s reputation preceded him!

Our focus tonight was on the role of the President of the United States, as defined in the Constitution in Article II and Amendments XII and XXV. A lot of good questions came up — what exactly is executive power and how far does it extend?  Can a legal case be made that John McCain, who was born in the Canal Zone, is not eligible to be President?  Could (and should) the Electoral College system be eliminated in favor of direct election by the people?  I also learned a few new tidbits of American history: I never knew that Benjamin Franklin was actually the President of Pennsylvania, or that George Washington has been called the father of the modern expense account.  I had never even heard of Peyton Randolph before tonight!

The best part of the evening, though, was just being in a room with so many interesting people from the community.  The participants included 11 doctors, 6 lawyers, and the CFO of the new Scranton medical school – and I also spotted interim CAS Dean Paul Fahey.  I’m looking forward to meeting more of my fellow students in the next sessions.

Next Wednesday, we’ll be discussing the Federalist Papers.  Care to read along?

“Planning for the Whole-istic Library”

Last Thursday a group of us had the opportunity to attend the Spring Workshop jointly presented by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Library Network (NPLN) and the Northeast Chapter of the Pennsylvania Library Association (NEPALA). It was a very nice walk of 5 blocks in the Scranton sunshine over to nearby Lackawanna College, who was hosting the event.

After registration and a brief welcome, librarians from all over Northeastern PA settled into the beautiful, plush seats of Lackawanna College’s Mellow Theater to hear Keynote speaker Jill Hurst-Wahl share with us what her 20 years business/library experience have revealed to her about trends in the library.

The Mellow Theater at Lackawanna College; image taken from: http://www.lackawanna.edu/mellow/mellow.html

She challenged the librarians present — hailing from public, college/university, and special libraries — by arguing that the only way libraries could ever become obsolete would be if we (i.e. librarians) allow them to become so. It’s our job to make users “dependent” on the library — and not because we feel the need for some kind of power trip! ;) A healthy dependence on the library, in my opinion, would stem from making our unique and exciting resources known to users (in our case, students, faculty and even the public), and furthermore by illustrating and teaching just how useful our information resources are to these key stakeholders.

(And yes, I just called our students stakeholders — if you’re a student, I bet you’ve never been called this before, huh? :) Information is power! :::cue super-hero music::: )

Jill Hurst-Wahl believes that the way to do these things is to “be where they are” — by “they” she means our library users, which in our case means most often students.

And where are you guys hanging out these days? On facebook, AIM, maybe MySpace (I get the feeling MySpace may be slowly going out of style — am I right?), and all sorts of other “Web 2.0″ technologies. And so, that is were we must be as well.

As an aside, I feel the need to give a shout-out to our very own librarian Bonnie Oldham, who shares the night-shift with me at the ref desk. Bonnie serves on the 2008 Northeast Chapter Board for NEPALA, and helped put together this very cool event — so kudos to Bonnie for that!

There were a few other fun and interesting meetings and workshops at the event, but for me the Keynote Speaker stood out the most — followed very closely by the food served for lunch! :) Overall it was an interesting and exciting day — especially for this new librarian!

For information about this event as well as the NEPALA, visit:

Northeast Chapter of PaLA Wiki

Contact info for Jill Hurst-Wahl:
hurst@HurstAssociates.com
Meebo & Skype: jill.hurst.wahl
www.HurstAssociates.com
www.Digitization101.com
www.eNetworking101.com