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Spring 2022 Chats in the Stacks @ Mann Library

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From affordable housing to molecular genetics, Mann Library is happy to announce a lively line-up of book talks for the spring 2022 semester. Mark your calendars for engaging cross-disciplinary discussions!

 

February 3, 4:00 pm

Carol Colfer, Adaptive Collaborative Management in Forest Landscapes: Villagers, Bureaucrats and Civil Society

Local communities are essential to the success of environmental policies, and yet many well-intentioned forest management proposals are based on top-down strategies disconnected from people on the ground. In contrast, an approach called Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM) for forest landscapes attempts to better listen to local voices and build on communities’ knowledge and goals to collaboratively improve environmental planning.

 

CANCELLED March 3, 4:00 pm

Joe Margulies, Thanks for Everything (Now Get Out) Can We Restore Neighborhoods without Destroying Them?  (co-sponsored with the Cornell Law Library)

When a distressed urban neighborhood gentrifies, all the ratios change: poor to rich; Black and Brown to White; unskilled to professional; vulnerable to secure. Vacant lots and toxic dumps become condos and parks. Upscale restaurants open and pawn shops close. But the low-income residents who held on when the neighborhood was at its worst, who worked so hard to make it better, are gradually driven out. For them, the neighborhood hasn’t been restored so much as destroyed. Is it possible to restore distressed neighborhoods without setting the stage for their destruction?

 

March 9, 4:00 pm

Joseph Peters & Tina Henkin, Snyder & Champness Molecular Genetics of Bacteria

To understand big leaps in genome editing today, we must start small and look very closely at the molecular genetics of bacteria. In a live, virtual, Chats in the Stacks talk, Joseph Peters and Tina Henkin discuss their new book, Snyder & Champness Molecular Genetics of Bacteria, 6th edition (Wiley 2022),  a comprehensive edition of a classic text updated to cover massive advances in the field of bacterial molecular genetics from biochemical, genomic, and structural perspectives. Although the text is centered on the most-studied bacteria, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, many examples are drawn from other bacteria of experimental, medical, ecological, and biotechnological importance. Anyone interested in the fields of microbiology, genetics, biochemistry, bioengineering, medicine, molecular biology, or biotechnology should join this conversation.

 

April 14, 4:00 pm

Kaushik Basu, Policymaker’s Journal: From New Delhi to Washington D.C.

What is it like to move from the cloisters of academia to the high-profile sector of global markets and monetary policy? In his new book, Policymaker’s Journal: From New Delhi to Washington DC, (Simon & Schuster India, 2021) economist Kaushik Basu chronicles the years he spent working in the frenetic world of economic policymaking, first as chief economic advisor to the Indian government and later as the chief economist at the World Bank. In a live, virtual, Chats in the Stacks talk, Basu will discuss how he documented his day-to-day experiences over seven years of high-level, international economic policy work and share what he learned during that time.

Cornell COVID-19 Red Alert: Mann Library Update

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Library Update for Alert  Level Red

Cornell University moved to COVID-19 Alert Level Red on Tuesday, December 14.

With this, all library spaces on the Cornell campus, Mann Library included, are closed for use by students until further notice.

A sad development! But for anyone needing access to library resources before the campus winter break that starts on December 24, we do have good news, as follows:

  • Faculty and staff continue to have access to library stacks and can enter Mann Library by swiping their Cornell ID’s.
  • If you need a book from the library can request them via the library catalog; please select “Contactless Pickup-Mann” as your pick-up site of choice in the drop down menu.
  • If you need to return a book, the book drop box in the breezeway between Mann Library and Plant Sciences is unlocked and able to accept returns.
  • Plotter printing can be ordered via the form at the bottom of Mann’s poster & specialty printing page. Printed posters will be available for pick-up in the contactless pick-up area off the Mann Lobby.
  • Mann contactless pick-up room (Mann 112) off the Mann Lobby is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. on Saturday through Thursday, December 23rd. Along with the rest of the Cornell campus, Mann Library will be closed for the winter holiday from December 24, 2021 through January 2, 2022. For upcoming library hours, see our hours page.
  • Fast library reference assistance continues to be available in various virtual ways, including 24/7 Chat. Find details at library.cornell.edu/ask
  • More in-depth subject-specific research support (i.e. in Science, Social Science, Design, and Interdisciplinary, as well as GIS and data management) also continues to be available via zoom. Start here to get connected to the right person: mann.library.cornell.edu/research-services.
  • For additional info on library resources that Cornellians can count on from off-campus, see the nice overview at library.cornell.edu/off-campus.

Wishing you all good luck, friends, as we navigate these tricky last few days of the fall 2021 semester together. Stay safe and healthy!

Researcher’s Toolkit: Maximizing Research Success for Graduate Students

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Researcher’s Toolkit: An Online Program in Maximizing Research Success for Graduate Students in the Physical and Life Sciences and Engineering

Tuesdays, early afternoon, January 11 – March 29, 2022

Cornell University Library is excited to again offer Cornell science and engineering grad students an opportunity to participate virtually in the Researcher’s Toolkit.  This popular annual program is now in its sixth year and will be held online during the Spring 2022 semester on Tuesdays, in the early afternoon from January 11 through March 29.  Each 1-hour session will focus on a different topic—from managing your data to doing comprehensive literature reviews to promoting yourself as a researcher—and will include plenty of opportunity for discussion and Q&A. As in previous years, we will also hear from a panel of experienced journal editors what it takes to get published. We’ll pick the best starting time between Noon and 1:30pm based on the preferences provided at registration.

Register online at: https://bit.ly/researcherstoolkit

Registrations are due December 23, and enrollment is limited, so please apply as soon as you can.   

For more information on past programs & presenters, please see the online guide at https://guides.library.cornell.edu/ResearchersToolkit. If you have any questions, please send a message to CUL-RESEARCHERSTOOLKIT-L@cornell.edu.

Cultivating Silence: Nikolai Vavilov and the Suppression of Science in the Modern Era

Exhibit on display in the Mann Lobby through January 2022
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Cultivating Silence: Nikolai Vavilov and the Suppression of Science in the Modern Era

Nikolai Vavilov was the most brilliant plant geneticist of the early Soviet Union, achieving worldwide scientific fame, yet he died in prison with his work almost completely destroyed. This exhibit presents a cautionary tale of ideology and research that still holds lessons for life sciences scholarship of today. 

November Library Workshops

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Some great skill-building workshops still to be had at the Library this semester. For more info on our November line-up and to register: bit.ly/cul-workshops-nov21

 

Scrivener for [Academic] Writing (in person)

Wednesday, November 3, 2021 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Olin 106G, Olin Library

 

Fake News, Alternative Facts, and Disinformation: Learning to Critically Evaluate Media Sources (in person)

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

3:00pm – 4:00pm

Uris Classroom

 

Reproducible Research: How and Where to Publish Your Data (virtual)

Thursday, November 4, 2021

10:10am – 12:00pm

 

T.A.S.K. (Toys After Surgery for Kids) (making workshop, virtual)

Thursday, November 11, 2021

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Fall 2021 Exhibit Expo @ Mann

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Mann Library has kicked off the fall 2021 semester with a lively roster of exhibits in our fully re-opened library. We are pleased to invite the Cornell community to come check them out at our Fall 2021 Exhibit Expo. Stop by Mann Library anytime between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon to meet Finger Lakes artist June Szabo along with the other curators and collaborators, including Cornell’s renowned Plant Pathology Herbarium Collection (CUP), behind our fall 2021 exhibits. Visitors are warmly invited to come have fun with interactive displays, discover the fascinating side- and back-stories to the installations on display in our building, and browse our featured exhibits at their leisure.

 

Wood-carved and woven renditions of Finger Lakes landscapes, a vast and intriguing collection of mushroom specimens, hidden messages in flower bouquets, exquisite 19th century glass sea life sculptures, and dramatic stories of suppressed science—there’s so much thought-provoking and beautiful art and science to explore!

October Library Workshops

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The fall semester is in full swing, and the Library has a great line-up of October workshops to help you boost your research and multimedia production skills!

 

To view the complete schedule of Cornell University Library workshops, please visit our Library workshop calendar. 

Reproducible Research Workshop Series

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Good research is reproducible, replicable, and transparent. The Cornell University Library and RDMSG are collaborating to offer a free reproducible research workshop series covering available tools and overarching best practices to help you document, organize, and publish your research data while keeping it safe and maximizing your research impact. Follow the links below to register!

 

Organization for Spreadsheets / TIDY Data, Thursday 10/14, 10:30am to 12pm

Good data organization is the foundation of a research project. Most researchers have data in spreadsheets, so it’s the place that we will start. In this workshop, we’ll learn good data entry practices, different approaches for working with data in spreadsheets, and how to optimize your final “data package” to fulfill research quality and reproducibility requirements and facilitate new research.

 

How and Where to Publish your Data, Thursday 11/4, 10:10am to 12pm

We are frequently asked to share, archive, or otherwise publish data by funders and publishers, but few instructions exist on how to find a repository, and how to prepare your data and metadata for sharing. This workshop will provide hands-on experience preparing data for publishing by “curating” an example dataset and identifying common data issues. Participants will also learn about the overall role of repositories within the data sharing landscape and learn strategies for locating and evaluating repositories.

 

Cornell Center for Social Sciences is also offering How to Make your Research Transparent and Reproducible, Wednesday 10/6, 1 to 3pm.

 

View the full list of all Cornell University Library data and GIS Workshops or contact us at rdmsg-help@cornell.edu to let us help you find the workshop you need!​

Landscape Sculptures: Conversations with Land and Water

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Press Release Mann Gallery
For Immediate Release, September 30, 2021
 
June Szabo: Landscape Sculptures, Conversations with Land and Water, a new exhibition by Finger Lakes sculptor June B W Szabo explores the themes of decay and renewal, loss, and place through wood and wire sculptures inspired by regional geomorphology.
 
Ithaca, N.Y. – A new exhibition, Landscape Sculptures, Conversations with Land and Water, opened in late September in the Mann Gallery at Cornell University’s Mann Library. It features the work of sculptor June B W Szabo whose wood and woven copper wire sculptures explore themes of loss, the temporal nature of place, and decay as a means of renewal. A longtime resident of the Finger Lakes Szabo’s process begins with personal exploration of a regional landscape, enhanced by highly detailed relief maps and deep research into the geomorphology of each location. In her studio these experiences are rendered material through Szabo’s manipulation of beads, copper wire, and local hardwoods.
 
The exhibition, which brings together objects from the most recent period of Szabo’s practice, includes a number of new works. In describing the common thread shared by all the sculptures in the show, Szabo says the “thought that has guided me for this installation is that of letting go. There is much in all our lives that we have little control over, which can be a source of anxiety and a sense of loss. Working wood and wire to reflect on how land is built up as it’s worn down over time, how decomposition in fungi and plants leads to new growth —for me this work has been a lesson in what we gain by letting go.”
 
Indeed, her new sculpture Let Go to Grow created by wrapping and coiling copper wire, explores how the renewal seen in spring and summer landscapes depends on the loss and decay that occur each fall and winter. Reflecting on trees that have the power to “let go” of their own leaves in any season as a defense against stressors and as a means of renewal, this work proposes that letting go of fear and being open to nature’s law of return makes room for growth. In another new piece, Restoration, a hanging sculpture carved from poplar, Szabo references a moraine—an intriguing landform built by a thick accumulation of glacial drift transformed by wind and time into a forested expanse—which serves as a powerful metaphor for recovery and restoration.
 
Reflecting on the influences that have shaped her work Szabo cites the teaching of many Cornell scholars, including beloved geology professors O.D. Von Engeln and Arthur Bloom, whose many books detailing the geography and glacial history of the Finger Lakes Region have accompanied her throughout her journeys.
 
Landscape Sculptures, Conversations with Land and Water, will be on display at the Mann Gallery from September 18, 2021, until January 15, 2022. Mann Library is located on the Cornell University Ag Quad, Ithaca, NY. 

Chats in the Stacks Fall 2021

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The Cornell University Library Chats in the Stacks is a series of book talks featuring recent publications by Cornell authors. This semester, all the book talks will be virtual, so you can tune in from wherever you are! A live Q&A with the author will follow each talk, and the audience is encouraged to submit their questions in the chat.

We’re excited to share the fall line-up for the Mann chats below:

October 14, 2021 4pm

Eswar Prasad (Dyson School): The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance

The concept of money is about to be fundamentally redefined, says Eswar Prasad, the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks book talk on his new book, The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance (Harvard University Press, 2021), Prasad explains how this transformation will impact corporations, banks, states, and individuals. Changes may lead to improvements in efficiency, personalization of services, and market access for the unbanked, but they may also bring instability, lack of accountability, and the erosion of privacy. The Future of Money explains how to maximize the best and prepare against the worst, as businesses, governments, and individuals embrace new financial technologies that have the power to fundamentally change our lives. Prasad is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and previous chief of the financial studies division in the International Monetary Fund’s research department.

 

November 2, 2021 4pm

Phil McMichael (Global Development): Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective

How has development thinking and practice shaped our world? The answer lies in four interconnected phenomena—colonialism, the development era, the neoliberal globalization project, and sustainable development—according to Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective, 7th Edition, (Sage Publications, 2021), written by Philip McMichael, professor emeritus in the Department of Global Development, and Heloise Weber, senior lecturer in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland. In this live, virtual book talk, McMichael discusses “the development paradox” and how powerful nation-states aiming toward progress and prosperity can also produce crises that threaten the health and well-being of millions of urban-dwellers and rural cultures. McMichael also explores the possibilities of a world with more just social, ecological, and political relations.

 

November 18, 2021 4pm

Qi Wang (Human Development): Remembering and Forgetting Early Childhood

Our earliest memories are complex and ever-shifting. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks book talk, Qi Wang—professor of human development and psychology in the College of Human Ecology—will discuss insights from Remembering and Forgetting Early Childhood (Routledge, 2020), a book she co-edited with Sami Gülgöz. Originally published as a special issue of Memory, the book deepens our understanding of the dynamics that influence the accessibility, content, and accuracy of memories from early childhood, and how the development of autobiographical memory is shaped by a variety of interactive social and cognitive factors.

 

November 23, 2021 4pm

Lourdes Casanova (Emerging Markets Institute) and Anne Miroux (Emerging Markets Institute)

As emerging markets have come to represent the largest share of global GDP, corporations in these economies have taken on a new level of importance in driving innovation, local development, and global competition. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks talk, Lourdes Casanova (Gail and Rob Cañizares Director of the Emerging Markets Institute, S. C. Johnson Graduate School of Management) and Anne Miroux (Faculty Fellow, Emerging Market Institute), discuss their new book Innovation from Emerging Markets: From Copycats to Leaders (Cambridge University Press 2021). Building upon research conducted by the Emerging Multinational Research Network (EMRN), this collection includes studies of innovation in regions that have not previously received focused analysis as well as a re-examination of dominant theories of innovation and capability creation based on a broad range of case studies and research insights. A live Q&A will follow the talk. The audience is encouraged to submit their questions in the chat.

 

December 2, 2021 4pm

Denise Green (Fiber Science and Apparel Design): Fashion and Cultural Studies

Fashion can be considered from cultural, technical, and theoretical perspectives. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks talk, Denise Green and Susan B. Kaiser discuss their book, Fashion and Cultural Studies, 2nd Edition, which explores how race, ethnicity, class, gender, and other identities are woven into the clothes we wear. Green is an associate professor of fashion design and the director of Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology, and Kaiser is professor emerita of design, textiles, and clothing, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of California, Davis. Drawing from intersectionality in feminist theory and cultural studies, they interrogate the complex entanglements of production, regulation, distribution, consumption, and subject formation within and through fashion.