Hey students, what can the Library help you with this hybrid fall 2020 semester? A lot! Just take it from the bear—who’s stepping up as the star of our new comic book series, created to fill you in on all the ways you can make the Library work for you. Our first installment comes with tips on getting the most out of the library as many students head off campus to finish their semester at home. Wishing you all a successful close to a (rather historic!) fall 2020 semester, wherever your perch!
In March 2020 the sudden closure of the Cornell campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic threw the rich extracurricular life that students find on the Cornell campus for an extraordinary loop. As with so many other aspects of the University at that time, Cornell’s many student groups pivoted quickly to various virtual means of staying connected and active. But lost for good was the opportunity for the live student performances, club exhibits, and other community celebrations that usually mark the end of each busy year at Cornell with an intensely satisfying flourish. A new virtual exhibit, created by Charlotte Jones (Class of 2022, Human Development) in partnership with the Cornell College of Human Ecology and Mann Library, is filling that void. Work Left Unsaid: Performing and Visual Artwork of Spring 2020 displays the artistry, performances and other visual work created by student organizations and clubs from across the Cornell campus in 2019/2020. https://exhibits.library.cornell.edu/work-left-unsaid
This exhibit is an unfolding one. It starts with Cameradery, a student club that partners Cornell students with cognitively disabled members of in the Ithaca community to experience the art of creating photography together. Each week, for the rest of the Fall 2020 semester, the work of a new group will be added to the display. We invite you to take a look at exhibits.library.cornell.edu/work-left-unsaid and then come back to explore the exhibit often over the coming weeks—while much may have been left unsaid in the abrupt break in campus life of spring 2020, we believe you’ll find that the contributions that Cornell’s students made to the campus, the community, and the world through their work over the year continue to be unique, inspiring and extraordinary.
Mann Library is pleased to announce that Mann’s stacks are now again open to in-person research and browsing by on-campus Cornellians. Here’s how it’s working:
And still to come: Access to Mann’s special collections materials by appointment. Watch this space for an update on that shortly!
This semester, the Library’s course reserves service has moved into an online, accessible environment to the fullest degree possible, while remaining responsive to instructor needs.
In order to support equitable access for students studying remotely and comply with quarantine guidelines for library materials, we are following these guidelines:
Physical course reserves are available at Mann and Uris Libraries. Students must have a seat reservation for quiet study in order to come into the library to use the course reserve materials.
At Mann Library, these items are shelved on the 1st floor outside the Stone Classroom. We are housing materials usually on reserve at Mann, Math, and ILR libraries. Materials are shelved by course number, and are available on a first come, first served basis. Students can use these materials while they are at the library, but must return them to the shelves when they are finished. We ask students to be mindful that these materials are a shared resource and to please return them to the shelves as soon as they are finished using them.
Course reserves at Mann are available all the hours the library is open for quiet study. Questions about course reserves? Contact our Mann course reserves coordinator: mann_reserve@cornell.edu.
Look at that! September is here, and Cornell classes for the fall 2020 semester are officially rolling. The Mann Library staff is really happy to be starting the 2020-21 academic year with all new and returning Cornellians, wherever you may be. After a busy summer getting ready for hybrid semester, we’re pleased to announce all ways that we are here for you — via virtual research support and instruction, our book delivery and article/book chapter scanning services, and as quiet study space for all students registered for on-campus study. Here are the key things we’d like you to know:
For all general Cornell Library updates & info
Getting books and articles
Library spaces for quiet study
Mann Library is now open for quiet study for all Cornell students who are registered for on-campus study. Study spots are available by reservation only, using chatter.cornell.edu. Hours of study space availability are: 8:00 a.m. through 10:00 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 8:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. Fridays, and 12:00 p.m. through 6:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Research services & support
Printing, coffee, & more
Summer 2020 turned a happy corner when, as of July 1, much of Cornell University Library’s physical collections became accessible to the public again. If you are hoping to get your hands on a book, chapter or journal article from the collections at Mann Library, Olin Library and the Library you can get what you need with these simple steps:
For scans of book chapters and journal articles, find the needed book or journal article in the Library catalog and click on the “Request scan of article/chapter” button. Or use the ScanIt request form if you have all the needed information about the book or journal in question. The scan will be delivered to you online and you will receive an email notification when your article/chapter is available to view.
You can also now pick up physical items from the Mann collection via the “contactless pick up” system we have arranged. Just place a request by searching in the Library catalog and then use the “Request” button (step-by-step instructions). You will be able to identify your preferred pickup location from the dropdown menu. You will receive an email with further pickup instructions when your items are ready.
Please note the pickup option for Mann: Mann Lobby. The Mann Lobby is self-service. You will be notified by email when requested materials are available for pickup, and will have access to the Mann Lobby Monday – Friday, 9am to 4pm to retrieve those materials. If you need an accessibility accommodation, Mann Curbside is a drive-up option in the small parking area behind Mann Library. If you would prefer that option, reply to your confirmation email and request the Mann Curbside service. General hours for this service will be Monday – Friday, 10am to 2pm, though those hours are subject to change depending on staffing levels.
And one last but quite important note: In order to retain access to the over four million volumes of the HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS), in many cases we are barred from loaning or providing scans of materials currently available in ETAS. If you see from the library catalog record that an item you need is currently available for online reading via the HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service, it is at this point likely available as an online resource only.
If you have a question or hit a snag with any of this, please feel free to contact Mann Library Access Services with any questions you might have about request and pickup services. And, as always, please contact us regarding your research needs, as well as needs for course materials and instructional support.
The Cornell University Library’s COVID update page continues to list all currently available services. We also added an FAQ about our Return to Campus preparations to help with your planning.
Good news bird lovers! Cornell’s Laboratory of Ornithology has teamed up with Mann Library and the Biodiversity Heritage Library to digitize all pre-2008 issues of the Lab of O’s quarterly magazine Living Bird. Known for it’s stunning photography, detailed scientific illustrations and writing from the frontiers of ornithology, the magazine has been in circulation since 1962. Looking through the archive provides a nice overview on how the magazine has evolved over the years and on the improvements that have occurred in wildlife photography methods and commercial color printing. Originally an annual publication, thanks to its growing popularity the magazine is now published quarterly. For a look at the 1962-2008 editions online visit the magazine’s pages at Biodiversity Heritage Library: bit.ly/livingbird-bhl. Since 2008 all Living Bird issues have been available in both print and online, and can be found here: allaboutbirds.org/news/living-bird-latest-issue. Happy browsing with the birds!
Did you know? Thanks to a joint initiative between Cornell unit libraries faculty, staff and students now have full access to DocuSeek2, the new academic streaming source for top quality documentary films. With this acquisition, current Cornellians can select from 1,200+ documentaries in all major disciplines—from environment to health economics—to view directly online or embed in learning management systems for class-related use. And even better: The license associated with Cornell’s use of this collection covers group screenings as well, allowing student organizations and any other Cornell program to host public viewings of any film found in the DocuSeek2 library—once we can all get back to the gatherings that make Cornell campus life so vibrant. This will take care of copyright concerns that student groups may have faced in the past when trying to show documentary films at their events (though we should note they’ll still be on the hook for their own popcorn.) And until then, as we all ride out the wave of national COVID-19 mitigation work together, using your own home computer to view some of the world’s best documentaries on subjects vital to the health and well-being of society and planet is a great way to turn a long stint of “sheltering in place” to protect public health into a pretty amazing mind-opening experience as well. Check out the collection at bit.ly/doc-film-collection—and enjoy!
We’ve all become keenly aware: preparing lectures for remote presentation has suddenly become fundamentally essential to higher education and research collaboration, here at Cornell as elsewhere around the world—but maybe you’re still a bit of a novice in the process. You’ve created a presentation using PowerPoint and now you’d like to record the lecture that goes with it. The Zoom virtual meeting platform would be one relatively easy way to do that. But how exactly?
If you find yourself feeling a bit stumped by that question—don’t worry. You’re not alone, and we’ve put together something that we think could help: a set of step-by-step instructions provided below and an accompanying tutorial video (available at vimeo.com/405070626) that will give you illustrations to go along with it. We think this gives the Zoom novices among us here at Cornell enough guidance to produce a lecture-with-slides video successfully.*
But if you do end up with questions, don’t hesitate to be in touch—after all, that’s what the Chat button on the right of this screen is there for, right? Consultants at the Cornell Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) are also available for drop-in sessions for help on remote teaching; just drop in at teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/planning-remote-teaching/online-drop-sessions. Finally, you can also also book Zoom-based one-on-one consultations with Mann librarians with expertise in your field here–we’d be happy to hear from you.
*Please note, faculty members using Canvas to connect with their students for a course can record a lecture using Zoom from within Canvas; for instructions on that, go to teaching.cornell.edu/resource/zoom-guides-information
Using Zoom to record a lecture with slides (see accompanying video for illustrations):
Congratulations on your recorded lecture! And remember, if you have feedback or questions for us, we’re here for you. Just shoot us an email at mann_outreach@cornell.edu.
Additional resources for preparing remote lectures and teaching remotely:
From Cornell University Library: guides.library.cornell.edu/remoteteaching.
We are really pleased to announce that in response to the urgent challenge of COVID-19 mitigation, Cornell University Library is presently able to offer a significantly extended level of access to online resources. This is happening several ways:
1. Extended open access to large collections of high-quality digitized literature is being made available for the COVID-19 emergency period via
2. The Library now also has temporary free access to over 85,000 additional e-books available through our existing subscription to ProQuest’s eBook Central library through mid-June. This almost doubles the number of e-books that Cornell faculty, students and staff can access from eBook Central via the Library catalog – and each title has unlimited access. If you’d like to get a sense of some of the titles involved, check out this page of the library catalog.
3. Finally, also extremely helpful have been the publishers who have stepped up to offer free access directly to the materials that they have released in electronic format. Publishers who’ve joined this line up that may be of particular interest to CALS and CHE faculty include:
Up-to-date information extended access to materials can be found at “Published Free” libguide. (Please note, publishers are generally providing extended free access is only for the duration of COVID-19 mitigation period, so access rules are subject to change over the coming months).
For further information about ebooks available through the Cornell University Library—including tips on how to find available ebooks most efficiently — check out our ebook libguide.
Still can’t find an ebook version of the book you need via a search on the Cornell University Library catalog? You can recommend a purchase here and we’ll get on it to see if we can’t order it fast for you!
As always if you end up with questions or need further assistance from a librarian, you can get in touch with us multiple ways, including:
One way or the other, we’ll be there for you when you need us—don’t hesitate to reach out.
