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What Are We Reading This Summer?

Photo by BibBornem from Pixabay
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Mann Library iconWho picks up a 704 page tome on the art and science of a 19th century German marine biologist for some summer leisure reading? Well, we have to admit, that would be Michael Cook, the indefatigable Head of Collection Development and Preservation at Mann Library. We are a life sciences library after all.

 

As summer set in on campus, we asked Mann Library staff to share what book(s) they’d be been spending time with over the (at least in theory!) more languid hot weather weeks of the season. And while Michael’s pick is certainly a serious (and seriously gorgeous) life sciences doozy, in gathering together all the reading suggestions submitted so far, we’ve learned that our Mann colleagues are actually fairly eclectic in their reading tastes, ranging from Norse mythology to modern Russian literature and from biotech science fiction to some refreshing thinking on being an activist for healing and happiness. What about you? If you find yourself with a spare moment on Cornell’s upper campus, do drop by the library to check out the small book display of staff-recommended titles that we’re putting up for the 2nd half of the Cornell summer break next Monday. And if you feel so inclined, don’t be shy about letting us know of any good summer reads you might recommend too—we’d love to include them in our display as well!

 

What are Mann Library staff reading this summer? Here’s a list of select titles:

アキラ/ AKIRAŌtomo Katsuhiro“Set in a dystopian future, AKIRA’s brutal and chaotic story popularized the cyberpunk genre and influenced several other famous series.” – Jimmy M.
Are We Not Men? We Are DEVO!Jade Dellinger“As a de-evolved DJ and musician I’m a lifelong fan of these brilliant absurdists. The most authoritative book on DEVO.” – Michael C.
The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel Gigantic book of total eye candy. Most stunning biological artwork ever. I bought my own copy – hey, it’s Taschen!” – Michael C.
AutonomousAnnalee Newitz“A Biotech and AI sci-fi novel with a pertinent question: Is freedom possible in a culture where everything, even people, can be owned?” – Chris J.
Bug Music: How Insects Gave us Rhythm and NoiseDavid Rothenberg“A lovely angle on one of the best features of late summer nights” – Eveline F.
Capitalist Realism: Is There No AlternativeMark Fisher“Fisher addresses the quote that ‘it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism’ (quote attributed to Jameson & Zizek).” – Daisy W.
Dirt Work: An Education in the WoodsChristine Byl“I am just starting this book, but one reviewer said, “a must read for anyone who’s worked in the dirt,” which I did for my first couple jobs” – Mary O.
Don’t Make Me Pull Over: An Informal History of the Family Road TripRichard Ratay“An informative and humorous look at family car trips in the U.S. interspersed with historical perspective on how the interstate highway system, fast food restaurants and hotel chains factored into the mix. Will bring back memories for anyone who has ever shared a back seat in a station wagon with siblings in the pre-seat belt era!” – Mel J.
The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: the Story of Stalin’s Persecution of one of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth CenturyPeter Pringle“A case study of the suppression of science, sadly a story that seems to repeat itself. Vavilov is my hero.” – Michael C.
Nature’s Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology,Mark Barrows“The topic has an urgent edge to it, but Barrow’s elegant prose makes this a rewarding read as well.” – Eveline F.
Norse MythologyNeil Gaiman“An excellent introduction to Norse Mythology based off of the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson. Great for anyone interested in Norse mythology or planning a trip to Iceland!” – Ryan T.
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Goodadrienne maree brown“Can the political be pleasurable? brown explores the politics of healing and happiness, rethinking the ground rules of activism.” – Karina H.
Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other StoriesMaxim Osipov“Osipov is a cardiologist whose lyrical stories involve medicine, crime, art, and the joys and frustrations of provincial Russian life.” – Matt K.
SevenevesNeal Stephenson“One day, the Moon suddenly shattered into pieces. Humanity now has a very interesting problem on its hands.” – Jimmy M.
SeverenceLing Ma“Beautiful descriptions of NYC and China, apocalypse, coming-of-adulthood in the early aughts – and more! Ling Ma is a Cornell grad.” – Kate G-K.
The Solitary TwinHarry Mathews“What do you want from a book? … To stand on the threshold of the unfamiliar, the inevitably familiar viewed unfamiliarly …” – Keith Jenkins
Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943Antony Beevor“Well told, well researched story of the horrific clash of two madmen. Incredible heroism by people in a bad situation.” – Michael C.
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After WarmingDavid Wallace-Wells“An extremely urgent analysis of climate catastrophe that addresses not just science but climate change’s social and everyday impacts.” – Daisy W.

New Course: Navigating Today’s Information Chaos

Register at bit.ly/ALS1200
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In 1987, a weekday edition of the New York Times contained more written information than the average person was likely to encounter in a lifetime in seventeenth-century England. Imagine what we could say about the amount of information we encounter in our daily lives today–if you can! For a citizenry to be constructively engaged, it must be well-informed. Yet, as more information floods the information landscape, worrisome material also spreads, often quickly. What puts some information into the “worrisome quality” category? What makes it valuable? A new course led by librarian Ashley Shea, Head of Instruction Initiatives at Mann Library, aims to help students master these questions for a lifetime of success as critical thinkers, professionals and citizens.

 

This new 1-credit course will equip students with the skills needed to navigate today’s vast sea of (dis)information. By analyzing different information platforms, students will develop a nuanced, critical approach to finding, evaluating and using information responsibly in the digital age. Will meet on Fridays, 11:15 am – 12:05 pm.

 

1200, or “Information Chaos: Navigating Today’s Information Landscape,” will cover the theoretical, methodological and practical concepts and skills needed to understand and evaluate today’s vast information landscape. The course will focus primarily on information systems in the U.S., although several prominent examples of international information systems will also be included. At the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Compare various information types that exist and articulate the value(s) and problems(s) of each;
  • Recognize the structural and ideological differences between various information systems (I.e., News sites, academic databases, federal repositories, etc.) that produce and disseminate information;
  • Translate complex research questions into a search strategy with appropriate search tools and platforms;
  • Apply various assessment tools to evaluate the credibility of information;
  • Utilize citation management software to organize information conceptually and thoughtfully;
  • Demonstrate understanding of attribution by properly citing the work of others.

Most of the readings and videos for this class will be open education resources (OERs) that are openly licensed and freely available online. In addition to assessing the quality of information available to researchers today, the topic of access to information will be an important component of this class. By making materials that are freely available to anyone regardless of location or means central to class assignments, the course will underscore this point.

 

As a 1 credit course, ALS 1200 will involve a final assignment: Students will be charged with creating an infographic that profiles a chosen information platform to effectively communicate its key features (scope, scale, history, financing, verifiability, transparency) for a broad but robust assessment of its quality as an information resource. We look forward to seeing what they come up with as newly minted pathfinders on the information frontier!

 

Visit ALS 1200 information & registration. 

Fledgling alert! Turning a blind window for young hawk survival

If you find yourself on Tower Rd, watch out as the red hawk fledglings learn to fly!
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Big Red and Arthur’s baby hawks above the Athletic Field on Tower Road have fledged and are busy testing their wings around the Ag Quad. During this time, large window areas pose a particular risk to their survival as inexperienced flyers are unfortunately prone to mistaking any reflection (of trees, sky, etc.) they may see in large exterior windows for the real thing.

 

What can we do to help these vulnerable teenagers avoid catastrophic collision? Keeping the blinds lowered in the large windows in Mann’s various individual and group study spaces is one good strategy. Mann staff will be lowering the window blinds each morning for the rest of the summer. We are hoping that our study room users will help us in this effort by keeping the blinds down while using these rooms. Or, if you find it necessary to raise the blinds, we ask that you be sure to lower them again when leaving the space. We thank you for your help getting these young birds through their risky teenage years!

It’s a Women’s World Cup Soccer Summer!

These passionate fans are gathered to watch the games in the Mann Lobby
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The summer soccer thrill has started. While only one national women’s soccer team will win the World Cup title on July 7, between now and then the whole world will share in the excitement, glories and, yes, agonies, of the tournament, played on a global stage. You in? Following our usual tradition when it comes to this world sport, in the Mann Lobby we will be streaming almost all matches that fall during our summer hours of operation—that means all games between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and between 8:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. Friday, and generally most games that fall on Saturday afternoon between 1:00 though 5:00 p.m. We’re hoping that we’ll see many of you soccer lovers in the lobby in the next few weeks—and that we’ll catch at least some of you wearing your favorite national team colors. Let’s hear it for the beautiful game!

 

View the full World Cup tournament schedule.

Earth Week @ Mann Library & Manndible Café

Original artwork by Daisy Wiley
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For Earth Week celebrations at Cornell this year, Mann Library and Manndible Café have teamed up to turn you on to some fun ways to help shrink the Big Red environmental paw print on campus. Join us for any (or all!) of the events we’re holding in and around the library between April 22 and April 26.

 

You’ll notice that we’ve settled on a “Go Reusable” theme for the week, mainly in an effort to help us cut down on the amount of waste, particularly plastic and plastic-coated materials, that we do see pile up in the trash bins around the library in the course of any given day. As the feature movie that we’ll be screening on Thursday (4/25) points out, growing piles of throw-away plastics are having a worrisome effect on the health of our oceans and landscapes. But, as we hope our Earth Week events will show you, cutting down on the use of throw-away materials isn’t so very hard—and can be pretty fun. An all-around win-win. Hope you can join us!

All week:

Monday, 4/22, 5:00 – 7:00 pm:

Tuesday, 4/23, 4:30 – 5:30 pm

Wednesday, 4/24

Thursday, 4/25

Friday, 4/26 2:00 – 4:00 pm:

  • Look for the Mann & Manndible Café table at CALS Day. Info, tips and prizes to help you shrink your pawprint on the Big Red campus.

Downsizing the Big Red Pawprint @ Mann

Original artwork by Daisy Wiley
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Drawing of bear wavingRecycling Rules​April is around the corner, and with that comes the prospect of all the great Earth Day celebrations that happen at Cornell each spring (which, after all, was named one of the top 20 “Coolest Schools,” by none other than the Sierra Club in 2018!). For the spring semester, Mann is getting an early start on celebrating green-minded thinking with a series of special activities focused on reducing the waste “pawprint” made here at the Library.

 

Why the waste focus? Most members of the Cornell community have probably heard: A decades-long boom in the market for recyclable paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metals—driven by the flow of over 40% of American recyclables to China just a few years ago—took a sudden nosedive as China announced its 2017 decision to stop taking recyclable materials from the U.S.. The key reason for the new policy: The problem of contamination (food residue, wax, often also hazardous substances) plaguing American recyclables, which seriously gummed up the recycling process in China and in some cases made it dangerous. The key impact: A steep drop in the market for American recyclables and a corresponding hike in the cost of recycling for U.S. towns and cities. Where towns like Ithaca may have once actually seen an income stream from the recyclables gathered by their residents, in many cases they are now facing growing net costs. Faced with a 50% drop in the price it can garner for recycling materials, the Tompkins County Recycling and Materials Management Center has issued some new guidelines for our area.

 

So what’s the implication for us here at Mann Library, where a considerable amount of trash piles up in both the recycling and the trash bins located on all floors of the library? The way we see it, it’s an opportunity for us to work with our library users to do better—both in terms of recycling correctly and, even more importantly, reducing what gets thrown away in the first place.

 

With that in mind, here’s what we’ve been up to and what we have in store for the weeks ahead:

  1. New reusable mugs (covered ones, so they’re OK to use in the Library) have gone on sale at the Mann Service Desk—Between their low cost ($10 a piece) and the discount you get at Manndible Café for bringing your own mug, you’ll very likely recoup the full cost of one of these beauties within the year!
  2. A display of interactive booths in the Top Shelf Gallery through 3/23, created by Ecology House, Student Assembly Dining, the Cornell Society for Natural Resource Conservation (SNRC), Epsilon Eta and Cornell Sustainability Consultants to raise awareness about about how waste can be more sustainably managed on the Cornell campus;
  3. New signage all around the library is guiding our users in proper recycling practices to minimize contamination;
  4. Earth Week program activities to include:
  • Monday 4/22 & Thursday 4/25: Reusable snack bag making sessions in the mannUfactory makerspace
  • Wednesday 4/24: A one-day-only fire sale of reusable Mann mugs ($5 per mug–get ’em while they last!)
  • Thursday, 4/25: A fun craft activity re-using old glassware to create some very cool drink-&-lunch jars, in collaboration with Manndible Cafe and the mannUfactory makerspace (all children and parents on campus for Bring a Child to Work Day welcome to join us for that activity too);
  • Friday, 4/26: Look for our table at CALS Day on the Ag Quad–for tips and prizes to promote recycling awareness.

With these initiatives, Mann hopes to do our part towards a smaller waste stream on our beloved Cornell campus—and we hope to have a little fun doing it. We’re pretty sure good old Touchdown is game. Are you?

Go Reusable! New Mann Mugs Now Available

Teal-colored versions of these now available for purchase at the Mann Service Desk--while supplies last!
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Back of Mann reusable mugMann Library is pleased to announce that new Mann Library mugs are now available for purchase at the Mann Service Desk. Every year, mountains (truly!–you’d be shocked at the number!) of disposable coffee and other beverage cups make their way into the Cornell campus waste stream. Wondering how you can do your part to reduce that serious landfill load? Going reusable is a great way to start! Our classy new (now teal-colored) porcelain mugs—they come with a cover, so you can also use them IN the Library—are available at $10 / piece, while supplies last.

 

And don’t forget: Cornell’s Recyclemania contest is on through March 30th this year. In the spirit of helping to shrink the waste stream at Cornell Mann Library will be focusing on some reduce-reuse-recycle programming over the next couple of months. Stay tuned for more info, fun challenges, and hands-on activities coming up!

Mann’s Digital Collections Get an Upgrade

CHLA is one of the largest digital collections of printed works at CUL
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Dig deeper into agricultural history with Mann’s Digital Collections, which were recently given a makeover and migrated to CUL’s Digital Collections Portal. The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA) is primarily a collection of landmark agricultural texts published between the early 19th century and the late 20th century. These full-text materials cover agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, crops and their protection, food science, forestry, human nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science. With more than 2000 books and 36 journals together comprising over a million pages CHLA is one of the largest digital collections of printed works at CUL.

 

Also newly updated, The Hive and the Honeybee showcases selections from the E. F. Phillips Beekeeping Collection, one of the largest and most complete apiculture libraries in the world. Initially begun with just ten historically significant books in the Phillips library, the collection has since grown to include over thirty key monographs as well as the first forty volumes of the landmark publication, American Bee Journal, covering 1861 through 1900. Each volume of this growing digital collection is available in full text format and is fully searchable.

 

For more information about the E. F. Phillips Beekeeping Collection at Mann Library, please visit our virtual exhibit

Give Our Gates a Yarnover

Photo by Jenny Leijonhufvud
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Yarn on Mann Gates
Mann Library gates on January 10, 2019. What will these look like on February 8?

No matter the gray, cold, rainy, snow, sleet and ice outside, collective creativity will win the day inside.

For the start of the spring 2019 semester, Mann Library cordially invites our community of students, faculty and staff to help us cover the security gates at our front doors with some knitting and crocheting fun. Bring us any swatches you’ve come up with and we’ll add them to an evolving sweater that’s already starting to make our gates look cheerfully cozy against the Ithaca winter. Or, just pick up knitting needles, crochet hook and yarn at the station we’ve set up inside our doors to start working on your patch right here in the Library. (Life sciences and human ecology motifs particularly welcome!)

Don’t know how to knit or crochet? No problem! Here are three ways we can help you get into the yarn-bombing knitting groove fast:

  • Check out some of the books and how-to manuals in our special book display by the knitting station
  • Join us for either (or both) of the knitting sprints we’ll be holding in the mannUfactory makerspace on Friday, January 25 and Friday, February 1, 12:00 – 1:00 pm to catch some basic in-person pointers from resident Mann staff knitting aficionados (Loosely defined! But with enough skill to at least help you cast on.)
  • Or, check out the online tutorials we’ve gathered for you on our yarn bombing lib guide

We’ll be celebrating the final installation with free hot cocoa in the Mann Library lobby on Friday, February 8, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., generously donated by Manndible Café. We’ll also be featuring a fire sale of our new Mann Library mugs to kick off our “Reduce, Reuse & Recycle” campaign @ Mann for the rest of the spring semester. Mugs will be on sale for $5 a piece on this day only–be sure to drop by and get yours so you too can GO REUSABLE!

Have a question? Contact us at mann-public-ed-prog@cornell.edu, and one way or the other do come join us for some yarn-bombing fun!

ESMIS: New and Improved Agricultural Information Service

The upgraded ESMIS website is easier to navigate
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Mann Library is pleased to announce a major new upgrade of the Economics, Statistics and Market Information System (ESMIS), a heavily used public archive containing thousands of federal agriculture and commodity reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Undertaken by a team of Mann librarians and web developers to better accommodate the needs of a growing user base, the upgrade has made the ESMIS website significantly easier to use. Notable improvements include:

  • A better user interface that makes reports more easily and more efficiently discoverable
  • An API for faster access to the ESMIS / USDA publication and release data
  • The ability to download multiple files at once to help support data synthesis.

ESMIS represents a decades-long agreement between Mann Library and the USDA. Over the years, this collaboration has grown to involve the participation of five USDA agencies, including the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Economic Research Service, the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Foreign Agricultural Service and the World Agricultural Outlook Board. Providing free access to historical reports and current agricultural data for thousands of users worldwide, ESMIS is unique among other agricultural data repositories in the scope and depth of USDA-published information offered. Some of the more popular reports—such as the monthly World Agricultural Supply & Demand Estimates report—receive more than 1 million page views. Given such reach and traffic volume, our recent enhancement of this online information service is poised to benefit many users. We invite all members of the public—whether you’re a power user of agricultural data, a citizen-scientist or a even just a data novice interested in learning where you can get reliable info about trends in agricultural development—to visit the new site and take it for a spin!