Libraries and Hours Ask a Librarian

Mann Library

Closed - Full Hours /
Lobby/Contactless Pickup: Open 24 Hours

Don’t Miss Election Day November 8th!

Hey Cornellians—There’s a day of major civic importance coming up and the library wants to be sure you don’t miss it. We’re talking, of course, about mid-term election day, which this year is on Tuesday, November 8. 

 

A new voting info kiosk on Mann Library’s first floor is helping to connect students and other visitors with some essential tools for helping to make sure their vote gets counted. But for those who’d prefer direct links via this page, here are some of the essentials:

 

Visit vote.org for:

  • finding early voting locations for your voting precinct
  • checking your registration
  • getting info on voting by mail in your state (requirements, deadlines, etc. )
  • locating your polling place and finding their hours
  • locating a ballot dropbox for your precinct
  • seeing what’s on your ballot

Visit andrewgoodman.org/myvoteeverywhere/cornell-university/ for great info on voting procedures, polling place locations, candidate and issues up for the vote, and other essentials in Tompkins County or your home state. This site is designed specifically with students in mind!

 

Email cornellvotes@cornell.edu,  the campus group Cornell Votes, for any (and we do mean any) questions you might have about voting. Find yourself wanting to get involved in the non-partisan campus effort to help every Cornellian exercise their voting rights? Reach out and get involved!

 

Use mailboxlocate.com to find a post office or mailbox near you (for mailing ballots).

 

Check out our research guide on voting & civic engagement: guides.library.cornell.edu/vote. This guide includes info on voter registration, election laws, becoming a poll worker, contacting your representatives, and more. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, or have questions about the guide, let us know: lmk7@cornell.edu! It’s an actively curated resource and we’d love to keep improving it to make it work for you!

Open Access Week 2022

OA Week is an invaluable chance to connect the global momentum toward open sharing with the advancement of policy changes on the local level. Universities, colleges, research institutes, funding agencies, libraries, and think tanks have used Open Access Week as a platform to host faculty votes on campus open-access policies, to issue reports on the societal and economic benefits of Open Access, to commit new funds in support of open-access publication, and more.

 

Cornell University Library is holding a series of panel discussions and talks, Oct. 24–28, to promote freely accessible scholarship that advances the work of researchers in all disciplines around the world.

 

What does “open access” look like for the incarcerated?
Monday, October 24th, 11:15am – 12:15pm
Uris Library Fiske Room (light refreshments will be served and in person attendees will receive a pair of OA socks!) or Zoom 
Moderated by Nichole McCarthy, Original Content Collections Manager, Legal Information Institute
The short answer is, there is no such thing as “open access” in a correctional facility. However, access to information and education in correctional facilities is still essential. Instead of talking specifically about “open access” efforts, we are going to talk about the ways in which The Cornell Prison Education Program and Cornell Library work together to provide access to information to those receiving an education while incarcerated.
Panelists:

  • Betsye Violette, Associate Director of Student Services, Cornell Prison Education Program
  • Maddie Reynolds, Cornell Prison Education Program Librarian, Cornell University Library
  • Wendy Wilcox Co-Director Olin/Uris Libraries, Resource & Access Services, Cornell University Library

Openness and the Future of Scholarly Communications
Tuesday, October 25th, 1pm – 2pm
Olin Library Room 703 (light refreshments will be served and in person attendees will receive a pair of OA socks!) or Zoom
Moderated by Jane Bunker, Director, Cornell University Press
Panelists:

  • Elaine L. Westbrooks, Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, Cornell University Library
  • K. Max Zhang, Professor, Sibling School of Mechanical Engineering; The Kathy Dwyer Marble and Curt Marble Faculty Director, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
  • Andrew Hicks, Associate Professor, Department of Music and Program in Medieval Studies; Director, Cornell Medieval Studies Program

Trends in Peer Review of Open Access Preprints
Wednesday, October 26th, 11am – 12pm
Mann Library Room 160 (light refreshments will be served and in person attendees will receive a pair of OA socks!) or Zoom (pre-registration required; click the link to register)
Hosted by Alison Fromme of ArXiv 
Speed or research is a major feature of open access preprint platforms like arXiv – formal peer review can follow later after rapid distribution of results. However, as submissions to arXiv and other preprint servers have grown, many researchers are seeking new avenues for community feedback and peer review. At this panel discussion, leaders in preprints and peer review will discuss current trends in virtual overlay journals, open peer reviews, and more.
Panelists:

  • Peter Coles, PhD, Theoretical Cosmologist at Maynooth University in Ireland and Managing Editor of The Open Journal of Astrophysics
  • Jessica Polka, PhD, Executive Director of ASAPbio
  • Antti Mikael Rousi, PhD, Senior Advisor, Research Services at Aalto University, Finland
  • Steinn Sigurdsson, PhD, Professor of Astronomy at Penn State University and arXiv Scientific Director

OER Above Cayuga’s Waters: An Introduction to Open Educational Resources
Thursday, October 27th, 2pm – 3pm
Olin Library Room 703 (light refreshments will be served and in person attendees will receive a pair of OA socks!) or Zoom
Presented by Mike Priehs, Cornell University Library Copyright Services
Open Educational Resources, also known as OER, are educational materials that are intentionally created and licensed to be free for users to own, share, and customize. These materials can range from a single lesson plan to an entire textbook. Not only can they save students money, but they can also be modified and remixed to better meet the learning objectives of courses. In this session, we will describe and define OER, talk about copyright and licensing issues, identify examples of OER in practice, and share our experience and knowledge of OER in use at Cornell University.

 

Lightning Talks!
Friday, October 28th, 10am – 11am
Zoom
Hosted by Debra Howell, Cornell University Library
Lightning talks are short presentations of 5-10 minutes that are arranged one after the other that allow presenters to convey ideas, information, and concepts quickly in an exciting format. Our Open Access Week Lightning Talks include:

Changes to Public Access to Federally Funded Research

    • Presented by Matthew Kopel, Copyright Specialist, Cornell University Library and Sarah J Wright, Research Data & Life Sciences Librarian, Cornell University Library
    • In August, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a memorandum eliminating the 12-month embargo on federally funded research. This presentation will briefly review what this policy guidance means for researchers and the broader academic community.

Making Research Papers Available to All

    • Presented by Shamsi Beers Brinn, User Interface/Experience Specialist, arXiv
    • For 30 years, arXiv has removed financial, institutional, and geographic barriers to access research and profoundly impacted how scientific knowledge is shared around the world. But for scientists with a variety of disabilities – such as blindness or reading disabilities – research is still not open. arXiv is embarking on an ambitious project to make the research we host as accessible and approachable as possible. We will share our findings, where arXiv can have the most impact, and how these changes benefit the entire scientific community.

Cornell Open Access Publishing Fund (COAP) – program updates

    • Presented by Kizer Walker, Director of Collections, Cornell University Library
    • Established in 2010, the Library’s COAP program underwrites reasonable publication charges for articles and books by Cornell authors who are non-tenured faculty members, academic staff members, or students, published in fee-based open access journals when other funding sources are not available.

Open for Climate Justice at The Ohio State University

    • Presented by Maureen P. Walsh, Scholarly Sharing Strategist, The Ohio State University Libraries and Gene R. Springs, Collections Strategist, The Ohio State University Libraries
    • We will give a brief overview of The Ohio State University Libraries’ “Transforming the Scholarly Publishing Economy” strategic initiative, now in its third year. We will highlight our portfolio of transformational and transitional agreements with journal publishers and our support for open scholarly monographs and open scholarly infrastructure. We will focus on the impact of our Read and Publish and Pure Publish Agreements are having in opening Climate Justice scholarship at The Ohio State University. We will share our current thinking on future directions for our initiatives as we continue to work with campus stakeholders, researchers, consortia partners, peers, open-source communities, and publishers for the advancement of open research and scholarship.

Cornell’s Quadruple Bottom Line for Sustainability: An Open Access Decision-Making Tool

    • Presented by Sarah Brylinsky, Assistant Director, Cornell Campus Sustainability Office
      • Sarah Brylinsky leads the development of climate action and sustainability business strategy across the university, including managing strategic communications and the development of a ‘living laboratory for sustainability’ to accelerate innovation and impact. She has been at her role at Cornell for 6 years, and was previously director of the national carbon commitment and founded the first higher education climate resiliency compact.
    • People. Prosperity. Planet. Purpose. These four impact areas comprise Cornell’s “quadruple bottom line” sustainability framework. Cornell’s Sustainability Office has created an open-access sustainability framework that incorporates the three key areas of environment, economy, and equity (which we call planetprosperity, and people), and adds a fourth area of consideration which helps us examine how we can best contribute to a more sustainable world as an education institution – our purpose. This Quadruple Bottom Line Sustainability Framework is both an “ethos” for how we consider sustainability as part of our campus education and operations, but also a tool for decision making that can be used by anyone on campus and beyond.

Mann @ 70: Cornell Family Weekend Celebration

Seventy years ago, in the fall of 1952, a new Mann Library building opened its art deco doors on Cornell’s upper campus, and the Cornell Ag Quad has never been the same since. We warmly invite Cornell alumni and their families to help us celebrate our 70th anniversary and all the ways this library has grown, thrived and yet stayed true to its classic roots and its Cornell mission—helping to advance knowledge with public purpose—through the big changes of the digital age. Drop by our Cornell Family Weekend Celebration for birthday cake, a scavenger hunt, prizes and party favors. All ages welcome!

The Library’s got you covered during Fall Break!

Whether you’re getting out of town and doing some traveling, or enjoying a quiet staycation at home, Mann Library can help you make the most of your fall break!

 

Heading out of town? Use Access Anywhere to access library resources

When you’re off-campus, you can connect to databases, journals, and e-books that would otherwise be restricted or hidden behind paywalls through Access Anywhere. Just install the Access Anywhere bookmarklet on the web browser of your choice. Next time you hit a restricted website, click the Passkey icon. If the Library has a subscription to the resource you are trying to access, you will be prompted to sign in with your NetID and password.

 

Enjoy our wide selection of e-books and audiobooks!

Looking forward to some pleasure reading over the long weekend? OverDrive allows current Cornell students, faculty, and staff to check out and download e-books and audiobooks. There are multiple options for accessing e-books and audiobooks via OverDrive:

  • Install the Libby app to download books to a computer, phone, or other device.
  • Read or listen online directly through your computer browser with OverDrive Read.
  • Use your Amazon account and either a Kindle device or app to download Kindle formats.

In addition to Cornell’s OverDrive offerings you can sign up for a Tompkins County Public Library Card to take advantage of their collection. New York State residents may also apply for a New York Public Library Card and/or a Brooklyn Public Library Card to access their OverDrive content as well as other online resources.

 

Staying in town? Come visit us!

Mann will be open with limited hours during fall break:

  • Friday, 10/7  8am to 5pm
  • Saturday, 10/8  1 to 5pm
  • Sunday, 10/9  CLOSED
  • Monday 10/10 8am to 5pm

Tastings & Tomes: Celebrating NYS Cider Week @ the Library

Each year, the Finger Lakes cider industry commemorates a long and rich tradition of cider-making and apple growing with a regional celebration, which this year has gone New York State-wide. The Peck Lab in the Cornell School of Integrative Plant Sciences is teaming up with Mann Library to invite the Cornell community and Ithaca area residents to join in the fun. A special program in the Mann Library lobby on Tuesday, October 4 will feature fresh apples to taste, sweet cider to savor, new ideas to explore about foraging for old apple varieties across the landscape, and insights to gain from beautifully illustrated rare and distinctive old pomology volumes that are valued by both experts and amateurs alike. Drop in anytime between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to celebrate with us!

Soil Fair @ Ag Day this Friday 9/30!

Soil is the foundation of our food systems and our planet’s most biodiverse habitat. It also has a key part to play in humankind’s ability to mitigate and manage the process and effects of global warming.  


Important as it is to our planet’s life support system, there is much to be learned about this vital but under-appreciated resource.  The Cornell community and wider Ithaca area public are warmly invited to explore some of what’s happening at Cornell to advance our knowledge about soil, its life-sustaining qualities for a healthy future, and the various ways we can work to protect and support its vital role in our global agro-ecoystem.  Join us at the Soil Fair that will be part of this year’s Ag Day being organized by Alpha Zeta Cornell on the Ag Quad on Friday,, September 30, 9:00 to 4:30 p.m. Look for us on the Tsujimoto Plaza in front of Mann Library!

 

Programs, information tables and partners at the Fair will include:  

 

Cornell University Library Grants Program for Digital Collections

Attention all Cornell faculty and post-A exam graduate students: Do you have an idea for a new digital collection that will support research and teaching at Cornell? Perhaps you know of a collection of images or objects we can photograph, or have analog material – DAT tapes, slides, negatives, or cassette tapes – related to your research or the history of your field? The Grants Program for Digital Collections funds several digitization projects each year, and all you need to apply is a good idea!

 

Examples of proposals that are within the scope of the grants program include:

  • Creating new digital collections from Library, departmental, faculty, or graduate student-held resources that are regularly used in teaching or research, including lecture notes, slides, photographs, printed documents, manuscripts, or audiovisual materials. 
  • Digitizing archival collections or unique materials held by Cornell University, which are instrumental in supporting learning, teaching, and research, as well as supporting the University’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 
  • Converting materials or born-digital content held by other cultural institutions, that will support teaching and research at Cornell — especially combining dispersed resources to create new and enriched ones. 
  • Projects that will subsequently support new research methods, innovative data visualization, and tools that enable novel ways of analysis and interpretation.

50+ diverse projects have been funded over the past twelve years. Interdisciplinary collaborations across the University are encouraged. Email dcaps@cornell.edu with any questions. Note: Final selection of materials will be subject to ability to clear copyright.

 

Inquiries requested by October 1, 2022 | Application due October 31, 2022

 

The 2022 grant cycle is now closed. Please check back in August 2023 for information about the next cycle.

Voting Info at the Library

No better day than National Voter Registration Day to announce a new info resource at Mann Library: a kiosk on Mann’s 1st floor offering some forms and handouts students will find helpful for making their voice heard in the U.S. election process. Here’s what you’ll find there:

 

The voting info kiosk at Mann is made possible by a partnership between Mann Library and Cornell Votes, a non-partisan student organization dedicated to fostering a campus culture which every person exercises their right to have a voice in their representation. Care to get involved with this good effort, or want further info on any question you might have about registering to vote? Sending an email to Cornell Votes will do the trick!  

Fall 2022 Chats in the Stacks @ Mann Library

We are pleased to share our line-up of fall book talks, which will be held in-person in Mann Library 160. You can find all recordings of our past Chats in the Stacks on our YouTube channel.

 

September 22, 4pm

Mann Library, Room 160

Harold van Es, Building Soils for Better Crops: Ecological Management for Healthy Soils

Organic matter was once extolled as the essential soil ingredient, but the availability of inexpensive synthetic fertilizers and the mass industrialization of farming after World War II have led to a serious soil crisis. What can we do to increase the vitality of soils today and for future generations? In this book talk, Harold van Es explains how soil health has degraded at the global level, and the steps that everyone can take—from home gardeners and small farmers to large agricultural corporations and food industries—to improve and preserve this essential resource. 

 

October 13, 4pm

Mann Library, Room 160

Chris Barrett, Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems Transformation

While dramatic advances in human well-being have been achieved worldwide through technological and institutional innovations in agri-food systems, adverse impacts on climate, the natural environment, public health, and social justice increasingly impede further, sustained progress. How humanity can innovate to bring about local and global agri-food systems that more equitably, healthfully, and sustainably expand on past progress is the fundamental question posed in Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food System Transformation, a synthesis of the current state of the world’s agri-food systems, and an examination of key external drivers of change anticipated over the next 25–50 years.

 

November 2, 4:30pm

Mann Library, Room 160

Robert Connelly, Frameworks, Tensegrities, and Symmetry

Geometry has been a wonderful attraction since the time of Archimedes. We all have our prejudices and points of view. Some are from the problem of making a structure rigid. Some are from the problem of making a surface flexible. Some are beautiful Art. Tensegrities are all of those as collections of points with distance constraints. Some are rigid but very squishy, but they all can be seen and felt. In this book talk, Robert Connelly, professor in the Department of Mathematics and a pioneer in the study of tensegrities, will discuss the latest edition of Frameworks, Tensegrities, and Symmetry (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

 

November 10, 4pm CANCELLED

Mann Library, Room 160

Jenny Goldstein, The Nature of Data: Infrastructures, Environments, Politics

It is not possible to fully understand current global environmental politics and responses to environmental challenges without understanding the role of data platforms, devices, standards, and institutions, according to Jenny Goldstein, assistant professor in Global Development. In this book talk, Goldstein discusses her new book, The Nature of Data (coedited with Eric Nost, assistant professor at the University of Guelph), which brings together scholars from geography, anthropology, science and technology studies, and ecology to explore these connections, and reveal how environmental politics are waged in the digital realm.

Fall 2022 Workshops @ Mann Library

We want to help all new and returning Cornellians start the semester off right with our selection of fall workshops. There is no better time to start building those research skills, and with our wide selection of pre-recorded workshops, you can explore these sessions at a time and place that works best for you!

 

Visit our Workshops page for the full listing of asynchronous workshops, including help with searching and literature reviews, citation management software (Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote), the nuts and bolts of systematic reviews, and research data management.

 

And be sure to check out the schedule of live workshops this semester, which are being offered in-person in Stone Classroom (Mann 103):

 

Intro to QGIS

Tuesday, September 27, 3-5pm

Learn the basics of QGIS, the popular free and open-source desktop GIS application for mapping and geospatial analysis. We will work together through examples of loading common types of data, modifying the display styles, and performing some basic analysis.

 

Introduction to Bloomberg

Monday, September 12, 5-6pm

Tuesday, September 27, 12-1pm

Tuesday, October 4, 4:30- 5:30pm

Hundreds of thousands of investment professionals rely on the most comprehensive financial research tool on the market – Bloomberg. Give yourself a competitive advantage by learning the basics of how to navigate Bloomberg quickly and efficiently.

 

Introduction to Market Research

Thursday, September 22, 4:30-5:30pm

Tuesday, October 4, 12-1pm

Understanding the consumer is essential for any successful business. Market research encompasses a number of aspects critical to understanding the consumer, ranging from their demographic make-up to their attitudes and behavior regarding a product or service. This workshop will introduce attendees to the basics of market research, highlighting key concepts that dictate what information is available, and exposing attendees to Cornell’s top resources for discovering this information.

 

For the full listing of all Cornell University Library workshops, visit the CUL Workshops calendar.