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Month: April

Climate Change & Food Info Fair

This exhibit is the result of a collaboration between Prof. Emertius Michael Hoffman, students from "Using the Power of Food to Confront Climate Change" and Mann Library, and is made possible by funding from the Bondareff Family Fund for Mann Library.
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Climate Change & Food Info Fair

Tuesday, April 22, 11am to 2pm

Mann Lobby

 

Food is essential for life, it is emotive, it is personal, and it is deeply embedded in our cultures and family histories. With climate change affecting the flavors, aromas, nutritional quality, and prices of the foods we love and need, food has unique power to tell a compelling story that makes climate change relevant to everyone. 
 
In celebration of Earth Day 2025 and in conjunction with Mann Library’s new exhibit, “The Power of Food: Confronting Climate Change One Meal at a Time,” Mann Library and participants of the class “Using the Power of Food to Confront Climate Change” will be hosting a Climate Change and Food info fest in the library lobby. The event will provide opportunity for the Cornell community to engage with student groups, programs, and departments working on issues of food and farming in an era of climate change in a hands-on exploration of how the changing climate is affecting what we eat—and of what we all can do to help keep the foods we love on the menu. All are welcome!

Right to Read April 26

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Cornell University Library invites the campus community to a series of special events titled “Right to Read,” to honor and promote diversity of thought and expression found in books of all kinds.

 

Friday, April 26, 9am to 2:30pm

Right to Read: Readathon

Mann Library, 1st Floor

The readathon will feature excerpts from banned and challenged books, selected and read aloud by students, staff, and faculty members. A selection of banned books will be on hand for attendees to take home, for free. Stop by to listen anytime throughout the day!

 

Friday, April 26, 3 to 5:30pm

Right to Read: A Conversation and Reception

Books of all kinds stimulate the imagination, enrich the mind, and provide insights into our complex world. And yet, there is a growing list of books continually being challenged and banned in schools and libraries across the U.S. In addition, nowhere is censorship more restrictive than in prisons, where books and other educational resources are direly needed for building meaningful lives and preparing for re-entry into civic life. As PEN America stated in a recent report, “carceral censorship is the most pervasive form of censorship in the United States.”

 

Join us for this conversation about how schools, libraries, and prisons are affected by censorship and how these institutions are providing access to books as wellsprings of knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. Our guest speakers include:

  • Rob Scott, executive director of the Cornell Prison Education Program and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Global Development, Cornell University

  • Leslie Tabor, director of Tompkins County Public Library

  • Elaine L. Westbrooks, Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, Cornell University

Can’t be there in person? Register for the livestream and enjoy the Right to Read Conversation in real-time!

 

A reception from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. in the Mann Library Gallery immediately follows this conversation.

 

Advancing the university’s “Freedom of Expression” theme year, these free public events are part of Cornell University Library “Right to Read” festivities throughout the day, which also includes a readathon.

The Nature-Study Idea by Liberty Hyde Bailey: Panel Discussion & Book Celebration

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In The Nature-Study Idea, Liberty Hyde Bailey articulated the essence of a social movement, led by ordinary public-school teachers, that lifted education out of the classroom and placed it into firsthand contact with the natural world. The aim was simple but revolutionary: sympathy with nature to increase the joy of living and foster stewardship of the earth.

 

With this definitive edition, John Linstrom reintroduces The Nature-Study Idea as an environmental classic for our time. It provides historical context through a wealth of related writings, and introductory essays relate Bailey’s vision to current work in education and the intersection of climate change and culture. In this period of planetary turmoil, Bailey’s ambition to cultivate wonder (in adults as well as children) and lead readers back into the natural world is more important than ever.

 

In commemoration of Earth Week 2024, please join us for a panel discussion and celebration of this ground-breaking book with: 

  • John Linstrom, editor of The Nature-Study Idea and Related Writings, Series Editor of The Liberty Hyde Bailey Library, and Fellow in Climate Humanities and Social Justice at the Climate Museum
  • Alexa Maille, panelist – Interim NYS 4-H Youth Development Program Leader for the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • Christa Núñez, panelist – Founder and Director of The Learning Farm and of Khuba International, and Doctoral Student in Development Studies at Cornell University
  •  Scott Peters, panel moderator – Professor of Global Development at Cornell University and coauthor of In the Struggle: Scholars and the Fight against Industrial Agribusiness in California.

This event is co-sponsored by the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, the College of Human Ecology, the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Department of Global Development, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, the Cornell Botanic Gardens, Marvin Pritts, and Mann Library. 

2024 Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

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Join Cornell University Library and the Tompkins County Public Library for the 2024 Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Friday, April 19!

This year, our theme is Solidarity, with a focus on artists/art/art movements affected or displaced by violence. We’ll be meeting up in person on Friday, April 19, from 10am to 5pm in Olin Library room 703, and from 3pm to 6pm at the Tompkins County Public Library (Makerspace/Digital Lab). You can pitch in for just half an hour or the whole day, by writing an entry, adding a footnote, translating text, uploading images, or by looking up information for others.

Everyone is welcome—no matter your gender and regardless of experience with editing. Unfamiliar with Wikipedia and Wikidata? We’ll walk you through the editing process. If you already have collectives, groups, artists, writers, or performers in mind (whether cis, transgender, or non-binary), great! If you don’t, just pick from our list. 

Never edited Wikipedia or Wikidata before? See the following guide for resources to help you learn: guides.library.cornell.edu/artandfeminism/howtoedit. 

All are welcome. In addition to Wikipedia editing, have fun with other creative activities–zine-making, button-making, and coloring.  

Register for the edit-a-thon here!

*This event is co-sponsored by the Africana Studies and Research Center, American Studies Program, Department of Art, Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, Gender Equity Resource Center, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Department of Human Centered Design, Department of Literatures in English, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, Media Studies Program, Department of Romance Studies, and the Society for the Humanities.

CALS Student Advising Spaces Opens at Mann Library

Photo by Simon Wheeler
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In response to student requests for a more centralized, accessible space for academic and career advising, community building, and well-being events, the CALS Office of Student Services and Mann Library collaborated to create the CALSZone, a new CALS student community space housed in Mann Library Room 112, off the lobby. After a soft launch in February of this year, the space officially opened with a grand opening celebration on March 9.

 

Students looking for support will find a wide-range of advising services in the CALSZone. From global experiences, to academic guidance and tutoring, to registrar advising (including degree progress and graduation requirement reviews ), to career advising. If you have a question about academic policies, want to learn more about studying abroad, need tutoring help, or just want someone to look over your resume before that big interview, you’ll be able to find answers in the CALSZone!

 

To find more information on weekly programming in the CALS Zone, visit: cals.cornell.edu/undergraduate-students/cals-student-services/cals-zone

 

The CALSZone will also offer coffee, tea, and snacks a few times per week, thanks to a partnership with Cornell Dining. Group meeting spaces and individual study spots are available for student use. To help alleviate student stress, wellness activities will be hosted in the space in addition to academic and career advising services. The space remains open 24/7 for group and individual study, as well as contactless pick-up, book returns, and printing services.

 

There are more programming and events planned for the CALSZone, including Alumni Career Chats and Employer Meet & Greets, so stay tuned and check the space often for information on upcoming programs!

Earth Month @ Mann Library

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April is Sustainable Fashion Month at Mann Library, and we have a variety of events and exhibits focused on textiles, fashion, and sustainability happening all month long!

 

Tuesday, April 11, 4pm

Mann Library, Room 102

Threads: Sustaining India’s Textile Traditions. The Cornell and Ithaca area public are warmly invited to a screening of a documentary film co-directed by professor of communication Katherine Sender. Threads: Sustaining India’s Textile Tradition follows the stories of fashion designers and fabric artisans as they transform traditional textile practices for contemporary fashion markets. The screening will be followed by a Q&A discussion with Professor Sender.

 

Thursday, April 13, 11am to 3pm

Mann Library Lobby

Clothing Exchange with Cornell Thrift and  Epsilon Eta. Cornell Thrift, Epsilon Eta, and Mann Library are partnering to hold a clothing exchange in the Mann lobby that that can spruce up your wardrobe and help you put sustainable fashion into practice. Come get FREE thrifted items and donate any clothes you may not want anymore (but please note: donations are optional and not required to take clothes!). This event is free and open to all Cornell students and staff. 

 

Friday, April 14, 12-2pm

Mann Library, Room 102

Sew Creative: Hands-on Workshop in Basic Stitching (registration required). Interested in trying your hand at some fiber arts but don’t have a sewing machine? No problem! Learn the basics of hand stitching in this in-person workshop. You will learn the running stitch, back stitch, invisible (hem) stitch, blanket stitch, and chain stitch. We will also discuss applications for each. No prior sewing experience is required. Materials for the class will be provided. 

 

These events are happening in conjunction with Mann’s spring 2023 exhibits, “Threading the Needle: Weaving Traditions into Contemporary Textile Art” (Mann Gallery) and “Sustaining Style: Towards Responsible Fashion” (Mann Lobby). These exhibits are part of Cornell University Library’s Threads of History: Textiles Across Cornell programming occurring across campus in 2022/2023.

New Teaching Resource: The “Netflix” of Documentaries

Image by DrMAURO from Pixabay
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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!

Recording a Lecture with Slides: Easier Than You Think!

Photograph by Jenny Leijonhufvud; artwork by Daisy Wiley
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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):

  1. To use Zoom to record a lecture with slides, you’ll need a computer, an internet connection and a webcam.
  2. Open your PowerPoint presentation on your screen.
  3. Open your browser and navigate to cornell.zoom.us.
  4. Select the Host a Meeting button, then click on With Video On. You will then need to log in using your Cornell credentials (net ID, password, dual & authentication required)
  5. In the next pop-up, select the Open Zoom Meetings button, then to select the Computer Audio option at the top of the next window, and then hit Join with Computer Audio.
  6. At the bottom of the screen that comes next (a full view of yourself as captured by your computer camera), you’ll find a navigation bar at the bottom. Click on the Share Screen button in that bar. (Note: you may need to hover over the bottom of the Zoom view with your mouse to get that navigation bar to show up).
  7. The next screen will show you options of the different screen views you can share. Click on the PowerPoint screen option and then hit the blue Share button on the bottom right. (As you share your screen, you’ll note that a thumbnail-sized picture of you being captured by your computer camera will continue to be visible in the top right corner of the screen for the duration of the recorded lecture. This will take up some “real estate” in the slides that you show as part of your recorded lecture, so you’ll want to be mindful of that as you put together your slides).
  8. Now start the slideshow in PowerPoint, which will then display your first slide in presentation mode. You’re ready to start recording.
  9. With your mouse, hover over the green button showing the Zoom session ID that appears at either the top or the bottom of your screen. This will trigger a pop-up navigation bar, and on the very right of that bar, hover again over the More option.
  10. Click on the Record on this computer option. This will launch the recording function.
  11. Proceed with your lecture, clicking through your slides as you would for a normal presentation using PowerPoint.
  12. When you’re finished with your lecture and would like to stop recording, again hover over the green session ID button, then over More and then click on the Stop recording option in the pop-up menu.
  13. In the next screen (which at this point will have reverted to the full image of you as recorded by the computer camera), find and click on the End Meeting button on the lower right hand corner of the screen.
  14. You will then see Zoom automatically converting the recorded lecture to an .mp4 video file.
  15. Zoom will then ask you where to save the file. It’s easiest to stick with Zoom’s default option, which is your Documents folder. Zoom will save your .mp4 file in a subfolder that includes your name and the current date.
  16. The final .mp4 file that is created will have the name zoom_0. To make that file more easily findable in the future, rename the file accordingly (e.g. [YourName]_[LectureTitle]_[CurrentDate]).
  17. Your file is now ready to upload to a shared drive, storage device or YouTube.

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 the Center for Teaching Innovation: teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/planning-remote-teaching;

From Cornell University Library:  guides.library.cornell.edu/remoteteaching.

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.