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Spring 2023 Chats in the Stacks @ Mann Library

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Get out your calendars and mark the dates of our spring semester book talks! All our Chats in the Stacks this semester will be held in-person in Mann Library 160 and livestreamed. You can find all recordings of our past Chats in the Stacks on our YouTube channel.

 

March 2, 2023, 4pm

Mann Library, Room 160 and livestreamed

Character Trouble with John Doris 

Human character has less of an influence on action than both philosophical theory and our everyday experiences would have us think, according to John M. Doris, the Peter L. Dyson Professor of Ethics in Organizations and Life and professor in the Sage School of Philosophy­. A leading proponent of interdisciplinary approaches to moral psychology exploring questions of character, virtue, and agency since the 1990’s, Doris has now collected over 20 years of his work into Character Trouble: Undisciplined Essays on Moral Agency and Personality (Oxford University Press, 2022). In this book talk, Doris will reflect on this collection, as well as discuss recent developments in understanding of moral cognition and behavior, and the moral psychology of character. 

 

March 9, 2023, 4pm

Mann Library, Room 160 and livestreamed

The Nature of Data with Jenny Goldstein 

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 her book talk, Goldstein discusses her new book, The Nature of Data: Infrastructures, Environments, Politics (University of Nebraska Press, 2022), 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.

 

March 15, 2023, 4pm

Mann Library, Room 160 and livestreamed

Draping for Apparel Design with Susan Ashdown 

The apparel industry, though driven by fashion and expected to embrace transformation, is often resistant to change in its technologies and vision, according to Susan P. Ashdown, Professor Emerita in Human Centered Design in the College of Human Ecology. This attitude has also been apparent in patternmaking textbooks used in apparel programs, but in editing the 4th edition of Draping for Apparel Design (Fairchild Books, 2022) Ashdown transformed this text from a ‘how-to’ book suited to a 1950s classroom to a modern book with an inclusive vocabulary, as well as methods and topics directed to the students who will lead the apparel industry in the future.

 

April 10, 2023, 4pm

Mann Library, Room 160 and livestreamed

Weeds of the Northeast with Antonio DiTommaso 

Identifying your local weeds can be relevant to everyone from home gardeners to landscapers, pest management specialists, allergy sufferers, and foragers of all kinds. In this book talk, Antonio DiTommaso, professor and Chair of the School of Integrative Plant Science Soil and Crop Sciences Section, will discuss Weeds of the Northeast, 2nd edition (Cornell University Press, 2023) a fully updated edition of the best-selling original full of lavish illustrations and detailed descriptions to aid in the identification of more than 500 common and economically important weeds in a region reaching as far south as North Carolina, as far north as Canada, and as far west as Wisconsin. Weeds of the Northeast is also a handy yet comprehensive reference for those aspects of weed biology and ecology which are most important to weed management.

Welcome (back) students!

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The Spring 2023 semester is off to a snowy start, and we’re happy to welcome Cornell students back to the library! You may have noticed some changes since the end of last year, including the large area cordoned off on the 1st floor. Please be mindful and avoid the atrium area as you enter and exit the building. We have a construction project beginning in February that we hope will only last a couple months, so please pardon our mess while we make some much needed improvements! 

 

A few other things to remember as you get back into the semester routine:

COMING SOON: the new CALS Zone. located in Mann Rm 112 off the lobby. Starting in February, in addition to being our contactless pickup area and a 24/7 study space, this will also be a dedicated space for CALS advising help. Watch our website for an opening announcement in the coming weeks!

New Library Website for the New Year!

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Cornell University Library is starting the new year off with an exciting announcement: we have a new website! Our newly redesigned site has all the great features of our previous website – such as our search box for the library catalog front and center on the home page – along with some great new functionality to make navigation easier and more efficient for our users. Some notable features include:

Have feedback to share with our development team? The link to our feedback form can be found at the top of all the webpages on the new Library site. To the many users who have already shared feedback with us or participated in our testing throughout the development process, we thank you for helping us design a site that works for you. 

Welcome Back! (And a Few Updates for Our Not-Yet-Quite-Normal New Semester)

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With the Cornell campus gearing up for the spring 2022 semester these frosty early weeks of the new year, Mann Library extends a warm welcome to all new and returning students. We’re looking forward to seeing you in the Library—despite the curve balls that the COVID-19 pandemic keeps throwing our way! The challenges of a not-yet-quite-normal semester are making a few changes in our operations necessary for now. Below we give you an overview of those adjustments. And while some of the ways we usually do things have to be different for now, please know we continue to be here for any questions or concerns you may have. Get in touch with us 24/7 any way you prefer: library.cornell.edu/ask

 

  • Mann Library hours will be reduced for the first part of the semester. Until further notice, our hours of operation are Monday – Wednesday, 8am to 8pm, Thursday & Friday, 8am to 5pm, Saturday & Sunday, 12-5pm (Full hours can be found at mann.library.cornell.edu/full-hours.
  • The Mann Lobby and contactless pickup area (Mann 112) will follow our building hours for the first part of the semester (i.e. 24/7 access to these spaces has been suspended for the time being).
  • In line with current public health requirements, seating facilities in the library have been adjust to ensure a safe level of occupancy at any given time of day.
  • Cornell requires that an approved mask must be worn indoors at all times in campus buildings, including the libraries, unless you are in a private, non-shared space (e.g. our individual study rooms). Approved masks include masks with any of the following certifications: ASTM (procedure or surgical), KN95, FFP2, FK94, or NIOSH N95. Cloth masks are not approved unless worn in conjunction with an ASTM medical mask. More information on mask guidelines may be found at covid.cornell.edu/prevention/face-coverings/.
  • At this time, there is no eating or drinking allowed in any Mann Library spaces, including the Mann Lobby and Café, which is grab & go only (café hours can be found here: scl.cornell.edu/residential-life/dining/eateries-menus/cafes-food-courts-coffeehouses/mann-cafe. If we see you eating inside the library, we will ask you to leave to eat elsewhere. Though we understand that good coffee and snacks make any study routine better, it is important to ensure the wider public good on campus right now by being conscientious of the university’s health & safety guidelines!

Mann is undertaking these adjustments with the goal of helping the Cornell campus community manage an effective response to the current stage of the COVID pandemic. Together, we can stay healthy and successful as a learning community. Good luck, friends – be in touch if you need help (remember, just ask!) and here’s to a good semester ahead!

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.

Chats in the Stacks Spring 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 enjoy them wherever you are! See the schedule below for Mann Library.

 

January 29, 2021 4pm

Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them by Karl Pillemer

What makes family estrangement so painful? Why do these rifts arise in the first place, and how can we overcome them? Based largely on Pillemer’s groundbreaking, ten-year Cornell Reconciliation Project—the first national survey on estrangement—Fault Lines (Avery, 2020) combines science-based repair tools with the personal experiences of hundreds of people who have mended family rifts. 

 

April 2, 2021 4pm

The Constants of Motion with Roald Hoffman

In his poetry, chemist Roald Hoffmann explores philosophy and science, weaving worlds of sound and meaning from the simple building blocks of words. In his latest book of poetry, Constants of the Motion (Dos Madres Press, 2020), Hoffmann delves into personal experiences, including a desperate childhood shaped by the Holocaust and a search for consilience in the tranquil beauty of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

 

April 15, 2021 4pm

Our Changing Menu: Climate Change and the Foods We Love and Need by Michael Hoffmann, Carrie Koplinka-Loehr, and Danielle Eiseman

Climate change is a recipe for disaster. Whether you’re a home cook or a master chef, backyard gardener or professional grower, the yields, flavors, nutritional content, and cost of what you eat are already being impacted, according to Our Changing Menu: Climate Change and the Foods We Love and Need (Cornell University Press, 2021), a book that celebrates the power of food and tackles what is arguably the greatest challenge of our time.

An Extraordinary Year in Review

Photo by Jason Koski, University Photography
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As the Cornell campus begins to move out of a restful winter break and stretch towards the start of a new semester, we’re pleased to bring our friends some of the highlights of the past year at Mann Library. It has been a year like no other—and yet, a look back shows some remarkable accomplishments. We know we are not alone there. We salute the resilience and dedication that has been so abundantly evident at Cornell and the world beyond as we have all faced an extraordinary year. The year ahead promises its own challenges. As we lean in with our patrons, colleagues and friends, all that we’ve managed so far provides inspiration for the future: 2021, we’re ready!

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!

New(ish) Faces at Mann — Spring 2019 Edition

Here are some staff you should know who have joined the library since last summer.
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Allegra GiovineAllegra Giovine joined the TEEAL Project at Mann Library as the new TEEAL Production Coordinator. Allegra is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of History and Sociology of Science. She has extensive familiarity with scholarly publishing, citation management, and experience leading teams to publication goals. Allegra has a M.A. in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley and she completed her B.A. at Cornell University in the College Scholar Program. Allegra also currently serves as an editor of the History of Anthropology Newsletter and of H-SEAsia, a H-Net listserv that serves the community of scholars working on Southeast Asia.

 

 

Matt KibbeeMatt Kibbee is a new reference assistant at Mann Library. He has a BA in English from Tufts University, Masters Degrees in both English and Humanities, and a PhD in English Language and Literature with a secondary focus on cognitive sciences from Cornell University. Matt rejoins Mann after spending time here as a student supervisor in 2015. He has also worked on campus as a graduate research assistant and a writing instructor.

 

 

 

Sara Scinto-MadonichSara Scinto-Madonich has joined Mann Library as a part-time Systematic Review Librarian. Sara helps support various systematic review initiatives in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and is a member of the Cornell University Library Systematic Review Service Team. Sara holds a B.A. in biochemistry from Ohio Wesleyan University, and she graduated from Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy this past spring, having earned her M.S. in nutrition. She comes to us with a strong background and interest in nutrition education, evidence-based practice, and literature synthesis.

 

 

Ryan Tolnay

Ryan Tolnay is a new reference assistant at Mann Library. Ryan joins us from Bloomington Indiana where he was the administrative coordinator for an honors program in foreign languages and an assistant at the Global Village Living-Learning Center. He also spent time in South Korea as an English as a Second Language Instructor. Ryan has a BA from Indiana University in East Asian Studies and is currently attending library school through the University of Washington.