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Chats in the Stacks Spring 2021

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

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

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

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.