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Month: September

Reproducible Research Workshop Series

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Good research is reproducible, replicable, and transparent. The Cornell University Library and RDMSG are collaborating to offer a free reproducible research workshop series covering available tools and overarching best practices to help you document, organize, and publish your research data while keeping it safe and maximizing your research impact. Follow the links below to register!

 

Organization for Spreadsheets / TIDY Data, Thursday 10/14, 10:30am to 12pm

Good data organization is the foundation of a research project. Most researchers have data in spreadsheets, so it’s the place that we will start. In this workshop, we’ll learn good data entry practices, different approaches for working with data in spreadsheets, and how to optimize your final “data package” to fulfill research quality and reproducibility requirements and facilitate new research.

 

How and Where to Publish your Data, Thursday 11/4, 10:10am to 12pm

We are frequently asked to share, archive, or otherwise publish data by funders and publishers, but few instructions exist on how to find a repository, and how to prepare your data and metadata for sharing. This workshop will provide hands-on experience preparing data for publishing by “curating” an example dataset and identifying common data issues. Participants will also learn about the overall role of repositories within the data sharing landscape and learn strategies for locating and evaluating repositories.

 

Cornell Center for Social Sciences is also offering How to Make your Research Transparent and Reproducible, Wednesday 10/6, 1 to 3pm.

 

View the full list of all Cornell University Library data and GIS Workshops or contact us at rdmsg-help@cornell.edu to let us help you find the workshop you need!​

Landscape Sculptures: Conversations with Land and Water

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Press Release Mann Gallery
For Immediate Release, September 30, 2021
 
June Szabo: Landscape Sculptures, Conversations with Land and Water, a new exhibition by Finger Lakes sculptor June B W Szabo explores the themes of decay and renewal, loss, and place through wood and wire sculptures inspired by regional geomorphology.
 
Ithaca, N.Y. – A new exhibition, Landscape Sculptures, Conversations with Land and Water, opened in late September in the Mann Gallery at Cornell University’s Mann Library. It features the work of sculptor June B W Szabo whose wood and woven copper wire sculptures explore themes of loss, the temporal nature of place, and decay as a means of renewal. A longtime resident of the Finger Lakes Szabo’s process begins with personal exploration of a regional landscape, enhanced by highly detailed relief maps and deep research into the geomorphology of each location. In her studio these experiences are rendered material through Szabo’s manipulation of beads, copper wire, and local hardwoods.
 
The exhibition, which brings together objects from the most recent period of Szabo’s practice, includes a number of new works. In describing the common thread shared by all the sculptures in the show, Szabo says the “thought that has guided me for this installation is that of letting go. There is much in all our lives that we have little control over, which can be a source of anxiety and a sense of loss. Working wood and wire to reflect on how land is built up as it’s worn down over time, how decomposition in fungi and plants leads to new growth —for me this work has been a lesson in what we gain by letting go.”
 
Indeed, her new sculpture Let Go to Grow created by wrapping and coiling copper wire, explores how the renewal seen in spring and summer landscapes depends on the loss and decay that occur each fall and winter. Reflecting on trees that have the power to “let go” of their own leaves in any season as a defense against stressors and as a means of renewal, this work proposes that letting go of fear and being open to nature’s law of return makes room for growth. In another new piece, Restoration, a hanging sculpture carved from poplar, Szabo references a moraine—an intriguing landform built by a thick accumulation of glacial drift transformed by wind and time into a forested expanse—which serves as a powerful metaphor for recovery and restoration.
 
Reflecting on the influences that have shaped her work Szabo cites the teaching of many Cornell scholars, including beloved geology professors O.D. Von Engeln and Arthur Bloom, whose many books detailing the geography and glacial history of the Finger Lakes Region have accompanied her throughout her journeys.
 
Landscape Sculptures, Conversations with Land and Water, will be on display at the Mann Gallery from September 18, 2021, until January 15, 2022. Mann Library is located on the Cornell University Ag Quad, Ithaca, NY. 

Chats in the Stacks Fall 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 tune in from wherever you are! A live Q&A with the author will follow each talk, and the audience is encouraged to submit their questions in the chat.

We’re excited to share the fall line-up for the Mann chats below:

October 14, 2021 4pm

Eswar Prasad (Dyson School): The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance

The concept of money is about to be fundamentally redefined, says Eswar Prasad, the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks book talk on his new book, The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance (Harvard University Press, 2021), Prasad explains how this transformation will impact corporations, banks, states, and individuals. Changes may lead to improvements in efficiency, personalization of services, and market access for the unbanked, but they may also bring instability, lack of accountability, and the erosion of privacy. The Future of Money explains how to maximize the best and prepare against the worst, as businesses, governments, and individuals embrace new financial technologies that have the power to fundamentally change our lives. Prasad is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and previous chief of the financial studies division in the International Monetary Fund’s research department.

 

November 2, 2021 4pm

Phil McMichael (Global Development): Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective

How has development thinking and practice shaped our world? The answer lies in four interconnected phenomena—colonialism, the development era, the neoliberal globalization project, and sustainable development—according to Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective, 7th Edition, (Sage Publications, 2021), written by Philip McMichael, professor emeritus in the Department of Global Development, and Heloise Weber, senior lecturer in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland. In this live, virtual book talk, McMichael discusses “the development paradox” and how powerful nation-states aiming toward progress and prosperity can also produce crises that threaten the health and well-being of millions of urban-dwellers and rural cultures. McMichael also explores the possibilities of a world with more just social, ecological, and political relations.

 

November 18, 2021 4pm

Qi Wang (Human Development): Remembering and Forgetting Early Childhood

Our earliest memories are complex and ever-shifting. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks book talk, Qi Wang—professor of human development and psychology in the College of Human Ecology—will discuss insights from Remembering and Forgetting Early Childhood (Routledge, 2020), a book she co-edited with Sami Gülgöz. Originally published as a special issue of Memory, the book deepens our understanding of the dynamics that influence the accessibility, content, and accuracy of memories from early childhood, and how the development of autobiographical memory is shaped by a variety of interactive social and cognitive factors.

 

November 23, 2021 4pm

Lourdes Casanova (Emerging Markets Institute) and Anne Miroux (Emerging Markets Institute)

As emerging markets have come to represent the largest share of global GDP, corporations in these economies have taken on a new level of importance in driving innovation, local development, and global competition. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks talk, Lourdes Casanova (Gail and Rob Cañizares Director of the Emerging Markets Institute, S. C. Johnson Graduate School of Management) and Anne Miroux (Faculty Fellow, Emerging Market Institute), discuss their new book Innovation from Emerging Markets: From Copycats to Leaders (Cambridge University Press 2021). Building upon research conducted by the Emerging Multinational Research Network (EMRN), this collection includes studies of innovation in regions that have not previously received focused analysis as well as a re-examination of dominant theories of innovation and capability creation based on a broad range of case studies and research insights. A live Q&A will follow the talk. The audience is encouraged to submit their questions in the chat.

 

December 2, 2021 4pm

Denise Green (Fiber Science and Apparel Design): Fashion and Cultural Studies

Fashion can be considered from cultural, technical, and theoretical perspectives. In a live, virtual Chats in the Stacks talk, Denise Green and Susan B. Kaiser discuss their book, Fashion and Cultural Studies, 2nd Edition, which explores how race, ethnicity, class, gender, and other identities are woven into the clothes we wear. Green is an associate professor of fashion design and the director of Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology, and Kaiser is professor emerita of design, textiles, and clothing, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of California, Davis. Drawing from intersectionality in feminist theory and cultural studies, they interrogate the complex entanglements of production, regulation, distribution, consumption, and subject formation within and through fashion. 

Library Services for Faculty: Fall 2021 Updates

The fall 2021 semester is in full swing, and we have some important updates and reminders about library services!
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Phew! Already, the fall 2021 semester is in full swing, and before anybody gets any busier, we want to be sure to give our faculty some updates and reminders about Mann’s services that are particularly important for their work.

Please remember that at this time, face masks must be worn inside the library regardless of your vaccination status. For further guidance on masks/face coverings, please visit the Cornell COVID-19 website.

Research Support

Have more than just a quick question? Mann Library offers a variety of research consultation services for students, faculty, and staff. These are in-depth, customized, one-on-one meetings to discuss resources and search strategies for papers, presentations, theses, or doctoral dissertations. We have teams of librarians that specialize in disciplinary research support in the sciences, social sciences, and design. If you’re working on a project that is interdisciplinary, go ahead and pick any subject librarian team who would fit any part of your project, and we’ll get you started in the right direction. Consultations can be in-person or over Zoom, depending on your preference. Fill out the request form and book your appointment today!

Instruction

Could the students in your class benefit from some good pointers about library resources and services that are particularly relevant to what they’ll be learning and researching in your class? Mann librarians can deliver! To request library instruction for your class(es), please use our instruction request form. Mann Library has a menu of instruction options and ideas for what we can offer to students. This menu may be used as a guideline when filling out your instruction request. We also have a collection of online instruction materials that are accessible to faculty and instructors and can be uploaded to Canvas to incorporate into your course content.

Borrowing & Delivery Services

Cornell’s collection of over 8 million volumes is housed in libraries across campus as well as in the Library Annex facility. You can request books or other items from any Cornell library to be delivered to a library location of your choosing. Requests can be made through the library catalog – just choose your preferred pickup location from the drop-down list. You will be notified by email when your item has arrived at your selected library. See below for some important details regarding borrowing at Mann:

Contactless Pickup

Contactless pickup of library items is available in Mann 112 (off the Mann lobby) and is open  24/7 to the Cornell community. Items ready for pickup are sorted alphabetically by last name and you will receive an email notification when your items are ready for pickup. For the complete list of contactless pickup locations at other libraries across campus, please see the Cornell University Library Contactless Pickup page.

Please note: Contactless pickup is not available for interlibrary loan (ILL) items. ILL items must be picked up at the Mann Help Desk.

Fines & Billing

Woohoo! To support affordability and remove barriers to library use, we have eliminated overdue fines for the late return of most library items across the Cornell Library system. The big exception: any items that are recalled for another patron but returned after the due date noted in the recall notice. The fine for recalled items is $3.00/day – which of course can add up quickly, so don’t ignore those recall notices please!

We should also mention: high-cost and high-demand items (such as laptops, specialized equipment, course reserves) that are not returned on time will now be billed for replacement after two days. Regular items (such as books from the general circulating collections) are billed for replacement after 27 days.

Fines for library materials may be paid at the Mann Library Help Desk by check or credit card. To appeal a fine, please fill out our fine appeal form or contact our billing coordinator at mann_billing@cornell.edu.

Poster Printing

Mann Library is now offering multiple options for poster printing! We also offer course poster registration for classes and departments. Please submit your course registration request 2 weeks in advance using our poster session registration form.

Contactless Poster Printing

If you’d like to avoid standing in line at the Help Desk to get your poster printed, consider using our contactless printing service. Just submit your print job using our contactless printing form. Once you have submitted your print request, you will recieve a confirmation email with a link to our credit card payment gateway. And voilà! Your print job will be available for you to fetch form our contactless pickup area in Mann 112. 

Please note: Turnaround time for contactless printing can be up to two business days. Contactless print jobs are processed Monday – Friday only.

In-Person Poster Printing

Print jobs can also be submitted in-person at the Mann Library Help Desk Monday – Friday, 8am to 5pm. All in-person print jobs must be submitted on a USB drive (if you don’t have one, we can loan you one for this purpose at the Help Desk). For payment, we can accept check, credit card, Cornell Procurement card, or departmental account number. We ask that patrons remain in the building while their job is being printed, so that we can confer with you if any problems come up during printing. Also so we can make sure each poster goes home with the right person – our printing service is in very high demand and can get very busy on any given day!

Please note: We have limited hours for walk-in poster printing due to staffing levels. We hope to be able to offer weekend hours a little later in the semester and will update our hours page accordingly.

We think this covers the essentials for services that faculty rely on from Mann Library during the academic year. But if we did manage to miss something, librarians are here to answer any question that comes up! Check out our Ask a Librarian page for all the different ways you can be in touch, including our 24/7 chat service! We’d be delighted to hear from you!

Accessible Course Reserves for a Hybrid Semester

Photo by Eveline Ferretti
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This semester, the Library’s course reserves service has moved into an online, accessible environment to the fullest degree possible, while remaining responsive to instructor needs.

 

In order to support equitable access for students studying remotely and comply with quarantine guidelines for library materials, we are following these guidelines:

  • If items in physical formats are requested, the Library’s course reserves team will make every effort to purchase or license an accessible digital version instead.
  • If there is no digital version available, we will follow the priorities established by the instructor and will digitize course materials to the fullest extent allowed by copyright law.
  • If neither of the above strategies is successful or there are overriding considerations, the Library will endeavor to make more physical format copies available than usual in order to minimize the checkout delays caused by the quarantine process.

Physical course reserves are available at Mann and Uris Libraries. Students must have a seat reservation for quiet study in order to come into the library to use the course reserve materials.

 

At Mann Library, these items are shelved on the 1st floor outside the Stone Classroom. We are housing materials usually on reserve at Mann, Math, and ILR libraries. Materials are shelved by course number, and are available on a first come, first served basis. Students can use these materials while they are at the library, but must return them to the shelves when they are finished. We ask students to be mindful that these materials are a shared resource and to please return them to the shelves as soon as they are finished using them.

 

Course reserves at Mann are available all the hours the library is open for quiet study. Questions about course reserves? Contact our Mann course reserves coordinator: mann_reserve@cornell.edu.

What’s New on 2nd? (or, Some Recent Space Improvements @ Mann)

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Have a Skype interview or web conference coming up? We’re happy to tell you that our Interview Room, recently moved to the 2nd floor of Mann Library, next to the Gallery,is now available to help you make it go smoothly. Available for private one-on-one or small group video-conferences, the room comes with a large LCD and some sound-proofing. Just bring your laptop, connect to the LCD, close the door, and you’re ready to go! The Interview Room can be booked up to 90 days in advance for two hours at a time.

 

The 2nd floor has some other new features this semester as well:

  • We’ve seen how popular the counter-height study tables are in the library, so we’ve added a few more along the 2nd floor atrium windows for studying. Or reading. Or just taking in the view of that airy atrium space!
  • And we’re really happy to announce our new De-Stress Zone in a newly reconfigured space next to the atrium as well. When you’re next in the library, be sure to check out the comfortable rocking chairs, puzzle table, and group seating we’ve added to this area—for you to relax, eat, and visit with friends.. We get it – college is hard, and sometimes you need to unwind!

Design Thinking for Life

Design Thinking For Life book display @ Mann
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This year the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management partnered with Mann Library once again for the Dyson Summer Reading Project.  Over the summer months, incoming Dyson freshmen read “Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life” by authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, who together co-founded the Life Design Lab at Stanford University. “Designing Your Life” teaches readers to approach their lives and careers from a design thinking frame of mind. Through iterative design exercises and processes, including reflection and evaluation, the book empowers readers to determine what is most important to them in a career and how to achieve their life goals. As part of the Reading Project, incoming Dyson School freshmen and other members of the Cornell University community participated in workshops that discussed the book’s themes and engaged students in hands-on exercises aimed at stimulating the application of design principles to forming holistic life goals and strategies for achieving them. The Dyson Summer Reading Project culminated on September 12th with a popular lecture and book signing by co-author Dave Evans.

 

Designing your Life at Cornell PosterThe Library collaborated actively with the Dyson School to help encourage engagement with the book and its insights within the Cornell community. Demand for the reserve copies of “Designing Your Life” available at both Mann Library and the Catherwood Library ran high throughout the summer months. As the semester opened, an interactive display on Mann’s first floor invited students to share some of their own ideas about finding a rewarding work-play-health-love balance while at Cornell, and to browse a cross-disciplinary selection of books on design-thinking applied to different settings—from business management and career planning to teaching and coaching.

 

And in the spirit of making the Reading Project as widely accessible as possible — across Cornell and beyond — Mann created an online guide to help connect virtual visitors to a broad set of resources in design thinking and career development.

 

This is the second year that Mann Library has contributed to the Dyson School Reading Project. In the fall of 2018, the Library created a library guide for that year’s featured book, “Behold the Dreamers” by Imbolo Mbue.

We’ve Got You Covered: Research & Instructions Services Update

Mann Library is moving to a team-based approach to support instruction and research services
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This fall, Mann has implemented some exciting changes that will allow us to better meet the needs of our users. We have streamlined our services and moved to a team-based approach so we can be more responsive to the instruction and research support requests that faculty and students send our way. Specific changes involve the following:

Instruction

Faculty needing assistance with course-related instruction will now be using the instruction request form on the Mann Library website. After you submit a request, a member of our instruction team will follow up with you. Course-related instruction can cover many topics, ranging from a broad overview of library resources to an in-depth and critical evaluation of a news source. We can help your students understand the changing information landscape and become more critical consumers of information. In addition to classroom instruction, you can also use the form to request help with:

  • Designing assignments that leverage library resources
  • Creating online resource guides designed to support specific courses or subjects

Research support

If you need help with scholarly research, please schedule an appointment through our research support request form, and a member of one of our research support teams will get back to you within one business day. Our research consultations are in-depth, customized, one-on-one meetings where we can provide assistance with:

  • Developing complex search strategies
  • Finding literature, supporting evidence, data, and statistics
  • Utilizing a citation management software (i.e., Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley) to organize references

Other consultation services

Hoping for some help with GIS, using the mannUfactory makerspace, data management, systematic reviews, or another library service? Visit our Consultation Services webpage for information on the help you can get from librarians and other experts here at Mann or elsewhere in the Cornell library system.

 

Not sure where to start? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our outreach team at mann_outreach@cornell.edu with any questions or concerns. One way or the other, we’ve got you covered!

New Faces @ Mann – Fall 2019 Edition

Photo by Jenny Leijonhufvud
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Mann Library has welcomed two new staff members in the past year. We are pleased to introduce you to:

 

Karina Hagelin, Outreach & Instruction Librarian

Karina Hagelin, Outreach & Instruction Librarian

Karina graduated from the University of Maryland with a BA in American Studies and an MLS in Library and Information Science last year with a thesis on “Gossip as a Site of Resistance: Information-Sharing Strategies Among Survivors of Sexual Violence.” While there, they were a digitization assistant at the Hornbake Library Digitization Center, president of the iDiversity organization, active on student councils, and the library and office manager for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity Center. They also helped organize the Conference on Inclusion and Diversity in Library and Information Science at the University of Maryland and the Radical Libraries, Archives and Museums track at the Allied Media conference. Karina is the Cornell Library Diversity Fellow, and is party of the Library’s Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Council. Karina is also part of the Mann Instruction Team and is doing outreach and instruction for the mannUfactory makerspace.

 

Shayla Harrington, Access Services & ILL Manager

Shayla Harrington, Access Services & ILL ManagerShayla Harrington is Mann’s new Mann Access Services & Inter-Library Loan (ILL) Manager. In this role, she oversees the day-to-day operations and directly supervises the staff in the Access Services and ILL departments. She also represents Mann Access Services on various Cornell University Library-wide committees. Shayla has a B.S. in Elementary Education from Nyack College and her NY State teacher certification. She comes to Mann from Olin-Kroch-Uris (OKU) Libraries where most recently she worked as a Reference Assistant and Lead Student Supervisor. Prior to that, Shayla was an Access Services Late Night Supervisor for OKU Libraries from November 2014 – October 2017.

Welcome Aboard!

What’s new in the mannUfactory?

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What do you imagine creating this year? The mannUfactory makerspace is in full swing for the fall and we have some new stuff this semester!

  • Website: Our website has gotten a facelift and is now more accessible!
  • Laser cutter: We now have a laser cutter if you need to engrave or cut materials like paper, wood, fabric, or glass. Make custom cards and art, wooden nametags, lacy fabric, etched glasses and more!
  • Workshops: Learn how to use tools like the new laser cutter or get an intro to 3D printing, virtual reality, or sewing and more. Also drop by one of our new Women, Trans, and Femmes Makers Nights or Stop, Drop, Create one-on-one help sessions to work on your latest project!

And as always, if you want to schedule a group instruction session, have an idea or suggestion, or need to ask a question or get more information, please contact us at makerspace@cornell.edu.