Pennsylvania State University Libraries Research Articles

Expanding Penn State’s Office Delivery Service to Include Graduate Students

The Office Delivery service at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries’ University Park campus allows faculty and staff to request and receive libraries owned and borrowed materials in their campus offices. This service is operated by the Interlibrary Loan team and was created in the summer of 2013. The service has grown since its inception, and in December 2017, the Interlibrary Loan team took steps to expand the service to graduate students. This article presents a brief history of the office delivery service, including procedures followed to request materials and steps taken to offer the service to graduate students. The article will also describe how staff solicited feedback from pilot users of the graduate delivery service, and plans for the future.

Agile-ish: Bringing Agile and Scrum into Project Management for Digital Collections Metadata

Implementations of agile values and principles are increasingly seen in project management beyond their original home in software development. Most library projects drawing on agile and scrum, agile’s most popular methodology, have needed to adapt these principles and methods to varying degrees, but most have been in environments similar to software development. The Pennsylvania State University Libraries’ cataloging department was interested to see if agile and scrum approaches could be successful in managing a metadata project involving an ad hoc team, composed of members volunteering part of their time to the project, and inexperienced in the work needed for the project. While the Penn State Libraries project used extensively modified versions of agile and scrum, we have concluded that using these principles and methods, even if adapted, can greatly improve the process and the outcome of many projects.

Frog and Toad’s ongoing journey: Cooperative acquisition of award-winning children’s and young adult titles at a multicampus university

Two years ago, we reported the beginnings of a collaboration between Education librarians at two locations within Pennsylvania State University Libraries (PSUL): the Education Library at University Park and the Penn State Harrisburg Library. We described our methods of cooperative purchasing of PreK–12 textbooks and instructional materials, which represented substantial costs and challenges to both locations.2 Since then, we have explored additional ways of sharing collection development tasks, while retaining much of the autonomy that librarians within PSUL prize. This article focuses on our efforts with our juvenile literature collections.

From Archive, to Access, to Experience––Historical Documents as a Basis for Immersive Experiences

Libraries have been the key to preserving culture and historic legacy for centuries. One such treasure cataloged in The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) Libraries is a collection of over 33,000 Sanborn™ Fire Insurance Maps. Originally kept safe in metal drawers, the library has embarked on a journey to digitize this abundance of information, combine it with other media such as photographs, and make it accessible through a web interface. Inspired by these efforts, we accessed this information and took it to the next level. Using state of the art 3D modeling and immersive technologies, we created a historic 3D model and immersive experiences of Penn State, exemplarily for the 1922 campus. The resulting experiences can be accessed through the web but also through head mounted displays (HMDs) and mobile phones in combination with VR viewers such as the Google Cardboard. Additionally, they can be used anywhere in the world or on the campus itself as a way to enable remote and in situ experiences and learning. Immersive experiences let us connect to the past, the present and the future, and as such offer value to digital cultural heritage efforts.

Leading Staff Development from the Bottom Up: Penn State Libraries In-Service Days

When Pennsylvania State University Libraries’ administration invited library staff to take leadership in planning an in-service day, what resulted was a rich training experience for both participants and planners, one that has become institutionalized. Now approaching its twelfth year, University Libraries’ Discovery Day continues to grow and develop. This author recounts the genesis and growth of the annual event and articulates the valuable outcomes of staff training and development.

Financial Literacy and the Academic Library: Exploring the Peer-to-Peer Approach

Colleges and universities employ a variety of strategies to deliver financial education to students. Among these approaches is peer-to-peer financial education, which has been explored in many settings but never in an academic library. Following a review of financial literacy approaches used on college and university campuses by libraries, and other units and departments, this article describes the Student Financial Education Center located at Pennsylvania State University Libraries and discusses the unique challenges and opportunities of implementing a peer-to-peer financial education program in this setting.

Millennials and Mentoring: Why I’m calling out “Bullpucky!” on Generational Differences and Professional Development

A commentary on the current generational hype about Millennials in the workforce, especially regarding mentoring programs. Mentoring programs have been targeted as needing to change because of the perception that the Millennial cohort is very different from other age cohorts, and this author sets out to prove otherwise. Communication and compatibility between the mentor and mentee are indicators in whether that relationship is successful or unsuccessful. Also discussed is a mentoring program which has recently been expanded at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries.

Building by benchmarking

AbstractThis article examines the methodology undertaken while investigating whether existing materials pertaining to Asian American Studies at The Pennsylvania State University Libraries could support a new academic program. Presently active academic subareas in the field of Asian American Studies were determined. Then existing collections of thirteen “benchmark” universities were examined according to these subareas and compared to the holdings of Pennsylvania State University Libraries. This method can evaluate the fitness of existing collections to new academic demands and serve as a tool for collection development by identifying present and future areas of academic study.

Building by benchmarking: A method of creating and evaluating an Asian American Studies collection

This article examines the methodology undertaken while investigating whether existing materials pertaining to Asian American Studies at The Pennsylvania State University Libraries could support a new academic program. Presently active academic subareas in the field of Asian American Studies were determined. Then existing collections of thirteen “benchmark” universities were examined according to these subareas and compared to the holdings of Pennsylvania State University Libraries. This method can evaluate the fitness of existing collections to new academic demands and serve as a tool for collection development by identifying present and future areas of academic study.

Responding to the Call to Curate: Digital Curation in Practice at Penn State University Libraries

This paper describes how the Pennsylvania State (Penn State) University Libraries and the university’s central information technology organization, Information Technology Services, are putting into practice key tenets of digital curation through the newly established Content Stewardship program, a joint strategic initiative to implement stewardship services for the university. First, we provide an account of the planning, preparation, and prototyping that informed the initial year of the program. Second, we report on the hiring of a Digital Collections Curator and a Digital Library Architect and how they are advancing the program by putting digital curation into practice, which includes the work of community building. Finally, we address the organizational context of curation in practice, in particular with respect to the challenges of starting and sustaining a stewardship services program for all of Penn State.

End of the Line?: A Case Study of a Cataloging Department Achieving BIBCO Status

The Cataloging and Metadata Services Department of the Pennsylvania State University Libraries successfully achieved full participation in the Library of Congress’ Monographic Bibliographic Record Cooperative Program of the PCC (BIBCO) in 2010. Reaching this goal means that the catalogers at Penn State are now fully engaged in all of the cooperative cataloging initiatives overseen by the PCC, as well as participating in cooperative quality control efforts for three formats within the OCLC Enhance Program. This article describes the journey toward achieving both BIBCO status and full participation in all cooperative programs and the importance for doing so. It also serves as a means to invite other institutions to take the next steps on their journey toward full participation in cooperative cataloging, or to join us in these important efforts.

Many Fingers in the Pie: Improving Master Records in the OCLC Database: The Enhance Program

Based on their experience at The Pennsylvania State University Libraries, the authors discuss the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Enhance program as a model of cooperative cataloging. Having received Enhance status for three formats—maps, monographs, and video recordings—catalogers at Penn State are able to add access points, correct errors, establish authorized headings, add call numbers, and improve the content of shared master records in the OCLC database. The authors assess various features of the Enhance program—training, documentation, outcomes—and offer recommendations for the future.

<i>Ice Cream U: The Story of the Nation's Most Successful Collegiate Creamery</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Ice Cream U: The Story of the Nation's Most Successful Collegiate Creamery Michael Milligan Lee Stout . Ice Cream U: The Story of the Nation's Most Successful Collegiate Creamery. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Libraries, 2009. Pp. 63, illustrations. Cloth, $19.95.) A 1990s Penn State alumni survey revealed that the Creamery was considered the second most beloved institution at the university (second to football). A glance through back issues of the Daily Collegian confirms the intensity of Penn State students' passion for the Creamery and its ice cream flavors. A tongue-in-cheek editorial appeared in September 1970 imploring students to assert their constitutional right to have Creamery ice cream any hour of the day or night. Also told with much enthusiasm is the 1987 story of how the new Creamery flavor honoring PSU football coach Joe Paterno gained the "Peachy Paterno" name (the winning name was chosen among a thousand-plus submitted in the keenly watched contest). [End Page 521] Lee Stout's Ice Cream U certainly highlights Penn Staters' warm affections for the Creamery. But as the subtitle indicates—"The Story of the Nation's Most Successful Collegiate Creamery"—the book offers a great deal more. The book is comprised of seven rather short but pleasingly written and engaging chapters. Stout's coverage is broad, with chapters ranging from the growth of dairy farming in nineteenth century Pennsylvania, "a brief history of ice cream," and "the ice cream phenomenon," in addition to four core chapters which ably chronicle the educational-commercial history of the Creamery. Ice Cream U is attractively put together, filled with dozens of richly evocative and vivid photographs and images. The reader is treated to an 1893 class photo of the one of the Creamery's first "short courses;" early twentieth century Penn State College Dairy Department posters lauding the benefits of milk pasteurization; plus a dozen or more 1920s and 1930s photographs showing college "ag" students engaged in various stages of ice cream-making—among many others. The long-time archivist at Pennsylvania State University, Mr. Stout has plied his trade well in uncovering these historical gems. Above all, this book's narrative rests with the compelling success story of the Creamery itself, from its modest 1880s beginnings as "a simple one-story structure" to the multi-million dollar Berkey Creamery complex of today. It is, intentionally, an institutional history—with primary emphasis on its leading educators and administrators, the expansion and modernization of facilities, and how the Creamery's mission adapted to changing ice cream industry conditions. We learn of the pioneering role played by Henry Armsby, one of the iconic figures in Penn State's history, who confidently steered the University's School of Agriculture (including its Creamery) in a chiefly academic, "agricultural scientist" direction. The 1920s-1950s, a time of great advances in research and "short course" enrollment for the Creamery, owed much to the steady, insightful leadership of Andrew Borland and Chester Dahle respectively. And Tom Palchak, the current manager of the state-of-the-art Berkey Creamery, is praised for his business and marketing acumen. If Stout's fine book is deserving of criticism it is its predominantly top-down quality. The most intriguing, textured chapter is the fourth on the Creamery's "ice cream short course." The short course, the famous two week ice cream-making course long taught to area dairy farmers, is noteworthy because it constituted the Creamery's single most concrete grassroots public service link with the broader community. Stout quotes effectively from the [End Page 522] Creamery's 1901 short course description and shares the reminiscences of 1923 "graduate" William Tharp. The book would have benefited from the inclusion of more student voices—those of short course participants and college "ag" students, and those of other folks in the community. Nonetheless, Ice Cream U stands as an enjoyable and informative read. [End Page 523] Michael Milligan Pennsylvania State University Copyright © 2010 The Pennsylvania Historical Association

What We Talk About When We Talk About Repositories

In this column, Mike Furlough writes about repositories from a user services perspective. His engaging and accessible article provides a fascinating history of hype, a primer on technical tools, and thoughtful reflections on the future of institutional repositories. Mike Furlough joined The Pennsylvania State University Libraries in 2006 as the assistant dean for Scholarly Communications and co-director of the Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing. Furlough's graduate training is in American Literature, but he ran away to join the University of Virginia Library, where he developed and led a number of services to support digital scholarship. He currently serves as a member of the Association of College and Research Libraries' Scholarly Communications Committee and begins editing a column on that topic for CR a vault or sepulchre. (1) Institutional repository (IR) often refers to a service that supports and encourages the deposit of student- and faculty-created materials, primarily open-access versions of research articles that have been formally published elsewhere or not at all. The early energy surrounding IRs centered on a hope that promoting open access could serve as a countermeasure to commercial publishing power and its ability to distort the market for knowledge. Taking control of our institutions' research by providing the ability to distribute this information to the world in an open-access mode seemed to be an inevitable outcome of the Internet. What follows is a brief history of IR hype. In July 2002, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported 'Superarchives' Could Hold All Scholarly Output: Online Collections by Institutions May Challenge the Role of Journal Publishers. (2) Also in 2002, a Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) position paper declared that institutional repositories--digital collections capturing and preserving the intellectual output of a single or multi-university community.... provide a critical component in reforming the system of scholarly communication--a component that expands access to research, reasserts control over scholarship by the academy, increases competition and reduces the monopoly power of journals, and brings economic relief and heightened relevance to the institutions and libraries that support them. (3) But in 2004 The Chronicle provided an update: Papers Wanted: Online Archives Run by Universities Struggle to Attract Material. (4) IRs soon became the butt of jokes, even inside the community of practitioners. In March 2006, Dorothea Salo, an institutional manager, rechristened herself in her blog. …

Article Delivery Services at Penn State and Partner Libraries in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation Consortium

To meet rising patron expectations and to promote library collections and services, libraries are contemplating or implementing article delivery services to same-campus patrons from journal articles held locally. This article describes The Pennsylvania State University Libraries’ electronic delivery of articles from in-house print collections. It also summarizes a survey of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation interlibrary loan directors about the article delivery services at their institutions.

A Case for Item-level Indexing: The Kenneth Burke Papers at The Pennsylvania State University

ABSTRACT In light of numerous discussions about whether to follow Mark Greene and Dennis Meissner's suggestions to process lightly and broadly, valid reasons remain for continuing traditional practices for many literary correspondence collections. In this case study, the authors use the Kenneth Burke Papers in the Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University Libraries, as an example of when it is desirable to provide item-level indexing. Recognizing that the majority of archival records may not require such detailed description, the authors discuss when it is appropriate to examine and index literary correspondents, a practice used with many other literary collections in which name access to literary correspondents is a legitimate, valued interest.

Choosing a Hand-Held Inventory Device.

The article focuses on the selection done by a task force of hand-held inventory devices for the Pennsylvania State University Libraries (PSUL) in 2006. The task force was required to look for devices that are supported by the SIRSI Unicorn cataloging system and compatible with PSUL work practices. It relates the first phase of the selection process which involved investigating the feasibility of choosing and acquiring hand-held devices. It offers information on such various devices including cordless hand-held barcode scanners.

Processing Electronic Reserves in a Large Academic Library System

Implementation of electronic reserves in academic libraries represents one of the most important advances in libraries for patrons in many years. Some academic libraries offer faculty peace of mind by assuming responsibility for copyright clearance for electronic reserve services. Libraries have the specialized equipment to scan and edit files to make them readable and easily downloaded by students. Libraries also have sufficient electronic storage to hold scanned material for future semesters. This paper examines how electronic reserves are managed in a large academic library system. The short history behind electronic reserves at Pennsylvania State University Libraries and the procedures associated with creating and maintaining the reserve system, will be considered, as well as offering a statistical assessment of how electronic reserves have affected the other services of the University Libraries. Finally, issues surrounding electronic reserves, fair use, copyright and Pennsylvania State University Libraries' procedures will be explored.

Conference Report

ABSTRACT This presentation by Eric Novotny discussed the results of a usability study conducted at the Pennsylvania State University Libraries. Novices and experienced searchers were recruited to discover how Net Generation library users search the online catalog. Findings of the investigation revealed that library users have been greatly impacted by Internet search behaviors. The session provided insights into how libraries can design user-centered online systems to meet the Web-savvy users' expectations.

Using the Wisconsin–Ohio Reference Evaluation Program (WOREP) to Improve Training and Reference Services

This article discusses a service quality study conducted in the Pennsylvania State University Libraries. The Wisconsin–Ohio Reference Evaluation Program survey was selected as a valid, standardized instrument. We present our results, highlighting the impact on reference training. A second survey a year later demonstrated that focusing on behavioral aspects of reference can improve service quality ratings.