Teachers’ Tales Go Online: Digitizing Oral Histories on Cassettes

For a time beginning in the 1970s, cassette tapes were very popular for recording oral histories. Today, these cassettes have exceeded their expected lifespan. Photographs, newspapers, and yearbooks fill many online repositories, but libraries and archives may find themselves wondering how to digitize an audio collection. This article presents a case study of one librarian’s effort to run a pilot digitization project for twenty-one oral history cassettes

Collection development: It\u27s for everyone

Collection assessment is rising in importance in academic libraries. Identifying gaps in collections, determining which resources are no longer useful, and assessing for diversity, equity and inclusion are all topics of discussion at conferences and in the literature. But why wait to identify the gaps in our collections when we can prevent them now?Collection development is a skill practiced by most academic subject librarians. However, with many institutions shrinking the number of librarians available to do collection development, not to mention our shrinking materials budgets, this task often doesn\u27t get the attention it deserves. We will also share how the development of Lamson Library\u27s nascent collection assessment program is already informing collection development strategies. Assessment methods such as user surveys can identify teaching faculty who may have a strong interest in participating in collection development. Checking against authoritative lists can migrate from the librarian\u27s assessment toolkit to the collection development toolkit. Identifying gaps in our collections is often the best way to learn strategies for filling them in the future.Attendees will learn:- Strategies for selecting resources that reflect the diversity of our world- How to identify books not on an approval plan or reviewed by CHOICE- How collection assessment initiatives can help inform collection development (with examples

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: responding to converging crises

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration, established to provide an independent, global monitoring system dedicated to tracking the emerging health profile of the changing climate. The 2020 report presents 43 indicators across five sections: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. This report represents the findings and consensus of the 35 leading academic institutions and UN agencies that make up the Lancet Countdown, and draws on the expertise of climate scientists, geographers, and engineers; of energy, food, and transport experts; and of economists, social and political scientists, data scientists, public health professionals, and doctors

What is Digital Commons @ PSU?

The software driving Digital Commons @ PSU is known for open access dissemination of scholarly work. But, there are other creative ways it could be used by all campus constituencies, including journal publishing, open educational resources, event organization, and image and video galleries. Christin and Alice will present both current and potential projects taking advantage of this exciting new platform. Attendees will participate in discussions about new ideas for creating and sharing their work

How to Keep Kanopy at PSU: Please Use Responsibly

Lamson Library is proud to provide access to current, high-quality media that helps students understand the concepts, issues and challenges presented in their coursework. The library must balance providing as many resources as possible within a finite budget. The Kanopy platform provides streaming access to high quality educational video content, and the library pays only for the videos that are viewed. However, at other institutions, Kanopy has become a victim of its own success, often being canceled when high usage rates overwhelm the library budget. Learn how you can continue to provide your students with access to high quality educational streaming video content -- not just on Kanopy, but on alternative channels as well