Spring 2014 ASG News
Volume 21, Number 1
A joint newsletter of the John M. Lilley Library, the Computer Center, the Copy and Multimedia Center, the
Learning Resource Center, the Center for Teaching Initiatives, and the Center for eLearning Initiatives.
Computer Center
Behrend Offers Cloud Services
The Computer Center now offers the Behrend Cloud Service to faculty and students. There are several
advantages of using the Behrend Cloud Service.
It provides a secure method of providing a variety of services to both on-campus and mobile users. You can
access lab environments, specialized software, research systems, and connect to Box@PennState. In addition,
you can securely access your files and applications from the Behrend Cloud Service using any device (such as a
PC, tablet, iPad, or Android). The cloud services are located at Behrend with all data and systems backed-up
daily. For academic departments, it can securely replace faculty’s office PCs at a reduced cost.
For more details about this service and its benefits, refer to Behrend’s Cloud Services web site
(http://cloud.bd.psu.edu/). Or, contact Shawn Alexander (sma7@psu.edu, ext. 7208) for more information.
University Also Provides Cloud Storage Service
You’ve probably heard of cloud storage solutions such as Google Drive, Sky Drive, and Drop Box. However, the
University does not recommend using these solutions for University business because of sensitive data, security
concerns, and other issues. However, the University recently introduced a service called Box@PennState
(http://psu.box.net).
Box@PennState is a secure, cloud-based, commercial file storage service made possible due to a contract that
Penn State has with Box. (Unlike other cloud storage services, the servers for Box@PennState are housed in the
U.S. and managed by a PSU system administrator.) This service allows you to store many more types of
University data in the cloud. And you can manage, access, and share your files from anywhere using your
desktop, laptop, or mobile device.
In addition to file storage, Box@PennState makes it easy to share files and collaborate with others within the
University. You can also collaborate with people outside of Penn State as long as they have a Box account.
Box@PennState is available to faculty, staff, and students. For more details about Box@PennState, please refer
to the FAQ (http://box.psu.edu/general-info/) and Terms of Service (http://box.psu.edu/terms-of-service/).
For tutorials, visit the Box@PennState home page, click on Support from the menu, and then select Training. Or
download the quick start guide from IT Training (http://ittraining.psu.edu/resources/). Contact Julie Green
(jcg6@psu.edu, ext. 7165) if you need more information or have questions about this service.
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Yammer --- A Tool for Collaboration
Last year, Penn State joined the Yammer network, a commercial service that provides a private, social network
for businesses.
This network facilitates communication and collaboration across Penn State and is available to faculty, staff, and
students. You can join specific groups or create your own groups to discuss a particular topic. It’s a great way to
keep abreast of team projects, ask questions, share ideas, and more via the web. (You can also choose to receive
Yammer discussions via email, but not all content is able to be sent via email.)
To learn more about Yammer or to participate in Penn State’s Yammer network, visit http://yammer.psu.edu/.
Training resources are available via the IT Knowledge Base (http://kb.its.psu.edu/yammer) and the First Steps
guide (http://yammer.psu.edu/first_steps/). ITS Training Services also provides training each semester via Adobe
Connect. Check their web site (http://ittraining.psu.edu/) for the training schedule.
Technology Training at Penn State --- When? Where?
Glad you asked.
Probably the simplest way to find out about technology training within the University is to join Behrend’s
Training Announcements listserv.
Upon joining the listserv, you will receive announcements approximately twice per month which highlight
training that is available within the University for faculty and staff. For example, you’ll receive the training
schedule for the current month’s offerings from ITS Training Services and for Adobe Connect. Occasionally,
announcements may be sent regarding training outside the University.
What are the benefits of receiving these announcements? It will save you time from checking various sources
on your own to see what training is available. (If you’re like me, if I don’t get an email reminder about training, I
tend to forget about it or don’t take the extra effort to find out what is available.) It can also help reduce the
email notifications that you would receive if you signed up for other training announcement listservs within the
University. You can set up an email filter to automatically route messages from BD-TrainingAnnouncements so
that they go to a specific mail box. This will make it easier to identify messages related solely to training.
Training Resources at PSU
Speaking of technology training, don’t forget to bookmark these sites. They provide free, self-paced learning
materials to Penn State faculty, staff, and students (unless otherwise noted). These resources are a great way to
further your personal and professional development.
ITS Training Services (http://ittraining.psu.edu/resources)
This site has helpful guides for numerous topics along with some recorded webinars. Topics include Data
Warehouse, Adobe Connect, Photoshop, ANGEL, Digital Signage, UCS email and calendars, and more.
In addition, they conduct hands-on training (typically at State College) or provide training via Adobe
Connect. To receive a schedule of training sessions, you can request to be added to Behrend’s Training
Announcements listserv by contacting Carolyn Dudas (ddz@psu.edu, ext. 6458) or visit the ITS Training web
site (http://ittraining.psu.edu/).
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Lynda.com at PSU (http://lynda.psu.edu)
You’ll find thousands of video tutorials for technology, career and business skills, and much more. Tutorials
for each application are segmented by sub-topic and are approximately 5 to 15 minutes in length enabling
you to focus on a very specific topic within the much larger tutorial. Also, most tutorials provide content for
a range of skill levels from beginner to advanced.
Here’s a sampling of some of the technology tutorials that are available: Pho- toshop, Illustrator, Office
(Access, Excel, etc.) for PC and Mac, AutoCAD, Prem- ier Pro, Adobe Connect, and programming languages
(C++, PHP, Python, Java, etc.). Business and career tutorials include subjects such as decision making, leadership, team creativity, creating effective resumes, and delivering keynote presen- tations. To find out what
else is offered, you can use the global search tool or view a list of tutorials by name or by subject area.
SkillPort (http://ohr.psu.edu/learning/online)
Faculty and staff have access to a collection of video tutorials related to business skills and career
development. Topics include business grammar, presentations skills, essential skills for administrative
support professionals, leadership, inter- viewing strategies (for the interviewee), customer service, and
much more.
Microsoft IT Academy (http://msitacademy.psu.edu)
This site has in-depth tutorials for the IT professional or for those who want to become Microsoft certified.
There are over 1,800 tutorials for Office, Windows Server, SharePoint, SQL server, and more. If you decide to
use this resource, be sure to read the information on How to Use Microsoft IT Academy at Penn State. (This
link is located under the Support section of the home page.)
If you have any questions or need additional information about these resources, contact Carolyn Dudas
(ddz@psu.edu, ext. 6458).
Registration Open for TechPros Conference
Registration is now open for the 2014 TechPros conference which will be held at Penn State Behrend on
Thursday and Friday, June 5 and 6. Each year the conference travels to a different campus with the aim of
creating and improving networking opportunities among campus IT professionals.
IT professionals, instructional designers, librarians, and multi-media support specialists are invited to attend this
conference. Come to listen, learn, collaborate and find out how your counterparts are meeting the technology
needs of Penn State’s faculty, staff and students.
Presentations will be given by colleagues from around the University. Presentation tracks include: Delivering IT,
Backend, Professional Development, Learning Spaces, Central Services, and Instructional Design/Library/
Multimedia.
TechPros is a conference dedicated to front line and backroom technical employees at Penn State. There are a
number of common challenges at each of our campuses, but also great ideas that conquer those issues.
TechPros is a platform to share those solutions and showcase best practices so that we all can benefit and
improve IT across the University.
So come join us! For more information and to register for the conference, please visit https://techpros.psu.edu.
If you have any questions, contact Todd Say (jts12@psu.edu, ext. 6410) or Larry Kosin (lxk8@psu.edu, ext.
6020).
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Reminder
If you’re using the technology classroom podium, PLEASE remember to logoff from the instructor’s PC and
power off the projector. Thanks!
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John M. Lilley Library
Libraries Offer Streaming Video Resources
A wide selection of streaming video resources are available to individuals with a Penn State access id. Multisubject resources include:
 SWANK Motion Picture Digital Campus for faculty and instructor use only and offering more than 18,000
films from major Hollywood studios.
 Docuseek2 News offers the best in social issue and documentary film with a growing list of more than
430 titles.
 European Navigator (ENA) focuses on the formation of a united Europe from 1945 to present and
includes 15,000+ photos, audio, video, press articles and more.
 Filmakers Library Online (FLON) offers more than 1,000 award-winning documentaries across all
disciplines.
 Engineering Case Studies Online will dramatically improve teaching and research by providing a single,
comprehensive source for a wide range of video and text material focusing on engineering failures and
successes. At completion, the collection will contain 250 hours and 50,000 pages of quality
documentaries, accident reports, experiments, visualizations, case studies, lectures and interviews from
leading engineering institutions around the world.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Digitized
Rich with valuable and detailed information, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps — originally created more than a
century ago as a product to help insurance companies assess the potential risks involved in underwriting policies
— have developed into a tool with myriad uses by researchers in multiple fields. These maps provide extensive
details about the roads and buildings in cities and towns throughout the United States. Genealogists, architects,
urban planners, and historians have long prized the impressive detail, clear printing, multiple editions (showing
changes over time), and distinctive style that mark these maps. Whether tracing turn-of-the-century city
expansion, looking for the home of an ancestor, or researching boundaries and zoning ordinances, the Sanborn
maps are a key source of reliable data.
Recently Penn State’s University Libraries completed the cataloging and digitization of the entire collection of
Sanborn maps that span the late 19th and early 20th centuries — 31,036 sheets, representing 585 large and
small com-munities across the Commonwealth. Titles published before 1923 and available online to the public
are presented in an alphabetical index of Pennsylvania communities at
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/sanborn.html. As copyright restrictions are lifted for post-1922 titles,
the scanned images of those communities also will be mounted on the Maps Library’s Sanborn Fire Insurance
Maps website for use.
The physical map collection, housed in the Donald W. Hamer Maps Library in Pattee Library, does not circulate
but may be viewed and used for research within the Maps Room. Titles can be found in The CAT, the Libraries’
online catalog, by conducting a keyword search of “Sanborn” plus the desired community name, and limiting the
search to the “Maps Library” location. Copies may be obtained for individual sheets with the assistance of the
Maps Library staff.
A complete research guide for the Sanborn and other fire insurance maps is available at
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/researchguides/sanbornmaps.html. For more information, contact the Maps
Library at 814-863-0094.
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Upcoming Behrend Faculty Publications Reception
Mark your calendars for the Behrend Faculty Publication Reception, to be held on Thursday, April 10 from 2 – 4
PM in the library. Snacks and beverages will be provided. The last time we held the reception was in 2012 and
that reception showcased over 100 publications from 40 faculty members. We’ll be displaying these publications
in the library at the reception (and possibly for a few days afterwards).
New Records Management Initiative
On September 3, 2013, David Gray (Sr. VP for Finance and Business) and Nick Jones (Provost) sent a memo to all
Chancellors, Deans, Administrative Unit Heads it stated the following:
"Penn State University is committed to a robust and state-of-the-art records retention program...The
program is based on appropriate policies and guidance, coupled with a network of knowledgeable and
trained individuals in records retention. Compliance is therefore, not only, a recommended good for the
University; it is necessary to meet legal requirements set forth by the federal, state and local governments
to which the University must report.”
Penn State now requires each unit to appoint at least one official records management liaison. Dr. Birx has
appointed Jane Ingold (jli4@psu.edu) and Tracy Claybaugh (txc26@psu.edu). Please let one of them know if you
have any records management issues or questions.
Records Management Tip
Have a folder full of past travel forms? According to the Penn State retention schedule, you only need to keep
the current year plus one. So go ahead and spring clean that file.
Curriculum Archive Available Online
Did you know that you can search through 43,000+ course proposals and over 4,300 program proposals on the
online Curriculum Archive at: http://curriculumarchives.libraries.psu.edu/.
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Center for Teaching Initiatives
Course Design Academy
The Schreyer Institute is offering the Course Design Academy from May 19 - May 23.
Through an interactive process, academy participants will develop a coherent and well-aligned course syllabus
and be armed with fresh ideas to put into classroom practice. Expect not only to build a course but, perhaps,
more significantly, to learn a process that can enhance all of your future courses. As one of last year’s
participants said, "It made a huge difference in my attitude on returning to the classroom in the fall, and it
prompted me to develop a few new strategies that led to better work from my students."
There is no cost to participate, but spaces are limited. Applications are due by March 21.
Additional information can be obtained at http://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/coursedesignacademy or by
contacting CDA facilitators Crysal Ramsay (cmg5@psu.edu) or Kathy Jackson (klj11@psu.edu).
Missed this spring’s valuable seminars sponsored by the Center for Teaching Initiatives?
Find some inspiration this summer from these new books:
 Visual Thinking Strategies: Using Art to Deepen Learning across School Disciplines by Philip Yenawine,
N350.Y46 2013.
 Breaking Open the Box: a Guide for Creative Techniques to Improve Academic Writing and Generate
Critical Thinking by Nancy Dafoe, PE1404.D34 2013.
 Those Who Can: Why Master Teachers Do What They Do by Neil Bright, Browsing LB1025.3.B754 2013.
 Resistant Students: Reach Me Before You Teach Me by Mary Skvorak, LC4801.S56 2013.
 Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education by Mark Edmundson, LA227.4.E36 2013.
 Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice: Change without Reform in American Education by Larry
Cuban, LB2806.22.C82 2013.
 Breaking the Mold of Education: Innovative and Successful Practices for Student Engagement,
Empowerment, and Motivation by Audrey Cohan, LB1065.B743 2013.
 Culture Shock for Asians in U.S. Academia: Breaking the Model Minority Myth by Eunkyong Lee Yook,
LC2632.Y66 2013.
 Hacking the Academy: New Approaches to Scholarship and Teaching from Digital Humanities by Daniel
Cohen, AZ186.H33 2013.
 Discontinuity in Learning: Dewey, Herbart and Education as Transformation by Andrea English,
LB14.7.E565 2013.
 Creative Teaching for All: In the Box, Out of the Box, and Off the Walls by Jack Zevin, LB1025.3.Z465
2013.
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Learning Resource Center
Record Tutoring in Fall 2013
As was predicted in the fall newsletter, tutoring for the fall was higher than during any other fall semester in LRC
history. The data would indicate that this is in some measure due to the use of an online appointment system
that began in the fall of 2012.
Compared to fall 2011, tutoring by appointment increased by 51%. Also, tutoring sessions by appointment
exceeded the total number of sessions in all three drop-in labs combined. The online system provides students
with far more flexibility for appointment times and automated email reminders have kept missed appointments
below 5%.
Although drop-in labs have the advantage of providing support to students at a moment’s notice, they can have
the disadvantage of being over-whelmed just prior to exams. Tutors are sometimes forced to rotate between
students in different courses, straining the tutor and affecting the quality of the interaction. Another advantage
of the appointment system is that it enables tutors to address study skills issues as well as content during
individual sessions.
Writing tutoring has also increased, partly as the result of the Composition Support Program, which embeds
tutors in composition courses. This fall, nine sections of English 015 had an embedded tutor. Individual writing
tutoring sessions were considerably higher among students in classes with an embedded tutor than those
without.
Although tutoring is primarily targeted to the first and second years, it does continue into the upper levels. Last
fall, it accounted for 5.6% of tutoring. Last semester, courses from the School of Humanities & Social Sciences
and the School of Science accounted for the majority of tutoring.
Supplemental Instruction (SI), Guided Study Groups and Test Prep Sessions were offered for courses in the
Sciences. SI was provided for Physics 211. Test prep sessions were offered for Biology 110S, Chemistry 110, and
Physics 250. Guided study groups were held for Math 140 and Physics 212. Total attendance for these sessions
was 416.
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Copy and Multimedia Center
Ordering Penn State Business Cards
Penn State business cards are now easier to order from the Copy and Multimedia Center with our new business
card order form. The form makes it easy to choose your card style and to submit the information for the
business card.
There are two card styles to choose from along with options for paper color and quantity. Cost varies depending
upon quantity.
To order Penn State Behrend business cards, simply:
1. Choose a style and complete the necessary information.
2. Submit your order to the Copy and Multimedia Center.
3. You will receive a proof via email for approval before printing.
4. Once you have approved the proof, you will receive your cards in 4 business days.
Contact Lori Allen at x6177 for more information or to obtain the form.
Poster Reminder
While the Undergraduate Research Conference is still a way off, please keep in mind that large posters require
extra time to print and that early file submission will help guarantee that your finished product will be delivered
in a timely manner.
CMC provides copy work pickup and drop off Monday through Friday at 9:00am, 11:00am, 2:00pm, and 4:00pm.
As always, please allow a 2-hour turnaround time for standard copies.
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