University Libraries News

Penn State University Libraries and Indiana University Library are partnering with Next Generation Library Publishing on a Big Ten Academic Alliance-funded pilot project. Using state-of-the-art technology, it aims to enable greater discovery, dissemination and preservation of participating institutions’ published open access content for users to experience those materials as a single, shared collection.

Jane Homan, library operations supervisor at Penn State Brandywine, has completed the American Library Association’s Emerging Leader program.

The HUB-Robeson Galleries present "Expansive habitat, the rhizome of home," an exhibition of cyanotype quilts and soft sculptures by Vee Adams and Andrea Narno. The exhibit is on view in Art Alley from June 7 to Sept. 24.  

The Penn State-based Hemingway Letters Project recently published the sixth volume of "The Letters of Ernest Hemingway," covering the period from June 1934 to June 1936, plus an appendix of 48 previously unpublished letters written between 1918 and 1934.

Six Penn State Commonwealth Campuses recently named faculty members as Open Champions, recognizing their work with open education in the third year of Penn State's Open and Affordable Educational Resources Champion Awards.

Rebecca Mattson, head of faculty and research services and professor of legal research at Penn State Law in University Park, was recently awarded the prestigious 2024 Service Award by the Research Instruction & Patron Services Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries.

Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, and Penn State University Libraries will unveil the newly renovated Fayette Campus Library on Wednesday, Sept. 4.

Penn State’s Teaching and Learning with Technology is hosting a hybrid summer workshop for artificial intelligence literacy on the University Park campus titled “GenAI Summer Splash: Riding the Generative AI Wave for Teaching.” This two-hour hands-on workshop for faculty and staff will enhance participant skills within the evolving generative AI landscape.

Sarah Hartman-Caverly, reference and instruction librarian at Berks Thun Library, Penn State Berks, was recognized June 6 for her work co-leading a peer community that explores heterodoxy in the context and practice of academic librarianship. Hartman-Caverly’s community, Heterodox Libraries, received the inaugural HxA Community Excellence Award from the Heterodox Academy.

David Aycock, deputy director of Baylor University Press, has been named executive director of the Penn State University Press, effective Aug. 1. 

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book has announced its 2024 "A Baker’s Dozen: The Best Children’s Books for Family Literacy" booklist. The 21st annual booklist was compiled by a panel of children’s literature experts who chose from among the many children’s books published in the previous calendar year. 

Instructors at Penn State’s University Park campus will see enhanced camera technology being rolled out in classrooms beginning this summer as Zoom also becomes the default resource for instructional recordings.

Penn State campus and local community members will be provided the opportunity to celebrate Juneteenth National Independence Day and learn more about the holiday with several events and resources, including the fifth annual Juneteenth block party and art exhibit on June 14-15.

In celebration of Juneteenth National Independence Day on Wednesday, June 19, Penn State University Libraries offers a listing of resources, including books, articles, films, artifacts, exhibits and more that uplift those voices — throughout history and today — who celebrate African American culture and promote the work of dismantling racism, with the intention of providing educational resources and continued dialogue.   

Three Penn State University Libraries librarians have been named to three-year appointments as early career librarians effective July 1, 2024. Established to support library faculty in the first decade of their careers, these appointments provide endowment funding to support individual career growth and research initiatives advancing the University Libraries’ mission and strategic priorities.

Members from Penn State University Libraries’ Conservation Centre will lead hands-on papermaking sessions for all ages this summer 10 a.m. to noon on June 10 and July 8 at the Arboretum at Penn State Childhood’s Gate Children’s Garden.

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, located within the Education Library of Penn State University Libraries, has selected Kelly Starling Lyons’s I Can Read comic for young readers, “Ty’s Travels: Camp Out,” published by Harper Alley, and Leon Ford’s adult memoir, “An Unspeakable Hope: Brutality, Forgiveness, and Building a Better Future for My Son,” published by Atria, to represent Pennsylvania in the Library of Congress Center for the Book’s 2024 Great Reads program.   

The Big Ten Academic Alliance's Academic Leadership Program in 2024-25 will include six new fellows from Penn State. The BTAA is the academic consortium of the Big Ten universities and the United States’ preeminent model for effective collaboration among research universities. The Academic Leadership Program focuses on addressing the challenges of academic administration at major research universities.

The Big Ten Academic Alliance's Academic Leadership Program in 2024-25 will include five new fellows from Penn State. The BTAA is the academic consortium of the Big Ten universities and the United States’ preeminent model for effective collaboration among research universities. The Academic Leadership Program focuses on addressing the challenges of academic administration at major research universities.

The following is a list of non-tenure-line faculty promotions at Penn State, effective July 1, 2024.