PSU Special Collections Reference Desk

A blog for the PSU Special Collections reference desk for notices and messages.

Class on 11/30

Desk staff on Wednesday morning, 11/30:

I taught  a class this morning (11/28) for Elizabeth McCartney's Renaissance and Reformation class (History 414), and to my complete surprise I was asked if I could lay the books out again on Wednesday so that the students could each choose one to write about. Unfortunately, the Mann Assembly Room is not available that day, so I'm forced to use the reading room. The students (and instructor) have promised to be very quiet and not disturb other patrons. There could be as many as 30 students, although I doubt that they will all show up. I will lay the books out on reading room tables on one side of the room, and I can be with the class until 9:30, when I have to attend a unit heads meeting. Christine Bailey (who will be on call from 9:30 to 11:00) has offered to look after the students until 10:00 and to do some tidying up of the tables. I will clean up the reading room when I get out of my meeting. 

I'll try to be on hand when the students arrive so that they can double up and check their belongings in a locker.  We should also ask them to produce ID's and to fill out a registration form. Let's not bother with circulating the books because they won't know what they will be requesting. Please just write "History 414" on the request form, and I'll know what that means. I'm sorry that this is going to be so inconvenient!

Sandy

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted by: spcols at 17:53 | link | comments |

Friday Schnitzels

Both copiers are in need of maintenance.

#2303 makes black lines and #2304 has a jam  .  We called Nittany and they didn't have a service person, so call again on Monday to make sure the call isn't lost.

Schnitzels as my grandmother would say are all over the reading room.  Can we message maintenance through the Help desk?

 

Doris

posted by: spcols at 21:13 | link | comments |

Accessioning problems

Please, whoever is accessioning for HCLA, remember that Oliver is both case sensitive (upper and lower case are not sorted the same) and the accession number needs a four-digit number following the date portion, as well as the unit letter.  Whoever assigned the Jack Rabin collection the accession number of 2002-116, please correct it to 2002-0116-H.  The same holds true for all collections for which we don't know the year of accession.  The correct form is zero followed by four capital exes (0XXXX-nnnn-unit letter), not lowercase exes.  Oliver sorts them into two separate lists and we will end up with duplicate accession numbers if we're not careful.

Sue

posted by: spcols at 17:02 | link | comments (1) |
policy & service

Incoming Researcher

Dr. Jim Tammin, Penn State Plant Pathology Emeritus, will be coming in Tuesday to review materials for a history of the Plant Pathology Department that he is writing.

Annex materials for him are on a cart in the hall.  He will also be asking for ABVFs which can be pulled from the Processing Room as he requests them.

Jackie

posted by: spcols at 13:56 | link | comments |
materials ready

Circulation- Take Note

Dear All,

We've had a second incident of another Special Collections book  (Cunt:  A Declaration of Independence by author Inga Muscio) that came up as a hold when I went to charge/discharge the item. It is also a Seal Press publication and is demand because of a class assignment.   As per the instructions of the Circulation Watch Committee I immediately contacted Circulation   (Greg in this case).  Greg was not familiar with our recent problems with "holds"  and I had him come to Special Collections to view the screen with the "hold" message.  As there is no way of knowing if the same title is designated a hold until we try to charge out an item to a Special Collections patron, Greg's solution was to hit the button appearing on the bottom right side screet that reads "Do not checkout / overide."  Hitting this button apparently wipes out the charge transaction for the Special Collections patron and he/she is not subject to a fine. 

Jim

 

posted by: spcols at 13:31 | link | comments |

Patron

James Long will be visiting this afternoon to look at his recently donated scrapbook to identify the people in the photographs.  The box will be in the hallway with his name on it.  It is a small, flat box.  If he arrives while I am in a meeting between 2-3PM, please retrieve the box for him and tell him that I will see him when I finish my meeting.

Thanks,

Paul D.

posted by: spcols at 13:15 | link | comments |
reference queries

Circulation -- Please take special note of this!

posted by: scadmin at 15:12 | link | comments |
policy & service

Children's Drawings

Prof. Christine Thompson's Art Ed 541 (theories of Child Art) class may be coming in to ask for boxes of drawings from the following collections:

--Viktor Lowenfeld papers
--Goodenough-Harris children's drawings
--Dale Harris papers
--Al Hurwitz collection

There are two carts with some boxes from the collections (the ones they saw in a class session on Wed.) opposite the reshelving shelves, but they also have the inventories for these collections and so may ask for others.

One student has volunteered to take digital photos for other class members qand so students may ask to set aside pictures in a folder.  We will need to have a record of which folder and box the image came from.  Some may bring their own cameras to take pictures themselves.  I have told them that this is OK -- some of these are too fragile to put on a scanner or copier, and most are too large for that in any case.

For any questions, feel free to ask me

Lee S.

posted by: scadmin at 15:10 | link | comments |
class sessions & assignments

Burke Papers

Removed and Photocopy Request slips for the Burke papers are in a green folder behind the reference desk. These slips are for marking the place of material that has been removed for photocopying (by Rare Books staff) or for scanning.

 

April

posted by: spcols at 15:49 | link | comments |

Patrons

Father David and Sue Paterno will be visiting tomorrow, Wednesday, around 1PM to look at a folder behind the reference desk.  The folder has photos of Masses in Eisenhower Chapel, showing priests and parishoners.

Thanks,

Paul D.

posted by: spcols at 16:40 | link | comments |

Mitchell Framed Portrait

Beta House is borrowing (on long-term loan) the portrait of H. Walton Mitchell.  The framed picture is at the reception desk with a loan form.  It will be picked up by an officer of Beta House (please ask to see ID before relinquishing it to a student.)

Jackie R. Esposito

 

posted by: spcols at 20:11 | link | comments |
materials ready

Patron Pick Up

Dear All,

Fielder Newton will be stopping by Special Collections this week to pick up 4 DVD copies of his Eighth Air Force Veteran's oral history interview.  I have left the (4)copies at the front reception desk for pickup  (packet also includes a letter envelope.  Either he or his wife, Marge Newton,  will pick up.  The DVD copies are on the desk opposite the computer side of the reception desk w/ post-it note "Fielder Newton."

 

Thanks,

Jim

 

posted by: spcols at 18:34 | link | comments |

Patron

There is a folder entitled "The People Act" on the shelves behind the reference desk, on hold for Deb Chaney.  She, or someone from her library will be down to look at it.

Thanks,

Paul D.

posted by: spcols at 13:12 | link | comments |

AAKPE Researcher

Paul and I went to the annex this afternoon to pull this researcher's boxes and we are unable to find three boxes:  AX/PSUA/06380; AX/PSUA/06390; AX/PSUA/06428.

 

Please let her know.  If anyone knows where these three boxes may be, please pull them for her.

 

Thanks,

Robyn

 

posted by: spcols at 21:08 | link | comments (1) |
materials ready

Members of Lion's Paw will be in through Nov 8 to look at their collection.  It is located on a cart in the hallway.

posted by: spcols at 19:49 | link | comments |

AAKPE Material

There will be a researcher in first thing tomorrow morning 8:00 am.  Her name is Kim Scott and she will be working with boxes from the AAKPE archives (13 boxes total).  Her boxes will be on carts in the hallway.

 

 

posted by: spcols at 18:07 | link | comments (1) |
materials ready

Public Scanner Problem

The Photoshop icon on the public scanner is missing, so patrons need to follow the instructions that are placed next to the computer.  Here is the procedure:

To open Photoshop:

Go to Start

Click on MY COMPUTER

Click Microtek Scanmaker 9800XL (USB) #2

This will open the program, and patrons can take it from that point.

Thanks,

Paul D.

posted by: spcols at 14:45 | link | comments (1) |