The Michael Schwartz Library has been partnering with CSU's Writing Center for several semesters to offer an academic writing club targeting graduate students and faculty. The program centers around a book, which in fall 2020 was Publishing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks by Laura Belcher, and in the spring 2021 semester, it focused on the book Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword. The Writing Center's Director, Mary McDonald, recorded short videos each week to send to participants, while Mandi Goodsett from the Library added these videos and other resources to a comprehensive research guide, and each week they offered a Zoom session for discussing that week's videos and dedicated writing time. There were around 6 active participants in the Zoom sessions and many other participants who watched the videos and took advantage of the research guide. If you would like to join Mary and Mandi for weekly writing time this summer on Fridays at noon, please reach out! We would love to have you!

Take the library with you. . .wherever you surf. Nomad is a browser extension that detects available scholarly content, notifies you it's available, and connects you to the content in one click.

CSU's OER (Open Educational Resources) Committee, with funding from the Provost's Office, began its second Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium (TASS) in May of 2021. The program was coordinated by librarians from the Michael Schwartz Library, as well as staff from the Center for eLearning, Center for Faculty Excellence, and Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. Sixteen faculty are participating in the program, which requires them to complete four Blackboard modules about open education, commit to using an OER (at least as an optional resource) in a future course, and create a short video about their experience to share with the campus community. In return, faculty received a $600 stipend. See the Library website for information about our Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium, including faculty testimonials about their experience!

The Michael Schwartz Library, in conjunction with various partners, including the Center for Faculty Excellence and the Center for eLearning, offered Textbook Affordability Grants to CSU Faculty during the spring 2021 semester. Faculty whose projects were selected received a $1,000 grant to revise or remix an existing open textbook.

The goal of the grant is to encourage and support adoption of openly licensed course materials in order to save students money and encourage student-centered pedagogy. Since 2016, our Textbook Affordability Grants have already saved CSU students over $900,000.

Congratulations to the faculty who were awarded the spring 2021 Textbook Affordability Grants!

EngagedScholarship @ CSU, is the University's showcase of scholarly and creative works of faculty, staff, students at CSU. It holds more than 19,000 items, including journal articles, books, images, and audio recordings. There were 381,652 downloads in spring 2021 and 4,448,439 all time downloads through May 2021. During the same time frame, the most downloaded item by faculty is an article written by Matthew W. Green, Jr., Associate Professor, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, titled "Same-Sex Sex and Immutable Traits: Why Obergefell v Hodges Clears a Path to Protecting Gay and Lesbian Employees from Workplace Discrimination under Title VII" from The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. The most downloaded item by a student is a thesis by Jennifer Lee Poland titled "Lights, Camera, Emotion!: An Examination on Film Lighting and Its Impact on Audiences' Emotional Response."

The Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University is closely associated with the Michael Schwartz Library but is an independent organization whose purpose is to support the library in a number of different ways. By sponsoring programs of interest to faculty, staff, students and the general public we hope to attract favorable attention for the library and interest in its activities. Programs include book discussions, local author book talks, and bus excursions to areas of interest. Join us today!