Sunday, September 25, 2011

Quiche recipe

I've had several requests from librarians on Twitter for a few recipes. One of them is my quiche recipe. I was able to tweet it, but I thought I would also post the full recipe here for librarians and non-librarians alike. Enjoy this any day of the week.

Saturday quiche


Spinach or Broccoli Quiche

Ingredients
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk (or heavy whipping cream for a a richer quiche)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 box frozen spinach or broccoli
2 cups cheese, shredded (mozzerella, any white Italian cheese blend)
1 pie shell

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Open and remove frozen spinach or broccoli from box, place in a microwave safe mixing bowl and cook for 4-5 minutes. Drain to remove excess water.

In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk or heavy whipping cream, and black pepper. Stir in 1 cup cheese. Stir in drained veggies . Stir in remaining cup of cheese

Pour spinach mixture into pie shell. Place filled pie shell on a cookie sheet. Bake 45-55 minutes until golden brown. Allow quiche to cool before slicing. Slices well with a pizza cutter.

Enjoy!

Remember you can be as creative as you'd like with your quiche.

Quiche mosaic
spinach with bacon, broccoli with pepperoni, broccoli with shrimp


*Tweet version: mix 3 eggs, 3/4c milk, 1pkg froz spinach (micro 4.5 min), 1.5c shred cheese, 1/8tsp blk pepper. Pour in pie shell, bake 50 min 375 degrees.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Teaching International 2011-2012

Greater Allegheny has been doing the Teaching International program since 2004, and their library has played an active role in supporting this initiative. While I was a reference librarian at Beaver I had the opportunity to work with a faculty member to develop a resource website for Penn State faculty interested in Internationalization of the Curriculum.

This year's regional focus is the Middle East and the issue focus is the Millennium Development Goals. Today the library hosted an event for faculty and staff highlighting the University Libraries' resources. This includes the rich website I developed in collaboration with last year's LIS intern.

This afternoon during common hour, a no-conflict time from 12:15-1:35 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I hosted an event for campus faculty. They were able to view some of the materials from our print collection related to this year's Program, talk about upcoming events and assignment strategies, as well as enjoy a small selection of regional foods prepared by Housing & Food Service.

This year's LIS Intern did the layout for the cork board display.
Teaching International 2011


Reference materials

More reference materials and DVDs

Books from the circulating collection

Books from the circulating collection

Food display

Menu

Beverage display

Apricot coins

Eggplant caponata with pita

Baklava

Monday, September 19, 2011

RNC IV Denver

I attended the REFORMA National Convention IV in Denver, Colorado. I arrived on the second day of the conference. It was my first time attending REFORMA. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to be a first time attendee at a few conferences over the past year. It helps me particularly in the context of ALA to understand what it means to be new and how important it is to reach out and welcome everyone who attends. While I knew even more attendees than I expected, there was still that new attendee feeling.

REFORMA conference badge


A session I got the most out of was "Why Libraries Matter: Empowering Community Voices" presented by Camila Alire, Molly Raphael, and Patty Wong. The program highlighted Alire's Libraries: The Hear of All Communities frontline advocacy initiative from her 2009-2010 ALA Presidential year and Raphael's Empowering Voices: Communities Speak Out for Libraries 2011-2012 ALA Presidential initiative co-chaired by Wong. There was a lot of audience participation for this session. While the focus was on Latino and Spanish speaking communities, the questions and strategies around community advocacy are applicable in any library setting and community.

Program materials
Folder of materials from the session.


Friday night a reception was held at a branch of Denver Public Library. It was a really nice facility and the food was amazing. I spent the majority of that time talking with Loida Garcia-Febo. She was REFORMA president the same year I was NMRT President and we collaborated on an excellent program, The New Professional Paradigm: Redefining the New Librarian", at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. She gets the majority of the kudos because she approached me about collaborating. I also spent time talking with Alex Villagran with whom I have the pleasure of serving on ALA BARC. I get to see him again in a few weeks for our fall meeting.

Saturday's highlights included delicious Mexican food at a lovely restaurant Alfredo took Em Claire Knowles, Patty Wong, and me. We also drove around the Denver area a bit to see the mountains.
Delicious Mexican food


Saturday night was the Banquet and Dance. We celebrated 40 years of REFORMA.
Program

REFORMA in lights

With Camila Alire attending, I knew there would be lots of dancing.

Dancing at REFORMA

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Professional Travel for Fall 2011

It's that time again. This fall I'm heading to the following conferences and meetings.

REFORMA - Denver, CO
ALA BARC Fall Meeting - Chicago, IL
Internet Librarian 2011 - Monterey, CA
ALA Fall Executive Board Meeting - Chicago, IL
LJ/Temple University Academic Library Summit - Philadelphia, PA
Penn State Forum on Black Affairs event - State College, PA
Penn State University Libraries Faculty Retreat - State College, PA (canceled twice)

I'm excited to attend REFORMA and Internet Librarian. I'll be a first time attendee at both.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Class is in session

The 2011-2012 school year started August 22, so my fall semester is in full swing. I'm starting the semester short staffed, but we finally received approval in August to advertise for a reference librarian. I'll be working with the search committee on that process. I'm looking forward to welcoming a new colleague later in the semester.

With decreasing federal funding, our work study student employee pool continues to decrease. I'm excited we've recruited a few great first year students. I think this is one of the best jobs on campus for a student. I'm also biased because I worked at the college library for four years.

Once again my library is participating in the Pitt Partners program and hosting an LIS intern. Allison Gallaspy has joined us for the next three semesters. She has a B.A. in History from Tulane. Her primary interest is in technical services and is looking forward to developing her reference skills and networking.