News in Brief
Penn State Intercom......February 22, 2001

Birding Cup goal is $25,000

Shaver's Creek Environmental Center is setting a new goal for the annual bird-counting fund-raiser in recognition of its 25-year anniversary.

The goal of the 2001 Birding Cup, to be held from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, May 4, to Saturday, May 5, will be to raise $25,000. Proceeds from the event support the daily care and feeding of the raptors at Shaver's Creek, as well as support educational programs.

Each year, teams compete for 24 hours during the peak of bird-migration season to count the most bird species. Team members solicit pledges from individuals and corporate sponsors based upon the number of species identified by their team.

For information about The Birding Cup, to make a pledge or to participate, call (814) 863-2000 or (814) 667-3424, e-mail ShaversCreek@outreach.
psu.edu or check the Web at http://www.outreach.psu.edu/ShaversCreek/

Upward Bound opportunities

A number of teaching and other opportunities are available to persons interested working with Upward Bound students this summer.

Upward Bound is looking for candidates to instruct high school classes during the second six-week summer session at University Park. Teaching opportunities will be available in composition/literature, mathematics, science and Spanish. The program is seeking individuals who will spend five hours a day, Monday through Friday, with teen-agers ranging from age 14 to 18.

Upward Bound's summer program runs from June 25 through July 27. Anyone interested should contact Rocco Infantino, assistant director, at (814) 865-2320 or e-mail rji2@psu.edu.

The Upward Bound Math and Science Center at University Park also is seeking teachers and speakers during the summer session as well as individuals engaged in research during June and July who would be willing to supervise one or more responsible upperclassmen as research interns at their site for several hours each week.

The program runs from June 24 through July 28. For information, contact Ron Williams, project director, at (814) 863-4291 or e-mail rcw1@psu.edu.

Articles delivered electronically

The University Libraries' Interlibrary Loan (ILL), a new software program titled Prospero, is now able to deliver articles electronically to a patron's desktop.

Patrons still may receive some articles in the mail, because approximately 25 percent of ILL's articles are not received electronically. Also, ILL will mail articles to patrons who request not to use the new service.

Prospero converts incoming library documents into Portable Document Formats (PDFs), which are then viewable on a patron's home computer with free programs such as Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The Prospero software allows ILL to forward the converted files onto a secure Web server, while simultaneously notifying a patron that the requested article is now viewable on the server. To view the file, a patron simply has to input his or her e-mail address and a PIN provided by ILL. The article is viewable for three weeks during which time only the patron can view, save or print out the file before it is deleted from the server. This program, available only to University Park patrons, will soon be available to Penn State libraries.

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