Hi everyone,

This edition of our newsletter comes to you amid several updates and projects in our Library - we'd like to share those and some recent employee news and accomplishments! We have great Library colleagues, and they continue to amaze me everyday. Here are a few items, and you can read about many more below:

• The Michael Schwartz Library's 2026-2028 strategic plan is underway, with more than 40 of our objectives either started or completed. Our work is aligned with the goals of Cleveland State United, building on the Library’s strong foundation and shaping its future. At the link above, you can see our updated mission, vision, and values statements, along with five strategic goals and all related objectives. 
• We're also happy to have published our new Library web site! Thanks to the work of Donna Stewart and an internal advisory team, along with input from many other employees, we moved to a fully accessible and more intuitive site.
• Our Library building is undergoing significant work to remediate water issues on the 4^th floor and is part of the larger Rhodes Tower abatement project this fall. While there are temporary inconveniences, these fixes will allow us to plan for future space use with much more certainty. For now, both our 4^th and 5^th floors are closed, and we will keep you updated about the spring semester. 
• Library employees are working with faculty on the roll out of a new course reserves system that will integrate with Blackboard, providing a single place for students to access their course materials online. Many thanks to those faculty who have already adopted it!
• We continue to provide significant support for students in terms of affordable course materials—providing ebooks, articles and other content used in courses, readings on print and online reserves, and advocating and supporting the use of open educational resources. Since the start of these efforts, CSU students have saved more than $2.9 million in textbook costs.
• Our digital collections full of historical and scholarly content are always growing—these include our institutional repository, EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University, and the Cleveland Memory Project. A significant milestone for Engaged Scholarship is celebrated below.
• And if you’re reading this, you have the opportunity to Join the Friends of the Library now with some new membership levels and benefits. The Friends' events and outings are always fun and interesting!

If you have any thoughts or questions about this or anything related to the Library, we welcome your ideas and partnership going forward. Please feel free to reach out to me any time, to your subject librarian, or contact us by any means you prefer.

Have a great Fall semester!

Scott Vine

Director of the Michael Schwartz Library

Cleveland State University has appointed Michael Skor as the new University Archivist and Records Manager. After a vacancy of several years, the University once again has a dedicated curator of the history and manager of the institutional records of Cleveland State University and Fenn College.  

Michael Skor has served as the Cataloging and Metadata Librarian at the Michael Schwartz Library since April of 2023. In addition to maintaining the integrity of the library catalog, he also served on the team that oversaw the migration to a new Library Services Platform in 2025. He is a graduate of Kent State University's iSchool with a concentration in Archival Studies. 

As part of the Michael Schwartz Library Strategic Plan 2025-2028, one area of focus is to restore the Library as the home of Cleveland State University's archives, history and records. With a recent upgrade to a new archival repository, Michael will work to ensure the institutional history of Fenn College and Cleveland State University is more discoverable to the immediate university and broader Cleveland community. Also, in this new role, Michael will serve as the University's record manager to ensure compliance with state law for records retention. 

Michael looks forward to creating new opportunities to share the institutional history of Fenn College and Cleveland State University. Please visit University Archives on the Michael Schwartz Library website for updates. 

Donna Stewart Announces Retirement

Donna Stewart, Library Web Specialist, announced her retirement, ending a remarkable 35-year career at Cleveland State University.  Donna's commitment to the Michael Schwartz Library and broader campus community is evident in her continuous efforts in designing and maintaining the Library’s website, including Cleveland Memory, which she co-founded in 2002. She demonstrated a spirit of collegiality and professionalism throughout her time here and received numerous awards to recognize her incredible achievements. We, her colleagues and friends, here and across campus have expressed in one way or another “Say it isn’t so!” but wish her a long and happy retirement. Thanks for the memories, Donna, and congratulations!

Library Celebrates Achievement

Throughout the year, Library staff contribute to a wide range of achievements and initiatives. Each summer, we gather to recognize those accomplishments, celebrate our collective impact, and honor the dedication of our colleagues at the annual Celebration of Achievement. Highlights include a team award, recognition of years of service, and outstanding achievement and customer service awards.

The Mister Rogers Committee, consisting of Sarah Benedict, La’Metria Carlton, Mandi Goodsett, Marsha Miles, Theresa Nawalaniec, Beth Piwkowski, Ben Richards, Michael Skor, Scott Vine, and Brandon Walker, was recognized for their commitment to helping students and staff feel like they belong at CSU.

We celebrated three staff members for their remarkable years of service and their lasting contributions:

Ben Richards – 10 years: For the past 10 years, Ben has been a valued librarian, whose dedication, teamwork, leadership, and commitment to excellence have helped strengthen the library and support its continued success.

Diane Kolosionek – 20 years: Diane's 20-year journey is marked by outstanding dedication, leadership, mentorship, and a steadfast commitment to helping CSU students and others succeed.

Donna Stewart – 35 years: Donna's remarkable 35 years of service represent a legacy of excellence and dedication that has shaped the library through her work on the Library's website and on the Cleveland Memory Project in meaningful and lasting ways.

Outstanding Individual Achievement Awards were presented to Jeff Beuck, Manager, Library Systems; Diane Kolosionek, Head, Research & Liaison Services; Donna Stewart, Web Specialist, Library Systems; Ian Yee, Network Support Specialist, Library Systems

The Preston White Customer Service Award was presented to Jo Corrigan, Course Material & Patron Support Specialist. This award, named in honor of our late colleague, is presented annually to a staff member who embodies a passionate commitment to outstanding customer service.

Please join us in congratulating our colleagues, some of whom are shown below.

(l-r) Jeff Beuck, Jo Corrigan, Ben Richards and Donna Stewart

The awards were sponsored by the Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library.

Marsha Miles: 2026 LIFT Fellow

Marsha Miles, Assistant Director for Collections & Resource Management, participated in the 2026 Leadership & Innovation Fellows for Transformation (LIFT) program (LIFT | Cleveland State University). She was one of 15 fellows selected for the eight-month program, which combines engagement with internal and external leaders, innovation theory research, and practical opportunities to apply new concepts and skills. This intensive professional development opportunity, which runs from January through October 2026, focuses on leadership, innovation, and organizational change. Marsha said, "Participation in the program has strengthened my leadership skills, expanded my understanding of organizational change, and helped me build meaningful connections with colleagues across campus."  

Mandi Goodsett to Present at CSU's TEDx Talk in October

Mandi Goodsett, Performing Arts and Humanities Librarian, is in the lineup of 12 speakers for this fall's TEDxClevelandStateUniversity event, themed "Untangling Wonder" (5th from the left in the above photo). So many people are feeling cynical and powerless about online information these days. In a world of AI slop, persuasive influencers, and misinformation, how can we take back control, feel empowered, and be inspired? Mandi's TEDx talk will explore how we can have more agency in online spaces by employing good information habits. She says of this experience "I'm excited and nervous for this opportunity! I hope people leave the talk feeling inspired and ready to take positive action."

Friday, October 23, 2026

3-8 p.m.

Waetjen Auditorium

Music and Communications Building

Ticket Sales are open

Email Mandi with your feedback at a.goodsett@csuohio.edu.

Library's Special Collections Staff Member presents

at Baltic Studies Conference 

Beth Piwkowski, Special Collections and Course Reserves Specialist, was invited to present on a panel at The 30th Biennial American Association of Baltic Studies Conference “Diasporas: Building Bridges Across Nations.”



Her presentation, Preserving Lithuanian-American history in Cleveland: a case study in university-community partnerships for the preservation of diaspora collections,​ inspired a Lithuanian National Library blog article written by Dalia Cidzikaitė, titled "Klivlando lietuvių kultūrinis paveldas svetainėje „Cleveland Memory".

Visit the Lithuanian Collection in Cleveland Memory.

About Cleveland Memory

Cleveland Memory, launched in 2002, is a freely searchable online collection of digital photos, texts, oral histories, videos and other local history resources, built by the Michael Schwartz Library at the Cleveland State University in collaboration with a host of community partners around Northeast Ohio.

Our 1st floor is fully reopen!

After what felt like endless construction and flood mitigation work, we’re delighted to share that the entire first floor west end space is fully reopened, including our Learning Commons, computer lab, adjacent classrooms, study areas, and restrooms. 

You can find comfortable places to study, collaborate, and plug in, with full access to the computers, specialized software, printing, and all the support you rely on throughout the semester. Thanks for your patience and flexibility during the disruption; we can’t wait to see you using the refreshed Learning Commons again.

Touch Grass

The library will be hosting another Touch Grass opportunity from 11am - 12pm on September 29^th on the McCombs Family Plaza. Enjoy nature, clear your mind, socialize with others, and turn off your notifications. Bring a book, a friend, walking shoes, or all of the above. Optional activities include a mini nature scavenger hunt, journaling, crafts, and cloud-watching. Faculty, staff, and students are all welcome.

📚 September = Library Card Sign-up Month!

Did you know you don't have to leave the first floor of MSL to grab a bestseller? All it takes is a Cleveland Public Library (CPL) card.

What is CPL @ CSU?

A partnership bringing rotating popular fiction, nonfiction, and magazines to the Library Connection Lounge on MSL's 1st floor — check out with your CPL card at self-checkout.

No CPL card?

Stop by the Library Help Desk — it's free and takes just a few minutes.

Bonus: Your CPL card also unlocks free digital perks anywhere, anytime:

• Libby – ebooks, audiobooks, magazines
• Hoopla – movies, TV, music, comics
• Kanopy – films & documentaries

📍 Library Connection Lounge, MSL 1st Floor

🗓️ #LibraryCardSignUpMonth — all September long

Learn more about CPL @ CSU

Academic Writing Club

If you or your advanced students are working on an academic writing project and could use some guidance and accountability to keep your writing on track, consider joining our Academic Writing Club. We use this club to keep us accountable to our writing goals and to set aside at least one reliable writing time every week. Join us by signing up.

Digital CSU Showcase Slated for December 1

by Ben Richards, Business & Communication Librarian

Digital CSU has announced the Fall 2026 Digital CSU Student Showcase in partnership with the Michael Schwartz Library!

The Showcase will take place on the first floor of the Michael Schwartz Library on Tuesday, December 1, from 1pm-3pm. 

The showcase is an opportunity for students to present finished or in-progress digital research projects created for their courses in a poster session style event to their faculty, staff, and their peers. Digital or multimodal research projects can take many forms, but they include: websites, video presentations, ebooks, infographics or other data visualization projects, lesson plans, maps, timelines, podcasts, media rich research articles, or other digital compositions and multimedia work.

Student participants must register for the event:

They must also be prepared to share their texts digitally, which requires that each participant brings the necessary equipment (e.g. laptop or tablet). Participants are encouraged to provide supplemental materials such as handouts about their design process, research methods, or other relevant documents; however, this is not required.

All students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend on December 1^st to see student participants showcasing their work.

Faculty: Teaching a course with a multimedia project? Consider asking your students to submit to the showcase, or even build the showcase into your plan for the semester. You can download the showcase flyer by clicking on the image above.

Did you know?

Students can check out cameras, camcorders, microphones, and more at the Library Help Desk. Students can also use Adobe Creative Cloud on the Multimedia Production Computers in the Learning Commons Lab, and record podcasts in the library’s Podcast Studio. More information here: https://library.csuohio.edu/services/digital-design.html

Need assistance with a multimodal project? Check out this research guide: https://researchguides.csuohio.edu/DDSproject

Questions about the showcase, or digital or multimodal projects? Please contact Ben Richards at b.c.richards@csuohio.edu

CSU Sustainability Collective

This past year, a small group of CSU faculty and staff, including library staff, have been working together to establish a new Employee Resource Group (ERG) called the CSU Sustainability Collective. The group’s mission is to promote sustainability and human flourishing for CSU affiliates and others through environmental sustainability initiatives. If you’d like to join us and getting on the mailing list, we would love to have you!

Perceptions and Intentional Information in Library's Substacks

MSL Librarian Insights Substack

If you haven’t already, feel free to sign up for the subject librarians' Substack called MSL Librarian Insights. This email newsletter will send you roughly bi-monthly videos and blog posts related to AI for research and other research-related topics via email.

New Substack: Information Issues

Mandi Goodsett has created a Substack called Information Issues, and you can sign up for that separately. Mandi's Substack will explore issues related to media literacy, AI, information literacy, and values-based education. As with the general Substack, the posts will be short and sweet.   

Successful LSTA Grant Application for Remedial AI Training

Melanie Gagich (First Year Writing Director and AI Teaching & Learning Lab Facilitator), Kyle Barron (Writing Center Director), and Mandi Goodsett (Librarian) were recently awarded an LSTA Open Grant to develop a remedial generative AI training for students. The purpose of the modules will be to help students who may have cheated using AI better understand the limitations of AI and what uses of AI are appropriate in an academic setting. The modules will ultimately be published as an open educational resource for educators across the state to use. More details about this resource will be shared at the end of the semester.

Generative AI: Faculty AI Literacy Online Certificate  

The Office of Instructional Excellence, in partnership with the Michael Schwartz Library, has developed a short, asynchronous certificate course for faculty to help learn more about Generative AI (without pressuring them to use it!). Participants will gain skills and knowledge about generative AI that will help them make more informed decisions about classroom AI policy, as well as their use of generative AI for teaching, research, and productivity.

Questions? Please contact Mandi Goodsett at a.goodsett@csuohio.edu. 

EngagedScholarship @ CSU Reaches 10 Million Downloads

The EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University (ES@CSU) Real-Time Readership Map has been steadily dropping pins and displaying what has been downloaded from CSU’s scholarship showcase. Now, we’ve reached a milestone: 10 MILLION DOWNLOADS! 

The 10 million pings are from numerous cities across the United States and countries around the world, including Uganda, Brazil, Romania, China, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Mongolia.  

We are also celebrating the open access repository’s 15th anniversary. Since first launching in 2012 through Digital Commons, 23,107 scholarly and creative works of CSU faculty, students, and staff such as journal articles, open educational textbooks, theses and dissertations, presentations, oral histories, infamous trial photos, Cleveland Memory books, and a wide variety of other content types have been uploaded. Works from CSU colleges, departments, and research communities are included, and the sheer number of downloads and metadata page hits across 238 countries and 9,918 institutions (including Harvard, Yale and Stanford) demonstrates the value of the collective research contained in ES@CSU. 

If you have any questions or want your research to be included in CSU’s open access repository, please reach out to an ES@CSU administrator at library.es@csuohio.edu.  

New Open Textbook from CSU's College of Business

In the fall 2025 semester, Dr. Keli Paragios, full-time visiting assistant college lecturer and course coordinator in the College of Business, applied for, and was awarded, a Textbook Affordability Grant offered through the Michael Schwartz Library. Writing tirelessly and with much enthusiasm, Dr. Paragios created an open textbook Business Essentials for Future Professionals, in time for her fall 2026 Business 151 course. The textbook affordability grant is offered to encourage and support the creation or compilation of low-cost or no-cost course materials.

Her textbook book offers a fresh, practical approach to understanding the world of business. Developed as part of the updates to BUS 151, the content is designed to better reflect current industry practices and expectations while aligning more closely with institutional learning goals. Rather than reading like a traditional textbook filled with academic jargon, it explains business concepts in a clear, conversational, and approachable way. Built for the student of today, the book connects foundational business concepts to useful, relevant, and current examples students can actually recognize. Real-world applications, emerging trends, technology, AI, ethical issues, and relatable scenarios help students understand not only what they are learning, but why it matters. The result is a more engaging and accessible introduction to business that prepares students to think critically about the rapidly changing business world of which they are already a part.

About the Author

Dr. Keli Paragios is an educator, researcher, and educational consultant with extensive experience in adult learning, higher education, and instructional design. She holds a PhD in Adult, Continuing, and Higher Education from Cleveland State University, an MA in Teaching with a focus on Mathematics from the University of Tampa, and a BA in Communications with a minor in Psychology from Bowling Green State University. Driven by a passion for lifelong learning, she has pursued degrees across multiple disciplines to broaden her perspective and enhance her interdisciplinary approach to education.

Read more about Dr. Paragios and her open textbook.

Business Essentials for Future Professionals was published by

MSL Academic Endeavors, the Library's Publishing Imprint.

More open educational resources can be found in

EngagedScholarship @ Cleveland State University .

Fulbright Grant Exchange Program Leads to an Open Research Resource

A new open resource, West African Perspectives on Social Deviance, Change and Tradition by Dr. William R. Morgan, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Levin College of Public Affairs and Education, offers an examination of common social problems and community responses as they occur in a unique urban context, the Hausa-Islamic culture of Northern Nigeria.

It is the end product of the Fulbright-funded institutional exchange program with Cleveland State University’s Nigerian partner university, Dr. Morgan’s last project before leaving for full-time administrative duty. The title of the grant was “A Comparative Curriculum for Criminology and Deviance” The program brought together sociologists from the respective public universities of Cleveland, Ohio and Kano, Nigeria to research problems of social deviance and community response common to both urban settings, but with a focus on Kano as the empirical context.

Dr. Morgan proposes that the book be used for instruction or research, whether the whole book or individual chapters. West African Perspectives on Social Deviance, Change and Tradition is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative 4.0 International Creative Commons License. It was published by MSL Academic Endeavors, the Library's Publishing Imprint, and is available online In EngagedScholarship @ CSU.

About the Author

William R. Morgan, author and editor, received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. His 50-year academic career has included terms as sociology department chair at both relatively new universities, Bayero University Kano and Cleveland State University.

Would you like to learn more about the Affordable Learning community? 

To subscribe to the CSU Affordability Learning Advocates Newsletter,

email Mandi Goodsett, Michael Schwartz Library, at a.goodsett@csuohio.edu or Heather Caprette CSU Online (Center for eLearning) at h.caprette@csuohio.edu

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Readership and Dashboard Update for EngagedScholarship @ CSU

From September 2025 - September 2026, EngagedScholarship @ CSU recorded 2,120,846 total downloads and 1,524,361 metadata hits across 228 countries. Additionally, 402 new submissions were posted.

Click the Readership Distribution Map to access the interactive Dashboard.



Readership reports can be generated for individual colleges and departments. Please contact an ES@CSU Administrator at library.es@csuohio.edu for more information.

Joining a Celebration

Wednesday, October 21, 2026 (Friends of Libraries Week)

Noon – 1:30 pm



The Friends invite you to attend a special installment of our Connect with Faculty and Book Discussion series, featuring Dr. Adrienne Gosselin. Dr. Gosselin will lead an in-depth discussion of Toni Morrison’s book, Sula.

About Dr. Goselin

Dr. Adrienne Gosselin is Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies and Department of English. Her research focuses on African American Literature, Africana Studies, and Black Women’s Studies. Her course, Womanism/Black Feminism, has been offered since 1996, and frequently features works by Toni Morrison. She is also an award-winning short story writer, currently trying to return to her novel on African American soldiers in the First World War.

Sula is on sale at Viking Outfitters.

This event is presented in conjunction with Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison, situating our conversation within a broader scholarly and statewide reflection on Morrison’s legacy.

Joining a Celebration will be held in RT 304 (Library's 3rd floor, northeast side) and a virtual option will be available. A light lunch will be provided. 

Seating is limited. Please register here to indicate if you will attend in-person or virtually.

Library Fall 2026 Semester Hours

Through December 2026

Exceptions

Closed on University Holidays

Wednesday, November 11: Veterans Day

Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27: Thanksgiving Holiday

Thursday, December 24 to Friday, January 1: Winter Holiday

Early Closure

Tuesday, October 13th: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.: (Indigenous Peoples' Day is recognized by CSU as a no classes/offices open day)

Chat, text, and phone assistance will be unavailable during the University Holidays

Chat, Phone, and Text Hours

Ask a Librarian: use the chat box, call us at 216-687-5300, or text us at 216-820-9691

Monday-Thursday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Friday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

The Library Help Desk

The Desk is open whenever the Library is open.

For more information, visit Library Hours at library.csuohio.edu/information/hours.html

Special Collections and Archives are Only Open by Appointment

The Special Collections and Archives units are currently only open by appointment. Limited services will still be provided and researchers can fill out this form to request assistance.

Activate your Access to the New York Times

Faculty, Staff, and Students of Cleveland State enjoy access to the New York Times courtesy of the Library. Discover original, quality journalism that helps you understand the world—and make the most of every part of life. Activate your access at AccessNYT.com.

Library Services

For a complete list of Library services, visit https://library.csuohio.edu/services/.

In addition to this newsletter, the library offers many other channels to stay up-to-date with all the latest news and information about our resources, services, and facilities. You can subscribe to our blog https://researchguides.csuohio.edu/blog , like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MichaelSchwartzLibrary/, follow us on X: @SchwartzLibrary, and explore us on Instagram: SchwartzLibrary/.