New Coordinator of Media Resources Center

Sharon Walsh Finnerty is the new coordinator of the Media Resources Center for the Weinberg Library, having assumed this position as of May 2010.

 

Finnerty began her affiliation with the library when she was hired as evening/weekend circulation clerk in 2003. She moved to the cataloging department, where she served as cataloging clerk, a position she held until May, when she succeeded Karen Heckman, who recently retired from the University.

 

Sharon has a varied work history in retail and education, having been store manager for TJ Maxx in two different Philadelphia area locations, an off-premises instructor for ICS (now Penn Foster), and a customer service representative for CIGNA. Sharon is an alumna of the Kania School of Management, holding a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University.

 

Finnerty welcomes the challenges of her new position and sees the timing just perfect for investigating and implementing new innovations in the Media Resources Center. Much of the current buzz in the field of media focuses on streaming video, as opposed to the traditional purchase of individual titles to be housed in a permanent collection. Equipment is also a challenge, since the collection on the third floor of the Weinberg Library currently includes CD-ROMs, cassettes, VHS tapes and audio books, some of which no longer have systems that can support them. A collection of more than 4,000 vinyl records, the titles of which are accessible through the online catalog, is part of the Media Resources holdings as well. Still another challenge Sharon sees is understanding the complexities of the Copyright Code and Fair Use Act and making sure that faculty and staff are compliant when borrowing media for use in their classroom or programs. Lastly, she hopes to raise the awareness of the Media Resources collection among new faculty and expand the use of the Curriculum Laboratory, incorporating new technologies into this collection of K-12 textbooks and children's literature used by the education faculty and students in helping to plan their lesson and unit plans.

 

Sharon has been an enthusiastic participant in the University's Wellness Program. She has taken advantage of the healthy eating series, enneagram and meditation workshops, and is a regular attendee at the Monday-Wednesday light weights and abs sessions. She also enjoys mountain biking and walking the Rails to Trails route and Lake Scranton with her husband Paul, a mechanical engineer, and daughter Carolyn, a junior nutrition major at the University of Pittsburgh. Sharon squeezes her hobbies of gardening, cooking and cross-stitch in between spending time with members of her large extended family, being one of six children.

 

Please stop into the Media Resources Center on the third floor of the Weinberg Library and welcome Sharon to her new role.