'Librarians Shushed No More'

That is the headline of the front page Hartford Courant article today. Four librarians of Library Connection in Windsor challenged the FBI after receiving a national security letter last summer ordering them to produce records of patron internet use. They spoke publicly and legally for the first time Tuesday about their legal battle. Amendments to the Patrioat Act now "permit national letter recipients to consult a lawyer and mount a legal challenge." They were the first librarians in the nation to challenge such a demand. Whether others have received national security letters is unknown.
Source: Hartford Courant May 31

"Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers" and "Avatar Marketing"

"Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers" in the June issue of the Harvard Business Review considers the psychology of new product adoption. The full text is available in the library, but here is the abstract.

Companies spend large sums trying to segment, reach, and influence potential customers. They should think about targeting those customers’ online alter egos, as well. "Avatar-Based Marketing", aso in the same issue of HBR, is available here full text. From this site you can access a podcast about marketing to avatars.
Source: Harvard Business Review June 2006

New Books in the Library

Culture Care Guide to Heritage Assessment and Health Traditions by R. Spector
Stem Cell Research: Medical Applications & Ethical Controversy by J. Panno
Programming the Universe by S. Lloyd
In Search of Dark Matter by K. Freeman & G. McNamara
Quantum Zoo: A Tourist's Guide to the Neverending Universe by M.Chown
Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter by K. Ellison

New England Journal of Medicine

The New England Journal of Medicine for May 26 just arrived in the library. Of course, I go directly to book reviews, but one article, "Making Patient Safety the Centerpiece of Medical Liabaility Reform", caught my eye first. From the table of contents, you may make different choices.
Source: NEJM

Gigablast Search Engine

"The search engine Gigablast (http://www.gigablast.com) has been around since 2000, and generally doesn't get a lot of attention. It's a search engine for search-logic geeks -- you can do some very subtle searches that aren't supported in most other search engines.

Let's start at Gigablast's main page, which features a goofy-looking rocket ship. Click the Advanced Search button to take advantage of the usual search engine features -- the ability to combine AND, OR and NOT (you must put the Boolean operators in ALL CAPs); phrase searches, site search ("restrict to this URL"), and link search ("pages that link to this URL"). You can also specify for each search how many results you want per search-results page (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 100.
(You can also use a pull-down menu on the search results page to change the number of results per page -- a nice
touch.)"
Source: Mary Ellen Bates Tips

Voting and Democracy

"In a country that spends so much time extolling the glories of democracy, it's amazing how many elected officials go out of their way to discourage voting. States are adopting rules that make it hard, and financially perilous, for nonpartisan groups to register new voters. They have adopted new rules for maintaining voter rolls that are likely to throw off many eligible voters, and they are imposing unnecessarily tough ID requirements.

Florida recently reached a new low when it actually bullied the League of Women Voters into stopping its voter registration efforts in the state. The Legislature did this by adopting a law that seems intended to scare away anyone who wants to run a voter registration drive. Since registration drives are particularly important for bringing poor people, minority groups and less educated voters into the process, the law appears to be designed to keep such people from voting."
Source: New York Times Editorial("Block the Vote') May 30, 2006

Congresspedia

"Congresspedia is a collaboratively written "citizens' encyclopedia on Congress," designed to shine more light on the workings of the U.S. Congress. Congresspedia is part of SourceWatch, a similarly collaborative, wiki-based website documenting the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. Congresspedia is a wiki, meaning that anyone, including you, can edit any article right now by clicking on the edit this page link that appears in every article in Congresspedia. As more and more people contribute to Congresspedia, the articles improve in quality and quantity. If you're new to Congresspedia, a good place to start may be looking up your own members of Congress and reading up on them. "
Source: Congresspedia

Prison Inmates--U.S.For Literature Review Class

Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005

This information is for literature review students in Topics and Research in Youth Development class.

"Presents data on prison and jail inmates, collected from National Prisoner Statistics counts and the Census of Jail Inmates 2005. This annual report provides the number of inmates and the overall incarceration rate per 100,000 residents for each State and the Federal system. It offers trends since 1995 and percentage changes in prison populations since midyear and yearend 2004. The midyear report presents the number of prison inmates held in private facilities and the number of prisoners under 18 years of age held by State correctional authorities. It includes total numbers for prison and jail inmates by gender, race, and Hispanic origin as well as counts of jail inmates by conviction status and confinement status. The report also provides findings on rated capacity of local jails, percent of capacity occupied, and capacity added."
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

Human Rights

Annual Report: The State of the World's Human Rights"This Amnesty International Report documents human rights abuses in 150 countries around the world. It highlights the need for governments, the international community, armed groups and others in positions of power or influence to take responsibility. It also reflects the vitality of human rights activists globally, whether in local initiatives, international summits or mass demonstrations."
Source: Amnesty International

Free-Speech Challenge to National-Security Letters

A federal appeals court has sent back to a lower court a case challenging the government's ability to issue secret orders to businesses and other organizations (such as libraries) demanding that they hand over their clients' electronic records. Academic library groups have been following the case closely since at least one library group has received such an order. National-security letters are issued without a judge's approval, and recipients, at least initially, can tell only their lawyers that they have received them.

In the other ruling, in a case from Connecticut, the appeals court dismissed a library group's challenge to the gag provision of a national-security letter it received. The U.S. Department of Justice, in a court document filed last month, reversed course and said the group, The Library Connection of Windsor, was free to publicly identify itself.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education May 25 2006

What Makes an Educated Person?

A new book, Excellence Without Soul, adds to the discussion of what makes an educated American person. Harvard professor and former Dean of Harvard College, Harry Lewis, offers his analysis of how America's great universities are failing students and the nation. He says universities have forgotten that the fundamental purpose of undergraduate education is to turn young people into adults who will take responsibility for society. Reviewing the book today in the Wall Street Journal, Vincent Cannata suggests that at the very least,"parents preparing to shell out a small fortune for their children's education will want to read this book." It is available to the Goodwin community through interlibrary loan.

Nonprofit Good Practice Guide

The Nonprofit Good Practice Guide is a one-stop shop for widely-accepted and innovative nonprofit practices offering Preferred Practices and Pitfalls, Glossaries, Resources, Trends and Web site Profiles within ten topic areas. Npgoodpractice.org offers answers to virtually any question about managing nonprofits and foundations, leading staff to sources that contain an abundance of information. These good practices can be applied quickly and directly to improving an organization's performance.

The Guide can be used as a reference for quick answers, in preparation for staff or board meetings, as a training tool, and in reference for classroom studies.

User's Guides to Evidence-Based Practice

Let me introduce you to a complete set of Users' Guides to Evidence-Based Practice , originally published as a series in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The Center for Health Evidence maintains the full text pre-publication version of this series. The articles are organized in three categories: background, primary studies, and integrative studies.

The calculators, worksheets, and additional educational materials originally with the guides have been re-introduced in a new interactive website. Access to that site is available to Goodwin students in the library only.

Journal of Histotechnology

The library now belongs to the National Society for Histotechnology and thus has a subscription to their official publication, The Journal of Histotechnology. It is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December. The feature article in the March issue is "Bromodeoxyuridine Tracking of Osteoblast Progenitors in Formalin-Fixed, Decalcified Regenerating Bone." The case study in this issue considers the importance of fluorochrome staining for the identifcation of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. The book reviewer highly recommends the recent publication, Neuropathology edited by R.A. Prayson. The society's web site is www.nsh.org.

LIBRARY INSTRUCTION CLASSES

Library Instruction
May 22-27

May 23
Human Services (Ward) 6 p.m.
Literature Review Instruction
(in the library)

May 24
Marketing & Customer Service (Mozille)
Wethersfield 6:30 p.m.
Business Research and Sources

May 25

Pharmacology (Ambrioso) 1 p.m.
Research: Drug Classification
(in the library)

Marketing & Customer Service (Mozille)
Wethersfield 6:30 p.m.
Business Research and Sources

May 27
Introduction to Psychology (Leone) 9:15
Psychology research and Sources
(in the library)

Book of the Week

The Selfish Gene
By Richard Dawkins

“We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment . . . One of my hopes is that I may have some success in astonishing others.”—Richard Dawkins

He succeeded! Published 30 years ago, this book has been, and remains, one of the most influential science books of all time. To celebrate this anniversary, Goodwin Library recommends The Selfish Gene as the Book of the Week.

Why read The New England Journal of Medicine?

The Goodwin Library subscribes to The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). This weekly journal is a giant in the world of medical information because of its research and peer-reviewed articles. It is the official publication of the Massachusetts Medical Society and is frequently referred to in news articles. It is essential, of course, for a college that emphasizes health science. Should our students read this? Of course, but why should all of us read it?

Here are some examples. The recent issue that just arrived in the library considers at length the Massachusets Health Care Reform in the Perspective section--important and accessible for the non-professional. Also in that section you will find an succinct article on robotic surgery. Beside the original research articles (with abstracts and conclusion that most of us can understand), there are editorials and book reviews. A recent commentary was titled "The Patient's Right to Safety--Improving the Quality of Care Through Litigation Against Hospitals." The book reviews in this issue include The Neurology of Autism; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: From Genes to Patients; Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults; Making Medical Decisions for the Profoundly Mentally Disabled. Other reviews recently of interest are Talking with Doctors; Chronic Politics: Health Care Security From FDR to George W. Bush; and Poor People's Medicine: Medicaide and American Charity Care Since 1965. Of course , we don't have time to read all of these, but we do have time to read the reviews--at least occasionally. Why read The New England Journal of Medicine? Why not?

If you would like to receive an email of the weekly table of contents, that is possible. I can also email you any article you request. We can obtain any of these books through interlibrary loan. Hello out there?

Webopedia: Featured Web Site of the Week

The editors of webopedia.com have put together a technology terminology source to help us keep up. They have researched before including terms from experts, publications, standards oranizations, and other sources. Words can be searched or browsed by category. The "Did You Know" section is a tech topic guide, with entries like "TechTerms That Are Strange But true" (a smurf is not just a little blue creature). The Quick Reference area explains how email works, lists computer certifications, and provides text message abbreviations if you are not there yet. MTFBWU.
Source: Carolyn Sosnowski, an information specialist for the Special Library Organization (SLA).

LIBRARY INSTRUCTION WORKSHOP

Medical Terminology (Dowd)
Periodical Research
10 a.m. May 18

No States Meet Federal Goal

Not a single state will have a ''highly" qualified teacher in every core class this school year as promised by President Bush's education law. Nine states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, face penalties. The four-year-old No Child Left Behind law says teachers must have a bachelor's degree, a state license, and proven competency in every subject they teach by this year.
Source: Boston Globe May 13

Yahoo's New Look Today

Yahoo Inc unveils a new look for its web site today. Yahoo hasn't overhauled the page since 2004. The new page includes more interactive features that reduce the need to go to other pages to find weather, check email, listen to music or check traffic conditions. The new page is initially available in the U.S. at http://www.yahoo.com/preview.
Source: The Wall Street Journal

New and Recommended Articles

”Clean Sweep”
Entrepreneur June
Clear the clutter and get a fresh start with expert advice for streamlining, organizing, and sprucing up your workplace, your schedule, and you filing systems.

“Spying on Your Calls”
Newsweek May 22
Big Brother knows whom you call. Is that legal and will it help catch the bad guys? And is the state listening in other ways? There are hints that the government has been fishing the Internet—cover article on NSA and our phone calls.

“Setting Limits”
Early Childhood Today April
Some children, like my youngest granddaughter, try to control others—even me. This article suggests ways to help the child who demands that others follow her lead.

“What’s Wrong with the Da Vinci Code?”
U.S. News & World Report May 22
Yes, it is this weekend that the movie comes to a theater near you. This cover story discusses about the most controversial of the book’s depictions.

“Engineering Life”
Scientific American June
New techniques that make genetically engineering a cell as routine as designing a new microchip are about to revolutionize biotechnology—another cover story.

All of these articles are available in the library.

More Journal Free Trials

Education Journals--Access ends June 30.
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice-Access ends December 31
Psychiatry journals
History journals--Access ends May 31
Higher Education journals--Access end June 30
Management and Organizational History--Access ends December 31
Youth Justice--Free trial ends June 14

If you are interested in any of these free trials of Sage publications, contact the librarian.
mnowlan@goodwin.edu

Free Journal

Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis brings students the most recent and relevant findings on thrombotic bleeding and vascular disorders. This journal offers comprehensive coverage of clinical trials, studies on etiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of thrombohemorrhagic disorders, pharmacological agents, laboratory diagnostic procedures, and patient management plans. It is currently free until the end of August, including the archives.

New Book: Question of Character

"Author Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. thinks that future business leaders can learn something from literature's classics. In his book, Questions of Character: Illuminating the Heart of Leadership Through Literature, he argues that certain literature 'lets us watch leaders as they think, worry, hope, hesitate, commit, exult, regret, and reflect... These books draw us into leaders' worlds, put us in their shoes, and at times let us share their experiences.'"

"With that in mind, Badaracco presents eight challenges that can test a leader's character, and eight works through which to examine these hurdles: Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, Allan Gurganus' story "Blessed Assurance," F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Love of the Last Tycoon, Joseph Conrad's story "The Secret Sharer," Louis Auchincloss' I Come as a Thief, Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons and Sophocles' play Antigone." This book might be of interest for business and sociology classes, to name a few possibilities.

Badaracco is a professor at the Harvard Business School. He teaches courses in strategy and business ethics.

Source: quoted directly from National Public Radio website.

Thomas Register Online

In case you missed it, Thomas Register is now online. Once upon a time, Thomas Register was a green and red-orange multi-volume set that was the most comprehensive resource for industrial information, products, and services. Now it still is the most comprehensive resource but it is freely available online at Thomasnet.com. You can still browse by categories. You can download CAD drawings, find worldwide industrial information, get quotes and financing information, access current product news, and more.

Breaking Through a Crowded Field

"With more than 3,000 colleges in the United States still competing for a part of the population that is projected to begin declining by the end of the decade — traditional high-school graduates — institutions are increasingly embracing more-aggressive marketing strategies in order to survive.

For them, marketing is not only about new logos, pithy tag lines, and expensive advertising campaigns. Rather, it is a disciplined way for a college to focus on what makes it different from the competition and to consistently communicate that message to alumni, donors, parents, prospective students, and even legislators."

The article by Erin Strout tells how three colleges use marketing to change an image, reach students, and engage alumni.

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education May 19

Next Generation Textbooks

With textbooks and other forms of scholarship moving to electronic formats, schools are turning to a surprising array of innovative tools. Check out the surprising technology that is being employed by Central Florida Community College, Valencia Community College, West Chester University, Indiana University, and the University of Virginia. A number of individual resources are taking the place of textbooks for particular fields. But is the rush to replace textbooks our future or our folly?
Source:
Book Smarts" Campus Technology May 2006

Seamless Switch

"Boise State University could be a poster child of sorts for the virtues of VoIP, or voice-over-Internet protocol. In 2000, when Boise State switched from its analog telephone service to VoIP, the transition was seamless enough that many professors never knew about the change. And officials estimate that they saved about $900,000 by embracing Internet telephony instead of updating their traditional land lines."
Source: The Idaho Statesman

Missing College-tuition Deduction From Tax Bill

"Federal tax legislation that was passed on Wednesday by the House of Representatives does not include an extension of the college-tuition deduction or other provisions of interest to higher education. Congressional Republicans have promised that the tax bill, which is projected to cost $69-billion over 10 years, will be followed by a second, "trailer" bill that will include the popular tuition credit. That and many other items were bumped so that the original bill would not cost the federal government more than $70-billion in tax revenue.

Senate Democrats blasted the tax bill, arguing that the tuition deduction had been axed to make room for tax breaks for oil companies. Republicans denied the charge. The timing and likelihood of the second bill remain unclear. If it is introduced, it may also contain an extension, perhaps of one year, for corporate grants and contributions to basic university research. Other likely provisions include efforts to crack down on abuse by charities, and those new rules, if adopted, could affect university foundations. "
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Controlling the Internet

Can it survive as an uncensored global network?

"Governments and corporations are increasingly concerned about political and economic threats posed by a freewheeling, global Internet. Many experts warn the [ldquo]Net[rdquo] may fragment into [ldquo]walled gardens[rdquo] that block users' freedom to communicate and innovate. In the U.S., telephone and cable companies already have won the right to block competing Internet service providers like Earthlink from using their high-speed broadband lines. Now advocates for an open Internet worry that broadband providers will use their market power to slow or block access to controversial Web sites or competing businesses like Internet telephone. The activists want Congress to require the companies to treat all Internet content the same. Abroad, more nations are expanding broadband access for economic reasons, even as they crack down on citizens who access controversial material or express dissenting opinions via the Net. In the face of such turmoil, civic groups worldwide are seeking new forms of governance to keep the Internet secure and uncensored." CQ Researcher is available online to the Goodwin Community (user name and password required).
Source: CQ Researcher

National Endangered Species Day

Today America celebrates Endangered Species Day, the first-ever national celebration of our country's commitment to protecting our unique wildlife. "The goal of Endangered Species Day", according to the Sierra Club, "is to educate people about the importance of protecting our rare, threatened, and endangered animal and plant species, and to highlight the everyday actions that can be taken to help safeguard them."

"The day is also a day to step back and recognize all the great achievements of the Endangered Species Act," says Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. "The fish, wildlife and plants that we celebrate today have teetered at the brink of extinction but found the road to recovery thanks to these important protections."
Source: Sierra Club

Inventive Startups

Business 2.0 reporters recently reviewed a number of inventive startups. Here are just a few of them. BrighTex Photonics is developing a scanner that can show where your face is suffering invisible UV damage and wrinkles. Global Homes International is slashing the cost of prefab homes, while Ambarella is preparing chips that will bring high-definition TV to all kinds of gadgets, not just flat-screen TVs. Most important for future Goodwin students , there's Project Inkwell, a consortium backed by Intel, Microsoft, and Sandisk, and others, which is introducing a $300 laptop for students. Business 2.0 magazine is available in the library.

Internet Addresses: Going, Going...

"All possible Internet addresses available using the current Internet system will be used up by 2012, according to analysts at Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm. The current Internet system, called Internet Protocol version 4 (or IPv4) allows for about 4.3 billion addresses, and about one third of those are already in use. Many colleges and other businesses are beginning a switch to a newer system, IPv6, which will make way for billions more addresses. "

Source: Information Week

Connecticut Outdoor Treasures

Only a gallon of gas or so away is the Connecticut portion of the Metacomet-Mattabesett Trail traversing about 101 miles of mountain summits, forested glades, vernal pools, lakes, streams, and waterfalls--including some of the most rugged and diverse landscapes in southern New England. The Mattabesett Trail wanders from River Road in Middletown to the Berlin Turnpike. The Metacomet Trail follows the traprock ridge from the hanging Hills of Meriden to the Massachusetts border.

The bedrock of the Metacomet range is a produce of volcanic eruptions when the African and American continental plates pulled apart during the Triassic and Jurassic Periods. Some of the remains of these eruptions are considered globally rare. The Metacomet Range is one of the best places in the world (outside of Hawaii and Iceland), and the only area on the eastern seaboard with a developed trail system, to view a broad array of well-preserved volcanic and sedimentary features. It is also on the blue-blazed trails of the Metacomet Range that one can see the remains of one of the 19th century pest houses where those afflicted with smallpox were sent to die.

Source: Connecticut Walk Book and Metacomet-Mattabesett Trail Natural Resource Assessment. Maps of the trails are available in the library.

Start Running

From The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman comes this African proverb translated into Mandarin and posted in an auto parts manufacturing plant in China:

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

I don't know who is the lion and who is the gazelle, but I do know this: Ever since the Chinese joined the WTO, both they and the rest of the world have had to run faster and faster."

Several copies of this book are available in the Goodwin Library--very interesing reading!
Source: The World is Flat

Have You Used Wikipedia?

Here is an encyclopedia that you can write and edit!

"Wikipedia is an international Web-based free content encyclopedia. It exists as a wiki, a type of website that allows visitors to edit its content; the word Wikipedia itself is a portmanteau of wiki and encyclopedia. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by anyone with access to a computer, web browser and Internet connection."

Source: Wikipedia site

Free Use of Medical Billing Software

Nuesoft Technologies has introduced a program that offers medical billing schools free use of its NueMD(TM) medical practice management software system. The Billing Education Software Training (BEST) program gives instructors a hands-on training tool for students studying collections, billing, submissions, electronic data interface (EDI) posting, and other billing-related functions.

Source: News Wire, April 10, 2006

New Periodical Issues Arrived Today

Issues of the following periodicals arrived in the library today:

Government Affairs Report
Consumer Reports
Atlantic
Jet
Nature (May 4 and April 27 issues)
Forbes
Discover
Business Week
Journal of Nursing Education
U.S. News & World Reports
PC Magazine
Vanity Fair
Business New Haven
Chronicle of Philanthropy
American Journal of Nursing
East Hartford Gazette
Prevention Researcher
Science News

ABI/Inform Business Dateline

One of the ABI/Inform databases available to Goodwin students is the Business Dateline. This database focuses on hard-to-find local and regional business news coverage of large corporations, privately held companies, local start-ups, executive profiles, marketing, finance, and industry news. It provides access to business information not typically found in national news sources. Business Dateline contains news and analysis, information on local markets, and more gathered from major bujsiness tabloids, magazines, daily newspapers, wire services, and city, stte, and regional business publications. This valuable resource for students in the business program is available at www.iconn.org.

Respiratory Medical Image Game

Play AZ Medical SquAIRs - the addictive scrambled image game that once you start, you might not be able to stop! AZ-Air.com provides free access to hundreds of pulmonary images. Select one of the medical images and have fun. All images are free for you to download and use in your own presentations.

Visit now to start playing!

Source: Respiratory Gateway

BMC Pulmonary Medicine and Respiratory Research

BMC Pulmonary Medicine is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of the prevention, diagnosis and management of pulmonary and associated disorders, as well as related molecular genetics, pathophysiology, and epidemiology.

Respiratory Research is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal that publishes studies on asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, genetics, infectious diseases, interstitial lung diseases, lung development, lung tumors, occupational and environmental factors, pulmonary circulation, pulmonary pharmacology and therapeutics, respiratory critical care, respiratory immunology, respiratory physiology, and sleep.

WELCOME NEW STUDENTS

The library staff welcomes all of the new students to Goodwin College. We are here to provide resources and friendly service to help you succeed in your educational goals. Check out the blog occasionally. You will find some valuable information and items of interest.

CINAHL Select-Another Database for Goodwin

CINAHL Select has been added to our list of databases. It is a valuable resource for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers. This database contains more than 170 full text journals with PDF coverage back as far as 1973 including 120 peer-reviewed publications. All journals in this collection are indexed in CINAHL. CINAHL Select is updated on a weekly basis via EBSCOhost.

You will find it by going to www.iconn.org. Click on [Choose Databases]. Then choose [CINAHL]. At the top of the search screen, click on [Choose Databases]. From the list of subscription databases, choose [CINAHL Select].

Another New Digital Source

The digital archive of the April 2006 Journal of the Medical Library Association is available on PubMed Central. The issue includes articles on identification of randomized controlled trials in MEDLINE, physicians' use of curbside consultations, information-seeking behaviors of on-duty critical care nurses, consumer health information for pet owners, mini-medical school for librarians, Hispanic outreach, and more. Coming soon: Mapping the Literature of Nursing online symposium.

Autism Database

Autism Data, the National Autistic Society's database of 17,000+ journal articles, papers, books and multimedia on autism, is now freely available to search on the NAS website at www.autism.org.uk/autismdata <http://www.autism.org.uk/autismdata>

The contents include bibliographic records of everything in the NAS Information Centre Library, together with the details of research articles on autism published in journals which are not part of our holdings. All records are searchable by author, title, keyword or free text.

Source: Nursing and Allied Health section of the Medical Library Association Newsletter

Child Development and a Sense of Time

The most recent issue of Scholastic Early Childhood Today includes an article by three childhood educators on how children develop a sense of time. The stages of development are divided into 0-2, 3-4, and 5-6. The cover story in this issue offers many suggestions to help in understanding the strides that children make socially and emotionally.
(Dedicated to Goodwin Childhood Development program and Eric's mother)

What is PsycARTICLES?

PsycARTICLES is an online subscription database available to the Goodwin community containing more than 40,000 searchable full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles from 56 journals published by the American Psychological Association (APA) and allied organizations. The PsycARTICLES database covers general psychology and specialized basic, applied, clinical, and theoretical research in psychology. It is a valuable resource for sociology, life span development, psychology, child development, and health care research. Coverage spans 1985 to present. It is available at www.iconn.org. In the CINAHL site, choose "other databases" to find psycARTICLES. This databases is currently on trial pending subscription verification.

Book Suggestion: Signs of Life

Signs of Life by PatricaThoms chronicles the amazing and thought-provoking experiences of a veteran hospice care nurse.

"As I look back on all the people who have crossed my path during the past twenty years, I am in awe of the patients who so gracefully shared their most intimate fears and experiences with me. I am also in awe of the nurses who were dedicated to the comfort and healing of those patients in their most vulnerable time and the physicians who were always willing to teach and learn about the mysteries of living and dying." – Patricia Thoms

The author will be appearing at the BookVault, a book store on North Main Street in Wallingford Saturday, May 6, from 2-4 p.m.

Source: Book Vault

Mixed Signals on the National Anthem

The President wants the national anthem sung in English. But, according to Mara Liason at NPR, "The U.S. government appears to be promoting a number of foreign language versions of the national anthem. The State Department Web site posts four Spanish versions and Secretary of State of State Condoleezza Rice says she's heard rap, country and classical versions."

It has been reported on the Internet that in his book, American Dynasty, "Kevin Phillips notes that during Bush's first presidential campaign, he would often sing the national anthem in Spanish. From pg. 142: 'When visiting cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, or Philadelphia, in pivotal states, he would drop in at Hispanic festivals and parties, sometimes joining in singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in Spanish, sometimes partying with a 'Viva Bush' mariachi band flown in from Texas.'"

That same Internet site, BoingBoing, reports that we have translated the US national anthem for a long, long time. There are translations into Spanish, German, Yiddish, French, Navajo, and Samoan. You may comment!

Could You be a Niche Reader?

We do not all have to read the same books from the large press publishers that make the Best Seller Lists from Los Angeles to New York. After all, nonmainstream presses generated $14 billion in 2005 -- more than half of all book sales -- by targeting niche readers--perhaps you.

At a time when the book world continues to struggle, focusing mainly on bestsellers to remain profitable, Archipelago is one of a growing number of small publishers who are upending the industry stasis and redefining the business of publishing on their own terms. Avoiding the large press penchant for concentrating on the hits with huge print runs like The Da Vinci Code (40 million copies sold to date) or the latest James Patterson novel (The Fifth Horseman was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks before dropping to No. 3), small presses are championing new voices, focusing on niche markets or subjects and genres that have either been ignored by the big houses or simply deemed unprofitable -- such as poetry and foreign authors. They are creating whole businesses by reissuing out-of-print classics and maintaining the tradition of printing literary fiction.

Read the article in Business Week.

All Americans Less Healthy Than English?

According to recent research, even rich Americans are less healthy than their English counterparts. Americans have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, lung disease, and cancer regardless of education or income level. This is happening even though U.S. health care spending is double that spent on English citizens.

"Everybody should be discussing it: Why isn't the richest country in the world the healthiest country in the world?" asks study co-author Dr. Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at University College London. The study appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

College Students and Plagiarism

"Some college students, though, whether lazy, overwhelmed, or cramped for time, are tempted to plagiarize. And in the digital age, with millions of pages of information available with just a few mouse clicks and Google searches, it's relatively simple to steal words, phrases, and ideas.

To curb infractions, local colleges have ramped up antiplagiarism efforts by coaching students on proper practices for citing their sources, better informing them about what plagiarism is, and implementing better detection systems to catch intellectual theft."(Taryn Plumb)

Read this article by Taryn Plumb that appeared in The Boston Globe April 30.

Awesome History of Nursing Resource

This research project on the history of nursing has a wealth of fascinating information for nursing students and the general public. The site includes resources in the following categories: international, USA, nursing historical, Canadian, general history, and those related to women, race, and gender.

Suppose, for instance, that I wanted to compare a description of nursing duties today with those in the 19th century. I scanned the nursing historical resources section and there it was: nursing duties and job description in the 19th century.

Alternative Energy Internet Resources: Hydrogen

With gas in Connecticut hovering around $3.00 a gallon, we are interested in alternative energy sources that are ready for use or in serious development. Maybe they can be pushed to the status of “commercially reliable”. The President has focused on hydrogen. Here are a few sources for basic information on hydrogen as an alternative energy source:

Hydrogen Now. The site contains extensive information on hydrogen and its uses, including news, facts, and links.
http://www.hydrogennow.org

U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and Infrastructure Technologies program. This site discuss the hydrogen economy and how fuel cells work.
http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells

Advanced Vehicles and Fuel Research. A simple but effective illustrated explanation of fuel cells is found on this site from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/whatis_fuelcell.html

New Additions to NCBI Bookshelf

The Bookshelf at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) is a free and growing collection of biomedical books that can be searched directly by typing a concept into the textbox. The latest additions include three books from the World Bank's Disease Control Priorities Project:

Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries
Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors
Priorities in Health

Source: pubmed.gov

Book of the Week

Ambulance Girl: How I Saved Myself by Becoming an EMT by Jane Stern

Ambulance Girl is the amusing, true story of how and why Jane Stern, a depressed and anxious borderline agoraphobic, decides to become an Emergency Medical Technician. Cathy Bates directed and starred in the movie version last year for the Lifetime channel. Jane Stern and her husband, Michael, have written more than twenty books including Roadfood and Two for the Road. The Sterns' first date was over a white clam pizza at Pepe's in New Haven. Sunday's Hartford Courant devoted a whole page to the Sterns.