New Orleans Library Conference

“You are pioneers, and you are sending a signal to the world that says New Orleans is okay,” Mayor C. Ray Nagin told librarians at the opening session of the American Library Association’s June 22–28 Annual Conference in the Big Easy, the largest convention in the city since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the region in August and September 2005. With some 17,000 llibrarians streaming into New Orleans, the conference was an economic shot in the arm estimated at about $20 million.

Among the other major conference speakers were Laura Bush, Madeleine Albright, Cokie Roberts, and Anderson Cooper. Keynoting the Opening General Session, Albright congratulated librarians for keeping the faith with the people of New Orleans. She called libraries “the laboratory of freedom” and “the biggest bargain on the face of the earth.”
(Your librarian was there!)

100 Years of US Consumer Spending

Students frequently come to the library looking for statistical information for sociology or business class assignments. This report offers a new approach to the use of Consumer Expenditure Survey data. Normally, the survey presents an in depth look at American households at a specific point in time. Here, the authors use consumer expenditure data longitudinally and draw on information from decennial census reports to present a 100-year history of significant changes in consumer spending, economic status, and family demographics in the country as a whole, as well as in New York City and Boston.
http://www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/

Children's Literature

THE HEROIC IDEAL REVISITEDJULY 30 - AUGUST 5, 2006, COLCHESTER, VERMONT
Children's Literature New England's twentieth and culminating annual summer institute will be held at Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont (outside of Burlington). Participants will consider Paul Hazard's question "How would heroism be kept alive in our aging earth if not by each fresh, young generation that begins anew the epic of the human race."

Children’s Literature New England, Inc., is a nonprofit educational charity incorporated under the laws of Massachusetts to promote awareness of the significance of literature in the lives of children. It was founded in 1987.

New Browser Shelf: Notable Books

I heard Uzodinma Iewala speak about his first novel, Beasts of No Nation, at the American Library conference last week in New Orleans. It is the first addition to our new Browser shelf of Notable Books.

Few things can be more extreme than forcing a child to become a soldier. This is a slim novel with green grass, billowy clouds and a silhouetted group of youngsters on the cover. It all looks so nonthreatening, but don't be fooled. When you open this book, be ready. The story is told by Agu, who is somewhere between the age of nine and 12; and from page one, the writer snatches the reader in and does not let go until the end.

When Agu's West African village (the country is never specified) is attacked by soldiers and his father is killed, Agu (his name means "leopard" or "lion" in Igbo) escapes. He soon joins a group of militants and is forced to commit the most heinous atrocities. In turn, terrible things are done to Agu, Only another child-soldier named Strika helps Agu maintain his humanity.

Iweala was named the winner of the New York Public Library's Lions Fiction Award for this novel that honors a writer of distinction under the age of 35. He also won the Barnes and Noble “Discover Great New Writers Award” for fiction.

If you have a recommendation for the Browser Shelf, let me know.

Upgrades to ICONN and reQuest

Last night there was an upgrade to iCONN and reQuest. This message explains the buttons that appear under "What would you like to do next?" that displays on the left-hand side of a bibliographic record, just under the area that contains the book jacket art, table of contents, etc.

Under "What would you like to do next?" you will see:
* "Buy this item": this button currently contains links to Amazon, Addall, Alibris, and Barnes and Noble.
* "Request this item": this button contains a link to the ILL form.
* "Suggest My Library Purchase": this button contains a link to a Suggest form.

Mathematical Imagery

Mathematical Imagery is a site that explores the visualization of mathematics. The home page introduction notes that "the connection between mathematics and art goes back thousands of years. Mathematics has been used in the design of Gothic cathedrals, Rose windows, oriental rugs, mosaics and tilings. Geometric forms were fundamental to the cubists and many abstract expressionists, and award-winning sculptors have used topology as the basis for their pieces. Dutch artist M.C. Escher represented infinity, Möbius bands, tessellations, deformations, reflections, Platonic solids, spirals, symmetry, and the hyperbolic plane in his works." There are also links to galleries, museums, and articles.
Source: Mathematical Imagery

Four New DVDs

"Oil on Ice" is a vivid, compelling and comprehensive documentary connecting the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to decisions America makes about energy policy, transportation choices, and other seemingly unrelated matters.

"French Fries to Go” is an award winning film that documents the origins of Telluride’s Biodiesel project, which resulted in the launching of the first city bus in the nation to run on 100% pure Biodiesel.

"Spotted in the Woods" shows the effects of the loss of habitat on the Northern Spotted Owl. This 8 minute video shows how our consumption of wood and paper is linked to the shrinking areas of old-growth forest that these owls need to survive.

"Architecture to Zucchini" is an educational video on the principles of sustainability and their application within a variety of industries. The DVD includes interviews and facility tours, featuring case studies of eight successful, socially responsible companies of various sizes and four nationally recognized non-profit organizations that support sustainability

Are You a Yankee or a Rebel

"If you say "pa-JAM-uzz" instead of "pa-JAHM-zz" or "yooz guys" instead of "ya'll," chances are, you're a Yankee. If you call a bag a sack, you're probably a rebel. Take the online quiz to determine where you are coming from."
"http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html
Source: National Public Radio

Small,Smaller, Smallest

Diminutive autos are all over in European cities where parking is almost nonexistent and gas is over $4.00 a gallon. You can see Tom Hanks zip around Paris in one in "The Da Vinci Code." Until recently, you couldn't buy one of these in the United States. But now, ZAP, a California company whose name stands for Zero Auto Pollution, has started importing the 60-mpg cars. The company believes that the tiny two seaters will ride the same wave of popularity that has made the Mini Cooper a hit and spawned a new class of compacts that includes the Honda Fit, the Toyota Yaris, and the Nissan Versa.
Source: Sierra Club

Friday's Featured Journal: The Hedgehog Review

This is a new feature on the blog, highlighting something from the Goodwin Library Collection every Friday.

The Hedgehog Review is an interdisciplinary, academic journal of critical reflections on contemporary culture, published three times a year by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia.

Each issue addresses a single theme with articles, interviews, book reviews, and a bibliographic review written by leading scholars from throughout the disciplines. By focusing attention from many vantage points on one topic, the journal strives for both the breadth of the fox and the depth of the hedgehog. Working against the current fragmentation and isolation of academic inquiry, this journal poses hard questions, pursues knotty controversies, and pushes intellectual discussions beyond their current impasse. The current issue pursues the topic "After Secularization."

Where does the title come from?
"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."--Archilocus

BMC Journals Integrate With CITULIKE

CiteULike is a free web site that allows you to keep track of your favourite articles, tag them with keywords, and share them with others. A key feature that makes CiteULike easy to use is that it provides a button to add to your web browser. When you click on that button, when viewing any article on a website supported by CiteULike, the bibliographic details for the article concerned will be automatically retrieved and added to your CiteULike library.

CiteULike now supports all 150+ BioMed Central journals, making it easy to add BioMed Central articles with a single click. What's more, the latest articles from all BioMed Central journals are now listed on the CiteULike electronic table of contents page.
Source: BMC Update, June 13, 2006

History Reference Center at Goodwin College

Beginning July 1, the Goodwin College Community will have access to Ebsco’s History Reference Center, the world’s most comprehensive full text history reference database. The database features full text for more than 1,500 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers The database also includes full text for more than 100 leading history periodicals including America's Civil War, American Heritage, American Historical Review, American History, Archaeology, Aviation History, Beaver, British Heritage, Chinese America: History & Perspectives, Civil War Times, Foreign Affairs, German History, History, History Review, History Today (back to January 1975), History: Review of New Books, Kansas History, Journal of American History, Manitoba History, Military History, Naval History, North Carolina Historical Review, Virginia Magazine of History & Biography, Wild West, World War II and more. Further, the database contains 58,000 historical documents; 43,000 biographies of historical figures; more than 12,000 historical photos and maps; and more than 80 hours of historical video. Imagine what you can do with this!

Our library will gain access to the full text content from 91 journals not currently available through InfoTrac OneFile, our largest aggregated database.

LABAs May Make Asthma Worse

Long-acting ß-agonists may make asthma worse. A study in Annals of Internal Medicine analyzed date from 19 clinical trials involving 33, 826 patients. Those using the drugs were twice as likely to have life-threatening asthma attacks as patients on a placebo and 2.5 times as likely to be hospitalized. LABAs may also be responsible for thousands of asthma deaths each year in the United States, according to this study.
Source: Online Annals of Internal Medicine June 20, 2006 Volume 144 Issue 12

It's All About You

"Why is everyone so happy in Silicon Valley again? A new wave of start-ups are cashing in on the next stage of the Internet. And this time, it's all about ... you."

"A little over two years ago, even the most sensitive entrepreneurial radar could not pick out two pairs of people on opposite ends of the West Coast starting companies that would make plenty out of nothing. The southern California guys head MySpace, the prime hangout for 65 million (mostly young) people, and thousands of rock bands, movie stars and marketers begging for their attention. Canadian-born Flickr, by building a 2.5 million-member community solely around a passion for sharing photos, has become a poster child on how a well-executed Net effort can make big changes in people's habits. Welcome to the new tech boom."
Source: "The New Wisdom of the Web" Newsweek April 3, 2006

English Club for ESL

Welcome to EnglishClub.com, an ESL web site designed for students or teachers of English. It's a club, where one can:
study English grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation
play ESL games and do ESL quizzes online
discuss anything with other students and teachers around the world
find English schools worldwide to learn ESL at home or abroad
find pen pals to email in English
find ESL learning aids to improve English
test levels in English
get help on English grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation

Virtual Reference for Goodwin

The Goodwin Library is participating in the 2006-2007 InfoAnyTime Pilot Project, a statewide virtual reference service sponsored by the Connecticut Library Consortium. InfoAnyTime is a real-time, web-based reference service that provides live librarians to assist students and faculty in finding information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sessions will be conducted via online chat, using pushing and co-browsing technology to display information found on the web and in the ICONN databases. No special software is required. Our participation is scheduled to begin July 1. Keep checking this blog for further details.

American Library Association Annual Conference

Will Manley, an American Libraries journal columnist, writes this month that the American Library Association (ALA) "is a caring and compassionate professional organization." Proof of that is certainly in the decision by ALA to hold its annual conference this month in the city of New Orleans. Although many other organizations decided to move their conventions to other cities because of the damage of Katrina, ALA held firmly to its commitment to the people and businesses there. This conference will be the first one in the city since the devastating hurricane. It is estimated that the conference will bring $20 million to the city and close to 20,000 librarians. Goodwin's librarian will be one of the 20,000.

Facts on File Databases FREE TRIAL

I have arranged a free trial of many Facts on File Databases. Facts on File is one of America’s leading publishers of online reference materials for the school and library market. The databases span a multitude of subject areas such as U.S. history, world history, language and literature, science and technology, careers, social issues, and many others. Literary Reference Online, Science Online, Curriculum Resource Center, and some of the history materials would be of particular interest to our students and faculty. Please take advantage of the free trial and let me know if you are interested in any of these for the Goodwin Library.

URL: http://www.fofweb.com/Demo
Username: Goodwin
Password: Trial

What is SETI@home?

I mentioned SETI@home in an earlier post. Since then, several people have asked me what it is. It is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.

Source: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Google Spreadsheet

Google has released the beta of an online spreadsheet. It is aimed at the consumer/home office market -- in other words, at people who use their spreadsheets for reasonably simple accounting processes, data tracking, or other tasks. According to Information Week, "Google Spreadsheet is fun to play with, and has some interesting potential as far as sharing data online is concerned, but right now it's more a curiosity than a working model."

Google Spreadsheet is currently in "limited test" mode; you can apply for an invitation at http://spreadsheets.google.com. If you do not want to use Microsoft's spreadsheet application, go with one of the open-source applications, of which OpenOffice is the best known, according to IW.

Source: Information Week Review

Digital Technology and the Printed Book

According to a recent article in the New York Times, "from the days of Sumerian clay tablets till now, humans have 'published' at least 32 million books, 750 million articles and essays, 25 million songs, 500 million images, 500,000 movies, 3 million videos, TV shows and short films and 100 billion public Web pages. All this material is currently contained in all the libraries and archives of the world. When fully digitized, the whole lot could be compressed (at current technological rates) onto 50 petabyte hard disks. Today you need a building about the size of a small-town library to house 50 petabytes. With tomorrow's technology, it will all fit onto your iPod."

Source: Kevin Kelly, "Scan This Book" New York Times, May 14, 2006

Vanishing Archives

The Information Security Oversight Office of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration performed an audit of all re-review efforts undertaken since 1995 by various government agencies. The audit found that of more than 25,000 historical documents withdrawn from public access, more than a third did not contain sensitive information justifying their classification. In a significant number of cases, agencies reclasssified records that had been previously declassified properly.
Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, May 1 2006
www.archives.gov

Digital Forensics Classes

"One of the hottest new courses on U.S. college campuses is a direct result of cybercrime.
Classes in digital forensics — the collection, examination and presentation of digitally stored evidence in criminal and civil investigations — are cropping up as fast as the hackers and viruses that spawn them. Traditional students, police officers, government employees and aspiring security consultants are taking the courses as more crooks stash ill-gotten data and goods on PCs, PDAs, cellphones, network servers, iPods and even Xboxes."
Source: USA Today

Medicine and Compassion

The library staff are frequently asked for sources of spirtuality in medicine. A recent article in The Library Journal suggests reasons. "Modern medicine boasts a wide range of tools for diagnosing and treating ailments . While potent drugs, radiation, and genetic analysis can kill bacteria, remove tumors, and predict risk, respectively, they also lead physicians to think in terms of a disease or a body part rather than a person. Making matters worse is the managed-care system, which encourages quick encounters that do not allow for doctors and patients to become acquainted and discuss options.

With alternative therapies, however, people can participate actively in their care and control aspects of their recovery. Spirituality, of course, is a key part of the alternative medicine approach. " (Quoted from article)

Here are a few selections representing approaches from both Eastern and Western cultures. Islam is not represented owing to few health materials available in English."
Weisman & Berman. Own your health: Choosing the best from alternative and conventional medicine health communications.
Boccio, F. J. Mindfulness yoga: The awakened union of breath, body and mind.
Rossman, M. L. Guided imagery for self-healing: An essential resource for anyone seeking wellness.
Sharples, B. Meditations and relaxation in plain English.
Shaw, S. The little book of yoga breathing: Pranayama made easy.
Cohen, K. Honoring the medicine: The essential guide to native American healing.
Source: The Library Journal May 1, 2006

Most Insecure place for Personal Data: Colleges

The largest percentage of security breaches in the United States happens at colleges, with higher-education institutions involved in 30 percent of all incidents, according to ChoicePoint, a consumer data-collection firm. It turns out that 845,000 college students, professors, or alumni have had data about them jeopardized because of security incidents at colleges since January. Soon colleges will be able to boast having over a million served to hackers or identity theives. Source: Los Angeles Times

Computing for the Cure

The cure for cancer might be found on your home computer. At least, if you string a bunch of idle computers together online and let them crunch numbers, the results could help in the discovery of the cures for some diseases. That's the hypothesis of David Baker, a biochemistry professor at the University of Washington, who is asking people to donate the screensaver time on their home and office computers to a project he calls Rosetta@home.

It's modeled after the popular SETI@home project, which connects hundreds of thousands of personal computers in analyzing radio waves from deep space to search for signs of alien civilizations. Rosetta@home has attracted 60,000 users, creating the equivalent of a supercomputer at a fraction of the cost.
Source: Associated Press

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Patient Education Information: Medem

Medem's award-winning Medical Library represents the full range of patient education information from partner medical societies and other trusted sources, and is unsurpassed in quality, breadth and depth of health care information. Selected one of the top ten most useful websites by the Medical Library Association, this Medical Library provides patients with reliable health care information from introductory to advanced texts. The library staff recommend this resource for health science students with patient brochure assignments.
Source: www.medem.com

Solving the Nursing Shortage

Several weeks ago, the New York Times published an article about solving the current nurse shortage by bringing in more nurses from other countries. A little-noticed provision in the Senate immigration bill would "throw open the gate to nurses and drain them from the world's developing countries." Read the article and the editorial.
Source: New York Times, May 24 and 27, 2006

What Really Saves Gas?

You may not need to buy a hybrid car after all. Auto experts tested several of the common gas-saving tips over a remote 55-mile route in the high desert of California, and found that "by changing your driving habits you can improve fuel economy up to 37 percent right away." Of course, that kind of savings depends on how bad a driver you are right now. Try these driving tips.

Chinese Tree Peonies in Bloom at Cricket Hill

If you want to see Chinese tree peonies, fly to China or visit Thomaston, CT. David and Kasha Furman have a luscious garden in Thomaston with a collection of 300 varieties of Chinese tree peonies that are blooming now. The garden is open to the public from 10-4 Tuesday through Saturday. This is truly a Connecticut treasure!

Every week, for a period of about 5 weeks, there will be different peonies in bloom. See these large, silky flowers and understand why the tree peony is China’s national flower for more than 1400 years. Hand-painted umbrellas shelter exquisite blooms on seven acres in a terraced, woodland setting.

Find directions and more information at their website.
http://www.treepeonies.com

Videos in Clinical Medicine

Our New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) subscription now includes a new video series that lets you view a common clinical procedure right on your computer. The Videos in Clinical Medicine series provides a concise review of a medical procedure — including preparation, indications, contraindications, complications and troubleshooting strategies, as well as a demonstration of the procedure itself. Great for a fast review, or to see how others perform the procedure! Each video runs aproxiimately 5-8 minutes. The first three videos in the series are available to view now: arterial line placement, nasogastric untubation, and arthrocentesis of the knee. For access, contact the library staff.

CQ Researcher Report on Teen Spending

Are teenagers learning to manage money wisely?

"Teenage American consumers spent a mind-boggling $159 billion last year on everything from movies and French fries to clothes and iPods. Experts say teens are spending more than ever before because they have more to spend. About 10 percent of teens have credit cards, nearly twice that number have debit cards and about 20 percent get money simply by asking their parents for it. Consumer advocates — as well as rappers and professional football players — say kids aren't learning how to use “plastic” wisely. In fact, parents themselves are setting poor examples. Credit card loan delinquencies are at record levels, while Americans' saving rate is at an all-time low. Critics say the credit card industry is too aggressive in marketing to younger and younger kids. The Bush administration and some members of Congress are pushing for more financial-literacy courses earlier in schools. Meanwhile, only a few states require schools to teach personal finance." CQ Researcher is an online subscription resource for the Goodwin community. Ask the library staff for user name and password to access the complete report. Join Mike Rotondo's Personal Finance club!
Source: CQ Researcher

Marketing for Students

"Marketing will grow in importance as institutions have to rely more heavily on adult students and online education to increase enrollments," according to industry experts at the annual Competing in Higher Education Conference that ended this week.

"While higher-education enrollments are expected to increase in the next decade, the overall rate of growth is projected to drop. But the adult-student market, which increasingly is geared to online programs, should remain robust. That shift in enrollment patterns will increase the attractiveness of the online market," but competition for those adult students will increase. Source: Chronicle of Higher Education Today's Report

Early Childhood Web Corner

The full title is Early Childhood Educators' and Family Web Corner. This site includes teacher pages with topical index of links to information on early childhood. You will find articles about topics of interest to teachers and families. Education, consumer information, childbirth, grandparenting, social issues and much more are all in the family pages section. For anyone connected to young children in some way, this is a place to check out.
Source: Early Childhood Web Corner

What magazines would you like to read?

The library would like suggestions for additions to our periodical collection. If there is a magazine or journal, serious or recreational, that you would find of interest for yourself or for others in the Goodwin Community, let the library staff know. Post a comment here, please. It's easy.

How much do you know about the world?

Can you name the world's most spoken primary language? The largest consumer of oil? The most heavily fortified border on the planet? The current population of the U.S.?
Nationanl Geographic tested the geography knowledge of 18- to 24-year-olds across the U.S. to see how much they know about our world. More know where the TV show CSI is set than can find Iraq on a map. The survey shows that too many young Americans have a limited understanding of the world. But do American adults do better? TEST YOURSELF: How much do you know?
Source: National Geographic