The Library & The Patriot Act

This is just a reminder. It is the policy of the Goodwin College Library, as well as Connecticut state law, that all records of an individual’s use of the library are confidential. However, library patrons should be aware that Section 215 of the U.S.A. Patriot Act gives federal agents the ability to seek a secret search warrant to obtain access to library records. For more information see USA Patriot Act and Intellectual Freedom.

Experienced Nurse to the Rescue

A 50-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital with complaints of severe weakness and difficulty breathing. She had been quite healthy until the afternoon of the admission, with no history of serious illnesses. The doctors at the university hospital where she became a patient are known for using their brains. They also use their stethoscopes wisely, and observe closely how a patient looks. For this woman, the diagnosis remained obscure for the next hours as her breathing got more labored and she became comatose.

A tube was placed in her windpipe and she was attached to a breathing machine. Then an experienced nurse, with good sense and a good sense of smell, came to the rescue. The nurse noted that the patient had a peculiar odor, resembling garlic, most prominently from her hair. The unusual odor raised the suspicion of insecticide poisoning with organophosphates.
Find out how this saved her life by reading about this bizarre case in "Is There a Barber in the House,"
Source: The New York Times, December 19, 2006

Homeland Security Career Guide

The Homeland Security and Federal Law Enforcement Career Guide provides help students need to

• determine which elements of the emerging job market are right for them
• prepare resumes and application materials
• find a job in the federal government

All the information they need about qualifications, vacancy announcements, and testing procedures are in this book. Plus, the included CD-ROM contains all the information in the book and easy access to online resources, agencies and websites. It's in the reference section of the library and has Ron Lee's seal of approval!

Nationmaster

Have some fun playing around with NationMaster, "a cool site developed by Luke Metcalfe, an Australian and stat-geek who was frustrated at his inability to mine the data within the CIA World Factbook. NationMaster now includes data from the World Bank, various United Nations entities, OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), World Trade Organization, and so on.

Here's how it works. Head over to NationMaster.com, and select a category from the pull-down menu -- anything from Crime to Industry to Sports. Once you have chosen a category, a subject-specific subcategory menu appears, from which you pick a specific topic. For example, subcategories for Health include percentage of infants immunized against measles, number of acute care beds." From there, you're on our own. I see this working for business, homeland security, and health sciences at the very least.
Source: Mary Ellen Bates

Christmas Songs and Christmas Lyrics

You don't remember the second verse of O Come All Ye Faithful? Here's a place to find all the songs and lyrics you need for the season. So, don't hum along-sing!
http://www.alpinewreaths.com/ChristmasSongs/christmassongs.html

Charitable Giving Guide for 2006

There is still time this year to support a charity dear to your heart. Here is a list of charities that support preservation, open access, the first amendment, and other causes dear to librarians' hearts. You can even support the Internet Archive. Boing Boing!
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/12/11/charitable_gu.html
Source: Marylaine Block

Guide to Clinical Preventive Services

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is pleased to present The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services 2006, which will give you the information you need to provide evidence-based clinical preventive services to patients.

Research has clearly demonstrated that providing high quality, evidence-based preventive care is a critical factor in helping people live healthier lives. We also know from research that the best way to ensure that preventive services are delivered appropriately is to make evidence-based information readily available at the point of care.

To that end, The Guide puts the “gold standard” of preventive care at the fingertips of health care staff to provide effective preventive service to patients every day. The 2006 Guide offers recommendations on 53 clinical preventive services made by the Task Force from 2001 to 2005.
Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 2006: Recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
Source: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)

What is the Largest cash crop in the U.S.?

Not, it is not corn, soybeans, or wheat. Marijuana is the largest cash crop in the United States, more valuable than corn and wheat combined. Using conservative price estimates domestic marijuana production has a value of $35.8 billion. The domestic marijuana crop consists of 56.4 million marijuana plants cultivated outdoors worth $31.7 billion and 11.7 million plants cultivated indoors worth $4.1 billion. The domestic marijuana crop is larger than Cotton in Alabama, larger than Grapes, Vegetables and Hay combined in California, larger than Peanuts in Georgia, and larger than Tobacco in both South Carolina and North Carolina.
Source: The Bulletin of Cannabis Reform

Act on Fact: Improve Student Success

Act On Fact: Using Data to Improve Student Success

“Research shows that the more actively engaged students are — with college faculty and staff, with other students and with the subject matter they study — the more likely they are to learn, to stick with their studies, and to attain their academic goals. Student engagement, therefore, is a valuable yardstick for assessing the quality of colleges’ educational practices and identifying ways they can produce more successful results — more students across all subgroups learning at higher levels and attaining their academic goals.”
Source: Community College Survey of Student Engagement

U.S. Military Counterinsurgency Manual

U.S. Military Counterinsurgency Manual (December 2006) (PDF; 14.3 MB)Source:

This manual takes a general approach to counterinsurgency operations. The Army and Marine Corps recognize that every insurgency is contextual and presents its own set of challenges. You cannot fight former Saddamists and Islamic extremists the same way you would have fought the Viet Cong, Moros, or Tupamaros; the application of principles and fundamentals to deal with each varies considerably. Nonetheless, all insurgencies, even today’s highly adaptable strains, remain wars amongst the people. They use variations of standard themes and adhere to elements of a recognizable revolutionary campaign plan. This manual therefore addresses the common characteristics of insurgencies. It strives to provide those conducting counterinsurgency campaigns with a solid foundation for understanding and addressing specific insurgencies.
Source: Headquaters, Department of the Army

Greater Hartford Literacy

Approximately 300,000 Greater Hartford adults, or roughly 41% of the adult population, ages 16 and above, are functioning within the lowest two of five literacy levels. This is the same as the state's average, and slightly lower than the national average of 49%. These individuals would have problems filling out a job application or following an ATM screen (National Adult Literacy Survey).

Population of adults performing at the lowest literacy level:
Hartford 41%
New Britain 26%
Bloomfield 25%
East Hartford 18%
Wethersfield 18%
Windsor 18%

Throughout the Greater Hartford region, nearly half (48%) of tenth grade students performed below the state goal on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test in reading. For example, in Hartford 91% were below state goal, in Bloomfield 70%, in New Britain 73%, and in Windsor 64%. Likewise, just under half (46%) of the state's fourth graders did not meet proficiency goals in language arts (CT Department of Education 2003/2004).
Source: Greater Hartford Literacy Council

Useful Sites

Here are some free sites to find useful and interesting information:

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics <http://www.bls.gov/bls/other.htm> lists international statistical agencies on the Web.

Kidon Media-Link <http://www.kidon.com/media-link/index.php> offers links to all forms of media worldwide: newspapers, magazines, television, radio and news agencies. You can search by country or by language.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) <http://www.gemconsortium.org/> measures entrepreneurial activity in a global context. Handy if you need to understand the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and national economic growth.

Asknumbers.com <http://www.asknumbers.com/> is an online conversion site. Convert weights, distance, currency, computer storage, temperature, cooking, clothing and much more.

International Students in the U.S.

in 2005-2006, the number of international students enrolled in U.S. higher education institutions remained steady at 564,766, within a fraction of a percent of the previous year's totals, according to Open Doors 2006,the annual report on international academic mobility published by the Institute of International Education. India remains the largest country of origin, with 76,503 students, followed by China with 62,582. The overall international student numbers have stabilized, following a two-year decline.
Source: Institute of International Education

Bibliography Tools in Word 2007

Good news for students! The upcoming version of Microsoft Office will include citation and bibliography tools built into the program. These features will help you create citations and bibliographies via a fill-in template. Sources can be easily shared with others via e-mail or shared lists. While not yet as sophisticated as other bibliographic management software such as EndNote or RefWorks, it will perform many of the same functions.
Source: Jennifer Michelstein, Microsoft Office blog

Could You Become an American Citizen?

On November 30, 2006, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Emilio Gonzalez announced the release of 144 questions and answers for the pilot test of a new naturalization exam. USCIS will administer the pilot exam to about 5,000 volunteer citizenship applicants in 10 cities beginning in early 2007. The questions and answers are here. How many could you have answered?

Recommended Reading

Mary Henderson, academic office manager, highly recommends this book with a long title, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About it. Enough has been added to the Goodwin Library collection.

"Inspired by Bill Cosby's now famous speech at the NAACP gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision integrating schools, Williams makes the case that while there is still racism, it is way past time for black Americans to open their eyes to the "culture of failure" that exists within their community. He raises the banner of proud black traditional values--self-help, strong families, and belief in God--that sustained black people through generations of oppression and flowered in the exhilarating promis of the modern civil rights movement. Williams asks what happened to keeping our eyes on the prize by proving the case for equality with black excellence and achievement. Certain to be widley discussed and vehemently debated, Enough is a bold, perceptive, solution-based look at African American life, culture, and politics today." (comments from the book cover) Juan Williams is a senior correspondent for NPR and has written other books, including Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary and Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965.

Tracking the Invisible Faculty

The sweeping shift toward non-tenure track academic labor has been one of the most worried-over and undocumented trends in American higher education. For instance, 50% ofYale's faculty are outside the tenure system. Drawing on data collected by the Department of Education, the AAUP has compiled the numbers of tenured, tenure-track, part-time, and full-time non-tenure track faculty members employed at 2,617 American colleges and universities. Read the report.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

How to Build a Student for the 21st Century

The world has changed, bu the American classroom, for the most part, hasn't. Now educators are starting to look at what must be done to make sure our kids make the grade in the new global economy.

How can U.S. schools prepare the next generation to compete in the more challening global economy of the 21st century? It will take more than No Child Left Behind, according to Time magazine's cover article this week. This is required reading!

How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century gives you access to only the beginning of the article. We have the issue in the library and the article is also available online in the InfoTrac OneFile. Anywhere on campus where you have an Internet connection you can go to InfoTrac OneFile from www.iconn.org by clicking on [Link to Individual Resources].

Google Remembers Munch's Birthday

If you visited Google today, you saw a miniature version of Edward Munch's painting, The Scream, because Munch was born on December 12, 1863. He was a Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intense, evocative treatment of psychological and emotional themes was a major influence on the development of German expressionism in the early 20th century. His painting The Cry or The Scream (1893) is regarded as an icon of existential anguish.

Career Preparation tops for College Freshmen

Students entering their first year of college consider career preparation the most crucial factor in determining the value of their postsecondary education, according to a new report from Eduventures, an education consulting firm. Of 6,200 traditional-age college freshmen surveyed, 72 percent said "professional preparation" was very important to them.

Students in the survey said they viewed programs and services that would assist them in career-development efforts as the most likely indicators of a college's commitment to professional preparation. The three most significant factors that convey that commitment to students are the opportunities a college provides for internships, the quality of its career office, and job-placement records of its graduates.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Patient Safety Tip of the Week: Patient Elopment

Patient elopement is the patient’s departure without permission beyond the facility, which places the patient at risk of injury or death. Those at risk for elopement include patients with dementia, young patients with persistent mental illness, individuals with a family history of abuse, those exhibiting or having a history of violent behavior, and those who have been involuntarily hospitalized.

A comprehensive initial assessment by qualified professionals can identify problems that could lead to elopement due to an individual’s behavioral disorder, cognitive impairment, fear, poor judgment, or lack of insight. Because of these problems, the individual is at greater risk of harm if he or she leaves the facility’s protective environment.

Reassessments also give health care providers the opportunity to observe and note any changes in conditions that might increase the risk of elopement. Changes in mental status can be a predictor of dangerous behavior, such as elopement.

The VA National Center for Patient Safety uses the following questions to identify patients at risk for elopement:
Does the patient have a court-appointed legal guardian?
Is the patient considered a danger to him or herself or others?
Has the patient been legally committed?
Does the patient lack the cognitive ability to make relevant decisions?
Does the patient have a history of escape or elopement?
Does the patient have physical or mental impairment that increases his or her risk of harm to him or herself or to others?
Source: Joint Commission Resources (Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

How Does Social Bookmarking Work?

Social bookmarking is an increasingly popular way to locate, classify, rank and share Internet resources. It derives from an idea similar to that which prompts you to utilize your browser’s Favorites or Bookmarks function: you have a resource of interest or value to you, and you want to save it for easy access in the future. However, instead of saving the resources just to your browser, in social bookmarking you save them to a centrally-hosted service that you can access at anytime, from anywhere. You can classify resources (or “tag” them) in any way you want, and your saved resources (or “bookmarks”) are added to both your personal list and an overall library, where others can access them. That’s the social part. Users then can utilize either your classifications or those created by other users. They also can access information about the resources, such as who saved them, how many people saved them, etc., to evaluate them and more easily locate further sources of information.
Source: SCSU Workshop on Social Bookmarking

2007 National Patient Safety Goals

On June 2, 2006, the Joint Commission’s Board of Commissioners approved the 2007 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs). As of January 1, 2007, all Joint Commission accredited health care organizations and the Disease-Specific Care certified programs will be surveyed for implementation of applicable 2007 goals and requirements—or acceptable alternatives (see below)—as appropriate to the services the organization or program provides. Compliance with applicable requirements (or an acceptable alternative) will be scored at the associated implementation expectation(s) for that requirement in the NPSGs chapter of each standards manual.

Photo of the Day

Earth Shots is a Photo of the Day contest celebrating the beauty and diversity of our planet. Everyday they feature the best photograph submitted by visitors to the site. Earth Shots is looking for photographs that exhibit the beauty and diversity of our planet. Any subject matter goes. The most important requirement is that the image is interesting and striking. Take a look at this week's winners.

Recent Research and the Male Brain

Men are not from Mars nor women from Venus, but it is obvious their brains work somewhat differently, not only in how they think but also in how the male or female brain is affected in such conditions as mental illness, addiction, and degenerative neurological diseases.
While scientists do not know the reasons for many of these, recent research has revealed genetic, anatomical, and functional differences in the brain that could have implications for better diagnosis and treatment of a variety of conditions. [Full Text of this Article]
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association

New York Times: 10 Best Books for 2006

The New York Times has released their list of 10 best books for 2006. All comments are from the NYT article:

• Abursdistan by Gary Shetyngart--exuberant second novel that is smart, funny, and extraordinarily moving
• Collected Stories of Amy Hempel--urbane, pointillistic and wickedly funny short stories
• Emperor's Children by Claire Messud--unsparing and sympathetic novel set amid the cultural Manhattan in 2001
• Lay of the Land by Richard Ford--the third installment in the serial epic of Frank Bascombe set in Florida 2000 (The Sportswriter and Independence Day were the first two in the series.)
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl--buoyantly literate first novel, a murder mystery narrated by a precocious teenager
• Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir by Danielle Trussoni--searing memoir of the author's girlhood in Wisconsin with her war-damaged father
• Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright--fullest account yet of the events that led to the fateful day
• Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War by Nathaniel Philbrick--absorbing history of the Plymouth Colony
• Ominivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan--traces the origins of four measl from a fast food dinner to a hunter-gatherer feast--uncommonly good American food writing
• Places in Between by Rory Stewart--splendid travel journal of the author's walk across Afghanistan in January 2002

Best of 2006: Black Issues Book Review

The November/December issue of Black Issues Book Review lists the books, authors, and trends that they think are the best, the first, the biggest, the most unusual or the most significant among those we have seen in 2006. The issue is available in the library.

Among the most talked about, written about and honored authors of the year were the British writers Zadie Smith , author of On Beauty, and Uzodinma Iweala, author of Beasts of No Nation. Both are available in the library.

Connecticut the 5th Healthiest State

Minnesota was deemed the healthiest U.S. state for the fourth year in a row, while Louisiana slumped into last place as the least healthy in annual state-by-state rankings released by on Tuesday. Vermont placed second as it did in 2005 with New Hampshire, Hawaii and Connecticut rounding out the five healthiest states in the report by the United Health Foundation, a nonprofit group formed by health care company UnitedHealth Group.

The report weighed a series of factors in determining rankings, such as prevalence of obesity, smoking, infectious disease, cardiovascular deaths, infant mortality, child poverty, immunization rates, workplace deaths and auto deaths. Southern states performed particularly poorly while those in New England and some in the Upper Midwest fared well.

The United States as a whole experienced a slight rise in health over last year, the report stated, but lags behind many other nations in key measures such as infant mortality. "Since 1990, America is a healthier place. The bad news: since the year 2000, we've made very little progress. The health of the nation has become stagnant," Tuckson said. Tuckson cited a dramatic increase in obesity, a rising number of Americans - 46.6 million in a country of 300 million - without health insurance, and smoking by 21 percent of U.S. adults, lower than many countries but still problematic. The American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention also contributed to the report, posted on the Web at http://www.unitedhealthfoundation.org/ahr2006.html .

Autism Effects and Treatment

Two studies shed light on the possible effects of autism on the brain and point to potential treatments, researchers said on Monday. One reports that oxytocin, which studies have found is important in human bonding, may help reduce debilitating symptoms in autistic adults. And a second found that fear-detecting areas of the brain are shrunken in people with autism.

The term autism describes a range of symptoms that can include very severe mental and behavioral effects, an inability to interact socially, and milder symptoms such as those seen in Asperger's syndrome. Severely autistic patients may bang their heads, repeat words or movements, or become obsessed with certain actions.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a survey in May indicating that up to 1 in every 175 children born in the United States develops an autism spectrum disorder of some kind. The cause is unknown and treatments are limited.
Source: Reuters Health Information, December 5

Guide to Clinical Preventive Services

The Guide to Clinical Preventive Services (released earlier this year) is a compilation of abridged U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations released from 2001 through 2005 and can be used as an evidence-based tool at the point of patient care.

Features include:
Recommendations for Adults
Cancer
Heart and Vascular Diseases
Infectious Diseases
Injury and Violence
Mental Health Conditions and Substance Abuse
Metabolic, Nutritional, and Endocrine Conditions
Musculoskeletal Conditions
Obstetric and Gynecologic Conditions
Vision Disorders
Recommendations for Children"
Source: Guide to Clinical Preventive Services 2006

Remembering Robert Altman

While MASH was not Robert Altman's first film, it catapulted him into the pantheon of major figures in American cinema. Five years later, Altman solidified his reputation with Nashville, a crowded spectacle of a film that featured a cast of memorable characters and improvised, overlapping dialogue — a hallmark of Altman's filmmaking style. Last month Altman died of complications from cancer at the age of 81. For a list of his films, go to imdb.com.

Colleges: Rethink Electronic Records!

New federal rules that took effect on Friday allow evidence stored in PDA's, printers, home computers, and even cellphones to be used routinely in lawsuits involving individuals and organizations, including colleges. And experts say the rules could prompt changes not only in how college lawyers approach cases but also in how long colleges store electronic information.
The new rules require that parties involved in litigation in federal courts make available to their opponents a wide array of electronically stored information, lawyers familiar with the rules said last week.

Tuition Tax Credits

Members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee showed strong interest during a hearing on Tuesday in a witness's proposal to combine tuition tax credits, an expired income-tax deduction, and the Pell Grant into a refundable "super credit" that would simplify higher-education tax incentives and assist students from middle- and lower-income families
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Holiday Booklists are here!

Connecticut Library Consortium's annual booklist project, "Best Books for Children & Teens: Lists for Holiday Gift Giving" is ready and waiting for you. Enjoy!
Babies & Toddlers (ages 0-3) (PDF, 496 KB)
Young Readers & Listeners (ages 3-8) (PDF, 904 KB)
Middle Readers (ages 8-12) (PDF, 416 KB)
Teens (ages 12+) (PDF, 460 KB)

High School Reform

High school reform has moved to the top of the education policy agenda, commanding the attention of the federal government, governors, urban school superintendents, philanthropists, and the general public. All are alarmed by stubbornly high dropout rates and by the low academic achievement of many high school students. These problems disproportionately affect disadvantaged young people, especially those who are African-American and Hispanic and who attend urban schools and certain rural schools in the South and Southwest.

This is the first in a series of reports for policymakers, practitioners, and others who must make hard choices about how to change high schools. It discusses three comprehensive initiatives evaluated by MDRC — Career Academies, First Things First, and Talent Development — that have grappled with the challenges of improving low-performing urban and rural schools. Together, these three interventions are being implemented in more than 2,500 high schools across the country, and various components of these models are being used in thousands more schools.
+ Executive Summary+ Full Report (PDF; 1.65 MB)
Source: MDRC

Welcome to NationMaster

This is a dream site for statistical information. Welcome to NationMaster, a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. NationMaster is a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD. You can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease. NationMaster wants to be the web's one-stop resource for country statistics on everything from soldiers to wall plug voltages. You can also view profiles of individual countries including their maps and flags, use correlation reports and scatterplots to find relationships between variables, and refer to fully integrated encyclopedia with over one million articles.

But, wait--there's more! NationMaster also recently rolled out StateMaster.com, a sister site that offers similar data mining on US state statistics, using sources such as the US Census Bureau, FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a variety of non-profit organizations such as the March of Dimes.
Source: Mary Ellen Bates

homeland Security Career Guide

The library has ordered Homeland Security and Federal Law Enforcement Career Guide with CD-Rom. This guide provides a comprehensive introduction to the hiring process, career profiles, a complete directory of agencies to contact, and other useful tips and material for acquiring a position with Homeland Seucrity or federal law enforcement. The CD affords quick and easy access to this information, along with direct links to the agency websites. Delivery is expected next week.

New Markets Data Center

On January 2, the Wall Street Journal will launch a state-of-the-art online Markets Data Center, combining news, data and tools from across Dow Jones. Beyond contributions from the Journal’s markets-data group, this new Web site and associated services such as email roundups and alerts will include coverage from Dow Jones Newswires, authoritative data from Dow Jones Indexes, investment tools from the MarketWatch unit and personal-finance tips from the SmartMoney joint venture.

The Markets Data Center will be available free on the Web.
Source: WSJ.com

Robert Gates Bibliography

New, Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense Nominee: A Bibliography
On November 8, 2006, President George W. Bush nominated Mr. Gates to be Secretary of Defense. Confirmation hearings for that position begin today.

Mr. Gates previously served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The Senate held two confirmation proceedings for that position. The Georgetown Law Library has created this bibliography of documents authored by and related to Mr. Gates.
Source: Georgetown University Law Center Library

“

Agroterrorism: Why We are not Ready

An agroterrorism attack could dramatically impact many aspects of American life, including law enforcement, which—especially in rural areas—is financially and strategically unprepared to respond. This Research for Policy looks at the impact the introduction of foot-and-mouth disease would have on the United States, including the slaughter of millions of animals and an impact of up to $60 billion tax dollars. The publication outlines why law enforcement is not currently ready for such a terrorist attack and gives procedures for preparing for and responding to agroterrorism.
Source: National Institute of Justice
Summary Full Text (8 pages; PDF)