The Gulf Between Us

"The oil is not gone. This story is not over. We smelled it in the air. We felt it in the water. People along the Gulf Coast are getting sick and sicker. Marshes are burned. Oysters are scarce and shrimp are tainted. Jobs are gone and stress is high. What is now hidden will surface over time.

Meanwhile, 1 billion birds are migrating through the Gulf of Mexico this fall, resting, feeding, and finding sanctuary as they have always done, generation after generation. The endangered piping plover will be among them. Seventy percent of all waterfowl in North America fly through the Mississippi Delta. Their energy will be compromised, with food not as plentiful. Their health will be vulnerable to the toxic traces of oil and dispersants lingering in the marshes."

Please read this article by Terry Tempest Williams in Orion Magazine:
"The Gulf Between Us:Stories of terror and beauty from the world's largest accidental offshore oil disaster."

A web extra, and companion to Terry Tempest Williams's article about the 2010 BP Gulf oil spill, containing extra images and audio narrative from photographer J Henry Fair.

CQ RESEARCHER REPORTS IN OCTOBER

Animal Intelligence October 22
Do animals think?
Australian scientists recently reported that octopuses were the first invertebrates to be observed using tools. In January, in a laboratory, a crow became the first bird to show “insight” — grasping the solution to a problem by mental activity, not trial-and-error behavior. Today virtually all animal scientists agree that animals — down through the insect kingdom — have amazing powers of mind.

States and Federalism October 15
Is the federal government usurping states’ rights?
Arizona enacted Medicaid cuts early this year only to have the action countermanded by the Obama administration's recently passed health care law. Arizona is now one of 20 states challenging the new law as unconstitutional. Meanwhile, the state is also tangling with the federal government over national immigration policy. The cases highlight the recurrence of high-profile clashes over federal power and state prerogatives.

Journalism Standards in the Internet Age October 8
Are the news media sacrificing news ethics online?
Press critic A.J. Liebling of The New Yorker wrote in 1960 that “freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” A half-century later, everyone with an Internet connection owns a virtual press. And many of them scorn the journalism standards that have guided America's mainstream media since before Liebling penned his famous aphorism.

Preventing Obesity October 1
Do Americans face too many obstacles to healthy eating?
The number of obese Americans has increased dramatically over the last 40 years, and in 2001 the nation's surgeon general went so far as to call obesity an epidemic. One-third of children and two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, posing a daunting public-health challenge.

The last report of the month will be Democrats’ Future.

PROQUEST CENTRAL coming soon!

The library has signed up for a free trial of Proquest Central beginning November 1.

ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated full-text database in the market today totaling more than 13,970 titles—with over 10,910 titles in full text. It serves as the central resource for researchers at all levels in all markets.

While ProQuest Central provides access to millions of much-coveted full text articles from thousands of scholarly journals, it also provides access to information not available in other aggregated resources such as:

•Over 880 full text U.S., Canadian and international newspapers including exclusive access to the full text of The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times
•Over 34,200 full text dissertations in the areas of business, psychology, physical sciences, health, education and more, helping end users build a more robust results set
•Concise business information from nearly 9,000 market reports across 43 industries in 40 countries, spanning the UK, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Latin America.

Format: Abstract and index, Full Text, Full Image, Text+Graphics
Media: Electronic/Online
Coverage: 1905-Present
Total Sources Covered: 13,970+
MARC Records: YES | Counter COMPLIANT: YES | ATHENS enabled: YES
Open URL enabled: YES | z39.50 enabled: YES

Book Display in Honor of the Half-Moon

Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson by P. Mancall

Rhinecliff: A Hudson River History. The Tangled Tale of Rhinebeck’s Waterfront by C. Philip

The Hudson: A History by T. Lewis

Henry Hudson in Holland: An Inquiry into the Origin & Objects of the Voyage Which Led to the Discovery of the Hudson River by H. Murphy

Peekskill’s African American History: A Hudson Valley Community Untold Story by J. Curran

Denning’s Point: A Hudson River History by j. Heron

Official Program, Hudson-Fulton Celebration; Discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson, 1609; Inauguration of Steam Navigation by Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission

Island at the Center of the World by R. Shorto

Henry Hudson and the Algonquins of New York by E. Pritchard

Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture edited by R. Panetta

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

Ethnographic Video Online From the Library

A new online resource lets you stream, cross-search, annotate, and share hundreds of classic and contemporary documentaries. The library has arranged free access to this exciting resource through December 31. Call the library for access information.



A comprehensive online resource for the visual study of human culture and behavior and the largest, most affordable streaming video collection of its kind, Ethnographic Video Online contains more than 750 hours of classic and contemporary documentaries produced by leading video producers in the discipline; previously unpublished footage from working anthropologists and ethnographers in the field; and select feature films. Wherever possible, videos include accompanying field notes, liner notes, filmmaker biographies, related articles, study guides, and other context-enhancing, full-text materials. Learn more about Ethnographic Video Online here

FREE COUPONS IN THE LIBRARY

FREE COUPONS IN THE LIBRARY
TAKE SOME
ADD SOME

What CT Government does for us

Interlibrary Loan Service 2010
Our Interlibrary Loan services is provided by the Connecticut State Library with delivery by Connecticar (Ccar). It serves 226 libraries with 2.75 million items shipped. The average delivery time is usually several business days.
Cost using Ccar =$580,000
Cost to do this using USPS =$7,101,000
Cost to our library =$0

ICONN
-over 8 million page views
-2,312,183 searches in statewide catalog
-200 libraries lent 130,448 items through reQuest, a 6% increase
-22.1 million items now in reQuest
-$27 million-the value of all iCONN databases to local communities

Source: Connecticut State Library/Division of Library Development

New England Library Association Conference

Yesterday, I attended the opening day of the New England Library Conference at Boxborough, MA. The New England Library Association (NELA) is a membership organization for library staff and supporters in the New England States. The theme of this year’s conference was “Outside the Box; Results Support Sustainability.”

The first session was “Meeting the Challenge: Libraries in a Time of Change presented by American Library Association Executive Director, Keith Michael Fiels” who refuted the many myths about libraries and librarians. The Jordan Miller Storytelling program featured Judith Black, nationally recognized storyteller, who explored expanding literacy through stories and the current problem of the rampant self-censorship of children's literature. In the annual discussion group, State of the States, representatives of each state agency provided gloomy status reports on coping with current realities of decreasing funding and increasing service demands. Featured speaker at the banquet was Joe Raiola, Senior Editor of MAD magazine and a long-time First Amendment champion. His Joy of Censorship presentation included an illuminating, satiric and sometimes disturbing look at censorship and related issues. He also traced the unlikely and colorful history of MAD magazine and presented a survey of MAD’s most controversial covers and articles.

Next year's conference will be at Burlington, Vermont, earlier in October.

Source: Marilyn Nowlan

Mark Twain's Autobiography just arrived!

The library has an early release of Volume One of Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography. This major literary event brings us the first of three volumes presenting Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave--as he intended. He left strict instructions that it not be published until 100 years after his death.

Who will be the first of the Goodwin Community to read it?

Autobiography of Mark Twain
Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith
University of California Press, 2010
PS1331.A2 2010

Highlighted Service: Text a Librarian (TAL)

Text a Librarian (TAL) allows members of the Goodwin community to text questions from mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Answers are disseminated by library staff who text messages back during library hours. Questions are responded to in turn and in brief (320 or fewer characters). Face-to-face research consultations can be scheduled, or patrons can be directed to other options such as real-time chat or web forms.See directions for accessing on the library page.

Some of the other libraries using TAL include Kresge Engineering Library, University California, Berkeley; Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Yale University; BioMedical Library, University of Pennsylvania; biology and chemistry house librarians, CalTech; and Mann Library, Cornell University.

Librarian of Congress here October 12

All students, faculty, and staff are invited to join Congressman John Larson and the Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington, for a discussion about resources available on the Library of Congress website for teachers and students. The discussion will take place Tuesday, October 12, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Goodwin College auditorium.

Under Dr. Billington’s leadership, the Library of Congress has expanded its public outreach through the establishment of a new National Digital Library and other electronic services. The Library of Congress has made digitized versions of collection materials available online since 1994, concentrating on its most rare collections and those unavailable anywhere else. These services are your gateway to a growing treasury of digitized photographs, manuscripts, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, and books, as well as "born digital" materials such as Web sites. In addition, the Library maintains and promotes the use of digital library standards and provides online research and reference services.

By providing these materials online, those who may never come to Washington can gain access to the treasures of the nation’s library. Such online access also helps preserve rare materials that may be too fragile to handle.

Source: Library of Congress online

Recommended site: Population Reference Bureau

The Population Reference Bureau informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations.

•Inform. PRB analyzes complex demographic data and research to provide the most objective, accurate, and up-to-date population information in a format that is easily understood by advocates, journalists, and decisionmakers alike.

•Empower. Our commitment to putting information into action sets us apart. PRB builds coalitions and conducts workshops around the world to give our key audiences the tools they need to understand and communicate effectively about population issues.

•Advance. PRB works to ensure that policymakers in developing countries and in the United States rely on sound evidence, rather than anecdotal or outdated information, when creating population, health, and environmental policies.

Source: Populaton Reference Bureau

New Resources: Children's Lit Database

Goodwin College's subscription request for The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD www.childrenslit.com ) is active using the following:
User name: goodwin
Password: hartford
both are case sensitive

The CLCD is a subscription-based information retrieval service designed to meet the needs of organizations and individuals who work with children's books. Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) contains annotations, reviews, curriculum tools, and awards, honors, and reading lists for thousands of children's books. Overall, the database contains 200,000+ critical reviews of children’s literature, ranging from baby board books to novels and nonfiction for young adults. About 1,500 new reviews are added to the database monthly.