Carbon Neutral College

"In a move we hope will inspire other institutions to follow suit, College of the Atlantic (COA) has pledged to become the first college in the U.S. to go carbon neutral. Coming at the request of incoming President David F. Hales, the college vows to avoid, reduce or offset all contributions to global warming that are associated with any of the college's activities, including travel by students to and from campus. Located in Bar Harbor, Maine, COA has about 300 students drawn from 47 states and 51 countries who all study in the one program offered by the school: Human Ecology. Since its inception in 1969 to offer a new educational philosophy to prepare students to address the world's social and environmental challenges, the institution has been walking the walk: in 1972, students were instrumental in getting Maine to pass its groundbreaking bottle recycling bill; in 2004, it become the first institution of higher learning to sign a multiple-year contract to offset 100% of the emissions generated from its electricity use in 2004 and in 2005, the college had the first zero-waste graduation; commencement and a reception for 800 people netted no more than five pounds of waste."
Source: Treehugger, a web-based magazine

New Books in the Library: Keeping up with Science

Gravity's Arc
How did one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived retard the study of gravity for 2,000 years? How did a gluttonous tyrant with a gold nose revolutionize our view of the solar system? How could an eccentric professor shake the foundations of an entire belief system by dropping two objects from a tower?And how could a simple patent clerk change our entire view of the universe by imagining himself riding on a beam of light?

In Gravity's Arc by David Darling, you'll discover how some of the most colorful, eccentric, and brilliant people in history first locked, then unlocked the door to understanding one of nature's most essential forces.

Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science & What Comes Next
The confrontation between string theory and its critics is one of the great intellectual dramas of our age. With this book, the physicist Lee Smolin, finally raises the curtains for all to see. While Smolin is a devastating critic, he is also optimistic and constructive. He exudes a love of science and imagination, and a faith in the next generation of young physicists.

The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science's Strangest Phenomenon
If you thought science was a predictable, commonsense business--maybe even a little dull--you haven't encountered quantum entanglement. A physical phenomenon so strange and all pervasive that the author Brian Clegg calls it the "God Effect."

CQ Researcher: Caring for the Elderly

Who will pay for care of aging baby boomers?

Nearly 70 percent of those turning 65 this year will need long-term care (LTC) in their lifetimes; 20 percent will need it for five years or longer. But — unlike most other industrialized nations — the United States has no public or private insurance infrastructure to pay for LTC. Those needing years of care will have to impoverish themselves before Medicaid will pay for it. But state officials say Medicaid — intended as a health-care safety net for poor children — could be bankrupted by rising LTC costs as the baby-boom generation ages, and the number of people over age 85 soars from around 5 million to 21 million by 2050. Meanwhile, understaffing, low pay and poor working conditions at nursing homes put residents at risk of life-threatening malnutrition and bed sores. As an alternative, states and nonprofits are offering more home- and community-delivered care, but LTC experts say the alternatives may not be any safer.

Last week's CQ Researcher report addresses this problem--highly recommended readng for health science students and faculty (and other interested parties). The report includes summary, issues, background, chronology, current situation, outlook, and bibliography. Contact the library for user name and password for accessing CQ Researcher.

Confused About HIPAA?

Several health science students have been asking the library staff what the HIPAA law really says. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (PL 104-191), known affectionately as HIPAA, has confused and unnecessarily alarmed many conscientious health careproviders. Nurses in particular are likely to be on the front line of family caregivers' inquiries, because physicians are often difficult to reach and because family caregivers look to nurse as sources of reliable information. A major retraining of health care providers at all levels is needed to dampen the "HIPAA scare" and clarify what HIPAA does and does not say about communication with family caregivers. Carol Levine published an article in the August Journal of Nursing on "HIPAA and Talking with Family Caregivers." This is a good place to start. The article also has a list of references, most of which are available in the Goodwin Library.
Source: American Journal of Nursing August 2006

Guide to Public Opinion Poll Web Sites

With the midterm election only a few weeks away, polls and polling are in the news. Here is comprehensive source on polling data in the United States and around the world. According to the authors Thompson and Conley, "since their beginnings in the 1930s with Gallup, Roper, Harris and others, scientific polling organizations have grown dramatically in number, scope, and stature to their worldwide presence today. This compilation focuses on significant Internet sites concerning general public opinion polls, especially those providing polling results in usable formats."
Guide to Public Opinion Web Sites

Government Secrecy

"The Department of Justice reported that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 2,072 orders to conduct surveillance on foreign nationals in the United States in 2005. It rejected 0 orders. Another Justice Department report on secret wiretap warrants indicated that the government issued 9,254 National Security Letters during 2005. These letters can be used to obtain information about individuals without the government applying for a court-reviewed warrant. The number of Freedom of Information Act requests increased by 65,543 requests sinced 2004. Agencie overall have been unble to keep up with the number of requests, with 43 percent more pending requests this year than in 2002."
Source: Security Report Card 2006: Indicators of Secrecy in the Federal Government
OpenTheGovernment.org

National Environmental Scorecard

“When it comes to the environment and energy, 2006 will be remembered for sky-rocketing gas prices, record-high oil company profits, an acknowledgement by even President Bush that America is addicted to oil, the Alaska BP pipeline spill, and a widespread recognition that human activity is causing global warming to happen far more quickly than previously thought. Unfortunately, as the League of Conservation Voters 2006 National Environmental Scorecard reflects, Congress did virtually nothing to help solve these problems, with little hope for anything positive to emerge from an anticipated lame duck session.”
Full Report (PDF; 2.54 MB)
Source: League of Conservation Voters

Medline Plus: Sleep Disorders

Sleep Disorders is just one of over 700 topics on conditions and diseases at the National Institution of Health's Medline Plus site. This is a reminder for you that Medline Plus is one of the best sources of patient education information--very user friendly.

Medline Plus is a gateway to many authoritative resources on sleep disorders. There is a directory for finding services in your local area. You can also see a slideshow on sleep disorders.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/sleepdisorders.html

Lack of Cyber-Terrorism Preparedness

The Business Roundtable Security Taskforce says the United States is not prepared to reconstruct the Internet after a major nationwide disruption and offers a 21 page report of policy suggestions. Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies.
http://www.businessroundtable.org/pdf/20060622002CyberReconFinal6106.pdf
Source: Business Roundtable

Booker Literary Award

The novelist Kiran Desai won the Man Booker Prize on Tuesday this week for The Inheritance of Loss, a novel that examines identity, displacement and the indissoluble bonds of family. The Booker, Britain’s best-known literary award, is awarded annually to a novelist from Britain, Ireland or a Commonwealth country. The prize comes with a check for £50,000, or about $93,000, and a guaranteed increase in visibility and sales. Ms. Desai’s mother, Anita Desai, has been a Booker finalist three times, but has not won. They are the first mother-daughter team of nominees in the prize’s 37-year history.

The Inheritance of Loss is set in a remote corner of India against the backdrop of growing Nepalese unrest, and in the streets of Manhattan, where illegal immigrants try to make a living while eluding the authorities. It is Ms. Desai’s second book and concerns itself with what she calls “the enormous anxiety of being a foreigner.” This book is available in the Goodwin Library.

Turkish Writer Wins Nobel Prize

The Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk on Thursday won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Mr. Pamuk, is Turkey's best-known and best-selling novelist but, according to the New York Times, " also a divisive figure in a nation being pulled in many directions at once. A champion of freedom of speech at a time when insulting Turkish identity is a criminal offense, he has run afoul of Islamists who resent his Western secularism and of Turkish nationalists who object to his unflinching, sometimes unflattering portrayal of their country. "

In an interview in New York, where he is spending a semester teaching at Columbia University, Mr. Pamuk said he saw the prize as a recognition of his work rather than a statement about his beliefs. “I think less than people think I do about politics,” he said. “I care about writing. I am essentially a literary man who has fallen into a political situation.”

The library staff recommends two of his best-known books. My Name Is Red is at once a mystery, an intellectual puzzle and a romance. Snow, published in the United States in 2004, expands further on themes — alienation, religion, modernization, the unseen corners of Turkish society — that Mr. Pamuk has explored over and over in his work. He has also recently written a book about his beloved city, Istanbul.

Military Blogs

This guide to over 1500 military blogs from 28 countries offers views and experience often ignored in current political and policy debates. It's searchable and browsable by branch, language, gender, and country (including 373 from Iraq and 40 from Afghanistan, among others). Sample blog titles show the range of military experience represented: Navy Corner, Afghan Warrior, Anonymous Army Wife, Chaplain Kline, Blogs of a Retired Infantryman, British Army Reservist in Iraq, An Army Combat Medic, Blogging for Kosovo, etc.
http://www.milblogging.com

Public Administration Review & Homeland Security

Public Administration Review's July/August issue has three articles on homeland security issues:
Imperfect Federalism: The Intergovernmental Partnership for Homeland Security
Mandates and Management Challenges in the Trenches: An Intergovernmental Perspective on Homeland Security
War Narratives: Framing Our Understanding of the War on Terror
Other articles from this journal and on homeland security are available on the ABI/Inform database reached through www.iconn.org.

Public Administration Review, a bi-monthly scholarly journal, has been the premier journal in the field of public administration research, theory, and practice for more than 60 years. PAR is the only journal in public administration that serves both academics and practitioners interested in the public sector and public sector management. Articles identify and analyze current trends, provide a factual basis for decision making, stimulate discussion, and make the leading literature in the field available in an easily accessible format. With articles on a wide range of topics and expert book reviews, PAR is exciting to read and an indispensable resource.

Journal Alert: Health Affairs

Health Affairs is the leading journal of health policy thought and research. All papers are peer-reviewed. Published since 1981, Health Affairs is nonpartisan and presents a wide range of timely research and commentary on health issues of current concern in both domestic and international spheres. “For more than 20 years, Health Affairs has been a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in medicine, health care, and health care policy,” (Washington Post, 11 January 2004).

Every article Health Affairs has ever published is available online at www.healthaffairs.org. The 25-year archive is fully searchable. All back content is free access after three years. Selected content is free access at time of posting, including Editor’s Choice articles, Web Exclusives, Narrative Matters, Grants and Outcomes, UpDate Publications, Book Reviews, and Letters.

Health Affairs’ goal as a journal has been to foster an ongoing dialogue on health policy issues of concern to a diverse audience of interested readers. They are launching a blog this week, www.healthaffairs.org, with the aim of expanding the dialogue even further.

Anyone is welcome to comment, but all must register and agree to terms of use, including the use of real names. They will filter comments for appropriateness and language.
source: www.healthaffairs.org

Needlestick Injuries

"In response to a rise in the number of needlestick injuries in its OR, Connecticut-based Hartford Hospital conducted a study to determine and better understand staff members’ perceived barriers to safety and discovered that communication problems with physicians and feelings of powerlessness among nursing staff were lead factors. The study, led by perioperative services nurse educator Andrea Hagstrom, prompted the formation of a staff-led safety committee and a physician-led initiative to gain practice change buy-in. The efforts have empowered nurses to enforce the new safety practices and improved the hospital’s needlestick injury rates."
Source: Janene's blog http://ysnlibrary.blogspot.com/

Chronical Brown Bag Web Chat

William J. Pepicello, who was recently named president of the University of Phoenix, will answer your questions about the university's plans for growth, its expanding focus on younger students and new degree programs, and its trend-setting moves in marketing, including its recent deal for the naming rights to a National Football League stadium. Join him today for a live Web chat at noon, U.S. Eastern time.
http://chronicle.com/brownbag

CDC Updates for STD (Medical Assisting Class)

These guidelines for the treatment of persons who have sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were developed by Center for Disease Control after consultation with a group of professionals knowledgeable in the field of STDs who met in Atlanta, Georgia, during April 19–21, 2005. The information in this report updates the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2002.
Read SummaryFull Guideline - web versionFull guideline - PDF version

National Report on Population & Environment

The United States population passed 300 million recently. Although constituting only five percent of the global population, the U.S. emits more carbon dioxide, consumes more paper and other forest products, and produces more municipal waste than any other country. A new report by the Center for Environment and Population (CEP) quantitatively demonstrates the relationship between current national population trends, unprecedented resource consumption, and observable environmental degradation.

This report is the first effort to bring together a wealth of statistics on national population and demographic dynamics and assess them in the context of environmental health. Using a variety of data sources, including the EarthTrends database, the report demonstrates links between phenomena such as rapid suburban sprawl, a shift from rural to urban living, and recent increases in coastal population densities, and their negative impacts on the environment, including habitat and species loss, increased water pollution, and climate change.
Direct to Full Text

Voting Rights and Election Law

The 2006 midterm election is less than six weeks away. At least one class is focusing dicussion and research on voting rights and election law. Here is a searchable blog providing information on many issues: voting rights, campaign finance, redistricting, etc.
http://www.electionlawblog.org/

Anatomy Atlases for A & P Students

"A digital library of 'current, authoritative, trustworthy' information for patients and health care providers, curated by long-time anatomy professor Ronald A. Bergman. In addition to its own extensive textual and image content, it provides links to other medical digital libraries."
Anatomy Atlases http://anatomyatlases.org
Source: Mary Laine, librarian

Banned Book Week

"Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual American Library Association event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2006, marks BBW's 25th anniversary (September 23-30).

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met."
Source: American Library Associaton

New Feature: The Brown Bag

Join The Chronicle of Higher Education editors every Thursday at noon, U.S. Eastern time, for The Brown Bag, a new live chat on higher education's hot topics. Every week they will be joined by an expert from the world of higher-education finance and technology to answer your questions about recent news and to share ideas on how you can run your institution more effectively.

Today's guest will be Penelope W. Kyle, who is now entering her "sophomore year" as president of Radford University. She will answer questions about what she's learned -- and what she's still learning -- after her first year at the helm of this public institution in Virginia.
Join them today at noon: http://chronicle.com/live/2006/09/kyle/

The Preamble to the Constitution

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Constitution Week September 18-22

Information about resources and activities this week related to Constitution Week are posted on the student intranet. Here are some additions:

"A Conversation on the Constitution: Judicial Independence" video online with Supreme Court Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyerand Sandra Day O'Connor. Length: 32 min.(Read along with Spanish language Closed Captions)

View individual students' questions and the Supreme Court Justices' answers
Source: Annenberg Classroom

Library Instruction workshops

Introduction to Sociology (LaRocca)
September 16 8:30 a.m.

Introduction to Psychology (Leone)
September 16 10 a.m.

English 101 (Simpson)
September 18 11:40 a.m.

Introduction to Sociology (LaRocca)
September 19 8:30 a.m.

Cardiopulmonary A & P (Alfieri)
September 19 6 p.m.

Youth Development Practice (Ward)
September 19 6:45 p.m.

Introduction to Science (Rajaniemi)
September 21 8 a.m.

Introduction to Homeland Security (Lee)
September 26 11:40 a.m & 6 p.m.

Book Club Members Event

The Goodwin Book Club members have been reading Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer. Ms. Packer will discuss this book of short stories at the Hartford Public Library Friday evening, September 22. The talk begins at 7 p.m. to be followed by book signings and reception. The book club will meet next week to share our reactions to this book and be introduced to our October selection.

Childhood Immunizations

If anyone is researching childhood immunizations, MedlinePlus has links to many reliable sources.
Source: Childhood Immunizations at MedlinePlus

Pub Med Statistics

PubMed, which reached 16 million citations in December 2005 (including the 1.7 million OLDMEDLINE citations), is searched at a rate of more than 76 million searches per month. It is updated with in-process and MeSH-indexed citations 5 times per week. More than 82% of data entry now comes from electronic submissions. The National Library of Medicine reached the all time annual high of adding about 606,000 indexed citations from 4,928 journals at the close of Fiscal Year 2005. MEDLINE is leased by more than 400 organizations (the majority of which are mining the data for research purposes). PubMed is a service of the National Library of Medicine that includes citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.
Source: National Library of Medicine

September 11 Digital Archive

The September 11 Digital Archive uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the history of the September 11, 2001 attacks. For the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the September 11 Digital Archive has overlaid a select group of photographs and stories from Ground Zero in New York on an interactive map. Clicking on blue markers (photos) or red markers (stories) shows details from the September 11 Digital Archive.

Featured Collection -- Ground One: Voices from Post-911 Chinatown aims to provide an in-depth portrait of the ways in which the identity of a community, largely neglected by national media following 9/11, has been indelibly shaped by that day.
Source: September 11 Digital Archive

Purple Math: Help with Alegbra

How do you really do this? -- Purplemath's algebra lessons are written with the student in mind. These lessons emphasize the practicalities rather than the technicalities, demonstrating dependable techniques, warning of likely "trick" questions, and pointing out common mistakes. The lessons are cross-referenced to help you find related material."
http://www.purplemath.com/index.htm

Welcome to New Students

We're thrilled that you're here, and we want to help you get used to finding information and conducting research in an academic library. Don't assume that locating and using library materials in a sophisticated manner is quick or easy.

Do assume that library staff is always available to help you! Watch postings to the blog that will help you navigate our periodical indexes.

New Books Just In!

Youth Leadershp (VanLinden & Fertman)
HQ769.V278 1998

Urban Sanctuaries: Neighborhood Organizations in the Lives and Futures of Inner-City Youth (McLaughlin & Langman)
HQ769.M385 1994

Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment (Garbarino)
HQ769.G258 1995

Full-Service Schools: A Revolution in Health & Social Services for Chldren, Youth, and Families (Dryfoos)
LB 3409.U5 D79 1994

Ready-to-Use Activities for Before and After School Programs (Stassevitch et al.)
GV1203.R37 1989

Building a Full-Service School: A Step-by-Step Guide (Calfee et al.)
LC221.2.F6 1998

Children and Danger: Coping With the Consequences of Community Violence
(Garbarino et al.)
HQ784.V55045 1992

All Kids are Our Kids (Benson)
HQ769.B51177 1997

Putting Families First: America’s Family Support Movement & the Challenge of Change
(Kagan et al.)
HV 699.)88 1994

Student Cellphones

"This fall college students across the country will use their cellphones to send each other text messages. But at 15 institutions, the phones will do a whole lot more. Those 15 colleges have signed up to use Rave Wireless -- a service that aims to turn every student's cellphone into a social and academic jack-of-all-trades. Students can use the service to view their grades, check the availability of study rooms, and see transportation and event schedules, according to USA Today. Rave Wireless, which can be used with any phone carrier, doubles as a campus-safety tool. A student on a late-night wa lk home from the library can set his or her cellphone to contact campus police if he or she doesn't arrive by a certain time. A built-in GPS system then tracks the phone, and the student's medical information and emergency contacts are automatically sent to the police."
Source: Wired Campus

Featured Database: Informe!

Full text Spanish language and bilingual periodicals, Informe provides indexing, images and full-text access to general interest Hispanic magazines. Most articles are in Spanish; however, some are from English language Hispanic magazines. While the interface and instructions are in English, Spanish word searches produce many more results than English word searches. There is no English-Spanish dictionary on this database. This database could be useful for instructors and students in Spanish classes. For more information contact the library staff.
access: www.iconn.org

New Books in the Library

The library staff is now cataloging and shelving 35 new books for the collection. A complete list is available in the library. For the faculty community of learning center in the library we have added

1. Teaching Language in Context is the essential methods text for anyone teaching or learning to teach a foreign language.
2. What the Best College Teachers Do is an inspirational summary of what teachers do to make a difference in students' lives.
3. Teaching as Community Property: Essays on Higher Education is Lee Shulman's vision for improving the quality of teaching in higher education.

Communities of Learning

As stated in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform, "teachers who belong to a study group, a learning community, or some other collaborative enterprise are most likely to remain in the profession as highly successful instructors" (p. 10).
Read the Principles policy research brief athttp://www.ncte.org/library/files/About_NCTE/Overview/Adol-Lit-Brief.pdf

Melting Pot Overflows

This fall 55 million students are enrolling in schools across the country. This is the largest public school student enrollment ever, and in terms of ethnic diversity, it is the most diverse student population since the immigration boom 100 years ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/education/27education.html
(free registration required)

Spelling Report on Higher Education

After almost a year of discussion and debate, the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education has issued its proposals, but the work of divining their effects is just beginning. The commission made proposals on accountability and aid. Many observers say it would be foolish for institutions to ignore the report, which warns of the perils of complacency and calls for sweeping changes in American higher education. Read the extensive article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i02/02a00101.htm?cch

Make Your Searches Private

As disturbing, funny, and nutty some searches are one thing is pretty clear — people ran them in private. Or thought they did anyway. More disturbing is that the entire web is now reading about them, blogging them, doing news stories on them. So much for privacy.
Luckily, you can go a long way to keeping your secret searches safe. Here’s a few tools that will help:

Lost In The CrowdThis site allows you to search your favorite engines while automatically mixing your searches with a large number of other searches essentially creating “search noise”. The idea is that that your sexy/sneaky/sick searches will be harder to find and appear less prominent if they are found. Nice that it works with any browser and all major engines.
TrackMeNot FireFox ExtentionThis extention does pretty much the same thing as Lost In The Crowd. One bit that TrackMeNot has over Lost In The Crowd is that you can add your own list of keywords for the autogenerated searches to be created from which should add a little more safety.
TorCreates a network of onion proxies allowing all data (not just searches) to flow through what is essentially an anonymous peer to peer network. I’m not the most techy guy in the world so if that description doesn’t do it for you here’s a great overview of how Tor works (scroll down a bit to the pics). Appears to be the most robust solution, but a bit complicated for people like me.
FoxyProxy FireFox ExtentionThis extention can be configured to use a multiple proxies to help keep everything you do online (including your searches) do anonymous. Works with Tor out of the box.
Don’t Leave Traces FireFox/Greasemonkey ExtentionThis new one is similar to FoxyProxy although a little more simplistic since it uses only one proxy and works for searches only. Easy add though if you already use Greasemonkey.
Use a Web-Based ProxyThere are 100s of free proxies out there that you can use to surf the web. Most should give you some level of anonymity and work in any browser, but be careful since you never know who is running the proxy!

Featured Journal: Nature

Nature is a weekly international journal publishing the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature also provides rapid, authoritative, insightful and arresting news and interpretation of topical and coming trends affecting science, scientists and the wider public.

The library subscribes to Nature. Check out the current issue's table of contents!

College Student Mindset

"A rite of autumn is under way with the arrival of first-year students at thousands of colleges and universities for registration. Most 18-year-old students entering the class of 2010 this fall were born in 1988. They grew up with a mouse in one hand and a computer screen as part of their worldview. They learned to surf the internet as they learned to read. While they were still in their cribs, the 20th century started to close as the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet bloc disintegrated, and frequent traditional wars in Latin America gave way to the uncontrolled terrors of the Middle East.

Each August since 1998, as faculty prepare for the academic year, Beloit College in Wisconsin has released the Beloit College Mindset List. A creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it looks at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students. " Read the rest of the article-
http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/

Patterns of Global Terrorism Reports

Patterns of Global Terrorism Reports
As a public service, Berkshire Publishing is posting here large sections from its Patterns of Global Terrorism 1985-2005: U.S. Department of State Reports with Supplementary Documents and Statistics for free pdf download. Also provided in html format will be a document of particular current relevance from each section of the volumes.
Of special note is the Chronology of Significant Terrorist Incidents from 1964-2005.134 pages; PDF.

Children and Environmental Health

Several New Papers on Children and Environmental Health Issues (PDFs)
+ Trials and Tribulations of Protecting Children from Environmental Hazards
+ An Exploration of Ethical Issues in Research in Children’s Health and the Environment
+ The Politics of Risk: A Human Rights Paradigm for Children’s Environmental Health Research
+ Privacy and Ethics in Pediatric Environmental Health Research Part I: Genetic and Prenatal Testing
+ Privacy and Ethics in Pediatric Environmental Health Research Part II: Protecting Families and Communities
Source: Environmental Health Perspectives

Archive for Homeland Security

New Online From the Federal Research Division/Library of Congress
U.S. Army Field Manuals, War Department/Department of the Army Pamphlets

The full text of selected U.S. Army Field Manuals (FMs), War Department Pamphlets (WD PAMs), and Department of the Army Pamphlets (DA PAMs), which particularly address some of the current research needs and interests of The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School Library will be added regularly to this site.
Source: Docuticker

The Almanac of Higher Education

The Chronicle's 2006-7 "Almanac of Higher Education" is now online. It includes national and state-by-state data on colleges and universities and their students, faculty and staff members, and finances.
http://chronicle.com/free/almanac/2006/

STATE-BY-STATE ROUNDUPS
Profiles and data for higher education in the 50 states and
the District of Columbia.
http://chronicle.com/free/almanac/2006/states/states.htm

ACROSS THE NATION
National data on college enrollment trends, faculty salaries,
test scores, degrees awarded, tuition and fees, spending on
research and development, student aid, and more.
http://chronicle.com/free/almanac/2006/nation/nation_index.htm

50 Popular Science Blogs

Weblogs written by scientists are relatively rare, but some of them are proving popular. Out of 46.7 million blogs indexed by the Technorati blog search engine, five scientists' sites make it into the top 3,500. This list gives you a chance to get acquainted with these five sites (Pharyngula, Panda's Thumb, RealClimate, Cosmic Variance, Scientific Activist) and many more.
50 Popular Science Blogs
Source: Nature Journal

U.S. Government Manual 2006-2007

As the official handbook of the Federal Government, the United States Government Manual provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, and boards, commissions, and committees. The Manual begins with reprints of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The new edition of the Manual is available annually in late summer. You may search or browse.
Source: U.S. Printing Office

Lower Cost for College Textbooks

“In response to growing student concern about the high price of college textbooks, the major publishers have developed lower-cost versions of a few of their textbooks. In addition, alternative and online publishers have emerged on the market, offering free or lower-cost versions of some textbooks to students and professors. In order to provide a snapshot of the lowercost textbook market, we examined the lowercost options offered by the major publishers in their online catalogues and identified several alternative publishers offering textbooks for a lower price or for free.”
Textbooks For the 21st Century: A Guide To Free And Low Cost Textbooks
Source: Student Public Interest Research Groups

U.S. Census FactFinder Database

Changes and New Data Made to U.S. Census FactFinder Database

+ 2004 ZIP Code Business Patterns
+ 2005 American Community Survey - Wave 1 - Social and Demographic Estimates released on AFF
+ Changes to the Fact Sheet, People and Housing pages
+ 2004 Nonemployer Statistics released
+ 2002 Economic Surveys made more visible in American FactFinder
+ Download Center - more data available from the Economic Census and Annual Surveys

What's Inside a JPEG File?

As common as these files are in everyone’s life, very few of us actually know what goes on inside a JPEG file and still fewer understand the many pitfalls associated with using this choice when storing their digital photographs. This essay describes the inner working of this file format that we so commonly use, highlighting its many merits and it many flaws. Like any tool that is available to us, there are correct ways to use the JPEG file format and there are times when it is a poor choice.
What is inside a JPEG file?
Source: The Society for Imaging Science and Technology

Booker Prize For Fiction 2006

The long list for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006, one of the most prestigious book awards, was announced this week. Now in its thirty-eighth year, the prize aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. The winner receives £50,000 and both the winner and the short listed authors are guaranteed a worldwide readership plus a dramatic increase in book sales.

The short list will be published by September 14. The winner will be announced on October 15. The choices for the long list, short list, and the winner create great excitement in the book world. The bookmakers in England have Mitchell’s Black Swan Green as the 5-1 favorite so far. I hear that Messud’s The Emperor’s Children is excellent. Many of the authors have been on the list before or have won.

Here is the long list:
Carey, Peter Theft: A Love Story
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss
Edric, Robert Gathering the Water
Gordimer, Nadine Get a Life
Grenville, Kate The Secret River
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down
Jacobson, Howard Kalooki Nights
Lasdun, James Seven Lies
Lawson, Mary The Other Side of the Bridge
McGregor, Jon So Many Ways to Begin
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men
Messud, Claire The Emperor’s Children
Mitchell, David Black Swan Green
Murr, Naeem The Perfect Man
O’Hagan, Andrew Be Near Me
Robertson, James The Testament of Gideon Mack
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk
Unsworth, Barry The Ruby in her Navel
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch

If you are interested in reading any of these, contact the library.
Source: Booker Prize Online

College Campuses & Security

Some college campuses – especially small ones – might believe they are immune from terrorist activity. But that sense of security is false, says Paul M. Cell, chief of the Montclair State Police Department. “Each institution has its own unique appeal to the various terrorist causes,” says Cell, who is certified in terrorism response and prevention training for law enforcement. In addition to the more publicized dangers campuses face – the bombing of a large research university’s nuclear facilities, for example – incidents that are smaller in scope but still threatening to the campus community can also occur – such as targeting an individual staff or faculty member because of controversial research, or running a Web site that supports a terrorist organization.

Another common misconception is that a general emergency plan will be adequate in responding to such incidents, Cell says. “The most commonly overlooked security concern at many colleges and universities is the belief that just having an emergency plan is enough,” he says. “All too often, emergency plans are not exercised, updated, or properly disseminated to the community.” On August 23, Cell will detail how to conduct thorough campus risk, threat, and vulnerability assessments for all types of institutions during a live, 90-minute audio conference on “Level Red: A Community Approach to Mitigating Campus Terrorism.” The focus will be on a multidisciplinary, multijurisdictional approach to campus preparedness.
For more information, click here.

Book Donations

The library is now working with HANDS ACROSS THE WATER, INC. (HATW) to collect books for needy libraries and schools in book starved areas in our country and globally. HATW is a nonprofit charitable organization that has strengthened community and school libraries everywhere from Mississippi to the Fiji Islands. We are collecting every kind of book for all age levels, fiction/nonfiction, general reading books on all subjects, textbooks, encyclopedia sets, hard cover and paperbacks. We also accept books on tape plus DVD’s, but not magazines or journals. HATW has provided a container on campus to store books for pickup.

The library is donating books that we no longer need. Please join us in this charitable reuse project by bringing your surplus books to the library. Thank you.

Education Statistics for 2005

The National Center for Education Statistics posted on Thursday its complete 2005 Digest of Education Statistics. In May the center, the statistical arm of the U.S. Education Department, published many of the report’s tables and charts, which provide raw numbers on, among other things, the number of colleges, enrollments, and graduates, as well as educational attainment, finances, federal funds for education, attitudes on education, and education characteristics of the labor force.

On Thursday the center published the full Digest, a seven-chapter opus that eventually will be available in print. The new material largely repeats what was available in May, but it is broken up into a series of large data files and each chapter bears a lengthy headnote on the broad findings illustrated in the charts and tables that follow.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Beautiful Email

Certain email programs can badly "mess up" what you thought of as a beautifully crafted piece of HTML. For example, many programs - such as Outlook 2003-- won't display images in the email unless the user specifically permits this. Someone told me about a product that might help: Email Advisor from the Lyris company. http://www.lyris.com/products/emailadvisor/

Lyris' website says "EmailAdvisor offers you the first-ever view of exactly how your messages will appear in every single email client on the market today. What's more, after you send a message, you'll see how each of the 40 major ISPs is processing it–in real time–including which ones are inappropriately blocking or filtering it to a bulk folder."

School Matters

Despite a 50 percent increase in per pupil spending over the past two decades, nearly one third of public high school students fail to graduate, and two thirds of all students leave high school unprepared for a four-year college, according to the Manhattan Institute. Given the diminishing economic prospects for Americans without a quality education, the need for reform is clear

Here is a place for parents, educators and leaders to research information about public schools. Type in the school or district name to get performance, finance, and relevant demographic data. School Matters is a service of Standard and Poor's.
http://www.schoolmatters.com/

FedStats

FedStats is the new window on the full range of official statistical information available to the public from the Federal Government. Use the Internet's powerful linking and searching capabilities to track economic and population trends, education, health care costs, aviation safety, foreign trade, energy use, farm production, and more. Access official statistics collected and published by more than 100 Federal agencies without having to know in advance which agency produces them.
www.fedstats.gov

JOIN THE GOODWIN WIKI BOOK CLUB

Join the Goodwin wiki book club!

The wiki format makes it easier for the busy Goodwin community to have a commmunal discussion without the burden of meeting at a specified time in a specified place.This is a protected space that can be viewed by anyone but can only be edited by members of the space. As we grow in membership, the wiki book club can have sections devoted to different types of books.I will choose the first book and invite readers to read along. We will request copies through interlibrary loan for interested readers. I will post information and comments every week (or I may ask another reader to do so), and a discussion will follow in the comments section. This will become a regular feature, with a posting every Friday.Please let me know what you think of the book club idea in general. Suggestions are welcome!
http://goodwinlibrary.wikispaces.com

The first book will be announced Thursday, August 10.

Kafka on the Shore: Notable Book of the Week

Japanese fiction writer Haruki Murakami has had nine of his books published in the United States in translation. His latest novel has recently appeared, under the title Kafka on the Shore, in a translation by Philip Gabriel. This novel was chosen as one of 2006 notable books of fiction.

It's an engrossing two-pronged quest narrative, about a fifteen-year-old boy named Kafka Tamura and an old illiterate man named Nakata who, after a war-time accident as a child, acquires the ability to speak to animals and call down very unusual rainstorms from the clear blue sky.

Reading Murakami, clearly a world-class entertainer with a mysterious metaphysical bent, is a striking experience in consciousness expansion, of which the act of reading itself is a part. As one of the main characters, Kafka Tamura, says--holding up a book and sinking down onto a sofa at the library where he hides out for a while, on the run from his destiny and at the same time moving toward it--"Slowly, like a movie fadeout, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favorite feeling in the world." When you’re reading a Murakami novel, you may feel this way, too.

(Goodwin Library is featuring a selection of Notable Books. The Notable Books Council, a division of the American Library Association, selected these titles for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge or for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers. So far our readers have agreed with the selections.)

Library Resource of the Week: CINAHL Plus

CINAHL Plus with Full Test is an expanded version of the original Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and a recommended resource for all health science fields. CINAHL Plus is an online subscription database available to Goodwin students on and off campus.

In addition to the original content, CINAHL Plus includes over 300 additional journals; new materials such as Evidence-Based Care Sheets, Quick Lessons, and Search Strategies; expanded searchable cited records; and indexing for important journals in nursing and allied health dating back to 1937. Let’s focus today on the Evidence-Based Care Sheets.

Evidence-Based Care Sheets provide two page portable document format (PDF) summaries of treatment care for many conditions and include a list of references. They are intended to be general informational overviews of the subjects for health care professionals. Students may browse for a term or select a topic from an extensive list. While these care sheets are certainly useful at point-of-care, one must consider the caveat of authority. Care sheets are written by CINAHL Information Systems. Reviewers and their affiliation (generally members of a Clinical Research Council) are duly noted at the end of the material. To further aid users in evaluating the effectiveness of recommendations, a “coding matrix”' classifies references at the end of the care sheet, listing everything from “M” for meta-analysis to “GI” for general or background information, texts, or reports.

Please contact the library staff if you need help finding and using this powerful database.

Kids and Family Reading Report

“Yankelovich, a leader in consumer research and trends, and Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, unveil for the first time, the results of The Kids and Family Reading Report™. While studies have investigated how kids spend their time outside of school, this is the first to reveal some surprising insights about why kids and their parents do or don’t read, and how the power of one book, Harry Potter, can impact kids’ reading and school work. This is a national survey of kids 5-17 years old and one parent or primary guardian.”
+Full Report (PDF; 285 KB)+
Harry Potter: The Power of One Book (ppt; 234 KB)

Source: Yankelovich and Scholastic

English the National Language?

The Washington Post recently explored current opinions on the move to make English the national language. The best practice for improving literacy, according to that article, is not creating a national language however, but supporting the diverse linguistic background of all citizens.

Here are some articles that suggest additional perspectives and strategies related to this important subject. The Language Arts article "What's New in the English Language Arts: Challenging Policies and Practices, ¿y qué?" examines "the ways in which we have not taken up social and cultural understandings of the teaching and learning of literacy" and emphasizes the importance of supporting diverse language knowledge in the classroom.In "Unlock Their Lonely Hearts" from Voices from the Middle, author Danling Fu argues that, for new immigrant children, literacy education that challenges students to speak and engage in meaningful work (not worksheets and handwriting practice) is the key to initiating them into American culture, to helping them feel this country is their home, and to unlocking their lonely hearts. Rather than outlawing everything but English, the English Journal article "Democracy, Dialect, and the Power of Every Voice" asserts that "rich experiences in the exploration of dialect serve as a precursor to mastering Standard English." The article includes specific strategies for empowering students as language users. "Linguistic Memory and the Politics of U.S. English" from College English argues for a national language policy that moves beyond the notion of language as a right, with its lingering assumptions of English monolingualism as an ultimate goal, and instead fosters a linguistic culture where being multilingual is both normal and desirable.

National Criminal Justice Reference Service

National Criminal Justice Reference Service

The goal of the NCJRS is to provide "justice and substance abuse information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide." From the home page users may access the Library Abstracts database containing summaries of more than 180,000 criminal justice publications and the NCJRS Virtual Library containing 7,000+ full-text publications from various government agencies. Entries in the Abstracts Database, which cover resources from the 1970's to the present, include title, author, sponsoring agency, purchasing address, and journal citation, as well as short summaries. Together, these two databases provide free access to a wealth of information, including statistics, research findings, program descriptions, congressional hearing transcripts, and training materials on topics such as crime, criminology, law enforcement, corrections, courts, juvenile justice, victims of crime and the justice system.

NEW LIBRARY SERVICE-INFOANYTIME

WHAT IS IT?
InfoAnyTime is a real-time, web-based reference service that provides live librarians to assist students, faculty and the public in finding information to support their research.

InfoAnyTime allows students and faculty to connect to a professional librarian 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sessions are conducted via online chat, using pushing and co-browsing technology to display information found on the web and in the iCONN databases. Anyone with a web browser can access the service - there is no special software required.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Users of the service click on the InfoAnyTime link on the student intranet site, enter their name and wait a few moments for a librarian to come online.
Professional, highly-trained librarians conduct reference interviews via online chat, and provide answers and further resources in the form of web sites and online database citations. These online resources appear directly on the user's screen, next to the chat session window. The user may interact both with the web sites provided and with the librarian until his/her question has been answered satisfactorily.

At the end of each session, both the participant and the reference librarians at the college receive transcripts of the session via email. This is a new service, so it may have a few glitches, but it has been working on a trial basis in a few colleges in the state with no problems.

WHERE IS IT?
Currently, you will find it on the student intranet. Just click on "Great Library Service" to get started!

Deleting Online Predators Act: References

Here is a list of resources explaining the effect this bill would have on libraries and on social networking sites, and some alternative ways of dealing with online predators.
http://www.beiffert.net/wordpress/deleting-online-predators-act-dopa-hr-5319-ih/

Avoiding Medical Errors

Medication errors are among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 million people every year. The problem is so serious that, on average, a hospital patient is subject to at least one medication error per day.

These are among the findings in a report released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine, chartered by Congress to advise the government on science and medical issues.
The extra costs of treating medication-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone conservatively amount to $3.5 billion a year, the report states. The IOM panel estimates that at least a quarter of these injuries are preventable. This is the bad news.

The better news is that the Institute of Medicine provides a Fact Sheet on what you can do to avoid these errors at home, as outpatient or inpatient, and at the pharmacy.

Own Your First Home Contest

What are you waiting for? Enter Black Enterprise's 2nd annual Own Your First Home contest and get a chance to win $10,000 toward your down payment. Closing the wealth gap between black and white households remains at the heart of the Black Enterprise Mission. Read more about the contest in the current issue of Black Enterprise in the library or you can get the contest rules by logging on to blackenterprise.com.
Source: Black Enterprise August 2006

Podcasts and RSS from NEJM

Now you can use the latest technology to keep up with medical research and clinical analysis. The New England Journal of Medicine offers two podcasts each week as well as weekly RSS feeds--FREE. To receive NEJM podcasts automatically, subscribe to NEJM Weekly Audio Summaries or NEJM Interviews at iTunes--easy to use. RSS feeds ae available for the current issue plus the three previous issues of NEJM. Each RSS feed contains article titles, brief summaries for selected articles, and links to the complete article.
Source: New England Journal of Medicine

New Resource for Marketing Statistics

American Demographics is a magazine for marketers. The content is available and searchable online (http://www.demographics.com/). it is full of information about who we are and how we live, above and beyond what the government collects. It's a repository of statistics from government reports, polls, and surveys from diverse groups such as the American Toy Institute, the Travel Industry Association of America, and the National Frozen Pizza Institute. Try it out and be amazed.
Source: Ex Libris

New Power Searching For Gale Databases

The future of search and information retrieval is here in August! Thomson Gale's new technology platform is the ultimate one-stop search solution. Our Thomson Gale databases will begin using the revolutionary new platform, PowerSearch, August 1. This new platform allows for the cross-search of Gale databases -- more than 11,000 InfoTrac periodicals and hundreds of Thomson Gale and partner eBooks. We will also introduce a new service called AccessMyLibrary. The Goodwin Library provides the Goodwin community with the following Thomson Gale databases: Professional Collection, Business & Company Resource Center with Newsletters, Expanded Academic ASAP, General Reference Center Gold, Health & Wellness Resource Center and Alternative Health Module, Informe, InfoTrac, InfoTrac (Junior, Kid's, and Student editions), What do I Read Next?, Kids InfoBits, Kid's Edition, and Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Electronic Voting Machines Need Safeguards

With November elections fast approaching, computer scientists are stepping up pressure on Congress to improve the accuracy and security of electronic voting. Eugene H. Spafford, a computer-science professor at Purdue University, wrote to Rep. Vernon Ehlers, Republican chairman of the Committee on House Administration, urging him to support legislation that would require voting-machine results to be documented by a paper trail. Spafford is chairman of the U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery. "As experts in computing, we have grave reservations about the safeguards in place with many of the computerized voting technologies being used," the letter read. David Wagner, a computer-science professor at the University of California, alsodescribed his concerns before a joint hearing of two House committees. "A single person with insider access and some technical knowledge could switch votes, perhaps undetected, and potentially swing an election," Mr. Wagner warned members of Congress. --Andrea L. Foster in Wired Campus

The Blog Misses You

The Goodwin Library blog provides information, but it also was intended to be symbiotic, accretive of the wisdom of many, a fragile thread of eclectic conversation. That means anyone reading it, if anyone is, would occasionally be moved to comment. Such has not been the case-- so far. Warning: I am not giving up.

Blog Explosion

"The term “blog” was coined only in 1997, but less than 10 years later the blogging phenomenon is sweeping across the United States and around the world. Millions of bloggers are filling the blogosphere with everything from personal journals and family photographs to political advocacy and journalistic commentary. Blogophiles say the blogging revolution is changing politics, business and popular culture for the better by reducing the influence of elites and institutions and allowing for wider public participation and greater interactivity. Some skeptics, however, question whether blogging is anything more than an Internet fad. And some critics say public-policy blogs spew too much unchecked information and overhyped rhetoric into the political process. But with easy-to-use software and growing interest among individuals as well as businesses and government, the blogging phenomenon appears unlikely to peak any time soon."

Are blogs a passing fad or a lasting revolution? Click on comment below this or any entry to add your opinion.

Source: CQ Researcher June 9, 2006

The Big Here: Eco Awareness

"You live in the big here. Wherever you live, your tiny spot is deeply intertwined within a larger place, imbedded fractal-like into a whole system called a watershed, which is itself integrated with other watersheds into a tightly interdependent biome. (See the world eco-region map ). At the ultimate level, your home is a cell in an organism called a planet. All these levels interconnect. What do you know about the dynamics of this larger system around you? Most of us are ignorant of this matrix. But it is the biggest interactive game there is. Hacking it is both fun and vital." (from Kevin Kelly's blog)

Answer the 30 questions on this site to elevate your awareness (and literacy) of the greater place in which you live.

International Primary Documents

With so much international news making headlines of late, Diplomacy Monitor has become an essential resource for primary documents and news releases from various governments and government agencies. This free service from the St. Thomas University School of Law offers direct access to information (communiques, news releases, etc) from governments around the globe, gathered and posted to this database very soon after they are released on the web.

Material is searchable and also browsable in various compilations. Examples include:• Documents By Region• Documents By Issue• By Nation (Source)• By Nation (Affected)
Additionally, material is cached and non-English docs are also linked to mechanical translations into English. (be careful, of course).

Searching for Full Text Aticles

If you are searching for journal articles and you want the instant gratification of full text articles, let me give you some advice. Most of our database search screens have boxes to check that will limit your search to full text and scholarly (peer reviewed) articles. Not all of our databases provide full text; some will give you only the citation and often an abstract as well. So it is even more important to SEARCH IN DATABASES THAT PROVIDE FULL TEXT ARTICLES!

Here are a few examples. The PsycINFO database indexes only citations and sometimes abstracts. For that reason, we have subscribed to PsycARTICLES database that provides full text articles for you. CINAHL usually only provides citations and abstracts, but we have linked our full text database, Health Source: Nursing Academic Edition to CINAHL. If CINAHL has indexed an article that is full text in Health Source, it will show up in your search. WE also have subscribed to CINAHL with Full Text and that should be self-explanatory. In MEDLINE, search in Pub Med Central (PMC) to limit your results to full text articles only. For general academic research, the InfoTrac OneFile database provides the optional limit of full text and journal articles only.

We can often arrange for articles through interlibrary loan, but with shrewd searching or slight refocusing of your topic, you should find what you need in our databases. If you are having difficulty, please contact the library staff for help. We want to be sure that you have the information you need.
860.528.4111 #6782
mnowlan@goodwin.edu

Nursing Care for Older Adults

"The Atlantic Philanthropies has awarded two grants to increase the knowledge and skills of those providing care to older adults. Information about the care of those over 65, derived from cutting-edge research and best practices, is now available to nurses and other providers in either print format or streaming video, at any time and at no cost, through this series called A New Look at the Old.

The print series began in the August 2004 issue of AJN, and will continue every other month until December 2006. You can read or download the articles already publishedby clicking on the 'titles listed below.'

The broadcast series is based on the content of the articles found in AJN, but includes additional content. Those interested in viewing the 60-minute or 30-minute programs which began in January 2005, can click on the titles under the broadcast heading. These programs are archived for viewing at any time."
Source: www.nursingcenter.com

Digital Native or Digital Immigrant?

Technology is dividing us into digital natives and digital immigrants - and changing the way we think. A “digital native” is one who has never known a world without instant communication whereas a “digital immigrant” may still be coming to terms with a culture ruled by mobiles, PDAs, blogs, e-mails, and interactive websites. Librarians (and everyone else) must come to terms with this because it impacts the effectiveness of our work.

This generational divide has been evident for a while, but only now is its impact becoming clear. Last month, Lord Saatchi, doyen of the British advertising world, virtually declared the death of traditional advertising — because digital technology is changing the way people absorb information. The digital native’s brain is physically different as a result of the digital input it has received growing up, he claims.

Many of our current and most of our potential college students may appear to live in Connecticut, but they actually spend time in another galaxy — out there, in the digital universe of websites, e-mails, text messages and mobile phone calls. Some may be checking their wall on facebook.com Even young children today are multitasking left, right and center — downloading tracks, uploading photos, sending e-mails, visting chatrooms, instant messaging. They may find sitting down and reading, even watching TV, too slow and boring.

Behaviors are being shaped by digital technology as never before, taking us boldly where no generations have gone before. The experts say it may even be the next step in evolution, transforming brains and the way we think.

What do you think? Are you a digital native, a digital immigrant, or somewhere in between?

The Best Cities for Doing Business

As part of their annual report, Inc. studied 393 population centers across the nation, identifying job creation and other signs of business vitality. What did they find? The big cities are idling, and the real entrepreneurial hot spots are on the periphery -- where low costs and favorable regulatory environments make it possible to thrive. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford area ranked 298th out of the 393 population centers.

Which metropolitan areas are really booming? The online report is a searchable database, the full 2006 rankings broken down by small, medium, and large cities, an interactive map, stories explaining why -- and where -- companies are flourishing today, and much more. This might be of interest to sociology and business classes.
http://www.inc.com/bestcities/

Friday Poetry Club

The Poetry Club will meet in the Libray Annex every Friday from 10:50-11:40. Come share your poetry or just listen and support others. If you have any questions, contact Cynthia McHale-Hendricks at writecmchale@earthlink.net.

Biology Blog

While in Minneapolis and St. Paul last week, I heard abou this biology blog. Paul Z. Myers, an associate professor of science and math at the University of Minnesota , is something of an accidental blogger: he only started after setting up a Web site for students enrolled in one of his courses.

“When the class ended, it was just sitting there,” he says of his blog, now called Pharyngula. “I started typing and haven’t stopped for three years now.” Mr. Myers’s site is now the most visited science blog on the Web. Be warned--he is very opinionated!

Librarians Fight for Facebook

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet is discussing a bill that would prohibit anyone younger than 18 from using social-networking sites on computers at public schools and libraries. The “Deleting Online Predators Act,” as it is called, would also prohibit minors from using public machines to log on to chat rooms and some online forums .

Chris Kelly, Facebook executive, depicted Facebook’s security as robust before suggesting, rather gently, that the bill is a bit too broad. But Beth Yoke, executive director of the American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association, didn’t mince words. The bill, she argued, “creates barriers to information literacy” by discouraging librarians and schoolteachers from teaching young students about responsible use of the Web. “This flies in the face of logic and hundreds of years of educational theory,” Ms. Yoke said of the act. WHAT DO YOU THINK? COMMENT??
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

MagPower Reading

MagazineLiteracy.org has teamed with Texterity.com to create the MagPower Reading demonstration project, which is an online portfolio featuring access to select children's magazines in a digital format. The organizations are now looking for teachers and other educators to participate in the project as literacy agents, providing feedback via an online survey that will help evaluate the benefits of providing online access to children's magazines as a literacy resource for teachers in classrooms, mentors in after-school programs, and literacy agents in community reading programs.
http://magazineliteracy.org/?tp=magpower

Just for Fun

To live and enjoy life requires more than just information. RecipeZaar <http://www.recipezaar.com/> is my favorite cookery site. After all you have done this week you deserve something good to eat. On this site, you can save favorite recipes in a personalized cookbook, rate and review recipes, or get cooking advice from their chefs. Bon Appetit.

College Cost Crunch

Rising tuition and student loan debt is a national problem. No state has escaped the college cost crunch. But individual states have been affected to different degrees. This report provides information on the college affordability problem in each state.

"Individualized state reports provide information for each state on:
• The rising cost of college;• The erosion of the value of the Pell Grant;• The amount of student loan debt incurred by college graduates;• The amount of family income needed to pay for college;• The amount of savings if student loan interest rates were cut in half;• The reduction in monthly costs if student loan payments were capped at 15 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income;• The increase in the average Pell Grant award and the number of studentseligibleif the maximum Pell Grant were increased to $5,100; and• The number of students and families who are likely to benefit from re-instituting the college tuition tax deduction, which expired at the end of 2005."
Source: Reference Shelf

New Subscriptions

The Goodwin Library has several new periodicals:
Sporting News
Black Enterprise
Wine Enthusiast
Architectural Digest
Information Week
Spin
Vibe
Men's Health
Women's Health

Katrina Web Archive

For anyone doing research on Katrina, here are some resources. The Internet Archive and individual contributors produced a comprehensive list of Web sites to create a historical record of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the massive relief effort which followed. The collection contains over 25 million unique pages, all text searchable, from 1,500 sites. The Web archive consists of Web sites indexed between the dates of September 4 and October 17th. Two recent books on Katrina were reviewed in the New York Times yesterday: Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Douglas Brinkley and Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City by Jed Horne--both available through Interlibrary Loan.
Web Archive: http://websearch.archive.org/katrina/May30,2006

College Transfers and College Graduation

Forty percent of all first-time freshmen begin their post-secondary careers in community colleges. Among all community college students who were eligble for transfer to a college or university and who declared that their goal was a bachelor's degree, only 14% actually earned a degree. The number of credits accepted by four year universities greatly influences a student's success rate, according to a study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. "Among those who had all of their credits accepted 82 percent had graduated within six years with a bachelor's degree," while "among those who had only some of their credits accepted, 42 percent had attained a bachelor's degree" during the study period. This has some relevance for Goodwin College as well.
Source: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Book Recommendation: The Hungry Tide

The Hungry Tide is the work of a powerful novelist, Amitav Ghosh. It is a novel of adventure and romance set in the exotic Sundarbans--treacherous islands in the Bay of Bengal. It’s similar in style and tone to Ghosh’s overlooked masterpiece, The Glass Palace. But despite the similarities, its smaller scope and more limited range of characters makes it feel somewhat more accessible than the earlier book. Ghosh has managed to turn The Hungry Tide into a page-turner -- beautifully controlled and plotted -- while sacrificing none his historical sweep. Please don't miss this. (The book is featured in our Notable Books section.)

Understanding Nutrition Labels

A recent class assignment in Environmental Science focused on food labels. Most people look at food labels for reasons other than an assignment. But whatever the reason, many consumers need to know how to use this information more effectively and easily.

If the label says a food has 20% of your daily value of calcium, do you know if that's good? Or what the yellow part of the label signifies? Or how much difference there is between "reduced fat" milk and non-fat milk?

Research for that class uncovered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's excellent online site on nutrtion label information. The site makes it easier for all of us to use nutrition labels to make quick, informed food choices that contribute to a healthy diet.
Source: "How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label"

Scientific American: Featured Periodical

Scientific American is published monthly by Scientific American, Inc. in New York City. It has been published for more than 150 years and for good reason. It is a highly respected, informative and accessible magazine. There are numerous features covering science and the citizen, technology and business, and mathematical recreation. An interesting feature is"50,100, 150 Years Ago", short sections from earlier issues. There are many color illustrations that add interest to the stories. Scientific American is a valued part of our collection. A recent issue featured articles on stem cell research and cancer, Hubble's top 10 discoveries, what birds see, power grids for hydrogen economy, reality of criminal investigations, and much more.

Goodby, Mr. Keating

Thomas Benton, an assistant professor of English, offers his take on academic life and work.

He writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education that "to succeed as an English Ph.D., you have to give up all of the things that attracted you to the subject in the first place."

He treasured the film "Dead Poets Society" in which Robin Williams plays an English professor, Mr. Keating. That portrayal reinforced many of the romantic feelings that led Benton to become an English major.

In the end, he decided that the romanticized Keating model was not for him. "It is not that I want to privilege some form of literary dilettantism as a substitute for professionalism. I simply want to demonstrate that the reasons most people get into English are different from the motives that will make them successful in graduate school and in professional life beyond that. They must, ultimately, purge themselves of the romantic motives that drew them to English in the first place -- or pretend to do so. If you want to be a literary professional, you must say goodbye to Mr. Keating."
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Did Blond Mammoths Have More Fun?

"Woolly mammoths, ice-age pachyderms that died out thousands of years ago, probably came in blond and red as well as the black and gray favored in museum reconstructions. According to a paper to appear in today’s issue of Science, a team of European scientists isolated a gene affecting hair coloration from a 43,000-year-old mammoth bone found in Russia. The gene, which appears in other mammals, can produce red or yellow hair.

The Science paper does not discuss whether the gene conferred any behavioral traits on blond mammoths."
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Libraries are Going Green

Many new library buildings are taking advantage of sustainable “green” technology. Some libraries are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, which is a green building rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council.

This National Resources Defense Council website explains how building green can boost the bottom line. There are tips for streamlining design and construction with strategies that deliver the biggest paybacks.
Source: National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

Facts About Connecticut's Foreign Born Population

• Connecticut ranks 13th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia for the percent of the total population who are foreign born: 12%
• Connecticut's immigrants come from Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (38%); Asia (22%); Latin America (22%); Caribbean (14%) and Africa (5%).
• The top 10 birth countries for Connecticut's foreign born are Poland (8%); Jamaica (7%); Canada (5%); India (5%); Italy (4%); Mexico (4%); Brazil (4%); Portugal (3%); China (3%) and the United Kingdom (3%).
• Almost three-quarters (72%) of Connecticut's foreign born speak a language other than English at home. Of those, 45% say they speak English "very well" and 6%, "not at all."

Source: CBIA News June

Espionage, Intelligence, Security

The Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security, ebook version, is now available to Goodwin students. This encyclopedia is a comprehensive guide to the history, uses, related scientific principles and technology of espionage and intelligence. The Encyclopedia includes approximately 800 entries, written by experts in the field, ranging in length from 300 to 2,500 words. Topics covered range from the historical use of espionage to the emerging use of technology in modern espionage and counterintelligence. Additional features include more than 300 photographs and illustrations; a chronology, glossary and bibliography; and a comprehensive subject index.

This title is now available in eBook format through Gale Virtual Reference Library accessible by using www.iconn.org and looking under [eBooks for Colleges].

New Version NLM Gateway

A new version of the National Library of Medicine Gateway was released recently. Changes include the following:
Access to a new collection, "Bookshelf," was added to the NLM Gateway in the Bibliographic Resources category. The Bookshelf is a growing collection of full text biomedical books, and includes other resources such as GeneReviews and Health Services/Technology Assessment Text (HSTAT). The Bookshelf home page provides a complete book list.
Access to a new collection, "Household Products Database," was added to the NLM Gateway in the Consumer Health Resources category. The Household Products Database is a consumer's guide that provides information on the potential health effects of chemicals contained in more than 5,000 common household products used inside and around the home. The fact sheet provides additional information on this resource.
The results summary page will now display Error if an error is encountered in searching a particular collection or N/A if a search is not applicable to a particular collection. Previously, a hit count of zero was displayed. Default text and link colors are now being set. Visited results links will now change to the visited link color.
A warning message ("One or more search terms were dropped. See Search Details") is now displayed on the results page if part of a user search query is dropped, but the search is still run and results are returned to the user.
Additional fields - Investigator Link, Performing Organization Link, Performing Organization Phone, Supporting Agency Link, and Supporting Agency Phone - have been added to HSRPRoj.

For Your Reading Pleasure

The Notable Books Council of the American Library Association, annually selects titles for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge or for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers. Goodwin Library has the following titles from the current 2006 list:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
American Sublime by Elizabeth Alexander
Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishguro
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
Bound for Canaan by F. Bordewich

Stop in the library to find summer reading selections.

Goodwin College As Entrepreneur

Goodwin College's growth and riverfront campus are featured on the front page of the Hartford Courant today in an article by Dan Uhlinger. "Goodwin College as Entrepreneur" is the headline. Read the article here!
http://www.courant.com/hc-goodwin0703.artjul03,0,1938310.story

New ICONN Resources

We have added EBSCO's History Reference Center, Science Reference Center, Student Research Center and 5 new Gale e-book reference titles to iCONN. The new EBSCO resources replace the Gale History Resource Centers (U.S. and World) which have been removed from iCONN.

Check the E-Books page to see these new Gale Virtual Reference Library titles:
Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security
Encyclopedia of Population
Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations and Footwear through the Ages
Renaissance: an Encyclopedia for Students
Encyclopedia of Landforms and Other Geologic Features