Black History Month

To commemorate and celebrate the contributions to our nation made by people of African descent, American historian Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week. The first celebration occurred on Feb. 12, 1926. For many years, the second week of February was set aside for this celebration to coincide with the birthdays of abolitionist/editor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, as part of the nation’s bicentennial, the week was expanded into Black History Month. Each year, U.S. presidents proclaim February as National African-American History Month.

The library has a special exhibit in the showcase in front of the elevators and in the library.

If you have never heard Cornel West, you should. One of America's most provocative public intellectuals, Cornel West has been a champion for racial justice since childhood. He is currently a professor at Princeton University. His writing, speaking, and teaching weave together the traditions of the black Baptist Church, progressive politics, and jazz.Listen to Cornel West on "why reading matters".

Connecticut Chuckles & Groundhog day

Groundhog Day is tomorrow

Will it be a long winter or an early spring? Only "Connecticut Chuckles" knows for sure.

The official rodent prognosticator of Connecticut’s weather resides at the Lutz Children’s Museum. Hundreds of people flock to the museum each year to hear the news straight from the groundhog’s mouth (with a little help from the Mayor).

The museum will open at 6:00 AM. Connecticut Chuckles, also known as Molly, makes her grand entrance at exactly 7:03 AM. This event is free and open to the public.

Library Blog Comment Change

You can now comment anonymously to library blog posts. I have eliminated the requirement of a user name and email account. That was cumbersome and time consuming. Who can remember all those user names and passwords? So now your comments will be posted from Anonymous unless you choose to sign your name. You can immediately react to something you read without wasting time.

I hope this will encourage more of you to comment and start discussions. I welcome guest entries for the blog on any topic of interest to the Goodwin community. That should be almost anything.

Congratulations Goodwin College

The February issue of the Hartford Magazine has a Greater Hartford Report Card for 2009. Goodwin College received an A. The only other A was UCONN Sports. AWSOME!

The magazine is in the Goodwin Library.

Ohio State's New Smartphone Mobile Site

January 25th, 2010
The staff, students, faculty, and alumni at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio now have a new mobile site that’s optimized for smartphones (like the iPhone). Another version for traditional mobiles is also available.

This page has a quick overview of what’s available for the smartphone version.

1. It’s location aware.
2. Directions to campus locations (freshmen will love this feature)
3. Real-Time arrival times for campus buses
4. Ohio State “backgrounds, ringtones, links to Ohio State on Facebook and Twitter. OSU’s devoted fans will love this. Smart move to include it.
5. Access the Library Catalog (but no other databases at this time).

I like number 5 myself. Don't forget that the Goodwin Library has Text-a-Librarian.

Source: Ohio State University via Gerry McKiernan, Lorcan Dempsey (via Twitter)

Preprint: Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy

This blog is starting to capture ideas in education about information literacy. This is a preprint quote from an article to be published next year. The definition of information literacy as a stand-alone library research entity seems to be no longer valid in the world of today's college students and faculty using collaborative technologies.

"Social media environments and online communities are innovative collaborative technologies that challenge traditional definitions of information literacy. Metaliteracy is an overarching and self-referential framework that integrates emerging technologies and unifies multiple literacy types. This redefinition of information literacy expands the scope of generally understood information competencies and places a particular emphasis on producing and sharing information in participatory digital environments."

What do you think?

Source: Authors: Thomas P. Mackey, Trudi E. Jacobson
Accepted: January 24, 2010
Anticipated Publication Date: January 2011
Source: College and Research Libraries PREPRINT

Google Advances

Google has announced several new search and other applications allowing users to use voice, location, and sight to find information, mostly on mobile devices.

Google Goggles visual search enables users to take a snapshot of a landmark or business and receive results based upon the image.

Google Translate has added a mobile application that translates audio from one language to another on the go.

Google Favorite Places returns information on businesses that choose to display a special barcode.

A local results application for mobile devices returns results based upon one’s GPS coordinates.

Real Time search will automatically update search results as content is updated, for example, with Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook.

Source: Greg Sterling, Google Mobile Gets ‘What’s Nearby,’ Voice Search Expands & ‘Goggles’ Search By Snapping Pictures, Search Engine Land, December 7, 2009, cited December 8, 2009, searchengineland.com/google-mobile-announcements-voice-languages-whats-nearby-goggles-31374.

In-demand Occupations

The top five in-demand and desirable occupations in the United States, using Bureau of Labor Statistics, are regisered nurses, general and operations managers, physicians and surgeons, accountants and auditors, and elementary school teachers.

The projected need for nurses (2006-2016) is 1,001,000. The projected need for elementary school teachers is 545,000. Of all the occupations regardless of wage, the highest need is for retails salespeople with 1,935,000 needed during the time period 2006-2016.

Are you surprised?

Source: U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Education, 2009

Preserving Biomed Central Articles

January 14, 2010 – CLOCKSS has partnered with BioMed Central, the world’s largest open access publisher, to preserve over 60,000 articles in CLOCKSS’s geographically and geopolitically distributed network of redundant archive nodes, located at 12 major research libraries around the world.

A non-profit joint venture between the world’s leading scholarly publishers and research libraries, CLOCKSS’s mission is to build a sustainable, geographically distributed dark archive for the benefit of the greater global research community. By archiving with CLOCKSS, BioMed Central ensures that its open access articles remain open access forever. If necessary, CLOCKSS will make this content available, under a creative commons license, for free to all scholars around the world.

All original research articles published by BioMed Central are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication. BioMed Central views open access to research as essential in order to ensure the rapid and efficient communication of research findings. BioMed Central's portfolio of 206 journals includes general titles such as Journal of Biology alongside specialist journals (e.g. BMC Bioinformatics, Malaria Journal) that focus on particular disciplines.

Source: CLOCKSS on Resource Shelf January 14, 2009

OECD Factbook 2010 on Credo Reference

Credo Reference Database has signed has integrated the Organzation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Factbook 2010 into the Credo collection. This is the first OECD title to be made available on Credo.

The OECD Factbook 2010 is a key reference tool in economic and policy issues. The most comprehensive and dynamic statistical annual from the OECD, it contains extensive information, as well as graphs and tables for more than 100 indicators covering a wide range of areas. Topics include economy, agriculture, education, energy, environment, foreign aid, health and quality of life, industry, communications, population, trade, and taxation. With the new agreement, the Factbook’s content will now be accessible and completely cross-searchable by researchers worldwide, within Credo’s collection of more than 440 full text reference books. This reference book database is available to the Goodwin community on the library page A to Z list of databases.

Source: Credo Reference Update January 2010

End of Men

It takes a man to carry a Y chromosome, and it takes the Y chromosome to make sperm, which is necessary for human reproduction. So men are essential to the future of the species.

But researchers have found that, over the millennia, the Y chromosome has lost most of it genes. What if it were to disappear altogether? NPR's Joe Palca explores that possibility in the first report of a three-part series on the End of Men.

Source: National Public Radio January 14

Animal Rights: CQ Researcher Report

Is the treatment of animals improving? Do animals have rights?
Are we doing enough to protect farm animals?
Is animal research necessary to achieve medical progress?

"The passage of dozens of tough state animal-protection laws last year reflects growing public interest in animal welfare. Today, many Americans view pets as family members, and some even leave bequests to pets in their wills. Vegetarianism has gone mainstream as people have become concerned about the conditions on factory farms, and many scientists say farm animals have feelings. Fifteen years ago, only 10 of the country's law schools offered animal-law courses; today about 130 do. At the same time, however, billions of animals are slaughtered for food each year in our meat-eating society, and live-animal research is a major tool of biomedicine. The food industry, researchers and others who depend on using and killing animals are fighting back against what they call overblown concerns about animal rights. Last November, for example, Ohio voters approved an amendment to the state's constitution barring the legislature from approving any animal-protection laws that would apply to farms."

This is just the introduction to the CQ Researcher report. Read the full report accessible from the library page (password protected). Call or text the librarian for the user name and password. A new report us published weekly. The Global CQ Researcher has a monthly report.

Source: CQ Researcher January 14 2010. This reports was written by Marcia Clemmitt.
Picture Source: Rhesus monkeys hug at a research facility in Great Britain, where labs must protect the physical and mental well-being of social animals like monkeys by housing them in groups and giving them toys. Similar laws apply to primates and some other research animals in the U.S. (Understanding Animal Research/Wellcome Images)

The 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association was revised and updated last year. For those students who are writing research papers with APA format, one of the best resources is the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University (OWL)
"Summary: APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in APA."

This resource was written by David Neyhart and Erin Karper. Additional material by Kristen Seas & Tony Russell.. Last full revision by Jodi Wagner, Elena Lawrick, Elizabeth Angeli, Kristen Moore, and Michael Anderson.Last edited by Allen Brizee on January 11 2010.

Tip on News Sources

"Google News has been one of the usual suspects when you want to monitor current news. The challenge of Google News is that the layout and organization of the stories is done by algorithm rather than by a real live human. This sometimes results in stories from less reliable sources being featured, at the expense of providing links to more trustworthy sources. Perhaps the more significant issue is that, in order to read any of the news, you need to click through to the story. Want another perspective? You'll have to go back to Google News, skim the headlines and decide what other sources offer better coverage.

Google has partnered with The Washington Post and The New York Times to provide a more journalistic approach to providing news. This new offering, called Living Stories and still in Google Labs, provides more in-depth coverage of ongoing stories. Right now, the news items being covered include the war in Afghanistan, H1N1 flu, health care reform, global warming and the debate over executive compensation. Yes, a bit US-centric, but I have hopes that Google will expand to more global issues.

Each story includes an in-depth review of the issues involved, a timeline showing key events, selected news articles and features, videos, slideshows, graphics, profiles of the key players, and links to key resources. Because these "living stories" are maintained by editors rather than generated algorithmically, they offer a way to get a good introduction and perspective on a current issue.

Living Stories may not be the go-to source for late-breaking news stories, but this is an exciting initiative. In fact, I hope that newspapers everywhere look at how Living Stories is received; this is a great way to leverage all the content that newspapers produce and tap into the knowledge of reporters by including links to the key primary sources as well."

Source: Tips from Mary Ellen Bates, author and well-known business researcher

WELCOME STUDENTS

Welcome to returning students and to those just starting here. We hope you have an exciting semester. Please come to the library soon!

I think you should also have fun here, so check this out. This will also explain the picture of piano keys.

(The Fun Theory on Youtube was suggested by Henriette Pranger, Director of Educational Assessment.)

NEW BOOKS

NEW BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY FACULTY (SOME ON RESERVE):

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis & What to Do About it
Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions & Transform Your Life
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba
Mind That Found Itself
Impaired: A Nurse's Story of Addiction and Recovery
Divided Minds: Twin Sisters & Their Journey Through Schizophrenia
The Help: A Novel

These books are now in the library.

Text a Librarian

If you have a mobile phone and want to text us a question, it’s easy:
1. Compose a text message to 66746.
2. Start your message with ASKGOOD.
3. Send your message and wait for a reply!
[Example: ASKGOOD what time do u close tonight]

The Text a Librarian service is available when the library is open.You can text us whenever you like, but we will only be able to reply when the library is open. (Hours are listed on the library page).We will respond as soon as possible during those hours. If the service is not available, you will receive an automated response and we will answer your question the next day we are open.

Use Text a Librarian to ask simple, quick questions (up to 160 characters) that can be answered in brief responses (up to 320 characters). If our responses exceed 160 characters, they appear as two messages.

To use the service, you need a mobile phone which is enabled to send and receive text messages. Goodwin Library does not charge for this service, but charges from your cell phone provider may apply. These charges vary among plans and among telephone providers. The library does not take any responsibility for any charges your mobile phone provider may assess you for sending or receiving messages while using this service.

You only need to include ASKGOOD for the first question you send to us. Text a Librarian is private and secure. Our Text a Librarian service by Mosio assigns a random User ID number to each patron. Your phone number is never visible to us at any time. Your phone number is never accessible by us.

Have further questions? Call Goodwin Library at 860-727-6782 or text us!

Program for Science Education

Discovery Education has announced the Discovery Educator Network SCIcon (DENSCIcon) 2010, a free, virtual professional development event demonstrating the many ways educators can integrate digital content and educational technologies into science education.

The event will be held Saturday, Jan. 9 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST and will offer a variety of individual sessions on the topic, including teaching global climate change issues, real-world applications for classroom science instruction; paperless instruction; hands-on activities; challenge-based learning; teaching with video from Mythbusters (Discovery Channel's series that subjects all sorts of myth to hands-on testing); and fun, easy and effective science experiments.

DEN SCIcon 2010 is an online conference (with a twist) focused on providing participants with some of the most effective strategies for transforming their science classes through the meaningful and effective integration of digital media content. Join thousands of educators from around the world for an amazing day of professional development sessions, networking and sharing.

Saturday, January 9, 2010
9 AM to 4 PM ET
Drop by for an hour or stay for the whole day!
It’s virtual and it’s FREE!
Register for the online sessions at:
http://links.discoveryeducation.com/denscicon

Source: The Journal

Most Admired Woman

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues her reign as the Most Admired Woman in the eyes of Americans, but barely edges out former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin this year, 16% to 15%. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and first lady Michelle Obama finish third and fourth, with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Queen Elizabeth II, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and poet Maya Angelou — all regulars on the list — joined by newcomers German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Elin Woods in the top 10.
Source: Gallup Poll

Legal Opinions Using Google Scholar

You may now research full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar. Search for cases or by topics. Your search results will include links to the famous cases and others of importance on the topic but less familiar. Try it.

Source: Quoted from Google Scholar

About Student Learning Styles

"If you've ever sat through a teaching seminar, you've probably heard a lecture about "learning styles." Perhaps you were told that some students are visual learners, some are auditory learners, and others are kinesthetic learners. Or maybe you were given one of the dozens of other learning-style taxonomies that scholars and consultants have developed.

Now four psychologists argue that you were told wrong. There is no strong scientific evidence to support the "matching" idea, they contend in a paper published this week in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. And there is absolutely no reason for professors to adopt it in the classroom." Read the article by David Glenn in the Chronicle. A copy is available in the library and in the faculty room on the second floor.

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education December 17 Illustration by Howard J. Radzyner, MedNet, Corbis

Definition of 21st Century Literacies

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)has established policies that define and explain how to work with students in this 21st century world.

"Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
Document and Site Resources."
Source: NCTE Inbox December 2009

Count Down to the New Year

Every day until 2010 this blog will point you to tips on preparing for your New Year's resolutions--only 21 days away.
Top Ten List in 2009
Lifehacker

Here are useful items on a specific topic you may have forgotten about, or that are just very cool. This is one of the most popular personal development and productivity blogs with tips to help you make the most of technology. Who doesn't want to work faster and keep important and useful information at our fingertips--like the last draft of a NEASC standard?

Value of a College Education: CQ Researcher

Introduction to "Value of a College Education"

President Obama's $12 billion American Graduation Initiative — announced in July — aims to help millions more Americans earn degrees and certificates from community colleges. The president wants the United States to have, once again, the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Along with the administration, economists and many students and parents embrace the notion that higher education offers the most promising ticket to financial security and upward mobility. However, some argue that many young people are ill-prepared or unmotivated to get a four-year degree and should pursue apprenticeships or job-related technical training instead. The debate is casting a spotlight on trends in high-school career and technical education — long known as vocational education — and raising questions about the ability of the nation's 1,200 community colleges to meet exploding enrollment demand.
Read the complete report online in the Goodwin Library.
Source: CQ Researcher

Featured Reference Book of the Month

Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity & Culture

Race, ethnicity and culture are concepts of extreme relevance in society today, and yet continue to be interpreted in various and often contradictory ways. The Dictionary provides the historical background and etymology of a wide range of words related to these concepts, looking at discourses of race, ethnicity and culture from a broadly multicultural perspective.

This new and up-to-date dictionary contains numerous references to both European and American concepts, debates and terms that are relevant today-words such as 'boat people', 'cybernazis', 'ebonics' as well as more established words and terms, such as 'affirmative action', 'caste', 'fortress Europe' and many more.

World AIDS Day

In order to promote more social tolerance and a greater awareness of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), the World Health Organization (WHO) declared December 1 as World Aids Day in 1988. Every year various global agencies, including the American Association for World Health, take the lead in coordinating this day and in educating people about HIV/AIDS, which has claimed nearly 22 million lives in the 20 years since the first AIDS cases were diagnosed.

Source: Holidays, Festivals and Celebrations of the World Dictionary in Credo Reference Database

Teaching Core Skills: Recommended Faculty Reading

The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 20th issue, highlights the teaching experiment of Indiana University professors at Bloomington to teach cores skills in history: assembling evidence and interpreting it. Their work has attracted attention from educators worldwide.

An article by Joan Middendorf and David Pace about the Indiana experiment is on reserve in the library:

"Decoding the Disciplines: A Model for Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking" from New Directons for Teachers and Learning, no. 98, Summer 2004.

National Book Award Winners

Last Wednesday winners of the National Book Awards:

Fiction Winner
Colum McCann Let the Great World Spin about daring, luck and mortality in the world of 1970s New York. AVAILABLE IN THE LIBRARY
Nonfiction
T. J. Stiles The First Tycoon, a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt. AVAILABLE IN THE LIBRARY
Young People's Literature
Claudette Colvin Twice Toward Justice,story of a teenager arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus months before Rosa Parks.
Poetry
Keith Waldrop Transcendtal Studies: A Trilogy

A special prize, voted on by the public, was given to "The Complete Stories" of Flannery O'Connor as the best of all fiction winners in the awards' history.

Gore Vidal and Dave Eggars received lifetime achievement awards.

National Book Awards Announced Tonight

The winners of the National Book Awards for 2009 will be announced tonight. This seems like good time to give some statistics. In 2009, 193 publishers submitted 1,129 books for the 2009 National Book Awards. The total number by genre:
236 fiction
481 nonfiction
161 poetry
251 young people's literature
I will announce the winners here tomorrow.

2008 winners included:
Fiction--Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country
Nonfiction--Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Poetry--Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems
Young People's Lit--Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied

ECAR Report: Undergraduates and the Mobile Revolution

Among students, desktop computer ownership is down, laptop ownership is way up.
Most students have new computers (79% of freshmen own a laptop one year old or less, two-thirds own a laptop or desktop 2 years old. 18% say their computer is four years old or older).

51% own an internet-capable handheld device, with 12% more planning to purchase one within a year. Among those who own one, 35% say they never access the internet on it. Cost and other ways to access Net were the most cited reasons.

Cell phone ownership is nearly ubiquitous. One-third say that they use their cell phones in class for non-class activities.

SNS’s (Social Networking Sites) and texting are up (nearing saturation), while Instant Messenging is declining. SNS’s were used by 90% of students outside class, and wikis by 42%, but only around a quarter of students used SNS’s or wikis in a course. One-third of students used podcasts personally but only 6% in courses.

Students generally like Course Management Systems! Students don’t think instructors use IT well. The percent that say their instructors effectively use IT or have adequate IT skills– 45%. Only one-third say instructors adequately train them for the IT used in their courses.

Students who say the greatest benefit of IT in education is convenience – 70%. Only 49% agree or strongly agree that IT improves learning. One possible reason for this low number is that only 53% of students agree or strongly agree with the statement “My institution’s IT services are always available when I need them for my coursework.”
Source: Mobile Libraries Blog and [http://purdueetech.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/ecar-study-of-undergrads-and-it/]

New ICONN LOOK

Based on substantial feedback from users, ICONN staff members have made a number of changes to improve the usability of iCONN. You will see a new start page that provides two search boxes:

Use the top box to get articles from magazines and newspapers.
Use the bottom box to find books, DVDs, CDs, etc. in Connecticut libraries.

One glitch is that the Magazines/Journals tab in the Find Books search box does not produce any search results, and the search results screen is confusing. To produce any search results, you need to select "Statewide Magazine Catalog" on the search results page and redo the search.

Another glitch is that the “Request Tracking” link may not appear on the Find Books search box.

Lastly, the "Search Individual Resources" link on the new start page "may" require the user to login again before being taken to the classic menu page. The latter problem seems to exist only when using iCONN outside the library. These problems have been reported and should be corrected later today.

Credo Reference: Top Ten Entries Viewed in September

Theses were the top ten entries in the Credo Reference database viewed by members of the Goodwin community in the month of September:

Nutrition—New Harvard Guide to Women’s Health
Rabies Virus—Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology
Metabolism—Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary
Black Pepper-Mosby’s Handbook of Herbs & Natural Supplements
Why Study Youth Culture—Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia
Metabolism—Encyclopedia of Insects
Man with his Head in his Hands--Bridgeman Art Library Archive
Sorrow, 1882—Bridgeman Art Library ArchiveFishing in the Spring, Pont de Clichy, 1887--Bridgeman Art Library Archive
Wheatfields Under Thunderclouds, 1890—Bridgeman Art Library Archive

And the winning reference book for the month is Bridgeman Art Library Archive.
Source: Credo Reference Administrator's Statistics

Credo Reference Highlight of the Week

Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World from M.E. Sharpe

The struggle to abolish slavery is one of the grandest quests--and central themes--of modern history. These movements for freedom have taken many forms, from individual escapes, violent rebellions, and official proclamations to mass organizations, decisive social actions, and major wars. Every emancipation has profoundly transformed the country and society in which it existed.

This unique A-Z encyclopedia in the Credo Reference database examines every effort to end slavery in the United States and the transatlantic world. It focuses on massive, broad-based movements, as well as specific incidents, events, and developments, and pulls together in one place information previously available only in a wide variety of sources. It centers on the United States.

The Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition features primary source documents, a map of the transatlantic slave trade, illustrations, cross-references, a comprehensive chronology and bibliography, and covers a wide range of individuals and the major themes and ideas that motivated them to confront and abolish slavery.

Read a few of the interesting entries:
"Forty Acres and a Mule"

Sojourner Truth (ca. 1797-1883): former slave and inspirational leader of the abolitionist movement

Credo Reference is a database of more than 400 full-text reference books that can be accessed from the Goodwin Library page under "Find Articles".

Source: Credo Reference

Conforts of Home: Flannery O'Connor Repository

Comforts of Home was constructed as a Web portal leading to reasonably reliable information about O'Connor and her work. In selecting the information and links, it set up criteria for content and accessibility to cull out spurious information and sites that are permanently "under construction".

The site hosts articles on O'Connor--her works, her life, her influences--whether critical analysis, or personal reviews. This is not designed to be a storehouse of board review and advanced scholarship, so you will find opinion pieces with a definite slant. Keep this in mind if you plan to use material from Comforts in your own research.

Internet Public Library also has resources on Flannery O'Connor.

Panihari: Water Women of India: New DVD

Arriving today in the Goodwin Library is the DVD "Panihar: Water Women of India." The filmmakers document life in the desert communities of Rajasthan. Their journey leads them to the Panihari (women who fetch water). The film centers around one of these women, Paru, a shoemaker's wife, as she struggles against nature and society to attain self-relaince for her family and herself. Vibran imagery, music, and folklore combine to paint a vivid picture of life as a Panihari.

Source: Recommendation from Bruce Morton; information from the DVD;
Image from Arts & Culture jhalawar.nic.in/arts.htm

How Good is Windows 7 for Colleges?

With the new Microsoft operating system, Windows 7, hitting the shelves today, there has been a lot of hoopla surrounding the product. But will it help colleges? Microsoft representatives demonstrated the new operating system at The Chronicle of Higher Education offices to bolster a claim that the new Windows — unlike a previous effort, the much-reviled Vista -- will be a major boon for higher education.

To find out if the product lives up to the hype, The Chronicle spoke with a number of college CIO's and IT project managers who have already tested and, to various degrees, deployed Windows 7. Their conclusion: Microsoft has taken a solid step forward, creating something that could save institutions some money and improve security, and is decidedly not Vista.

Source: Quoted from "How Good Is Windows 7 for Colleges?" by Ben Terris in Wired Campus

Educators and APA Style and a Rubric--Oh My!

Nurse Educators and all APA users, this is for you! Authors of a recent article in the Journal of Nursing Education sought to gain a better understanding of faculty application and evaluation of APA style. It is an evidence-based, scientific article: abstract, literature review, method, results, discussion and recommendations.

The article includes eight tables and a bibliography. Table 8 is an example of the APA Style Rubric covering organization and format. Actually, this rubric could be used for MLA Style as well.
Highly recommended!

Source: "Faculty Applicationof the American Psychological Association Style"
Journal of Nursing Education Volume 48, Number 10

It's Happening in Hartford

The 46 annual New England Library Association Conference is meeting this week for the first time ever in Hartford. More than 500 regional librarians and close to 200 exhibitors will spend most of 3 days attending workshops, networking, banquets, and more. Christina Deptulski and I are among those 500.

At the banquet last night, the 2009 Emerson Greenaway Award for distinguished service to the library community in New England was presented to the Connecticut State Librarian, Mr. Kendall F. Wiggin.

Ken Wiggin is an outstanding library leader in Connecticut, across the region, and across the nation. His leadership has brought several important initiatives to the State Library and the entire Connecticut library community including iCONN, the Connecticut Education Network, the Historical Documents Preservation program and Connecticut History Online.

The workshop I attended was the "Operating Systems (OS) Smackdown." Linux landed a hit with the latest Ubuntu OS distribution. Apple has a new OS X update (Snow Leopard). Windows 7 OS will soon be out. The Information Technology panelists demonstrated and discussed the latest and greatest offerings in these operating systems--some very cool applications.

National Book Award Finalists

This week the National Book Award Finalists were announced. Have you read any of these?
Fiction
American Salvage by Bonnie Campbell
Let the Great World Spin by colum McCann
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Far North by Marcel Theroux
Nonfiction
Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook by David Carroll
Remarkable Creatures by Sean Carroll
Fordlandia: Rise & Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by G. Grandin
Poison KIng: Life & Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy by A. Mayor
First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbility by T. J. Stiles
Poetry
Versed by R. Armantrout
Or to Begin Again by A. Lauterbach
Speak Low by C. Phillips
Open Interval by L. Van Clief-Stefanon
Transcendental Studies by K. Waldrop
Young People's Literature
Charles and Emma by D. Heiligman
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by P. Hoose
Stitiches by D. Small
Jumped by R. Williams-Garcia
Lips Touch: Three Times by L. Taylor

Winners will be announced on November 18.

YOU CAN ACCESS DATABASES OFF-CAMPUS

You can access databases off-campus now. The Virtual Private Network (VPN) is working again.NO PASSWORDS FROM EBSCO OR OTHER VENDORS ARE NECESSARY NOW.
Follow the instructions on the library page for setting up the computer with the VPN. Then they can go to the library page, choose a database, and start searching.

Thank you IT Department and Sandy Pearce!

Book Recommendation: Paula Dowd

Paula Dowd, Program Director and Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, strongly--very strongly--recommends Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III. She says "it is the best book I have read in recent times. Difficult to put down. Impossible to forget."

In similar fashion to his previous bestseller,House of Sand and Fog, Dubus shows profound empathy as he gets inside the heads of a number of characters, with coincidence, chance and a clash of cultures building to a shattering climax. Through quick-cutting chapters (few longer than ten pages, many as short as one or two), he propels the action while providing the back stories that have brought these characters together for a night that will change their lives.

If Paula's recommendation is not enough, here's what Stephen King says about this book. "As soon as you close the book, you want to grab someone and tell them to read it — don't wait for the movie, read it now. Or you want to write about it, partly so people will know there's something really good in the pipeline, really alive, but also for a baser reason: You want to be able to say later on, ''I was there first. I knew.'' Paula was there first for us.

You, too, may tell us about a book or books that you are reading. Many readers of the blog are "book" people and love to hear about good reads.

There's an App for that!

You can tell a lot about people by their apps. Here, randomly selected New Yorkers— some recognizable names, some not— reveal their current and free smartphone obsessions.

Salman Rushdie, writer
Favorite app: Bump (iPhone/iPod Touch), free
“It’s the one where, if you and I both had iPhones, you bump yours against mine and it exchanges our information.”

Katie Couric, anchor, CBS Evening News
Favorite app: TwitterBerry (Blackberry), free
“Makes tweeting really easy, like sending a text message.”

Will Swenson ,actor, Hair
Favorite app: Sheep Launcher (iPhone/iPod Touch), free
“You have to launch a sheep into space. If you’re good, he goes to the planets. I’ve gotten to Jupiter, but my 8-year-old son has sent him all the way to Uranus.”

Jason Chen, editor, Gizmodo
Favorite app: Kindle (iPhone/iPod Touch), free
“It’s basically the equivalent of a Kindle e-reader you can have with you anywhere.”

Nick Miscione, sales clerk, Metro Bikes
Favorite app: Big Oven (iPhone/iPod Touch), free
“You get 160,000 recipes. I punch in ‘lasagne’ or ‘chili’ while I’m walking into the grocery store.”

I personally like the Sheep Launcher.

Source: New York Magazine

Researchers Unite!

"Researchers today"--that's all of us--"are blessed with increasingly accessible and abundant information, but this proliferation brings challenges. Researchers can now access a wider range of resources, but must spend more time finding the right information. The volume of available information is also growing researchers’ responsibility for information management. To stay effective, researchers must keep track of current research, spot interesting articles not only inside but also outside their fields, and organize data to share with research groups.

Search methods haven’t changed fundamentally in recent years, but are starting to. New display technologies and mobile devices, as well as the ability to combine information across resources (e.g., mash-ups), are changing how researchers find information. Semantic search, data mining and visualization are starting to change how people find, navigate and organize information."

That's why you have a great library staff to help you--just another blessing.

Source: Elsevier LibraryConnect by Frans Heeman, Joy Van Baren from Amsterdam, Netherlands and just a small bit from Marilyn Nowlan

Engaging the Campus Community

According to Gloucestershire College, in England, Facebook and other social-networking Web sites can do more than provide a platform for vacation photos, favorite quotes, and status updates; they can help reduce dropout rates, the BBC reports.

The media-curriculum manager at the college, Perry Perrott, says that with the advent of social media, students have been better at keeping in touch with faculty members, which has lead to a “significant improvement in retention.”

After seeing how popular social-networking sites were with students, Mr. Perry says the college decided to embrace the technology as a cost-free way to further engage the campus.

The BBC also points out that the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency says sites like Facebook have a “positive effect on motivation.”

Source: Chronicle Today October 14

New CLEP Exams Coming Next Year

On July 1, 2010, CLEP will launch two new exams: College Composition and College Composition Modular. Simultaneously, three CLEP exams will be retired:

English Composition with Essay will be replaced by College Composition
English Composition will be replaced by College Composition Modular.
Freshman College Composition will be replaced by College Composition Modular.

Both of the new examinations will assess writing skills taught in most first-year college composition courses.

College Composition includes multiple-choice items and two mandatory essays scored by CLEP. College English faculty from throughout the country score the essays via an online scoring system.

College Composition Modular includes a multiple-choice section that may be supplemented either with an essay section provided by CLEP and scored by the college, or an essay section provided and scored by the college. This exam is intended for colleges that want a valid, reliable multiple-choice assessment and greater local control over the direct writing assessment.

Source: Inside Higher Education October 14

Less Green in the Bank More Green on Campus

New portal allows universal access to sustainability data from 332 schools

Despite budget-breaking investment losses and widely fluctuating energy costs, many schools became greener during the last year, earning higher grades on the College Sustainability Report Card 2010. Released this week on the new GreenReportCard.org website by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the annual publication provides school profiles and grades along with exclusive insights about sustainability in higher education.

To promote shared learning in the down economy, the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s in-depth research on 332 colleges is now available at a new online portal. For the first time, the Institute is offering universal access to 1,100 sustainability survey responses about campus, dining and student initiatives, as well as endowment investment. Access to endowment information is intended to foster constructive dialogue about investment in clean energy and in community development, as well as about sustainability considerations in shareholder voting.

I think this is way cool.
Source: Information quoted from the College Sustainability Report Card

Global Researcher: Saving the Children

OCTOBER GLOBAL RESEARCHER REPORT

"The numbers are grim: Every day more than 25,000 children under age 5 — the equivalent of 125 jetliners full of youngsters — die from hunger, poverty or easily preventable illnesses, such as diarrhea and malaria. Millions of others are abandoned, trafficked into prostitution, forced into armed conflict or used as child laborers — mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. While governments and nongovernmental organizations struggle to help, aid cutbacks due to the world economic crisis could trigger 200,000–400,000 additional child deaths each year. Meanwhile, experts and policy makers disagree over how best to combat AIDS among children, and whether more foreign aid would do more harm than good. Others question whether the United States should ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. The United States is the only nation besides Somalia that hasn't adopted the treaty." (Introduction to the Saving the Children Report)

The CQ Global Researcher meets the increasing demand for balanced, reliable reporting on international issues and crises. Modeled after the weekly CQ Researcher, CQ Global Researcher delivers definitive, in-depth coverage of newsworthy global affairs from a multitude of international viewpoints. Available exclusively online, CQ Global Researcher offers focused, readable, single-topic reports on vital world issues.

Supplemental materials with each report include:
Visual aides such as maps, charts, tables, and graphs
Chronologies of major events
Excerpts from key primary source materials
A glossary and bibliography

The Global Researcher and CQ Researcher reports are available on and off campus from the Goodwin Library.

Hot Paper Topics

The Hot Paper topics list from St. Ambrose College was updated this week. For those of you pondering a topic for a paper due before the end of the semester, the topics on the list are also links to more information. Influenza(Pandemics) was recently added.

Source: Best Information on the Net from St. Ambrose Library created originally by MaryLaine Block, Librarian

Nobel Prize in Literature

Romanian-born German writer Herta Müller won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday, honored for work that "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed," the Swedish Academy said. She made her debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories depicting the harshness of life in in Romania. It was promptly censored by the communist government. Two of her novels are available in English: The Appointment and The Land of Green Plums.

In 1984, an uncensored version was smuggled to Germany. That work was followed by "Oppressive Tango" in Romania but she was eventually prohibited from publishing inside her country for her criticism of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's rule.

The prize includes a 10 million kronor ($1.43 million) prize and will be handed out Dec. 10 in the Swedish capital. Last year's literature prize went to French novelist Jean-Marie Le Clezio.

Source: Associated Press

Science, Health, Environment: Futurity.org

Futurity is an online news source featuring the latest discoveries in science, engineering, the environment, health, and more from North America's leading research universities. Futurity.org made its debut as a beta site in March 2009 and formally launched on September 15. As an online research magazine, Futurity highlights the latest discoveries from leading universities in the United States and Canada.

The Futurity site developers explain that "the way people share information is changing quickly and daily. Blogs and social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are just a taste of what’s to come. It will be easier than ever to share content instantly with people around the globe, allowing universities to reach new audiences and engage a new generation in discovery."

Goodwin Library has Informe

Goodwin Library has Informe. Created exclusively for Spanish-speaking users, this full-text electronic reference tool is the first system to provide indexing, images and full text of popular Hispanic magazines -- not just translations. Also included is a thesaurus and interface that are uniquely designed for Spanish-speaking users. Informe thinks through every query in Spanish. Terms and thesaurus are based on the expressions Spanish-speakers commonly use, allowing users to easily navigate through the database without experiencing inaccurate search terms. Informe also features title annotations in both English and Spanish to help non-Spanish speaking staff to easily assist users. Students of Spanish, as well as non-native speakers can also easily access resources through this bilingual approach.

Access: Go to Goodwin Library page--www.goodwwin.edu/library. Click on [Find Articles]. The next screen is a list of databases. It is the first database on the list.

Whot is that on Google?

In case you are wondering whose image is on Google today, I will tell you. It is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was born on October 2, 1869. He was one of the great spiritual and peace leaders of the 20th century and a strong advocate of non-violent social change in South Africa and India. Of course, you could have just clicked on the Google logo today and you would already have known who it was.

Database Trials

Access: Academic Search Premier

Academic Search Premier is the world's largest scholarly, multidiscipline full text database designed specifically for academic institutions. It offers critical information from many sources found in no other database. Academic Search™ Premier contains indexing and abstracts for over 8,450 journals, with full text for more than 4,650 of those titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles. Academic Search Premier contains unmatched full-text coverage in biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, psychology, religion & theology, etc.


Access: Literary Reference Center

Literary Reference Center™ is a comprehensive database that provides users with a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes. It has been specifically designed for public libraries, secondary schools, junior/community colleges, and undergraduate research.

Literary Reference Center is a full-text database that combines information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing. Literary Reference Center contains full text for more than 31,000 plot summaries, synopses and work overviews, nearly 100,000 articles/essays of literary criticism, more than 159,000 author biographies (including more than 22,000 in-depth bios), 450 literary journals, more than 632,000 book reviews, more than 69,000 classic and contemporary poems, more than 18,000 classic and contemporary short stories, more than 5,600 author interviews, more than 8,200 classic texts and much more.

Please use these databases and let me know what you think. See below where it says "post a comment." That's where you tell me what you think. Don't be shy.

There are also handouts in the library with helpful suggestions on writing an article review of a short story.

Get Student IDs Next Week

It is mandatory that all Goodwin College students possess a valid student ID. Student ID photos will be taken in the Auditorium Annex (first floor by main entrance) The last photo sessions of the semester are Monday-Friday next week.

Schedule:
Monday, Oct 5th - 7:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct 6th - 7:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct 7th - 7:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, Oct 8th - 7:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Friday, Oct 9th - 7:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Celebrate the Freedom to Read

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read!

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September,BBW highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Did you know that BBW is the only national celebration of the freedom to read? It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The challenges have occurred in every state and in hundreds of communities. Click here to see a map of book bans and challenges in the US from 2007 to 2009. People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups--or positive portrayals of homosexuals. Their targets range from books that explore the latest problems to classic and beloved works of American literature.

According to the American Library Association, out of 513 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2008.

Nursing Students: Lexi-PALS Drug Guide

Knowing this may save you time. Lexi-PALS Drug Guide is part of the Health Source: Nursing Academic Edition database that you can acccess from the library page--wwww.goodwin.edu/library. On the page, click on Find journals. In the list of databases, choose Health Source. Try it out with prozac in the search box.

Lexi-PALS Drug Guide is a database of Patient Advisory Leaflets from Lexi-Comp that provides vital education on medications for patients. The database consists of over 1,450 medication and natural product leaflets, with an additional 600 Spanish language leaflets representing the most subscribed and commonly used medications.The approach for each pamphlet is to present each medication in an easy to follow and understandable question-and-answer format.

By the way, this database also provides nearly 550 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for nearly 850 journals. Coverage of nursing and allied health is particularly strong, including full text from Creative Nursing, Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, Journal of Advanced Nursing, Journal of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, Journal of Clinical Nursing, Journal of Community Health Nursing, Journal of Nursing Management, Nursing Ethics, Nursing Forum, Nursing Inquiry, and many more. (Doesn't this make up just a little bit for the powerpoint thing?)

Using APA Format 6th Edition

The 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association has been revised and updated. For those students who are writing research papers with APA format, one of the best resources is the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University (OWL)
"Summary: APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in APA."

This resource was written by David Neyhart and Erin Karper. Additional material by Kristen Seas & Tony Russell.. Last full revision by Jodi Wagner, Elena Lawrick, Elizabeth Angeli, Kristen Moore, and Michael Anderson.Last edited by Allen Brizee on September 28th 2009 at 1:56PM.

Source: Online Writing Lab (OWL)

ICONN Database Cuts

Due to recently announced holdbacks in the state budget, resulting in substantially decreased budget allocations for iCONN, they were forced to discontinue the following resources effective October 1, 2009:
• AP Images
• Boston Globe
• CINAHL (Full text - CINAHL Index is retained)
• Westlaw Campus Research
They apologized for the short notice for these discontinuances but they were just advised of this situation on September 23. CINAHL with FULL TEXT and Westlaw Campus Research were especially useful for our students.

Health Hippo

Hosted graciously by Findlaw, Health Hippo is a vast collection of policy and regulatory resources related to health care. It is not every health information site that asks you to tickle a hippo to find out what's new.

Source: C&RL News September

Oprah's New Book: Say You're One of Them

Oprah has chosen Say You're One of them by Uwem Akpan as a 2009 selection for her book club. It is available in the library.

" Awe is the only appropriate response to Uwem Akpan's stunning debut, a collection of five stories so ravishing and sad that I regret ever wasting superlatives on fiction that was merely very good.... Akpan's characters are ordinary, flawed, sometimes funny kids who happen to be caught in a nightmare....The book should be depressing, but the blazing humanity of the characters and the brilliance of Akpan's artistry make this one of the year's most exhilirating reads."--Jennifer Reese Entertainment Weekly

The book was published last year and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (African Region), was longlisted for the Story Prize, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. It was listed as one of the best books of 2008 by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post Book Club, and Entertainment Weekly, to name a few. Akpan was born in Nigeria. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 2003 and received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan several years ago.

When to Write a Cover Letter

"A cover letter is only helpful if it gets a hiring manager to look at your résumé — and many hiring managers don't bother to read them at all. Who can blame them? Most cover letters are a boring recap of a person's résumé or a form letter that doesn't relate to the company or position. Don't bother writing a cover letter unless you have something new to say. Skip "Dear Sir/Madam" and take the extra time to find the name of the hiring manager. Instead of repeating what is already in your résumé, talk briefly and specifically about how your skills and experience relate to the job you are applying for."

Today's Management Tip From Harvard Business Publishing was adapted from "The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received" by David Silverman.

Constitution Day Picture at Goodwin College

Goodwin student looking at the Library's Constitution Day display.

Welcome to the wondrous world of fairy tales. Whether a student, a parent or a teacher, here you can take a magical journey, filled with adventure, or just remember what it feels like to be a kid again. There is a little something for everyone among these pages, starting with the classical fairy tales.
Source: Information and image from World of Tales: Stories for Children from Around the World.

Constitution Day Resource

Encyclopedia of the First Amendment

CQ Press helps educate our students and ourselves with an extensive list of U.S. Constitutional resources. Here is one that we have recently purchased for the library: Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. It won the 2008 Booklist Editor's Choice, 2009 RUSA Outstanding Reference Source, and Library Journal Best Reference 2008.

In the first work of its kind, this exciting two-volume reference comprehensively examines all the freedoms in the First Amendment, including free speech, press, assembly, petition, and religion. Encyclopedia of the First Amendment covers the political, historical, and cultural significance of the First Amendment. It provides exclusive, singular focus on what most people consider the essential elements of the Bill of Rights and the basic liberties.

On Constitution Day and any other day, this is a great resource for all of us. We need to know and appreciate the freedoms reflected in this amendment. One of the volumes is in the display case in front of the elevators.

You Will Want iCYTE

iCyte enables you to highlight and save text on any webpage, allowing you to recall the most relevant information. You can save sections of webpages or the whole thing. This is a browser-based annotation tool that lets you highlight, tag, and comment on text on Web pages, and then manage those citations for reference or sharing--very nifty.

Webpages you Cyte are saved forever on ther server, letting you return to your research even if the webpage has been deleted or modified.Invite colleagues and friends to join your projects, discover new research, and share information.

Try iCyte now. Did I mention that it is free?

Source: Smart Computing and Henriette Pranger

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is a combined event that is annually observed in the United States on September 17. This event commemorates the formation and signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787. It also recognizes all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become US citizens. The president may issue each year a proclamation calling on government officials within the nation to display the country's flag on government buildings on Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, as well as inviting the people to observe this event in schools, churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate displays or activities.

Please notice the library book display in front of the elevators and in the library. We also have a Constitution quiz available for library visitors today to check their knowledge of one of our country's most important documents.

The National Constitution Center in Historic Philadelphia is America's most interactive history museum. Located just two blocks from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, it is the only museum devoted to the U.S. Constitution and the story of We, the People. Visit their site online to find information, games, quizzes, lesson plans, and podcasts.

Interesting New Books

Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide by Cass Sunstein

"Harvard law professor Sunstein (Radicals in Robes) explores the nature of group decision making, largely expounding on his contention that homogenous groups of like-minded people tend to adopt more extreme positions than groups with a diversity of opinions. As in his previous, coauthored book, Nudge, in which he argued that small incentives can subtly push people toward making better decisions, Sunstein marshals empirical evidence in aid of his argument, which largely focuses on politics and public policy. As President Obama's nominee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Sunstein's ideas about such matters have now attained a level of national importance, but with the exception of a few notable potshots at the decision making in George W. Bush's White House, the book is not ideological and displays a keen interest in diverse areas ranging from the mindset that leads to genocide to how conspiracy theories form and are propagated." (Publisher's Week Review)This book is available through Interlibrary Loan.

Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society by Frans de Waal

"For those who still equate the term 'beastly' and 'apelike' with fundamentally selfish and aggressive behaviour, and who believe that evolution is always 'red in tooth and claw', The Age of Empathy is an excellent antidote." (This is from the review in Nature by Michael Tomasello.
Source: Nature September 3

NIST and the World Trade Center

The collapse nine years ago today of New York City’s World Trade Center structures following the terrorist attacks was the worst building disaster in recorded history, killing some 2,800 people. More than 350 fire and emergency responders were among those killed, the largest loss of life for this group in a single incident.

In response to the WTC tragedy, the National Institute of Standards and Technology conducted a 3-year building and fire safety investigation to study the factors contributing to the probable cause (or causes) of post-impact collapse of the WTC Towers (WTC 1 and 2) and WTC 7; expanded its research in areas of high-priority need such as prevention of progressive collapse, fire resistance design and retrofit of structures, and fire resistive coatings for structural steel; and is reaching out to the building and fire safety communities to pave the way for timely, expedited considerations of recommendations stemming from the investigation. Reports and other docutmentation are here.

Note: Many of the reports and other documents provided are presented in .pdf format. To read these files, you can download the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader free. If you have difficulty reading pdf files, you may need to update your version of Acrobat reader to the latest version.

Source: This information is quoted from the National Institue of Standards and Technology

Taking Notes Beyond the Classroom

In 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced an OpenCourseWare system that would post videos and other course materials for virtually all MIT classes online for the world to see, thereby starting to break down the traditional barriers to higher education.

Eight years later, we may be seeing the student response. The development of free note sharing Web sites, where students upload their class notes to share with their peers, has begun to create an open stockpile of downloadable information that some say is further leveling the academic playing field. With an influx of note sharing sites -- from the innocuous sounding GradeGuru to the most "college" sounding isleptthroughclass.com (now relaunched as Wise Campus) -- many of them advocate the spread and collaborative use of knowledge beyond the classroom and university.

Source: "Taking Notes Beyond the Classroom"Inside Higher Education August 5
Photo: (c)istockphoto/diane39

Shuttle Flyover Tonight

Please look into the southern sky tonight. At 7:42 pm the International Space Station will appear in the South Southwest and fly towards the ENE. It will look like a very bright moving star. It is as big as a football field and it's solar panels will be reflecting sunlight back to Earth. It will be visible for about 5 minutes and will soar about 30 degrees above the horizon. Following 1 minute behind (and a lot less reflective) will be the Space Shuttle Challenger. They have been docked together but are scheduled to undock today. The shuttle will follow in roughly the same path for a while before landing

Here is the NASA link that gives exact info on tonights viewing and others:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_States®ion=Connecticut&city=Hartford

Use a cell phone to monitor the exact time and find a hill that gives you as unobstructed a view as possible to the South and East.

Source: Private information

International Literacy Day: September 8

This year’s theme, Literacy for Empowerment, highlights the staggering 776 million – or one in five - adults worldwide who still lack basic reading and writing skills. Two thirds of them are women.

Since its foundation in 1946, UNESCO has been at the forefront of global literacy efforts and is dedicated to keeping literacy high on national, regional and international agendas. However, with some 776 million adults lacking minimum literacy skills, literacy for all remains an elusive target. UNESCO’s literacy programmes aim to create a literate world and promote literacy for all.

Source: United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization

World History Sources

World History Sources
A resource center designed to help college world history teachers and students locate, analyze, and learn from online primary sources and further their understanding of the complex nature of world history issues. World History Sources reflects three approaches central to current world history scholarship: an emphasis on comparative issues rather than civilizations in isolation; a focus on contacts among different societies and the economic, social, and cultural consequences of those contacts; and an attentiveness to “global” forces that transcend individual societies or even societies in mutual contact—forces such as technology diffusion, migration, disease transmission, extension and realignments of trade routes, or missionary outreach. World History Sources also benefits tremendously from recent advances in our understanding of how historical learning takes place, building on strategies designed to improve historical learning and history teaching.

The Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation to create World History Sources. Check it out here.

Source: Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

Financial Literacy

Financial Literacy--should courses be mandatory in schools?

Poor understanding of basic personal-finance and economic issues has left millions of students and adults mired in credit-card debt, prey to unscrupulous mortgage brokers and prone to making risky bets with their retirement money. High-school seniors correctly answer only about half the questions on personal-finance surveys, and those who take personal-finance courses tend to score no better than those who don't. Studies show similar deficits among adults. Yet experts disagree on a solution. Only a handful of states require at least a semester course on personal finance, and some advocates want Congress or state legislatures to mandate financial education for all K-12 students. Others question the effectiveness of financial-literacy programs in schools, and some worry that corporations may have too much influence on curriculum and instruction. A better approach to improving financial literacy, some argue, is to tighten government regulation to make credit cards, mortgages and other products easier to understand.

CQ Researcher is available online through the Goodwin Library (password protected).

Source: CQ Researcher September 4

Welcome to Faculty

WELCOME TO RETURNING AND NEW FACULTY MEMBERS!

The library staff is here to help you and your students have an exciting and successful semester. Click here to read about the services we have for you. Please stop in to see us and to let us know what more we can do to be of service.

The Lancet's H1N1 Resource Center

The Lancet's H1N1 Resource Centre is constantly growing, providing healthcare workers with freely available up-to-date content on the H1N1 pandemic:
Free content library of more than 240 research articles from over 56 Elsevier journals including The Lancet Infectious Diseases, International Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Vaccine

Newsfeed from Elsevier Global Medical News, providing reports from medical meetings, breaking news, journal summaries, and feature stories from medical experts. (Over 50 news stories already published)

The most up-to-date information on the H1N1 pandemic from the CDC, ECDC, Eurosurveillance, PandemicFlu.gov, UK Health Protection Agency, and WHO websites--saving you browsing time

Visit to The Lancet's H1N1 Resource Centre today a part of your personal preparedness plan for the H1N1 pandemic.

Source: The Lancet

Cost of High School Dropouts

If the high school students who dropped out of the Class of 2009 had graduated, the nation’s economy would have benefited from nearly $335 billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes, according to a new issue brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Not only do high school dropouts earn less when they are employed, they are much more likely to be unemployed during the current economic recession, the brief finds. In July 2009, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts was 15.4 percent, compared to 9.4 percent for high school graduates, 7.9 percent for individuals with some college credits or an associate’s degree, and 4.7 percent for individuals with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Source: Alliance for Excellent Education September 2

The Long Budget Process is Over

As I'm sure you have seen, the legislature passed a state budget and the Governor has decided to let it become law on September 8 without her signature. She is making some line item vetoes but nothing that impacts libraries. So below I've listed our final numbers. There isn't a separate line for the service centers but they have been maintained! Also, CEN has maintained their funding. On behalf of all of us at this library and all the others in the state, thank you to all the supporters of Connecticut's libraries.

State-Wide Digital Library (iCONN) - All databases will be retained.
$1,968,794
Interlibrary Loan Delivery Service (Ccar) - All service will be maintained. $266,434
Legal/Legislative Library Materials (State Library Book Budget) This maintains funding at last year's level.
$1,140,000
State-Wide Data Base Program (reQuest) The statewide catalog and web portal will be maintained.$674,696
Info Anytime - This represents a reduction negotiated with CLC and the Appropriations Committee to maintain the service. Last year's funding was $150,000.
$42,500Support Cooperating Library Service Units (CLC) This restores funding to last year's pre- 5% reduction appropriated level $350,000
Grants to Public Libraries - This maintains last year's funding level.
$347,109
Connecticard Payments - This maintains funding at last year's level.
$1,226,028

What They are Reading on College Campuses

1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
2. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
3. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
4. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
5. Letting Go: A Parents' Guide to Understanding the College Years (Fourth Edition) by Karen Levin Coburn
6. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
7. The Shack by William P. Young
8. Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
9. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace—One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education August 31

WELCOME FROM THE LIBRARY STAFF

The library staff welcomes new and returning students, faculty and staff. We look forward to seeing all of you. Please stop by the library to say hello. We wish you all an exciting and rewarding semester. We are here to help that happen. See you soon.

Marilyn L. Nowlan
Director of Library Services

Hugo Award 2009

The Hugo Awards, given annually since 1955, are science fiction’s most prestigious award. The Hugos are voted on by the thousands of members of the current Worldcon which is also responsible for administering them. The Best novel award this year went to The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman--available in the Goodwin Library.
Source: Hugo Awards

Kilogram's Future Hangs in the Balance

"Since 1889, the year the Eiffel Tower opened, the cylinder against which every other kilogram on the planet has been judged rests inside three nested bell jars at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in Paris. But, according to scientists, the cylinder's mass appears to be changing.

The solution is a new kilogram, one that is based on a constant number instead of a physical object. To get that number, scientists have had to build a special kind of scale, one that measures the kilogram without balancing it against another mass. It has been a long, slow process, but today they are close to redefining the kilogram once and for all."

This fascinating story was on National Public Radio this morning. Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available after 9 a.m.

source: National Public Radio Morning Edition

Wetlands Mapping Standard

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today the adoption of a Wetlands Mapping Standard that provides minimum requirements and guidelines for wetlands mapping efforts. The new standard is designed to guide current and future wetlands digital mapping projects and enhance the overall quality and consistency of wetlands data. Quality data on wetlands are considered critical for planning effective conservation strategies to benefit fish and wildlife resources now and in the future.
Wetlands Mapping Standard
Source U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

New Book: Evolution of Obesity

The Evolution of Obesity by Michael L. Power and Jay Schulkin
RC628.P65 2009

A compelling and comprehensive examination of the causes and consequences of the obesity epidemic, this book offers fascinating insights into the qu3estion, Why are we getting fatter? The authors say that they "spend a good proportion of the book examining the biology of fat. After all, the obesity epidemic is not about excess weight, it is about excess fat. Our understanding of the roles fat plays on our bodies and the metabolic consequences of too much fat have changed substantially. this is an exciting are of biological research."

New Book for Psychology Instructors

Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices edited by Dunn, Halonen, and Smith
BF441.T35 2008

The authors have provided "a comprehensive resource that includes empirical support and practical applications for teachng in ways that will help students to think critically. This book is destined to become the seminal resource for teaching critical thinking in psychology and related disciplines." (Maureen McCarthy, President of the Society for Teaching Psychology-2008)

New Book: Recommended by Lori Blake

Scoring Rubrics in the Classrooom by Arter & McTighe (3 copies)
LC1034.A78 2001
The authors wrote this book to help teachers achieve three goals:
1. clarify the targets of instruction, especially for hard-to-define problem solving.
2. provide valid and reliable assessment of student learning
3. improve student motivation and achievement by helping students understand the nature of quality for performances and producs.
Teachers and administrators will find this an essential resource in increasing teacher effectiveness and student performance.

Copying that Requires Permission

As instructors are preparing for fall classes, here are a few copyright tips to keep in mind. Copyright guidelines prohibit the following without permission:
1. Course Packs—Primary Course Materials
Copying shall not be used to create, replace, or substitute for, anthologies, compilations, or collective works. Such substitution copying is prohibited unless permission is obtained whether copies or various excerpts are accumulated as course packs or reproduced and handed out separately. Copying shall not be a substitute for the purchase of books or periodicals.
2. Consumable Works
There shall be no copying of or from works intended to be “consumable” in the course of studying or teaching. These include workbooks, exercises, standardized tests,test booklets and answer sheets, and similar consumable material.
3. Repetitive Copying
Copying of the same material by the same teacher from term to term is not legal without explicit permission.

Connecticut River Collection

Thanks to President Mark Scheinberg, the Goodwin Library has two more additions to our Connecticut River collection--Connecticut River and the Valley of the Connecticut by Edwin M. Bacon and Thar She Goes: Shipbuilding on the Connecticut River by Ellsworth S. Grant. We eagerly accept donations of books about the Connecticut River and the Connecticut River valley.

Leadership for the Common Good

Joy Butler, at the College Leadership Council yesterday, quoted from Leadership for the Common Good: Tackling Public Problems in a Shared-Power World by Crosby and Bryson. When it was first published in 1992, this book presented a revolutionary approach to community and organizational leadership. Now, in the completely revised and updated edition in the Goodwin Library, the authors have expanded on their leadership model and offer new insights and guidance to leaders. It is highly recommended for all members of the College Leadership Council.

Leadership for the Common Good:Tackling Public Problems in a Shared-Power World by Barbara Crosby and John Bryson
JF1525.L4 B79 2005

Eat Healthy; Save the Planet

A study in the April 15 edition of Environmental Science & Technology by the prolific Carnegie Mellon University researcher Christopher Weber found that food transport accounts for only 11 percent of food-associated greenhouse gas emissions, while production contributes a whopping 83 percent.

Weber conducted a life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gases emitted during all stages of growing and transporting food consumed in the U.S. and calculated that the average U.S. household generates 8.1 metric tons of greenhouse gases (in CO2 equivalents) annually as a result of food consumption. By comparison, driving a car that gets 25 miles per gallon of gasoline for 12,000 miles per year (the U.S. average) produces about 4.4 tons of CO2.

Even more surprising, the study noted that U.S. consumers can do more to reduce greenhouse gases by eating one-seventh of a week’s calories from chicken, fish or vegetables instead of red meat or dairy than buying all local foods.

Source: by Robyn, selected from TreeHugger Aug 17, 2009

Essay Writing Woes

More than 80% of eighth- and 12th-graders are familiar with the basics of writing, but relatively few of these students are capable of writing proficiently, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results. Just one in three eighth-graders and one in four high-school seniors were found capable of using proper spelling, grammar and higher-level writing skills needed to craft a clear and well-organized essay. Are you surprised?

Sources: Google, New York Times, Education Weekl Google

Resume Tips

4 Tips for a Résumé that
Survives Scrutiny

With more jobs being lost than created these days, a résumé really needs to stand out. Use these four tips to boost your résumé's chance of survival:

1.Insert dates for everything. Don't try to cover up your age or a gap in experience by omitting dates. Use your cover letter to explain any peculiarities.
2.Use buzzwords. Many HR folks look for certain buzzwords from the job description. Don't expect your generic résumé to make it through; customize it for each potential job.
3.Be specific. "Assisted" or "worked on" is much fuzzier than "designed," "wrote," or "led." When choosing verbs, use ones that mean something.
4.No typos. This goes without saying, but too many résumés are full of them nonetheless. Proofread, proofread again, and then ask someone else to proofread once more.

Source: Harvard Business Review August 18 2009

Ready to Feel Old?

Beloit College attempts to help academics each summer with its "Mindset List," which is updated annually to reflect what the latest class of freshmen will have experienced -- and what they may have no personal knowledge of. The link to this year's list follows, as prepared by Tom McBride, professor of humanities at the college, and Ron Nief, emeritus public affairs director. The list is based on the assumption that most students entering college for the first time this year were born in 1991, meaning -- the list reminds us -- that for these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss,and Miles Davis have always been dead.

Here is the Mindset List.

Source: Inside Higher Education August 18 2009

Congratulations, President Scheinberg

President Mark Scheinberg is recognized by Hartford Magazine's editorial board as one of Greater Hartford's 50 Most Influential People of 2009 "who have shaped the area's look, feel, culture, and vibrancy in a positive way." The article commends President Scheinberg for transforming "Goodwin College from a privately owned career school into a force for educational innovation in just 10 years."

The current issue of Hartford Magazine is available in the Goodwin Library. Congratulations, President Scheinberg!

Source: Hartford Magazine August 2009

Vision of Students Today

"This short video, created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University summarizes some of the most important characteristics of today's students--including how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, dreams, and hopes, and the changes they will experience in their lifetime. The video also indicates that there is a need for educators to design courses that involve students in more active learning and to provide collaborative learning experiences that encourage communication among students as part of the learning process."

Source: YouTube Visions of Students Today and "Talkin 'bout My Generation" in C%RL News July/August 2009