Human Body Systems DVD Series

We had the series in VHS format, which was used until it wore out. We have been waiting for the series to be available in DVDs.  

“The Human Body: Systems at Work” DVD Series is now here! The series is highly recommended by Debra Rajaniemi, Associate Professor of Science.

 

Seven DVDs:

Your Immune System

Brain and Nervous System: Your Information Highway

Digestive System: Your Personal Power Plant

Skeletal System: The Infrastructure

Circulatory System: The Plasma Pipeline

Muscular System: Your Inner Athlete

Respiratory System: The Inner Athlete

arXiv: Free Online Server for Scientists and Students

General Information About arXiv

arXiv.org (formerly xxx.lanl.gov) is a highly-automated electronic archive and distribution server for research articles. Covered areas include physics,mathematics, computer science, nonlinear sciences,quantitative biology, and statistics. arXiv is maintained and operated by the Cornell University Library with guidance from the  arXiv Scientific Advisory Board and the arXiv Sustainability Advisory Group, and with the help of numerous subject moderators.Users can retrieve papers from arXiv via the web interface.Listings of newly submitted articles in areas of interest are available via the web interface.
Access with this URL:  http://arxiv.org/.

Source: Science September 7

How Not to Blow it With Financial Aid!!

A special section of the Wall Street Journal yesterday, "How Not to Blow It With Financial Aid", outlines the common mistakes parents and students make when seeking help with college costs. Students and parents need to know what hurts your chances of landing financial aid. They cover some of the biggest mistakes families make in the aid process.

The Wall Street Journal is in the library every day with important information that you need to know.

University Copyright Update

The publisher plaintiffs who accused Georgia State University of copyright infringement in a lawsuit over course e-reserves aren’t happy with the outcome of that case. On Monday they said they would appeal a federal judge’s decision, handed down in May, that was largely a win for the defendants.
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press USA, and SAGE Publications said that the decision had left them “no alternative but to appeal, to protect our authors’ copyrights and advocate for a balanced and workable solution” to the challenge of accommodating both copyright and fair use.

The case,  Cambridge U. Press et al. v. Becker et al., has been closely tracked by publishers, librarians, and fair-use advocates.In her May ruling, Judge Evans found only five instances of copyright infringement by Georgia State out of 99 claims originally advanced by the publishers. In August she rejected the plaintiffs’ “highly regimented” request for injunctive relief, and ordered them to pay legal fees for both sides. She required the university only to maintain copyright policies consistent with her May 11 ruling.

The Association of American Publishers, along with the Copyright Clearance Center, bankrolled the lawsuit. This is an important case that will affect how we in education do business in the changing world of electronic publishing. Stay tuned.

Points of View Database News

Welcome to another academic year! We have new content on Points of View Reference Center (PoV) and Points of View Debate Blog. More updates are on the way. 

New Content - On Points of View Reference Center, you'll find articles about "Arab Spring," "Conspiracy Theories," and the "Transportation Infrastructure." Transportation dominated as the 2012 National Debate Topic, and summoned lively debate this summer at the National Forensics League annual tournament. 

The debut topic on Points of View Debate Blog this year is gun violence, focused primarily on the recent tragedies in Aurora, Colorado, at the Empire State Building, and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. These events have dominated news coverage and relate to many significant debates in the U.S., including gun control, racism, psychology and the media.

Journal of the First Year Experience

We now subscribe to the Journal of The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. The first issue will be arriving soon.

 This journal is a semiannual refereed journal providing current research on the first college year and other significant student transitions. The primary purpose of the Journal is to disseminate empirical research findings on student transition issues that inform practice in all sectors of post-secondary education, such as

• Explorations into the academic, personal, and social experiences (including outcomes related to success, learning, and development) of students at a range of transition points throughout the college years. These transitions include, but are not limited to, the first college year, the transfer transition, the sophomore year, the senior year and transition out of college, and the transition to graduate work.

• Transition issues unique to specific populations (e.g., non-traditional, traditional, historically underrepresented students, transfer students, commuters, part-time students)

• Explorations of faculty development, curriculum, and pedagogical innovations connected to any of the transitions identified above.The Journal is indexed by ERIC.

Anniversary of Silent Spring: Recommended Article

“Fifty years ago, on September 27, 1962, Houghton Mifflin published Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, among the 20th century's most influential books. Carson didn't live to see the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 that her writings helped inspire. But she also didn't live to see U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, a former Halliburton chief executive, chair the energy task force that resulted in the 2005 bill exempting high-risk hydraulic fracturing (fracking) from the requirements of those same two acts.”

That is a quotation from an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education this week by Rob Nixon, the Rachel Carson professor of English at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He  honors the anniversary of the publication of her book and relates it to our current environmental progress or lack thereof.   

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, September 3

Census Online

The Census of Governments identifies the scope and nature of the nation's state and local government sector; provides authoritative benchmark figures of public finance and public employment; classifies local government organizations, powers, and activities; and measures federal, state, and local fiscal relationships--a treasure of information. It is free and online at census.gov.

 The data are available by:

• level of government (state, local, or state and local combined),
• type of government (state, county, city, township, special district, school district), and
• category of governmental activity 

Source: census.gov

The 2012 Election: What Academe Needs to Know

From The Chronicle of Higher Education

The 2012 general election will determine more than which candidates win federal and state offices. It will also determine who guides federal oversight of student aid, for-profit colleges, research, and more, with billions of taxpayer dollars in the balance. It will decide who presides over state support for colleges as most such public institutions struggle under repeated budget cuts.

As the final weeks of the campaign unfold, this page will host highlights of The Chronicle's will host a page with coverage of the general election as it relates to higher education.

Check back here for updates and at copies of The Chronicle of Higher Education in the library.

Students find e-texts "clumsy".

Several universities have recently tried a new model for delivering textbooks in hopes of saving students money: requiring purchase of e-textbooks and charging students a materials fee to cover the costs. A recent report on some of those pilot projects, however, shows that many students find the e-textbooks “clumsy” and prefer print.

The report is based on a survey conducted this spring of students and faculty at five universities where e-textbook projects were coordinated by Internet2, the high-speed networking group. Students praised the e-books for helping them save money but didn’t like reading on electronic devices. Many of them complained that the e-book platform was hard to navigate. In addition, most professors who responded said that they didn’t use the e-books’ collaborative features, which include the ability to share notes or create links within the text.

Source: Wired Campus August 23

New Website for Families

Looking for materials and resources to offer the families and community you serve? The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has a new website for you! The For Families site includes a wealth of information about children’s learning and development; a column by T. Berry Brazelton, MD, and Joshua Sparrow, MD.  Spread the word about this useful and engaging resource. For more information, visit families.naeyc.org.

Higgs Boson Humor

"A Higgs boson walks into a church. The priest orders It to leave immediately. The boson protests: "But how can you have mass without me?"
Source: from readers of New Scientist 21 July 2012

Maeve Binchy (1940-2012)

The Irish writer and journalist Maeve Binchy died yesterday in Dublin. She was an outstanding novelist, short story writer and columnist, who engaged millions of people all around the world with her fluent and accessible style. She was a great storyteller and a source of encouragement for young writers. She wrote 16 novels, two of which, The Lilac Bus and Echoes, were made into TV films while Circle of Friends, Tara Road and How About You were made into feature films. She wrote four collections of short stories, a play Deeply Regretted By and the novella Star Sullivan.

Binchy’s books in the Hoffman Family Library include:

Whitethorn Woods (2010)

Heart and Soul (2009)

Scarlet Feather (2008)

Night of Rain and Stars (2004)

Quentins (2002)

Tara Road (1998)

Gore Vidal (1926-2012)

"Gore Vidal, the American writer, media pundit, controversialist and politician manqué, who has died  yesterday, aged 86, was celebrated both for his caustic wit and his mandarin poise. His public career spanned seven decades and included 25 novels, numerous collections of essays on literature and politics, a volume of short stories, five Broadway plays, dozens of television plays and film scripts, and even three mystery novels written under the pseudonym Edgar Box. After 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, he returned to center stage with a series of blistering pamphlets and public pronouncements that led even many of his friends to pounce on him. But Vidal never looked back."
(Quoted from the obituary in The Guardian)

Books by Vidal in the library include:
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace (2002)
Empire (1988)
Myron (1974)

Famous Quotes:
" The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country — and we haven't seen them since."
"It  is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."
"All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting to encounter yourself."
"Fifty percent of the people won't vote, and fifty percent  don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent."