SEPTEMBER 17: CONSTITUTION DAY

September 17 is recognized in the United States as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. The purpose of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is to commemorate the creation and signing of the supreme law of the land and to honor and celebrate the privileges and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship for both native-born and naturalized citizens. Federal law requires that all schools receiving federal funds provide  educational opportunities for their students on September 17 of each year. At Goodwin College, we call it Constitution Week since we extend our commemoration to more than one day.

On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. All Americans are encouraged to observe this important day in our nation's history.. Celebrate Constitution Day this year by learning something about the Constitution that you didn't know before. There will be many opportunities throughout the week.

Here is the link to the Constitution LibGuide that Cynthia Clynes, Goodwin Reference Librarian, created for faculty and students: 

http://goodwin.libguides.com/aecontent.php?pid=377827&sid=3096081. It will also be available on the library page and Twitter.

Re-examining the Constitution: CQ Researcher

"The 225th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution finds Americans in a less celebratory mood than they were during the Bicentennial a quarter-century ago. The Constitution's intricate system of checks and balances and separation of powers is sometimes blamed for the political gridlock in Washington. Some of the basic structural features are also viewed as outmoded, such as the Electoral College, equal representation for each state in the Senate and life tenure for Supreme Court justices. And many conservatives and libertarians, including the Tea Party movement, complain that the federal government has taken on powers beyond what the Constitution was intended to allow. Simmering discontent on both the left and the right has led to efforts to force Congress to call a convention to propose constitutional amendments. Public opinion polls indicate, however, that most Americans view the Constitution favorably."

This is the introduction to the September 7th CQ Researcher report entitled " Re-Examining the Constitution: Are Major Changes Needed?" CQ Researcher is available through the Hoffman Family Library. Please contact the library for user name and password.

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