Homeland Security Privacy Report

Privacy: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Annual Privacy Report to Congress (via EPIC)38 pages; PDF. July 2004 – July 2006.

The Department of Homeland Security finally released the Privacy Office Annual Report to Congress. The Department is required by law to provide the report each year “on activities of the Department that affect privacy, including complaints of privacy violations, implementation of the Privacy Act of 1974, internal controls, and other matters,” but the report was more than a year overdue.
Source: DHS via EPIC

EPA Is Disposing of Its Library Collection

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is frantically dispersing its library collections to preempt Congressional intervention, according to internal emails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Contrary to promises by EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock that all of the former library materials will be made available electronically, vast troves of unique technical reports and analyses will remain indefinitely inaccessible.

Meanwhile, many materials formerly held by the Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA’s Washington D.C. Headquarters, were directed to be thrown into trash bins, according to reports received by PEER. This month, EPA closed the OPPTS Library, its only specialized library for research on health effects and properties of toxic chemicals and pesticides, without notice to either the public or affected scientists.
Source: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

Statistical Abstract of the of the United States 2006

The Statistical Abstract of the United States 2006 is now available in the Goodwin Library. Published since 1878, this incomparable reference book is the standard summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. The Abstract guides you to the agency producing the statistics; then you can go to that agency for more details. What is in it?

• more than 1,300 tables and graphs
• expanded guide to other statistical sources in print and online
• listing of metropolitan and micropolitan areas & population numbers
• historical tables highlighting unique data from previous editions

The State and Metropolitan Area Data Book is the local area supplement to The Statistical Abstract. The 2006 volume is available online: http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/smadb/smadb-06.pdf

College Board Studies Federal Financial Aid

In September a commission appointed by Margaret Spellings, the education secretary, called for restructuring the federal student-aid programs but provided few details of how to achieve that aim. Now the College Board has assembled a group of higher-education researchers and student-aid experts who may be able to point the way.

The Rethinking Student Aid Study Group has begun meeting in recent weeks to examine whether the government's financial-aid programs are fulfilling the goals that were set for the programs when they were created and to look for ways to improve them.

The study group has commissioned a series of papers that will examine the effectiveness of the student-aid programs. Some of the papers will focus on grants, loans, and tuition tax breaks, while others will look at broader issues, such as the role that the aid programs play in promoting college preparation and persistence, and in helping nontraditional students.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education

Health United States 2006

Health United States 2006, an annual report on trends in health statistics, was released last week with a special feature on pain. The report consists of two main sections: A chartbook containing text and figures that illustrates major trends in the health of Americans; and a trend tables section that contains 147 detailed data tables. The two main components are supplemented by an executive summary, a highlights section, an extensive appendix and reference section, and an index. This is a Web-only release at this time. Printed books will be available in 6 to 8 weeks.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics

Science Teachers and Students Alert

Science Animations. Movies & Interactive Tutorial Links--Oh My! Some of them work and some don't, but there's lots to choose from. Many are from university science sites and are freely available for use in instructor presentations.

Besides a general collection, this link includes information on: biology, microbiology, anatomy and physiology I & II, plants, ecology, animals, geology, astronomy, physics, medmotion (mainly fetal and newborn information, and more. Fantastic!

http://science.nhmccd.edu/biol/animatio.htm

Books on Reserve for Pease's English Class

The class is researching U.S. immigration issues. On reserve currently for this class:

Immigrant America by Portes and Rumbaut
--A thoroughly updated and revised edition of a classic in the immigration field.
Unguarded Gates: A History of America's Immigration Crisis by Otis L. Graham, Jr.
--reflections on the consequences of large-scale immigrationin the United States.
Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity by Samuel P. Huntington
--Hungtinon's thoughts on reasserting the core values that he considers make us Americans.
(Huntington is well known for his controversial book, The Clash of Civilizations and the
Remaking of World Order.)

National Book Awards: "Oscars" of the Book World

The National Book Awards winners were announced last night in Manhattan. Fran Lebowitz, writer and humorist, was the evening's host. Winners each receive a bronze sculpture and $10,000, although the award's greatest benefit is often in increased sales, especially when little-known authors are suddenly thrust into the spotlight.

Fiction: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
Powers tells the story of a youg man who develops a rare brain disorder after an automobilie
accident.

Nonfiction: The Worst Hard Times: The Untold Story of Those Who Surved the Great American Dust bowl by Timothy Egan
Egan gives an account of the dust storms that descended on the Great Plains during the
Depression.

Young People's Literature: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: "The Pox Party" by M. T. anderson

Poetry: Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey

In case you have forgotten, last year's fiction winner was Europe Central by William T. Vollmann. Joan Didion won the nonfiction prize for her memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking.

November is American Diabetes Month

Every November, the American Diabetes Association encourages us to learn more about diabetes and the risks associated with the disease.

Diabetes is a serious disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose (sugar) to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. Nearly 21 million children and adults in the U.S. have diabetes. It is the fifth deadliest disease in the U.S. and it has no cure.

Here are some ways you can become involved in this year's American Diabetes Month. The National Women's Health Information Center has also put together some November recipes for diabetics.

Africana: New Reference Books

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience edited Kwame A. Appiah & Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
REF DT14.A37435 2005 (5 Volumes)

Thoroughly revised and massively expanded, this monumental work merits a place in any college collection. Alphabetically arranged but backed up by both a detailed index and a topical list of headers in the final volume, the nearly 4500 entries delve into both African and African-American history, from wide-angled studies of "Slavery in Africa" and "Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Interpretation," to close-focus mentions of Malcom X's "Aardvark" references and major "Zydeco" musicians. Most articles are signed and close with "see-also" references. Illustrations are uncommon but well chosen, a blend of clearly designed maps, charts. and graphs, and sharply reproduced prints or color photos. Students seeking information about African music, insight into the failure of school desegregation in the U.S. or the significance of Curt Flood's challenge to baseball's reserve clause, background on the history of colonialism, or hundreds of other historical topics will find both facts and ideas in plenty here. I don't know how we managed to get along without it.

Get Ready to LOVE YOUR LIBRARY

It's that time of year again - the Love Your Library holiday bookfair with Barnes & Noble is coming up! This year's event will take place Friday, December 1st through Sunday, December 3rd at all Barnes & Noble stores in Connecticut, plus select MA and RI stores.

Barnes & Noble will donate to Connecticut's libraries: 10-20% of the proceeds of all purchases made on Friday 12/1, Saturday 12/2 or Sunday 12/3 that are accompanied by a LoveYourLibrary voucher (PDF). Vouchers are also available in the Goodwin Library.
All purchases must be accompanied by a LoveYourLibrary voucher
Voucher may only be used with in-store purchases.

Last year's pilot event raised over $7,000, which helped to underwrite the Historical Hartford Courant database now freely available on iCONN to the Goodwin community.
This year's proceeds will go toward InfoAnytime - the statewide virtual reference project coordinated by the Connecticut Library Consortium.

Health Statistics-Early Release

This release, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) updates estimates for 15 selected health measures based on data from the January–March 2006 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and presents estimates from 1997 through 2005 for comparison. The 15 measures included are lack of health insurance coverage and type of coverage, usual place to go for medical care, obtaining needed medical care, receipt of influenza vaccination, receipt of pneumococcal vaccination, obesity, leisure-time physical activity, current smoking, alcohol consumption, human immunodeficiency virus testing, general health status, personal care needs, serious psychological distress, diagnosed diabetes, and asthma episodes and current asthma.
Source: Naional Center for Health Statistics (CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhis/released200609.htm

DNA Testing: Homeland Security Students

DNA Testing: an Introduction for Non-Scientists
With our criminal justice system relying more and more on science most of us don't understand, this attempt to explain in layman's language and diagrams how DNA testing works should be useful (though even this may be a hard slog for people without science backgrounds).
Source: Scientific Testimony: an Online Journal
http://www.scientific.org/tutorials/articles/riley/riley.html

Is Islam Compatible with Western Values?

With more than 1 billion adherents, Islam is the world's second-largest religion after Christianity. Within its mainstream traditions, Islam teaches piety, virtue and tolerance. Ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, however, many Americans have associated Islam with the fundamentalist groups that preach violence against the West and regard “moderate” Muslims as heretics. Mainstream Muslims and religious scholars say Islam is wrongly blamed for the violence and intolerance of a few. But some critics say Muslims have not done enough to oppose terrorism and violence. They also contend that Islam's emphasis on a strong relationship between religion and the state is at odds with Western views of secularism and pluralism. Some Muslims are calling for a more progressive form of Islam. But radical Islamist views are attracting a growing number of young Muslims in the Islamic world and in Europe. The entire report is available online for the Goodwin community.l
Source: CQ Researcher

Grants: Eligibility Rules at Issue

The U.S. Education Department has dismissed concerns among college leaders about the burden of administering two new federal grant programs for academically talented low-income students. (From the issue dated November 10, 2006)

In final rules that the U.S. Education Department issued last week for two new federal grant programs for academically talented low-income students, agency officials largely dismissed concerns that college leaders and lobbyists have expressed about the burden of carrying out the requirements. At issue is the role colleges must play in determining who is eligible to receive grants through the programs, which Congress created last year. The grants are available to students eligible for Pell Grants and, for the first time, introduce criteria not based solely on need into federal-aid programs for undergraduates from low-income families.

More American IT Jobs Than Ever

Now hear this! If the declining enrollments in college computer-science programs are any indication, students are not especially confident in the IT job market. But they need not fret, according to Moshe Y. Vardi, a professor of computational engineering in Rice University's Computer and Information Technology Institute.

Speaking last week at Stanford University, Mr. Vardi said there were more high-tech jobs in the country today than there were six years ago, during the halcyon days of the dot-com boom. "IT is still a good career," he told members of the Stanford Computer Forum, an industrial-affiliates program run by the university. "We have nothing to fear but the fear of competition itself."
Mr. Vardi's statistics came from a study commissioned by the Association for Computing Machinery that he completed this year. The report acknowledges that "offshoring" has had an impact on the IT industry, but it argues that the migration of high-tech jobs has done little to hurt the quantity or quality of openings in the United States.
Source: Chronicle of Hgher Education


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Democratic House and Higher Education

"Democrats picked up more than the 15 seats they needed to gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in Tuesday's midterm elections, and for the first time since 1994 will steer the chamber's legislative agenda, with plans to push forward on a full range of campaign promises, including several higher-education issues: making college more affordable, training more scientists and engineers, and expanding federal financing of stem-cell research.

The prospects for several other higher-education issues before Congress will also change with Democratic control of the chamber."
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/free/2006/11/2006110801n.htm

Does "Value Added" Add Value?

Critics of higher education say colleges and universities need assessments to measure student progress. However, some academic administrators say there is much more assessment going on right now than policymakers realize, and making assessment matter is more difficult than policymakers think.
Inside Higher Ed., November 3, 2006
http://lists.ncte.org/t/704523/1293328/5668/0/

Writing Essays in Math Class

Schools emphasize writing, Even in math class . (NPR, November 1, 2006) (audio player required) More and more high schools are emphasizing the need for students to be good writers. In an Indianapolis high school, math teachers are requiring students to write an essay as part of the math curriculum. Hear the report as it aired on NPR's November 1 broadcast of Morning Edition at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6415434&sc=emaf

As scrutiny of higher education intensifies, colleges and universities of all sizes are working overtime to better understand their successes and failures. The scrutiny is coming from many quarters and community colleges in particular are feeling the pressure: They now educate about 45 percent of undergraduates nationwide, and are being asked to bolster their local economies while equipping a growing number of academically at-risk students with the tools to succeed in the global economy.

In response, numerous two-year colleges have rolled out new student-support services and community-outreach efforts in recent years. Steps that five colleges have taken to produce better results for their students and their communities are outlined in this report. One of the colleges is Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education