Nobel Literature Prize to Lessing

It's about time. "Doris Lessing, the Persian-born, Rhodesian-raised and London-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographical writing has swept across continents and reflects her engagement with the social and political issues of her time, yesterday won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature." (first paragraph from the New York Times article today)

Ms Lessing is best known for her series of novels Children of Violence , written in the 1950s and featuring her heroine Martha Quest, whose growth in consciousness reflected the author's concerns over social justice. Her first, semi-autobiographical novel, The Grass is Singing , addressed the culture clashes and racial discrimination she encountered during her childhood in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

She was most influential with her 1960's novel, The Golden Notebook, which examined the multiple aspects of the life of a woman, Anna Wulf, in an experimental style. The feminist movement regarded it as a pioneering work. She went on to experiment with a variety of styles, publishing her most recent novel, Cleft, in January. She is 88 years old. The previous two winners were Orhan Pamuk of Turkey and Harold Pinter of Britain.

New Sunday Library Hours

TheGoodwin library will be open Sundays from 12 to 5:30. This is in reponse to student requests for expanded hours.

Racial Diversity in the Public School

Has the Supreme Court dealt a blow to integration?

CQ Researcher 9/14/07

Fifty years after the Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public schools, a new ruling has raised doubts about how far local school boards can go to integrate classrooms. The court's 5-4 ruling in cases from Seattle and Louisville bars school districts from using race as a factor in individual pupil assignments. Like many other school districts, the two school systems used racial classifications to promote diversity in the face of segregated housing patterns.

This 20 page report is available online, password protected. Contact the library staff for the user name and password.

New Feature: Famous Libraries I Have Seen

The Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University of Oxford and one of the highlights of any visit to Oxford. Its collections are used by scholars from around the world.

The Bodleian Library is really not one library but many, housed in buildings all over the city of Oxford. The historic core of the Bodleian is located around Radcliffe Square, however, with the oldest parts being the magnificent Duke Humphrey's Library (1488)--shown here. It is now the second largest library in the UK (after the British Library in London).

The Bodleian receives a copy of every new book printed in Britain, a practice that began in 1610, so that the library contains an unrivaled 400 year record of British literature. The Bodleian is unique in that it is not a lending library - no books can be borrowed, only read on the premises. The Bodleian takes this restriction seriously; in a famous case, King Charles I was refused permission to borrow a book.

Open Course Ware

Tufts University http://ocw.tufts.edu/

Here's a treasure trove from one of our most prestigious universities: the site provides free access to the syllabus, calendar, lectures, and slides for a variety of courses, primarily in the health sciences.
Source: Mary Laine, Librarian

Play the Candidate Match Game

It seems like everyone is running for president. How will you decided whom to support? This quiz from USA Today asks you 11 questions on issues ranging from Iraq to taxes. Answer each question and see how the candidates stak up. When you're finished, see how that changes which candidates are on your side. Take the quiz!
Source: USA Today

Astronomy Media Player

This is a collection of the best astronomy podcasts from around the world." Includes astronomy courses, observations of the night sky, "ask an astronomer" podcasts, and podcasts from observatories and space agencies. The media player was created as something that will play both audio and video - specifically for astronomy (that includes the night sky, planetary science, astrophysics and cosmology). The aim was to make it easier for everyone to find the astronomy multimedia resources that are out there and perhaps be entertained at the same time.

http://www.jodcast.net/amp/index.html

Crowded Course at Harvard

The final numbers came in this week: Positive Psychology, a class whose content resembles that of many a self-help book but is grounded in serious psychological research, has enrolled 855 students, beating out even Introductory Economics.

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:30 a.m., students crowd into Sanders Theatre to learn about creating, as the course description puts it, ''a fulfilling and flourishing life," courtesy of the booming new area of psychology that focuses on what makes people feel good rather than the pathologies that can make them feel miserable.

In the last several years, positive psychology classes have cropped up on more than 100 campuses around the country. But with such an enormous course enrollment, Tal D. Ben-Shahar, the lecturer who teaches Harvard's course, ''is the leader of the pack right now." Ben-Shahar has written book that covers some of the material in the class; it is called "Happier."
Source: Boston.com Local News

Evaluating Teaching under NCLB

Evaluating Teacher Quality Under No Child Left Behind
This research brief summarizes the progress that states, districts, and schools have made in implementing the teacher qualification provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Source: RAND Corportion
Available in HTML or PDF (117 KB

Educator's Reference Complete

This collection of more than 1,100 periodicals and 200 reports is a great resource for any educator -- from the school teacher and administrator to those studying in the field at the collegiate and graduate level. Educator's Reference Complete is the perfect complement for any library that utilizes the ERIC database, because it provides full-text results for nearly half of the journal titles found in ERIC. This database covers multiple levels of education from preschool to college, and every educational specialty -- such as technology, bilingual education, health education, and testing. Educator's Reference Complete also focuses on issues in administration, funding and policy. Find it under "Electronic Resources A-Z" on the Goodwin library page.

Where is IT in Higher Education?

Where Is IT in Higher Education Headed?
Join The Chronicle of Higher Education editors Thursday at noon for the Brown Bag, an online discussion on technology in higher education.

Technology changes at a rapid pace, yet higher education traditionally moves slowly to adopt new ways. How will the growth of technology change the college campus, from the classroom to the backroom? Gartner Inc., a technology-research and information company, publishes an annual report, the "Hype Cycle for Higher Education," that looks ahead to the predicted effects of technology on colleges and universities. The latest report highlights claims that technologies integral to the transformation of higher education in the next 10 years will be global library-digitization projects, personal devices with campus-network access, Internet2, e-learning repositories, quantum computing, and virtual worlds.

Join the discussion
Submit a question

Don't Forget the Internet Public Library

Drexel University took the reins of the Internet Public Library at the beginning of this year, and the institution is now starting to put its stamp on the project. Drexel announced this week that it intends to turn the online library — which was created by researchers at the University of Michigan — into “a virtual teaching and learning laboratory for digital reference."Now would be a good time to visit this great resource.

SOSIG: Social Science Information Gateway

SOSIG (pronounced, yes, "sausage") is now known as Intute: social science. No matter what it is called, this is a great place to start if you are looking for resources in the areas of social science, government, politics, or business.
Source: Web Search Pacific

Newly Licensed RNs: Job Retention Study

The September issue of AJN features an article, "Newly Licensed RNs' Characteristics, Work Attitudes, and Intentions to Work" The objective of the study was to understand turnover rates in hospitals. The authors surveyed new RNs in 35 states and DC. More than 41% reported that if they were free to go into any job, they would want another job. Those whosse first professional degree was an associate's degree were more intent on leaving than those whose first professional degree was a bachelor's degree. This is recommended reading for nursing faculty and students.
Source: AJN September 2007, 58-69

Future Students: Make it in Scrubs

http://www.makeitinscrubs.com/

Youth and young adults interested in working in health care can go here to explore job options, research financial aid possibilities and take a quiz that matches their personalities with careers in the field. They can find details on duties, salaries and educational requirements for more than 100 jobs, and advice about what high school and college courses to take.

Don't Miss Sicko!

Now playing at Cinestudio in Hartford today and tomorrow! For times and directions, go to http://www.cinestudio.org/.

"Sicko may not tilt next year’s elections one way or the other, but Michael Moore’s devastating and hilarious documentary will make it harder to ignore the disasters of our health care system. Returning to the gentler populist humor of Roger & Me, Moore interviews patients and doctors in France and Canada (happy), doctors in the U.S. (less happy) and American patients (very much less happy). But before you think Moore has lost his confrontational edge, he’s hauling a boatload of 9/11 rescue workers off to Cuba, to take advantage of what the administration boasted were the excellent medical facilities for enemy combatants held at Guantánamo Bay. '...generates a feeling of outrage that seems to be reverberating in every theater.'" Andrew Sarris, New York Observer. " (quoted from Cinestudio online calendar)

National Preparedness Month: Homeland Security

Throughout September there will be activities across the country to promote emergency preparedness. Over 1,300 organizations – national, regional, and local public and private organizations – are supporting emergency preparedness efforts and encouraging all Americans to take action.
You can join the effort by following 3 steps:
• Get a kit.
• Make a plan.
• Be informed.

September 2007 marks the fourth annual National Preparedness Month, sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security. One goal of Homeland Security is to educate the public about how to prepare for emergencies, including natural disasters, mass casualties, biological and chemical threats, radiation emergencies, and terrorist attacks. As part of National Preparedness Month, CDC has launched a new Web site, Emergency Preparedness and You. CDC has teamed up with the American Red Cross to identify and answer common questions about preparing for unexpected events.
Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention

What is ChemSpider?

ChemSpider is a chemistry search engine. It has been built with the intention of aggregating and indexing chemical structures and their associated information into a single searchable repository and making it available to everybody, at no charge. I am told that ChemSpider offers the fastest chemical structure searches available online and delivers them with the flexibility and usability necessary to encourage repeat usage. Try it.
Source: http://www.chemspider.com/

Early Childhood Education: Reading Event

Jumpstart and Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC) invites you to share The Story of Ferdinand with children in your community on Thursday, September 20, 2007.

By taking part in Jumpstart's Read for the Record (http://www.readfortherecord.org/) you will be a part of this nationwide movement connecting children and adults and reinforcing the importance of providing all children with the learning experiences they need in order to be successful.

Source: Children's Literature Comprehensive Database

Challenges of 21st Century Classrooms

Some students are "speaking" the new language of IM while other students are struggling to learn academic English. These earmarks of today's classrooms can give a teacher pause. But two NCTE policies provide insight on how to work with our students in this challenging 21st century environment: the CCCC Position Statement on Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Writing in Digital Environments and NCTE Position Paper on the Role of English Teachers in Educating English Language Learners (ELLs).
Source: National Council of Teachers of English