Did You Know?

Did you know that the Credo Reference database accessible from the library home page has 273 full-text reference books online for you? Today we will look at just one--The Ultimate Business Library--one of at least twenty in the field of business.

Hundreds of new business and management books have been and continue to be published every year. With time as your most valuable asset how can you ensure that you absorb only the best and most influential thinking from this seemingly inexhaustible supply?
This new edition of worldwide bestseller The Ultimate Business Library is a one-stop guide to the world's leading business thinkers. It is a unique summary of those books which have had the most significant impact on management thinking, drawing out the lessons any business can learn. Navigating the cross-currents of management thinking from Tom Peters to Peter Drucker, Rosabeth Moss Kanter to Charles Handy, The Ultimate Business Library will ensure you are rapidly up to speed with the ideas shaping modern business.

Source: http://www.goodwincollege.org/library/index.htm

Future Reading: Digitization and Its Discontent

Here is an excerpt from an interesting New Yorker article by Anthony Grafton on the future of reading. Reading seems to be a theme of this week's blog.

"Sit in your local coffee shop, and your laptop can tell you a lot. If you want deeper, more local knowledge, you will have to take the narrower path that leads between the lions and up the stairs. There—as in great libraries around the world—you’ll use all the new sources, the library’s and those it buys from others, all the time. You’ll check musicians’ names and dates at Grove Music Online, read Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus” on Early English Books Online, or decipher Civil War documents on Valley of the Shadow. But these streams of data, rich as they are, will illuminate, rather than eliminate, books and prints and manuscripts that only the library can put in front of you. The narrow path still leads, as it must, to crowded public rooms where the sunlight gleams on varnished tables, and knowledge is embodied in millions of dusty, crumbling, smelly, irreplaceable documents and books." Soon the sunlight will gleam on the varnished tables in the new Goodwin Library. Read the article here or in the library.
Source: The New Yorker Nov. 6, 2007 beginning on page 50--Anthony Grafton teaches European history at Princeton.

Time's Invention of the Year

Stop. I mean, don't stop reading this, but stop thinking what you're about to think. Or, O.K., I'll think it for you:
The thing is hard to type on. It's too slow. It's too big. It doesn't have instant messaging. It's too expensive. (Or, no, wait, it's too cheap!) It doesn't support my work e-mail. It's locked to AT&T. And—all together now—we're sick of hearing about it! Yes, there's been a lot of hype written about the iPhone, and a lot of guff too. But when that day is over, Apple's iPhone is still the best thing invented this year. Why? Five reasons:

1. It's pretty.

2. It's touchy-feely.

3. It will make other phones better.

4. It's not a phone. It's a platform.

5. It is but the ghost of iPhones to come.

Source: Time Magazine

Book Recommendation

FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION--AND EVERYONE ELSE
Proust and the Squid: The Story of and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf

In her first book aimed at a general readership, Wolf (director, Ctr. for Reading and Language Research, Tufts Univ.) examines reading's extraordinary evolution. Beginning with an exploration of how the human brain evolved and adapted itself to become able to read, she then offers a history of linguistic development that concludes with the progress of alphabet-based languages. Wolf's detailed description of how children learn to read examines this process from combined social, psychological, and neurological perspectives. She illustrates how specific books and activities provide fundamental catalysts for developing cognitive paths. Wolf then examines dyslexia, providing a short historical foundation and analyzing current research. Particularly interested in how to teach those with reading difficulties, she writes from a researcher's perspective and a parent's (her son is dyslexic). Throughout, Wolf's intriguing combination of linguistic history, sociology, psychology, and neuroscience is engaging and clear. The figures and illustrations as well as the wonderful literary quotes enrich her readable prose. her text speaks to the changes the online information boom is bringing our world and provides a foundation for the importance of teaching information literacy.
Source: Library Journal Recommendation for Academic Libraries

NEEAN Fall Forum

Over the past few years, accountability issues have surfaced in higher education, much as they did for K-12 public schooling in recent years. At the New England Educational Assessment Network (NEEAN) fall forum Friday at the College of Holy Cross, keynote speaker Dr. Cecilia Lopez, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Harold Washington College, spoke forcefully on how current federal policy affects accreditation and assessment and why we should care. Dr. Daniel Fogel, president of University of Vermont, discussed the proposed Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) proposed by National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC.) and American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).

In individual sessions, colleagues discussed key issues in higher education assessment, including: general education and general outcomes assessment, discipline and program-based assessment, e-portfolios and other tools, and best practices in assessment implementation. You will hear more about this in the very near future. (Attending from Goodwin College: Janet Jefford, Judy Zimmerman, Marilyn Nowlan)

New Books

FICTION

Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
World Without End by Ken Follett (sequel to Pillars of the Earth)
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
Worst Thing I’ve Done by Ursula Hegi

NONFICTION
Assault on Reason by Al Gore
Proust and the Squid: Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
Yoga as Medicine by Timothy McCall
Giving by Bill Clinton
Peterson’s Two-Year Colleges 2008

Most of these were requests from the faculty and staff.

Great Thing About Reading

'The great thing about reading books is that it makes us better than cats. Cats are said to have nine lives. What is that compared to the girl, boy, man, woman who reads books? A book read is a life added to one’s own. So it takes only nine books to make cats look at you with envy.

And I’m not talking here only of “good” books. Any book—trash to classic—makes us live the life of another person, injects us with the wisdom and folly of their years. When we’ve read the last page of a book, we know more, either in the form of raw knowledge—the name of a gun, perhaps—or in the form of greater understanding. The worth of these vicarious lives is not to be underestimated. There’s nothing sadder—or sometimes more dangerous—than the person who has lived only his or her single, narrow life, unenlightened by the experience, real or invented, of others."

These are the words of Yann Martel, Canadian author of The Life of Pi. Martel is sending a book every two weeks to Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada. Why Martel is doing this is a long and intriguing story. His choices and the accompanying comments explaining his selection are priceless. If you are interested in reading along with Prime Minster Harper, the first book was The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy because, says Martel, "I can’t think of a work of such brevity, hardly 60 pages, that shows so convincingly the power and depth of great literature." So here it is online: The Death of Ivan Ilych. (Next up is Animal Farm by GeorgeOrwell.)

Social Science Resource Par Excellence

Established in 1962, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Science Research (ICPSR) is the world's largest archive of digital social science data. They acquire, preserve, and distribute original research data and provide training in its analysis. The site right now is featuring a collaborative psychiatric epidemiology service. Archives and research project websites at ICPSR provide access to data collections and other resources in many disciplines. There's something here for everyone!
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/

Early Childhood Education: StoryPlace

StoryPlace, presented in both English and Spanish, offers children the opportunity to view online stories, participate in interactive activities, and print activity pages. Five themes are currently available in the Pre-school Library: colors, teddy bears, crocodiles, animals, and monkeys. Each section features activities centered on the theme. For instance, in the teddy bear theme, children can choose to view and listen to the story 6 Little Teddy Bears, help Bella Teddy Bear choose the correct clothing for the weather, or print a teddy bear doll to cut out and put together. There is also an annotated booklist for each theme. The site developers plan to add an Early Elementary Library soon.

Homeland Security: Risk Reduction

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has adopted a focused approach to risk reduction. DHS is moving increasingly to risk analysis and risk-based resource allocation, a process that is designed to manage the greatest risks instead of attempting to protect everything. This report applies a probabilistic terrorism model that is broadly applied in the insurance industry to assess risk across cities, to assess risks within specific cities, and to assist intelligence analysis.
Terrorism Risk Modeling for Intelligence Analysis and Infrastructure Protection
Source: RAND Corporation

Teacher Sourcebook

The publisher of Education Week has launched a new, twice-yearly resource guide on teacher professional development, available online for free. The first issue examines the role of teacher collaborative work in improving instructon and student achievement.
http://www.teachersourcebook.org/
Source: Education Week October 31, 2007

Campus Safety and Student Privacy

The U.S. Department of Education released new guidance on Tuesday to parents and educators about the circumstances under which information about troubled students can be disclosed under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, a federal law governing student records that is often criticized for being too complicated. The brochures have been sent to colleges and schools across the country and are available on the Department of Education's Web site.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Website Worth a Look: JAMA Patient Page

This is a public service of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This online collection currently contains over 400 topical overviews to assist in communicating medical information to patients. They are written with the patient in mind and address a wide variety of topics. Color and graphis are used, but the content can be photocopied in black and white. The AMA holds the copyright to these overviews, but health care professionals are encouraged to make copies to share with patients. Many are available in English and in Spanish.
www.jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/collection/patient_page
Source: Medical Library Association News October 2007

Suspension of Books

Pat Conroy Raps Nitro High's Suspension of His Books The Prince of Tides and Beach Music have been suspended from use at Nitro High School in Kanawha County, West Virginia, and author Pat Conroy has responded. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has sent a letter to the school board in support of retaining these texts. The Charleston Gazette, October 24, 2007.

NCTE's Anti-Censorship program is founded on the belief in the Students' Right to Read and teachers' right to teach meaningful quality literature.
Source: NCTE Online Newsletter

With World Growing Smaller, IB gets Bigger

Amid heightened concern about preparing students for a global economy, the academically demanding International Baccalaureate program is catching on fast in U.S. schools. The perception that the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Baccalaureate Organization’s academic programs offer just what American students need in today’s more globally competitive environment seems to be catching on.

After decades of obscurity and slow expansion, the pace of growth in IB—including courses of study for the primary and middle school years as well as the better-known high-school-level programs—has quickened considerably.

Favorable word of mouth among educators—along with an endorsement from President Bush and glowing accounts in national magazines—has helped catapult IB into U.S. classrooms. More than 225 American schools so far this year have started offering at least one IB program, bringing the U.S. total to 800.
Source: Education Week October 31, 2007

It Takes a Miracle to Sell Your House

Cari Luna is Jewish by heritage and Buddhist by religion. She meditates regularly. Yet when she and her husband put their Brooklyn, N.Y., house on the market this year and offers kept falling through, Ms. Luna turned to an unlikely source for help: St. Joseph. After Ms. Luna and her husband held five open houses, even baking cookies for one of them, she ordered a St. Joseph "real estate kit" online and buried the three-inch white statue in her yard. "I wasn't sure if it would be disrespectful for me, a Jewish Buddhist, to co-opt this saint for my real-estate purposes," says Ms. Luna, a writer. She figured, "Well, could it hurt?"

With the worst housing market in recent years, St. Joseph is enjoying a flurry of attention. Some vendors of religious supplies say St. Joseph statues are flying off the shelves as an increasing number of skeptics and non-Catholics look for some saintly intervention to help them sell their houses. Existing-home sales fell 8 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million units, the lowest level in nearly 10 years, according to the National Association of Realtors. (The picture is from a St. Joseph real estate kit.)

Source: Wall Street Journal October 30, 2007

It was 6:30 p.m. The lights were still on at Needham High School, here in the affluent Boston suburbs. Paul Richards, the principal, was meeting with the Stress Reduction Committee. On the agenda: finding the right time to bring in experts to train students in relaxation techniques. No one is busier than Josh Goldman. Captain of varsity tennis, president of the Spanish club and a member of the student council and the Stress Reduction Committee, Josh was not able to squeeze in the meeting at all.

Mr. Richards is just one principal in the vanguard of a movement to push back against an ethos of super-achievement at affluent suburban high schools amid the extreme competition over college admissions. He has joined like-minded administrators from 44 other high schools and middle schools — most in the San Francisco Bay Area but others scattered from Texas to New York — to form a group known as S.O.S., for Stressed Out Students.
Source: New York Times October 29, 2007

Power of Birth Order

Of all the things that shape who we are, few seem more arbitrary than the sequence in which we and our siblings pop out of the womb. Maybe it's your genes that make you a gifted athlete, your training that makes you an accomplished actress, an accident of brain chemistry that makes you a drunk instead of a President. But in family after family, case study after case study, the simple roll of the birth-date dice has an odd and arbitrary power all its own.

The importance of birth order has been known—or at least suspected—for years. But increasingly, there's hard evidence of its impact. In June, for example, a group of Norwegian researchers released a study showing that firstborns are generally smarter than any siblings who come along later, enjoying on average a three-point IQ advantage over the next eldest—probably a result of the intellectual boost that comes from mentoring younger siblings and helping them in day-to-day tasks. My older sister always said she was smarter, but I didn't believe it. Now I wonder.

Source: Time Magazine October 29

Evaluating College Courses

Miami Dade College believes there are 10 key skills that graduates should take away with their diplomas. They are things such as the ability to communicate clearly, think creatively, and analyze data. So the college is examining every single one of its 2,000 or so courses to make sure that no student can go through an entire degree program without being exposed to all 10 skills.

The college then plans to test graduating students on what they have learned. The massive undertaking is an answer to the increasing push from lawmakers, businesses, and college leaders themselves to ensure that students leave higher education able to function in the modern work environment. The U.S. Department of Education, which has been pushing colleges to track student learning, has applauded the effort.

10 Key Skills That Miami Dade College Wants Students to Acquire
1. To communicate effectively using listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
2. To use quantitative analytical skills to evaluate and process numerical data.
3. To solve problems using critical and creative thinking, and scientific reasoning.
4. To formulate strategies to locate, evaluate, and apply information.
5. To demonstrate knowledge of diverse cultures, including global and historical perspectives.
6. To create strategies that can be used to fulfill personal, civic, and social responsibilities.
7. To demonstrate knowledge of ethical thinking and its application to issues in society.
8. To use computer and emerging technologies effectively.
9. To demonstrate an appreciation for aesthetics and creative activities.
10. To describe how natural systems function, and recognize the impact of human beings on the environment
What do you think?
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
Section: The Faculty Volume 54, Issue 10, Page A6

Did you Know?

28 billion plastic water bottles are purchased annually in the United States.
1.5 billion barrels of oil are used to make those bottles.
Americans spend $11 million on bottled water annually.
115 million African children could be fed for a year with that money.
Only 16% of plastic water bottles get recycled annually.
Americans discard 2.5 billion plastic water bottles every hour.
Tap water has to meet higher standards than bottled water.

So why not use your own tap water? Consider buying a washable stainless-steel water bottle and using the water you already pay for.

Source: Fussy Environmentally-friendly librarian