Another Free Trial: American History in Video

American History in Video is a massive, first-of-its kind collection of streaming video covering the entire gamut of American history–it will total 2,000 hours of video / 5,000 total videos at completion (currently it’s at about 420 hours and growing fast). It includes a wide range of documentaries (like those from The History Channel), newsreels–including the complete series of both Universal News and United Newsreel–and other contemporaneous films. It’s all deeply indexed, and the technical features make it easy to zoom in on exact moments of footage, make clips, create playlists (of clips by theme, entire films, and anything else anywhere on the Web) and share them with a class, for example.There are synchronized scrolling transcripts for every video (and those are searchable, too).

This trial is available to all through April 30. No login/password is required during the trial. The new database comes from Alexander Street Press.

More Technology, Please

The physics department at M.I.T. has replaced the traditional large introductory lecture with smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning. M.I.T. is not alone. Other universities are changing their ways, among them Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, North Carolina State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Colorado at Boulder and Harvard. In these institutions, physicists have been pioneering teaching methods drawn from research showing that most students learn fundamental concepts more successfully, and are better able to apply them, through interactive, collaborative, student-centered learning.

Today M.I.T. students meet in high-tech classrooms, where students sit at 13 round tables equipped with networked computers. The walls are covered with white boards and huge display screens. Circulating with a team of teaching assistants, the professor makes brief presentations of general principles and engages the students as they work out related concepts in small groups. Teachers and students conduct experiments together. The room buzzes. Conferring with tablemates, calling out questions and jumping up to write formulas on the white boards are all encouraged. The new approach at M.I.T. is known by its acronym, TEAL, for Technology Enhanced Active Learning.

Source: New York Times January 19 from article by Sara Rimer

Literary Reference Center Free Trial Now

The library has just arranged a free trial of Literary Reference Center,a full text database that combines information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing.

This database contains full text for 31,098 plot summaries, synopses and work overviews, nearly 100,000 articles/essays of literary criticism, nearly 140,000 author biographies (including more than 22,000 in-depth bios), more than 430 literary journals, more than 613,000 book reviews, more than 67,000 classic and contemporary poems, more than 17,000 classic and contemporary short stories, more than 5,400 author interviews, more than 8,200 classic texts and much more.

In addition, the Reference Center also includes Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Beacham's Research Guide to Biography and Criticism (six volumes), The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, The Literary Encyclopedia, The Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story, all of MagillOnLiterature Plus™, and much more.

This is one of the most highly recommended electronic literary references available for two and four year college students. PLEASE TRY IT! Access will be available from the library page today.

Source: Fact Sheet on Literary Reference Center from the publisher

Global Researcher Monthly Report: Aiding Refugees

Some 42 million people worldwide have been uprooted by warfare or other violence, including 16 million refugees who are legally protected because they left their home countries. Most live in refugee camps and receive aid from the United Nations or other agencies but cannot work or leave the camps without special permission. Another 26 million people who fled violence are not protected by international treaties because they remained in their home countries. The number of such “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) has risen in the last decade, largely due to wars in Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia. Millions of IDPs live in harsh conditions, and many receive no aid. Some critics say the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees should do much more for IDPs, but the agency already faces severe budget shortfalls and bleak prospects for more donations from wealthy nations. Meanwhile, scientists warn that the number of people displaced by natural disasters — now about 50 million a year — could rise dramatically in coming years due to climate change. The photo shows Somali refugees waiting to be admitted to the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.

CQ Global Researcher monthly reports provide Goodwin students with definitive, in-depth coverage of global affairs from a number of international viewpoints. Access to the full report is available on and off-campus. Ask the library staff for the user name and password.

Source: Global Researcher March 2009
Photo source: IRIN/Manoocher Deghati

Historic American Sheet Music

We are indebted to Duke University and other colleges and universities that share their special collections. The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University holds a significant collection of 19th and early 20th century American sheet music. The Historic American Sheet Music Project provides access to digital images of 3042 pieces from the collection, published in the United States between 1850 and 1920. This is only one of Duke's digital collections arranged alphabetically and by subject.

Source: Information and image from Duke University
Digital Collections at http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm/

Women Striving Forward Image

Lowell, MA - Portuguese mill girls between 1910 and 1915






At the time, there were few respectable ways for a girl to earn money. She could hire herself out as a domestic to work in someone else’s home for no more than fifty cents per week. She could set up her own business as a seamstress, or she could teach school, but only in the summer. During the regular school year, that position was reserved for men. She might also have worked as a book binder. Starting wages were $1.00 per week.

Source: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

About Music and the Brain

The Library of Congress's Music and the Brain events offer lectures,podcasts, conversations and symposia about the explosion of new research at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and music. Project chair Kay Redfield Jamison convenes scientists and scholars, composers, performers, theorists, physicians, psychologists, and other experts at the Library for a compelling 2-year series, with generous support from the Dana Foundation.

So far, these podcasts are available at Music and the Brain: Your Brain on Jazz: Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Improvisation; The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature; The Music of Language and the Language of Music; and Dangerous Music.

Source: Library of Congress: Music and the Brain

Global Gateway: Internet Resource

The Library of Congress (LC) calls Global Gateway a portal to its"unparalleled internatinal collections and those of other major repositories worldwide." Users will find it sensational. It is a stunning portal to primary sources from countries across the globe. It is an excellent starting point for both beginning and experienced researchers
Source: Sarah Goodwin Thiel, University of Kansas in C&RL News March 2009

Alternative Search Engines

An article by Adrian Janes in Free Pint last month urges us to search the Web with alternatives to Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Live. "The alternatives are useful, he says, "because it can be more efficient to search with something that may have a smaller but more focused, index." It is also important to encourage smaller comp[anies so as to prevent companies like Google from taking over. Janes provides links and mini-reviews for Zuula, Hakia, Agent 55, Mednar, Clust, and others. Read the article.
Source: College and Research News March 2009

Women Striving Forward Images

Women Striving Forward is a collection of 23 photos from the Library of Congress that highlight the many arenas in which women have striven individually and collectively not only for their own betterment, but for better conditions and greater justice in the world at large. The photos show the resilience, determination, and humor that it takes to survive and flourish, sometimes against great odds. For the rest of Women's History Month, the blog will be including pictures from this collection.

This photo, taken between 1910 and 1915, shows women suffrage hikers General Rosalie Jones, Jessie Stubbs, and Colonel Ida Craft, who is wearing a bag labeled "Votes for Women pilgrim leaflets."
Source: Flickr Commons project, 2008)
George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress)
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication

Environmental Chemicals Database

EPA has released a new online database that collects information on more than 500,000 man-made chemicals from over 200 public sources. The Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource (ACToR) database allows access to hundreds of data sources in one place, providing a new level of transparency and easy access for environmental researchers, scientific journalists and the public. Sources of information include EPA, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. National Institutes of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and other federal agencies; state databases, Health and Environment Canada, the European Union, the World Health Organization and other international groups; and non-governmental organizations, private companies and universities.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

FREE Has a Twitter Feed

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) is a wonderful and growing searchable directory of education resources. Now they have their own Twitter feed.
+ Direct to FREE Twitter Feed

Source: U.S. Department of Education March 14 2009

CQ Researcher:; Vanishing Jobs

The news is grim and getting grimmer. The jobless rate recently hit 8.1 percent — the highest level in a quarter-century. American workers lost 651,000 jobs in February alone. All told, more than 12.5 million Americans are jobless — including 2.9 million who have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks. The nation is banking on the Obama administration's newly enacted, $787 billion “economic stimulus” bill to spark job growth through government spending on infrastructure projects and other programs. Conservatives argue that the spending won't help, and some liberals say the magnitude of the crisis calls for still more stimulus money. The huge spending measure also includes funds to encourage states to expand eligibility for unemployment insurance, though some governors are resisting on the grounds that their states will wind up footing future bills. With no quick turnaround predicted, creating or saving jobs will remain the top priority for President Barack Obama and the millions of citizens counting on his administration's rescue plan. Read the full report online(password protected).

Source: Introduction from CQ Researcher March 13 2009
Photo AP by Paul Sakuma

New in the Library

Just in to the Goodwin Library:
Act Like a Lady: Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey
Best Short Stories by Black Writers: Classic Anthology edited by Langston Hughes
Children of the Night: Best Short Stories by Black Writers edited by Gloria Naylor
Leading Quietly by Joseph Badaracco
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
Sleeping with Strangers by Jerome Dickey
Tell me How this Ends: General David Petraeus & the Search for a Way Out of Iraq by Linda Robinson
ASP.NET 35 Unleashed +CD
Sense of Wonder (Life of Rachel Carson) DVD
Silent Spring DVD
The Gamble by Tom Ricks
Justice Talking: Women's Rights 3 DVDs
There is no Such Thing as Woman's Work DVD
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson DVD
Year's Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois
and many more!

Why Go to College

This week the U.S. Department of Education announced their new higher education resource Web site. The Web site, wwww.college.gov, is designed to motivate students to want to attend college, acting as a resource for high school students by providing information about planning, preparing, and paying for college. The site provides interested students with first-person accounts of college students who have faced—and surmounted—great challenges to attend college.
Source: National Council of Teachers of English

MLA Format Updated

"Even in citations, print is the default no more. The seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, released yesterday, states that the Modern Language Association no longer recognizes print as the default medium, and suggests that the medium of publication should be included in each works cited entry.

Moreover, the MLA has ceased to recommend inclusion of URLs in citing Web-based works – unless the instructor requires it or a reader would likely be unable to locate the source otherwise. “Inclusion of URLs has proved to have limited value… for they often change, can be specific to a subscriber or a session of use, and can be so long and complex that typing them into a browser is cumbersome and prone to transcription errors. Readers are now more likely to find resources on the Web by searching for titles and authors' names than by typing URLs,” states the handbook."
Source: Inside Higher Ed March 11 2009
View the article.

National Faculty Survey

The report, "The American College Teacher: National Norms for the 2007–08 HERI Faculty Survey," was just issued recently by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) at the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA, which puts out the national faculty report triennially. Here are some of the results:

"Compared to just three years ago, a significantly greater number of today's college teachers consider civic engagement and appreciation of racial and ethnic diversity important educational goals for undergraduates, according to a UCLA report on teaching faculty at the nation's colleges and universities.

The majority of college faculty (55.5 percent) nationwide now consider it "very important" or "essential" to "instill in students a commitment to community service," an increase of 19.1 percentage points since the survey was last conducted in 2004–05, and 75.2 percent indicate that they work to "enhance students' knowledge of and appreciation for other racial/ethnic groups," a gain of 17.6 percentage points over three years." Read the entire press release and view the executive summary powerpoint here.

Did You Know?

The First Friday in March is the World Day of Prayer.The idea of designating a day for Christians to pray together was suggested in 1887 by the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Today, the observance has spread to other denominations, all of which hold the same service—translated, of course, into the appropriate language—on the first Friday in March. In each community, one church is selected for the service, and throughout the day women of all denominations come and go, each staying as long as she wishes, to take her place in this world-wide chain of prayer.
Source: Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary in the Credo Reference Database
Painting: Melozzo da Forli (1438-1494), Angel Musician (fresco) from The Bridgeman Art Library Archive, also available from Credo Reference

Adult Online Learning

“About 70 percent of adult learners taking classes online do not finish their courses,” according to a study by Shawna L. Strickland, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The report says that while more introverted or shy personality types, or individuals with schedule conflicts, can thrive in online-learning programs, difficulties with operating the required technology or heavy workloads can stand in the way of course completion. The author drew from academic journals and studies on distance learning for the report, which examined adult learners ages 20 to 40.
Source: Mary C. Breaden, Adult Online Learning, Education Week, March 5, 2008, Vol. 27, Issue 26. Original Report, “Understanding Successful Characteristics of Adult Learners.”

National Women's History Month

In 2009, the National Women's History Project honors women who have taken the lead in the environmental or "green" movement. We are featuring Rachel Carson, the founder of the contemporary environmental movement, as the iconic model of the theme. Rachel Carson's work provides an admirable model for comparison. The 2009 Honorees are scientists, engineers, business leaders, writers, filmmakers, conservationists, teachers, community organizers, religious or workplace leaders or others whose lives show exceptional vision and leadership to save our planet.
Source: National Women"s History Month Project