Eat Healthy; Save the Planet

A study in the April 15 edition of Environmental Science & Technology by the prolific Carnegie Mellon University researcher Christopher Weber found that food transport accounts for only 11 percent of food-associated greenhouse gas emissions, while production contributes a whopping 83 percent.

Weber conducted a life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gases emitted during all stages of growing and transporting food consumed in the U.S. and calculated that the average U.S. household generates 8.1 metric tons of greenhouse gases (in CO2 equivalents) annually as a result of food consumption. By comparison, driving a car that gets 25 miles per gallon of gasoline for 12,000 miles per year (the U.S. average) produces about 4.4 tons of CO2.

Even more surprising, the study noted that U.S. consumers can do more to reduce greenhouse gases by eating one-seventh of a week’s calories from chicken, fish or vegetables instead of red meat or dairy than buying all local foods.

Source: by Robyn, selected from TreeHugger Aug 17, 2009

Essay Writing Woes

More than 80% of eighth- and 12th-graders are familiar with the basics of writing, but relatively few of these students are capable of writing proficiently, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results. Just one in three eighth-graders and one in four high-school seniors were found capable of using proper spelling, grammar and higher-level writing skills needed to craft a clear and well-organized essay. Are you surprised?

Sources: Google, New York Times, Education Weekl Google

Resume Tips

4 Tips for a Résumé that
Survives Scrutiny

With more jobs being lost than created these days, a résumé really needs to stand out. Use these four tips to boost your résumé's chance of survival:

1.Insert dates for everything. Don't try to cover up your age or a gap in experience by omitting dates. Use your cover letter to explain any peculiarities.
2.Use buzzwords. Many HR folks look for certain buzzwords from the job description. Don't expect your generic résumé to make it through; customize it for each potential job.
3.Be specific. "Assisted" or "worked on" is much fuzzier than "designed," "wrote," or "led." When choosing verbs, use ones that mean something.
4.No typos. This goes without saying, but too many résumés are full of them nonetheless. Proofread, proofread again, and then ask someone else to proofread once more.

Source: Harvard Business Review August 18 2009

Ready to Feel Old?

Beloit College attempts to help academics each summer with its "Mindset List," which is updated annually to reflect what the latest class of freshmen will have experienced -- and what they may have no personal knowledge of. The link to this year's list follows, as prepared by Tom McBride, professor of humanities at the college, and Ron Nief, emeritus public affairs director. The list is based on the assumption that most students entering college for the first time this year were born in 1991, meaning -- the list reminds us -- that for these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss,and Miles Davis have always been dead.

Here is the Mindset List.

Source: Inside Higher Education August 18 2009

Congratulations, President Scheinberg

President Mark Scheinberg is recognized by Hartford Magazine's editorial board as one of Greater Hartford's 50 Most Influential People of 2009 "who have shaped the area's look, feel, culture, and vibrancy in a positive way." The article commends President Scheinberg for transforming "Goodwin College from a privately owned career school into a force for educational innovation in just 10 years."

The current issue of Hartford Magazine is available in the Goodwin Library. Congratulations, President Scheinberg!

Source: Hartford Magazine August 2009

Vision of Students Today

"This short video, created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University summarizes some of the most important characteristics of today's students--including how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, dreams, and hopes, and the changes they will experience in their lifetime. The video also indicates that there is a need for educators to design courses that involve students in more active learning and to provide collaborative learning experiences that encourage communication among students as part of the learning process."

Source: YouTube Visions of Students Today and "Talkin 'bout My Generation" in C%RL News July/August 2009

Genders, Majors and Money

"These are great days for female undergraduates, who with their greater numbers are excelling in higher education, leaving their male counterparts in the dust. That's the increasingly common view, at least, leading to calls in some quarters to focus more on male students.

But what if the enrollment totals are obscuring a major equity issue that may not favor women at all? That was the idea behind research presented here Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. The research links women's and men's college majors with earning gaps by gender, after graduation. And even as the earning gaps nationally have declined, the study says, the share of the gap attributable to college major has grown." Read the article in Higher Education Today.

Child's Play: How They do Math

Would we need elaborate, expensive, high-tech methods to improve preschoolers understanding of number? Robert Siegler, in his article "Improving the Numerical Understanding of Children from Low-Income Families" (Child Development Perspectives, 2009, Vol. 3(2), pp. 118-124), reports on the effectiveness of a cheap, old-fashioned method which is fun for everybody: the board game. Siegel reported that an hour of playing a simple board game produced gains in 4- and 5-year-olds' abilities to compare the size of numbers, to estimate where on a number line a point should be placed, to count, and to identify numerals. Siegler suggests that all of these benefits could come from a board game like Candyland or Chutes and Ladders.

The library will soon have Candyland and Chutes and Ladders available for checkout to the Goodwin College community. The Library Advocacy Committee is sponsoring this opportunity for you to borrow Candyland or Chutes and Ladders as well as other games and toys from the Goodwin Library. If you happen to have games, books, or toys to donate, they would be greatly appeciated. Watch this blog for the starting date.

Source: The first paragraph in Child Myths: Straight Talk About Child
Development by Jean Mercer, Ph.D. July 29, 2009

CQ Researcher: Afghanistan Dilemma

Nearly eight years ago, U.S. forces first entered Afghanistan to pursue the al Qaeda terrorists who plotted the Sept. 11 terror attacks. American troops are still there today, along with thousands of NATO forces. Under a new strategy crafted by the Obama administration, military leaders are trying to deny terrorists a permanent foothold in the impoverished Central Asian country and in neighboring, nuclear-armed Pakistan, whose western border region has become a sanctuary for Taliban and al Qaeda forces. The Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict — “Af-Pak” in diplomatic parlance — poses huge challenges ranging from rampant corruption within Afghanistan's police forces to a multibillion-dollar opium economy that funds the insurgency. But those problems pale in comparison with the ultimate nightmare scenario: Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, which foreign-policy experts say has become a real possibility.

Source: CQ Researcher Online

New Title on Credo Reference Database

Key Concepts in Early Childhood Education and Care
Cathy Nutbrown, a leading academic in early childhood education, identifies and explains key terms and practices central to the work and study of early childhood in this accessible reference text.
A must for practitioners working with children from birth to the end of the foundation stage, and for students following courses in early childhood education and care, it details key issues, identified in a survey of over 300 practitioners in the field, and provides reading and reference sources to assist practitioners and students in identifying further material to support their work.
The book includes:
• Origins and definitions
• Research issues
• Examples from practice
• References and indicative further reading
• Links
• Key words
Highly readable, with clear cross referencing, this is an ideal book to turn to as a starting point for learning more about national and international issues in early childhood education and care.

Best Free References: BBC Country Profiles

BBC Country Profiles

This site supplies information on the history, economy, and politics of countries and territories. Each profile includes an overview, map, facts, and current leaders. A media overview provides information on the press, television, radio, news agencies, and number of Internet users. Links provided on the side of the profile connect to the latest news and key stories, BBC links, background articles, related Internet sites and video and audio clips from the BBC archives. Additional features include timelines, recent news links, background articles, Internet sites, and BBC archive video and audio clips. Information on over 20 key international organizations is also included.

Source: Association of College and Research Libraries MARS division

Using the Federal Register

The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. OpenRegs.com from George Mason University is an alternative to the government site. That site can be confusing and difficult to use for average citizens and experts alike. The goal of OpenRegs.com is to make the proposed and final regulations published in the Federal Register easier to find and discuss, so that we can become better informed and more involved in the regulatory process.

The most recent issue of the Federal Register published 25 final regulations, for a total of 1974 this year. It also published 15 proposed regulations, and the issuing agencies are seeking comments from the public on each one. On OpenRegs.com you can find these regulations, read about them, discuss them, and submit your comments to the agencies. Thank you, George Mason University!

(Please note, though, that using OpenRegs.com is not a substitute for visiting Regulations.gov. That site is ultimately the official site.)

Book Alert

The Beautiful Tree : A Personal Journey into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves by James Tooley."Tooley documents his surprising finding that private schools are providing quality education to millions of poor children in the developing world. Whereas development experts insist that the path out of poverty lies in investment in public schools, the author draws on his fieldwork in India, China and Africa to argue that small entrepreneurs are educating the poor. Contrary to accepted wisdom, the modest fees of private schools are within reach of most, and parents find them superior to public schools that are often riddled with corruption and incompetence. Tooley argues that development funds be invested to support these institutions, through vouchers to parents and microfinance loans to the schools. The author's engaging style transforms what could have been a dry if startling research report into a moving account of how poor parents struggle against great odds to provide a rich educational experience to their children." This book is in the Goodwin Library.
Source: Review from Publishers Weekly

Evolution of Evolution

Almost 150 years after the publication of Darwin's On the origin of Species, scientific understanding of evolution continues to take some remarkable twists and turns. A new National Science Foundation interactive Web site and report includes essays, interviews, and extensive timelines chronicling challenges and triumphs of the evolution of evolution. The site includes a bibliography and links to additional Web resources on anthropology, astronomy, biology, geoscience, and polar sciences.
Source: Association of College and Research Library News July/August 2009

Science Times

Every Tuesday the New York Times includes a Science Times Section, a favorite of some of the Goodwin faculty. Today's section includes:
1)Scientists have discovered that the spleen, long consigned to the B-list of abdominal organs and known as much for its metaphoric as its physiological value, plays a more important role in the body's defense system than anyone suspected.(Page 1)

2) Does a nation's mood lurk in its songs and blogs? A pair of statisticans at the University of Vermont argue that linguistic analysis--not just of song lyrics but of blogs and speeches--could add a new and valuable dimension to the growing area of mass psychology: the determination of national well-being. Do I see a research paper topic here? (page 5)

3) Three new movies revolve around Asperger's syndrome: "Adam", a romance; "Mary and Max", animated feature; an HBO film about Temple Grandin,well-known university professor with high functioning autism, premiering next year. (also page 5)

Source: New York Times August 4

Wall Street Journal Today

In the Wall Street Journal Personal Journal section today you will find:

1) how researchers are using zebrafish in efforts to find ways to regenerate hearing-essential cells,
2) how patients are given tools to handle an overwhelming array of treatment decisions,
3) how a new earplug draws water out of the ear after swimming preventing swimmer's ear.

Tuesday is a good day to read the Wall Street Journal in the library.

Source: Wall Street journal August 4

'%&*#$!' Makes You Feel Better

Don't tell your children, but a new study finds swearing like a sailor may alleviate pain. Four-letter words may help alleviate pain, suggests a study in the August 5 NeuroReport. Swear words "are really the link between the languge system andthe emotional system," according to psychologist Timothy Jay. The inspiration for this study came to a psychologist as he listened to his wife let loose with some unsavory language during the throes of labor.
Source: Science News August 1

Straining the Safety Net: CQ Researcher

As unemployment keeps mounting, millions more Americans are being forced to rely on a network of federal and state programs to meet their basic needs. The added pressure on the so-called safety net has prompted increases in unemployment insurance payments and expanded food-stamp and welfare caseloads, authorized under this year's $787 billion stimulus package. Budget crises, however, are forcing some states to cut back on safety-net programs, including health care and meals for disadvantaged children. At the same time critics say welfare reforms enacted in 1996 requiring aid recipients to work don't mesh with the reality of today's job shortage. But supporters of the reforms say the extra spending on benefits shows the system is working. With employment growth unlikely any time soon, a renewed debate on government responsibility to the disadvantaged is gathering force. Read the full report online (password protected).
Source: CQ Researcher

Crap Detection 101

Howard Rheingold,well-known writer and lecturer, posted this about evaluating online resources on SF Gate (home of the San Francisco Chronicle)last month.

"The first thing we all need to know about information online is how to detect crap, a technical term I use for information tainted by ignorance, inept communication, or deliberate deception. Learning to be a critical consumer of Webinfo is not rocket science. It's not even algebra. Becoming acquainted with the fundamentals of web credibility testing is easier than learning the multiplication tables. The hard part, as always, is the exercise of flabby think-for-yourself muscles."

Librarians have been saying this, too, but perhaps in not so colorful a style. Read and distribute the article.

Source: SF Gate

Systems Administrator Appreciation Day Tomorrow

Friday, July 31, 2009, is the 10th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. On this special international day, give our System Administrator and IT Department something that shows that we truly appreciate their hard work and dedication--perhaps an expensive sports car,large piles of cash or something within reason. It's the thought that counts.