Employer-Led Higher Education

"It is a sign of things to come. Most students enroll in college to pursue careers. The most popular undergraduate major, by far, is business, while education and health professions check in at Nos. 3 and 4. Institutions that give the demands of the professional workplace short shrift will eventually exhaust the good will of students and employers. With information technology breaking down barriers to entering the higher-education market, and the economic stakes of postsecondary learning intensifying for students and society alike, the inclination to sacrifice teaching for research will grow less tenable by the year."

Here is the link to the article by Kevin Carey published December 14, 2009, in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
'Teacher U': A New Model in Employer-Led Higher Education

Just in This Morning

These magazines and journals are just in this morning:
The Economist--special report on social networking
Nature--Fixing the communications failure
Science News--Flesh on bone: new work adds meat to dino skeletons
The Nation--Haiti: A just response
Fortune--100 best companies to work for
Journal of the Medical Library Associatiion--Information-seeking behavior of basic science researchers
Time--The most dangerous game
Education Week--Measuring teaching effectiveness

Black History Month

To commemorate and celebrate the contributions to our nation made by people of African descent, American historian Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week. The first celebration occurred on Feb. 12, 1926. For many years, the second week of February was set aside for this celebration to coincide with the birthdays of abolitionist/editor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, as part of the nation’s bicentennial, the week was expanded into Black History Month. Each year, U.S. presidents proclaim February as National African-American History Month.

The library has a special exhibit in the showcase in front of the elevators and in the library.

If you have never heard Cornel West, you should. One of America's most provocative public intellectuals, Cornel West has been a champion for racial justice since childhood. He is currently a professor at Princeton University. His writing, speaking, and teaching weave together the traditions of the black Baptist Church, progressive politics, and jazz.Listen to Cornel West on "why reading matters".

Connecticut Chuckles & Groundhog day

Groundhog Day is tomorrow

Will it be a long winter or an early spring? Only "Connecticut Chuckles" knows for sure.

The official rodent prognosticator of Connecticut’s weather resides at the Lutz Children’s Museum. Hundreds of people flock to the museum each year to hear the news straight from the groundhog’s mouth (with a little help from the Mayor).

The museum will open at 6:00 AM. Connecticut Chuckles, also known as Molly, makes her grand entrance at exactly 7:03 AM. This event is free and open to the public.

Library Blog Comment Change

You can now comment anonymously to library blog posts. I have eliminated the requirement of a user name and email account. That was cumbersome and time consuming. Who can remember all those user names and passwords? So now your comments will be posted from Anonymous unless you choose to sign your name. You can immediately react to something you read without wasting time.

I hope this will encourage more of you to comment and start discussions. I welcome guest entries for the blog on any topic of interest to the Goodwin community. That should be almost anything.

Congratulations Goodwin College

The February issue of the Hartford Magazine has a Greater Hartford Report Card for 2009. Goodwin College received an A. The only other A was UCONN Sports. AWSOME!

The magazine is in the Goodwin Library.

Ohio State's New Smartphone Mobile Site

January 25th, 2010
The staff, students, faculty, and alumni at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio now have a new mobile site that’s optimized for smartphones (like the iPhone). Another version for traditional mobiles is also available.

This page has a quick overview of what’s available for the smartphone version.

1. It’s location aware.
2. Directions to campus locations (freshmen will love this feature)
3. Real-Time arrival times for campus buses
4. Ohio State “backgrounds, ringtones, links to Ohio State on Facebook and Twitter. OSU’s devoted fans will love this. Smart move to include it.
5. Access the Library Catalog (but no other databases at this time).

I like number 5 myself. Don't forget that the Goodwin Library has Text-a-Librarian.

Source: Ohio State University via Gerry McKiernan, Lorcan Dempsey (via Twitter)

Preprint: Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy

This blog is starting to capture ideas in education about information literacy. This is a preprint quote from an article to be published next year. The definition of information literacy as a stand-alone library research entity seems to be no longer valid in the world of today's college students and faculty using collaborative technologies.

"Social media environments and online communities are innovative collaborative technologies that challenge traditional definitions of information literacy. Metaliteracy is an overarching and self-referential framework that integrates emerging technologies and unifies multiple literacy types. This redefinition of information literacy expands the scope of generally understood information competencies and places a particular emphasis on producing and sharing information in participatory digital environments."

What do you think?

Source: Authors: Thomas P. Mackey, Trudi E. Jacobson
Accepted: January 24, 2010
Anticipated Publication Date: January 2011
Source: College and Research Libraries PREPRINT

Google Advances

Google has announced several new search and other applications allowing users to use voice, location, and sight to find information, mostly on mobile devices.

Google Goggles visual search enables users to take a snapshot of a landmark or business and receive results based upon the image.

Google Translate has added a mobile application that translates audio from one language to another on the go.

Google Favorite Places returns information on businesses that choose to display a special barcode.

A local results application for mobile devices returns results based upon one’s GPS coordinates.

Real Time search will automatically update search results as content is updated, for example, with Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook.

Source: Greg Sterling, Google Mobile Gets ‘What’s Nearby,’ Voice Search Expands & ‘Goggles’ Search By Snapping Pictures, Search Engine Land, December 7, 2009, cited December 8, 2009, searchengineland.com/google-mobile-announcements-voice-languages-whats-nearby-goggles-31374.

In-demand Occupations

The top five in-demand and desirable occupations in the United States, using Bureau of Labor Statistics, are regisered nurses, general and operations managers, physicians and surgeons, accountants and auditors, and elementary school teachers.

The projected need for nurses (2006-2016) is 1,001,000. The projected need for elementary school teachers is 545,000. Of all the occupations regardless of wage, the highest need is for retails salespeople with 1,935,000 needed during the time period 2006-2016.

Are you surprised?

Source: U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Department of Education, 2009

Preserving Biomed Central Articles

January 14, 2010 – CLOCKSS has partnered with BioMed Central, the world’s largest open access publisher, to preserve over 60,000 articles in CLOCKSS’s geographically and geopolitically distributed network of redundant archive nodes, located at 12 major research libraries around the world.

A non-profit joint venture between the world’s leading scholarly publishers and research libraries, CLOCKSS’s mission is to build a sustainable, geographically distributed dark archive for the benefit of the greater global research community. By archiving with CLOCKSS, BioMed Central ensures that its open access articles remain open access forever. If necessary, CLOCKSS will make this content available, under a creative commons license, for free to all scholars around the world.

All original research articles published by BioMed Central are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication. BioMed Central views open access to research as essential in order to ensure the rapid and efficient communication of research findings. BioMed Central's portfolio of 206 journals includes general titles such as Journal of Biology alongside specialist journals (e.g. BMC Bioinformatics, Malaria Journal) that focus on particular disciplines.

Source: CLOCKSS on Resource Shelf January 14, 2009

OECD Factbook 2010 on Credo Reference

Credo Reference Database has signed has integrated the Organzation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Factbook 2010 into the Credo collection. This is the first OECD title to be made available on Credo.

The OECD Factbook 2010 is a key reference tool in economic and policy issues. The most comprehensive and dynamic statistical annual from the OECD, it contains extensive information, as well as graphs and tables for more than 100 indicators covering a wide range of areas. Topics include economy, agriculture, education, energy, environment, foreign aid, health and quality of life, industry, communications, population, trade, and taxation. With the new agreement, the Factbook’s content will now be accessible and completely cross-searchable by researchers worldwide, within Credo’s collection of more than 440 full text reference books. This reference book database is available to the Goodwin community on the library page A to Z list of databases.

Source: Credo Reference Update January 2010

End of Men

It takes a man to carry a Y chromosome, and it takes the Y chromosome to make sperm, which is necessary for human reproduction. So men are essential to the future of the species.

But researchers have found that, over the millennia, the Y chromosome has lost most of it genes. What if it were to disappear altogether? NPR's Joe Palca explores that possibility in the first report of a three-part series on the End of Men.

Source: National Public Radio January 14

Animal Rights: CQ Researcher Report

Is the treatment of animals improving? Do animals have rights?
Are we doing enough to protect farm animals?
Is animal research necessary to achieve medical progress?

"The passage of dozens of tough state animal-protection laws last year reflects growing public interest in animal welfare. Today, many Americans view pets as family members, and some even leave bequests to pets in their wills. Vegetarianism has gone mainstream as people have become concerned about the conditions on factory farms, and many scientists say farm animals have feelings. Fifteen years ago, only 10 of the country's law schools offered animal-law courses; today about 130 do. At the same time, however, billions of animals are slaughtered for food each year in our meat-eating society, and live-animal research is a major tool of biomedicine. The food industry, researchers and others who depend on using and killing animals are fighting back against what they call overblown concerns about animal rights. Last November, for example, Ohio voters approved an amendment to the state's constitution barring the legislature from approving any animal-protection laws that would apply to farms."

This is just the introduction to the CQ Researcher report. Read the full report accessible from the library page (password protected). Call or text the librarian for the user name and password. A new report us published weekly. The Global CQ Researcher has a monthly report.

Source: CQ Researcher January 14 2010. This reports was written by Marcia Clemmitt.
Picture Source: Rhesus monkeys hug at a research facility in Great Britain, where labs must protect the physical and mental well-being of social animals like monkeys by housing them in groups and giving them toys. Similar laws apply to primates and some other research animals in the U.S. (Understanding Animal Research/Wellcome Images)

The 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association was revised and updated last year. For those students who are writing research papers with APA format, one of the best resources is the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University (OWL)
"Summary: APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in APA."

This resource was written by David Neyhart and Erin Karper. Additional material by Kristen Seas & Tony Russell.. Last full revision by Jodi Wagner, Elena Lawrick, Elizabeth Angeli, Kristen Moore, and Michael Anderson.Last edited by Allen Brizee on January 11 2010.

Tip on News Sources

"Google News has been one of the usual suspects when you want to monitor current news. The challenge of Google News is that the layout and organization of the stories is done by algorithm rather than by a real live human. This sometimes results in stories from less reliable sources being featured, at the expense of providing links to more trustworthy sources. Perhaps the more significant issue is that, in order to read any of the news, you need to click through to the story. Want another perspective? You'll have to go back to Google News, skim the headlines and decide what other sources offer better coverage.

Google has partnered with The Washington Post and The New York Times to provide a more journalistic approach to providing news. This new offering, called Living Stories and still in Google Labs, provides more in-depth coverage of ongoing stories. Right now, the news items being covered include the war in Afghanistan, H1N1 flu, health care reform, global warming and the debate over executive compensation. Yes, a bit US-centric, but I have hopes that Google will expand to more global issues.

Each story includes an in-depth review of the issues involved, a timeline showing key events, selected news articles and features, videos, slideshows, graphics, profiles of the key players, and links to key resources. Because these "living stories" are maintained by editors rather than generated algorithmically, they offer a way to get a good introduction and perspective on a current issue.

Living Stories may not be the go-to source for late-breaking news stories, but this is an exciting initiative. In fact, I hope that newspapers everywhere look at how Living Stories is received; this is a great way to leverage all the content that newspapers produce and tap into the knowledge of reporters by including links to the key primary sources as well."

Source: Tips from Mary Ellen Bates, author and well-known business researcher

WELCOME STUDENTS

Welcome to returning students and to those just starting here. We hope you have an exciting semester. Please come to the library soon!

I think you should also have fun here, so check this out. This will also explain the picture of piano keys.

(The Fun Theory on Youtube was suggested by Henriette Pranger, Director of Educational Assessment.)

NEW BOOKS

NEW BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY FACULTY (SOME ON RESERVE):

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis & What to Do About it
Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions & Transform Your Life
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba
Mind That Found Itself
Impaired: A Nurse's Story of Addiction and Recovery
Divided Minds: Twin Sisters & Their Journey Through Schizophrenia
The Help: A Novel

These books are now in the library.

Text a Librarian

If you have a mobile phone and want to text us a question, it’s easy:
1. Compose a text message to 66746.
2. Start your message with ASKGOOD.
3. Send your message and wait for a reply!
[Example: ASKGOOD what time do u close tonight]

The Text a Librarian service is available when the library is open.You can text us whenever you like, but we will only be able to reply when the library is open. (Hours are listed on the library page).We will respond as soon as possible during those hours. If the service is not available, you will receive an automated response and we will answer your question the next day we are open.

Use Text a Librarian to ask simple, quick questions (up to 160 characters) that can be answered in brief responses (up to 320 characters). If our responses exceed 160 characters, they appear as two messages.

To use the service, you need a mobile phone which is enabled to send and receive text messages. Goodwin Library does not charge for this service, but charges from your cell phone provider may apply. These charges vary among plans and among telephone providers. The library does not take any responsibility for any charges your mobile phone provider may assess you for sending or receiving messages while using this service.

You only need to include ASKGOOD for the first question you send to us. Text a Librarian is private and secure. Our Text a Librarian service by Mosio assigns a random User ID number to each patron. Your phone number is never visible to us at any time. Your phone number is never accessible by us.

Have further questions? Call Goodwin Library at 860-727-6782 or text us!

Program for Science Education

Discovery Education has announced the Discovery Educator Network SCIcon (DENSCIcon) 2010, a free, virtual professional development event demonstrating the many ways educators can integrate digital content and educational technologies into science education.

The event will be held Saturday, Jan. 9 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST and will offer a variety of individual sessions on the topic, including teaching global climate change issues, real-world applications for classroom science instruction; paperless instruction; hands-on activities; challenge-based learning; teaching with video from Mythbusters (Discovery Channel's series that subjects all sorts of myth to hands-on testing); and fun, easy and effective science experiments.

DEN SCIcon 2010 is an online conference (with a twist) focused on providing participants with some of the most effective strategies for transforming their science classes through the meaningful and effective integration of digital media content. Join thousands of educators from around the world for an amazing day of professional development sessions, networking and sharing.

Saturday, January 9, 2010
9 AM to 4 PM ET
Drop by for an hour or stay for the whole day!
It’s virtual and it’s FREE!
Register for the online sessions at:
http://links.discoveryeducation.com/denscicon

Source: The Journal