What CT Government does for us

Interlibrary Loan Service 2010
Our Interlibrary Loan services is provided by the Connecticut State Library with delivery by Connecticar (Ccar). It serves 226 libraries with 2.75 million items shipped. The average delivery time is usually several business days.
Cost using Ccar =$580,000
Cost to do this using USPS =$7,101,000
Cost to our library =$0

ICONN
-over 8 million page views
-2,312,183 searches in statewide catalog
-200 libraries lent 130,448 items through reQuest, a 6% increase
-22.1 million items now in reQuest
-$27 million-the value of all iCONN databases to local communities

Source: Connecticut State Library/Division of Library Development

New England Library Association Conference

Yesterday, I attended the opening day of the New England Library Conference at Boxborough, MA. The New England Library Association (NELA) is a membership organization for library staff and supporters in the New England States. The theme of this year’s conference was “Outside the Box; Results Support Sustainability.”

The first session was “Meeting the Challenge: Libraries in a Time of Change presented by American Library Association Executive Director, Keith Michael Fiels” who refuted the many myths about libraries and librarians. The Jordan Miller Storytelling program featured Judith Black, nationally recognized storyteller, who explored expanding literacy through stories and the current problem of the rampant self-censorship of children's literature. In the annual discussion group, State of the States, representatives of each state agency provided gloomy status reports on coping with current realities of decreasing funding and increasing service demands. Featured speaker at the banquet was Joe Raiola, Senior Editor of MAD magazine and a long-time First Amendment champion. His Joy of Censorship presentation included an illuminating, satiric and sometimes disturbing look at censorship and related issues. He also traced the unlikely and colorful history of MAD magazine and presented a survey of MAD’s most controversial covers and articles.

Next year's conference will be at Burlington, Vermont, earlier in October.

Source: Marilyn Nowlan

Mark Twain's Autobiography just arrived!

The library has an early release of Volume One of Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography. This major literary event brings us the first of three volumes presenting Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave--as he intended. He left strict instructions that it not be published until 100 years after his death.

Who will be the first of the Goodwin Community to read it?

Autobiography of Mark Twain
Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith
University of California Press, 2010
PS1331.A2 2010

Highlighted Service: Text a Librarian (TAL)

Text a Librarian (TAL) allows members of the Goodwin community to text questions from mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Answers are disseminated by library staff who text messages back during library hours. Questions are responded to in turn and in brief (320 or fewer characters). Face-to-face research consultations can be scheduled, or patrons can be directed to other options such as real-time chat or web forms.See directions for accessing on the library page.

Some of the other libraries using TAL include Kresge Engineering Library, University California, Berkeley; Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Yale University; BioMedical Library, University of Pennsylvania; biology and chemistry house librarians, CalTech; and Mann Library, Cornell University.

Librarian of Congress here October 12

All students, faculty, and staff are invited to join Congressman John Larson and the Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington, for a discussion about resources available on the Library of Congress website for teachers and students. The discussion will take place Tuesday, October 12, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Goodwin College auditorium.

Under Dr. Billington’s leadership, the Library of Congress has expanded its public outreach through the establishment of a new National Digital Library and other electronic services. The Library of Congress has made digitized versions of collection materials available online since 1994, concentrating on its most rare collections and those unavailable anywhere else. These services are your gateway to a growing treasury of digitized photographs, manuscripts, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, and books, as well as "born digital" materials such as Web sites. In addition, the Library maintains and promotes the use of digital library standards and provides online research and reference services.

By providing these materials online, those who may never come to Washington can gain access to the treasures of the nation’s library. Such online access also helps preserve rare materials that may be too fragile to handle.

Source: Library of Congress online

Recommended site: Population Reference Bureau

The Population Reference Bureau informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations.

•Inform. PRB analyzes complex demographic data and research to provide the most objective, accurate, and up-to-date population information in a format that is easily understood by advocates, journalists, and decisionmakers alike.

•Empower. Our commitment to putting information into action sets us apart. PRB builds coalitions and conducts workshops around the world to give our key audiences the tools they need to understand and communicate effectively about population issues.

•Advance. PRB works to ensure that policymakers in developing countries and in the United States rely on sound evidence, rather than anecdotal or outdated information, when creating population, health, and environmental policies.

Source: Populaton Reference Bureau

New Resources: Children's Lit Database

Goodwin College's subscription request for The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD www.childrenslit.com ) is active using the following:
User name: goodwin
Password: hartford
both are case sensitive

The CLCD is a subscription-based information retrieval service designed to meet the needs of organizations and individuals who work with children's books. Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) contains annotations, reviews, curriculum tools, and awards, honors, and reading lists for thousands of children's books. Overall, the database contains 200,000+ critical reviews of children’s literature, ranging from baby board books to novels and nonfiction for young adults. About 1,500 new reviews are added to the database monthly.

About Banned and Challenged Books

During Banned Book Week, perhaps you might wonder what is the difference between a challenge and a banning. A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.

According to the American Library Association, there were 460 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2009. Among the titles are "And Tango Makes Three," by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson; "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky; and "Twilight," by Stephanie Meyer.

The ten most challenged books last year were:
ttyl; ttfn; 18r, g8r (series ) by Lauren Myracle
And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell & Justin Richardson
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twilight (series) by Stephanie Meyer
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
My sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Source: American Library Association

Special Library Association 100th Anniversary

Marilyn Nowlan, Goodwin library director, attended the 100th anniversary celebration of the Boston Special Library Association (SLA)at the Artists for Humanity Epicenter in Boston Tuesday, September 28. Boston SLA now includes Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and all of Connecticut except for Fairfield County. Marilyn is a past president of the Connecticut Valley SLA Chapter that merged with Boston in 2007. Plans are underway to rename SLA Boston to reflect the regional membership. SLA is an international association of information professionals/special librarians in corporations, business, science, hospitals, government and academic institutions.

CT Science Education Conference October 30

Be sure not to miss the 2010 Connecticut Science Education Conference, held October 30th, 2010, at Hamden Middle School in Hamden, CT. This annual professional development conference draws educators from all across the state of Connecticut and Southern New England. There are over 60 workshops that address all grade levels from Kindergarten through University and all areas of science education, including life science, earth/space science, physical science, assessment, technology, and literacy. An Exhibit Hall features more the 50 commercial and non-profit organizations. The Keynote Speaker, Jeff Winokur, is nationally known for his work in the science-literacy connection. He is part of the author team for Science & Literacy, Heinemann’s groundbreaking professional development program.

Mark your calendars and vist www.csta.org to register and for more information.

Celbrating the Freedom to Read

Banned Book Week
September 25−October 2, 2010

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections.

Watch this week for activities celebrating our freedom to read. Start with the display case in front of the elevators.

The Constitution and Religious Freedom

Speaker: Attorney Richard Voigt
Topic: The Constitution and Religious Freedom
Community Room
6:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 23
Sponsored by the Library Advocacy Committee

Freshman Reading

The library has a collection of topical titles that will stimulate conversation and critical thinking while engaging students in full discussions of timely, popular subjects. We proudly present you with a list of thought-provoking books ideal for freshman-year reading and first-year seminars.

The Soulful Science:
What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters (Revised Edition)
Diane Coyle

Lincoln on Race and Slavery
Edited and introduced by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Coedited by Donald Yacovone

On Bullshit
Harry G. Frankfurt

The Founders on Religion:
A Book of Quotations
Edited and Introduced by James H. Hutson

Cop in the Hood:
My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District
Peter Moskos

Scroogenomics:
Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays
Joel Waldfogel

Guesstimation:
Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin
Lawrence Weinstein & John A. Adam

The Invisible Hook:
The Hidden Economics of PiratesPeter T. Leeson

Constitution Day Today

Educational institutions receiving Federal funding are required
to provide educational programs or displays pertaining to the United States Constitution on September 17 of each year.

Notice Constitution resources in the display case in front of the elevators.Try answering sample questions from the naturalization test to see if you could become a citizen.

Please check the library page for lots of information about the Constitution and Constitution Day.

Next week we will continue our celebration of the Constitution by having a debate between two Goodwin professors on health care reform, a panel discussion on Constitution issues, and an attorney who will speak on the Constitution and religious freedom. Watch the library page for date, times and place!


Online today!
In the meantime log on to www.constitutioncenter.org/constitutionday ANY TIME today, September 17, 2010 for Constitution Hall Pass, an online event that will feature an introduction by former Supreme Court Justice and Trustee of the Center Sandra Day O'Connor, and teaches students about the importance of the U.S. Constitution, while escorting them on a staff-led virtual tour of the Center's Signers' Hall, an iconic interpretation of the Assembly Room where the signers of the Constitution met.

Source: The Goodwin Library and the Library Advocacy Committee

Accesing Library Off Campus with Shibboleth

The library is hoping to have a new method of accessing the library resources off campus. The Shibboleth System is a standards based, open source software package for web single sign-on access. It allows sites to make informed authorization decisions for individual access of protected online resources in a privacy-preserving manner. If all goes well, it should be operational in October.

The word shibboleth comes from ancient Hebrew and meant 'ear of grain'. Some groups pronounced it with a sh sound, but speakers of related dialects pronounced it with an s. In the story, two Semitic tribes, the Ephraimites and the Gileadites, have a great battle. The Gileadites defeat the Ephraimites, and set up a blockade across the Jordan River to catch the fleeing Ephraimites who were trying to get back to their territory. The sentries asked each person who wanted to cross the river to say the word shibboleth. The Ephraimites, who had no sh sound in their language, pronounced the word with an s and were thereby unmasked as the enemy and slaughtered.

News for Students Using EBSCO Databases

Results List Enhancements for EBSCO Databases

EBSCO has applied a fresh new design to the EBSCOhost interface, and enhanced the Result List for greater usability:
•Limiters and the date slider are now in the left column, consolidating all the ways to refine and work with results.
•To the right of the Result List are search/content expansion tools: Related Information, access to integrated search (EHIS) connectors, widgets.
•You can now select multiple clusters and source types when managing results.
•A "breadbox" tracks which limiters, expanders and source types have been selected and allows one-click removal.
•Menu organization for page options and alert/save/share has been improved.

The Library has these EBSCO Databases:
CINAHL (Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health)
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
PsycINFO
GreenFILE
LISTA (Library Information Science & Technology Abstracts)
Education Research Complete
ERIC (Education Resource Information Center)
Academic Search Premier

New Books Cartel, Cartel 2, and Cartel 3

The Cartel Trilogy by Ashley JaQuavis is now available in the Goodwin Library. Last November, these authors joined only a few others from the street literature genre to make the New York Times Best Seller list. Making the Times list establishes a stronger presence for street literature that tells stories about the struggles and realities of urban black life on the street. This is a new style of writing that has been mostly ignored by mainstream America until recently. It hasn't been ignored by the Goodwin College community.

World Water Day is Coming

On September 18th, World Water Monitoring Day will focus on protecting and preserving water resources around the world. American Leak Detection encourages everyone to conserve water in the home.

Do you have dripping faucets? If a drip fills an 8 ounce glass in 15 minutes, the faucet will waste about 180 gallons of water per month, or 2,160 gallons a year.

Pick up information in the library about World Water monitoring Day provided by Bruce Morton, Program Director and Associate Professor of Environmental Science.

Source: Water Efficiency

Happy 40th Birday

The Clean Air Act was 40 yesterday. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson hosted a day-long party to celebrate. We should celebrate, too. The Clean Air Act is an effective and beneficial pieces of public health legislation. For four decades this landmark law has successfully protected the health of millions of Americans from dozens of different air pollutants.

Fastest Growing Jobs in America

"The number of registered nurses is expected to swell to 3.2 million by 2018, accounting for approximately 581,500 new jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's up from 2.6 million today, and it represents the largest overall growth projection out of all occupations in the U.S. economy, for good reason.

Americans aged 65 and older will make up 19% of the population in 2030. As the population ages, there will be an increased demand for health care services in general, and home health care services in particular. In the past year, the home health care services industry has experienced sales growth of 11.2%, making it the fastest growing industry in the U.S

Along with registered nurses, Sageworks projects that home care aids, physician assistants, pharmacists, and other medical professions will be in high demand for the foreseeable future."

Source: Fortune September 7 2010