Build a Tower Challenge

Tom Wujec presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" -- a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?

Watch the video.

MLA Format Hint

MLA Cover Page is not numbered. Here are directions for removing the number from the first page so that the second page will be number 1.

On the Insert tab, in the Headers & Footers group, click Page Number, and then click Format Page Numbers.
2. In the Start at box, type 0.

Embed YouTube in PowerPoint 2007

To embed a YouTube video in PowerPoint 2007 follow these simmple steps:

1. First turn on the Developer Tab on the Ribbon by clicking on the Microsoft logo at the top left of the window and selecting PowerPoint Options all the way at the bottom of the menu. Next put a check next to the unchecked item to show the developer Tab.
2. Go to YouTube and select a video to embed
3. Copy the URL
4. On the Developer menu choose "More Controls"
5. Select Shockwave Flash Object
6. Click and drag on the PowerPoint slide to add the Flash object
7. Right Click the object placeholder and select properties
8. Set the Movie property to the URL you copied
9. In the URL delete "watch?" and change the "=" sign to a ⁄
10. Adjust the options for Looping or AutoPlay if desired
Make sure to test the presentation and keep in mind that the video is streaming from YouTube, so an Internet connection is required at the time of presentation.

Good luck!

Solstice, Full Moon, and Lunar Eclipse

How great is this? The Winter Solstice, December 21st, the longest night of the year, coincides with a full moon and full lunar eclipse.

According to NASA, the total eclipse of the moon will occur on this schedule, EST
• Moonrise Monday, Dec 20 3:55 pm
• Moon enters penumbra Tuesday, Dec 21, 12:28 am
• Partial Eclipse Begins(moon enters umbra) 1:32am
• Total Eclipse Begins (moon fully within umbra) 02:40 am
• Middle of Total Eclipse 3:16 am
• Moon Leaves Totality (begins re-entry into penumbra) 3:53 am
• Partial Eclipse Ends (moon leaves umbra) 5:01 am
• Partial Eclipse Ends (moon leaves penumbra) 6:04 am
• Moonset 7:29 am

EXTENDED LIBRARY HOURS

EXTENDED HOURS WEEK BEFORE AND DURING FINAL EXAMS

Weekend Dec. 4, 5, 11, 12, 18-9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Weekdays Dec. 6-17-7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

NOTE: You must be out of the building by 5 p.m. on weekends and 10 p.m. during the week.

Free Music Download

Every two weeks, from Alexander Street and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the Goodwin Library is offering a free music download from Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries.

Currently available for download is:
"Tetigo" from Discover Indonesia, performed by M. Sarif and Kondang


Indonesia is a huge country, spread over hundreds of islands, encompassing peoples of many different languages, religions, and musical cultures. Fifteen tracks from the widely acclaimed 20-CD series Music of Indonesia have been selected to provide an exciting and varied introduction to musical styles from different parts of the country. This is a xylophone duet performed by Petalangan musicians of mainland Riau, Sumatra.

All tracks are owned by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and are available, free of charge, for a limited time only.

Download the mp3.

Library Advocacy Committee Event tomorrow

Friday, November 19 in the auditorium 10:30-11:30

Crossfire Clash
Conservatives vs. Liberals discuss the 2010 midterm election and where we go from here.
Participants:
Mike Rotondo
Dan Noonan
Janet Jefford
Howard Satinsky
Alex Nye
Seymoure Oliviera
Paul LaRocca will moderate.

GOODWIN COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION WELCOME!

Credo Reference Databases User Statistics

In October, library users consulted 94 titles from the Credo Reference database.
133 sessions
324 searches
129 entries views
970 pages viewed

Top Entries Viewed:
Gender socialization and gender stereotypes
Attention Deficit Disorder
Rape and rape prevention
Alcohol and alcoholism
Euthanasia
Pregnancy
Kashmir
Art, religious
Hartnup disease
Latora disease
Breast cancer
Prisons and punishment

Thank you, library users, for appreciating this great database!

National Book Award Winners announced

The National Book Award winners were announced last night at the 61st National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

Fiction Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
Nonfiction Just Kids by Patti Smith
Poetry Lighthead by Terence Hayes
Young People's Literature Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
Lifetime Achievement Award Tom Wolfe

The winners get $10,000,a statue, and probably increased sales.

1100 more books in ebrary Academic Complete

New in Academic Complete
Ebrary recently added over 1,100 multidisciplinary titles from National Academies Press, New Age International, World Trade Press, University of Chicago Press, and other leading publishers. Some of the titles include:
Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, by Ben Mezrich (Anchor, 2010)

Brain Sense: The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us,
by Faith Hickman Brynie (AMACOM, 2009)

Discrete Mathematics, by B.S. Vasta and Suchi Vasta (New Age International, 2009)

Innocent Bystanders: Developing Countries and the War on Drugs, by Philip Keefer and Norman Loayza (World Bank, 2010)

Spirituality and Aging, by Robert C. Atchley (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009)

Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals,by Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce
(University of Chicago Press, 2009)

African American Experience Database

Even with the best of intentions, most librarians can't find the materials or the funding to satisfy students investigating the historical impact of African Americans on today's world. However, we now have a new resource offering students and teachers a wealth of cultural materials specifically designed for classroom research and personal inquiry.

The widest ranging and easiest-to-use online collection on African American life ever assembled, The African American Experience is the definitive electronic research tool for African American history and culture from one of the most respected publishers in the field. It provides rock-solid information from authorities in the field and to allows African Americans to speak for themselves through a wealth of primary sources. Drawing on over 450 titles, and designed under the guidance of leading librarians, this database gives voice to the black experience from its African origins to the present day.

-New material from print reference titles and multivolume sets, such as Barack Obama, the New Face of American Politics; The Martin Luther King, Jr. Encyclopedia; Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage; Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers [2 Volumes]; and Icons of Hip Hop [2 Volumes].
-A deep backlist of reference books and monographs, many now available in electronic format for the first time
-Over 5,000 primary documents: manuscripts, speeches, court cases, quotations, -advertisements, statistics, and other papers
-Over 3,500 interviews with former slaves-the WPA slave narratives-from the acclaimed The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, now re-indexed and for the first time fully searchable
-Sixty-seven University Press texts from the early 1800s to the early 1970s—classics in black scholarship.

Try it here.

Ebrary Academic Complete

Ebrary Academic Complete is a highly interactive eBook database that covers all academic subject areas. The collection currently includes more than 50,000 titles from more than 220 of the world’s leading academic publishers.




Each individual eBook in Academic Complete integrates with information in ourlibrary and on the web through the ebrary Reader™ and InfoTools™ software. Just by highlighting any word of interest in Academic Complete, you can instantly search against our OPAC or other online resources in the library, and information
on the Internet, without leaving the current document.

New Environmental Database

GREENR (Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources) is a new online resource that offers authoritative content on the development of emerging green technologies and discusses issues on the environment, sustainability and more. GREENR is an important part of a new generation of solutions from Gale designed with users in mind.

GREENR is interactive and current, allowing users to navigate issue, organization and country portals. It's a one-stop site dedicated to studying sustainability and the environment.

This database will be available for Goodwin Students beginning Monday, November 15.

Latest Additions to Credo General Reference

Credo's General Reference collection continues to grow each month and now has over 515 titles.

The following well-regarded titles were added in October:
• Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices, M.E. Sharpe
• Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Psychology, Hodder Education
• The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History, M.E. Sharpe
• The Essentials of Global Politics, Hodder Education
• The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey, M.E. Sharpe

Video: Academic gap widens for black males

A new study showing that most black American male students perform worse then their peers by almost every measure suggests that some of the obstacles to their academic success start before school the school bell even rings. NBC's Ron Allen reports.

WATCH VIDEO HERE.

Source: New York Times Novembeer 9 2010

Imagine Science Short Film

At the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York last month, Skhizein directed by Jeremy Clapin won honorable mention. It uses sophisticated computer graphics as its hero descends into schizophrenia.

SKHIZEIN is a strange film that begins with a man at a psychiatrist's office talking about his problem. It seems that since a meteorite struck nearby, he's been "out of phase". In other words, every thing he does is 91 centimeters off (that's a yard for all of us non-metric folks)!

Unique, compelling and clever--what more could you want from an animated short of about 13 minutes.
SKHIZEIN Part 1

SKHIZEIN Part 2

Source: "learning to Love Science Films" Nature November 4 2010

Environmental Health

"Our environment affects our health. Our average life span has almost doubled over the past century or so mainly because we have clean, safe drinking water. If parts of the environment, like air and water, or soil become polluted, it can lead to health problems. For example, asthma attacks can result from pollutants and other chemicals in the air and in the home.

Some environmental risks are a part of the natural world, like radon in the soil. Others are the result of human activities, like lead poisoning from paint, or exposure to asbestos or mercury from mining or industrial use."

MedlinePlus includes Environmental Health among its many topics. The site is available in Spanish as well as English and includes abundant additional information on related topics. You can sign up for an email update: www.medlineplus.org

Source: NIH: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Library Circulates Kill a Watt Monitor

It's more than books here, folks. The library is now circulating Kill A Watt EZ electricity usage monitor.

The device measures the energy consumption of electrical appliances. Just plug it into a wall socket and then plug in your appliance to assess how efficient it is. Program in your local utility rate and display projected costs. The meter will circulate with a protective case and complete instructions. Pick it up at the circulation desk. The knowledge you gain can save you thousands of dollars.

No Cureballs for Higher Education

WASHINGTON -- Final tallies of exactly how many seats Republicans gained Tuesday in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are days -- if not weeks -- away (though by early Wednesday morning, the major news networks were projecting gains of more than 60 seats in the House). But anyone who didn’t stay up all night watching election results pour in has woken up to a GOP-led House of Representatives and a Senate guided by a small Democratic majority.

What do the results mean for federal higher education policy and the members of Congress who’ve played key roles in crafting those policies?

Read this article from Inside Higher Ed.

Source: Inside Higher Ed November 3, 2010

Sign at Rally to Restore Sanity

Do you think this sign at the Rally to Restore Sanity could be associated with a college?