Leave No Child Behind and James Comer

James P. Comer, a professor of child psychiatry at Yale University, is the winner of the 2007 Grawemeyer Award for Education, the University of Louisville announced this morning. The award carries a $200,000 cash prize.

Dr. Comer is being recognized for his efforts to promote a focus on child development as a method of improving education. In books such as Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World, he argues that the best way to guarantee a student's well-being is to involve everyone with a stake in a school a role in the educational process.

Jack Matthews recommends "Setting the Table"

In Danny Meyer's book, Setting the Table, he distinguishes between customer service and hospitality. Meyer writes, " Hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side. The converse is just as true. Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions –for and to express it all." The book is available in the Goodwin Library.

Mirror Neurons: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Yesterday three scientists at the University of Parma, Italy, received the 2006 Grawemeyer Award for discovering the "mirror neuron" system of brain cells in monkeys. Mirror neurons have been referred to by scientists as one of the most important neuroscientific breakthroughs of recent history.

There is now strong evidence to suggest that humans have the same type of "mirror neurons" found in monkeys. It's what these neurons do that's amazing--they activate in the same way when you're watching someone else do something as they do when you're doing it yourself! This mirroring process/capability is thought to be behind our ability to empathize, but you can imagine the role these neurons have played in keeping us alive as a species. We learn from watching others. We learn from imitating (mirroring) others. The potential problem, though, is that these neurons go happily about their business of imitating others without our conscious intention. Hmmm. Although the neuroscientific findings are new, your parents didn't need to know the cause to recognize the effects:
"Choose your role models carefully."
"You're hanging out with the wrong crowd; they're a bad influence."

HubMed for Health Science Research

Many students have problems finding literature resources for their needs and then of trying to maintain current awareness around those resources. One solution, and one only among many, might be HubMed. HubMed is found at http://www.hubmed.org/ and is a parallel search engine to PubMed, or as some people have said “HubMed is like PubMed on steroids.” Any search strategies you use in PubMed may be used in HubMed and once you have the core skills for efficient searching of PubMed, HubMed offers many options that are not found in the original PubMed. The library offers workshops on core skills in searching. Another possibility would be using SUMSearch. (See information in following entry.)

What does SUMSearch do?

SUMSearch is a unique method of searching for medical evidence by using the Internet. SUMSearch combines meta-searching and contingency searching in order to automate searching for medical evidence. Meta-searching, which is used by from general Internet search engines such as from Go2Net, Dogpile, and SavvySearch, means simultaneously searching multiple Internet sites and collating the results into one page. In addition, SUMSearch adds the idea of contingency searching. If SUMSearch finds too many ‘hits’ from an Internet site, SUMSearch will execute more restrictive, contingency searches. For example, if a search finds 1000 articles at PubMed, SUMSearch may do up to four additional searches until an optimal number is received.
http://sumsearch.uthscsa.edu/

Climate Change

Europe is leading the way in the fight against climate change, according to the 2007 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The Index ranked 56 countries (together making up over 90% of global carbon dioxide emissions) based on their domestic and international efforts to combat climate change. Sweden is ranked number one and is joined by six other European countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany, in the top 10. The world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, the United States and China, are ranked 53 and 54, respectively.

Love Your Library This Weekend

Goodwin library supports The Connecticut Library Association, Connecticut Library Consortium, and the Connecticut State Library in partnership with Barnes & Noble Booksellers to Love Your Library this holiday season in a special fundraiser that will support a statewide online information service called InfoAnytime.

With InfoAnytime, the Goodwin community can access the help of a librarian online 24x7. As with most innovative new services, funding is a key to ensuring its success. That's why this year's Love Your Library proceeds will go to InfoAnytime, for libraries and their patrons throughout the state to enjoy.

What can you do to help? Shop at a participating Barnes & Noble with your Love Your Library voucher (available at Goodwin LIbrary or online) on Love Your Library days. Get your voucher now - print it out & use it at a Barnes & Noble Friday, December 1st through Sunday, December 3rd.

Last year's pilot event raised over $7,000, which helped to underwrite the Historical Hartford Courant database now freely available this year to all Connecticut libraries and their patrons via iCONN, the CT Digital Library.

This year's proceeds will go toward InfoAnytime - the statewide virtual reference project coordinated by CLC.
Thank you for your support! -The Love Your Library Team

JAMA Auditory Commentary

For just a few minutes of listening time while you are multi-tasking, you can keep up with what’s happening in the American medical scene. Catherine DeAngelis, editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) summarizes and comments on the week’s issue. You can listen to this audio commentary in one of 4 ways:
1. Subscribe to the podcast using iTunes.
2. Subscribe to the podcast using another podcast software client.
3. Use the JAMA Audio Commentary interface.
4. Download the MP3 file.
By the way, it's free!

Historic Building Database

"Curious about an unused college literary-society hall or a restored Old Main? Interested in comparing campus plans or approaches to arboretums? A searchable database of historic buildings, master plans, and landscape features on nearly 370 college campuses is now available online, thanks to the Council of Independent Colleges and the J. Paul Getty Trust. "--Introduction
Historic-Buildings Database Goes Live Online
Source: Wired Campus

Women in the Labor Force

Every semester students are looking for statistical information on women in the labor force. Here is an online databook from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics.
This report presents historical and current labor force and earnings data for women and men from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a national monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Statistics: Women in the Labor Force: A Databook (2006 Edition)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Homeland Security Privacy Report

Privacy: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Annual Privacy Report to Congress (via EPIC)38 pages; PDF. July 2004 – July 2006.

The Department of Homeland Security finally released the Privacy Office Annual Report to Congress. The Department is required by law to provide the report each year “on activities of the Department that affect privacy, including complaints of privacy violations, implementation of the Privacy Act of 1974, internal controls, and other matters,” but the report was more than a year overdue.
Source: DHS via EPIC

EPA Is Disposing of Its Library Collection

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is frantically dispersing its library collections to preempt Congressional intervention, according to internal emails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Contrary to promises by EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock that all of the former library materials will be made available electronically, vast troves of unique technical reports and analyses will remain indefinitely inaccessible.

Meanwhile, many materials formerly held by the Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA’s Washington D.C. Headquarters, were directed to be thrown into trash bins, according to reports received by PEER. This month, EPA closed the OPPTS Library, its only specialized library for research on health effects and properties of toxic chemicals and pesticides, without notice to either the public or affected scientists.
Source: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

Statistical Abstract of the of the United States 2006

The Statistical Abstract of the United States 2006 is now available in the Goodwin Library. Published since 1878, this incomparable reference book is the standard summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. The Abstract guides you to the agency producing the statistics; then you can go to that agency for more details. What is in it?

• more than 1,300 tables and graphs
• expanded guide to other statistical sources in print and online
• listing of metropolitan and micropolitan areas & population numbers
• historical tables highlighting unique data from previous editions

The State and Metropolitan Area Data Book is the local area supplement to The Statistical Abstract. The 2006 volume is available online: http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/smadb/smadb-06.pdf

College Board Studies Federal Financial Aid

In September a commission appointed by Margaret Spellings, the education secretary, called for restructuring the federal student-aid programs but provided few details of how to achieve that aim. Now the College Board has assembled a group of higher-education researchers and student-aid experts who may be able to point the way.

The Rethinking Student Aid Study Group has begun meeting in recent weeks to examine whether the government's financial-aid programs are fulfilling the goals that were set for the programs when they were created and to look for ways to improve them.

The study group has commissioned a series of papers that will examine the effectiveness of the student-aid programs. Some of the papers will focus on grants, loans, and tuition tax breaks, while others will look at broader issues, such as the role that the aid programs play in promoting college preparation and persistence, and in helping nontraditional students.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education

Health United States 2006

Health United States 2006, an annual report on trends in health statistics, was released last week with a special feature on pain. The report consists of two main sections: A chartbook containing text and figures that illustrates major trends in the health of Americans; and a trend tables section that contains 147 detailed data tables. The two main components are supplemented by an executive summary, a highlights section, an extensive appendix and reference section, and an index. This is a Web-only release at this time. Printed books will be available in 6 to 8 weeks.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics

Science Teachers and Students Alert

Science Animations. Movies & Interactive Tutorial Links--Oh My! Some of them work and some don't, but there's lots to choose from. Many are from university science sites and are freely available for use in instructor presentations.

Besides a general collection, this link includes information on: biology, microbiology, anatomy and physiology I & II, plants, ecology, animals, geology, astronomy, physics, medmotion (mainly fetal and newborn information, and more. Fantastic!

http://science.nhmccd.edu/biol/animatio.htm

Books on Reserve for Pease's English Class

The class is researching U.S. immigration issues. On reserve currently for this class:

Immigrant America by Portes and Rumbaut
--A thoroughly updated and revised edition of a classic in the immigration field.
Unguarded Gates: A History of America's Immigration Crisis by Otis L. Graham, Jr.
--reflections on the consequences of large-scale immigrationin the United States.
Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity by Samuel P. Huntington
--Hungtinon's thoughts on reasserting the core values that he considers make us Americans.
(Huntington is well known for his controversial book, The Clash of Civilizations and the
Remaking of World Order.)

National Book Awards: "Oscars" of the Book World

The National Book Awards winners were announced last night in Manhattan. Fran Lebowitz, writer and humorist, was the evening's host. Winners each receive a bronze sculpture and $10,000, although the award's greatest benefit is often in increased sales, especially when little-known authors are suddenly thrust into the spotlight.

Fiction: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
Powers tells the story of a youg man who develops a rare brain disorder after an automobilie
accident.

Nonfiction: The Worst Hard Times: The Untold Story of Those Who Surved the Great American Dust bowl by Timothy Egan
Egan gives an account of the dust storms that descended on the Great Plains during the
Depression.

Young People's Literature: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: "The Pox Party" by M. T. anderson

Poetry: Splay Anthem by Nathaniel Mackey

In case you have forgotten, last year's fiction winner was Europe Central by William T. Vollmann. Joan Didion won the nonfiction prize for her memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking.

November is American Diabetes Month

Every November, the American Diabetes Association encourages us to learn more about diabetes and the risks associated with the disease.

Diabetes is a serious disease that affects the body's ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose (sugar) to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. Nearly 21 million children and adults in the U.S. have diabetes. It is the fifth deadliest disease in the U.S. and it has no cure.

Here are some ways you can become involved in this year's American Diabetes Month. The National Women's Health Information Center has also put together some November recipes for diabetics.

Africana: New Reference Books

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience edited Kwame A. Appiah & Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
REF DT14.A37435 2005 (5 Volumes)

Thoroughly revised and massively expanded, this monumental work merits a place in any college collection. Alphabetically arranged but backed up by both a detailed index and a topical list of headers in the final volume, the nearly 4500 entries delve into both African and African-American history, from wide-angled studies of "Slavery in Africa" and "Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Interpretation," to close-focus mentions of Malcom X's "Aardvark" references and major "Zydeco" musicians. Most articles are signed and close with "see-also" references. Illustrations are uncommon but well chosen, a blend of clearly designed maps, charts. and graphs, and sharply reproduced prints or color photos. Students seeking information about African music, insight into the failure of school desegregation in the U.S. or the significance of Curt Flood's challenge to baseball's reserve clause, background on the history of colonialism, or hundreds of other historical topics will find both facts and ideas in plenty here. I don't know how we managed to get along without it.