Holidays

I hope you all had a great holiday break. I know that I did, especially after adding two extra days of vacation to fill out the second week of break. I thought this week would be hard, but I'm pretty well rested, so the days are flying. Friday tomorrow!

An email from the gal at Grand Valley State University (same institution where my sister, her husband, and a second brother-in-law all have jobs, a great school):


During January we recall numerous world events: The Daguerreotype
photo process was first introduced, ushering in the age of photography
(in 1839); Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition located the magnetic
South Pole (1909); Vikings invaded Britain (793); gold was discovered
in California (1848); Prohibition took effect (1920); Challenger, the
space shuttle, exploded; and X-Rays were first used in America. Learn
the details of those, and other events, in this summary of January
Highlights.
http://www.awesomestories.com/Newsletters/Jan%20Newsletter.htm

Also provided is a listing of topics commemorating Martin Luther King,
Jr Day - which is January 21st this year - including video links to
some of Dr. King's most-loved speeches. Click on the third bullet
(Martin Luther King, Jr).

Group access to the site is free for all schools, libraries and
educators. Request group access with this form.
https://www.awesomestories.com/signup.php?ua=group_signup It is also
free for students and members of the general public. Select an
individual password with this form.
https://www.awesomestories.com/signup.php?ua=individual_signup The
site's privacy policy
http://www.awesomestories.com/content/privacy.shtml is strictly
enforced.

Carole Bos
Dean's Advisory Board
Grand Valley State University
bosc@gvsu.edu


Thanks for that Carole. Have a great year.

h o w j s a y . c o m

This is a fantastic website for prolific readers!

h o w j s a y . c o m
An English Pronouncing Dictionary with Instant Sound (Just
mouse over the pink words to hear them spoken)

It has a easy lookup feature, with selected (pink) word appearing in a list so you can check similar words. I looked up hegemony, and decided the British pronunciation was going to be the one I use from now on...
well from now on when I run across it, which appears to be about once every 5 years.

http://www.howjsay.com/

Oh, and happy 2nd day of Hanukkah... which gets me to the next feature:
their spell-guesser. It functions sort of like looking up a word on Google: it takes my misspelling and gives me a "Our nearest entry..." response. At least I could pronounce Hanukkah right, even if I didn't originally spell it correctly!

Reviews of Kansas Notable Books

Reviews by Carolyn Weeks, 2006 Kansas Notable Books Committee

Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women's Rights
by Diane Eickhoff


Generations of women spent their lives fighting for suffrage and equal rights for American women. Some, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, are icons of civil rights. Most, like Clarina Nichols, were part of that vast army of committed women whose labors took place on a more subdued and local level. A child of Vermont, Clarina Howard Carpenter Nichols, began her crusade for women’s rights in the East but soon pushed West to Kansas where she encountered the hardships of frontier life as well as the stacked-deck of a man’s world.

This well-written and well-researched biography of a remarkably gifted and resilient woman gives life to the struggle for gender equality. It has much to teach us about our past as Americans and as Kansans and as participants in that greatest experiment of all: democracy.



(This one is on order here in the library - I expect it by the start of January term)

Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the High Plains
by William Ashworth


And you thought the oil crisis was the last word in shortages! You’ll never take water for granted again after reading about the vast underground aquifer that supports more than $20 billion dollars worth of agriculture, more than one fifth of the country’s harvest. The Ogallala Aquifer lies under the Great Plains and stretches from South Dakota through Nebraska and Kansas to Oklahoma and Texas. It is deep enough to fill Lake Erie nine times and it is being pumped dry at the rate of five trillion gallons of water per year.

The story is all here: the life of the plains and the legal, recreational, industrial and agricultural infrastructure that supports it. Ashworth details the origins of the Ogallala and its probable future unless reasonable action is taken soon. Kansans, take note, the economic, environmental and humanitarian implications of this problem cannot be underestimated.

Thank you for your reviews, Carolyn.

--Micaela

E-Book of the Month at Butler Community College

Younger You
Unlock the Hidden Power of Your Brain to Look and Feel 15 Years Younger
by Eric R. Braverman
McGraw-Hill, 2007









Finally, a pivotal piece of the aging puzzle is solved. In the December eBook of the Month, Dr. Eric Braverman reveals how controlling brain hormones through diet, lifestyle changes, key vitamins, minerals, and nutritional supplements can halt the aging process.

In the constant battle to stay young and feel fit, we will try any of the quick fixes that come on the market. But you don't need surgery, pricey cosmetics, or starvation to look and feel 15 years younger. With Dr. Braverman as your guide, you will unlock the secrets to living a longer, more vibrant life.

The conversation that resulted:

This was sent to me this afternoon. Dr. Vietti is the college president, Jim Pond is chair of our faculty union:

Dr. Vietti,

Thank you so much for sharing that video as it supports the issues we as educators face today. I didn't mention this specifically last evening but I have heard several people say this semester that the students are more challenging to teach and way less motivated than what we have seen in the past.

The real point that I was hoping to make with the board is that we are facing very different challenges with the students we are working with today. We all need to feel like our efforts are worth while and that we are contributing to the good of the whole. People who are not in the "mix" sometimes see teachers as having it pretty easy and being over paid. My comments were to express a concern and to let them know we are working to make adjustments for successful outcomes and not ignoring the cultural shift. I tried to try to end on a positive note in that we still serve numerous ambitious and capable young people here at Butler, but some things are recognizably different.

Thanks again,

J. Pond


Jacqueline A Vietti wrote:


>Thanks, Micaela, for sharing this excellent resource, so we can develop a better understanding the traditional age students who are coming to us today. I worry about what I perceive to be a dichotomy between our younger students and our older ones, particularly since we serve critical masses of both.
>
>Jim, given your report during last evening's board meeting, I thought you might appreciate this information. You, too, Jon.
>
>Thanks. -- Jackie Vietti
>
>
>Micaela C Ayers wrote:
>
>
>>Dr. Vietti, Dr. Ellis,
>>
>>Prof. Wesch is doing some innovative things in student and information
>>ethnography. I thought you might want to be aware of this!
>>
>>Your librarian,
>>
>>Micaela
>>
>>
>>Arla Jones wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Here's a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime.
>>>
>>>Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas
>>>State University.
>>>
>>>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Arla Jones
>>>Librarian & Proud Member of the American Library Association!
>>>Lawrence High School
>>>1901 Louisiana Street
>>>785-330-2391
>>>fax 785-832-5054
>>>Lawrence, KS 66046-2999
>>>
>>>
>>>Take a look at our cool web page!
>>>http://library.lhs.usd497.org
>>>
>>>" It is as sad to have a library without books as it is to have a
>>library
>>>full of books that nobody reads."
>>>Jesus Ruiz Nestosa


Thanks, Arla, for sharing the video! I am happy to see this conversation going on at the highest levels of administration at the college. We try to supply what the students need here in the library, and are always sending out feelers so we stay ahead of big developments, as we can... thus we were first with wireless on campus.

Micaela

"A Vision of Students Today"

--> Here's a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime.

Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

"A Vision of Students Today"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o


Arla Jones
Librarian & Proud Member of the American Library Association!
Lawrence High School


Arla, thanks. There's quite a few others that Professor Wesch has done. I particularly enjoyed his look at information and libraries in "Information R/evolution" and I want to check out "The Machine is Using Us."

Micaela

Take a survey, if you like...

I submit to you the following email I recently received on the CJCLS listserve:

Greetings:

In August 2007 The Associated Press had IPSOS Public Affairs conduct a poll regarding reading habits. 27% of the people surveyed had not read a book in the previous year. A National Endowment of the Arts Survey published in 2004 found that less than half
of American adults read literature. Hearing about these surveys made me wonder if the reading habits of people who work in libraries are typical. So, here is yet another survey. It is short and will take only a few minutes of your time. Please take it. Your comments regarding reading are welcome so please include them.

http://www.somerset.kctcs.edu/cgi-bin/surveys/read.htm

This message is being posted to several lists, so please excuse duplication.

Thank you.

Shelley

Shelley Wood Burgett
Director of Library Service
Somerset Community College
808 Monticello St.
Somerset, KY 42501
606 451-6711 M - R
606 878-4724 F

_____________________________________

Thank you, Shelley, it was fun...

Micaela