Friday, December 18, 2009

LibQual Drawing Winners

Thanks to the over 1,300 people who took the LibQual survey! The winners have been selected. Congratulations to the following:

  • 1st prize (Ipod Touch): George Zubey, Junior Marketing major
  • 2nd prize ($50 gift certificate to the University Store): Cassandra Remaley, Sophomore Speech Pathology major
  • 3rd prize (500 pages of additional free printing): Erica Nevin, Senior Business Management major
  • 4th prize (500 pages of additional free printing): Kaila Hassler, Freshman Undeclared
  • 5th prize (500 pages of additional free printing): Devin Adamo, Business Education major
  • 6th prize (500 pages of additional free printing): Ann Parks, MSN/MBA Graduate Student
  • 7th prize (500 pages of additional free printing): Lea Rohrbaugh, Junior Undeclared

Watch for survey results next semester.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Librarians Make Presentation on Animated Tutorials

Michael Coffta, Reference Librarian/Business Subject Specialist, and Katie Yelinek, Government Documents Librarian, recently gave a TALE presentation on creating animated tutorials using Adobe Captivate 4 software. This software allows users to create simulations by recordings the movements and actions that they make on their computer screens. It works well for teaching others how to use software or to search online. You can see examples of tutorials made using Captivate in the library’s GMID database tutorial and the tutorials on finding articles in the library.

You can view their presentation here: http://mediasite.passhe.edu/mediasite/Catalog/catalogs/TALE.aspx

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Need a study break during finals' week?

APSCUF is once again sponsoring free coffee or tea and cookies in the Library during finals' week. The Friends of the Library of Andruss Library and the Global Awareness Society International have also contributed to the goodies.

So stop by the Schweiker Conference Room in Andruss Library anytime Monday through Thursday, December 14th through the 17th, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, for a much-needed break. Faculty will also be on hand for questions and conversation during those times. All of us in the Library wish you the best of luck on your finals!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Databases to be dropped

Andruss Library provides access to several databases through Access PA, a resource-sharing project of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Office of Commonwealth Libraries. In response to budget cuts, Access PA will discontinue subscriptions to a number of databases, and as a consequence Andruss Library will no longer provide access to the following databases effective January 1, 2010:

NoveList Plus
NoveList K-8 Plus

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Extended Hours for Finals

Andruss Library will be open the following extended hours in preparation for and during finals:

Saturday, 12/5: 9am-7pm
Sunday, 12/6: 10am-12midnight
Friday, 12/11: 7:30am-9pm
Saturday, 12/12: 9am-9pm
Sunday, 12/13: 10am-12midnight
Friday, 12/18: 7:30am-6pm

Also, an after-hours study room will be open from 12midnight-2am during finals week, from Sunday 12/13 through Thursday 12/17.

A complete listing of our hours can be found here: http://library.bloomu.edu/pages/hours.html.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Electronic books

The University Libraries provide access to thousands of electronic books. They cover all subject areas and the collection continues to grow. E-Books can be accessed through PILOT, the online catalog of the University Library. To limit your search to just e-books, click on the Search Limits box in the lower right section of the search screen and select Internet Net Library in the Location box drop-down menu.

If you would like assistance, you can Facebook us, or please stop by the Reference Desk. You can contact our reference librarians at Andruss Library via phone at 570-389-4204 or online through our Ask A BU Librarian email service.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Keep a Lookout for LibQual+

In November and December, the Andruss Library will be participating in the LibQual survey. This web-based survey was first developed by the Association of Research Libraries in conjunction with Texas A&M University Libraries as a means of measuring the service quality of libraries. We first participated in LibQual in 2006; this follow-up survey will show us how things have changed over the last three years.

This survey will:
* Tell us how the BU community rates its library services
* Allow us to compare our results against other university libraries
* Show us where we can improve our library services

We will be surveying all members of the BU community, so keep a lookout for an email inviting you to complete the survey. If you have questions, contact Katie Yelinek, Coordinator of Government Documents.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

PA Geological Survey Online

Publications from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Pennsylvania Geological Surveys have been made available full text online from Penn State University. While Andruss Library has a nice set of PA Geological Surveys in paper, our collection is incomplete. This new collection from Penn State University will allow us to provide access to those volumes we don't own.

You can access the collection directly from the Penn State University Libraries here: https://secureapps.libraries.psu.edu/content/pageo.cfm.

Or you can access the collection from the Andruss Library Government Documents page.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Keep a Lookout for LibQual

In November and December, the Andruss Library will be participating in the LibQual survey. This web-based survey was first developed by the Association of Research Libraries in conjunction with Texas A&M University Libraries as a means of measuring the service quality of libraries. We first participated in LibQual in 2006; this follow-up survey will show us how things have changed over the last three years.

This survey will:
* Tell us how the BU community rates its library services
* Allow us to compare our results against other university libraries
* Show us where we can improve our library services

We will be surveying all members of the BU community, so keep a lookout for an email inviting you to complete the survey. If you have questions, contact Katie Yelinek, Coordinator of Government Documents.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Longer Check Out for Curriculum Collection and Gov Docs

The Library’s circulation policy has recently changed to accommodate more students. Materials in the Curriculum Collection now can be checked out for 14 days, rather than 7 days. This new 14 day circulation period applies to government documents, as well.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Databases Dropped

Andruss Library provides access to several databases through Access PA, a resource-sharing project of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Office of Commonwealth Libraries. In response to projected budget cuts, Access PA has canceled subscriptions to a number of databases, and as a consequence Andruss Library no longer provides access to the following databases:

Professional Development Collection (all journals are available in Academic Search Complete, however)
Book Collection: Nonfiction
Consumer Health Complete
History Reference Center (however, the Video Encyclopedia of the 20th Century is available in Points of View Reference Center)

Monday, October 5, 2009

Obama declares October National Information Literacy Month

I am pleased to tell you that on October 1, 2009, President Obama signed a proclamation identifying October as National Information Literacy Awareness month. Information literacy is the academic library’s most important mission, to ensure that students have the ability to access, retrieve, and evaluate information by using critical thinking skills. At Andruss Library, we strive to provide the resources and support necessary to enhance information literary throughout the curriculum. We are actively involved in information literacy assessment. Please check here for our information literacy reports. If you have any questions about information literacy, or would like to find ways to integrate it into your course, please feel free to contact one of our reference librarians at 570-389-4204 or reference@bloomu.edu.


More information about President Obama’s initiative visit this website.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Nancy Weyant Retires

Faculty member Nancy Weyant retired in August, 2009 after 16 years serving as a reference librarian in the Harvey A. Andruss Library specializing in the humanities. She loved her work and excelled at helping students find information for over 40 years. In addition to her job Nancy stayed very active in learning and research, and during her time at Bloomsburg completed an M.A. in Art History, as well as published two books, a number of articles and other works and made regional, national and international presentations on authors Elizabeth Gaskell and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and artists Nancy Cox-McCormack and J.J. Lankes. Congratulations on your retirement and best wishes for the future!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

For Faculty Only: Deselection Process

We have completed the deselection project due to space considerations in order to remove duplicates as well as other materials that were considered inappropriate for our curriculum and research endeavors. According to the Library’s policy, these materials should not be withdrawn without the consent of the faculty.

Therefore, we would like to ask faculty members to come to the Library and review these materials that are held in the Acquisitions Storage Room in the Acquisitions Dept. Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. If anyone needs to come at a later hour or on the weekend, please contact Maria Silva Kuhn, and she will make arrangements to be here at your convenience. It is our aim to complete this part of the process by Friday, October 16th, 2009. Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated.

All materials are in Library of Congress call number order. The subjects covered are as follows:

G—Geography, Anthropology, & Recreation including Leisure, Exercise & Sports

H—Social Sciences including Economics, Finance, Sociology, Criminology, etc.

J—Political Science

K—Law

L—Education

M—Music

N—Fine Arts

P—Languages and Literatures

Q—Science, including Math, Physics, Chemistry, & Biological Sciences

R—Medicine

S—Agriculture

T--Technology

U—Military Science

V—Naval Science

Z—Bibliography, Library Science, & Information Resources


In addition, there are two foreign language collections that were acquired in the 1970’s.

· One is a collection of mostly German and some French books in the Social Sciences dating from the late 19th to the early 20th century.

· We also have a collection of Spanish paperbacks, all 20th century imprints, dealing with both Peninsular and Spanish American literature and culture and a few books in Portuguese.

Many of the titles in these two collections are not in “excellent” condition. We have not had nor do we have the ability to catalogue them at present and sending them out to be catalogued would be an extremely expensive proposition.

Books will not be kept in the general collection that are duplicates. However, if you wish to take any book after they have been withdrawn, you may do so by inserting a slip with your name and department in those books. We will send them to you after the withdrawal process is completed.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Maria Silva Kuhn, Coordinator of Acquisitions & Collection Development.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Five Sites to Learn about the Flu

Looking for information about the flu (swine or otherwise) this fall? Try these sites:

H1N1in PA--A new site set up by the Pennsylvania Department of Health
Flu.gov--One-stop shopping for flu information, from the US Government
Seasonal Influenza--Generic flu information from the Centers for Disease Control
Swine Flu--Swine flu information from the Centers for Disease Control
Flu Fact sheet--Links to information about treatment, symptoms, and the latest research from the National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health


Additional links available on the Government Documents Hot Topics page.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Updated Information for Faculty

The "Library Resources for Faculty" has been revised. In particular, the list of departmental liaisons has been updated. Faculty should check to confirm if a new liaison has been assigned. In general, those departments previously assigned to David Magolis have been reassigned to Katie Yelinek. Departments previously assigned to Nancy Weyant have been reassigned to several different librarians.

As always, faculty should contact their liaison to schedule a library information session or to discuss purchasing material for the library.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Welcome New Interim Director

The library is pleased to welcome David Magolis to his new position as Interim Director of Library Services. David has been our Social Sciences Librarian and Webmaster for the past five years. We wish him all the best as he assumes his new responsibilities.

Monday, August 17, 2009

General Library Research Tutorial now available!

The new, expanded General Library Research Tutorial is now available on the Library's website under the 'Help' tab and here. It is designed to help first-year students develop the necessary information-seeking and evaluation skills for their general education courses, but it can be used by anyone wanting a refresher in the basics of library research:
Module 1 - Orientation to Andruss Library
Module 2 - Introduction to Types of Information
Module 3 - Searching a Database
Module 4 - Understanding Citations
Module 5 - Using Internet Sources
Module 6 - Evaluating Sources of Information
Module 7 - Information Ethics: Citing Sources and Fair Use
Module 8 - A Search Strategy for Research Papers and Speeches

There is also a web-based self-assessment that can be used by a student as a pre- or post-test (students can print out their score).

The entire tutorial, adapted from James Madison University’s Go for the Gold tutorial, prepares students to meet specific outcomes for each module as well as the following learning objectives:
• Determine when information is needed and find it efficiently using a variety of reference sources
• Evaluate the quality of the information
• Use the information effectively for an appropriate purpose
• Employ appropriate technologies to create an information-based product
• Use information ethically and legally

In addition, faculty may use the 25-item Tutorial Quiz developed by librarians for use within Blackboard (questions are different from those in the web-based self-assessment). They may contact the librarian associated with their department, listed below. (If not affiliated with an academic department, or if they would like information on formats other than Blackboard, they should contact Linda Neyer.)

Librarian Liaisons:
Darla Bressler, Education Librarian, x4656, dbressle@bloomu.edu
Michael Coffta, Business Library, x4124, mcoffta@bloomu.edu
David Magolis, Social Sciences Librarian, x4921, dmagolis@bloomu.edu
Linda Neyer, Health Sciences & Sciences Librarian, x4801, lneyer@bloomu.edu
Katie Yelinek, Liaison for English (other Arts & Humanities may contact her as well), x4228, kyelinek@bloomu.edu

As always, if you have any questions, please ask!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Library Outcomes Assessment & Information Literacy Committee Report 2008-2009

The 2008-2009 report of the Library Outcomes Assessment & Information Literacy Committee has been published on the Library's new "Information Literacy" web page, available here with the past 2 years' reports. The report discusses the results of the Andruss Library Information Literacy Assessment, given for the last 3 years to graduating seniors and this year to a group of 193 seniors. This year, the LOAIL Committee also gave the assessment to a large group of 425 incoming freshmen.

The Committee’s primary purpose in using the Information Literacy Assessment is to understand how students’ information literacy is developed in BU’s curriculum. Comparisons between scores for BU seniors and students at another institution as well as comparisons of scores for BU seniors by different major were made to provide some perspective, and care should be taken when interpreting these comparison; scores may vary due to the emphasis given to a specific information literacy standard in a discipline’s curriculum. It should also be noted that the ‘other school’ used for the comparisons this year is a smaller, private school (Carnegie Classification Master’s Colleges and Universities II). The Committee intends to continue administering the assessment each year, eventually obtaining freshmen and senior scores for the same cohort, which can then be used to draw more direct conclusions about students’ information skill development over 4 years.

The Committee hopes this report may provide a baseline for classroom faculty and library faculty to consider when planning library instruction and to help them identify possible areas in which students’ information skills may be strengthened. Instruction librarians have used this information in revising the General Library Research Tutorial and will continue to use the information when revising and designing additional tutorials. In addition to promoting the General Library Research Tutorial, librarians will also be seeking freshmen and seniors for this year's assessment.

Main findings from this year's report:

1. BU seniors’ mean scores on the standards ranged from highest to lowest as follows (see Table 2 and Appendix II. A.) Please note that scores are percentages.
a. Standard 1 – determine the extent of information needed (mean 58.43)
b. Standard 5 – understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically & legally (mean 53.16)
c. Knowledge – overall knowledge & understanding of how information is created & used (mean 53.15)
d. Application – can apply information appropriately in a given situation (mean 51.41)
e. Standard 3 – evaluate information and its courses critically; incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base (mean 51.19)
f. Standard 2 – access the needed information effectively and efficiently (mean 50.36)
g. Standard 4 – use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose (mean 50.26)

2. In comparison to seniors at one other institution, BU seniors scored significantly lower on the measure for overall knowledge of information use. They also scored lower (but not significantly) on their composite scores and on measures for all five standards; however, they scored higher than students at the other school on the measure for overall application of information. (see Appendix II.B.)

3. When compared to seniors with similar majors at one other institution, BU seniors in specific majors performed as follows:
a. BU business majors (management and other business) did not differ significantly on any measure. However, BU business students scored higher on their composite score, Standards 2, 4 & 5 measures, and the application measure while they scored lower on measures for Standards 1 & 3 and knowledge. (Appendix II. C.)
b. BU mass communications majors scored significantly lower on their composite score and Standards 2 & 4. They also scored higher on Standard 1 (but not significantly) and lower on Standards 3 & 5 and measures for knowledge & application. (Appendix II. D.)
c. BU elementary education majors did not differ significantly on any measure. However, BU elementary education majors scored lower on Standards 1, 2, 3, 4 and knowledge while they scored higher on Standard 5 and application. (Appendix II. E.)

4. In comparison to freshmen at one other institution, BU freshmen overall scored significantly higher on measures for Standard 4 and Knowledge. They also scored higher on their composite score and Standard 3, and lower on Standards 1, 2 & 5 and Application, but not significantly for any measure. (Appendix II. F.)

5. Among BU seniors, majors in nursing and science scored significantly higher than majors in elementary education, liberal arts, mass communication, and management on the composite score, Standard 2, and application. (Appendix II. A.) Additionally:
a. Science majors scored significantly higher than liberal arts majors on Standard 5
b. Nursing majors scored significantly higher than elementary education and management majors on the Knowledge measure
c. Seniors in business majors other than management scored lower than nursing and science majors on most measures, but not significantly.

6. Among BU freshmen, there was no significant difference between majors for any measure.

7. As expected, BU Seniors and BU Freshmen differed significantly in their scores for all measures.

If you have any questions, please contact Linda Neyer, Chair, Library Outcomes Assessment & Information Literacy Committee.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Webcast for Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings

A link to the webcast for the Judge Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings is available off the the library's Government Documents Hot Topics page. Or you can view the webcast directly at the Senate's Judiciary Committee page: http://judiciary.senate.gov/. The hearings are set to begin at 10am on Monday, July 13.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

New Government Documents Pages

The government documents web pages for the library have been redesigned. The new pages allow you to:

  • search only for government documents in PILOT
  • find e-government sites easily by subject, level of government, or type of government
  • find links to government documents in the news
  • easily contact the government documents librarian, Katie Yelinek

To see the new pages, go to the library homepage, click on Internet Resources and Government Information, or go directly to http://guides.library.bloomu.edu/govinfo.

Monday, June 8, 2009

New "Business Environment" Feature in IBISWorld

IBISWorld may now be used to gain information on factors and phenomena that affect the US economy and its industries. The "Business Environment" feature may be used to find valuable data and narrative information on:
  • Interest rates
  • Inflation
  • Demographics
  • Housing
  • Laborforce
  • Energy Production and Prices
  • Commodity Prices, and much more.

Through these timely reports, you may learn how these factor are affecting specific US industries.

For more, go to Databases A-Z and click on IBISWorld.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

New Library Database!

The Library has just acquired the The Washington Post (1877 - 1992), a ProQuest Historical Newspaper offering full page and article images with searchable full-text. It is available on the Databases A-Z page and at the preceding link. As always, if you have any questions, please contact a Reference Librarian.

(Please note: The database cannot be searched in combination with ProQuest non-historical databases.)

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Swine Flu Information for Health Care Providers

One of our database vendors, EBSCO, is making content in their DynaMed database about the Swine Flu available for free to health care providers and institutions throughout the world.

"The Dynamed topic on Swine Influenza consolidates information from multiple sources for health care providers to stay current with recommendations for monitoring, diagnosing, and treating patients with flu-like illnesses during this outbreak. DynaMed Editors will continue to monitor information and update this topic as need throughout this global crisis."

Here is the DynaMed Swine Flu Clinical Summary web link. Please share this information with anyone to whom it would be of help.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

E-books Added to Library Catalog

Records for 15,602 electronic books have been added to the Library's Pilot catalog. These records will appear along with other materials in search results. To access the e-book itself, click on the Web Link highlighted wording at the top of the full record. These titles are also available through the netLibrary database, included in the Databases section of the Library's home page.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

'Text me this call number'

Since more and more students are using their cell phones to write down call numbers for books, the Library has added a new feature to the catalog that enables users to send call numbers to their cell phones via text messages.

Now, when you search PILOT, our catalog, and find a book whose call number you want to write down, you may send the call number to your cell phone via a text message. Here's what you'll see in PILOT:



Click on the link 'Text me this call number' and then enter your cell phone number and select your provider. The call number will be sent to you via a text message, saving you the trouble of writing it down on slip of paper. Then just go the Collection and the floor where the book is located.

As always, if you have questions, ask a Reference Librarian for assistance.

Introducing RefMobile!

You may notice a new link in your RefWorks account labeled 'RefMobile'. What is it? It's a new interface that enables students and researchers to use their RefWorks web-based research database from anywhere, via web-enabled mobile phones, smart phones, and personal data assistants (PDAs).

The RefMobile interface gives users immediate access to the most commonly used RefWorks functions, including searching their entire RefWorks databases, viewing references by folders, adding and removing references from folders, creating new folders, and adding comments to Notes fields. Users can also import new references to their RefWorks account using the new SmartAdd feature.

With SmartAdd, users simply enter basic identifying information for a publication, such as ISBN number, digital object identifier (DOI) number, partial title, or author and publication year, and SmartAdd searches the Internet for the reference and imports it to RefWorks.

Contact the Database Coordinator, Linda Neyer, for the Group Code or for additional information.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Database trial

Andruss Library has a trial to the new LexisNexis Statistical Datasets. This database allows users to "scan the contents of over 530 datasets, select subjects and variables of interest, and view... data in side-by-side tables and charts." Results can be saved to PDF, downloaded to Excel, or pasted into a document. Take a test run of the database at http://library.bloomu.edu/referencedatabases/az.php. Comments about the database should be directed to Government Documents Librarian Katie Yelinek (kyelinek@bloomu.edu).

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Library Extended Hours

The library will be offering extended hours until 12 midnight on the weekends starting Friday, April 17! For a list of the extended hours, please view the calendar at http://library.bloomu.edu/images/April.pdf.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Additional Microform Titles Added to Catalog

Bibliographic records for all individual titles in the following microform sets have been added to Pilot:

Harrisburg Newspapers (newspapers from 1792 to 1866, including several in German)
Pennsylvania County and Regional Histories
The Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and History
Radical Periodicals of Great Britain
Radical Periodicals in the United States
Pamphlets in American History: Communism

These join records for

Human Relations Area Files
and
Pamphlets in American History: Civil Liberties,

which were added early last semester. Addition of these records was made possible through an LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) grant to add microform records to the catalogs of several PASSHE libraries.

Monday, March 23, 2009

DVD player software

Faculty, staff, and library computer users can follow the DVD player software instructions at http://library.bloomu.edu/dvd.pdf to help play DVD's on the computer you are using.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Intro to Library Research (09-130) not offered Fall 2009

Introduction to Library Research (09-130) will not be offered Fall 2009 or Spring 2010. Instead, librarians will be developing learning modules with an assessment piece which may be adopted by faculty for use in their upper and lower level courses.

Faculty who are interested in using and/or developing information literacy learning modules for their courses are encouraged to contact one of the librarians who will be working on this project for more information:
Linda Neyer, Health Sciences/Science Librarian, x4801, lneyer@bloomu.edu
Michael Coffta, Business Librarian, x4124, mcoffta@bloomu.edu
Darla Bressler, Education Librarian, x4656, dbressle@bloomu.edu
David Magolis, Social Sciences Librarian, x4921, dmagolis@bloomu.edu
Katie Yelinek, Gov’t Documents, x4228, kyelinek@bloomu.edu
Following is a list of topics that have been taught in the 1-credit “Intro to Library Research” in the past:
  1. Library Research and Academic Integrity
    Introduction – Value of library research
    Academic Integrity - Bloomsburg University's Academic Integrity Policy
  2. Introduction to media and formats (including print and electronic)
    Periodicals (scholarly, popular, trade, newspapers, other)
    Primary vs. secondary sources
    Evaluating sources
  3. Topic Formation
    Selecting a topic
    Narrowing a topic
    Writing a thesis statement
  4. Search Strategies
    Controlled vocabulary vs. natural language
    Using natural language
    Using Boolean operators
    Truncation and wildcards
  5. Online Catalog Searching
    Library Collections
    Using the Andruss Library catalog
    Finding Course Reserve materials
    Setting search limits
    Printing, saving, and emailing search results
    Other catalogs
  6. Database Searching
    What is a database?
    Searching the ‘Periodical Title List’
    Research databases (interdisciplinary vs. discipline-specific)
    Discipline-specific modules (identifying and using essential databases, print sources, and Web sites)
  7. Citation Guides
    Citing sources - general information
    Reading a citation
    APA Style
    MLA Style
    Using bibliographic management software, e.g., RefWorks
  8. Evaluating Internet Sites
    Criteria for evaluating Web sites
    Conspicuous bias
    Authoritative collections of Web sites
    Using site maps and other navigation tools
  9. Assessment:
    Quizzes for each learning unit
    15-item annotated bibliography researching a pre-approved topic

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sunshine Week Essay Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2009 Sunshine Week Essay contest!

In the university student category...
  • First prize: Marissa Eby, Junior Accounting Major
  • Second prize: Tarah Moore, Senior Computer Forensics Major
  • Third prize: Robert Mark, Junior Finance Major
No prizes were awarded in the high school student category, due to a lack of entries. However, the judges awarded an honorarium to the one student who entered. Congratulations to Brandon Stanton from Honesdale High School.

Look for the first prize essay to be published in the Press Enterprise during Sunshine Week, March 15-21. For more information, go to http://library.bloomu.edu/pages/govinfo/sunshine.html.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Download and listen to full-text articles on your MP3 player

One of the Library's full-text database providers, Wilson Web, is offering a new text-to-audio converter. Called 'ReadSpeaker', it offers “text-to-speech” for full-text HTML articles. You can listen to these articles online or download them to your computer or MP3 player and listen to them later.

If you're an auditory learner, or are learning English as a second language, or just like to multitask, check out this new feature in the the following library databases:


Sunday, February 22, 2009

Get Creative!

View this video to learn about Creative Commons, a great resource for finding photographs, illustrations, music, video, and other education resources that you can use (either as a student or as a faculty member) without permission or fees. It answers the question, "Is it okay for me to use this photograph/article/figure/etc in my classroom/article/Web site/etc?" If it's in Creative Commons, the answer is yes! (Search Creative Commons for resources here.)

The Googlization of Everything

Siva Vaidhyanathan, cultural historian and media scholar at the University of Virginia, is writing a new book titled The Googlization of Everything: How One Company is Disrupting Culture, Commerce, and Community... And Why We Should Worry, and he maintains a blog with the same name. On his blog, he recently gave a great example of where uncritical use of Internet search engines can lead. He told the story about a news reporter who had searched for the words "bankruptcy 2008" in Google and found a news article in the Google News results that (long story short) was labeled as having happened in 2008 but which had actually happened in 2002. The company in question, an airline, had successfully reorganized after the 2002 bankruptcy, but this fact was apparently unknown to the reporter because he wrote an erroneous article about the airline that damaged the company financially.

Siva noted all the problems leading up to this disastrous ending:

This anecdote teaches us some valuable lessons about our alarming dependence on Google... We live in a world flooded with data. We live lives devoted to maximum speed and dexterity, rather than deliberation and wisdom. Many of our systems, not least electronic journalism, are biased toward the new and the now. And even after living intimately with networked computers for almost two decades we lack a widespread understanding of what such systems can and cannot do, or even how they work. We trust them with far too much that is dear to us and fail to master their limits and problems.

Read the full post here.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

New Look for ILLiad

ILLiad (Andruss Library's online Interlibrary Loan request system) has a new look this Spring.

We hope this new design will be easier to use.

Interlibrary Loan services are available to current BU students, faculty, and staff. Use your library card number to logon to ILLiad at: http://illiad.bloomu.edu

Please contact Andrea Schwartz at ill@bloomu.edu or (570) 389-4218 with any questions, problems, or concerns.