There is a plethora of information regarding the recently enacted health care reform legislation.Much of that information is in the form of documents, bills, news reports, magazine articles, and web sites.In time, we can expect to see more reflective and more analytical academic research articles.
The Wikipedia article on Health care reform in the United States is an excellent starting point for learning the background, issues, and time table surrounding the topic.The article includes an extensive bibliography as well as external links to many reputable resources.
Naturally the government has posted a great deal of information on the subject.Of particular interest is the HealthReform.gov site managed by the U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of H. R. 4872, Reconciliation Act of 2010, and the text of the legislationincluding summaries, hearings and congressional actions available at the Library of Congress Thomas site.
SearchingMilne Library’s databases will uncover numerous articles and studies.PubMed provides access to the medical literature, ABI/INFORM covers business resources, ProQuest National Newspapersincludes 30 national newspapers, while Academic Search Complete is a broadmultidisciplinary database.
iPad vs Netbooks: What's the difference? What's better?
Eee PC-Blog provides a pretty good overview of the iPad vs Netbook discussion with its Spec by Spec Breakdown of the two machines. The winner depends on what users intend to do with the tool.
In a nutshell, the iPad is great for consuming content, but the lack of a built-in keyboard makes creating content tricky.
GOLD (Ruby Certificate) Workshop in Milne -- Week of 3/29
There's just one GOLD Workshops (Ruby Certificate) this week in Milne for the final week of March.
MS Access 2007 Level III: Design, Create and Use Forms, with Technology Instructor Steve Dresbach on Monday (3/29) 2-3 p.m. in Milne 104. This workshop will focus on the design and creation of forms used for entering and viewing information stored in a table or query.
Milne Library is currently hiring for the Tech Help and Classroom Technology Positions for Fall 2010. We are looking for motivated, hard-working, and very reliable students with technical experience and good social skills.
CTAs work in Milne Library classrooms assisting faculty and students with technology related questions. They will help instructors with presentations, and assist with library instruction sessions. They will also work at the Service Desk (Circulation Desk) with the Tech Help students. Both groups will provide technical assistance to library students, faculty, and patrons. Duties include checking out laptops from circulation, assisting patrons with printing and networking, helping with our various program suites, answering general technical questions, maintaining the public lab facilities, and assisting with special projects.
Applications can be found on the Milne Jobs Website and turned into the Circulation Desk or with Steve Praino (praino@geneseo.edu) in the Tech Department.
Librarians are always available to help with your research and technology needs.
Working with a group? We can accommodate. Sciences? Got it. Business Stats? Yep. Need help with web sites, podcasting, powerpoint or excel? For sure! Music Media? You know it! And that’s only a taste of the subject coverage available.
Want to contact a librarian right away? Simply fill out a Consultation Request form telling us a bit about your project or research needs, and a librarian will contact you to set up an appointment.
If you still have questions, don’t forget that the reference desk is always a great place to start.
A meeting to discuss Spring Scholarships and Fellowships will be held next Tuesday, Mar. 30 at 7pm in Newton 201. Both undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to attend.
Are you creating a poster to show off your work for this year's GREAT Day? Have the content but unsure of how to begin formatting it so that it looks good?
Adobe's InDesign is a desktop publishing program that gives you the tools to be used for design and layout purposes. InDesign is a "GREAT" choice for making any document that needs some creative layout, from posters to newspapers. It offers all kinds of features to modify your text and images, which can work together in interesting ways to create a unique and professional design.
Laura Cook, Assistant Director and Manager for CIT Instructional Technologies, will provide two open training sessions on InDesign poster creation:
Open sessions will be held on: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM in Milne 104 LL Tuesday, April 06, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM in Milne 104 LL
Students do not need to sign up ahead of time.
Images courtesy of:Lee Bennett and pennydogaccessories via Creative Commons on Flickr.
The Library Instruction Leadership Academy (LILAC),collaboratively developed by Rochester-area librarians with Milne Library at the forefront, recently held its third workshop, exploring topics such as multiple intelligence and learning styles and “teacher as performer.” Judging from participants' reactions it was a huge success! Remaining workshops include "teaching with technology," classroom management and assessment.
LILAC is a semester-long intensive learning experience geared towards librarians new to instruction that includes a variety of workshops, field observations, assigned readings, reflection, discussions, and a final instruction project. Each workshop focuses on an aspect of library instruction and involves a mixture of pedagogical theory, best practices and hands on experience.
Participants will reflect upon what they have learned throughout the semester and then “teach it forward” by completing a final project. These projects range from starting an information literacy program for homed schooled children to presenting workshops at an upcoming library conference. The Academy runs until May 2010 and culminates with a graduation party where participants will showcase their final projects.
The next three GOLD Workshops (Ruby Certificate) being offered by Milne Library staff begin with MS Access 2007 Level II: Design, Create and Use Queries, taught by Steve Dresbach on Monday, March 22 from 2-3 p.m. in South 328. This latest offering in Steve’s MS Office series will focus on the design and creation of queries (questions) that enable users to select specific information from tables created in MS Access, a database application for entering, storing, retrieving and print data related to a particular topic or purpose.
Next up is Researching Music, a workshop designed to explore the scores, recordings, databases, literature about music and much more that lie within Milne Library's music collection. Do you know where to find them or how to use them? What is RILM or Naxos? Learn the "secrets" of advanced searching techniques, how music resources are organized, and how to easily locate and access them within Milne and beyond. The workshop will be held in Milne 208 on Tuesday, March 23, from 2-3 p.m.
In today's world, the Internet is the information tool used most often, yet students frequently complain about not finding reliable, information-rich websites despite hours of searching. Librarian Sue Ann Brainard will show students how to find "hidden" web pages, and become skeptical investigators and sophisticated searchers, in her Quickly Finding Quality Information on the Web workshop, on Wednesday, March 24, from 2-3 p.m. in Milne 109. (This workshop was previously called C.S.I.: Critically Searching the Internet.)
“From Normal to Extraordinary” Exhibit Seeks Contributions
Milne Library will be hosting the exhibit, “From Normal to Extraordinary,” a retrospective on Geneseo’s proud tradition of educating educators, during the College’s Summer Reunion, to be held July 9-11, 2010,. The exhibit will feature artifacts, ephemera and photographs that span College’s 139-year history, from its beginnings as the Wadsworth Normal and Training School through the SUNY years.
Alumni and other interested persons are invited to loan exhibit items such as mementos, keepsakes or photographs that will help to tell Geneseo’s story, particularly as it relates to teacher and librarian education. Contact Liz Argentieri, Special Collections Librarian, at argente@geneseo.edu or 585-245-5194.
In January, Milne added more than 16,000 recently published titles to its book collection through a subscription to Springer eBooks.This collection of electronic books covers a wide variety of subject areas, including physics & astronomy, humanities, computer science, behavioral sciences, business & economics, engineering, chemistry & material science, biomedical and life sciences, and lots more.The collection will grow by more than 3,000 brand-new books each year.
Users can discover Springer eBooks held by Milne the same way they find other books -- through a keyword, title, author or subject search in the Beta Catalog, WorldCat Local, or GLOCAT.In GLOCAT, users can zero in on these titles by searching “springer” as a document type.
Ebooks are a cost- and space-saving alternative to physical books, and they are more accessible to users.They allow users access to new materials that Milne simply could neither afford to purchase in print nor accommodate in the existing shelf space. And ebooks are available at all times, not just when the Library is open.
GOLD (Ruby Certificate) Workshops in Milne -- Week of 3/8
Milne Librarians are offering some excellent GOLD Workshops (Ruby Certificate) during the second week of March.First up is Starting Your Research Project: Using MultiSearch and Other Time Saving Strategies, with co-instructors Michelle Costello and Justina Elmore, on Monday (3/8) 2-3 p.m. in Milne 109. The workshop is intended to help students begin research for class assignments and to introduce them to some of Milne’s important resources and services, including a variety of useful catalogs and databases.
On Tuesday (3/9), from 2-3 p.m. in Milne 208, students interested in learning how to navigate the complex landscape of legal research can attend Tom Ottaviano’s Researching Law workshop. Law and legislation can potentially have a profound impact on much of what we study, yet finding this information is often confusing and difficult. Workshop attendees will learn where and how to find discussion about federal and state codes, information about court cases, and reviews of legislation.
Did you know there were laws governing how you can use the information you find on the internet? Join Sue Ann Brainard on Wednesday (3/10) for her workshop on Ethics and Laws of Information Use to learn how students are constantly making ethical decisions and taking legal risks when using the internet. In this workshop, which will be held from 2-3 p.m. in Milne 109, these issues will be explored using scenarios.
Milne Library has recently purchased a Kindle, Amazon’s electronic book reader, to evaluate its potential utility as a tool for providing library materials. Loaded with about a dozen titles, Milne’s Kindle is available for 4-hour loan to anyone interested in trying it out.
For many years, Milne Library users have had access to electronic versions of books through sources such as NetLibrary, Google Books, and (most recently) Springer. One limitation to these ebooks is that they need to be read on a computer screen, which is hard on the eyes, provides limited interactive capabilities and is not very portable. In response, ebook readers such the Kindle were developed and are quickly gaining popularity. While the Kindle is by far the most popular ereader, Sony and Barnes & Noble now offer competing products, and together they sold three million units last year. Apple’s new iPad promises to be a competitor in this field as well.
Students in Prof. Chris Pruszynski’s communication seminar (COMN 391) this spring will be using and evaluating the Kindle from technological and pedagogical perspectives, and feedback from the students’ “experiment” will be extremely useful in the Library’s overall assessment.
Geneseo Distinguished Educator Awards nominations due
The Ella Cline Shear School of Education has established the Geneseo Distinguished Educator Awards to recognize outstanding alumni educators, including librarians, who have made a profound impact on individual students, schools and communities. With over 13,000 educator alumni, Geneseo graduates make a difference throughout New York State and the entire nation.
Who is eligible: SUNY Geneseo graduates who work or have worked as a teacher, guidance counselor, school psychiatrist, librarian, administrator or staff member who impacts the daily lives and educational experiences of K-12 students. The awards may be conferred upon retired educators or posthumously.
Who may nominate: Superintendents, principals, vice principals, deans or department chairs (may nominate up to two qualifying education professionals per year).
Deadline: Nominations must be postmarked by March 23, 2010. Click here to download nomination instructions and form.
Award recipients will be honored at a complimentary champagne reception under the tent at Summer Reunion 2010.
