GOLD (Ruby Certificate) Workshops in Milne -- Week of 4/5

Join Milne Librarians this week as they offer two more GOLD workshops as part of the Ruby Leadership for the Information Age Certificate series.

On Tuesday, April 6, 2-3 p.m. in Milne 208, Tracy Paradis will present Using Diigo Bookmarking Tool, a powerful research tool that combines enhanced online browsing and interactions with annotation, social bookmarking and information sharing capabilities. No longer do students need to print web pages to highlight and take personalized notes! Workshop participants will learn how to save, annotate, tag and share their favorite sites while creating their own personal archive.

Students feeling unsure or anxious about citing the sources used in their research papers may want to attend Citing Sources in English and History, offered by Sue Ann Brainard on Wednesday, April 7, 2-3 p.m. in Milne 109. Participants will practice writing bibliography entries and footnotes in both MLA and Turabian/Chicago styles. The workshop will cover tricky entries for reprinted articles, essays in collections, and primary sources like oral histories and interviews.

See the GOLD registration page to register for these workshops and others.

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.

To register, go to http://gold.geneseo.edu/register/index.html.

GOLD (Ruby Certificate) Workshops -- Week of 3/22

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.)

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.

To register, go to http://gold.geneseo.edu/register/index.html.

GOLD Ruby Workshops this week...

Three GOLD workshops (Ruby Certificate) will be held this week in Milne, beginning with Microsoft Access 2007 Level I: Design, Create, and Use Tables on Monday (3/1) from 2-3 p.m. in South Hall 328. Steve Dresbach, Technology Instructor, will focus on the design and creation of tables used to store a collection of related information in a rectangular arrangement of rows and columns.

On Tuesday (3/2), Librarian Sue Ann Brainard, is offering Reading Between the Lines: Detecting Bias in the Media, an introduction to becoming media literate, i.e. knowing how to evaluate and analyze mainstream and alternative media for objectivity, accuracy, and authority. This workshop, (previously called Media Literacy) will show how to identify bias by looking closely at the language used by news media. The workshop will be held in Milne 208 from 2-3 p.m.

Citing Sources in the Sciences will round out the week, on Wednesday (3/3) with Bonnie Swoger, Sciences and Technology Librarian. Participants will review the citation styles commonly used for papers in science classes at Geneseo: APA (American Psychological Association), CSE (Council of Science Editors), NLM (National Library of Medicine), and ACS (American Chemical Society). Styles covered will depend on workshop participants' needs. After an overview, the focus will go to citing online journal articles, books and websites. Participants will learn about online resources for future help, and gain practice in the citation style of their choice.

Go to http://gold.geneseo.edu/register/index.html to register today!

Photo courtesy of http://www.margolove.com/ via Flickr Creative Commons.

Ruby Certificate GOLD Workshops 2/22-2/26

Two GOLD workshops (Ruby Certificate) will be held this week in Milne, starting with Finding Articles Efficiently on Tuesday (2/23) from 2-3 p.m. in Milne 104. Librarian Michelle Costello will help students learn the basic mechanics of a database, which could include web engines like Google, the databases subscribed to by the Library, or a free database on the web. Students will discover helpful tips and strategies that are used in any kind of database to help improve their searches, find better resources, and save time.

On Wednesday (2/24), Librarian Tracy Paradis is offering From Page to Press to Peer Review, a workshop designed to help students understand that all information is not created equal. During the publishing cycle, scholarly information goes through intense scrutiny. Understanding the ins and outs of scholarly publishing allows the researcher to select appropriate material for university-level work. Students will learn what constitutes scholarliness, what is meant by "peer reviewed/refereed" and how to find scholarly sources. The workshop will be held in Milne 104 from 2-3 p.m.

Go to http://gold.geneseo.edu/register/index.html to register today!

Learn the ABCs of Database Searching

Milne Library's Instructors have been involved in the GOLD (Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development) program for a few semesters now. Through the Ruby Certificate, we offer workshops in Information Literacy, which include topics such as database searching, locating subject-specific resources, evaluation of research materials, plagiarism, internet security, and new technologies.

The first workshop in a series of required classes for completion of the Ruby Certificate is The ABCs of Database Searching. In this introductory workshop, students will learn the basic mechanics of a database, which could include web engines like Google, the databases subscribed to by the Library, or a free database on the web. Students will discover helpful tips and strategies that are used in any kind of database to help improve their searches, find better resources, and save time.

The first of two ABCs workshops will be offered on Thursday, February 8, during the all-college hour (12:45-1:45 pm). Participants will meet in Room 104 of Milne Library.

For further information on the GOLD program and how to sign up for workshops, go to http://gold.geneseo.edu or contact Tom Matthews at matthews@geneseo.edu or 245-5857.

New technology workshops offered as part of the G.O.L.D. Ruby certificate

Milne Technology Instructor Steve Dresbach is now offering technology workshops as part of the Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development (GOLD) Ruby Certificate.

The Ruby Certificate gives students the opportunity to learn better research skills, effectively evaluate internet resources and use information in a more proficient manner.

Mr. Dresbach will be teaching some new optional courses in the use of audio, video and templates in PowerPoint presentations, creating newsletters and advanced formatting in Word, and finding audio and video clips on the internet. Classes in Excel will be offered by Laura Cook, Manager, Instructional Technologies, from the Computing and Information Technology office.

Completion of eight workshops, four required and four elective courses, will earn students the Ruby Certificate. In addition to becoming better researchers, students will be able to demonstrate to future employers their skill at finding, evaluating and using reliable information.

Students can register online for GOLD workshops or contact Steve Dresbach at x5063 for more information on the new course offerings