National Information Literacy Awareness Month

(Sorry for the absence. The cold and flu season caught up to us here in the library, but we’re finally recovering!)

Anyone who’s sat through one of the library’s presentations on research has heard us talk about how difficult it can be to sort through all of the information out on the web and the importance of evaluating the information you do find. Well, we aren’t alone in feeling this way.  The President has proclaimed October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month.  You can check out the official proclamation in full, but here’s a small part of it:

Our Nation’s educators and institutions of learning must be aware of — and adjust to — these new realities. In addition to the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it is equally important that our students are given the tools required to take advantage of the information available to them. The ability to seek, find, and decipher information can be applied to countless life decisions, whether financial, medical, educational, or technical.

One step closer to Amazon

Ok, comparing our online catalog to Amazon is probably a stretch, but we have added two great new features that we think you’ll like!

First, you’ll notice that a picture of the book’s cover appears next to it’s title.  This feature does more than provide visual appeal – often it’s easier to know which edition of a book you’re looking at by the picture on its cover. 

Another feature is the addition of a book’s summary and table of contents. 

Although this doesn’t have the same visual appeal as a book’s cover, having this available while you’re at your computer can save you valuable research time!  Rather than waiting until you pull a book of the shelf, you can tell right away from its summary and table of contents whether it will help you with your topic.

If you’re new to research and aren’t sure what the online catalog is, be sure to let us know.  We’d love to sit down and show you!

Welcome to a new semester!

Welcome students, staff, and faculty!  It’s a new semester and the library has lots of new resources to offer you.  Stay tuned to Word of Mouth over the next few weeks as we’ll be giving you the highlights for each of them.  Of course, we’ll also continue telling you about useful research tips, websites, news, and more!

In the meantime, if you’re at one of the campus locations, be sure to stop by and say hi to us in the library.  And if you’re not on campus, you can always  send us a text or chat message.

Teacher? The Kindle at my homework.

Last week we told you about the concerns that were raised when Amazon, after finding out they had accidently been selling illegal copies of George Orwell’s 1984, ended up remotely deleting the book from the Kindles of customers who had purchased the book, raising questions about copyright and privacy in the digital age.

In response to Amazon’s actions, a Seattle-area high school student, Justin D. Gawronski, is filing a class action lawsuit against the online book retailer.  Gawronski claims that he had purchased the book for a summer homework project on George Orwell and when Amazon deleted the book, all his work was lost.  The lawsuit seeks to bar Amazon from accessing customer’s Kindles beyond the delivery of purchased content and to reimburse those who lost work due to the company’s deletion of the Orwell books.

What do you think?

This week in history

It was 64 years ago this week the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing the surrender of the Japanese and ending World War 2.  There has long been a debate on the use of the weapons and whether or not their use was justified.  There are many theories on why the bombs were dropped, one of the most popular explanations is that projected US casualties for Operation Downfall (the proposed invasion of the main Japanese islands) were determined to be too high and it was believed that dropping the bombs would expedite Japan’s surrender.

Whatever the reasoning, there is no doubt that the dropping of the bomb changed the course of history forever, and that decision affects us, even today.

For a good examination of the topic, see the section on the bombings in our Issues and Controversies in American History Database. 

Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Barbaric Tactic or Quick Way to End the War?

Or

Watch the documentary Bombing of Hiroshima, in one of our new databases, American History in Video.

Bombing of Hiroshima

If you are on campus, simply click the link, from off campus you may have to enter the password, or log in via Blackboard.

To Kindle or not to Kindle… that is a very good question

On November 19th, 2007 online book retailer Amazon announced that they would be selling the Kindle, a new e-book reader, and offering electronic versions of books, magazines and newspapers for sale on the new device. The Kindle would use E ink electronic paper displays and would allow users to download material via a wireless service called Amazon Whispernet, an always-on connection that used Sprint’s EVDO internet connection. With Whispernet customers could download new books anywhere within the Sprint coverage area and receive on-the-go downloads of newspaper and magazine content.

The response to the new device was overwhelming, and the first batch of Kindles sold out in 5 and a half hours and had limited availability until the spring of 2008. That same spring Amazon released the Kindle 2 and in May of 2009 they announced the Kindle DX which sported a larger screen intended for improved support for newspapers and textbooks.

Enthusiasm for the device was high, even so far as to have the Democratic Leadership Council to propose a plan that would have the government provide a Kindle to each of the nation’s 56 million K-12 students.

But others have not been as enthusiastic; there have been complaints about the hardware, about easily cracked cases and hard-to-read screens that fail to properly display a book’s graphics. After the first Kindle, Amazon removed the capability to expand the Kindle’s memory with a SD card, meaning that the Kindle was limited in how much material it could store. People complained that there wasn’t a wide enough selection of material to download as nervous publishers refused to allow Kindle versions of popular works.

Concern over Amazon’s DRM (Digital Rights Management) policy was turned into outrage with some when, earlier this month, Amazon, after discovering that it had inadvertently been selling illegal copies of George Orwell’s 1984. Amazon removed the illegal copies from its online store and remotely deleted the book from thousands of Kindles, horrifying Kindle owners who were suddenly made aware that the vaunted Whispernet was a two-way street. People who had purchased the books had their accounts reimbursed, but many were furious at the perceived intrusion and took to the Internet, blasting the company. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos quickly apologized calling Amazon’s actions “…stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.” But for some the damage was already done and concerns over the possible ease of censorship in this new digital age and the pros and cons of having a company constantly connected to your device. It comes down to having the convenience of having books you ordered while your Kindle was being delivered to you waiting on the device when you open the box vs. the ability for that same company to be able to remotely reach out and remove those same books from your possession without warning.

What are your thoughts?

Would you prefer to use an e-reader like the Kindle in class and using electronic textbooks rather than traditional hard copy books?

How do you feel about Amazon having the ability to potentially access content on your device?

In light of this, do you think it’s possible to truly “own” an e-book?

Today in space exploration history

Everyone’s talking about the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, but did you know that today is also the 33rd Aniversary of the first Mars landing?

Library course in Blackboard

First, we just wanted to remind everyone that the college will be closed this Friday, July 3rd, for the July 4th holiday.  This means that the library will be closed on Friday as well.

Need to continue your research this weekend while the library is closed?  Well, not only are the library’s online resources available to you 24/7, these links are now available in the library’s brand new Blackboard course!  What does this mean for you?  No more passwords!

For those who are already in a class that uses Blackboard:

Great news! You’re already enrolled in the Library Resources course.  All you need to do is log into Blackboard and look for the Library Resources class in your list of courses.  Once you’re in the course, click on the Articles & eBooks button and you’ll find the entire list of online resources.  When you click on one of the resource links, you’ll go directly to it without having to enter a password.

For those who don’t have a class that uses Blackboard:

No problem! You can still enroll in the Library course.  First, you’ll still need to log into Blackboard (using your assigned username and password).  Once you’re in, click on the Courses tab.  To your right you’ll see a course catalog section that includes a link to CAC Student Resources.  Click on this link and you’ll find the Library Resources course listed with an enroll button to the right of it.  Click on the enroll button, which will send an email to the library letting us know that you want to enroll.  Once we approve your request, you’re enrolled in the course and ready to research!

Remember, if you ever have a question about using the library’s resources or need help with your research, be sure to contact us!

The value of information

When doing research, we always ask our students to consider where their information is coming from (for credibility sake) and to cite the information they use (for ethics sake).  What we don’t talk about much is the value of information.

For example, most of the information you find on websites doesn’t go through an editorial process.  There are a few exceptions to this, but the rule of thumb is to play it safe and carefully evaluate what you find.  However, when you use one of the library’s online resources, the information has been reviewed and published by publishing entities (books, magazines, journals, etc.).  Although this information is more reliable, it comes with a hefty price tag and access agreements.

Discussing the costs and availability of information is when you begin to discuss the value of information.  Why bring this up?  We heard about a bill that was brought to Congress that, if passed, would require radio stations to pay a performance right tax on the songs it plays.  The issues involved are whether the radio stations are fairly compensating performers versus the compensation radio stations already pay, and whether some smaller radio stations will have to be shut down as a result.

What do you think?  Before deciding, take a look at the websites for both sides (it’s always important to be well-informed!):

MusicFirst – the originator of the proposed legislation

No Performance Tax - in opposition of the proposed legislation

Leave a comment and let us know what you think the value of information is worth?

Embed a YouTube video into Powerpoint

Looking for an easy way to liven up your powerpoint presentation?  Try embedding a YouTube video into one of your slides!  There’s a great YouTube video on how to do this (of course!) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yzUxNbi1h4. 

However, for those who don’t want to take watch the video (or if you watch the video once but don’t want to watch it again for a refresher) here are the steps you’ll need to follow for embedding a YouTube video in Powerpoint 2007:

First, if you don’t already have it, you’ll need the Developer tab showing.  To get it:

- Click on the Windows icon in the upper left corner and then click on Powerpoint Options button in the lower right corner of the menu box.

- Check the box next to “Show Developer tab in the Ribbon” and click OK.

Once you have the Developer tab showing, go the powerpoint slide where you want to embed your video. 

Now switch over to YouTube and find the video you want to embed.  When you’re at the page where you play the video, you’ll have a box to the right that contains a URL for your video (if you don’t see it, click on the more info link). 

 

 

 

 

 

Before you can embed the video’s URL, you need to make a minor change to it.  Here’s an example URL from YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yzUxNbi1h4

You’ll modify the url by removing ‘watch?’ and ‘=’ so that the url ends up looking like this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/4yzUxNbi1h4

Once you have your video’s url, go back to your Powerpoint slide and do the following:

- Select the Developer tab and then click on the “more controls” icon, which looks like a hammer and wrench.

 

 

 

 

- From the list, select Shockwave Flash Object.

- In your powerpoint slide, make a box as large as you want your video to be shown.

- In the box you’ve created, right click and select Properties.

- In the Properties box, click in the blank box next to movie and paste your YouTube url (with the modifications from above) and make sure the box next to EmbedMovie option is set to False.

- Close the Properties box and then run  your slideshow to see the video embedded in your slide.

That’s it!