Peninsula College Library Biblio-Bits

Biblio-Bits Bites the Dust: Deactivation Notice

2011-04-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

The librarian who maintained the blog is no longer working in Peninsula College Library. Therefore, there will be no further blog entries. Thank you for reading.

Library Book Display Celebrates Women's History Month

2011-03-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Dennis Sanford

March 8 is International Women's Day and March is Women's History Month. The Library is celebrating with a book display of enticing titles. Here is the history of Women's History Month:

In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) co-sponsored a joint Congressional resolution proclaiming a national Women's History Week. In 1987, Congress expanded the celebration to a month, and March was declared Women's History Month.

Black History Month Library Book Display

2011-02-11T11:10:00.000-08:00

Peninsula College Library now has a display of books related to Black History Month, featuring a poster of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), with this quote:

There is no Negro problem. The problem is whether or not the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution.

2010-11-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

Native American Art at UBC Museum. Photo Credit: fboudville

In its second exhibit of the 2010-2011 academic year, Peninsula College Library has a book display (in the Library's new glass display shelves) related to Native American Heritage Month:

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including "Native American Heritage Month" and "National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month") have been issued each year since 1994. http://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/about/

The Peninsula College Library Native American Heritage Month book display will remain until the end of fall quarter, December 9, 2010.

Library Has New Book Display to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

2010-09-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: Herald Post

In its first exhibit of the 2010-2011 academic year, Peninsula College Library has a book display (in the Library's new glass display shelves) related to Hispanic history and literature.

Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15, the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico declared its independence on September 16, and Chile on September 18.

The term Hispanic, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, refers to Spanish-speaking people in the United States of any race. On the 2000 Census form, people of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin could identify themselves as Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino." More than 35 million people identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino on the 2000 Census. Read more: InfoPlease

Peninsula College Selected to Participate in National Institutes of Health Study

2010-07-15T09:59:00.001-07:00

Logo credit: Lana Ivanitskaya

Peninsula College has been selected to be one of only five institutions nationwide to participate in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2010 grant dedicated to information literacy. The grant is part of President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that gives summer research experiences to health and library science educators.

The two Peninsula College faculty who will participate in the grant are Jen Gouge, Program Director for the Medical Assistants program, and David Kent, Research & Instruction Librarian. They will collaborate to adapt and disseminate an eHealth literacy assessment, originally designed at Central Michigan University, to students enrolled in Peninsula College health-related programs. The other four participating institutions are Oakland Community College (MI), Morehead State University (KY), Oakton Community College (IL), and Daytona State College (FL).

Health faculty and librarians from the five selected universities and colleges will work together to develop their students' eHealth literacy. The code name for this effort is “Focus on Information Technology: Navigation that Emphasizes Scholarly Sources (FITNESS).”

The assessment, called READY:SET or Research Readiness Self-Assessment (RRSA), was created to answer these questions:

• Do future health professionals have the requisite skills to engage in evidence-based practice and lifelong professional education?

• Can they find credible health information for their patients?

READY:SET is an online interactive application that was designed to assist librarians and faculty from different disciplines in their efforts to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to become effective, independent users of secondary source information from digital (electronic) sources.

Digital information competencies are defined as the key attributes, such as knowledge, skills and beliefs, manifested by people who purposefully manage and critically evaluate electronic information (e.g., digital libraries and the internet) and use it to make informed choices.

Specifically, READY:SET aims to develop these eHealth competencies:

1. What to assume:
.......1a. Capability & limitations of media
2. Where to go:
.......2a. Knowledge of channels & sources: electronic, analog, and human
.......2b. Knowledge of entry points (gateways)
.......2c. Knowledge of access barriers
3. How to use:
.......3a. Needs assessment (define task, set goal, plan strategy)
.......3b. Navigation (seek, find, refine, narrow) and critical judgment (verify, check) of content, features, and sources of eHealth multimedia (text, video, audio, graphics)
.......3c. Manipulation of eHealth tools and database search applications to get useful outputs
.......3d. Assessment of relevance (check context)
.......3e. Application of outputs (ethically use, recommend)
4. How to get better:
.......4a. Checking assumptions (question) and skill gaps (learn)
.......4b. Getting help

A National Institutes of Health reviewer described RRSA (now known as READY:SET) as "a useful innovation" where "not only individuals’ actual competence, but also perceived competence, is measured, so that those with a mis-match between the two can be identified and mentored" (NIH Scientific Review Group summary statement, grant application 1R03LM009851-01A1, 2007). The reviewer also commented, "the instrument itself contains valuable feedback mechanisms to help those taking the assessment to improve their skills, an innovative feature."

RRSA was originally designed and continues to be developed by Lana V. Ivanitskaya, Ph.D. and Anne Marie Casey, A.M.L.S. in collaboration with many of their colleagues. To learn more about information literacy, see http://infolit.org/about-the-national-forum/

Peninsula College Library Nursing Resources 2010

2010-06-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

This June 2010 nursing resources guide for Peninsula College nursing students includes:

NURSING RESOURCES INDEX
JOURNAL PRINT INDEXES AND DATABASES
OTHER FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE NURSING JOURNALS
ONLINE BOOKS
PENINSULA COLLEGE LIBRARY CATALOG
CULTURAL COMPETENCE
EVIDENCE-BASED NURSING
EVALUATING RESOURCES
WHAT IS A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?
READING: HOW TO READ A RESEARCH PAPER
CITING: SOURCE DOUCUMENTATION USING APA
CRITICAL THINKING
NURSING CARE PLANS
NURSING ETHICS
NURSING RESEARCH
NURSING EMPLOYMENT
NURSING SPECIALTIES
NURSING THEORY
PDA NURSING RESOURCES
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
SPECIALITY GROUPS
WASHINGTON STATE PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
HISTORY OF NURSING
INTERNET GUIDES
NURSING INFORMATION COMPETENCY ONLINE COURSE

First L.O.D.E. workshop held Feb. 22, 2010: "Secrets of the OPAC"

2010-02-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

The first L.O.D.E. (Library Online Database Education) workshop, "Secrets of the OPAC" was held Feb. 22, 2010. The PowerPoint of the presentation can be accessed here: http://www.pencol.edu/biblio/LODEOPAC.pdf

The next L.O.D.E. workshop is: Academic Search Premier, our largest scholarly full-text multidisciplinary journal article database. March 15, 2010 in the Library Classroom

Library Display for National American Indian Heritage Month

2009-11-20T10:59:00.000-08:00

Olympic National Park exhibit

“Freeing the Elwha: A Story of Dam Removal and Restoration.”

Image credit: Dennis Sanford

To celebrate National American Indian Heritage Month the library has a display of books related to Native American history, and an Olympic National Park exhibit, “Freeing the Elwha: A Story of Dam Removal and Restoration.”

The display and exhibit will be in the PC library until December 7.

Click on this link to see:

1) a list of the books with Native American themes on display in the PC Library
2) a list of titles in the Pacific NW Native American History, Culture & Arts collection, purchased through the generosity of Ruth Kirk and Jack & Jennie Zaccardo
3) a brief legislative history of presidential proclamations for National American Indian Heritage Month
4) a photo of the Olympic National Park exhibit

Come visit the “Freeing the Elwha” exhibit… and check out a book!

New Editions of APA and MLA This Year

2009-10-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Image Credit: Tessa Farrell

The American Psychological Association and the Modern Language Association have both revised their style guides. Highline Community College has created new four-page handouts for their students and has generously provided a link to them for Peninsula College Library students to use.

FIND IT! CITING SOURCES

http://library.highline.edu/findit/citing.php

There are both PDF and HTML versions available.

Thanks to Reference Librarian Deborah Moore and the Highline staff for their good work and for their collaboration.

The new bibliographic style publications (cited here in APA format, sans indentation) are:

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Gibaldi, J. (2009). MLA handbook for writers of research papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America.

Human Rights and Banned Books Week Displays

2009-09-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

During the month of October 2009 the Peninsula College Library has two book displays.

One is of new acquisitions related to human rights.

Image credit: Dennis Sanford

The other display is of books which have been challenged or banned during 2007-2008.

Banned Books Week is Sept 26 to Oct. 3, 2009.

From the website: Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982.

Image credit: Dennis Sanford

Tim McNulty to be spring 2010 Writer-in-Residence at Peninsula College

2009-09-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

Image credit: Ricardo.Martins

Peninsula College has announced the spring quarter 2010 Writer-in-Residence will be poet and nature writer Tim McNulty.

The Peninsula College Library is developing an evolving bibliography related to Tim McNulty

Updated IL Resources & Tools Map

2009-08-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: jonny goldstein

Lisa Metzer has published a really cool updated mind map of information literacy resources and tools.

Here is how Lisa describes her work:

"I now call this resource a "Visual Resource Guide for Information Literacy." The purpose of this guide is to visually aggregate resources for IL. I recently updated this visual guide very thoroughly. New topics and major revisions include screencasting software, online IL tutorials, and online citation management tools. "

Library "Bestsellers" in Electronic Books

2009-03-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

Image Credit: #1 New York Times Bestseller by Timothy Valentine

Top Ten : E-books Most-Read at Peninsula College during Jan-Feb. 2009

(arranged by frequency of use)

1. New Biographical Dictionary of Film : Expanded and Updated by Thomson (Knopf Publishing Group)

2. Art of Travel by De Botton (Knopf Publishing Group)

3. In the Footsteps of the Masters : Desmond M. Tutu & Abel T. Muzorewa by Mungazi (Greenwood Publishing)

4. Mexican Immigration to the United States edited by Borjas (University of Chicago Press)

5. Vital Nephrology : Your Essential Reference for the Most Vital Points of Nephrology by Stein (Class Publishing)

6. Chemically Induced Birth Defects (3rd Edition) by Schardein (Marcel Dekker Incorporated)

7. Walter Wanger, Hollywood Independent by Bernstein (University of Minnesota Press)

8. Rheumatoid Arthritis FAQs by Newman (B.C. Decker Incorporated)

9. Social Influences by Wren (Routledge)

10. The Muse of History and the Science of Culture by Carneiro (Kluwer Academic Publishers)

ACRL 14th National Conference Report

2009-03-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

Image credit: Seattle 2009 by rmoniz510
This year the 2009 ACRL conference was held in Seattle from March 12 to March 15 at venues in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center and the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. From March 12 to March 14 the weather changed from sun to rain. On March 15 it snowed! The theme of the conference was "Pushing the Edge: Explore, Engage, Extend." This report is of the experience of one unnamed Peninsula College librarian at the ACRL conference.

First, I was psyched to hear Naomi Klein, who was scheduled for the opening keynote, and unfortunately she was ill and unable to attend. I did hear two other keynotes which were excellent: poet Sherman Alexie and Ira Glass, the creator of This American Life. Other featured presentations I attended were: Marilee Bresciani on "Confronting the Business Lens for Accountability of General Education," a presentation which generated passionate audience response: "They are not products, they are not widgets, they are students!" and Robin Chase, an entrepreneur who is pioneering in ways of collaborative sharing. Robin is the former CEO of Zipcar, and current CEO of GoLoco. She was amazed, and gratified, to see a ballroom full of librarians at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, to hear a talk on addressing global resource crises.

At a national conference there are often many things happening simultaneously, so one has to choose among many appetizing offerings. The other sessions and workshops this librarian attended focused on more library-related themes like these: "Brother Can You Spare a Dime? The 2009 ACRL Trends for Academic Libraries," "Reeling in the Faculty: Baiting the Information Literacy Hook," and, my favorite presentation: "Workplace Information Literacy: Cultivation Strategies for Working Smarter in 21st Century Libraries" where I was thrilled, absolutely thrilled, to learn of Christine Bruce's new book, Informed Learing. After the presentation I rushed straight to the ACRL Bookstore to buy it.

On Saturday I got an ACRL veggie box lunch that was delicious: a sandwich with roasted vegetables, including my favorite: eggplant. It was a working lunch. The ballroom had 50 tables, with 50 different yet concurrent themes! I chose table 17, "From Instruction Traditionalist to Learning Facilitator: Exploring New Heights of Student Engagement."

The only sour note was my hotel experience. But once I got out of the fancy $165 a night hotel (plus $38 parking, plus $10 if you want an internet connection!) and went to a place in the University district, I felt at home. I paid $35 a night (which included free parking and free internet!), thereby saving the state hundreds of dollars. I was near my alma mater, the University of Washington, and I visited old haunts like the University Bookstore on the "Ave."

All in all, it was a great ACRL 2009 conference.

Library Research Guide Updated for 2009-2010

2009-03-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

Image credit: Guide to Research by miseldine

The 2009-2010 Library Research Guide for Peninsula College has been updated for the current and coming academic years. Although research is an iterative process (often accompanied by caffeine), the guide proceeds in a chronological fashion.

First, get an overview and background information on a topic, which will be useful in developing a thesis. Library reference books (e.g., specialized and subject encyclopedias) can often provide in-depth overviews written by scholars. For example, the Library has the International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the reference collection.

Wikipedia can also provide overviews. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia article at any time, and the articles are written by unidentified and unknown authors. Nonetheless, Wikipedia might provide references to scholarly and reliable sources.

Second, maintain a list of important names, search terms, and dates which might be used in database or Web search. Consult thesauri of subject headings to find additional search terms.

Third, armed with an overview and search vocabulary, search the library article databases for articles and the library catalog for books.

The 2009-2010 Library Research Guide also lists additional search resources: the local public library system (NOLS), interlibrary loan, WorldCat, LC classification, evaluation criteria, links to source documentation (APA, MLA, etc.), and links to various Web search engines. All that in just two pages!

New MLA Handout

2009-02-18T09:32:00.000-08:00

Image credit: trypdwyre

Thanks to Sharon A. Moore for permission to share this new Spring 2009 MLA handout: Citing Your Sources – MLA Format
.

Computer-Generated Bibliographic Citations: Can Machines Get It Right?

2008-06-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

For decades we have been trying to get computers to correctly format bibliographic citations. Can machines get it right? Some programming is now doing a good job, but any machine-generated citation should be checked for accuracy, as tweaking is sometimes required.

Computer-Generated Bibliographic Citations is a brief tutorial (PDF format, 130KB, 13 slides) which covers why citation is important, compares formatting in a few bibliographic styles (APA, MLA, CHICAGO, CSE, NLM, AFS), lists a few programs which generate citations, and compares machine-generated citation accuracy for APA citations generated by WorldCat and Zotero.

Zotero : akin to Bibliographic Heaven

2008-06-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

Image credit:
60 in 3

Zotero (rivaling sliced bread in my world) provides free bibliographic reference management through the Firefox browser. A Zotero tutorial is available here .

Google Books vs. Peninsula College Library Catalog

2008-06-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Don Quijote
Image Credit: [noone]

"La libertad, Sancho, es uno de los más preciosos dones que a los hombres dieron los cielos; con ella no pueden igualarse los tesoros que encierran la tierra y el mar: por la libertad, así como por la honra, se puede y debe aventurar la vida."

-Don Quijote de la Mancha-

A Response to: “Google Books vs. BISON”
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6566451.html

An article by Mark J. Ludwig & Margaret R. Wells in Library Journal (6/15/2008) says: “…Google Books' deeper indexing and more advanced relevancy ranking usually works better than that of our local catalogs.”

I respectfully disagree.

Google Books often cannot even compete with our small, rural, community college library catalog (with 62,000 holdings) when the playing field is level, i.e., when the search parameters are identical.

In the last century (the 20th century) I remember studying at the University of Washington, consulting the catalog, climbing the stairs of Suzzallo Library, and pulling books out of the stacks. I did that daily for years. I had the full-text in my hands minutes after a catalog search. I was in heaven. Now, in 2008, Google Books cannot even come close to giving me the full-text I want.

Whereas for most search results with Google Books you do not get the full-text to read, in a library you do get full text of e-books (and more full text in print sources, along with some exercise, if you walk to the stacks).

Google Books default is “All Books,” which includes "full view" and "limited preview" books. To make the comparison of immediate full text accessibility more accurate, the “full view only” option should be selected in Google Advanced Book Search. The Peninsula College Library catalog often does better than Google Advanced Book Search "full view only."

Recently I was searching for books on leadership and did a Google Books search for books in English, published between 2000 and 2008, with the word “leadership” in the title. I wanted recent books, and access to full text, and I did a title keyword search to insure relevancy, since I wasn’t interested in items found by Google Books with the word “leadership” mentioned once on page 153. I repeated the identical search in the Peninsula College Library catalog.

A Peninsula College Library Catalog search retrieved more titles than a Google Books "full view only" search: 22 times more! For students in the PC Library all books are "full view." Some are e-books immediately available online (those reported below in the searches), and additional print sources require a few minutes walk to the stacks.

I then tried other topics using the same search parameters. PC Library contained more "full view" e-books than Google Books (full view only) on many of the topics searched.

Searches in both sources used identical parameters: title keyword search for books in English published between 2000 and 2008. Here is my search history:

LEADERSHIP
Peninsula College Library Catalog = 179 full-view e-books
Google Advanced Book Search = 8 full-view titles

Hmmm… Google Books "full view only" did not do well, when compared to Peninsula College Library Catalog, to get immediate access to full text.

Maybe that was a fluke. Let’s try another search for the word “globalization” in the title.

GLOBALIZATION
Peninsula College Library Catalog = 130 full-view e-books
Google Advanced Book Search = 5 full-view titles

Maybe they were both flukes. Let’s try another…

PHILOSOPHY
Peninsula College Library Catalog = 220 full-view e-books
Google Advanced Book Search = 3 full-view titles

Ouch!

Let's try a couple more...

COMPUTER
Peninsula College Library Catalog = 152 full-view e-books
Google Advanced Book Search = 4 full-view titles

PSYCHOANALYSIS
Peninsula College Library Catalog = 22 full-view e-books
Google Advanced Book Search = 0 full-view titles

Not only does our small Peninsula College Library frequently have more titles to offer students than Google Books, the quality of our copyrighted offerings are likely superior, coming from academic publisher content, content which Google Books cannot provide in full text due to copyright restrictions.

Topics like leadership, philosophy, psychoanalysis, computers, and globalization are not esoteric, yet Google Book Search delivers from zero to five percent of the number of titles available in the Peninsula College Library Catalog. I would say that is an accurate reflection of the real world, since Google has digitized less than 10% of the 86 million unique titles in WorldCat, titles that are available in libraries. Anyone limiting themselves to Google Book Search will miss more than 90% of the literature in existence.

Additionally, if a student does a default Google Books search (this frequently happens), instead of an advanced search with limiters, he or she would have to wade through the no-preview titles (no full-text), the “limited preview” titles (peek-a-boo full-text), the books published before 1920 and public domain books (not copyrighted), and the books in languages other than English, to find recent full-text titles in English (if Google Books has any).

Peninsula College Library does deliver the full-text. And, for the 30,000 e-books in our collection, students in the library don’t even have to go to the stacks... and even more full-text is available in print monographs after a short walk to the stacks.

Now, if a student wanted to find books to request on interlibrary loan, then a default Google Books search might be useful (although I would go with WorldCat, which has records for millions more documents: books, articles, theses, etc., and more search options, than Google Books).

For our students I think the Peninsula College Library is their best bet to retrieve full text, and WorldCat is best to identify titles for interlibrary loan that Google Books does not have.

Peninsula College Library is small but mighty… you might say it is a Google Books slayer.

EBSCO Literary Reference Center Available to PC Academic Community with NOLS Library Card

2008-06-11T14:27:00.000-07:00

Shakespeare

Image credit: richardk

Members of the Peninsula College academic community have access to EBSCO's Literary Reference Center, but they will need to authenticate with a North Olympic Library System (NOLS) library card.

The EBSCO Literary Reference Center (LRC) describes itself this way: The primary goal of LRC is to assist high school and undergraduate English and Humanities students with homework and research assignments of a literary nature.

The LRC contains a Literary-Historical Timeline, Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, an LRC Glossary, plot summaries, reviews, interviews, etc. LRC is a comprehensive source that combines information from over 1,000 books and monographs, major literary encyclopedias and reference works, hundreds of literary journals.

Get a NOLS library card and get access to a wealth of literary information!

Peninsula College Library also has several periodical databases with literary criticism listed on its Online Resources page: Academic Search Premier, Magill on Literature, Gale Literary Databases (which includes the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, and Contemporary Literary Criticism Select), Gale Literary Index, ProQuest and eLibrary. EBSCO's LRC nicely complements PC Library's literary resources and a link to LRC is available through the Peninsula College Library Cyberlinks page under LANGUAGE.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

2008-06-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

"crumbs"
Image credit: boadiceafairy

Here is an article from The Atlantic Monthly I enjoyed reading...... leisurely... in a comfortable stuffed chair... with a cup of hot mint tea... and a reading light... as the rain pitter-pattered on the roof:

Is Google Making Us Stupid?
by Nicholas Carr.
The Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2008:56-63

At the risk of giving away the answer, here are two sentences from the article:

“Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake in collecting the crumbs of data we leave behind as we flit from link to link — the more crumbs, the better. The last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow, concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.”

I had the print edition in hand, but here is a link (wink) to the online edition: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

CQ Researcher Adds Index to Pro/Con Positions on Issues

2008-06-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

You can now browse Congressional Quarterly Researcher pro/con statements by topics (pro/con statements present opposing viewpoints on issues). The link to the Congressional Quarterly Researcher is on the Library Online Resources page. Off campus access requires authentication with your PC 895 ID number. To give an idea of the breadth of coverage, here is a list of pro/con topics currently available:

Abortion
Adoption and Foster Care
Advertising
Affirmative Action
Afghanistan and Pakistan
Africa
AIDS/HIV and Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Air Pollution
Air Transportation
Alternative Energy
Alternative Medicine
Alzheimer's Disease
America's Image Abroad
Animal Rights
Antitrust
Aquaculture and Maritime Policy
Archeology
Arms Control and Disarmament
Arms Sales and Trafficking
Artificial Intelligence
Arts
Automobiles
Baby Boomers
Banking
Bilingual Education and ESL
Birth Control
Campaign Finance
Canada
Cancer
Caribbean
Censorship
Census
Chain Stores
Challenges of the Courts
Cheating and Ethics in Schools
Child Abuse
Child Care
Child Labor
China
Christianity
Civil Liberties in Wartime
Coal Industry
Coastlines
College Financing
College Sports
Colleges and Universities
Computers
Consumer Protection
Copyright and Patents
Corporate Salaries
Cosmetics and Fashion
Cost of Living and Wages
Credit and Consumer Debt
Crime
Criminal Sentencing
Cuba
Death Penalty
Defense Spending
Democracy
Disabled Persons
Disasters and Preparedness
Disease
Diversity
Doctors
Drug Abuse and Trafficking
Education and Funding
Education and Gender
Education Issues
Education Standards and Testing
Elections
Electoral College
Energy
Environmental Protection
Ethics in Government
Ethics in War
European Unification
Evolution, Science, and Creationism
Executive Powers and the Presidency
Farm Labor
Farm Loans and Subsidies
Farm Policy
Federal Budget and National Debt
Federal Judiciary
Federal/State Government Relations
Food Safety
Foreign Aid
Gambling and Lotteries
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Individuals
Genetics and Cloning
Gifted Education and Tracking
Government Secrecy
Gun Control and the Second Amendment
Health Insurance
Highways and Roads
Hispanics
Historic Preservation
Holocaust and Antisemitism
Hospitals
Housing
Human Rights
Illiteracy
Immigration and Naturalization
India
Insurance Industry
Intelligence Agencies
Iran
Iraq
Islam
Israel, Palestine, and Middle East Peace
Japan
Jobs and Skills
Journalism, Newspapers, and the Media
Jury System
Juveniles and the Justice System
Korea
Labor Unions
Latin America
Law Enforcement
Lawyers
Learning Disabilities
Libraries
Lobbying and Special Interests
Marijuana
Marriage, Divorce, and Single Parents
Mass Transit
Medicaid and Medicare
Medical Malpractice
Mental Health
Military Draft
Millenium
Missile Defense
Morality and Values
Music
National Parks
Native Americans
NATO
Nuclear Power
Nutrition and Health
Occult
Oil and Gasoline Prices
Older Americans and Senior Citizens
Olympics
Organ Transplants
Organized Crime
Panama
Peace Corps, National Service, and Volunteerism
Pensions and Retirement
Pesticides
Pharmaceuticals
Philanthropy and Charities
Political Parties
Polling
Population
Poverty and Homelessness
Presidential Candidates and Campaigns
Prisons
Privacy
Privatization
Professional Sports
Property Rights
Protest Movements and Counter Culture
Public Housing
Public Utilities and Electricity
Publishing Industry
Puerto Rico
Racism and Hate
Radio
Railroads
Reapportionment, Redistricting, and Representation
Refugees and Asylum
Religion and Politics
Religion and Schools
Right to Die
Rural America
Russia and the Soviet Union
Science Policy
Segregation and Desegregation
Sex Education
Sex Offenders
Sexual Behavior
Smoking and the Tobacco Industry
Social Security
Space Exploration
State and Local Governments
Stock Market
Stress
Supreme Court
Taxation
Teaching
Teens and Alcohol
Telecommunications
Television
Term Limits
Terrorism
Tourism and Vacation
Traffic Congestion
Trash and Recycling
U.S. Dollar and Inflation
U.S. Military
UFO's
Underground Economy
Unemployment
United Kingdom
United Nations
United States and Foreign Trade
Upward Mobility
Urban Planning
Vaccines
Vietnam War
Violence in America
Violence in Schools
Voting Rights
Washington, DC
Water Pollution
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Welfare
Wildlife and Endangered Species
Women and Sports
Women and Work
Women's Health
Women's Rights
Workforce Protections
World Trade
World War II Reparations
Youths and Work

Peninsula College Library "Bestsellers"

2008-06-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

Image credit: El Ramon

Here is a list of the 15 titles with the highest circulation in the Peninsula College Library for the 2007-2008 academic year:

Telling true stories : a nonfiction writers' guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University / edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call.

Buffalo for the Broken Heart : restoring life to a Black Hills ranch / Dan O'Brien.

Bedford introduction to literature : reading, thinking, writing / [edited by] Michael Meyer.

Human physiology / Stuart Ira Fox.

Where I'm calling from : new and selected stories / Raymond Carver.

Baseball saved us / written by Ken Mochizuki ; illustrated by Dom Lee.

Make way for ducklings, by Robert McCloskey.

Fundamentals of nursing / Patricia A. Potter, Anne Griffin Perry.

Latin for people = Latina pro populo / Alexandri Humez, Nicholas Humez.

Precalculus, annotated instructor's edition : functions and graphs / Earl W. Swokowski, Jeffery A. Cole.

Pre-code Hollywood : sex, immorality, and insurrection in American cinema, 1930-1934 / Thomas Doherty.

Spunk & bite : a writer's guide to punchier, more engaging language & style / Arthur Plotnik.

Surviving schizophrenia : a manual for families, consumers, and providers / E. Fuller Torrey.

Hiroshima no pika / words and pictures by Toshi Maruki.

Puss in boots / Charles Perrault ; illustrated by Fred Marcellino ; translated by Malcolm Arthur.

University Channel Provides Access to Academic Thought

2008-05-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Image credit:
israfel67

The UChannel (also known as the University Channel) makes videos of academic lectures and events from all over the world available to the public. It is a place where academics can air their ideas and present research in a full-length, uncut format. Contributors with greater video production capabilities can submit original productions.

The UChannel presents ideas in a way commercial news or public affairs programming cannot. Because it is neither constrained by time nor dependent upon commercial feedback, the UChannel's video content can be broad and flexible enough to cover the full gamut of academic investigation.

UChannel is a project of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Library Tutorial Presentations Available

2008-05-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

Image credit:
Lukethelibrarian

The library is inaugurating a new page with library tutorials at http://faculty.pc.ctc.edu/davidk/Default.aspx. The tutorials are in PDF format.

Here is a list of the available tutorials:

ONLINE CATALOG (OPAC)

What Is An OPAC?
(and what does it do?)

OPAC-Search-Limiters
(using Quick Limiters and Set Limits Button)

OPAC-Advanced-Search
(truncation, Boolean, and field search)

ONLINE RESOURCES (Library databases)

A-to-Z e-Journal Index
(to 9,000 full-text e-journal subscriptions)

RESEARCH PROCESS

Forming a Research Question

SEARCH TACTICS

Finding Search Terms

Forming a Research Question

DOCUMENTATION

Zotero : Documenting Your Research

Biblio Snapshot of Sustainability Articles, 1986-2007

2008-04-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

Articles with “sustainability” in the article title.
Data source: WorldCat.org
Date of search: April 16, 2008

2007 ... 1282
2006 ... 1226
2005 ... 1063
2004 ... 1022
2003 ... 1009
2002 ... 854
2001 ... 721
2000 ... 721
1999 ... 689
1998 ... 591
1997 ... 508
1996 ... 452
1995 ... 378
1994 ... 242
1993 ... 121
1992 ... 45
1991 ... 20
1990 ... 13
1989 ... 6
1988 ... 2
1987 ... 2
1986 ... 1

Databases with Environmental Sciences Information in Peninsula College Library

2008-04-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

Image credit:
Beatriz Giraldo

The following databases are available through the "Online Resources" link on the Library home page:

Environment Complete
1,772,000 records from more than 1,500 domestic and international titles going back to the 1940s (including 1,094 active core titles). Full text for more than 600 journals, including many of the most used journals in the discipline, such as Environment (back to 1975), Ecologist, Conservation Biology, etc. Additionally, Environment Complete provides full text for more than 100 monographs. Some of the areas covered include:

Agriculture
Energy
Natural resources
Urban planning
Renewable energy sources
Geography
Marine & freshwater science
Social impacts
Environmental technology
Public policy
Environmental law
Ecosystem ecology
Pollution & waste management

Academic Search Premier
8,200 journals, magazines, newspapers, trade publications indexed. Of those 4,500 are journals, with full-text provided in HTML or PDF. Of those 3,700 are peer-reviewed. Of those 1,000 have PDF backfiles back to 1975. Some of the areas covered include:

Agriculture & Irrigation
Economics
Biological Sciences
Education
Environmental Studies
Electronics
Geography
Mathematics
Marine Sciences
Physics

ProQuest
3,000 journals, magazines, newspapers, trade publications indexed. Of those 850 are peer-reviewed. Backfiles vary, mostly from 1980s on.

Agriculture
Biology
Chemistry
Computers
Engineering
Physics

eLibrary
2,000 full-text publications, including magazines, newspapers, books, television/radio transcripts, maps, pictures, audio/visual clips, and educator-approved websites from Homework Central®

Experiments
Science Project Ideas
Featured Scientists
Mathematics
Life Sciences (Biology)
Health
Physical Sciences
Technology

Ebrary Academic Complete
30,000 E-Book titles from more than 220 of the worlds leading academic, STM (scientific, technical, medical), and professional publishers.

Earth Sciences
Physical Resources
Biosphere
Biological Resources
Environmental Management

GreenFILE
Scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. Abstracting and indexing for more than 600 titles, including comprehensive coverage for core titles. Total of 295,000 records with 4,600 full-text.

Global warming
Recycling
Alternate fuel sources
Biodiversity
Environmental Sciences
Ecosystems

CQ Researcher
Single-themed, 12,000-word reports, each providing an introductory overview; background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources.

Jobs Vs. Environment
Environmental Justice
Population & Environment
Climate Change
Regulating Pesticides
Air Pollution Conflict
Disappearing Species
Oil Spills
Energy & Environment
Electric Cars

McGraw-Hill’s Access Science Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Online
8,500 online articles, 110,000+ definitions, 15,000 illustrations and graphics, and bibliographies containing more than 28,000 literature citations, biographies of more than 2,000 well-known scientists from the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography®, and continuously updated, fully-searchable, media-rich content, terms, images & videos.

Environmental Science
Conservation
Animal Ecology
Ecolology, General
Ecosystem
Plant Ecology
Agriculture, Forestry & Soils
Mathematics
General Science & Tecnology
Physics

Oxford Reference
Fully-indexed, cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including detailed information from titles in the Oxford Companions Series.
175+ titles representing all subject areas. Here are a few titles of language and subject dictionaries:

The Oxford Companion to the Earth
A Dictionary of Ecology
A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation
Dictionary of Geography

PC Library Career Information Pathfinder Now Available

2008-04-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

Image credit: andyburnfield

There are many ways to locate career information at the PC Library. Career information can be found in circulating books (which may be checked out of the library), e-books (which can be read online), reference books (available for in-library use only), Internet Web sites, and magazine or newspaper articles in ProQuest, an electronic periodical index offering the full-text of local and national newspapers. Link to the pathfinder here: Career Information Pathfinder 2008

Library Provides Access to Washington State Newspapers

2008-03-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Photo credit, with some rights reserved through a Creative Commons license, "Dead Sea newspaper" by inju

Through the ProQuest database, with generous help from the Washington State Library, the Peninsula College Library provides access to eighteen (18) Washington State newspapers:

Columbian
Daily News; Longview, Wash.
Eastside Journal
Herald, The; Everett, Wash.
Journal of Business; Spokane
Mercer Island Reporter
News Tribune, The
Peninsula Daily News
Puget Sound Business Journal
Seattle Post - Intelligencer
Seattle Times
South County Journal
Spokesman Review
Sun, The; Bremerton, Wash.
Tri - City Herald
Valley Daily News
Wenatchee World
Yakima Herald - Republic

PC Library Presents at OPAEYC Conference

2008-03-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: Some rights reserved through a Creative Commons license by Travelin' Librarian

The Olympic Peninsula Association for the Education of Young Children (OPAEYC) held its 15th Annual Early Childhood Conference (co-sponsored by the Peninsula College Early Childhood Education Program). The theme of the conference was "Building for the Future."

The Peninsula College Library provided a "Mountain Workshop" titled, "Tactics and Tips to Find Quality ECE Resources." The 90-minute session was well-attended and covered "tried and true time-saving strategies to find and evaluate quality ECE information resources; differences between Web and database searching and tactics used in each; how to distinguish popular and scholarly sources; and how to evaluate any information source for quality."

Attendees received a handout on ECE resource links and performed a hands-on search exercise to find one popular and one scholarly source in order to identify and compare their features. The session contributed towards Stars Competency: Professionalism & Administration.

One interesting point of the presentation showed how the development of the early childhood education field from invisible college to national organization parallels the development of the early childhood education literature, based upon a quick and dirty bibliometric analysis of WorldCat holdings:

< 10 ..... 1800 to 1927 ..... (NANE 1929)
< 20 ..... 1928 to 1959 ..... (*OMEP 1948)
< 100 ..... 1963 to 1967 ..... (NAEYC 1964)
< 1000 ..... 1968 to 1988 ..... (**UNESCO 1981-89)
< 2000 ..... 1989 to 2007

From 1800 to 1927 there were an average of fewer than ten publications per year. From 1928 to 1959 the average number of annual publications was fewer than 20 titles per year, etc. The peak year, in terms of ECE publications, was 2000 with 2,434 publications. Data comes from a search of WorldCat.org on March 14, 2008.

*OMEP = World Organization for Early Childhood Education 1948 (Organisation Mondiale pour l’Education Préscolaire)
**UNESCO coined the term "Early Childhood Care and Education" in 1981.

CLAMS Meeting a Huge Success!

2008-03-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

Photo: noshowerfamily on Flickr

Peninsula College Library attended the CLAMS 2008 Spring Conference in Spokane, Washington. (CLAMS stands for College Librarians and Media Specialists of Washington State) The conference was well-attended and the presentations were excellent!

Here is a very brief summary (exceedingly brief):

The first presenter was Michael Porter, aka Libraryman, who discussed Gadgets in a most entertaining way. Gadgets discussed were both of a hardware and software nature. Here are a few:

Sling Media Box
Chumby
Bugbox
Vocera
Webjunction
Koha
Vudu
Apple TV
Creative Commons
Direct TV Sat-Go

Will Stuivenga from the Washington State Library gave a very informative presentation on the Washington State Catalog project. Launch of the new catalog is expected to be March 31, 2008 and Peninsula College Library is one of the 23 community and technical colleges involved in Phase One. One cool feature of the new catalog, which is not available on WorldCat.org, will be the ability to view local, regional and global resources through "regional scopes" or "type of library scopes" (including LVIS WA!)

There was a presentation of a ProQuest tutorial by Nancy Koffey of Spokane Community College and a presentation by Kitty Mackey of Clark College on Iris42 (the Iris42draft version can be seen at: http://libreeze.com/iris/index.shtml ) Iris is the Information & Research Instruction Suite. (42 is "for two-year colleges" and coincidentally Washington State was the 42nd state admitted to the union.)

All in all, every presentation was enjoyable, every presenter was delightful, and the CLAMS 2008 Spring Conference succeeded beyond all my expectations.

Brainstorming on Epistemological Pluralism

2008-03-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Source: Formless Mountain (by Steve Self) Credits: Ken Wilber, Don Beck.

Towards an Integral Curriculum for General Education:
A Brainstorm of Ideas for an Epistemologically Plural Curriculum

Recently at Peninsula College there has been some discussion of "whole education" and discussion of promoting and modeling "diversity" and "pluralism." The following are some thoughts on epistemological pluralism as related to the Peninsula College Mission.

The Peninsula College Mission states as a goal for students:

Peninsula College provides educational opportunities in the areas of academic transfer, professional/technical, basic skills, and continuing education. The College also contributes to the cultural and economic enrichment of Clallam and Jefferson Counties.

In the document, "50 Hours: A Core Curriculum for College Students" (1989), Lynne Cheney references the injunction to "Know thyself," which, I believe, is important to the definition of student success. Self-recognition permits self-value and reaching of one's potential.

Education means realizing the potential we have inside, to make manifest our capacity to know the world. The word “educate” comes from the Latin “educere” meaning “to bring out”. The task of educators is to provide learning opportunities to enable students to realize all dimensions of their being.

According to the perennial philosophy (Huxley, 1945) human beings have at least three dimensions: body, mind and spirit, what has traditionally been called the “great chain of being.” (Lovejoy, 1936). We have the potential to realize what each aspect of our being offers because each level of being has its own cognitive instrument appropriate to the data of its level. To use the terminology of St. Bonaventure, we investigate the sensorimotor world with the eye of flesh, the rational world with the eye of mind and the spiritual world with the eye of contemplation (Wilber, 1998). The sensorimotor world offers the exquisite beauty of natural data and the pleasure of physical movement and health. The rational world offers the enjoyment of thinking and learning, of reading and sharing the knowledge of an author we have never met. The spiritual world offers us the pure delight of a silent mind, the peace and sublime ecstasy that comes with being in harmony with the universe, and the wisdom that is the fruition of self-knowledge.

We realize our highest potential by knowing how to utilize each of our cognitive instruments to explore what each level of being offers. Realization of student potential mandates us to teach the means to explore and enjoy each aspect of being. In the sensorimotor world students learn to care for the ecology and care for their own bodies, thereby enjoying a pleasant environment and good health. In the rational world students analyze and resolve problems, learn and enjoy through reading, thereby experiencing the pleasures of the mind. In the spiritual world students discover silence and bliss, the hidden treasures of their own inner world.

The exploration of each level of being with the appropriate cognitive instrument is epistemological pluralism. Educators should promote epistemological pluralism to realize plenitude of being. We now offer the opportunity to develop the body and mind, but we do not offer spiritual science. We should integrate spiritual exploration into the curriculum, using the eye of contemplation. We need to include practical exercises for exploration of our inner world, to fulfill the injunction: "Know thyself."

Besides the satisfaction that comes from personal growth, epistemological pluralism results in increased tolerance and a broader integral vision, indispensable elements for the resolution of the global problems we face in the 21st century. To solve our problems we need more than just brain-power: we need intelligence infused with love. Love and compassion are the fruit of spiritual realization.

Our curriculum (although a bit Eurocentric) is doing a good job of addressing the physical and rational worlds. These curricular notes I offer try to be more inclusive, addressing the neglected spiritual world. What follows is a brainstorm of ideas that does not pretend to be exhaustive. This curriculum is not dogmatic or ideological, nor is it a “new age” curriculum. My intent is to present a more balanced approach that rescues traditional knowledge and is oriented toward the development of a rich spiritual life. I believe our curriculum should take advantage of the legacy of wealth that humanity has left us from centuries of experimentation in the spiritual world. I include the Judeo-Christian tradition as well as other non-Christian sources of inspiration.

An integral, pluralistic curriculum directed toward development of the whole being, including the spiritual level, might include the following:

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
• Teaching of sports that can be practiced all your life, instead of sports like softball that are not played all your life and are only played after long periods of inactivity.

• Movement education where students explore the movement processes involved in throwing, stretching, jumping and running with the focus on the joy of movement.

• Centering activities that utilize fantasy, relaxation, active meditation and body awareness. For example, the active meditations of Osho, or traditional movement meditations like Tai Chi, plus martial arts like Aikido, or the stretching of Hatha Yoga.

THE SCIENCES (biology, chemistry, physics)
• Research activities to teach the scientific method inside and outside the laboratory.

MATHEMATICS
• All kinds of mathematics including logic and the study of the lives of famous mathematicians.

ART
• Presentation of art of the soul that serves as a support for contemplation, for example the traditional Tibetan “thangka”, painting that represents the potential we have in the spiritual world. Art that brings transcendence.

MUSIC
• Study of the different musical traditions that support the eye of contemplation, the history of transpersonal music, sacred sound, divine singing in various religious traditions, for example the “zikr” of the Sufis.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES
• Every student should become functionally bilingual through the study of at least one language other than English. Learning other languages provides a window into other cultures, facilitating communication with, and learning from, other another culture.

LITERATURE
Should include works from western and eastern traditions related to mystical experience. The curriculum already includes western titles and titles from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Titles from other traditions could be added. For example, here are some titles from the orient:

• CHINA: The Book of Changes, Chang Tzu, Tao Te King.

• INDIA: Hymns of the Rig Veda, Dhammapada, Vedanta Sutras, Patanjali Sutras, Osho, Bhagavad Gita, biographies of Indian mystics.

• JAPAN: Haiku Poetry, Basho, Zen literature, etc.

• ISLAM: The Koran, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi, and many more!

Study of works from the "Eastern canon" (Sardar, 2004) including, for example, these 20 books:

The Conference of the Birds / Farid ud-Din Attar (1177)
India / Al-Beruni (c. 1030)
The Analects / Confucius (c. 400 BCE)
An Autobiography / Mohandas Gandhi (1927)
Deliverance from Error / Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (c. 1100)
The Secrets of the Self / Muhammad Iqbal (1915)
The Tale of the Heike / Kakuichi (1371)
The Recognition of Sakuntala (c. 300?)
An Introduction to History / Ibn Khaldun (1377)
The Dao De Jing / Lao Tzu (c. 400 BCE)
The Lotus Sutra (290)
The Mahabharata (400? BCE)
The Book of Mencius / Mencius (c. 330 BCE)
The Tale of Genji / Murasaki Shikibu (c. 1000)
The Masnavi / Jalaluddin Rumi (c. 1250)
The Incoherence of the Incoherence / Ibn Rushd (c. 1150)
The Pillow Book / Sei Shonagon (c. 966)
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (850)
The Upanishads (1600? BCE)
Essays in Idleness / Yoshida Kenko (c. 1300)

PHILOSOPHY
Study of the perennial philosophy, The Great Chain of Being, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Rene Guenon, Fritjof Shuon, Nicholas Berdyaev, Michael Murphy, Roger Walsh, Seyyed Nasr, Lex Hixon, Kant, Paul Davies, Plotinus, Aurobindo, Plato, Padmasambhava, Lady Tsogyal, Osho, Asanga, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Shankara, Chih-I, C.G. Jung, Ken Wilber and many more.

HISTORY
Too often the study of Western civilization assumes it has been responsible for its own development and does not acknowledge its debt to previous Eastern and Islamic civilizations, for example, printing (China, 1040), movable-type press (Korea, 1403), liberal humanism and institutions of higher learning (from the Muslim world), the industrial revolution (which began in China), etc. We need to include contributions and recognize influences from other parts of the world: Russia, Turkey, Scandanavia, as well as Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania, departing from the dominant view (from Toynbee to Huntington) that civilizations are internally coherent and self-enclosed entities. Books that challenge the traditional story of Europe should be studied, for example, Kenneth Pomeranz's The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy; J. M. Hobson's The Eastern Origin of Civilisation, and C. A. Bayly's The Birth of the Modern World. (Haberman & Shubert, 2005).

RELIGION
Study of the beliefs and history of Christianity, the life of Jesus, Christian saints and mystics like Thomas Merton, Saint Teresa de Avila, Jacob Boehme, Meister Eckhart, Brother Lawrence, Julian de Norwich, Catherine of Siena, San Agustine, Origen, Hildegaard, Saint Francis of Asis, Juan de la Cruz and many more.

Study of other religious traditions and philosophers such as Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Hasidim, Kabbalah, Vedas, Shankara, Ramana Maharishi, Osho, Plato, Plotinus, Vedanta, meditative Taoism, Neo-Confucianism, Sufi meditation, Zen Buddhism, al-Hallaj, Gautama Buddha, Rumi, Bal Shem Tov, Ken Wilber, and many more.

Practice of direct spiritual experience through Christian contemplation, Tai Chi, active meditations of Osho, martial arts, the 112 traditional Hindu meditations, divine singing from various traditions, sacred sounds, transpersonal dance, breathing, yoga, etc.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Pre-modern, modern and post-modern movements and their cultural implications for social and cultural development. The study of political leaders who showed a mystical consciousness, such as Mahatma Gandhi or Ashoka (265 - 238 BCE). If a significant number of persons reach levels of personal development higher than the norm in the society, how would that affect the democratic institutions, educational policies, our economies? How would it affect the practice of medicine, law, government, politics?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHENEY, LYNNE V. 50 Hours: A Core Curriculum for College Students. Washington, D.C. : National Endowment for the Humanities

HABERMAN, ARTHUR & SHUBERT, ADRIAN. The Teaching of European History: The Next Task. American Historical Association Perspectives, October 2005.

HOBSON, JOHN. Eastern Origins of Western Civilization. London: Cambridge, 2004.

John Hobson challenges the ethnocentric bias of mainstream accounts of the Rise of the West. It is often assumed that since Ancient Greek times Europeans have pioneered their own development, and that the East has been a passive by-stander in the story of progressive world history. Hobson argues that there were two processes that enabled the Rise of the ‘Oriental West’. First, each major developmental turning point in Europe was informed in large part by the assimilation of Eastern inventions (e.g. ideas, technologies and institutions) which diffused from the more advanced East across the Eastern-led global economy between 500–1800. Second, the construction of European identity after 1453 led to imperialism, through which Europeans appropriated many Eastern resources (land, labour and markets). Hobson’s book thus propels the hitherto marginalised Eastern peoples to the forefront of the story of progress in world history.
 • Provides a fresh non-racist account of the Rise of the West
 • Rethinks the essential categories, concepts and assumptions of world history
 • This is the first book to explore the role of identity in world historical development
http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521547245

HUXLEY, ALDOUS. The Perennial Philosophy. 2nd ed. New York: Harper, 1945.

LOVEJOY, ARTHUR. The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936.

SARDAR, ZIAUDDIN. Written Out of History. New Statesman, Nov. 8, 2004.

WILBER, KEN. The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion. New York: Random House, 1998.

Sustainability : A Bibliography of Books and e-Books in the Peninsula College Library

2008-02-07T15:31:00.000-08:00

The three fingers are the sustainability symbol (photo by dragonpreneur) representing Society, Environment, and Economy.

Peninsula College is embarking on a campaign for environmental sustainability that will both teach and model value for the natural environment. This bibliography is to help identify best practices in higher education, through identifying resources related to sustainability in the Peninsula College Library.

The Sustainability bibliography is limited to monographic works (both print and electronic books) which have been published in the 21st century and are available in the Peninsula College Library collection.

Note that access to electronic books is only available remotely to students (and staff) of Peninsula College. On-campus access is available to non-students.

What is Research? (a 3-minute tutorial)

2008-01-23T14:57:00.000-08:00

“What is Research?” , a 3-minute tutorial by William Badke, presents a model for viewing research as a problem-solving task.

Here are a couple of quotes from the tutorial:

“A great deal of what passes for student research these days is just a process of gathering data, synthesizing it, and reporting what you have found….

The goal of research is not to compile and report on information but to use information as a tool to solve a problem or deal with an issue.”

This three-minute tutorial may help viewers better understand research.

(The tutorial is housed at a trustworthy site at the University of Calgary and can be opened without fear of viruses.)

"What is Research?"

Early Childhood Education Research Guide Available

2008-01-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

...and a little love goes a long, long way in an early childhood setting.
--Photo from Children At Risk Foundation – CARF (www.carfweb.net)

The Early Childhood Education Research Guide includes selected Peninsula College Library reference books, a section on controlled vocabularies (LCSH and ERIC), and links to library catalogs and indexes.

Employers Value Research Skills Promoted by Information Competency Instruction

2008-01-23T10:33:00.000-08:00

Information Literacy has often been characterized as "learning how to learn". The goal is to promote independent learners capable of self-direction who can navigate through the seas of information to fish out (find and evaluate) relevant information from the global knowledge ocean in order to solve a problem or deal with an issue.

For example, most scholarly sources are copyrighted. They are not available in full-text on the "free Web" using a search engine. Most scholarly materials are only available in and through libraries, in the print and electronic resources libraries contain. Students need to know how to find scholarly sources, sources which have been evaluated for quality, such as journal articles and monographs.

A new survey of 301 employers, How Should Colleges Assess And Improve Student Learning? (dated Jan. 9, 2008, released Jan. 22, 2008) was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The survey found that, of 10 skills desired by employers, only 23% of new graduates were "very well prepared" with respect to "Self-direction" and only 18% were "very well prepared" with respect to "Global knowledge". (p. 3)

Complex projects requiring information competency, such as writing research papers or maintaining electronic portfolios, are forms of authentic assessment valued by a majority of the employers. Only 5% of the employers ranked multiple choice tests as an effective means of assessment.

The only assessment that receives low scores from the majority of employers is the idea of requiring college students to complete multiple-choice tests of general content knowledge.

These findings affirm the importance of including authentic assessment in college education, through projects which require information competency. Research, which information competency skills facilitate, is a complex process of planning, finding quality sources, reading, thinking, and writing. Writing research papers is one form of authentic assessment of student learning. Research papers are a way to both promote and assess the student information competency skills which employers value.

The survey of employers was conducted between November 8 and Dec. 12, 2007 and has a margin of error of +/- 5.7 percentage points.

Report on "Google Generation" Confirms Computer Literacy Is Not Information Literacy

2008-01-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

The report, Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future, dated 11 January 2008, was commissioned by the British Library.

The findings confirm what OCLC found in June 2002 in its OCLC White Paper on the Information Habits of College Students about the "Google Generation" (those born after 1993). Students think of libraries as places for books and are not familiar with, nor competent in the use of, library digital resources.

Students start their search on the Web, but the amount of time spent viewing e-books and e-journal articles (four and eight minutes, respectively) indicates they are not evaluating or even reading what they find. As the report states: "It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense." (p. 10)

Each finding in the study is accompanied by a confidence level rating. For example, in the section on myths related to the Google Generation we find this myth:

They prefer quick information in the form of easily digested chunks, rather than full-text.

Our verdict: This is a myth. CIBER deep log studies show that, from undergraduates to professors, people exhibit a strong tendency towards shallow, horizontal, "flicking" behaviour in digital libraries. Power browsing and viewing appear to be the norm for all. The popularity of abstacts among older researchers rather gives the game away. Society is dumbing down.

Confidence level: high. (p. 19)

N.B. The Library does still have books (both in print and electronic formats). However, they cannot be read in four, or even eight, minutes.

It is 2008. Do you know where our library is?

2008-01-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

On January 15, 2008 the library staff was given a tour of the new library under construction. The tour began in the area between the library and building A, where there will eventually be a sidewalk. Along the sidewalk there will be rain gardens to collect site water runoff. Both surface runoff and roof/downspout water will be slowed by the rain gardens to slow the rate at which water enters the city's system.

Inside the library we were able to see under the access floor. Air delivery from the mechanical room below the library will come heated from the geothermal system and be delivered through the access floor. There will be inherent cooling from the geothermal system, as well as heating, dependent on need -- much the way a heat pump system works in residential buildings.

The access floor will allow facilitate a kind of plug-n-play since the cabling under the access floor can be rerouted depending on need above floor level.

Spaces within the library are now discernible, although some spaces were only demarcated by a 2x4 on the access floor. It is easier now to visualize where the photocopy area, circulation desk, offices, library classroom, periodical reading area, etc. will be located.

The views from inside continue to be spectacular! The day was clear and we could see across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Canada.

The projected completion date is July 2008.

Peninsula College Library 2.0 Meets Web 2.0

2007-12-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

Peninsula College Library recently attended the Quarterly Library Instruction Roundtable, sponsored by the University of Washington Instruction & Information Literacy Working Group. The meeting took place Dec. 10, 2007 in the Allen Auditorium of the University of Washington Suzzallo Library. This is a brief first-hand report.

There were about 20 librarians in attendance. The meeting began with the presentation of three demonstrations. 1) screen casting of both product and concept tutorials, 2) a video of a library catalog concept tutorial, and 3) services for remote and online users.

SCREEN CASTING DEMONSTRATION
The product tutorials are point-of-use tutorials on subjects like “How to Use PubMed.” They can be linked to through a “Help” or “How To” tab on the library home page. Although these may duplicate vendor tutorials, they are customized with local features like “connecting to full text.”

Parts of concept tutorials, were presented. Concept tutorials include aids such as “Known Citation Searching,” “Finding Measurement Tools,” “Legal Research,” “Finding Drug Information,” etc. which are focused on a process involving the use of several different products.

VIDEO DEMONSTRATION
UW received a 21st Century Grant to buy video making equipment and they are using it to address conceptual problems, such as “What is a catalog?,” a video they produced using a 40’s/50’s style reminiscent of government training films, to add an element of humor.

SERVICES TO REMOTE AND ONLINE USERS
This presentation looked at library use of Web 2.0 and asked the questions: “Do librarians fit well in social networking? Do students want us there?” Instead of creating YouTube videos, FaceBook pages, blogs, wikis, etc. to attempt overt or covert library instruction, the suggestion was to involve students in active learning, for example the creation of movies on research skills.

SUMMARY OF SOME DISCUSSION POINTS

INTEGRATION
One especially relevant criticism voiced early in the discussion: This all seems piecemeal. There is no integration. There is no structure. We can only go so far marketing products with adlib stuff without a context. Knowing when and why to use a tool (or a library!) is as important as knowing how.

ASSESSMENT
How do you know students are using something? Are site meters and Google Analytics really providing us with significant feedback? To be effective, assessment should be embedded in courses where feedback mechanisms can be built in, such as student journaling of how they feel about IL (information literacy) components, whether learning styles are being addressed, etc. Discipline faculty can provide feedback to library faculty.

MISCELLANEOUS
Librarians can provide tools, organize the tools (indicating which are beginning level, which are useful for a certain problem, etc.), but… (and I quote)…: “The 50 minute library lecture is dead.”

There was some discussion of using course management systems, such as Moodle, to create a rich IL environment which includes videos, text, quizzes, chat rooms, etc. for distance learners.

Conclusory Note:
This meeting confirmed that Peninsula College is addressing the same issues that educational institutions in the I-5 corridor are addressing, with the same level of success. The Peninsula College Library is already Web 2.0-enabled with YouTube, MySpace, and Google blog presence and will soon (July 2008) have a new library instruction classroom to promote active learning using electronic and print resources.

New Library Periodical Reading Area

2007-11-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here are the views from the outside and inside of the Library Periodicals Reading Area in the process of construction. The view from inside the Periodicals Reading Area looks out towards Canada across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Opening of the new Library is scheduled for June 2008.

HIV and Dental Care Bibliography

2007-10-31T09:08:00.000-07:00

HIV and Dental Care Bibliography contains citations for selected journal articles published in the ten year period from 1997 to 2006. The entries are arranged in reverse chronological order and come from Stanford's Highwire Press database at: http://highwire.stanford.edu The full-text of all the articles is available free of charge from Highwire.

Other open access archives with dental journals, such as PubMedCentral (PMC) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), are also listed.

What Can An Excellent Library Do For Student Learning?

2007-10-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

What Can An Excellent Library Do For Student Learning? notes key research findings from the DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practice) Project and NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) research.

Some ways to promote academic challenge and greater student engagement are also noted. Critical terminology relating to the Peninsula College Library Mission statement is defined (definitions are from ODLIS-Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science), and the Library mission is compared to that of museums and archives, in light of Ranganathan's Fifth Law of Library Science: "A Library is a growing organism."

Olympic Peninsula Local Research in the Peninsula College Library

2007-10-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

The Olympic Peninsula Local Research guide focuses on Clallam and Jefferson Counties and points to Web indexes, public libraries, and local government sources in the region. The guide suggests starting with the development of a search vocabulary which can be used to search catalogs and indexes.

Guide to Fisheries Resources in the Peninsula College Library

2007-10-22T14:37:00.001-07:00

The Fisheries Resources guide contains selected titles providing examples of several different publication formats related to fisheries: bibliography, biography, manuals, encyclopedias, writing style guides, databases which index fisheries journals, etc.

Library Publishes Elwha River Dam Selected Bibliography

2007-10-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Be patient as loading the link may take some time.
This bibliography on the Elwha River Dam removal does not pretend to be comprehensive or exhaustive. It includes selected citations to publications about the Elwha River. Scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles, government publications, books, popular magazine articles, unpublished works, theses, and audiovisual materials are included. A few works of history and poetry inspired by the Elwha River are included.

Web sites on the surface Web are mostly excluded, with a few local exceptions, such as the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Elwha River Restoration Project Web site and the Olympic National Park Elwha River Restoration Web site. Newspaper articles are also not included.

Libraries, Archives, Museums, Ranganathan, and Me

2007-10-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

Reading the book, Five Laws of Library Science (1931), by the father of Indian Library Science, S. R. Ranganathan, inspired me to become a librarian. Today, while thinking about the difference between libraries, museums, and archives, I recalled Ranganathan's Fifth Law of Library Science: A Library is a growing organism.

As we know, living organisms ingest, digest, and excrete. So do libraries. Acquisitions is ingestion, while information competency instruction is all about promoting good digestion. To remain responsive to curricular necessities a community college library is also constantly excreting, sanitarily called "deselection" (which used to be called "weeding"). Libraries are growing organisms.

Archives and museums ingest and digest but are less prone to excretion. According to ODLIS, the Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science, archives are about preservation. Archives preserve noncurrent records, usually in a repository like the photo of the Toronto archives above, in this post, for "their permanent historical, informational, evidential, legal, administrative, or monetary value." Museums are about "the preservation and display of collections of physical artifacts and specimens."

Archives and museums are needed and useful cultural institutions, but their emphasis on permanent preservation, as opposed to the Library's instrumental preservation, indicates they are serving an important purpose, but one different from the Library. Archives are not about circulating their collections to the public, to take home to further learning. Museums are not systematically organized to meet the information needs of a specific user population, the way academic libraries are.

The Peninsula College Library mission indicates a purpose more focused on intellectual digestion of information to promote student learning: "To serve the information needs of the students, faculty, staff and community in an environment that nurtures learning and fosters freedom of intellectual activity."

2007-2008 LMC Faculty Handbook Now Available

2007-10-19T20:18:00.001-07:00

The 2007-2008 Library Media Center Faculty Handbook includes information on Information Competencies, Resource-Based Learning, Resource-Based Instruction, Electronic Database descriptions, and procedures related to collection development and circulation. An added bonus, absolutely free of charge, is the floor plan of the new Library which should be completed in June 2008.

Education Resources in the Peninsula College Library

2007-10-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

The Education Resources guide provides links to external public domain Web sources, such as the National Center for Educational Statistics, but also points to sources not available to PC students on the Web, such as the 3-volume Encyclopedia of American Education available in the Library Reference section.

Botany Resources in Peninsula College Library

2007-10-17T08:18:00.000-07:00

The new Botany Resources page includes sample titles related to botany in these formats:

ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND DICTIONARIES
BOTANY MANUALS AND GUIDES
E-JOURNALS

as well as links to these resources:

LIBRARY CATALOGS
PUBLIC LIBRARY RESOURCES
SELECTED WEBSITES
INTERLIBRARY LOAN REQUEST FORMS
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF INFORMATION
WRITING STYLEBOOKS
SOURCE DOCUMENTATION IN THE SCIENCES

NLM Adds "Citing Medicine" to NCBI Bookshelf

2007-10-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

In the 21st century, technological advances have created a whole new world of medical citations. To give authors, editors, medical librarians and others a guidebook for navigating that world, the National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce the publication of Citing Medicine: the NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, available free of charge on the NCBI Bookshelf.

Citing Medicine provides guidance for citing 26 types of published and unpublished material, ranging from print books and journal articles to blogs and wikis.
--from the NLM announcement of the 2nd edition, 2007.

Qualities of a Peninsula College Graduate

2007-10-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

The Peninsula College Graduate will:

· utilize the processes, knowledge and values of scholarship.

· apply and connect knowledge in order to think critically and creatively.

· demonstrate bilingual proficiency in social and academic contexts.

· exemplify positive personal values.

· demonstrate the moral conscience and social responsibility of a proactive citizen.

· interact with the world recognizing and respecting multiple perspectives.

October 2007

Chemical Dependency Research Guide Now Available

2007-10-11T10:27:00.000-07:00

The Chemical Dependency Research Guide provides broader, narrower, and related Library of Congress "Substance Abuse" search terms which can be used in searching the Online Catalog, WorldCat, and Library databases.

The Chemical Dependency Research Guide also lists a sample of 20 books (published between 2002 and 2007) in the Peninsula College Library collection and a selected list of full-text e-journals related to chemical dependency in Library databases.

Philosophy Resources in the Peninsula College Library

2007-10-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

Peninsula College Library has an ample collection of materials related to philosophy. The Philosophy Resources guide at http://pc.ctc.edu/biblio/PF/philosophy.htm includes the following:

SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES
ENCYCLOPEDIAS
DICTIONARIES
GREEK PHILOSOPHY BOOKS
PHILOSOPHY E-BOOKS (A sample of aesthetics titles)
PHILOSOPHY E-JOURNALS (A sample of e-journal titles)
LIBRARY CATALOGS
INTERLIBRARY LOAN REQUEST FORMS
ONLINE RESOURCES IN THE PENINSULA COLLEGE LIBRARY
PUBLIC LIBRARY RESOURCES
QUALITY SURFACE WEB INDEXES
CRITICAL EVALUATION OF INFORMATION
SOURCE DOCUMENTATION: MLA, APA, AND CSE

BAS Applied Management Resource Guide Now Available

2007-09-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

The first Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Management students are now entering the new degree program (Fall 2007) and the Library has prepared for their arrival by acquiring print and electronic resources: books, encyclopedias, e-books, business databases, etc. The Library has also prepared a BAS Applied Management Resource Guide to help students get started in their research.

The Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Management program at Peninsula College will enable students with AAS, AAS-T, AA-Transfer, and AS-Transfer degrees to combine their lower division technical or transfer preparation with upper division credits in business administration, resulting in a practical, application-oriented program. The BAS-Applied Management Program has been developed to meet the employment needs of the Olympic Peninsula.

The Library will do all it can to help students successfully complete their academic work.

Current Subscriptions to Nursing Journals (in Paper Copy) in the Periodicals Room

2007-09-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

While the Library has dozens of nursing journals available in electronic format in Library databases such as Academic Search Premier and ProQuest, this list is of the current print subscriptions to nursing journals. These journals are available for browsing in the Library Periodicals Room or for check-out for one week.

Journal Name & Holdings
American Journal of Critical Care 2000-
American Journal of Nursing 5 years+
Critical Care Nurse 5 years+
Journal of Emergency Nursing 1999-
Journal of Nursing Scholarship 2000-
Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing 2002-
Medsurg Nursing 2000-
Nursing Research 2003-
Reflections on Nursing Leadership 2000-

Updated Sept. 26, 2007

Research Guide to Music Resources in the Peninsula College Library

2007-09-25T16:26:00.000-07:00

During a visit of Dr. Crabb's music theory class to the library a student requested a Music Research Guide.

The new Music Research Guide is available at: http://pc.ctc.edu/biblio/PF/music.htm

New Peninsula College Library Construction On Schedule

2007-09-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

The new Peninsula College Library building is scheduled to be completed in June 2008. Library staff recently toured "inside" with the architect. The view toward the Strait of Juan de Fuca from the Periodical Reading Area should be spectacular!

Emergency Preparedness: An Opportunity for Quality Reading

2007-09-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

This week Peninsula College faculty and staff, in coordination with local police and fire officials, have had fruitful discussions about personal responsibility and preparation for events (such as earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.) which might lead to the Olympic Peninsula becoming isolated.

In the event of being stuck with time on our hands -- with no electricity, telephone, internet, or television -- we will have an excellent opportunity for reading by natural light.

In our emergency preparedness discussions we have cited Maslow's hierarchy of needs, from physiological and safety needs up to self-actualization. Besides self-actualization Maslow also spoke of self-transcendence, and its general availability (see Maslow quote below). The canonic and classical spiritual literature can assist us in preparation for self-transcendence.

In addition to food, water, flashlights, medical supplies, etc., I would suggest we carefully choose some literature, from both the Eastern and Western spiritual classics. In our emergency preparedness efforts each of us may select different book titles: those we consider of most importance (actual or potential) for our own spiritual well-being.

Here are a few titles from my list:

EASTERN CLASSICS
The Conference of the Birds / Farid ud-Din Attar (1177)
The Analects / Confucius (c. 400 BCE)
The Dao De Jing / Lao Tzu (c. 400 BCE)
The Lotus Sutra (290)
The Mahabharata (400? BCE)
The Book of Mencius / Mencius (c. 330 BCE)
The Masnavi / Jalaluddin Rumi (c. 1250)
The Upanishads (1600? BCE)
etc.

WESTERN CLASSICS
The Little Flowers / St. Francis of Assisi
Interior Castle / St. Teresa of Avila
Dark Night of the Soul / St. John of the Cross
Imitation of Christ / Thomas a Kempis
The Practice of the Presence of God / Brother Lawrence
Revelations of Divine Love / Julian
The Journal of John Woolman / John Woolman
etc.

MASLOW ON SELF-TRANSCENDENCE
“I have recently found it more and more useful to differentiate between two kinds of self-actualizing people, those who were clearly healthy, but with little or no experiences of transcendence, and those in whom transcendent experiencing was important and even central… It is unfortunate that I can no longer be theoretically neat at this level. I find not only self-actualizing persons who transcend, but also non-healthy people, non-self-actualizers who have important transcendent experiences. It seems to me that I have found some degree of transcendence in many people other than self-actualizing ones as I have defined this term…” --- MASLOW, A. H. (1971). The farther reaches of human nature. New York, Viking Press.

Online Resources (Library Databases) Now Arranged by Broad Subject Categories

2007-09-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Peninsula College Library databases (also called "deep Web" subscription databases) are now arranged on the Online Resources page by broad subject categories, with the interdisciplinary databases at the top of the list:

ALL DISCIPLINES Peninsula College Library Catalog
ALL DISCIPLINES A-to-Z Index to Electronic Journals
ALL DISCIPLINES Academic Search Premier
ALL DISCIPLINES Ebrary Academic Complete
ALL DISCIPLINES ProQuest
ALL DISCIPLINES Reference Premium Online (Oxford)
BUSINESS ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry
BUSINESS Business & Management E-Book Collection
BUSINESS Small Business Resource Center
EDUCATION eLibrary
EDUCATION Teacher Reference Center
HISTORY History Resource Center: U.S.
HISTORY History Resource Center: World
INFORMATION STUDIES Library, Information Science, & Technology Abstracts
LITERATURE Literary Databases
LITERATURE Literary Index
LITERATURE Magill on Literature
NEWS Alt-Press Watch
NEWS Ethnic News Watch
NEWS New York Times
NEWS Wall Street Journal
SCIENCE Access Science
SCIENCE Environment Complete
SOCIAL SCIENCE CQ Researcher

Dental Hygiene Resources Available through the Peninsula College Library

2007-09-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

A pathfinder to the Dental Hygiene collection in the Peninsula College Library is available at http://pc.ctc.edu/biblio/PF/DentalHygiene200710.htm
detailing books, print journal subscriptions, Library deep Web database subscriptions, e-journals, reserve materials, Web-based indexing and abstracting services, and open access full-text archives related to dental hygiene.

1-Minute Tutorial on Finding the 9,000+ E-journals in the Peninsula College Library

2007-08-11T01:25:00.000-07:00

Peninsula College Library has over 9,000 full-text E-journals available via the Web for students, staff, and faculty. These titles are searchable by title and by academic subject area in a database called A-to-Z Index to E-Journals.

To view a one-minute tutorial on how to access the E-Journal index (starting from the College home page), click this link: A-to-Z Index to Electronic Journals.

hakia.com is a new semantic search engine

2007-08-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

From the hakia.com website:
hakia is focused on delivering core benefits to provide search efficiency, richness of information, and time savings. Here are some of the important "distinguishing" factors of hakia.

GALLERIES:
For short queries such as cancer or Winston Churchill, hakia presents search results in a categorized format to provide meaningful variations of the subject. Each gallery has 10 categories on the average, that is equal to running 10 queries in conventional search engines.

RELEVANCY:
Although the development is in progress, hakia already shows superior capability to handle long-tail (complex) queries via its semantic capabilities. Try what is Palladium useful for? Popularity based search engines may bring results like the London Palladium to this query.

RICHNESS:
Although the development is in progress, hakia is able to bring search results of the equivalent meanings of the search terms. For example, what is the latest bill George Bush killed in the senate will bring results including the word VETO, which is the correct interpretation of the search term "kill". This capability continues to improve in parallel with hakia's progress.

FRESHNESS:
Dynamic pages, like news, often create problems for the popularity based search engines, because there is never enough time to collect statistics. With its semantic capabilities, hakia can analyze and retrieve search results from dynamic pages without a compromise.

HIGHLIGHTING:
For complex and longer queries, hakia highlights relevant phrases or sentences that best correspond to the meaning match of your query. Try Why did Enron collapse? You do not have to open the documents to see the quality of the results - a key to saving your time!

COMPLETE TEXT:
hakia often displays uninterrupted sections of Web pages in search results that provide a full point of view of the content. Presenting complete snippets enables you to evaluate the search results instantly and saves you significant search time.

DIALOGUE:
hakia points out good answers in a dialogue mode in addition to making suggestions, correcting spelling errors, and listing related hakia Galleries. This hakia capability continues to evolve. Try What is the most common type of volcano?

PRIVACY FRIENDLY:
hakia has no interest in who you are and where you live. Neither our technology nor our business model relies on this information. Thus, hakia is not engaged in any practice that may compromise your privacy.

Advice for Students: 10 Steps Toward Better Research

2007-08-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

To read the annotations for each step, click on the link below to the original at lifehack.org by author Dustin Wax. Here I just provide the steps.

Advice for Students: 10 Steps Toward Better Research

Schedule!
Start, don’t end, with Wikipedia.
Mine bibliographies.
Have a research question in mind.
Deal with one piece at a time.
Use a system.
Know your resources.
Ask for help.
Carry an idea book.
Bring it up to date.

Remember, though, that until a few years ago, most of us managed to do research with no Internet at all! With typewriters! Walking uphill! In the snow! Barefoot!

Slouching Toward the Mashup

2007-07-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

Worth reading. (with apologies to Joan Didion)

Lamb, Brian. (2007, July/August.) Dr. Mashup or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix. EDUCAUSE Review 42(4): 13-24.

According to the article a short mashed-up audio complement to this article can be downloaded (along with most of the track’s sources).

Biblio-Bit: "When choosing a content management system, we might consider how well it supports RSS syndication."

The Library and the Internet: Ten Good Reasons to Use the Library

2007-07-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

(adapted by Lake Land College Library from Mark Herring's 10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library, which originally appeared in American Libraries, April 2001, p. 76–78.)

So you have to write a paper on the pros and cons of widgits vs. watchamasqueezers. You've always just gone on the web and used Google to find information before. Why should you bother using library resources? Here are ten good reasons why:

1. Not everything is on the Internet.
There is a lot of useful information out there on the web. Unfortunately, this often leads to the misconception that everything you need to know can be found online. This simply isn't true. There are tons of published materials (books, articles, videos, music, etc) that you won't find using a standard search engine like Google or Yahoo. And even when you do find them, your access may be limited (see #2 below.)

2. Not everything on the Internet is free.
Much of the web consists of subscription services that make you pay if you want to get into their website or download their stuff. Before you go and spend your hard-earned money on these services, check out the library's website. We've already paid for many of these services so you don't have to.

3. The Internet is not very organized.
How many times have you searched for something on the web and got a list of 1.5 million web pages? How are you supposed to make sense of that? Does searching the web feel like looking for a needle in a haystack? Well, library resources, unlike the web, are organized by topic and broken down into different types of information (books, articles, databases, etc.) Library resources have been organized by real people, not by search engine robots.

4. There is no quality control on the Internet.
The internet is full of lies, misconceptions, and half-truths. Almost anyone with a computer can put up a website, and they don't have to know what they're talking about. Some sites will deliberately mislead you, in order to get your money, change your opinion on a controversial issue, or just to pull your leg. Hoax sites are all over the place, and they often look real. Did you see the one about the first human male pregnancy? Not real. Library resources, on the other hand, have mostly been through editors and fact-checkers who make sure you're getting (relatively) reliable information.

5. Sources on the Internet can be harder to verify.
When you write a paper, it's important to cite your sources. Some web pages make it difficult to figure out who's telling you what and where they got their information. Library resources, even those on our online databases, will tell you exactly where the information came from.

6. The Internet is too new for some things.
Are you looking for news stories from the day your were born? How about speeches from World War I? The web is relatively new, and most sources of information over 10 - 15 years old have not been digitized or placed on the web. If you're looking for information on older events, you'll have better luck checking out the library's resources.

7. Library online resources are available 24/7.
There's more to the library than books these days. Library online databases can be accessed 24/7 through the library's website. Although you access these databases through the internet, they are not internet sources. They are every bit a part of our library's collection as the books on our shelf. The articles you find in our online databases are reprinted from real live print sources.

8. The Internet is a mile wide and an inch deep.
So you've found 40 websites on widgets, but they all give you the same four or five facts without very much detail. How do you stretch that out to a five-page paper? For a varied and more in-depth analysis of widgets and widgetology, try some of the library's books or article databases.

9. You're already paying for the library.
Your tuition and fees help pay for library resources. Why not get your money's worth?

10. Real live people can help you use our library.
Nice, eager, friendly, highly-trained librarians are standing by, waiting to help you find the information you're looking for. Don't spend hours in vain looking for information on the web. Take advantage of our services to point you in the right direction.

CUFTS Journal Search and Resource Comparison Tools

2007-07-30T20:22:00.000-07:00

CUFTS Journal Search allows you to quickly find journal titles in over 245 different electronic collections listed in CUFTS. Search by journal title or ISSN to find out which collections include a journal, and what coverage dates are available.

CUFTS Resource Comparison provides rapid analysis of journal titles and coverage dates in over 245 different electronic collections listed in CUFTS. Pick two resources and find out what the overlap is and what titles are unique to each resource.

New Study on Student Internet Citation Confirms Link Rot

2007-07-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

I have just read an interesting article: HOVDE, K. (2007). You Can't Get There from Here: Student Citations in an Ephemeral Electronic Environment. College & Research Libraries. 68, 312-321.

The article is available in print, but is not available on the surface Web, or in our Library databases. As of today, the July 2007 issue of College & Research Libraries has not been indexed by our Library databases. But, as I say, the article is available in print, in the periodical room of the library. Think of all you miss (or have to wait for), if you just rely on Web-based information. Now, to the article.

Hovde did a study of 1,666 student citations to "Internet resources" from 529 freshman English composition papers. For a 1999 sample, seven months after submission of the papers only 38% of the links led to the document cited. For a 2004 sample only 45% of the links accessed the document. Seven years after the 1999 citations were submitted only 9% of the links were successful. Hovde writes: "...the Web is an unstable medium. The sine qua non of a paper's references is stability."

As such the surface Web is subverting the scholarly enterprise which depends upon providing proof of authority, and a "published trail of evidence" which can be verified.

Heaven help us if students start citing fluff from the blogosphere... or MySpace!

The 15 Most Circulated Peninsula College Library Book Titles, 2006-2007

2007-07-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

1. Cambridge ancient history. (12 volume set).

2. Capitalism and modern social theory : an analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber / Anthony Giddens.

3. Democracy and social ethics / Jane Addams ; edited by Anne Firor Scott.

4. Brendan Prairie / Dan O'Brien.

5. Fundamentals of anatomy and physiology / Frederic H. Martini

6. Graphical approach to precalculus / John Hornsby, Margaret L. Lial.

7. Karl Marx, 1818-1968.

8. Marx's concept of man / Erich Fromm

9. Political analysis : technique and practice / Louise G. White.

10. Third wave / by Alvin Toffler.

11. Theory of social and economic organization. Translated by A.M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons.

12. Sociology of Max Weber. / Julien Freund ; translated from the French by Mary Ilford.

13. Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. With a foreword by R. H. Tawney.

14. On social evolution : selected writings / Herbert Spencer ; edited and with an introd. by J. D. Y. Peel.

15. Karl Marx, his life and teachings (Leben und Lehre) / by Ferdinand Tonnies

MERLOT (for faculty to imbibe)

2007-07-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching is a leading edge, user-centered, searchable collection of peer reviewed, higher education, online learning materials created by registered members.
Faculty can browse peer-reviewed online learning materials by discipline and get assignments to use with students. Membership is free. Here is an example of the quality of resources available: DNA from the Beginning

References for College Papers

2007-07-27T17:38:00.000-07:00

References for College Papers is Steven Dutch's overview of what is and what is not acceptable to reference in college-level writing in his geology classes at the University of Wisconsin (for example, when "The Internet" is and is not an acceptable source).
How to let your Professors Know you are Familiar with College Writing

Start early to locate sources.

Cite scholarly references only.

Cite recent materials.

Use accepted referencing styles.

Quantcast: A Site for Business Students

2007-07-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Want to compare impact of two different Web sites? Or find out how much impact your business site has? Now you can get hard data via direct traffic measurement for over 20 million sites... for free!

Quantcast is the world's first open internet ratings service. Advertisers can find reports on the audiences of millions of web sites. Publishers can ensure their sites are represented accurately by tagging them for direct measurement. The service is free to everyone.

Critical Evaluation of Information Sources

2007-07-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Colleen Bell of the University of Oregon Libraries has created a useful Web page for Critical Evaluation of Information Sources. Provides questions to ask to determine authority, objectivity, quality, coverage, currency, and relevance, and provides suggestions for further reading. Links to additional sites on evaluating information sources appear at the bottom of her page.

New Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journals on Information Literacy

2007-07-25T23:01:00.000-07:00

Communications in Information Literacy (CIL) is an independent, professional, refereed electronic journal dedicated to advancing knowledge, theory, and research in the area of information literacy. The journal is committed to the principles of information literacy as set forth by the Association of College and Research Libraries. CIL is also committed to the principles of open access for academic research.

The Journal of Information Literacy (JIL) is an international, peer-reviewed, academic journal that aims to investigate Information Literacy (IL) within a wide range of settings and to make generalised observations on how Information Literacy impacts on organisations, systems and the individual.

Research 101 Designated June 2007 ACRL PRIMO Site of the Month

2007-07-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

Research 101 is an interactive online tutorial for students wanting an introduction to information research skills. The tutorial covers the basics, including how to select a topic and develop research questions, as well as how to select, search for, find, and evaluate information sources. The Research 101 tutorial, developed at University of Washington by John Holmes et al., was designated the "Site of the Month" (June 2007) by the Association of College and Research Libraries Instruction Section in their Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online Database (PRIMO).

Audio Archives and Podcasts from Lannan Foundation

2007-07-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

The Lannan Audio Archives contain audio files from the popular Readings & Conversations series and other public Lannan events from the past 16 years, as well as selections from the award-winning literary radio program “Bookworm” with Michael Silverblatt. Public Lannan events may belong to any of the program areas: Cultural Freedom, Indigenous Communities, Literary, Readings and Conversations, with authors such as Isabel Allende, Sandra Cisneros, Denise Chavez, Margaret Atwood, Noam Chomsky, and hundreds more. Requires free RealPlayer.

Port Angeles, Washington Events, Videos, and More

2007-07-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

The Port Angeles page of American Towns is an online tool that citizens, groups and merchants can use to build a better community. The mission of American Towns is to create a useful, shared and "open" webspace for the community, bringing people, places and events together like never before.

One-stop Searching of WorldWideScience Sources

2007-07-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

WorldWideScience.org is the prototype for a global science gateway connecting you to national and international scientific databases. WorldWideScience.org accelerates scientific discovery and progress by providing one-stop searching (see advanced search) of global science sources. Subsequent versions of WorldWideScience.org will make additional science information resources from many nations accessible via this portal. (from the Web site)

SciTalks: Smart People on Cool Topics

2007-07-18T17:26:00.000-07:00

SciTalks: Smart People on Cool Topics provides science, humanites, government and business videos in which academics explain their research.
We’re a society trained to sound-bites. Our critical thinking skills are eroding. Scientific thought is by its very nature complex and challenging to communicate to the general public. ...there is no one else who can better convey the necessity, drama and passion of their work than the scientists themselves. --Lee Vodra, June 9, 2007, Boston, in the welcome post of the SciTalks: Smart People on Cool Topics blog.

Library Has New Edition of CSE

2007-07-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

The Library has recently acquired SCIENTIFIC STYLE AND FORMAT: THE CSE MANUAL FOR AUTHORS, EDITORS, AND PUBLISHERS. (7th ed., 2006).

SCIENTIFIC STYLE AND FORMAT provides format for scientific papers, journal articles, books, and other forms of publication. This edition, which was previously published under the subtitle: THE CBE MANUAL (Council of Biology Editors), has been informed by authoritative international bodies with recommendations in keeping with the interdisciplinary approach to science.

Chapter 29 covers formatting of bibliographic references, both in-text (using the citation-name system) and end references. CSE end reference style is based upon the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation principles. NLM, in turn, bases its format upon standards from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

SCIENTIFIC STYLE AND FORMAT is located in the Library reference section.

Interactive Plagiarism Tutorial: You Quote It, You Note It!

2007-07-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

You Quote It, You Note It! is the first in a series of modules developed by librarians in the Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia University. Acadia librarians use these modules to teach basic research skills to students..." (Excerpted from the Tutorial Licensing page.)

Want to Take Stuff from the Web... Legally?

2007-07-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

Check out OER Commons which provides open educational resources for teaching and learning that are freely available on-line for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student, or self-learner.

Also check out this Web site, Creative Commons. Here is the description from their home page:

Share, reuse, and remix — legally.
Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."
We're a nonprofit organization. Everything we do — including the software we create — is free.

A Wikipedia Detective Story

2007-07-04T22:17:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia Brown matches wits with Bugs Meany in The Case of the Captured Koala!

Peninsula College Library Receives NWCCU Commendation

2007-07-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

The written report of a recent visit by an accreditation team from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) has arrived. Peninsula College Library received a commendation. Congratulations to all the good-natured library personnel... for continuing to provide services with a smile in these stressful times of reduced working space... while the new library is being built.

Using Social Networking for Academic Purposes

2007-07-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been surfing the Web and found sites for your research paper, but when you try to find them later, you can’t quite get back to that same site? If so, you might find it useful to use an academic version of social networking called Connotea. (Of course, you should also use Library deep Web databases as well!)

Connotea is a free online reference management service that allows you save links to all the useful articles, websites, and other online resources you find on the Web. Connotea is specifically designed for scientists and clinicians (it is sponsored by the Nature Publishing Group), but student scholars can use it, too. Because it is an academic social network you get “less noise, more signal,” i.e., better, more relevant recommendations.

There is nothing to download and nothing to learn. All you need to get started is an email address to use for registration. And, because it is Web-based, you will have access to all those sites you come across and later wonder, “Now where did I find that?”

Journalism Pathfinder Now Available

2007-07-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

The Journalism Library Research Guide lists resources owned by the Peninsula College Library and is organized into the following categories: Bibliographies, Biographies, Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, Handbooks, Manuals, Career Guides, Mass Media Journals and Newspapers (print subscriptions), Electronic Databases, Library Catalogs, and Source Documentation.

Examples of MLA Style Published by Library

2007-07-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

These MLA Citation Style Examples, representing both print and electronic sources, are based upon:
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.

Note: Peninsula College English Dept. practice italicizes source names.

Library Publishes Preliminary Jacqui Banaszynski Bibliography

2007-07-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

This Jacqui Banaszynski bibliography of articles by and about Jacqui Banaszynski is drawn from deep Web library databases and does not include Web sites freely available on the surface Web. Bibliographic databases searched on June 30, 2007 for this preliminary bibliography include: MLA Bibliography, Humanities Abstracts, Psychological Abstracts, WorldCat, ProQuest, Academic Search Premier, Newspaper Source, and InfoTrac OneFile.

Library Acquires Database to Support Environmental Studies

2007-07-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

The Library now has the EBSCO database, Environment Complete, which covers all aspects of environmental studies. Environment Complete offers full text of journal articles and monographs, and more than one million indexing records going back to the 1950s, in agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more.

How to See What New Materials Are in the Peninsula Library Collection

2007-07-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

Want to know what new books the Library has acquired? You can find out instantly through the Peninsula College Library catalog (this takes you to the "New Books" tab). Just click on “Search”… and a list of new Library books will be dynamically generated!

2007-07-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

News Flash! WorldCat.org Adds 35+ Million Article-Level Records!

2007-07-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

WorldCat.org now provides access to over 86 million unique titles from 9,000+ libraries, including newly added content: 35+ million citations to journal articles.

The database will tell you which nearby OCLC libraries have an item. You can also click on "Cite this Item" and have the citation formatted in the most popular bibliographic styles.

Library Acquires Digital Reference Collection from Oxford

2007-07-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

The Library has acquired the Reference Premium Online collection from Oxford University Press.
This reference collection contains 160+ dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including titles from the acclaimed Oxford Companions Series, plus the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. There is an especially strong humanities emphasis with multi-volume works on literature and Western history.

Library Supports New Bachelor of Applied Management Degree Program with Deep Web e-Resources

2007-07-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

Students, staff, and faculty of Peninsula College now have access to several new business databases:

ABI/Inform Trade & Industry
ABI/INFORM includes in-depth coverage of companies, products, executives, trends, and other topics for more than 1,210 publications, with over 1,160 in full-text, allowing study and comparison of specific trades and industries, including telecommunications, computing, transportation, construction, petrochemicals, and many others.

Business & Management e-Book Collection
NetLibrary provides access to the digital version of books, journals, and database content in the fields of Business, Management and Leadership. You can access this NetLibrary eContent 24 hours a days, seven days a week!

Small Business Resource Center
The Small Business Center provides information in all major areas of starting and operating a business including financing, management, marketing, human resources, franchising, accounting and taxes, including a "How To" menu that tackles the most-frequently asked new business questions. The SBRC also includes nearly 200 business journals -- both specialty/vertical market and general business.

Library Book Collection Size Doubles Overnight with Addition of New e-Books!

2007-07-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

The Library has acquired Ebrary Academic Complete, a full-text database of e-books covering all subject areas. Students, staff, and faculty may access the collection, which currently includes more than 30,000 titles from more than 220 of the worlds leading academic, STM (scientific, technical, medical), and professional publishers.

Over 9,000 e-Journals Now Available for Browsing through Library

2007-07-04T02:27:00.000-07:00

Peninsula College Library has over 9,000 e-journals. Students, staff, and faculty have access to full-text articles through the A-to-Z Index to Peninsula College Library e-Journals

Welcome to Peninsula College Library Biblio-Bits!

2007-07-04T02:19:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this blog is to share news about Peninsula College Library... a library on the move... soon (summer 2008) to move into our new library building... with a beautiful view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The Peninsula College Library is located online at: Peninsula College Library Media Center Home Page