CUL NEWSLETTER

Thank you to Maria Bellavance for the new placemats she made for the FLC Staff lounge.

Participants at last month's EndUser conference will be presenting information at a Brown Bag on Wednesday, May 11th 11:00am-1:00pm in room 100D. (CMIT Screening Room).  Bring your lunch.  Drinks and Dessert will be provided.

ACRL 12th National Conference, "Currents and Convergence: Navigating the Rivers of Change” Rebecca Graff, Selected Session Summaries

Opening Keynote Session

William Mitchell, professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences, academic head of Media Arts and Sciences and former dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT

"Libraries, Cities, & Networks" 

It used to be that space determined activities. For example, towns were formed around wells so that drinking water would be easy to access. Then pipes made it possible to bring water into the home. Similarly, until recently, there were specific, designated spaces for watching TV, listening to music, eating, working, etc. Now, primarily because of technological advances, there is a co-location of activities that are no longer bound by type of space. Thus, we should now think of intellectual adjacencies for activities rather than just physical space needs. 

The decentralization of information will continue to have a big impact of teaching and learning.

• Experts and novices don't need to be in the same room [physically in the classroom, intellectually in the library] to share information

• It used to be that when someone didn't know a piece of information s/he would ask someone familiar who might know. Now, people just go to Google.

• Social interaction doesn’t have to take place in person or one-to-one via distance

• Classrooms no longer have to be indoors. Wireless networks could allow outdoor learning areas.

 Beverly Lynch, UCLA; Catherine Murry-Rust, Colorado State University; Susan Parker, UCLA; Deborah Turner, University of Washington; Diane Walker, University of Virginia; Frances (Fran) Wilkinson, University of New Mexico; Julia Zimmerman, Ohio University

"The Centrality of the Library: Views of Presidents and Provosts"

 This documented the preliminary results of a six-university study conducted in 2003/4 by fellows in the UCLA Senior Fellows Program as a follow-up to Deborah Grimes' Academic Library Centrality : User Success Through Service, Access, And Tradition [owned by FLC]. In particular I found their discussion of who and what influences decisions about the library to be interesting. Campus decisions seemed to be influences by constituents' input, quantitative assessment, anecdotes, and library marketing.

 Tracy Gabridge, Nicole Hennig, Rebecca Lubas, & Sarah Wenzel Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"When a Librarian’s Not There to Ask: Creating an Information Resource Advisory Tool" 

• For each disciplinary area, have appropriate subheadings ex. Social Sciences - History - Data & Statistics

• Get copies of assignments and use them to design the tool

• Organize the information by user task, including finding known items

• Use CSS with Access & include metadata to design system

Alan Guskin, Director & Senior Scholar Project on the Future of Higher Education [www.pfhe.org/institute/guskin/]

"Strategic Directions: More than Muddling Through"

 Some assumptions for universities:

• Less money will be available

• Must focus on enhancing student learning

• Faculty must be satisfied

 Because librarians often are not faculty, it is easier for provosts to cut library budget rather than academic department funding 

The "business of higher education" will become more focused on student learning rather faculty productivity, even at research universities

 Organizational systems are usually designed to maintain the status quo; educational communities need to build coalitions and create culture. 

Katy Farrell & Marlo Young, UCSD

"Connecting with the Net Generation: Learning Styles and Technology" 

This excellent workshop covered: general demographic and specific cognitive characteristics of the "Net Generation" (Gen Y, Millennials); principles of learning and implications of teaching; and how to use technology to aid in this generation's learning process. 

PowerPoint: sshl.ucsd.edu/services/people/farrell/ACRLNetgen.pdf

Bibliography: sshl.ucsd.edu/services/people/farrell/ACRLbib.pdf

Get Started [tutorial based on extensive user testing): libraries.ucsd.edu/services/getstarted 

Adam Smith, Google product manager & John Price Wilkin, Associate University Librarian for Library Information Technology and Technical and Access Services at the University of Michigan

"Google Print & Google Scholar"

 Google's Mission: "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"

To this end, Google is trying to create access to offline content through digitization. They hope that they will not be the only ones engaging in this pursuit.

 For Google Print, there will be 3 types of user experiences:

1. Publisher provided (with 2 pages forward & back - 5 total)
2. Library provided from works in the public domain, copyright expired (full-text, unrestricted access, WorldCat link)
3. Still copyrighted (restricted search experience, but allows full-text searching & relevance ranking)

Closing Keynote Address

Sylvia Hurtado, Professor and Director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA in the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences

"Education Post 9/11"

 Key Points:

• Can't take learning for granted - our assumptions must be tested

• Diversity is linked with the central educational and public service mission of universities

• Harness the power of the peer group to create "empowered, informed, and responsible learners" (Quote from Association of American Colleges and Universities Greater Expectations: A New Vision For Learning As A Nation Goes To College)

 Ellen Langer's research shows that most people tend to be "cognitive misers" tending toward mindlessness, familiarity, and routine. Hurtado implores that we must disrupt familiarity.

 15% of students claim to sleep in class "frequently"

 "Disequilibrium" occurs when one encounters new, unfamiliar situations (Piaget)

The more that students are engaged, the more they are likely to produce a full range of cognitive, civic & long term activities 

Openness to diverse interactions increases a willingness to engage in civic & social interactions

 Employers' Key Outcomes from Education:

• Complex (critical) thinking

• Perspective taking

• Pluralistic orientation

 Universities need to provide tools for understanding diversity

• Developing inter-group relations

• Valuing student contributions to the learning process

• Creating intentional communities

 UCLA Higher Education Research Institute - www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html  

Higher education must take responsibility for learning outcomes and the social good. We must ask "what would be in the public interest?".

 Students take classes that are comfortable and which reinforce strengths and skills; they stick with what's familiar. General education curricula should be designed to overcome this. [If too many options are offered, does it negatively impact the goal of well-roundedness?] 

Higher education must help students understand that the purpose of education is not to gain knowledge - "fill the empty vessel" - but rather to learn how to address learning and ideas.

This is a new section in which a CUL staff member will be featured each month.  The purpose is to get to know each other a little better.  Please feel free to send me the profiles of your newest staff members (tvangoet@mail.smu.edu) so that we can introduce them to the rest of CUL. If you have a staff member in your area that you would like to nominate (new or old) please contact me.  (You can even volunteer yourself :) )

1 England releases the first 1st adhesive postage stamp(1840)

1 The first wagon train 1841 1st wagon train leaves Independence, Mo for California (1841)

1 "Buffalo Bill" Cody's first Wild West Show (1883)

1 The Empire State Building was dedicated. (1931)

1 Cereal food "Cheerios" hits store shelves. (1941)

1 Slugger Mickey Mantle hits his first home run (1951)

1 Mr. Potato Head is introduced. (1952)

2 Good Housekeeping Magazine first hits the newsstands. (1885)

2 Lou Gehrig plays in his 2,130th game, a baseball record that will last for 57 years until Cal Ripken come along. (1939)

3 Christopher Columbus discovers "St Iago". It is later renamed Jamaica. (1494)

3 Joe DiMaggio makes his major-league debut with 3 hits for the NY Yankees. (1936)

3 Martin Luther King Jr. makes his "I Have a Dream" speech. (1963)

3 Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer prize for "Gone With the Wind. (1937)

4 Manhattan Island is sold! Indians agree to the deal in exchange for $24 in cloth & buttons (1626)

4 Phonograph is played for the first time at the Grand Opera House. (1878)

4 Academy of Motion Pictures is founded. (1934)

4 Atlanta Penitentiary has a new resident after Al Capone is convict of income tax evasion. (1932)

4 Soap operas "Another World" and "As the World Turns" premiere. (1964)

5 Mexican forces under Benito Juarez defeated French troops in the Battle of Puebla. Today this battle is celebrated as Cinco de Mayo. (1862)

5 North Bend, Ohio gets on the map. It's the site of the fist US train robbery (1865)

5 The New York Stock Exchange crashes, causing the "Great Panic of 1893". (1893)

5 Alan Shepard rides "Freedom 7" to becomes 1st American in space. (1961)

6 John Deere produces the first steel plow.  (1833)

6 The Yale lock is patented. (1851)

6 The Paris Exposition opens with the just completed Eiffel Tower as it's centerpiece. (1889)

6 The Dirigible Hindenburg explodes into flames at Lakehurst, NJ. (1937)

6 Chunnel linking England & France officially opens. (1994)

7 The first inaugural ball is held in honor of George Washington and his wife . (1789)

7 George Eastman patents the Box Camera. (1888)

7 The World's largest pearl (6.4kg.) was discovered in the Philippines. (1934)

7 Big band leader Glenn Miller records the "Chattanooga Choo Choo". (1941)

7 Germany signs an unconditional surrender at Rhims, France, ending WWII in Europe. (1945)

7 The Beatles last album is released- "Long and Winding Road". (1970)

8 The U.S. Post Office is established. (1794)

8 V-E Day, Germany signs unconditional surrender. (1945)

8 Mad Magazine hits the newsstands. (1952)

8 The World Health Organization announces that Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide. (1980)

9 The syrup for Coca Cola is invented by Atlanta Pharmacist John Styth Permerton. (1886)

9 The lawnmower is patented. (1899)

9 Americans Richard Boyd and Floyd Bennett become the first to fly over the North Pole. (1926) 

9 The Birth control pill is approved by the FDA. (1960)

10 The first color pictures of Earth from space are sent back from Apollo 10. (1969)

10 Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa's first black president. (1994)

11 Einstein's presents his Theory of General Relativity. (1916)

11 BF Goodrich manufactures the first tubeless tire. (1947)

11 Jay Forrester patents computer core memory. (1951)

12 The flush toilet is patented. (1792)

13 The Rolling Stones record the now infamous song "Satisfaction". (1965)

13 The Beatles movie "Let it Be" premieres. (1970)

13 "Mr. October", Reggie Jackson becomes the first major league ballplayer to strike out 2,000 times. (1983)

14 A party of settlers led by John Smith establish the first permanent English settlement in New World at Jamestown Va. (1607)

14 Vaseline petroleum jelly slides onto store shelves for the first time. (1878)

14 The first U.S. space station, "Skylab" is launched. (1973)

14 The last episode of Seinfeld is aired. It's a sad day in May for millions of Seinfeld followers. (1998)

15 Regular airmail service inaugurated (between New York, Philadelphia & Washington DC) . (1918)

15 Nylon stockings hit the market for first time (1940)

15 "If I had a Hammer" by Peter, Paul, and Mary wins a Grammy (1963)

16 Charles Hires invents Root Beer. (1866)

17 "And They're Off!" as the first Kentucky Derby is held at Churchill Downs. (1875)

18 Napoleon Bonaparte  becomes Emperor of France (1804)

19 Ringling Brothers circus premieres. (1884)

20 Hubble Space Telescope transmits photograph's from space (1990)

21 The American Red Cross was formed. (1881)

22 Former Vice President Aaron Burr is tried and acquitted for treason. (1807)

22 The Great Train Robbery. (1868)

22 First reported sighting of the Loch Ness Monster. (1933)

22 The debut of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood". (1967)

23 Legendary bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde Barrow are shot to death in a police ambush in Louisiana. (1934)

24 Nursery Rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was written by Mary Hale of Boston. (1830)

25 Ford ceases production of the Model "T". (1927)

25 The movie blockbuster "Star Wars" is released. (1978)

26 Michael Jackson marries Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley. (1994)

27 Achsah Young is the first woman to be executed as a witch in Massachusetts. (1647)

27 The pop-up toaster is patented. (1919)

27 German battleship Bismarck sunk by British navy. (1941)

28 President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushes a button that opens San Fransisco's Golden Gate Bridge. (1937)

29 Famous Abraham Lincoln quote: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, & of people some of time, but you can't fool all of the people all of time". (1849)

29 Sir Edmund Hillary is on top of the world. He is the first person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. (1953)

29 Bing Crosby sings "White Christmas" into the record books as the biggest selling record. (1942)

30 The brassiere is invented. As we understand, it received a lot of support. (1889)

31 The trans-Alaska pipeline is completed. (1977)

Date Your Mate Month

National Barbecue Month

National Bike Month

National Blood Pressure Month

National Hamburger Month

National Photograph Month

National Recommitment Month

National Salad Month

Older Americans Month

1st Save the Rhino Day
2nd Brothers and Sisters Day

3rd Lumpy Rug Day

6th Beverage Day
7th International Tuba Day

8th No Socks Day
9th Lost Sock Memorial Day  

10th Clean up Your Room Day

15th Hug Your Cat Day
      National Chocolate Chip Day

18th No Dirty Dishes Day

19th National Bike to Work Day

23rd Penny Day

24th National Escargot Day

25th Tap Dance Day

27th Sun Screen Day

30th Water a Flower Day

31st National Macaroon Day
     Save Your Hearing Day  
     World No Tobacco Day

THEOLOGY, KIDS STYLE
 
      1. Dear God, please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter.  There is nothing good in there now. - Amanda
 
      2. Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother but what I asked for was a puppy.  I never asked for anything before.  You can look it up. - Joyce
 
      3. Dear Mr. God, I wish you would not make it so easy for people to come apart.  I had to have 3 stitches and a shot. - Janet
 
      4. God, I read the bible.  What does beget mean?  Nobody will tell me. - Love, Alison
 
      5. Dear God, how did you know you were God?  Who told you? - Charlene
 
      6. Dear God, is it true my father won't get in Heaven if he uses his golf words in the house? - Anita
 
      7. Dear God, I bet it's very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world.  There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it. - Nancy
 
      8. Dear God, I like the story about Noah the best of all of them.  You really made up some good ones.  I like walking on water, too. - Glenn
 
      9. Dear God, my Grandpa says you were around when he was a little boy.  How far back do you go? Love, - Dennis
 
      10. Dear God, do you draw the lines around the countries?  If you don't, who does? - Nathan
 
      11. Dear God, did you mean for giraffes to look like that or was it an accident? - Norma
 
      12. Dear God, in bible times, did they really talk that fancy? - Jennifer
 
      13. Dear God, how come you did all those miracles in the old days and don't do any now? - Billy
 
      14. Dear God, please send Dennis Clark to a different summer camp this year. - Peter
 
      15. Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they each had their own rooms.  It works out OK with me and my brother. - Larry
 
      16. Dear God, I keep waiting for spring, but it never did come yet.  What's up?  Don't forget. - Mark
 
      17. Dear God, my brother told me about how you are born but it just doesn't sound right.  What do you say? - Marsha
 
      18. Dear God, if you watch in Church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes. - Barbara
 
      19. Dear God, is Reverend Coe a friend of yours, or do you just know him through the business? - Donny
 
      20. Dear God, I do not think anybody could be a better God than you.  Well, I just want you to know that.  I am not just saying that because you are already God. - Charles
 
      21. Dear God, it is great the way you always get the stars in the right place.  Why can't you do that with the moon? - Jeff
 
      22. Dear God, I am doing the best I can.  Really. - Frank
 
      And, saving the best for last . . .
 
      23. Dear God, I didn't think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday night.  That was really cool. - Thomas
 

Johnson's Reflection on Library Quality: The quality of the library is never greater than the quality of the librarians.

Johnson’s First Law of Effective Supervision: Hire people who don’t need to be supervised.

Johnson's Observation of Policy Making: Rules only work with the rational.

Johnson's Law of Assessment: You'll only get what you want if you can describe what you want.

Johnson's First Law of Presentations: Show your audience pictures of happy, productive children and they will believe anything you tell them.

Johnson's Second Law of Presentations: Audiences would rather see your face than your backside.

Johnson's Third Law of Presentations: A misspelling in 48 point type is more noticeable than a misspelling in 12 point type.

Johnson's Observation on Multimedia Content: You can put all the pretty clothes on your dog you want, but he's still a dog.

Johnson’s Law of Network Capacity: You can’t be too thin, too rich or have too much bandwidth.

Johnson’s Rule of Technology Implementation: What technology first makes possible, it soon makes imperative.

Johnson's Rule of Technology Neutrality: Technology is neither good nor bad. The same hammer can both break windows and build cathedrals.

Johnson's Update of Aesop: The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on learning.

Johnson's Homily on Beta Testing: The early worm gets eaten by the bird.

Johnson's Technology Planning Rule: The stuff is not enough.

This is a new section where staff can list things that they are selling or giving away.  Send items to ( well, not the actual item just a picture or brief description) tvangoet@mail.smu.edu 

Sam Ratcliffe is trying to find homes for six cats that his parents can no longer care for (they live about 15 minutes from SMU). Phone: 82303/E-mail: sratclif@mail.smu.edu.