Curious about the Future of Libraries?

There’s nearly always something about libraries in the news.  This article stood out because librarians are often asked what we think about the future of books, reading, and libraries.

A New York Times opinion piece asks “Do School Libraries Need Books?“  The article offers a variety of viewpoints - not at all limited to school libraries – from a school headmaster, an associate professor of English at the University of Maryland, a former high school English Teacher, and a couple of authors concerned with life in the digital age.

Here are a couple of excerpts that may provoke reflection about college students and reading:

“…knowledge is proximate. In the digital world, that proximity is less about geographical locale than about licensing, digital rights management, and affordability; but all the more reason for students (and teachers) to know that not everything is always within reach of a mouse.”

“The digital natives in our schools need to have the experience of getting lost in a physical book, not only for the pure pleasure but also as a way to develop their attention spans, ability to concentrate, and the skill of engaging with a complex issue or idea for an uninterrupted period of time.”

“…the fact that books are not connected to the electronic grid is becoming their greatest asset. They’re a space apart, a private place away from the inbox where we can go to quiet our minds and reflect.”

Read the article and add your comments here.

Books, Computers, Librarians, Apps? What Do You Want from Your Library?

A survey of public library patrons finds that they “are eager to see libraries’ digital services expand, yet also feel that print books remain important in the digital age.”

Read about the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project survey of public library patrons:  Library Services in the Digital Age.

What do you want from your SCC library?

Print books you can borrow

Ebooks you can read online

Print magazine and journal articles

Electronic magazine and journal articles

Free access to computers and the Internet

Wireless access

In person help from a reference librarian

Online help from a reference librarian

More? Add a comment.

Student Ambassadors Rock the Library

SCC student ambassadors Vivian Bui, Joseph Crenshaw, Angelica Duran, Natalie Medina, Donald Peat, and Shinesh Prasad have made a powerful contribution to the early success of their peers these first 2 weeks, helping the new kids find call numbers for their textbooks, add courses with permission numbers, print from D2L, search for classroom locations, manage cranky copy machines, and change eservices passwords.  Then they brought brownies! It doesn’t get any better.

New students seemed especially happy to get help from their peers.  Brilliant program.

Shinesh fixes the printer with the wave of a hand.

New York Times: Still free to you

The NYTimes.com paywall went up today. The new limits in summary:  20 free articles a week, and 5 clicks a day from search engine results. The truck-sized loophole: links coming from outside sources (blogs, Facebook, etc.) will always work.

Plenty of people are weighing in on the big questions: Will people pay for quality journalism?  Will people simply skip the Times in favor of free sources?

But much of the discussion has focused on workarounds, ranging from four lines of code to Twitter accounts that systematically link to every article. Has the Times designed its paywall to catch only its “most loyal and most stupid” readers?

This may be a good time to remember that current SCC students, faculty and staff can always get the Times for free via the library databases. You will find a link on our databases page that allows you to get full-text articles from 1985-present using the EBSCOhost interface. Or, for more complete coverage, try LexisNexis Academic. Or, if you prefer to turn the pages, we have the most recent six months of the paper in the Periodicals section of the library.

If you’re having trouble finding anything, please get in touch with a librarian and we’ll do our best to get it for you!

Library Helps Students Get to Work

The SCC library can connect your students to books, media, articles, and websites that will help them prepare for careers in many fields.  Here’s the tip of the iceberg.

A few books (from a list of 640 titles!)  To find more, search LOIS, the library catalog, for “vocational guidance.”  (Watch a video on LOIS).

• Encyclopedia of careers and vocational guidance. 2008.
• Occupational outlook handbook / U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2010-11.
• The savvy musician : building a career, earning a living & making a difference / David Cutler. 2010.
• Green collar jobs : environmental careers for the 21st century / Scott M. Deitche. 2010.
• Careers in engineering [electronic resource] / Geraldine Garner. 2009.  Read ebooks from off-campus using your ID number and eservices password.

Search LOIS for media by adding the Media limiter to your keyword search for “vocational guidance.”

• The interview / Films for the Humanities & Sciences. 2010.
• Internet careers : front-end, back-end & E-everywhere. 2008.
• Nutrition careers. 2006.

Register to Vote in the June 8 Election

Faculty, staff, students: Are you registered to vote?  Have you changed your address since your last voter registration?  Changed your name?  Changed your political party affiliation?

“Yes” to any question means you must register or re-register by May 24 to vote in the June 8 Statewide Direct Primary Election.

The Easy Voter Guide Project links you to answers about voter registration.  You can pick up a voter registration form at most public libraries, post offices, DMV offices, social service agencies, and at your county elections office.  You can also call 1-800-345-8683 to have a form mailed to you.  Registration forms are available online from the California Secretary of State’s elections webpage.

Find more information about the candidates for statewide office and about propositions 13 through 17 on the June 8 primary ballot in the downloadable Easy Voter Guide, also available in hard copy in the SCC library.

The Easy Voter Guide Project is managed by the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund.

Library Adds Thousands of Ebooks

The SCC library just added 3174 titles to the ebook collection, bringing the total number of ebooks in the library catalog to over 18,000.  These run the gamut of disciplines, with lots of scholarly titles.  Browse the list and see for yourself.  The list is sorted by call number, but call numbers correspond to subjects.  Find call numbers for your subjects.

A few notes about these ebooks:

• Access ebooks from home 24/7, just like the subscription databases.
• Search for e-books using the LOIS catalog.  A LOIS search will also bring up older ebooks.
• Watch our video to see how to limit your LOIS search to e-books.
• Update your web browser and Adobe Reader for best viewing.
• Ebooks are generally read online, although you can print a limited number of pages at a time, per publisher restrictions.
• If you get a “not available” message, just wait a bit till another user takes a break and closes the ebook.

Kindle and its cousins offer a different kind of ebook experience, as well as content more suited for entertainment.  We’ve got a Reader article on that..  Several recent magazine articles cover the handhelds; here’s one from Academic Search Premier (library database).  If you have one, bring it to the library to show it off!

Second Life: Virtually Abandoned?

Virtual classrooms, such as those in Second Life, probably aren’t going away any time soon, but colleges that use Second Life are increasingly hosting their own rival environments, according to recent news from The Chronicle of Higher Education.   Instructors want more control than Second Life allows as well as fewer problems with clumsy avatars, inconvenient obstacles, vandalism, and random inappropriate activities.

Led by researchers at Duke University, Open Cobalt plans an initial release of its teacher-friendly virtual world in April.  Open Cobalt will store data on your computer, reducing worry about a host going out of business.  View Open Cobalt in action.

OpenSimulator provides another alternative, although similar to Second Life.  Colleges can host their own world, rent access from an intermediary, or score free “land” from the non-profit Immersive Education Initiative.   OpenSimulator allows in instructors to limit access to students.

In response to these challengers, Second Life’s owner, Linden Lab, is designing a virtual world that will better meet teacher’s requirements.

But are virtual classrooms even here to stay?  How might they be improved to provide value?  Are there better ways to harness the power of the Web for education?   Take the poll and leave your comments below.

Read more:  “After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds.”  Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 14, 2010.

Web 2.0 in Education Workshop at FLC

This is just a note to let staff and faculty know about an exciting upcoming workshop on October 2 at Folsom Lake College.  If you came to (or were interested in but missed) the Classroom 2.0 event last Spring, this looks to be similar but with a more specifically community-college focus.

This will not be a traditional conference with presenters and spectators, but rather an “unconference,” so come ready to share what you know and learn more about using Web 2.0 and emerging technologies in education.

Visit the workshop wiki to learn more and add your name to the list of participants.

Resources for a Teachable Moment

Many SCC faculty are making use of recent campus events as a teachable moment for critical thinking.  To support that momentum, the library would like to share a sample of significant information resources.

Books and Media in the SCC Library

Asking the right questions: a guide to critical thinking.  M. Neil Browne.  2010, 2007, 2004.

From critical thinking to argument: a portable guide.  Sylvan Barnet, Hugo Bedau.  2008, 2005.

Beyond feelings: a guide to critical thinking.  Vincent Ryan Ruggiero.  2008, 2004, 2001.

The thinker’s guide to fallacies: the art of mental trickery and manipulation.  Richard Paul and Linda Elder.  2006.

How to think about weird things: critical thinking for a New Age.  Theodore Schick, Jr., Lewis Vaughn.  2002, 1999.

Find many more titles in LOIS, the library catalog.  Suggested keyword searches:  critical thinking, persuasion, logic, reasoning, freedom of speech, reasoning, ethics.

Websites

There are many.  Turn up a good quality list of resources by searching for “critical thinking” at INFOMINE, Intute or Librarian’s Internet Index (research databases of handpicked websites).

The Library has also posted a few links to published articles from library databases about the abortion debate on its Twitter stream.

Librarians are deeply invested in helping students think critically about information.  Bring your students to the library for an orientation, or send them to do some digging on their own.