Penn State Great Valley Library Blog

With many newspaper’s elimination of science sections, where can readers turn for reliable Science News? Futurity (http://Futurity.org) is one option. This site collects and posts science news releases from universities. Universities such as Penn State, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, University of Penn, etc. needed a way to easily post their scientific findings and Futurity fits the bill. “It’s ironic that we have fewer writers in our major media focusing on science, while we have ever more issues that have a science base — from climate change to the health care debate, stem cells, evolution and swine flu — many of which are very controversial,” said Cristine Russell, a former Washington Post science reporter. Although a reliable source, Futurity lacks the impartiality of an independent science reporter. For that, readers can still turn to Knight Science Journalism Tracker, an MIT website of published science articles (http://ksjtracker.mit.edu).

For more details about locating science news, click on the link to the article on the Baltimore Sun:
Universities establish own way to tell public about findings
http://www.baltimoresun.com/technology/bal-university-wire-0916,0,6633143.story.

Beliot college just posted their Mindset list for the incoming class of freshmen who will graduate in 2013. For those of us in libraries and technology it is interesting that they list:

They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.

They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.
Text has always been hyper.
Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
There have always been flat screen televisions.

For the complete list go to: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php

Bing is Microsoft’s new search engine and this one is worth checking out. Specializing in Health, Shopping, Travel, Local Information and Images, it contains many innovations. One outstanding feature is the presentation of the search results. The left column offers related search suggestions as well as search history. The center area is reserved for search results. The innovative feature here is the mouse roll-over for additional information. By rolling the mouse over a search result, an orange dot appears. Roll over this orange dot to view text from the suggested webpage; this provides users more information before having to actually select the page. A tour in the Look Before You Leap section demonstrates how easy Bing makes comparison shopping. The demonstration I viewed focused on cars, listing car facts – price, MPG, reviews, and safety ratings.

Additionally, it is one of the first search engines to index twitter postings. A fun element of the home page is its dazzling image of a location from around the world. The image changes daily and it contains several information points regarding the setting. Simply roll-over one of these points with the mouse to learn more about the displayed location.

To try out Bing, click on the following: www.bing.com or click on the Bing image above.

The Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ) program brings kids together with dogs to improve reading and communication skills. By taking therapy dogs to libraries and schools, READ provides gentle, loving animals to be listeners for kids. Launched in 1999, this comprehensive reading program is currently in place through out the country and is seeing student improvements in reading and communication levels. Bill Moyers described this program as something which “pierces the mundane to arrive at the marvelous.”
For more information click on the link to READ http://www.therapyanimals.org/read/

The website All About Explorers is a different kind of web-tool for teachers. This site appears to provide credible information for elementary school students about explorers through the ages. However, there are intentional fabrications to teach kids about the importance of verifying internet sources. For example, there is a reference to Columbus discovering America which also describes how excited the Indians were to see him since he brought them computers and cell phones. Through the use of All About Explorers, students learn the necessity of finding multiple sources of information to confirm accuracy. The website provides lesson ideas for teachers and can be found at http://allaboutexplorers.com/.

As indicated on the Europeana homepage (http://dev.europeana.eu/ ), 10 million hits per hour halted this site on the opening day of its prototype. Europeana is a digital collection of European culture and heritage produced by the efforts of many European Archives, Research Institutions, and National Representatives. Offering 6 million digital sounds, photos, paintings, maps, manuscripts, books, film material, newspapers and archival papers, Europeana began in July 2007 and is expected to provide full access by 2010. The demo displays screenshots from this site and provides a taste of what to expect. (The demo can be found on the home page address listed above.) While the demo is only offering in English, when completed the portal will be accessible in all the languages of Europe.

Some representatives from European Cultural institutions considered the portal’s capability handling 5 million hits an hour excessive, even doubting the public’s interest in a digital cultural collection. However, the traffic for this prototype has overwhelmingly demonstrated a need for this European digital cultural collection. The prototype is expected to attempt to launch again toward the end of December 2008.

Going to ALA in New Orleans? ACRL Women’s Studies Section has a great program Doing Information Literacy Differently: The View from Interdisciplinary Studies on
Monday, June 26, 2006 from 8:00-12:00 at the Morial Convention Center 271-272.

Interdisciplinary areas like women’s studies, African-American studies, Chicana/o studies, and American Indian studies present unique opportunities and challenges for using and adapting the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards. Panelists will discuss using and adapting the standards in interdisciplinary areas focusing on undergraduate credit bearing courses, online modules, and work with graduate students. Following the panel, break-out groups will discuss and share further ideas for using and adapting the standards in interdisciplinary areas.
Speakers:
• Tiffani Travis, California State University, Long Beach
• Sara Heitshu, University of Arizona
• Sherri L. Barnes, University of California, Santa Barbara