National Turn Off TV Week April 22-28

Can you imagine how cool it would be if everyone on the planet who has a TV really did unplug, even for one day--say, on Earth Day, April 22nd! VPR commentator Deborah Luskin has a problem with pulling the plug on TV, however, and she'll tell you why. Luskin's daughter was "right on" when she said to her mother: "Not watching TV gave us a chance to be ourselves instead of trying to be like everyone else." Years ago I used to defend TV every now and then, but now my mindset is more like the bumper sticker that advertises "kill your TV." This week, when you get that urge to pick up the remote, pick up a book instead. And now for the best part, listen to our own Rob Williams singing Kill Your Television.

Celebrate Earth Day, Today and Everyday

Greetings from a tree-hugging librarian.....and check out the EPA's website featuring a list of Earth Day events and volunteer opportunities, a timeline and history of Earth Day, and much more, including the cool Environmental Tips Widget and Earthday Countdown Widget. And check out our display in the Miller Information Commons for great books on topics ranging from global warming to the publishing of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

National Library Week on YouTube (Sarah & Paula's Favorites!)

Happy National Library Week Champlain!

We were amazed and excited (so much so that our workstudies laughed at us) to see all of these funny and clever You Tubes on National Library Week.

And we love the little diddy and the little creatures dancing.
Here are some of our favorites:

Given the jump in reference this year, we really liked this one:


For our gamers out there:


Tammy Miller, our head of Circulation, will love this one:


Anyone read People Magazine?


And we really have that song in our heads!
Happy National Library Week!

YEAHH!!!

PS: Paula found these on the Lipstick Librarian blog. If you didn't know, librarians are avid bloggers. Just in case you were wondering.

Rockin Reference!

Wow: we must be doing something right because our students are slamming us at the Reference desk this finals season! And not just with quick, easy questions either. A lot of what is coming our way are sophisticated, in depth, difficult issues and questions. What ever is in the air, it certainly is keeping us busy at the MIC.

Technology Workshops: Mark Your Calendars!

Champlain's IT Department are offering a host of helpful workshops this month. Some are for getting your work done (Outlook, Powerpoint) but others are to spread our wings into social networking and effective use and enjoyment of 2.0. Here's a list of what is offered:

Monday 3/31 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 4/1 @ 8:00 am
Outlook and Meetings – Meeting Requests
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to create meeting and track responses from invitees


Monday 4/7 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 4/8 @ 8:00 am
Outlook IV – Searching and Sorting
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to more easily find messages in your inbox or folders.

Monday 4/14 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 4/15 @ 8:00 am
PowerPoint Basics
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to create and show a basic PowerPoint Presentation

Monday 4/28 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 4/29 @ 8:00 am
Connecting to the H: drive from home – Secure FTP
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to access your Network H: drive from home (or anywhere)

Monday 5/5 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 5/6 @ 8:00 am
Social Networks
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to create a profile on a social network site

Monday 5/12 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 5/13 @ 8:00 am
ClearSpace
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to navigate in the ClearSpace

Monday 5/19 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 5/20 @ 8:00 am
RSS Feeds
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to subscribe and unsubscribe to RSS feeds of your favorite websites

Monday 5/26 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 5/27 @ 8:00 am
Microsoft Vista – A Tour
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to describe the features and benefits of Microsoft’s latest generation of desktop operating systems

Brown Bag Informal

It's time for another Brown Bag Informal at the Library. This time we are going to feature our cool new streaming-music database, Naxos--not to be confused with the island off the coast of Greece! Faculty member Lois Price and I will be showing off the Naxos Music Library database on Thursday, March 6th, from 12:30-1:30 in MIC 308. Discover a wide range of music from piano music of Enrique Granados to Chinese lute music of Fung Lam. Lois will discuss how she has used Naxos in her classes, and I will present some of the basic features of the database. Join Lois and me on Thursday for a musical event.

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything." -Plato

Wikipedia: where does it belong?

As I am spending more time in the classroom this semester, I am constantly dealing with the question of Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit. As part of my starting the Information Literacy program with students, I ask them if they have been told that they can't use Wikipedia. Invariably, they say yes. Then I ask them why they think that is. Invariably, they say that it is because anyone can edit it. Because professors think it is unreliable. Because professors, wrongly they say, think it isn't worthwhile.

Students get pretty riled up about it.

The reason I don't want students to use Wikipedia is not because anyone can edit it. As a matter of fact, the more time I spend on Wikipedia, the more articles I read, the more changes I track, the more I learn about the technology, the more I believe in the democratization of information, the more I think that an encyclopedia anyone can edit is cool. Very cool.

But I still don't want students to use Wikipedia for their academic research papers. I don't want students to use any encyclopedias as a resource of an academic research paper. Encyclopedias, I tell students, are starting places. They are a great place to familiarize yourself with a topic, to identify keywords, key events, key issues, key players. But going to a summarization of a topic and its issues is not research. You, or your parents, aren't paying all this money for you to look stuff up in an encyclopedia and call it a day.

Students are hear to hone their critical thinking, writing, reading, and analytical skills. They are here to do dig deeper into what they learn in encyclopedia entries, electronic or print, edited by anyone or by the elite.

Much like Kim Leeder points out in this post from the ACRLblog (ACRL=Association of College and Research Libraries), a few years ago I took a different tack on Wikipedia. But it has changed and so have I. I think Wikipedia will continue to improve and continue to flourish, especially if Aaron Swartz gets his way and connects the Open Library with Wikipedia.

So where does Wikipedia belong in the research process: as a place to start it. But it is just that: a starting place. It does not belong on a Works Cited page. But it can surely be a useful resource in figuring out what does.