Friday, July 23, 2010
The July 2010 Edition of CNI Conversations is Now Online (Coalition for Networked Information)
In the July 2010 CNI Conversations, Executive Director Cliff Lynch and Associate Director Joan Lippincott provide a recap of the JISC/CNI Edinburgh conference; sessions on e-science, “digging into data challenge projects,” special collections, institutional strategies for digital content, and services for users of mobile devices were highlighted. Cliff also discussed the IATUL conference and the Microsoft research meeting. Joan Lippincott gave a summary of an article on the current status of electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) programs in the US that she and Cliff co-authored and that will appear soon in the ARL publication RLI (issue 270).
Microsoft Research: Info Retrieval Research: Expansion of Web N-gram Project from Microsoft Research & Bing
We invite the whole community to use the Web N-gram services, made available via a cloud-based platform, to drive discovery and innovation in web search, natural language processing, speech, and related areas by conducting research on real-world web-scale data, taking advantage of regular data updates for projects that benefit from dynamic data.
The Web N-gram services provide you access to:
Content types: Document Body, Document Title, Anchor Texts
Model types: Smoothed models
N-gram availability: unigram, bigram, trigram, N-gram with N=4, 5
Training size (Body): All documents indexed by Bing in the en-us market
Access: Hosted Services by Microsoft
Updates: Periodical updates
Late last year, we introduced a private beta testing of the Web N-gram Services. We are now expanding access in the Public Beta Web N-gram Services to include professors, students, and researchers from around the world.
The Chronicle of Higher Education: A Classroom Experiment: Ditching a Textbook
By Amy Cavender
July 16, 2010, 08:00 AM ET
Let me start this post with a disclaimer: I'm not doing away entirely with textbooks for my courses, so the image in this post is somewhat misleading. There are some really worthwhile texts out there, and some of them work well for what I want to do with my students.
In the two sections of the course that I'll be teaching, I'll still be using two traditional textbooks: Glenn Tinder's Political Thinking and (for the writing-intensive section only) Harris' Prentice Hall Reference Guide. The former helps students understand some of the moral and philosophical assumptions underlying various policy positions. The latter provides students in the writing-intensive section with good direction on the writing process and citation styles.
I'll be replacing the traditional "conflicting viewpoints" textbook, though, with materials gathered from a variety of resources: the web, the news media, the popular press, and more traditional scholarly venues. As the semester progresses, the students will take on some responsibility for determining course content.
Why on earth would I do this? There are three primary reasons:
•Going this route enables me to take up much more recent controversies than I could if I relied on a textbook. It's hard to imagine, for instance, that issues such as schools disciplining students for their Facebook pages, schools monitoring students using the webcams on laptops issued to them, or Arizona's new immigration enforcement law have yet found their way into traditional textbooks.
•I want students to develop skills in locating and evaluating resources that help them think intelligently about topics that interest them. Allowing students to help determine the direction and content of the course will provide them with an opportunity to learn and practice these skills. (I'll be setting the first few toipcs and explaining how and why I chose the resources I did, and I'll be working closely with students as they suggest resources for later in the semester.)
•Finally, of course, there's the practical issue of cost. Though I always try to find paperback editions, it's still the case that textbooks aren't cheap. If a book is needed, it's needed, but it makes sense to go with low or no-cost alternatives to textbooks when those alternatives make pedagogical sense.
I'm also thinking about dropping the textbook in the Political Thought course I teach each spring, though for different reasons. I've long used Morgan's Classics of Moral and Political Theory. It's an excellent and reasonably-priced anthology, but all of the texts I teach from it are freely avaialable at Bartleby.com or Project Gutenberg. Allowing students to use electronic texts (they could still purchase paper copies of the anthology or individual works, if they wished) would save students money and might start some good conversations about the differences between various editions and translations, and why they matter.
I'll plan to report back in January about how the experiment with the Political Issues sections worked.
What are your thoughts on eliminating some of the textbooks from courses? If you've already taken this step, what has your experience been? Comments, as always, are welcome.
Resource of the Week: Library of Congress Science Tracer Bullets
Resource of the Week: Library of Congress Science Tracer Bullets
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor
The Library of Congress SCIENCE TRACER BULLET SERIES contains research guides that help you locate information on science and technology subjects. With brief introductions to the topics, lists of resources and strategies for finding more, they help you to stay “on target.”
These pathfinders from the Library of Congress Science Reference Services have been for quite awhile — as far back as 1972, according to Reference Services Review — but in our humble opinion, they don’t get enough love. Covering a wide range of subjects in the natural and physical sciences as well as technology, they are updated from time to time, and the collection keeps getting larger and larger. Those available online date back to about 1990.
Each bibliographic-style guide focuses on a specific topic and includes such resources as introductory material, pertinent LoC subject headings, basic texts/other books/specialized titles, handbooks/encyclopedia/dictionaries, conference proceedings, government publications, technical reports, dissertations, abstracting/indexing services, journals and specific journal articles, vetted internet resources and additional information sources, including contact info for relevant organizations. New guides are announced on the What’s NEW on the Science Reference Service Web Site page, which is also available as an RSS feed.
Some recent Tracer Bullets — for June and so far in July — include:
+ Bridges
+ Introductory Physics
+ Science Fair Projects
+ Environmental Science Projects
While you’re visiting this section of the ginormous LC website, be sure and taker a look at some of the other resources available here, such as:
+ Science Reference Guides (bibliographies)
+ Selected Internet Resources in Science and Technology (vetted webliiographies)
+ Everyday Mysteries (which “deal with everyday phenomena that we often take for granted, but each can be explained scientifically)
+ Inside Adams (new science, technology and business blog; RSS available)
+ Science and Technology Webcasts (list of links to scheduled and archived webcasts)
This Science Subject Guide page, organized especially for teachers and students, is a good alternate way of browsing the science and technology content on this part of the website. Alternately, you can view Bibliographies & Research Guides Listed by Subject.
Top 10 Historically Black Colleges & Universities - July 2010
July 16, 2010 12:11 PM
When the time comes for selecting which higher education institution to attend, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are often forgotten, ignored, or viewed as second-rate in comparison with more traditional schools. Parents and prospective students alike are sometimes reluctant to consider these colleges, which they may view as homogeneous, rigid, and dogmatic. The truth, however, is that today’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities are highly dynamic, progressive, and diverse institutions of higher learning that offer academic and extracurricular programs on par or exceeding those offered on comparable “traditional” campuses.
Not to mention, these colleges generally provide a high quality of education at affordable prices at undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels and tend to represent better overall value than similarly-ranked traditional colleges. Complementing their academic credentials are these schools’ rich historical backgrounds and their unique social and cultural environments. It’s difficult to measure the impact of the “Black experience” for the alumni of the 100+ HBCUs in the country but it’s safe to say that these schools foster a high level of fellowship and camaraderie, helping students to not only establish life long connections but to also enhance a sense of cultural identity.
To illustrate Historically Black colleges’ academic prominence, The Atlanta Post has compiled a list of the top ten HBCUs, along with their 2009-2010 tuition and fee information (not necessarily including room and board).
10. North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC.
9. Dillard University, New Orleans, LA.
8. Claflin University, Orangeburg, SC.
7. Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL.
6. Hampton University, Hampton, VA.
5. Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA.
4. Fisk University, Nashville, TN.
3. Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA.
2. Howard University, Washington, DC.
1. Spelman College, Atlanta, GA.
The perfect gift for bookworms with authority...The Little Librarian Kit!
It was a red-letter day in our household when each child was old enough to get his or her own library card. They love picking out books, handing their card over to the librarian and then skipping out with their new reads. What they don't love is listening to me hound them to find those books under their covers, inside the couch cushions or off the floor of the car when it's book-return time.
But, now they've got a cool new kit that let's them play library whenever they want, and it's missing just the thing that bugs them the most about their real library privileges: Being Quiet.
The Little Librarian kit lets my kids turn their stack of favorite books into their own mini-library, complete with library cards, book pockets and even overdue slips for those forgetful borrowers. All the material is made of paper or cardstock, so don't expect the items to last years, but my school-age kids didn't seem to mind one bit.
This mother/daughter-created product is super cute and would make a great birthday gift for kids who love to read---I'd include a few new books to make it extra special. I'd love to see some of the individual items, like book pockets and overdue slips, available for refill purchase since it'd help extend the life of the kit, and I know my three kids would love to bring even more books into "their" library.
Ever the stickler, my oldest likes to remind her younger siblings of things like "due dates" and "proper book care." And while turning my living room into their library won't earn me any clean house awards, it's hard to be upset when they are playing with books.
Besides, this one little kit has kept them occupied for a lot longer than a trip to the real library. - Christina
You'll find Little Librarian at our affiliate Amazon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)