Fulbright Scholar

The "big" school systems (Board of Regents, etc) regularly have Fulbright Scholars, in the Technical College System of Georgia Patrick Blessinger is the first!

His recognition as a Fulbright Scholar and his experiences abroad will not only serve his students very well, but also the entire Technical College System of Georgia, said TCSG Commissioner Ron Jackson.

“The TCSG is pleased that one of our own received the Fulbright grant. It’s a tremendous honor for Patrick and a point of pride for us,” said Jackson. “He’s an example of the consistently outstanding caliber of 6,000 instructors who teach and assist the 140,000 students of the TCSG. It’s exciting to consider the myriad opportunities that Patrick will have to share his experiences with others, especially students, throughout our system.”

We do have outstanding faculty and programs in the TCSG (and at NMTC). Our mission is to prepare students for work. Patrick is doing that with his Marketing program!

More things change

I used the Oxford English Dictionary just this week to look up April Fool! Serendipity led this e-mail from Art Lowe at OED (through Karen Monton at GALILEO) to arrive with the suggestion that one take a quick look at the description of the major changes that are taking place. Vendors must have the Spring cleaning urge too!

*MAJOR CHANGE IN CHOICE OF REVISED WORDS PUBLISHED ONLINE! * .

The sequence of revised entries published online since March 2000 has proceeded from the letter "M" to "quit shilling" (representing between a fifth and a quarter of the dictionary). According to that model, the present publication batch would include words from "quits" to somewhere early in the letter "R".

But after several years of steady alphabetical publication, editors of the OED have decided a change was necessary. The latest update departs radically from the former model, in that its 2,116 entries consist for the most part of key English words from across the alphabet, along with the other words which make up the alphabetical cluster surrounding them.

From now on, the editors will alternate between these two models each quarter, with the next publication range (in June 2008) continuing from /quits/, and the subsequent one (September 2008) presenting a further range of major words and their associated alphabetical clusters.

The main purpose of this change is to revise, much earlier than would otherwise have been the case, important English words whose meanings or application have developed most over the past century. Some of these key words are, as one might expect, among those often looked up by readers of the OED.

Looking for titles

I really like the new interface for GALILEO. I'm looking forward to showing the SCT 100 (Intro to Computers) classes how it works! Ebsco is also changing how they present information to users.

NoveList is explaining their changes via their NoveList Notes. They did say "Please share by forwarding to any other colleagues who would benefit from this content."

We know that the new version of NoveList not only has a different look, but sometimes requires you to re-think how to use our product. We apologize for any inconvenience or extra time it has taken you to navigate this new version. We are committed to supporting you in this transition and while NoveList has a new look, we remain committed to supporting you in your work with readers and to delivering the best possible product to help you in that important work.

These 8 tips are from the March 2008 NoveList Notes:

1. Tour NoveList

Select this link from the "My NoveList" section to access the Training Help page with training and support materials that will help smooth the way to maximum use of this version of NoveList. In addition to a five-minute animated presentation that provides an overview and basic navigation tips of this version's home page and search results ("Tour NoveList"), there is a Quick Start Guide and Help Sheets on Series, Printing and Searching. Based on the feedbacks we received, we are also developing a training PowerPoint that you can use with your colleagues.

Also, check out our New Release Notes FAQ linked from the Spotlight section of the homepage which addresses some of our most asked questions that have come up with the release of the new interface.

2. Where Is My Favorite Search?

All searches--Author, Title, Describe a Plot, Series Name, Boolean and Article and List Search--can be done from the main search box on the homepage. You can just type the author name, title and/or subject term(s) in the Find box, and click the Search button. For power users, you can perform Boolean searches (AU Crichton AND TI Airframe) without clicking to the Advanced Search (or the Freehand Boolean Search found in the previous version).

As a side note, we found that our searching needed to be tightened up a bit after launch (thanks to many of you who sent us searching examples to look at). These changes are in effect and we encourage you to continue to send us examples when search results are not what you expected.
(I admire their being responsive to user input - KLS)


3. Searching Across All Content

Searching from a single search bar is a little different. When you enter an author or a title, it now searches not only the designated fields in the MARC record that make up our title database, but it also searches across all of our enhanced content (such as Series, Author Read-alikes, Book Discussion Guides, Grab & Go Book Lists.) Searching on "baseball" finds books related to baseball, as well as relevant items among the feature content, all of which is displayed in a tabbed Result List. The default tab brings you to the list of books retrieved by your search, but there will be additional tabs when your search finds relevant feature content.
The NoveList Tour contains a section on Results Lists and this new tabbed results feature.


4. Searching Styles and Approaches

The single search bar allows a tremendous amount of flexibility and accommodates a wide-range of searching styles. Whether you are a type-and-go searcher (like many of our Describe a Plot fans) or someone who appreciates the power of Boolean, all of these options are available to you from NoveList's home page. To learn more about searching in the current version of NoveList, you can consult the Help files or the Searching Tips Help Sheet contained in the Training page of Help.


5. Search Broadly and then Narrow Down Your Search

This concept was a mainstay of the previous version's Describe a Plot feature. When you are searching in the Basic Search box, your search terms will automatically be "ANDed." So for example, if you were searching by subject (or "Describe a Plotting"), for "women detectives New York" all of these terms would be joined with a Boolean AND. If you retrieve too few results, you can either reduce the number of terms you are searching on or re-enter your search terms separated with the Boolean OR operator ("women or detectives or New York"). If you retrieve too many results you can also narrow down your search using the Narrow Results By Subject feature to the left of your Result List. When you select a link from this column, the terms you selected will be added to your search and will work to reduce your results.


6. Browsing for Information

Many of you commented that in the previous version, you had difficulty remembering which home page tab the Book Discussion Guides or Author Read-alikes were behind. Now all of the customized feature content is accessible from the homepage organized by reading level:

Adults: 19 and above
Teens: 13-18
Older Kids: 9-12
Younger Kids: 0-8

All of the Explore reading lists have been updated and enhanced and are now called Recommended Reads. They are still organized by genre or topic as well as sub-genre or sub-topic.

In addition to the materials organized by reading level, we also have materials organized for adults who are Working with Kids. This section has content that teachers, media specialists, children's librarians and parents would like to access, grouped in a single area.

Finally, we have an updated Readers' Advisory section at the homepage.
If you haven't checked out the Genre Outlines yet, you are in for a treat. We will continue to enhance this and all of our feature content as we have in the past.

7. Browsing vs. Searching

In the old version, you did not have a choice. You searched the title database for books but had to browse various pages for any of the additional rich content such as Author Read-alikes or BookTalks.

If you are looking for an idea or don't really know the name of the item you are looking for, browsing may still be the right tool for you.

However, if you are looking for a specific feature such as the BookTalk for Stormbreaker, you can just enter Stormbreaker in the search bar.

Entering the title returns a tabbed Result List with all of the books and content related to your search. You can find the BookTalk you are looking for by clicking on the BookTalks tab, as well as explore all of the other content NoveList has relating to this title.

8. Fine-tuning Your Searches

NoveList's Advanced Search capability gives you even more flexibility and power when it comes to finding both books and NoveList's renowned lists and features. In addition to the limiters that were available in the old version, such as Lexiles, page numbers and publication dates, NoveList now offers limiters on author nationality and gender, as well as limiters to search titles with reviews and "NoveList Best" (all titles that are mentioned or featured in any of our features). Visit the Advanced Search Help page to learn more about how to use these limiters to find even more of the material you and your readers want to read.

Spring Joker

Tis the first day of April - truly, it is. A day when many a person plays little tricks on the unsuspecting. Yes, we call it April Fools Day. Be prepared.....

Oxford English Dictionary has a bit on the use of the phrase April Fool.

This particular use seems most appropriate as we continue slogging through the political process - "c1830 GEN. P. THOMPSON Exerc. (1842) IV. 518 It will be difficult to make April-fools of a whole people that can read and write."

Don't be a Fool, April or otherwise - read!

Playing with the Big Dogs and winning

North Metro Technical College hosted the top horticulture students from sixty-six colleges and universities around the country during the 32nd annual PLANET Student Career Days, March 26th- March 30th, 2008.

This is a record breaking event for the Professional Landcare Network which included nine hundred sixty two students in twenty-five competitive events.

NMTC took first place overall followed by:

2. Brigham Young University – Provo

3. Brigham Young University – Idaho

4. Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo

5. Cal Poly – Pomona

6. North Carolina State University

7. Penn State

8. Mississippi State University

9. Michigan State University

10. Columbus State Community College

...

19. University of Florida

...

22. University of Georgia

North Metro Tech student, Matthew Early, scored the greatest combined individual total winning the title of Superstar!

Ken Kwait of the University of Illinois placed second and Ken Beasley of Hinds Community College took third place.

To be eligible for this title these students competed in five different events.

With as many as 112 students entered in each event we are proud to announce that North Metro Technical College Students placed as follows in their events:

Annual and Perennial ID: Emily Schmidt – 5th, Cassie Templeton – 29th

Arboriculture Techniques: Monty Clark and Brian Watters – 29th

Business Management: Joel Corn – 8th, Lisa McKinney – 11th

Compact Utility Loader Operation: Matthew Early – 1st

Computer Aided Design: Alejandro Simmonds – 2nd

Construction Cost Estimating: Bill Lovelace – 44th

Exterior Landscape Design: Rob Moon – 9th

Interior Landscape Design: Heather Householder-Jones – 21st

Interior Plant ID: Emily Schmidt – 9th

Irrigation Assembly: Matthew Early and Tim Peterson – 2nd

Irrigation Design: Matthew Early – 2nd

Irrigation Troubleshooting: Matthew Early – 5th

Landscape Maintenance Operations: Kyle Harmon and Tim Peterson – 8th

Landscape Plant Installation: Chris Early, Matthew Early and Stephen Hudson – 1st

Leadership Skills: Joel Corn - 2nd, Shon Cameron – 43rd

Maintenance Cost Estimating: Scott Edwards – 1st, Chris Early – 9th

Paver Installation: Kyle Harmon and Kevin Porter – 31st

Pest Management: Vickie Bagby – 1st

Safety Management: Shon Cameron – 32nd

Sales Presentation: Brian Watters – 17th

Skid Steer Operation: Kevin Porter – 4th

Truck & Trailer Operation: Jason Caithaml and Kyle Harmon – 28th

Turf and Turf Pest Identification: Vickie Bagby - 15th

Wood Construction: Kevin Porter and Brian Watters – 23rd

Woody Ornamental Plant Identification – Jessica Logan – 2nd

Bursting with pride

An e-mail from Mr. Dougherty:

Today (Sunday March 30, 2008) North Metro Technical College capped off a highly successful hosting of the 2008 Professional Landscape Network (PLANET) Career Days by winning FIRST PLACE among the 66 colleges and universities from all over the country who competed.

The college is also extremely proud of the fact that the leader of our program, Rex Bishop, received the Educator of the Year award from this organization made up of landscape industry professionals.

And finally, as one of the smallest colleges to host this event, North Metro is especially proud that the organizers and other colleges frequently commented on the incredible teamwork and hospitality of the North Metro students, faculty, staff, family members, and community friends who helped put on the event. Several visitors noted that, every time they commended a North Metro Tech staffer or volunteer, the recipient of the praise was quick to share the credit with other team members.

With the other top five teams in the competition on North Metro’s campus this past weekend including Michigan State University, Penn State University, Brigham Young University – Idaho and Brigham Young University – Provo, the North Metro team was excited to have so many individual students and student teams place in the top three positions in their events.

Mathew Early of Cartersville won the overall super star competition, for example. Mathew is a remarkable young man who already runs his own landscape business, Integrity Landscape, and he did an outstanding job.

There were many other individual winners and we will be getting out an announcement Monday with many more details.


Steve Dougherty
President
North Metro Technical College*