Friday, October 06, 2006

Information Literacy?

What is information literacy?

-the ability to determine what information you need- knowing what you don't know
-being able to find out who has the information you need
-once you find the information - is it really what you need, is it correct
- then combining what you learned with what you know
- using that new pool of information to accomplish something

Being able to read words and getting the meaning from them is one form of literacy.
Being able to "read" the pictures used to tell a story on TV or in a commercial is another form of literacy.
Knowing what you don't know and how to fill that gap is Information Literacy!

Are you information literate?

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Breaking ground!

Today is a big day in the life of North Metro Technical College. We are breaking ground for an Allied Health building! This is the first "real" building to be added to the campus since the school was built.

Ground breaking ceremonies will be held at 1:30. You can see the tent for the dignitaries (including Governor Perdue) from I-75 between exits 277 and 278!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

What do I have?

And how do I go about finding some answers? If you have a health problem and wonder who can answer your questions....here is a site (on the web and linked in GALILEO ) where you get links to authoritative organizations:

The National Health Information Center (NHIC) is a health information referral service. NHIC puts health professionals and consumers who have health questions in touch with those organizations that are best able to provide answers. NHIC was established in 1979 by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), Office of Public Health and Science, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Knowing where to go to get answers is half the battle!

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

LISTA: Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts

"Library, Information Science & Technology Abstract (LISTA) indexes more than 600 periodicals, plus books, research reports and proceedings. Subject coverage includes librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Coverage in the database extends back as far as the mid-1960s."

EBSCO is providing this database at no cost, as a gift to Librarians.

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

First Day of the Quarter

The parking lot is filling up with eager students. The first days of the quarter are full of positive energy.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Who?

Literature Online (LION) is the place to go to find authoritative information about authors and their work:

"Welcome to Literature Online, a fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 192 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources. 62 new and revised biographies; 10 new full-text journals; new releases of African Writers Series and Twentieth-Century Drama; additional Shakespeare editions..."

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Friday, September 29, 2006

All Quiet on the Western Front

Registration is over. Faculty are gathering materials to prepare for the first day of classes on Tuesday Oct 3. It's very quiet. The phrase all quiet on the western front slipped into my head.

Did you see the movie or read the book All Quiet on the Western Front? There are Cliff notes in netLibrary about All Quiet on the Western Front.

All Quiet on the Western Front Notes by Mary Ellen Snodgrass, M.A. University of North Carolina at Greensboro including • Life and Background • Remarque's Literary Works • Remarque's Films • Introduction to the Novel • A Brief Synopsis • List of Characters • Critical Commentaries • Map of the Battlefront • Critical Essays Style Symbolism Rhetorical Devices A Note on World War I and Its Technology • Character Analyses • Review Questions and Essay Topics • A Selected Bibliography INCORPORATED LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 68501 heavily. While working for various movie studios, Remarque settled in a colony of German expatriates in west Los Angeles until 1942, when he moved to New York's Ambassador Hotel and eventually to an apartment on East 57th Street, which he considered his permanent home. Life became less oppressive for Remarque in his last two decades. A reader of Malraux, Proust, Flaubert, Balzac, Stendhal, Poe, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Rilke, London, Wilder, and Zen philosophy, he also devoted himself to book discussions, long walks, and collecting Iranian rugs and Chinese bronze figurines, which his wife later sold to relieve the burden of guarding his costly treasures. Remarque's Literary Works Unlike many classic authors, Remarque achieved enough monetary return from All Quiet on the Western Front to allow him the luxury of time and selectivity.

Check it out!
Go to our card catalog online.
.....Go to Advanced search (far left in the blue column under Search)
........Select Keyword search
..........Type in All quiet on the Western Front - title
..............Select EBK as material type
Two titles will be pulled up!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Orientation

Three times today, we'll tell new students what they need to do to succeed at NMTC!
First orientation has begun (8:35 AM). Two more - 1PM and 4PM.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Poetry

The leaves are turning colors.
The swaths of brilliance cross the hills.

Are you looking for ways to express your delight in the seasonal changes?
Poetry is one way to clearly articulate what is happening around you.

If you're looking for poetry-
GALILEO
....Quick Search
.........autumn poem ( GALILEO will put the quotes around the phrase)


The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Beauty in Stone

From GALILEO:

Beauty in Stone: The Industrial Films of the Georgia Marble Company is now available in the GALILEO demonstration system at: http://dlgmaint.galib.uga.edu/georgiamarble

The Digital Library of Georgia, the Pickens County Library of the Sequoyah Regional Library System, the Marble Valley Historical Society, the Georgia Archives, and the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection are pleased to announce the availability of a new online resource: Beauty in Stone: The Industrial Films of the Georgia Marble Company.

The online collection consists of two short industrial films made by the Georgia Marble Company in the 1950s-1960s that document the company's history, operations, skilled laborers and craftspeople, and the widespread use of their marble, limestone and serpentine products.

Georgia Marble Company's use of the industrial film medium served to promote its products by capturing in live action the skill and industry required to create "beauty in stone."

The first film, New Face on Capitol Hill, depicts Georgia Marble Company's role in the reconstruction of the east façade of the U.S. Capitol building prior to John F. Kennedy's inauguration, and includes footage of president John F. Kennedy at his 1961 inauguration, the former vice president Richard M. Nixon, and Architect of the Capitol J. George Stewart.

The second film, Producing America's Buried Treasures, focuses more closely on the company's overall history, its quarrying and finishing facilities in Georgia, Tennessee and Vermont, the breadth of applications for Georgia marble products and related limestone and serpentine industries in Alabama and Virginia. Unique to this film are its highlights of uses for processed marble in products that include roofing material, and turf marking for athletic fields.

Both Producing America's Buried Treasure and the New Face on Capitol Hill feature the company's marble quarrying and finishing operations in Pickens County, Georgia; both include pictorial examples of marble-quarrying and marble-shaping machinery, of stone cutters working in the quarry, and of craftsmen sculpting the marble. Many beautiful high-quality products were produced by the Georgia Marble Company, and a number of well-known structures comprised of Georgia marble are interspersed throughout both films. Most notable are the statue Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, and the façade of the U.S. Capitol Building, the centerpiece of New Face on Capitol Hill.

Beauty in Stone is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia in association with the Pickens County Library of the Sequoyah Regional Library System, the Marble Valley Historical Society, the Georgia Archives, and the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection as part of Georgia HomePLACE. This project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Where shall we go?

Atlas' offer a superb arm chair tour of the world. Travel books offer details about the country and the people.

We recently acquired a "coffee table" book - The Travel Book (G 153.4 .T715 2004). It's not really an atlas (a book of maps) though it does have small icon maps of the countries visited. Each country has a two page spread with large and small pictures. There is a standard display of information which makes it easy to compare countries for visiting!

Begin traveling without leaving home.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Fall is here

The first day of Autumn for 2006 was September 22. Have you decorated your home with pumpkins, gourds and colorful leaves?

A Quick Search of GALILEO turned up this article in MasterFILE Premier:

From my home to yours.Stewart, Martha - Martha Stewart Living 2006-10 155 27(4) ISSN: 10575251 Description: The article highlights the use of pumpkins, squashes and gourds in a variety of decorative ways to celebrate the arrival of autumn and the approach of Halloween. When green gourds were grouped on the picnic table, they attracted a tremendous amount of attention. House doors were also enhanced with bright golden and orange bittersweet wreaths.

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Friday, September 22, 2006

The answers

As promised on Monday, here are the answers to the scavenger hunt.

First, a repeat of the questions:
1) Which of the following men did NOT sign the Constitution? GeorgeWashington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, JamesMadison, Jr. ________
2) What year was the Constitution signed? ______
3) In what city was the Constitution signed? _____________________
4) Which two signers of the Constitution later became U.S. Presidents?__________
5) Fill-in-the-blank: The Constitution consists of a preamble, 7 articles, and _____ amendments.
6) The first 10 amendments are also known as the _________________.
7) Which amendment gives freedom of religion, speech, and the press?____
8) Which amendment limits the President to two terms in office? ___
9) Which amendment gives 18-year-olds the right to vote? ___
10) Which amendment gives women the right to vote? ___
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.
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Answers: 1) A. Lincoln; 2) 1787; 3) Philadelphia; 4) G. Washington and J. Madison; 5) 27; 6) Bill of Rights; 7) Amendment 1; 8) Amendment 22; 9) Amendment 26; 10) Amendment 19

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Georgia's Constitution

How many Constitutions' has Georgia had?

Check out the State Archives Virtual Vault
.....Search keywords - type in Constitution
.......The original documents are scanned and available for you to read. The handwriting is magnificent.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Liberty and Law

Dr. Thomas Scott from Kennesaw State University gave an inspiring talk to the EtowahChapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Cartersville. He concluded his remarks by reminding us that the first order of business after the Revolution for each state was creating a Constitution.

One is not free unless there are laws to protect each persons rights.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Quick search

Quick search at GALILEO looks through multiple databases at one time. Try doing a search for constitution and then search for constitution united states. Different results. Changing the search terms can broaden or narrow your search.

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Scavenger Hunt

Just for fun, here are a few questions that were compiled by Cheri Jost of Garland, Texas for LM_NET.

You can find the answers to these questions in an encyclopedia. You can use Encyclopedia Britannica in GALILEO.

1) Which of the following men did NOT sign the Constitution?
George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, Jr.

2) What year was the Constitution signed? _______

3) In what city was the Constitution signed? _____________________

4) Which two signers of the Constitution later became U.S. Presidents?

5) Fill-in-the-blank: The Constitution consists of a preamble, 7 articles, and _____ amendments.

6) The first 10 amendments are also known as the _________________.

7) Which amendment gives freedom of religion, speech, and the press?____

8) Which amendment limits the President to two terms in office? ___

9) Which amendment gives 18-year-olds the right to vote? ___

10) Which amendment gives women the right to vote? ___

Answers on Friday..........

We the People

September 17 to September 23 is Constitution Week. We celebrate the Constitution of the United States. To read the Constitution you can go to the Library of Congress : American Memory .

Friday, September 15, 2006

Lace draperies

This morning the dew had settled on the spider webs and created a lacey effect on the bushes. The question popped up- how do the spider webs affect the bushes?

Garden Literature Index in GALILEO has articles about spider webs!

Garden Literature Index is an Ebsco Database that NMTC subscribes to for the Environmental Horticulture Department.

The password for home use of GALILEO is available to the citizens of Georgia from your librarian. Some resources noted in this BLOG are only available to NMTC patrons.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Feeding the Information Tiger

Do you want to know what is happening but really don't want to play with RSS feeds and aggregators?

You can "Set an Alert" in ABI/Inform (or any ProQuest Database) which will send you an e-mail when your topic is addressed. You get one e-mail a day for up to a year on your topic.

"ABI/INFORM Dateline is a full-text database that focuses on local and regional business news coverage of large corporations, privately held companies, local start-ups, executive profiles, marketing, finance, and industry news. It provides information not typically found in the national press sources. Topics cover subjects such as agriculture, company profiles, corporate strategies, executive profiles, financial services, high technology, manufacturing, marketing, regional business environments, retailing, and service industries.

Direct access to specific company information via Hoover's Company Capsules and Profiles can be found within full-text articles in ABI Inform Complete and ABI Inform Dateline. Links are indicated with an information icon followed by a company name. "