Let's try this

Cool, hot, wet, or dry, weather is what it is! The American Museum of Natural History has experiments to help students understand climate and climate change.

Sometimes you want something fun to illustrate the serious nature of science. A search in our catalog for a weather book turned up Crafts for Kids Who Are Learning About Weather.This is an electronic book available through Ebsco. A hint- to open the book you need to click on the link on the left that says 'E-book full text'. It seems natural to click on the book cover but that's not the way it works.

It is a crafts book, not a book of experiments. The art activities illustrate a concept. Each craft follows a pattern with a page for 'Here is what you need'. The list of supplies is illustrated. There are several pages, if need be, for 'Here is what you do'. Illustrations accompany each numbered step.

If you're thinking of using this craft book to plan activities for guests, you could e-mail the specific pages to those attending. There is an envelope on the right side of the screen that takes you to the email option. I sent myself a section. The body of the e-mail gave me the citation information. The pages were attached as a pdf file. On the left side of each page is the copyright information. Scout leaders, Sunday School teachers, and babysitters would find this book helpful in coming up with something 'new' to do while learning about a scientific principle.

Ebsco has begun to let some titles be downloaded to an e-reader. This does not seem to be one of those titles. I'm not sure which titles are available and why. I'll do a little research and report back. In the mean time, have fun planning your craft activities!


-kss

How do you like this weather?

A safe topic of conversation is the weather. It's a neutral topic. Hardly anyone has an impassioned response to a question about the rain, or lack thereof. Stepping outside can tell you a great deal about what the weather is like right now.

What if you want to know more than just the facts of the immediate situation?

Following up on Abraham Lincoln's advice to read and study till one understands, I thought I'd explore Resources for Learning .

Resources for Learning [in GALILEO]is a collection of activities, curriculum materials, articles, scientific evidence, exhibitions, and reference lists developed by the American Museum of Natural History for students, educators, parents, and anyone interesting in exploring science. Topics include anthropology, astronomy, biology, earth science, and paleontology.

This site is one of the freely available information sources that GALILEO links to. Yes, GALILEO is a library that gathers information for Georgia citizens.

Back to American Museum of Natural History : Resources for Learning.
From the 5 broad topics listed, I selected Earth Science.
I have a choice between 7 links in Atmosphere or 44 links in Climate/Climate Change.
I selected Climate/Climate Change.
The lessons are sorted by grade level. The topics deal with climate change more than climate (weather).It's not what I thought might help me learn about the weather.

I can see this as being very useful for homeschooling. It also came to me that during the holidays this might be a fun, and free, place for families to go and find an experiment they could do together. The topics are current. The activities are laid out in a way that reminds me of lesson plans. Clear and detailed. Most adults would be able to walk through the experiments with their children or guests!

Begin planning "what to do" with the holiday company by exploring this resource!

I found the site in GALILEO
...Databases A-Z
.....selected A
........scrolled to American Museum of Natural History : Resources for Learning

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Read and study

After Lincoln became a well-known lawyer, he sometimes received inquiries from people who aspired to become lawyers. He wrote: “Get the books and read and study them till you understand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing….It is of no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places.” April 2004 [More}

In GALILEO articles from thousands of newspapers, journals, and magazines are available. One can create an RSS feed or an e-mail alert in several of the 'big' databases to have current articles delivered as they are made available. With wi-fi, GALILEO is a portable library. One isn't constrained by opening hours or a physical location. keeping Lincoln's remarks in mind, it doesn't matter where you are, just read and study till you understand.

To access this portable treasure ask your Georgia librarian for the current password.



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Early birds

Early registration for Spring Semester started on Monday. The registration rush didn't impact the library, but I could see students in the Success Center working with advisors. Access to Banner was calculated on the number of hours a student had completed. Tomorrow (October 13th) Banner is open to all currently enrolled students.

Early registration ensures a place in the very class you need to finish your program. The first Fee Payment deadline is December 2nd at noon.

The early bird does get a seat in the desired class.

-kss

Hunting

Looking for information about the Hunters Moon, I ran across a blog that referred to the Harvest Moon poem by Mary Oliver. Mark Zeiger shared that his Dad sang "Shine on Harvest Moon" in a Barber Shop quartet.

Could I find the lyrics in one of the GALILEO databases?

I used the search box in the Databases A-Z tab.
...I looked for lyrics- nothing.
...I looked for music - and 5 resources were retrieved.
The two Ebsco databases looked most promising.

I opened Academic Search Complete. It took me awhile to remember to use Advanced Search to be able to limit my search to a type of article. I figured 'poem' might pull up the lyrics. I was wrong. A search for the phrase "Shine On Harvest Moon" pulled up 9 articles that referred to the song. None had the complete lyrics.

It still was informative to read a few of the articles. I picked the obituary, the article about a seniors music group, and a description of a seniors camping trip.

The seniors music group started with the first four lines of the refrain.

I did find a portion of the lyrics - just not the complete song laid out in a way I could count as 'lyrics'. Exploring on the official Columbus Day, I found something, just not what I was aiming for!


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To use GALILEO off campus you need the current password. You may get the current password from your Georgia librarian.

Hunters Moon

image by joiseyshowaa

Farmers Almanac shared the October

... full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Many moons ago, Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead. [more...]

Roland Leach lectured about Mary Oliver's work. In ‘Hunter’s Moon - Eating the Bear’ [from Twelve Moons : Poems by Mary Oliver] "the Indians eat the meat of another creature but are shown to respect all life as sacred. Moreover, the death is not an end but the bear now becomes part of a greater cycle where it is a source of energy that infuses other life.... The Indian persona speaks respectfully and with awe of the relationship that now exists exists between himself and the dead bear"[more..]

Hunters Moon -- Eating the Bear, begins with a greeting:

Good friend,
it is a long afternoon.
The shadows of the pines are blue on the field
When I find you,
I am going to turn the world inside out.
The rocks around you will melt,
your heart will fall from your body.
And I will step out over the fields.......

and ends with

the pines you can no longer see
will be twisted and small, their shadows
stretching out, still turning around
in the small sinews of my prayers
some invisible dead center.

Read the complete poem on page 50, when you check out Twelve Moons : Poems by Mary Oliver [PS 3565 .L5 T9].

-kss

Go where?

To find the valuable intel. Thank you, Parker and Hart.


-kss

Go West, Young Man

Go west, young man! [electronic resource] : Horace Greeley's vision for America by Coy F. Cross takes the phrase we are familiar with and explains what it all means:

When twenty-year-old Horace Greeley arrived in New York City to start a printing business in 1831, he did not suspect that his faith in hard work and frugality would soon be tested by the worst financial depression in U.S. history to that date. Although Greeley survived and prospered, his concern for the urban unemployed prompted him to search for a universal solution—the safety valve of land in the West.
For the rest of his life, Greeley used his position as editor of the New York Tribune and occasional politician to promote his agrarian utopian ideology. Cross examines here Greeley's efforts in favor of four important factors in westward expansion[more...]

This title is available through our electronic book collection. It can be downloaded onto a variety of electronic readers.

I went to look at how this might work, though I don't have an electronic reader. You will first create a free account in Ebsco, which will be useful for any of the Ebsco databases. Maximum check out is for 7 days. I checked a title out for 1 day. When I go look at the book, the timer is running to tell me how many hours I have left to use the title. When I have the book checked out, no one else can use it.

I'll let you know what happens when the 24 hours are up.



-kss

Looking East

Columbus was trying to reach the East by going west. The plan was to find a shorter (quicker) trade path to the delicacies westerners had come to desire. The world was a bit bigger than he realized.

Today we marvel at how small the world has become because of the speed of information access.

The internet has tied us together in ways Columbus could never imagine. A Google search can reveal information about companies and products that are available world wide. But if we aren't sure of the name of a company or what could be available, how do we know what terms to use in our search?

I was scrolling through GALILEO and noticed ProQuest Asian Business and Reference which 'offers detailed information on companies, economies, markets, and overall business conditions throughout the Eastern Hemisphere'.

This could be a source for foundational information about Asian business. I clicked on publications. They have 318 publications. There are 67 Trade Journals. I scrolled through the list of Trade Journals.

The longest running trade journal in the database is The Banker [ISSN 0005-5395‎] from 1971 to the present. The issues from 2006 to the present are full text. Earlier issues offer a link to search for a library that has the issue. An intriguing note about the current issue of The Banker [ISSN 0005-5395‎]is the articles concerning Nigeria and Guatemala. It's not just about Asian businesses.

Explore the East without venturing across uncharted waters!




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The Ocean Blue

To set out on a journey with only the stars as your guide takes a great deal of courage. Today we have GPS to pinpoint our exact location. We have charts of coastlines.

Through GALILEO, we have access to World Atlas (Encyclopaedia Britannica). We have a choice of views : map, satellite, and terrain. It's fairly easy to navigate in and out. To look at a particular state in the United States, you search for United States, then close in on the area and move around with the pan button and the zoom in/out tab on the left.


GALILEO (you need the current password which is available from your Georgia librarian)...select Databases A-Z
......select W
.........World Atlas (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

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Columbus sailed

Our History Library Guide focuses on post American Revolution history. Though, one can find links to solid resources for information about the early explorers.

-- The books tab has a search box for Credo Reference.
-- The articles tab has links to resources in GALILEO - World History Collection, History Reference Center, and Annals of American History.

Annals of American History includes a letter written by Christopher Columbus, dated March 14, 1493 which describes the lands and people he had seen.

Christopher Columbus isn't held in the same high esteem he once was, but he started the procession of 15th century Europeans crossing the Atlantic like it was a pond.

You will need the current password to access these databases through GALILEO

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In fourteen hundred ninety-two

(image courtesy of Open Library)

I, Columbus : my journal, 1492-3 [E118 .I2 1990] Follows the voyages of discovery made by Christopher Columbus through excerpts from the journals he kept of his travels.

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Leaves of three, let them be

While out in the wilds watching the birds, you may notice what the bird is nesting in or sitting on or hovering over. You might even wonder what you are nesting in or sitting on or hovering over.

Is that what you think it is? Do you really want to touch it?

Our Horticulture library guide has links to a plethora of plant ID web sites. We collect these sites for our students to use while studying to compete at PLANET : Student Career Days.

Before you wander in the woods, you might want to get an idea of what you'll encounter!

-kss

Look, look

Birding for beginners : a comprehensive introduction to the art of birdwatching by Sheila Buff [QL677.5 .B793 2010] shelved at the Marietta campus.

Whether you're traveling to an exotic bird habitat or just interested in better appreciating the avian wonders in your own backyard, Sheila Buff helps novice birdwatchers get the most out of the popular pastime of birding. Starting with where and how to find birds to identify, Birding for Beginners offers an engaging explanation of the basics-- the jargon used, the equipment needed, how to use a field guide, how to create and maintain lists, how to plan a trip into the field, etc. And, of course, the brightly illustrated pages are chock-full of detailed identification techniques, both visual and aural.[more...]

Though this title is at the Marietta campus, we move books from campus to campus through the courier system. Ask your campus librarian to have the title sent to your campus- just in time for a cool autumn afternoon spent watching the birds.


-kss

Tweet, Tweet

It's not about Twitter but All About Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). This is a website from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that includes information about watching birds, learning their nesting behaviors, attracting birds, identifying them, recording observations, and getting involved in bird conservation. The site includes guides, images, maps, sounds, videos, and much more. There is also a link to the Macaulay Library, an archive of animal sounds and videos.

The nice thing about GALILEO is that it is a 'library' for online learning in Georgia. The librarians at GALILEO gather not only subscription databases but quality web sites that are of interest to Georgians.

To supplement the web site, All About Birds , Georgia Wildlife Resources Division provides lists of wildlife management areas in the 7 regions of Georgia that are perfect for bird watching.

With the moderate temperatures and the leaves beginning to thin a bit, who knows what you might see when you take a moment to just watch what is going on around you.



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68

I just presented Library resources to an English 1010 class. I noticed we have 68 Library Guides not 67. We are a prolific bunch of resource sharers. We are adding new guides weekly. You may search by Librarian to see at a glance who has done what.


-kss

Ah that feels better

Yes, I'm looking forward to being an exam subject this afternoon.

Our PTA (Physical Therapist Assistant) program has its own Library Guide. The guide pulls together CTC resources the student will find useful while completing their program.

We have 67 Library Guides. There are guides for programs, special topics (like citations), and for specific classes. Our library guide layout seems fairly clear with a tab for Books, Articles, Internet, and How do I information. Please do check them out!





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The back is grateful

Our PTA (Physical Therapist Assistant) program offers massages to faculty and staff once a year. The massage is an exam for the students. It's a great way for the students to demonstrate to their instructor that they do know what they are doing with a real live person. It's a treat for the faculty and staff to have an hour of massage. A win/win for everyone.

To support our health science programs, we subscribe to Anatomy TV : Systemic Anatomy (there's a green check next to the the portion we subscribe to). The systems I looked at are broken down into line drawings with multiple slides showing different views of the same system. Rolling the cursor over a portion of the drawing allows you to select that portion and have a detailed explanation on the right.

Anatomy TV does require a separate login or access through GALILEO. Your campus librarian can give you the passwords for both ways of accessing Anatomy TV.

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Minutes only tell part of the story

Have you ever read the minutes of a meeting you did not attend? Especially the minutes from an organization you have no tie to?

American Turpentine Farmers Association Minute Books, 1936-1999 provide the administrative record of the American Turpentine Farmers Association (ATFA), which was established in March of 1936 by Judge Harley Langdale of Valdosta, Georgia, along with 900 other men from the Southern turpentine industry. ATFA was formed to represent the interests of gum naval stores factors, producers, and dealers in the United States "turpentine belt" (Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas). Activities of the American Turpentine Farmers Association (ATFA) document the interconnection of land use and environmental stewardship to the broader issues and policies of modern Georgia's rural development.

The minutes are arranged in blocks of years. You can read them straight through. There is a full text search box. The timeline gives one an overview of the association.

As I read the minutes, I was intrigued by Judge Harley Langdale. I do genealogy research for fun. From reading the minutes, Judge Langdale seems like an interesting and focused person. The timeline notes Langdale died in 1972. I read the 1972 and 1973 minutes looking for a memorial for him. There wasn't anything. I did a search for his name in the minutes. The last mention of him in the minutes was in 1965 when he resigned as President and Director. He was elected President emeritus at that meeting.

I wonder why they didn't mention him in the 1972 or 1973 minutes? There is a book about the Langdale family : Judge Harley and his boys: the Langdale story By John E. Lancaster. There are 19 references to ATFA in The Langdale Story.

The minutes don't tell the whole story but they lead one to wonder what the back story might be. American Turpentine Farmers Association Minute Books, 1936-1999 are available through GALILEO and the open web.


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Searching

There is an art to creating a successful search strategy. In the 'olden' days when only print resources were available, one went to the largest library collection one could access. Large libraries were usually in a big city or connected with a university level academic institution. Once inside the building, one sought the skills and knowledge of the Reference Librarian to guide you to those resources that would best answer the question at hand. What do you do now?

Do you go to Google and type in the word or phrase? Do you trust that Googles' search algorithm will pull up just what you're looking for?

Several TCSG librarians attended a GALILEO webinar on the way federated search works in GALILEO. It was a fascinating history of buyouts and change among the vendors who provide federated search software. The bottom line was- no federated search program will be perfect. The programs look inside individual databases and pull information. The difficulty is coordinating with how each database searches for information inside themselves?

It's not like going to an apple orchard and picking apples. There are pumpkin vines, blueberry bushes, potato vines and pecan trees mixed in this information orchard. Each one requires a different way of plucking the produce. Google skims the surface of public information while the federated search goes into private orchards where each vendor has arranged the information in a special way!

It begins to explain why the new federated search at GALILEO isn't bringing up results in the way one might expect.

The vendor will keep tweaking the system! Remember that your librarian can help you find information.



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