Leaping about

An odd day, it only appears on the calendar every four years. Where can I find the how and why we have this extra day?

A scroll through GALILEO turned up an Ebsco science database and Salem Science. I figured one of them might have information about the added day. Neither had the facts I was looking for on 'leap year'.

Encyclopedia Britannica did have an article with facts and suggested resources. It didn't 'feel' like there was enough information.

The best resource for 'leap year' facts has been Credo Reference with articles from an Astronomy reference, a literature reference, and several dictionaries. Credo Reference gave me just what I wanted to know.



-kss

CTC students may get the passwords to all CTC resources by logging into the Find Books My Account and selecting the Off Campus Access link.

I found these resources in GALILEO
I selected Databases A-Z
I selected the first letter of the resource to find it it in GALILEO

Affirmative Action

What does affirmative action mean to you? A random survey showed fifty percent think of race, the civil rights movement and the sixties, when asked about affirmative action. The other fifty percent think of the 90's, gender, sports and Title IX. It seems to depend on the respondents age.

The random survey was inspired by Salem History which has two 'decades' books in the History database - the Forties and the Sixties. The section in the Sixties  on Affirmative Action begins :

The term “affirmative action” first appeared in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which required employers to engage in affirmative action, that is, to voluntarily rehire those who had been fired because they were union members and, in the future, to hire without regard to union membership rather than awaiting lawsuits to enforce the law.

The chapter goes on and refers to "1941 and 1943, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Orders 8802 and 9346, which mandated nondiscrimination by defense contractors, African Americans were hired in record numbers by contracting corporations in a voluntary effort to demonstrate compliance."

Salem History notes sources for this chapter -

For a history of the earliest uses of affirmative action, see Frank W. Andritzky and Joseph G. Andritzky’s “Affirmative Action: The Original Meaning,” Lincoln Law Review (1987), and William B. Gould’s Black Workers in White Unions (1977). Criticisms of affirmative action are expressed in Nathan Glazer’s Affirmative Discrimination (1975) and Stephen L. Carter’s Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby (1991). A pro-affirmative action view is presented in Gertrude Ezorsky’s Racism and Justice: The Case for Affirmative Action (1991) and Susan Sturm and Lani Guinier’s “The Future of Affirmative Action: Reclaiming the Innovative Ideal,” California Law Review (1996).

Based on the resources used, I wonder if the union issues had to do with African Americans? I hunted around GALILEO searching in WestLaw, Legal Collection, ProQuest, &  Ebsco for Affirmative Action: The Original Meaning. The 1987 reference is too old for the databases we have access to. A search in Google Scholar noted more sources that have cited the 1987 article. A search in World Cat for the Lincoln Law Review revealed I could request a copy of the article through inter-library loan.


Wandering around looking for answers to my own questions can be entertaining.

-kss

What does the picture say?

Historic Architecture and Landscapes of Georgia: The Hubert Bond Owens and John Linley Image Collections at the Owens Library, a joint project between the College of Environment and Design, University of Georgia and the Digital Library of Georgia, contains 1500 images of important and representative architectural sites and landscapes in the state with an emphasis on Athens and Middle Georgia.

The intriguing part of this database is the Teacher Resources (on the left side, 4th link). How do you take the pictures, which are nice but still are just pictures of places I haven't been and have no connection with, and use them as a learning tool? This article, Creating Place Based Classroom Resources suggested that photographs:

Rather than serving merely as illustrations, the visual materials in each lesson are documents that help students achieve the lesson’s objectives. Because analyzing and extracting information from visuals are not necessarily skills students have developed, new lessons now include a Photograph Analysis Worksheet. The worksheet directs students to describe a photo after looking at it briefly and then again after careful examination. They might be surprised at the information they can gather, or at least surmise, about when and where the photo was taken, the reason the photo was taken, etc. Appropriate for analyzing both historical and modern photographs, the worksheet helps students learn how to “read” visual materials.

A picture is worth a thousand words. You do need to know how to read those 'words'. Use the resources available through the Digital Library of Georgia and GALILEO to expand your 'vocabulary'.

-kss

Our view is limited

From our door we see  the wooden wall that separates us from the construction. We hear pounding, sawing , and voices.  We can see workers moving through the doorway carrying debris out. It is a limited view.

A walk outside provides a view through the spaces that have been cut out for spacious windows. We can  see the open space that used to be an auditorium.  The plans we've seen, show the area lined with tables and chairs. The front entry is beginning to take shape. There will be a curved cover over the glass entry. The outdoor patio area  will be a welcoming space.

The contractors have made great progress since October. Rumor has it construction will be complete by April. I haven't heard when in April - just April!

The view from the library will change.

-kss

Subject terms

Ashes, ashes.... What do we have in our collection on Ash Wednesday. A subject search turned up one item. A word or phrase search turned up two items.

The people who catalog materials are extraordinarily detail oriented. They care about the size of the material, the authorship, the publisher, and the contents of the item. I was a bit surprised that Holy Wednesday [electronic resource] : a Nahua drama from early colonial Mexico by Louise M Burkhart has the subject 'Ash Wednesday-Mexico.' Identified only in 1986, the Nahuatl Holy Week play is the earliest known dramatic script in any Native American language. This play deals with the end of Lent (Holy Week) not the beginning (Ash Wednesday). I wonder what the cataloger was thinking?

-kss

Students may access all passwords by going to the CTC page
Select Quicklinks (upper right hand corner)
Select Library
Select Find Books
Put in your 900# and then your Banner password (6 digit birthday)
Select My Account (middle of the gray bar)
Select Off Campus Access link
Scroll down for the electronic book passwords

Ash Wednesday

Have you seen many 'dirty' foreheads today? Christians of the western liturgical churches are having ashes rubbed on their foreheads in the sign of the cross. Why?

Our online reference collection of 587 titles in Credo makes it a cinch to find the answer.

A search for 'ash wednesday' retrieved 235 entries. The left side bar tells you the number of entry types- 69 articles, 52 definitions, 51 events, 32 persons, etc. I wondered how there could be persons referred to by searching for 'ash wednesday'. Skimming through the results, they are poets, authors, actors, politicians, and clergymen who wrote or did something relating to Ash Wednesday.

The children's rhyme "Ring Around the Rosy...ashes, ashes, we all fall down" has been dancing in my head this Ash Wednesday. The poem has nothing to do with the day but it still is sticking in my thoughts. I wondered if Credo Reference would have a literary reference? A straight search for the phrase turned up a wealth of sources but the search engine had pulled individual words from the phrase rather than the whole phrase. A second search with the phrase in quotes only turned up two references. Neither were as informative as Wikipedia, which has 20 footnotes and 5 Reference books cited.

Sometimes you have to use the wild web to get the answer. Just make sure they note their sources!

-kss


Current students may now access all passwords by going to the CTC page
Select Quicklinks (upper right hand corner)
Select Library
Select Find Books
Put in your Student ID # and the Banner password (upper right hand corner)
Select My Account (middle of the gray bar)
Select Off Campus Access link
Scroll to the bottom for the electronic book collections passwords

Found it!

My question was about beads (throws) and Mardi Gras. I searched through four databases in GALILEO and found a history of how Mardi Gras started its rise in New Orleans. There was no mention of the beads.

A search in our catalog for Mardi Gras as a subject did not turn up any titles. A word or phrase search pulled up 15 titles. I looked through several electronic books searching for the word beads. It is so easy to search the electronic books.

I found success with Creating the Big Easy [electronic resource] : New Orleans and the emergence of modern tourism, 1918-1945 by Anthony J. Stanonis. The 5th Chapter, A City that Care Forgot, The Reinvention of New Orleans Mardi Gras, on page 187 contained the tidbit I was looking for. In 1921 the Krewe of Rex started throwing beads! Prior to 1921, Krewe members had blown kisses but not given any tangible items away.

There you go. 90 years of bead throwing started with businessmen trying to get tourists to come, stay, and spend money. It seems to have worked.

-kss

Ebrary does require a login.
Current students may now access all passwords by going to the CTC page http://www.chattahoocheetech.edu
Select Quicklinks (upper right hand corner)
Select Library
Select Find Books
Put in your 900# and then your Banner password (6 digit birthday)
Select My Account (middle of the gray bar)
Select Off Campus Access link
Scroll to the bottom for the electronic book collections passwords.

Throw me something, mister

Viewers along the Mardi Gras parade routes stand with arms raised, shouting for the costumed benefactors on the float, to share the wealth. How did Mardi Gras, as we know it, get started in New Orleans?

A search in multiple GALILEO databases is pretty easy to do. The Search tab (5th tab over) provides steps to complete the search.
- Step 1 Enter search keywords. There are three search boxes with drop down limiters for title, author, subject, etc.
- Step 2 Select Search Options. You have three choices- full text, peer reviewed, and dates. I suggest selecting full text and peer reviewed. Full text to make sure you get the entire article and not an abstract. Peer Reviewed so the articles aren't from People magazine.
- Step 3 Choose Databases to search. Academic Search Complete (Ebsco) and Research Library (Proquest) are the two displayed. There is a Show more databases link that opens a long list of options.

To answer my questions about Mardi Gras,
Step 1. I entered Mardi Gras as a subject search.
Step 2. I limited my search to Full Text. I'm looking for articles with information not acadamic treatises.
Step 3. I added the two Religion databases. Mardi Gras is the last day before the Christian season of Lent.
I clicked on the Search 4 databases button
The results are in date order.
There is a box on the left that tells me Results by Source. Interesting that Ebsco's general database has no articles with Mardi Gras as a subject but Proquest has 596.

The article from ProQuest that shared some early history of Mardi Gras was published in 2002, in the New Orleans magazine, The men who made Mardi Gras. There isn't any information about the bead throwing. I need to go back and look some more. Meanwhile, I can think of the folks lining the streets of New Orleans with arms waving!


-kss

This Glorious Struggle

This Glorious Struggle : George Washington's Revolutionary War Letters [E 203 .W298 207] by Edward G Lengel is available at our North Metro campus. The reviews and summary that are part of the catalog help inspire the reader to dip right into the book.  Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) noted "Many readers of this collection of Washington's letters probably will experience some surprise: he was not, as history texts have often maintained, always the unflappable leader. Lengel (history, U. of Virginia) has extracted many of the jewels from the roughly 140,000 letters Washington wrote to family, friends, Congress, and fellow soldiers during the war to present a picture of a man given to depression and doubt as well as a good joke and a bountiful table". Richard Fraser, M.I.L.S., Los Angeles (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC wrote, "This selection of General Washington's letters constantly reminds us that the course of the American Revolution need not have gone as it did and that when "history" happens, there's no knowing how it will turn out". Booklist said, "In topical range and variety of recipients, the collection conveys the types of problems that came to Washington's attention and captures aspects of his personality as he dealt with them"

Learn more about our first President by reading his own words.

-kss

POTUS

If you watch enough political dramas on television, you know POTUS means President of the United States. On the third Monday in February, we celebrate the office of the Presidency with Presidents Day.

It seemed appropriate to use a CTC resource for information. I went to  Encyclopedia Britannica for the story behind Presidents Day. The first time I searched for Presidents Day, I missed seeing it at the top of the results column. I scrolled through the listing and wondered where this information might be. The front page didn't have a large (or even small) story about the commemoration. At the bottom of the screen, there was a set of icons for 'spotlight'ed stories. George Washington's picture was there. That link did take me to Presidents Day information. A second search for Presidents Day had the link to the holiday information at the top of the list above a yellow line. Was the link there the first time and I missed it?

Of course, the quick and favorite research site, Wikipedia did have a fairly easy to see link to On This Day with a Washington's Birthday/Presidents Day link.  At the bottom of the Wikipedia article there were references that could be checked.

It would be nice if vendors would think like novice searchers and make results clear and visible!
-kss

Students may now access all passwords by going to the CTC page
Select Quicklinks (upper right hand corner)
Select Library
Select Find Books
Put in their student ID and use the Banner password
Select My Account (middle of the gray bar)
Select Off Campus Access link

While we're waiting

CTC offers degrees in Digital Production and Television Production. We teach the production side of the art rather than the performance side.

The Library staff has created several Library guides to support these programs.

A timely one for this week before the Oscar's is the library guide for Film. The News Sources tab with RSS feeds from Variety, Screen Daily, and Film Journal is most informative.

Stay tuned!

-kss

The envelope please

We have a week to wait till the 2012 Academy Awards. While we're waiting, try your hand at this weeks Credo Reference brain teaser.

The British film critic Barry Norman recently produced his list of "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time". See if you can identify these films chosen from his list.

1. Walt Disney computer-animated film (2001) about an ugly smelly green ogre with a heart of gold.
2. 1989 film for which Meg Ryan is best known for the scene in which she fakes sexual ecstasy in a busy restaurant.
3. 1941 film that looks back on the life and career of a fictional newspaper magnate played by Orson Welles.
4. 1972 film musical starring Liza Minnelli as the cabaret singer Sally Bowles.
5. 1959 film comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as two jazz musicians who disguise themselves as women.
6. 1938 Errol Flynn film about the outlaw hero of innumerable tales and legends set in medieval England.
7. 2007 film of book by Cormac McCarthy about the violent world of drug-trafficking near the Rio Grande.
8. 1933 Marx Brothers movie whose title refers to an easily accomplished task or assignment.
9. Award-winning 1997 film adapted from 1990 novel by James Ellroy.
10. Stanley Kubrick's 1957 film about mutinies in the French Army during the First World War.
Questions set by Tony Augarde (www.augardebooks.co.uk)

Find out the answers here, or copy and paste this link into your browser address bar: http://blog.credoreference.com/2012/02/credo-reference-brainteaser-100-greatest-films/

What I found fascinating, when I checked the citations, is that none of the references are from Film or Cinema reference books!

-kss

Compare and Contrast

A search for the subject 'diary' in our catalog pulled up six titles. Five are electronic books. The compare and contrast comes in because two titles are offered in two electronic formats, Ebsco and ebrary.

I've talked about the differences between the two vendors. This gives us a chance to compare and contrast with the same content. I selected Mary Chesnut's Civil War epic as the book to compare.

- To open the Ebsco version, you click on the ebook full text link on the left. Don't click on the book cover on the right.
- The ebrary version opens with no extra steps.
One less step to get to the content, sets ebrary ahead in terms of ease of use.

- To search in Ebsco, after the book is open, the tool bar on the right has a magnifying glass icon at the top. Select that icon and a search bar appears above the contents.
- To search in ebrary, the search box for the document is visible above the right column that contains the links to move through the book.
No extra steps needed to search through the text in ebrary.

- To cite the book, Ebsco has a citation link which gives you APA, MLA, etc formatted citations
- There are no formatted citations in ebrary. They do give you the information you need at the bottom of the right hand column to create your citation. In My Settings, they offer the option to use 2 outside vendors to create a citation.
Here Ebsco definitely makes it easy.

- Ebsco offers the option to e-mail the citation and up to 60 pages of text .
- ebrary does not seem to have an e-mail option.
Here Ebsco leads the way.

- Ebsco offers download information for an e-reader
- ebrary offers download information for a pdf file for this title
Neither has an advantage in this area.

-Ebsco has a print icon in the tool list on the right side of the screen.
-ebrary has a print option when you click on Info Tools on the upper left side.
Ebsco makes the print option obvious.

- Ebsco has a create note icon that opens a word document above the text. I see how I can save the notes and print the notes but not how to e-mail the notes.
- ebrary has a  bookshelf where you can place books for future reference.
ebrary has a highlighter feature that allows you to mark passages for future reference
This seems like a draw.

Both vendors offer a service that is invaluable- 24/7 access to books. Ebsco excells in a few areas. ebrary excells in a few areas. I prefer the look of Ebsco. I prefer the e-mail options available in Ebsco. Which works best for you?

To access the electronic books off campus, you will need to use a log in.
As of  February 14th, you may find all the logins through our catalog.
Put your student ID and password in upper right corner boxes.
.. Select My Account.
.....Select the Off Campus Access link.
Scroll to the bottom for the Electronic Books section.



-kss

Dear Diary

It's Black History month. Using the GALILEO, Databases A-Z tab, Find a Database search box and looking for 'African' pulled up eleven resources in GALILEO.

One of the eleven is Samuel Hugh Hawkins Diary, January - July 1877 which chronicles Americus, Georgia entrepreneur, lawyer, and banker Samuel Hawkins' financial, agricultural, civic, and religious activities in Sumter County during the final months of Reconstruction. Diary entries briefly illustrate Hawkins' work at the Bank of Americus and his real estate interests in the county. Having an interest in agriculture and horticulture, Hawkins describes his participation in the Sumter County Agricultural Society and Horticulture Society, attendance at the 1877 Georgia State Agricultural Society meeting in Milledgeville, entrepreneurial interest in the Bell Cultivator, and role in the founding of the Americus Fair Association. While later known for his role as president of the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railroad Company, Hawkins mentions railroad issues only in passing. An active member of Bethel Baptist Church (later Americus Baptist Church), Hawkins records his religious observances throughout the journal. On a national level, Hawkins comments on the contested presidential election of 1876 and the resulting presidency of Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes. Locally, he chronicles city and county elections and appointments to the constitutional convention, the efforts of an emigrant agent to lure local African Americans to Louisiana as contract laborers as well as events surrounding the murder of a white woman by an African American man.

The diary has no search box. You use the 'find' feature to search through the document. I wondered how Mr. Hawkins refered to the people of a darker skin. Did he call them African, Negro or Black?  Mr. Hawkins refers to African Americans as Colored. He capitalizes the word when referring to a group of Colored people. The word isn't capitalized when he refers to an individual.

Words change meaning over time. A diary reminds us of that change. What words do you use in your diary to describe a group of people?

Samuel Hugh Hawkins Diary, January - July 1877 is available through the Digital Library of Georgia.

-kss

Fraternity

Fraternity by Diane Brady "tells the unforgettable story of how Father Brooks, a Jesuit priest, transformed the lives of a remarkable group of men during one of the most fraught racial periods in the history of our country."

"Among the twenty students he had a hand in recruiting that year were Clarence Thomas, the future Supreme Court justice; Edward P. Jones, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature; and Theodore Wells, who would become one of the nation’s most successful defense attorneys."read more

Check with your CTC librarian to borrow this 2012 copyright book. We have current materials available on many topics.

-kss

Memories

Vanishing Georgia contains nearly 18,000 photographs from the Georgia Archives documenting over 100 years of the state's history. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, family and business life, street scenes and architecture, agriculture, school and civic activities, important individuals and events in Georgia history, and landscapes.

This collection is easy to search. There is the basic search box and an advanced search page.

Using the basic search, I looked for 'Blacks' and retrieved over 400 pictures. 'African American' retrieved over 300 images. 'African American' would be a focused search. 'Blacks' brought up people, locations, and items that have nothing to do with Black History.

The fun search began on the Advanced search page using 'African American' as the subject and selecting a random family name that is notable in Georgia as the keyword.

There are some wonderful group pictures of African American families in Georgia. The group pictures of families standing by their car during a vacation are priceless.

The portraits of African Americans in the late 1800's are just like portraits you see of Caucasians from the late 1800's. People who wanted to, and could afford to, have a formal portrait taken are very similar in social stature, no matter the race.

Wander through the collection and compare your family pictures with those preserved by the Digital Library of Georgia. Families are families!



-kss

Get the passwords

At last, all students registered at CTC have been downloaded into our library circulation system. No more having to enter the student record as they stand there waiting to check out a book. This is a time saver  for the library staff and the student.
What really benefits the student  is the ability to 'login' to the library catalog with their student ID number and  their Banner pin. How is this a benefit? The passwords for GALILEO, the electronic books, and the databases CTC subscribes to are behind the login protection, yet available 24/7.

Go to Chattahoochee Technical College
..Select Quicklinks (tab on the upper right corner)
...Scroll to Library
.....Select Find Books (far left side, center of the screen)

..In the upper right side- fill in your Student ID and Banner pin
....Select My Account (middle of the gray bar)
.....Select Off Campus Access to Library Resources (third link to right)
Now you have access to the current passwords.

-kss

Party tonight

The timing is a bit tight but you might be able to pull it together for a Valentines family party this evening.

Holiday story play [electronic resource] : costumes, cooking, music, and more, preK-4 is available as an e-book online. Chapter 6 is for Valentines Day. There are patterns for a King, Queen and Knave puppet to print out and color. There are directions for heart shaped sandwiches. There are suggestions for writing your Valentines story.

The holiday activity book is aimed at classroom teachers in grades pre-kindergarten through fourth grade. What is your home but a little classroom, even if your students are over the age of 9?

To get to the book (and the chapter on Valentines Day)
.. go to the CTC catalog
... search for Valentines Day
.....Holiday story play was the second book on the search list
...click on the URL
....don't click on the cover of the book. My pet peeve with this version of the Ebsco e-books is clicking on the cover does not open the book. Though, you'd think it would.
....select the e-book full text link on the left.
....select the magnifying glass on the right at the top of the Tool bar
....type in Valentines. The links take you to the pages where that word is used

You do need a login to use the Ebsco e-books off campus. You may ask your CTC librarian for the login or you may get the passwords by logging into the catalog with your student ID and your Banner pin. Once you're logged in- select My Account, then select Off Campus Access to Library Resources, scroll down to Electronic Books.


-kss

Pro/Con, Persuasive, Argumentative, Compare/Contrast

In English 1101, the standard research paper revolves around a 'hot' topic. Depending on the instructor, the written product may be a persuasive paper, an argumentative paper, something as simple as compare and contrast, or a pro and con essay. All of these responses involve knowing both sides of the issue. When I share library resources with these classes, I confess I have trouble seeing the 'other side' of some topics. I laugh and note that I'm 'shocked' everyone doesn't agree with my point of view.

After sharing the online resources like Facts.com in GALILEO, I conclude with a tour of the Library Guides.

Our ENGL 1101 Library Guide pulls together the various resources that will help these students easily find both sides of a subject. The Books tab lists links to series  in our collection. Two large series are Opposing Viewpoints and Current Controversies. Each title has enough information to give the student a handle on what could be used to persuade or compare and contrast. If they aren't sure about their topic- these series can jump start their thinking process.

Our 74 Library Guides do provide links to the resources most appropriate for a particular class or program.


-kss

And the question is?

Each week Credo Reference sends out a quiz. I've been posting the questions. Today I thought I'd post the answers to the topic 'Just William' and let you think up the questions.

1. William Shakespeare.^Citation
2. Bill Gates.^Citation
3. Bill Clinton.^Citation
4. William Wordsworth.^Citation
5. Buffalo Bill.^Citation
6. William Penn.^Citation
7. Bill Haley.^Citation
8. William Wilberforce.^Citation
9. Count Basie (William Basie).^Citation
10. William Caxton.^Citation       

If you aren't sure who the William is or was, the citation takes you to the article about that person.

Check with your CTC librarian for the login information to search through over 500 reference sources..

-kss