ECC Librarian Ken Swiatek Presents 3D Photography Lecture

ECC North Campus librarian Ken Swiatek will co-present a lecture on 3D stereoscopic photography with Tom Rywick on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 7 p.m. at the Buffalo Museum of Science, 1020 Humboldt Parkway, Buffalo, NY 14211.

The program will discuss and demonstrate techniques anyone can use to create their own 3D photographs. The program is free and open to the public.

Films On Demand

The ECC Library Resource Center is happy to announce the availability of Films on Demand.  From the website: ”Films On Demand is a web-based digital video delivery platform that allows you to view streaming videos from Films Media Group anytime, anywhere, 24/7!” 

There are more than 5,500 videos presented in a searchable interface and covering a wide array of subjects in science, health, business, and the humanities.  Films on Demand  has a similar look to other video sharing sites such as YouTube. 

Films on Demand can be found on the ECC Library Webpage under the heading Databases by Title.

The ECC Libraries has a new Systems Librarian

We are pleased to announce a new member to our staff – Joseph Riggie!

Joe Riggie will be our full-time Systems Librarian, replacing Jane Ashwill who is taking on the duties of Department Chair of the North Campus Library. 

Joe comes to us with and eagerness to learn, fresh ideas, and the eagerness to bring our college community the tools and resources they’ll need to succeed!

Welcome Joe!

Immersibles

Last semester I applied to the ACRL Immersion program and have been accepted! For 5 days in July I will be intensively studying instruction specifically as it is relevant to the instruction that librarians provide to users. I’ve started this post so I could share Immersion ‘09 experiences and learning with you. Are you unfamiliar with Immersion?

ACRL’s Immersion Program provides instruction librarians with the opportunity to work intensively for four-and-a-half days on all aspects of information literacy (from the website).

I have been accepted to the Teacher Track.

TEACHER TRACK. This track focuses on individual development for those who are interested in enhancing, refreshing, or extending their individual instruction skills. Curriculum includes classroom techniques, learning theory, leadership, and assessment framed in the context of information literacy.  Participants selected for the Teacher Track will prepare a description of an instructional situation and a related presentation in advance of the Immersion program. During Immersion, participants will revise the presentation based on feedback from colleagues and faculty(Ibid).

There is not much for me to do right now. I will have some homework to do in preparation for Immersion, that I’ll get later this semester. Right now I wanted just to start the discussion, present information on Immersion, and answer questions about my participation.

 

Congrats!!!!  Besides the hell of St. Petersburg in July, this will be a fantastic experience! You’re going to work hard and bond with a bunch of really enthusiastic librarians.  I still keep in touch with 3 good friends I made back in ‘04.  I’ve been keeping my eye on the Intentional Teacher and Assessment tracks – not ready for the Program track just yet.   nickilerczak, njlerczak@genesee.edu

Chattin’ Up the Librarian

You’re at home, you’re furiously tapping away at your keyboard to finish your argumentative paper, “Brown Nosing Your Professor - Can It Be Used to Your Advantage?  Or, Can An Apple A Day Keep The ‘Fs’ At Bay?” , and you’re stuck trying to find the correct database for essays that will give you opposing viewpoints.  What to do?!

Now, there is Ask A Librarian!  The library’s own online reference service.  Librarians are available Monday through Friday, 10am to 2pm, to answer your questions, wherever you are!  Just type your question in the chatbox and you’re chattin’!

Welcome Ryan Grimmer

Welcome Ryan Grimmer!

We have a new librarian among us!  Ryan Grimmer has joined the staff at South Campus as their new part-time Librarian. 

 

His e-mail is grimmerr@ecc.edu, so you can drop a line and say “hello”!

March Workshops

March Workshops

City campus librarian Hadeen Stokes attended the workshop, Project Management for the Solo Librarian, on  Tuesday, March 10,  and two workshops at the 2009 SRP Leadership Conference on Saturday March 7th, of this year. Below you can read the summaries of each of these workshops.

 Project Management for the Solo Librarian

When: Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 9:00am to 4:00pm

Where: WNYLRC Training Center

Speaker: Pat Wagner of Pattern Research, Inc. (www.pattern.com)

Whether you are a solo librarian, low on your library’s totem pole, or simply understaffed and overworked, almost everything you do is a project. Improve your effectiveness and lower your stress! Learn how to create internal and external teams, set reasonable goals based on existing resources, say “no” (even within bureaucracies), eliminate irrelevant work (even if it is what you love) set better priorities and avoid perfectionism and other project pitfalls.

 Four workshops were offered at the 2009 SRP Leadership Conference sponsored by NYSU, of which Hadeen attended two:

 New York State Employees’ Retirement System: a representative of the NYSERS will provide an overview of the retirement system and the options that are available to you.

 Dealing with Difficult Students: this workshop will offer strategies for dealing with students who exhibit chronic and extreme misbehavior, including violence.  Participants will learn what motivates students to misbehave; intervention techniques to use at the moment of misbehavior; how to avoid and diffuse confrontations and ways to reinforce desirable behavior.  This workshop is also appropriate for those who work outside of a classroom setting.

MAGAZINES HIT BY RECESSION TOO

A lot of magazines, familiar and not so familiar, are going belly-up as a result of the recession.  They may have a big subscriber list, but if they can’t sell ads, they can’t survive.  In the past few months a long list have folded, including Domino, O at Home, Country Home, Cottage Living, Home, House and Garden, Mode, Teen, Plenty, Radar, Men’s Vogue, Cosmo Girl, Golf for Women, Arthur, Map Magazine, EBay Magazine, Jewish Living, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), Games for Windows, and even Playgirl.  All gone!

 

U.S. News and World Report, which has been in business since 1948 as a weekly news and politics magazine, went to 2 issues a month last year and now will publish as a monthly.  PC Magazine, which started in 1986 toward the beginning of the computer revolution, has also cut down and now will eliminate the print and publish only an online version.

 

The magazines that are left are getting thinner.  Now that people are cutting back their spending, advertisers are also cutting back.  Magazine advertising pages are down around 40 to 50% from last year.  There has been speculation that the New Yorker will go under, since recent issues are almost advertising-free.  The February 2 issue at 83 pages has only about 15 pages of ads, some of which are for their own products.  Conde Nast, the owner, replaced the New Yorker’s publisher on February 5 to try to turn around the loss of ads. 

 

Conde Nast also publishes Vogue, Glamour, Allure, Wired, Gourmet and Bon Appetit, and Details among others.  Fashion Rocks and Movies Rock, supplements to some of their titles, will not be published this year.  The blogosphere is full of rumors about which magazines will get the ax. 

 

The ECC libraries have lots of magazine subscriptions.  For more information, see your campus Serials Librarian, Taheera Shaheed-Sonubi at South, Kathe Hill at North, or Chris Dehoff at City.

Submitted by Kathe Hill.

This is one of many videos of a rave during finals week at UNCC (The University of North Carolina at Charlotte) held in the J. Murrey Atkins library. Word of the rave spread by way of Facebook via an event. In total the event had over 1,500 attendees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VskLXTbrjAA

Westlaw Campus Research Now Available on Library Web Page

Campus Research is an easy-to-use online research service that provides you with a comprehensive collection of news and business information and law-related sources.  Searching the extensive collection of information on Westlaw is as easy as surfing the ‘net thanks to the easy interface and it’s use of natural language searching.