CHANGES
Fall is in the air. The harsh heat of summer fades as nature's colors grow. People linger longer on front porches. Windows go down. Baseball winds down
while football heats up. Each season has its strengths. Each season must be savored. There are few finer things in life than a walk along a leaf-strewn path on a bright,
crisp autumn day.
The change of seasons reminds us that change is constant. Change is usually a good thing at the San Antonio College Library. Last October, our students could
choose from 110 databases accessing articles from some 16,000 titles. This October, the Library is up to 122 databases accessing articles from more than 20,000 titles!
We are changing yet again this semester. At least six new databases and hundreds of new titles will be added by November. The end result is SAC students
enjoy more research choices than any community college student in Texas.
So savor the change in seasons and the ever-changing SAC Library.
We accept
Stephen C. Dingman
compliments, or gulp! constructive criticism. Please feel free to contact me at dingman@accd.edu.
Editor
IN THIS ISSUE:
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The paper focuses on the significant connection between learning and emotion, specifically how librarians address and validate the feelings of students who may feel anger, resentment, or even fear about library research. After getting over this psychological hump, librarians can then further integrate experience and emotion sharing activities that can increase their impact as teachers and help students become more positive and reflective in their learning. Included in the paper are participant responses from Think-Pair-Share and Reflection activities collected during the presentation. More information, including a copy of the presentation and activity materials can be found at: http://www.accd.edu/sac/library/faculty/dearmond/loex2003.htm
African Caribbean offers a survey of the black experience in the Caribbean. It provides valuable information of the history and varieties of slavery experienced by blacks there, as well as slavery's legacy for blacks, whites, mixed race populations, and other immigrant groups.
Latino and Latina Writers provides original, signed articles for nearly sixty contemporary Latino authors. It includes five thematic essays on Latino writing. Latino and Latina Writers is available in the reference section ( REF PS 153 .H56 L39 2004 ) of the San Antonio College Library.
TexShare is a cooperative program designed to improve library service to Texans. One of its most visible services is the TexShare Database
Another popular service is the TexShare card, which allows college students and the public to check out books at member libraries. More information
about TexShare can be found at www.texshare.edu/generalinfo/about/index.html.
In his chapter, Tom explains the importance of gaining library work experience when considering a career in librarianship. Library work experience, whether before or during graduate school, often is the deciding factor in acquiring a job upon graduation.
Tom knows his subject well. The Baton Rouge native worked for six years as a library assistant at the UT Health Science Center while attending graduate school in Austin. That invaluable experience helped him land his current position soon after graduation.
Citation:
Bahlinger, Tom. "Library Work Experience: Get Some!" The Librarian's Career Guidebook. Ed. Priscilla Shontz. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
Ahhh...smell that? No, it's not the first hint of Fall. It's the strong odor of possibility that permeates everything during a Presidential Election Year. And you know what that possibility represents. New voters! Lots of people registering to vote for the first time, many of them students that we work with every day here at San Antonio College.
Feeling the need to put a little elbow grease into our civic responsibilities, several folks from the library volunteered to register voters during political science instructor Julie Alfaro's "SAC Voter Registration Drive" this Summer. We accepted packets containing voter registration forms, read over the rules and regulations for registering new voters, and finally raised our right hands to be sworn in by a clerk from the Bexar County Voter Registration Department. Boy, that felt good.
Two weeks later, we gathered our pens, forms, and regulations and spread out across campus to register new voters. Librarian Joan Alcott reports that 90 percent of the students she asked were already registered to vote. "I enjoyed doing it but thought I would encounter more unregistered voters than I did."
However, Linda Casas, Learning Resource Specialist V, had a different experience. "I was just amazed as to the amount of students that were not registered." The veteran staffer set up shop by the gym where students were showing up to register for something equally important: classes. "When students told me how happy they were to get all their registration (classes and voting) done in one place, I told them we are a full-service college!"
The volunteer efforts of Joan Alcott, Linda Casas, and Tom Kuykendall resulted in some 40 people becoming eligible to vote in their first presidential election this November. There is still time to register. Voter registration forms must be postmarked by October 4, 2004
Need to Register? It's easy online or on campus: Go to instructor Julie Alfaro's site
< www.accd.edu/sac/gov/alfaro/about.htm > and click on the "Register to Vote Here!" link or visit the Loftin Student Center on October 4th, 11:30-1:30, to get registered in person. You can also contact the Bexar County Elections Department at 203 W. Nueva, Suite 3.61, San Antonio, TX 78207, (210) 335-6625.
Celita DeArmond
This summer saw the unveiling of a sleeker, streamlined Library & Media Services home page. The Department's Web Design Committee, composed of Celita DeArmond, John Deosdade, Stephen Dingman, and Barbara Knotts, examined numerous academic web sites and developed a wish list of desirable features.
Then the committee presented four design options for the entire LMS faculty to ponder. After a spirited debate, the faculty approved the new and improved current home page. Karen Balcom, the department's webmaster, was instrumental in making the changes from "old to new."
AND IN WITH THE NEW...
One of the biggest changes is a "toolbar drop-down menu" that appears as the header on all SAC Library & Media Services web pages. This toolbar allows the user to access all major areas of the web site without having to return to the main home page. Some categories were renamed to eliminate jargon and better explain the information being provided. A "print only" version of the main pages was developed for the visually handicapped. Here are some comparisons between the old and the new:
Retiring English Professor Nora Olivares will give a reading of her first book of poetry, Burials, Bridges, & Blessings from 5 pm to 7 pm on Tuesday, October 12 at the Twig Bookstore [ 5005 Broadway ]. She will also sign copies of her book.
Librarian Celita DeArmond's paper "Light the Fire: Using Experience and Emotion to Ignite Student Learning," was published recently in the Thirty-first National LOEX Library Instruction Conference proceedings. Her co-author, Angela Dunnington, is a faculty member at the Southeastern Louisiana University Library. The paper originated from a presentation at the LOEX 2003 Reflective Teaching: A Bridge to Learning conference in Madison, WI. LOEX is the most prestigious national conference for college librarians who teach library instruction.
Eileen Oliver wrote two book reviews for the journal Reference Services Review: African Caribbean: A Reference Guide (Greenwood Press, 2003) and Latino and Latina Writers (Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004).
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission appointed Librarian Stephen Dingman to a three-year term to the TexShare Communications Working Group on June 1. He will help publicize TexShare programs to the 21 million Texans who use them.
program that provides potent electronic database resources to more than 700 academic, public, and libraries of clinical medicine at a tremendous cost savings. According to
Candace Peterson, chair of the Library and Media Services department, the four ACCD colleges reap $200,000 in cost savings due to TexShare.
Librarian Tom Bahlinger has written a chapter entitled " Library Work Experience: Get Some!" for Scarecrow Press's upcoming book The Librarian's Career Guidebook (November 2004).
Volunteer Deputy Registrar for Bexar County
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John R. Deosdade
Reference Librarian
PLAYFUL PERSONAL PUZZLING PAINTINGS
San Antonio artist Gary Sweeney's witty combination of salvaged signs, old photographs, and visual puzzles will be on exhibit at the San Antonio College Library starting in mid-October. His art will be on the second, third, and fourth floors of Moody Learning Center.
The well-traveled Southern California native first garnered notice in Denver where he was commissioned for a wall-sized work titled, America. Why I Love Her, which is permanently on view at the Denver International Airport. Ironically, his "day job" for some 25 years has been as a baggage handler for Continental Airlines. Sweeney relocated to San Antonio in the mid-1990s after Continental closed its hub in Denver.
He has had solo exhibits in Florence, London, Paris, and Tokyo. His work has been included in group shows in Barcelona and Mataro, Spain; Ishoj, Denmark, and Vienna, Austria. In San Antonio Sweeney has exhibited his work at the Southwest School of Art and Craft, the ArtPace Window Project, the Cactus Bra Gallery, and the Parchman Stremmel Galleries among others. His locally commissioned art is on display at: the San Antonio Spurs SBC Center, the Downtown Parking Garage Tarrazzo Floor, Fox Tech High School, and the Buffalo Bayou Artpark in Houston.
Stephen C. Dingman
Reference Librarian
Shannon Gonzales is our new Lab Technician II for the Student Multimedia Lab located in MLC 412. Her primary responsibilities are to assist students with
homework projects and manage the lab.
Hired in March, Shannon has two years experience as a Lab Technician with the Title V Internet Skills Lab in Moody. She also worked as a student assistant for three years at the Reading Lab located in McCreless Hall. "I love working with students and enjoy the challenges of learning new technologies on both MACS and PCs, especially in the graphic arts area," Shannon explains.
Media Supervisor Librarian Barbara Knotts adds, "Shannon possesses strong customer service skills and she is well-organized. We hope Shannon's presence will help in our efforts to aid more students with new multimedia applications."
The Student Multimedia Lab offers students myriad choices of software programs including sophisticated graphic arts and animation software. Six MACS and 25 PCs are available for 48-hour checkout. Digital cameras and camcorders may be checked out for two hours. Students may also fax and scan documents in the facility.
A native of Oklahoma, Shannon grew up in northeast San Antonio and graduated from MacArthur High School. She later attended Texas State University at San Marcos and San Antonio College where she received her Associate's Degree in Network Administration. A country-and-western enthusiast, Shannon enjoys computers, reading, and working out. She will celebrate her one-year anniversary for quitting smoking on November 10.
Stephen C. Dingman
Reference Librarian
Q: Dear Soup Trivia Goddess, I'm planning a Fall-themed party and would LOVE to find a list of songs to get people in the mood...for Fall food! Any ideas?
A: That depends, am I invited to your little soiree? At any rate, Dear Reader, there actually exists the most fantabulous source for locating tunes by subject area. It's called The Green Book of Songs by Subject ( REF ML156.4 .P6 G73 2002) All songs are categorized by subject matter with the title, artist, album title, and publisher listed alongside. If you're throwing a Fall-themed par-tay, you might wish to peruse the entry for FOOD & BEVERAGES: VEGETABLES. Here are a few of my favorites:
Now if only Apple iTunes would incorporate The Green Book's categories. I'd have more than a few top-notch themed play lists, such as: IDENTITY CRISIS, DAYS OF THE WEEK, ROAD ACCIDENTS, ANATOMY: ARMS, INSULTS, and BATHROOMS.
Q: Dear Soup Trivia Goddess, I've been wondering about paper bags lately. Whenever I go to the store, the checkers always ask me one of the biggest philosophical questions of our time: Paper or plastic? I usually answer plastic, but have started feeling kind of sorry for those brown paper bags. Displaced by the plastic ones. What's the brown bag's story, anyway?
A: Well, Dear Reader, you have hit upon something that takes me waaaay back to my childhood. Those paper bags had so many uses, didn't they? I used the big bags to create an Native American Indian "vest" at Thanksgiving. The smaller ones I used to make hand puppets, and apparently so did the advertising folks that came up with those Fandango movie ticket commercials. And if you remember the Gong Show, how could you forget The Unknown Comic's ingenious use of this simple yet effective tool?
Turning to one of my favorite sources, Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things ( REF AG6 .P37 1989 ), I found out that one Charles Stillwell, after being discharged from the Union Army, invented a machine to manufacture paper bags in 1883. Oh sure, they had paper bags before then, but they were glued together by hand, had V-shaped bottoms that prevented them from standing upright, and just didn't stack right. Stillwell named his new bag (I'm not kidding) the S.O.S., for "Self-Opening Sack." The name derives from the bag's ability to open forthwith with just a snap of the wrist, due to his unique design incorporating pleats. Those same pleats allowed the bag to be neatly stacked as well. The best thing about these new sacks is that grocers could stand them open and fill them chock full of all those grocery store goodies. Panati's goes on to say: "The biggest boom to the Stillwell bag came with the birth of the American supermarket in the early 1930s. Never had a single store offered a wider selection of foods and household products--all to be carted away in humble brown sacks."
So the next time you're asked: Paper or plastic? Tell 'em you want it "old style." And after you unload your grocery store goodies, be sure to use that humble brown bag for one of the fun purposes I outlined above.
Celita DeArmond
WAR ON TERROR AND TERROR'S WAR ON US
Christina H. Petimezas
The expanding complexity of the World Wide Web continues to amaze me. It provides a never-ending wealth of information that is
available at your fingertips. Here is another sampling of the unlimited variety of web-based data.
John R. Deosdade
At first glance these wacky phrases look like incoherent babbles, however wordsmiths know that a
lot of thought goes into palindromes---the words, phrases, or sentences that are spelled the same forwards or backwards.
What a challenge! Hey, I can handle the simple---radar, pop, A Toyota and, even the phrase---Madam, I'm Adam. But, who comes up with these crazy, senseless, totally useless arrangement of words? Consider for a moment:
Dubya won? No way bud.
OK, somewhat sensible, but how about:
And, then there is poetry:
Hooked? For a taste of the variety, check the Palindromelist.com site
(http://www.palindromelist.com/) from Add A to Sex at noon taxes to Zeus: "Nile macaroni, Ma, is a nitrate-tart in Asia Minor, a camel in Suez" and all the wisdom or trivia in between.
Looking for cheap entertainment during the noon hour or this weekend? Join others worldwide in the ultimate challenge---add just one more word to the world's longest palindrome---which is, by the way, 17,259 words long!
Naoj Ttocla
SOUP TRIVIA
"Addicted to Spuds" by Weird Al Yankovic
Reference & Distance Learning Librarian
Our government has been busy publishing both good news and bad news concerning terrorism and the United States, and the war in Iraq. Thanks to the efforts of the Government Printing Office, these reports are available online through PURLs or Persistent URLs. Now, before you go to bed, you can look through these reports on your home computer and never worry about getting a good night's sleep again!
Text version: purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS41319
PDF version: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS41320
PDF version: purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS53245
Text version: purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS44789
PDF version: purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS44790
Text version: purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS51934
PDF version:
purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS53198
PDF version:
purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS51511
Head of Technical Services / Federal Documents Librarian
This WebLinks feature of Parade Magazine links to various resources that are most
frequently used by doctors. In addition, it has a "When Your Insurance Won't Pay" resource for advice in dealing with reluctant insurance companies and includes a template for appeal letters and various forms for medical history, medication lists, and information releases.
Sponsored by the American Savings Education Council and the Employee Benefits Research Institute, this resource provides information sheets, savings tools, and budget calculators for various age groups including youth and young adults, 20 - 39 year olds, 40 - 59 year olds, and adults aged 60 and over.
The Amon Carter Museum explores the world of the Western cowboy through an extensive exhibit of one of America's premier photographers. The black and white photographs taken between 1905 and 1912 at various ranches in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, highlight the cowhand's clothing and equipment, Wild West Shows, rodeos, trail rides, etc. and portray the American cowboy in his actual work environment.
Founded as an independent, nonpartisan, non-profit informational resource, Project Vote Smart focuses on the various candidates and elected officials, and includes biographical profiles, summaries of key issues, voting records, campaign funding data, etc.
As part of its mission to "improve the quality of health care delivered to people everywhere," the National Committee For Quality Assurance has created a database that "recognizes physicians and physician practices who meet standards of care established by each program." Searchable by state, city, practice and physician name, the directory is intended to assist patients in locating physicians "who have demonstrated that they meet important standards of care."
Funded the United Spinal Association, this online guide focuses on "wheelchair and assistive technology choices, wheelchair views and reviews, and related information and articles." Its goal is to foster "user involvement in the selection of appropriate assistive technology." The guide accesses some 1300 web-based wheelchair related entries and over 1500 assistive technology sources.
Reference Librarian
Damn! I, Agassi, miss again! Mad!
Star comedy by Democrates.
May a moody baby doom a yam.
Ed, I spotted a clam in an animal cadet topside.
Mary met a hit - is it
One ewe lamb?
Male, wee not, is it?
I hate my ram.
Reference Librarian
| Articles & Reference Books & Media Library & Media Services Home Page Library Soup Archive New Books |
URL: http://www.accd.edu/sac/library/instruct/lrcnews/soup1004.htm
Web page designed by: John R. Deosdade
Last modified: Wednesday, October 13, 2004
© 2004 San Antonio College Library and Media Services
1001 Howard Street
San Antonio, TX 78212
Phone: (210) 785-6201
Library Soup photography by
Leonard Ziegler
