Tag Archives: Resource Development and Services

Participate In Your Virtual Government

Submitted by Joe Antonioli

The Terra Project is a virtual state simulation run by Professor Quinn Mecham of Middlebury College, hosted in the online virtual world Second Life. Citizens of the Terra Project log in to Second Life in order to run for office, vote, make and enforce policy, and perform other functions of government, all within a virtual environment. This simulation is currently in its second iteration as part of Professor Mecham’s Spring 09′ PSCI 0103 introductory course.

The Terra Project is now open to all interested members of the Middlebury college community! This issue was voted upon by the citizens of Terra during the fall term and was passed as part of the first ammendment to the constitution of Terra. For more information on the constitutional referendum and other pieces of legislature passed during the fall term please check out the Terra Project site.

Second Life users can find the Terra Project on Middlebury’s hosted land by following this SLurl (Second Life url).

Statistics from Library Systems

Submitted by Mike Lynch

  • How many times per hour does Midcat get searched, on average?  340
  • What’s the busiest hour of the day for the catalog? 3:00 p.m.
  • How many times did an EBSCO search refer our users to Academic OneFile for the full-text of the article last fiscal year? 378
  • How many times did users go through WebBridge to get to Project Muse last year? 284
  • Where did Mike get all these numbers from anyway? From statistics that Barbara has been compiling from various sources.
  • Can I see them for myself? Sure. Just go to O:\ORGS\LIS\LISstaff\ILS III Millennium User Materials\OPAC statistics

Libraryfind – reminder

Submitted by Mike Lynch

Just a friendly reminder to please help us test our implementation of Libraryfind.  As mentioned in a post on August 30th, we are experimenting with this open source application which allows search across multiple resources.

It’s not ready for public consumption just yet, but we are making it available for testing by LIS staff.   You’ll see five choices: Digital & Print Undergraduate Theses, Images & Multimedia, Middlebury College Abernethy Collections, Library Catalogs and TEST Collection Group.   The first choice searches all of the NITLE Dspace thesis collections, as well as the Special Collections thesis database on Concerto.  The second searches 12 different collections, some in ContentDM and some in Concerto.  The third searches the Abernethy Collections on ContentDM.  Library Catalogs currently searches Midcat only.  We are testing various journal indexes in the TEST Collection Group, although currently none of those work.

Barbara is trying to identify and fix these problems, and Bryan Carson is working on making the interface more Middlebury blue.

50,000 digitized maps available

Submitted by Hans Raum

Government Information Resources

More than 50,000 historical digitized maps are now available online at http://infoweb.newsbank.com/?db=SSMAP.  The original maps are part of the U. S. Congressional Serial Set and they include a broad range of themes and cover from the early 1800’s to about the 1950’s.  Early maps were created by expeditions that surveyed the American west, Alaska, and other parts of the world, as well as early surveys of cities, harbors and other geographic features for most of the country.  Among the maps of local interest are a 1904 soil survey of Addison County and maps of Silver Lake, Lake Dunmore, and Otter Creek.  Other maps provide detail of specific battles in the Civil War and some early city plans.  Although the maps may be of greatest interest to geography majors, they may also be useful in supporting student research in geology, American history, and ethnic studies, among other disciplines. 

One-stop shopping

Submitted by Joe Antonioli

Information Technology at Tufts University has created an integrated suite of Web 2.0 technologies, communication tools for “for teaching, learning, research, and co-curricular activities.” This is a great example of access, support and marketing all in on space.

http://spark.uit.tufts.edu

The site gives the user a gateway to each technology. It also includes help documentation, examples and links to suggested uses. For instance, on the wiki page-

Wikis – Suggested Uses

A wiki is simply a web page or site that is fully editable from a browser using a very simple “mark-up” language. Its strength is that it allows small groups to add, revise, and edit web content, so it is a natural tool for most collaborative writing activities. Like a web site, it allows for non-linear linking of individual wiki pages. Whenever a wiki page is edited, a new version of the page is created with the old version being archived for the site editors’ reference.

  • Demonstrate the evolution of thought processes through the different versions of a wiki page.
  • Create a collaborative knowledge base that can be added to over time and across courses.
  • Helps small groups of students develop a project, collect ideas, papers, timelines, documents, datasets, and study results into a collective digital space.
  • Assists with small group problem-solving and brainstorming.

 What would Middlebury’s version of this service look like?

Staff Information session on U. S. Serial Set & Federal statistical sources

Submitted by Hans Raum

There will be a staff information session on Wednesday morning, October 15 at 9 am in room 105 on the U. S. Congressional Serial Set, the American State Papers and the top ten federal statistical websites.  Anyone who is interested in the topics is welcome to attend.

Meeting Classes – Introducing LIS Resources

Submitted by Judy Watts

With 17 class days in September, Librarians will have presented 53 classes. That’s a rate of 3 per day since the beginning of the academic year. Perhaps you can understand why getting these scheduled into rooms with adequate equipment, e.g., smart classrooms with computers for students has us tearing our hair.

First Year Seminars represent the greatest percentage of classes at the beginning of the term. New students need a basic introduction to LIS resources and services. Classes will often be back for in-depth instruction in subject resources when research papers are assigned.

It is interesting to see the range of subjects addressed:

Date — Course — Title — Librarian
4 FYSE 1066 Voices Along the Way (Judy)
4 FYSE 1236 The Malleable Human (Carrie)
8 FYSE 1215 Empires (Brenda)
8 CHEM 0322 Biochemistry of Macromolecules (1) (Carrie)
8 CHEM 0322 Biochemistry of Macromolecules (2) (Carrie)
8 CHEM 0322 Biochemistry of Macromolecules (3) (Carrie)
9 HIST 0600 History Research Seminar (Brenda)
9 HIST 0600 History Research Seminar (Andy)
10 FYSE 1020 Crime & Punishment in America (Andy)
10 FYSE 1253 The Brain in Sickness & in Health (Bryan)
10 FYSE 1048 Ecology and Conservation in Vermont (Carrie)
10 FYSE 1237 What Is Life? (Carrie)
11 FYSE 1062 Brother Can You Spare a Dime? (Andy)
11 FYSE 1248 The Trojan War (Cynthia)
11 FYSE 1249 Food and Choice (Joe)
11 JAPA 0275 Seminar in Japanese (Joy)
11 FYSE 1174 Andy Warhol (Judy)
12 FYSE 1236 The Malleable Human (Carrie)
12 FYSE 1244 Geology of National Parks (Carrie)
15 Hist 0700 Senior World History Seminar (Brenda)
15 Hist 0700 Senior US History Thesis Seminar (Andy)
15 HARC 0214 Art in the Middle Ages (Judy)
16 SOAN 0302 Resch: Ethnography Qual Methods (Jean)
16 PSYC 0202 Research Methods (Bryan)
16 GEOG 0100 Place and Society (Carrie)
17 Econ 0700 Senior Research (Brenda)
17 FYSE 1258 Performing Culture (Judy)
17 FYSE 1244 Geology of National Parks (Carrie)
18 SOAN 0302 Rech: Ethnography Qual Methods (Jean)
18 HIST 0397 The U.S. and the Pacific (Andy)
18 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (1) (Bryan)
18 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (2) (Bryan)
18 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (3) (Bryan)
18 FYSE 1245 Sound: the Aural Ether (Joy)
19 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (4) (Bryan)
19 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (5) (Bryan)
19 FYSE 1021 Love & Death (Bryan)
19 FYSE 1236 The Malleable Human (Carrie)
22 GEOL 0400 Senior Thesis Seminar (Carrie)
23 REFWORKS (Brenda)
23 FYSE 1264 Race Difference in 20th C America (Andy)
23 FYSE 1250 Songwriting (Joy)
23 FYSE 1211 Godel, Escher, Bach (Judy)
23 CHEM 0311 Instrumental Analysis (Carrie)
23 HARC 0219 Northern Renaissance Art (Judy)
25 FYSE 1255 The Collapse of Complex Societies (Jean)
25 FYSE 1254 Liberation and Literature (Joy)
25 REFWORKS (Richard)
29 PSYC 0700 Senior Research (Bryan)
29 FYSE 1256 Captains, Kings, Caudillos (Joy)
29 SPAN 0300 Hispanic Literature (Joy)
29 FYSE 1048 Ecology and Conservation in Vermont (Carrie)
30 REFWORKS (Jean)

Basic technology instruction is included in a large percentage of these classes, introduced either by a Technology Liaison or by the Librarian. Classes that involve intensive use of digital media generally schedule classes separately. Some of that activity will be reported at a later date.

Farewell!

Thank you to all of you for such a wonderful place to work and live…with insightful and inspiring colleagues…and lots of exciting challenges! Thank you for a wonderful going away party as well. I will miss all of you. I will send a long a little update sometime to let you know how things are going on my life adventure! In the spirit of Mike Lynch’s comments at the party I offer this….

If you want to keep in touch….

My new email address at Bucknell:
carrie.rampp@bucknell.edu No idea yet how to login or set up this alias that will be printed on my business cards.

My new office address:
Bucknell University, 221 Bertrand Library, Lewisburg, PA 17837 No idea where this office is.

My new work cell #:
Don’t have it yet…but even when I do, I’ll have no idea how to use it as I’ll be having to make the switch from my widely-known Blackberry addiction to a WinMobile device, probably a Treo. So probably okay I’m not including it.

My new home address:
257 Chestnut Street, Mifflinburg, PA 17844 I have so much stuff exactly when I’ll be moved in is a mystery.

My new office phone:
570-577-1342 No idea how to get messages…but I never checked my voice mail much here either so this won’t be much of a change for you.
If you actually want to contact me and have hopes of reaching me…probably best to go with gmail for now: carrierampp@gmail.com

Lets keep in touch! Carrie