[i]Vol. 1,
No. 1– Fall 2003
Fun Fact:
Writer’s Thoughts
Fun
isn’t logical. Fun happens when you take
people out of their normal routine and drop them into an abnormal circumstance.
But fun makes people laugh, and you can’t help but like someone who’s
laughing. All of us, including myself,
are taken out of our normal routine at times and are dropped in abnormal
circumstances. We should accept these
abnormal circumstances for what they are…..learning experiences for all of
us. Sincerely,
Pamela Ladner.
24/7
24/7 is a service
that allows you to ask questions and get answers, in real time, on the
Internet, from live reference staff from across the country. The 24/7 Reference Service
is available from the Mississippi Electronic Libraries Online (MELO).
Academic
Search Premier
MAGNOLIA
(Mississippi’s Statewide Consortium), which is funded by the Mississippi
Legislature, provides online databases for publicly funded K-12 schools, public
libraries, community college libraries, and university libraries in
Mississippi. MAGNOLIA has added 100
full-text periodicals by changing to Academic Search Premier.
Fun
Fact:
The Doors song
Distance Learning
Check out the following website:
DL (Distance
Learning Resources) – Distance Education at a Glance
(http://www.uidaho.edu/eo/distglan.html)
This site provides
an overview of distance education that includes a glossary - “helpful for teachers, facilitators,
administrators, and students.”
Facts.com
Two databases from Facts on File are found here:
Issues &
Controversies is a reference database that provides a well-balanced,
objective analysis of controversial issues.
It gives opposing viewpoints on both current and historical issues. Each report includes outlines, chronologies,
sidebars, illustrations, and active web links.
Today’s
Science offers a collection of
significant developments in science and technology. The information comes from major scientific
journals, magazines, and newspapers in the
Fun Fact: The pistol shrimp can make a noise so loud that
it can shatter glass.
Magill
Magill offers reviewed analysis and brief plot
summaries of the most studied works in literature. The information in this database encompassed
the complete contents of 31 sets of reference books, including Masterplots, Masterplots II,
Cyclopedia of World Authors, Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, and 10 years of
Magill’s Literary Annuals & book reviews. Restricted for off-campus access.
MERLOT
MERLOT is a free and open resource
designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. Links to online learning materials are accumulated
here along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments.
You are welcome to browse the
collection or search for materials.
Members may add materials, comments, and assignments to MERLOT.
MERLOT is also a community of people
who are involved in education. Community
members help MERLOT grow by
contributing materials and adding assignments and comments.
Fun Fact: Seven percent of
Americans eat at McDonald’s every day.
Plagiarism in the Virtual Classroom
“Probing for Plagirism in the
Virtual Classroom” is an interesting article that appeared in the publication Syllabus. It includes links relating to aspects of
plagiarism within the classroom from guidelines and teaching to downloadable
applications to help detect material that has been plagiarized.
Fun Fact: It is illegal to frown at cows in
Survey
You will be receiving a survey via e-mail
from Pamela Ladner. The survey will help
the MELO Team determine which databases, if any, should be dropped. The databases up for discussion are: 24/7, Magill, or
Facts.com. Information about these three
databases is included in this newsletter.
Please take time to answer this survey so that we can provide useful and
quality library resources to assist our students.
Web
Blogs
Many college professors have started their own web blogs … a page that tracks articles and websites of
interest to a particular topic. Commission
on Higher Education (CHE) noted that for some this is a place “where scholars
tackle serious questions in a loose-limbed, vernacular mode.” A listing of these may be found at the
following two websites, Rhetorica, and GallowGlassBlogs.
Some of you may find your own subject-specific blog
to follow.
Websites
The following
websites have been selected from review tools and are located under the MELO
homepage http://www.colin.edu/vcclib.
A Biography of
America (http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica)
A
well-designed “companion” website for a college-level history course. It is divided into 26 segments that include a
map, key events of that time period, a transcript of the video version, and
related annotated links. Created by
Annenberg/CPB. On MELO homepage, under Social Science/American History.
Adherents.com
(http://www.adherents.com)
Comparative
religious site of facts and statistics -- searchable by two main categories
‘religion by name’ or ‘religion by location’.
This site was created for use by students, researchers, and academics
looking for reliable statistical information regarding any group of faith. On MELO
homepage, under Religion.
Alzheimer’s
Association (http://www.alz.org)
Although there are several parts of
this website of interest, the ‘About Alzheimers’
section includes information about the medical nature of the disease as well as
warning signs and treatment. On MELO homepage, under Health &
Physical Education.
Atlas
of the Body: Anatomy and Medical
Illustrations
(http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7140.html)
Can be browsed by categories of
brain, circulatory system, muscles, respiratory system, nervous system, and
more -- from the American Medical Association.
On MELO homepage, under Health
& Medicine
.
Baseball
Library (http://www.pubdim.net/baseballlibrary)
Notable site about ‘
Booknotes (http://www.booknotes.org)
This is the
site representing the long-running television show Booknotes. There are several interesting aspects to the
site, but the best is the collection of transcripts dating back to 1989. If the viewer has Real Player they can watch
and listen to the program. On MELO homepage, under Fine Arts/Speech.
Campus
Legal Information Clearinghouse (http://counsel.cua.edu/)
Created for
college administrators and lawyers on those issues that administrators face in
complying with federal regulations and laws.
Offers a clearninghouse on such issues as
copyright, religious issues, campus security, employment, environment and
more. Abstracts pertinent laws, as well
as directing the viewer to more detailed coverage on more specific isues like hiring regulations, intellectual property, and
foreign student tracking. Created and
maintained by Catholic University of America.
On MELO homepage, under
Education/Higher Education.
CDRI: Digital
Resources for the Study of Religion (http://www.atla.com/digitalresources)
An online
collection of religious digital resources by the American Theological Library
Association and the Association of Theological Schools. On MELO
homepage, under Social Science/Religion.
Einstein
Archives Online (http://www.alberteinstein.info/)
Includes
notes, lectures, and speeches that have been digitized. Under
MELO homepage, under Science/Physics.
EPsych (http://epsych.msstate.edu/)
An interactive
teaching tool used for introducing college psychology to students. It uses the Internet to create a “non-linear”
way of looking at the brain. Focuses on
four aspects of the brain – the deliberate mind, the biological mind, the
descriptive mind, and the adaptive mind.
Created by a professor at
Famous Trials
(http://www.umkc.edu/famoustrials)
Presents 33
famous trials arranged in chronological order from Socrates to O.J.
Simpson. Each trial includes individual
segments like key personalities, map, chronology, images and biographies. Created by a law professor. On MELO
homepage, under Government & Law.
FILExt: The File Extension Source (http://filext.com/)
A database of descriptive
information about file extensions and programs that use them --searchable by extension or browsed by
extension name. On MELO homepage, under Internet/Computers.
Forms
of Address (http://infoplease.com/ipa/A0001618.html)
Forms of
address and salutations for academics, religious orders, government officials,
military and naval officers, and other professionals -- Another handy little quick reference
source. On MELO homepage, under Business & Management/Reference.
Getty Art and
Architecture Thesaurus Online
(http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat)
A reference tool that offers
definitions and descriptions of terms relating to art and architecture. On MELO
homepage, under Fine Arts/Reference.
Guinness Book
of World Records (http://guinnessworldrecords.com)
Good example of a standard reference
source that is just as great online.
Index of
Congressional Research Service Reports (http://www.house.gov/markgreen/crs.htm)
These valuable reports produced by
the Congressional Research Service are now available on Congressman Mark
Green’s website. They cover issues and
concerns of the day both domestic and international. On MELO
homepage, under Law & Government.
InteliHealth (http://www.intelihealth.com)
Outstanding
one-stop web page for health and medical information -- joint effort of
Literacy.Org (http://www.literacyonline.org/index.html)
A gateway website to online
materials pertaining to literacy -- searchable by country or region, topic, or
perspective (such as teacher). On MELO homepage, under Education/Literacy.
Meta Subject
Index to Government Information http://www.isu.edu/library/docs/Subjects1.htm)
This index is intended to direct the
user to subject indexes which have been created for the purpose of identifying
government Internet resources in a given subject area. On MELO
homepage, under Government & Law.
The
Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu)
Exactly as its name, this website
offers valuable information to the college student or anyone interested in
becoming a better writer. Developed by a
The Secret Guide to Computers (http://www.secretguide.net/read/index.php)
Direct and easily understood information about computers. On MELO
homepage, under Internet & Computers.
The Wagner Library (http://users.belgacom.net/wagnerlibrary/)
Includes much of what is expected in a well-designed content-filled
website. However, of special interest
are Wagner’s letters both to his family and between him and Liszt. On MELO
homepage, under Fine Arts/Music.
World Lecture Hall
Are you
interested in a certain course or area? World
Lecture Hall (WLH) contains 83 categories to browse, not to mention
locating systems such as our “Find a Course” and “Advanced Search” utilities. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on
WLH, check out “About
WLH” which contains a “Useful
Links” page with links to sites such as distance learning, degree programs,
and the Center for Instructional Technologies.
Best of all, these services are free.
WLH contains links to course materials for university-level
courses.
Web Sitings
(CTRL+ Click on hyperlinked
words)
The theme of Web-Sitings #6 is virtual libraries and full-text books
online. About a year ago I typed my
criteria into Google and received three and a half
printed pages of hits; now the hits have increased at least a hundred
fold.
Many of the free sites
contain similar public domain materials (Gutenberg
Project and Bartleby’s). Some sites are mixed with free public domain,
current materials that authors have given their permission to download for
free, and materials that must be paid for (Digital Book Index). Others are strictly pay for use subscription
sites. Formats vary from HTML, PDF,
Palm, eBook, DOS, ASCII, Audio, MP3 and others. These full-text sites are not confined to just great literature, but can become very
specialized and include such things as banned books,
science texts, dime novels, Tarzan, math, pulp fiction, sacred texts, music from a choral public domain library and a
collection of codes of
ethics. A good place to start
exploring full-text books is in the Internet Research Section of the MGCCC Library Homepage
looking at MELO (Mississippi Electronic Libraries Online). Also, on the Homepage is the IPL (Internet
Public Library: Reading Room) which has it’s own collections and portals as
does the LII (The Librarian’s Index to the Internet: type “full text”).
Reference Books are a main staple of the Virtual Libraries. Psychology classics, historical sourcebooks, works about constitutional government, classical Latin and Greek, historical math
books, World War II primary source
documents, civil
engineering, computers, finance
encyclopedias, medical and veterinary manuals, statistics, physics and plays are
available -- as are glossaries,
and specialized online
dictionaries. Government archives, GPO publications and GPO catalogs are also available. Back at the Library Web Page (EbscoHost) you can find an ERIC (
But, if reading is your
pleasure Page by Page, eBook Locator,
Bibliomania, Online Books Page , University of Virginia Electronic Text
Center, Universal
Library at Carnegie Mellon, Books on the Internet by
University of Texas, Great Literature,
Search eBooks, and Short
Stories are just a few places to go.
If listening is your thing, audiobooks.com
has some free downloads as does Audio
Books for Free.
And, lastly, when you are
totally tired of reading and listening to the printed word go to Segmation
for the art of pieceful imaging.
Happy Sitings %-)
Fun Fact: Of all the boats sold, 70 percent are
used for fishing.
Final Thought
Why English is so hard to learn?
1) The bandage
was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was
used to produce produce.
3) The dump was
so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish
the Polish furniture.
5) Since there is
no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
6) He could lead
if he would get the lead out.
7) The soldier
decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
8) They were too
close to the door to close it.
9) After a number
of injections my jaw got number.
Let’s face it
– English is a crazy language. There is
no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in
pineapple. If we explore paradoxes, we
find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig
is neither from
Although it
appears we were making fun of the English language, we aren’t. We are trying to prove a point that sometimes
our students don’t understand what we are trying to say because of the way we
say it. We each have our own voice and
we should use that voice to help our students reach their goals by making sure
they understand what we are trying to say.
Contact
Information
Pamela Ladner pamela.ladner@mgccc.edu
Carol
Killough CKillou@necc.cc.ms.us
Kathleen
Hutchinson melo@colin.edu
Questions
& Comments: If you have any suggestions or ideas for the MELO newsletter, we’d love
to hear them. Just drop your news &
ideas off to one of us via email.
Remember this newsletter is your source for news. What you want to know is what we want to
print.