This Blog is Being Discontinued

For those of you who haven't yet heard, I've taken another job and will be leaving the Meriam Library. As of this post the Meriam Library Child Development News blog is discontinued. However, the blog will remain live online for a month or so during my transition to the new job.

I recently accepted an offer to become coordinator of the AskColorado Virtual Reference Cooperative. My last day at the Meriam Library is June 16th and I start my new position June 28th. My CSU, Chico e-mail account will remain live for a short while after I leave and I will be checking it so feel free to write me. Or, you can track my new e-mail down by checking the staff directory for the Colorado State Library where I'll be working in the Networking and Resource Sharing unit.

I've really enjoyed writing the Child Development blog and will miss communicating with all Child Development students, faculty and staff. Take care and good bye.

--Kris Johnson--

Watch a Feature Film this Summer - For Free!

Did you know the Meriam Library has a modest collection of feature films? Why rent when you can borrow?

You can look-up feature films in the Library Catalog by selecting the author/title/subject button, using the pull-down menu to select Subject, then typing in feature films.

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Here's a sample list of some of the titles you can find:

Emma, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette, Alan Cumming, and Ewan McGregor
Call Number: PN1997 E6232 1997 (Video Cassette)

Highlander 2 (director's cut), starring Christopher Lambert, Virginia Madsen, Michael Ironside, Sean Connery, John C. McGinley
Call Number: PN1997 H53 H543 1997 (Video Cassette)

The Horse Whisperer, starring Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest, and Scarlett Johansson.
Call Number: PN1997 H672 1995 (Video Cassette)

L.A. Confidential, starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, and Danny DeVito.
Call Number: PN1997 L113 1998 (Video Cassette)

The Pianist, starrting Adrien Brody
Call Number: D804.3 .P581 2003 (DVD Video)

The Prince of Egypt, Animation, featuring the voices of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Marin Short.
Call Number: D804.3 P75 1999 (Video Cassette)

Richard III, starring Sir Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey, Jr., Nigel Hawthorne, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, and John Wood.
Call Number: PR2821 A2 L6 1997 (Video Cassette)

Sense and Sensibility, starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, Harriet Walker
Call Number: PN1997 S362 1996 (Video Cassette)

Shine, starring Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, and John Gielgud
Call Number: PN1997 S4668 1997 (Video Cassette)

Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet
Call Number: PN1995.9 D55 T5 1998 (Video Cassette)

New Books, May

Caught in the Crossfire: Kids, Politics, and America's Future
by Lawrence Grossberg
Paradigm Publishers, c2005
Call Number: HN65 .G763 2005 (Main Collection)

Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System
by Jennifer A. Reich
Routledge, 2005
Call Number: HV741 .R438 2005 (Main Collection)

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: A Comprehensive, Developmental Approach to Assessment and Intervention
by Stanley I. Greenspan, Serena Wieder
American Psychiatric Pub., c2006
Call Number: RJ502.5 .G725 2006 (Main Collection)

The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media's Effect on our Children
by James P. Steyer
Fireside Books, c2003
Call Number: HQ784.M3 S74 2003 (Main Collection)

Self-Regulation in Early Childhood: Nature and Nurture
byMartha B. Bronson
Guilford Press, c2000
Call Number: BF723.S25 B76 2000 (Main Collection)

The Heavy Metal Umlaut - Evolution of a Wikipedia Entry

Click here to view to Heavy Metal Umlaut Wikipedia video (8.5 minutes long)

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So, way back in January I wrote that Wikipedia would be one of the "Top 5 Information Trends to Watch in 2006."

I recently found a neato video that visually illustrates the evolution of a Wikipedia entry using the popular culture topic "The Heavy Metal Umlaut."

Although the video (only 8.5 minutes long) was created in 2005, it is still relevant and useful. I would recommend showing this to students in order to teach them how Wikipedia entries are created and are constantly changing.

Red Ant Alert!

"Be on the alert, like the red ant that moves with its claws wide open." -African Proverb-

Like the red ant, always on the alert for food, enemy or prey, researchers have a pressing need to have the latest research at their claws...er, fingertips. "Alert Services" are a nifty and efficient way to keep up with that research.

What Are Alert Services?
Alert Services are technology driven notices that are sent to you (generally via e-mail) based on profiles you set-up in your areas of interest. For example, PsycAlert will let you know when new APA publications are available. And Sage, publisher of Journal of Early Childhood Research has created "SAGE Journal Email Alerts" and "My Favorite Journal," services that include email notifications for tables of contents, announcements, and keyword, author, and citations alerts.

A Workshop to Help You Learn More

Do you you feel like you're having trouble keeping up on the latest information and news in your areas of interest and research? Is so, the Meriam Library is offering a workshop that can help. The Using Information Alert Services workshop will help you to set up alert services to automatically email you table of contents for specific journals or citations to new articles on topics you have selected. It will show you which databases offer this valuable service and how to set up your own personalized alerts.

The Using Information Alert Services workshop is this Friday, April 21, 2006 from 11 am - 12 pm. in MLIB #226: The Library Education Room. Presenters extraordinaire are librarians Rich Soares and George Thompson. To reserve a seat, please contact Dorcas Erickson, Meriam Library Instruction program, 898-6361 or derickson@csuchico.edu, or if you can't commit, just show up!

Microsoft, Google, Vie for Your Academic Research

Heard of Google Scholar? Well, it appears Microsoft has a new product in the pipeline to fulfill a similar search niche; they're calling it Academic Search.

Why are commercial search engines creating these specialized search portals? Because they recognize that the general search engines don't always (often?) meet the needs of searchers in academe, and that many of the results in the search list are of questionable origin!

However, you can find a lot of great, academic quality info via the open WWW. Would you like to learn more about how to mine this data? Librarian Jacquie Foster will be giving an informative workshop this Friday from 11 - 12 called "Google II: Focus on Research." I highly recommend this workshop. You can find the details here.

Blah Humbug? Blogging in Higher Education

Blah!
Remember when people used lament that the Internet was full of nothing but pornography, so why use it? And look where we are today? Well, the Internet is still full of porn, yet people have embraced the Internet for the variety of messages it can convey and the purposes it can fulfill.

Blogs!
Blogs are the latest Internet craze and I've become aware that there are some in academe who may be saying "Blah Humbug" to blogging.

We do hear about blogs everywhere; on TV, on the web, in the newspaper (you're reading one right now, in case you didn't know.) But do you really know what a blog is? If so, are you aware of the variety of ways in which blogs are being used today? Students may be citing blogs in their papers, but how can you tell, and are blogs legitimate information resources? Are blogs just a passing online pop-culture craze and do they have any legitimate applications in higher education?

A Workshop on Blogging in Higher Education
I'll be giving a workshop on blogging tomorrow. Entitled "The Blah, Blah, Blah About BLOGS: Practical Applications of Blogging for Higher Education" the workshop will focus on interesting and practical applications of blogging technology in the higher education setting. Some blogging basics will be discussed, but the focus of my one-hour workshop will be on how those of us in higher education can understand and effectively use this technology as an information gathering and dissemination tool.

If you're interested, I'd love to have you attend. Details can be found here.

A Free Online Conference on the Use of Social Software in Higher Education
HigherEd BlogCon 2006, a fully web-based event focused on how new online communications technologies and social tools (like blogging) are changing Higher Education, has started. This free online conference will run the entire month of April. Tracks include:

• Teaching - April 3-7, 2006
• Library & Information Resources - April 10-14, 2006
• Admissions, Alumni Relations, and Communications & Marketing - April 17-21, 2006
• Websites & Web Development - April 24-28, 2006

Except as noted on the website, presentations are offered free of charge. I encourage you to check this innovate new conference out for yourself.