digital resource sets available through MnPALS Plus
Two sets of open access, free digital resources that may be of interest to students and faculty have been added to SCSU’s online catalog (MnPALS Plus).
Open Textbook Library (a project of the University of Minnesota)
(appears in Collection drop-down menu as “Univ of Mn Open Textbook Library”)
“Open textbooks are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost, or printed at low cost. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions; or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization.”
For more information, see https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/
Ebooks Minnesota
“Ebooks Minnesota is an online ebook collection for all Minnesotans. The collection covers a wide variety of subjects for readers of all ages, and features content from our state’s independent publishers, including some of our best literature and nonfiction.”
For more information, see https://mndigital.org/projects/ebooks-minnesota
These resources are included in any search done in the online catalog. To view or search one of these collections specifically, go the the Advanced Search in MnPALS Plus and select the desired collection from the Collection dropdown. Users can add search terms, or just click “Find” without entering any search terms to see the entire collection.
Ms. Joanne Lipman
October 20, 2017
Editor-in-Chief of USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, VA 22108
Dear Ms. Lipman,
In our roles as the Board of Directors of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), we are writing to express our profound disappointment with the USA Today career advice feature on October 13, 2017 entitled “Careers: 8 jobs that won’t exist in 2030,” which declared that “librarian” is the number one career among the eight jobs that inaccurate statement on two fronts: first, that the profession is declining, and second, that this alleged will disappear in 2030. This is a false and decline is a result of libraries as warehouses of printed books.
The author of this article may not realize that a professional librarian position in the U.S. and many other countries requires a Master’s degree. According to a recent article in Library Journal, 86% of recent graduates from American Library Association (ALA) accredited schools have found jobs. Another recent report (released on September 28, 2017) by Pearson, Nesta, and Oxford University predicts growth in the information professions, including librarians, curators, and archivists. They are among the top ten jobs likely to experience increased demand in 2030. The report is summarized by Library Journal in its article entitled “The Job Outlook: In 2030, Librarians Will Be in Demand.” Furthermore, your own job posting section for librarian positions does not show the decline of our profession. A close reading of the job titles should have indicated to the author that librarians do more than simply check out books.
This article demonstrates a lack of understanding of librarians’ work as information professionals. My note: but so do lack understanding a lot of librarians, paraprofessionals and administrators in libraries. They are the one, who leave the impressions reflected in the article of US Today. Information professionals IS the keyword and, as during the hype around year 2000 with Barnes & Nobles, a great number of people working in libraries continue to behave as it is the Middle Ages and care of paper-based materials the one and only responsibility a “librarian” may have. The lack of understanding regarding the wide scope of “information professionals” is profound.
Libraries provide access to print and special collections of media, and subscription-based or free electronic resources. All of these must be curated, cataloged, or organized by professional librarians to make them accessible to their users. My note: beating your own drum is good, but when failing to recognize the existence of folksonomy and its impact, do not get upset when US Today reflects the impact
College and university librarians carry out research consultations and instruct student and faculty in finding, evaluating, and using information. My note: when faculty let them do it. And administration recognizes it. It is a shaky position, which does not exclude the 2030 scenario.
Public librarians connect patrons to community resources, lead programming for children and adults, and engage in community outreach and advocacy. Special librarians work for corporations, federal and state institutions, focusing on gathering competitive intelligence and making sure their organizations have access to the information they need to make sound business or strategic decisions.
The article also inaccurately presents libraries as dedicated solely to books:
More and more people are clearing out those paperbacks and downloading e-books on their Tablets and Kindles instead. The same goes for borrowing — as books fall out of favor, libraries are not as popular as they once were. That means you’ll have a tough time finding a job if you decide to become a librarian. Many schools and universities are already moving their libraries off the shelves and onto the Internet.
In addition to providing access to books, journals, newspapers, and other media, both electronically and in print, libraries provide access to technology, from computers, laptops, and iPads to 3D printers, My note: are we? are we doing this at our library? Are the reference librarians allowing such blasphemous thoughts penetrate this library? And if they do, do they allow other professionals to collaborate with them, or “keep it for themselves?”
multimedia software, and recording studios. My note: whaaat?
Many libraries have expanded their non-print collections and are circulating a wide variety of objects including tools, musical instruments, toys, wifi hotspots, and artwork. Libraries are highly valued as community centers and safe spaces that allow people to connect with information and with each other. Research shows that libraries are one of the most trusted and valued public institutions in the country.
The article further argues that librarians and libraries are not needed because printed books are falling out of favor. However, there is considerable counter-evidence that printed books are still in demand, including the articles cited below.
Cain, S. (2017, March 14). Ebook sales continue to fall as younger generations drive appetite for print. The Guardian. Retrieved from:
Milliot, J. (2017, January 20). The Bad News About E-books: Nielsen reports units fell 16% in 2016 compared to 2015. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved from:
We respectfully request an open response from you or from the author of the article. Sincerely,
Students match their preference for hybrid learning with a belief that it is the most effective learning environment for them.
Despite the fact that faculty prefer teaching in a hybrid environment, they remain skeptical of online learning. Nearly half do not agree online 45% learning is effective.
Students asked what technologies they wish their instructors used more, and we asked faculty what technologies they think could make them more effective instructors. Both agree that content and resource-focused technologies should be incorporated more and social media and tablets should be incorporated less.
con?:with the advent of personal assistants like Siri and Google Now that aim to serve up information before you even know you need it, you don’t even need to type the questions.
pro: Whenever new technology emerges — including newspapers and television — discussions about how it will threaten our brainpower always crops up, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker wrote in a 2010 op-ed in The New York Times. Instead of making us stupid, he wrote, the Internet and technology “are the only things that will keep us smart.”
Pro and con: Daphne Bavelier, a professor at the University of Geneva, wrote in 2011 that we may have lost the ability for oral memorization valued by the Greeks when writing was invented, but we gained additional skills of reading and text analysis.
con: Daphne Bavelier, a professor at the University of Geneva, wrote in 2011 that we may have lost the ability for oral memorization valued by the Greeks when writing was invented, but we gained additional skills of reading and text analysis.
con: A 2008 study commissioned by the British Library found that young people go through information online very quickly without evaluating it for accuracy.
pro or con?: A 2011 study in the journal Science showed that when people know they have future access to information, they tend to have a better memory of how and where to find the information — instead of recalling the information itself.
pro: The bright side lies in a 2009 study conducted by Gary Small, the director of University of California Los Angeles’ Longevity Center, that explored brain activity when older adults used search engines. He found that among older people who have experience using the Internet, their brains are two times more active than those who don’t when conducting Internet searches.
the Internet holds great potential for education — but curriculum must change accordingly. Since content is so readily available, teachers should not merely dole out information and instead focus on cultivating critical thinking
make questions “Google-proof.”
“Design it so that Google is crucial to creating a response rather than finding one,” he writes in his company’s blog. “If students can Google answers — stumble on (what) you want them to remember in a few clicks — there’s a problem with the instructional design.”
The differences between the most popular 3D printing technologies, including: fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), digital light processing (DLP), and selective laser sintering (SLS)
How to understand a 3D printer specifications chart
What 3D printing resolution quality mean in 3D printing
How educators at universities, high schools, and colleges around the world are using the Form 2 to empower students and conduct research
Web search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo are integral to making information more discoverable on the open web. How can you expose data about your organization, its services, people, collections, and other information in a way that is meaningful to these search engines?
In this 90 minute session, learn how to leverage Schema.org and semantic markup to achieve enhanced discovery of information on the open web. The session will provide an introduction to both Schema.org and the JSON-LD data format. Topics include an in-depth look at the Schema.org vocabulary, a brief overview of semantic markup with a focus on JSON-LD, and use-cases of these technologies. By the end of the session, you will have an opportunity to apply these technologies through a structured exercise. The session will conclude with resources and guidance for next steps.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will leave this webinar with tools for increasing the discoverability of information on the open web.
This program will include presentation slides, bibliographic references to resources referenced to in the slides, and hands-on exercise material. The exercise material will include instructions, template records for attendees to practice applying Schema.org and JSON-LD, and example records as reference material.
Who Should Attend
Librarians and other professionals interested in increasing discovery of their organization’s information and collections on the open web. General knowledge of metadata concepts and standards is encouraged. Familiarity with the concept of data formats (XML, JSON, MARC, etc.) would be helpful.
Jacob Shelby is the Metadata Technologies Librarian at North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries, where he performs metadata activities that support library information services and collections. He has collaborated on endeavors to enhance the discovery of library services and collections on the open web, including exposing NCSU Libraries digital special collections data as Schema.org data. In addition to these endeavors, Jacob has taught workshops at NCSU Libraries on Schema.org and semantic markup.
he General Services Administration (GSA) has ordered the removal of Kaspersky software platforms from its catalogues of approved vendors. Meanwhile, the Senate is considering a draft bill of the 2018 National Defense Acquisition Authorization (known as the NDAA, it specifies the size of and uses for the fiscal year 2018 US Defense Department budget) that would bar the use of Kaspersky products in the military.
W.H. cybersecurity coordinator warns against using Kaspersky Lab software
The whole ordeal is a nightmare for Kaspersky Lab. The company looks incompetent at preventing state-sponsored hacks in the best-case scenario and complicit with the Russian government in the worst-case scenario. However it plays out, the unfolding drama will certainly hurt the software maker’s footprint in the U.S., where Congress has already taken action to purge the government of the company’s software.
