Information Literacy News

As you wrap up final exams and pack your bags for the holidays, be sure to stop by the Blume Library's new Information Literacy display!

Not sure what Information Literacy involves? Also known as Information Competency or Information Fluency, Information Literacy refers to the skills used to identify when information is needed, and then locate, evaluate, and use it effectively. These abilities are especially crucial in our current environment of technological change and nearly unlimited information choices.

Ever been stumped with the question, "Can I really trust this information?" Whether looking up stock market prices, searching for the latest YouTube videos, or googling to find a paper topic, it's easy to become overwhelmed with the increasing abundance of unfiltered resources.

Here's where Information Literacy dives in for the rescue! Information literate individuals understand how knowledge is organized and how to apply strategies for finding, analyzing, and using information to nearly any challenge. They are not only able to exercise more control over their learning in academic settings, but also manage information choices in their everyday lives with greater ease.

For more details about Information Literacy, check out the following links:

• Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)


• Information Literacy Resources Directory


• National Forum on Information Literacy


• St. Mary's Information Competency Plan


• Texas Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT)

Over the break, test out your Information Literacy skills with some fun Internet Search Challenges, or polish your chops with these tips for locating, evaluating, and using Internet resources!

Global Road Warrior

Have you tried the Blume Library’s new database, Global Road Warrior? Whether you’re an adventuresome traveler, preparing for a Study Abroad program, or curious about different cultures, this "ultimate guide to the world" promises a worldwide experience!

Just in time for International Education Week at St. Mary’s, Global Warrior offers a wealth of information about 175 countries. Learn about the climate or demographics for locales that your friends discussed in the Student Showcase. Find out more about the business culture for countries represented in the Fair Trade Sale. Before watching the film, Rough Cut, equip yourself with facts about security and medical issues.

Global Road Warrior is especially valuable for preparing yourself to visit a foreign country. Jot down sightseeing stops recommended by insiders, gain practical insight about essentials to pack in your suitcase, and memorize a few common terms in the native language. Familiarize yourself with the country’s electrical plugs and voltage standards, and check out a list of nearby Internet cafes, to stay connected during your travels. You can also find answers to specific concerns, including tipping practices, emergency numbers, transportation options, and advice geared towards businesswomen.

Link to Global Warrior at the top of the Blume library’s website, and tour the possibilities! [photo courtesy of http://www.thewashingtonnote.com]

Sustainability Resources: Live and Online

Interested in learning more about sustainability issues and how you can get involved? You're in luck!

This Saturday, November 15, stop by the Texas Recycles Day festivities at Woodlawn Lake Park, less than 3 miles from St. Mary’s campus (map). Start the day off by learning how to compost, then soak in the music, entertainment, and food. Pick up a few tips from the on-site exhibits, including purses made from recycled books and hand/chair massages. Drop off your used ink cartridges, plastic grocery bags, wire hangers, and even old sneakers, to de-clutter your dorm room and recycle at the same time!

Before you go, check out these online resources:

• LivingGreenSA.com supplies local news, blogs, and an events calendar, as well as links to other city and state-wide resources.
• The Green Wikia community generates content written from a green point of view and focused on ways people can adapt to more sustainable living, with topics from hybrid cars to natural pest control.
• Grist sheds light on environmental news, with a splash of humor, to prove that “news about green issues and sustainable living doesn’t have to be predictable, demoralizing, or dull.” Learn handy tricks for everyday eco-living, read about the political side of green issues, and load up on enviro-friendly kitchen wisdom with weekly recipes.
• Along a similar wavelength, TreeHugger delivers sustainability news through an enthusiastic, upbeat lens. A reliable media outlet for blogs, newsletters, videos, and even a weekly radio show related to sustainability, TreeHugger brilliantly fuses green themes with modern fashion and lifestyle trends.
• One of the oldest and most thorough sources of sustainability news, Envirolink connects you with a range of resources, especially helpful for non-profits.
• For media websites dedicated to sustainability audio and video, visit: GreenTV, emPivot, Do The Green Thing, Go Green Tube, and ViroPOP.
  [Photo courtesy of http://www.ga.wa.gov]

Sustainability Resources in the Spotlight

Heard the new buzz word on campus? Last week, The President’s Peace Commission hosted a program dedicated to the issue of sustainability. On November 18, the Lin Great Speakers Series will return to environmental concerns, with renowned speaker David Orr’s lecture, “The Changing Climate of U.S. Politics.” International Education Week, scheduled for the same week (November 16-21), focuses on a similar theme, “We Have Only One Earth: An Environmental Challenge,” with related exhibits and presentations.

Swing by the Blume Library to dig deeper into the issues! Our new sustainability display gives you a taste of the resources available on campus. From films to government documents, newly-released books on the hottest topics in the field and even e-books that you can access from your own laptop at home, you’re guaranteed to pick up a few interesting facts. Maybe even find a topic for that research paper on your “to-do” list…

The display also includes some tips for how you can take action toward a sustainable future and online resources to guide your plan. Check out the Carbon Footprint site to calculate how much carbon dioxide your everyday activities account for, and then learn how you can reduce your carbon footprint with simple changes, like defrosting your refrigerator or turning off your DVD player.

Among state resources, Texas Campaign for the Environment offers voting records and environmental reports, quirky videos, and contact information for similar organizations. At the local level, Build San Antonio Green connects you with green builders and designers, provides a “green map” of San Antonio, and keeps you updated with an events calendar. [photo courtesy of http://www.solarsanantonio.org/]

Digital Texas Resources of Note

The Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative (THDI) is a statewide cooperative effort to digitize historical Texas documents and images, which are placed on their web site Texas Heritage Online. Included in this collection is Orville Dewey's 1844 document Discourse on Slavery and the Annexation of Texas, an oral history of George Orzuna, Jr. with both a transcript and the audio available, and a picture of Colonel Castro with Corranzisla's forces at Ojinaga.

The University of North Texas has been digitizing its collection of historic artifacts and placing them in their Portal of Texas History. They have also begun receiving grants to help other institutions digitize collections. UNT is a key player in the THDI.

The Library of Congress’s Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers project is working with the Portal of Texas History to digitize newspapers from Texas. Currently The Daily Herald from Brownsville has been scanned and uploaded to the Library of Congress’s site. The Library of Congress's site includes digitized newspapers from across the country.

Voter Prep 201

Voter Prep 101 presents some great resources to get more information about candidates at the top of the election ballot. But what about those races further down the ballot? Who are all those justices and judges we’re voting for? Where do we find more information about the people running for county offices? And what about the candidates for school board and water district elections?

It is often difficult to find in-depth unbiased information about the candidates for local elections. There usually isn’t the media coverage for local races that there is for national and statewide races. And candidates for local elections often don’t have the financial resources that state and national candidates have.

Here are a few suggested resources for gleaning more information, however. A page with links to candidates’ campaign websites, or at least contact information where available, is located at Voter Information 2008: Bexar County, Texas.

The LexisNexis Academic database (available to the St. Mary’s University community) provides access to an archive of full-text articles from newspapers and newswire stories, including articles from the San Antonio Express-News, the Associated Press and Business Wire.

Of course one can search for individual candidates via the Google search engine. Results will sometimes turn up entries from local blogs, such as the WalkerReport, as well as scattered articles from local online news sources. A list of area media with a web presence is included in the San Antonio Media Sources Guide, including newspapers and magazines.

Voter Prep 101

With the end of the presidential debates and Nov. 4 just around the corner, are you ready to vote?

If you’re planning to vote in San Antonio, be sure to check out the Bexar county election site, where you can verify that you’re registered, see a list of early voting locations, and preview a sample ballot. Voting outside of San Antonio? Navigate through the Texas Secretary of State’s election site and USA.gov.

Still undecided about which presidential candidate to support? Start with the issues that matter most to you, and try TPR’s “Select a Candidate” quiz. By selecting your view on a series of topics, the survey helps to determine the candidate whose positions are most compatible with your leanings. Perhaps even more useful, the results page outlines each candidate’s position on specific issues, including Iraq and Afghanistan, immigration, and education.

Puzzled by a candidate’s claims during the debate or skeptical about a media pundit’s commentary? Factcheck.org, a non-partisan, nonprofit consumer advocate for voters, aims to decrease confusion and deception in US politics by educating readers on the issues.

A similar nonpartisan guide, OpenSecrets.org, focuses on the role of money in U.S. elections and public policy.

Check out Politico.com, a nonpartisan Internet journal that covers a wide array of political subjects and features a “Campus” page specifically geared toward students.

If you’re interested in tracking daily trends in the campaign, along with bipartisan analysis, browse the latest developments at Pollster.com.

Links to more Open Access data

Looking for more information on Open Access? Try these great resources!

The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is one of the leading bodies in Open Access.

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is, in my humble opinion, the premier site to use when trying to locate an Open Access journal in a specific discipline or on a specific topic.

Are you a student and want to connect with other open-minded people? Try Students for Free Culture.

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is another amazing site similar to DOAJ, but focusing on scientific and medical literature.

Tuesday, October 14 is the first annual Open Access Day

Feeling politically motivated? You may wish to contact your Congressional representatives and encourage them to OPPOSE HR6845, which is intended to prevent Open Access distribution of federally-funded research. We’ve already paid for the research with our tax dollars, why should we pay again just to read the results?
Open Access Day’s blog has more information as does The Alliance for Taxpayer Access.

The Open Access Directory has a bunch of great links with much more information.

SPARC has some relatively brief brochures explaining Open Access.

Peter Suber of SPARC has written this brief, one-page explanation of Open Access.

What's going on with the economy?

The current crazy economic situation is pretty confusing, but here are a few information sources that can help you make as much sense of it as it's possible to do.

Here is a link to the Treasury Department's press release, detailing the original bailout package. The Congressional Budget Office prepared this informational letter in response to a Congressman's request for cost details. Here's a link to the bill that was rejected on Monday, and here's the House of Representative's report on the bill. Be aware that the great amount of interest in these documents has overworked government servers on occasion the past few days. You might have to try more than once to get this material, especially if you have a slow connection.

Reliable, non-partisan news analysis can be found here in a series of articles on the National Public Radio website. They give you lots of links to background information.

Want a really different perspective? Here's what today's Times of London has to say.

Open Access is a phenomenal movement in publishing. Much like the philosophy behind open-source software, Open Access publishing uses the Internet to freely disseminate research findings and reports.

Traditionally, researchers applied for grants from federal institutions. These institutions used tax payers’ money to fund the research grants. The researchers then conducted their research and published their findings in a journal. To read the article, members of the general public had to purchase the journal or find a library with a subscription to the journal, in effect paying to read the results of research that they funded!

With Open Access, researchers still apply for grants, which are still typically granted using federal monies. However, now the reports are published in Open Access journals, which are freely available online and anyone with an Internet connection may read the article reporting the findings.

Open Access provides researchers with a larger audience, shortens the delay between acceptance and publication of articles, and increases the citation rate of their articles.

Open Access provides researchers with free online access to scholarly information.

Open Access provides teachers with research articles which they can freely share and use in classes without fear of copyright infringement.

Open Access provides scientists and scholars a feasible way to publish their research without utilizing the traditional publishing system, which has actually been raising prices for years, causing many libraries to cut subscriptions. Some subscription prices have increased 700 percent since 1989! Publishing through Open Access is an effective solution to the out-of-control spiraling of journal prices.

To learn more, visit the Public Library of Science (http://www.plos.org/oa/definition.html), The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (http://www.arl.org/sparc/), or Students for Free Culture (http://freeculture.org/).

New On The International Scene

Have you ever searched for global data, only to find yourself overwhelmed with the wealth of information available? The Blume Library may have a solution for you, with two recent additions to the International Relations subject database.

Launched by the United Nations Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNdata delivers a single entry point for locating and accessing an impressive array of statistical resources. Currently consisting of 17 databases, with more additions on the way, UNdata searches over 55 million records pooled by UN agencies and similar international organizations from the past 60 years.

Topics range from agriculture, employment, and industry to education, health, and tourism. Users can search by keyword, browse individual databases, or even view popular searches from other users. Bonus features include country profiles that summarize key social and economic statistics, accessorized with color maps; a wiki with links to in-depth information about UNdata’s sources; an extensive glossary of commonly-used terms; and an Explorer tab for locating data sources and displaying statistical reports in table formats. Highly recommended by the most recent issue of Choice Reviews, this powerful tool is intended not only for analysts and decision-makers but also for students in a variety of disciplines who share a common interest in global statistics.

International Security Resources targets the information overload issue with a similar solution, by compiling international resources in a central location. Edited by Richard Horowitz, Esq., this collection of resources may be browsed by topic or tool, though a keyword search may be the most practical tactic for sifting through the wide assortment of links for useful tidbits. Topics include arms control, human rights, money laundering, and weapons of mass destruction, while the featured tools consist of databases, search engines, libraries, and media. Whether you’re tracking down the latest counterterrorism reports, locating international bloggers, or challenging your investigative knowledge with a 38-question quiz, indulge your curiosity by checking out International Security Resources.

Both International Relations resources are freely available through the Blume Library’s Databases Listed By Subject.

London-bound

In a couple of days 23 St. Mary's undergrads and 2 faculty members will be heading to London for the fall semester. One of the faculty is Librarian Kathy Amen. The students will be taking courses on British culture, history of science, sports in the UK, and World War II, earning St. Mary's credits toward graduation. Some of them will also be working in internship positions with British firms. In addition, of course, they'll all be experiencing English and European culture and cuisine first-hand.

Does this experience sound like fun to you? Check out this and other St. Mary's study abroad programs here. And if you want to keep in touch with Kathy while she's away, read her blog.

Wordle Wonder

Wordle is a program that generates "word clouds" from text that you provide. Unlike regular word clouds that simply give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text, Wordle makes an image with words of varied prominence. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. You can print out the images, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Here's a Wordle for this blog. Click on the image for a larger version:


View the Wordle gallery to see images others have made. Have fun making your own Wordles!

Philosophical Exploration

From Italian existentialist Nicola Abbagnano to Spanish Christian ontologist Xavier Zubiri, the entries in the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Donald M. Borchert, discuss the thought systems of important individual philosophers from around the world, as well as important topics, ranging from aesthetic experience to Zoroastrianism. In print, this publication is 10 volumes and totals to nearly 8,000 pages. However, it is available anytime, any day to the St. Mary's University community through the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

This resource was recognized as an Outstanding Academic Title in 2006 by Choice, the American Library Association's chief academic book and electronic resource review publication.

The clear and accessible presentation of wide-ranging philosophical subjects makes this a first-stop resource for general readers, students and educators. The entries tend to be longer and more comprehensive than in similar works and include guides to related entries. This resource includes an appendix of additional articles; a thematic outline of the contents based organized by historical periods and subfields of philosophy; a number of articles on philosophy bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and journals; and an index for the entire set.

Environmental Resources

• The library subscribes to several resources that will help you find information about current and developing environmental issues and technologies. Through the Gale Virtual Reference Library, which is available to the St. Mary’s University community online at any time, everyday, you can access Environmental Issues: Essential Primary Sources. This 2006 publication contains approximately 175 full or excerpted documents---speeches, legislation, magazine and newspaper articles, essays, memoirs, letters, interviews, novels, songs, and works of art---as well as overview information that places each document in context. Coverage includes environmental thought and writing; earth processes and history; energy; environmental disasters, legislation, conservation, and activism; and human impacts on nature as it illustrates the diversity of environmental issues facing present and future generations.

• Another resource that is helpful for current issues, such as rising oil prices, climate change, alternative fuels, recycling or waste reduction, and more, is CQ Researcher. This resource provides an overview, background, chronology, current situation, statements from opposing positions, and a bibliography for each timely topic covered.

• Academic Search Complete and Business Source Complete are two databases providing access to journal articles. They can be searched simultaneously, and a search can be limited to items including “Full Text” and to “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals.”

• Our library online catalog provides access to print and online books, as well as government information about environmental issues.

• There are a number of environment-related resources bookmarked at http://del.icio.us/blumelibrary. These can be browsed or searched by tags such as water, sustainability, renewable, energy, and more.

Cinephilia

A refreshing cool retreat from the summertime heat of South Texas can be found by viewing a film in a movie theater or on your personal entertainment system. Two film reference sources available anytime, any day to the St. Mary's University community through the Gale Virtual Reference Library can provide more scholarly information than one might find through the Internet Movie Database.

The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers provides thorough coverage of films and filmmakers, including legendary films, actors and actresses, directors, writers and other production artists. Entries include a detailed essay written by an expert, biographies, filmographies, comprehensive credits, and major awards. Entries also contain extensive references to books and journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. In print, this publication is 5,706 pages contained in 4 volumes. The 4th edition was published in 2000 and contains numerous photographs.

Another film source, Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film (2007), provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to film and film studies, covering such aspects as production, national traditions, studios, genres, critical theory and film history. This source is useful for those looking at themes or background on terms, such as cinephilia. In print, this publication is 2,136 pages contained in 4 volumes. It was named an Outstanding Reference Source in 2008 by the American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association Collection Development and Evaluation Section.

Access these resources from the cool comfort of your home or office and impress your friends with your understanding of film theory or background film knowledge!

Congratulations to 2nd Annual Library Undergraduate Research Award recipients

On Friday, March 28, 2008, the recipients of the Second Annual Louis J. Blume Library Undergraduate Research Award were recognized at the Ninth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. The awards recognize student researchers who demonstrate skill and originality in the application of library and other information sources in a research project.

The First Place Award of $200 was granted to Rita Lopez for her project, "The Influence and Adaptation of the Japanese Noh Theatre in William Butler Yeats’s 'At the Hawk’s Well'." Faculty mentors for the project were Dr. Alice Kersnowski and Dr. Frank Kersnowski.

The Second Place Award of $100 was given to Kristin Taylor Leslie for her project, "Performance Theory in Edith Wharton’s ‘The Age of Innocence’." Faculty mentors were Dr. Richard Pressman and Dr. Alice Kersnowski.

We thank all the students who took the time and effort to submit an application and proposal for the Award. We encourage students who are eligible to apply next year for the Louis J. Blume Library Undergraduate Research Award.

Congratulations to Rita and Kristin!

Census Atlas of the U.S.

This colorful new publication from the Census Bureau puts all kinds of interesting statistics about the U.S. and its citizens in fascinating visual form. The first comprehensive population and housing atlas published by the Bureau since the 1920's, it contains almost 800 maps, most showing data to the county level. In addition, there are narrative highlights and useful charts further illustrating the diverse subjects: age and sex, race and Hispanic origin, living arrangements, language, income and poverty, education, migration, military service, and more.

Want to get a visual idea of how many children in the U.S. consider themselves to be of mixed race? check out page 36. How about a comparison of commuters leaving for work before 6 a.m. in 1990 and in 2000? Page 191. Need a visual idea of which Houston neighborhoods have a higher median income? You can see that on page 218. These are just some examples of the kind of information contained in the atlas.

The atlas is available for in-library use and it can be found on the bottom shelf (since it's too big to fit on the regular shelves) in the documents stacks near its classification number: C 3.205/8-3:29. And if you should need access to its maps from off campus, you can find a PDF version on the Census Bureau's website.

From Suffrage to the Senate Profiles America's Political Women

This election year is an appropriate time to search and visit From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues. In print, the publication is 943 pages contained in 2 volumes. However, it is available anytime, any day to the St. Mary's University community through the Gale Virtual Reference Library. The 2nd edition was published in 2006 and contains more than 120 photos and tables, plus more than 150 new entries.

The encyclopedia covers relevant court cases, legislation, organizations, movements and social issues, as well as biographical sketches on women who have worked in various arenas of American politics, including campaigns and the media.

A chronology of women in American politics from 1638 to the present is provided. Do you know who the first woman to run for president of the United States was? Hint: the year was 1892. Find out, and learn much more by exploring From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues!

Explore the Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America

Another reference resource recognized as an Outstanding Academic Title in 2007 by Choice, the American Library Association's chief academic book and electronic resource review publication, is the Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. This publication also received the prestigious American Historical Association's 2006 Waldo G. Leland Prize, which has only been awarded to one publication every five years since 1981.

The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America was edited by Rosemary Skinner Keller and Rosemary Radford Ruether with associate editor Marie Cantlon and was published by Indiana University Press. In print, the publication is 3 volumes and totals to 1,296 pages. However, it is available anytime, anyday to the St. Mary's University community through the Gale Virtual Reference Library. The encyclopedia is interreligious, interracial, and multicultural and features more than 145 longer essays. The articles focus on institutions, movements, and ideas. More than 150 authors contributed to this work, weaving biographical sketches into their articles to give them a more personal and humanizing quality, and to recognize the women responsible for the gains made over the centuries. The work contains 150 black and white photos. Explore this online reference work during National Women's History Month!

Access the Dictionary of Women Worldwide Anytime, Anywhere

March is National Women's History Month, and this month we are profiling online reference sources about women that the St. Mary's University community can access through the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Noted by the American Library Association's chief academic book and electronic resource review publication, Choice recognized the Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages as an Outstanding Academic Title in 2007. A synopsis of each woman's life and her accomplishments or historical importance is included with each entry, often followed by bibliographic information. Also included are 85 genealogical charts, and chronological, geographical, and occupational indexes. The dictionary includes many women outside the United States.

Explore current controversial issues through CQ Researcher

CQ Researcher Online is a wonderful resource for providing background and multiple perspectives on current controversial topics, particularly for lower level undergraduate courses. Recent reports have covered the immigration debate, student aid and the cost of higher education, consumer safety, racial diversity in public schools, domestic poverty, wounded veterans, and more.

Each report provides an overview, background, chronology, current situation, statements from opposing positions, and bibliography. This product contains engaging, insightful, unbiased analyses of the most pressing issues in the news. Features include Citenow! which generates citations in multiple formats, and helpful tools are provided such as “Next Step” and bibliographies that guide students to sources for further research. CQ Researcher Online has been recognized for editorial excellence, and is produced by Congressional Quarterly Press.

CQ Researcher Online is available through the Blume Library home page, where it's located under Databases Listed Alphabetically.

Register now to vote in the Texas primaries

If you want to vote in the March 4 Texas presidential primaries, and you're not already registered, you'd better get busy! You must be registered 30 days before an election, and our primary is on March 4. That makes this Monday the deadline for registration. Get a voter registration form from the Texas Secretary of State's website. Then, if you're a Bexar County resident, follow the directions on their elections website. If you want to register in another Texas county, follow these directions on the Texas Secretary of State website.

Have another state as your residence? You can find out how to register there and what the dates are for your primaries at this website.

Once you're registered, you want to be sure you can cast an informed vote. You can get good information on the candidates at Project Vote-Smart. The University of Michigan also has a comprehensive collection of links related to the elections and the candidates. The local League of Women Voters has good, non-partisan information on local candidates and issues.

More information about registering, voting, and being an informed local citizen, can be found on this Local Government and Politics page.

With both the Democratic and Republican presidential fields still relatively wide-open, Texas' primary might actually be important this year! Make your voice count, and vote.