BBC Languages

Want to sharpen your Spanish or Chinese language skills? Do you need a site that's reputable and trustworthy? Want audio and video?

Look no further, try BBC Languages.

There's a multitude of materials all available for FREE for learning in Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Gaelic (!), and so on. The site also covers essential phrases in 36 languages.

Deviance

Dave Asma's Deviance Class invite the CLC community to their 2nd Annual Deviance Poster Session on December 9th starting at 6PM outside the Library. Students will present theories and information about how sociologists define deviant behavior.

Pictures from last year's event are located at The CLC Sociology Website: http://www.clcillinois.edu/programs/soc/

Great Teachers

Have you ever wondered what characteristics define "the best" college teachers? What types of teaching styles they employ?

In his book, What the Best College Teachers Do, Ken Bain explains that the "best teachers know their subjects inside and out - but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses."

Click on the title above for more information.

This is a great resource for first-year instructors and seasoned educators alike.

Business Faculty Helps Library Reach Goal!

Mark Dowling, Food Service Instructor, in the CLC Business Division helped us reach our goal of 1,000 books at the new Southlake Library.

"This is a big help to students. We especially need help building the Southlake Library right now, so Mark's donation is greatly appreciated." remarked Kathleen, Reference Librarian.

Mark donated three books from his personal collection to help his students have access to the textbooks he is using in class.

Student requests for textbooks are frequent, and library staff work with faculty to make them available on the Reserve shelves at the Library Circulation Desk. Additional materials needed by all students be placed on reserve by instructor request.

Also, the librarians accept requests for materials in all formats for the general collection. To see a current list of which librarian you should contact for specific areas of collection please visit: [ Librarian Areas of Collection ] You may also use the [ online suggestion form ] or simply call the reference desk at 847.543.2071.

Visit the Southlake Campus and Library!

Southlake Campus Open House
Saturday, August 23 1:30-3:30 PM

The Host

Instructors, are you looking for a riveting read for your class to share? Something filled with a mixture of themes? Something your class will enjoy discussing?

Look no farther. Stephenie Meyer, previously of the young adult market, has entered the adult literature arena with her new book, The Host.

While the book is large, 624 pages, it's a quick read.

The premise: Earth is visited by an alien species that takes over humans minds eventually pushing the human out of its body. One human, Melanie Stryder, refuses to fade away.

Check out Amazon's link for an interview with the author, here.

Festival of Deviance

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Library Atrium

Today, in the Library's atrium, join Social Sciences 223-004 students as they present informational posters based on their research regarding deviant topics.

Help evaluate student projects and learn something new from the realm of deviants and deviance!

Sponsored by Soc 223, Instructor Dave Asma, and the Social Sciences Division

New Course - Anthropology of Jazz

New Course -- Anthropology of Jazz

Mondays from 7-9:45 PM in Room A245
August 25 – December 17, 2008
Dr. Scott Cashman

This course will develop an understanding of the cultural influences on the development of African-American music as well as the cultural implications of the music. In addition to becoming familiar with the range of styles that are African-American in nature, questions of economics and globalization, race, gender, politics and social organization will be examined. Understanding the forces which create cultural change will also be examined.

For more information, contact the Social Sciences division, 847.543.2047.

Distance Librarians

Dr. Nicholas Schevera, pictured above, wanted to provide his online students with research assistance. The problem was, how could he get the Librarians to his students?


In stepped librarian, Terry Sebastian with colleague Michelle Carter (pictured above.) Terry had experimented with instructor, MaryAnn Bretzlauf and her online class in the fall. The two developed a system via Blackboard to help students with online research.

Terry and MaryAnn brought Nick and Michelle on board. The instructors, librarians, and students now collaborate together using Blackboard, online library resources, and email.

Librarians are happy to direct the students to online library resources which provide many full-text articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers. Along with articles, the librarians are providing information on evaluating web sites and information on how to develop work cited pages too.


Interested? Contact Terry Sebastian, x2469 or Michelle Carter, x2891 for more information.

Getting your students to read just got easier.

Last year the Murphy Library sent out a list of accessible reads: books that are 300 pages or less with a vocabulary that’s adult but not too taxing. This year the list has been entered in the library catalog under the subject “Accessible Reads”.

Feel free to
· access this list for your own enjoyment
· direct your students to it
· remind them that you can view the catalog from home

New titles are added as we discover them so check out the list and watch it grow.

Hello, Teacher!

A new educational blog called Hello, Teacher! Visit http://www.nfb.ca/helloteacher/

from the site:
Throughout the year, we’ll broadcast video and audio interviews hosted by the irrepressible Veronica Barton, head of North American Institutional Sales. Filmmakers, community facilitators and teachers will share their points of views on the educational value of selected NFB films. This week Veronica presents Sexy Inc. Our Children Under Influence. NFB filmmaker Sophie Bissonette and Lilia Goldfarb from the YWCA share their insights about this very topical film. We invite you to watch the interviews with our experts, view the clips from the film and download the teacher’s guide. Join the discussions!

Harvard Faculty Publishing Online

from American Libraries:

Harvard faculty approve open access policy

Harvard University’s arts and sciences faculty voted unanimously February 12 to publish their scholarly articles online, making them available to the public at no charge.

Under the plan, the university’s library will oversee a newly created Office of Scholarly Communication that will serve as a repository for the material. Faculty members will retain the copyright to their articles, subject to the university’s license, and can request a waiver of the license for particular articles in special cases....

Do you know where your students...

Get their research?

Are your students using library databases, books, Google, or Wikipedia to complete that assignment? Did you know that Google only searches a small percentage of what's available on the web?

Make sure your students have the skills they need to succeed by scheduling a research session with the library for your class. Librarians can:

• Introduce your students to library services (do you know about the iPods?)


• Help them find books on their subjects


• Teach them to find scholarly articles using our multiple databases


• Offer website evaluation techniques (an essential skill for today's student)


• Show students citation guides and resources


• Suggest better keywords or terms to use in searching


• And much more...

We're available for any subject, course level, time of day, or campus. Our library classroom provides your students with hands-on experience using the skills we're teaching.

Call the Reference Desk to schedule your session now! 847-543-2071

Marketing & Education

from the Passionate blog -

An interesting bit about how education and marketers could benefit by sharing information.

About the blog:

The Creating Passionate Users bloggers are all fascinated by brains, minds and what science can tell us about the practice of making users passionate about their lives and tools.

Joost - What is It?

Social networking has come to TV.

I wonder how the world of education could use this? Perhaps faculty could have students watch a particular piece from the National Geographic channel and then discuss the episode while viewing?

from the web site (click here):


"... great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the program - so you find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like - as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection. Get Joost today!"

e-Learning

Bryn Holmes and John Gardener have written the book e-Learning: Concepts and Practice. The text focuses on:

• educational evolution
• enriching the learning experience
• learner empowerment
• design concepts and considerations
• creation of e-communities
• communal constructivism

Look for this book and others at the Murphy Library.

Ways to Use Graphic Novels in Class

The Murphy Library currently has a display of graphic novels on the 2nd floor landing. In case you didn't know, the Library currently owns about 40 titles.

Graphic novels are growing in popularity. Films like Sin City, 300, and Ghost Rider all have roots in this format. In February, California's City on a Hill Press wrote about the growing popularity of using graphic novels in literature courses, click here.

Here's a few ideas on how to use graphic novels in the classroom:

• focus on multiracial issues, Palestine;
• Tale of One Bad Rat could be used to focus on abuse topics and life on the street;
• Blankets by Craig Thompson focuses on family, growing up, etc.
• Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto deals with breast cancer;
• Maus by Art Spiegelman focuses on the holocaust;
• Ghost World by Daniel Clowes covers teenagers and coming of age;
• The Contract with God trilogy : life on Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner deals with tenement life, immigrants, New York;
• Berlin: City of Stones by Jason Lutes covers German history, social life, leading up to world war;

In the Murphy Library catalog, try subject searches using the following terms - graphic literature, graphic novels, and comic book strips to locate titles in this genre.

Display courtesy of Anne Chernaik.

Photo courtesy of Julie Britten.

Education in America

In the December 18th issue of Time, authors Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe report on the recent findings from the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a bipartisan assembly of Education secretaries and business, government and assorted education leaders.

The article aims at focusing on not only "whether some fraction of our children get left behind but also whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can't think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak a language other than English."

Check out Time's web site too.

The Skillful Teacher

The Skillful Teacher: on technique, trust and responsiveness in the classroom
by Stephen Brookfield
c 2006

from Choice:
"Readable, innovative, and perceptive. . . . The final chapters on the political realities and phenomenological truths of college teaching alone are worth the price of the book, especially for prospective, new, or veteran college, adult, or continuing education teachers."

School Report Cards

from the website, SchoolMatters

SchoolMatters gives policymakers, educators, and parents the tools they need to make better-informed decisions that improve student performance.

The information and analysis will educate Americans about how schools and school districts are performing and help them understand the complex relationships between achievement and investment.

A service of Standard & Poor's, web site visitors can also compare 2, 3, or even 4 schools at the same time!