Dear friends:
Some of your public library’s most critical online resources are being threatened by proposed budget cuts at the state level. In this time of rising unemployment and home foreclosures, the use of public libraries is also increasing. In many communities, libraries are the only source of free Internet access. With the state moving more information online and expecting citizens to comply, more people are coming to the library to file taxes, to file for unemployment and public assistance, pay bills online, and to find small business start-up information.
Some of the most valuable resources available to our citizens are available through MeLCat and Michigan eLibrary. MeLCat is a statewide Inter-library loan system (as opposed to a regional one), making over 37 million items available to every Michigan citizen. Michigan eLibrary comprises an invaluable set of resources. These resources include Learning Express Library, providing online databases on certification and training for dozens of civil service jobs (police, fire, nursing, etc.) as well as help with preparation for tests like the GED, ACT, and SAT. Research databases provide full-text access to hundreds of thousands of journal articles. Over 28 million articles were downloaded from those subscription databases in 2008 alone, an 80% increase over the previous year! Funding for MeLCat and MeL databases are provided jointly with state funding by the Library of Michigan and matching federal LSTA grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Federal LSTA allocation for libraries is re-calculated every year based on state aid to libraries. Currently, Michigan provides $10 million while LSTA matches it with $5 million in federal grants. In other words, for every two dollars cut in state aid to libraries, we lose an additional dollar of federal grant funding. More importantly, we risk destroying the entire MeL and MeLCat cooperative programs, which have a potentially devastating impact of over $70 million, which is what it would cost the citizens of Michigan for each individual library to duplicate the services offered.
State legislators are proposing such a cut in state aid. Please contact them and ask them to seriously reconsider. Then ask your friends to do the same. A letter like the following will work:
I am writing to ask you to please seriously reconsider reducing state aid to public libraries to under $10 million. In this time of rising unemployment and home foreclosures, the use of public libraries is also increasing. In many communities, libraries are the only source of free Internet access. With the state moving more information online and expecting citizens to comply, more people are coming to the library to file taxes, to file for unemployment and public assistance, pay bills online, and to find small business start-up information. Federal LSTA allocation for libraries is re-calculated every year based on state aid to libraries. Currently, Michigan provides $10 million while LSTA matches it with $5 million in federal grants. In other words, for every two dollars cut in state aid to libraries, we lose an additional dollar of federal grant funding. More importantly, we risk destroying the entire MeL and MeLCat cooperative programs, which have a potentially devastating impact of over $70 million, which is what it would cost the citizens of Michigan for each individual library to duplicate the services offered. To ensure the continued availability of these services, I urge you to maintain state aid to public libraries at the current rate of $10 million.
Sincerely,
Tim West
Greenville, Michigan
You can locate your Senator here: http://www.senate.michigan.gov/FindYourSenator/michigafys.asp
You can locate your Representative here: http://house.michigan.gov/find_a_rep.asp
For Greenville residents:
Senator Alan Cropsey
1005 Farnum Building
P.O. Box 30036
Lansing, MI 48909-7536
(517) 373-3760
SenACropsey@michigan.gov
Representative Mike Huckleberry
S1089 House Office Building
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514
(517) 373-0834
MikeHuckleberry@house.mi.gov
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Blog Terminology
So I'm able to have this blog, even though I don't have a "Google account", but a Juno account. Somehow I suppose I got Google to recognize it. Now if a few of us can do the same we can get a blog going for just the few of us.
Monday, August 11, 2008
The law just got a little friendler.
At least for those living in Michigan. A complete set of the Michigan Compiled Laws followed by each annual supplemental volume of Public and Local Acts was necessary until recently for anyone wishing to find out the latest laws in Michigan. Now it's easier. Just go to www.legislature.mi.gov and fill in the blanks. Keyword searches yield much more comprehensive results than the print index. Look up "Security Deposit" in the print index to the 1979 Michigan Compiled Laws and you will find only one entry. You may end up having to look elsewhere in the index to find the exact law you are looking for. Type "Security Deposit" as keywords in this website, and you will be presented with 200 documents to choose from, each with a list of descriptors.
But that's just the beginning. This site contains bills in committee, legislative schedules, sponsored bills by legislator, House and Senate journals, and initiatives. Other features include House Rules, Senate Rules, Joint Rules, and the texts of a few recent issues of Michigan Manual. Printable versions of government publications such as Tenant and Landlord, Consumer Protection Resource Guide, and A Citizen's Guide to State Government are also available here. Links to the House and Senate and Official State of Michigan Website are particularly helpful. Less useful features include historical documents such as the texts of the Magna Carta (without the list of signatories), the Declaration of Independence (with the list of signatories), the U.S. Constitution (without the amendments, curiously enough), and all earlier versions of the Constitution of the State of Michigan, including the 1787 ordinance for the Government of the Northwest Territory.
Last but not least, the site allows the user to change its color scheme. (I prefer the soothing lavender, although sports fans might prefer the yellow-blue or green-white combinations.) Getting involved in representative government just got a little easier. We might as well take full advantage!
But that's just the beginning. This site contains bills in committee, legislative schedules, sponsored bills by legislator, House and Senate journals, and initiatives. Other features include House Rules, Senate Rules, Joint Rules, and the texts of a few recent issues of Michigan Manual. Printable versions of government publications such as Tenant and Landlord, Consumer Protection Resource Guide, and A Citizen's Guide to State Government are also available here. Links to the House and Senate and Official State of Michigan Website are particularly helpful. Less useful features include historical documents such as the texts of the Magna Carta (without the list of signatories), the Declaration of Independence (with the list of signatories), the U.S. Constitution (without the amendments, curiously enough), and all earlier versions of the Constitution of the State of Michigan, including the 1787 ordinance for the Government of the Northwest Territory.
Last but not least, the site allows the user to change its color scheme. (I prefer the soothing lavender, although sports fans might prefer the yellow-blue or green-white combinations.) Getting involved in representative government just got a little easier. We might as well take full advantage!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology
In this brave new world of ever-evolving technology and ever-broadening paradigms in which everything we've ever learned is being called into question and everything we studied in school is becoming as useful in everyday life as Latin, from time to time reality will give us a wink and assure us that yes, there still remains some ground beneath our feet. I just experienced it.
Imagine this: A college student approaches you after having searched online, gone through MeL, and still not found something he can grab hold of to get him started with his paper on a psychological theory. You log into MeL and turn the screen to face him and attempt to recreate his search as he leads you through. You ask him what psychological theory he is looking for. He says it has to be a real one. "Yes," you reply, "but do you have a certain one in mind?" He doesn't. It turns out he tried to use MeL to look up the name of an editor of an encyclopedia of psychology which would give information on several such theories to choose from.
A light bulb appears above your head. He is looking in the wrong place. You need to help him by showing him a print source you wondered if you'd ever use again in a million, billion years. But it was exactly what he was looking for. The Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology (R 150.3 CON) is a wonderful voluminous source of material if you're looking for psychological theories, therapies, etc. Even wikipedia hasn't caught up to its thoroughness. (Naikan Therapy, a Japanese form of psychotherapy based on Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, doesn't even have a wikipedia entry--yet. Ditto for experiential psychotherapy, eidetic psychotherapy, sympton remission therapy, or idiodynamics. Any of you brave new reference librarians want to take on the challenge?) The article on Reaction Time is much more in-depth than the sketchy little blurb found in wikipedia. An Appendix includes the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. It's worth a look.
Imagine this: A college student approaches you after having searched online, gone through MeL, and still not found something he can grab hold of to get him started with his paper on a psychological theory. You log into MeL and turn the screen to face him and attempt to recreate his search as he leads you through. You ask him what psychological theory he is looking for. He says it has to be a real one. "Yes," you reply, "but do you have a certain one in mind?" He doesn't. It turns out he tried to use MeL to look up the name of an editor of an encyclopedia of psychology which would give information on several such theories to choose from.
A light bulb appears above your head. He is looking in the wrong place. You need to help him by showing him a print source you wondered if you'd ever use again in a million, billion years. But it was exactly what he was looking for. The Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology (R 150.3 CON) is a wonderful voluminous source of material if you're looking for psychological theories, therapies, etc. Even wikipedia hasn't caught up to its thoroughness. (Naikan Therapy, a Japanese form of psychotherapy based on Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, doesn't even have a wikipedia entry--yet. Ditto for experiential psychotherapy, eidetic psychotherapy, sympton remission therapy, or idiodynamics. Any of you brave new reference librarians want to take on the challenge?) The article on Reaction Time is much more in-depth than the sketchy little blurb found in wikipedia. An Appendix includes the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. It's worth a look.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
You Eat What You Are
You read correctly. You Eat What You Are: People, Culture and Food Traditions is the title of a book in reference (R 394.12 BAR) that I would do well to look at more frequently. When students are assigned papers on a country, they are often asked to write about the foods and eating habits of the people in that country. Two options stand out in the front of my mind when I am confronted with that request. First, we do have several cookbooks with recipes from various regions. Sometimes they help, but oftentimes they provide mostly recipes and not enough information on their cultural context and eating habits in general. CultureGrams provide a summary paragraph on the food people eat in each country. Students are often satisfied with one paragraph (or say they are). But there is much, much more.
You Eat What You Are is not far from CultureGrams on the shelf. Some entries are regional. (Latin America, for instance, has one entry for all countries south of Mexico.) Others cover areas within countries. (Scotland and Wales each have their own entry.) All of Sub-Saharan Africa is covered in a mere 23 pages, broadly broken down by region with Somalia and Ethiopia being the only individual countries covered as regions within the African breakdown, leading one to believe that culinary information about many indigenous cultures has been lost. (There are eight pages on Welsh cuisine alone). Italy, by contrast, is covered extensively, with subsections on 15 regions. (I found the historical overview of Italian cuisine particularly interesting.)
Of particular interest is the section in many entries called 'Special Occasions,' and the glossary of terms appearing at the end of each entry provide a delicious overview of the kinds of dishes the region in known for. The Danish Aebleskiver and Kaernemaelkskoldskal (buttermilk soup) are listed, for example. I was particularly taken with the Dutch Taai-Taai, "soft and chewy gingerbread cookies made in shapes of men and women, served at the place setting of each guest for St. Nicholas' Eve, December 5." (p. 117) It's well worth a second look.
You Eat What You Are is not far from CultureGrams on the shelf. Some entries are regional. (Latin America, for instance, has one entry for all countries south of Mexico.) Others cover areas within countries. (Scotland and Wales each have their own entry.) All of Sub-Saharan Africa is covered in a mere 23 pages, broadly broken down by region with Somalia and Ethiopia being the only individual countries covered as regions within the African breakdown, leading one to believe that culinary information about many indigenous cultures has been lost. (There are eight pages on Welsh cuisine alone). Italy, by contrast, is covered extensively, with subsections on 15 regions. (I found the historical overview of Italian cuisine particularly interesting.)
Of particular interest is the section in many entries called 'Special Occasions,' and the glossary of terms appearing at the end of each entry provide a delicious overview of the kinds of dishes the region in known for. The Danish Aebleskiver and Kaernemaelkskoldskal (buttermilk soup) are listed, for example. I was particularly taken with the Dutch Taai-Taai, "soft and chewy gingerbread cookies made in shapes of men and women, served at the place setting of each guest for St. Nicholas' Eve, December 5." (p. 117) It's well worth a second look.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Wikimania and Wikiphobia
At least librarians aren't alone in this brave new world of technology not only changing but upending and overhauling just about everything but the manner in which we take in oxygen. Academics are curmudgeons once again, and this time the issue is wikipedia. The underlying fear seems to be that wikipedia will render them unnecessary. Being a reference librarian, and being curious about nearly every subject under the sun, I, like many of today's younger people, love to browse wikipedia for information on a vast array of subjects I never took a class in. On the job, however, I rarely take it seriously and, for obvious reasons, always give people a disclaimer when I use it to look up information.
A recent article in Information Today provides a fresh look at wikipedia. It is not going to disappear, nor is it going to supersede the need for academia and its role in research and teaching the need for the proper evaluation of information, especially if we teach people to recognize wikipedia for what it is and allow it to be a gateway to the kind of information gathering and evaluating it can best be used as, and to work at improving it to better serve that role. It's an interesting article that I highly recommend:
Link to article
A recent article in Information Today provides a fresh look at wikipedia. It is not going to disappear, nor is it going to supersede the need for academia and its role in research and teaching the need for the proper evaluation of information, especially if we teach people to recognize wikipedia for what it is and allow it to be a gateway to the kind of information gathering and evaluating it can best be used as, and to work at improving it to better serve that role. It's an interesting article that I highly recommend:
Link to article
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