I'm back (in other words, I forgot I had this Blog)

As the First Year Experience Librarian at the University of Notre Dame to date, I have been on an interesting journey, which doesn't leave me much time to Blog. I decided to revisit this because so much good information is coming my way via 2.0 technologies (listservs, other blogs, e-mails, and Facebook).

Please feel free from time to time to visit for informational purposes or either to share some insightful bits of information. From time to time, I will share interesting information that may be helpful to the viewer.

With Heartfelt Regards,
Leslie L. Morgan
First Year Experience Librarian
Hesburgh Libraries
University of Notre Dame

Economic Crisis Lib Guide

Jason D. Phillips from the University Libraries-Mississippi State University has created this Lib Guide on Information re: The current economic crisis in the United States.

It was a collaborative effort from other librarians: Starr Hoffman (University of North Texas), Laura Sare (Texas A&M University), John Skutnik (Akron Summit County Library), Carol Arnold-Hamilton (New York University), Hui Hua Chua (Michigan State University), Bret Heim (Springhill College), Albert T. Chapman (Purdue University), Melissa Barr (Cuyahoga County Public Library), Jennifer Manning (Congressional Research Service), Edward Herman (University at Buffalo), Sandra Lynn Schiefer (University of Missouri - Columbia), Susan Lyons (Rutgers University Law Library), Samantha Franklin (Lewis-Clark State College), and Susan Hall (Mississippi State University Libraries).

http://guides.library.msstate.edu/economic_crisis

First Year Studies in Academia

The University of Notre Dame First Year Studies Program
http://www.nd.edu/~fys/index.html

Vanderbilt University: College of Arts & Science First Year Writing Seminars
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/cas/academics/academicresources/firstyearwritingseminars/index.php

The University of Tennessee First Year Studies Program
http://studentsuccess.tennessee.edu/studentsuccesscenter/fys.htm

The University of North Carolina: First Year Seminars
http://www.unc.edu/fys/

Duke University: Trinity College of Arts & Sciences First Year Program
http://www.trinity.duke.edu/admissions/firstyear.php

A 1991 Report on the President-Principle relationship in Jesuit Schools:
http://www.jsea.org/FileUploads/President-Principal%20Relationship%20Study.pdf

Curriculum/Lesson Plans for creating Critical Thinkers in K-12 Education:
Mission Critical : Interactive tutorial for helping teach critical thinking skills.

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum:

Critical Thinking Strategies : K-12 adaptable across the curriculum

Critical Thinking : Grades 9-12; Literature unit in nonfiction.

From AskEric:

Assorted Creative Thinking Activities

Different subject disciplines.Critical Thinking Strategies

K-12 adaptable to various disciplinesAn Approach to Teaching Religious Tolerance

Civics, grades 9-12Problem Solving - A Part of Everyday Thinking

Interdisciplinary, grades 4-12Request Reciprocal Teaching (Interdisciplinary, any level)

Fostering Critical Thinking Skills for Consumer Health Decisions : High school health

Books By African Authors:

International Children's Digital Library http://www.childrenslibrary.org/

South African Children's Book Forum http://www.sacbf.org.za/

African Children's Literature http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/children.htm

Children's Literature Research Unitat the University of South Africa http://www.childlit.org.za/

THE NOMA AWARD FOR PUBLISHING IN AFRICA http://www.nomaaward.org/

A premiere collection in African materials is at Northwestern University Library https://webmail.nd.edu/horde/util/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnucat.library.northwestern.edu&Horde=04c77655ca82e100e0b3b1914fede892. The Africana collection assigns the term "Children's literature, African" to their children's books. Looks like a subject search comes back in reverse chronological order.

Journal of Information Literacy

http://jil.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL

Research Quest: Educational applications for video games and gaming strategies. My quest for learning... with a few library stops along the way. (An Excellent Gaming Blog for Information Literacy):

http://researchquest.blogspot.com/2007/07/national-librarian-sport-declared.html

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From a Education Reference Question I answered this morning:

Reading Assessments for 2nd Graders:

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory - Reading Assessment Databasehttp://www.sedl.org/reading/rad/states.html

Chicago Public Schools Office of Accountability: Kindergarten-Primary AssessmentTools for Reading Comprehensionhttp://www.intranet.cps.k12.il.us/assessments/Kg-PrimaryTools/reading.pdf

Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessment: Second Gradehttp://www.cia.indiana.edu/assessments_IRA_2.htm

Informal/Formal Reading Assessment Database from Missouri Dept. of Elementary &Secondary Education:http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/commarts/readassess.pdf

Did you know:

Google: 10% of sites are dangerous
A new Google report researching 4.5 million Web sites found that 1 in 10 web pages could successfully "drive by download" a Trojan horse virus onto a visitor's computer. The primary mechanisms by which the malware is transferred are: Web Server security, user contributed content, advertising, and third-party widgets.
Source: Neils Provos, Google, Inc. "The Ghost in the Browser: Analysis of Web-based Malware"

Re: Techy Toys
50% of all American adultss are only occasional users of modern information gadgetry. 8% of Americans are "deep" users of participatory and mobile applications. 15% of the adult population are off the Web/cell phone network altogether.
Source: John Horrigan, "A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users, may 7, 2007

LibSite
LibSite.org is a new recommendation service for library-related Web sites. The goal is to showcase and promote what libraries and librarians are doing online. This is an interactive site thats user-generated and includes a blog and a wiki.
Source: http://www.libsite.org April 10, 2007

I (We) hosted a forum in April-2007 to which my fellow librarians from Purdue University and Davenport University in Granger, IN joined us for lunch at Legends @ Notre Dame. I am very appreciative of the fact that my colleagues here at Notre Dame joined us for lunch and a meaningful dicussion about the profession. Here is a photo of the group that joined us for lunch.




The University of Notre Dame~ACE Program Welcomes the First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Laura Bush:



Mrs. Laura Bush will be the principal speaker Saturday (July 14) at the 12th annual graduation ceremony for the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) program.
The ceremony will begin at 3 p.m. in the Leighton Concert Hall of the DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts and is a ticketed event for the friends and families of the graduates.
The ACE program will confer master of education degrees on 84 graduates who have received instruction on campus the past two summers and served during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years in Catholic schools nationwide. They will join more than 700 ACE alumni, the majority of whom remain in education as either teachers or administrators.
Mrs. Bush is actively involved in issues of national and global concern, with a particular emphasis on education, health care and human rights. Among her initiatives in education was a historic trip to Afghanistan in March 2005 to witness firsthand the work of the Women’s Teacher Training Institute, which is training women to lead classrooms that girls once were forbidden to enter.
A librarian by training, Mrs. Bush is honorary ambassador for the United Nations Literacy Decade, serving as an international spokesperson for efforts to educate people throughout the world, especially women and girls. She hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Global Literacy in 2006 to encourage international cooperation to build free societies through literacy. She also has been involved in teacher recruitment programs such as Teach for America.

Due to the recent death of Presidential First Lady: "Lady Bird Johnson", Fr. Theodore Hesburgh was the keynote address speaker for this event.