NY, Higher Education, SUNY, and Libraries

The January issue of "SUNYergy," (catchy name, isn't it? lol,) is on Gov. Spitzer's Higher Education Commisson and its recently released draft report, which includes much of interest to SUNY and SUNY libraries. Your blogger certainly appreciates the following line from the article:

The report explicitly acknowledges the critical role our libraries serve in the future development of New York...

New Books!

We have many new books received over the winter holiday season - sorry, via the US Mail, not Santa and his reindeer ;-). Stop in and have a look at them! They are in the books cases on your left as you walk into our cafe. Come over and take one or two to look at as you sit and enjoy a coffee. Here's three sample titles:

• Cannibal Island: Death in a Siberian Gulag by Nicholas Werth. Rather grim subject matter, yes, but a well reviewed title focusing on one particular episode of the Siberian camps...
• Box Boats: How Container Shipping Changed the World, by Brian Cudahy. One of those books that illuminates the story of something seemingly mundane, but absolutely transformational in its own way.
• Penicillin: Triumph and Tragedy, by Robert Bud. A scientific history of the discovery and establishment of this famed "wonder" drug.

Hurry, or they may be checked out before you get here :-)

Welcome Back!!!

Welcome back for Spring Semester 2008! The library will have it's usual extensive hours, the same as this past fall. Our staff look forward to helping you with all your research questions, no matter what they are. Remember too that the Campus IT Help Desk is here now, towards the back of the main floor.

"Google Generation" a Myth?

Interesting report out now from the British Library about the "Google Generation." There has been much hype but perhaps less critical thinking about Google, libraries, and what both younger and older researches need and do, but this report helps fill the gap.

There is a piece on it here, and a link to the actual report, a 35 page .pdf file.

Flickr & Library of Congress

Flickr, the popular site for posting and sharing pictures, is now host to a pilot project with the Library of Congress to post some of their collections online with Flickr. You can view the project here.

Pictured here from those collections is pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander, who played with Philadephia in the WWI era.

How many books do you share with Thomas Jefferson?

You can easily find out, at librarything.com. This innovative site, mentioned here before, is an online site where people can catalog their libraries, not according to formal library rules, but according to what makes sense for them. They can also search other peoples libraries, post comments etc.

A LibraryThing group with the catchy name, I See Dead People's Books, coordinated the effort to add Jefferson's collection to LibraryThing. They have also completed Tupac Shakur's library, and are working on a number of others!

The economy? Consumer spending?

Looking at an article in this morning's online International Herald Tribune, U.S. Consumers hit brakes on spending, I was prompted to think of another online site. That site is the Bureau of Labor Statistics site. If you want actual stats on consumer expenditure, the consumer price index etc., this is the place to go!

Did you know that "Spending on Cell Phone Services (is) Rapidly Approaching That of Residential Phone Services?"

The Presidential campaign

Lots of excitement in the primaries recently wasn't there? There are many informative sites online where you can get the latest on political races. Politico.com is one, with many up to date reports, stats, blogs etc. There's also CNN's politics site, or the ever popular Drudge Report, and many more of course.

And for more in depth background, we have the latest edition of the definitive Almanac of American Politics, pictured here, as well as many other titles in our reference and circulating book collections.

Welcome to Winter Session!

The library is open again for Winter Session 2008, after being closed for two weeks over the holidays. Our hours are posted online. (Just scroll down the page to see the Winter Session hours.)

Many of you will have witnessed some of the many changes libraries have been going through in recent years. If interested, Stanley Wilder, the dean of libraries at the University of Rochester, is going to be speaking on "Is there a Future for Libraries?" this Thursday (1/10) at 5:15pm in the Gleason Auditorium of the Rochester Public Library on South Avenue. Mr. Wilder is a well known and respected figure in academic libraries, and his talks are stimulating and thought provoking.