New librarian at GTCC Jamestown

On July 2, 2007, your library staff welcomed Alisha Webb as our newest team member. Alisha's primary duties are to provide reference and library instruction to users of your Jamestown Campus library. Alisha's MLIS is recently from UNC Greensboro.

One of Alisha's goals is to build relationships especially with faculty so they and we can help as many of our students stay On Course. I will remind everyone for Alisha that we are here to provide, among other things

• formal information literacy instruction in a classroom setting,
• online subject guides to help students complete their research work successfully and quickly, and
• one-on-one help.
  

Alisha's extension is 2287. Her hours are 9am-1pm Monday-Friday.

Welcome, Alisha!

Free Audiobooks!

Someone recently came into the library and informed us of a great site called LibriVox. This website is run by volunteers and their objective is "to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet." Books in the "public domain" are those whose copyrights have expired and therefore are available for use however the public sees fit. These are usually older books, published before 1925. The volunteers at LibriVox create recordings of these books and donate them to the public. You can even volunteer to read yourself! So if you enjoy audiobooks, this is the site for you!

Book Review

"The Glass Castle"
Kristen Moore

You’ve probably heard that truth is stranger than fiction. In MSNBC columnist Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle, this is definitely the case. Telling a story that for years she tried to hide, Walls relates an amazing tale of resiliency and determination that readers will find to be both heart-warming and shocking.

Growing up in the Walls’ family meant that you had to fend for yourself. Her father’s alcohol problem and her mother’s extreme detachment made for an incredibly difficult childhood. Supporting their family was not a top priority, and often what little food and clothing they had were scavenged. Evading bill collectors and social services, the Walls often had to pack up and move at a moment’s notice, even when they had no idea where they were going and few means to get there.

When they were enrolled school, which happened sporadically, the taunts they endured for their lack of food and clothing were terribly cruel. The four Walls children had to stick together in order to survive, and ultimately escape the life their parents made for them. While her parents viewed their lifestyle as an exciting adventure, Walls knew she wanted something more.

It is understandable that Jeannette Walls might be furious with her parents and traumatized by her childhood, yet her memoir is surprisingly objective. Readers will be taken in with her story and affected by it long after they turn the last page. This book is available for checkout at the Jamestown LRC.

NEW BOOKS!!!!!

The Jamestown Library has over 100 brand new books! Some of the titles include:

The Jamestown Project

Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language

The Essential Baker

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

From Edison to the iPod

The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur

Breaking News: How the A.P. has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else

These are just a few of the many wonderful new titles we've acquired. Please stop by and check them out on the new book display carts!

Hey Hobbit-Heads! The Children of Hurin are here!

Hey Hobbit-Heads! The next episode in the saga of Middle-Earth is now in the Jamestown GTCC library, The Tale of the Children of Hurin.

For those familiar with The Silimillarion, not much of this will be new. The Tale of the Children of Hurin expands on those sections of The Simillarion that deal with this sad tale of the fate of the children of the human warrior Hurin, who is first captured and then cursed by Morgoth when he refuses to submit. The curse of a former Valar is a heavy thing, and evil follows Turin, his mother, and his sister throughout their lives.

For anyone who thinks the works of J.R.R Tolkien are all about the good guys winning, this book will be an eye-opener. At the time in the history of Middle-Earth where The Tale of the Children of Hurin is set, not much is going well for the cause of Goodness and Right. In fact, things are going quite poorly for those who struggle against the Shadow.

It is here, and it is a new tale of Middle-Earth. My fellow Hobbit-Heads, rejoice! For the rest of you, if you are not familiar with the wondrous works of the Master of Middle-Earth, there is no time like the present. Your GTCC libraries can provide with you The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and that will get you started. Come, experience the wonder!

GTCC Library Art Show, April, 2007

GTCC Library Art Show, April, 2007

GTCC alumni, employees, and students submitted over 100 works of art. Thank you all!

Of special note are the works produced by Greensboro CED students under the direction of Wilma Murphy, Reanna Coleman, Marva Mathis, and Tracey Thompson. Aren't they wonderful?

Click on a picture to start the show.

Internationalizing the Curriculum : Pakistan

Here are some del.icio.us links for you, compiled by GTCC's own Conchita McNeal
While you're there, check out other school-related links we've found for you.

Wikis can be useful

What is a wiki?
Well, where else to get the definition?? --according to Wikipedeia, "A wiki (IPA: [ˈwɪ.kiː] or [ˈwiː.kiː][1]) is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring.

Ever pass meeting minutes around the group for approval? And several members send the Word document back with their revisions, then you have to add each person's revision to the original document? Ooops! Which one is the original? I now have five copies ... etc.

Wikis can solve the problem. Put the minutes up on the wiki, and everyone can make their edits directly. The wiki tracks who made edits, what they were, and when. Fix everything in a single document, and when you're done...well, you're done.

Wikis are also searchable, which means you can run a search on all your minutes to find out who said what and when.

PBwiki is a good, free, very easy to use wiki. They like educators and provide ad-free space for us.

Take a PBwiki tour

Watch some PBwiki educator videos

Watch out for Word 2007

There is a new version of Microsoft Office, v.7. Previous versions of Word, Excel, etc. will not read files created with the new version.

Go here to get Microsoft's program to fix this.

Bon chance!

The Future of Books?

This is an interesting article from The Economist that examines what might become of our dearly beloved books as more and more are digitized and made available online.