STCC Graduates are everywhere (cont.)

Here we see Michael A. Kirkpatrick, STCC and UMASS graduate in the Bologna (Italy) archaeology museum. Michael spent the last year in Korea, and will be starting graduate work at the University of Reading, England, UK. Could he be the next Indiana Jones? Enquiring minds want to know....

STCC GRADUATES ARE EVERYWHERE!

2005 STCC graduate, (and library user) Huda-Zaynab Abdul-Rahim, just returned to Springfield from Doha, Qatar. She agreed we could put a copy of her picture (with local Doha celebrity) on our 'blog! This is from her "Last Day in Doha" album.

Watch this space for pictures of STCC Graduates in Korea, India, Chicago and who knows where else!

Celebrate the Fourth of July in style! The Hoop City Jazz Festival will be held here on the STCC campus on July 4th Weekend.

Free Admission • Ample free parking • Assistance for the physically-challenged
An international food court • Setta McCabe, director of public relations at Springfield Technical Community College, provided the line up. Here it is, with comments from Hoop City Jazz Festival organizer, John Osborn.

Saturday, July 4:
Music will start at 1:00 pm ending at 8:30 pm
(Just in time for the fireworks, which are visible from behind the Springfield Armory Museum)
1:30 Marcus Pitts/Carl Neal Project
3:00 David Davis graduate of the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford
4:30 Lin Rountree from Detroit, similar to Louis Armstrong, high energy
6:30 Urban Jazz Coalition from Ohio, pioneers of smooth jazz; we're excited to have them here

Sunday, July 5
1:30 Charles Langford local jazz musician, saxophone player, lot of music rooted in new Orleans jazz, and NYC in the 50s
3:00 ESP from Syracuse, a young, very accomplished group
4:30 Ron Gill jazz vocalist from Boston, now living in South Carolina; sings in the tradition of Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn who composed Take the A Train. The 6-member back-up band is reminiscent of the big-band feeling.
6:00 The Berklee Latin Jazz All-Stars Closing out the festival, this group from the Berklee School of Music was voted best college jazz band 2008 by Downbeat Magazine. The group is coming in from Venezuela on an international tour.

This is the third annual Hoop City jazz and Art Festival, this year held on the campus green at Springfield Technical Community College. Mr. Osborn noted that Hoop City, of course, is a reference to Springfield as the birthplace of basketball, and said that people coming from out of town may want to include a visit to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Apples and Oranges

Government websites offer a wealth of invaluable information. Census statistics, labor statistics, environmental data and more are all available through U.S. government websites. However users may find government websites difficult to navigate and over whelming to use. For instance, try finding data on the production of apples in the United States and the retail price of fresh apples. Which department or office do you go to first and what kind of information are you looking for? To track down the best U.S. sources you might try the governments web portal to all departments and agencies at USA.gov. The U.S. government's web portal breaks down the various agencies into topics, such as Environment, Energy and Agriculture. Subcategories link out to the variety of U.S. resources. Though not all paths are obvious, persistence in seeking out government data usually pays off.

For those of you interested in apples, the USDA provides access to statistical information through its Economic Research Service. The ERS generates the Fruit and Tree Nuts Yearbook Data reports, which gives economic data on various crop types, from the 1980's to current years, including apples.

Budget Cuts Put Libraries at Risk

Ventura County, California
Columbus, Ohio
Fallston, Maryland

What do these places have in common? One thing is that libraries in these communities are at risk of closure due to government budget cuts. Ohio libraries may be at particular risk due to Governor Ted Strickland's proposal to cut libraries' funding by $200 million over two years as part of a budget-cutting plan that also affects many other state services. "This $200 million proposed cut to libraries is on top of budget cuts averaging 20 percent that hit libraries as a result of the state's reduced tax revenue, making the total cut about 50 percent." (June 23 article from the Columbus Dispatch)

However, Ventura County Public Libraries has something that the other communities lack: the active support of "literary legend" Ray Bradbury. Last Saturday he spoke at a benefit for the H. P. Wright Library, and he frequently speaks at libraries through California. The New York Times featured Mr. Bradbury's efforts in a June 19 article.

Sad News

Dr. Jerri Nielsen has passed away. Dr. Nielsen, who was rescued from an Antarctic research station in 1999 after she diagnosed herself with breast cancer, had ties to western Massachusetts. In fact, she was a sometimes visitor to the STCC Library a few years ago.

Dr. Nielsen wrote the book Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole, available at many C/W MARS libraries.

Going Somewhere?

If you are, take a few useful items with you....


Some useful web sites:
There's Schmap, which offers over 200 free interactive destination guides.
You can print content or download it to your iPod!
There's the In Your Pocket guide set on line, that examines central and Eastern Europe.
Fastcheck Arrival Guides offers over 300 destinations.

Some interesting AV:

Rick Steves' Europe : all 70 shows, 2000-2007 in AV at
D909.S74 2007


Then, there are books in our PC non-fiction collection:

Boston 2009
Philadelphia
Budapest
Ireland
Alaska

to name a few.

Ten Solar Compactors, Ten!


Our campus now has ten BigBelly Solar Compactor units that run on 12-volt batteries charged by a SOLAR PANEL located on top of the unit. This is a great way to advertise our status as a TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE. Congratulations to our facilities department, who installed these cutting edge tools for us to share as a community!

Trash and insect problems will be significantly reduced. Squirrels and other rodents won't have access to discarded food, which should be a big help. The cost of trash pickup will be lowered, probably by as much as 80%. (Did you know that we pay for that service?)

One unit stands in front of building 27, where the library lives. It's in the center of the stair/ramp entry and faces building 16. There's a separate LIBRARY RETURN BOX at the bottom of the stairs to building 27. So, here's your heads up: PLEASE MAKE SURE that when you return library materials, you put them in the right box. We really appreciate it. THANKS!

"The Library is the Real Place to Be"

Further proof that libraries provide a lifeline during tough economic times. (via the Today Show).

Let There Be (Sun)light

Have you noticed the new solar panels going up on the roof of Building 20?

Neither have I. But they're there, all 272 of them.

Despite the fact this is one of the largest solar arrays in the region, the impact and visibility on the campus have been minimal, according to a recent article in BusinessWest. Installation began in late April and no more than two or three workers were involved at any given time, according to Vice President Eric Ness. The project didn't even require a building permit.

In addition to providing cost savings (about $19,000 per year) the project will also serve as an energy "laboratory" for students, who will be able to measure various energy outputs from the array.

New guides on local history, early childhood education, and more!

The STCC library is constantly expanding its collection of online research guides. Recently added guides include a guide to library resources for "Our Plural History", which was designed to complement the STCC Web site "Our Plural History". This site examines the idea of pluralism in the United States by focusing on immigrant and ethnic groups in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts. Our research guide includes a page about resources giving an overview of the history of the Connecticut River Valley and it's cities, with separate pages on the chronological themes of the Web site: "First Peoples", "Colonial Period", "Resisting Slavery", "Industrialization and Immigration", and "Recent Arrivals".

Other new or updated research guides have been compiled to meet the needs of a particular academic program or course. For example, we have updated guides on Early Childhood Education and Non-Western Literature, with information about relevant books, article databases and web sites.

Revisiting YouTube

YouTube has gone through many phases over the last couple of years. Google's purchase of YouTube is the most recent big news. As technology has improved and the service's popularity has grown so has the many uses of YouTube. Now in addition to entertainment and original content by YouTube users, larger institutions are buying into YouTube. Traditional media outlets, such as C-SPAN and the Associated Press, have their own channels on YouTube. The White House has also climbed on board and posts videos to YouTube relevant to the executive office of the United States.

For the STCC Library this means we have yet another tool at our disposal to help students conduct research. In case students would like to use YouTube as a source we've updated our MLA crib sheet to include a template for YouTube video citations. The STCC Library includes YouTube on the citation guide however other web services (TED, Blip) provide informative videos as well. For additional information on how to properly cite your web sources contact the Library (413-755-4549) or stop by the Reference desk.