Checking Out Civil War Books

David has put bar codes on the books. They are held captive in my office, facing the door. There are four boxes, marked with the three titles. If I am not available, please do the following:

1) Make sure they have registered for the event. Library.mcneese.edu/civilwar.html

2) Record their name, email, and phone

3) Record the bar code numbers of the three books you give them.

That is it. Michael has offered to create user accounts for these folks based on the registration form. They are crude and easy to put together because they allow for just this series. I posted this to the Reference blog for a quick reminder.

Note from Jerome:

"If you encounter a patron having problems printing from Word, especially if the Word document has images/graphics, try converting it to a PDF file and printing from Acrobat. Word does not compress images, so image files can be quite large (exceeding the 25mb limit). Converting to PDF "flattens" the image, making it substantially smaller. This should take care of ~85% of the problems."

To convert the file to a .pdf, click "Save As" then choose .pdf from the "save as type" drop-down menu.

Jess

New Office Software on the Thin Clients

Hi Gang,

When you get an opportunity, please look at the new software on the thin clients. Instead of Open Office, the thin clients are now using Libra Office. Libra Office should be able to open all Microsoft documents without the problems that we had with the Open Office software.

Thanks!

Jessica

Cause for Pause

Essay 1

What Makes us Laugh?

Due Feb. 17th

Your browser may not support display of this image.

The goal of this first essay is to compose a critically informed exploration of your chosen topic area. In order to accomplish this you must first select a specific type of humor to examine. Spend some time giving this topic some consideration as all of your essays for the semester will in some way be related to this topic.

This topic should be fairly specific, but no overly so. For instance, Katt Williams is likely not broad enough to write four essays about, while African-American Stand-up Comedians should offer enough material. Looking at Political Satire on Television is much better than choosing only The Daily Show. Writing on Scary Movie 2 is too narrow, but examining Spoof Movies works. Be sure to clear topics with me before beginning work as there are many, many options possible.

Additionally, for this essay, restrict examples and examinations to only the past twenty years, since 1990. Essay 2 will allow for examination of humor prior to that era.

Once you have chosen a topic area, perform research and compose a 1000 word, 4-5 page essay that responds to the following prompt:

Your browser may not support display of this image. The first two essays in Laughing Matters, by Henri Bergson and Murray Davis, theorize from a few different perspectives about how humor works. Including a discussion of these writers' principles, particularly Bergson's theories on humor as social corrective and Davis' theories on incongruity and ambiguity, examine the way in which humor works within a specific type, genre, or style of humor in a contemporary context. Essentially, you must create a well-reasoned argument for why it is that people find this particular sort of humor humorous. Provide many specific examples along with the application of your theory.


Research Requirements

5 Sources

1 Scholarly/secondary source

1 Book nonfiction/secondary source

1 Primary source

1 Creative/media source

1 Reliable source of any kind

Use MLA documentation and formatting style for this essay.

Delicious Account for Reference

Hello Reffers,

I have been playing around with Delicious in it's new updated format and have an idea that I thought we could all contribute to if and when you have free time.

I am finding that many students for the 102 lessons are having trouble getting started on topic, not always, but some are. While it is the faculty responsibility to guide them, we can also provide scaffolding in this effort.

What I propose to do with the Delicious account for our department is simply create a list of folders that relate to the English 102 topics, so, "image" "ethics", "religion", "science & society" and "subcultures" and a 5th one I have added is titled, "Critical Think Tank AKA Critical Thinking"

I have started as I find related articles and ideas to load them into these categories as they fit, and the more abstract the better. This is an organic process.

Mabye, just maybe if we like the idea and once our folders gather some heft, we could use these guides in future instruction classes, or pass along to faculty as idea starters, and or just have handy on the Library Instruction libguide.

Again, this is just an idea that I have started. If you want to play please join in and let's just see what happens. I think having students read the news and having them engaged in our "real" world might really open their minds to some ideas related to topics they could explore and some ideas they had not considered.

Thanks for letting me share. Please let me know if you have questions or suggestions. Does this seem like a good idea? Are we just spoon feeding the students? Or are we participating in a social media sharing environment that is growing stronger everyday? Information is everywhere, so where is it? I just like this idea as starting points for consideration. Food for thought ...you dig?


Delicious account is
user name: delicioustmi
password: 1booklover

Dual Enrollment Lists with Pin #s given to teachers

When we teach a Dual Enrollment ENG 102 class and hand the teacher the class list slips with the students' Banner #'s and PINs, it might be a good idea to ask the teacher to warn the students to keep this Banner+02/Pin combination safe and why.
We had two students leave them behind in class a couple of days ago.
Barbie

Dr Forest History 210

Many students have come in looking to find a citation from 1938 referencing the "Anglo-Italian Agreement" from the Montreal Gazzete. It appears the only place to find this information is in the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature.
Craig

Bogus Websites for Instruction: We Need YOURS!

Hello Reffers and Library Instructors,

I have seen "lists" of bogus websites in the past put out on different library sites and discussions, however, none of them come to mind right away and I thought it would be fun to create/add our own from time to time to use in our instruction sessions.

Here is one today that came up in a 102 library instruction with Scott Thomason. The site is http://www.ihr.org/ (an anti-semitic .org)

I know that you all have ones that you use and was curious if you would share them here so we have a fun grab bag! And as we find more it would be fun to add to the kitty.

Thanks for playing.
Tracy

ALA Workshop January 2012 webinar posted

Hello Reffers,

I just posted a link to the webinar I attended on January 11, 2012 titled, "How to Improve your Library Instruction: Assessment in Five Minutes"

I found it to be really engaging and helpful and actually presented some fresh ideas and some things to consider for our own library instruction sessions.

With that said, I just wanted to post it.

Thanks for letting me share!

Tracy