where the wild things came from

From slate.com: a slideshow on the history of children's book illustration in the U.S. Click here to view.

black-focused schools

There has been some controversy recently over plans to open a black-focused school in the Toronto District School Board. For more info:

NEWS ARTICLES:
Black-focused school debate set (Toronto Star, Nov. 7, 2007)
Black only, but don't use the 'S' word (Toronto Star, Nov. 10, 2007)
Community turns out to discuss black-focused schools (CBC, Nov. 9, 2007)

ARTICLES:
George J Sefa Dei (2006, July). BLACK-FOCUSED SCHOOLS: A CALL FOR RE-VISIONING. Education Canada, 46(3), 27-31.

BOOKS:
Reconstructing 'dropout' : a critical ethnography of the dynamics of Black students' disengagement from school / George J. Sefa Dei (9th floor, LC 145 C2 R42 1997)

Black education : a transformative research and action agenda for the new century / edited by Joyce E. King (9th floor, LC 2699 B53 2005)

Black Canadians : history, experience, social conditions / Joseph Mensah (9th floor, FC 106 B6 M45 2002 )

library workshops for faculty (staff, grad students, RAs and TAs welcome, too!)

Interested in learning more about library resources and services? Attend one of our Workshops for Faculty! These 80-minute, hands-on sessions are held on Wednesdays throughout November and December. We’ll bring the coffee!

Register at: http://www.library.brocku.ca/faculty_workshops/

Impact Factors and Journal Citation Reports
Wednesday, November 14, 10am
Are you choosing a vessel for publication? Do you want to know how often a particular journal is cited compared to other journals in the field or which are the "hottest journals"? In this hands-on session geared towards all disciplines, learn how ISI’s Journal Citation Reports, Cited Reference searches, and Google Scholar can provide you with some very useful information for grants and publishing.
Location: e-classroom (TH 253)
Instructors: Marcie Jacklin, Jennifer Thiessen

ARTstor
Wednesday, November 21, 10am
ARTstor is a repository for over 500, 000 digital images, including photographs, paintings, architecture, and sculpture and more. Come to this session to learn how to use images with lectures or enhance presentations.
Location: e-classroom (TH 253)
Instructors: Laurie Morrison, Keri Cronin

Government e- Documents
Wednesday, November 28, 10am
This workshop will provide an overview of how to access Canadian federal and Ontario provincial electronic documents. Areas to be covered include parliamentary, departmental and justice related web resources. Come and improve your skills in using digital government documents!
Location: e-classroom (TH 253)
Instructor: Kevin Manuel

Special Collections
Wednesday, December 5, 10am
Looking for primary records or rare books for your research? Discover strategies and databases that can help you find these unique resources and learn what materials are available at Brock University. (Coffee will not be served at this session).
Location: Special Collections, 10th floor (Library)
Instructor: David Sharron, Head of Special Collections and Archives

Search Alerts and Journal Alerts
Wednesday, December 12, 2pm
Do your research while you sleep! Keep up with journal articles in your research area by having your favourite searches and table of contents of journals sent to your inbox or feed reader.
Location: e-classroom (TH 253)
Instructors: Justine Cotton, Jennifer Thiessen

using wikipedia in the classroom

Interesting article from insidehighered.com: When Wikipedia is the Assignment.

More on wikipedia:

7 Things You Should Know About Wikipedia (from EDUCAUSE Connect)
Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms / Will Richardson (in the IRC)
Wikipedia: School and University Projects

available at Brock on Saturday

If you want some help with your library research, I will be available this Saturday from 12 to 5pm. Come by to say hello!

WHEN: Saturday, October 13
TIME: 12pm to 5pm
WHERE: Research Help Desk, 6th floor, James A. Gibson Library (St. Catharines Campus)

writing your thesis?

If you are thinking about your thesis, project or dissertation, we have a number of books that can help you:


LB 2369 F59 2007
Destination dissertation : a traveler's guide to a done dissertation / Sonja K. Foss and William Waters.



LB 2369 T458 2008
Theses and dissertations : a guide to planning, research, and writing / R. Murray Thomas, Dale L. Brubaker.




LB 2386 P47 2005
How to get a PhD : a handbook for students and their supervisors / Estelle M. Phillips and Derek S. Pugh.

LB 2369 B49 2007
A practical guide to the qualitative dissertation / Sari Knopp Biklen and Ronnie Casella.

If you want to take a look at theses and disserations that others have completed, see this helpful page on finding theses/dissertations.

boys don't read books with "girlie" covers

From The Times: How judging a book by its "girlie" cover is putting boys off reading.

Interested in getting boys to read? Check out some of these links:

Getting Boys to Read: It's the Context! (Scholastic Instructor)
Guys Read (A site to get boys reading.)
Books for Boys (book suggestions for boys by former librarian Michael Sullivan)

Books and E-books:

Me Read? No Way! A practical guide to improving boys' literacy skills (print and digital copies)
Boys and literacy : exploring the issues / Trisha Maynard (orint and digital)
Creating a literacy environment for boys : ideas for administrators, teachers, and parents / Christopher M. Spence (9th floor, LB 1050.5 S64 2006)
Even hockey players read : boys, literacy and reading / David Booth (IRC, LB 1050 B66 2002)

beautiful libraries

Check out some of these gorgeous libraries.

Faith-based schools

I caught the tail-end of a conversation between Andy Barrie and Barbara Bierman, Michael Fullan and Farzana Hassan about faith-based schools this morning on Metro Morning. You can listen to the whole thing here. The CBC website also has a great in-depth feature on faith-based schools available here.

New books

We have received another batch of great new books for the collection in education. I've listed some of them below. Our new titles list is available on our website and is updated monthly.

LA 21 O95 2008
Philosophical foundations of education / Howard A. Ozmon, Samuel M. Craver.

LC 3965 S235 2007
The Sage handbook of special education / edited by Lani Florian.

LB 1027.42 B37 2007
Problem-based learning : an inquiry approach / John Barell.

LC 1038 A385 2007
Adventure education : theory and applications / Project Adventure Dick Prouty, Jane Panicucci, Rufus Collinson, editors.

2007 exams now available online

I know you aren't thinking about exams yet, but I still wanted to pass on this exciting news: all 2007 exams are now available online. Yippee! No more waiting in line at Reserves! They are available by subject listing here. If you are a TA this year, let your students know.

technology behaviours of college students

This 2007 ECAR research study is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 ECAR studies of students and information technology. The study, which reports noticeable changes from previous years, is based on quantitative data from a spring 2007 survey and interviews with 27,846 freshman, senior, and community college students at 103 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies these students use, own, and experience; their technology behaviors, preferences, and skills; how IT impacts their experiences in their courses; and their perceptions of the role of IT in the academic experience.

Welcome

Welcome to the Education Librarian's blog. My name is Jennifer Thiessen and I am the education librarian at Brock University. I will be using this blog to keep you updated on new and exciting things in the education world and in the library. Check back often! You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog by clicking on the orange icon in Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox. For more details on subscribing to RSS feeds see here.