The mission of the National Book Foundation is to “celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.”

Alternatively, browse Andersen Library’s 2nd-floor Browsing Books collection for fiction or non-fiction. You can find your favorite authors there, like Robin Cook or Laurell K. Hamilton, or meet some new ones!

If nothing else, “test your geography smarts” online with one of these challenges:

• GeoBee Challenge (new quiz daily from the National Geographic Bee)
• Geography Zone’s Geography Challenge

Yikes! They even ask about all those islands out there…

Need to brush up (as I do)? Check out CIA World Factbook maps and “World Maps” available through the Oxford Reference Online Premium database. Or, Andersen Library has a number of print atlases and books about mapping–please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

ABSTRACT:  As a result of research using telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, we know that most galaxies contain a supermassive black hole whose mass is nearly a constant fraction of its galaxy’s mass. Quasars are supermassive black holes (SBHs) consuming matter at a prodigious rate and giving off light & radio waves in proportion to the matter consumed. Most SBHs in nearby galaxies are not quasars, and quasars as a group are quite distant — implying that a SBH’s quasar phase happens early in its galaxy’s life. Some scientists theorize that SBHs, while growing in their quasar phase, control the rate of growth in mass of their galaxies. If true, which came first: the galaxy feeding the SBH, or the supermassive black hole controlling the growth of the host galaxy?

Related materials are available in Andersen Library! For example, a search of the HALCat library catalog would find titles such as Chasing Hubble’s Shadows (3rd-floor Main Collection, QB500.262 .K36 2006) and Bright galaxies, dark matters (3rd-floor Main Collection, QB857 .R83 1997). Searching the Library’s article databases, such as the Institute of Physics electronic journals, would find articles such as “Co-Evolution of Supermassive Black Hole and Host Galaxy From z ~ 1 TO z = 0” (The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 696, pp. 1051-1062, doi: 10.1088/0004-637X/696/1/1051).

The European Space Agency’s web pages devoted to the Hubble Space Telescope include the page “Black holes, quasars, and active galaxies.” You also can learn more about the Hubble Space Telescope and its accomplishments and images from NASA’s web site.

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

However, the sheer volume of magazines out there can make it very difficult to keep up with all of the reading (I’m extremely behind on my GQ and Men’s Health issues). Furthermore, there’s a lot of filler that, while entertaining, gets in the way of getting to the in-depth articles on a range of current topics.

Enter Maggwire. The site provides access to articles online on everything from business news to healthy eating from some of the top popular publications, such as Vanity Fair, Esquire and Consumer Reports. But unlike other content aggregators, the site will even recommend reading for you based on your preferences. Their premium service, out in the near future, will allow you to purchase subscribers-only content directly through them.

So, combine Pandora with magazine content and you’ve got Maggwire. Take a look.

Thanks to Sharon for the link!

Feeling like you need to learn more? There are daily newspapers to read in Andersen Library (see 2nd-floor newspaper rack for current issues), web sites of news organizations, and of course, news on radio and TV. For older topics, Andersen Library has books, videos and government publications that can be found by searching the HALCat library catalog, and articles in newspapers and magazines can be found by searching article databases such as the ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2006).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

Contents of the 2008 NOAA Coral Reef Educational Resources CD are described online, with links to play videos and the coral reef song (yup, a theme song for the International Year of the Reef 2008) online. (My personal favorite is “The Living Reef” video.) See the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program web page “Resources for Educators” for more K-12 material. You also can visit the Marine Photobank to see images in its “Coral Degradation and Potential Solutions” photo gallery.

The 2009 Year of Science: NOAA Education Sampler DVD includes materials about oceans, coasts, atmosphere, and climate science. Resources provided include movies & animations, facts sheets & data sets, story books, activities & lesson plans, and podcasts for use with grades 3-12. I found the “Arctic Sea Ice Changes” animation sobering, and on a lighter note, I was a sap for the “Orphan Orca: Saving Springer” movie (Who doesn’t love a happy ending, and it’s a true story too!).

Both discs are available from the federal depository collection of CDs & DVDs (ask at the Reference Desk), if you prefer that to using the links from the web pages. Additional related materials are available in Andersen Library. For example, search the HALCat Library catalog for “coral reef?” and limit to the Curriculum Collection to find juvenile titles such as Hello fish! Visiting the coral reef (2nd-floor Curriculum Collection, Oversize Juvenile Nonfiction, 597 Ear).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

This week, The Chronicle of Higher Education looks a little closer into this practice in “The Millennial Muddle: How Stereotyping Students Became an Industry.” But is there really anything new about the millennial generation (people born between 1982 and 2004) — or about trying to label and characterize a generation of students?

If you’re interested in learning more about the millennials, take a look at these books.

Educating the net generation: how to engage students in the 21st century, by Bob Pletka. Main Collection, 3rd Floor, LA227.4 .P58 2007.

Not everyone gets a trophy : how to manage Generation Y, by Bruce Tulgan. Main Collection, 3rd Floor, HF5549.2.U5 T854 2009.

Trophy kids grow up: How the millennial generation is shaking up the workplace, by Ron Alsop. Main Collection, 3rd Floor, HD6270 .A44 2008.

The first study, “Prevalence of parent-reported diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder among children in the US, 2007,” was published online by Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, on Oct. 5.

In response, the Centers for Disease Control issued a statement that similar findings will appear in a report from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network later in the year, and “these data affirm that a concerted and substantial national response is warranted.” CDC recommended the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) web site for more information, such as its “Summary of advances in autism spectrum disoder research: Calendar year 2008.”

In addition, Andersen Library has materials on autism. Search HALCat (Andersen Library’s catalog) to find books titles such as Healing and preventing autism: A complete guide (2nd-floor Browsing Books, RJ506.A9 M4252 2009), Autism spectrum disorders: Psychological theory and research (3rd-floor Main Collection, RC553.A88 B694 2007), and Students with autism spectrum disorders: Effective instructional practices (3rd-floor Main Collection, RJ506.A9 H42 2007). Search article databases to find articles such as “Trends in autism spectrum disorder diagnoses: 1994–2007″ (Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, Aug. 2009, v.39, no.8, pp. 1099-1111) and “Timing of identification among children with an autism spectrum disorder: Findings from a population-based surveillance study” (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, May 2009, v.48, no.5, pp. 474-483).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

Why is this important? The introduction to the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing (1982), the first international instrument intended to guide the formulation of policies on aging, commented on the “social, economic, political and scientific questions raised by the phenomenon of ageing on a massive scale” unknown in previous years, and the trend toward increasing numbers of people living longer is continuing. Since I am, ahem, slowly but relentlessly approaching membership in the “older person” group, since most if not all of us know and care about people who are “older persons” already, and since (with a little luck) most of us will one day be “older persons’ ourselves, these issues affect all of us.

At the second world assembly on aging in 2002, a plan of action was adopted that had three priority directions: older persons and development; advancing health and well-being into old age; and ensuring enabling and supportive environments. The report states that the increase in persons over 60 years of age

“will be greatest and most rapid in developing countries where the older population is expected to quadruple during the next 50 years. This demographic transformation challenges all our societies to promote increased opportunities, in particular opportunities for older persons to realize their potential to participate fully in all aspects of life.”

Unless we are hiding under a rock, we all hear about a number of issues facing our aging populations, such as financial concerns, nursing home quality control, and many age-related health issues. Recently, for example, I was listening to a segment on NBC’s Today show about one of the health issues related to aging: Alzheimer’s. The cases of people with this dreadful condition are increasing faster than was predicted; according to the World Alzheimer Report dementia cases will nearly double every 20 years, and by 2050 it will affect a “staggering 115.4 million people.” The implications are rather staggering as well. How would we provide decent care for so many? In the meantime, the National Institute on Aging has some information online for this and other age-related health issues. Continuing research on these issues is important so that our increasing numbers of older persons can enjoy a high quality of life for as long as possible. And it will benefit all of us (eventually). It’s also important to consider how our treatment of our older population reflects on us now, and how it will impact the way we are treated as we ourselves age.

If you are interested in doing research on topics related to aging, Andersen Library has materials you can use. Searching the HALCat, Andersen Library’s catalog, would find titles such as Exploitation of seniors: America’s ailing guardianship system: hearing before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate (online or 2nd-floor Federal Documents, Y 4.AG 4:S.HRG.109-753) and Social policy & aging: a critical perspective (3rd-floor Main Collection, HQ1064.U5 E76 2001). Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!

If you are interested in researching driver distraction, Andersen Library has materials. A search of HALCat (Andersen Library’s catalog) will find titles such as Driver distraction: theory, effects, and mitigation (3rd-floor Main Collection, HE5620.D59 D75 2009) and Driver distraction, a review of the current state-of-knowledge (an online document from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). Searching the Library’s article databases would find articles such as “Engrossed in conversation: The impact of cell phones on simulated driving performance” (in Accident Analysis & Prevention, Mar. 2006, v.38, no.2, pp.415-421).

Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding materials.

The University Library is a federal depository with many federal, state, local, and international documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you in print, microfiche, CD-ROM, and electronically. Come check out your government at the University Library!