Mashable‘s Sam Laird discusses how technology is changing college life.
College students today are more tech savvy than ever before. Just how important is technology to their academic lives?
More than 90% use email to communicate with professors and 73% say they cannot study without technology. Seven in 10 take notes on keyboards instead of paper, virtually all students who own an ereader read textbooks on it and most use digital tools when preparing a presentation.
Congratulation to Elizabeth Holman ’12 and And Tara Shay GSEAP ’13 for winning the 2012 Library Research Prizes.
Elizabeth Holman ’12 won the undergraduate prize for her research essay on her paper Conceptions of Wendy: Barrie’s Depiction of the Adult Wendy-Lady and Hogan’s Portrayal of the Wendy-Child done for Dr. Robert Epstein’s EN 103 Fairy Tales course.
Elizabeth wrote in her research essay. “One of the best aspects of this assignment was that it allowed me to use a variety of resources. Because I analyzed a film, not only was the film itself one of my primary sources, but I was also able to utilize film reviews.” She reflected on the authority of film reviews, “I was not sure as to how to determine the authenticity of these reviews or whether or not certain ones would be appropriate. I then met with one of the reference librarians and he helped me find and determine the relevancy of some reviews.” She also wrote, “I utilized a variety of sources, including articles from databases (LION and ProQuest), books, e-books, film reviews, and the film itself. I found the e-books to be very convenient, as I am a commuter student.”
Tara Shay GSEAP ’13 won the graduate prize for her research essay on her paper A Pilot Experimental Study Examining the Effect of Resiliency Training on Short-term Future Outlook in Urban Adolescents for Dr. Barbara Welles-Nystrom’s ED 499 Educational Research course.
Tara wrote in her research essay, “During our meeting at the library Curtis Ferree, the Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian at Fairfield University, introduced our class to the research process using a class guide he had created that can be accessed from the library web page. I utilized the class guide frequently throughout the research process to access research databases and locate articles from home. The databases which I found most useful included ERIC, Education Journals, and PsycINFO. I began the research process by searching key words related to my topic, such as future outlook, views of the future, and optimism. Within the articles I found I was able to identify more key words, including possible selves, future orientation, and future time perspective, and use the reference list at the end of articles to find additional journal articles and authors.” Tara also wrote, ” I kept a research journal as an organizational aid to keep track of interesting findings and key ideas from articles using the authors’ last name and the year of publication. This process made it easier to go back and cite properly when it was time to begin writing.”
The Award ceremony was held Friday, May 3 at 2 p.m. in the Library Conference Room. Thanks to Award committee members Yohuru Williams, Anna Lawrence, Ania Aksan, Joan Overfield and Jessica McCullough for their thoughtful and insightful deliberations.
The Library will be open 24 hours per day during Finals beginning Friday, May 4, except for Saturday, May 5 when we close at 9:00 pm. We reopen on Sunday, May 6 at 8:00 am.
The Library will be serving FREE coffee , hot chocolate and tea every morning in the cafe! FREE Goodies will also be available many mornings!
Chef’s Table will be open with extended hours during finals.
The Library staff wishes everyone, “GOOD LUCK on your finals!”
Please join us on Friday, May 4 at 2:00 pm in the Library Conference Room where the winners of the Library Research Prize will be announced. The Prize will be awarded in two categories: undergraduate and graduate. Refreshments will be served.
Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to hear the winners of the Prize and their supporting faculty discuss student research.
Thanks to Award committee members Yohuru Williams, Anna Lawrence, Ania Aksan and Jessica McCullough for their thoughtful and insightful deliberations.
The Library Research Prizes attract the very best research projects from courses taught in departments across the campus. It recognizes excellence in research projects that show evidence of:
Extensive use of library services, resources and collections, and
Significant knowledge in the methods of research and the information-gathering process
The folks behind the amazing TED videos have launched a separate collection of video lessons specifically for teaching called TED-Ed. From the site,
TED-Ed’s commitment to creating lessons worth sharing is an extension of TED’s mission of spreading great ideas. Within the growing TED-Ed video library, you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which represent collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform. This platform also allows users to take any useful educational video, not just TED‘s, and easily create a customized lesson around the video. Users can distribute the lessons, publicly or privately, and track their impact on the world, a class, or an individual student.
TED-Ed‘s videos aim to capture and amplify the voices of the world’s greatest educators. To achieve this, we pair extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of exceptional educational videos. This website, similar to TED.com, is ever-evolving and we depend on you, the TED community, to nominate inspiring teachers that have touched your life or clever animators who have the skills to bring a gifted teacher’s lesson to life.
The New York City Municipal Archives has gone digital, expanding their online archives—starting today you can access 870,000 (and counting) of their old photographs, which date back to the mid-1800s. The online feature (which took them four years to get together) also provides free and open research access to their holdings, which not only include photographs, but maps, motion-pictures and audio recordings, as well. This is the first time their offerings are available online, and one and all are welcome to rummage through them… nearly one million images (of their 2.2 million) showing New York City throughout the years as seen by municipal workers, the NYPD, the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, and people like Eugene de Salignac, the photographer for the New York City Department of Bridges/Plant and Structures from 1903 to 1934 (many of his iconic photos from this time have been seen before).
Fairfield University Student Newspapers: A Mirror to the World exhibit will run from April 19- June 15 at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library on the main floor. See front pages and headlines from the first paper The Tentative (published in 1947) through to today. Experience American history through the pages of our own student newspaper.
Chronology of Fairfield University Student Newspapers
The Mirror (1977-present)
The Fairfield Mirror (or the Mirror) is the official student newspaper of Fairfield University, running from September 22, 1977 to the present. It is financially and editorially independent of the University, and typically publishes weekly on Wednesday during the academic year with additional issues during commencement and orientation. Print copies of the current issue of the Mirror are often distributed weekly to designated locations on campus, including the Campus Center, the Library, and the Kelley Center.
To access the website as well as articles from the current issue of the Mirror, please visit The Mirror Online. To read an online facsimile version of the print newspaper, please visit theE-Mirror. Back issues of the Mirror from 1977 through 2003 are available on microfiche at the library; please see the Library Catalog for more information.
The University Voice (1970-1977)
The University Voice was the official and more conservative student newspaper that ran from October 1, 1970 through May 11, 1977. The University Voice is available on microfiche at the library; please see the Library Catalog for more information.
The Fairfield Free Press and Review (1970-1975)
Reported to be the more radical of the two student newspapers published at the time (the University Voice being the other) which ran from September 10, 1970 through April 24, 1975. The Fairfield Free Press and Review is available on microfiche at the library; please see the Library Catalog for more information.
The Stag (1949-1970)
The official student newspaper for Fairfield University during the University’s formative years, the Stag ran from September 23, 1949 through May 6, 1970. The Stag is available online as part of the Library’s digital collection theDARCroom. It is also available on microfiche at the library; please see the Library Catalog for more information.
The Fulcrum (1948-1949)
The Fulcrum ran from January 9, 1948 through May 20, 1949. The Fulcrum is available online as part of the Library’s digital collection theDARCroom. It is also available on microfiche at the library; please see the Library Catalog for more information.
The Tentative (1947)
The first Fairfield University student newspaper, the Tentative was a mimeographed publication that ran from November 7, 1947 through December 19, 1947. The Tentative is available online as part of the Library’s digital collection theDARCroom. It is also available on microfiche at the library; please see the Library Catalog for more information.
Pew Internet received a $1.4 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to study the role of libraries in users’ lives and in their communities. Read their first report chronicling the adoption of e-readers and tablet computers and the rise of e-reading.
Over the course of the next two years, they will present “a series of reports examining technology adoption and use in libraries, patrons’ expectations, the “library of the future,” and how libraries fit into people’s lives in all sorts of ways.” Read more here.
Are you especially proud of a research project or paper you worked on this semester or last semester? Show it off! Apply now to be the winner of the Library Research Prize.
Deadline for submission is Monday, April 23. Draft papers are eligible for submission.
Separate $250 prizes for GRADUATE and UNDERGRADUATE! The winners will be awarded $250 and bragging rights!
The Irish Studies Program at Fairfield University will celebrate the fifth anniversary of its Irish in Film Series with six free screenings of plays by acclaimed Anglo-Irish playwright John Millington Synge. The films are all live, stage productions directed by Gary Hynes of the Druid Theatre Company, Galway, Ireland.
The film series is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
All films, produced in Dublin in 2007, will be screened in the DiMenna-Nyselius Library multimedia room on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., except the first film, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. The film series is part of Fairfield’s Arts & Minds season of cultural and intellectual programming.
On April 11, Dr. Pearson will introduce the final film, “The Well of the Saints” (1905). The three-act play concerns two blind old beggars, Martin Doul (Eamon Morrissey) and his ugly wife Mary (Marie Mullen), who sit by the roadside in all kinds of weather, and are cruelly mocked by the locals. When the couple’s sight is miraculously restored, the theme of the play – the conflict between illusion and reality, the dream world and the visible world – is crystal clear.
For more information, contact Marion White, Irish Studies Program, at (203) 254-4000, ext. 3021 or mwhite@fairfield.edu.
National Library Week 2011- Director Joan Overfield and Stag
Check out the great events happening during National Library Week April 9 -13, 2012 at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library!
Tuesday, April 10 is Student Appreciation Day.
We especially honor our Library Student Workers with a special Student Recognition Board on display in the Library all week.
Cake will be served in the lobby at 2:30 pm.
All students are invited to a Find It @ Your Library Easter Egg Hunt all day on Tuesday. Uncover eggs packed with research tips, $1 off library fines coupon, and candy. The finder of the egg with the Golden Coin gets $10 in Stagbucks!
Thursday, April 12 at 11:00 am will be the Library’s Launch Party for DigitalCommons@Fairfield
See Fairfield University’s new Institutional Repository. All faculty and staff are invited to learn how Digital Commons@Fairfield can bring their scholarship to the world and invigorate teaching! Celebratory Refreshments! RSVP to JoAnn Garrity @ jgarrity@fairfield.edu. You can see DigitalCommons@Fairfield online at (http://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/)
from Library Journal:
“It looks as though the lifetime achievement award bestowed upon Statistical Abstract of the United States at this past American Library Association (ALA) midwinter awards was premature. Dismaying librarians, the government announced last year that publication of the demographics powerhouse would cease with the 2012 issue. Today, however, database aggregator ProQuest announced that it will continue publication of the work—in print and online—with the 2013 issue, meaning that there will be no gap in coverage.
The Irish Studies Program at Fairfield University will celebrate the fifth anniversary of its Irish in Film Series with six free screenings of plays by acclaimed Anglo-Irish playwright John Millington Synge. The films are all live, stage productions directed by Gary Hynes of the Druid Theatre Company, Galway, Ireland.
The film series is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
All films, produced in Dublin in 2007, will be screened in the DiMenna-Nyselius Library multimedia room on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., except the first film, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. The film series is part of Fairfield’s Arts & Minds season of cultural and intellectual programming.
On March 28, Synge scholar Rob Doggett, Ph.D., assistant professor of English at SUNY Geneseo, will present Synge’s first play, “In the Shadow of the Glen” (1903), a comedy about a May-December marriage with a resurrection theme, starring Mick Lally, Louise Lewis and Eamon Morrissey. Synge got the material for the play from a story he heard on a visit to the Aran Islands.
For more information, contact Marion White, Irish Studies Program, at (203) 254-4000, ext. 3021 or mwhite@fairfield.edu.
The Library will be serving FREE coffee , hot chocolate and tea every morning in the cafe! FREE Goodies will also be available many mornings!
