Library Blog

No need to pre-register - just stop by. Open to faculty, staff and students. Two 1-GB flash drives raffled at each workshop!

“All I have to do in life is mind my brother Raymond, which is enough.”

Read and discuss Alice Walker and Toni Cade Bambara with us on Thursday, October 22 from 2:30 to 4:30 in the Library conference room. Pick up a copy of the stories at the Library Reference Desk.

Short Takes on Literature: Alice Walker-"Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" and Toni Cade Bambara-"Raymond's Run"

For details, click the Programs & Workshops link on our home page, or visit http://library.laguardia.edu/services/programs.

Guerrilla Pedagogy

Information 2.0: Knowledge in the Digital Age - lecture series

Join us for an exciting presentation on technology and pedagogy with Dr. Matthew K. Gold, New York City College of Technology and the Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Certificate Program at the CUNY Graduate Center

Friday, October 16, 2009 : 9:30am - 12:00pm [Room E500]

Guerrilla Pedagogy: A Hit-and-Run Guide to Mobile, Open-Source, Aggregated Course Design; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Internets

This presentation will consider the practical and theoretical implications of using the ethos of the open-source software movement as a guiding force for classroom pedagogy. Embracing the principles of open-source in the digital classroom involves distinct notions of openness, transparency, sharing, and student-centeredness that are, in many ways, anathema not just to corporate content management systems such as Blackboard, but also to deeply ingrained ideas concerning the role of higher educational institutions in public life. Responding critically and creatively to the possibilities opened up by new communications technologies can and should entail a reexamination of the assumptions regarding the ways in which students and teachers relate to course materials and to each other.

Presenter Biography

The first speaker in the Information 2.0 series is Dr. Matthew K. Gold an Assistant Professor of English at New York City College of Technology and a faculty member in the Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Certificate Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. His teaching and research interests center on the digital humanities, multimodal writing, open-source pedagogy, and new-media studies. Matt is Project Director of Looking for Whitman: The Poetry of Place in the Life and Work of Walt Whitman, an experiment in online multi-campus pedagogy funded by two Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants from the NEH Office of Digital Humanities. He is also Project Director of the CUNY Academic Commons, a new academic social network dedicated to building community across the 23 campuses in the City University of New York system. For more information on Dr. Gold's research and teaching, visit: http://mkgold.net/.

Register here: http://digitalageknowledge.eventbrite.com/

Wonder Bread and Curry

Wonder Bread and Curry...

Read and discuss Jhumpa Lahiri with us on Thursday, October 15 from 2:30 to 4:30 in the Library conference room. Pick up a copy of the stories at the Library Reference Desk.

Short Takes on Literature: Jhumpa Lahiri - "A Temporary Matter" - Interpreter of Maladies

For details, click the Programs & Workshops link on our home page, or visit http://library.laguardia.edu/services/programs.

Smart phones, smart people

Fabulous Fall Workshops from the Library

30 Minute Workshop: Smart Phones, Smart People: Research on the GO!

Drop in and learn about new ways of using mobile technologies. Albert Neal will present a look at mobile research applications (apps) available for use with smartphones (iPhone, G1, Android, etc.)

Wednesday, October 14th @ 3:30 - 4:00 in the Library Lab

Short Takes on Literature Resumes!

Short Takes on Literature Resumes Friday, October 9 and every Thursday through November 19.

ALL SESSIONS WILL BE HELD IN THE LIBRARY CONFERENCE ROOM

Oct 9 (FRIDAY) 2:30- 4:30 - We'll be reading and discussing two stories by Sherman Alexie- "The War Dances" and "What You Pawn I Will Redeem"

For details, click the Programs & Workshops link on our home page, or visit http://library.laguardia.edu/services/programs.

Watching Films Online

The Library's Streaming Media Project is continuing to be successfully used to view and screen films/programs in the library and on-campus. Be sure to check out new additions: http://media.laguardia.edu/search/

If you're at home, off-campus, you can turn to a free database that indexes free and legal sources to watch feature-length films online. No login necessary.

Speedcine indexes feature length movies - by their definition at least 60 minutes long and not television shows - they currently have 16,000 movies in their database, with a total of 25,000 planned for the end of 2009. Most are not free, but viewing options are given. When you search for a movie, you're provided with multiple ways to watch the movie. Free titles include: Spike Jonze's Adaptation, Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, Werner Herzog's Enigma of Kasper Hauser, and the documentary, The Life And Times Of Allen Ginsberg.

(via Lifehacker)

Free software, free access events

Some free software community-building events are happening in NYC this week:

• September 19 - Software Freedom Day
• September 22 - OneWebDay - Free events/symposia to promote community advocacy for universal and equal access to the Internet. Also available via webcast.

Last September, the Free Software Foundation posted this explanation of free software from British polymath, Stephen Fry (aka Jeeves):

Shopping for textbooks online

Textbooks are a big problem. We're trying our best to get ahold of copies for students to use and share in the Library, but in case you're looking for help getting your own personal copy, here's a list of textbook rental sources online.

A sample textbook is listed to give you an idea of price comparison. Links to online textbook price comparison tools and book trading sites are also listed.

The prices are still high, so it is not a perfect solution. Let us know if you have any ideas to share with your fellow students.

The Fall 2009 semester begins…

Welcome to the start of the Fall 2009 semester! The Library's regular hours are as follows:

• Monday - Thursday: 7:30 am - 9:45 pm
• Friday: 7:30 am - 8:45 pm
• Saturday: 9:00 am - 4:45 pm
• Sunday: 12:00 pm - 4:45 pm

Friday, Sept. 18: 7:30 am -4:45 pm ; Closed Saturday, Sept. 19 & Sunday, Sept. 20

See other exceptions to the schedule here.

“Open access + digital publishing will help get us to a sustainable world…”

"Scholarly publishing's role in the world must be de-linked from print publication. The print book must become the exception, not the rule, as soon as possible."

Michael Jensen, the Director of Strategic Web Communications for the Office of Communications of the National Academies and National Academies Press gave an inspiring speech at the recent AAUP (American Association of University Presses) annual meeting. He makes some important connections between "a) the survival of scholarly publishing, and b) the survival of civilization." Environmental, rather than simply economic, concerns lie at the heart of his call.

Text of the speech available here. Via if:book

What will e-books look like in the future?

A French publishing group, Editis, produced this short film imagining the future of e-books: reading them, getting them published and even buying them in bookstores. No subtitles, but not really necessary to get the idea.

Possible ou Probable via if:book.