Ramsey Library News

GREENWOOD DIGITAL COLLECTION

Ramsey Library is very pleased to announce the availability of the Greenwood Digital Collection provided under the auspices and funding of NC LIVE. This is a collection of complete e-books all searchable by keyword, subject, author, title, or any Boolean search method. It includes the series Daily Life Through History, Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Authors, Historic Events of the 20th Century, Literature in Context, as well as American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography. This is brand new. I haven’t even found out how many titles are available and have barely played with it, but give it a try at http://www.nclive.org/cgi-bin/nclsm?rsrc=229. At present, ACCESS IS LIMITED TO ON-CAMPUS, ONLY.

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MORE ON ELECTRONIC BOOKS

In most recent issue of its “practitioner’s journal,” EQ: Educause Quarterly, the preeminent association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology addresses the evolution of electronic books in relation to higher education. In a brief essay, Charles Edward Smith, a computer administrator, argues in favor to Google’s library scanning project in spite of the associated complexities including copyright and indexing. He concludes that “. . . the successful transfer of knowledge is the task that lies before us,” and that “Any effort that responsibly furthers the task benefits all of us.”

Smith, Edward Charles. “A Few Thought on the Google Books Library Project.” EQ, 31:1 (2008), 10-11.

On another and intriguing front, an Associate Professor of Information Technology Leadership explores “E-Texts in the Classroom.” You may not realize it, but several UNC Asheville faculty are using electronic texts as their textbook already giving their students the opportunity to “rent” these e-texts for the semester at very competitive rates. Opportunities are likely only to improve as does the technology. Check out EQ’s take and information about the new Kindle reader at:

Hannon, Charles. “E-Texts in the Classroom.” EQ, 31:1 (2008), 12-13.

AMAZON.COM ~ The Kindle

Levy, Steven. “The Future of Reading.” Newsweek, November 26, 2007, pp. 58-64.

Posted by Brandy at 02:49 PM | Permalink

In lieu of its annual booksale, Ramsey Library has joined the growing number of institutions currently partnering with Betterworld Books to support schools and literacy programs around the world and to most efficiently redistribute our unneeded books.

Betterworld Books has:

• collected books from over 900 libraries and generated over $1.4 million in library funding and $2.7 million for non-profit literacy initiatives.
• donated 100% of profits to literacy partners.
• kept 6,454 tons of books out of landfills and 1725 tons of carbon out of the air by using carbon-neutral shipping.

Visit Betterworld Books online.

Watch the Betterworld Books video.

Posted by Brandy at 02:17 PM | Permalink

Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to try the following online resources and let us know if you find them useful. Email your thoughts to: libref [at] unca.edu.
Note: These resources are available on campus only.

Oxford Scholarship Online

Oxford Scholarship Online provides access and full-text searchability to nearly 2,000 core Oxford University Press books in thirteen subject areas: Economics/Finance, Political Science, Religion, Philosophy, Literature, History, Classics, Psychology, Linguistics, Physics, Mathematics, Biology, and Business/Management.

http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/

CQ Press Political Reference Suite

CQ Press Political Reference Suite of Online Editions offers online access to CQ Press's reference titles on government and politics.

http://library.cqpress.com/prs

CQ Global Researcher

CQ Global Researcher offers focused, readable, single-topic reports on vital world issues. Reports include an introductory overview; background and assessment of the current situation; pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions; chronology on the topic, followed by short features for extensive context; a sampling of related international perspectives; maps and graphs; bibliographies of key sources; next steps for additional reading; and author profiles. Researchers may also search for all documents related to given geographic areas and individual states, using a new interactive global map.

http://library.cqpress.com/globalresearcher

Posted by Site Administrator at 10:29 AM | Permalink

My Antonia: The Story in Sign
The Friends of Ramsey Library and Ramsey Library are very pleased to announce our support of a very special event which is free and open to the public. Acclaimed actress and American Sign Language practitioner Barbara Bates Smith will perform passages of My Antonia in sign and spoken word with Marilyn Edwards, Telecommunications Specialist, Asheville office, N.C. Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. This program is a component of the region’s celebration of the National Endowment of the Arts THE BIG READ, which is featuring Willa Cather’s My Antonia under the auspices of Western North Carolina’s Together We Read.

My Antonia: the Story in Sign (poster)
Sunday, March 16
2:30 PM
Reuter Center
UNCA Campus

AUDUBON’S BIRDS ONLINE
In its 4 March issue, the Chronicle’s “The Wired Campus” reported that Pitt’s Digital Research Library “. . . used a high-resolution scanner to create the digital set (of Audubon’s 435 birds) for the Web, along with reprints from Audubon’s Ornithological Biography, his five-volume text describing each of the birds.” “The naturalist John James Audubon attempted, in the 19th century, to paint every species of North American bird. He got through 435 of them before running out of time and money.” Only 120 sets of the large, hand-colored works are known to exist. To view the plates and text directly, go to the University of Pittsburgh’s beautiful Audubon’s Birds of America.

Audubon's 435 Birds Mounted Online at Pitt

AND FROM THE SHADIER SIDE OF ACADEME
The Chronicle’s “Today’s News” of 6 March reported that a researcher at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has been suspended for fabricating data which “. . . appear in two papers about ways to manipulate human cells that were published in highly influential journals. The articles by the scientist, Tae Kook Kim, appeared in 2005 and 2006 in Science and Nature Chemical Biology, and had both already been cited several times by authors of other articles, an indication of their importance.”

Biology Papers in Prominent Journals May Be Frauds

Posted by Brandy at 05:39 PM | Permalink

Negro Baseball League: Sounds and Voices of an Era

Tuesday, March 11, 2008, 12:30-1:30
Lipinsky Hall 018 (UNC Asheville Music Department)

Ramsey Library takes great pleasure in inviting you to "Negro Baseball League: Sounds and Voices of an Era," a celebration of the athletes who broke baseball's color barrier and the contributions of African Americans to sports, the arts, and culture. This event will feature music, poetry, spoken word, and history of the Negro Baseball League set to jazz accompaniment. Featured performers will include the UNC Asheville Big Band, directed by Dr. David Wilken, and the spoken word talents of UNC Asheville students, faculty, and staff. Lunchtime refreshments will be served. Contact event coordinators Anita White-Carter (whitecar@unca.edu; 251-6436) and Bryan Sinclair (sinclair@unca.edu; 251-6636) for more information.

This event is part of a week-long series of community events, "Spring Training: Baseball in Black and White," March 11-15, 2008, celebrating the Negro Baseball League and involving the Asheville Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Guild, UNC Asheville, Asheville High School, Asheville Middle School, Asheville Tourists, Lake Eden Arts Festival, Reid Center, YMI, Stephens-Lee Alumni Association, North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement, Center for Diversity Education, and a broad cross section of our Asheville community. The culminating event will feature a performance of “Pastime,” a new composition by Richard Danielpour based on a poem by Michael S. Harper, as part of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra’s program on Saturday, March 15th. Both the poem and music honor the Negro League and three of its biggest stars: Josh Gibson, Jackie Robinson, and Henry Aaron.

OPEN ACCESS

A recent item in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s News Blog noted that “Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (has) adopted a policy . . . that requires faculty members to allow the university to make their scholarly articles available free online.” In a news release following the vote, “Stuart M. Shieber, a professor of computer science at Harvard who proposed the new policy, said . . . that the decision ‘should be a very powerful message to the academic community that we want and should have more control over how our work is used and disseminated.’” Check out the article and comments at “Harvard Faculty Adopts Open-Access Requirement.”

In other news from the world of “open access,” on February 15 the Chronicle reported that “The American Anthropological Association's journals will be disseminated through a for-profit publisher for at least the next five years, but scholars are still debating the merits of open access.” See “Some Anthropologists Continue the Slow Push Toward Open Access.”

And finally, in a landmark announcement, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently announced that “Columbia University Press has radically restructured its high-profile experiment with history monographs (and that) . . . Its books are being made available in two online forms, one of them open access.” See “Landmark Digital History Monograph Project Goes Open Access.”

Did you notice my theme?? J

Posted by Brandy at 03:50 PM | Permalink

In light of recent news from Cuba, you may be interested in checking out the excellent PBS biographical film, Fidel Castro. Thanks to the partnership between PBS & NCLive that we announced last month, we now have access to it and many other PBS documentaries online. You can also check out the DVD from our media collection.

Watch online.

Find the DVD.

More new readings on Cuba and Castro:

Posted by Brandy at 10:40 AM | Permalink

This month's exhibits are rooted in Carolina places.

Writers & Mountains : Western North Carolina Literary history
Special Collections Gallery
[web exhibit]

Upstairs, Ramsey Library

Sharing the Chores: Works on Paper
Jonathan Green vibrantly documents Gullah life.
Blowers Gallery
January 14 - February 28, 2008
[web exhibit]

Harry Harrison, Director of the YMI Cultural Center, discusses Jonathan Green

Posted by Brandy at 11:29 AM | Permalink