Annoyed Librarian comments on libraries and self-published books.
October 2013
A Mild-Mannered Librarian on the Today Show
Writer and Philadelphia area librarian Roz Warren writes about her experience as a guest on the Today Show in the Huffington Post. She was invited to appear after writing an essay about being self-accepting wearing a bathing suit. Warren is 58.
Here’s the original post: At Ease With a Body Fighting Gravity from the NY Times Booming.
SUNY faculty and libraries innovate to solve problems of high-cost textbooks by producing high-quality open textbooks
SUNY Faculty and libraries published two free online open textbooks today for Open SUNY Textbooks; Literature, the Humanities and Humanity by Theodore Steinberg, and Native Peoples of North America by Professor Susan Stebbins, Ph.D. are being released as part of Open Access Week, a global event now in its sixth year that aims to promote open access in scholarship, research, teaching, and learning.
Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants. This initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing infrastructure. The pilot launched in 2012, providing an editorial framework and service to authors, students and faculty, and establishing a community of practice among libraries. The first pilot is publishing 15 titles in 2013, with a second pilot to follow that will add more textbooks and participating libraries.
Participating libraries in the 2012-2013 pilot include SUNY Geneseo, College at Brockport, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Fredonia, Upstate Medical University, and University at Buffalo, with support from other SUNY libraries and SUNY Press.
“Open SUNY Textbooks will dramatically cut costs for our students while enhancing the quality and efficiency of the textbooks used in some of SUNY’s most popular electives and majors, and allowing our faculty to reach a world-wide audience with their expert work,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “This program an exciting first-look into what Open SUNY will accomplish.”
SUNY Faculty and libraries published two free online open textbooks today for Open SUNY Textbooks; Literature, the Humanities and Humanity by Theodore Steinberg, and Native Peoples of North America by Professor Susan Stebbins, Ph.D. are being released as part of Open Access Week, a global event now in its sixth year that aims to promote open access in scholarship, research, teaching, and learning.
Open SUNY Textbooks is an open access textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York libraries and supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants. This initiative publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources by engaging faculty as authors and peer-reviewers, and libraries as publishing infrastructure. The pilot launched in 2012, providing an editorial framework and service to authors, students and faculty, and establishing a community of practice among libraries. The first pilot is publishing 15 titles in 2013, with a second pilot to follow that will add more textbooks and participating libraries.
Participating libraries in the 2012-2013 pilot include SUNY Geneseo, College at Brockport, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Fredonia, Upstate Medical University, and University at Buffalo, with support from other SUNY libraries and SUNY Press.
“Open SUNY Textbooks will dramatically cut costs for our students while enhancing the quality and efficiency of the textbooks used in some of SUNY’s most popular electives and majors, and allowing our faculty to reach a world-wide audience with their expert work,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “This program an exciting first-look into what Open SUNY will accomplish.”
“Digital textbooks are the future of the academic publishing world,” said Carey Hatch, SUNY associate provost for academic technologies and information services. “The average college student nationally spends $1,200 on textbooks per year, and Open SUNY Textbooks positions us to cut those costs for our students while putting them on a more direct path toward completing their degree, which is still the most effective way to save students money.”
The Open SUNY Textbook program will publish 15 books this fall on subjects such as Anthropology, Business, Computer Science, Education, English, Geological Sciences, Mathematics, Music Education, and Physics. Open SUNY Textbooks will be made available for download at www.opensuny.org.
The two books released this week are:
“Literature, the Humanities and Humanity,” written by SUNY Fredonia Distinguished Teaching Professor Ted Steinberg, a professor at the college for more than 40 years. The book focuses on the reading and teaching of literature and will be used most frequently by English education majors.
“Native Peoples of North America,” written by SUNY Potsdam Professor of Anthropology Dr. Susan Stebbins. The textbook is an anthropological introduction to the Native peoples of what are now the United States and Canada, focusing on presenting both historical and contemporary information from anthropological categories such as language, kinship, economic and political organization, religion and spirituality and art.
For more information about the program, please see: http://opensuny.org or contact: Cyril Oberlander, Open SUNY Textbook PI, [email protected]
Book Discussion on “I Am a Man”
Joe Starita talked about his book “I Am a Man”: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice. In 1879, Ponca Chief Standing Bear challenged decades of Indian policy when he stood in a federal courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska, and demanded to be recognized as a person by the U.S. government.?The eventual results were that all Native American peoples were given the full rights of American citizenship.?Topics included how the government was making decisions based upon faulty information and how to treat indigenous people and tribal-based societies.?Professor Starita was interviewed by Professor Arneson and responded to questions from members of the audience.
Watch video at BookTV
Family literacy and K-12 success
Long post by Rothman that hits on family learning, digital libraries, importance of libraries, and a discussion of the book – The Smartest Kids in the World
Although long the article is broken into sections with bold headings.
There is a part where he gives important warnings to public libraries about the development of digital libraries.
Family literacy and K-12 success
Long post by Rothman that hits on family learning, digital libraries, importance of libraries, and a discussion of the book – The Smartest Kids in the World
Although long the article is broken into sections with bold headings.
There is a part where he gives important warnings to public libraries about the development of digital libraries.
Pogue, Times Technology Columnist, Is Leaving for Yahoo
After writing about personal technology for The Times for 13 years, David Pogue will start a consumer technology Web site at Yahoo.
Turning A Page Inside A Rural One-Room Library
Rachel Reynolds Luster took over this branch four months ago with the goal of creating a learning hub. She calls herself a curator, not just a librarian.
Her first task? Filtering out some of the favorites of the previous librarian.
“It’s been interesting working this transition with her,” Luster says. “She was quite upset that the cooking magazines were gone. But we recycled them all, and we kept some holiday cookie editions.”
Fired for…Talking Too Loudly?
From the Flint Journal:
MONTROSE, MI — A former Montrose librarian is suing the Genesee District Library over claims she was fired for talking too loudly.
Susan Harshfield, 30, of Swartz Creek, said she was fired for talking loudly to police after she called for help with a patron who refused to leave the library.
Library spokesman Trenton Smiley declined to comment on the lawsuit. Library attorney Patrick Parker also declined comment. No response to the allegations has been filed with the court.
Harshfield’s attorney, Tom Pabst, said his client was serving as a whistleblower when she was fired by the library.
“The taxpayers and library lost a good worker in Susan,” Pabst said.
The lawsuit claims that a loud dispute arose Sept. 5 between Harshfield and the library patron over DVDs. Harshfield claims that she asked the patron to leave but the patron refused, so Harshfield called the police.
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