CW Library News

CW's EBSCO eBooks

2011-12-28T13:37:00.000-05:00

The EBSCO eBooks collection at CW is an online library that offers a comprehensive selection of full-text titles in core subject areas including business, allied health, digital media, and information technology. These materials can be accessed from the computers on campus, and can be accessed off-campus using your CW credentials.

The EBSCOhost interface allows users to navigate with ease and provides thorough instruction on how to search and download books. Here are some important facts to keep in mind when using CW’s EBSCO eBooks database:

If you want to create and save notes as you read through your eBook, or download an eBook for offline use on your computer or on a portable device, you will need to create an EBSCO user account (for free). Simply click the “Sign in” link at the top and then select “Create a new Account” on the right-hand side. Fill out the concise form and you’ll be on your way to having your very own account.

To use the book offline on your computer or on a portable device, select the “Download This eBook (Offline)” link on the left-hand side of the book record (the book record is what appears when you click on the title of a book. It will contain the title, author, subject terms, and table of contents). You have the option to download the eBook for up to 7 days as a PDF (Portable Document Format).

In order to read the book offline, however, you will need to download the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) eBook reader available for free. On the link provided, scroll towards the middle of the page and select the tan-colored “Launch” button to begin installation.

Note: Not all eBook readers are compatible with Adobe Digital Editions. Click here for a list of compatible devices.

Lastly, you can always read the eBook online by clicking on the “eBook Full Text” link on the left-hand side of the book record.

If you encounter any problems or have any questions regarding how to use EBSCO eBooks, please contact the CW Library. Happy reading!

Online Library News Coming Soon

2011-12-03T16:04:00.000-05:00

CW Community:

Please catch news about Online Library developments here on the Library Blog beginning this month.

Look forward to news about the Online Library in the CW Review and on the Library Blog!

We appreciate your readership.

Monecia Samuel

NYPL Thanksgiving Project

2011-11-23T12:50:00.000-05:00

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is planning to open a new exhibition in 2012 featuring your Thanksgiving feast! This is a rare opportunity for New Yorkers to partake in the NYPL's initiative to capture "stories, photographs, videos, and audio clips about your traditions on turkey day—the food you eat, your specific preparation methods, and your customs (old and new)."

Submit your content in the areas provided on the NYPL Thanksgiving Project homepage.

The CW Library wishes you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Online Citation Tools

2011-09-19T11:48:00.001-04:00

It's that time of the year again! Professors are handing out syllabi and assinging the first round of assignments, which may involve citing sources. One thing is for sure: students dread citation styles. However, there are tools out there that can help students understand the breakdown of citations.

The following are a sample of online citation builders that are geared towards helping students with the main academic citation styles: Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), and Chicago Manual of Style. Even though these online citation builders have worked hard to provide consistent citations with the rules set out by the citation style guides, users are ultimately responsible for the citations and should proofread them for accuracy.

KnightCite is maintained by the Hekman Library at Calvin College, Michigan. The service was created in 2004 and is available to members within and outside of the Calvin community. It generates bibliographic citations for MLA, APA and the Chicago Manual of Style, and it cites a variety of materials ranging from sacred texts to cartoons.

North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries developed the Citation Builder. The Citation Builder does citations for books, chapters or essays from books, magazine articles, newspaper articles, journal articles, and web sites. After filling out a form, only the bibliographic citation is provided.

The Son of Citation Machine is a great aid for writing a research papers and assignments. Established in 2000, the site lets the individual choose the citation style (MLA, APA, etc.). Next, the individual chooses the type of source: book, journal, magazine, website, and various other types. After filling out the appropriate fields based on citation standards and submitting the form, the individual conveniently gets the bibliographic citation and in-text citation.

Lastly, BibMe is a free auto-fill bibliographic generator that will format your bibliography to the main citation styles. It uses a search engine powered by World Cat to automatically produce the citation of a book and the engine also gathers basic information for other source types.

It's important for students, teachers, and scholars to remember that although these generators create the bibliographic citation, it is important to check the accuracy of the citation before incorporating it into your research paper or assignment. Best of luck in your future academic achievements!

Medical Resources

2011-09-17T12:54:00.000-04:00

The School of Allied Health at The College of Westchester prepares its students to be the health professionals of tomorrow. As a result, the Library has gathered up reliable medical resources available online in order to help students in the field.

Medical Dictionaries

MedlinePlus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, in partnership with Merriam-Wesbster provides users with a search engine to find medical terminology.
mediLexicon is a comprehensive free online medical dictionary powered by Stedman's Medical Dictionary.
WebMD stores medical terminology deriving from Stedman's Medical Dictionary, which also makes it a great tool.

Medical Encyclopedias

The Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR) is a comprehsensive and widely respected source of information for over 3,000 drugs.
RxList: The Internet Drug Index is a complete and reliable online drug index that covers brand and generic drug names.

Medical Handbooks and Manuals

The Merck Manual for Health Care Professionals provides up-to-date information for medical professionals and consumers.
The Merck Manual: Home Health Handbook uses everyday language to provide complete and concise information on a wide range of disorders.
The Merck Manual: Older People's Health Issues is a section specifially dealing with the elderly.

Health Information Sites

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the primary source for information on a wide range of deseases and conditions.
The National Center for Health Statistics is the primary source for health statistics including data collected from birth, death, and medical records.
DrugDigest provides information on drugs, herbs, and interactive tools to help understand the chemistry between drugs.

The College of Westchester Library also has books on health and health professions. The following are a sample of the collection:

Left: Medical Terminology: A Living Language
Center: Medical Terminology for Health Professions
Right: Medical Terminology with Human Anatomy

Google Search

2011-09-17T09:52:00.001-04:00

Searching in Google is easy, right? For basic information Google provides immediate answers. However, for more elaborate search queries, anyone can get lost in the overwhelming number of hits and websites.

For example, let us imagine that a student is interested in searching for reliable information on the prevention of diabetes. The student can easily type "diabetes prevention" in the search engine, but get back over 7 million hits.

Here are some basic facts you should know about searching with Google to help reduce that 7 million mark to a manageable number:

Typing "new york times" and "New York Times" is the same thing. The Google search engine is case insensitive.
By using "quotation marks" around a word, you are asking Google to search for the exact words in that exact order.

Example: "Alexander Bell" will only get you results with Alexander Bell, but will ignore search results that had Alexander G. Bell. Use the quotation marks wisely.

Using site: can help you get results from a specific website.

Example: Typing iraq site:nytimes.com will give you results about Iraq from from the New York Times website only.

You can also use site: to look up topics in a type of site, such as .gov, .org, .edu, etc.

Example: Typing iraq site:.gov will give you results about Iraq from .gov sites only.

Adding a minus sign before a word means you do not want the results to have this word.

Example: Typing diabetes -recipes -diet will give you results about diabetes that do not talk about recipes and dietary issues.

If you'd like to use other similar features as the ones listed above, visit Google's Basic Search Help for more information.

Cover Letter Tips and Resources

2011-09-16T19:51:00.000-04:00

A cover letter is a formal letter often submitted with a resume to employers when applying for a job. The letter serves as an introduction to your resume and it allows for you to elaborate on your qualifications and experience.

Left: Sample cover letter
Right: Sample resume

Here are some quick tips to keep in mind when writing your cover letter:

Use the standard Times New Roman font with 12 point font size.
Keep your cover letter brief and simple as seen with the sample cover letter above.
Address the letter to a specific individual. If you can not find a name, use a job title instead (Example: Dear Director of Human Resources).
Be confident, creative, and enthusiastic. This is where you want your personality to shine.
Spell check and proofread your letter for errors.
Review cover letter samples to get ideas on how to format and write your cover letter.

Here are some reliable resources that will help you write a proper cover letter:

Optimal Resume at The College of Westchester allows you to build your cover letter, resume, and portfolio online.
Here are a variety of cover letter formats to adopt in during your writing process.
Here are some sample cover letters to review and help you with your cover letter.
These sample cover letters focus on a variety of fields including business services, banking & investment, financial services, healthcare, and marketing.

Lastly, The College of Westchester Library has several books on career planning as well as resume and cover letter writing. Here are sample books you might want to browse through the next time you visit the Library:

Left: Cover Letter Magic
Center: The Complete Book of Resumes
Right: Dynamic Cover Letters

Text-a-Librarian

2011-08-01T16:22:00.000-04:00

How to Text Your Questions Anytime

1. Save CW Library (66746) to your contacts.

2. When you draft your message, type CWL before your question.

Example: CWL How late are you open on Saturday?

Note: Text messages are received on the Web and not on Librarians’ personal cell phones.

Free Online Courses from the Small Business Administration

2011-07-05T12:29:00.001-04:00

The Small Business Administration offers the following online courses for free:

1.How to Start and Grow an Online Business

2.How to Prepare a Business Plan

3.Franchising Basics

4.Technology 101: A Small Business Guide

The courses are self-paced 30 minute sessions. You can access the site from the title link of this blog entry.

Monecia Samuel, MSLS
Library Director

Evening Students - Get Your College ID

2011-04-27T17:22:00.000-04:00

If your first class is this evening or tomorrow night, please stop by to secure a CW College ID if you have not already. The ID takes approximately 5 minutes to shoot and print. It will display your picture, full name and signature. The ID can be used for student discounts with retailers and it also serves as an official ID, as it diplays your official signature.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Monecia Samuel
Director of the Library

A CW Library Internship Experience

2011-04-13T11:40:00.002-04:00

During the course of the Winter 2011 Semester, as a General Education Elective, I had an opprotunity to work as an Intern in the Library. This was an interesting internship experience because I've never worked in a library before and I got to see what it was like. I've learned a lot from this internship, for example, the differences between the CW library databases and those at other college libraries. My Supervisor, Ms. Monecia Samuel, Director of the Library, taught me how to enhance my research skills and how libraries work. At every session I learned something new, for example, how the Library classification system works, and how to organize all the periodicals according to subject. Additionally, there were times when I helped by cheking the IDs of students entering the Library. Also, I got to assist Ms. Samuel and Chris Postma, the Technical Services Intern, while giving a library presentation during a classroom visit. When I look back at this experience after I finish my studies at the school, I'll be glad that I was able to advance my career searching and research techniques.

By: Deanna Bergenson, Class of 2011

New Outside Scholarship Listings for March and April

2011-03-11T04:59:00.000-05:00

Outside Scholarships

New scholarship postings with application deadlines for mid-March to early April 2011 are displayed at the Library entrance.

If you have any questions about applying for an outside scholarship, please ask any one of us in the Library for assistance.

Monecia Samuel, Director of the Library

Using MLA Style

2010-11-19T22:36:00.003-05:00

Your students may want to refer to the sample paper in MLA style on this blog. You will find it under Student Resources on the right side bar. It has been updated to suit the most recent update, MLA 2009.

All About the Voting Machines in New York

2010-11-01T16:36:00.001-04:00

New Yorkers: Find the type of machine you'll be using by county. You'll find an online tutorial as well.

Dinosaurs on the Roof : A Student Book Review

2010-10-05T12:53:00.003-04:00

Novel: Dinosaurs on the ROOF
Author: David Rabe
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Year: 2008
Reviewer: Karina Hernandez,Student Library Assistant, Medical Assistant Management Major.

In this first chapter of “Dinosaurs on the Roof” we are introduced to what at first glance seems to be a simple story. Janet Cawley, the main character, is portrayed to be a lonely, athletic because of the description of her running, but surely a person with a set routine. This routine was changed by the appearance of this “Old four door Chevy.” In this car Janet finds a woman familiar to her, Bernice Doorley, her mother old friend. A woman that with the sentence: “Get in. I need to ask a sort of favor, and I can make it snappy,” makes Janet hesitant and inflicts Janet with the feeling of caution.

Janet’s history is revealed a bit to us. She has been divorced and her mother died. Since then she has shown little interest in having people in her life. One way or another she has driven her into isolation, quit her job and avoided her friends. To Janet the visit of Bernice was a mystery, yet in the back of her mind she was preparing to tell Bernice to mind her own business. Just in case she was like everybody else who judged the way she has been living. Bernice was not there to judge her, although she was the type of person who didn’t hold back just to be polite.

Bernice was ready for the “Rapture” which according to her religion was going to happen that night. The rapture she explained is “a matter of Jesus and a bunch of special angels coming to haul some people off body and soul, all the folks who been saved” and she was going to be one of those people.

Bernice asked Janet to look after her animals, and for a woman who had been so successful at getting rid of the annoying people in her life you would think that she would get out it of easily. In some strange way, Janet felt hypnotized, she ended up accepting even though she tried not to.

The chapter finishes on this note: Janet and Bernice on their way to see Bernice’s beloved animals. How can these animals change Janet’s life? Does the Rapture really happen? Are we going to see Dinosaurs on the Roof? What is going to happen to these two characters? We only can find out if we keep reading this very intriguing story.

A Video Game Publisher Creates an App for Investing

2010-10-05T09:52:00.003-04:00

Black Ops Entertainment, a video game publisher, released recently a charting application for traders. The app, designed for the iPad user, called iTraderPro, presents their $24.99 charting package in 3D. According to its CEO, John Botti,the buy and sell signals featured on the application will allow users to save.

Featured in Theresa W. Carey's Electronic Investor, Barron's (10/04/10)

How Prosperity Evolves | The New York Academy of Sciences

2010-09-29T22:46:00.001-04:00

How Prosperity Evolves | The New York Academy of Sciences

3 Scholarships for Children & Spouses of Deceased or Disabled Victims of September 11, 2001

2010-09-13T10:39:00.004-04:00

The following are three scholarship opportunities for children and spouses directly affected by the events of September 11, 2001:

NYS World Trade Center Memorial Scholarship
Amount to be Determined
Apply by May 1, 2011
http://www.hesc.com/content.nsf/SFC/NYS_World_Trade_Center_Memorial_Scholarship

Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund
Apply by May 15, 2011
http://www.familiesoffreedom.org

CFA Institute September 11th Memorial Scholarship: Up to $25,000
Apply by June 15, 2011
http://sms.scholarshipamerica.org/cfainstitute/guidelines.pdf

Please sign our September 11, 2001 Memory Banner

2010-09-09T18:23:00.002-04:00

CW Community:

Once again, we'll hang a September 11, 2001 Memory Banner in The College of Westchester Library. We are providing colored pens and pencils for you to write on this banner designed to communicate your memories relevant to that day.

Please come down to the Library and read or write on the banner. We will hang it this Saturday, September 11, 2001 and it will be on display in the Library through the end of September 2010.

Thanks in advance,
Monecia Samuel
Director of the Library

Plagiarism Lines Blur For Students In Digital Age

2010-08-03T14:56:00.003-04:00

Article: Plagiarism Lines Blur For Students In Digital Age
Publication: New York Times
Author: Trip Gabriel
Date: August 1, 2010
Summarized by: Joseph Levis, Reference & Instruction Librarian

New technology has altered college students views of authorship, both in terms of what they actually write and how they consider what others have written. A tricky area when it comes to issues of plagiarism is unattributed documents on the internet. Just because students finds material on a web page or Wikipedia doesn’t mean they can just copy and paste it as if it was their own work, but there have been notable instances of this very thing happening. The worst part is that students continue to do this even when they've been made aware that its wrong.

One thought is that because students no longer go to a physical library to access information - and find reference sources mostly through their computer - they treat it like everything else they find on the internet, such as ‘free’ MP3s and ‘free’ movies. Why wouldn’t they just steal text as well? Separate but related is the idea that current college students, who may be less individualistic than those from previous generations, indulge in “mixing and matching,” similar to the way that a TV show or a pop song might appropriate snippets of other similar works without giving direct credit. However, others offer a simpler theory, which is that some students are just unprepared for the rigors of college writing.

Women Take The Lead

2010-07-29T12:44:00.001-04:00

Article: Women lead the way
Publication: Training
Author: Margery Weinstein
Issue: July/ August 2010
Review by: Karina Hernandez

“It’s a man’s world,” this statement is no longer true. In today’s world we see more and more females in the work force of corporate America. Through much struggle and work females have been making their way into executives’ jobs and into being seen as male equals. Still there are few women in leading work position. Women “make up the majority of university graduates, and yet they get stuck in middle and lower ranks of companies, often over looked for top roles,” said Selena Rezani, author of “The Next Generation of Women Leaders”. The author Margery Weinstein discusses how companies could increase the females in leading role positions by simply acknowledging that they are there. She talks about having a “Network of their own” as it seen at Cbeyond, a managed services provider in Atlanta. In this company they have an organization design specifically to help women get ahead in their career by the simple fact of networking. The Cbeyond Women’s Network creates a learning and development environment. The article encourages other companies to do the same, which I believe is a good idea because it would only strengthen the company’s workforce. But this might seem a little unfair for the male’s point of view. The article also discusses Western Summit Constructors Inc. and how “women’s leadership development is a top priority.” The construction field is not an easy one for females, but the way this company goes about helping females develop and get ahead is not by giving them their own program; rather by giving women the same amount of attention as men in all of its training programs. They are included in their internship program, mentoring program and leadership program. This company realizes that there are differences between females and males, but these differences do not make any one more capable over the other. “The differences in female leadership tendencies can be use to optimize the company’s benefit.” I couldn’t agree more with Stephanie Taylor (the Bilingual Training Specialist of Summit Constructors Inc.). Females and males are not the same, but the characteristics that disassociate us, when use correctly could lead us into a successful path.

Google to Become Major Player in Gaming

2010-07-15T10:55:00.003-04:00

Google invests $100 Million in Zynga. The full article published in Variety is available through the title link to this blog entry.

On To Kill A Mockingbird

2010-07-12T10:54:00.001-04:00

What happens when an iconic novel turns 50? People remember it.

Too Many Books?

2010-07-06T15:50:00.002-04:00

If you have a bestselling business title written in the past 2 years, you'd like to donate to the CW Library, please let us know. We will include your name on the online records of the books donated.

Ask the Library About Outside Scholarships

2010-06-24T12:29:00.003-04:00

The Library organizes and compiles resources with outside scholarship information. Please find our current scholarships packet on this Blog and opportunities posted at the Library entrance.

Outside scholarships can be combined with any CW scholarship. Anyone presently enrolled at any college or university can take advantage of these opportunities. In most cases, scholarship applicants must be prepared to submit grade point averages, transcripts and at least a one page essay. However, most companies do not require the same information from their applicants. It is best to check through the eligibility requirements for each respective grantor carefully.

If you have any questions, please ask any of the Library staff for assistance.

Summer Reading 2010

2010-06-22T19:12:00.002-04:00

The New York Public Library has taken a unique approach to summer reading. This summer, they've rolled out www.summerreading.org, a website where students can create an avatar and show off their favorite books, CDs, movies, or video games all with one profile. They can create reviews and find new things by seeing what their fellow students are reading, watching, or playing this summer.

Newly Arranged Study Areas in the Library

2010-06-22T15:25:00.003-04:00

The CW Library has 4 designated group study tables. The study tables are creatively enclosed by bookshelves and accomodate groups with up to six members.

If you'd like to reserve a table for your class, please contact the librarians.

Library Newspapers

2010-05-10T17:03:00.002-04:00

The Library holds the following newspapers:

Barron's
The Journal News
New York Times
USA Today
Wall Street Journal

The newspapers have been re-located to the front reference desk. Our "new" newspaper polls are a gift from Nyack College.

How It Affects the Nation - 2010 Census

2010-04-15T15:05:00.002-04:00

Did you mail your Census form? There are only two days left. From late April 2010 to August 2010, Census employees will visit households that did not return the form.

Credit Card Act Impact

2010-04-15T09:46:00.001-04:00

This Washington Post article includes clarification of credit card laws including those that will go into effect after August 22, 2010.

How LinkedIn Will Fire Up Your Career

2010-04-07T15:01:00.000-04:00

Article- How LinkedIn Will Fire Up Your Career
Periodical- Fortune
Vol. 161 no. 5 , Arpil 12, 2010
Author- Jessi Hempel
Reviewed by- Paolo Varrenti, the College of Westchester

LinkedIn is a powerful recruitment tool used to obtain positions in today’s most competitive job market. In today’s economy, it is harder than ever to find a good career path. The competition is very strong amongst college graduates trying to develop their careers. This year 50,000 job positions are opening up for telecom consultants, finance experts, software specialists and many more. Most people do not know that there is an easier way to get your name out there for job openings. LinkedIn is a networking system that can put your name out there, and companies can contact you after reviewing your profile. It is basically like face book and monster intertwined. This is because it is a resume in the style of an online profile with your skills and specialties.
Recruitment teams for big companies used to rely on headhunters, employee referrals, and job boards. This is a way of the past now that they can access thousands of applications with the click of a button. Companies find it much easier to review someone’s profile online and get a true understanding of who they are through their past experiences and skills. The article states that if you are not on the LinkedIn system, you do not exist in the eyes of John Compagnio. Compagnio is the head of Global Recruitment. He strictly uses LinkedIn to search for applicants to fill specific job opening.
I would recommend this article to college graduates with any degree level. They need to understand the importance of this system and how they can network on a professional level. Jessi Hempel stresses the importance of social networking because it is the future of recruitment. LinkedIn is one tool no college graduate should be without.

A Jolt for Energy Innovation

2010-04-07T14:55:00.004-04:00

Periodical: U.S News and World Report
Article: A Jolt for Energy Innovation
Author: Kent Garber
Article date: Vol. 147. 4, April 2010
Reviewed by: Lewis Joseph (The College of Westchester)

A Jolt for Energy Innovation, by Kent Garber, focuses on the United States and it’s lack of technological innovation in recent years due to lack of funding. Due to the stimulus package set forth by President Barack Obama, Steven Chu was able to take strides by presenting new ideas and setting them into motion after becoming the head of the Department of Energy in January of this year.
This article explains the challenges that are present in finding funding for most potential energy endeavors in the U.S, and reasons why many ideas tend to fall by the way side. Steven Chu is trying to find new ways of both improving energy use and making sure good ideas don’t fail to come to light due to a lack of funding.

How to Advertise on Facebook

2010-03-31T13:02:00.003-04:00

How to Advertise on Facebook: A Review by Andrew Javier Castillo, The College of Westchester
Inc. (Feb. 2010) pp.94- 96

This article is fascinating. Many people pay a lot of money to place their ads on Google not knowing that Facebook advertising is the new “thing.” Many new people, almost a 100 million a month are joining the revolution of social networking. Faceboook ads are cheaper and companies are choosing Facebook over Google’s pay-per-click Adwords. This article points out four tips to help you get started on your Facebook ads
• Choosing your target, knowing who you going to advertise to and who is you audience.
• Test, test – and test some more, checking how you going to run your ads and doing small tests on certain groups.
• Do your own tracking, track and keep tabs on how many times your ads are shown to people and the number of clicks you received. Check to see if people purchased the product, or asked for the service you offered them, or just browsed the website and moved on.
• Make your ads pop, it’s difficult to get noticed so being creative and original is advised to stand out of thousands of Facebook ads that are being put out every day.

Written by, Jason Del Rey for Inc.
(February 2010)

MTV Reality Show Follows Career Search of Recently Graduated College Students

2010-03-17T13:40:00.005-04:00

From Variety.com (March 16, 2010)

With a 20-episode order, "MTV Hired" will provide work for five exec producers: Jessica Chesler, Sam Simmons, Noah Scheinmann, Matt Westmore, Marshall Eisen and Dave Sirulnick. The real-life job seekers featured on the show will range from the overqualified to underqualified, in a variety of professions.

Follow the title link for the full article.

How Campbell's CEO, Douglass Conant, Turned A Company In Trouble Around

2010-03-15T09:52:00.002-04:00

This article is an interview of Campbell's CEO, Douglass Conant. It is from Gallup Management Journal, March 15, 2010 issue.

5 Levels of Effective Communication in the Social Media Age

2010-02-18T10:17:00.006-05:00

What I found most interesting about this article, 5 Levels of Effective Communication in Social Media Age, is the stated fact that email takes and requires more time from its writers and readers compared to other avenues of communication online. For this reason, Twitter is becoming attractive to many. The value of phone communication for delicate topics is acknowledged and the article supports as well, the value of in person contact still, and points out - although in-person contact was once recognized as the first social entry point, it is now in most cases, the last.

The title link to this blog entry leads to the full article by Soren Gordhamer.

Monecia Samuel
Director of the Library

Outside 325: A Child's View of Haiti

2010-02-18T09:20:00.003-05:00

Outside 325: Photo Journalism from Haiti
Haitian Children 9-18 years old share their photo documents of the regeneration of Haiti over the past two weeks. The title link of this blog post leads to The New York Times feature of these photos.

Professional Development - Distance Ph.D. Programs

2010-02-04T10:20:00.004-05:00

Indiana State University - Ph.D. in Technology Management
(August 15, 2010 Application Deadline)
http://www.indstate.edu/consortphd/application/index.html

University of Florida - Ph.D. in Classics
(March 31, 2010 Application Deadline)
http://www.classics.ufl.edu/distance/distance.html

Review: The Moment Social Media Became Serious Business

2010-01-27T12:03:00.010-05:00

I was introduced to Twitter last week and I liked it because of the limited information one can put into twittering. Ironically, I discovered Tammy Erickson's Blog at the Harvard Business Review Online called "The Moment Social Media Became Serious Business". What caught my attention was the way Ms. Erickson outlined that social media is an integral part of the way we work - a core tool of serious business which is so true. It integrates the modern technology that is available to us in marketing and also for social interaction. This article proves that the technological world we are living in is advancing rapidly and some of us are making adjustments and some are not. The Web 2.0 is just the beginning of things to come in the future. Social media is changing the way organizations communicate to their customers and that is very important if they want their organizations to be competitive and effective. It is a powerful tool for everyone to communicate effectively whether it is in print or media world. It allows people to communicate their message properly so others can understand what they are saying. It is a good tool for sharing knowledge and how to find resources that will be helpful to us with our projects. For example, CW Library has a twitter account at twitter.com/cwlibrary with 51 followers and these followers can get up to date news.

Review by Ula Ann Best

Remarks by President Obama about the Relief Efforts in Haiti

2010-01-14T20:11:00.002-05:00

The title link to this Blog entry leads to the transcript.

College Library Hours for Monday, January 18, 2010, Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday

2010-01-14T19:51:00.005-05:00

The College of Westchester Library will be operating on a schedule from 3:00pm until 9:00pm. If you need to contact the Librarian, please leave a voicemail at
914-831-0281.

Outside 325: Drexel's VIP Admissions Application Attracts a Wave of Applicants

2010-01-13T08:12:00.003-05:00

From The Chronicle Online, January 10, 2010
To access this article use: Msam2410, MEzuFuFY

Drexel created an online VIP Application which asks for no application fee or essay. It is so easy to apply, it attracts a great number of applicants. Read the article and see how they've managed to attract so many applicants. Note the user/pword above.

Haiti and its History - An Easy To Read Guide from CNN

2010-01-13T07:52:00.002-05:00

This easy to read historical timeline of Haiti includes a map and the history of Haiti to the recent earthquake.

‘Avatar’ Soars On Fat Ad Spending, Mass Marketing

2010-01-08T14:48:00.002-05:00

Advertising Age 1/4/10
By Andrew Hampp

“‘Avatar’ Soars On Fat Ad Spending, Mass Marketing” by Andrew Hampp talks about how Fox made the movie Avatar such huge success through good use of mass marketing. The article mentions in particular the exclusive promotions made in partnership with Coke Zero, McDonald’s. These promotions included not just traditional marketing tools like Happy Meals but also things like creating virtual spaces for fans to interact other aspects of the movie environment. The article also talks about how LG and Panasonic used Avatar to promote products with similar 3-D innovations. Lastly the article mentions that Avatar may become the highest grossing movie in history. It has already set the record for most tickets sold in one weekend. As a closing comment the author says that the movie’s success makes it a rising tide to lift all sales. This article is well written and details a good example of how mass marketing can help make a product a big success. The article also showcases the diversity of modern marketing campaigns fairly well.

Review by Chris Postma

NEW in Library Periodicals -The Harvard Business Review - Jan/Feb 2010

2010-01-06T18:41:00.003-05:00

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) Jan./Feb. 2010 issue, focuses on reinvention. The issue spotlights transformation in terms of one's own business to meet today's challenges. The issue inlcudes 10 breakthough ideas for 2010 and 5 ways to bungle a job change. It is a special double issue.

The HBR is available in the College of Westchester Library. We request that you do not make photocopies of any HBR issue. Please let a librarian know if you'd like to borrow the copy to read in your office.

Thanks in advance,
Monecia Samuel
College Librarian

When time is short: speaking off the cuff

2009-11-25T16:20:00.004-05:00

When time is short: speaking off the cuff

By Sheryl Smikle, Ph.D.

Dr. Smikle covers the top concerns most speakers have when it comes to a speaker's time, their audience and the topic. She answers in this article the following 5 questions:

1. Who has requested you to speak?
2. To whom will you be speaking?
3. What is the goal of your talk?
4. How much time will you have to speak?
5. What type of setting will you be in?

The title of this Blog posting leads to the full article.
Posted using ShareThis

A Historical Consumer Behavior Change - Debit Purchases Surpass Credit Purchases for Visa and MasterCard

2009-10-08T14:16:00.004-04:00

From the Washington Post, October 7, 2009:

For Gun-Shy Consumers, Debit is Replacing Credit

This article gives new statistics on consumer spending in terms of debit purchases. For the first time, debit purchases exceed purchases on credit on Visa and Mastercards. The article also gives an eye opening historical overview on the emergence of the credit card and how consumers have used credit across the generations.

Why People Are Afraid of Health Care Change

2009-08-04T16:46:00.001-04:00

This is a short video (3 minutes) from the Wall Street Journal online. Click the title link to access the video.

Borrowing Books Off-Site Without Really Moving

2009-07-29T16:22:00.005-04:00

The College Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system has been of great use to students and faculty in the past several months.

Lenders who've delivered books to our Library in the past 30 days are listed below:

Bard College Library
Brooklyn Public Library
The College of Mount Saint Vincent
NYU Libraries
Atlanta University Center Library
Connecticut College Library
Fordham University Library
Fordham University Library Rose Hill
Cornell University Libraries
Dutchess Community College Library
Columbia University Libraries
West Babylon Public Library

First check our catalog for the book you need. If you do not find it, see our link on Campus Cruiser for the ILL form. Just fill it out and drop it off at the Library. Most requests are filled within 14 days. There is no cost to you, the Library user. We deliver the book back to the lender! Let us know if you have any questions. Please continue to encourage your students to use ILL.

Outside 325 - Bunker Hill Community College Pilots a 11:45pm Night Class

2009-07-16T15:42:00.005-04:00

Bunker Hill Community College decided to begin a course at 11:45pm to meet the needs of true night students and take care of its increased enrollment. The full article can be accessed through the blog entry title.

Our New Library Catalog is Live

2009-06-22T08:18:00.004-04:00

Our Library catalog has a new clean look. If you need assistance, please ask a librarian for help at ext. 281 or 282.

Outside 325 - Brigham Young's Ban on YouTube Ends This Fall

2009-06-09T16:45:00.004-04:00

Since 2006, access to YouTube has been denied at Brigham Young. After reconsideration and acknowledgment of the abundance of educational materials on YouTube, this fall , Brigham Young will be re-united with YouTube on campus. Initially, the University found content on YouTube objectionable. The title link leads to the full article.

From the Chronicle's Wired Campus, June 9, 2009

Article Review: SuperClubs’ Issa Likes Breezes

2009-06-09T15:42:00.005-04:00

I recommend an article titled “Super Clubs Issa Likes Breezes” in the May 2009 issue of Hotels; it’s a good read if you want to learn how to own your own hotel. There is a hotel in Kingston, Jamaica called the Super Clubs Resorts. The hotel is owned by a man named John Issa. In the article he speaks about his different hotels and what they have. This article will be good for you to read especially if you would like to one day own a hotel because it will give you some tips.

First, if you decide to major in hotel management, read what Issa has to say about 2009 performance being solid, which provided the impetus in re-branding several portfolios. As the time past, the resort group will be renamed and be called Grand Lido Negril and Grand Lido Braco hotels, Breezes Grand Negril and Breezes Rio Bueno on November 1. Another thing he will be bringing is the family focused Starfish Trelawney under it Breezes umbrella.

Second, after everything is complete, there will be eleven Breezes Resorts in six countries. Issa’s goal for the future is that there will be more opportunities for to brand in the Caribbean. He feels Breezes is the best brand, appeals well to everyone and hopes that everyone will be pleased. Breezes will be located in a lot of different well-known places where they can be found easily. One of the places would be located on the southern Pacific coast in Cocle around the beach resort community of Santa Clara; the place will be so big that it will feature 300 rooms and a spa. Issa explains that a lot of what you have to do is to grab people’s attention by offering something special. Then at last they started offering a US package for five nights, for only $600. Over all this entire article is interesting and will help you out in the future if you would like to know all about hotels.

This article can be found in the issue Hotels (May 2009)

By: John Issa
Reviewed by: Isabell Cortes

Top Minority Owned Companies

2009-06-09T15:12:00.003-04:00

Follow the title link of this blog entry to learn more about these local businesses on Crain's top 5. Goya Foods (Secaucus, NJ) ranks number 1. Beneath Your Sole (Mount Vernon, NY) ranks number 4 after Bad Boy Entertainment.

The New England Journal of Medicine - On Facebook

2009-05-19T16:08:00.002-04:00

The New England Journal of Medicine is now on Facebook. NEJM, founded in 1812, decided to join Facebook in an effort to reach readers in different ways.

Students Stressed Yet Happier

2009-05-19T15:57:00.002-04:00

In a poll released today, May 19, 2009, students report that they are a little more stressed about the job market and the economy overall, but self-report to be happier than they were last year, regardless.

A parent's loss of a job has made a little under 30% consider withdrawing from college in the past 90 days.

The blog entry title leads to the survey information and results.

Article Review: Real Life: Managing Uncertainty

2009-04-22T15:00:00.006-04:00

Since the recession, big banks had to merge; countless American’s have lost their job and the unemployment rate is at its highest rate since The Great Depression. Many people around the United States are currently unemployed and looking for work. The constant uncertainty of “what will happen tomorrow” continues to baffle many families in this unstable economy. When I read “Real Life: Managing Uncertainty” by: Paul Keegan, I was completely overwhelmed as his article expressed how a family had to make a transition from a lifestyle of not worrying about bills, to wondering how their next mortgage was going to be paid. Carl found himself clueless as to how he was going to further help his family after he received an unbearable phone call from his firm, saying he was being laid off. However 2 months later, Carl was offered a 10 month contracted job by Astra-Zeneca (a giant pharmaceutical firm). According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Since last year, the number of unemployed people who have accepted short-term assignments were up 73%”. This just goes to show how the economy has have been taking an immense toll on Americans. People often wonder when their ideal lifestyle may return to normal, or will they have to look for another job in the months ahead.

This article can be found in the issue Money 100 (May 2009)

By: Paul Keegan
Reviewed By: Michael Adebiyi

What Now?

2009-04-22T14:44:00.008-04:00

Since the recession began, people had to deal with even more financial problems. Some companies went under while others were bailed out . Because of this recession many people have lost their jobs which lead them to spend less money. This has placed the economy in something called a money paralysis. Companies have been going under and waiting for the government to save them. When Merrill lynch went under Jeffrey Goldberg was one of the few people to make it out with a bit of hope. After losing everything he had worked all his life for, he never gave up he still looked around for jobs. He stopped investing in mutual funds because he didn’t know who owned them. Just like everyone else he wanted to retire and live the good life but things don’t always happen that way, and knowing that made it easier for him to spend money. Just like everyone else losing his job and money tore his life apart but he started thinking for himself and were able to come up and he is definitely a light that should be followed.

Reviewed By: Damion Bouton
This article"What Now" by Jeffrey Goldberg can be found in the May 2009 The Atlantic

The Gift Card Economy

2009-04-22T14:34:00.004-04:00

“Since the recession began, people have been afraid to spend money”, as stated in a survey from WSL (Women Survey League). More than half of the women that did this survey stated that they refuse to shop at stores that will cause them to over spend. The behavioral economist suggested that businesses should have events for a short period of time which would help luring more customers to their businesses. Businesses also need to provide “a justification and a deadline” for these promotions. For example for every $500 that they spend, they are given a $50 gift card which would last for 2 weeks from which the gift card was issued. This will make the customer want to spend that extra $50.They can also give the customers different cards for other departments inside the store to expand their growth. Some local restaurants issue out $10 for every $100 their customers spend on meals. This will make the customers feel like they have earned the gift card and keep them coming back.

Reviewed By: Damion Bouton
The article " The Gift Card Economy" by Verginia Postel can be found in the May 2009 The Atlantic

Article Review: 13 Ways to Save

2009-04-22T13:49:00.019-04:00

I believe this article can guide consumers while shopping and help them save. I remember many years ago accompanying my mother to the supermarket, and each and every month she would leave the store with a $400 shopping receipt. In today’s economic hardships, it is imperative to reduce spending habits and focus on necessities. The “May 2009” issue of Consumer Reports reported “13 ways to save”. By the way, I once worked as an employee for PathMark; getting the consumer to spend was the company’s main goal. Here are additional ways to save big.

1. Always utilize coupons
2. Leave your children at home, they often create pressure to buy something that is not needed
3. Take all the time needed at “HOME” to construct a list, do not shop willingly
4. Always use your supermarket savings card, you may be eligible for future promotions and extra savings
5. Customers always find them self missing out on huge sales; if an item is no longer in stock, always get a
rain-check (if prohibited by the supermarket)

Article by Consumer Reports
Reviewed by Michael Adebiyi

* The Blog title entry leads to the full article

Facebook Use and GPA - Results from a Study

2009-04-17T08:37:00.002-04:00

The article is from The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 16, 2009

National Library Workers Day - April 14th

2009-04-08T10:24:00.003-04:00

Locally, THe New York Public Library system has seen a dramatic increase in library users effected by the economic downturn. At libraries nationally, usage is up as libraries supply access to email and word processing, job information resources and free entertainment resources in the form of CDs and DVDs. Library workers have inadvertently become first responders to the crisis and bear witness to homeless or newly homeless people who need a warm place to sit with access to a water faucet, bathroom, computer and a place to read, write and be around people without being obvious.

This year is one in particular to take note of challenges library workers face - especially those that work in public library settings.

- Monecia Samuel

Why Executives Love Social Media

2009-04-02T09:18:00.004-04:00

Social Media - Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or YouTube, etc. is either embraced or rejected by company executives. Read the article posted on BNET United Kingdom, (April 2, 2009), explaining why managers support social media for marketing purposes.

CW Library Users Perform Over 4,000 Database Searches in March 2009

2009-04-01T09:29:00.005-04:00

4, 066 searches were executed by 492 Library users in March 2009. CW Library users can access the Library's databases onsite and remotely with their usernames and passwords. See the right sidebar on the Blog to enter the databases directly from this page.

The statistics above are based on usage of EBSCO databases specifically and do not include database searches from other vendors.

The Business Week 50

2009-03-31T16:41:00.002-04:00

I thought that the article was interesting and provided a unique look at what companies are performing well and how they had to be creative in to do so. The author mentions that many of the companies had to change the rules of engagement in their industries to perform well. In Business Week’s ranking of the 50 best performing companies, they found that innovation was powerful magazine of success of the companies. Foust mentions that “a common trait among companies on the list is that they pay for performance. The salaries they offer may be stingy but the incentives are generous.” He concludes the article by talking about how companies who are at “risk of seeing their franchisees disrupted by upstart rivals”. He talks about how many of these “challenged companies have a history of rising to the occasion and may prove that they can be innovative and disruptive players again.”

This Article can be found in the April 6, 2009 issues of Business Week

Written by Dean Foust
Reviewed by Chris Postma

Article Review: Jobs Are the New Assets

2009-03-31T14:44:00.005-04:00

"People are realizing their job is their source of financial stability, that they have to live within the means of their job." David Ellison

I agree with Ellison's opinion because a person wouldn't be able to pay their bills if they didn't have a job. Therefore people live off of their job because that is how they get their money. Also housing and stocks were the things we paid attention to, things that gave us confidence in to be good American consumers. It's true what the article mentions. We were so confident about housing and stocks and at the same time the percentage of their income people were saving dropped down until the power of credit cards and other debts went down.

This article can be found in the March 23, 2009 issue of Time Magazine.

Article by Barbara Kivat

Review by Jahaira Zepeda

Blackboard Releases iPhone Application

2009-03-26T17:28:00.003-04:00

From The Chronicle's Wired Campus Section

Article Review: How to Become an Authentic Speaker

2009-03-24T14:38:00.006-04:00

I found that this article was very well written and interesting. It made several good points about being an authentic speaker. Morgan points out that rehearsed gestures make a speaker seem insincere and inauthentic. The author says that preparation for a speaking is important but the traditional approach is flawed because it involves specific coaching on body language. This is because we normally make gestures before we speak the words related to them but rehearsed gestures occur after we speak the related words and the audience unconsciously picks up on this difference. The author concludes that an authentic speaker should keep a set of four intents to keep in mind to make a speech more authentic. These intents are: intent to be open with your audience, intent to connect with your audience, intent to be passionate about your topic, and intent to listen to your audience.

The article can be found in the November 2008 issue of Harvard Business review

Written by Nick Morgan
Reviewed by Chris Postma

Debating A Ceiling on Credit Card Fees

2009-03-24T13:41:00.004-04:00

By V. Dion HaynesWashington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 25, 2009; Page D01

The Blog title entry leads to the full article.

Gibbs Outlines the Bank Rescue Plan - Video

2009-03-24T10:34:00.003-04:00

From the Washington Post.com

Gibbs outlines the bank rescue plan on this video, followed by Obama's remarks that the plan will work. Find the clips through the title of this Blog entry.

Article Review: Gen Y in the Workforce

2009-03-19T12:53:00.005-04:00

I thought that this was a very interesting well written and informative article. The scenario presented in the article and the commentaries raised a number of good points. One such point is that there needs to be good communication between bosses and employees of different generations. The article also suggests that both generations need to respect each other and to not dismiss what each other says and thinks out of hand. Another point the article makes is that bosses need to give adequate feedback to their workers especially the younger ones. The commentators differ in their suggestions but mostly agree on the above points. One commentator suggests that the fault lies with both generations and that corrective action must come from the older generation. Another commentator suggests that both generations need make changes to create a smoother running workplace. The third commentator suggests that the younger generation is primarily at fault for issues in the workplace. The commentator believes that it is the younger generation that needs to shape up more than the older one.

This Article can be found in the February 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review
Reviewed by Chris Postma
Written by Tamara J.Erickson

Record Library Use - 214 Library Visitors on March 18, 2009

2009-03-18T20:51:00.002-04:00

The Library counted 214 visitors with 9 re-entrants on Wednesday, March 18, 2009. We enjoyed a busy Library today.

Trivia: Our average daily gate count for 2008 was 129 users per day.

Article Review: Encouraging Collaboration

2009-03-18T17:39:00.006-04:00

How to Encourage Collaboration in the OR by Jo Shapiro, M.D., is beautifully and clearly written, and very useful across the disciplines and workplace settings.

She discusses temporarily flattening hierarchy and mentions the advantages of debriefing as a teaching tool.

Favorite Point:
"Unless prompted and encouraged, some team members may hold on to information, or not give it to the right person, because of the hierarchical cultural barriers to speaking out. ...if you do not explicitly welcome input, you probably won't get it. And, if the team leader doesn't mean it-if he or she really doesn't want input from other people and is saying she does proforma-that quickly becomes known and renders the words ineffective." - Jo Shapiro, MD

You can link to the entire article by clicking the title of this blog posting.

Reviewed By: M. Samuel, College Librarian

A Madoff Victim Map

2009-03-18T17:13:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Karl Simons for recommending this site!

U.S. Professors of the Year - 2009 Call

2009-03-18T16:53:00.004-04:00

You can nominate a professor for a U.S. Professor of the Year award.

Please nominate a talented professor for this award. The deadline is April 17, 2009.
Direct any questions to: Pam Russell, Director of Communications (202)478-5680 or email her at russell@case.org

Making Sense of the Stock Market's Wild Ride - BusinessWeek Online

2009-03-16T15:54:00.000-04:00

101 Facts on the Status of Working Women

2009-03-16T10:52:00.001-04:00

The Library is on Twitter

2009-03-16T09:45:00.003-04:00

Follow the Library on Twitter for brief updates. All you have to do is create a username and password at Twitter.com. You can also find tweets from the Library on the Blog.

Other Libraries Using Twitter
http://lis5313.ci.fsu.edu/wiki/index.php/Twittering_Libraries#Libraries_Using_Twitter

For Faculty With Stage Fright

2009-03-14T14:35:00.001-04:00

Ms. Mentor, from Chronicle Careers, gives a little Oral Communications coaching for faculty.

Billionaire Women We Admire

2009-03-13T15:51:00.001-04:00

Remember, it is Women's History Month!
In Pictures, Billionaire Women We Admire is from the NPR.org website.
Follow the Blog title link to view the slideshow.

Google Executive to Take Over AOL

2009-03-13T14:30:00.002-04:00

From the Washington Post.com March 13, 2009

How to Twitter

2009-03-10T13:03:00.002-04:00

Read this recent article (March 7, 2009) from the Wall Street Journal by clicking the title link of this blog entry. The act of "twittering" is a cross between IMing and posting items on Facebook.

To read the October 27, 2008 WSJ article Twitter Goes Mainstream, follow the link below.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122461906719455335.html

The One Minute Lecture: A Success at Community Colleges

2009-03-04T19:58:00.005-05:00

The One Minute Lecture

Ingredients
Microphone
Web Camera

Time
60 Seconds

The title of this entry leads to the article at The Chronicle's Information Technology Section (March 6, 2009) A "How To Create" guide is included.

University of Southern California Seeks New Students for Inaugural Online MAT Program

2009-03-04T17:23:00.001-05:00

The first cohort of students will begin in June 2009.

Sample Courses
The Framing Experience
Understanding the Social Context for Urban Schools
Application of Theories of Learning to Classroom Practice
Human Difference and Teaching Special Populations
Instruction for Limited English Proficient Students
Teaching English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies
Guided Practice*

Recession Proof Stocks

2009-02-11T15:48:00.003-05:00

Dollar stores and public storage centers may be the best for investing in today's economy. Please follow the title link for this Washington Post article.

Bureau of Labor Statistics - An Economic View of Blacks in America Today

2009-02-10T09:27:00.008-05:00

In recognition of Black History Month, this document prepared by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, details statistics on the number of African Americans in the labor force, educational attainment of African Americans from March 1970 - March 2008, earnings based on high school and college completion, and most interestingly, time use of employed Blacks and all employed persons. The title of this Blog entry links to the document.

(Update - 02/18/09) A recent Washington Post article, (02/11/09) by Cortland Milloy, is a wonderful supplement to the above information. It can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/10/AR2009021003449_pf.html

Top 10 Social Networks for Generation Y

2009-01-30T15:06:00.003-05:00

MySpace may just be so last year.

Do Creditors Care Where You Shop?

2009-01-30T14:58:00.002-05:00

Read the article, "A (Very) Watchful Eye on Credit Card Spending" by Ron Lieber that appeared in The New York Times, January 30, 2009. The title link of this Blog entry leads to the article.

Videos on Kiplinger.com

2009-01-30T11:38:00.003-05:00

Kiplinger.com has recently produced videos available online.

To access these brief videos, typically between 1-3 minutes long, go to http://kiplinger.com/video and select the Business Resource Center tab. Videos can be enlarged to full screen mode. Recent selected videos include:

The Sagging Consumer (1min. 21 sec.)
Inflation's Pain (1min. 39 sec.)
Credit Crunch is an Illusion (1 min. 30 sec.)

External Scholarships 2009

2009-01-14T14:39:00.003-05:00

The Library compiles a list of scholarships that are now displayed on a bulletin board (decorated with paper money) outside the Library. The list is also available on Blackboard, the Blog and the CW website. You can review the list by clicking the title link to this Blog entry.

Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan:

2009-01-12T11:48:00.004-05:00

Suze Orman is making her new book, Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe and Sound available for free (in pdf format) through January 17, 2009. You must register at Oprah.com to download the book. Use the title link above to access the webpage.

National Business Education Association Convention 2009

2009-01-09T14:44:00.003-05:00

The National Business Education Association will hold its 2009 Annual Convention in Chicago at the Chicago Marriott Downtown, April 7-11, 2009. According to the NBEA's newsletter, Keying In, January 2009, v.19#3:

"The goal of the convention is to provide a program that will enhance the skills of our members, create networking opportunities, and challenge educators to return to their classrooms ready to empower the next generation of business professionals."

Concurrent sessions include selected topics below:

Project Based Learning
Wikis and Blogs
Integration of Soft Skills
Podcasting
Digital Photography
Ethics
Career Clusters
Business Finance
Technology in Grading and Assessment
Business Communications
Online Academic Integrity
Diversity in the Classroom
Accounting Forensics

The title link to this blog entry will lead to the Association's website for further details.

The Future of the Internet III

2008-12-23T11:20:00.002-05:00

The Future of the Internet III
A Pew Report

Summary - http://pewinternet.org/PPF/r/270/report_display.asp
Full Report - http://pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_FutureInternet3.pdf

Library Hours - November 25 - 30, 2008

2008-11-25T12:45:00.003-05:00

LIBRARY HOURS

Tuesday, November 25, 2008
8am - 5:00pm

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
8am - 5:00pm

Thursday - Sunday, November 27 - November 30, 2008
Closed

Normal Hours Resume on Monday, December 1, 2008.

Gallup Management Journal Reports Workplace Socializing is Productive

2008-11-24T18:04:00.004-05:00

News Flash: Workplace Socializing Is Productive; An MIT researcher talks about the usefulness of water cooler chatter.(Survey).

Gallup Management Journal (Nov 13, 2008)(1868 words) From Business and Company ASAP.

Byline: A GMJ Q&A with Alex Pentland, Ph.D., Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and Faculty Director, Digital Life, at MIT

Synopsis: Contrary to their every instinct, managers should actually encourage their workers to chit-chat, to gather around the water cooler -- even to gossip. An MIT researcher reveals why these guilty pleasures are, in fact, good for a company's productivity.

Every March, we hear dire warnings about workplace productivity lost to water cooler chats about the NCAA men's basketball tournaments. In 2008, Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated that the productivity lost to March Madness would cost the economy as much as $1.7 billion. Idle chatter, it seems, is an expensive waste of workplace time.

Well, Alex (Sandy) Pentland, Ph.D., of MIT would beg to differ. In fact, Dr. Pentland, the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and the faculty director of MIT's Digital Life consortium, and Benjamin Waber, a doctoral candidate at the MIT Media Lab, have found that workplace chatter, even the idle kind, increases productivity. To test the theory, Dr. Pentland and Waber came up with a clever method for examining the impact of workplace socializing. They designed badges imbedded with a radio transceiver, a microphone, a microprocessor, and a set of motion sensors. The badges kept track of the wearers' location, direction, and voice inflections. When one badge wearer met another, the length and tone of the wearers' conversation was measured. The badges could even track subtle body shifts when wearers were sitting down. Then the researchers compared that data with the wearers' productivity.
Pentland and Waber found that the badge wearers with more social connections -- and more interactions with coworkers in their social network -- had the highest productivity, whether they were talking about work or, say, basketball. And people who spent the most time "in the groove," moving rhythmically as they went about their work, had higher productivity levels than others.

That means, as Dr. Pentland explains in this interview, that perhaps it's a mistake for managers to send workers scurrying back to their desks. In fact, as he relates, it might be a good idea for managers to encourage workers to spread out and talk to others, to make friends, and to build networks -- even ones based on basketball scores. Read on for a fascinating look at, and justification for, one of the greatest guilty pleasures of work -- idle chit-chat.

GMJ: How do social networks form in the workplace?

Dr. Pentland: Social networks form in lots of complicated ways, and one of them is nonverbal or unconscious. You can usually tell when that's happening -- and within a minute or two -- by whether you're clicking with somebody. You can see it happen when you're watching people. They begin trading smiles, trading nods, and they become more and more animated with each other. Their attitudes and moods feed off of each other.
For instance, we did an experiment where we watched hundreds of people in a big auditorium. When two people were trading nods and smiles back and forth and becoming more and more animated in conversation, there was a certain threshold [at which] we could predict whether or not they would exchange business cards within the next one-hundred-twenty seconds. We could get it right over eighty percent of the time. We looked at job interviews too. We could tell within the first couple of minutes whether a person would get the thumbs up or thumbs down, again with about eighty percent accuracy. What this says is that we are not perfectly rational, completely independent individuals. We are part of a social fabric, and our basic human nature is to pay attention to other people and to share mood and attitudes. That's really the core of who humans are. Unfortunately, the way the psychology and management literature has evolved, their model of a human is a completely isolated, completely rational person. But you know what? That person doesn't exist. There's no such thing.

GMJ: You found that there's a link between productivity and face-to-face communication, even when people aren't talking about work. How can that be?
Think about what you chat about -- they're social things, mostly. You talk about your family, sports, traffic. You talk about all sorts of issues about how you live your life, raise your family, do your job, stay sane. A lot of things happen around that coffeepot. That's the stuff of being successful.

Dr. Pentland: Well, chatting is not just chatting. When you're chatting with others, you see people's reactions to things -- how other people live their lives and how seriously they take this sort of thing and how seriously they take that sort of thing. What you're learning implicitly and tacitly from chatting is how to manage your life in job situations. Part of that is about actual job issues, but a lot of it is about your attitude toward the job and your attitude toward other people.

GMJ: I can see how that would make work more pleasant, but I don't see how that makes workers more productive.

Dr. Pentland: Think of your work/life balance and your attitude toward the stresses of work as the social capital that you bring to the job. Also, a lot of the chatter actually is about work. When you look at people chatting about stuff, a lot of times they're gossiping about other workers or about situations at work. That actually tells them a lot about the attitude you should take toward things -- what's the received wisdom, what should be taken seriously. Another part of the chatter is about work/life balance and your work strategies: Should you go for a promotion? Should you ask for a raise? And part of chatting is for emotional support. If you don't have face-to-face communication -- in fact, physical touch is important too -- you become more fragile and more unable to stand up to the stresses and the bumps in the road of work. You need some people who will stand at your back and defend you from the spears.

GMJ: So we don't necessarily form networks with people who have similar job duties, but with whom we click. Is that right?

Dr. Pentland: That's right. And the conscious communication is part of that, of course. But you'll find that the unconscious communication is at least as important, if not more important.

GMJ: You've written about the "pulsing star pattern." What you mean by that?

Dr. Pentland: When you work in groups of people and you have a dominant person, that's pretty effective for making decisions. It makes the decision-making process go faster -- not necessarily better, but faster. On the other hand, having a dominant person in the group is terrible for brainstorming because all the thinking flows through one person who dominates the pattern of communication. This is a really bad [organizational structure] for creative groups.
But it turns out that there's an ancient biological solution; it's ancient enough that bees use it -- the pulsing star pattern. In this structure, the members of the group spend some time outside the group searching and then some time signaling to each other face to face. In all the groups that we've looked at, the creative groups do this best; they spread out, they find new information, then they come back and hang out around the water cooler talking about [what they've learned]. They share this tacit information with each other so that everybody gets up to speed about everything that everyone heard. Then the group makes decisions about the information -- not necessarily through words but through their attitude toward the things that are being brought up -- the items that the members learned and came back talking about.

GMJ: So it might be a bad thing for a manager to order people back to their desks. They may be out on an exploring mission. And that's face-to-face chatting again. It's the side channel that determines "What's your attitude about it?" "What do you think this will be good for?" "Is it good for you? For all of us?" "Is it bad?" That kind of communication within the group is just as important as reaching out to find new information.

Dr. Pentland: Yes. It's a bad thing to keep people chained to their desks because they're actually out collecting information. Now in some corporations, people do this in a different way. They do the exploring part online or through e-mail or Web pages and so forth. Then they use face-to-face [communication] to do the integration. That's why people with different perspectives should sit near each other and work together. Take hospitals as an example. Often, all the specialists will be in different parts of the hospital. That means the specialists don't understand each other or interact with each other. What you need are multispecialized teams. Even if it means that the radiology department is now scattered all over the hospital, it's worth it from a productivity standpoint. Multispecialized functional teams will think about a problem and bring different perspectives together by going out and finding information in their specialties, then coming together to talk about it. That's how tacit learning and integration happen.

GMJ: How are managers integrated into this?

Dr. Pentland: We are taught that management is a rational, logical process; that you pay attention to org charts; and that there are processes that need to be done. But when we've looked at actual data of people and their behavior, what we've found is that the things we're not conscious of -- the tacit knowledge, the attitudes people display without necessarily putting them into words -- are at least as important as the words themselves.
But what is a manager being taught to do? He's been taught to pay attention to the words or the org chart. He's not taught to make sure there's enough time for tacit communication and unconscious bonding. That's the stuff managers think they should cut out when push comes to shove.

GMJ: What about remote workers? Are they then necessarily less productive if they don't have the opportunity to talk face to face?

Dr. Pentland: Well, it is a challenge, as everybody recognizes. We did an interesting experiment, though, where we made a device that signaled how much each person interacted during a telephone conference. The device was a little machine that showed whether, for instance, everybody was interacting equally. All the subjects said they didn't pay attention to it because it was just a little thing on the desk, but everybody changed the way they talked -- dramatically. Suddenly, everybody became much more engaged, with none of the typing noise in the background. Everybody contributed more. Just having your interactions measured, even over the phone, changes the dynamics of how things happen. Being noticed brought remote workers into the fold, as it were. So there's hope. There's definitely hope.

GMJ: That was my next question: whether being noticed changed behavior. I didn't even need ask it.

Dr. Pentland: Well, see, now you know the answers first. We're on the same wave length. That's exactly how this social networking stuff works.

Source Citation:"News Flash: Workplace Socializing Is Productive; An MIT researcher talks about the usefulness of water cooler chatter.(Survey)." Gallup Management Journal (Nov 13, 2008): NA. Business and Company ASAP. Gale. The College of Westchester. 24 Nov. 2008 .
Gale Document Number:A189504850

Proposed 20 Million Cut For NY Libraries

2008-11-18T15:18:00.002-05:00

Librarians rally at Albany, New York today, November 18, 2008, to protest a proposed new budget for libraries seen 15 years ago.

The Best U.S. Business Schools - BusinessWeek Nov. 24, 2008

2008-11-18T14:07:00.002-05:00

The November 24, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek lists the Top 30 Business Schools on page 49. Here are the Top 20 on the list.

1. Chicago (Booth)
2. Harvard
3. Northwestern
4. Pennsylvania (Wharton)
5. Michigan (Ross)
6. Stanford
7. Columbia
8. Duke
9. MIT
10. UC-Berkeley
11. Cornell
12. Dartmouth (Tuck)
13. NYU
14. UCLA (Anderson)
15. Indiana
16. Virginia (Darden)
17. North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)
18. Southern Methodist
19. Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
20. Notre Dame

Use Google to Find Your Polling Place

2008-11-04T16:53:00.000-05:00

Click the title link above to enter your home address. You'll find your polling place and a map in an instant.

External Scholarships for Students

2008-10-17T14:11:00.003-04:00

External scholarships are a good way to boost your financial aid package. The scholarships available through the title link of this Blog are the most recent available, compiled with the CW student population in mind. Deadlines are from November 2008 to February 2009. Please ask a librarian for 2009 scholarship books available in the CW Library.

Library of Congress Book Festival 2008, Find Podcasts

2008-10-10T10:21:00.003-04:00

Find podcasts from the Library of Congress Book Festival 2008, held on September 27, 2008 in Washington, DC. Selected speakers include:

Arthur and Pauline Frommer
Bob Schieffer
Michelle Singletary
R. L. Stine
Peter Robinson
Cokie Roberts
Marisa de los Santos

The title link of this posting leads to the podcast page.