Archive for October 2009

William Kennedy, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development and University Ombuds Officer, recommends
The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology to the Michigan Tech community. The book is currently on display in the new books area and will be available to check out beginning Nov. 16.

“About a hundred pages into Kurzweil’s book, I began to appreciate the likely synergy between neuroscience and artificial intelligence research.  Kurzweil is one of those amazing people whose breadth of understanding is, well, humbling. He suggests that within a decade or two, most of the work that humans presently do will be routinely performed by fast, cheap machines. What will the future hold for all of us in terms of work and play?  Kurzweil provides a glimpse into the future by extrapolating a trajectory from the past and present of rapidly changing complementary technologies. ”

Infowall display

October 29th

4 p.m. (Presentation will begin after a short business meeting of The Friends of the Van Pelt Library)

This presentation is open to the public

Please join us in the J.R. Van Pelt and Opie Library

East Side Reading Room

Ulla Aatsinki, visiting Fulbright Scholar in the Social Sciences Department, will be giving a presentation on October 29, 2009, titled “Research, Resource and Remembrance - How to Study Schooling of Finnish-American Children in Upper Peninsula in the 1920’s”.

Dr. Aatsinki is a graduate from University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.  Her dissertation was about the labor movement in Northern Finland right before and after the Finnish Civil War in 1918.

The Fulbright Program is an international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”  With this goal as a starting point, the Fulbright Program has provided almost 300,000 participants - chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential - with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

SPARC celebrates Open Access Week 2009.  Open Access is truly an international movement which sees the Internet as a way to expan access to knowledge.

“It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.  Open Access is the principle that all research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication, and it’s gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers throw their weight behind it.”  more

SPARC’s Heather Joseph and Jennifer McLennam welcome participants and supporters of Open Access 2009 in a new video letter.  This brief, 6-minute clip helps to set the stage for Open Access Week 2009.  It notes the important opportunity to raise awareness, celebrate progress made in advancing Open Access to date, and to inspire the community to find new ways to continue the momentum.

Also, in partnership with student advocates, who are increasingly active around Open Access issues, SPARC has developed a new, animated Open Access 101 video. This 3-minute clip highlights the widespread concern among students for the cost of access, the dynamics of the scholarly publishing process, how Open Access is made possible, and the opportunities created by the open accessibility and reuse of research results.  Open Access 101 is available to view or download free at http://vimeo.com/6973160.

Learn more about Open Access by visiting SPARC’s Open Access Week page.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry awards Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.

To learn more about X-ray crystallography, ribosomes and/or this years recipients please visit the American Chemical Society.  You can also contact your reference librarian or visit us at the Library’s Research Help Desk.

THE 2009 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS WILL BE AWARDED TO Charles K. Kao (Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, UK, and Chinese University of Hong Kong), and Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith (both of whom worked chiefly at Bell Laboratories, in Murray Hill, NJ, USA) for their work leading to modern telecommunications. Kao will receive half the prize money for helping to invent modern optical fiber, allowing signals to travel flawlessly thousands of miles. Boyle and Smith will split the other half of the prize for their development of charge coupled devices (CCDs).

• To learn more about this years recipients and read some of their original ground breaking research please visit the American Institute of Physics 2009 Physics Nobel Prize Resources page.
• For more information about these and other 2009 Noble Prize Winners please see your Reference Librarian or visit us at the Library’s Research Help Desk.

Use your Tech ID to print and photocopy in the library! Print stations on the first and second floors, and photocopiers on the garden and first floors accept Express Cash using your Tech ID.  You must have at least $1.00 available to pay with your Tech ID.  Photocopiers on the second and third floors still accept coins.

You may add Express Cash to your Tech ID card using a credit or debit card and this link:
http://www.aux.mtu.edu/techx/

Click on “Card Holder Online System” in the menu on the left, log in, and follow the instructions.

“Discussions of religious beliefs are often avoided in academic settings given the intense conflicts they can generate. In her book, Speaking of Faith, NPR reporter Krista Tippet models a way to have deeply personal and intellectually rich conversations across faith traditions. Reading this book inspired me and left me eager to learn more from the thinkers who find wisdom and healing in many varieties of world faith traditions.”

Recommended by Nancy Grimm, professor and director of the MichiganTech writing center, “Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters and How to Talk About It” will be available to check out beginning Oct. 26. Professor Grimm’s research interests focus on literacy studies, writing center studies, pedagogical theories, and composition studies. Her current research addresses the teaching of literacy in ways that account for cultural, racial, and class differences.

The J.R. Van Pelt and Opie Library at Michigan Technological University  seeks a creative and proactive individual for a 9-month temporary position as a Science and Engineering Reference Associate, responsible for reference and web access services, instruction, development of collections, research consultation, and outreach to students, faculty and staff. Due to some unexpected staffing changes, this entry-level position will provide an ideal short-term opportunity for an energetic individual to hone their skills. Students currently pursuing graduate studies in library or information science are encouraged to apply for this temporary position.

Candidates are required to hold a bachelor’s degree with significant study in engineering, physical or life sciences; have familiarity with literature and databases in science and engineering; and have familiarity with research and research methods in an academic environment. A full position description is available at: http://www.admin.mtu.edu/hro/postings

This is a 9-month temporary appointment with no continuation beyond this period. Salary for the position will be $15.50 per hour and there are no benefits included with this position. The successful candidate will be expected to cover their own relocation expenses to Houghton, Michigan.

To submit an application for this position please mail, fax, or e-mail a cover letter and current resume to:

Science and Engineering Reference Associate

Attn: Erik Nordberg, Van Pelt and Opie Library

Michigan Technological University

1400 Townsend Drive

Houghton, MI 49931

Review of applications will begin on October 19, with applications accepted until the position is filled.

Michigan Technological University is an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer.