How to spend your newly found free time…

The days are getting longer, the halls are getting emptier and the semester is winding down to a close. Lots of time now to check out some new e-books from the Library, try out a database we have on trial and check out our latest podcast, no?

Library News
New e-books!
Safari E-books is our comprehensive database of full-text electronic books in the fields of technology, computer science and business. It is constantly updated with new and fascinating tomes!! New this month: The Nintendo Wii Pocket Guide, PowerPoint 2007 Essential Training, YouTube 4 You, High Performance Web Sites, Windows Vista: The Definitive Guide and The Glitterguru on Photoshop: From Concept to Cool! And you read that right…you can access the entire book, online! Read fascinating e-tomes on technology in the comfy of your fuzzy slippers!

New database to try out!
A new resource that is perfect for social issues and citizenship assignments as well as assignments about how to write persuasive essays is now available for you to try out! It’s called Points of View and it includes a browsable list of social issues, overview articles and links to further reading as well as resources to help students with basic research such as forming a thesis statement, evaluating web sites, citing sources, etc.! Check it out and let us know if it’s a keeper!

Assessment resources
It’s end of term and assessment is in the air. Did you know that the facultyspace has some easy-to-understand and comprehensive resources on assessment? Check them out! Head on over to the facultyspace, click classroom corner and choose assessment from the dropdown menu.

New Podcast: Welcome to the wonderful world of the Library @ Brantford!
Check out the BRAINcast web site for the lastest podcast! This week we feature a walking tour of the Library @ Brantford. Did you know that the Library @ Brantford recently underwent an extreme makeover? Get the full scoop in this week’s cast!

News from LibraryLand

ISBNs they are a’- changin’!
Times they are a -changin’ and so is the identification number for books! Did you know that the format for those fascinating identification numbers for books (called ISBNs) has changed from 10 digits to 13 digits as of Jan. 2007? During the transition, it appears that monographs will show both numbers! If you are ordering your fall textbooks, this news may affect you. Read all about it in this handy backgrounder!

April is National Poetry Month!
…and the month is half over already! Head on over to the Poetry Archive to get a good dose of the stuff before it’s too late! Well, actually the Poetry Archive isn’t going anywhere so relax, sit back and enjoy. This fab resource contains a wealth of poems from all over the world in addition to actual readings by the poets themselves in audio! Want more poetry? Who doesn’t! The information provider Gale is providing lots of poetry resources for free for this month only. Head over to the Poetry Corner. Need a poem every day? Sign up for the Poem-A-Day service from the Academy of American Poets.

Web Resources
Cool Tools – Google Earth Layers
Way back when on the BRAIN_blog, I mentioned Google Earth, a free download that generates complex satellite, physical and road maps. Now, there are tools you can download that act as layers on top of Google Earth that allow you to visualize issues geographically. One excellent example of these tools is the Crisis in Darfur layer. After you download Google Earth, download this layer to better understand the crisis currently unfolding in Darfur. This project was produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. There are other Google layers you can access as well. The National Geographic layer comes with the latest download of Google Earth. This layer gives you images of National Geographic stories that deal with Africa as a layer over maps of this continent. The Official Google Blog includes more information about these emerging tools.

Cool Tools Part Deux – Personalized Pages
It’s a tough job keeping up with the latest web info and for that reason, there are personalization tools out there to help you out. Netvibes is a personalization tool that displays the weather, web search tools, your email (choose from an assortment such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc.), the top news stories (from solid providers such as CBC), Flickr photos, your bookmarks, you social bookmarks, RSS feeds and more. It is amazing just to see how much content can be crammed onto one page. If one page is not enough, you can create extra ones with handy tabs along the top that you name yourself. There are also neat-o tools such as sticky notes where you can jot down to-do lists, a calendar, and a variety of search engines to search for podcasts, images or videos. And the really nifty part? The content is displayed right there on the page! No need to click and go to another page! For example, instead of a link to a weather page, the weather is displayed right on the page! There are other tools that do this too. Pageflakes, Google homepage and Webwag are three examples.

Cool Tools – Warning: For Geeks Only!
If you are a geek like me than you’ll be really excited about fotowoosh, a new tool in alpha release only. Fotowoosh takes 2D photos and transforms them into 3D videos! Wowsers! Check out the demos on the site (may need to download a free viewer to see them properly in your browser.) Something to keep our eyes on for later!

Who needs chocolate bunnies?

Who needs chocolate bunnies and jellybeans when there are lots of new web resources to try out…and library news to get caught up on? There is a lot of rejoicing going on as we tell you about a new research tool for Firefox users, new books in the Library, a new stock photo site, the new Quiet Study Area and more!

1)Library news

New Quiet Study Area: In the Library news department, we have a new Quiet Study Area available at the Library @ Fennell! Equipped with 25 study carrels and located on the first floor of the Library @ Fennell, this room contains nothing but cool, clear silence! When you need to get things done or if you just want to meditate on life’s more complex conundrums, come on over to the Library @ Fennell and enter the chamber of silence and sanctitude (i.e. Quiet Study Area)…your escape to tranquility in a crazy world!

Let Your Voice Be Heard: Did you know that you can comment on anything you read here in the BRAIN_blog? That’s right! Just click on the Comments link at the bottom of any post and comment away! Have more to say? Head on over to the Library Suggestion Box and let us know what you’re really thinking! You can either post your comments for the world to see and get a conversation going or send us a comment privately! Either way, isn’t it time you let us know what you really think of us?

New Fiction Shelves: You may have noticed that beautiful set of shelving in the Library @ Fennell just outside the stairwell….that’s the new fiction shelves! Libraries aren’t just about research and seriousness …. we know when to kick our shoes off and have rip-roaring good times. Why, look at all of those wonderful tomes for recreational reading! Grab one of those babies and kick back!

New Titles: The new titles just keep on coming! There are positively heaps on the list but here are some highlights:

What color is your parachute 2007 edition
Encyclopedia of evolution
Bones, brains and DNA : the human genome and human evolution
Got game: how the gamer generation is reshaping business forever
Mavericks at work: why the most original minds in business win
The long tail : why the future of business is selling less of more
Wikinomics : how mass collaboration changes everything

Oh, the choices! Which one to choose for your long weekend reading pleasure? My top pick would be The Long Tail for its insightful look at how markets are changing with the rise of Internet retailing. Written by Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, this book started out as an article in Wired about how the Internet is transforming markets (especially entertainment markets) by enabling niche markets to arise. From the article, a blog was also born. Yup, this one is a goody!

 

2)Research tools

New and improved Wikipedia launches (called Citizendium!)
At the end of March, a new reference resource called Citizendium launched. Like Wikipedia, it is a web-based user contributed encyclopedia. It was founded by the same person who co-founded Wikipedia, Larry Sanger. His aim is to improve on the Wikipedia model by adding “gentle expert oversight” and requiring contributors to use their real names. Check out the About page to get the full scoop. Could this be the answer to our Wikipedia misinformation woes? Time will tell!

Firefox users rejoice!
Easter is a time for rejoicing, especially if you are a Firefox user! If you use Firefox as your browser, you already know about the huge variety of extensions available to make your Internet browsing life fun and hassle-free! Well, now there is a new extension just for researchers who use Firefox! Zotero is a free Firefox extension that allows you to save resources you are using for research, make notes on those resources, create a bibliography, export all the information and more! Zotero even knows when you are using the Library catalogue and can save all the book information at once! If you want to know what librarians dream about at night, Zotero is it!

Peep Research
It’s spring which means it’s time to take another look at the Peep Research tutorial, developed by the folks at Staley Library, Milliken University. Not only will you learn some valuable lessons about peeps and their research methods but you’ll also learn a thing or two about library research in general. Who could ask for more?

3) Web tools

Photo Tools
Want to spruce up your course web page with some photos? Here are some tools that can get the job done! First, off stock.xchng! Words cannot express my sheer excitement and gratitude that this site was invented! Any site can give you free photos…but this site gives you free, gorgeous, useful photos! Ho boy, this site is a gift from the photo gods!

Next up, we have picnik. Picnik is a free photo editing site! Got some blurry, red-eyed photos? Upload them to picknik and fix away!

And last but not least, Splashr is a free tool that takes your Flickr photos and puts them into a fancy display! You can choose from many different options! Check out the library’s Splashr show for an example.

Calculating and CAD/CAM
A couple more tools you might find useful…Calcoolate calculates and converts pretty much anything. It’s a one stop shop for all of your calculating and converting needs…need to convert currency, temperature, volumes? Find it all here! From Google comes Sketchup. Sketchup is a tool for creating, viewing and modifying 3D diagrams. There are free and pro versions available. From the site: “Developed for the conceptual stages of design, this powerful yet easy-to-learn software allows for quick and easy 3D form creation, the result is an interface that supports a dynamic, creative exploration of 3D form, material and light.” Nifty!

 

4) E-learning Resources

The Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitaba has set up a great resource on social software – Learning Technologies Centre Wiki. Need to know what a wiki is? Wondering what I was nattering on about when I mentioned Flickr? Still not sure what this blog thing is all about? Well, head on over to the wiki to learn all about these technologies and more!

The latest issue of the EDUCAUSE Review is now available. Check out some great articles on social software in academia, content management systems and more!

Check out the new EDUCAUSE tutorial on clickers: 7 Things You Should Know About Clickers. The mysteries of these little devices are revealed in seven quick points!