MedLIS

explore-blog: The little-known art of beloved physicist Richard...

Sat, 11 May 2013 11:57:45 -0400

The little-known art of beloved physicist Richard Feynman, born on May 11, 1918.

Justice Dept. Will Not Weigh In on Georgia State U. E-Reserves Case

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 22:03:10 -0500

Justice Dept. Will Not Weigh In on Georgia State U. E-Reserves Case:

The U.S. Department of Justice has decided not to file an amicus curiae brief in a high-profile copyright case involving Georgia State University and several publishers.

The case in question, Cambridge U. Press et al. v. Mark P. Becker et al., was brought against the university by Cambridge, Oxford University Press, and SAGE Publishers. It accuses Georgia State of committing widespread copyright violations by making some of the publishers’ content available on electronic reserve without licensing it.

» via The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription may be required for some content)

As drug industry’s influence over research grows, so does the potential for bias

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 23:27:10 -0500

As drug industry’s influence over research grows, so does the potential for bias:

infoneer-pulse:

For drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, the 17-page article in the New England Journal of Medicine represented a coup.

The 2006 report described a trial that compared three diabetes drugs and concluded that Avandia, the company’s new drug, performed best.

“We now have clear evidence from a large international study that the initial use of [Avandia] is more effective than standard therapies,” a senior vice president of GlaxoSmithKline, Lawson Macartney, said in a news release.

What only careful readers of the article would have gleaned is the extent of the financial connections between the drugmaker and the research. The trial had been funded by GlaxoSmithKline, and each of the 11 authors had received money from the company. Four were employees and held company stock. The other seven were academic experts who had received grants or consultant fees from the firm.

» via Washington Post

So now let’s enforce 2007 mandate to deposit all clinical trial results, including negative, in ClinicalTrials.gov for all to access.

nypl: “If free and equal access to information is one of the...

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 23:34:22 -0400

nypl:

“If free and equal access to information is one of the hallmarks of a great society then our libraries are not just libraries but grand sanctuaries of freedom.”

— New York City Councilman Vincent Gentile

gjmueller: Principals Drop Ball on Teacher Retention, Study...

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:21:59 -0400

gjmueller:

Principals Drop Ball on Teacher Retention, Study Says

Policymakers, administrators, and advocacy groups have correctly diagnosed a major problem plaguing the teaching profession—high rates of teacher attrition—but have missed the mark in their prescriptions for fixing it, concludes a new report released this morning by the New York City-based TNTP, formerly The New Teacher Project.

In essence, it contends, most school leaders fail to identify and encourage the very best teachers to stay in schools. In part, it says, that’s because of the K-12 field’s tendency to uncouple decisions about retention from discussions of teacher quality.

infoneer-pulse: Library Patrons’ Want E-Books Over Every Other...

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:14:42 -0400

infoneer-pulse:

Library Patrons’ Want E-Books Over Every Other Downloadable Media

Library patrons, it turns out, are just like everybody else when it comes to e-books: increasingly, they want them.

According to the new Patron Profiles report from Library Journal and Bowker, 28% of library patrons want to download e-books at their local libraries. That number increases when it comes to library patrons who also read e-books: nearly two-thirds of those want e-books available at their local libraries.

E-books were more in demand among library patrons than music and video.

» via Digital Book World

curiositycounts: An archive of book cover designs and...

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:13:44 -0400

curiositycounts:

An archive of book cover designs and designers? Be still my beating heart.

Love this... crowdsourcing education done well

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:29:26 -0400

Love this... crowdsourcing education done well

Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky By Caleb Garling,...

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 09:59:01 -0400

Who Invented Email? Just Ask…Noam Chomsky
By Caleb Garling, wired.com

Who invented email? That’s a question sure to spark some debate. And where there’s debate, the appearance of Noam Chomsky should come as no surprise.
This week, Chomsky — the professor emeritus of linguistics and philosophy at MIT…

History of “Email” system as we know it. Chomsky backs Ayyadurai.

Found a little fawn curled up at base of a sculpture of St....

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:18:41 -0400

Found a little fawn curled up at base of a sculpture of St. Francis in our backyard tonight.

11 Light and Lemony Desserts Michelle Buffardi,...

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:14:44 -0400

11 Light and Lemony Desserts
Michelle Buffardi, foodnetwork.com

Little Lemon Meringue Pies: the perfect ending to a spring meal.
Surprise mom this weekend with a lemon cake, cookie or no-bake bar. Each of these sweet, tart treats is Healthy Eats-approved, and are sure to meet mom’s standards,…

Looks good — must try this recipe

Seed journal citation network maps: A method based on network theory Calero Medina 2012 Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Wiley Online Library

Sat, 05 May 2012 18:50:35 -0400

Seed journal citation network maps: A method based on network theory Calero Medina 2012 Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Wiley Online Library

Should Teachers Be Disciplined For Online Lives?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:40:35 -0400

Should Teachers Be Disciplined For Online Lives?:

In a piece in the Los Angeles Times, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley argued that blog posts, status updates and photos about legal, private activities should be legal. He says that as public servants, teachers should not be subjected to the transparent conditions of celebrities without any of the benefits. So should teachers be held to a higher standard? Parents, teachers, where do we draw the line?

ARL Policy Notes: The Librarians' Code, Orphan Works, and Mass Digitization

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:34:29 -0400

ARL Policy Notes: The Librarians' Code, Orphan Works, and Mass Digitization:

arlpolicynotes:

In preparation for the Berkeley symposium on orphan works and mass digitization, I thought it might be helpful to sketch some of the ways that the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries might assist libraries in devising strategies for addressing these related…

MyJapan is an online charity photographic exhibit raising funds...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 22:52:25 -0400

MyJapan is an online charity photographic exhibit raising funds for the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The charity came together around the question “What does Japan mean to you?” The photographs contributed from all over the world to this collection are in answer to that question posed last year on the main website and on Facebook. They continue to pour in to the Facebook page of this innovative fundraising effort. Local exhibits of highly rated photographs attract followers and funds, beautifully mounted prints of the photographs are for sale and can be shipped internationally, and the first book of selected photographs was just published and is available now.

Having visited family in Miyako, Iwate, Japan just before the devastating tsunami, I was happy to contribute a few photos of scenes that I hope will be restored someday. My memories, MyJapan — so many others have their own Japan to share. Perhaps you do, too.

Visit MyJapan at http://myjapan.withtank.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Japan/201660989857117

"I hate to break the news but you will never be able to kill enough people to make up for the fact..."

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:59:34 -0400

“I hate to break the news but you will never be able to kill enough people to make up for the fact that liberalism is perceived as ‘woman’s work’ and the Democrats as ‘the mommy party.’ If that’s what you seek then you might as well join the rest of the bullies and become a Republican.”

- digby, on professional troll Rush Limbaugh’s recent tirade against liberal men.

Although it’s clear that Rush has discovered my secret Crazed Female Sex Demons For Progressivism and World Domination weekly meetings, I will always be proud to be with the party that operates, to quote FDR, through the following premise: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

(via pantslessprogressive)

Love this photo. Matthew, Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo — with...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:27:00 -0400

Love this photo. Matthew, Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo — with Myuji Yoshida, March 2012

"Miyako Remembrance - One Year After the Tsunami With the tsunami, everything changed. There were no..."

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:56:00 -0400

“

Miyako Remembrance - One Year After the Tsunami

With the tsunami, everything changed. There were no clean clothes to change into, because they were gone. There were no familiar beds to sleep in, because they were gone, too. There were no homes even to go home to, because they were gone and the roads had been swept away or strewn with wreckage and rubble.
But again, even in the first moments after the extent of the damage became apparent, your own humanity changed as you huddled around a warm hearth in a darkened and quiet temple atop a hill overlooking the now-calm sea. As fires burned across the bay and sirens blared but slowly went quiet, and as the sky too, not just the temple you were so thankful to be in, fell into a cold but clear dark, you shared what you had, emergency supplies or stories or cigarettes, with those around you, stranger and friend alike, and listened to a crank radio tell reports of a nuclear melt-down.
It was during these first hours, lucid but confused, that you simply saw the state of things as they were, without the certainty of work or weekend, without the superficiality of style or ego; there was no baggage to muddle your view because all of that had been washed away and there was only one thing that remained, survival, and that wasn’t something to be done on one’s own. You got through those nights because you weren’t alone, because no one in that small building standing just above the water line was alone.
And the next day came, and the day after that, and the day after that. With each successive moment, your head clear and less subjective because you knew you were alive and that was good enough, you wondered if and hoped that everyone you knew was as fortunate as you. Once able, you walked the lanes that had opened up between toppled houses and gored supermarkets, climbing over seemingly endless hills of debris all slick with mud, and the whole while you had no idea how far the devastation went so you just kept on going.
Your favorite restaurant whose owners were good friends, your barber shop whose stylist you would swear by, and even the train station at the center of town, you walked by all of these and still couldn’t seem to escape the wave’s influence. Finally into the west of the city, there was a semblance of normalcy and you saw people talking and couldn’t help asking, “Have you seen…?”
There are confirmations and denials. It was an exchange that was expected but never anticipated, but was nonetheless a very needed human interaction and so, ultimately, the stress of communication was endured. But you discover that those closest to you are alive and well and they find you, they take you in, they feed you, they clothe you, they provide solace in a time of vast uncertainty, and they give you a shovel. And as you weren’t alone on that first night, so you weren’t alone then either, and all you could do was grip that shovel tight and all you can say is “let’s go” because that bond, that spark is what kept you alive and it must be preserved.
And so back into the wasted remnants you go, trudging through muck to scoop out restaurants and gut their kitchens, ripping apart floorboards, down to the foundations, of houses that nominally remained. Worst of all were the fields of destruction on the coast, where you went not to resuscitate but to search. Friends lost parents and lovers there, and it was in those houses, or what was left of them, surrounded by soaked photo albums and broken glass, that the desperation of your world firmly settled in. It was on those nights more than any others, after filth had been washed from clothes and body, that we sat together and ate and drank with as much merriment as we could muster because without it the palpable gloom that spread over the city would have been strong enough to rip us apart, send us into depression, and we’d be alone. That was not an option, and so you moved on as a group, as tightly-knit as you’d ever known.

1 year. Can’t believe it, won’t ever forget. 東京に住んでてもこの宮古には帰ってくる。それは、故郷だもん。頑張って、宮古。万歳、宮古！

”

- Written by Matt Ketchum, teacher in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture in Japan in 2011 when the Earthquake and tsunami hit. Now with My.Japan. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=362373260452555&id=201660989857117

Colleges Err in Placing Many on Remedial Track, Studies Find

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:47:08 -0500

Colleges Err in Placing Many on Remedial Track, Studies Find:

infoneer-pulse:

Two new studies from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College have found that community colleges unnecessarily place tens of thousands of entering students in remedial classes — and that their placement decisions would be just as good if they relied on high school grade-point averages instead of standardized placement tests.

The studies address one of the most intractable problems of higher education: the dead end of remedial education. At most community colleges, a majority of entering students who recently graduated from high school are placed in remedial classes, where they pay tuition but earn no college credit. Over all, less than a quarter of those who start in remedial classes go on to earn two-year degrees or transfer to four-year colleges.

The studies, one of a large urban community college system and the other of a statewide system, found that more than a quarter of the students assigned to remedial classes based on their test scores could have passed college-level courses with a grade of B or higher.

» via The New York Times (Subscription may be required for some content)

Wondered about the rate of remediation in first year of class… this seems logical. Must read.

"Over a lifetime, a medical student who specializes can expect to earn $3.5 million more than a..."

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:57:32 -0500

“Over a lifetime, a medical student who specializes can expect to earn $3.5 million more than a medical student who chooses primary care.”

- via

When boomers retire from the doctor profession, primary care dies. And that quote up there is by far the number one reason why. An extra $3.5 million is hard to turn down.
(via jayparkinsonmd)