KSL News Blog

Monthly Archive Index for KSL News Blog

Finding Measures & Assessment Tools

Sign up for a new KSL CaseLearns class and learn how to find measures & assessment tools for your research.

These instruments are often difficult to identify and locate— this class will help you learn:
- how to find published & unpublished measures
- which database is best for searching for them
- how to use other library resources to identify & find the instruments.

Sign up online at CaseLearns, where you can browse the schedule by the online calendar and
- Take free classes in a variety of topics, including the Sunday series & Saturday classes (check out the one on 3/22/08 to get the most out of the electronic resources at Case!
- Check the Attendance Policy for important details on attendance & cancellation
- Print your copy of the spring schedule (pdf.)

Upcoming classes for each week are featured on right side of the Kelvin Smith Library homepage—helpful when you have some last-minute free time!

Celebrate Black History Month with Britannica

One of the Britannica Online database offerings this month, the Britannica Guide to Black History offers you articles, images, and multimedia clips that trace two millenia of history.

Browse or search:
- Timeline from the 2nd-3rd centuries to today
- Primary resources (from 1660 Virgina slave laws texts to Barack Obama's 2004 Democratic convention keynote address
- Hear the music of John Coltrane, or author & actress readings
- Watch video of performances as well as famous court case discussions.

Britannica Online is one of the many databases available through our OhioLINK membership. Find the Britannica Guide to Black History at the end of the Britannica main page, after the biography of the day, news of the day (BBC, New York Times), and a variety of other topics to broaden your interests & knowledge.

KSL Movie & Exhibit 2/15 Celebrates Darwin Day

Watch the movie depicting the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925, "Inherit the Wind" (KSL,Friday Feb 15, Noon-2:30 p.m.) The real-life trial of the biology schoolteacher arrested for the crime of teaching Darwin's theories of evolution (and thus violating Tennessee state law) features dialog taken in part from the trial transcripts.

The battle over evolution vs creation featured famous lawyer Clarence Darrow (Spencer Tracy) and famed orator William Jennings Bryan (Frederick March) in the 1960 movie that received 4 Oscar nominations (Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Another Medium.)

Backstory: The movie was based on a 1955 play that was highly acclaimed as "...one of the most brilliant and engrossing displays of acting ever witnessed on the screen...the final showdown and the breach of the barrier of dogma...a triumphant moment for human dignity." (New York Times 10/12/1960, B.Crowther) Playwrights Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee wrote the play in response to the intellectual freedom threats of the 50s McCarthy era. From the 1920s to the 1950s to today, themes reoccur...come to KSL and watch Inherit the Wind!

Friday, February 12, 2008
Kelvin Smith Library, 2nd Floor Dampeer Room
Noon-2:30 p.m., the campus community is invited
More information at 216-368-5291, or E.Gail Reese E.Gail Reese

Before coming to the movie, stop at the exhibit in the main lobby "Inaugurating the Darwin Year 2008-2009: Celebrating Science." You'll see books, letters, and journal articles by and about Charles Darwin.

Freedman Center in EDUCAUSE & New Media Consortium Horizon Report

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) and New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizon Project has released their research "Six Key Emerging Technologies for Higher Ed" (January 30, 2008). Describing six areas of emerging technologies that are expected to have impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression in higher education within 3-5 years, the report notes a project by the Freedman Center.

The report uses the example of Pocket Virtual Worlds, a collaborative effort between the College of Technology, Bowling Green State University and the Kelvin Smith Library Freedman Center. Using the project's technological applications, you can take a virtual field trip to a medieval ruin or an African safari... create images and recreate/explore locations in history, and take the experience to a game playing level.

Try it out now: 'walk' in a campus building you may never have been in before, and see it 360-degrees:
- See the Pocket Virtual Worlds Flash Demonstration in Studio One of Mather Dance Studio. Celebrate Mather's centennial year with a photographic, virtual reality interactive experience—slide along and 'dance' in the studio!

Read about the project and download the 32-page 2008 Horizon Report, which is freely accessible and released under a Creative Commons license for sharing.

Tax Time! Tax Forms @KSL and Online

Ohio Tax forms (plus the EZ1040) for 2007 fillings are now available right inside the Kelvin Smith Library lobby. Find them on top of the display bins that have official campus & UCI publications.

Paper tax forms are on the decline, so KSL's Government Documents Department provides links to convenient online tax forms:
- federal
- municipal (local and throughout Ohio)
- international
- local public organizations that still receive the paper forms.

While you're printing your online tax form, take a look at other interesting links on the Government Documents page like Tax Stats (data, tables, articles, information about the U.S. tax system), and helpful 1-800 phone numbers for all your questions!

African American History Month--KSL's February '08 Research Spotlight

Dr. Carter Woodson, Juneteenth, AAS@Case digital exhibits, first person narratives, images, phamphlets from the 1800s, ejournals, and many other selected items help you learn more about African American history.

Celebrating the 2008 theme "Carter G. Woodson and the Origins of Multiculturalism" , KSL has carefully selected resources for your learning and research. Read about the founder of Black History Month, and visit sites from the Smithsonian, The Library of Congress, and the Veterans History Project. Find academic contributions in first person narratives (University of Virginia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and browse the Subject Listing for various African American areas in Digital Case.

Take a Black History Quiz, listen to jazz, tour a museum—all on the KSL Research Spotlight for February 2008!