"Short life" of weblogs?

After 3 and half years, the library weblogs decided to "end" the weblog communication in April 7, 2011.  It seems to me that bloggers and web-loggers have a very hard time to keep up what they started. Possible out of idea? Feeling discouraged because receiving no feedback from readers? Getting busy and have no more time to write and think? - All of above surely play an important part for the "terminations" of blogs and weblogs.

... Yet I do not have an answer or solution to "fix" that phenomena.

Summer Reading Program at Your Local Library!

It's "official" summer a couple days ago; yet the summer reading program at the library has started a month ago. The theme of summer reading of this year is "One World, Many Stories"! - I love it! There are lots of fun and FREE stuff at the library, T-shirts, bookmarks, and most importantly, there are so many cultural programs at the libraries in this summer - ink painting, origami, folk dancing. - Get out of your house, and visit your local library!

Cyberspace learning: Blackboard

After taking the online courses just for a couple of months, I found that the cyberspace learning is more "demanding" than the face-to-face class! It is a 24/7 classroom. Apart from the weekly assignments, there are non-stop daily/weekly disscussion and reflections .... When I htook the campus-based classes, I did not feel the tension and the "emergency of "reading" and writing. :))

Yet I have to say that I found this learning style has more "stimulation" than the classroom lecture style.

A fascinating story, Conviction

This true story is based on the true story of Kenny Waters, who was wrongly convicted to a murder in Ayer Massachusetts. After spending 20 years in the jail, he was released with the great effort of his sister, Betty Waters. Betty continued to fight for her brother's freedom since he was convicted. She believed that her brother was innocent. She wetnt to Law School and became an attorney and was able to access to the evidence. 

This is a film about unjustice and the corrupt legal system in this country. It is also a story about family loyalty, and love between a brother and a sister. This compelling movie held my attention all evening.

"Unemployed Librarian"

I found this on the web the other day when I chatted with one of my colleagues at the library during our lunch break. This small piece of information (not too much) is useful for those unemployed librarian:

http://www.liscareer.com/millet_smallworld.htm

Today is a special day

June 13 has been a very special day for me in the past years - My big brother passsed away on June 13 when I was only 12. It has been a long time since he's gone. I still miss him badly. It is said that time is the best medicine. I found that's not true. The pain is even greater as I grow older. - He was the very first person predicted that I will be a librarian when I grew up.

I have read something a few days ago.  - unfortunately life is full of pain and hardship otherwise life will be so boring and has no fun. Is it right? I doubt.

What a surprise!

I would think that the School of Christianity library does not have any popular movies. But it is not the case. I visited a library at a Theology Seminar Institute this morning. I found two "drawers" are full of current popular movies! Oh yes those DVDs are kept in the drawers at the far corner of the library. I opened the drawers by "accident." It is really surprised me. The librarian told me that those are from donations. (really?)

Online vs. Face-to-Face classes

One of the faculty members at the university teaches both online and face-to-face courses. We chatted the other day. She expressed that the online courses "force" students "speak up" in many ways. Students have to post their thought and reflections; on the other hand, students are not necessarily to "speak up" in the classroom. She siad that the interaction among the online classes students is much greater than the students in the face-to-face classes.

I think part of the reason behind that is... the 21st century students frequently use the social networks to communicate with others such as email, twitter, texting, and iphone. They probably communicate "better" with those electronic devices than talking in person. The social networks have been taking over so many ways of our communciation. They are not only affecting our daily lives, but also the way of our learning.

Embracing open access

I workd at the Reference Desk tonight. One of the graduate student asked for an ANCI (American National Standard Institute) Service Management document. It appears that readers have to buy it for $96. I searched our university library resources and couldn't locate this particular document. Then I did a quick searchon the Internet. The result is very discouraging. Even Amazon sells it for $116! I was very persistent. I  used different search engine... Voila! I found the doucment!  - it is also an open access document on the Web.

It is the second day of our university's summer semester. - It will be a good semester.

Blackboard vs. WebCT

As a distance graduate student, I receive and post my assignment via Blackboard. Faculty are also using Blackboard to communicate with us. Our univeristy just changed from WebCt to Blackboard. My first week was not going well with Blackboard. I could open the links - then I had to email my instructor and asked for assistance. That's certainly not a problem; however it makes me feel so bad while most of my classmates had no problem with the links. Why did the university change it? We are fine with WebCT!

We have been utilizing WebCT for a few years. Now it's "gone"!  - I love learning new technology and new program but NOT when I have to use it as a main tool for my courses.

June 4, 1989

Yesterday was June 4. It reminds me the big events in 1989 - Tiananman Square Incident. Last week, one of our faculty members talked about her own experience and life after June 4, 1989 in our pro-seminar class. She was a graudate student, applying for graduate studies in the US. She described how hard to obtain her visa and passport to come over US after the Incident. She became emotional when she mentioned the Incident. It seems that the Incident is still haunting many Chinese, especially the academia world. We were all silent and did not know how to react in the classroom. I personally feel very sorry for her.

The Tiananman Square Incident surely changed a lot of people's life in China - not only the student leaders, the participants, but also the general public in Beijing. I remember that I watched a special on TV.The reporter went to Beiing University and interviewed the current students. I am not surprised that most of them avoided to answer the question, "Do you know what happened on June 4, 1989?" - some people pretended that they have no idea what happend, some of them just shaked their heads and walked away.

It was over twenty years since the Incident occurred. Time passed and the Beijing people simply do not want to mention it. They just want to move on their lives in a simple way, I guess.

Penpal in the digital age

One of my colleagues chatted with me the other day after work. We talked about our penpals when we were young.  - Oh well we all miss the good old days, don't we?

When I was young, I had a few penpal all over the world. It's not only because I wanted to see friendship around the globe, it's the way to receive foreign stamps. I was a stamp collector since I was a third grade pupil. With the 21st century technology, Internet and email are replacing mails. I lost not only the foreign stamps, but also the hand-written letters.  Oh well, with all the social network, facebook, twitter, blogs... the nature of "penpal" is still there, but just in a very different and varied formats. Am I embracing the new technology? Yes in a way I am. The communication is much fast. Imagine that you receive a letter within seven days. If you reply immediately, it takes another seven days to reach the other side of the globe. The message might be "outdated" when it reach the other side of the world. Having said that, I do miss the joyce of seeing a lteer in my mailbox. I also miss the foreign stamps I used to have.

Penpal is a way to learn and understand other cultures. Something you learn outside the textbook or encyclopedia. Most importantly it is the real people's life sharing. I still love to be a penpal but just liss the handwritten letter and the foreign stamps.

I am wondering whether there are still stamps collectors "out there"?

The "so what" question

The hardest part of designing a dissertation is to answer the "so what" question - why you do research on a particular topic and how significant of the research? The research process itself is not easy; to convince others that the research is a very significant work is much harder.

We all have our passion for certain research topics. How can we convince others to agree with you is the most difficult part of the research.

iGoogle vs. Endnote?

Someone asked me whether iGoogle is a better tool for citation storage, compare to Endnote. Personally I don't think so. iGoogle is great tool for RSS, blogs, links information. Endnote is a software where you can store your research article plus your notes. It provides an tremendously help in terms of citation storage.