Introducing the Library's New "Living Room"

The Cuyamaca College Library has just opened up a new study space called The Living Room, located in room C-219 on the second floor of the library. This spacious area - with some of the best views on campus - is officially designated as"laid back." Students will find comfortable seating, as well as tables and chairs for those who want to study in groups. A large whiteboard is also available.

While The Living Room is a hotspot for those needing wireless access, it also houses a number of desktop computers with full Internet access (yes, that means MySpace and Facebook), as well as the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite, including Access, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher, Word. All of these computers are wired to a black and white printer (15 cents a page) and a color printer (75 cents a page).














We do try to create a noiseless environment in the library, especially in the quiet study area--yet talking is acceptable in The Living Room. This is a student space, and we hope students will work together to make it their own. Please let us know what you think.

New Instructional Design Technology Specialist

It is with great pleasure that I announce the arrival of Rhonda Bauerlein to our campus community as the Instructional Design Technology Specialist. Rhonda has been working at Grossmont College since 2001 as a Learning Resource Systems Specialist where she was responsible for the coordination and oversight of the library database and personal computers. In that position, she installed software and provided training and assistance to faculty, staff and students. She also maintained the library’s website and created new sites as needed. Prior to this, Rhonda developed curriculum for a Multimedia Technology program at Pikes Peak Community College and taught classes on the integration of animation, audio, video, and pictures in multimedia presentations. She also established and coordinated a Multimedia Instructional Design Center at Pikes Peak. Rhonda has a very strong technical background in the computer industry prior to her shift to academic settings. She has a Certificate in Computer Programming, a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Colorado, and a year of coursework towards an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction specializing in Educational Technology from the University of Colorado.

Connie Elder
Dean of Technology and Learning Resources

Connie Elder has been appointed as Dean of Learning & Technology Resources

After completing the search for the Dean, Learning & Technology Resources, Ms. Connie Elder has been identified as the successful candidate for the position. Ms. Elder has a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island, a Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology from West Virginia University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from West Virginia University.

Ms. Elder has been a member of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District for 18 years. In those 18 years she has played a wide variety of roles and contributed to the growth and development of several subsystems. She has held such roles as Interim Manager of Instructional Computing Services (Grossmont College), Interim Associate Dean of Instructional Computing Services (Grossmont College), full time instructor in the CIS Department (Cuyamaca College) where she has been the Coordinator of the Computer and Information Science Department for eight of her eleven years at Cuyamaca. She possesses a combination of academic preparation, computer industry, teaching and administrative experiences that enable her to contribute to the development and maintenance of this position with minimal start-up time.

From 2003 – 2006 Ms. Elder was the Co-Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation Grant that developed the Institute for Telecommunications Technology here at Cuyamaca College. I believe Ms. Elder’s educational preparation, professional experiences and demonstrated commitment to students and the mission of community colleges makes her uniquely suited for the position at Cuyamaca College.

Cristina Chiriboga, Ed.D
Vice President, Instruction
Cuyamaca College

Amistad

Susan Haber's History 108 class - Early American History -recently covered a unit on slavery. In her online forum, Professor Haber asked students if they'd seen the movie Amistad, directed by Steven Spielberg. The Amistad was a slave ship bound for Puerto Principe, Cuba in 1839. Before it reached its destination, a number of the slaves, led by a man named Cinque, managed to break out of their irons and take over the ship. They ended up killing the captain, Ramon Ferrer, and a mulatto cook. Then they ordered two Spanish dons - Pedro Montes and Jose Ruiz - to sail the ship to Africa. Yet Cinque's plan was foiled when sailors on a U. S. Coast Guard brig, the Washington, took control of the ship. U.S. officials ended up towing the Amistad to New London in America, so the slaves could be put on trial. Yet in 1839 the African slave trade was already illegal in America. Meanwhile, abolitionists were stirring up controversy about the domestic use of slave labor. In the end - after a series of trials - the Supreme Court ruled "the Negroes were 'kidnapped Africans, who by the laws of Spain itself were entitled to their freedom.' They were not criminals: the 'ultimate right of human beings in extreme cases is…to apply force against ruinous injustice.' The Africans could stay or they could return to Africa. (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/trialheroes/Tappanessay.html).

For more information about the Amistad case, as well as reviews of the film, check out Amistad Trials 1839 - 1840. Or come into the library and watch the film (DVD HIST 108).

When the Library is Closed...

First of all, for all of you who are facing difficulties due to the fires, you have our condolences. It's tough to try to deal with the day-to-day realities of school when you are faced with unexpected hardships. As most of you know, during the fires we were forced to close the library. Of course there are other times when the library is closed. See our hours for more information on this. Yet, just because the library is closed, that does not mean you don't have access to the Cuyamaca College Library. The Cuyamaca College Library website serves as both an informational resouce about the library--an it is a library, a virtual library. For example, through Netlibrary, you have access to ebooks, full-text books online. Through Infotrac you have access to magazines and journals. Through Proquest, you have access to newspapers, such as the San Diego Union Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. Unlike the olden days, you should be able to complete an academic paper without even stepping foot into the library--though we hope you will still stop by!

QuestionPoint: a New Live 24/7 Online Reference Service

The Cuyamaca College Library has recently joined a 24/7 online reference coop called QuestionPoint, a service offered through OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). QuestionPoint is simple to use. Just go to the Cuyamaca College Library website and click on Ask a Librarian: Live 24/7 Online Reference. You will then be asked to fill out a form, before clicking on 'connect.' After that, a librarian from somewhere around the globe will pick up your request and proceed to conduct a live chat session to serve your information needs. Not only can QuestionPoint librarians answer your reference questions on the spot, they also have the ability to 'co-browse' the Internet with you. This means they will be able to show you specific websites and subscription databases, as well as how to use them. Through this feature, you will also have the ability to share Internet resources with remote librarians. For example, Cuyamaca College library users can log in to locally-owned subscription databases, eReference books, and eBooks. From there, the remote librarian will be able to jump in and conduct a mini-lesson on how to use any of these sources. QuestionPoint librarians will also have access to our policy page to help with questions specifically pertaining to the Cuyamaca College Library. Questions that can't completely be answered by remote librarians will be forwarded to a Cuyamaca librarian for follow-up.

This pilot project is being offered by the San Diego and Imperial Counties Community Colleges Learning Resources Cooperative (SDICCCLRC), a consortium of libraries from nine colleges in the San Diego and Imperial Counties region. These libraries have traditionally shared media resources. Now librarians in this group are working together to monitor QuestionPoint for San Diego area users. After hours QuestionPoint's 24/7 cooperative will pick up reference requests. Most 24/7 librarians will answer questions from somewhere in the United States, but students will occasionally encounter a librarian from another country.

So give this service a try and let us know what you think!

Kari Wergeland

Finding a Specific Chapter in an eReference Book

Do you find yourself avoiding electronic books--just because it feels like too much of a hassle? It's not as bad as you think. Once you get used to poking through an eReference book, you might even come to appreciate some of the features it has to offer.

This is the first installment in a series of posts on how to use eReference books more effectively.

Let's take a look at Gale's The Sixties in America Reference Library edited by Tom and Sarah Pendergast.

1. Go to the Databases A to Z page, located on the Cuyamaca College Library website under ‘More Sources’.

2. Click on: The Sixties in America Reference Library (Note: if you are trying to access this book from a remote location, you must use your Cuyamaca College username and password).

3. You can now go to a specific a chapter. To do this, click on ‘eTable of Contents.’


4. Then click on your chosen chapter.


5. The contents of the chapter should appear on the screen.