Information and Library Services

Every year, editors at the New Oxford American Dictionary choose a word of the year. For 2009, it's unfriend: what you do to a former friend on Facebook or other social networking site.

Other trending words in 2009 include:

• intexticated - distracted because texting on a cellphone while driving a vehicle
• netbook - a small, very portable laptop computer with limited memory
• freemium - a business model in which some basic services are provided for free, with the aim of enticing users to pay for additional, premium features or content
• ecotown - a town built and run on eco-friendly principles

For help with words old and new, see our library Guide to Dictionary and Encyclopedia Resources.

For all of you with literary aspirations, this is the month to get started.  If you are thinking of writing the next great American novel, check out the resources and ideas available on the National Novel Writing Web site.

Also, be sure to look at the resources the library provides on our Literature subject guide and Writing subject guide.

Who knows, you could become the next winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Atyourlibrary.org, the American Library Association's public awareness campaign to promote libraries and librarians, is holding a creative essay contest.

Submit your essay before December 7, 2009, for a chance to win $350 and have your essay published on the At Your Library Web site. Essays can be text, multimedia, even music videos. They do not have to be long. The theme is your experience at your local library and the fundamental spirit and importance of American libraries.

Details, including how to submit your essay, are at the contest Web page.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress hosts read.gov, a Web site with resources on books, reading, and literacy for kids, teens, adults, and educators and parents. You'll find classic books to read online, author Webcasts, contests, and more.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer Halloween Health and Safety Tips. On that page, there are also related links, such as Tips to Protect Yourself from Germ Monsters.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Kids.gov is the Official Kids' Portal for the U.S. Government and includes lots of links about these topics and more:

• Test-Taking Tips
• Careers
• Games and Activities

There's also a section for educators.

 

NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

NASA Images contains thousands of photos, videos, and graphics in these catagories:

• Universe
• Solar System
• Earth
• Aeronautics
• Astronauts

It's a great source for your and your children's classroom science reports, or just plain browsing fun. 

Rhonda Jones, Program Director for Human Resources Management, UMUC Graduate School of Management and Technology, October 15, 2009

On October 15, 2009, Dr. Rhonda Jones, Program Director for Human Resources Management in the Graduate School, presented "Talent Management in the New Economy: Applying Lessons Learned From Knowledge Workers" during a brown bag interactive lunch at the new Academic Center in Largo.

During this session participants discussed:

• Why talent management is increasingly important in the existing economy
• Talent management considerations that are unique to part-time, contingent, and at-will knowledge workers
• Factors that increase retention and organizational commitment among traditional knowledge workers
• How existing research on traditional knowledge workers might be applied to non-traditional employees
• Potential benefits to organizations that are able to stimulate and retain non-traditional knowledge workers

Talent management in the new economy.pdf

 

Jay Liebowitz, Orkand Endowed Chair in Management and Technology, September 21, 2009

On September 21, 2009, UMUC Orkand Chair of Management and Technology, Jay Liebowitz, provided his perspective as an editor of an academic journal on the best ways to effectively work with editors and get published.

He covered topics including:

• Publish or perish
• Why publish?
• From the editor's experience
• Questions you should ask
• Games people play
• Perseverance pays off

How to Get Published.pdf

From trees to traffic, from health to hiking to scholarships, this list of top free Web sites has something for everyone. It was compiled by the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.

On October 1, 2009, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation declaring October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month.

What is Information literacy? Information literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, and ethically and legally use information. There is so much information available in the world today that knowing how to separate what is trustworthy from what is false and/or biased takes a lot of skill and practice.

Did you know that the same skills and processes used to locate information for a research project can be used for buying a car, planning a vacation, looking for a job, etc.? Being information literate gives students the competitive advantage to be idea creators, problem solvers, effective contributors, and productive citizens.

UMUC's Information and Library Services (UMUC Library) is here to help! The UMUC Library provides many ways to learn and hone these skills, including access to the WebTycho self-paced VLIB 101 (Peck Virtual Classroom) and our interactive research process tutorial Secrets of My Research Success. We also offer short multi-media tutorials to help you develop information literacy skills under the How Do I? section of the Library Web site. The Library is available 24/7 to help you build your skills and assist you with information-literacy related questions via Ask a Librarian.

Please join the UMUC Library in celebrating National Information Literacy Awareness Month!