Cuesta Library News

Netlibrary ebook for December

2009-11-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

December 2009
NetLibrary eBook of the Month
A monthly showcase of new and notable eBooks
The Modern Baker: Time-Saving Techniques for Breads, Tarts, Pies, Cakes and Cookies
By Nick Malgieri DK Publishing, 2008 Product ID: 279478

With the right teacher, simplified techniques, and step-by-step photo tutorials to guide the way, everyone can make freshly baked loaves, crisp flatbreads, savory tarts, and rich desserts – in record time.
Written by baking Hall of Famer Nick Malgieri, this collection of 150 straightforward recipes with gourmet appeal, strives to bring success to even the busiest of bakers, with the bulk of the preparation taking under one hour. Malgieri distills years of teaching and experience into these detailed recipes for baking everything from bread to biscotti to puff pastry to old-fashioned layer cakes. Recipes are thorough and include descriptions of how batters and doughs are supposed to appear at each stage of preparation. The Modern Baker is as necessary and essential as a good oven; Nick Malgieri leads cooks through the simple art of creating an international assortment of delicious sweet and savory baked goods, interweaving techniques and helpful sidebars.
Designed to increase awareness of online resources and highlight the value of your eBook collection, the December eBook of the Month is provided through the generous support of DK Publishing. Don’t miss the opportunity to share this comprehensive collection of recipes and time-saving techniques.
The Modern Baker will be provided with free, unlimited access December 1-31, 2009.

posted by Tina Lau, North County Libraian

5 Tips for Safe Online Shopping (article from Kiplinger's)

2009-11-18T10:46:00.000-08:00

by Cameron Huddleston

November 17, 2009

Shopping online is a great way to find deals (as I wrote recently). But, if you're not careful, you could be putting your personal information at risk of being stolen by identity thieves.

Michael Gregg, a cyber security consultant for Fortune 500 companies and the federal government, says the volume of attacks that target Internet users has been on the rise this year. However, he says there are several steps you can take to protect yourself while shopping -- or doing anything -- online.

1. Never shop online from a public Wi-Fi connection. Hackers can tap into Wi-Fi connections at hotspots, such as coffee shops, airports and hotels, to capture your personal information. If you must use public Wi-Fi, you can download for free the AnchorFree HotSpot Shield to hide your IP address while you're online and protect your computer from snoopers. Also, never use a public computer to shop or check accounts online.

2. Don't use your smartphone to shop. Hackers can use the same tactics for tapping into your smartphone as they use for your laptop or PC.

3. Don't use your debit card for online shopping. If hackers steal your debit-card information and raid your bank account, you must report any misuse within two days to get the same $50 limited liability as you would with a credit card. Miss that deadline but report your loss within 60 days and you could be liable for up to $500. After 60 days, your liability is unlimited. If you don't like using credit cards, though, consider using EBillme to make secure cash payments when shopping online (see Shop Online ... With Cash).

4. Shop online only at known retailers. Don't let a search engine pick a site for you because it could be bogus, Gregg says. Even if you're using a site that you think is legitiamte, look for security labels, such as VeriSign and Cybertrust, and for https:// to appear in the url on pages that prompt you to enter personal information. Also consider downloading McAfee's free SiteAdvisor, which tests sites for dangerous downloads, spamming and more.

5. Don't click on pop-up ads. Hackers recently have posted bogus ads with malicious software on legitimate sites (NYTimes.com, for example). Online retailers will be susceptible to these attacks, Gregg says.

posted by Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Tax credit for textbook purchases

2009-08-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Receive a Tax Credit for Hitting the Books!

Course Materials Now Qualify for Tax Credit

Attention Students and Parents!

SAVE YOUR COURSE MATERIAL RECEIPTS –
YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR A TAX CREDIT UP TO $2,500!!

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's (ARRA) newly created American Opportunity Tax Credit, textbook and other course material expenses – along with tuition and fees incurred in 2009 and 2010 not covered by scholarships or grants – may be claimed as a tax credit on that year's tax return!

You must keep a record of your expenses to be eligible!!

[information from http://textbookaid.org/]

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Netlibrary book for March

2009-02-27T15:27:00.000-08:00

March 2009

NetLibrary eBook of the Month

A monthly showcase of new and notable eBooks

Two Billion Cars:
Driving Toward Sustainability

Daniel Sperling and Deborah Gordon
Foreword by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Oxford University Press, 2009
Product ID: 259499

At present, there are roughly a billion motor vehicles in the world. Within twenty years, the number will double to 2 billion, largely a consequence of China's and India's explosive growth. Given that greenhouse gases are already creating havoc with our climate and that violent conflict in oil-rich nations is on the rise, does this mean that matters will only get worse? Or are there hopeful signs that effective, realistic solutions can be found?

In Two Billion Cars, transportation experts Daniel Sperling and Deborah Gordon provide a concise history of America's love affair with cars and an overview of the global oil and auto industries. They zero in on reforming our gas-guzzling culture, expanding the search for low-carbon fuels, environment-friendly innovations in transportation planning, and more. Promising advances in both transportation technology and fuel efficiency together with shifts in travel behavior, they suggest, offer us a realistic way out of our predicament.

If you are on campus, go to www.netlibrary.com to access the book. Off-campus, login to your myCuesta account, link to NetLibrary from the library channel on the Resource ta.

Tina Lau

North County Librarian

Financial aid tips for your FAFSA

2009-01-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

I just found some good tips for filling out your FAFSA from the Kiplinger's blog:
http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/2009/01/avoid-student-aid-traps.html.

Tips included things like not waiting until you've filled out your income tax return.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Front groups

2008-11-14T10:49:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder about those so-called public interest groups that are actually backed by the industry they claim to be exposing? There is a group called SourceWatch that keeps track of where information (and misinformation) comes from, and they have a spot on their website that is devoted to just front groups at http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Front_groups

Check out the US examples, one of which is the Greening Earth Society. It's funded by an association of coal-burning utility companies.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Google flu

2008-11-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

(CNN) -- If you have a fever, headache and runny nose, you might go to Google and type the words "flu symptoms" to see whether you've come down with influenza.

Google knows that you might do something like that, and it also knows which U.S. state you're in. Now, it's putting that information together in a tool that Google says could detect flu outbreaks faster than traditional systems currently in use.

Google's new public health initiative, Google Flu Trends, looks at the relative popularity of a slew of flu-related search terms to determine where in the U.S. flu outbreaks may be occurring.

"What's exciting about Flu Trends is that it lets anybody -- epidemiologists, health officials, moms with sick children -- learn about the current flu activity level in their own state based on data that's coming in this week," said Jeremy Ginsberg, the lead engineer who developed the site.

The tool, which launched Tuesday, operates on the idea that there's likely to be a flu outbreak in states where flu-related search terms are currently popular.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with Google on the project, helping validate and refine the model, and has provided flu tracking data over a five-year period, said Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the epidemiology and prevention branch in the CDC's influenza division.

Although it doesn't replace the need for real viral surveillance data, Flu Trends is a good model, and the CDC looks forward to testing it this flu season, Bresee said.

"We really are excited about the future of using different technologies, including technology like this, in trying to figure out if there's better ways to do surveillance for outbreaks of influenza or any other diseases in the United States," he said. "In theory at least, this idea can be used for any disease and any health problem."

Researchers found a tight correlation between the relative popularity of flu-related search terms and CDC's surveillance data, Ginsberg said.

posted by Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Jack-o-lantern etymology from OED

2008-10-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

You can get an RSS feed http://www.oed.com/services/rss-feed.html or email feed http://www.oed.com/services/email-wotd.html for word of the day from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). I use Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) to read RSS feeds every day.

Today's word is jack-o'-lantern:

1. A man with a lantern; a night watchman.

1663 STAPLETON Slighted Maid III. 48, I am an Evening dark as Night, Jack-with-the-Lantern, bring a Light. 1698-1700 E. WARD Lond. Spy II. (1709) 32 Each Parochial Jack-a-Lanthorn was Croaking about Streets the Hour of Eleven. a1704 T. BROWN Lett. fr. Dead Wks. 1760 II. 195 Who should come by before I could get up again, but the constable going his rounds, who quickly made me centre of a circle of jack of lanthorns.

2. An ignis fatuus or will-o'-the-wisp; = friar's lantern (FRIAR n. 9b); fig. something misleading or elusive.

1673 RAY Journ. Low C. 410 Those reputed Meteors..known in England by the conceited names of Jack with a Lanthorn, and Will with a Wisp. 1749 FIELDING Tom Jones XII. xii, Partridge..firmly believed..that this light was a Jack with a lantern, or somewhat more mischievous. 1750 S. HALES Earthquakes 10 Plenty of inflammable sulphureous Matter in the Air, such as Ignes fatui, or Jack-a-Lanterns. 1775 SHERIDAN Rivals III. iv, I have followed Cupid's Jack-a-lantern, and find myself in a quagmire. 1862 H. MARRYAT Year in Sweden II. 67 As a mist rises, Jack-o'-lantern flits his pale light over the swamp. 1870 LOWELL Study Wind. 5 Supplying so many more jack-o'-lanterns to the future historian.

attrib. 1750-1 Student II. 352 It..is..of a mere Jack~lanthorn nature, neither here nor there. 1817 COLERIDGE Biog. Lit. 293 The characters in this act frisk about, here, there, and everywhere, as teasingly as the Jack o'Lantern lights which mischievous boys..throw with a looking-glass on the faces of their opposite neighbours.

3. A lantern made of the rind of a large turnip or a pumpkin, in which holes are cut to represent eyes, nose, and mouth; a turnip- or (in U.S.) pumpkin-lantern. North Eng., Sc., and U.S.

1837 HAWTHORNE Twice-Told Tales 222 Hide it [sc. the great carbuncle] under thy cloak, say'st thou? Why, it will gleam through the holes, and make thee look like a jack-o'lantern! 1959 I. & P. OPIE Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xii. 269 As soon as it is dark on Hallowe'en they take the lighted ‘Jack-o-lanterns’ and put them on their gateposts.

Hence jack-o'-lantern v. intr. (nonce-wd.), to play or move erratically like a will-o'-the-wisp.

1891 G. MEREDITH One of our Conq. I. iv. 52 His Puckish fancy jack-o'-lanterning over it.

Election-year Mudslinging

2008-09-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

If you are wondering about negative stories concerning any of the presidential or vice presidential candidates, a great way to check it out is by going to http://factcheck.org/. It's a nonpartisan site that debunks lies in politics.

A more general site that's good for rumors, urban legends, and virus scares in general is at http://www.snopes.com/. I try to always check those emails that get circulated about free money from Microsoft, Sarah Palin's list of banned books, etc.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

LibraryThing meme

2008-08-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

This is a list of the top 106 books most often marked “unread” by LibraryThing users. The rules: bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Digital textbooks for half the price of printI

2008-04-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

This posting has been moved to http://slobooks.blogspot.com/.

Access to congressional reports

2008-04-01T11:27:00.000-07:00

Check out OpenCRS at http://opencrs.com/, a new website that collects and makes freely available reports from the Congressional Research Service. (This is the research used by congressmen, and is very current. Latest reports are about the financial market crisis.) They have an RSS feed if you'd like to be alerted when new reports are posted.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Summer schedule is now online

2008-04-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Cuesta's new summer schedule is now online at http://www.cuesta.edu/regnews.asp, or click on Find Classes from the Cuesta homepage. The schedule won't be in print for a few weeks.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Rumor about $600 rebate from government

2008-02-27T10:20:00.000-08:00

I checked it out at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=179181,00.html and an individual who has earned more than $3000 in 2007 will get $300 back in May. You must file your 2007 income tax return to be eligible.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Textbook Rental Service

2008-02-12T16:54:00.001-08:00

I just found out about a textbook rental service called Chegg (for "chicken and egg"). There's a good article about it in Business Week Online at http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=23783243&site=ehost-live

Prices seem to be about 50% of retail for textbooks. Check it out at www.chegg.com!

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Free online courses from Yale

2007-12-19T10:34:00.000-08:00

Yale University announced that they are allowing free and open access to 7 introductory graduate classes. Check it out at http://open.yale.edu/courses/.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Invitation to a Party

2007-11-30T09:52:00.000-08:00

Hello Tina and Cuesta College Library Bloggers:

Mark your calendars for Thurs. Dec. 6, 2- p.m. We will be holding an Open House reception to celebrate the retirement of our Library Director, Dave Dowell. The party will be held in the SLO campus library staff area, with snacks and beverages, and tours of our newly remodeled facilty. Hope to see you there.

Denise Fourie
Instructor, Library /Information Technology
Cuesta College

Amazon e-book reader

2007-11-19T10:45:00.001-08:00

Amazon.com Unveils New e-Book Reader

By Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 11/19/2007 9:09:00 AM

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled Kindle, its much anticipated e-book reading device at a packed press conference in Manhattan this morning. Intended to compete with the now discounted ($299) Sony Reader, Kindle is priced at $399 and offers wireless access to more than 90,000 downloadable titles at a uniform price of $9.99.

The Kindle weighs in at 10.3 ounces with a black & white electronic ink screen that can be read in bright sunlight. It’s thin as a pencil and will hold about 200 books, which are also stored in online user accounts and can be redownloaded at any time. But most impressive is the title selection and pricing as well as its wireless functionality. Unlike most digital reading devices, Kindle does not require a personal computer. Through an agreement with mobile carrier Sprint, Amazon has built its own network on the back of Sprint’s EVDO wireless cellphone network. There is no separate fee or monthly billing for use of Kindle’s wireless access and all titles and services for Kindle can be purchased through the wireless access provided through the device.

Online connection to the Kindle online store was very quick and downloads of even the largest books take less than a minute. The device also downloads newspapers and magazines and provides full-text access (not RSS Feeds) to more than 300 blogs that can be updated continuously. Each device comes with a pre-assigned email account that allows the user to email themselves personal documents (Word, plus gifs and jpegs) that can be read on the device.

Using a giant overhead screen, Bezos demonstrated the device (which worked flawlessly) to the assembled press corps. He said that they were trying to create a device so easy to use that it “disappears when you use it.” He said Amazon’s designers believed, “you can’t outbook, the traditional book. You have to have a device that can do things that the print book can’t do.”

From the looks of Kindle, Amazon may have made good on that claim. New media professionals at the event seemed impressed by the device, although not necessarily by its price. To seal the deal, Bezos unveiled a video presentation with such authors as Michael Lewis, Toni Morrison, Neil Gaiman and James Patterson, all lavishing praise on the new device. And then Bezos ended the press conference by handing out free devices to the assembled press corps. Now that’s the way to get the buzz started.

Another money-saving coupon code

2007-11-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

Save with eCampus Coupon Code

By BookOpinion on Books

From Nov. 1 to Jan. 31, 2008, eCampus.com is offering BookOpinion users two different coupon codes to save on your next purchase. Offer: Save 5% off of Purchase of $75 or More Expires: Jan. 31, 2008 Code: HIGHFIVE Offer: Save $10 off of $200 Purchase Expires: Jan. 31, 2008 Code: HIGHTEN Use this link to go to eCampus and save!

[taken from the BookOpinion blog]

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Spring schedule is online

2007-11-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

Cuesta's Spring class schedule is now online at www.cuesta.edu, click on "Find Classes". Get the jump on planning next semester.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Coupon codes for buying books online

2007-11-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

These are coupon codes good for the month of November, taken from the blog BookOpinion:

Save with BiggerBooks Coupon Code

By BookOpinion on Books

From Nov. 1 to Jan. 1, 2008, BiggerBooks is offering BookOpinion users two different coupon codes to save on your next purchase. Offer: Save $5 off of first Purchase Expires: Jan. 1, 2008 Code: FIVEOFF Offer: Save $10 off of $200 Purchase Expires: Jan. 1, 2008 Code: TENOFF Use this link to go to BiggerBooks and save!

Save at Alibris with Coupon Code

By BookOpinion on Books

Alibris has sent us a coupon code for BookOpinion users for the month of November. This offers expire at midnight on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007. Save $3 off a purchase of $30 or more using Coupon Code: GARCIAMARQUEZ Click here to go!

Enjoy!
Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Save some money on books

2007-10-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

There is a blog called BookOpinion that I sometimes read, which has discount codes for online bookstores sometimes. Here are a couple that I just found:

Save at Alibris With Coupon Code
http://bookopinion.com/blog/2007/10/04/save-at-alibris-with-coupon-code/

Alibris coupon til Oct 25

Save with eCampus.com Coupon Codes
http://bookopinion.com/blog/2007/08/06/save-with-ecampuscom-coupon-codes/

eCampus coupon til Oct 31

Hope someone can use them!

Tina Lau

North County Librarian

You've Received an Email Greeting: NOT!

2007-07-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard yet, there is a virus being spread around the Internet in phony e-card spam. I have received several e-card notifications in both my work and personal email, one of them supposedly from bluemountain.com (a reputable e-card website). So don't open any e-cards!
Here are some of the subject lines:

You've received a greeting card from a school-mate!
You've received a greeting ecard from a class mate!
You've received a greeting ecard from a neighbour!
You've received a greeting postcard from a partner!
You've received a greeting postcard from a worshipper!
You've received a postcard from a family member!
You've received a postcard from a neighbour!
You've received a postcard from a worshipper!
You've received an ecard from a colleague!

For more info, see the Information Week article at http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200001991

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Cuesta Library Catalog Unavailable Part of Saturday

2007-06-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

Cuesta library's online catalog will be down for part of Saturday, June 28. It should become available again that same day.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Free NetLibrary ebook for July

2007-06-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

If you are working on a speech or term paper about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this book is for you--

The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State
by Doug Suisman, Steven Simon, Glenn Robinson, C. Ross Anthony, Michael Schoenbaum
RAND Corporation

Winner of the 2006 Institute Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design, American Institute of Architects

Creating a successful Palestinian state poses a wide range of political, economic, social, and environmental challenges. In the July eBook of the Month, researchers from the RAND Corporation provide an in-depth and comprehensive nation-building plan to overcome these obstacles, as well as a design to meet the population's infrastructure needs.

The proposals outlined in The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State include a landmark infrastructure corridor that runs up the spine of the West Bank and also links the West Bank and Gaza. The proposal would promote dramatic new development in Palestine and would give Palestinians new access to jobs, food, water, education, health care, housing and public services and would help improve the lives of Palestinians and begin laying the groundwork to sustain long-term development in a future state.

Tina Lau

North County Librarian

USA Minority Population Tops 100 Million

2007-05-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

A report was issued by the Census Bureau a few days ago, saying that the minority population of the United States has now topped 100 million. More at http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/010048.html

Time to learn a foreign language! Cuesta offers Spanish, French, German, and sign language courses.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Cupertino Effect

2007-05-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

A little diversion from your finals--

It turns out that the modern affliction of spellcheckers wreaking havoc on unsuspecting documents has been given a name. Following a tip from commenter Qaminante on Languagehat, I discovered that runaway spellchecking has been dubbed "the Cupertino effect," at least among writers and translators for the European Union. As Qaminante explains, the common misspelling of cooperation as cooperatino leads some spellcheckers to suggest a change to Cupertino. (One EU writer claims that the Cupertino change can even happen to the word cooperation if the word processor's custom dictionary only has the hyphenated form co-operation. However, I find it difficult to believe that many custom dictionaries out there include Cupertino but not unhyphenated cooperation.)

This isn't a concern for users of Microsoft Word in its recent versions, since cooperation is the first suggestion given for cooperatino, not to mention coperatino, coperation, cuperation, coopertion, and various other typos. (You have to go all the way to cuperatino or cupertion before Word will suggest Cupertino.) In fact, if you're using the default Autocorrect settings for Word, it will automatically change cooperatino (and most of the other misspellings) to cooperation before you've even noticed the mistake. Nonetheless, the Cupertino carnage has been substantial, particularly for documents produced by the EU and other international organizations.

Here's a brief sampling of the hundreds of Cupertinos one can find on the ".int" domain used by international groups like the UN, the EU and NATO:

Within the GEIT BG the Cupertino with our Italian comrades proved to be very fruitful. (NATO Stabilisation Force, "Atlas raises the world," 14 May 2003)

The fact that Secretary General Robertson is going to join this session this afternoon in the European Union headquarters gives you already an idea of how close and co-ordinated this Cupertino is and this action will be. (NATO Press Point, 19 Mar. 2001)

Safe blood transfusion services are being addressed in Freetown and Lungi, using WHO RB funds in Cupertino with the Red Cross Society of Sierra Leone and in Bo by MSF/Belgium. (WHO/EHA report on Sierra Leone, 1 May 2000)

Could you tell us how far such policy can go under the euro zone, and specifically where the limits of this Cupertino would be? (European Central Bank press conference, 3 Nov. 1998)

Co-ordination with the World Bank Transport and Trade Facilitation Programme for South East Europe will be particularly important in the area of trade facilitation and shall be conducted through regular review mechanisms and direct Cupertino. (European Agency for Reconstruction, "Focal area: Justice and home affairs")

A consistent and efficient tax reform approach also will facilitate the shoring up broader EU and G-7 support for similar reform strategies -- this in turn would make international Cupertino easier. (European Parliament, "Towards a Re-Orientation of National Energy Policies in the EU? - Germany as a Case Study")

Conservation of the ecological system can be achieved by agreements, Cupertino, compensation (incentives), etc. with landowners or users of an area. ... . It was an interesting feature during this phases that both at the national and local levels, permanent and constructive means of Cupertino were built between the directorates and the civil society. ... Special voluntary management contracts or Cupertino with land users are also an excellent ways to conserve these areas. (Council of Europe, "Report on the establishment of the National Ecological Network and the status of its national programme in Hungary")

And so on and so forth. An expert in the history of word processing could probably trace the origin and spread of this spellchecker scourge. What is Cupertino doing in so many custom dictionaries around the world anyway? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the northern California city of Cupertino is home to the worldwide headquarters of Apple as well as various other Silicon Valley companies? Neither Microsoft (makers of Word) nor the various owners of WordPerfect (Borland, Novell, Corel) have a Cupertino connection, however.

One possible clue comes from "The Macintosh Secret Tricks List" (a list of so-called "easter eggs") circulated among Mac users in January 1993. Someone noticed that if supression (sic) was typed in Microsoft Word 4.0 for the Mac, then the spellchecker would include Cupertino among its suggestions. The contributor speculated that this might be "secret Apple-bashing." I highly doubt that this represents some sort of anti-Apple easter egg, since even current versions of Microsoft Word for Windows will include Cupertino as an alternative to such misspellings as supretion (though no longer supression). The spellchecking algorithm seems to be making suggestions based on the possibility that initial s could actually represent initial c, and that the bigrams re and on could have been accidentally flipped from er and no respectively. But at least this establishes that Cupertino has been lurking in Microsoft's custom dictionaries since at least 1989 (when Word 4 for Mac was released).

From the Language Log blog at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002911.html

Moral of the story: Don't accept whatever the spellchecker hands you!

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Resizing an Image without PhotoShop

2007-05-17T11:20:00.000-07:00

At the Information Desk, we often get a question from one of you who have found that perfect image for your project--but want to resize it. And often, many computers on campus do not have a photo editor like Photoshop. Well, where have you been? It's a Web 2.0 universe now and you should expect to find a site you just go in and visit, register if you want to save your work, to do what you want-- right?

Well, there is a new site--currently in beta mode but in this site you are able to do simple photo and image editing functions. It's called Picnik. Go to http://www.picnik.com/app, upload the image you have found--and you can rotate, crop, resize, modify colors, sharpen, reduce red eye-- in other words, be able to do what you most often want to do with your photos and images. You can set up an account to save your photos and images and variations as well. And there's a tab where you can easily get your photos that you have saved on Flickr.

The Library would like to remind you to keep in mind copyright restrictions when planning to use images. They're fine for projects you present for class--but for websites, if they're not clipart, check for permissions and ask the site owner from where you got it.

Again, enjoy your picnik: http://www.picnik.com/app . And at home, if you think you'll use it often, check out Picnik tools at: http://www.picnik.com/info/tools

Thanks go to the Chabot College Library blog, where I found this tip--Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Required reading!

2007-05-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

The library (both campuses) has just received copies of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation which are now available for checkout. (Well, the San Luis copy is currently available--I just checked out the North County copy to read, but I'll finish it fast.) It's designed to make the 9/11 report readable for everyone, in 131 pages. It's written by Sid Jacobson, who was the executive editor at Marvel Comics, and Ernie Colon, who oversaw the production of the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Blackhawk, and The Flash.

I've tried to read the original 9/11 Report, but gave up after a few dozen pages. I figure I'll actually get through it this time.

"Never before have I seen a nonfiction book as beautifully and compellingly written and illustrated as The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. I cannot recommend it too highly. It will surely set the standard for all future works of contemporary history, graphic or otherwise, and should be required reading in every home, school, and library."--Stan Lee

from Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Caesar's Gallic Wars

2007-03-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

Caesar in Gaul and Rome
War in Words
By Andrew M. Riggsby
University of Texas Press, 2006

Winner of the 2006 AAP/PSP Award for Excellence, Classics and Ancient History

Anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with Latin knows "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres" ("All Gaul is divided into three parts"), the opening line of De Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar's famous commentary on his campaigns against the Gauls. But what did Caesar intend to accomplish by writing and publishing his commentaries, how did he go about it, and what potentially unforeseen consequences did his writing have?

These are the questions that author Andrew Riggsby pursues in the award-winning Caesar in Gaul and Rome. Named by the Association of American Publishers as the 2006 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division (PSP) award winner for Excellence in Classics and Ancient History, Caesar in Gaul and Rome uses contemporary literary methods to examine the historical impact De Bello Gallico had on the Roman reading public and offers a fresh interpretation of Julius Caesar's Gallic War that focuses on Caesar's construction of national identity and self-presentation.

Summer and Fall Cuesta Schedules Available

2007-03-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

The new summer and fall schedules are available online. Go to the Cuesta homepage, click on PAWS, then click on Find Classes. The print schedules will be available soon.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian

Free Netlibrary book for March

2007-03-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

Ireland Adventure Guide
By Tina Neylon
Hunter Publishing, 2006

Ireland is steeped in history, tradition and culture, making it one of the most popular vacation destinations worldwide. Its story is told in centuries-old castles, stone circles strategically placed to shine in the winter solstice moon, and, of course, in its pubs, where local residents gladly share a pint and a tale.

Written by Irish native Tina Neylon, the March eBook of the Month will open your eyes to the astonishing treasures of this ancient Island, showing you how to experience Ireland directly and intensely—as a participant not just a spectator. You’ll join in the pub life of Dublin, meet the people through theater and music groups, visit the lake where St. Patrick first landed in 442 AD and find some of the finest golf courses in the world. Packed with essential information for the adventure-minded traveler, this guide is a comprehensive introduction to the people, the places, and the culture of Ireland

Netlibrary book for February: Black History Month

2007-02-02T09:09:00.000-08:00

A Companion to African-American Studies
Edited by Lewis R. Gordon (Temple University) and Jane Anna Gordon (Temple University)
Blackwell Publishing, 2006

In celebration of African-American History Month, NetLibrary has partnered with Blackwell Publishing to offer A Companion to African-American Studies as the February eBook of the Month. A groundbreaking re-appraisal of the history and future of African-American studies, the Companion includes original essays by expert scholars in the field and covers each topic with authority and clarity.

Edited by Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon, A Companion to African-American Studies is a definitive intervention at a critical time in the history of race relations and in the academic field of race and ethnic studies. Bringing together a dazzling array of established and emergent voices, the Companion opens with a series of reflections from those who waged pitched battles to establish African-American Studies as a bona fide academic discipline and captures the dynamic interaction of African-American Studies with other fields of inquiry.

Free Netlibrary book for January

2007-01-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

January eBook of the Month:
Lower Taxes in 7 Easy Steps
by Attorney Stephen Fishman
Nolo, 2006

Many personal finance books are full of hype, promising a radical reduction in taxes (or no taxes at all). Unfortunately, they often tout obscure tax strategies that apply to only a handful of people -- or doubtful schemes that could bring on the IRS.

Lower Taxes in 7 Easy Steps is a different kind of book, providing insights and tactics that can reduce taxes. Clearly and concisely, it explains the seven most valuable rules of tax planning:

Boost tax-free income

Get a lower tax rate

Defer paying taxes

Make the most of deductions

Take advantage of exemptions

Identify and use tax credits

Shift income to other taxpayers

Each rule is fleshed out with plenty of ideas, strategies and real-life examples that can help minimize the pain of April 15.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

[posted to Netlibrary and Money]

Netlibrary ebook for December

2006-12-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

Every month, Netlibrary gives us free access to one of their ebooks for that month. This month it's Wagnerian opera--useful for interpreting the movie Apocalypse Now, I suppose. (That's my favorite part of the movie--rent it if you don't know what I'm talking about!)

December eBook of the Month:
The New Grove Guide to Wagner and His Operas
By Barry Millington
Oxford University Press, 2006

The December eBook of the Month profiles the life and the work of one of the most controversial figures in the history of ideas as well as music. Drawing upon the scholarship of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, the most comprehensive dictionary of opera in the world, The New Grove Guide to Wagner and His Operas offers a concise survey and guide, providing both seasoned Wagner-lovers and neophytes with all they require for an in-depth appreciation of Wagner.

Author Barry Millington has completely updated the original pieces and contributed four new chapters on Wagner, including a summary of Wagner productions from 1876 to the present day, a suggested listening and viewing guide, complete chronology of Wagner's operas, and a glossary of terms that will delight any opera-goer. In addition, there are detailed entries on each of Wagner's operas, a main biographical section, and a group of separate articles on such topics as Leitmotif and Gesamtkunstwerk, as well as a newly revised updated article on Bayreuth.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Netlibrary)

Culinary Arts changes for Spring semester

2006-12-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

If you are planning on taking any culinary arts classes this Spring, be aware that the Spring printed schedule is incorrect. Here are the correct fees:

Materials fee changes for Culinary Arts Spring 2007

"R" CULART 10 (4324) $150.00

"R" CULART 20 (4325) $90.00

"R" CULART 25 (5142) $45.00

"R" CULART 30 (4326) $135.00
(5143)

"R" CULART 35 (4327) $50.00
(5144)

"R" CULART 40 (5145) $60.00
(5146)

"R" CULART 43 (5147) $45.00
(5148)

"R" CULART 45 (4328) $55.00
(5149)

"R" CULART 49 (4329) $60.00

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Cuesta news)

MLA formatting help for library databases

2006-11-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

Format Citations in EBSCO Databases

Cuesta College Library's Ebsco databases now have the ability to format article citations in MLA, APA and other significant formats. How does it work? First, just add any citation to the "folder" (click on icon to right of article information). When you are ready to compile and produce the citations click on the main folder icon at the top of the records list. Then choose to email, print or download the records (see screenshot below). On the next screen click the radio button for "industry citation format" and choose a format style from the dropbox (see screenshot below). That's it. You can perform a similar function in all ProQuest databases.

2. Choose "Industry Citation Format" and specify the format desired.

One BIG CAUTION: Your citation will look much more like MLA or APA style, but still will need some work. Here's an example:

Ebsco-generated MLA citation
"VAW A BLOW TO AIDS." Herizons 20.3 (2007): 10-10. MasterFILE Premier. 14 November 2006. http://search.ebscohost.com.

Should be
"VAW a Blow To AIDS." Herizons 20.3 (2007): 10. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Cuesta Coll. Lib., San Luis Obispo, CA. 14 Nov. 2006 .

[Thanks to the Gutman Library blog, Philadelphia University, for alerting me to this new service.]

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Research Help)

Don't forget to vote!

2006-11-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

If you're having last-minute trouble deciding on how to vote, you can check newspapers online to see what they're recommending.

Atascadero News (local races) http://www.atascaderonews.com/main.php?story_id=5515&page=38

Tribune (local races)
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/editorial/15934946.htm
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/editorial/15934941.htm

Los Angeles Times (statewide)
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1157531991&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=28651&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/674/index.html

San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/03/EDG87M3AJB1.DTL

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Spring schedule available online

2006-11-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

The Spring schedule is now available online. Go to Find Classes on the Cuesta homepage. The print schedule should be out in a few days.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(Cuesta news)

New Netlibrary ebook for November

2006-11-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

Every month, Netlibrary provides a free book for that month. Here is November's:

November eBook of the Month:
From Vietnam to 9/11: On the Front Lines of National Security

Avoiding dry, detached analysis, the November eBook of the Month presents the revealing story of an insider's involvement with international affairs and the lessons he learned from those experiences.

Written by Congressman Jack Murtha, From Vietnam to 9/11 offers refreshingly candid observations of the most important international crises in recent history. From Vietnam and Lebanon to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, this eBook details America's failures as well as its successes, pointing out where policymaking was misguided or ill-informed and offering perceptive analyses of resource allocation and policy direction for the coming century.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

in Netlibrary

Netlibrary e-books; Stem cell research book

2006-10-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

Cuesta library owns over 7,000 Netlibrary e-books, which can be viewed by either going to the library catalog and typing in "Netlibrary", or by going to www.netlibrary.com and logging in as a Cuesta student. (Go to http://library.cuesta.edu/ebooks.htm to create a Netlibrary account if you don't already have one.)

Every month, Netlibrary features a new book. This month it's The Stem Cell Divide: The Facts, the Fiction, and the Fear Driving the Greatest Scientific, Political, and Religious Debate of Our Time by Michael Bellomo. Amacom Books, 2006. If you're doing a speech or paper on the stem cell debate, this is your chance to try out this book.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(Netlibrary)

CAL POLY IS CLOSED TODAY!

2006-08-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

Cal Poly is closed today due to a burst pipe. All water had to be shut off all around campus to fix the break. Campus should be open again tomorrow.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Research help)

Phil Angelides in San Luis Obispo tomorrow

2006-08-28T12:02:00.001-07:00

Interested in the next election for California governor? Here's your chance to hear the Democratic challenger to Schwarzeneggar--

JOIN

GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE

Phil Angelides

Front Porch Town Hall –

tax cuts to help

middle-class families

The Hogan’s Home

1325 Cazadero Street

San Luis Obispo, California

(cross street – San Luis Drive)

Tuesday, August 29th

3:15 – 4:30pm

LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED

Please RSVP with Mónica Henestroza at 916-448-1998 or rsvp@angelides.com

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

2006-08-24T09:53:00.000-07:00

I read a great book over summer break--The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. It's a nonfiction book about cross-cultural (American vs. Hmong) misunderstanding in a Merced, California hospital setting. It has a lot to say about our worldview (including the healthcare professional worldview) and how it's conditioned by our culture.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Good Reading)

Save Money on Your Textbooks

2006-08-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

How to Save Money on Your Textbooks:

1. Cuesta bookstore puts out its list of textbooks, available in the bookstore or the library checkout desk on both San Luis and North County campuses. Order textbooks as soon as possible. Make sure you have the correct edition/ISBN. (Most classes use the same text as last year, but if the text is more than a couple of years old, there could be a new edition.) A few teachers will accept the previous edition, such as the nutrition and human biology teachers at North County. If you are taking Math 7, the instructors are asking you to purchase the eighth edition of Fundamentals of Mathematics instead of the ninth, which means students are scrounging at Aida's or online to get it.
2. Check http://www.addall.com/ or http://www.bookfinder4u.com/ for the textbook. Often you will find instructor’s editions for really cheap, which usually is fine. The ISBN won’t be the same as the student’s edition, but that is OK.
3. Shipping times vary, but normally the book will arrive in 1-2 weeks. If that isn’t soon enough for the class, both the San Luis and North County libraries have copies of the most-used textbooks on reserve for two hour use in the library. You can check to see if the library has a copy at webcat.cuesta.edu/uhtbin/webcat. If that won’t work for you, you can also purchase texts at Aida’s in San Luis Obispo, which will normally be a little bit cheaper (not much, though) than the prices at the Cuesta bookstore.
4. This will not work if you need to purchase a bundled textbook with CD, login code for textbook website, etc. You have to pay retail price for that. The Cuesta bookstore textbook list will indicate if you must purchase a bundled textbook.

[This is a rerun of a posting I made back in December, when it was book-buying time]

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Money, WWW Resources)

American Ground: good reading

2006-05-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading American Ground by William Langewiesche. It's about the recovery effort by construction workers at the World Trade Center after 9/11. Very well-written and thought-provoking. I recommend it!

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Good reading)

Income Tax blues

2006-04-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

It's that wonderful time again: time to do your income taxes. Even if you don't feel like doing them, you need to fill the forms out so you can use them for financial aid purposes. All the forms are available at the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/.

If you have questions on your income tax, a great resource is J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax. It's available at the San Luis campus library in the reference collection at KF 6369 J18 2006. I've used it for years to decipher my income taxes.

And yes, I finished my taxes two weeks ago, so I'm feeling smug.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Money)

Snowclones

2006-04-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

I was just reading a post from the Free Range Librarian blog (my favorite) where she mentions snowclones. I thought, "What is a snowclone?" I tried getting a definition from Google (define:snowclone), and got nothing. Then I checked Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowclone), and found just what I needed: "Snowclone is a neologism used to describe a type of formula-based cliché which uses an old idiom in a new context....The term is an allusion to one particular instance of the phenomenon:
If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have Y words for Z."

Wikipedia has its place!
Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Fun)

Summer Schedule Now in Print

2006-04-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

The Summer class schedules are available in print now--Fall schedules should arrive some time next week.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian
(in Cuesta news)

Cascading Style Sheets

2006-04-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

I learned webpage publishing (using HTML) several years ago, before Cascading Style Sheets were invented. I never had the time/inclination to update my HTML knowledge, and finally I have been confronted with the fact that my own personal webpage won't display correctly in the Mozilla Firefox browser. I have tried to find a quick-and-dirty introduction to Cascading Style Sheets in the past, but have been unsuccessful. I finally found a really good basic tutorial at the W3 Consortium, http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss. If you're like me and are basically clueless on the creation of CSS and don't have the time to wade through a manual, try out this tutorial.

Tina Lau
North County Librarian
(in WWW resources, Technology)

Requesting Books from the Other Campus Library

2006-03-30T09:48:00.000-08:00

When you use the library online catalog and find a book you want, often the book is housed at the other campus library. To have it delivered to the library you are at, you click on the blue "Request" button and it gets delivered by 12 noon the next day. That is, until the library building on the San Luis campus decided to get remodeled. As of this Friday, it will take an extra day for delivery of books back and forth between campuses. This will last for several months until the remodeling is further along.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Library insider, Research help)

Show Me the Money

2006-03-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

The Cuesta College Financial Aid Department, in collaboration with the Associated Students of Cuesta College, will be hosting "Show Me the Money" a Financial Aid Literacy Fair. The event will take place on the North County campus on Tuesday, March 28th from 5:00 to 8:00pm in the Courtyard [N.B. Due to rain, it has been moved from the courtyard to the cafeteria and the
lobby of the 1000 building], and on the San Luis Obispo campus on Wednesday, March 29th from 11:00am to 2:30pm in room 5401.
"Show Me the Money" will feature interesting and informative workshops on such topics as "Financing Your Education," "All About Credit Cards," "Is Your Financial Future At Risk," "Identity Theft," and "Achieving Your Financial Goals." Local and national lending institution representatives will be present to answer questions. Free pizza, soda, and Cowboy Cookies will be available. There will be drawings for gifts, gift certificates, and scholarships ranging from $20 to $200 dollars. The band KARMA will provide live music. [taken from the campus headlines section of the Cuesta website]

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Creating categories in Blogger

2006-03-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

I finally found out how to create categories for this blog--there is a hack at http://netcf2.blogspot.com/2005/11/blogging-categories-categories.html that I used. Hope you like the categories! [If you understand this posting, you have passed the Geek Test.]

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Technology)

Summer and Fall Schedules are Available

2006-03-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

The Summer and Fall 2006 class schedules are available starting this morning in PAWS using the Open Class Finder, but they're not finalized yet. Listings could change. Print schedules won't be available until sometime in April. (in Cuesta news)

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Corporate Donations to Republicans/Democrats

2006-03-09T11:24:00.000-08:00

Want to know which corporations spend money supporting the Democrats, and which support Republicans? Check out this website:
http://vfp92.org/CorporateDonors.html

Interesting to note that, for example, Wal-Mart gave over 2 million dollars in 2004, 80% of it to Republicans, while Price Club/Costco gave $208,000, of which 98% went to Democrats. Looking at the website might change where you spend your money.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Finding the Book You Need

2006-03-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

When only a book will do, first I check Cuesta library's online catalog to see if we own it. For example, if I were needing to find a copy of Smart Mobs : the Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold, I would go to the library homepage at http://library.cuesta.edu/, go to Webcat, and see if Cuesta owned it. If we didn't, I would next check the public library system at http://www.blackgold.org/. If they owned it, I would reserve a copy and have it sent to the Atascadero branch, closest to where I live. (You need to get a free library card in order to use the public library system.) If that still didn't work, I would borrow the book from another library by using Cuesta's interlibrary loan system. It's free (unless the other library charges to loan the book) and takes 7-10 working days usually. The form is at the bottom of the library homepage at http://library.cuesta.edu/illoan.htm. Nowadays, you can get practically any book you want for free.

Speaking of free: If you wanted to buy the book, you could shop locally at one of the bookstores, or go to Barnes and Noble in San Luis for a very large selection. If you wanted to get a deal on it, you could go to AddAll http://www.addall.com/ and shop for the lowest price. The hardback edition of Smart Mobs is now out of print, but used to retail for $26. Using AddAll I found the book for 10.25 including tax at Half.com. The paperback edition retails for $16 and is available for $8.20 including tax when I checked AddAll.

And if you only wanted to read a little section of the book, you could use the Search Inside the Book feature at Amazon.com to look at a part of it. Many (not all) books sold on Amazon allow you to search inside them and look at several pages. What I do is look at the table of contents, then type in words from the particular chapter title that interests me. It works great! (You could also use Google Book Search at http://books.google.com, which basically does the same thing as Amazon's Search Inside the Book.)

Happy reading!
(in Money, Research help)
Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

2006-03-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

I've started reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a very funny book about punctuation. (Believe it or not.) The author is quite tongue-in-cheek about the topic. If you want to have a fun read, and painlessly learn something about correct punctuation in the process, I would recommend this book.

Speaking of painlessly learning something, I like to painlessly learn by reading novels, historical and otherwise. I read The Kite Runner recently and learned a lot about the culture of Afghanistan. A lot of the history I know I've learned by reading historical novels.
(in Good reading, Fun)
Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Ask a Mexican

2006-02-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

I just saw an article in the LA Times today about a columnist for the OC (Orange County) Weekly who writes a column called "Ask a Mexican". It's a very tongue-in-cheek look at how different cultures perceive each other in Orange County. I read some of them, and I thought it was hilarious. [Some people are offended--make up your own mind.]

The LA Times article can be found by going to our library homepage, choosing Databases (http://library.cuesta.edu/database.htm), then clicking on Proquest. Type in "ask a Mexican" and it comes right up. Back issues of the column can be read at http://www.ocweekly.com/component/content2/more_in_category/¡ask-a-mexican!/ask-a-mexican/.
(in Fun, WWW Resources, Good reading)

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Four-day Weekend!

2006-02-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

Cuesta is not having classes this Friday and coming Monday. Have some fun this weekend--

February 20 - 21 is the Flying Leap Storytelling Festival, Solvang, www.solvangusa.com 688-9533.

or try the
Dollhouse & Miniatures Show and Sale
Enjoy the annual show in Morro Bay. About 30 dealers from all over USA. Door prizes, BBQ and other food available. Date: February 18, 2006 - February 19, 2006 Time: 10-4 Sat, 11-3 Sunday Location: Masonic Temple Event Address: 1338 Atascadero Highway, Morro Bay Parking: Free on Site Phone: 805-772-7858 Admission: $5.00

or, just go see some movies:
http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/?z=93422

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Modern Language Association map of languages

2006-02-15T14:55:00.000-08:00

The MLA website has a linguistic map of the United States that you can use to find out what areas of the U.S. have which languages spoken. It's at http://www.mla.org/census_map--try out "All languages other than English combined". (in WWW Resources)
Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Multiple IM accounts using meebo

2006-01-30T16:16:00.000-08:00

I just found a great way to keep track of multiple IM accounts (Yahoo Messenger, AIM or ICQ, Jagger or GTalk, MSN). It's called meebo (www.meebo.com) and it allows you to connect to multiple IM networks without downloading a program. Try it out! (in Technology)

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

A Frustrating Day

2006-01-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

Following up on yesterday's post, today I'm dealing with yet another digital vs print decision. We could purchase some bundled sets of online books in specific subjects (construction, fashion, criminal justice, etc.), which would give students access to some great titles, and you could access them at home. Unfortunately, the pricing for the online packages is very expensive--$3000 for 19 culinary arts books, for example. We'll probably end up passing on these sets due to their cost. I hope the cost for digital copies goes down, so we can afford more of them. (in Library insider)

:-(
Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Libraries still buy books!

2006-01-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

I just spent the morning putting together book orders for our San Luis and North County libraries. Yes, we still do buy books. Increasingly we purchase electronic versions, such as our Netlibrary collection of 7,000 books, or our online databases like Ebsco and National Newspaper Index. But many book titles can only be purchased in print form, or they are better in print form. (I wouldn't want to curl up in front of my computer screen to read a novel, personally.)

I just read an article a few days ago in Educause Review by Jerry Campbell called "Changing a Cultural Icon: The Academic Library as a Virtual Destination" (at http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0610.asp). According to Campbell, "Within the next decade, published academic knowledge of all types will likely be issued digitally and made accessible on the Web, with paper publishing limited to mass-market titles, textbooks, and other areas that make economic sense." So we are in a transitional phase right now.

I will miss purchasing big reference sets as they go to online, because I can't help but enjoy the experience of using a print resource. I still love books--but in some instances, electronic is the better choice.
(in Library insider)

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

TV network news

2006-01-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

Not a whole lot happening at Cuesta today, so I scanned the news headlines at www.refdesk.com. (Refdesk is a great website with links to all sorts of information. Try it out sometime.) Turns out that two networks, UPN and WB, are merging:

Two small, long-struggling television networks _ UPN and The WB _ will shut down this fall and programming from both will be used to launch a new network aimed mainly at young and minority viewers.
The new network will be called The CW _ "C" for CBS Corp. and "W" for Warner Bros. _ each of which will own half of the new entity and contribute programs, assets and executives to the venture.

The new network will draw on programming from both UPN, whose shows include "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Veronica Mars," as well as from the slate of The WB, which includes "Supernatural," "Smallville" and "Everwood."

[from Breitbart.com, http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/24/D8FBBJJGB.html]

(in WWW Resources)

Henry V online text

2006-01-23T14:31:00.000-08:00

Apparently there's a run on copies of Shakespeare's Henry V in the bookstores. If you're taking one of the English 1A sections that requires you to read it, here are a couple of online links to the text:

http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/henryv/ (easy to navigate between scenes)

http://www.bartleby.com/70/index29.html (version at Bartleby.com)

Either will work! (in Assignments, WWW Resources)

Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Short Story Recommendation

2006-01-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

Over the Christmas break, I had time to read the Best American Short Stories, 2005 (PS648 S5 B43 2005). I highly recommend Cory Doctorow's story called Anda's Game. It's about a teenage girl who discovers that video games are not just games. It's pretty trippy.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Good reading)

Welcome Back! (or just Welcome!)/New Library Building

2006-01-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

The semester has just started up, and Cuesta has some changes. There are about 40 new part-time instructors this semester, so you may have one of them. The library building on the San Luis campus has most of its walls up. I haven't heard the latest on when the building should be finished, but first everything will be moved from the older half of the building to the newer half. Once the older half of the building is renovated (bye-bye ugly carpet!), stuff will be moved from the newer half to the older refurbished half. The San Luis librarians are looking forward to an updating of their dowdy old building.

Have a great semester! Don't forget to stop in the library for help on research. Most of the librarians don't bite---

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Library insider)

How Accurate is Wikipedia?

2005-12-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, is controversial as a source of research. Some teachers will not accept Wikipedia articles as resources. (I recommend that Wikipedia for cutting-edge topics, but only use it for references at the end of the article, not the article itself. )

This was posted to the discussion group SYSLIB-L (Systems Librarianship) by
Gerry McKiernan, Science and Technology Librarian at Iowa State University:

"Internet encyclopedias go head to head" by Jim Giles
Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries, a _Nature_ investigation finds.
[ http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html ] [FREE]
ALSO:Wikipedia as Accurate as Britannica
[ http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?print=1&article_id=69780&cat_id=643 ]
The podcast is available from the _Nature_ podcast page
[ http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index.html ]
The feature includes an interview with the author of the article as well as one with
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.
In addition, a table with a list of the 50 entries reviewed in the study and the number of inaccuracies found in the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia respectively is available and located at [ http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/multimedia/438900a_m1.html ]

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Research help, WWW Resources)

Free access to MIT courses

2005-12-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

You probably won't feel like it this week during finals, but when you're feeling adventurous, go to http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has course materials available online for free--stuff like animations, lectures, videos, etc. Check it out if you're curious, or just dying to learn Chinese.]

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in WWW Resources)

Checking out Email Rumors

2005-12-14T16:21:00.000-08:00

Don't you wonder about all those emails that get forwarded about "Video captures home Christmas light display synchronized to musical score", or "Bill Gates, Microsoft and AOL are giving away cash and merchandise to those who forward an e-mail message", or virus alerts? Before you compound the problem of forwarding email rumors that may be untrue, check them out at the Urban Legends Reference Pages, AKA Snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/snopes.asp). Since I've started checking rumors, I've found that at least 3/4 of the ones I get are false. And you find out some pretty interesting stuff at Snopes.com, like an investigation of the old poodle in the microwave story.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in WWW Resources)

Want to Save Money on Textbooks?

2005-12-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

How to Save Money on Your Textbooks:

1. Cuesta bookstore puts out its list of textbooks in early January usually. Order textbooks as soon as possible. Make sure you have the correct edition/ISBN. (I find out what the textbook will be for the next semester by mid-December if possible. Most classes use the same text as last year, but if the text is more than a couple of years old, there could be a new edition.)
2. Check http://www.addall.com/ or http://www.bookfinder4u.com/ for the textbook. Often you will find instructor’s editions for really cheap, which usually is fine. The ISBN won’t be the same as the student’s edition, but that is OK.
3. Shipping times vary, but normally the book will arrive in 1-2 weeks. If that isn’t soon enough for the class, both the San Luis and North County libraries have copies of the most-used textbooks on reserve for two hour use in the library. You can check to see if the library has a copy at webcat.Cuesta.edu/uhtbin/webcat. If that won’t work for you, you can also purchase texts at Aida’s in San Luis Obispo, which will normally be a little bit cheaper (not much, though) than the prices at the Cuesta bookstore.
4. This will not work if you need to purchase a bundled textbook with CD, login code for textbook website, etc. You have to pay retail price for that. The Cuesta bookstore textbook list will indicate if you must purchase a bundled textbook.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Money, WWW Resources)

It's finals week!

2005-12-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

The ASCC Social Club will have donuts, bagels, and juice available for ASCC Student ID cardholders this week (SLO campus only). Wish I were there!

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Cuesta news)

Finals week classtimes

2005-12-09T14:04:00.000-08:00

Remember, class times during finals week are different. Check your class times here:
http://academic.cuesta.edu/pim/pub/fall05_pdf/Fall2005Exam.pdf

Looking for a little light reading between finals? Check out the paperback fiction at the San Luis campus library, the hardback popular fiction at the North County library, or short story collections like Best American Short Stories, San Luis campus library call number PS 648 S5 B43, one volume for each year from 1985 to 2005. I'm reading the 2005 volume right now myself, and it's nice to read something that takes between 5 and 30 minutes to read all the way through.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Cuesta news)

That Sony CD problem again

2005-12-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

"On Tuesday December 6, Sony BMG and SunnComm made available a patch that was designed to resolve this security vulnerability. We're pleased that Sony BMG responded quickly and responsibly when we drew their attention to this serious security problem. However, the day after the patch was released, Professor Ed Felten and Alex Halderman identified a new problem. We take any security problems identified by these security researched very seriously. They "recommend for now that if you have a Windows PC, you
do not use the MediaMax patch
do not use the previously released MediaMax uninstaller, and
do not insert a MediaMax-bearing CD into your PC." "--from http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/mediamaxfaq.php#2

Oops.
Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Technology)

Rain in the Forecast

2005-12-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so dress appropriately! For checking the weather, I use the Weather Channel (http://www.weather.com/weather/local/USCA0842) or Accuweather (http://wwwa.accuweather.com/forecast.asp?zipcode=93422&partner=accuweather). As you can see from the website addresses, you can specify a preset location to search in order to save time. Handy! Oh, and if you’re traveling, the Calif Highway Patrol website (http://cad.chp.ca.gov/) keeps you informed on current accidents and slowdowns on the freeways.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in WWW Resources)

Cuesta Faculty Member Gone

2005-12-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Just found out that Mr. Bob Hartwig, who taught broadcasting communications classes here at Cuesta (and was also the chair of the Languages and Communications Division), suddenly passed away yesterday. It’s quite a shock for his family and coworkers. I give my condolences—

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Cuesta news)

Christmas Online Shopping Tips

2005-12-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

Online sales are forecast to grow between 18 and 25 percent over last year, according to a couple of new studies. (from Kopytoff, Verne. “Online retail growth forecast :2 studies see sales accelerating as much as 25 percent.” San Francisco Chronicle 1 Nov. 2005.) If you want to join the stampede, read on:

I do a lot of shopping online now. You can check professional reviews of products at Consumersearch.com (http://consumersearch.com/) or personal reviews at Epinions.com (http://consumersearch.com/), both sites recommended in an article from the November 10, 2005 issue of Newsweek.
I like using comparison shopping sites when I’m doing online shopping, like BookFinder4U (http://www.bookfinder4u.com/) which searches 130 bookstores, Pricegrabber.com (http://www.pricegrabber.com/), or CNet (http://reviews.cnet.com/) for computers and peripherals.

Make sure to purchase from a reputable online business. If you aren’t sure that they’re reliable, check them out at the Better Business Bureau (http://search.bbb.org/search.html). I’ve decided against ordering from many different online companies, based on their BBB record.
In my experience, merchandise is received within a couple of days from major online companies like Lands End and L.L. Bean. Amazon is fast with new books, but if you purchase a used book, it depends upon the supplier. Some suppliers are very fast, others take their time.

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Money)

Fun Stuff to Do This Weekend?

2005-11-18T10:34:00.000-08:00

Looking for good stuff to do besides study? Here are a few ideas, if you're stuck:

Robert Greenwald's (dir of Outfoxed and Uncovered) WALMART film shows today, Friday, Nov. 18, 7 pm at the SLO Library (Osos & Palm) (suggested donation $5) and Saturday, Nov. 19; 12pm; 2pm & 4pm at the SLO Library (Osos & Palm) . Suggested donation $5; no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Here's the flyer: http://www.hopedance.org/new/film_flyers/walmart_11x17.pdf

Holiday Craft Faire - Atascadero
Do your holiday shopping among the arts & crafts from top local artists. All in a beautiful Pavilion next to a charming lake. Date: November 19, 2005 Time: 10 - 3 PM Location: Pavilion on the Lake.

Musical :"Holiday Extravaganza"
See Scrooge recapture his forgotten Christmas spirit. Laugh at the fractured fairy tale version of Rapunzel. Delight in the holiday Vaudeville review. All make up a very special family tradition. Beer, wine, soft drinks & snacks available. Please call about additional performances. Reservations advised. Date: November 18, 2005 - December 31, 2005 Time: Times / Dates Vary Location: Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville, 1863 Pacific Blvd = (Hwy 1) Oceano Parking: Free On Site Phone: 805-489-2499 Admission: $14 - $17

If all these activities look lame, try looking at these events calendars:

Theater showtimes http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/showtimes?z=san%20luis%20obispo,%20CA

Tribune event calendar http://www.sanluisobispocounty.com/calendar/index.cfm

New Times event calendar http://www.newtimesslo.com/index.php?p=hotdates

Have a good weekend,
Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Sony musc CD problem

2005-11-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

Sony BMG announced that it is recalling the CDs with the copy-protection software XCP, which installs hidden files deep in PC users' Windows operating system. Among the 52 affected titles were Trey Anastasio's Shine, Neil Diamond's 12 Songs and Celine Dion's recent greatest hits package. The move comes in the wake of at least two viruses unleashed by hackers that take advantage of a security flaw created by the software.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/8832306/treyanastasio?pageid=rs.News&pageregion=double1&rnd=1132178026519&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1040

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4445550.stm

Here's the Sony news release from Nov. 16: http://blog.sonymusic.com/sonybmg/archives/111505.html

Here's the list from Sony of all 52 titles:
CD’s Containing XCP Content Protection Technology
Note: We will shortly be releasing new versions of these titles without the XCP software. You therefore need to check this list for both the name of the album and the item number (which can be found on the spine of the CD). If the item number is not listed below, your CD does not contain XCP content protection.

ARTIST
ALBUM
ITEM NUMBER(S)
UPC(S)
1.
A Static Lullaby
Faso Latido
CK92772
827969277225
2.
Acceptance
Phantoms
CK89016
696998901629
3.
Amerie
Touch
CK90763
827969076323
4.
Art Blakey
Drum Suit
CK93637
827969363720
5.
The Bad Plus
Suspicious Activity?
CK94740
827969474020
6.
Bette Midler
Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook
CK95107 CK74815
827969510728 828767481524
7.
Billy Holiday
The Great American Songbook
CK94294
827969429426
8.
Bob Brookmeyer
Bob Brookmeyer & Friends
CK94292
827969429228
9.
Buddy Jewell
Times Like These
CK92873
827969287323
10.
Burt Bacharach
At This Time
CK97734
827969773420
11.
Celine Dion
On Ne Change Pas
E2K97736
827969773628
12.
Chayanne
Cautivo
LAK96819 LAK96818 LAK95886
037629681921 037629681822 037629588626
13.
Chris Botti
To Love Again
CK94823
827969482322
14.
The Coral
The Invisible Invasion
CK94747
827969474723
15.
Cyndi Lauper
The Body Acoustic
EK94569
827969456927
16.
The Dead 60's
The Dead 60's
EK94453
827969445327
17.
Deniece Williams
This Is Niecy
CK93814
827969381427
18.
Dextor Gordon
Manhattan Symphonie
CK93581
827969358122
19.
Dion
The Essential Dion
CK92670
827969267028
20.
Earl Scruggs
I Saw The Light With Some Help From My Friends
CK92793
827969279328
21.
Elkland
Golden
CK92036
827969203620
22.
Emma Roberts
Unfabulous And More: Emma Roberts
CK93950 CK97684
827969395028 827969768426
23.
Flatt & Scruggs
Foggy Mountain Jamboree
CK92801
827969280126
24.
Frank Sinatra
The Great American Songbook
CK94291
827969429129
25.
G3
Live In Tokyo
E2K97685
827969768525
26.
George Jones
My Very Special Guests
E2K92562
827969256220
27.
Gerry Mulligan
Jeru
CK65498
074646549827
28.
Horace Silver
Silver's Blue
CK93856
827969385623
29.
Jane Monheit
The Season
EK97721
827969772126
30.
Jon Randall
Walking Among The Living
EK92083
827969208328
31.
Life Of Agony
Broken Valley
EK93515
827969351529
32.
Louis Armstrong
The Great American Songbook
CK94295
827969429525
33.
Mary Mary
Mary Mary
CK94812 CK92948
000768353721 827969294826
34.
Montgomery Gentry
Something To Be Proud Of: The Best of 1999-2005
CK75324 CK94982
828767532424 827969498224
35.
Natasha Bedingfield
Unwritten
EK93988
827969398821
36.
Neil Diamond
12 Songs
CK94776 CK97811
827969477625 827969781128
37.
Nivea
Complicated
82876671562
828766715620
38.
Our Lady Peace
Healthy In Paranoid Times
CK94777
827969477724
39.
Patty Loveless
Dreamin' My Dreams
EK94481
827969448120
40.
Pete Seeger
The Essential Pete Seeger
CK92835
827969283523
41.
Ray Charles
Friendship
CK94564
827969456422
42.
Rosanne Cash
Interiors
CK93655
827969365526
43.
Rosanne Cash
King's Record Shop
CK86994
696998699427
44.
Rosanne Cash
Seven Year Ache
CK86997
696998699724
45.
Shel Silverstein
The Best Of Shel Silverstein
CK94722
827969472224
46.
Shelly Fairchild
Ride
CK90355
827969035528
47.
Susie Suh
Susie Suh
EK92443
827969244326
48.
Switchfoot
Nothing Is Sound
CK96534 CK96437 CK94581
827969653425 827969643723 827969458129
49.
Teena Marie
Robbery
EK93817
827969381724
50.
Trey Anastacio
Shine
CK96428
827969642825
51.
Van Zant
Get Right With The Man
CK93500
827969350027
52.
Vivian Green
Vivian
CK90761
827969076125

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Technology)

Signing up for Spring classes

2005-11-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

Spring classes may be viewed online in the Class Finder, and the printed class schedule is now available at all Cuesta campuses. Please check this online addendum to view any schedule changes. Priority online registration for continuing students, enrolled in the fall 2005 semester begins November 17. Check your registration date & time via PAWS. Online registration for new, former, and Enrichment students begins December 12, 2005 by alpha breakdown based on student’s last name. (I cut-and-pasted this from various Cuesta sources.)

Tina Lau, North County Librarian
(in Cuesta news)

Introduction

2005-11-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Cuesta Library News blog. We will be using this space daily to announce
interesting websites, events at Cuesta, library workshops, community events, whatever catches our eye. Stay tuned!
Tina Lau, North County Librarian

Cuesta Library News

Netlibrary ebook for December

5 Tips for Safe Online Shopping (article from Kiplinger's)

Tax credit for textbook purchases

Netlibrary book for March

NetLibrary eBook of the Month

Two Billion Cars:Driving Toward Sustainability

Financial aid tips for your FAFSA

Front groups

Google flu

Jack-o-lantern etymology from OED

Election-year Mudslinging

LibraryThing meme

Digital textbooks for half the price of printI

Access to congressional reports

Summer schedule is now online

Rumor about $600 rebate from government

Textbook Rental Service

Free online courses from Yale

Invitation to a Party

Amazon e-book reader

Amazon.com Unveils New e-Book Reader

By Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 11/19/2007 9:09:00 AM

Another money-saving coupon code

Save with eCampus Coupon Code

Spring schedule is online

Coupon codes for buying books online

Save with BiggerBooks Coupon Code

Save at Alibris with Coupon Code

Save some money on books

You've Received an Email Greeting: NOT!

Cuesta Library Catalog Unavailable Part of Saturday

Free NetLibrary ebook for July

USA Minority Population Tops 100 Million

Cupertino Effect

Resizing an Image without PhotoShop

Required reading!

Caesar's Gallic Wars

Summer and Fall Cuesta Schedules Available

Free Netlibrary book for March

Netlibrary book for February: Black History Month

Free Netlibrary book for January

Netlibrary ebook for December

Culinary Arts changes for Spring semester

MLA formatting help for library databases

Don't forget to vote!

Spring schedule available online

New Netlibrary ebook for November

Netlibrary e-books; Stem cell research book

CAL POLY IS CLOSED TODAY!

Phil Angelides in San Luis Obispo tomorrow

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Save Money on Your Textbooks

American Ground: good reading

Income Tax blues

Snowclones

Summer Schedule Now in Print

Cascading Style Sheets

Requesting Books from the Other Campus Library

Show Me the Money

Creating categories in Blogger

Summer and Fall Schedules are Available

Corporate Donations to Republicans/Democrats

Finding the Book You Need

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Ask a Mexican

Four-day Weekend!

Modern Language Association map of languages

Multiple IM accounts using meebo

A Frustrating Day

Libraries still buy books!

TV network news

Henry V online text

Short Story Recommendation

Welcome Back! (or just Welcome!)/New Library Building

How Accurate is Wikipedia?

Free access to MIT courses

Checking out Email Rumors

Want to Save Money on Textbooks?

It's finals week!

Two Billion Cars:
Driving Toward Sustainability