The Rose-Hulman EcoCAR website named #1 in the competition!

The web site for the Rose-Hulman EcoCAR Challenge has been ranked number one in the competition.  This is out of 16 schools in the competition.  Let’s hope the Car end up being number one as well.  The news story can be viewed at http://ecocar.rose-hulman.edu/index.php/news/100-number-one-website.html and the award winning site is http://ecocar.rose-hulman.edu.  Way to go Rose!

Rediscovering Natural Gas By Drilling for Shale Rock

There was a great story on NPR this morning about how the improved technology of horizontal drilling allows for greater access to shale rock which is 6,000 feet or more below the earth’s surface.  Shale rock is an excellent source of natural gas.  “One area getting new attention is the Marcellus basin, a 400-million-year-old shale formation stretching from New York to West Virginia. That basin alone is believed to hold as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the equivalent of about 80 billion barrels of oil.”  Natural gas is being seen my many as useful means of transitioning from crude oil to more renewable sources of energy.  It is cheaper than oil and omits about half the CO2 emissions than coal fired power plants.   The story can be read and heard on NPR.org at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113043935

It also has an interactive map showing where in the country these reserves reside.

Offshore Wind Vital to the Future of Europe

According to the European Commission, Europe’s power plants are getting older and, combined with growing demand for energy, Europe will need 360 GW of energy from new sources in the next 12 years – this is equal to 50% of current energy capacity in the EU. The EWEA thinks that 40 GW of this energy can be produced by offshore wind.

Article can be found at http://cleantechnica.com/2009/09/15/offshore-wind-vital-to-the-future-of-europe/

The eBook Reader Wars Continue

For years now the battle for eBook supremacy and format standardization has continued with no clear winner in sight.  eBooks and eBook formats have come and gone, leaving librarians either scrambling to keep up with the changes or ignoring it all together.  To be honest, I have fallen into the latter category, or at least tried to.  Have been “encouraged” to try out one eBook reader after another, only to watch them fall by the wayside along with the format, my early skepticism about their staying power has only been reinforced.  Back in 2000 when I tried out my first eBook reader, I did not see any practical library use, but I did see how, with the right standardization and industry acceptance, that these devices could be used to replace the heavy, bulky textbooks college students are forced to lug around.  I see students at Rose-Hulman with their laptop/book bags loaded up and sometimes sticking a good two feet away from their back.  I always had to wonder just how much damage is being done to their backs from all that weight.

In recent years, the Kindle, a proprietary eBook reader used for Amazon eBooks, has gained market dominance.  Recently, Amazon removed copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from their website and from their reader’s devices, copies these users assumed that they owned.  The alarm caused by this development has caused people to once again to lose faith in the eBook concept.  Call it good timing, or good luck, but that same week, Barnes & Noble announced the launch of its eBook store and its reader, the Plastic Logic eReader device which will be released in early 2010.

In addition to providing ebooks for the Plastic Logic device, it will also allow customers to read them on several popular devices including the iPhone, the iPod Touch, BlackBerry phones, and laptops and PC’s using OS X and Windows.  It will also include more than a half-million, yes, a half million, public domain books through Google which are of course, free. The eBookstore itself will feature more than 700,000 titles for purchase with new releases and best sellers at the reasonable price of $9.99.
http://www.examiner.com/x-8134-SF-Gadgets-Examiner~y2009m7d20-Barnes-and-Nobles-announcement-could-doom-Amazons-Kindle

The sheer number of titles available and the portability of the books is promising, but could this be the beginning of yet another format we’ll have to wait and see if it will last?  Will the publishing industry pull the rug out from it again?  The battle now appears to be between the online bookseller giants, Amazon and Barnes & Noble and until a winner is declared, if one is ever declared, that stabilization of the eBook will remain an instable industry, something librarians dislike, but certainly do not shy away from.

Free Webinars and Educational Videos on Solar Power, Solar Thermal & Wind Power

Learn about Renewable Energy with alternative energy webinars and educational videos about solar power, solar thermal, wind power and energy efficiency!  With little more than a simple free signup process, you can watch video webinars online from altE store.  Topics covered include “Preparing for Renewable Energy,” Renewable Energy Basics,” Solar Air Heating Basics,” Solar Electricity basics,” and Solar Water Heating Basics.”  They can be viewed at http://www.altestore.com/store/Books-Classes-Educational-Videos/Educational-Videos/c1138/%E2%80%9D.  These are a quick way to get your feet wet in these technologies.  The videos last about from about 30-60 minutes long each.

Rose-Hulman’s New Institute Librarian, Rachel Crowley

The staff at Logan Library would like to welcome our new library director, Ms. Rachel Crowley.  Rachel comes to us from Briar Cliff University, a small liberal arts college in Sioux City, IA where she served as director since 2003.  Rachel started her directorship at Rose-Hulman on June 1st 2009 and brings with her a strong commitment to teaching and feels that promoting information literacy should be a central goal of the library.   Thus, we will be exploring new methods of library instruction, ways in which we provide reference services to students and methods of delivering information resources.  Having served on over ten faculty committees at Briar Cliff, she has proven a strong commitment not only to the library she serves, but the university as well.  This commitment to service extends to the library profession as a whole.  Aa a member of the American Library Association she has served on several committees including the Standards and Accreditation Committee and the CLIP Notes Committee at the present time.  She is also on the Membership Committee of the Iowa Library Association and an HR Section Committee Member of the Library Leadership Management Association.  Logan Library has entered a new era of leadership and I would like to encourage the rest of the Rose-Hulman community in welcoming Rachel and sharing with her your ideas for the Knowledge Center of the 21st Century.

BuildingGreen DVD at Logan Library

While browsing through Logan Library’s DVD collection the other day, I came across a DVD set I was unaware that we owned.  BuildingGreen is hosted by Kevin Conteras is put out by BuildingGreen (http://www.buildinggreentv.com) and published by WGBH Video.  It came out in 2008 and played on Public Television.  This three disk set consists of thirteen episodes and shows how a home was built as “green” as possible from bottom up.  Video shows how to use ecological friendly materials that are safe for the environment, create a healthy living atmosphere, uses as little electricity as possible and taps into methods not used in typical building projects.  While some of these methods are quite extreme, such as walls made from straw bales, many are quite practical and will hopefully be incorporated into many more building projects in the future.  Some implementations used on this house include fly ash concrete which is fine particle ash which is discharged by the combustion of a solid fuel as an airborne admissions and hydrological radiant floor heating systems.  The DVD set can be checked out at Logan Library (call # DVD 690.837 B932g behind the circulation desk).  But I will have it checked out myself for a while so you’ll need to wait.   I expect most of my posting in the next month or so to come through insights I have gained through this series.  To find out more about each episode, go to http://www.buildinggreentv.com/bgtv/episodes

Back to Business

Hi all, I’ve been away for a while but as you can see by my last post, I have a new library director and things have been quite busy at Logan Library behind the scenes.  Our new director, Rachel Crowley, who I will introduce in further detail on Monday, started on June 1st.  As Logan Library moves into a new era of leadership, we all have been busy assisting her in settling into her new environment.  She is learning about our current operation and we are learning about her ideas on academic librarianship and her vision for the library.  Over the course of the summer and into the fall semester, a new direction for the library’s role at Rose-Hulman will be charted.  Some projects underway includes major journal shifting, upgrades on a number of staff and library computers, brainstorming for ideas on how to improve the library facility, and the most time consuming for myself, the implementation of LibGuides as a means of delivering information resources to our users.  More on LibGuides in a later post.  So while all this work is being done, I plan to post as often as I can, most of which will be focused on a Public Television program I am watching, Building Green (See next post for more information on this).

Institute Librarian John Robson to Retire.

John Robson

Rose-Hulman Institute Librarian John Robson is retiring after 25 years of service to the college. Begun in 1984, his tenure at Rose-Hulman will come to an end on Friday June 5th. He will be replaced by Ms. Rachel Crowley, Library Director at Briar Cliff University, a small liberal arts college in Sioux City, IA. During that twenty-five year period, John has overseen two major library changes at Logan Library, the conversion of the old card catalog to an online digital catalog and the transformation to a digital library through the Internet. On Friday, May 22nd, 2009, John was honored at a retirement reception where several colleges gave testimonials to John’s dedication to advancing the mission of Rose-Hulman, his tireless efforts in serving the entire community, and his leadership in librarianship on the state and national levels. To sum up his accomplishments and what he has done for Rose-Hulman, I would like to quote Dean of Academic Affairs, Art Western.

John M. Robson completed the bachelors degree in history and masters of library science at Kent State University after which he pursued additional graduate work in Library and Information Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After two years as engineering reference librarian at the Virginia Military Institute, fortune smiled on Rose-Hulman when John joined the Institute in 1984.

During the past 25 years, John has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of our students. Superb service on a tight budget has been the hallmark of John and his team. But John has been much more than the Director of the Logan Library and Institute Librarian. He has played a leadership role on some of the Institute’s most significant initiatives including the Committee for the Case for Coeducation, the Task Force on Humanities and Social Sciences, the Task Force on Service Learning, and the Diversity Council. He has served as Institute Secretary, Institute Parliamentarian, and Institute historian and keeper of the archives. He has served as teacher for college and Life Skills, College Bowl advisor, campus Art Tour guide, and along with Susan Smith gives business etiquette workshops for seniors. John has been awarded the president’s Outstanding Service Award and the Student Body Outstanding Staff Member Award. In 2007 he was named an Honorary Alumnus.

John has been a consistent leader in shaping the role librarians in higher education serving at the national and state levels. He has served on the Committee on the Status of Academic Librarians and of chair of the Small Libraries Publications Series Committee of the American Library Association. At the state level he has served as board member and chair of the Academic Libraries of Indiana, a board member of the Indiana Cooperative Services Authority, and as president of the Indiana Library Federation.

While this laundry list of service is above and beyond that of most library directors, what truly sets John Robson apart is the manner in which he has served those around him. John puts people above accomplishments, the needs of other often over his own, and shows a level of professionalism and kindness matched by few others. As a member of the library staff for the last nine years, it has been a pleasure working for John as he not only served the information needs of the community, but has shown sincere interest in his staff’s professional development and personal lives. He has mentored staff and students alike, always taking the time to go the extra mile to sit and talk with those in need of his assistance. Having reviewed over 500 graduate theses (closer to 1,000 if you count re-reads), a time consuming task that has been invaluable to many graduate students, little more needs to be said about his dedication to the education of Rose-Hulman students. He will be missed by everyone at Rose-Hulman and we wish him the very best on his new endeavor. John will be a lay minister for his Church, a calling he will surely succeed at given his dedication in serving others.

EPA TANKS program

Here is another great free program by the EPA to monitor hazardous emissions. The program TANKS, is a Windows-based computer software program that estimates volatile organic compound (VOC) and hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions from fixed- and floating-roof storage tanks. TANKS is based on the emission estimation procedures from Chapter 7 of EPA’s Compilation Of Air Pollutant Emission Factors (AP-42). The user’s manual, available in Adobe Acrobat format and WordPerfect, explains the many features and options of TANKS. The program includes on-line help for every screen.  http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/software/tanks/index.html