Let’s pretend you just searched one of our databases and are looking for a peer-reviewed article.  You have a list of results on your screen, but now you have to figure out which article is the right one.  Typically, you should look at article titles, read  abstracts, and examine subject terms to find a suitable article.

I think scientists working for the national laboratories (e.g. The Argonne National Laboratory here in Chicago) have made this process much easier.

Look at the sample search for “harmonics” below:

Notice how each article has a Word Cloud associated with it.  Word clouds emphasize the words that show up most in an article, so the more often a word repeats itself in an article, the larger it appears in the cloud.  By looking at the word clouds you can instantly tell which articles will be most useful.  Obviously, I would have looked at the second article in my search for “harmonics” because my keyword is heavily emphasized.

Would this technology be useful to you?  Like this Blogpost on our Facebook page.

Try a sample search yourself:

• US Department of Energy: Information Bridge (NOTE: the target audience for this database is scientists in the physical sciences (i.e. Physics, Chemistry), but don’t let that dissuade you from trying out their database!)

Make your own Word Cloud using Wordle.

Today (May 16) marks the 100th year since the birth of famed Chicago Writer Studs Terkel. In honor of the occasion, we thought we’d pull some links from this blogs archives:

• A New Documentary on Studs Terkel from Friday, May 21st, 2010
• Books, Articles on Working, Monday, August 10th, 2009
• We’ll miss you Studs Terkel, Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
• Happy Birthday Studs!, Wednesday, May 16th, 2007

If you are interested in materials in the library’s collection about Studs Terkel, visit this link: http://encore.morainevalley.edu/iii/encore/search/C__Sstuds+terkel__Orightresult__U1?lang=eng&suite=pearl

Happy Women’s Health Week!

Check out the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health website for a celebration of and information on women’s health!

Chicago will be hosting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit this coming weekend, May 19-21. Are you wondering why this is a big deal? Or what this means for Chicago? Or what this might mean for you? Or even more basically, what is NATO anyway? You can find answers to these questions and more on the following websites:

The Official Host Committee Website for the Chicago NATO Summit: http://www.chicagonato.org/
This site is a great resource for general news about the 2012 summit, related events happening in the Chicago area, and information about security and how that will impact neighborhoods and commutes.

United States Mission to NATO: http://nato.usmission.gov/nato_chicago_summit.html
Provides extensive reading on the issues that will take priority at this year’s summit, and outlines the role and positions of the United States within this organization.

NATO Homepage: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/index.htm
Information about NATO, the member countries, structure of the organization, priorities, and mission can be found here.

With this gathering of international leaders there will be a significant amount of media attention focused on Chicago. This attention provides an international stage for protestors to give voice to issues that may often be overlooked by mainstream media outlets. For more information about protest issues and activities happening around the NATO summit, take a look at the local movement Occupy Chicago: http://occupychi.org/. Their calendar of events details the actions that will be taking place the weekend of the summit, and they provide a list of other organizations that will be participating.

Keep your eyes on local, national, and international news for all of the details about this historic event.

This week, the debate over the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) community came up in the news. First, North Carolina banned same-sex marriage (see this article from the Washington Post, North Carolina approves ban on same-sex marriage). Then, President Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage (see the video below).

One of Moraine Valley’s core values is diversity. Our campus has taken a firm stance to affirm the value of all people on our campus, which includes sexual orientation. Here is the statement from our Diversity and Inclusion statement:

“Acknowledging, understanding, appreciating, embracing and integrating individual differences and similarities by deliberately fostering a climate of respect that affirms the value and contributions of each individual on your campus.

“Individual differences and similarities may include, but are not limited to: age, race, religion, disability, national origin, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, socio-economic status or class, geography, learning styles, language, culture, political ideology, values, and experiences.”

If you are interested in joining the national debate, our library has some great resources. First, you may want to look at the book Religion and Sexuality edited by Kevin Hillstrom, which is located in our library. Since most of the debate around same-sex marriage has it’s origins in religion, this book may be particularly useful.

For more background, you may want to look at Kenneth Jost’s 2008 article, “Gay marriage showdowns” in CQ Researcher (MVCC ID required from off campus). Even though this article is a few years old, most of the issues remain the same.

One difference since 2008 is that Illinois passed its civil union law in 2011, which provides all of the same benefits for same-sex couples that different-sex couples enjoy. You can learn more about Illinois’ law at Equality Illinois’ page on Civil Unions.

Here is the video about Obama’s stance on same-sex marriage and the fall presidential election.

Obama’s Support for Gay Marriage: How Will it Help, Hurt Politically?

Watch Obama’s Support for Gay Marriage and its Political Effect on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

We here at the Moraine Valley Library are pretty much interested in promoting Information Literacy (IL). With the proliferation of electronic media, there is a real need to have a sense of what is “good, bad or ugly”. How does one make a decision on the worthiness of an article, television program, www result or website, and so on.

As a first start, the American Library Association (ALA) has a definition and other information to explain the concept of IL. Also, MVCC just finished hosting the Eleventh Information Literacy Summit here on campus on Friday, May 4, 2012. This is a topic that all sorts of disciplines are beginning to approach. Question: Is the twenty-first century average American truly informed about how to deal with the information blitz brought on by the electronic age?

New research suggests that it’s time to throw out the bell curve.  This NPR article provides a more reader friendly version of the results.

Mensa is the international society for people with high IQs.   Little Emmelyn Roettger joined at the ripe old age of 2 years 11 months with an IQ of 135.  Here’s the article and a link to Mensa’s page for kids.

If you take a look up at the night sky this Saturday, May 5, you will get to see a full moon at its closest proximity to earth. It’s going to look HUGE!

If you’re interested in other opportunites to investigate the night sky, join Tom McCague, retired associate professor and department chair of Biology at Moraine Valley, at the G. Jack Bradley Memorial Observation Deck on campus for monthly open viewings.

Remember this post about the campus food drive for Moraine’s new food pantry? Did you catch other foodblog posts about food pantries and volunteering?

This is the last week of the campus food drive, so please donate canned or boxed items to help fellow students who may be hungry! Teachers have collection bins near their mailboxes, and there’s one in the library (L 200) near the computers.

Want to learn about students’ volunteer experiences and how you can get involved with local food pantries or even the Greater Chicago Food Depository? Come to the ACT OUT service-learning and volunteer fair tomorrow in the library between 11-2!!!