Trends in the Age Composition of College and University Students and Graduates

New report from Statistics Canada:
Trends in the Age Composition of College and University Students and Graduates, by Meghan Dale.

Blind students find navigating new technology difficult

E-book readers,course-management software... What are some of the implications of new technology for blind students?
At "Pennsylvania State University, blind students and professors suffer 'pervasive and ongoing discrimination' because of inaccessible campus technology..."
Read more: Colleges Lock Out Blind Students Online (from The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Refining your Google search

There are many tips and tricks to using Google, but one of the best is using the + operator. Essentially the + operator is used when you want Google to search only a specific term. Check out the Search ReSearch blog to learn more.

Nov/Dec. issue of EDUCAUSE Review is available

EDUCAUSE Review Magazine, November/December 2010
Articles include:

· You 3.0: The Most Important Evolving Technology

· Universal Design for the Digital Environment: Transforming the Institution

New UNICEF report: The Children Left Behind

From UNICEF: The Children Left Behind
An overview of inequalities in child well-being for 24 of the world’s richest countries.
"...growing up in poverty incurs a substantially higher risk of lower standards of health, of reduced cognitive development, of underachievement at school, of lower skills and aspirations, and eventually of lower adult earnings, so helping to perpetuate disadvantage from one generation to the next."

Need a good ebook?

Check out our ebook collections!

Interesting article in Scientific American about Net neutrality

Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality, by Tim Berners-Lee
"Several principles are key to assuring that the Web becomes ever more valuable. The primary design principle underlying the Web’s usefulness and growth is universality. When you make a link, you can link to anything. That means people must be able to put anything on the Web, no matter what computer they have, software they use or human language they speak..."

Security in Canada’s North - new report from the Conference Board

"Security in Canada’s North: Looking Beyond Arctic Sovereignty examines three dimensions of security in the North—Arctic security, Northern security, and community security—in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of the security challenges in Canada’s North."

All Conference Board reports can be accessed from here.

Library and Archives Canada - Canada at War

Library and Archives Canada has a wonderful collection of WW I photos and diary excepts. You can also visit the virtual exhibition Faces of War.

World Disasters Report 2010 available

The focus of the 2010 World Disasters Report is urban disasters.
From: Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Basic research skills lacking

From the University of Washington News: Study shows universities may be failing to sufficiently teach basic research skills
"The researchers found that although many students consider themselves fairly adept at finding and evaluating information, especially from the web, 84 percent were often stymied at the outset of a research assignment. They'd been asked to formulate a research question without understanding what the process entails or requires. Of all the steps necessary in a course research project, survey respondents had the most difficulty determining the nature, scope and requirements of the assignment."

Peer review and poor referees

From Physicsworld.com: Peer review highly sensitive to poor refereeing, claim researchers
"While the concept of peer review is widely considered the most appropriate system for regulating scientific publications, it is not without its critics. Some feel that the system's reliance on impartiality and the lack of remuneration for referees mean that in practice the process is not as open as it should be."

Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade

From Canada Reads: Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade

Included are:

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Elle by Douglas Glover

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb

The Birth House by Ami McKay

The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

Unless by Carol Shields

Students prefer print textbooks

From The Wired Campus: Students Remain Reluctant to Try E-Textbooks
"...76 percent of students would pick a printed book over an e-textbook if the choice was left entirely up to them."

Undergrads use of information technology

Educause has just released The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2010.
Trends include increased use of mobile and cloud technology.

2010 Living Planet Report - WWF

From the WWF 2010 Living Planet Report:
"...humanity’s Ecological Footprint has doubled since 1966".

Cheating and on-line exams

In the latest issue of Journal of Distance Learning Administration:
Assessment Design and Cheating Risk in Online Instruction by Oskar R. Harmon, James Lambrinos and Judy Buffolino.

The article is discussed in Inside Higher Ed:
Proctor or Gamble

Access Sage Research Methods Online (trial) database via the RRU Library webpage

To access the Sage Research Methods Online (trial) database select the Search for Articles link at our webpage. After logging in scroll down the list of databases to Sage Research Methods Online. The trail ends Dec. 31, 2010.

Latest issue of EDUCAUSE Quarterly available

Interesting articles on:

1. A Comparison of Student and Faculty Academic Technology Use Across Disciplines
2. Institutional Support for Faculty Teaching in an Online Learning Environment .
   

New report on the state of the Canadian retail sector

From Industry Canada and the Retail Council of Canada:
State of Retail: The Canadian Report 2010
The retail sector contributed "$74.2B to Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009..."

New look and feel for "Search for Books"!

RRU Library's online catalogue has a new and improved look and feel, full of new features like links to Google Books full-text previews and direct export to RefWork! Let us know what you think by contacting us.

Fall 2010 issue of EnviroStats available

Included in this issue:
Trends in glacier mass balance for six Canadian glaciers.
"The six glaciers studied for this article experienced statistically significant reductions in their mass over the length of the data series. The major difference between the two regional groups of glaciers was the rate of mass loss, with the glaciers in the Western Cordillera losing mass at a faster rate than those in the High Arctic" (from summary section).

New from CIAO database

From the National Endowment for Democracy:
Evaluating the Evaluators: Media Freedom Indexes and What They Measure
Author: John Burgess

From the United States Institute of Peace:
Graduate Education and Professional Practice in International Peace and Conflict
Author: Nike Carstarphen, Robert Harris, David J. Smith & Craig Zelizer

From the Institute for National Strategic Studies:
Somalia's Endless Transition: Breaking the Deadlock
Author: Andre Le Sage

All RRU research databases can be accessed from the Search for Articles link at the RRU Library webpage.

Sage Research Methods Online database trial

RRU Library is helping Sage Publications beta test a new database called SAGE Research Methods Online (SRMO). This product has not yet been released, so we get an exciting first peek at this interesting database and the chance to provide feedback while it is still in development. Note that there is a draw for an iPad for those who complete the survey.

A little about the database: The site contains 504 book titles, including the entire QASS (aka Little Green Book) series, 6 dictionaries, 4 encyclopedias and a Major Work containing journal articles. We also have a visual Methods Map tool and playlist functionality called SRMO Lists.

Contact us at reflib@royalroads.ca for access instructions. We have access until Dec.31.

Canada 4th in Forbes.com best countries for business ranking

Best Countries for Business - Canada dropped to 4th from 3rd.

Aid Worker Security Database

AWSD is a new database that provides information on violence against aid workers from 1997 to present. Data can be downloaded to Excel.

Google Scholar can now link to RRU Library databases

The preferences in Google Scholar must be preset to link to the contents of our databases. To do this select Google Scholar from the RRU Library database menu. Next, select the link Scholar Preferences (in the top right corner of the page). Under the option Library Links select the box Royal Roads University - Full-Text @ My Library. Lastly click on the Save Preferences button at the bottom of the page.

Life long learning report available from Statistics Canada

Lifelong Learning Among Canadians Aged 18 to 64 Years
"Between July 2007 and June 2008, an estimated ten million Canadians aged 18 to
64 had participated in some type of education or training whether it be for personal
interest or their career or job."

Human rights and the World Bank

From Knowledge @ Wharton: 'A Clash of Expertise': Adding Human Rights to the World Bank's Agenda
"The Bank's organizational culture -- including its management structure, incentive system, decision-making process and internal power dynamics -- has contributed to human rights' short shrift..."

New OECD statistics available

The OECD Factbook 2010 is available online! Data can be downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet too!

Social media not just for millennials

From Pew Internet: Older Adults and Social Media
"Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010."

Ebrary ebooks will be unavailable for 2 hours on Saturday Aug. 28th

Between 10 AM - 12 PM Saturday, August 28th Ebrary ebooks will be unavailable due to Ebrary's scheduled maintenance.

Alternatives to peer review?

From NY Times: Scholars Test Web Alternative to Peer Review
"... in an era of digital media there is a better way to assess the quality of work. Instead of relying on a few experts selected by leading publications, they advocate using the Internet to expose scholarly thinking to the swift collective judgment of a much broader interested audience."

New Key Small Business Statistics

From Industry Canada:
Key Small Business Statistics (July 2010) now available.
"As of 2009, small businesses employed approximately 5 million individuals in Canada, or 48 percent of the total labour force in the private sector."

Market research tutorial available

Business Source Premier @ EBSCOhost is a great tool for market research. We have a new tutorial that will help.

Voices From the Front Lines of Online Learning

From Wired Campus:
Online educators share their experiences teaching online. Watch the video here.

Twitter and other social media are becoming an important communication tool in disasters

From: Red Cross Emergency Social Data Summit:
results from a study of social media in disasters and emergencies.

July/August 2010 issue of EDUCAUSE Review is available

Open access is the theme of the latest issue of EDUCAUSE Review.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: Needed - Support for Professional Science Master's Degrees

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:
Needed - Support for Professional Science Master's Degrees
"The rapid growth and palpable enthusiasm surrounding professional science master's degrees demonstrates something important: that higher education can respond energetically and directly to employers' demands for sophisticated science professionals with high-level scientific and business and management skills."

Big Refworks News!!! Citations in Refworks now link to full-text

When you log into your Refworks account you will now see a 'Check for Full Text' link. Refworks will look for the full-text in our 100+ databases. As you can imagine the RRU librarians are doing a "happy dance". Please contact us for more information.

New report from the National Wildlife Federation: Oil disasters common in the last decade

From Docuticker: Oil disasters common in the last decade
Source: National Wildlife Federation
The full report: Assault on America: A Decade of Petroleum Company Disaster, Pollution, and Profit.
Also available:
List of oil disasters, 2000-2010 & list of oil disasters by State.

Interesting article on plagiarism in the New York Times

Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age
(New York Times - August 1, 2010)
From article: “Writing is difficult, and doing it well takes time and practice...”