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Friday, March 30, 2012

Harry Potter Released in Ebook

The New York Times
March 27, 2012, 8:19 am
"Harry Potter’s New Adventure: Going Digital in E-Books,
By JULIE BOSMAN (click here for website)
The fantasy series that sent droves of eager children to buy hardcover books at midnight parties at bookstores is finally for sale as e-books.
The seven books that make up J. K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter series are now available in e-book editions on her Pottermore Web site, she announced on Tuesday, fulfilling a promise she made last summer. The Web site is the exclusive retailer for the books, which will first be sold in English-language editions. Editions in French, Spanish, German and Italian will come later.
The first books in the series are priced at $7.99 each, while the last four will cost $9.99 each. The e-books can be read on Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and the Sony Reader or downloaded to computers, tablets and cellphones.
Ms. Rowling held on to the digital rights of her series rather than selling them to her publisher, allowing her to delay the release of e-book editions and keep most of the e-book revenue.
Charlie Redmayne, the chief executive of Pottermore, said in a statement: “Today is a great day for Harry Potter fans and e-book readers alike. Not only is this phenomenally popular series available in e-book form for the first time but across an extensive range of devices and platforms, thanks to unique collaborations with leading online retailers.”The seven Harry Potter books have sold 450 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 70 languages."
The eBooks are available for download from your Suffolk County Public Library. For Live-brary (click here)

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Ms. Jennifer Monahan-----Health Department Mini Research Project



Library Resources
Virtual Reference Collection  
Ebsco General Science Collection
eLibrary Science
Gale's Health Reference Center Academic
Science Reference Center 
Online Catalog      
Academic Integrity      
NoodleTools Citations System
Citation Machine     

 
ACCESS MY LIBRARY SCHOOL EDITION APP
Log in to the Gelinas Information Center Using
Your Smartphone or Tablet
(click here for directions)


Books Have Been Set Aside for Student Use
 
DISEASE:
 

GROUP MEMBERS. 


NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES GROUP MINI-PROJECT

OBJECTIVE:  You and your partner(s) are going to be doing a mini research project to find out more information about a particular disease.  Once your research is complete, you will be asked to design a fact sheet about your disease which will be given out to your classmates when you present your findings.
 Disease topics, Heart Disease, Cancer, Arthritis, Asthma/Allergies, Diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Obesity.  There will be a random drawing In class to determine who get what disease to research. 
FACT SHEET:
Your fact sheet must be completed based on the questions provided. 
PRESENTATION:
You and your partner(s) must make a 5-10 minute presentation for your classmates in which you present the information you have gathered about your disease.  You must submit your completed fact sheet to the teacher the day class before your presentation.  Presentation days will be assigned in class.
GRADING RUBRIC:
FACT SHEET – 60 pts. 10 pts. for turning your fact sheet in on time. 
                             The other 50 points for content.
PRESENTATION – 40 pts. Each group member is responsible for presenting some area of the information.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Mango Lanuages Available Through the Public Libraries of Suffolk County Is Now An App

  

Suffolk County Public Library Portal Live-brary.com/Langugage & Travel (click here)

Mango Languages Mobile/Library (click here)

Mango Mobile Library Edition is a powerful language learning platform that delivers fast, easy and effective language learning wherever your travels take you.
Our free app accesses the Mango Languages courses available through your library, and works just like Mango online. Simply touch the screen to reveal answers and to hear pronunciations by native speakers. You’ll learn vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and culture in each lesson through our methodology, called Intuitive Language Construction™.
For the app to work, you must have an account with Mango set up through your public library’s website, and an iPhone®, iPod® touch or iPad®. Once the app and lessons have been downloaded, you can learn at your own pace, with or without an internet connection.
You are able to create an account in Mango Languages through your Suffolk County public library and then download the App to your device.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The New York Times Learning Network----- Ideas and Resources for Teaching the "Hunger Games"


March 15, 2012, 3:29 pm

The Odds Ever in Your Favor: Ideas and Resources for Teaching ‘The Hunger Games’ By KATHERINE SCHULTEN and LILY ALTAVENA

Updated | March 19, 2012
"If you’re like many of the students who post on The Learning Network, you won’t have to consult the Movies section to answer the question, “When will the first film in the ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy come out?” (March 23. But you already knew that, right?)
These dystopian young-adult novels, which have “pretty much owned” The Times’s children’s series bestseller list for a year and a half, have, like the “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” series before them, enthralled fans of all ages and backgrounds.
Many educators see them as a way to both excite avid readers and hook reluctant ones, and have devised imaginative ways to teach with them already.
Below, our own Times-inspired ideas, some of which were contributed by “Hunger Games” enthusiast and Learning Network college intern Lily Altavena, who also scoured the Web for wonderful fan-created art and writing and other resources that might inspire.
Are your students obsessed? How do you teach these novels? Tell us below..."

Friday, March 16, 2012

Mr. Thomas Worthington-----Group Project-----World War II Turing Points













U.S.S. Enterprise-Battle of Midway

Library Resources
ABC CLlO American History   
Biography Reference Bank    
History Study Center
Proquest Historical New York Times
SIRS Researcher 
Online Catalog      
Academic Integrity      

ACCESS MY LIBRARY SCHOOL EDITION APP
Log in to the Gelinas Information Center Using
Your Smartphone or Tablet
(click here for directions)

Group Project – World War II Turning Points   

Overview: 
World War II was a major turning point in the history of the world. 
In the beginning of the conflict, the outcome of the battle was not
obvious, and for a brief period of time, it looked as if the Axis
powers could win the war before the United States even joined it. 
That all changed with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Once
the United States entered the war as the “Arsenalof Democracy,”
the tide started to slowly turn.  However, throughout the course 
of the conflict, there were many turning points.  In groups of 3-5
students, you are to investigate the turning points listed below.   
    
Turning Points:  
A.   Battle of Midway
B.   Battle of North Africa
C.   Battle of Stalingrad
D.   D-Day
E.    Dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Task: 
You are to create a 3-5 minute presentation that highlights key
aspects of the turning point you are presenting.  You will need to
include 8-10 documents that will serve as evidence in support
of your presentation.

Assessment:  
Your grade will be based on the quality of the group presentation
and the  significance of the documents handed in.  You will receive
both a group  grade and an individual grade for this assignment.                          

Mr. Thomas Worthington-----Social Studies Department----Use of the Atomic Bomb During World War II



















Formal Surrender of Japan, World War II,
September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri

Library Resources
ABC CLlO American History   
Biography Reference Bank    
History Study Center
Proquest Historical New York Times
SIRS Researcher 
Online Catalog      
Academic Integrity      

ACCESS MY LIBRARY SCHOOL EDITION APP
Log in to the Gelinas Information Center Using
Your Smartphone or Tablet 
(click here for directions)

Use of the Atomic Bomb During WWII  

In the upcoming debate, you will be expected to defend whether
or not the United States shouldhave used atomic weapons against
Japan at the end of WWII.  You may also want to take into account
the role of nuclear weapons and nuclear power in the world post
WWII.

Question:  Should the United States have dropped atomic bombs
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?  

Historical Background:
Opening Statement:
Position #1:
Position #2:
Position #3:
Position #4:
Position #5:
Deference to the opposing side:
Closing Statement:                                         

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses


               Ángel Franco/The New York Times
A set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the shelves of the New York Public Library

March 13, 2012, 5:54 pm

After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses

"After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.
Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, company executives said.
In an acknowledgment of the realities of the digital age — and of competition from the Web site Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. The last print version is the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.
“It’s a rite of passage in this new era,” Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., a company based in Chicago, said in an interview. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.”
In the 1950s, having the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the bookshelf was akin to a station wagon in the garage or a black-and-white Zenith in the den, a possession coveted for its usefulness and as a goalpost for an aspirational middle class. Buying a set was often a financial stretch, and many families had to pay for it in monthly installments.
But in recent years, print reference books have been almost completely overtaken by the Internet and its vast spread of resources, including specialized Web sites and the hugely popular — and free — online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Since it was started 11 years ago, Wikipedia has moved a long way toward replacing the authority of experts with the wisdom of the crowds. The site is now written and edited by tens of thousands of contributors around the world, and it has been gradually accepted as a largely accurate and comprehensive source, even by many scholars and academics.
Wikipedia also regularly meets the 21st-century mandate of providing instantly updated material. And it has nearly four million articles in English, including some on pop culture topics that would not be considered worthy of a mention in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Mr. Cauz said that he believed Britannica’s competitive advantage with Wikipedia came from its prestigious sources, its carefully edited entries and the trust that was tied to the brand.
“We have very different value propositions,” Mr. Cauz said. “Britannica is going to be smaller. We cannot deal with every single cartoon character, we cannot deal with every love life of every celebrity. But we need to have an alternative where facts really matter. Britannica won’t be able to be as large, but it will always be factually correct.”
But one widely publicized study, published in 2005 by Nature, called into question Britannica’s presumed accuracy advantage over Wikipedia. The study said that out of 42 competing entries, Wikipedia made an average of four errors in each article, and Britannica three. Britannica responded with a lengthy rebuttal saying the study was error-laden and “completely without merit.”
The Britannica, the oldest continuously published encyclopedia in the English language, has become a luxury item with a $1,395 price tag. It is frequently bought by embassies, libraries and research institutions, and by well-educated, upscale consumers who felt an attachment to the set of bound volumes. Only 8,000 sets of the 2010 edition have been sold, and the remaining 4,000 have been stored in a warehouse until they are bought.
The 2010 edition had more than 4,000 contributors, including Arnold Palmer (who wrote the entry on the Masters tournament) and Panthea Reid, professor emeritus at Louisiana State University and author of the biography “Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf” (who wrote about Virginia Woolf).
Sales of the Britannica peaked in 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold in the United States. But now print encyclopedias account for less than 1 percent of the Britannica’s revenue. About 85 percent of revenue comes from selling curriculum products in subjects like math, science and the English language; 15 percent comes from subscriptions to the Web site, the company said.
About half a million households pay a $70 annual fee for the online subscription, which includes access to the full database of articles, videos, original documents and to the company’s mobile applications. At least one other general-interest encyclopedia in the United States, the World Book, is still printing a 22-volume yearly edition, said Jennifer Parello, a spokeswoman for World Book Inc. She declined to provide sales figures but said the encyclopedia was bought primarily by schools and libraries.
Gary Marchionini, the dean of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the fading of print encyclopedias was “an inexorable trend that will continue.”
“There’s more comprehensive material available on the Web,” Mr. Marchionini said. “The thing that you get from an encyclopedia is one of the best scholars in the world writing a description of that phenomenon or that object, but you’re still getting just one point of view. Anything worth discussing in life is worth getting more than one point of view.”
Many librarians say that while they have rapidly shifted money and resources to digital materials, print still has a place. Academic libraries tend to keep many sets of specialized encyclopedias on their shelves, like volumes on Judaica, folklore, music or philosophy, or encyclopedias that are written in foreign languages and unavailable online.
At the Portland Public Library in Maine, there are still many encyclopedias that the library orders on a regular basis, sometimes every year, said Sonya Durney, a reference librarian. General-interest encyclopedias are often used by students whose teachers require them to occasionally cite print sources, just to practice using print.
“They’re used by anyone who’s learning, anyone who’s new to the country, older patrons, people who aren’t comfortable online,” Ms. Durney said. “There’s a whole demographic of people who are more comfortable with print.”
But many people are discovering that the books have outlived their usefulness. Used editions of encyclopedias are widely available on Craigslist and eBay: more than 1,400 listings for Britannica products were posted on eBay this week.
Charles Fuller, a geography professor who lives in the Chicago suburbs, put his 1992 edition on sale on Craigslist last Sunday. For years, he has neglected the print encyclopedias, he said in an interview, and now prefers to use his iPhone to look up facts quickly. He and his wife are downsizing and relocating to California, he said, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica will not be coming with them, a loss he acknowledges with a hint of wistfulness.
“They’re not obsolete,” Mr. Fuller said. “When I’m doing serious research, I still use the print books. And they look really beautiful on the bookshelves.”"

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Paul J. Gelinas. Jr. Information Center Has An App for That


Now Available At the Gelinas Information Center
The AccessMyLibrary School Edition App. Now it's easy to bring your library to your students.Boost usage by encouraging them to download the AccessMyLibrary School Edition mobile app from Gale. After a simple, one-time log-in using your library's password, the mobile app will give your students free, unlimited access to your school library's reputable, authoritative Gale online resources — anytime, anywhere!Get the free AccessMyLibrary School Edition mobile app for your device using the links below. For Android™ For iPhone®,  iPod Touch®,  iPad®   

Directions To Download AccessMyLibrarySchool Edition Using Your Tablet or Smartphone

1.       Go to the App Store (Apple or Android).
2.       Select and install AccessMyLibrary School Edition. The App can be located by searching the term "Gale Cengage". The device may request your password for installation.
3.       Once installed select the AccessMyLibrary School Edition App on your device.
4.       Select your state (New York); select East Setauket - Paul J. Gelinas, Jr. JHS.
5.       Select View Gale Resources (bottom) and select Update My Resources from the menu on the upper left.
6.       Enter your school’s password, which is available in the Information Center.
7.       From View Gale Resources (bottom) or Get Resources (upper left) you may now access all resources: Gale Databases, Gale eBooks, Visit Web Site -Gelinas Library Blog.