learning on my off day

then again, when it comes to learning, is there ever really an "off" day?

i recently joined a blogging community designed to support each other's health conscious endeavors. for some it's about losing weight, others focus on healthy eating and there are also aspiring fitness enthusiasts. i was reminded by one particular person that you can pick up copies of workout videos from anywhere, including a college library. i had completely forgotten this extremely cost effective option for broadening a workout routine. as a gym hater, this is right up my alley. so i popped over to langsdale's page to check out their selection of videos

The Conversation Continues

I am sitting in Langsdale right now to prepare the final post of the semester. Despite being at the end, the conversation continues as social media abounds at UB.

First, there's a collection of blogs worth noting:

• Langsdale Library News--Straight from the librarians
• University of Baltimore Law Library--Librarians and lawyers
• Take the Lead!--Leadership UB's official blog
• University of Baltimore CNCM Student Info Blog--News from the Center for Negotiations and Conflict Management
• Ron's Blog--News from the Towson/UB MBA program

And there's Twitter:

• The UB/Towson MBA Program
• The UB MFA Program

Finally, there's a YouTube Channel:

• Humanities at the University of Baltimore
  

UB and the Alumni Association have presences on Facebook and LinkedIn, too. So keep on talking, and if you start a UB-related blog, Twitter, or other social media account, post it in the comments!

Research Resources and Technology

Writing about the library last week reminded me of the best feature of the University of Baltimore. During my three years there, I routinely used two facilities that extended the reach of my education beyond Charles Street.

The library provides extensive periodical collections available online. Using your library bar code, on the back of your student identification card, you can login to Research Port, which allows searching thousands of dissertation, journal, newspaper, and magazine titles through several dozen databases. Many of these articles can be viewed and printed without leaving your computer. And if they are not available online, nor physically in Langsdale, interlibrary loan can provide a scanned copy. These features make complex research simpler, even for the busiest student.

The second service I frequently used was interlibrary loan of books. All of the schools in the University System of Maryland, along with St. Mary's College of Maryland and Morgan State University, provide a single library system where books can be requested from any school and delivered to Langsdale within a few days. This vastly extends the resources available to the students at UB. And like Research Port, the library allows you to sign in and request materials online, having them ready when you next come to class.

I admit, I did not always use these tools for classroom purposes. Many of the articles and books I requested I read for pleasure or just to learn about something new. But the system always found me the material I was looking for.

Research at the Library

The University of Baltimore, as a smaller school, does not have the research resources of many others. However, this does not prevent the school from making a mark. Earlier this week, the Langsdale Library Blog announced a new project studying how millennial students used research databases.

As a premillenial, it is interesting to see how students used research databases and how they used other tools available to them. The students were interviewed regarding reliability of information on the Internet. Wikipedia, in particular, was derided for its accuracy by several subjects. This is where things get fascinating.

I use Wikipedia all the time, even for research work. While Wikipedia may not be the sum of all human knowledge, it is at least the mean of all human knowledge. And it can comfortably provide a sound starting point for real work through its extensive referencing. I like to call it an annotated bibliography.

It's time for the Langsdale research to expand the project by looking at how current high school students use the Internet.