South Dakota is left off most presidential primaries and elections, but this year the two major Democratic presidential candidates have visited South Dakota a number of times.  On Saturday, Senator Barack Obama spoke at the Aberdeen Civic Arena to a crowd about 2000 people.  He spoke about the big picture and some policy details.  A few weeks ago, Senator Hillary Clinton spoke in Bath, a town not even listed by the US Census Bureau.   And yesterday, President Bill Clinton campaigned for Hillary on the NSU campus. About 1200 people attended the event.  It was a pleasant evening and he combined folksy charm with policy details.  Photos on President Clinton’s visit are on the left bar.  It is nice to get the attention without the enormous crowds, all the campaign calls or thousands of TV/radio ads.

These animated videos by Figli-Migli Productions are wonderful and fun to watch.  Select one of the videos (e.g. Return I will to Old Brazil) on the black navigation bar at the top.  I originally saw one of these videos on RocketBoom.

The FBI has just released its 2007 Internet Crime Report.  This page provides a list of the Top Internet Scams, which include:

• Pets scams
• Secret Shopper and Transfer scams
• Adoption and Charity scams
• Romance fraud.

The New York Times conducted a study with comScore and found Internet companies are gathering more and more information on users.  The article, To Aim Ads, Web is Keeping Closer Eye on You, by Louise Story explains the findings.  I only wish she had more quotes from the interviewees.

The article, “Buried Seed Vault Opens in Arctic,” in today’s New York Times covers the recently built Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.   Accord to the SGSV site the vault is “designed to store duplicates of seeds from seed collections from around the globe … If seeds are lost, e.g. as a result of natural disasters, war or simply a lack of resources, the seed collections may be reestablished using seeds from Svalbard.”  The article also discusses one noteworthy perspective.  The group disagrees with the creation of the SGSV. “The group worries that such moves take away intellectual property rights to crop varieties from the farming communities that developed them and provide a false sense of confidence that safe storage, on its own, can sustain agricultural diversity.”  In seems this group’s argument is similar to arguments against Google Books and other Western-based online and print book collections.  Are these projects leading to a world monoculture?  Is the group’s argument accurate?  I do not have the answers, but it is an interesting area to investigate.

In the last few weeks I have taught a couple classes about the tools are useful in researching a company.  Of course students want to know which is the best site or source.  The only thing I can say, you cannot rely on one source, one resource.  You need to gather information from many sources to get an overall view.  I found out that Tim Horton’s, the Canadian institution, was bought by Wendy’s in 1995 and became a separately traded company in 2006.  If you are ever in Canada stop at a Tim Horton’s for good fast food meal.  If there are other fast food joints nearby, Horton’s will be the only one with a line.

Proprietary databases to start researching a company:

• Business Source Complete  - company profiles (Datamonitor Reports) and articles about a company and its industry.
• Factiva - similar to Business Source Complete, but also included are key financial data and stock price comparison
• Lexis-Nexis Academic - company profiles, Hoover’s Reports, and news from around the globe.  The new Company Profile is probably the best feature of the new LN Academic interface.

Free places to find quality information:

• Corporate Sites - Annual Report (if public) and other government required documents.  Watch out for the public relations info on these sites.
• Blogs - These may be useful in getting an inside view of a company, but take the information with a grain of salt.
• Sec.gov - find any government required file here
• NYTimes.com Markets
• Yahoo Finance
• Google Finance

Last week I attended a workshop on Quantitative Reasoning at the Collaboration conference on critical thinking.  QR boils down to teaching students how to properly use quantitative information in their papers and projects.  Some assignments do not require numeric data and students may or may not use quantitative data for this type of assignment.  Other assignments require the use of graphics and data, while others are data-driven research assignments.  The discussion centered on how to create QR across the curriculum, similar and writing across the curriculum or information literacy across the curriculum.   From the presenters research, it seems many students do not know how to properly incorporate statistics and/or create graphic representations of statistics to back their arguments.   This site from Western Washington University provides a good overview of QR.

The preservation of historic buildings and landscapes will be the focus of an upcoming presentation at Northern State University’s Beulah Williams Library.

Nov. 27, at 7 p.m., Jason Haug, Historic Preservation Specialist with the South Dakota State Historical Society will be speaking on the topic “Why Historic Preservation Matters.” In his discussion, Mr. Haug will highlight the economic and aesthetic benefits of preserving the architecture of a community, along with programs provided by the State of South Dakota to assist in preservation.

This presentation may be of interest to owners of historic homes, business owners weighing the costs of remodeling a historic building, history students or those interested in the history of South Dakota.

This event is co-sponsored by the Aberdeen Downtown Association, the Aberdeen/Brown County Landmarks Commission and the Williams Library.

Mr. Haug will be speaking in the Williams Library round room. This discussion is open to both the NSU and Aberdeen communities. There is no cost for this event, and refreshments will be provided.

NSU Professor Virginia Lewis will discuss her new book, Globalizing the Peasant: Access to Land and the Possibility of Self-Realization.  The book examines the literary narratives from across the globe as an affective archive of crucial information regarding the human experience of globalization over the last 150 years.

Location: Williams Library
Time: 2pm
Date: Thursday, November 29

The book is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Sept 29 -Oct 6 is Banned Books Week.

Many books are challenged for various reasons and certain people do not want a book on their public, school or academic libraries’ shelves.   The Banned Books Week is about to celebrating the freedom to read any book one desires.  So read a Banned book and celebrate your freedom to read.

Top 100 Challenged books (1990-2000)*

Top 10 Challenged Authors (1990-2004)*
1. Alvin Schwartz
2. Judy Blume
3. Robert Cormier
4. J.K. Rowling
5. Michael Willhoite
6. Katherine Paterson
7. Stephen King
8. Maya Angelou
9. R.L. Stine
10. John Steinbeck

* Compiled by the American Library Association