News from the City Tech Library
RefWorks has announced some migration dates.We have enabled the 2.0 interface and we encourage everyone to become familiar with it before the switch over.
Visit the course catalog description here or contact Professor Maura Smale for more information.
(video available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.)
Having trouble remembering when to credit your sources? Artist Nina Paley (a great supporter of libraries as well as the Open Access movement) has provided us with a helpful breakdown, in song. Video and accompanying essay are both available here.
Check out our ebook collection, ebrary. As of this January, it has at least 52,000 academic titles geared to undergraduate students. The collections by area can be browsed. Many advanced search features are also available.
Please download the ebrary reader to use the collection. See here for more information.
New: JSTOR Arts & Sciences IX
Social media has changed the way people interact with one another. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, flickr, all allow us to share information about ourselves. We can easily learn details about one another, such as our favorite books, jobs, families, hometown and even our birth place and date. This leads to many privacy concerns that users may not fully understand.
A recent study by Columbia University looked at Facebook users’ flawed use of the site’s privacy settings. Researchers found that all 65 participants not only disclosed information they had meant to hide, but also hid data they wished to share. Participants also perceived that their privacy settings were also configured correctly.
Here are a few resources that can assist you in protecting your privacy on facebook:
– Myopenbook.com – This website demonstrates the ease in using facebook’s own search engine to discover status updates.
– Time to Audit Your Facebook Privacy Settings – Gina Trapani
– Protect Your Privacy Opt Out of Facebook’s New Instant Personalization – Yes You Have to Opt Out – Librarian by Day
Lastly, Steven Bellovin, one of the researchers in the Columbia study, suggests this to protecting your privacy: “The simplest thing is don’t post something you don’t want the world to see.”
ALA Privacy Conference: Interview with Cory Doctorow from 20K Films on Vimeo.
To start thinking about protecting one’s privacy it’s important to understand what it means in different contexts. There are some great resources online that can help you get a sense of the kinds of personal information that you have the right to control, such as the Privacy Rights Clearing House. You may also choose to take a look at some of the available resources here at City Tech.
You may also be interested in knowing that while you are a student, your privacy is protected in a few different ways. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) provides strict guidelines for how and when student information may be shared, and in the the library, your borrowing history and research activities are protected by the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights.
The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.
