Who’s Spinning Wikipedia?

Virgil Griffiths, a California Institute of Technology graduate student, has developed a database that tracks the IP addresses of those who edit Wikipedia. This ‘Wikipedia Scanner‘ has exposed both companies and public figures who have sanitized or augmented their own entries, or diminished the entries of their competitors.

Get the full NPR story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12823729 and check Wired’s compilation of the more shameful ‘Spin Jobs’: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/wikiwatch/.

A New Look for Library Website

Welcome to our new site…[http://www.cse.edu/index.php?id=2220]

 The result of several months of planning and discussion, the new library website went ‘live’ today! The most obvious change is to the appearance of the site. It is more colorful and attractive, more interactive, and better organized. Just as important, however, are the improvements in content. We have corrected and upgraded several out-of-date pages, and further developed or created others.

Highlights:

• Search library catalog directly from home page.
• Today’s hours are always provided on the home page, eliminating the need to search for a link. Check our new calendar for planning purposes.
• Separate information pages designed specifically for faculty/staff and for students.
• Key pages added: Databases by Subject, Encyclopedias & Reference, and Newspapers Online.
• New ‘How Do I…?’ section for addressing frequently asked questions/problems.
• Addition of ‘Mahoney Library News’ blog to provide space for news and announcements.

Please let us know what you think of the new website by entering a comment below this post. 

Thanks to all of our key contributors and facilitators:
Rupal Bhatt, Br. Paul Chervenie, James Dlugos, Mark Ferguson, Donna Lindemeyer, Brad Morton, Amy Schleigh, and Amira Unver.

Library Welcomes New Director

After 15 years of dedicated service as Director of Mahoney Library, Brother Paul Chervenie has retired. During his tenure, the library has progressed in many important ways, particularly in the utilization of digital technologies. Prior to his time as director, the library had only minimal access to databases, the catalog consisted of thousands of individual cards that had to be thumbed through, and the internet was still an untapped resource.

The Mahoney Library of today provides access to over one hundred databases, and full text access to over 29,000 journals, in addition to a substantial collection of electronic encyclopedias and other reference sources. Additionally, our catalog is fully automated and shared with the libraries of FDU, providing our patrons with borrowing privileges to those libraries as well. For this we owe Brother Paul our deepest gratitude. He came to us at a key moment in the history of the library and successfully guided us through the coming of the digital age.

Replacing Brother Paul as Director of the Library is Ms. Amira Unver, moving from her former position as Mahoney Library’s Head of User Services, where she has served for the past 9 years. “I hope to build on the solid foundation that Brother Paul has left us” she said, “and try to more fully engage both the faculty and the students to make better use of the many resources we can now make available.” 

To this end the library now offers a thoroughly redesigned website, with many new guides and resources, including ‘Mahoney Online,’ an email reference service. Amira is also encouraging the library staff to participate in the EOF mentoring program. This will match members of the library staff to new students enrolling in the college to help them get started in their academic endeavors. In this way the library can be more fully engaged with the academic life of the college and take greater advantage of the skills and experience that its staff has to offer. This indeed is the direction in which our new director wishes to take us, and we all look forward to the continued growth and development of the library that is sure to come.