Do you love your librarian?
Have you worked closely with any of the librarians here within the UH Libraries? Have they helped you or gone out of their way for you? If you want to say thanks to that special person, now if your opportunity!
Nominate your favorite librarian for the 2009 Carnegie Corporation Of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award!
The award invites library users to recognize the accomplishments of librarians in public, school, college, community college and university libraries for their efforts to improve the lives of people in their community. Nominations will run through October 9 and are being accepted online at http://www.ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.
Up to 10 librarians will be selected. Each will receive a $5,000 cash award, a plaque and a $500 travel stipend to attend an awards ceremony and reception in New York, hosted by The New York Times in December. In addition, a plaque will be given to each award winner’s library.
For more info about this contest, please see this press announcement on the American Library Association website.
Assistant Professors Speaker Series
The University Community and Public are invited to bring their brown bag lunch and meet two of the University’s rising stars at noon on July 9, 2009 in the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion:
Jason Porter, College of Optometry,
“Adaptive Optics”
Clinicians and vision scientists have known for centuries that human vision is degraded by the eye’s poor optical quality. Even when wearing conventional glasses or contact lenses, our eyes still suffer from subtle optical imperfections that not only limit our ability to see fine detail in the outside world, but also limit the ability of clinicians and vision scientists to look inside normal and diseased eyes with fine detail. We use adaptive optics, the same technology used by ground-based telescopes to take clear images of outer space through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, to correct for the eye’s optical imperfections and acquire images with unprecedented resolution. Adaptive optics imaging now allows for the routine examination of single cells in living eyes, providing a non-invasive, microscopic view of the living retina that could previously only be obtained in excised tissue. The ability to see cellular structures in the living eye provides the opportunity to better understand normal retinal structure and function while potentially enhancing our ability to earlier detect and diagnose retinal diseases and track the progression and efficiency of disease treatments. We will highlight some of the scientific discoveries that adaptive optics has made possible, and will also discuss the development of an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope in our lab at the College of Optometry.
and
Kirill Larin, Cullen College of Engineering
“Noninvasive Optical Imaging and Diagnostics of Tissues and Cells”
Development of novel methods for functional imaging, monitoring and quantification of different biological processes in tissues, small organs, and cells has gained tremendous interest in view of the varied applications of Biomedical Optics. This talk will overview recent developments in functional imaging of different tissues and cells with several low-coherence interferometry (LCI) methods developed at the University of Houston, including noninvasive monitoring of drug diffusion and optical clearing, detection and assessment of microbubbles in tissues and blood, early diagnostics of arteriosclerosis, imaging of early embryonic cardiovascular system development, and depth-resolved fingerprint recognition. Additionally, recent progress in development of minimally-invasive glucose biosensor, based on unique micro-retroreflector technology, will be discussed.
Cookies and beverages compliments of the University Libraries. This free event is co-sponsored by the Faculty Senate. For more details, please review the attached sheet or call the Faculty Senate Office at 713-743-9181.
H1N1 Flu Information
If you are concerned about the H1N1 flu outbreak (formerly known as swine flu) and want information about it, here is a link to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) site: H1N1 Outbreak. As of June 11, the H1N1 outbreak is now considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Library Privileges Continue Throughout the Summer
Spring Semester Students:
Your library privileges, including access to electronic resources, continue throughout the summer. You must be enrolled on the last day of the Spring semester and be in good standing on your library account for access to library materials.
UH Libraries receives multiple awards
The University of Houston Libraries was a multiple award winner at the Annual Conference of the Texas Library Association last week.
Dana Rooks, Dean of Libraries, was awarded the 2009 TLA Distinguished Service Award. Dean Rooks is a former TLA president and winner of the 1997 Librarian of the Year award for her work on TexShare, a cooperative program that enables the sharing of resources among academic, special and public libraries.
The UH Libraries also received two Branding Iron Awards for marketing, including the Best in Show Award for Student Video Network-produced library commercials. The Demco Award, another marketing prize, also honored the commercials.
Finally, a team of library employees won the annual Book Cart Drill Team competition. The employees, including Dean Rooks, performed a dance routine titled “Materials Girl” with book carts. The team may now advance to the national competition at the Annual Conference of the American Library Association.
The commercials and Book Cart Drill Team competition may all be viewed at YouTube:
2009 UH Libraries Book Cart Drill Team
Enter the Learning Commons Media Contest!
To celebrate it’s official grand opening, the UH Libraries’ Learning Commons is holding a Student Media Contest!
You can win an iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, or Target Giftcard if you use the Learning Commons’ equipment to answer the following question…
What Does it Mean to be a UH Cougar?
Being a UH Cougar means something different to everyone on campus, so put your creativity and the Learning Commons’ equipment to use and tell us what being a UH Cougar means to YOU!
Anything goes, as long as it fits one of the following categories:
- Still Digital Photography
(An original photo in jpg or tif) - Graphic Design
(Your own creation in jpg or pdf) - Video
(No more than 5 minutes uploaded to YouTube)
Submission Guidelines
You must be a UH student to enter the Learning Commons Media Contest.
To enter, send an email to uhlearningcommons [at ] gmail [dot] com with the following information:
- Your Name
- Phone Number
- Email Address
- Title of Your Submission
- Category of Your Submission
For Still Frame Photography, attach your design as a JPEG or TIFF.
For Graphic Design, attach your design as a JPEG or PDF.
For Video, upload your clip to YouTube, and include the URL in the body of your email. - A short paragraph describing your entry
Important Dates
All entries must be submitted by April 28, 2009 at 5pm. Winners will be announced at the Media Contest Winner’s Reception on May 4
in the Learning Commons.
Questions? Contact
Nathan McKee (npmckee [at] uh [dot] edu),
Veronica Arellano (varellano[at] uh [dot] edu), or
Robin Dasler (rlhoward [at] uh [dot] edu).
Learning Commons Opening Celebration on April 8th
Please join us for the Opening Celebration of the Libraries’ Learning Commons on Wednesday, April 8th at 2:00pm.
The Learning Commons offers students flexible and inviting spaces for both collaborative and individual work, new opportunities for developing presentation projects, and enhanced access to sophisticated computing technology and advanced applications. This facility offers both high-end PCs and Macs which feature either dual or large-screen monitors. A wide variety of software is available, e.g., Adobe Creative Suite, Apple iLife Suite, Camtasia Studio, Captivate, Visual Studio, EndNote, Mathematica, Matlab, SPSS, ArcGIS, and SAS.
Cambridge Journals Online possible service interruptions
Please note that there may be intermittent interruptions in service to our Cambridge Journals Online customers on Sunday, December 21st, and Monday, December 22nd, from 8 pm until 9 pm BST (3 pm until 4 pm EST) each day, as maintenance must be performed on the server. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Learning Commons OPEN for Business!
We are pleased to announce that the UH Libraries’ Learning Commons has officially opened! The Learning Commons is a new space in the M.D. Anderson Library with equipment and resources to help you create multimedia projects or analyze data.
The LC has 17 high-end PCs and 5 iMacs, all equipped with the latest in digital media creation software (think Adobe Creative Suite) and the best in statistical analysis software (MATLAB, SPSS, SAS and Mathematica). In addition, the LC has five digital cameras, five digital video cameras and five “pen-scanners” available for checkout.
Additional services include color and black/white printing (with wide-format poster printing available Spring 2009) and a presentation “practice room” for you to put the final polish on your class presentation.
The Learning Commons will be open anytime the M.D. Anderson Library is open and staff will be on duty to assist you.
For more information, stop in for a quick tour of the LC or contact Mr. Nathan McKee (npmckee@uh.edu) for more information. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Library Quick Search Down 10/25 – 10/26
The library’s Quick Search (or federated search) will be down this weekend 10/25 – 10/26 for upgrades. We apologize for the inconvenience the Quick Search will be back up Monday 10/27.
