If you want to read the full report that is being quoted in the press, please come to this document from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
Archive for April, 2014
Employee Distrust of Employers
This report from the American Psychological Association – 2014 Work and Well-Being Survey – shows that “…only about half of employed adults believe their employers are open and upfront with them, about one-third say their employers are not always honest and truthful and almost a quarter say they don’t trust their employers.”(3) Throughout this document, comparisons are made to previous reports dating back to 2011. A very telling indicator is found on page 27 – Employee Engagement – which is characterized “… as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption.” Only 23.2% of respondents fell into the “high” or “very high” categories; 25.2% fell into the lowest two tiers; and 51.6% fell into the average ranking. Of all the named services polled, the top named service was “educational services”(47) Use these results against the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer and read this excellent summary in Forbes. We also recommend 11 Habits of Highly Ineffective Managers from Inc.
Happy 450th Birthday, William Shakespeare!
Considered among the greatest, if not the finest, writer in the English language, William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 and died on the same date in 1616. A great page to start reading his works, perusing his biography, looking at some of his more memorable quotes, and so much more is Absolute Shakespeare. Shakespeare Online also offers comprehensive treatment of the Bard, though marred by intrusive ads. (But then someone has to pay the hosting and managing fees. As Robert Heinlein stated: TANSTAAFL) The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. houses hundreds of thousands of items relating to Shakespeare and the theater in general. Due to the rarity and fragility of many of its holdings only scholars have direct access to these materials, but the public is offered access to thousands of digital images that include books, theater memorabilia, and manuscripts via the Digital Image Collection. There have always been arguments over whether or not Shakespeare actually wrote what we read; some representative articles include: The Case for Oxford (that the Earl of Oxford is the true author, The Atlantic); The Case for Shakespeare (The Atlantic); and Shakespeare: the conspiracy theories (The Telegraph).
Artist Interviews from the Tate Museum
Audio Arts was an innovative audio-cassette magazine first published in 1972; it contained interviews with artists, critics, and other luminaries from the arts. The Tate Museum has preserved and made these interviews, over 1600 of them, available online. Listen to Christo, James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, and Paul McCarthy, among others.
Online Primary Sources: Thousands of Historical Videos
British Pathe was a media company founded in the 1890s, and over the course of the next eighty years it produced thousands of hours of newsreels; its collection of World War I and World War II videos are exceptional. All of these hours, divided into almost 90,000 film clips, are freely available on YouTube. Watch an interview with Laurel and Hardy, listen to Titanic survivors, see Queen Victoria, and storm the beaches on D-Day. These same films can also be accessed at the company’s site where retrieval is expedited by more in-depth subject headings and other guides. A must for those interested in twentieth-century history.
The Life and Times of Lord Byron
An influential and controversial poet, Lord Byron is considered one the great Romantic writers. Lord Byron and His Times is a wonderfully dense collection of material on Byron and his contemporaries. Included are his memoirs, memoirs by his contemporaries, hundreds of letters, criticism and commentary, and document collections arranged by topic. This latter section is especially valuable for the introductory overviews that are provided. The various parts of this site have active links so you can identify the persons and writings referenced. The multiple layers embedded in this presentation are entrancing and informative. A great way to be introduced to this world.
“Libraries are dying? Think again”
For those of us who believe in the power of libraries, this report from CNN validates our viewpoint.
Hispanic Americans in Congress
This site – Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-2012 – details the long years that Hispanic Americans have been serving in Congress. The site contains biographies of all members, featured historical highlights, chronological historical essays with numerous links, relevant historical data, and a useful glossary. An almost 800-page book of the same name is also available. A treasure trove of information!
2014 Pulitzer Prize Winners
For prize winners, their citations and biographies, other nominees, past winners, and additional links, please come here.
Encyclopedia of the Great Plains
Comprised of over 900,000 square miles stretching from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, crossed by migrant wagon trains, scoured by the Dust Bowl, a witness to the extirpation of the Native American, site of the building of the transcontinental railroad, a background for Natty Bumppo in The Prairie, the Great Plains has played a large role in the development of this country. The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains is a vast compendium of over 1300 articles written by 1000 scholars, supervised by editor David J Wishart. The work is broken into broad subject areas from African-Americans to Water; within each group are arranged numerous articles, many with suggestions for further reading. An excellent introduction to such a varied area.
Recent Reports on Academic Libraries
Being as this is National Library Week, we thought we would point out to you some new reports highlighting the work of academic libraries. Academic Libraries: 2012 is the latest in a biennial series from the National Center for Education Statistics; it focuses on the 3793 academic libraries that range from community college to research institution. Facts and figures abound: expenditures, staff, circulation, gate count, information literacy, collections, etc. The State of America’s Libraries 2014 from the American Library Association has its primary focus on public libraries, but it does have a chapter on academic libraries starting on page 34. This chapter reviews/summarizes many important documents that have recently been published on the role of the academic library in an institution’s mission and retention of students. The Ithaka S+R Library Survey 2013, published in March 2014, polled hundreds of academic library directors to ascertain their priorities. Almost everyone agreed that providing information literacy instruction and collaborative space were of foremost importance; only one-third thought hosting “outside” student support centers was important. While this report was published in 2010, it is still a worthwhile read: Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report from the Association of College & Research Libraries.
Jersey City Under “State of Emergency” When the Pulaski Bridge Closes
A news reports confirms that Mayor Fulop has placed the city under a state of emergency for the first two weeks of the bridge’s closure. This will allow him to rapidly deploy assets to deal with traffic congestion.
What Medicare Paid Your Healthcare Provider in 2012
Took a trip in an ambulance? Had blood work? Undertook physical therapy? Had an eye exam? If you were covered by Medicare, then those medical events went into this massive compilation of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that was re-configured by The Wall Street Journal. Over 888,000 providers were paid $77 billion in 2012. One can search by name, specialty, location, or state. If you wanted to find how much Medicare-funded payments were received in Jersey City, you can do so. You’ll find that an ambulance company ranks at the top and by clicking on its name, you’ll see what kind of “runs” it made, what the average payment was for each procedure, and total payments for each procedure. The same thing applies to other providers: this interactive tool will list the doctor, the procedure he/she performed, the average payment and total payment for each procedure.
Reports on Highways and Bridges
As the close of the Pulaski Skyway for at least two years commences on April 12, here are some relevant reports: 2013 Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions & Performance (Federal Highway Administration); 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure (American Society of Civil Engineers, fully 36% of New Jersey’s bridges are subpar with 26.2% of them classified as functionally obsolete); Transportation Infrastructure: Limited Improvement in Bridge Conditions over the Past Decade, but Financial Challenges Remain (GAO,”Of the 607,380 bridges on the nation’s roadways in 2012, 1 in 4 was classified as deficient,” Highlights); Aging Infrastructure: Issues, Research, and Technology (Department of Homeland Security, “There are 189 thousand steel bridges and many of the older structures may be nearing their fatigue life. The main issues of concern for steel bridges are corrosion of steel members.”3-8); Infrastructure Investment and U.S. Competitiveness (Council on Foreign Relations); Building America’s Future: Falling Apart and Falling Behind (Building America’s Future Education Fund); and The Federal Role in America’s Infrastructure (House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure).
2013/14 AAUP Faculty Salary Survey
Over 1,100 institutions are represented in this report, from full professors to instructors. Here is the profile and salary percentile for NJCU; see how we compare to our sister NJ institutions. Data can also be broken down by gender, trends, and type of institution.
Historic Pittsburgh
Highlighted as one of five vanguard cities in Richard Wade’s The Urban Frontier, Pittsburgh has long been an important city. As with many cities, it has seen its ups and its downs. For a snapshot of what it is like now, go to Pittsburgh Today for relevant information. A wonderful site – Historic Pittsburgh – houses hundreds of digital books and maps from more than a dozen institutions. In addition, the site provides access to finding aids, older census records, and a detailed chronology. Other maps (i.e. Sanborn fire insurance maps) are found at Penn State; additional books are here; and historic newspapers are at Chronicling America. Other sites of value include: the Western Pennsylvania section of the University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions for current monographs and the Western Pennsylvania History journal that contains hundreds of articles on this city.
Higher Education Bills Introduced in New Jersey in 2014
Twenty bills have been posted dealing with higher education in New Jersey; the bills range from doing away with the obligatory meal plans to freezing tuition. For those interested, the bills’ numbers are: A676 – establishing performance-based funding plans; A2800 – assessment for college readiness; A2801 – requiring only 120 credits for a bachelor’s degree and no more than 60 for an associate’s degree; A2802 – establishing an incentive plan to re-enroll in college; A2803 – to provide better transparency by requiring colleges to post on their websites information on graduation rates, faculty, attendance, how many students need remedial education and the graduation rates of said students; A2804 – requiring community colleges to establish a three-year graduation rate of 33% for their students by 2019/20 year; A2805 – requiring common core course numbering system in public institutions; A2806 – creating the New Jersey School Counts County College Scholarship program; A2807 – freezes tuition for nine consecutive semesters upon a student’s initial enrollment at public and private institutions; A2808 – investigate quality, cost, and prevalence of online courses; A2809 – requires institutions to develop open-access textbooks and requires a buyback of textbooks at 50% of cover price; A2810 – allows tax deductions for certain student loans; A2811 – does away with required meal plans; A2812 – establishment of a data system that will track an individual from preschool until workplace entry; A2813 – mandates closure of public institutions that fail to achieve a six-year graduation rate of at least 50%; A2814 – allows the revocation of a for-profit school’s license if it fails to achieve a minimum graduation rate; A2815 – requires an annual report on public institutional debt by NJ Educational Facilities Authority; A2816 – directs state auditor to investigate fees at public institutions; A2817 – requires school districts and public institutions to provide dual-enrollment programs for college credit at reduced rates; and A2818 – development by public institutions of pathway programs to graduation.
Newest Climate Change Report from the IPCC
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report – Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability – is presented in two volumes comprising thirty chapters. Volume one deals with global/sectoral aspects such as natural resources, food security, and human settlements; volume two examines climate change through geographical perspectives (here is the chapter on North America). No matter how you look at it, the reports paints a dire pictures. The summary digests the massive amount of data and distills it into a forty-four page abstract. Among its points are: “Human interference with the climate system is occurring and climate change poses risks for human and natural systems”(1); “Based on many studies covering a wide range of regions and crops, negative impacts of change on crop yields have been more common than positive impacts”(7); “Climate change over the 21st century is projected to reduce renewable surface water and groundwater resources significantly in most dry subtropical regions”(15); and “A first step towards adaptation to future climate change is reducing vulnerability and exposure to present climate variability”(23). A valuable review of the IPCC and its assessments is at The Guardian.
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 