Congratulations Graduates (and parents of graduates). For those of you who are graduating or know those who are, you may want to point them to some of the following resources to help them celebrate, recover and adapt to their post-academic life...
Celebrate
Ah commencement speeches. Moments of inspiration immediately blurred over by the memory of getting that diploma in your hand and the excitement of the party afterward, although there are a few noteworthy exceptions. Gradspot selected these Ten All-Time Best Graduation Speeches (but actually more like speech moments) and these as the Best of 2008, while USA Today selected these 10 Stellar Commencement Addresses. (The Best of 2008 list includes the moving Last Lecture speech by Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon, which is also available as a book in DACC's library.) The Humanity Archive gathers together 29 speeches that the Humanity Initiative feels are the most noteworthy and inspirational after reviewing thousands dating back into the 1930s. And finally, for something completely uninspiring, but quite funny, check out Stephen Colbert's commencement address last year at Princeton, when he advised graduates to Not Go Out and Change the World.
Recover
After the party, check out (or encourage your graduates to check out) these Top Ten Movies for Recent Grads according to Gradspot.
For an after-party chow down, if you don't want to go out, consider making something from Mr. Breakfast. Remember, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, even when you have it at 2 in the morning. Or maybe midnight cookie madness is more in your line? Well then, try BakingCookies.com.
Adapt
While life on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter can be a major part of a student's day, sometimes the postings on these sites may not present the most flattering portrait to potential employers. Unfortunately future employers are more and more likely to google any likely job applicant and check out any social web profiles. So it may be time for an online facelift, as Cleaning Up Your Online Profile explains.
This last is just one of the 30 steps in Gradspot's 30 in 30 Insider's Guide for Getting a Job in the 90s. This handy site offers a sequence of moves intended to help graduates undertake a plan of action in relation to their job search. While originally assembled in the 90s, it's been updated so that the advice still holds true today. While attending to cleaning up their online profile, jobseekers would also benefit from using another social networking site, LinkedIn, to improve their job search. In conjunction with using LinkedIn is the whole notion of branding yourself as part of modern job search.
Already have a line on a job? Great. Even internships don't completely prepare people for their first job. Here are some useful guidelines to make the transition into that first job easier. Even for experienced workers, the first day on any new job can benefit from planning. If that job is going to require any travel, it would be worthwhile to Prepare for Corporate Travel. If your trip involves leaving the country you'll want to make sure that you are up to date on what that entails as well, because travel restrictions regarding cross-border travel are changing in June. Another set of lifestyle changes comes with learning appropriate Internet, Email and Phone Use in the Workplace.
If transferring to another institution is the plan, graduates should doublecheck the DACC Transfer Checklist page to make certain they crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is. The College of the Sequoias has a useful list of reminders to help make the transition itself easier.
Whatever any graduate's plans, those of us at the DACC Library wish them all the best!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Art Watch
With Mother's Day in the offing, I decided to do a blog that gave a nod to interests that had been my mother's and focus on some of the more interesting things that the library and web have to offer in the realm of art. It's amazing how much wonderful art is readily accessible over the internet, and fantastic variety of forms it takes as well.
@the Library
The DACC library provides access to a couple of wonderful art resources. Many people are aware of the OxfordArtOnline, which gives users not only the Grove Encyclopedia of Art, but also some of the best Oxford Publishers resources on the subject. Users can also view more than 40,000 images using the resource (see the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes featured in Angels and Demons, coming out May 15.) Another resource much less familiar to campus users is the Saskia Digital Image Archive, which contains 30,000 images of various art objects in a variety of media. Images can be loaded directly into Powerpoint presentations (and are licensed for this purpose), but in order to do the CONTENTdm Powerpoint plugin needs to be loaded on your computer. In addition to images, the collection includes supporting material from 19 prominent art history texts, including Gardner's and Understanding Art. Users also create a My Favorites page that only requires a cookie-enabled browser for you to access, allowing you to access your Favorites page as long as you log in under your personal login from various campus computers.
On the Web
When roving the regular web, one of the best places to start looking for art info is Artcyclopedia, which includes articles on artists, movements, particular works and techniques. There are links to images and links to museums so you can visit online all the places you can't make it to in real life. If art history is more your thing, check out Professor Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe's Art History on the Web site, which provides tons of links to sites in a well organized set of pages. You'll find your way to images, museums and lecture notes on a full range of art history topics. And now, as Monty Python would say, for something completely different, check out Web Urbanist the online home of alternative art and architecture (check out Street View for an amazing re-imagining of balloon animals by Jason Heckenwirth).
Specialty Art
The art world is full of highly specialized and highly fascinating nooks and crannies, and the internet has made these more accessible than ever before as fans and artists are able to interact more freely. Here are some specialized art sites that may be of interest. Toonopedia by Don Markstein offers information on everything toon -- artists, characters, production companies, publishers. If you like Toons, you'll enjoy poking around this site. Graffiti has long been regarded as the bane of urban existence by city officials, but the art world has been taking it seriously as a form of urban expression for a number of years. And now for a complete inversion of graffiti art, take a look at these 10 Light Graffiti Artists and Photographers., whose work revels its transient nature. Artists have always tended to be innovators and progressive leaders, so it's not surprising to find the Environmental Art Museum, a site that features work by artists dedicated to creating sustainable relationships with the planet.
Talking 'bout Art
I've mentioned the TED series of talks before, as some of the most inspired online viewing on the web. Your 18 minute window into the works and minds of the leading thinkers of the age. Well there are some interesting talks by artists you can investigate, if you're so inclined. See Theo Jansen bring to life his creatures of sticks and joints, Arthur Ganson's moving sculpture or Miru Kim's juxtaposition of the urban underground and the naked human form. You can also watch Scott McCloud discuss the comics as an art form or Frans Lanting show of his nature photography and discuss what he is trying to achieve with his work.
@the Library
The DACC library provides access to a couple of wonderful art resources. Many people are aware of the OxfordArtOnline, which gives users not only the Grove Encyclopedia of Art, but also some of the best Oxford Publishers resources on the subject. Users can also view more than 40,000 images using the resource (see the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes featured in Angels and Demons, coming out May 15.) Another resource much less familiar to campus users is the Saskia Digital Image Archive, which contains 30,000 images of various art objects in a variety of media. Images can be loaded directly into Powerpoint presentations (and are licensed for this purpose), but in order to do the CONTENTdm Powerpoint plugin needs to be loaded on your computer. In addition to images, the collection includes supporting material from 19 prominent art history texts, including Gardner's and Understanding Art. Users also create a My Favorites page that only requires a cookie-enabled browser for you to access, allowing you to access your Favorites page as long as you log in under your personal login from various campus computers.
On the Web
When roving the regular web, one of the best places to start looking for art info is Artcyclopedia, which includes articles on artists, movements, particular works and techniques. There are links to images and links to museums so you can visit online all the places you can't make it to in real life. If art history is more your thing, check out Professor Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe's Art History on the Web site, which provides tons of links to sites in a well organized set of pages. You'll find your way to images, museums and lecture notes on a full range of art history topics. And now, as Monty Python would say, for something completely different, check out Web Urbanist the online home of alternative art and architecture (check out Street View for an amazing re-imagining of balloon animals by Jason Heckenwirth).
Specialty Art
The art world is full of highly specialized and highly fascinating nooks and crannies, and the internet has made these more accessible than ever before as fans and artists are able to interact more freely. Here are some specialized art sites that may be of interest. Toonopedia by Don Markstein offers information on everything toon -- artists, characters, production companies, publishers. If you like Toons, you'll enjoy poking around this site. Graffiti has long been regarded as the bane of urban existence by city officials, but the art world has been taking it seriously as a form of urban expression for a number of years. And now for a complete inversion of graffiti art, take a look at these 10 Light Graffiti Artists and Photographers., whose work revels its transient nature. Artists have always tended to be innovators and progressive leaders, so it's not surprising to find the Environmental Art Museum, a site that features work by artists dedicated to creating sustainable relationships with the planet.
Talking 'bout Art
I've mentioned the TED series of talks before, as some of the most inspired online viewing on the web. Your 18 minute window into the works and minds of the leading thinkers of the age. Well there are some interesting talks by artists you can investigate, if you're so inclined. See Theo Jansen bring to life his creatures of sticks and joints, Arthur Ganson's moving sculpture or Miru Kim's juxtaposition of the urban underground and the naked human form. You can also watch Scott McCloud discuss the comics as an art form or Frans Lanting show of his nature photography and discuss what he is trying to achieve with his work.
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