Recently in Penn State Category

It was impressive to hear from Dr. Abraham Nemeth, the historic mathematics professor who developed the standard system of Braille used for math in the sciences.  Recording of the lecture available online.  He worked on Computer Science projects at Penn State in 1968 and 1969.  He had a map of Penn State in cloth with embroidered routes and notes of braille posted on locations in code for look up in another braille book.  After studying it he could get to McAllister with no trouble on his own.  A very amusing lecturer, I would have enjoyed sitting in his math courses.  He had some comments about the lack of air conditioning at Penn State dormitories.

He started from the beginning - born blind, he grew up in NYC (New York Jewish Guild for the Blind).  He had many experiences growing up blind - learning NYC, writing letters with rubber stamps, touching objects including neon lights.  He went on errands and made change as a boy, and even today keeps up in math by solving problems in physics/chemistry/math textbooks as recreation.  He has electrician skills, like installing wiring, which started by circuit diagram drawing.  It was interesting how he practiced using a soldering iron (used a pencil to direct the soldering iron, melting solder smell is indication it was done)

Arithmetic was a problem already in elementary school, because the method for working was slow.  In high school he tutored someone as a 9th grader in math and took as much math as possible.  Then in Brooklyn College he took lots of math again during the depression years.  He was told that a Math Major is out of bounds, since there were no materials and a reader would need to be very skilled.  So he did a psychology major instead, even a Masters from Columbia.  First job was with the American Federation for the Blind as unskilled labor.  Then his wife worked while he pursued an advanced Math degree, asking him "Wouldn't you rather be an unemployed Mathematician than an unemployed Psychologist."

The existing Taylor code was only good for elementary algebra. He had to figure out all these things - his experience with print letters helped since letters are used to reference SO many things in English "t-square", etc.  Nemeth code uses such print oriented references.  It was only for his use, until someone else blind needed a integral table and this person was on a international committee (1952).  While teaching math, he would tell students stories of inspirational mathematicians or problems.

When asked about his favorite branch of mathematics (by our local Diane Henderson) he said calculus and analysis because it is so precise (though his dissertation was in topology)  If you are teaching a blind math student, would you as a teacher need to know the Nemeth code? Yes, you need to check his work.  Also if he came across an expression he didn't know you would need to explain it.  You don't have to learn the whole code, just learn the part that is in your area of interest (for example, only the signs for the expressions you use)

This post is just to see if it shows up in Google Reader during Ellysa Cahoy's presentation on readers.

Also, Lawrence Lessig loves AMVs, which you can all watch now

We have a good number of books on Computer and Video Games from design to programming to marketing. But there are all over the place, and I don't just me at the College Campus libraries though their collections often hold more copies than University Park.

GV1469.17 3rd Floor Paterno - Business Library
QA76.76.C672 4th Floor Paterno - Life Sciences Library
Hammond Bldg - Engineering Library

I'll add more to this post as I find them, but if you want a really good example do a CAT search on keyword "nintendo".

1) Does anyone read my blog?

2) Do you know of any universities that have tenure track librarians and also a library school with tenured faculty? How similar are they and how do they interact? Those I have talked to so far (including myself) only have experience where the librarians are quasi-tenure with a separate/dis-similar system. How would Penn State accommodate Library and Information Science faculty professors?

I attended one talk during the 2008 IST Graduate Symposium this year and it was the opening keynote from Google's Dr. Peter Norvig, director of research. I was hoping to hear more about the new Google Research project that would support eScience and large data sets. Instead I got a talk that appealed to the Computer Scientist in my (ah, 211). He covered what was in the description of the keynote, the amazing ability of simple algorithms to identify images and natural language text... just because of BILLIONS of data points. Test their ability to draw semantic links between ideas from words with Google Sets.

Some gems of insight:
"Don't make algorithms that work well, make algorithms that work well with large enough data"
We can model the entire world by "using the world as it's own model"
We don't need to define rules because "the rules are in the data"

I am here at ALA in Philly. I am testing the Sony VAIO UX280P for PSU Libraries handheld device project. I am getting better at typing, but these posts will probably look more like Twitter each day. But web browsing is fast with the stylus AND built-in mouse. I can even take a picture of myself.

If you are someone who feels guilty about playing Guitar Hero at ALA Conventions, then you may also wonder what role video games could have in an academic library. In many cases, as in most public libraries, the goal is to get students into the library with programming involving video games. But from the latest State of the Libraries by our Dean, we have plenty of students using the library so that isn't a high priority goal.

But what about a study break? Something to reduce stress during finals and other study time the students are spending in the library. Three separate articles from the Collegian Magazine today all evoked the need for this.

About winter break "[I'm] taking a well deserved rest from ... all-nighters in the library"

The entire article Students' study habits go beyond coffee craze about studying in the library

And finally Study: Americans shying from books (with a precious quote from our own Steven Herb) about the lack of reading for pleasure.

All of these cried out to me that students see the library as a place of stress, an almost necessary evil of studying. We have a responsibility to help students find a way to manage their stress and a video game study break could be a great start.