Connecting Incarcerated College Students to Digital Learning Resources

These slides accompanied the presentation, Connecting Incarcerated Students to Digital Resources, which was delivered on April 1, 2022, during the general session, at the CARL-ACRL conference. The slides describe Ethan Annis\u27 experience, between December 2019 - March 2022, of leading efforts to incorporate technology and library services into the education of students at Mount Tamalpais College, which educates ~300 incarcerated students inside San Quentin. When Ethan started, there were no computers for student use. By the end of March 2022 there were 35 laptops inside (plus 25 ordered), every student had a Canvas account, computer literacy assessment, tutoring and labs were available, and we had an MOU with the CDCR and had raised funds to expand the program. We hired a full time Director of IT & Library Services who began work on April 4, 2022

Reflections on the Asymmetry of the Tetragrammaton

The Tetragrammaton are the four Hebrew letters for the word God, yud hey vahv hey, that God used to reveal himself to Moses. The name is commonly translated as He brings into existence whatever exists. People do not know how the name was pronounced. When the Temple existed, it was pronounced by the High Priest once during the high during the High Holidays each year. The name was probably once ubiquitous in the Tanak but was largely replaced by the Masoretes between the 6th and 10th C A

The Role of Libraries in a Digital Age

Presented to Dominican University of California faculty and staff, on November 27, 2018, by Ethan Annis. It explores the role of academic libraries and academic librarians at a time when print book borrowing and reference questions have both declined by about 75%. During the same period, libraries\u27 gate counts, usage of digital resources, the prevalence of predatory academic journals and the number of engagements with fake news have all increased. The presenter proposes that libraries decrease space devoted to stacks and librarians teach students to distinguish between reliable, empirically based information and fiction. It also explores options for using the space made available from housing stacks more efficiently

Helping Students Navigate the News in an Age With Alternative Facts : Distinguishing Between Real & Fake News

This presentation demonstrates a process for navigating the news in two parts. The first part looks at how to determine the internal validity of the argument. By looking at aspects on the argument like contradictions, sometimes an argument can be rejected. The second part explores how the argument fits into context and shows how to use fact checking resources. The presentation also discusses some potential traps, like confirmation bias

Teaching Big History

Big History is a new field on a grand scale: it tells the story of the universe over time through a diverse range of disciplines that spans cosmology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and archaeology, thereby reconciling traditional human history with environmental geography and natural history.Weaving the myriad threads of evidence-based human knowledge into a master narrative that stretches from the beginning of the universe to the present, the Big History framework helps students make sense of their studies in all disciplines by illuminating the structures that underlie the universe and the connections among them.Teaching Big History is a powerful analytic and pedagogical resource, and serves as a comprehensive guide for teaching Big History, as well for sharing ideas about the subject and planning a curriculum around it. Readers are also given helpful advice about the administrative and organizational challenges of instituting a general education program constructed around Big History. The book includes teaching materials, examples, and detailed sample exercises.This book is also an engaging first-hand account of how a group of professors built an entire Big History general education curriculum for first-year students, demonstrating how this thoughtful integration of disciplines exemplifies liberal education at its best and illustrating how teaching and learning this incredible story can be transformative for professors and students alike.https://scholar.dominican.edu/books/1073/thumbnail.jp

Probing the Fundamental Nature of Dark Matter with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

Astrophysical and cosmological observations currently provide the only robust, empirical measurements of dark matter. Future observations with Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will provide necessary guidance for the experimental dark matter program. This white paper represents a community effort to summarize the science case for studying the fundamental physics of dark matter with LSST. We discuss how LSST will inform our understanding of the fundamental properties of dark matter, such as particle mass, self-interaction strength, non-gravitational couplings to the Standard Model, and compact object abundances. Additionally, we discuss the ways that LSST will complement other experiments to strengthen our understanding of the fundamental characteristics of dark matter. More information on the LSST dark matter effort can be found at https://lsstdarkmatter.github.io/

Probing the Fundamental Nature of Dark Matter with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

94 pages, 22 figures, 1 tableAstrophysical and cosmological observations currently provide the only robust, empirical measurements of dark matter. Future observations with Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will provide necessary guidance for the experimental dark matter program. This white paper represents a community effort to summarize the science case for studying the fundamental physics of dark matter with LSST. We discuss how LSST will inform our understanding of the fundamental properties of dark matter, such as particle mass, self-interaction strength, non-gravitational couplings to the Standard Model, and compact object abundances. Additionally, we discuss the ways that LSST will complement other experiments to strengthen our understanding of the fundamental characteristics of dark matter. More information on the LSST dark matter effort can be found at https://lsstdarkmatter.github.io/

Dark Matter Science in the Era of LSST

Astrophysical observations currently provide the only robust, empirical measurements of dark matter. In the coming decade, astrophysical observations will guide other experimental efforts, while simultaneously probing unique regions of dark matter parameter space. This white paper summarizes astrophysical observations that can constrain the fundamental physics of dark matter in the era of LSST. We describe how astrophysical observations will inform our understanding of the fundamental properties of dark matter, such as particle mass, self-interaction strength, non-gravitational interactions with the Standard Model, and compact object abundances. Additionally, we highlight theoretical work and experimental/observational facilities that will complement LSST to strengthen our understanding of the fundamental characteristics of dark matter