Final Post

It’s hard to believe that my last semester at Gettysburg College is almost over. My senior year has gone by so quickly! Yesterday, I helped with the Finals Study Break. We served almost 12 gallons on ice cream to students working in the library. I also managed to win my first game of Uno with Clint, Mallory, Meghan, and Chelsea. I have learned so much from my internship. Our library is a complex organism with various moving parts, and it takes coordination and hard work to keep things running. I am glad that I was about to focus on one aspect of librarianship to see how it connects with the other parts of the library. [excerpt

Instruction and Focus Groups

My internship focuses not only on reference librarianship, but also information literacy and instruction. Accordingly, I’ve been fortunate to sit in on some library instruction classes with Clint. I think that the image of a librarian as a reference resource is pretty well established in our cultural consciousness, at least here at Gettysburg College, but the image of librarian as teacher is perhaps not as prominent. At some colleges and universities, however, librarians are considered part of the faculty. [excerpt

Open-Access and The Cupola

I am currently working to develop The Cupola, Gettysburg College’s open-access compliant institutional repository. That’s a mouthful! What, exactly, is an open-access compliant institutional repository? Since I’m a philosophy student at heart, I’ll engage in a little bit of conceptual analysis and explain what each of these constituent terms mean. An institutional repository is a place where an institution—in this case, Gettysburg College—can store and preserving the research created by its members. The Cupola stores research by faculty, but also students. [excerpt

Introduction Post: John Hill

My first two weeks have been busy and exciting. I have trained with several reference librarians during my shifts at the Reference Desk. Each of them has a different perspective on librarianship, and each of them plays a different role in Musselman Library, but all of them are devoted to making useful resources available to students and faculty and to teaching them how to use these resources. I am excited to practice strategies for answering people’s questions, but I am admittedly nervous to staff the desk on my own. I am confident, though, that with a little bit more time and experience, I’ll be okay. [excerpt

At the Desk

During the past few weeks of my internship, I\u27ve spent time providing research consultations at the Reference Desk. I initially sat with a librarian during my shift, but I’m now working independently. Since then, I have fielded questions about gender roles in high school guidance offices, the invasive nature of the lionfish species, and the causes of industrialization in early modern Spain. [excerpt

T-Parity Violation by Anomalies

Little Higgs theories often rely on an internal parity ("T-parity'') to suppress non-standard electroweak effects or to provide a dark matter candidate. We show that such a symmetry is generally broken by anomalies, as described by the Wess-Zumino-Witten term. We study a simple SU(3) x SU(3)/SU(3) Little Higgs scheme where we obtain a minimal form for the topological interactions of a single Higgs field. The results apply to more general models, including [SU(3) x SU(3)/SU(3)]^4, SU(5)/SO(5), and SU(6)/Sp(6).Comment: 17 page

Z -> b\bar{b} Versus Dynamical Electroweak Symmetry Breaking involving the Top Quark

In models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking which sensitively involve the third generation, such as top quark condensation, the effects of the new dynamics can show up experimentally in Z->b\bar{b}. We compare the sensitivity of Z->b\bar{b} and top quark production at the Tevatron to models of the new physics. Z->b\bar{b} is a relatively more sensitive probe to new strongly coupled U(1) gauge bosons, while it is generally less sensitive a probe to new physics involving color octet gauge bosons as is top quark production itself. Nonetheless, to accomodate a significant excess in Z->b\bar{b} requires choosing model parameters that may be ruled out within run I(b) at the Tevatron.Comment: LaTex file, 19 pages + 2 Figs., Fermilab-Pub-94/231-

A survey of space radiation effects

The effects of space radiation and its significance for space missions, as they increase in scope, duration, and complexity are discussed. Type of radiation hazard may depend on location or on special equipment used. It is emphasized that it is necessary to search for potential radiation problems in the design stage of a mission. Problem areas such as radiation damage to solar cells and the revolutionary advances are discussed. Radiation effect to electronics components other than solar cells, and several specialized areas such as radioactivity and luminescence are also examined