December 1: World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day, a day to remember the victims of HIV and to encourage education on this virus.

To learn more, check out the World AIDS Day display at the Griffin Campus Library for a great selection of DVDs and both fiction and non-fiction books.

You can also learn more through some of the fantastic AIDS education resources online.  Here's a list to get you started:

A Timeline of AIDS
This timeline does a great job of showing the development of the AIDS epidemic, year by year.  Starting with 1981, each year has its own blurb and series of relevant links to news and issues of that time.

Southern AIDS Living Quilt
This site focuses on the stories of women in the South living with AIDS.  Watch these video testimonials, or consider contributing one of your own.

NAM AIDS Map
Find resources in your area supporting those with HIV/AIDS.

Kaiser State Health Facts
The Kaiser Foundation’s State Health Facts site allows users to begin their information search either through searching by category or by state.  The ‘state’ search is incredibly helpful for educators looking for grassroots-based initiatives in their local community to provide guest speakers or resources for students living with AIDS.  If searching by the ‘HIV/AIDS’ category, users will be taken to an incredibly comprehensive page of fact sheets, prevention programs and resources, funding sites, and drug assistance programs.

Peer Corps - Teen AIDS
As its title suggests, this site is primarily directed toward educating teens, as well as providing youths with HIV/AIDS with a creative and social outlet.  The site also encourages HIV+ teens to tell their own stories by submitting art, videos, written stories and surveys.

Technology Tuesday: Finals Edition

December is just around the corner - and with it, the finals crunch! This Technology Tuesday features tools to help you cope, whether you're cramming for a test or trying to churn out another paragraph for a research paper.

Noodle Tools
*What: Noodle Tools walks you through the whole research process, from information gathering to writing the paper to citations and bibliographies.  You can use Noodle Tools to help you organize your resources, format your paper, and even set up 'To Do' lists to keep you on track with your assignments.  Check out the online tour for more information!
*How: You can access Noodle Tools through the library website.  To create your account, you will need the school/library password, which you can get by talking to your librarian.

Scholarly vs. Popular Resources
*What:  One of the hardest parts of any research project is figuring out how trustworthy your sources are.  This video is a great starting point for judging any information resources you might think about citing.



Internet Public Library
*What:  Google not giving you the resources you need?  Search through the Internet Public Library (IPL) for free, reliable online resources.  You can search by subject or by resource type.  Still not enough?  You can submit a research question, and a librarian will help you find relevant resources.
*How:  Click here to browse IPL's resources, or here to ask a question.

Write or Die!
*What:  If you need that extra boost to get you writing, Write or Die gives great motivation - if you stop writing for too long, it'll slowly start erasing what you've done so far!  You can adjust the speed and the length of the 'crunch time' before it starts deleting.  This is a life saver for procrastinators.
*How:  Visit Write or Die, set your time and word goal, and start typing directly into the text box.  When you're done, you can download or copy/paste what you've written to Word.