*Photo by Randall Wylie

Federal and state flags are at half staff today in accordance with President George W. Bush’s 2002 proclamation, “Peace Officers’ Memorial Day and Police Week.”

Here’s an excerpt from the proclamation:

“The name of each fallen officer has a place of honor on the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial wall in Washington, D.C. This monument ensures that the valor of the more than 15,000 law enforcement officers lost since 1794 will never be forgotten.

“Peace Officers’ Memorial Day and Police Week pay tribute to the local, State, and Federal law enforcement officers who serve and protect us with courage and dedication.

~George W. Bush

Posted by Linda Summers

CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!!!!!!

special guest author
Kolton Corr

In case you were wondering, the NSUBA Library will be open the same hours as usual during exam week:  Monday - Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  We will be closed this weekend, Sat & Sun, May 10 & 11.

Beginning Monday, May 12, Intercession Hours will be:  Mon - Thurs, 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  We will be closed on weekends until Summer Session 1 begins on June 9.

The NSUBA Library staff wishes all students the best of luck on exams!

 of balloons!!!

Congratulations are in order for our very own Pamela Louderback who successfully defended her dissertation on Tuesday, April 29th, at Oklahoma State University’s College of Education! 

The title of Dr. Louderback’s dissertation: “Comparing the Predictive Validity of Traditional Intellectual Measures to Socio-Cultural Factors for American Indian College Student Academic Success.” 

Dr. Louderback’s major findings were that when attempting to predict academic success, demographics as well as the typical cognitive factors (ACT scores, GPA) were ineffective predictors when applied to American Indian students. 

The defense took a mere 25 minutes and was of such a caliber that the Dissertation Committee recommended nominating it for “Best Dissertation of the Year” within the OSU College of Education.

Way to go Dr. Louderback!

Posted by Tom Rink

Thanks to those who attended our presentation (our = Pamela Louderback, Linda Summers and myself) at the Oklahoma Library Association Annual Conference Tuesday, 4/22. Your questions and comments were appreciated! Some expressed an interest in continuing the conversation, so feel free to contact us. Our emails, respectively, are louderba@nsuok.edu, summerla@nsuok.edu, holmesjm@nsuok.edu. For those who are interested, the URL for the Library Survivor blog project (work in progress! ;) )is http://www.survivorlibrary.blogspot.com/.

 DELTA Leadership Training Academy Class 2007-2008

The DELTA Leadership Banquet was held Friday night (April 18th). This year’s DELTA Leadership Academy Class had among its membership Elizabeth Bennethum, a student worker at the library (center of back row, above). Following the opening welcome and introductions, four individuals were recognized as the recipients of this year’s “Outstanding Senior Awards.” Included among the four was another of the library’s student workers, Olaf Standley (below with his proud mother). The other awardees were Meagan Newsome, Taunia Smith, and Alice Rathe. 

The program continued with the presentation of the Jack L. Haney Service Award (a new award this year) which is awarded to “the student who has shown outstanding service to NSU and/or the community” (named after, and in honor of, the recently retired but long time NSUBA administrator who embodied this spirit of service). And the winner was . . . Olaf Standley (above).

After a wonderful dinner, we were entertained by a truly exceptional keynote speaker (Josh Sundquist, Paralympic skier [Torino, 2006] ) who kept us in stitches with his tales of adversity, triumph, and goal setting. 

(Josh Sundquist)

(here’s the spread) 

         (Elizabeth and her husband Stephen)

The evening concluded with the presentation of the assorted DELTA Leadership Awards (based upon the core values of the DELTA Leadership Academy) and the Student Government Awards.

Leadership Discipline Award: Mandy Looney

Leadership Excellence Award: Amber Wilcox

Leadership Legacy Award: Robert Catcher

Leadership Trustworthy Award: Megen Cohea

Leadership Ambassadors Award: Danette Martin

Tashi Deley (”I Honor The Greatness In You”) Award: Harmony Pace

Outstanding DELTA Leadership Award: Kenyah Hill

Student Government Senator of the Year Award: Andre Benson

President Pro Tem: Mike Hulett (who was immediately sworn in as the new President of the Student Government).

And, the final recognition of the evening . . . a plaque, out of appreciation for all of the hard work and diligence in establishing a student government body in Broken Arrow, and for serving as its President for so many years . . . Olaf Standley, thank you.

Posted by Tom Rink

This message just came across one of my SLA discussion lists.   Just FYI.

“Frustrated with the lack of commercials or public service announcements (PSAs) for
libraries, the WJE Library partnered with “Library Production Studio” to create
videos for special and academic libraries. (PSAs for public and school libraries are
in pre-production.) The PSAs will run as commercials between segments of a local
access cable show called “What’s New in Libraries.” 

These PSAs have been uploaded to YouTube. 

Please help spread the word about libraries and what they do.

Academic segment:                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFV5mAeiFKo
Special segment:                     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1d8Rx526NI

Posted by Tom Rink

All over the United States, while our college age students are putting the finishing touches on projects and cramming for final exams, school age children are taking national and state writing assessment exams.  How does Oklahoma compare?  Unfortunately, the outcome seems bleak.  

Oklahoma and nine other states recently received an F in academic achievement.  Here are just a few salient points from the Nation’s Report Card.  For more details, go to uschamber.com/reportcard.

• From 1998 to 2005, a period with intensive, high-cost statewide reading initiatives, our scores dropped 5% - Only one other state saw its score drop over this 7-year period
• 30% of our students drop out - a big reason why most drop out may be tied to the fact that few 8th graders are ready to move on to 9th grade math - they simply cannot catch up!
• Our state tests say that 8th graders are 81% proficient in reading, and 76% proficient in math — Yet, national tests show true profiency rates of 25% and 21% respectively.  These are the widest state versus national discrepancies of any state in the nation!
• “C” in Education Funding — our state has a fraction of the state budget of many states ($7.3 billion)
• “F” in Truth in Advertising — Only one other state earned an “F” in truthfulness.  We are continually told that our schools are doing fine, or are at least improving. 
• ACT scores are below average and the gap is widening.  Only 17% of high school graduates are ready for college in all areas.

Let’s not become complacent by fooling ourselves into believing Oklahoma is doing well by “dumbing down” state scores and lowering PASS objective cutoff scores.  Last year, college freshmen spent $15 million for remedial (high school level) courses.  The state must address raising standards and providing a clearer picture on assessment and accountability. 

Pamela Louderback