Author Archives: mdilwort

Author Archives: mdilwort

African Heritage and Health Week features food traditions

African Heritage and Health Week features food traditions

As Black History Month begins, African Heritage & Health Week focuses on food traditions from Africa which have enriched the world.  Championed by the nonprofit group Oldways, which educates on heritage-based diets from many world cultures, traditional African dishes and ingredients are highlighted, such as the use of millet, peanut stews, yucca root, and leafy greens.  While anyone can benefit from this cuisine, African Americans suffer disproportionately from health issues like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease which can be mitigated by a traditional diet. Oldways offers health studies, recipes, and food preparation guides on their website.  The Campus Library offers many valuable, vetted resources as well.  Several of our databases focus on African American issues, such as African-American History Online … Continued
University Presses and eBooks

University Presses and eBooks

A university press publishes books that have been written and reviewed by scholars in their fields. IU East Campus Library has access to more than 300,000 eBooks from various databases. They are free to access for anyone with IU East log-in credentials. The Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) database provides access to more than 20,000 academic works from the Oxford University Press. OSO covers subjects from humanities and social sciences to medicine and law. Within the past few days, OSO has added over 100 new titles to their collection, covering a diverse range of topics from 19th century Dutch Protestant theology and Baroque violins to questions about communication and censorship and how mental disorders affect one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. Yiddish … Continued
Open Educational Resources (OER): Adding Diversity and Inclusion to the Classroom

Open Educational Resources (OER): Adding Diversity and Inclusion to the Classroom

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a day of reflection and inspiration. It has us thinking more closely about equity and inclusion in our work in the library, and in particular, how we can support classroom endeavors in this cause. One way we can do this is to support the use and development of Open Educational Resources. We often discuss how Open Educational Resources (OER) can be easily adapted to suit the needs of the students and the instructor and how they can be a more affordable (free!) option for students  in comparison to traditional textbooks. However, it is also important to highlight that because OER can be remixed, revised, and shared freely, they can be used as an agent … Continued
Misinformation and fake news in 2022

Misinformation and fake news in 2022

2022 has begun and fake news continues. To help reduce misinformation in one’s news diet, your IU East Campus Librarians have some tips. Skip the memes How do you know that meme is real?  Sure, it’s got a goofy picture on it and says things you agree with, but that doesn’t make it truthful.  Memes communicate lots of different kinds of information, not all of which is easily categorizable, according to Molloy College professor Jamie Cohen.  In a meme, context is everything, which isn’t always communicable or understandable to a broad audience.  Memes may also serve as a form of folklore, in that they are transmitted person-to-person.  Memes and folklore, including folk stories, share a lot in common, particularly in … Continued
Meet the bloggers

Meet the bloggers

The IU East Campus librarians have been writing blogs regularly since 2010. Each week, we feature topics and library resources that may interest, intrigue, be useful, or in some way edifying. Throughout 2022 we will continue to share resources that may be new or tried-and-true, that have been curated by information professionals. This blog highlights content that represents the variety and scope of the reliable resources we featured throughout the year. Matt Dilworth, Coordinator of Reference and Media, shares his variety of knowledge, blogging about subjects that range from archeology and astronomy to heritage and history. As a primary provider of research assistance, Matt has a breadth and depth of experience in accessing an array of academic resources to assist … Continued