Weekly Reader

Private Distress
"Some private colleges that managed to weather the recession are finding new troubles.So they are announcing layoffs, cutting programs and more. Almost all of these small to mid-sized privates are tuition-dependent and lack large endowments. National declines in the number of traditional college-age population mean students just aren't showing up to privates, which are facing competition from public colleges that are more stable now than a few years ago and the reality that privates cannot afford to indefinitely lure students by cutting prices with generous financial aid packages. And this could become a huge problem."-- Ry Rivard, Inside Higher Ed News, 12/9/13

Speaking Up for the Creditless MOOC
"Last year I agreed to teach a public-speaking MOOC on the Coursera platform. I wasn’t a MOOC advocate, but I believe that the study of speech and rhetoric benefits individuals and society as a whole. I routinely offer speech workshops for civic and professional groups around Washington State. A MOOC on public speaking would allow me to run a speech workshop on a global scale." --Matt McGarrity, The Conversation | Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/12/13

The Great Stratification
"Imagine a diorama in an American Museum of Occupations showing the evolution of the professor. The exhibit starts in the early 1800s with an austere, black-suited man in a minister's collar, perhaps looking over the shoulder of a student at a rustic desk, with a Greek text open in front of him. In the next scene, from around 1900, he morphs into a pince-nez-wearing gentleman in starched collar and cravat, at a podium delivering a lecture." - Jeffrey J. Williams, The Chronicle Review, 12/2/13

4 Unconventional Ways the Internet Can Help You Land a Job
"With thousands of new people entering the job market daily, you need to tap every available resource to stand out. The internet can help you hack into the minds of potential employers, if you know where to look. While these days it's common knowledge to use sites like Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with potential employers, you can get a giant leg up on the competition if you get a little more creative with your World Wide Web use." -- Tessa Miller, Lifehacker, 12/9/13

The Ultimate Guide to the Invisible Web
"Search engines are, in a sense, the heartbeat of the internet; “googling” has become a part of everyday speech and is even recognized by Merriam-Webster as a grammatically correct verb. It’s a common misconception, however, that googling a search term will reveal every site out there that addresses your search. In fact, typical search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing actually access only a tiny fraction – estimated at 0.03% – of the internet. The sites that traditional searches yield are part of what’s known as the Surface Web, which is comprised of indexed pages that a search engine’s web crawlers are programmed to retrieve." -- Staff Writer, iLibrarian Blog, 11/11/13