News & Updates

The Hamilton Geosciences Rock Collection was recently made available through Shared Shelf Commons, a free, open-access image library. The online collection currently features images of 653 rock samples, along with information about each rock.

The Season of Scams

The holidays are one of the busiest times of the year not only for consumers and retailers, but scammers as well. Every year from holiday e-cards and fake shipping receipts, to charity phishing emails and flash sales, cybercriminals try to take advantage of unsuspecting individuals. So why during the season of giving is there so much taking? Generally speaking, the increase in customer transactions and decrease in attention to detail makes the holidays ripe with opportunity when it comes to cybercrime.

Dec 14, 12:00 Noon
DHi, CJ 102
Lunch Provided

Most people have heard of the ancient Aztecs and Maya, but many other great civilizations flourished in Pre-Columbian Mexico as well. Few are as important and enigmatic as that of the Zapotecs of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. The Zapotecs built a great capitol, Monte Albán, which rose and fell long before the Spanish invasion of 1519 CE. Since the Zapotec glyphic script was no longer in use by the sixteenth century, and has not been deciphered fully, the culture’s deepest beliefs and values are hard to discern. This lecture will discuss some of the issues of return of digital and printed 3D models, the opportunities and challenges that multiple iterations provide.

Janet Thomas Simons, Co-Director Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), recently presented at the international Digital Library Federation Conference on a panel with colleagues from five other liberal arts colleges.

I vividly remember my first introduction to educational technology in the late 90s. My father read to me The New York Times article, “Adult Education; No Tests and You Can Hit Rewind”. It was a new frontier for learning. The Teaching Company, created by Thomas M. Rollins, had started producing The Great Courses series. This series offered filmed lectures designed to provide lifelong learners with an opportunity to further their education. The company promoted no grades, no tests, no homework, but what excited me the most was the ability to stop the VHS tape and rewind to review concepts I did not understand.

My granddaughter, Stephanie, just entered second grade. She will be ready for college in the fall of 2026.  How do we at Hamilton prepare for her generation, one that has had their entire lives documented online?  Considering she was raised with smart phones and iPads, what new technology will she expect to find at college?  These were some of the questions explored by Jamie Casap (@jcasap), Google’s Chief Educational Evangelist, in a talk he presented at the recent Educause conference in Indianapolis.  His presentation was titled “The Digitally Native Generation Z Is Going to College: Are You Ready?”

Kristin Strohmeyer, Research and Outreach Librarian, recently spoke at the October 19 NERCOMP workshop, "Peer to Peer Outreach: Involving Students in Library Operations and Promotion" held in Norwood, Massachusetts. 

More than fifty percent of the employees of the campus have now attended face-to-face information security awareness training sessions.  With all the activities going on in the workday it is sometimes hard to find a time that works for everyone.  We faced a similar situation with our students.  To meet these challenges and adjust for different learning styles, we have licensed a video-based, cybersecurity training program from the SANS Institute called Securing the Human.

October is here! Time for cozy sweaters, glorious fall colors, and of course—National Information Literacy Awareness Month. Established in 2009 by President Obama, National Information Literacy Month makes clear that information literacy is critical for an informed citizenry and a democratic way of life (causing librarians everywhere to rejoice!).

Many faculty take advantage of the resources available in the Hamilton College Special Collections and Archives (SCA)and Jazz Archives.  We now have a form to make planning class visits more efficient and convenient for faculty and library staff. In advance of a visit to the SCA and Jazz Archive, please visit the following website (https://my.hamilton.edu/lits/forms/sca-class-visit-form) and complete the form provided there. This will give SCA staff all of the information they need to prepare for your visit in a timely manner, and insure that all materials requested can be located and retrieved.