Student Loan Forgiveness

We may have patrons ask us about the details

You have likely heard that President Biden extended some forgiveness to holders of federal student loans. Here’s an article with the details from the AP: Student loan forgiveness could help more than 40 million.

There are many different arguments both for and against this executive action, but no matter the case, there are many people curious about how they can take advantage of the savings, and we will likely have some people asking us about the details.

Here’s what I could find so far from a specific page at the Department of Education website, https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief-announcement/ about their three part plan:

• Part 1. Final extension of the student loan repayment pause
  • payments will resume in January 2023
  • this is automatic–nothing needs to be done
• Part 2. Providing targeted debt relief to low- and middle-income families
  • the U.S. Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients…and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients…if their individual income is less than $125,000 or $250,000 for households.
• Part 3. Make the student loan system more manageable for current and future borrowers
  • the Biden-Harris Administration is proposing a rule to create a new income-driven repayment plan that will substantially reduce future monthly payments for lower- and middle-income borrowers.
    • The rule would:
      • Require borrowers to pay no more than 5% of their discretionary income monthly on undergraduate loans
      • Raise the amount of income that is considered non-discretionary income and therefore is protected from repayment
      • Forgive loan balances after 10 years of payments
      • Cover the borrower’s unpaid monthly interest

To get the full information about what changes apply to patrons and how to take advantage of them we should direct patrons to the Department of Education site linked above, but this post will familiarize you with the broad basics of the legislation.

ADDITIONALLY: the ed.gov site is frequently running slowly due to high traffic volume.

The Biota of North America Program

BONAP embarks on an ambitious project

The Biota of North America Program website aims to compile “…a comprehensive continental flora” catalog for North America.

This site has an old-school feel to it.

According to the site such a list has been attempted before, but has not successfully been completed due to the massive task at hand. Not only is there an enormous amount of flora in the contiguous 48 states, when Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are included the list grows more daunting. BONAP does not, apparently, labor under a delusion that they have or will complete such a work, but they do feel that the advent of the internet and its accompanying collaborative nature can produce a fluid work that holds the potential to realize a satisfactory collection.

This site is NOT kidding–it’s a serious undertaking!

On the about page BONAP describes some of their tools in detail:

Again, this site is serious about compiling scientifically thorough information about this topic.

This site is content rich to the point of almost being intimidating, but it does appear to go a long way to achieving the task. It also is a bit old fashioned looking in 2022, but that means little.

There is absolutely use for such a tool in our department, and it will be interesting to see, as we explore what it has to offer, how much it may be of service to us as we assist patrons in seeking information on North American native plants.

An Additional File Conversion Resource

Convertio adds to our PSD toolbox

You may have used Zamzar from time to time to help a patron convert a file from one format to another. With that site we’ve helped patrons with such tasks as converting a PDF to a Word document or other similar tasks. Zamzar has worked well enough, but it’s always great to have options, so I’ve added a similar site to our arsenal: Convertio.

Landing page for Convertio

Convertio appears more well known and supported than Zamzar, which can be both good and bad depending on other details. The site makes big claims about their utility and bona fides, and can apparently support large daily usage numbers.

Impressive, no?

They offer a membership, which I can’t imagine us ever utilizing, but we should be fully informed. I would imagine some of the functions of the site are not available for free, so in those instances we’d obviously need to use Zamzar or another free app. We may have patrons interested in the site membership though, so here are the details:

Not to sound like a salesman, but for someone interested the annual Basic plan does seem the best deal at just under $110 annually.

Though typically we’ve converted various text type files for patrons (PDF, Word, etc.), Convertio converts most types of files. Here is a screenshot of me converting a JPEG image file of my own to a WEBP format:

It’s easy to work this interface. I can also add more than one file if I like.

Technically, the free version of the site places a lower priority on file conversions submitted by free users, but this file was converted in under ten seconds. It’s hard to complain about that!

The speed of the conversion is a good sign!

Just to test out the site, both from a utility standpoint and to see if performing other types of transfers incurred a cost of any kind, I converted a video file as well. It took longer, but it still worked great, and I wasn’t asked to pay for anything.

Time will tell if this resource is as useful and user friendly as Zamzar has been for us. Give the site a look when you get a chance.

Fight Claims of “Fake News”

Journalist Sally Lehrman create a way to increase trust for her industry.

The Trust Project is a vital, necessary endeavor in today’s treacherous journalism industry. Spurred by cries of “fake news”, the “Main Stream Media” is often under attack as wholesale irrelevant at best, nefarious and evil at worst. The news as we have always known it has lost the trust of many in our country and across the world. The internet has complicated the issue, as anyone with a connection can write whatever they please, and someone skilled enough in the tools can make any sort of information appear trustworthy, legitimate and true.

Sally Lehrman took a look at the problem, asked what could be done about it, and out of this process has grown the site The Trust Project (https://thetrustproject.org/):

This is the main home page as of 07/07/22.

The About page begins by stating the mission of the site and elaborates from this point: “To amplify journalism’s commitment to transparency, accuracy, inclusion and fairness so that the public can make informed news choices.”

The question about the relationship between technology and trust is a vital one for our times.

One of the core messages of the entire site is a set of principles labeled the “8 Trust Indicators”: questions to ask about a certain news story, organization or trend to help you decide if the information is true and trustworthy:

These are tools important to anyone wanting to get the actual scoop, with integrity and wholeness.

This site has a lot to offer, and one should take one’s time in order to really glean as much as can be learned about these tools.

There is much to see on this site.

In our department we don’t necessarily deal directly with much of the information that is saddled with the “fake news” tag. The New York Times, Time magazine and others have been fiercely criticized for disseminating false information, but this site remains relevant to our department, despite the lack of the major “news” resources residing in our collection here in Sciref. As librarians, we need to understand the various news outlets, how to discern from among a spectrum of sources from fact-based to obviously suspect.

There are other tools available to us in this quest, but The Trust Project should be one of the chief tools.

The How-To Geek Can Help!

Free, expert help on this website could be just the ticket for our patrons

The free site How-To Geek styles itself as a site curated by experts that explains technical subjects in easy to understand ways:

They seem to have a similar approach as the Dummies or Complete Idiot’s series of books.

A quick look at the home page reveals some of the latest articles written, and while they may not all directly apply to our topic areas, many of them do:

It also appears to have a sort of Consumer Reports or Wirecutter feel at times, with reviews and reports.

Possibly the most helpful section of the site for our patrons (and ourselves!) is in the dropdown menu for “explore” (sounds familiar, no?). Here’s a screenshot:

I highlighted the Windows section, as that seems the most likely area to be used, by patrons or ourselves.

Here’s a presentation of topics if you click “Windows” on the previous screen:

As you can see, you can further parse topics by different MS programs.

Particularly relevant at this time is a section on Libre Office, which has replaced MS Word on many of our patron computers. This article in particular is a recommended read for all of us to be sure when a patron has a question about Libre we’ve already familiarized ourselves with it.

The article is pretty recent and claims to be an 8 minute read, so go for it.

Overall, How-To Geek appears to be authoritative & helpful and it’s definitely free.

Vital Information For Local Gardeners/Homeowners/Landscapers

Further information about the important topic of Invasive Species

The Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States defines invasive species as “Non-native invasive species…that have been introduced by humans either purposely or by accident and that have become serious environmental pests.”

One of the first steps gardeners, homeowners and landscapers can take in discouraging, preventing and eliminating invasives is identification, and this site is a good tool to help with this task.

There is much information on this site, so I’ll just highlight a few features to rustle up interest. First, the site prominently features a link to the EDDMapS site (another article for another day) in which individuals may report sightings of invasive species for tracking purposes. Next there is a link to a list of invasive species in need of sample pictures, and requests for users to add pictures as they can:

The site also links to other helpful resources such as webinars relevant to invasive species issues:

Take some time to peruse the site for more in-depth information, but suffice it to say there is a lot on this site for those interested in the topic.

Federal Assistance Women-Owned Small Businesses

The US Small Business Administration targets these businesses for the WOSB

In order to “…help provide a level playing field for women business owners, the government limits competition for certain contracts to businesses that participate in the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contracting program.”

The informational site has all the details necessary to answer questions about the program, and may well be a vital resource to certain customers who ask us about starting and maintaining a small business.

Gardener Beware

While often beautiful, non-native, invasive plants cause problems for gardeners and others.

You may be familiar with “the weed that ate the south”, aka Kudzu. It is a great example of an invasive plant, or, as the USDA defines it “1. Non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration, and, 2. Whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” This is from Executive Order 13112, which was signed by President Clinton in 1999 in order “…to prevent the introduction of invasive species and provide for their control and to minimize the economic, ecological, and human health impacts that invasive species cause”.

The US Forest Service has a page on invasives, pictured above. Here is the link: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/invasives/index.shtml

There is also a USDA Invasive Species Information Center website, pictured below. Here’s the link: https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/

There is much to learn about invasives, and, sometimes you may be disappointed to learn that some garden favorites are actually invasives, such as privet.

So, take your time to peruse these sites, and, if we have questions at the PSD about invasives, both of these sites would be great referrals for our patrons.

Rewilding For the Planet

Rewilding Magazine is just one resource for this exciting movement

Rewilding is a popular movement that promotes returning land to as native as possible by protecting certain areas and removing invasive species of plants and animals from the lands to be replaced by native species.

Here’s a pretty good article that explains it more fully from a site called rewilding.org.

We may have patrons ask for books about this topic, and we do have a few, such as Bringing nature home : how you can sustain wildlife with native plants and Nature’s best hope : a new approach to conservation that starts in your yard, both by Douglas W. Tallamy. Ultimately, if a topic is going to be popular, which this one may become, it’s a good idea to have multiple resources available. So, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the sites listed above in case we get some questions about it.

Specific Information About a Medical Issue

Huntington’s Disease has been in the news lately–it would behoove us to know a bit more about it: what is it and what are the most helpful resources?

Huntington’s Disease is an incurable condition that has been in the news lately due to some higher profile individuals speaking up about it. From time to time we have patrons who ask us about specifics of a particular disease or condition, and we may not have many conventional resources to address it. That’s where a good set of online resources can be very helpful.

Huntington’s Disease Society of America is a big step in that direction.

Initially, it can be helpful to know exactly what the condition is:

Additionally, we may want to add some resources to our physical collection at some point, and here is a list of books apparently recommended by HDSA:

We need to be mindful to keep as up to date as we can about various issues, and this particular condition has resources to demonstrate how helpful the internet can be as a resource for patrons if we use it properly.

USDA Seed Site

The USDA has a site specifically for what they call the National Seed Laboratory

The site itself is poorly executed–it looks like it was made in the late ’90s or early 2000’s, but it does have a lot of good information nonetheless. Here’s their “about” page:

Yes, the entire right of the page is simply blank, while you need to scroll down for the information.

There are focused articles on detailed seed saving, but it is a bit clunky.

There’s a lot more information, and I’ll be perusing the site over the next several weeks, but at this time I’m not 100% sure we should recommend this site to patrons. Hopefully I’ll learn differently over the next few weeks.

Feel free to peruse the site yourself to see if together we can begin to make sense of it and glean helpful information, both for our own gardens and to share with patrons.

Focused Information For Local Gardeners

UT Extension has a wealth of local-focused resources on their site

Here and here can be found many helpful publications covering everything a local gardener needs to plant, protect, grow and harvest their best garden yet:

There are plenty of educational resources one may access. This is what popped up after I clicked “Educational Resources” at the top of the home page.

This is a list of articles after clicking one of the subject headings above:

There is, of course, much more information to be found on this page, but I’ll leave that to you, and the patrons to whom you recommend this site, to discover on your own.

Happy gardening!

Wealth of Invertebrate Information

The Xerces Society spreads the word about bugs and such!

The Xerces Society is a nonprofit that dedicates itself to working towards and sharing information about conservation for invertebrates and their habitats:

“The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. As a science-based organization, we both conduct our own research and rely upon the most up-to-date information to guide our conservation work. Our key program areas are: pollinator conservation, endangered species conservation, and reducing pesticide use and impacts.”

The site has all sorts of scientifically accurate information about various invertebrates, conservation efforts and other related topics.

I was able to download a PDF copy of their fall ’21 journal of Essays on Invertebrate Conservation, called Wings, for free:

They host webinars, a blog, and so much more. Head on over to the site to check out everything this content-rich site has to offer. Our patrons may well gain much from this site–if they don’t already know about it.

Focusing on the Purpose of This Departmental Blog

Rolodex is meant to augment our arsenal of tools to assist patrons

We’ve all been there–someone earnestly requests information about a specific topic, and we don’t quite have what they need, or what we have is hopelessly outdated or even missing. It can happen with several different topics: auto repair, principles of flight, CDL, math topics, and so on.

For many of these topics we have databases, online books and other such tools that are extremely informative and helpful to those who will access such tools.

These tools are not comprehensive, nor should we expect them to be. That’s where Rolodex can assist us. As I search the mighty WWW I seek out sites and pages that are in some way relevant to our subject areas. If you look through the various article headings I hope that you’ll agree.

I hate sending a patron away empty handed. My hope in choosing Rolodex topics is that for those times when we have too few resources available for patrons in a particular area we can help fill that gap with these sites. There will remain patrons who won’t use online resources, but there are plenty of other patrons who will eagerly use whatever information they can grasp.

So, the next time you find yourself in a quandary due to a dearth of hard resources in our department, consider searching the Rolodex for potential information that you can pass on to a patron. We are, after all, curators of information, and what we pass on may exactly fit a patron’s needs.

Here’s a Fun Tool That Can Help With Planning

The National Day Calendar lists special days, both big and small

Most of us are often on the lookout for fun, creative ways to capture the attention of patrons, and this site, https://nationaldaycalendar.com/ could be a good tool to help with that.

The concept is simple: there are many special days we all know about, such as holidays and sometimes even more established days such as Arbor Day and the like. This site simply lists as many as can be found, and each day is usually a special day for someone.

As an example, when I logged in on 01/10/22 I discovered that it was National Clean Off Your Desk Day (which, it will be of no surprise to you, I do not observe).

“But wait, there’s more!”

This calendar can come in handy by revealing certain days that would actually be relevant to the department. As you can see above, any of those topics could have helped people explore our collection: Save the Eagles Day, National Bittersweet Chocolate Day, and so on. These days are simply an excuse for sharing specific information, and we may be able to take advantage of them to promote our collection.

I mean, January 29th is National Seed Swap Day–is there lower hanging fruit for our department?

There are a few ways to search for future days, and the site also lists special weeks, special months and International special days. This screenshot for February already has several opportunities of which we may take advantage.

Many of these are slightly goofy, (Heavenly Hash Day?) but some are serious days, like Freedom Day.

I didn’t take an opportunity to dig deep outside of this site via links, but I won’t be surprised to learn that some of these special days could have giveaway opportunities from those who sponsor them (I’m hoping to score some free Heavenly Hash on February 2!) Go over and check this site out–you may find it could enhance your program, display or Facebook post (I’m lookin’ at you, McVey!).

Example of a Different Sort of Helpful Blog

Owlcation.com is a collaborative effort on several subjects

The blog Owlcation.com is a blog, which is similar to the last post made earlier today.

It is, however a different sort of blog: it is curated and staffed by various professionals in various fields relevant to our department:

You can see from the screenshots above that while there are non-departmental topics, such as humanities, there are also departmental topics, such as STEM, Social Sciences and Agriculture.

Additionally, if you read the About section you’ll see that while they use such terms as “aficionados” and “enthusiasts” to describe their content creators, they also make clear that their creators are also “…engineers…” and other professionals. So, while the site appears to not make authoritative claims about their content, they are making solid claims about the bona fides of most, if not all, of their authors.

Here are some examples of the content offered:

As with the other blog profiled today there are too many ads, and they are at times obtrusive. I have seen sites with worse ad issues than this, however, so overall it’s not too bad.

Check this site out to see if it would be of use to our patrons.

Good Example of an Informative Blog

Growit Buildit has a lot to offer.

When it comes to information relevant to our department, we sometimes overlook blogs. growitbuildit.com is a great example of a blog that can be helpful and informative to our patrons in several ways:

As a blog we must consider the information found there differently than we would for information sourced from a more authoritative source. After all, while some blogs are direct outgrowths of a legitimate business or other more formal, standardized organization (such as the one you’re now reading) I would guess that a vast majority of blogs are like this one: written and curated privately by individuals not officially associated with a larger entity. So, while much information can be solid and very helpful, we must always remember that blogs such as this are usually based on the experiences and opinions on one or a few personal opinions of the author(s).

In this particular case the authors are a married couple, Joe and Tara, and here is how they describe themselves:

So, with that caveat in mind, allow me to point to a few interesting features of this particular blog.

1. Solid gardening advice

Just one example is this article I found on removing sod from soil to build a new garden bed. This article is how I came across this site: I needed to find good ways to perform exactly this task, and this blog was one of the first hits. I tried the process outlined in this post myself and it worked VERY well. There are several other such posts in this blog regarding tips on garden tasks of various types.

This post linked directly to a video on YouTube as well, which made the post even more helpful.

2. Helpful advice on native plants

I could not find on the site exactly where this couple lives, so it’s unclear if their list of native plants is 100% compatible with our area, but many natives to one part of the US extends through much of the US, so many of the plants on their list will apply to our area no matter from where the author hails. (Unless it’s someplace like Arizona, Nevada or some other landscape that is obviously quite different from ours.)

They also have a long list of natives for which they’ve written synopses:

Here’s a synopsis example:

As a side note: my cup plants, which I’ve cut back quite a bit since most of them are dead or winter-dormant, still have some bright yellow blooms on them at this writing in late December!

There are other features of the site that may interest you: an Etsy shop, Facebook group, YouTube channel, etc., but, as demonstrated above, I think with proper caveats we can confidently refer any interested patrons to this site without fear of steering them wrong.

P.S.: One more thing about this site: it is way too ad-heavy. I didn’t check to see which blog platform is utilized by this couple, but, as with many such blog sites, they clearly pay their bills by placing ads all over the various blogs. In my opinion the information shared is worth it to slog through some ads.

Happy clicking!

Newslookup.com for broad coverage

Newslookup.com is a news aggregator, meaning it aggregates headlines and news stories from several different sources across the world without regard to ideology, political bent or other such factors. It simply aggregates the news.

 

You can create a free profile, download various feed programs and more.

New Finance Tool For Young Adults

Invesco and the NCAA have teamed up for this one

Invesco has been enlisted to help create “the official financial education program of the NCAA®” They came up with How Not to Suck at Money, an online video game to help teach and reinforce 5 “money secrets”.

You can play with an account or as a guest.

The art is interesting, and the game play is pretty linear.

When one of the five “secrets” is introduced there is an informational video…

…then the player has tasks to complete before moving to the next “secret”.

Time will tell if this tool helps anyone, but kudos to those involved for attempting to engage young adults with this information in a way that may well snag them.

This can also be a good tool for any patron asking about personal finance issues. It’s fairly basic, but sometimes people are having issues because they’ve ignored the basics, right?

Additional Resource for the Nutrition-Curious

Today’s Dietician is a comprehensive resource not just for nutrition professionals, but for anyone willing to work a bit harder

Today’s Dietician is a journal published for the last 17 years specifically for nutritionists and related disciplines. There is both professional information and resources but for laypeople desiring more detailed, authoritative information on issues of diet and nutrition.

Their “about” page gives a bit more detail on their target audience:

While the journal is a subscription, and I assume not everything on the site is free, I did click on a few articles and was given full access to the full text without being told I was limited to X amount of articles per month, or other, similar policies from subscription sites.

Overall, this seems like a good resource for authoritative nutrition information, and at first glance seems a solid recommendation for patrons asking about this topic.