Critical Thinking Gone Wrong

Earlier this week, the Attorney General of the United States of America, Eric Holder, stated the following quote:

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot in things racial, we have always been, and we, I believe, continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." "Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial." "This is truly sad. Given all that we as a nation went through during the civil rights struggle, it is hard for me to accept that the result of those efforts was to create an America that is more prosperous, more positively race-conscious, and yet is voluntarily socially segregated."

This thought definently violates many guidelines of crtical thinking. But I am going to address the one that I think is the most obvious violation. Holder did not avoid emotional reasoning. I feel that since the fact that he is black, he feels much stronger about the topic of race. I also think that he used complete emotions when stating that we are a nation of cowards. This makes me wonder if we will EVER be a civilized nation where everyone IS and everyone FEELS equal. To me, this is a very unusual time to say a thing like this because we just got done voting in the first black President in our nation's history. I just feel that his words were completely out of line and he should, in the future, think about what he is saying and not use so much emotional attachment!

Research Challenge

A research challenge I am currently facing is trying to find more than one book that suites my research topic AND IS AVAILABLE! I have found a handful of books that would be suitable for my topic but just are not available. I could probably solve this by going to a public library and checking to see if they have any books that would fit by topic. Another thing I am thinking about doing is asking some coaches on campus to see if they have any books on racism within athletics. Although I have not had luck finding anymore books, I will continue to search!

Research Project Update

Over the past week, I have been searching for books that suite my research topic (racism in sports). I have been lucky enough to have found one book which suites the topic very well! I am still searching for other books, journals, articles, etc. that will benefit my research project. I am hoping for within the next week I will have found all of my sources so that I will be able to continue to develop my project.

A-Rod's Thinking Path

Alex Rodriguez, the all-star 3rd baseman for the New York Yankees, rcently admitted that he willingly took performance enhancing drugs from 2001-2003. For those of you not familiar with Major League Baseball, taking performance enhancing drugs is against the rules and there are many apparent future hall-of-famers that are in the midst of legal troubles for their involvement of steroids. But back to A-Rod's story! It was Monday morning when A-Rod admittingly said he took steroids for a period of 3 years. He said that the reason for doing so was because of the pressure of his new contract with the Texas Rangers (the largest baseball contract ever signed). What I believe the reason of A-Rod coming forth is so that when it does come down to voting for him as an entrant into the Hall-of-Fame, voters are less skeptical about voting for him since he was so honest (and of course so he doesn't have to go through all of the lengthy courtroom sessions that Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire had to go through). I do beleive that when it is said and done, A-Rod will get voted into the Hall-of-Fame just by the near statistics of his career. But the question that remains is...is he deserving?

Impressioms of OPAC

What did you learn about the Miller Center LR&TS OPAC that you wished you had known before?
Visit the Great River Regional Library OPAC and search for materials on your topic. What features were the same, and which were different? How many results did you get through the Great River OPAC compared to the Miller Center OPAC? Were they the type of books that you expected? Why or why not?

I learned many things from the Miller Center LR&TS OPAC, but the most prominent lesson that I learned was the simple fact that a person could go online and look up any book they wanted and then if it is availabe, go and check it out. I mean I've always known that a person is able to look up books on the web but I never really knew that it was that simple to actually find where they're actually located, when the last time they were checked out, and all of the background information on that book that is given. If I would have known this before, I woundn't have had to ask a librarian for help on locating a certain book.

On the Great River Regional Library OPAC, I found out that the most common aspect it has with the Miller Center LR&TS OPAC is the fact that it has a very basic search option with a keyword tool. It also had the advanced search, search by number, and the alphabetical search. I thought the most noticable difference was the ask a Librarian tool in the Miller Center site. After searching for my research topic at both sites, I realized that the Great River Regional Library gave me more results with 76 compared to 52 with the Miller Center Library. But the difference was the quality of the results. I received much more quality results with the Mill Center Library search. In the Great River Regional Library, my search results did not have any familiarness with my research topic. I used the same keywords and did not get the same results. I believe that the Miller Center LR&TS OPAC is a much more quality search engine and will continue to use it!

Book Location

Last friday, I was on the St. Cloud State's library website searching for books about race in sports. I came across an intriguing book titled "New Game Plan for College Sport". I looked into the selection and saw that it was available and located down in the basement of the Miller Center. I have never been in the basement of the Miller Center until then. When I got down there, I realized that it was a much larger place than what I had imagined. I'm talking about row after row after row of books. I luckily jotted down the locatoin code which read GV 351 .N48 2006. I'm not sure what all of that meant but I had an idea of why it was there...to help find the location of the book. As I was walking past the book shelves, I noticed that each shelf had a two letter code with numbers and realized that I needed to find the row with GV 351. I then easily located the book shelf labeled GV which also included the number 351. As I started searching for my book, I came across GV 351 .N 67 and knew I was getting closer. As I continued down the row, I noticed a decently sized black book which caught my eye. The title............."New Game Plan for College Sport". There it was! I found my first book ever in the Miller Center!