A Graduation Wrap-up

 

This is the last Wrap-up for the academic year and I share this content to recognize our graduates.

Although full access to JSTOR is not available to students registered on the Gallup campus, it distributes information and news through several widely available channels.  JSTOR Daily is where “news meets its scholarly match.” In other words, it “contextualizes current events with scholarship.” And importantly, any research germane to the Daily is available in full text. The Daily from June 18, addresses the History of Graduation Ceremonies and Other School Rituals. The information is timely and well-researched.  Readers may wish to subscribe to the Daily and receive the Daily (comes as a weekly digest) as well as related readings from the Web. The splash page of the Daily also includes a search box accessible by clicking on the menu icon next to the JSTOR logo. The menu icon also activates a pull-down browsable selection of topical areas including: Arts & Culture, Business & Economics,  Politics & History, Science & Technology and Education & Society. JSTOR also gives access to some other freebies.  

Upon establishing a personal account, account holders may read online up to 100 articles per month. Additionally, the JSTOR organization maintains searchable database of open access journals and of over 9000 ebooks from more than 100 publishers.  Early Journal Content published before 1928 (1882 from international publishers) is also freely available.

Having not forgotten that this message is to also recognize our graduates, I give some links for consideration to commencement speeches from the past. Here are few to inspire, amuse and reflect upon.

Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo and the current U.S. Secretary of the Interior, gave this address at Bard College in May of 2022. Categorized by the Washington Post as humorous, Stephen Colbert delivered this >>> Stephen Colbert at Wake Forest University (Video). And, if Google Search results are an indicator, Steven Jobs, the co-founder of Apple gave one of the most often included in ‘best of …” commencement speeches at Stanford University in 2005.  In it, he offered three lessons. His third lesson, stressed authenticity: “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

 

Jim Fisk

Reference and Instructional Services Librarian

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