You can find both Federal Tax Forms and New York State Tax Forms online.

Or check out these five great places to get tax forms or file online.

Many busy Geneseo students may not have time to sit down and read a book for pleasure during the semester, but are still interested in a good “read.”  That’s where audiobooks and podcasts can help.

In addition to purchasing audiobooks from sites like Audible, Amazon, and The Audio Bookstore, you can download free audiobooks from several sources.

A few of these include:

1. The Wadsworth Library , and The Monroe County Library System both offer OverDrive, a service for downloading popular digital audiobooks using your library card.
2. LibriVox, is a website that provides free audiobooks from the public domain.
3. Openculture provides free MP3 downloads of great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
4. Free Classic Audiobooks Downloads are available in mp3 and in m4b audio book format for iTunes and the iPod.
5. An iTunes search for “podiobooks” (provides downloads to audiobooks available at podiobooks.com).
6. Fictionwise.com has audio and ebooks, some of which are free.
7. Mobipocket.com has audio and ebooks, some of which are free.

If you’ve found other sources that you’d like to share, please do so using our “Post a Comment” option below!

Tech Camp featured a full day full of mini-sessions on different technologies, tools, and gadgets for librarians and library users. For a small fee attendees were able to attend various technology rich sessions and had the opportunity to visit the “Extra Helpings Bar”. This “bar” featured many of the newest gadgets (iPads, Kindle Fire, iPhones) and an expert able to answer questions about the devices.

The sessions ranged from using Google Docs for Collaboration, to Free Cloud Computing, to Augmented Reality and Libraries. Many of the workshops involved a hands-on section so attendees could try out the technologies being introduced during the session. Two Milne Librarians (Kim Davies Hoffman and Michelle Costello) presented the workshops, Storytelling with Animoto and Animating with Xtranormal and another Milne librarian (Corey Ha) served as an expert at the “Extra Helpings Bar”, helping attendess with questions about their iPhone.

If you are interested in learning about any of these technologies, fill out a research consultation request for a one-on-one meeting with a librarian.

Bach Cello Suites played on the Theorbo

Still, I was intrigued and needed to learn more. As I listened, I began searching for information. According to Oxford Music Online,  it is “An instrument of the Western lute family with stopped courses considerably longer than those of a lute … During the 17th century and part of the 18th the theorbo was popular as an accompanying instrument, and in the 17th century a certain amount of solo music in tablature was published for it.”

Digging a little deeper, I was able to find several images of the instrument in the Bridgeman Art Library Archive merely by searching it in Credo Reference. Who knew a lute had so many configurations?

Of course, I kept searching the web for some more background information and ended up watching a video that explains a little more about the instrument and its tuning:

All in all, it was a successful journey! I discovered a hidden treasure in this recording (now currently my favorite!) and learned more than I had expected about the intrepid theorbo.

On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, many popular websites went dark in a virtual protest against the Research Works Act. Websites who participated in the blackout included Google, Wikipedia, Mozilla, WordPress, MoveOn, Twitpic and more.

The Research Works Act was introduced in Congress early this month and seeks to deny Americans free access to research funded by taxpayer money.  The law, if passed would prohibit federal agencies from conditioning their grants to require that articles reporting on publicly funded research be made accessible to the public.

How would this affect higher education? Anyone who used publicly funded grants to do research and studies are required to make their findings freely available 12 months after they are published. Publishers would like to have this mandate removed so that they do not ever have to make the information free.  Rather, anyone who needs the research must continue to pay for it.

Many colleges and universities are already in economic crisis and could not afford to pay for access to this research. This has many in the academic community in an uproar, many of which are sending out calls to action urging stakeholders (parents, students, teachers, doctors, and researchers) to contact Representative Maloney and ask her to withdraw her sponsorship of the bill.

More information about the controversy can be read at:
SPARC
Discover magazine
Blogger Kristina Chew
Scientific American
UC Biologist Michael Eisen
http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/action/action_access/12-0106.shtml

By whatever means you go, safe travels to all our SUNY Geneseo Students during this holiday season!

Whether youl need the skills for a position immediately after college or for the graduate school admission process, it’s better to refine those skills while still a student at Geneseo.  Alumni from the Geneseo Alumni Board will be conducting these half hour interviews and providing feedback.

Interviews will be held on Saturday, January 14th from 10am – 12pm at the Kane Firm, 5225 Sheridan Drive, Williamsville, NY 14221.

To sign up please contact Lynette Hilts at the Kane Firm, 716-633-7022 or Lhilts@kanefirm.com.  Upon registration the students will receive more details regarding interview. 

Registration opens 12/15 and with only 20 interview slots available, this event will fill up fast! If you have questions please contact either Bruno Lombardo at – brunolombardo@hotmail.com or Mark Kane at – mkane@kanefirm.com.

Finish Line In Sight!

With finals upon us, we want to be sure to remind you of the changes in hours that Milne will offer during the next couple of weeks. We’ve got lots of study spaces and items to help you study, from calculators to netbooks to highlighters and pens! Here’s a complete list of library hours.

Did you know you have access to a collection of over 36,000 ebooks through Milne Library?  Finding them is easy!

Here’s how:

Step 1. Search for the topic or book title you need in our IDS Search.  From the results page, select “ebooks.”

Step 2.  Click on the title of the book you wish to access.

Step 3. Click on the “weblink” provided.

In addition to the ebooks purchased by Milne Library, you can access millions of ebooks on the web from sources like Google Books, Project Gutenberg, and HathiTrust.  Find out how more on our library guide for finding ebooks.