Library Without Walls

Overview The Library of Congress National Digital Library Program (NDLP) is assembling a digital library of reproductions of primary source materials to support the study of the history and culture of the United States. Begun in 1995 after a five-year pilot project, the program began digitizing selected collections of Library of Congress archival materials that chronicle the nation’s rich cultural heritage. In order to reproduce collections of books, pamphlets, motion pictures, manuscripts and sound recordings, the Library has created a wide array of digital entities: bitonal document images, grayscale and color pictorial images, digital video and audio, and searchable texts. To provide access to the reproductions, the project developed a range of descriptive elements: bibliographic records, finding aids, and introductory texts and programs, as well as indexing the full texts for certain types of content. The reproductions were produced with a variety of tools: scanners, digital cameras, devices that digitize audio and video, and human labor for rekeying and encoding texts. American Memory employs national-standard and well established industry-standard formats for many digital reproductions, e.g., texts encoded with Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and images stored in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) files or compressed with the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) algorithm. In other cases, the lack of well established standards has led to the use of emerging formats, e.g., RealAudio (for audio), Quicktime (for moving images), and MrSid (for maps). Technical information by types of material and by individual collections is also available at this site. Vision A physical library is more than a catalog that points to volumes on shelves. A digital library is more than a database, and the future National Digital Library will be much more than a universal union catalog. We envision the National Digital Library as a set of distributed repositories of managed content and a set of interfaces (some of which will resemble traditional catalogs) to that content. Some interfaces may offer comprehensive access to the entire resource, while others will be specialized by content, by intended audience, or by primary purpose. Some interfaces will be closely tied to a particular repository, while others will provide access to a selection of content from distributed repositories. Access to the content in the National Digital Library will not be limited to searching a bibliographic database. Even in traditional libraries, users do not start every visit by searching the catalog. Instead, library patrons browse current issues of favorite journals or lists of new acquisitions, use specialized indexes to journal literature, or consult bibliographies, references from scholarly publications, and lists of readings. The digital library must be usable in equivalent ways. School teachers who use the online collections at the Library of Congress have already communicated their eagerness to find shortcuts to the most valuable materials so that they can quickly illustrate classroom presentations or develop lesson plans. From the user’s point of view, the digital library has the potential, in ways not yet realized and not possible with traditional library resources, to be an extension to every desktop, classroom, and personal library. Patterns of use of the World Wide Web already demonstrate that teachers, scholars, and students will want to refer to items in the digital realm as active links from reading lists, articles, textbooks, and term papers. We also know that students will want to work with these items in their own electronic environments, constructing presentations, reports, and online projects. Digital Library Users In 1989, to help launch the American Memory pilot project, a consultant surveyed 101 members of the Association of Research Libraries and the 51 state library agencies. The survey disclosed a genuine appetite for on-line collections, especially in research libraries serving higher education. The American Memory pilot (1990-1995) identified multiple audiences for digital collections in a special survey, an end-user evaluation and in thousands of conversations, letters and encounters with visitors. The most thorough audience appraisal carried out by the Library of Congress consisted of an end-user evaluation conducted in 1992-1993. Forty-four school, college and university, and state and public libraries were provided with a dozen American Memory collections on CD-ROMs and videodisks. (These formats are no longer being supported.) Participating library staff, teachers, students and the public were polled about which digitized materials they had used and how well the delivery systems worked. The evaluation indicated continued interest by institutions of higher education as well as public libraries. The surprising finding, however, was the strong showing of enthusiasm in schools, especially at the secondary level. The evaluation team learned that recent reforms in education had created a need for primary-source historical materials such as those in the Library’s incomparable collections. Teachers welcomed digitized collections to aid in the development of critical thinking skills; school librarians used the electronic resource to inculcate research skills. These findings have been validated in the educational outreach program initiated by the Library of Congress in 1995 and initially funded by the Kellogg Foundation. Educational Outreach In 1995, in conjunction with the launch of the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program, the Library brought together leading history and social studies K-12 teachers and librarians to consider how archival on-line resources could best be used in the nation’s schools. The participants at this Educator’s Forum validated earlier findings: that while the primary sources were in great demand, for teachers to be able to make effective use of them, they needed additional materials to frame the collections and the topics represented in the collections. To this end in 1996, the Library of Congress developed The Learning Page

Company fined £100,000 after Croydon crane accident leaves driver crippled

One of the country’s largest plant hire companies have been fined £100,000 after admitting flouting health and safety rules which left a crane driver with crippling injuries. At NAHETS Safety is our primary concern.

John Young suffered severe spinal injuries after the cab of the crane fell through the air and crashed onto the roof of the Croydon Park Hotel on June 2, 2007.

He has been left unable to return to work more than two years after the tragedy.

Passers-by reported watching the crane’s arm topple backwards 200 feet in the air and break free from its base before crashing onto the roof of the neighbouring hotel.

Firefighters who helped rescue the injured driver from the wreckage described it as “one of the biggest disasters in Croydon since the Second World War.”

The crane was building the Altitude 25 apartment block for Howard Holdings when the accident happened at around 2.20pm.

Three other workers were left stranded on the top of the crane’s base for five hours as firefighters from Croydon fire station launched a massive rescue operation.

Select Plant Hire Company Ltd, based in Dartford, Kent, admitted breaching regulation 9(2) (b) and 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998; regulation 9(2) of the Provision and use of work Equipment Regulations 1998 and; section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

As well as the fine, the company was ordered £15 victim surcharge and the costs were £33,196.

Judge Anthony Morris said: “The defendant company created a very significant risk of an accident occurring. In addition when part of a crane falls to the ground, the possibility of death or serious injury is extremely high.”

Walter Clough

The story of Walter Clough is not a rare one for many students that attended one of NAHETS member schools. Walter graduated from the Oklahoma College of Construction and is working for APAC in Missouri making 35/hr. He is an operator, but also doing site plans and other duties. This isn’t Walter’s first HEO job since graduation, but it’s his first full time job. 35.00/hr is very impressive for anyone, however for Walter it’s…. well…you gotta know Walter. I asked him his secret to landing this job (Apac was one of his job leads in his original packet) almost a month ago. He walked onto the jobsite, filled out an application and was hired on the spot!!! That’s it! We always encourage our graduates to not be afraid to walk on a job site and speak with a foreman/site supervisor. These guys usually know what their immediate needs are before the corporate office does. Anyway, Walter has been encouraged to do this for quite some time….he finally did it and it’s finally paying off. Congratulations to Walter!

Parents Honor Son Killed in Crane Accident

A large crane lies in the middle of a large New York City intersection.

Ramadan Kurtaj was remembered yesterday at the spot where a construction accident took his life. His parents, Uke and Reyve Kurtaj, were granted a visa from Kosovo, and traveled to New York for the anniversary of their sons death. A picture of Ramadan was placed in honor of him at the construction site.

“It’s a big loss for me, it’s hard for me. I lost my son, 27 years old, it’s very hard,” said Uke Kurtaj through a translator. Ramadan wished to bring his parents to New York, but not because of his own death.

“They would never believe that they’d be coming to the United States under these circumstances,” said Xhevahire Sinanaj, Kurtaj’s cousin. “Their dream was different way, to be with their son. And now that they’re here and he is gone, it’s very hard for them. They’re very sad.”

Uke and Reyve Kurtaj mourn their sons death

Construction workers Ramadan Kurtaj (27) and Donald Leo (30) were killed last May 30 when the top part of a 200-foot crane crashed down on a Manhattan residential neighborhood. Their deaths followed an similar crash on May 15, 2008, where seven died in a crane accident.

Investigators have said a bad weld failed in the collapse. The workers’ families have sued the crane makers and prosecutors have launched a criminal probe. Their lawyers say the crane was put into service despite a history of poor maintenance and botched repairs.

World’s Largest Land Crane

The world’s largest land crane was recently built in Tri-Cities, WA. The crane was built by Lampson Crane, an international leader in the Heavy Lift and Transport Industry. It took one year to build and has a lift/move capacity of over 2600 tons–that is over 5 million pounds! It also stretches almost the length of a football field. The crane is going to be shipped to China in order to help build several nuclear power plants near Beijing. Click below for a video and complete story…

NAHETS in ‘Mining Magazine’

The National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (NAHETS) appeared in the September edition of Mining Magazine. The article focuses on the use of various training simulators in the mining and heavy equipment industries; e.g., computer-based training, visualization, and advanced equipment simulators. These simulators improve safety and operating skills by successfully representing the characteristics and behaviors of various equipment types.  Vista Training, Inc. and its cooperative, Simlog, are leading providers of the various simulators. All of the NAHETS campuses use simulators as part of their heavy equipment training programs. You can view the article in Mining Magazine…(pp.94-97).

New Crane Operator Regulations in the Works

For the first time since 1971 the federal government is updating crane regulations. Triggered by various lethal crane accidents around the country this past year, the U.S. Department of Labor is set to release drafts of the new regulations, which focus mainly on crane operator standards.

New Standards

The new regulations will require crane operators to pass both written and practical tests in all 50 states and complete more training. Currently only 15 states and 6 cities require tests. Crane operators will have various options to become certified/qualified under the new rules:

• Certification through accredited third-party testing organizations
• Qualification through audited employer testing programs
• U.S. military-issued qualification
• Qualification by state/local licensing authorities

In addition to the certification and training of crane operators the new rules also hone in on inspecting ground conditions, crane assembly and disassembly, operating near power lines, and the use of safety devices and crane inspections.

It is expected that the final approval of all of the regulations will “likely take more than a year.”

Sources:

(1) Devlin, Barrett. The Associated Press. September 18, 2008.

NAHETS Crane Operator Training & Certification

Member schools of the National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (NAHETS) across the country offer mobile crane operator training and certification programs. Each of the member schools are authorized to administer the NCCCO Mobile Crane Certification tests. They also offer training from instructors, all holding NCCCO Mobile Crane Operator Certifications, to prepare for the tests. Visit the NAHETS Crane Site for more information.

New Site for Heavy Equipment Buyers/Sellers, Powered by Ebay

Save on Construction Equipment just announced the launch of its new website, saveonheavyequipment.com. The new site, powered by Ebay, is to offer “pre-owned heavy equipment, available online for discount prices.” Users can bid on heavy equipment regularly (Backhoe Loaders, Crawler Dozers & Loaders, Trailers, Asphalt & Concrete Pavers, Lifts, Graders, Cranes, Excavators, Wheel Loaders, Stump Grinders, Wood Chippers, etc.). In addition, there are also attachments, parts, and even manuals available to buy. There is the “bid option” and also a “buy now” option for some of the products. Click here for the original press release.

Although online auctions may not appear to be the best way to sell/purchase heavy equipment and parts, some have found it efficient and had good success. The city of Cottage Grove, MN has found that they get better trade in value through selling used equipment on Ebay than through local auctions. The city management analyst, Brian Voelker, states that they can get 200-300 users from across the United States by listing items on Ebay, compared to roughly 20 users at local auctions. Click here for the full story.

With e-commerce steadily increasing across the globe, it is vital for businesses to offer products and services online, even in the heavy equipment industry. With sites such as Save on Heavy Equipment, as well as others, you might just find the equipments or attachments you are looking for–at a competitive price!

NAHETS Member Schools Elect Non-Renewal Status with NCCER

On August 1, 2008 NAHETS member schools elected to not renew their Accredited Training Sponsor and Accredited Training Unit status with the National Center on Construction Education and Research NCCER. In late August NAHETS member school’s notified NCCER of their intended actions regarding their election to not renew their training entity status with NCCER; however, the value of the NCCER sponsored training curriculum; i.e., Contren Learning Series will remain an integral part of the NAHETS member schools curriculum.

NAHETS New Blog Location

Nahets has moved their blog to here.

Please go to new blog and subscribe.