Welcome to your May 2013 Insider Update -- the newsletter for readers of Inside Higher Ed. Once a month we send a quick rundown on what's happening at Inside Higher Ed: events, accomplishments and a bit of fun.

And the hat trick goes to Steve Kolowich. His story on a two-year anthropological study of student research habits showing that students are in dire need of help from librarians -- but are loath to ask for it -- was our most viewed, most e-mailed and most commented on story last month. Thanks Google News! Allie Grasgreen's article about a new bachelor's program for autistic students being offered by Sage Colleges in Albany, N.Y., prompted hundreds of e-mail forwards. Serena Golden's vivid portrait of a major academic conference held in Las Vegas inspired a welter of comments. And a Views essay by Smith College professor James Miller imagining the outcome of a "sudden and catastrophic" collapse of higher education on faculty careers made for a lively conversation as well.

Inside Higher Ed welcomes new staff members!

Trish Calamari joined the team last month as our digital advertising specialist. Trish spent the previous five years with nonprofit educational organizations focusing on marketing, promotions, content management, sales support and events. She earned her B.A. from New School University/Eugene Lang College, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan.

David Mundy is our new marketing coordinator. David graduated in 2010 from Marymount University with a B.A. in communications and a minor in journalism. He spent time as a writer for the Dexter Manley Show and now is a contributing writer on a DC sports blog.

Elizabeth Murphy is our new reporting intern. She is a May 2011 graduate of Penn State University, where she majored in journalism and women's studies and was editor in chief of the Daily Collegian, the student newspaper there.

And Paul Fain joined our editorial staff on September 2 as a senior reporter covering community colleges and for-profit higher education. Paul comes to us directly from Widmeyer Communications, where he was an assistant vice president in its higher education practice. Before his brief foray into strategic communications, Paul spent seven years as a reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he led its coverage of leadership, finance and governance. Before that, he wrote for C-VILLE Weekly, the alternative paper in Charlottesville, Va., and has written for Philadelphia City Paper, Washington City Paper and Mother Jones. His writing has won numerous awards, including the 2008 Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award and a 2006 second-place prize for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association.

OUT AND ABOUT

Kathlene Collins and Scott Jaschik will be in New Orleans, La., September 22-24 for the 67th annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). Geaux Saints.

Daryl Anderson, Doug Lederman, Laura McFarland, Rick Plotkin and Todd Thompson will be in Orlando, Fla., for the 2011 Annual Conference and Expo of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) taking place September 25-27.

And next month starts with Kathlene traveling to Indianapolis October 2-4 for the League for Innovation's annual STEMTech conference.

NEWS AND NOTES

NEW ON THE SITE -- Check out Inside Higher Ed's new Careers column, She's Got It. University of Venus blogger Mary Churchill conducts Q&A interviews with up-and-coming women in academe. Recent interviews include the president of Mount Holyoke College discussing her unique career path and the executive director of the MLA on mentors, career paths, learning from disappointments and the challenges facing higher education. Read the column here.

We appreciated Poets & Writers magazine columnist Jane Ciabattari's reference to Inside Higher Ed as an "online-only staple" in her recent column about the resurgence of book reviewing on line. (Nice quotes from our Intellectual Affairs columnist Scott McLemee included as well.)

August visitors to the Inside Higher Ed offices included folks from the University of Southern Mississippi, the Ivy Tech System, SharedBook, Sinclair Community College, Young Invincibles, and Alcorn State University. We're always happy to host higher education leaders in our DC offices. Contact Scott at scott.jaschik@insidehighered.com or Doug at doug.lederman@insidehighered.com for information.

AUDIO CONFERENCE

Selling Liberal Education to Students and Parents

In difficult economic times students, prospective students and parents are particularly worried about finding jobs after graduation. Often this understandable concern is translating into skepticism about liberal education and a desire for the most career-oriented programs possible.

On Tuesday, September 27 at 1 p.m. Eastern, Inside Higher Ed presents an audio conference with Rick Davis, associate provost for undergraduate education at George Mason University, who will discuss the common misconceptions parents and students have about general education, the dangers of leaving these questions and doubts unanswered or unchallenged, and how to answer – or defuse -- the “will it help me/my son or daughter get a job?” questions.

Click here to register or for more information about this low cost event.

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One Stop Teaching and Learning: Using the McGraw-Hill Blackboard building block in online and hybrid teaching

Free Webinar Thursday, October 6 at 2 p.m. Eastern

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The evolution of mobile and digital technology has reached its next milestone within education - interactive, digital content - only a few, simple clicks away. During this insightful webinar, current users of the deepest integration between publisher content and a learning management system will share their best practices and user experiences.

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