Fellowship opportunity: UNC Chapel Hill

The School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is seeking applicants for fellowships for a new program called "Educating Stewards of Public Information in the Twenty-First Century" or ESOPI-21. These Fellowships are funded through a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

The fellowships will be for students enrolled in the Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Science in Information/Library Science (MSIS/MSLS) dual degree program between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science and the School of Government.

The two-year fellowships offer:

* A 15 hour per week position as a Fellow in Public Information Stewardship at the National Records and Archives Administration, the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Archives & Records Section, and/or the UNC at Chapel Hill University Archives.

* An annual stipend of $16,000.

* In-state tuition and health coverage

* One time enrichment fund of $2,500 which can be used for travel or other resources such as a computer.

* Opportunities to meet experts in public information curation via symposia, conferences and workshops.

As a component piece of the project, two cohorts of four ESOPI-21 Fellows (eight Fellows in total over the grant period) will each combine coursework with internship assignments in one or more governmental digital records environments, leading to a dual master's degree in Information Science or Library Science and a master's degree in Public Administration. The program's goal is to prepare the next generation of public information stewards. It offers Fellowship recipients the opportunity to engage in government records archiving and curatorial duties and to receive supervision and mentorship from senior public records experts in various types of government records management and other information management settings.

About ESOPI-21

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-funded project, "Educating Stewards of Public Information in the Twenty-First Century" or ESOPI-21, is a collaboration of SILS, UNC at Chapel Hill's School of Government (SOG), the University Archives (UA) at UNC at Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Archives and Records Section (NCDCR-ARS), and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). ESOPI-21 seeks to prepare the next generation of public information stewards by building on the Digital Curation Curriculum IMLS-funded projects at SILS and by developing fellowships, curricula, courses, and experiential components designed specifically for the needs of public sector information professionals.

Applying for the Fellowship: The ESOPI-21 Fellowship is provided to masters level students who are pursuing the dual degree program offered by SILS and the SOG. Acceptance into both programs is a requirement for the award.

Steps for application are:

1. Apply to SILS via the regular admissions process found on the MSIS Admission page at http://sils.unc.edu/programs/msis/admissions.html or the MSLS Admissions page at http://sils.unc.edu/programs/msls/admissions.html

Students are encouraged to apply by January 1, 2010 as this ensures consideration of the greatest amount of university funding, but we are accepting applications for this program up to February 15.

2. Apply to the SOG via the regular admissions process found on the MPA Admissions page at http://www.sog.unc.edu/uncmpa/applicants/admission.html. Students must apply by February 1.

3. In addition to the required written statement of your intended research focus, we ask that you write a separate essay elaborating on these goals and how they are related to the goals of ESOPI-21. Please see the ESOPI-21 Web page for more details (http://ils.unc.edu/esopi21/index.html). Please send this essay in an e-mail message to Dr. Helen Tibbo (tibbo (at) email (dot) unc (dot) edu) or Dr. Cal Lee (callee (at) ils (dot) unc (dot) edu) no later than February 15, 2010. Earlier applications are encouraged. Please note that we are only able to accept applications from
United States Citizens at this time.

*******************************************
Wanda Monroe
Director of Communications
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
100 Manning Hall
Campus Box 3360
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360
Phone: 919.843.8337
Web site: sils.unc.edu
___________________________________________

Scholarship opportunity: University of Southern Mississippi receives IMLS grant

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) recently received a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Studies (IMLS) to recruit ten minority students for its fully accredited, online, master of library science program. Students who are chosen for the grant will receive full tuition waiver, $400.00 per semester for the purchase of books, a laptop computer, and $9,000.00 per year as a stipend. They also will attend special programming and training from the Mississippi Library Commission (MLC), and will attend the American Library Association annual meeting in 2011. The students must take nine hours of classes each semester and work five hours per week at either USM’s Cook Library in Hattiesburg or the MLC in Jackson.

For more information, please visit: http://www.misslib.org/index.php/2009/11/30/university-of-southern-mississippi-receives-imls-grant/

Scholarship opportunity: E-government Librarianship Scholarship Program

The Center for Library and Information Innovation at the iSchool at the University of Maryland College Park in partnership with the Government Information Online Initiative and the University of Illinois at Chicago, is accepting applications for 20 Master of Library Science (MLS) scholarships. The scholarships are for a new online MLS program focused on e-government services and digital government information. Applications are due by 1 February 2010, and the program is scheduled to begin in Fall 2010.

For more information, please visit: http://liicenter.org/libegov

Multiple Database Searching

The USA Biomedical Library has purchased WebFeat, a cross-database search engine, in order to facilitate searching of their electronic books. Because access includes the University Library, we have set it up so that many of our databases, such as Oxford Journals Online, Sage Journals Online, ACLS Humanities E-books, JSTOR and Wiley Interscience, can all be searched using one interface.

You can search by keyword, title, author, abstract, or subject and choose your own databases, or you can enter a search term and choose a general topic, such as Art & Humanities or Business, where the databases have already been chosen for you. WebFeat includes the ability to limit your search to Full-text articles only and/or Peer-reviewed articles.

Check out the University Library's implementation of WebFeat here: http://wfxsearch.webfeat.org/wfsearch/menu?cid=13098&cat=72060

EBSCO Databases Go Mobile

Ever wished you could access the University Libraries' databases from your phone? Well, now you can; at least the EBSCOhost databases, which include Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, Medline with Fulltext, PsycARTICLES, SocINDEX with Fulltext, Education Research Complete, and a variety of other databases.

This access is only in its infancy and I've only tested it on two phones -- the iPhone and the Blackberry Curve (mine is an 8320) -- but to try mobile access to our EBSCO databases go to:

http://libproxy2.usouthal.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp?profile=mobsmart

You will need to login with your usual remote credentials.

Javascript needs to be enabled to use the libraries' databases. To do this for the Blackberry:

1. Check your Blackberry's OS version first by clicking on the Options icon (mine is a wrench) and then About. Your OS will need to be version 4.0 or higher; older versions do not support JavaScript.
2. Open your Blackberry Internet Browser by clicking on your Internet icon.
3. Click on the button and choose Options.
4. Choose Browser Configuration and scroll down to Support JavaScript. Check that box and save your changes.

The iPhone and iTouch seem to run these databases beautifully; the Blackberry's implementation is much uglier and I haven't been able to open a pdf file as a native pdf -- instead I get an ugly rendering of the text.

Try mobile access on your phone and let me know how it goes (kwheeler@jaguar1.usouthal.edu); be sure to tell me the type of phone you've used and any issues you've had accessing pdf files.

Favorite Banned Book

Thanks everybody for participating in the University Library's vote for your favorite banned book. Here are the results:

The Winner: The Giver by Lois Lowry

Runners Up:

Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Honorable Mentions:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’ Engle
Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz
Bible
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Peterson
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Witches by Roald Dahl
And Tango Makes Three by Richardson and Parnell
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
A Clockwork Orange by Antony Burgess
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Kama Sutra
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Where’s Waldo by Martin Hanford

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week, September 26 - October 3

Banned Books Week is an annual recognition, held in the last week of September, of the importance of the First Amendment to readers and writers. It celebrates the freedom to read what we want to read and emphasizes the significance of open access to information. The American Library Association lists the most Frequently Challenged Books in libraries at http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/index.cfm

Check out the posters of Frequently Challenged and Banned Books at the University Library -- you can't miss them when you come in the doors. Also, don't forget to vote for your favorite banned book at the Circulation Desk.

AVL Databases

The Alabama Virtual Library has been a boon to our state as far as research is concerned. It has provided databases for all ranges and ages of researchers -- from kindergarten to graduate student to general public. Having access to the AVL has allowed the University of South Alabama Libraries to subscribe to very subject-specific databases such as ArtStor and IEEE Xplore, knowing that the general use databases had already been taken care of by the AVL.

Like the rest of the state, the AVL has been affected by the economic situation and finds its funding to be less this year than previous years. Keeping its mission in mind -- to provide information for all levels of researchers -- the AVL recently decided to cut the following databases from its list. Access will not be available after September 31:

OCLC FirstSearch databases

1. CAMIO - Catalog of Art Museum Images Online
2. ArchiveGrid
3. ArticleFirst
4. ClasePeriodica
5. Electronic Collections Online
6. GPO Monthly Catalog
7. MEDLINE
8. OAIster
9. PapersFirst
10. ProceedingsFirst
11. World Almanac
12. WorldCat
13. WorldCat Dissertations

H.W. Wilson's Biography Reference Bank
SIRS Knowledge Source databases

1. SIRS Issues Researcher
2. SIRS Government Reporter
3. SIRS Renaissance

Britannica's add-on databases

1. World Data Analyst
2. Annals of American History
3. Enciclopedia Juvenil
4. Enciclopedia Universal en Español

In addition to the above resources not being renewed, EBSCO's Academic Search Premier will be downgraded to Academic Search Elite.

Fair Use

Determining whether your use of an item falls within Fair Use guidelines can be more problematic than you might think. Luckily, there's a tool that can help with that -- Fair Use Evaluator, from the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy. By providing information about an article and your intended use of that item, the Fair Use Evaluator can provide you with an idea of where on the spectrum from "Fair" to "Infringing" that your use may fall.

The makers of the Fair Use Evaluator are careful to note that this tool is not intended to provide you with legal advice and point out that only "a court of law can definitively rule whether a use is fair or unfair." However, the Fair Use Evaluator does provide you with information that can help, such as a time-stamped pdf document showing your use of the evaluator and the criteria you used to reach your decision about whether your use of a document falls within Fair Use guidelines. Check it out. Try it with the Exceptions for Instructor eTool if you are a faculty member.

Formatting Bibliographies

Sue Medina, the director of the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries, recently sent an email about an article discussing the top five online citation applications. I loved the one called BibMe -- it allows you to save citations for books, articles, web sites and other formats in the citation style you need whether MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian. You can download these and or save them to a free account.

Check out Bibme at http://www.bibme.org/

Farewell

Jan

"If I didn't believe it with my own mind, I never would have seen it."

Bard College graffiti, 1972.


Or: "If I believe it, I will see it -- wrong."
Or: "Context is all."
Or: "Don't believe much of what you see--it is more complicated!"

Try this:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/24/the-blue-and-the-green/

Sorry! Should be http://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch

Identities: Cool new feature on Worldcat.org

This just released from OCLC WorldCat

"We’ve just incorporated WorldCat Identities into WorldCat.org navigation proper, rather than having to satellite out to a listing and then find your own way back. You can get to a WorldCat Identities page from the “Find more information about” drop-down in the Details section of a detailed record:

WorldCat Identities is one of those fun things we like to play around with, here at OCLC. It showcases things you don’t find many other places–like you can see the most widely held works by a writer, or how one fictional character is related to another one, or get a visual for publication timelines, or audience recommendation levels, or, or, or…there’s a lot of good stuff there."


It took me a few tries to find this info, but it really is cool. Do title search for a book by an author you want to find more about (doesn't seem to work for films and articles) on worldcat.org--the advanced search. Drag down on the page past the libraries that hold the item to the "Details" section and "Find more information about" and click GO.

Much info on your author: most popular titles(library holdings and number of editions); most popular books about; languages; related people; a related items cloud, and several bookcovers.

I love WorldCat and Google Books and Google Scholar--long may they be free! (Keep your fingers crossed about this--most anything of value is ripe for a price tag these days.)js

Best Places to Work in the Government 2009

Still looking for a job? This survey's results might interest you, as they are based on employee satisfaction and commitment in federal agencies. And check out the link for job seekers at the top of the page. Do it for your parents!
http://data.bestplacestowork.org/bptw/overall/large

The Colors of Your College Degree

(OOPs! Graduation is next Saturday, not tomorrow.) With graduation tomorrow, I thought this link to be most appropriate. What do those colors worn by the graduates stand for? http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/11/06/the-colors-of-your-college-degree/ Glad Library Science is lemon yellow and not "drab."
Thanks to Sue Medina for this one.

Best Study Strategy: "Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down"

Excepted from
The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Faculty
From the issue dated May 1, 2009

That old study method still works, researchers say. So why don't professors preach it?
By DAVID GLENN

The scene: A rigorous intro-level survey course in biology, history, or economics. You're the instructor, and students are crowding the lectern, pleading for study advice for the midterm.

If you're like many professors, you'll tell them something like this: Read carefully. Write down unfamiliar terms and look up their meanings. Make an outline. Reread each chapter.

That's not terrible advice. But some scientists would say that you've left out the most important step: Put the book aside and hide your notes. Then recall everything you can. Write it down, or, if you're uninhibited, say it out loud.

Two psychology journals have recently published papers showing that this strategy works, the latest findings from a decades-old body of research. When students study on their own, "active recall" — recitation, for instance, or flashcards and other self-quizzing — is the most effective way to inscribe something in long-term memory.

. . . .

Brain Games for the Weekend

Took me a few games to even figure out the rules.
Cognitive Labs
http://cognitivelabs.com/game_list2.htm

Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch!

I've just read a synopsis of Google's settlement with the book publishers and the librarians concerning Google Books (http://books.google.com). See below.

For the past few years I've been showing relevant upper-division classes the value of Google Book Search. Google has been digitizing the books from a couple of dozen of big libraries for several years now. Till now (and I really don't know the date when this will change) anyone anywhere could search this website and pull up records of the books already digitized in three different possible formats: full view for out-of-copyright items (generally 1925 and earlier), limited preview (several pages) for copyrighted with no active publisher-prohibition, and snippet for publisher-restricted viewing.

Publishers didn't like the fact they they had to ask Google to restrict their books to limited preview,and they claimed copyright violation, and sued (of course). Below is the gist of the settlement. What it seems to say is that no longer will out-of-copyright books be available full-text from any computer anytime as it is now. Only authorized computers in libraries will have this ability. [I'm sure the librarians fought hard to get this one so full-view access of copyright-free books remains available, but also so libraries don't become completely irrelevant as providers of classic and historical sources of information.]

Google and the publishers will also LET YOU personally and We, libraries, BUY access to copyrighted books. You could buy individual titles. Libraries would buy subscriptions (To Collections? How much? Will libraries will be able to afford the price publishers deem reasonable. Will access be restricted to the University community or can anyone come in and use it? Will libraries ever need to buy another print monograph? Is licensing the same as owning? Will we be able to interlibrary loan electronic items?)

The two research center idea is interesting, but I'm not really sure of any broadly useful value, other than archival. Where will they be? Will access be free at these sites?

There are so many more questions about the ramifications of this settlement that we don't even know how to pose them yet, much less what the answers will be. ANSTAAFL. I guess we always knew that Google wasn't doing all this scanning because of their generosity and their love of knowledge. Sometime the stockholders would seek a profit. We also know that publishers are not easily adjusting to this electronic world. This is another attempt at control. Will it work? How will it affect libraries?

Here's an excerpt of what Google just sent out:[ Note the enthusiastically positive spin.]

Increasing access to books: the Google Book Search settlement agreement

by Daniel Clancy, Engineering Director for Google Book Search

. . .  The <http://www.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/>agreement, which settles two lawsuits brought against the <http://www.google.com/googlebooks/library.html>Google Books Library Project, proposes to dramatically increase access to millions of books in the U.S., while at the same time expanding the opportunities for authors and publishers to earn money from their works.  The agreement also provides a wealth of new opportunities for libraries, academics, and researchers, a few of which we'd like to share with you:


Expanded access to millions of in-copyright books: Librarians have been providing access to books for thousands of years, and over time they have increased the size of their collections and broadened their reach into the community. The agreement dramatically expands the reach of <http://books.google.com/googlebooks/partners.html>Book Search Library Partners by enabling readers across the U.S. to <http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/#2>preview millions of in-copyright out-of-print books preserved in their collections. Readers will be able to search these books through Google Book Search and where previously they have only been able to view bibliographic information and a few snippets of text from the book, they will be able to view a limited preview (up to 20%) of the book to find out if it suits their needs.  From there, they can click through to a list of libraries which hold that book, to online bookstores (which carry used books) or to purchase instant online access to the rest of the book so that they may read the book in its entirety. 

Free online viewing of books at U.S. public and university libraries: In most communities, your local library is one of your primary access points to information. Through this agreement, public libraries, community colleges, and universities across the U.S. will be able to provide free full-text reading to books housed in great libraries of the world like Stanford, California, Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan. A newly-created Public Access Service license will allow full-text viewing of millions of out-of-print books to readers who visit library facilities. Public libraries will be eligible to receive one free Public Access Service license for a computer located on-site at each of their library buildings in the United States. Non-profit, higher education institutions will be eligible to receive free Public Access Service licenses for on-site computers, the exact number of which will depend on the number of students enrolled. 

Institutional subscriptions to millions of additional books: Imagine never having to ask a patron to wait until a book is returned or arrives through interlibrary loan. Beyond the free license described above, libraries will also be able to purchase an institutional subscription to millions of books covered by the settlement agreement.  Once purchased, this subscription will allow a library to offer patrons access to the incredible collections of Google's library partner when they are in the library itself as well as when they access it remotely.

Services for People with Print Disabilities: One of the advantages digitization presents is the opportunity to enable greater accessibility to books.  Through the agreement, the visually impaired and print disability community will be able to access millions of in-copyright books through screen enlargement, reader, and Braille display technologies.

New Research Opportunities with the Creation a Research Corpus: The vast database of books that Google is digitizing is not just a resource for readers, but also a one-of-a-kind research tool. The agreement allows for the creation of two research centers that will include a copy of almost all of the books digitized by Google. These research centers will enable people to conduct research that utilizes computers to process or analyze the text of the books. Examples of the types of research they will facilitate include automatic translation, analysis of how language has evolved over time, next generation search technology, image processing research and others.

This agreement would not have been possible without the work of librarians who have preserved and maintained books for years, and <http://www.google.com/googlebooks/partners.html>Google Book Search's library partners, who worked with Google to make so many of them discoverable online.  To learn more about what they have to say about the agreement, check out our <http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/thoughts.html>thoughts and opinions page.
___________

Staff Appreciation Awards Go To . . .

Brenda Hunter and Nancy Trant received this year's National Library Week "Staff Appreciation Awards" in the University Library during a luncheon on Wednesday.

This Year's Excellence in Librarianship Award goes to . . .

Deborah Lynn Harrington, the Mitchell College of Business Librarian. Congratulations Deborah for doing excellent work in setting up and running the "Business" Library.

Celebrate National Library Week--April 12-18

World Connect @ USA Libraries

Monday Thru Thursday--Roving Reference, Student Center Breezeway, 11:30-1:00. Need help with your assignments? Face-to-face with a reference librarian--what could be better!

Thursday-- 7 P.M., Library Auditorium, "Ruben's Mobile." Dr. Sue Brannan Walker and Ms Kathryn Seawell.

Kids & Teens Book Drive for USA Chidren's and Women's Hospital--Drop any new or gently-used children's or young adult books at one of our libraries.

Twitter a Book Review--share your bookish experiences @usabaldwin.

Rare Books at the USA Archives on Springhill Ave.

Prize Drawing--draw a quote at any of our Circulation Desks for a chance to win a prize.

Twenty-First Century Literacy Skills

by Henry Jenkins, Director of Media Studies, MIT, excerpted:

"We have also identified a set of core social skills and cultural competencies that young people should acquire if they are to be full, active, creative, and ethical participants in this emerging participatory culture:

Play — the capacity to experiment with your surroundings as a form of problem-solving

Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery

Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real world processes

Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content

Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.

Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities

Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal

Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources

Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms."

Bodleian 19th Century Collection Online

Just got this from Google Book Search Blog:
http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/03/bodleians-treasures-available-to-all.html


"In 2004, Google began a partnership with Oxford University Library to scan mostly 19th century public domain books from its Bodleian library. Five years on, we're delighted to announce the end of this phase of our scanning with Oxford, our first European partner. Together, we have digitized and made available on Google Book Search many hundreds of thousands of public domain books from the Bodleian and other Oxford libraries, representing the bulk of their available public domain content.

From English to German, to Spanish and French, most of the digitized works date from the 19th century and range from classic literature to more scientific volumes in fields including Geography, Philosophy or Anthropology. Among some of the works now available through Book Search, you can find the first English translation of Newton's Mathematical principles of natural philosophy from 1729, the first edition of Jane Austen's Emma, and John Cassell's Illustrated History of England. You can search and read the full text of these works on Google Book Search, and download and print a pdf if you wish to.

TODAY: Writing Outreach--Finding Scholarly Articles

Today in the University Library Auditorium I will be doing an instruction session on how to find the best scholarly articles for your research papers. Bring your topic and we can explore where to go and how to "talk to" the general and specific databases that will yield articles to help inform your papers.
3:30 Thursday
March 26th
Univ. Lib. Auditorium
about 45 minutes in length
http://www.usouthal.edu/univlib/sauer/outreacharticles.html

Web 2.0 PETAL Brownbag

Faculty and Staff,
Ellen Wilson and I will be talking about some Internet applications that may enhance your teaching and make your life more efficient at the PETAL BrownBag Tuesday. 12:15 in Room 312 on the Southside of the University Library.

The Commons

"The Commons: Your opportunity to contribute to describing the world's public photo collections."
http://www.flickr.com/commons/
These collections from institutions and corporations are all published under usage guidelines called "no known copyright restrictions" meaning that they have been unable to locate the copyright owner. These photos are probably public domain. They can certainly be used under fair use guidelines for academic purposes.

The cool thing about this collection of collections is that "the public" are asked to tag the photos to make them more accessible to others.

FYI: At the bottom of the sign in page is this warning:
*Any Flickr member is able to add tags or comment on these collections. If you're a dork about it, shame on you. This is for the good of humanity, dude!!

Momentous Day 200 Years Ago Today

Arguably, the two men who most influenced our lives and our thinking were born on the exact same day, 200 years ago. One is obvious. Who is the other?

Writing Outreach--Googling for Information

What do we even mean when we say we Googled it? Plain old Google, Google Books, Google Scholar, iGoogle, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Finance, Google Maps, Google Images, Google Reader?

Is searching Google academically anathema? Why, when, where and how students and faculty can use Google as one of the research tools in the scholarly scavenger hunt to find the best information available. And when is it best not to use it!

See you (anyone):
Tomorrow--Thursday, Feb 12th
3:30-4:30
Library Auditorium

The Best of the Best

I am constantly squirreling away websites that I plan to get back to when I retire--email, delicious, favorites, bookmarks--any way I can, so I have them at my fingertips sometime in the near future. Two came across my email in past two days and are perfect for my dilettantish [better:interdisciplinary] mind. The second one I am already addicted to, because it is the perfect iPhone app--short, often graphically interesting, and highly entertaining (remember this is for a librarian's mind.)

Academic Earth--"Thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars." Choose them by subject, by instructor, thematically, or the Editor's choice. Most of them seem to be about an hour long. http://www.academicearth.org/

TED "Ideas worth spreading" An annual conference that invites the best and brightest to spend 18 minutes each talking about their ideas in fields that include science, business, the arts and the global issues. Watch them on your computer and now on your iPhone. Perfect length. Fascinating people and ideas. http://www.ted.com/

Find Out About Study Abroad? British Tea Today

London, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Ghana--Programs offered by USA for studying abroad. Come have some biscuits and find out about them.

British Tea
5:30-7:00 Today
Alumni House

.edu and spammers

I've gotten a couple of these emails this week purporting to be from university webmasters. They come from gawab.com which seems, according to a few webforums, to be home of lots of spammers. Universities use the .edu domain, not the .com domain and have no reason to change domains.

Dear Webmaster of http://www.southalabama.edu ,
I´m the webmaster of indiana.edu and and I want to inform you about the changing of our domain name.
Old name: http://www.indiana.edu
New name: http://indiana-edu.com

Whitehouse.gov

Here's the ABC website with a transcript of the inaugural address and a video of the address.

As of 12:01, today, January 20th, the White House has a new webpage. The first blog post on it promises transparency of government to the point that it says this: "One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it." Wow. I wonder who is going to read all of the posts, many of which, given the tenor of comments I see on other blogs, will be venomous. Let's hope for a new era of civility on the web, as well as the transparency promised by our new President and the new Administration. Perhaps information will again flow freely from our government to the people.

MLK Quote

Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best corrects everything that stands against love.

PMLA Alternative Source Citations

Being a reference librarian in an academic institution means being bombarded by questions about the rules for citing information using the most common stylesheets, particularly the MLA. This alternative source, the PostModern Language Association, offers guidelines for citing the cutting edge sources of information now so common in research papers.
http://www.pmla.org/altsource.html
Thanks to Ellen Wilson for this site.

SilverPlatter to OVID

Just got this from Amy Prendergast, our sci/tech librarian:

All our SilverPlatter databases have now been moved to the Ovid platform. I have changed the links on the database pages - please let me know if you find any I have missed. The databases concerned are:

Biological Abstracts
GeoRef
Mental Measurements Yearbook
Social Work Abstracts
NASW Clinical Register

Unfortunately we don't seem to be connecting correctly with Social Work Abstracts and NASW Clinical Register but the others should all be working. I have sent a message about the problem to Ovid and hopefully we can get it resolved soon.

When you click on one of the database links, it will take you to a search page. At the top of the page is a box for Search History - you can close this by clicking on "(Click to close)". This makes more room at the top of the screen and enables you to see all the available limits for the database.

A Junkbin of Catalogs

Is there anyone who hasn't resolved to be more organized; to be more environmentally aware; to work smarter this year? Here's a website to help: Catalog Choice You do have to register and supply a snail mail address to which the catalogs you receive are posted. Find the ones you really don't want and this org will make contact with the business and request that they desist. Go through all those Christmas catalogs and thin the selection. Save space, save trees, save work AND eliminate temptation.

https://www.catalogchoice.org/

Lists 2008--Best of . . .

Here's an aggregate list of many of the end-of-the-year best of/ worst of lists. What's this fascination with lists? Maybe because they are so neat and tidy. Maybe they simplify our world into nice linear value-laden predigested cultural schedules. I dunno. All I know is that I'm off for the weekend.
http://www.fimoculous.com/year-review-2008.cfm

Google Street view

I have probably blogged about this at least once already, but it still blows my mind everytime I encounter a reference to it. If you haven't done this yet, you need to try it--if only to see how easy it is for information-literate-trained stalkers to find you. Many streets in U.S. cities have now been photographed. Looks like pictures of my house were done sometime last winter.

Go to Google; choose Maps; enter your address/zipcode. When you get the map, click on Street view in the box that pops up. Now you can navigate by clicking on the arrow in the middle of the street or rotating the picture using the carets (sp?) in the top corner of the view.

Should you ever see a car driving your street with a set of cameras mounted on the roof, be sure to wave and say hello to the world!

Tic Your TOC

I love electronic databases, especially those with full-text articles. But, alas, I miss the serendipitous finding of articles I wasn't looking for, but really like or need or explode my mind. Just got notice of a utility from the UK that allows us to specify (tic) a list of our favourite[sic] journals, save the list, and then cruise the Table of Contents (TOC) of our choices whenever we wish. And the name is. . . . ticTOCs!
http://www.tictocs.ac.uk/index.php?action=home

"Welcome to ticTOCs - where researchers keep up-to-date

* ticTOCs is easy to use, and it's free.
* Find 11,393 scholarly journal Table of Contents (TOCs) from 414 publishers.
* View the latest TOC for each journal.
* Link to the full text of 291,071 articles (where institutional or personal subscription allows).
* Export TOC feeds to popular feedreaders.
* Select and save journal titles to view future TOCs (Register to ensure your MyTOCs are permanently saved).
* And more!"

Library Elf

Sounds like a Christmas story; it's not. Ellen Wilson, our ingenious technology librarian, alerted me to this utility several months ago, and every month I'm really glad she did.

Sign up for an account. Enter your Mobile Public Library card number and password and Library Elf will connect with your account. You can set it up to let you know which books you have checked out and send you an email alert before they are due.

It works for MPL and Hancock County library for both me and my husband. You can check and see if any other libraries are included. There are a couple of academic libraries, but not this one, though I will look into it. Library Elf may not work with our system.

It has saved me from fines several times and I love just being able to see what I have, what I've put a hold on, and when everything is due. Perfect if you have kids that use the public library. So easy.
http://libraryelf.com/

The Top Ten of Everything of 2008

Finished exams? No brains needed for these lists.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10

Addictionary

I think it was the Washington Post that used to have a contest every year for the best made-up word. This website is based on the same concept. The Word of the Day is:

inlawgestion
noun, The anxiety and stress stemming from having the in-laws over for dinner over the holidays.

So many words that ought to exist!
http://www.addictionary.org/

Thanks to http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
Marylaine Block

Just for Fun--Sleeveface

Now that exams are going on, I think it's too late for anything but some stress relief. Heard about this website on NPR the other day. Too cool! This is something anybody can do with an old album cover and a friend with a digital camera. Submit your photo to the website.
http://www.sleeveface.com/

The Mechanics of Finding an Article in the Library

I just finished updating a web page that, I hope, elucidates the steps you need to take to find a full text article through the USA University Library Homepage in a couple of general databases. I wish it were easy, but it's not. Here are seven steps that take you through the mechanics of the process. The actual search strategy is a whole 'nother ballgame. Maybe I can talk Ellen Wilson into doing a Captivate demo on constructing a search strategy--after the Holidays, of course.
http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/sauer/articles/finding.html

World AIDS Day

How much do you know about how AIDs? Take the test.(Give it a few moments to load.)

American Social History

Appropriate for this most social of holidays is this primary document website described by the Scout Report today.

The Digital Library Federation's website, Aquifer American Social History Online, is a site that brings together 175 collections that catalog American social history. Some of the types of materials included on the site are photographs, maps, oral histories, data sets, sheet music, posters, books and journal articles. On the right side of the homepage you can browse by "Times", "Subjects", and "Places". The items included here date back as far as the 1600s, covering the 50 states plus Puerto Rico and subjects ranging from African-Americans to World War II.

http://www.dlfaquifer.org/home

Great Websites for Kids

For these holidays from the American Library Association:
http://www.ala.org/greatsites

"The most valuable journalism is the kind that explains."

Too much information; too little knowledge.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7978

Website Parodies

Sometime along the way, I gathered this set of parody websites. They were probably originally meant to illustrate the need to evaluate public web pages. Some of them are very carefully done--by someone who had a lot of extra time. Some of them are just silly. I thought maybe they would provide a little humor-break from research-paper writing. And always remember there is The Onion.
http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/sauer/parodies.html

Civic Literacy Quiz

According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education citing a newly released report on civic literacy:

. . . earning a college degree does not necessarily guarantee an increase in knowledge of American history, government, or economics.

The report, "Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions," is based on a survey that quizzed more than 2,500 randomly selected Americans, including college graduates and elected officials, to test their "civic literacy." Of those who took the 33-question multiple-choice test, nearly 1,800, or roughly 71 percent, failed.

According to the report, college graduates whose highest educational-attainment level was a bachelor's degree answered 57 percent of the questions correctly. That was 13 percentage points higher than the score for Americans whose formal education ended with a high-school diploma.

Only one age bracket of college graduates, baby boomers, did not fail the test over all but came close with an average score of 61 percent. A score below 60 percent was considered failure.

I didn't fail, but am embarrassed that I actually missed 3 questions. But I'm one of those baby boomers that actually studied "civics" as a class in grade school and high school.

See how you do. Take the 33 question multiple choice test.

Life on Google

For years, when doing a library tour, I've stopped at our shelves of Life magazines. Our bound volumes on the third floor outside of the classroom start in 1936 and go through about 1983. Students are amazed at the history these represent--the articles, the advertisements and the photos. Google has gotten the Life photo collection from 1750s and made it available on their Images search. All those famous shots of presidents' inaugurations, presidents'funerals, war, wars' ends, fashion icons and the poor unfashionables.

To browse the collection go to Google, choose "Images" search and use these words: source:life.

To search it just add another word, for example: source:life vietnam.

http://images.google.com/

Full Frontal Scrutiny

Americans for American Energy
Center for Consumer Freedom
American Clean Skies Foundation
Coalition for a Democratic Workplace
Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy
Consumers Rights League

"Alliance," "foundation," "league," "coalition," Wow, such great names. They sound like activist, grassroots organizations working for the betterment of our world and our lives. Sorry to say these are all backed by those for whom transparency is the foe. Hmmm, what might that be? Here is a watchdog website that follows the money to unearth the agenda of these groups.

http://www.frontgroups.org/

"This joint project between Consumer Reports Web Watch and the Center for Media and Democracy aims to examine advocacy groups with misleadingly green-sounding names that are actually funded by corporate interests." Thanks to: Neat New Stuff I Found This Week http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html

Hoaxed Again!

Have you heard the news that Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent and not a country? And did you believe it? All the news stations and blogs reported it, so it must be true, right?

Read this: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/13/arts/13hoax.php

Even me, a librarian skeptical of all news sources, fell for it. After all everyone was saying it. Just hope that no one decides to do this to you on the web, on facebook, twitter, wherever. It is viral and can be deadly.

National Survey of Student Engagement 2008

Though this report should be of interest to university administrators, students should take note of the summary below. Whatever college and university you attend, there will be differences in the quality of the education. It is up to you to find the best courses and the best teachers--not just the easiest and those that fit your schedule.

Promoting Engagement for All Students: The Imperative to Look Within
Source: National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
From press release (PDF; 226 KB)

Findings from a national survey released today show that the quality of undergraduate education varies far more within colleges and universities than between them. As a result, rankings can be highly misleading predictors of educational quality. Analyses of key “Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice” reveal that in almost every case, more than 90 percent of the variation in undergraduate education quality occurs within institutions, not between them. A related conclusion is that even institutions with high benchmark scores have an appreciable share of students whose undergraduate experience is average at best.

The 2008 report from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is based on information from nearly 380,000 randomly selected first-year and senior students at 722 four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. The report, Promoting Engagement for All Students: The Imperative to Look Within, provides an overview of survey findings and points to accomplishments as well as areas where improvement is needed.

10 Most Annoying Phrases

Oxford Researchers List Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases
By John Scott Lewinski
Wired.com, 7 Nov 2008

The great hierarchy of verbal fatigue includes:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

The list appears in a new book, Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, by Jeremy Butterfield.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition

The 11th Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, coincidentally published in 1911, is known (by librarians and historians mostly) for the depth of its articles and the scholarly authority of the authors of these articles. I just ran across an online version of this 44 million word reference source and after a little more research have found more than one website hosting it. Needless to say, it is of no value for most 20th century topics, but for students and academics in most fields it is a historiography of great value.

Wikipedia offers these characterizations by noted authorities. I can't think of better advertisements for trying it than these

In 1917, under his pseudonym of S. S. Van Dine, the US art critic and author Willard Huntington Wright published Misinforming a Nation, a 200+ page criticism of inaccuracies and biases found in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition. Wright claimed that Britannica was "characterized by misstatement, inexcusable omissions, rabid and patriotic prejudices, personal animosities, blatant errors of fact, scholastic ignorance, gross neglect of non-British culture, an astounding egotism, and an undisguised contempt for American progress.

"Sir Kenneth Clark, in Another Part of the Wood (1974), wrote of the eleventh edition, "One leaps from one subject to another, fascinated as much by the play of mind and the idiosyncrasies of their authors as by the facts and dates. It must be the last encyclopaedia in the tradition of Diderot which assumes that information can be made memorable only when it is slightly coloured by prejudice. When T. S. Eliot wrote 'Soul curled up on the window seat reading the Encyclopædia Britannica,' he was certainly thinking of the eleventh edition." (Clark refers to Eliot's 1929 poem Animula.)"

Check it out at:
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/

Molecular Movies--Cool Animations for the Biologist and the Curious

This website just came via Scout Report. This is their review:
. . . . The Molecular Movies site presents an organized directory of various animations, along with original tutorials for life science professionals who are learning 3D visualization techniques. These materials are divided into the following sections: "Showcase", "Learning", "Toolkit", and "News". The "Showcase" area contains animations listed by scientific area or individual animator or design studio. Currently, there are well over fifty animations offered here which demonstrate everything from cell invasions to DNA replication. Next up are the visualization tutorials (located in the "Learning" area), which allow users to learn about the techniques used in making such lovely animations. Visitors can browse these tutorials by skill level, software type, or topic area. Before leaving the site, visitors should also check out the site weblog for further updates and links to other related works. [KMG]
http://www.molecularmovies.com/showcase/index.html

Copyright Internet Scout, 1994-2008. Internet Scout
(http://scout.wisc.edu/),

Imagination Overwhelms Me

When everyone else sees the world as bland and boring, there are those among us who make visual, aural and poetic sense of the random.

Sorted Books project

The Sorted Books project began in 1993 years ago and is ongoing. The project has taken place in many different places over the years, ranging form private homes to specialized public book collections. The process is the same in every case: culling through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom.

Bill Geist on Complaining Choirs (CBS Sunday Morning)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9BZUjZWYIA
CBS' offbeat correspondent Bill Geist explores the trend of "complaining choirs", where ordinary people complain about life to four-part harmony.

Glumbert: When graphic artists get bored.

Banned Books Week

This is the one week a year that we officially celebrate our freedom to read whatever we want. John Stuart Mill believed that if we were just allowed to explore all possible arguments we would come up with an enlightened answer. But Plato didn't trust that we would not be unduly swayed by the poets and rhetoricians. The battle still rages today. Reading is a civic responsibility OR reading is dangerous unless controlled for "truth." Libraries generally take the first position and are sometimes challenged by those who take the second.

Here is the Joint Statement by the American Library Association and the American Association of Publishers.

Take the Guardian's Quiz to see how much you know about book banning worldwide.

Here's a list of frequently banned books.

And visit the University Library to vote for your favorite banned book.

“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” — On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

Living Room Candidate

Lest we forget past campaigns.

Just got this fascinating link from a library colleague. It's from the Museum of the Moving Image. How about let's study the visual and rhetorical techniques of campaign ads as part of information literacy.

"The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run."

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

Institutions, Victims and Justice

Paul Newman: from the film The Verdict (1982, directed by Sidney Lumet, script by David Mamet).

GALVIN

You know, so much of the time we’re lost. We say, ‘Please, God, tell us what is right. Tell us what’s true. There is no justice. The rich win, the poor are powerless…’ We become tired of hearing people lie. After a time we become dead. A little dead. We start thinking of ourselves as victims. (pause) And we become victims. (pause) And we become weak…and doubt ourselves, and doubt our institutions…and doubt our beliefs…we say for example, `The law is a sham…there is no law…I was a fool for having believed there was.’ (beat) But today you are the law. You are the law…And not some book and not the lawyers, or the marble statues and the trappings of the court…all that they are is symbols. (beat) Of our desire to be just… (beat) All that they are, in effect, is a prayer…(beat)… a fervent, and a frightened prayer. In my religion we say, `Act as if you had faith, and faith will be given to you.’ (beat) If. If we would have faith in justice, we must only believe in ourselves. (beat) And act with justice. (beat) And I believe that there is justice in our hearts. (beat) Thank you.

David Pogue on Google

Every Thursday I watch for the email from New York Times with David Pogue's column. He is one of the few technology writers that really writes to be understood. I trust someone who actually uses the products he writes about. This week he writes about using Google and how Google has improved its searching facility to make life so much easier for us. Those of us who remember life without Google can't even conceive how life can be even easier than yesterday's Google, but David Pogue thinks so. Here's his column.
http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/09/25/technology/circuitsemail/index.html?8cir&emc=cir

What Issues are Important to You in this Election?

If you think you don't know what McCain and Obama stand for, it is about time you found out. With only 5 weeks till the elections, get serious about what is important to you.

Here are links to two websites, one for each of the presidential candidates, which present what candidates believe and promise to do on the major issues of the day. There are too many choices facing the country today to make uninformed decisions or ones based on a single issue, hearsay, gossip or TV ads by political action committees, lobbyists, or general factotums.


http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/issues/

Tomorrow, Sept. 19th, is the last day you can register to vote!
You can register to vote at the following locations:

Mobile County Courthouse
205 Government St.
Mobile, AL.
(251) 574-8586

Mobile Public Library
701 Government St.
Mobile, AL
(251) 438-7073

Tillman's Corner Office (West Mobile)
Cloverleaf Shopping
Mobile, AL
(251) 574-8552

You can also obtain voter registration forms from AmSouth Bank branches, Alabama Power, and or the Old Courthouse, 109 Government St., Room 116.

For more information, call (251) 574-8586.

publicprofiler/worldnames

This should have a huge disclaimer stating "world names for 26 countries--NOT INCLUDING the Middle East, China, Russia most of Africa and some other areas of the world." Sorry, most of the world population is not included. If you are of Western European heritage, however, it is kind of fun to see where your last name [surname] and other family names appear most often, that is, how many times per million inhabitants.
http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Main.aspx

Gov Docs Big Week

All week long our Government Documents department will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of its inception as a Federal Depository Library. Join them

Today:

At 1:00 Paula Webb & Beverly Rossini and doing a presentation in Room 305 "Take Charge! Informed Health Decisions for Older Adults."

At 3:00 in the Library Auditorium, Mobile County Commission President, Stephen Nodine, will speak.

The rest of the schedule is here.

Established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its Government’s information, the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) involves the acquisition, format conversion, and distribution of depository materials and the coordination of Federal depository libraries in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

The mission of the FDLP is to disseminate information products from all three branches of the Government to over 1,250 libraries nationwide at no cost. Libraries that have been designated as Federal depositories maintain these information products as part of their existing collections and are responsible for assuring that the public has free access to the material provided by the FDLP.http://www.gpoaccess.gov/libraries.html

What [Media] Librarians Do on their Day Off

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2007/oct/17/isthisthegreatestyoutubec

The Disadvantages of an Elite Education

Every student, and even more emphatically, every faculty member at an institution of higher "learning"--not just at elite institutions--should be required to read this essay.

"The Disadvantages of an Elite Education"
By William Deresiewicz
in the current issue of American Scholar
http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su08/elite-deresiewicz.html

Evaluating Webpages

I've been terribly negligent about keeping this blog up-to-date. One excuse is my schedule of teaching classes on how to use the library. One of the concepts I would like to include in each class, but seldom have time for, is how to evaluate the reliability of a webpage. Because it is sooo easy to use Google, one tends to ignore the constant warnings from faculty about webpages and their provenance.

Here's a webpage I've developed over the past few years providing some questions you need to ask yourself before including a webpage from the "public" Internet in your bibliography. I need to do one on Wikipedia too. My advice about using Wikipedia is to always read the info under the tab "Discussion" before using an article. It often contains some of the most amazing arguments about what's true and what's unknown and what is pure bs. Much more fun than the articles themselves--sometimes providing insight into how "information" is often a social construct.
http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/sauer/evaluat.html

New Library Newsletter

It happened again. You'd think I would learn. I sent out a mass mailing announcing the latest library newsletter in which the links to it didn't work. I don't know if the issue is Mac/PC related. I do know that it is stupid to do an email to the whole university if you haven't checked the links on another computer.

Anyway here is a link to the newsletter. I hope it works online better than in email.
Fall 2008 University Library Newsletter
or
http://www.usouthal.edu/univlib/news/news33/index.html

Mindset for the class of 2012

Beloit College has just come out with their annual list purporting to offer insight into the mindset of the entering college freshman. Always interesting; often surprising; perhaps not so relevant as suggested. But I do wish that I knew what some of the items referred to.

Netlingo--Yesterday's Word of the Day

Boolean and Boolean Logic Note: this is not just a library concept. Boolean is a powerful way to give your web searching more focus. More time strategizing mean less time evaluating.Always go to the "Advanced Search" option to make use of a form that employs Boolean.
See Wikipedia graphic.

http://www.netlingo.com/lookup.cfm?term=Boolean%20or%20Boolean%20logic

The Coolest Computer Peripheral Ever

http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCRL1SeTJ1rk

Top Ten Things to Know about Your Library

From Ellen Wilson, Information Technology Librarian and Freshman Seminar liaison, comes this webpage
http://www.usouthal.edu/univlib/ewilson/fs/ULtopten.html

BBC Sport's Olympics Monkey

BBC's version of a Olympics promo. Great animation. You just have to put up with a short commercial first.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/monkey/7521287.stm

Typographic Fun

Wordle http://wordle.net
Friday's activity: Create your own extraordinary typographic graphic--whatever. Find a piece of text you like or create a set of related words and paste them into the window. Wordle creates a graphic design using your words. There is some control over font, color and design. Then do a screen capture to use it in your own webpage.

A Little Flash Animation Fun

This is for anyone who has ever tried to create a Flash animation. It's called Animator vs Animation.

Truth in Advertising: FactCheck.org

Factcheck.org http://www.factcheck.org/
The political ads are flying. Seems like a new one everyday. Who's right? What's hyperbole? What's not literally true? Every four years I depend this website to help me deconstruct the language, and video, of political advertising. The fellows find the facts behind every claim--on both sides. Comes out of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and takes no money from political, commercial or ideological groups, just the Annenberg Foundation.
Try the vidcasts.

Copyright "Digital Slider"

Sue Medina of Network of Alabama Academic Libraries fame just sent this website which is a valiant attempt to clarify which publications are still under copyright and which are in the public domain. Public domain means that works can be used without permission, though they still need to be cited. If you happen to have the required info about the item, this is a nifty little web invention. Unfortunately most of the time one doesn't know whether the copyright was registered and extended or when the author died, and sometimes the answer given is just "maybe." You may have to do more research, but at least try it. Move the red slider next to your best guess and like the Magic 8 ball the answer may turn out to be correct.
http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

Library is Not. . .

Just back from my extended vacation and trying to catch up on my reading. Ran across this quote which I need to try to remember while facing the brand new students this fall.

"Writing is not about grammar and spelling and punctuation. It's about expression and discovery and the beauty of language. Libraries are not about Boolean searching, truncation, or APA, but about reading and curiosity and learning."
Ross LaBaugh in LOEX Quarterly

Literary Tattoos

I know that all of you associate literature with tattoos, right? Well, check out this gallery of tattoos from books, poetry, music, and other sources.

Fun fact: at least one of your USA librarians has a literary tattoo.

Poem of the Week - June 9-13

Snow
by Joel Brouwer

One winter, when much snow fell in Florence,
Piero de'Medici caused Michelangelo to make
him in his courtyard a statue of snow, which
was very beautiful.

–Giorgio Vasari's Lives

He found his rasps and hammers useless,
too crude for such soft stone.
So he chiseled the head

with his fingers: scratched ice
from the ears, rubbed his numb palms
against the cheeks to smooth them.

He stood on a ladder with his back
to the balcony, so the Medici's guests
could not see the statue's face take shape.

Clots of snow flew from his fingers,
dropped to the ground. The guests
amused themselves by guessing what magic

might be forming behind his black cloak.
Bacchus? Moses? Maybe the Pope?
After an hour, bored, they ordered the artist

to step aside. We cannot know
what they saw. Vasari doesn't say. But let's imagine
that silence falls thick as a blizzard

on the crowd. That the children drop
toys and hide behind their mothers.
That every eye wanders

up the snowman's bright muscles,
his dazzling, impossible flesh,
and locks to his lucid gaze,

which seems so certain, so candid,
that the guests shiver, look away,
turn suddenly solemn.

Later, at the feast, a young woman slips
from the table and rushes
to the courtyard, where a stray warm wind

strokes the statue's face, erasing
each feature. She climbs the ladder, stands
nose to nose, staring hard as if

the force of her looking will bring the face,
already so close to life,
to life. She scrapes away the thick, curved lips,

squeezes them between her hands.
She dribbles the liquid into a small glass vial,
which she'll wear on a necklace,

the water exactly as warm as her skin.
She imagines that strong, ruthless mouth
still beautiful, pressing heavy against her.


from Exactly What Happened. Purdue University Press, 1999.

Poem for this Week

Birches
by Robert Frost

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows--
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Poem for this week

Ode to a Nightingale
by John Keats

               1.

MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
  My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
  One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
’Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
  But being too happy in thine happiness,—
    That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
        In some melodious plot
  Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
    Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

               2.

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
  Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
  Dance, and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
  Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
    With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
        And purple-stained mouth;
  That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
    And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

               3.

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
  What thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the fever, and the fret
  Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;
Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
  Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
    Where but to think is to be full of sorrow
        And leaden-eyed despairs,
  Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
    Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

               4.

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
  Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
  Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
  And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
    Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays;
        But here there is no light,
  Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
    Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

               5.

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
  Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
  Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild;
  White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
    Fast fading violets cover’d up in leaves;
        And mid-May’s eldest child,
  The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
    The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

               6.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
  I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
  To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
  To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
    While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
        In such an ecstasy!
  Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
    To thy high requiem become a sod.

               7.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
  No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
  In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
  Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
    She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
        The same that oft-times hath
  Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam
    Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

               8.

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
  To toil me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
  As she is fam’d to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
  Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
    Up the hill-side; and now ’tis buried deep
        In the next valley-glades:
  Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
    Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?

Poem for Friday - May 9

Today’s poem is by Friedrich Schiller (b. 1759), who died on this day in 1805. The poem, “Ode to Joy” (1785), is the original source text of the famous last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It is worth noting, however, that the “Joyful, joyful we adore thee…” that appears in most American church hymnals, while often entitled “Ode to Joy,” was written by American writer Hen­ry van Dyke in 1907. Schiller, a noted poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist, is considered one of the preeminent pillars of German intellectual history.


Ode To Joy
by Friedrich Schiller

Joy, beautiful spark of Gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, fire-imbibed,
Heavenly, thy sanctuary.
Thy magic powers re-unite
What custom's sword has divided
Beggars become Princes' brothers
Where thy gentle wing abides.

Be embraced, millions!
This kiss to the entire world!
Brothers—above the starry canopy
A loving father must dwell.
Whoever has had the great fortune,
To be a friend's friend,
Whoever has won the love of a devoted wife,
Add his to our jubilation!
Indeed, whoever can call even one soul
His own on this earth!
And whoever was never able to must creep
Tearfully away from this circle.

Those who dwell in the great circle,
Pay homage to sympathy!
It leads to the stars,
Where the Unknown reigns.
Joy all creatures drink
At nature's bosoms;
All, Just and Unjust,
Follow her rose-petalled path.
Kisses she gave us, and Wine,
A friend, proven in death,
Pleasure was given (even) to the worm,
And the Cherub stands before God.

You bough down, millions?
Can you sense the Creator, world?
Seek him above the starry canopy.
Above the stars He must dwell.
Joy is called the strong motivation
In eternal nature.
Joy, joy moves the wheels
In the universal time machine.
Flowers it calls forth from their buds,
Suns from the Firmament,
Spheres it moves far out in Space,
Where our telescopes cannot reach.

Joyful, as His suns are flying,
Across the Firmament's splendid design,
Run, brothers, run your race,
Joyful, as a hero going to conquest.
As truth's fiery reflection
It smiles at the scientist.
To virtue's steep hill
It leads the sufferer on.
Atop faith's lofty summit
One sees its flags in the wind,
Through the cracks of burst-open coffins,
One sees it stand in the angels' chorus.

Endure courageously, millions!
Endure for the better world!
Above the starry canopy
A great God will reward you.
Gods one cannot ever repay,
It is beautiful, though, to be like them.
Sorrow and Poverty, come forth
And rejoice with the Joyful ones.
Anger and revenge be forgotten,
Our deadly enemy be forgiven,
Not one tear shall he shed anymore,
No feeling of remorse shall pain him.

The account of our misdeeds be destroyed!
Reconciled the entire world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy
God judges as we judged.
Joy is bubbling in the glasses,
Through the grapes' golden blood
Cannibals drink gentleness,
And despair drinks courage—
Brothers, fly from your seats,
When the full rummer is going around,
Let the foam gush up to heaven:
This glass to the good spirit.

He whom star clusters adore,
He whom the Seraphs' hymn praises,
This glass to him, the good spirit,
Above the starry canopy!
Resolve and courage for great suffering,
Help there, where innocence weeps,
Eternally may last all sworn Oaths,
Truth towards friend and enemy,
Men's pride before Kings' thrones—
Brothers, even it if meant our Life and blood,
Give the crowns to those who earn them,
Defeat to the pack of liars!

Close the holy circle tighter,
Swear by this golden wine:
To remain true to the Oath,
Swear it by the Judge above the stars!
Delivery from tyrants' chains,
Generosity also towards the villain,
Hope on the deathbeds,
Mercy from the final judge!
Also the dead shall live!
Brothers, drink and chime in,
All sinners shall be forgiven,
And hell shall be no more.

A serene hour of farewell!
Sweet rest in the shroud!
Brothers—a mild sentence
From the mouth of the final judge!