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/