Good To Know
Friday, June 13, 2014
Money Talk
The Money Talk Guide for Women book now online & much more!
The book used in the Virginia Cooperative Extension’s free Money Talk class for women is now online here:
The book used in the Virginia Cooperative Extension’s free Money Talk class for women is now online here:
http://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/
The link is also available in the catalog record of the book.
You will also find several useful personal financial book resources online http://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/ such as the Personal Resiliency Resources Assessment Quiz, Asset Allocation Spreadsheet, Financial Goal-Setting Worksheet and more.
The link is also available in the catalog record of the book.
You will also find several useful personal financial book resources online http://njaes.rutgers.edu/money/ such as the Personal Resiliency Resources Assessment Quiz, Asset Allocation Spreadsheet, Financial Goal-Setting Worksheet and more.
The next free Money Talk course on July 2, 2014 is enrolling now
http://offices.ext.vt.edu/arlington/programs/fcs/offerings/moneytalk.html
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
http://offices.ext.vt.edu/arlington/programs/fcs/offerings/moneytalk.html
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Alexandra
¶ 6/13/2014 0 comments
Friday, July 09, 2010
A Real World Example: Why Info Literacy is So Important & Don’t Believe Everything You Read ( Even on Twitter (-: ) � ResourceShelf
Yikes! Kind of a double whammy --I read it in the newspaper--on the Internet--so it's got to be true, right? File this away for those students and researchers who may need a gentle reminder.
"...Newspapers/news web sites depend on accurate reporting. Of course, mistakes will be made and hopefully corrected but in this age of instantaneous global distribution it’s probably a good idea to check, double check and if possible GO TO THE SOURCE."
Thanks to Resource Shelf for a good analysis of the story. ¶ 7/09/2010 0 comments
"...Newspapers/news web sites depend on accurate reporting. Of course, mistakes will be made and hopefully corrected but in this age of instantaneous global distribution it’s probably a good idea to check, double check and if possible GO TO THE SOURCE."
Thanks to Resource Shelf for a good analysis of the story. ¶ 7/09/2010 0 comments
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Swiss Army Librarian: Checklist Manifesto for the Reference Desk :: Brian Herzog
"...depending on available resources...might help make sure all bases are covered consistently"
Well, personally I think this is way too long for actual use at the desk when helping someone, BUT a terrific summary of the many options we have available.
Ideas for what could we do with this checklist? Put it on SQ, the Ref wiki, what? Let Sally hear your thoughts.
¶ 7/04/2010 0 comments
"...depending on available resources...might help make sure all bases are covered consistently"
Well, personally I think this is way too long for actual use at the desk when helping someone, BUT a terrific summary of the many options we have available.
Ideas for what could we do with this checklist? Put it on SQ, the Ref wiki, what? Let Sally hear your thoughts.
¶ 7/04/2010 0 comments
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Computing Climate Data from Around the Globe
Hat Tip - Tara Callishan
See what they say on their site about those pesky climate models and data which became real discussion points after Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. "You can now query for and compare the raw data from different climate model reconstructions and studies, as reported in peer-reviewed journals and by government agencies, many of them covering more than a thousand years of history. The full set of reconstructions was chosen from as broad a collection of sources as possible, from well-known records such as ice cores and tree rings, to corals, speleothems, and glacier lengths—and even some truly unusual ones, like grape harvest dates.
Or are you more interested in global greenhouse gas concentrations?
If you’re interested in exploring this vast area of climatology yourself, you can start by looking at a detailed summary of the most prominent models in literature: simply ask Wolfram|Alpha about “global climate”, which will bring up a selection of data sets that have figured prominently in the news over the past few years."
Wolfram|Alpha is a respected site which seeks to "build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries." ¶ 6/09/2010 0 comments
See what they say on their site about those pesky climate models and data which became real discussion points after Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. "You can now query for and compare the raw data from different climate model reconstructions and studies, as reported in peer-reviewed journals and by government agencies, many of them covering more than a thousand years of history. The full set of reconstructions was chosen from as broad a collection of sources as possible, from well-known records such as ice cores and tree rings, to corals, speleothems, and glacier lengths—and even some truly unusual ones, like grape harvest dates.
Or are you more interested in global greenhouse gas concentrations?
If you’re interested in exploring this vast area of climatology yourself, you can start by looking at a detailed summary of the most prominent models in literature: simply ask Wolfram|Alpha about “global climate”, which will bring up a selection of data sets that have figured prominently in the news over the past few years."
Wolfram|Alpha is a respected site which seeks to "build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries." ¶ 6/09/2010 0 comments
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wikipedia Launches an FAQ For Librarians
Hat tip: Gary Price at Resource Shelf
Whether you love Wikipedia or hate it -- you need to read this FAQ! (Personally, I'm somewhere in the middle.) My experience is that it's hard to delete an entry anonymously but that it's pretty easy to edit away, once you create a Wikipedia account and log in. This doesn't leave me feeling incredibly secure in the credentials of the community of editors; my cat now has a Wikipedia account.
My Takeaway:
We believe that Wikipedia is an excellent starting point for research, and can be particularly useful for getting a quick and reasonably accessible overview of a particular topic area. We provide a lot of instruments to be compartible with the established citation-standards and it can also be remarkably detailed and comprehensive, particularly in subject areas such as technology and science. But we don't believe that anyone should accept what they read on Wikipedia (or anywhere) uncritically. We encourage readers to explore topics further, by clicking on the article footnotes to go the original information sources or using the further reading recommendations and external links.
Resource Shelf:
"A resource that’s definitely worth knowing about and sharing with colleagues, using in a presentation (if you’re talking to other librarians perhaps a link or handout), or just reading and agreeing or disagreeing with, and perhaps even making changes or corrections you believe are important.
Some of the Questions Asked and Answered:
+ Who owns Wikipedia?
+ How common are mistakes on Wikipedia?
+ Will the people who use my library find material on Wikipedia that’s objectionable, or unsuitable for children?
+ If people ask me whether Wikipedia is an appropriate resource for students and researchers, what do you recommend I say to them?
+ Why do I read sometimes that Wikipedia is closed to outsiders, or resistant to help?
+ Can you point me towards other people’s views on Wikipedia – either supportive, or critical? "
¶ 5/27/2010 0 comments
Whether you love Wikipedia or hate it -- you need to read this FAQ! (Personally, I'm somewhere in the middle.) My experience is that it's hard to delete an entry anonymously but that it's pretty easy to edit away, once you create a Wikipedia account and log in. This doesn't leave me feeling incredibly secure in the credentials of the community of editors; my cat now has a Wikipedia account.
My Takeaway:
We believe that Wikipedia is an excellent starting point for research, and can be particularly useful for getting a quick and reasonably accessible overview of a particular topic area. We provide a lot of instruments to be compartible with the established citation-standards and it can also be remarkably detailed and comprehensive, particularly in subject areas such as technology and science. But we don't believe that anyone should accept what they read on Wikipedia (or anywhere) uncritically. We encourage readers to explore topics further, by clicking on the article footnotes to go the original information sources or using the further reading recommendations and external links.
Resource Shelf:
"A resource that’s definitely worth knowing about and sharing with colleagues, using in a presentation (if you’re talking to other librarians perhaps a link or handout), or just reading and agreeing or disagreeing with, and perhaps even making changes or corrections you believe are important.
Some of the Questions Asked and Answered:
+ Who owns Wikipedia?
+ How common are mistakes on Wikipedia?
+ Will the people who use my library find material on Wikipedia that’s objectionable, or unsuitable for children?
+ If people ask me whether Wikipedia is an appropriate resource for students and researchers, what do you recommend I say to them?
+ Why do I read sometimes that Wikipedia is closed to outsiders, or resistant to help?
+ Can you point me towards other people’s views on Wikipedia – either supportive, or critical? "
¶ 5/27/2010 0 comments
Monday, May 10, 2010
Create a Printed Book From Wikipedia Entries
Create a Printed Book From Wikipedia Entries
So.....
Is this the next big thing? Creating print on demand out of free web content? I can see the attraction...if you are the author of the wiki pages...but otherwise....yikes.
Why would anyone want to do this? As librarians--should this concern us? We talk about authoritative and reliable content, but will this count? Wikipedia prides itself on requring cited sources for its content but what irony! A wiki entry can be improved with new cited sources at any moment--part of its "power of us."
But the irony I see is the notion that a "printed book" somehow trumps the online content. Does this give it more...value?? Are we forgetting that a print item basically goes out of date when it leaves the printing press? In what situations could this possibly be a good thing?
Talk amongst yourselves. ¶ 5/10/2010 0 comments
Why would anyone want to do this? As librarians--should this concern us? We talk about authoritative and reliable content, but will this count? Wikipedia prides itself on requring cited sources for its content but what irony! A wiki entry can be improved with new cited sources at any moment--part of its "power of us."
But the irony I see is the notion that a "printed book" somehow trumps the online content. Does this give it more...value?? Are we forgetting that a print item basically goes out of date when it leaves the printing press? In what situations could this possibly be a good thing?
Talk amongst yourselves. ¶ 5/10/2010 0 comments
Monday, April 26, 2010
Cool Tool - Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows
No question, my new fave cool tool is: Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows (let's just call it Photo Story 3)
Microsoft is not shy in its description: "Bring your digital photos to life--experience your photos in amazing new ways." I say "What I really want to do is direct...."
The tagline is "make show-n-tell cool again"...so it's not surprising that I learned about PS3 from a little girl who came to Reference Desk, hoping we had it installed like at her school. (Sadly not) Clearly it's being marketed to educators.
PS3 Is much better than trying to use PowerPoint for or Captivate for a presentation which is mainly images--which also avoids having to upload any pps slideshows to something like SlideShare. PS3 lets you put together a slideshow with its own uploader, then you can drag and drop them in the order you want. It even has a Photo Editor built in. I wouldn't choose it for photos which need lots of cropping or tricky editing--but if you're trying to pull together something for a training class in a hurry--it's fine.
So you import the photos -- then you can add text or captions OR you can even record your own voiceover narration, assuming you have a microphone. If not, you may add/create background music as a final touch to the "photos plus customized motion" or what has become your "movie."
That's right -- it makes a movie for you! You can save it in a number of video formats. With Blogger, you can import it right into a blog post. See Blogger Help. Note that Videos uploaded through Blogger are hosted on Google Video, and are kept private--they will not be included in Google Video search indexes.
How cool is that! ¶ 4/26/2010 0 comments
Microsoft is not shy in its description: "Bring your digital photos to life--experience your photos in amazing new ways." I say "What I really want to do is direct...."
The tagline is "make show-n-tell cool again"...so it's not surprising that I learned about PS3 from a little girl who came to Reference Desk, hoping we had it installed like at her school. (Sadly not) Clearly it's being marketed to educators.
PS3 Is much better than trying to use PowerPoint for or Captivate for a presentation which is mainly images--which also avoids having to upload any pps slideshows to something like SlideShare. PS3 lets you put together a slideshow with its own uploader, then you can drag and drop them in the order you want. It even has a Photo Editor built in. I wouldn't choose it for photos which need lots of cropping or tricky editing--but if you're trying to pull together something for a training class in a hurry--it's fine.
So you import the photos -- then you can add text or captions OR you can even record your own voiceover narration, assuming you have a microphone. If not, you may add/create background music as a final touch to the "photos plus customized motion" or what has become your "movie."
That's right -- it makes a movie for you! You can save it in a number of video formats. With Blogger, you can import it right into a blog post. See Blogger Help. Note that Videos uploaded through Blogger are hosted on Google Video, and are kept private--they will not be included in Google Video search indexes.
How cool is that! ¶ 4/26/2010 0 comments
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
2000-2009...Was it the best of times, or was it the worst of times...
Newsweek has an astonishingly detailed look back at the last ten years at 20/10
You may like the video for The Decade in 7 Minutes or The Decade in Rewind. I prefer the huge collection of Top Ten Lists: Most Important Dates, Cultural Moments, Memorable Quotes. And yes, I admit it--I'm a sucker for Accidental Celebrities and Moments When Life Went Off-Script. There are also plenty of predections for 2010....but before you read any of those, take a look at the decades Worst Predictions, for a little perspective.
¶ 1/05/2010 0 comments
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Factual: Parting The Curtains Of The Invisible Web
Factual: Parting The Curtains Of The Invisible Web
From Gary Price's Resource Shelf comes this heads up about a new player in the Search Game. "Factual seeks to create order from chaos by allowing anyone to share and mash open data on any subject, structuring information in database-like tables." RS points out that Google struggles to find/locate the “deep” or “invisible” web content, largely because it's inside databases which Google can't easily crawl.
I don't know about you, but I'm all for making order out of chaos. I'm going to scope out Factual--are you?
Also get - Much More via Factual Blog
¶ 10/14/2009 0 comments
Friday, August 21, 2009
11 Free Adobe Photoshop Alternatives
Yes, we should all have Microsoft Picture Manager enabled on our PC...but do you sometimes need a bit more functionality to edit a photo? Check out this blogger who says "If you are not going into advanced image editing, you should know that there’s always free software out there capable to perform what Photoshop can. "
Gimp, Paint.net and Pixia were just the top 3 picks.
There’s also free web services that allows you to perform basic image editing online. Here’s few examples:
- Adobe Photoshop Express – Official online version for Photoshop
- Picnik – Edit photo online
- Picnik – Add watermarks online
- Resize images online without Photoshop
- Fauxto – Free online Photoshop
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
CIA Gives World Factbook a Makeover
One of the new features of the Factbook is that many of the data fields now contain world rankings. So looking at Iceland’s life expectancy at birth, I can see that it’s 80.67 years for the total population, but I can also see it ranks 14th in the world. If I click on the 14 I can get the full ranking of all countries for this statistic (Macau ranks #1 in case you wondered.)
If you just want to get a list of a single data point for all countries, look for the “Field Listing” icon to the right of each data heading. This’ll give you all countries in alphabetical order. This is handy when you want to get an overview for unrankable information like natural resources or international disputes.
The CIA World Factbook updates every two weeks, which I keep having to remind myself is NOT slow in the age of Wikipedia. see complete article From Research Buzz at CIA Gives World Factbook a Makeover ¶ 7/01/2009 0 comments
Friday, June 19, 2009
Google PowerMeter
Google PowerMeter
"If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it." — Lord Kelvin
"How much does it cost to leave your TV on all day? What about turning your air conditioning 1 degree cooler? Which uses more power every month — your dishwasher or your washing machine? Is your household more or less energy efficient than similar homes in your neighborhood?"
Not live yet, but get the background about this tool that "shows consumers their electricity consumption in a secure Google gadget." As of summer 2009, Google is "testing the product with utility partners in the US, India and Canada" and has plans for expansion. Find videos, links to articles and reports, policy statements and testimony, a FAQ, listing of partners, and energy saving tips.
¶ 6/19/2009 0 comments
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Data.gov
Great article by Laura Gordon-Murnane, Posted On June 4, 2009
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Datagov-Opening-the-Doors-to-Government-Data-54337.asp
"So what can you find at Data.gov?
Data.gov features two searchable catalogs: a "raw" data catalog and a tools catalog. The raw data catalog consists of downloadable files in multiple formats-XML, Text/CSV, KML/KMZ, Feeds, XLS, or ESRI Shapefile. The tools catalog offers widgets, data mining and extraction tools, applications, and other services.
The extraction tools enable users to create maps, tables, or charts of subsets of data (www.data.gov/faq). Each data set includes a link to a metadata page that offers a summary of the data set, user ratings, data set information, data set coverage, information from the contributing agency, a data set description, and additional technical documentation. Both catalogs are searchable by category, agency, keyword, and or data format.
Every data set can be rated, Digg-style, for its value and usefulness.A handy tutorial (www.data.gov/howtouse) has been created to help walk you through the site."
¶ 6/17/2009 0 comments
What you need to know about car dealership closures: Consumer Reports Money & Shopping Blog
What you need to know about car dealership closures: Consumer Reports Money & Shopping Blog
¶ 6/17/2009 0 comments
Monday, March 23, 2009
Making Home Affordable - Home
Making Home Affordable - Home
"First announced by President Barack Obama in February, Making Home Affordable will offer assistance to as many as 7 to 9 million homeowners making a good-faith effort to make their mortgage payments, while attempting to prevent the destructive impact of the housing crisis on families and communities. "
¶ 3/23/2009 0 comments
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Looking for Free PDF Generator - TechSoup
Looking for Free PDF Generator - TechSoup
Yes, sometimes we just need a PDF--but guess what--you don't need PhotoShop or Adobe Writer! Do YOU know how to create one?
Answer: Well there is a lot of free software available. BUT--Be careful when you scope out these Tech Soup posts which discuss freeware. Most of these require a download to your PC, which LANRU wants us to avoid on Staff PCs. However, there is one site suggested by Jeff in LANRU: http://www.doc2pdf.net/ It can convert a Word doc to a PDF withtin your browser. NO download of software to your staff PC. Just scroll down past the ads to the blue box labeled "Convert this document" and use the Browse button to navigate to the location of the Word doc you want to convert. Click the convert button and zip zap, it opens in a new window as a PDF. Then just use the Save a Copy Button on the PDF toolbar. Bonus Question: How many of you realize that the Save a Copy button is an icon for a floppy disk? Old techologies die hard, I guess!
¶ 3/14/2009 0 comments
Thursday, March 05, 2009
More help researching the Financial Crisis
The Financial Crisis Timeline By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor, ResourceShelf.
"As is painfully obvious by now, the current financial crisis is complex and multifaceted, affecting virtually every sector of the economy. The Financial Crisis Timeline, from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, is a valiant attempt to help us make sense of it all.... You’ll find relevant articles and papers; an FAQ that tackles such issues as causes of the current crisis and how it compares to the Great Depression; a large collection of data, including financial data, national and international economic trends, and yields on various treasury securities; links to other government agencies offering relevant information and reports; and a glossary of financial terms." see ResourceShelf complete post
>>>>>2/26/09, 3:09 PM
A Searcher’s Journey Through a Morass: Researching the Financial Crisis It may be more than you ever wanted to know about the current ecocomic crisis....but this article from Searcher is a great research tool, for students. See the finished Library Guide aimed at college students: “Financial Crisis” (Fogler Library) http://library.umaine.edu/social/crisisreports.htm --plus an extensive list of Financial Crisis Resources listed at the end of the article.San Diego Public Library has a nice guide called: “Hot Topic: Crisis on Wall Street” http://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/services/hottopic17.shtml which is a good starting place for the more casual observers. Check ACORN to see if we own the book titles suggested.
¶ 3/05/2009 0 comments
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
U.S. Financial Crisis: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Find a brief summary about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act--with a general explanation of how your tax dollars are being spent as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a plan to address the U.S. financial crisis.
Most importantly, it also links to the new site Recovery.gov " which is the website that lets the taxpayer figure out where the money from the Act is going. Within days after the signing of the legislation, federal agencies will start distributing funds, and you will be able to see which states, congressional districts, and federal contractors are receiving them."
Feel the need to read the complete full-text of the law? It's here (but not searchable.) The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed into law by President Barack Obama
For those who are keeping track...there is still TARP - The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)which was the Bush / Paulsen effort. TARP allows the United States Department of the Treasury to purchase or insure up to $700 billion of "troubled" assets.
Update: Feb 24, 2009 Want to know what to expect for *your* share of the stimulus tax breaks? CNN has a good chart. (thanks Jeff!)
Then, courtesy of the Resource Shelf, take a look at StimulusWatch.org - who says that "StimulusWatch.org was built to to help the new administration keep its pledge and to hold public officials to account. We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects."
then there is the chance to make your ideas heard in Virginia! Govenor Kaine wants to hear from us! Stimulus.Virginia.gov - "The Commonwealth has developed a website for citizens, groups, localities, and others to use to share project proposals for funding from the federal stimulus package." It is a place where you, the citizen, can submit your suggestions.
The deadline for submission of the proposals is Friday, March 6, 2009. (If you're not part of the solution....)
Update: Feb 26, 2009: ALERT: For low-income and others such as retirees, disabled veterans and low-wage workers who don't usually file a federal tax return--they must file a return this year in order to receive a stimulus payment. Get details from the IRS site for Economic Stimulus Payment Information Center
¶ 2/18/2009 0 comments
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Pew Internet: Future of the Internet
Pew Internet: Future of the Internet
by Lee Rainie
A survey of Internet leaders, activists and analysts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the internet itself improves.
Here are the key findings on the survey of experts by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that asked respondents to assess predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020: The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020. The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness. Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020. Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment. The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations. Next-generation engineering of the network to improve the current internet architecture is more likely than an effort to rebuild the architecture from scratch.
see the Pew site for the full report.
¶ 1/15/2009 0 comments
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Uptick in Fiction reading
This blog is always interesting and NOT only about eBooks, but books and publishing too! This latest post about the NEA survey includes great related content.
Good news for e-books AND p-books: Uptick in fiction reading, says National Endowment for the Arts
Could fiction reading finally be increasing again in the U.S.—after years of declining interest in it?
Yes, says the National Endowment for the Arts. It credits Oprah (photo), hits like Harry Potter and Big Read-type programs.
¶ 1/13/2009 0 comments
Monday, December 08, 2008
ResourceShelf � Blog Archive � The Top 10 Everything of 2008
ResourceShelf � Blog Archive � The Top 10 Everything of 2008
This is a link to Time magazines Top Ten lists --from Albums to Worst Biz Deals
¶ 12/08/2008 0 comments
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Essay - The Well-Tended Bookshelf - NYTimes.com
Essay - The Well-Tended Bookshelf - NYTimes.com Hmm...a personal weeding policy!
¶ 12/04/2008 0 comments
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Evolution to Revolution to Chaos? Reference in Transition by Stephen Abram
Searcher magazine article:
¶ 10/11/2008 0 comments
Well, to me, the ultimate point is this:
"Aligning technology with user behavior no longer suffices to ensure success. We need to understand, and understand deeply, the role of the library in our end-users’ lives, work, research, and play. This is critical to our long-term success, and failure is not an option."
fyi, Abrams works for Sirsi Dynix now.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ron,
I think you were right on in your thoughts below. Abrams says "we have to put ourselves in all of the spaces inhabited by our users." If we did that, we would understand and work to overcome the frustrations that we present for them in accessing our resources.
MB
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sally - I haven't looked at the article yet, but did spend some time thinking about your "ultimate point" quotation - "..understand, and understand deeply, the role of the library.." At first, I thought along the lines of survey - we need to do one. But then I thought, what are my subjective impressions of what our users want/need. And I came up with the following, which I decided to put down and then read the article. Some of this I've probably heard at CIL or other conferences and its just now bubbling to the top...
Users want one entrance point to all that the library has to offer. We need to work with all of our vendors to come up with the ability that users sign in/log on once and only once and from that point on, can access all of the many services and resources available on our site: library account; all subscription databases; NetLibrary ebooks and eaudiobooks; Overdrive titles; the proposed video downloads, etc. Having to access each one individually is frustrating, both for users and staff that spend a large amount of time walking users through the different steps to use our resources. Yahoo, Google, Microsoft are set-up that one sign-in gives their users access to all of their resources, many of them customized to their site. This is what our users expect and we should be pushing to make it possible. Again, as per the quote you pulled, "This is critical to our long term success.."
Now to read the article!
ron
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Friday, July 11, 2008
Starbucks junkie :)
In thinking of our services and where to focus our attention, I found this to be a good read.
Plus I am a Starbucks junkie :)
An email from SEA
¶ 7/11/2008 0 comments
Friday, May 09, 2008
Truth: Can You Handle It? Better Yet: Do You Know It When You See It?
Very interesting article in Washington Post (Sunday, April 27) about information and truth by consensus. If enough people believe something is true, it is accepted as fact. Also comments on need by many in today's world to want information immediately irregardless of accuracy and veracity.
Labels: information, knowledge, truth
¶ 5/09/2008 0 comments
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Sciencehack.com - Seeing is believing
ScienceHack is a unique video search engine for science videos. Every video is screened and approved based on accuracy and quality by their scientists. They are currently focusing on the following fields of science: Physics, Chemistry, and Space. Coming soon: Geology, Psychology, Robotics and Computer.
Though their database is relatively small, their scientists are working very hard to index every science video on the internet. ScienceHack does not host videos; ScienceHack only indexes videos from other sites like YouTube and MetaCafe.
Labels: science, sciencehack, videos, youtube
¶ 4/30/2008 0 comments
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Hands-on Review: Amazon Kindle : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech
To Kindle or Not to Kindle...is THAT the next big question for libraries? This review may help us decide..that is...once the price is lowered to less than the currently astonishing $399. Still, Amazon is currently sold out at that price. But will they EVER reach a bigger manufacturing capacity? I'm a bit worried about that, when I read this downer review
at TeleRead. They HAVE been keeping up with the whole eBook issue :)
But that would be if we chose to circ the devices preloaded...like a Playaway. OR, what if we just buy the Kindle titles? Is that fair? Is it serving the more affluent patron? But wouldn't it be cool for patrons to put a Hold on a Kindle title we own (because there are DRM and licensing issues--as with our eAudiobooks), and when it came available--it's beamed via wifi to that patron's device?
To me, it sounds more like Amazon has invented the cheapest pocket PC going...what with web browsing at Wikipedia available. And sending your OWN documents--by email...at 10 cents a pop...probably to pay for the wireless cost to transfer it. You can already connect it to your own PC and exchange stuff. I suspect that the next generation of Kindle will act more like a big fat blackberry, except for the phone part.
What do YOU think? Email Sally!
¶ 12/05/2007 0 comments
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Webbifying Dewey | Everything is Miscellaneous
Check out this blog post "The estimable Lorcan Dempsey of the OCLC points to a presentation by Michael Panzer (also of the OCLC) about how to “webbify” the Dewey Decimal System...As Duncan says, “This is part of an ongoing investigation of what it means to release more of the value of ‘classic large-scale vocabularies’ in a web environment.” There’s lots of info packed into Dewey’s system. How can we best liberate that info?"
It's from a very interesting blog by the author of the book by the same name: Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger,
Check it Out! http://www.everythingismiscellaneous.com/
¶ 11/17/2007 0 comments
Monday, October 29, 2007
Book Review Podcast - New York Times
Too busy to even READ the NYT Book Review every week?
Then this podcasts is for you: Book Review Podcast - New York Times.
Just visit this site from time to time, or sign up to subscribe to the weekly podcast from iTunes or MyYahoo.
¶ 10/29/2007 0 comments
Monday, June 18, 2007
Interview with Slideshare founder Jon Boutelle
Another Web 2.0 tool--It's like Flickr, but for PowerPoint slides. Sounds like a great way to collaborate with tutorials, etc. I think I would just be sure your .ppt slide presentation is really REALLY finished before you upload them!
¶ 6/18/2007 0 comments
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Librarian Central - Tools
Looking for tools to help teach your patrons how to use Google more effectively?
Google has created a raft of handouts!
Feel free to download and distribute these materials as widely as you'd like.
¶ 6/07/2007 0 comments
Looking for tools to help teach your patrons how to use Google more effectively?
Google has created a raft of handouts!
Feel free to download and distribute these materials as widely as you'd like.
¶ 6/07/2007 0 comments
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Why is the U.S. Flag at Half-Staff?
If you see a flag at a federal building that is flying at half-staff (I thought it was called half-MAST, but....) it's usually due to a presidential proclamation. These are found at the WhiteHouse.gov though nothing indicates "flag flying status." So browse the index of proclamations for any which mention a death, such as Rosa Parks or William H. Rehnquist. Within the text of the proclamation is the order for flags. If it is not a federal proclamation, it's local: "In the event of the death a present or former official of the government of any State, territory, or possession of the United States, the Governor of that state, territory, or possession may proclaim that the National flag shall be flown at half-staff."
Try searching FirstGov.gov for the keywords: flag half-staff and see if you find orders from state governments, or search the states' website directly. Virginia has its own Flag Information page.
---Thanks to Sandy for pursuing this answer! 11/3/05
Updated 5/29507
¶ 5/29/2007
The Top 60 Web 2.0 Applications in Australia
The Top 60 Web 2.0 Applications in Australia
Libraries down under have spoken: Here are the Top 60 below. The sites are ranked in approximate order of how prominent they are (or should be), based on four criteria:
- Web 2.0 characteristics
- Coolness/ Innovation
- Maturity
- Commercial success/ number of users
Early Reviewers | LibraryThing
Early Reviewers | LibraryThing
Have you always had a secret desire to be a book reviewer? Now's your chance--sign up with LibraryThing to be part of their "Early Reviewers" group. You get free books, and share your opinions with a wide audience. LibraryThing makes everyone happy and keeps everything free and fair. (Check out the rules.)
¶ 5/29/2007 0 comments
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Thingology (LibraryThing's ideas blog): Danbury, CT kicks off LibraryThing for Libraries!
Thingology (LibraryThing's ideas blog): Danbury, CT kicks off LibraryThing for Libraries!
this is pretty goundbreaking, if you ask me! A tag cloud in a bib record--what's the library world coming to?
Will have to see how this plays out--but for us--we expect the next release of AquaBrowser to offer a "Commments in the Catalog" feature. Stay tuned
¶ 5/16/2007 0 comments
Monday, April 30, 2007
What the heck is Twitter?
Seems like there's a lot of people all a twitter over Twitter - and then there's a bunch of us that don't know the first thing about it. If you fall into the latter group (hey, I'm in there with you), then check out Fred Stutzman's "The 12-Minute Definitive Guide to Twitter." Might tell you somehting you don't already know...
¶ 4/30/2007 0 comments
Thursday, April 19, 2007
From Computers in Libraries '07
Sally's Three Things That are Good To Know:
- Open Clip Art Library http://openclipart.org/media/tags
- From What's New with RSS by Steven Cohen,
- 30 Search Tips in 30 Minutes by Mary Ellen Bates
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Google 101 - not 105 or even 101.5
"Ten Tips for Smarter Google Searches" - an article from Que magazine...
¶ 12/09/2006 0 comments
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Word Tips
We all know that word can be incredibly frustrating at times. Check out Allen Wyatt's Word Tips site - he purports 1,600 tips and tricks that should make you master of the universe (or at least the known "word").
¶ 11/16/2006 0 comments
Monday, September 11, 2006
Gethuman tips
gethuman
(or how to get past a telephone tree) Formerly called the IVR Cheatsheet. This is a database of tips and shortcuts for ways to talk to an actual human person--for many U.S. based companies.
Don't forget: "To find the toll-free phone number for any US-based company, try calling 1-800-555-1212 or search Google for company name plus "phone numbers". Or maybe even searching for the company name and "president office" or "investor relations."
Also, try using 1-800-FREE-411.
¶ 9/11/2006 0 comments
Friday, August 25, 2006
TIME Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites
TIME posted its annual "50 Coolest Websites List."
Also, be sure to check out "The 25 Sites We Can't Live Without."
¶ 8/25/2006 0 comments
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Google Librarian Tips of the Trade
It's Good to Know that Google can help find answers to all sorts of reference questions!
¶ 8/20/2006 0 comments
Friday, July 07, 2006
"Making 'E' visible"
The June 15 issue of Library Journal has an informative (and intriguing) article on getting patrons to utilize the electronic resources offered by libraries. Leslie Williams postulates that "To draw patrons past the Googles of the world, we need to revolutionize how electronic resources are promoted." APL is doing some of the steps she outlines - but there are additional ones that we could undertake in an effort to make sure our eSources reach as vast an audience as possible.
¶ 7/07/2006 0 comments
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Noodle Tools
Even with the unlikely name of "Noodle Tools" this is a site you will want to remember and yes, bookmark. We know that all Search Engines are not created equal...and we know we should always try more than one. But this is NOT a Search Engine--it just aims to help you choose the best one. Did you kow there is a S.E. focused on just social issues--which is great for homework ideas? That the Google Directory is better that plain Google, for finding or understanding a topic? Or that if your fave S.E. has returned just too much, try Clusty or Ask, where you can refine it quickly. Go ahead, try the same search terms on a few of these S.E. and then compare your results. (Personal note: I remember when this was a website first back in the 90's called "Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need," so they've been at this for a while!)
¶ 6/29/2006 0 comments
Friday, April 21, 2006
Useful Nuggets From CIL
This information was from a session with Chris Sherman from Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/
Ask.com - A First rate search engine now that he believes will continue to improve (they hired Gary Price as a consultant).
Features:
o Ready reference – can search an encyclopedia o Natural language searching works better than before
o Binoculars next to results lets you preview a page w/o clicking into the website o Suggestions for narrowing and broadening the search
o Mapping feature is great! Actually draws a line to illustrate the route and gives you an animated tour. Does walking and driving directions. Enables you to click on a location in the map w/o actually typing in an address. Has satellite pictures like Google Earth.
Google- Sherman sees it more as an advertising site than a search engine.
New Stuff:
o You can create a personalized desktop o New Blog Search
o Google Base – Like eBay
o Google Mars and Google Moon
o Google Books Partner Program- online book marketing program. Google has formed contractual agreements with publishers to scan their books. They either scan all of the book or parts depending on copyright restrictions. There is a link to buy the book.
o Google Print Library Project- Includes collections of a few libraries. Full text of books that are in the public domain. They are talking about putting an OCLC link at the bottom so people can find the book in their library.
MSN- They are putting a lot of money into their search engine.
New Stuff:
o Advertising will be targeted toward demographic information and search behavior.
o MSN local – gives you a satellite view as well as a bird's eye view. You can choose to be a racecar driver, person, etc. and navigate through the streets.
o Acquired Onfolio – described as Bookmarks on steroids. (Not on their msn.com site yet.)
o Search clustering? (I couldn't find this, not quite sure what it does, but it sounds cool.)
Interesting Snippet- In China their results displays on Google are almost entirely advertisements and that is the way they prefer it. ¶ 4/21/2006 0 comments
This information was from a session with Chris Sherman from Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/
Ask.com - A First rate search engine now that he believes will continue to improve (they hired Gary Price as a consultant).
Features:
o Ready reference – can search an encyclopedia o Natural language searching works better than before
o Binoculars next to results lets you preview a page w/o clicking into the website o Suggestions for narrowing and broadening the search
o Mapping feature is great! Actually draws a line to illustrate the route and gives you an animated tour. Does walking and driving directions. Enables you to click on a location in the map w/o actually typing in an address. Has satellite pictures like Google Earth.
Google- Sherman sees it more as an advertising site than a search engine.
New Stuff:
o You can create a personalized desktop o New Blog Search
o Google Base – Like eBay
o Google Mars and Google Moon
o Google Books Partner Program- online book marketing program. Google has formed contractual agreements with publishers to scan their books. They either scan all of the book or parts depending on copyright restrictions. There is a link to buy the book.
o Google Print Library Project- Includes collections of a few libraries. Full text of books that are in the public domain. They are talking about putting an OCLC link at the bottom so people can find the book in their library.
MSN- They are putting a lot of money into their search engine.
New Stuff:
o Advertising will be targeted toward demographic information and search behavior.
o MSN local – gives you a satellite view as well as a bird's eye view. You can choose to be a racecar driver, person, etc. and navigate through the streets.
o Acquired Onfolio – described as Bookmarks on steroids. (Not on their msn.com site yet.)
o Search clustering? (I couldn't find this, not quite sure what it does, but it sounds cool.)
Interesting Snippet- In China their results displays on Google are almost entirely advertisements and that is the way they prefer it. ¶ 4/21/2006 0 comments
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Computers in Libraries 2006: Presentation Links
Computers in Libraries 2006: Presentation Links
They're HEEEERE. Link on over to presentations from CIL. Even if you couldn't make it to the Conference, there is much to be gleaned from the speakers' remarks. And while Content is always King at CIL, this year you heard more from the dais ABOUT Content, then about tech trends like wi-fi or handhelds...at least in the tracks I attended!
My faves: I think my current " #1 Good Thing" was the Searching the New Digital Formats Christina Pikas. and Greg Schwartz
Steven M. Cohen is always encouraging, as a self-avowed non-techie.
Instant Messaging: Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens for discussions about IM
--I didn't attend her session, but I had a chance to chat with Amanda Etches-Johnson, whose Blog Without a Library is well known. I think her presentation on IM at her university library shows IM reference is most successful with the built-in user populations like college students. ¶ 4/15/2006 0 comments
They're HEEEERE. Link on over to presentations from CIL. Even if you couldn't make it to the Conference, there is much to be gleaned from the speakers' remarks. And while Content is always King at CIL, this year you heard more from the dais ABOUT Content, then about tech trends like wi-fi or handhelds...at least in the tracks I attended!
My faves: I think my current " #1 Good Thing" was the Searching the New Digital Formats Christina Pikas. and Greg Schwartz
Steven M. Cohen is always encouraging, as a self-avowed non-techie.
Instant Messaging: Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens for discussions about IM
--I didn't attend her session, but I had a chance to chat with Amanda Etches-Johnson, whose Blog Without a Library is well known. I think her presentation on IM at her university library shows IM reference is most successful with the built-in user populations like college students. ¶ 4/15/2006 0 comments
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Internet Archive
You may be familiar with the Internet archive known as the Wayback Machine, but it has really grown into a massive compendium. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages. Audiofiles inlcude live concerts too ! The etext collection includes Project Gutenberg files, plus the Million Book Project (not to be confused with the Google Books effort.) Plus, find special collections such as: the general election of 2000, pioneers of the Internet, Hurricane Katrina, and the United States government.
¶ 2/22/2006 0 comments
You may be familiar with the Internet archive known as the Wayback Machine, but it has really grown into a massive compendium. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages. Audiofiles inlcude live concerts too ! The etext collection includes Project Gutenberg files, plus the Million Book Project (not to be confused with the Google Books effort.) Plus, find special collections such as: the general election of 2000, pioneers of the Internet, Hurricane Katrina, and the United States government.
¶ 2/22/2006 0 comments
Friday, January 20, 2006
Google Librarian newsletter
It IS nice to see that Google is interested in Librarians, and what we think! Take a look.
¶ 1/20/2006 0 comments
Friday, January 13, 2006
Internet Resources for Children's Librarians
Some highlights from the Dan Ream workshop:
- KidsClick! Web Search (http://kidsclick.org/) Choose advanced search for age, reading level, and amount of illustrations
- Database of Award Winning Children's Literature (http://www.dawcl.com)
- How Stuff Works (http://www.howstuffworks.com/) Very Cool! (Not only things that are mechanical)
- Best Parenting Sites (http://lii.org/search?query=Parenting;no_stem=1;searchtype=subject)
For all the sites Dan recommended take a look at this page: http://www.people.vcu.edu/~dream/arlingtonchild05.htm He said he would keep it available for a year, so it might be worth printing out!
¶ 1/13/2006 0 comments
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Library Best Practices Wiki
Good compendium of various sites and links, to quote: "Welcome to Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. This wiki was created to be a one-stop-shop for great ideas and information for all types of librarians. All over the world, librarians are developing successful programs and doing innovative things with technology that no one outside of their library knows about. There are lots of great blogs out there sharing information about the profession, but there is no one place where all of this information is collected and organized."
¶ 12/01/2005 0 comments
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Google Print for Libraries -- Now called Google Library Project
As you may have heard, "Google Print makes offline information searchable... What is the goal of Google Print for Libraries? This project's aim is simple: make it easier to find relevant books. We hope to guide more users to books – specifically books they might not be able to find any other way – all while carefully respecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers find new readers. " Not everyone has been so enthusiastic...read the legal scholar's take and also check out the NPR story plus an author's view. And here's another well rounded discussion: http://www.aaupnet.org/aboutup/issues/gprint.html
Thanks to Jason for pointing out the lastest news here.
Gary Price says: "If you're interested in learning about the print book collections of the five libraries Google plans to scan/digitize (assuming all goes as planned), a new article in Digital Libraries: Anatomy of Aggregate Collections, uses data from OCLC's WorldCat (the largest bibliographic database in the world) to provide breakdowns and comparisons."
¶ 11/10/2005
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Google Librarian Center
Is Google aiming to be the Librarians New Best Friend? hard to say. But here you can sign up for a quarterly email newsletter just for librarians. As Sun Tzu (and Michael Coreleone!) are oft quoted: "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."
¶ 10/23/2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
WebCam Central : WebCams by Category : Category Listing
Webcams are everywhere now, but it's been hard to tell exactly WHERE they are. This site is a step up from just searching for cams on Google, since you ARE able to search by category or custom keywords.
¶ 10/17/2005
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Check out these news feeds via RSS!
These are great sites & worth visiting frequently! And RSS is the best way to keep up with them. LIS News and Research Buzz
If you've forgotten what RSS is, or how to subscribe...see earlier post here
http://gtn.blogspot.com/2005/03/rss-compendium-welcome-to-rss.html
If you have already setup a My Yahoo or Bloglines account to get RSS feeds,
Add This to your RSS http://lisnews.org/index.rss
Add This to your RSS account http://www.researchbuzz.com/researchbuzz.rss
¶ 10/04/2005
Thursday, September 29, 2005
News site podcasts - CyberJournalist.net
CyberJournalist.net posted a list of pubcasters with podcasts...and here's a list of even more than a dozen other news sites with podcasts (links go to podcast feeds):
If you like istening to the news instead of reading or watching it...this one's for you!
¶ 9/29/2005 0 comments
Friday, September 16, 2005
Google now searches blogs
The September 15 Washington Post business section details Google's new blog search capabilities (click on the title link above to read the article). Sally had previously posted about using the Clusty search engine to find information in blogs and the pertinent reasons for looking to do so.
To utilize this new feature, go to Google and click on "more" in the top menu and then on the "Blog Search" link under "Services "
¶ 9/16/2005 0 comments
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Hurricane Katrina - various info
¶ 9/13/2005
See the county's storm and hurricane portal for any local updates and the latest on Hurricane Katrina Relief.
Web Junction has a discussion/forum which already has useful posts. The Librarians Index to the Internet has organized a large collection of Katrina sites. The official source for info on hurricanes is the National Hurricane Center. The Washington Post offers several types of info & graphics, including: Recovery and How You Can Help plus Who's Blogging Another blogger: Eye of the Storm Find full coverage at Yahoo News FEMA has sites for Louisana and Mississippi. A well organized Wiki is pulling together current and background info.
Created 8/31/05 (updated 9/13/05)(removed some entires 9/13/05)
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Clusty the Clustering Engine - and Blogs Too!
Clusty the Clustering Engine
Are you looking for Blogs in all the wrong places? Not to worry, try the Clusty search engines custom search of the blogosphere.
Why search blogs? Just one more "pocket" of the WWW that can offer discussion or info...especially on a single topic or focus.
Think Clusty sounds like a joke? Trust the folks at Search Engine Watch
¶ 9/01/2005 0 comments
Monday, August 01, 2005
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Shelf Life
(appeared in the Washington Post magazine, 7/31/05.) Here's the view from DC Public, with a sidebar on Loudoun's new branch in Ashburn.
"It's a strange time for public libraries in the United States. Cities from Seattle to Salt Lake City to Fayetteville, Ark., have recently built beautiful modern libraries in their downtowns. Smaller versions have also opened in growing suburban areas. And the circulation numbers nationwide are at an all-time high. At the same time, the city of Salinas, Calif., birthplace of author John Steinbeck, nearly shut down its library system recently because of budget shortages, a plan that was halted only after a public outcry. Other systems have also suffered financially in the last few years as local budgets have tightened.
Washington has underfunded its library system for decades. The results are predictable. A recent independent ranking of library systems nationwide placed Washington 61st out of 77 in quality and resources among cities with populations over 500,000.
Drive past the lake with the fountain in the middle, and you come to Loudoun County's Ashburn Library." ¶ 7/31/2005 0 comments
Saturday, July 30, 2005
A Simpler Interface
Do you prefer the uncluttered look of Google over the more crowded look of Yahoo? Most people don't realize it, but these two search engines can give different results. So, it is important to search both, and not to neglect one over the other because of an aesthetic gripe. What you can do to make Yahoo look more like Google is simply click on the "Yahoo Search" button and you will find the interface surprisingly familiar:
¶ 7/30/2005 0 comments
Do you prefer the uncluttered look of Google over the more crowded look of Yahoo? Most people don't realize it, but these two search engines can give different results. So, it is important to search both, and not to neglect one over the other because of an aesthetic gripe. What you can do to make Yahoo look more like Google is simply click on the "Yahoo Search" button and you will find the interface surprisingly familiar:
¶ 7/30/2005 0 comments
Use Google like AskJeeves
If you have a basic question such as "How many inches are in a foot?" or What is the capital of Florida?" Google will display the answer at the top of the page much like AskJeeves. So type in your query using natural language and give it a try!
¶ 7/30/2005 0 comments
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
A Search Engine for Acronyms
From Research Buzz: Esus has announced the release of Acronyma, a search engine with an index of over 450,000 acronyms and abbreviations. It's available at http://www.acronyma.com/
You may search in several different languages, and you may search by word or by acronym. I searched for the acronym Yahoo and got one result (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle). I searched for Perl and got four results, then searched for Pine and got three results (including the expected "Pine is Not Elm".) Results are listed by relevance/importance or alphabetically as you prefer.
¶ 6/28/2005 0 comments
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Truth in Advertising?
Yesterday's Washington Post "The Magazine Reader" column had a short synopsis of a Scientific American article on how drug and chemical corporations use "product defense" to whitewash the dangers of their products. The full article is only available via the hardcopy of the magazine since the SciAm site calls for a paid subscription and InfoTrac OneFile only provides an abstract. The Post article is copied as follows:
Manufacturing Doubt By Peter Carlson Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page C04 _____
Back in 1969, an executive at the tobacco company Brown & Williamson wrote a line that summed up Big Tobacco's attempt to confuse the public about the health effects of smoking: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public."
"In recent years, many other industries have eagerly adopted this strategy," David Michaels writes in an important article in the June Scientific American. The article is called "Doubt Is Their Product," and it exposes how drug and chemical corporations hire "product-defense" companies to create "scientific" studies that whitewash the dangers of their merchandise.
Michaels, a professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University, knows his subject. He watched these companies in action in the 1990s, when he was assistant secretary for environmental safety and health at the Energy Department and was trying to regulate the highly toxic element beryllium.
"If a pharmaceutical firm faces questions about the safety of one of its drugs," he writes, "its executives trumpet company-sponsored trials that show no significant health risks while ignoring or hiding other studies that are much less reassuring. The vilification of threatening research as 'junk science' and the corresponding sanctification of industry-commissioned research as 'sound science' has become nothing less than standard operating procedure."
To illustrate his point, Michaels recounts the tales of how drug companies used dubious studies to defend the pain-reliever Vioxx, which was shown to cause heart attacks, and the appetite suppressant PPA, which caused hemorrhagic strokes in young women. Both drugs have now been withdrawn from the market.
The Bush administration and its allies in Congress have aided these corporations, Michaels says, by passing a bill in 2001 that made it easier for companies to challenge government-funded research.
"I believe it is fair to say that never in our history have corporate interests been as successful as they are today in shaping science policies to their desires," Michaels writes. "We need a better balance between health and money." ¶ 5/25/2005 0 comments
Manufacturing Doubt By Peter Carlson Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page C04 _____
Back in 1969, an executive at the tobacco company Brown & Williamson wrote a line that summed up Big Tobacco's attempt to confuse the public about the health effects of smoking: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public."
"In recent years, many other industries have eagerly adopted this strategy," David Michaels writes in an important article in the June Scientific American. The article is called "Doubt Is Their Product," and it exposes how drug and chemical corporations hire "product-defense" companies to create "scientific" studies that whitewash the dangers of their merchandise.
Michaels, a professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University, knows his subject. He watched these companies in action in the 1990s, when he was assistant secretary for environmental safety and health at the Energy Department and was trying to regulate the highly toxic element beryllium.
"If a pharmaceutical firm faces questions about the safety of one of its drugs," he writes, "its executives trumpet company-sponsored trials that show no significant health risks while ignoring or hiding other studies that are much less reassuring. The vilification of threatening research as 'junk science' and the corresponding sanctification of industry-commissioned research as 'sound science' has become nothing less than standard operating procedure."
To illustrate his point, Michaels recounts the tales of how drug companies used dubious studies to defend the pain-reliever Vioxx, which was shown to cause heart attacks, and the appetite suppressant PPA, which caused hemorrhagic strokes in young women. Both drugs have now been withdrawn from the market.
The Bush administration and its allies in Congress have aided these corporations, Michaels says, by passing a bill in 2001 that made it easier for companies to challenge government-funded research.
"I believe it is fair to say that never in our history have corporate interests been as successful as they are today in shaping science policies to their desires," Michaels writes. "We need a better balance between health and money." ¶ 5/25/2005 0 comments
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Search Engines -- Taking over the world???
The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: How "search" is redefining the Web — and our lives This intriguing articletalks not just about cool things seach engines are adding to attract us, but how this ramps up concerns over privancy and security ..." In developing its own search engine, Microsoft found that people search an average of 11 minutes before they find what they are looking for. See how long it takes to find the top five university marine-biology programs, or the store with the cheapest tires in Seattle. You searched for java, but did you mean coffee, the island or the programming language?
If we increasingly live in an "always on" world, and if our every task starts with a question, then every task could start with search, said Mark Anderson, a Friday Harbor technology forecaster. Search moves to the front of how we think and work, he said, and its impact becomes staggering.
"Huge," he said. "That's where the big money is. The number of eyeballs goes up hugely, and all the money comes from eyeballs."
So where does search go from here? Some experts say the technology will jump digital boundaries from the browser to other platforms. Its next stop is the cellphone [and mobile devices] in the future, television."
¶ 5/10/2005 0 comments
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Based on the Book - MCPL
Ceated by a library system in Missouri, this handy list can be sorted by Movie or Book title, Year or Author name. Nothing fancy, but exactly what I needed to remember the name of the movie based on The Orchid Thief.
¶ 5/08/2005 0 comments
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Going Under Cover with Book Search Tools
The Text Is Out There..er, I mean IN there. You can actually search within the source now --if you follow these tips and tricks from Gary Price. You can zoom in on fulltext from the Google Library Print program, as well as Amazon's 'Search Inside the Book" feature.
¶ 5/05/2005 0 comments
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
To IM or not to IM
Virtual reference or reference chat is receiving a lot of attention. Library Journal, in their April 1 issue, had an article of interest. Be sure to check out their "Best Practices" sidebar at the end of the article.
IM Me
¶ 5/04/2005 0 comments
Library blogs - they're everywhere!
Blogs address almost everything and this is true in the world of Libraries. Check out this listing of over 300 blogs that touch on librarianism is some manner or another.
300+ library blogs
¶ 5/04/2005 0 comments
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Financial Education
Resource Shelf
by Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor
"Financial literacy is an important subset of information literacy. Our Resource of the Week is a content-rich site from the Federal Reserve Board."
This is a GREAT site for just about anyone who needs to improve their financial IQ. Good for personal use, for teachers, or for students.
¶ 4/21/2005 0 comments
Monday, April 18, 2005
The future of information?
Courtesy of Leah Noonan's LCCcTeach blog: "Take a moment -- no, take 8 minutes -- to view this thought-provoking piece. Audio is essential. It is a view of the Internet and the news as seen from the year 2014 -- which seems very far away, until you do the math -- it's less than 9 years away. The material up to the year 2005 is accurate -- after that, it's speculation, but entirely possible."
Note: you might have to download and install the most up-to-date version of Flash ¶ 4/18/2005 0 comments
Note: you might have to download and install the most up-to-date version of Flash ¶ 4/18/2005 0 comments
Sunday, April 17, 2005
iPod fans & downloadable audiobooks
The Post's "Fairfax Weekly" had this item on the Pairfax County Libraries experiences with offering digital audiobooks through NetLibrary. Take Note: Arlington will begin offering these audiobooks later this summer. They can be downloaded to various MP3 players, EXCEPT the Apple iPod, which Apple will not license.
For Libraries, a New Chapter in Computer Woes (washingtonpost.com)
¶ 4/17/2005 0 comments
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Kids Search Engines
A timely entry in the ongoing discussion about children's use of the web and filtering, brought to you by the knowledgeable author of the SearchEngine Watch website. "The services below are designed primarily to serve the needs of children, either in focus, or by filtering out sites that some parents and teachers might find inappropriate for kids. These usually include sites that deal with explicit sexual matters, porn sites, violence, hate speech, gambling and drug use."
Scroll down on this site, for listings or jump directly to:
Major Children's Guides - Filtering Options
Other Children's Search Engines - Filtering and Blocking Software
Related Articles
Major Children's Guides & Directorie
¶ 4/12/2005 0 comments
Monday, April 11, 2005
Library blogs & tips on following blogs
Karen Schneider, in her blog "Free Range Librarian," lists a number of useful library-oriented blogs plus gives some tips on how best to follow the happenings on blogs you might be tracking...
¶ 4/11/2005 0 comments
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Exalead? What's that?
This is the new search engine (still in Beta) from France that is getting noticed by the heavy hitters in the industry (think Greg Notess!). Its barebones look is pretty Google-esque but the results can be customized and it gives a small snapshot of what the site looks like. Worth checking out!
¶ 4/07/2005 0 comments
What can Google do for you?
Take some time to explore all the services Google has to offer by clicking on the “More” button on the main page.
Of note: Alerts- Sign up for customized RSS notices, Check out Keyhole (need to subscribe but you can get a free 7 day trial) – a really amazing satellite mapping site, available directly at
http://maps.google.com/ Plus, explore Google Labs to see what is coming down the pike.
¶ 4/07/2005 0 comments
5th Annual Search Engine Watch Awards
The votes are in...and some of the winners may surprise you...it's not always Google. Another reason why savvy searchers say "Always try at least TWO search engines."
¶ 4/07/2005 0 comments
IM @ Your Library ?
Who among us is a fan of Instant Messaging? So, is it better than email? .Is it going to replace email? Check this link and see how some public libraries are alredy offering it to their users.
¶ 4/07/2005 0 comments
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Do You Still Yahoo?
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Ben Hammersley: Second Sight
"Yahoo is the new Google. Google is the new Yahoo. Up is down, and black is white... Last month's launch of Google Maps was impressive, but not as cool as Yahoo's placing of live traffic conditions on its map this month....Yahoo has a rich site summary (RSS) aggregator, Google does not. Yahoo has a search engine for online movies, Google does not. "
So maybe Yahoo is your new best friend. Sounds to me like Google searches MORE but Yahoo searches BETTER.
¶ 3/31/2005 0 comments
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Estate Planning for Everyone
From Nolo Press, this site is simple and clear about this difficult topic.
For more than you ever wanted to know about Death and Dying, see the Yahoo Directory. Topics include Advance Directives, Cemetaries, Funerals, Memorials, Death of a Pet, and more.
U.S. Living Will Registry "The U.S. Living Will Registry is a privately held organization that electronically stores advance directives, organ donor information and emergency contact information, and makes them available to health care providers across the country 24 hours a day through an automated system." This site is for consumers too, and while there are many sites to help in developing a Living Will, what is unusual here is the fact that it actually stores it for you."
And if you think this may not apply to you, consider this 3/29/05 New York Times article, "The Best Way to Keep Control: Leave Instructions." With thanks to Jim Robinson, for suggesting some of these sites.
¶ 3/30/2005 0 comments
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Tip! You can save any ProQuest article as a
bookmark or favorite. Just right-click on it
from your search result.
¶ 3/29/2005 0 comments
¶ 3/29/2005 0 comments
Thursday, March 24, 2005
From ResourceShelf Personal Computers-- Statistics
Source: Computer Industry Almanac
PCs In-Use Surpassed 820M in 2004; PCs In-Use Will Top 1B in 2005
"The worldwide number of PCs in-use surpassed 820 million in 2004 and is projected to top 1 billion in 2007. PCs in-use growth is slowing as the industrialized world is approaching the top of the S-curve. Strong PC growth will continue in the developing countries for another decade. The U.S. has a large lead with over 220M PCs in-use--over 3X the number in Japan. The U.S. accounts for over 27% of all PCs in-use compared to 4.6% of worldwide population. PC usage is growing rapidly in China, which is expected to surpass Japan in 2007. PC usage is also growing strongly in many populous countries such as Brazil, India and Russia."
While you're at it, check out the current population stats on the Census Population Clock
¶ 3/24/2005 0 comments
Mary Ellen Bates - Tip of the Month Is This For Real?
Search Pro Mary Ellen reminds us "...how easy it is for people to rely on web sites that look authoritative but aren't necessarily accurate or up to date. (For an example of a site that, at first glance, looks reliable, see the web page for the RYT Hospital) Following are some of the techniques I use to figure out whether a site can be relied upon. .."
Take a minute to review her tips, for yourself, your patrons or the sites you "own" on the library website.
¶ 3/24/2005 0 comments
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
ICARUS... the Santa Fe Public Library Blog Check out this new effort in blogging which
blends news with chatty postings from everything to the latest drought to the books read this week in Storytimes. Since they also have a link to their library catlog, it's almost like this is a library website "lite."
¶ 3/15/2005 0 comments
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
"Since October 11, 2004, Mount St. Helens has been in a constant eruptive state." ... HOW eruptive, you ask? You need to see the VolcanoCam
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam - Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument
Also see the section for VolcanoCam Movies...with the VolcanoCam Images Archive and the Hall of Fame Images--impressive!
¶ 3/08/2005 0 comments
News: 'Half-Blood Prince' book jackets revealed Something for HP fans to drool over until the book is released....Countdown to Book 6: at this moment, it's 129 days, 9 hours, 37 minutes, and ....however many Seconds
But did YOU know there is an entire news aggregator for Harry Potter?
The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator (HPANA) was created to monitor several of the top news sources on the Web and provide near-instant alerts when new information is published. It's lots more than The Leaky Cauldron and what's pretty cool is how many students participate. Check it out!
¶ 3/08/2005 0 comments
Monday, March 07, 2005
Yahoo! Netrospective: 10 years, 100 moments of the Web
Hard to believe, isn't it? Yahoo is TEN years old yes, but some folks may not realize that in 1995, Yahoo was one of the FEW directory/search engines around. The Netrospective is also fun to look at, and just click around...sort of a fancy photo album!
¶ 3/07/2005 0 comments
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Books2Films
Imagine that -- movies sometimes inspire viewers to read the book. Unfortunately, this blog won't help very much! Missing are most classics (Gone with the Wind) and as for alphabetical order...well, here it's really more of a guideline.
Free advice: If you just want to browse a list of film titles which started out as a book, you are probably better off just using the power searches at IMDb.com So, bookmark this Power Search at IMDb, to locate books made into films. Also worth saving is link to the list of Keywords which INCLUDE "based on" where you'll find based on adapdation, based children's book, etc. (scroll down to this part of the index.)
¶ 3/06/2005 0 comments
RSS Compendium: "Welcome to the RSS Compendium, designed to link you to information about RSS readers, resources, tools, etc...
This resource was originally a sub-set of files in my Weblogs Compendium resource, but it has grown so much that it now demands its own index."
Wow! Peter Scott has created this clearinghouse for RSS, where you can learn more about the notion of RSS (see RSS History) or just find more feeds.
¶ 3/06/2005 0 comments
Amazon.com: Help / Amazon.com Services / Recommendations /How to Suppress
If you shop or use Amazon.com to fiind product information, you may be frustrated at irrelevant reccomendations that pop up all the time. Here's the word straight from Amazon:
How do I turn off recommendations?
Simply click the link on our home page that says "If you're not (your name), click here." Then, leave the e-mail and password spaces blank and click the "Welcome" tab. This will remove our recommendations for you during your visit.
If instead you want to stop your name from appearing on the site, and shop without our recommendations features present, you can accomplish this by logging out of our web site.
On the Amazon.com home page, click the link that says "If you’re not ___, click here." Then, leave the e-mail and password spaces blank
and click the "Welcome" tab at the top of the page. Doing so will remove your name and recommendations from all Amazon pages.
The next time you identify yourself on the site by placing an order or entering your e-mail address and password, your personalized
features will return. You can simply repeat the steps above to clear your name.
So, this means you WILL have to sign in to your account, in order to view a Wisih List, or any saved addressed. The other thing I do is mark everything I purchase as a gift....which should keep it from prompting recommendations
¶ 3/06/2005 0 comments
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Wired 13.03: The Book Stops Here: "In 2005, the nonprofit venture is the largest encyclopedia on the planet. Wikipedia offers 500,000 articles in English - compared with Britannica's 80,000 and Encarta's 4,500 - fashioned by more than 16,000 contributors. Tack on the editions in 75 other languages, including Esperanto and Kurdish, and the total Wikipedia article count tops 1.3 million."
What's a wiki...not to mention a wikipedia?
A wiki uses software which allows anybody with Web access to go to a site and edit, delete, or add to what's there. the wikipediai would be created not by paid experts and editors, but by whoever wanted to contribute. A revolutionary model for cooperative web efforts!
Give it a look at the Wikipedia at http://www.wikipedia.org/ and choose a langugae.
¶ 3/03/2005 0 comments
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The Video Game Librarian Special @ Gaming Target
Wow - should we be adding video games? Food for thought!
¶ 3/02/2005 0 comments
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Sure, bestseller lists abound, but look over the one from Amazon.com...if they aren't tapped into what people are reading, then who is?
Then click over to Libary Journal's Most Borrowed Books lists
Fiction and Non-Fiction
For a refreshing change from what's HOT, see Amazon's Recommended Reading for 2005 and their spin on what's new and noteworthy.
¶ 2/26/2005 0 comments
Saturday, February 12, 2005
On beyond blog feeds
Blogger Mary Hodder now relies more on feeds constructed via search queries than on feeds from individual weblogs.
Napsterization
after a while, I started reading all the search feeds first, and a few blogger’s feeds, but the rest of the single blog feeds have become less important.
¶ 2/12/2005 0 comments
Friday, February 11, 2005
The Johnson County Sun
Librarian fired for 'good deed' that violated confidentiality. Do YOU remember what to do if you get a request for library customer information? Read through the policy on SQ for Privacy of Customer Records
¶ 2/11/2005 0 comments
Friday, February 04, 2005
Library Journal - Virginia Won't Ban Guns from Libraries
A Virginia House committee has rejected a bill that would have allowed public libraries to ban guns, with members saying there were not problems cited regarding guns in libraries and that the measure would complicate state laws. According to the Daily Press, bill proponent Del. Mamye BaCote of Newport News argued that kids often go to libraries to do homework. "Libraries are an extension of public schools," she said, "and they should be protected.
¶ 2/04/2005 0 comments
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Yahoo! News - Crichton best-seller stokes fire over global warming
This seems ironic to me, since I could barely get *through* this book,I found it SO hard to read. :)
Still isn't it good to get people talking?!
¶ 2/02/2005 0 comments
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Yup, Google Launches Video Search
Google has quietly added a video search to their labs. The labs are at http://labs.google.com , the video search is at http://video.google.com/ . And as always, the interface is simple; a query box and that's about it.
¶ 2/01/2005 0 comments
