Very nice idea that mixes libraries with performance art with oral history: I just read this article in Spiegel Online about a project called the Living Library. It allows people to sit down and talk with someone with a life experience that is different from theirs--volunteers sit in King's Park in Copenhagen wearing t-shirts that read "Lend Me Out". The aim is to fight prejudice. Some of the stories available are from an ex-stripper, a policeman, and a refugee.
Read the article to find more out!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Personal Stumper SOLVED!!!!
This is a lesson in the importance of keywords. I have had two ongoing personal stumpers--books I read when I was younger that I can't remember pertinent info about for the life of me. I've tried to do searches for them before with no real results. One is a young adult novel that must have been published in the late '70s or '80s. It's about kids at a school. Some of them are freakish - one girl in particular is a type of beast. It turns into a war, children who live in the sewers may or may not be enlisted, and in the end the freaks win--but with casualties. The girl who is a beast is turned into a statue or stuffed and mounted.
I still can't figure out how to find that one, save going to my old library and hoping it hasn't been weeded. (Fat chance.)
The second is a series of mysteries set in China--they were long and sort of funny and slightly mystical. For a long time I kept doing the "mystery set in China" or "chinese mystery" search and turning up nothing. But today I realized I should be doing a search for "detective" and "China". Which I did, in Novelist (an essential database, may I add). And I found my answer: The Master Li novels of Barry Hughart. A Google image search confirms that the covers of these books are what I remember. But I'm putting a copy on hold just to make sure.
I still can't figure out how to find that one, save going to my old library and hoping it hasn't been weeded. (Fat chance.)
The second is a series of mysteries set in China--they were long and sort of funny and slightly mystical. For a long time I kept doing the "mystery set in China" or "chinese mystery" search and turning up nothing. But today I realized I should be doing a search for "detective" and "China". Which I did, in Novelist (an essential database, may I add). And I found my answer: The Master Li novels of Barry Hughart. A Google image search confirms that the covers of these books are what I remember. But I'm putting a copy on hold just to make sure.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Books in Spanish: not necessarily Spanish books
Something I've noticed while looking for library selections to recommend to my Spanish teacher mother or to read for myself is the tendency for libraries to stock a high percentage of English books translated into Spanish, instead of more Spanish books by Spanish and Latin American authors. And just now I read VOYA's most recent article on Noteworthy Books in Spanish for Teens, and only 2 of the 15 selections were originally written in Spanish. Really? Is there such a dearth of books that actually were written in Spanish for teens that you could only find 2 to put in the list?
It's perfectly true that a lot of kids reading these books would be attracted to these translations either because they'd like to practice their Spanish reading skills on something familiar or because they are Spanish speakers who want to read what their English-speaking friends are reading. It's entirely possible that authors and publishers in Spain haven't caught sight of the beneficial tsunami that is Young Adult literature. And it's probably easier (not to mention cheaper) to deal with publishers in the United States than to search out contacts and titles in Spain or Latin America (especially if none of your staff has the language skills). I don't really know how it's done in our system here. The last time I was in an Acquisitions department was a couple years ago at CMU.
Still, it's something I notice. I can't come down too hard on the issue because it's not like NOTHING but translations of NYT bestsellers are available. It just makes me want to know more about the whole process of developing the collection, yannow?
It's perfectly true that a lot of kids reading these books would be attracted to these translations either because they'd like to practice their Spanish reading skills on something familiar or because they are Spanish speakers who want to read what their English-speaking friends are reading. It's entirely possible that authors and publishers in Spain haven't caught sight of the beneficial tsunami that is Young Adult literature. And it's probably easier (not to mention cheaper) to deal with publishers in the United States than to search out contacts and titles in Spain or Latin America (especially if none of your staff has the language skills). I don't really know how it's done in our system here. The last time I was in an Acquisitions department was a couple years ago at CMU.
Still, it's something I notice. I can't come down too hard on the issue because it's not like NOTHING but translations of NYT bestsellers are available. It just makes me want to know more about the whole process of developing the collection, yannow?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
23Things Week 10 - Firefox!
Tabbed browsing really transformed my life. This was before Internet Explorer offered tabs. Someone clued me into Firefox, and I never looked back. (Unless I happened to be on an IE only computer.) Before tabbed browsing, I rarely clicked on a link or watched a video online. I preferred the continuity of the main story and the clutterless bottom bar of the desktop to following the webbed trail of internet links. But once I could store those open links in neat little tabs in the browser, my life would never be the same. I felt like I was getting the whole story.
When I got a Delicious account this year, I installed the Firefox Delicious add-on onto my home computer's browser, and have been happily using it since. It makes adding bookmarks to Delicious a little bit simpler, and accessing my most-recently-bookmarked URLs easier.
Looking at the text sizing options, I find that Firefox lets you magnify the screen to a much larger, uh, magnitude(?) than Internet Explorer does. Something I never knew, and something that will be much appreciated by some of our older patrons!
When I got a Delicious account this year, I installed the Firefox Delicious add-on onto my home computer's browser, and have been happily using it since. It makes adding bookmarks to Delicious a little bit simpler, and accessing my most-recently-bookmarked URLs easier.
Looking at the text sizing options, I find that Firefox lets you magnify the screen to a much larger, uh, magnitude(?) than Internet Explorer does. Something I never knew, and something that will be much appreciated by some of our older patrons!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
23things: youtube and flickr
I am a huge fan of flickr (see the slideshow to your left on the blog) and find that YouTube is a near endless source of entertainment in my household. I think the creative commons license is a super idea. I did have trouble copy and pasting the embed code into this space. I'm not sure if that was a blogger issue. The same small fragment kept showing up, like it was stuck in the clipboard or something. I ended up having to go to the Potter Puppet Pals website, right-click on the video, and select "copy embed html", then paste it into a Word document, re-copy the code, and go back here and paste it in. I hope it works.
I chose to search the term "puppet" because puppets are creepy, fascinating, and often used in children's programming. They touch on the interesting concept of the uncanny valley (funnily explained, although in NSFW terms, in 30 Rock). And they are used to great effect in videos making homage to and/or fun of children's literature. (Harry Potter Puppet Pals, above, and the Twilight puppet video, also to be found on YouTube).
Other instances of puppets that come to mind right now:
-Vermont's Bread and Puppet Theater (related: a personal recollection from the blog of composer Nico Muhly)
-Haunting puppet show in the haunting Kieslowski film La Double Vie de Veronique
-Wonderful puppet shows held in the summer in the Parque del Buen Retiro in Madrid
-Black Sheep Puppet Festival here in Pittsburgh!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
week 5, belatedly
I was on vacation and then feverishly preparing for outreach, so I didn't get around to things 7 & 8 until just today. And I wanted to try to download stuff on my mac instead of my work computer, just to see what the limitations would be, if any. So here I am at work with my laptop, using our free wireless, signing kids up for summer reading, making sure they don't take too much pizza, and downloading an audiobook from the website.
I wanted to download a video, because I can't stand listening to voice actors slowly work their way through audiobooks, but that isn't possible for a mac yet. So I downloaded the overdrive software and found one of the very few mp3 audiobooks that wasn't checked out. It was a book about conspiracy theories by Richard Belzer from the tv show Homicide!
All in all, it was limited for Apple users, but pretty easy.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
23 Things n'at progress
Whenever I get a new album (I know, I know, they're not albums anymore, but that's what I call them) it takes me at least 3 times of listening to it straight through to know whether I really like it or not. And I think it's the same with me and new social technology. Until I've used it for a while, I can't say for sure whether it's really useful for me.
That's how I really judge stuff--a lot of web 2.0 ends up being fun and useful but also loaded down with small tedious tasks. It's really about being organized and keeping track of your connections, and always keeping up with your connections. So if I can't invest the proper amount of time in something I don't always create an account to do so. I like these exercises because it gives me an excuse to make accounts and a built in network with whom I can try the stuff out. (Feel free to correct my grammar on that one.)
I've found that I really like the "following" option here on blogger, because I can use it as my library-blog-only RSS Feed. I keep my delicious account for my personal interests--bookmarks that I want to collect but won't use every day. Daily personal bookmarks just go on my Firefox bar at home. So I don't know if I'll ever use my Bloglines account. I'd rather have a lot of things pertaining to one subject collected in separate spaces. I love that I can have it online and accessible anywhere.
The wiki editing was frustrating only because I couldn't format it correctly--like when Microsoft Word decides that you want it to AutoFormat lists or capitalize the beginning of everything after a paragraph break, and it really doesn't want you to override it. Maybe someone else was trying to edit the wiki at the same time I was. I went back once to the list and my edit was missing. So I put it back in. But, I mean, if formatting issues are good enough for Microsoft Word, they are good enough for everyone else.
Can I just say that I love Google Docs, and its share feature?
And that the Nixon/JFK blog vs. wiki video reminded me of Brian Regan's very funny stand-up bit about the Kennedys around the dinner table: "Some people look at creamed corn and ask why. I look at creamed corn and ask... why not?"
I tried to find a youtube clip but couldn't dredge it up.
That's how I really judge stuff--a lot of web 2.0 ends up being fun and useful but also loaded down with small tedious tasks. It's really about being organized and keeping track of your connections, and always keeping up with your connections. So if I can't invest the proper amount of time in something I don't always create an account to do so. I like these exercises because it gives me an excuse to make accounts and a built in network with whom I can try the stuff out. (Feel free to correct my grammar on that one.)
I've found that I really like the "following" option here on blogger, because I can use it as my library-blog-only RSS Feed. I keep my delicious account for my personal interests--bookmarks that I want to collect but won't use every day. Daily personal bookmarks just go on my Firefox bar at home. So I don't know if I'll ever use my Bloglines account. I'd rather have a lot of things pertaining to one subject collected in separate spaces. I love that I can have it online and accessible anywhere.
The wiki editing was frustrating only because I couldn't format it correctly--like when Microsoft Word decides that you want it to AutoFormat lists or capitalize the beginning of everything after a paragraph break, and it really doesn't want you to override it. Maybe someone else was trying to edit the wiki at the same time I was. I went back once to the list and my edit was missing. So I put it back in. But, I mean, if formatting issues are good enough for Microsoft Word, they are good enough for everyone else.
Can I just say that I love Google Docs, and its share feature?
And that the Nixon/JFK blog vs. wiki video reminded me of Brian Regan's very funny stand-up bit about the Kennedys around the dinner table: "Some people look at creamed corn and ask why. I look at creamed corn and ask... why not?"
I tried to find a youtube clip but couldn't dredge it up.
Friday, May 22, 2009
like boiling a frog
David Runciman writes about the wonders of wikipedia in the London Review of Books. (Apparently he lives and works in the future, because this article is dated May 28th).
I was not able to fit Adult Reference into my library school class schedule, unfortunately. However, some of my friends did and talked about the lively discussions that occurred there about using wikipedia as a reference source. As you may guess, it is a total no-no for a librarian. We're supposed to be information literacy advocates, and that means choosing a reference source that is edited in some verifiable way, or written by an author whose knowledge base can be verified. If someone calls me on the phone today and asks what the weather's like, I am compelled to give them a source for it, even if I was just outside.
But that doesn't mean I don't use wikipedia. You can get things there you won't be able to find anywhere else, or if you can, it will take you more time. And the article has some interesting theories about how the editing process at wikipedia actually triumphs over the theory that "bad money always follows good" (I'm paraphrasing). It's worth reading.
I was not able to fit Adult Reference into my library school class schedule, unfortunately. However, some of my friends did and talked about the lively discussions that occurred there about using wikipedia as a reference source. As you may guess, it is a total no-no for a librarian. We're supposed to be information literacy advocates, and that means choosing a reference source that is edited in some verifiable way, or written by an author whose knowledge base can be verified. If someone calls me on the phone today and asks what the weather's like, I am compelled to give them a source for it, even if I was just outside.
But that doesn't mean I don't use wikipedia. You can get things there you won't be able to find anywhere else, or if you can, it will take you more time. And the article has some interesting theories about how the editing process at wikipedia actually triumphs over the theory that "bad money always follows good" (I'm paraphrasing). It's worth reading.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
R.I.P. Mario Benedetti
Here's the New York Times obit.
I've only read La Tregua (The Truce), but it was a book that managed to stick with me even though I was reading in Spanish and probably not getting all of it.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
A win for pop culture
I've been meaning to blog all day but I've been so sleepy I can't trust myself to write anything very coherent or meaningful. Luckily I just found out some exciting (to me) news of the appropriate level for me to blog about: Lauren Conrad of The Hills is coming out with a YA novel.
I like TV, maybe less than the average person, maybe just the same. Who knows. I know I don't follow as many shows as some of my friends. One exception is LOST. Way before that I managed to follow My So-Called Life and The State. Then came college and grad school. Once I got my diplomas and free time back the only show that seemed important enough to remember when it aired was The Hills.
For The Hills is mind blowingly plot-less. So plotless it manages to transcend itself and induce a meditative state in me. It's not too hard to tell that the editors take dialogue out of the show to create the "conversations" that consist of the cast staring at each other in slightly different ways.
By now I am sure that I'm going over well-trodden ground. But in case you're new to MTV programming, here's a great article about the appeal of it all.
Which is just to say: I'm sure that I will be greatly entertained by LC's ghostwritten endeavours. I wish Audrina would write a book. She coins masterly phrases. I still frequently quote her, often saying I'm impressed about things instead of by them. Maybe Whitney could co-write it with her. Then I wish Jay from the City and Justin Bobby would team up to narrate the audiobook.
And hopefully the library would purchase all of these things and I would take them out on my card.
I like TV, maybe less than the average person, maybe just the same. Who knows. I know I don't follow as many shows as some of my friends. One exception is LOST. Way before that I managed to follow My So-Called Life and The State. Then came college and grad school. Once I got my diplomas and free time back the only show that seemed important enough to remember when it aired was The Hills.
For The Hills is mind blowingly plot-less. So plotless it manages to transcend itself and induce a meditative state in me. It's not too hard to tell that the editors take dialogue out of the show to create the "conversations" that consist of the cast staring at each other in slightly different ways.
By now I am sure that I'm going over well-trodden ground. But in case you're new to MTV programming, here's a great article about the appeal of it all.
Which is just to say: I'm sure that I will be greatly entertained by LC's ghostwritten endeavours. I wish Audrina would write a book. She coins masterly phrases. I still frequently quote her, often saying I'm impressed about things instead of by them. Maybe Whitney could co-write it with her. Then I wish Jay from the City and Justin Bobby would team up to narrate the audiobook.
And hopefully the library would purchase all of these things and I would take them out on my card.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
FYI, it's National Dance Like a Chicken Day
In my library we have two long, low bookcase arms that form the children's section and reading area. I like to put displays of children's books on the top--usually picture books.
Most months it's easy to figure out what to do. February? National African-American History Month. March? Women's History. And those are so broad that I have a wealth of books to switch in and out of the display, so it is always fresh.
For May I did have some mothery books up for Mother's Day. But that's over. We have about 2 books on Cinco de Mayo (which is also over). Memorial Day isn't until the end of the month.
So I went to the internet in search of other May holidays. I quickly discovered that each month is a cornucopia of day, month, and weeklong awarenesses. Taken separately they are very charming. Taken together they are hilarious.
Not the standard stuff, like Asian-Pacific Islander Heritage month, or Physical Fitness month. But asparagus, ducklings, barbeque, eggs, salads, hamburgers, strawberries, transportation, older americans, allergies, and mental health are all fighting it out for recognition in May. And that's just month-long. We can't forget Hoagie Day (a.k.a. Cinco de Mayo), Leprachaun Day (different than St. Patrick's Day), or Escargot Day, among others.
I can't wait.
I ended up displaying Caldecott & Coretta Scott King winners, though.
Most months it's easy to figure out what to do. February? National African-American History Month. March? Women's History. And those are so broad that I have a wealth of books to switch in and out of the display, so it is always fresh.
For May I did have some mothery books up for Mother's Day. But that's over. We have about 2 books on Cinco de Mayo (which is also over). Memorial Day isn't until the end of the month.
So I went to the internet in search of other May holidays. I quickly discovered that each month is a cornucopia of day, month, and weeklong awarenesses. Taken separately they are very charming. Taken together they are hilarious.
Not the standard stuff, like Asian-Pacific Islander Heritage month, or Physical Fitness month. But asparagus, ducklings, barbeque, eggs, salads, hamburgers, strawberries, transportation, older americans, allergies, and mental health are all fighting it out for recognition in May. And that's just month-long. We can't forget Hoagie Day (a.k.a. Cinco de Mayo), Leprachaun Day (different than St. Patrick's Day), or Escargot Day, among others.
I can't wait.
I ended up displaying Caldecott & Coretta Scott King winners, though.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
23things n'@ progress
So, I've created this blog as a learning node (nodule)? of a program brought to library staff in Allegheny County called 23 things n'at. So far I've been having fun with the activities but, since I already have a blogger blog. (and a couple other blogs), it hasn't been super-challenging. I know we'll be covering stuff I haven't done, but for now I'm coasting on my blog skills. Blills, if you will.
Although, to be perfectly honest, I don't do much customization or anything on my other blogger blog. It's just a place to keep track of what I knit. So I might try to explore on this one. I just added a Gadget. So that was cool.
Although, to be perfectly honest, I don't do much customization or anything on my other blogger blog. It's just a place to keep track of what I knit. So I might try to explore on this one. I just added a Gadget. So that was cool.
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