LibWorm.com provides a librarian RSS filtering service. Over 1500 RSS librarian sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest headlines from journals and sites in the Video interest group. http://www.libworm.com/rss/librarianqueries.php Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:54:51 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://hhsmedia.blogspot.com/2010/09/im-lovin-it.html Have you noticed how many cool web-based tools there are lately? Here are some of my current Web 2.0 favorites... Polish your presentations and school projects by trying one of these sites today. Need help? Please see Ms. Younkers in the media center.Prezi- Create astonishing presentations live and on the web.Animoto- Turn your images and videos into professional-looking movie trailers. Edu.Glogster- Design digital posters in a snap! (Source: Huntingtown High School Library Media Center) Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:00:00 +0100 885472 http://hhsmedia.blogspot.com/2010/09/im-lovin-it.html Have you noticed how many cool web-based tools there are lately? Here are some of my current Web 2.0 favorites:Edu.Glogster- Design digital posters in a snap!Animoto- Turn your images and videos into professional-looking movie trailers.Prezi- Create astonishing presentations live and on the web.Polish your presentations and school projects by trying one of these sites today. Need help? Please see Ms. Younkers in the media center. (Source: Huntingtown High School Library Media Center) Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 870260 http://hhsmedia.blogspot.com/2010/09/please-join-us.html On Wednesday, September 8th, there will be a book talk in the media center about Nicholas Sparks' recent bestselling novel. Please join us for a discussion of The Last Song during B lunch. Did you see the movie? Love the book? I hope to see you there! (Source: Huntingtown High School Library Media Center) Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:00:00 +0100 870261 http://epist.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/jane-eyre-book-to-film/ A Jane By Any Other Name Last week I started reading Jane Eyre since we made plans to see the new movie adaptation, directed by Cary Fukunaga. I had read Jane Eyre many years ago, but didn’t have a good memory of it at all, which became more and more apparent while Mark was reading it for one of his classes this semester. I finished the book the day before we went to see the movie and loved the story all over again. Before I go on, let’s just get some things clear: First, I do not expect a movie to strictly adhere to any book it might be based on, especially if said book would require an epically long film or miniseries to squeeze in every last character and story thread. I don’t think movies *should* try to follow the book closely because a movie is a different animal altogether.   Secondly, here be spoilers. Lots of spoilers. About book and movie. So if you’re planning to either read the book or see the movie soon, just go ahead and add this little blog post to your Read It Later or Instapaper and we’ll meet again sometime. Okay then. You caught that part about the spoilers, right?  Just checking. Let’s start with the casting.  In short: Jane (Mia Wasikowska) – too timid, not enough “direct glare” as she’s famous for in the book. Though the kid playing young Jane was perfect, I thought. Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender) – too handsome, but the voice was right on, better than I expected. St. John Rivers (Jamie Bell) – not handsome enough, but adapted well. This is a character that could have been simplified into really annoying or really tyrannical, but was handled very well and given a good balance. The too handsome / not handsome enough complaint might seem petty but it struck me as an important distinction in establishing Jane’s feelings for the two men. ... Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:10:09 +0100 895909 http://catalogablog.blogspot.com/2011/03/us-worldcat-mashathon-registration.html Image via WikipediaOCLC announces registration for the US WorldCat Mashathon..Registration is now officially open for the WorldCat Mashathon US, sponsored by the OCLC Developer Network.Join fellow coders, developers and tech-enthusiasts for the next two-day WorldCat Mashathon on Thursday and Friday, April 7-8 simultaneously in 3 locations:Washington, DCColumbus, OHSan Mateo, CAWe’re testing this distributed model, to see if a Mashathon is just as fun (and effective) if it’s run simultaneously in multiple places that are all connected via Webcast. You'll spend the two days brainstorming and coding mash-ups with OCLC Web services and APIs. Developers from the library community and beyond are encouraged to attend. Why attend the WorldCat Mashathon U.S.?Brainstorm potential apps for the WorldCat Search API, MapFAST and other new OCLC Web services.Gain development access to 1.5 billion items from more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.Integrate these resources with many others to create innovative new services.Meet fellow developers across the information industry.Share your creative vision and be a part of the next wave of online library development.Roy Tennant of OCLC Research and longtime Code4Lib participant will kick off the session. OCLC staff will also be available at each location for questions and breakout facilitation—and we’ll connect all the sites together via chat, IRC, video conference and Webcast. Ideas, outcomes and code from the Mashathon, together with a participants list, will be shared during and after the event for others to download and build on. (Source: Catalogablog) Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0100 895900 http://hhsmedia.blogspot.com/2008/02/students-parents-teachers.html Share the experience of reading 30 minutes a day for 30 days, and you could be chosen to win one of two top prizes: a starring role in a Maryland reading video or an Amazon Kindle.For more information, click here or stop by the HHS Library Media Center to pick up your reading calendar today. (Source: Huntingtown High School Library Media Center) Sat, 26 Feb 2011 05:00:00 +0100 823658 http://hhsmedia.blogspot.com/2010/02/celebrate-black-history-month.html February is Black History Month. Test your knowledge of Civil Rights heroes by taking this interactive quiz.To learn more about the contributions of African Americans in history, try these great websites:African VoicesThis Smithsonian online exhibit celebrates Africa's diversity and long history.African American WorldSponsored by PBS, this website features a large collection of classroom resources for teachers and students.Black HistoryHere you can find an interactive timeline, biographies, and a collection of video clips. (Source: Huntingtown High School Library Media Center) Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:00:00 +0100 819509 http://hhsmedia.blogspot.com/2010/02/celebrate-black-history-month.html February is Black History Month. Test your knowledge of Civil Rights heroes by taking this interactive quiz.To learn more about the contributions of African Americans in history, try these great websites:African VoicesThis Smithsonian online exhibit celebrates Africa's diversity and long history.African American WorldSponsored by PBS, this website features a large collection of classroom resources for teachers and students.Black HistoryHere you can find an interactive timeline, biographies, and a collection of video clips. (Source: Huntingtown High School Library Media Center) Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:00:00 +0100 815254 http://www.lisnews.org/can_book_retailer_borders_survive_without_its_own_ereader Book and media retailer Borders announced today that it will hold off on paying some publishers in order to buy time and reorganize its debt amid a year of weak sales in its brick and mortar stores in the era of digital distribution. The company has seen declining sales in books, movies and music since electronic book readers have emerged and most consumers have started to use digital distribution marketplaces like iTunes. Borders’ revenue was down 17.5 percent in tis most recent quarter when compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to their most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Its loss has also doubled to $74.4 million, up from a loss of $37.7 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Full article (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:11:23 +0100 895854 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/63004 From an ALA Announcement: On Jan. 7, 2011 the American Library Association (ALA) will unveil video PSAs produced by ALA’s “Our Authors, Our Advocates,” a national library advocacy public awareness campaign. Library advocates will be able to download audio and video PSAs from ilovelibraries.org, from such best-selling authors as Sharon Draper, Brad [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:24:00 +0100 895820 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/iRcS/~3/BVJj0NIaufQ/friday-brain-teaser-from-credo_31.html The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Jean and Jone. "Try to identify these people who all have the first name Jean or Joan. And remember that these names can belong to men as well as women" Answers here. 1. American movie star who won an Academy Award for her appearance in "Mildred Pierce". She was also memorably teamed with Bette Davis in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" 2. French intellectual and a leader of the French Revolution, who was assassinated by Charlotte Corday in 1793. 3. French film director whose films included "La Grande Illusion", "The Diary of a Chambermaid" and "The River". He was the son of a famous painter. 4. American folksinger and political activist whose recordings include "Gracias a la Vida" and "Diamonds and Rust". 5. French poet (1621-95) best known for his "Fables". 6. British-born actress who played the young Estella in the 1946 film of "Great Expectations" and Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's film of "Hamlet". 7. French dramatist and poet (1639-99) whose works included "Andromaque", "Bajazet" and "Mithridate". 8. British novelist (1894-1979) whose novels included "After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie" and "Wide Sargasso Sea". 9. US comedian who was born Joan Molinsky in 1933. 10. Spanish painter, ceramicist and sculptor who was a leading member of the Surrealist movement. (Source: Peter Scott's Library Blog) Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:15:34 +0100 895800 http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/ediscoverylaw/klgates/~3/90tDDPExFNo/ By: Martha Dawson, Michael Goodfried, K&L Gates This article appeared in DRI’s E-Discovery Connection, Volume 5 Issue 3, on December 23, 2010 Consider how you, or someone you know, uses social networking sites; and consider how valuable this could be in litigation. • “Check out the photos from my climb of Mt. Rainier. It rocked! I guess my back injury wasn’t that bad after all.” • I can’t believe what my boss just did.” • “My kids are driving me crazy. Anyone want to borrow them for the night?” Are Social Networking Sites Discoverable? Social networking sites are internet sites on which individuals or companies can create profiles about themselves and share information with others.  Users can update their status, type blog entries, post pictures or videos, send email or instant messages, or post comments on the profiles of their contacts, among many other offerings.  One of the most important aspects of social networking sites is the ability to link up with other users as “friends” or “contacts,” and decide with whom to share information.  Users can control their privacy settings and choose which information to make publically available, share with their contacts, share with their contacts’ contacts (friends of friends), or show only to certain individuals.  Some of the most popular social networking sites are Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn. To read the full article, click here. (Source: Electronic Discovery Law) Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:02:17 +0100 895757 http://bentleywg.livejournal.com/1348848.html Punjabi "Jingle Bells". [underdoganimations Designed and Directed this video for MTV and Nick,India. Music :Amartya Rahut (via the last 30 seconds of the 12/22/10 podcast of PRI's The World: Science). (Post a new comment). About ... (Source: Google Blog Search: Bentleyblog blogurl:http://bentleywg.livejournal.com/) Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:34:28 +0100 895825 http://weblog.ib.hu-berlin.de/?p=8507 Documentary which takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power thay have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend. 59:13 min auf YouTube This video is unlisted. Only those with the link can see it. (Source: IB Weblog) Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:26:01 +0100 895739 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/people-will-pay-for-digital-content-says-pew-internet-american-life-project/ From the press release: Nearly two-thirds of internet users — 65% — have paid to download or access some kind of online content from the internet, ranging from movies to games to news articles.  Music, software, and apps are the most popular content that internet users have paid to access or download, although the range of paid online content is quite varied and widespread. In a survey of 755 internet users between 28 October and 1 November 2010, we asked the following question: “Please tell me if you have ever paid to access or to download any of the following types of online content?” And we found:·        33% of internet users have paid for digital music online·        33% have paid for software·        21% have paid for apps for their cell phones or tablet computers·        19% have paid for digital games·        18% have paid for digital newspaper, magazine, or journal articles or reports·        16% have paid for videos, movies, or TV shows·        15% have paid for ringtones·        12% have paid for digital photos·        11% have paid for members-only premium content from a website that has other free material on it·        10% have paid for e-books·        7% have paid for podcasts·        5% have paid for tools or materials to use in video or computer games·        5% have paid for “cheats or codes” to help them in video games·        5% have paid to access particular websites such as online dating sites or services·        2% have paid for adult content And 6% of internet users said they had paid for another kind of content that had not been mentioned in the list of 15 we queried. ... Thu, 30 Dec 2010 17:06:09 +0100 895704 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/T1kw7Kq_Zvk/using-ebooks-ereaders-in-your-library.html The Creekview High School Library (a/k/a The Unquiet Library) staff in Georgia have been documenting the library's process of acquiring and lending Kindles and Kindle book editions on The Unquiet Librarian blog and in a series of YouTube videos, which... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Thu, 30 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895840 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/holiday-travel-update-gadgets-gadgets-everywhere/ I am on my way home from ten days in sunny Florida visiting my parents, and it was a gadget-rific Christmas. I saw my first Nook and Nook Colour, my first Kindle 3 (alas, out of stock, but I did play with a dummy model) and got stepdad’s iPad set up for him. More on that later—we had a few days alone thanks to a family emergency that had Mom flying home for a few days, so the iPad became our little All by Ourselves project—but I have some general comments on my gadget-rific holiday to tide you over in the meantime! 1) IT’S A GADGET WORLD The first thing that struck me about this holiday season was just how many gadgets there really are out there. I don’t travel much, so I was unprepared for the sheer proliferation of gadgetalia out there in the wild. I think every single person on my whole flight had a gadget of some kind, ranging from iPod Touches (most in the hands of children) to iPads, at least two Kindles besides my own, numerous fully loaded smartphones, a Sony and a few Chinese devices I could not identify. Two people in the seats beside me were even watching video on iPod Nanos! And I was not the only person who had more than one device with me, either! Of course, not all of these people were reading on them. But still, the potential is there. I spent an enjoyable afternoon playing iToys with my nephew, who is not much of a reader, and while we were evenly matched on the arcade stuff and perhaps spent more time than we had to playing with the talking cat, I have to admit that he held his own against me in even ‘intellectual’ games like Jeopardy and Family Feud. And I was happy to have something to do with him that bonded us a little. Small boys are a bit of a cipher for me, since his only interests seem to be hockey and baseball, so gadgetry is perhaps a welcome way into his world for people like me and his gadget-savvy parents. ... Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:08:51 +0100 895608 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SellersLibraryTeens/~3/kRiAgQgavIM/board-game-day.html Today, 24 people showed up for our winter board game day! Groups played all kinds of games, including Life, Apples to Apples, chess, checkers, and Scattergories.  A group even tried out my new random game Quelf, with rave reviews.  The deal was that if a group played a game by the rules to the end, the winner would get a box of movie candy.  (For games like chess and checkers, you could only get candy once, even if you played multiple times.)  I gave away 26 boxes of candy, plus we ate our way through four bags of potato chips, several pounds of other candy, and a bunch of soda and lemonade!  The best moments of the day included Saranjeet needing two cars to carry her family in Life, Owen naming one of his Life children "Ke$ha," Kathy singing "Rawhide" while waving her scarf in the air like a lasso, and Janae thinking McCain was a U.S. President.  I also had fun teaching a group how to play Scattergories with the rules.  And, thanks to Jasmine for bringing in Tutti Frutti...dinging that bell was a lot of fun! If you like board games, we'll have them out at the Random-A-Thon in February.  Be sure to sign up! (Source: Sellers Library Teens) Thu, 30 Dec 2010 01:55:27 +0100 895582 http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/madreads/index.php/2010/12/29/these-recipes-have-not-been-tested-by-experts/ That is why they are valuable!  This line is from the introduction of The 50th Anniversary Edition of Peg Bracken’s The I Hate to Cook Book, newly updated and revised and still as funny as ever. When I went off to live in my first apartment, my mom gave me her well-worn copy of Saucepans and the Single Girl.  This book is also hilarious in a mod sixties way.  I think it’s actually based on a Natalie Wood movie, but it’s a very decent all-purpose cookbook.   There’s a fair amount of witty text and the recipes are seriously scaled down for those living on a budget and cooking for one or two.  The I Hate to Cook Book is a fantastic companion to Saucepans. If you truly hate to cook, though, you probably have no need for either book, because your freezer is full of Lean Cuisine or you’re getting ready to order takeout and you’re not looking for shortcuts to make your vegetable side dishes more appealing.  If however, you enjoy cooking, but find yourself short on time and desperate to make a meal, you may find some quick ideas in Bracken’s book. You will find recipes for such dishes as Curry in a Hurry, Cancan Casserole, Skid Road Stroganoff, Hootenholler Whiskey Cake and Cheese and Wine Bake.  Many of the recipes utilize canned or frozen ingredients to speed up preparation.  The author encourages the cook to add garnishes like paprika, parsley and parmesan to make everything look prettier and more sincere.  Awww!  And there is more than a little use of cream of mushroom soup. Warning:  there is not much for vegetarians here.  Most of the entrees feature meat or seafood and all of the recipes are full fat.  It’s also taken for granted that folks know how to braise meat, use the broiler and have a double boiler (!).  I’m not a vegetarian and I’ve got nothing against a little processed food here and there, so I could just read this book and enjoy. ... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 23:26:34 +0100 895613 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TameTheWeb/~3/xzt_ehemsvs/ Michael Stephens “The Hyperlinked Community Library” from Zukunftswerkstatt on Vimeo. Thanks to my colleagues at the Zukunftswerkstatt for posting their video of my talk last year in Leipzig while I was in Germany speaking at the US Embassy. I’ve been reflecting on 2010 this week and the two back to back trips I took to Europe – one to Switzerland/Germany sponsored by the US Mission in Geneva and the Embassy in Berlin and the other for U Game U Learn – were highlights for me on many levels. Not only did I meet library folk from all over  but the travel itself was filled with learning and experiences of all kinds. Danke an meine deutschen Kollegen für dieses wunderbare Video. Bitte entschuldigen Sie meine Sprache gebrochen. (Source: Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology) Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:10:59 +0100 895607 http://freegovinfo.info/node/3147 Press Release from GPO: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 29, 2010 No. 10-49 MEDIA CONTACT: GARY SOMERSET 202.512.1957, 202.355.3997 cell gsomerset@gpo.gov PUBLIC PRINTER BOB TAPELLA RESIGNS WASHINGTON—Public Printer of the United States Bob Tapella announces his resignation as head of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). Tapella has led the men and women of the 150-year-old agency the last three years. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2007 to become the 25th Public Printer of the United States. Deputy Public Printer Paul Erickson becomes the Acting Public Printer effective immediately. Prior to becoming Public Printer, Tapella served as a senior executive at GPO for five years. He was part of the team that took GPO from a survival mode to the thriving operation it is today. Tapella helped turn GPO’s financial situation from years of significant losses into the positive net operating income the agency enjoys today. Fiscal year 2010 marked the seventh consecutive year of positive results. The agency also launched GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) during Tapella’s tenure, giving the American people a one-stop site to authentic, published government information. “It has been a pleasure serving both President Obama and President Bush during the last eight years at GPO,” said Public Printer Bob Tapella. “I want to thank the hardworking men and women of GPO who have transformed an agency that opened in 1861 into a 21st century printing, digital media, secure credentialing and ISO 9001 premiere manufacturing organization. I believe the successful launch of FDsys positions GPO to meet the challenges of the Digital Age.” Link to bio of Acting Public Printer Paul Erickson: http://www.gpo.gov/pdfs/about/Ericksonbio.pdf Link to photos of Bob Tapella and Paul Erickson: http://www.gpo. ... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 21:36:22 +0100 895593 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/qigst_w9oOc/ I guess that with 47 million iPhones sold throughout 2010 and with 20 million plus already expected for Q1 in 2011 there is very little I would probably need to add about the tremendous impact of the iPhone within the smartphone market, whether for business or for personal use. Or both. So earlier on this year, around mid-summer, and after having waited for a couple of years, I, finally, took the chance to upgrade my good old 3G iPhone and get back on track with things with the iPhone 4. Thus, I got my hands on one. Yes, the very same one that dealt with the antennagate, which I never saw, nor experienced, by the way, in the nearly six months I have been using it extensively all over the place, including abroad. And counting … Certainly, one of the major gadget highlights for me for 2010, specially, since it allowed me to reacquaint myself with that good old concept of smart mobility without continuing to have that feeling I have been missing something for a while… And so far the experience has been phenomenal, to say the least! It’s helped me get reacquainted with a good bunch of the iPhone Apps I fell in love in the first place when the iPhone 3G was still usable, plus a whole bunch of new ones that have come along rather nicely in the last few months. So when I resumed my blogging activities after a rather long hiatus not long ago I mentioned over here how, very soon, I would also be opening up a new series of blog posts, pretty similar to the My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, but instead of just sharing my favourite iPad Apps, I would also start sharing my iPhone Apps, with pretty much the very same flow, including the iPhone Game of the Week. That way folks, who may be interested in learning what interesting and rather helpful Apps there may be out there that I have been using lately, would have an opportunity to check them out themselves as well. ... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 19:21:15 +0100 895620 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/dec/29/amazon-kindle-outsells-harry-potter Amazon's Kindle 3 ebook reader believed to have sold almost 8m unitsAmazon says that its Kindle 3 ebook reader has become the site's best-selling product ever, and that on Christmas Day more people activated new Kindles, downloaded Kindle apps and bought ebooks than on any previous day.The company announced that sales of the Kindle 3 had overtaken the previous record holder, the book of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, released in July 2007. That had seen 1m pre-orders online before it was published, and has sold more than 40m copies worldwide – though it is unknown what proportion would have been sold through Amazon.The company has not released sales figures for the Kindle, though sources within the company told Bloomberg this month that it will have sold about 8m Kindles by the end of this year. Bloomberg said the figures come from "two people who are aware of the company's sales projections".Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, said: "We're seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an LCD tablet [referring to devices such as Apple's iPad], released in April … Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies and web browsing, and their Kindles for reading sessions ... Kindle's $139 price point is a key factor – it's low enough that people don't have to choose."The online retailer has always been reluctant to give a figure for how many Kindles have been sold, possibly because it does not want it to be compared with those from consumer electronics companies such as Apple and Sony. But the numbers provided are about 60% higher than analysts' forecasts of about 5m Kindles this year.By contrast, Apple is expected to about 12m of its iPad tablets this year, having begun selling them in April.KindleE-readersAmazon.comInternetE-commerceHarry PotteriPadTablet computersRetail industryCharles Arthurguardian.co. ... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:53:00 +0100 895570 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/read-kindle-books-on-your-nookcolor/ CrunchGear is reporting that by rooting the NookColor you can install the Kindle reading application on the device. To root the device you need one of theAutorooter images andWin32ImageWriter for Windows or Mac OS/Linux tools to write the image to an MicroSD card. Then you upload the Kindle app from the Android store and rock out. This process also adds GMail, YouTube, and a number of other standard Android goodies to your previously stripped-down NookColor. The whole process is right here and it should be a fine ride. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Wed, 29 Dec 2010 14:47:16 +0100 895513 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/the-online-future-of-australian-journalism-as-seen-by-the-industry-itself/ I’m a journalist, and a member of the journalists union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (of which the Australian Journalists Association, the AJA, forms part). All members receive a monthly magazine with news and in-depth articles about the industry, but this year is special – it’s 100 years since a wily bunch of Aussie scribblers formed the AJA. So, a century into Australian journalism proper, the union has published a report of the state of the industry, and where it expects the future to lay. (SPOILER: online). The report is called Life in the Clickstream II (a similar report came out two years ago), and I thought I’d share some of it (less than 10% of course, to keep my copyright nose clean!) with you. Keep in mind that this is the industry talking (through the report) about where they are and where they are going, not me. The state of play It’s ugly out there right now. In the federal secretary’s foreword, he talks about the “carnage” that had been forecast for the industry, and how it has been mitigated slightly by the appearance of news apps for phones and tablet computers like the iPad. But the operative word is “slightly”. All the graphs are sliding downwards. In Australia, the industry is on better shape than in the US or UK, but that’s no great prize. Hundreds of journalists no longer have full-time jobs, but here they are finding themselves in part-time or casual positions. I guess it’s better than being laid off. In the US the drop in print newspaper circulations are roughly 30%, in the UK about 20% overall. In AU, the decline is about 3% – the second-best result behind Austria in the Western world. New Zealand fared worse, dropping 13%. So it could be worse. But all but two major metro newspapers lost circulation here, and corresponding sales falls mean that the industry knows it needs to phase in a Plan B. It’s already doing so. ... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 14:21:15 +0100 895516 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/interview-pete-abrams-sluggy-freelance-cartoonist-part-three-of-three/ In this third portion of the interview, I asked about the plotting process, plans for the future, and whether Pete had been inspired by particular sources. Previously: Part One, Part Two Me: You talked in the past about how the huge plot that you’ve woven together in Sluggy over the years has drawn toward a close. You said you didn’t want to start any new plot arcs until that was finished. What happens when it’s finished? Do you start another decade-long story arc? Pete: That’s the thing, I have the freedom to make the choice at that point. That’s why, every time I’m asked the question I’ve never said definitively I’m going to stop the strip. I basically have to see where I am when I get there, because there’s definitely more stories I could be telling. But at this point there’s so many things that are unanswered, I almost want to answer everything, wrap everything up exactly the way I want to, and then see from that point where it will continue. And if it will continue. But as I’ve also said, at the rate I’m going, it’ll probably take ten more years for me to get there. So it’s not going away anytime soon. Me: Something about Sluggy Freelance seems to be very polarizing in some ways. It seems a lot of people either love serious stuff and hate the broad parodies, or vice versa—so no matter what kind of story arc you’re doing, some significant fraction of your fandom is annoyed at any given time. Why do you think that is? Does it ever influence your decisions in writing scripts? Pete: Well, I can answer the second part of that easier. No, it doesn’t influence me at all. I have a good gut instinct for what I want to do and how I want to do things. And I’ve been doing that for ten years, and there’s never been any time I could point to where fan influences caused me to adjust them. ... Wed, 29 Dec 2010 13:15:00 +0100 895518 http://www.javierleiva.info/mis-viajes-de-2010 Otro año se acaba y ya no parece que vaya a haber más viajes, así que voy a hacer la lista de lugares donde he estado este año. El criterio es simple: haber pasado al menos una noche en el lugar. Ahí van (con enlaces a fotos en Flickr, videos o parecido): Algeciras (etiqueta Andalucía, en este caso) Andorra Annecy Aosta Avignon Bilbao Chambery Eibar Ermua Gijón Grenoble Jaén Londres Madrid Mahón Milán Montpellier Montreux San Sebastián Tanger Turín Valencia Zaragoza –Este contenido ha sido publicado en el blog de Javier Leiva Aguilera. Javier es formador y consultor en TIC en la empresa Catorze.com, de la que es propietario. Puedes seguirle en Twitter (Source: Catorze.blog) Wed, 29 Dec 2010 06:45:28 +0100 895556 http://ricklibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/kings-speech-film-by-tom-hooper.html "Why should I waste time listening?" asks Lionel Logue from the forbidden seat of St. Edward's chair in Westminster Abbey."Because I have a voice!" the prince soon to be King George VI replies, his words ringing through the ancient cathedral.There are many great lines exchanged by the pair in the new film The King's Speech, starring Colin Firth (as the king) and Geoffrey Rush (as Logue). The speech therapist often gently pokes the very proper prince, sometimes causing the monarch to curse. (And the film gets an undeserved R rating.) He doesn't stutter when angered. Logue's job is to find a way for his client to deliver messages to the nation without stop.Set in the 1930's, director Tom Hooper has recreated a gray, slightly dingy London. The weather is often dismal or cold, and the lighting in interiors is dim. Still, the old trappings of a powerful nation can be seen in the huge halls and heavy furniture of Buckingham Palace and in the great spaciousness of Westminster Abbey. In contrast, the office and home of the speech therapist are large but almost devoid of furnishings other than chairs and large radios. In the background is the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. Britain is a struggling but proud nation wanting to uphold its honor. The prince's brother Edward wants to marry a divorcee and Germany is threatening war.Moviegoers who like great acting and a bit of history will enjoy the film. Firth and Rush are brilliant. Harry Potter fans will enjoy seeing Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall, and Michael Gambon. Masterpiece Theater fans will recognize Derek Jacobi and Anthony Andrews. I'd enjoy seeing the film again. I think it will become a classic.The real king's speech can be heard on YouTube. It seems particularly tense after seeing the film. (Source: ricklibrarian) Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895555 http://www.teleread.com/library/why-i-am-a-library-traitor-and-love-the-kindle-by-sarah-houghton-jan/ Bless me, O Biblioblogosphere, for I have sinned. I have betrayed the trust of my librarian people by *gasp* loving my Kindle like I am told I would love a child if I had any interest in being a parent, which I don’t.  But I do have an interest in reading digital content on a sleek, affordable, and easy-to-use device.  Thus the Kindle. In true geek fashion I recorded my Kindle unboxing (complete with Space Invader wall clings in the background). Let me tell you why I love my Kindle so.  But before I gush like a schoolgirl in love with Edward Cullen, let me tell you that I feel guilty for loving it.  I boycott the Kindle as a librarian but love it as a consumer. Stellar User Interface Design: The Kindle has a gorgeous form factor.  It’s easy to hold in your hands — light, smooth, and perfectly sized for my hands anyway.  The user interface is easy and intuitive, end of story. Smooth Content Delivery: The simplicity and speed of getting content is amazing.  I’ve been using the Kindle app on my Android phone for months now, and it literally takes you 5 seconds to buy and start reading a book from the Kindle Store. How long does it take to start reading a library eBook from the point you decide to download it? On the Kindle itself it’s just as easy. Cross-Device Content Delivery: Amazon was brilliant in being the distributor for the device, the content itself, and the interface/software used to access the content. But they were doubly brilliant in offering the content & interface on other devices through Kindle Reading apps, so you can use your desktop, laptop, iPhone, iPad, Android phone, etc. to access the Kindle universe of eBooks.  The Kindle device itself is secondary…they really covered their bases. Seamless Syncing: Amazon’s Whispersync technology syncs up your library and where you left off in your books without you having to do anything. Not having to think is good, yeah?  Steve Krugwould be proud. ... Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:22:46 +0100 895405 http://www.comarmsblog.com/2010/12/end-of-year-lists-best-of-cat-videos.html So, it's that time of the year again--the best movies, the best novels, events we won't forget, clothes, music, trends...the "Best Of" lists for 2010 have descended upon us like raccoons on a tipped-over garbage can--fast, frenzied and possibly carrying rabies. But what about the thing we know you REALLY care about? What about the best cat videos? Fortunately, the folks at Gawker are here to help Crazy Cat Ladies and smitten librarians all across the nation with its video condensing the best cat videos of the year into one 90 second clip. It's quick, it's cute, and it's strangely entrancing. Check it out here! Also, below the video, check out the link for more information on the second-to-last cat featured, a double-amputee who's getting a new chance at life thanks to implants! He's one of our favorite feel-good stories of the year. (Source: CARL Book Beacon) Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:59:00 +0100 895367 http://www.teleread.com/library/videos-and-other-material-from-why-books-conference-available/ The “Why Books?”Conference took place on October 28-29, 2010 at the Radcliffe Institute  for Advanced Study, Harvard University. “Why Books?” probes the form and function of the book in a rapidly changing media ecology. Speakers from a variety of disciplines—literature and history to sociology and computer science—will discuss the public-policy implications of new media forms and will explore some of the major functions that we identify with books today: production and diffusion; storage and retrieval; and reception and use. New: Videos of Opening “Conversation” and Three Panels Session Summaries and Site Visit Summaries Welcome, Intro and Opening Conversation: “Future Formats of Texts: E–books and Old Books” Session I: “Storage and Retrieval” Session II: “Circulation and Transmission” Session III: ”Reception and Use” Conference Speakers A selection of post-conference press coverage can be found on the conference homepage. Hat Tips: Peter Suber and Matthew Kirschenbaum Via Resource Shelf (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:21:32 +0100 895406 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62949 The "Why Books?"Conference took place on October 28-29, 2010 at the Radcliffe Institute  for Advanced Study, Harvard University.  "Why Books?" probes the form and function of the book in a rapidly changing media ecology. Speakers from a variety of disciplines—literature and history to sociology and computer science—will discuss the public-policy implications of new [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:33:00 +0100 895440 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/for-new-and-old-kindlers-wanting-to-do-more-with-their-kindles/ CREATIVE USES OF THE KINDLE Well, pleasurable reading is good enough for most, but there is a lot more that can be done with the Kindle, as shown in the short list just below. (I recommend bookmarking this for quick access later.) 1. an old, continuing favorite forum thread about the more unique uses of the Kindle’s capabilitiesthought up by members of the Amazon Kindle Community, and I saw another idea added today. 2. a newer forum thread of favorite tips for new Kindle owners from Kindle oldtimers. NOTE: If your web browser (especially Firefox) drops you onto the Amazon forum list of topics instead of bringing you to the forum thread, click onRefresh or Reload to get the message thread itself — or click on the link again.  I don’t know why a ‘retry’ is often needed, but it is. 3. The Kindle Chronicles This is a very informative, fun resource for Kindlers at http://thekindlechronicles.com, a weekly podcast hosted by Len Edgerly who, each Friday night, brings us a roundup of the latest news (with links), excellent tech tips, an interview with someone from the Kindle world at large and some from just outside it who are of course in the Kindle net then  Len also presents video reviews as well.  At the site are summaries of what is included in the latest podcast report.  Links are given there for items mentioned in the podcast. 4. the new Kindle book by Stephen Windwalker, who has been explaining what can be done on Kindles since the Kindle 1, and this just-released book that includes info for the Latest Generation Kindles is only $0.99, which is more than a bargain. ... Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:45:17 +0100 895349 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/28/book-tokens-best-christmas-gift Available since 1932 and still resolutely traditional, book tokens are the best Christmas gift, full of energy. Who needs toys?A book, as we all know, is the gift that keeps on giving, and I certainly hope that Santa fulfilled your festive reading wants at the weekend. But can there be any gift more bursting with potential energy than the magic that is the book token?Book tokens are like money, but better – you can't be distracted by spontaneous non-book purchases that you'll only regret later, and you can't turn their spending power to more mundane tasks such as buying food or paying for utilities. Book tokens are for books alone, and thus their value is magnified considerably.I haven't had a book token for years. In these days of Amazon wishlists and time-poor friends who just ask you what you want because they haven't the leisure or inclination to scour your bookshelves and seek out that missing Gustav Meyrink volume for your collection, few people take a chance on just buying a book for someone. Buying a book "cold" is like buying underwear as a present – you either completely ace it or get it spectacularly, shame-inducingly wrong.I was both shocked and thrilled, looking at the National Book Tokens website, to see that you can buy tokens up to the value of £250. Imagine that: half a monkey to spend on books! For those of us still recession-strapped, however, the more reasonable (and most popular) level is the starting price of a tenner.Book tokens still come in lovely paper versions, of course, but these days you can also get pre-loaded credit card-style gift tokens – a far cry from when book tokens first became common gift currency, in 1932, when they were sold as Green Shield-style stamps that were licked and slapped on to a gift card.There are some fascinating illustrations on the National Book Tokens site of the gift cards and how they've changed over the decades. ... Tue, 28 Dec 2010 11:00:01 +0100 895314 http://www.javierleiva.info/mis-videos-de-2010 A lo largo de 2010 he publicado unos 150 videos en Youtube (suscribete a mi canal, oye . No voy a poner la lista como hice el año pasado porque son muchos videos, pero sí quiero comentar que mucho de ellos pertenecen al blog 30 segundos porque es un espacio que ha tomado protagonismo en mi lista de publicaciones estos últimos tiempos. Y bueno, también hay bastantes de hoteles que se van publicando en Mapa de Hoteles. Aquí van un par de videos representativos: 4-3-2010 Cenando relajadamente en el aeropuerto –Este contenido ha sido publicado en el blog de Javier Leiva Aguilera. Javier es formador y consultor en TIC en la empresa Catorze.com, de la que es propietario. Puedes seguirle en Twitter (Source: Catorze.blog) Tue, 28 Dec 2010 06:14:42 +0100 895306 http://bentleywg.livejournal.com/1347984.html Belmar (NJ) blizzard time-lapse video. December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse. Canon DLSR on tripod with remote timer taking a photo once every five minutes. Approximately 20 hours in 40 seconds. (Mike Black Photography.) (via Boing Boing) ... (Source: Google Blog Search: Bentleyblog blogurl:http://bentleywg.livejournal.com/) Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:21:09 +0100 895828 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/62931 The Top Trends for 2010  Lists Include:  Top 10 TV Programs – Single Telecast  Top 10 TV Programs – Regularly Scheduled  Top 10 Timeshifted Primetime TV Programs  Top 10 DVD Sales  Video Game Console Usage  Top 10 Print Book Sales – Adult Fiction  Top 10 Print Book [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:09:00 +0100 895278 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/27/girl-gang-london-underworld Ruthless, all-female Forty Elephants gang ran capital's biggest shoplifting racket, according to new bookGirl gangs might sound like a modern British problem, but new research has revealed an all-female crime syndicate had a firm and pitiless grip on London as far back as the 18th century.Forgotten stashes of photographs, records and letters have revealed that although the capital was carved into different fiefdoms by various male villains, one all-female gang ruled part of the gangland underworld for almost two centuries."Many a husband lounged at home while his missus was out at work, and many an old lag was propped up by a tireless shoplifting spouse. Some of these terrors were as tough as the men they worked for and protected," said Brian McDonald, who uncovered details of the criminals when researching for his new book, Gangs of London.The all-female Forty Elephants – or Forty Thieves – worked alongside the notorious Elephant and Castle gang, a sprawling, powerful army of all-male smash-and-grab artists, burglars, receivers, hard men and crafty villains operating across south London. The Forty Elephants, in contrast, was a tightly run, neatly organised collection of cells, whose operations extended across London and into other cities.Presided over by a formidable "queen", the Forty Elephants were responsible for the largest shoplifting operation ever seen in Britain between the 1870s and 1950s. The gang was first mentioned in newspapers in 1873, but police records suggest it had existed since the late 1700s.Dressed in specially tailored coats, cummerbunds, muffs, skirts, bloomers and hats sewn with hidden pockets, they mounted raids on London's West End shops, where they plundered goods worth thousands of pounds."The girls benefited from prudish attitudes of the time by taking shelter behind the privacy afforded to women in large stores," said McDonald. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:45:46 +0100 895221 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TameTheWeb/~3/bEzL5u0AcGI/ Wonderful holiday party video from the National Library of Australia. (Source: Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology) Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:01:45 +0100 895257 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pandia/vfbc/~3/3qpfEe2LYmc/3358-7-sites-for-information-on-busnisses-and-organisations.html Whether you are a business owner looking for information on your competition, a consumer wanting to make informed purchases or an information professional or journalist doing research, the call for transparency that has resulted from social media has led to a number of web sites where businesses share their info for free or where customers share their opinions. Here are 10 places to go to find info on all kinds of businesses and organisations. LinkedIn LinkedIn used to be a place to display your business card on-line with the option to add information about your education and past and present jobs. Today, LinkedIn hosts profiles for both businesses and people in addition to groups for discussing all kinds of professional themes. The profiles might also contain information from blogs, presentations from Slideshare and more. Examples: Search Engine Land business profile SEO SEM group Facebook Facebook started out as a web site for freshmen at Harvard to get to know each other. It soon opened to students at other schools and is now open for anyone to join. It is no longer just a place where teenagers share photos from parties. Here in Norway, 50 % of the population has a Facebook profile. This makes the site a great place for businesses to market themselves and for consumers to pool their knowledge. Examples: WikiLeaks’ page Google’s page Wikipedia On LinkedIn and Facebook, the companies themselves write their profiles and can, to a certain extent, control the content. Wikipedia has guidelines that prevent people with close ties to a business from editing the article about that particular company. Examples: British Petroleum Nestlé Youtube Every minute 24 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:36:51 +0100 895392 http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/third-generation-kindle-now-the-bestselling-product-of-all-time-on-amazon-worldwide/ From the press release: Amazon.com today announced that the third-generation Kindle is now the bestselling product in Amazon’s history, eclipsing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7).” The company also announced that on its peak day, Nov. 29, customers ordered more than 13.7 million items worldwide across all product categories, which is a record-breaking 158 items per second. “We’re grateful to the millions of customers who have made the all-new Kindle the bestselling product in the history of Amazon — surpassing Harry Potter 7,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. “We’re seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an LCD tablet. Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies, and web browsing and their Kindles for reading sessions. They report preferring Kindle for reading because it weighs less, eliminates battery anxiety with its month-long battery life, and has the advanced paper-like Pearl e-ink display that reduces eye-strain, doesn’t interfere with sleep patterns at bedtime, and works outside in direct sunlight, an important consideration especially for vacation reading. Kindle’s $139 price point is a key factor — it’s low enough that people don’t have to choose.” … On Christmas Day, more people turned on new Kindles for the first time, downloaded more Kindle Buyo nce, Read Everywhere apps, and purchased more Kindle books than on any other day in history. … “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was the most purchased Kindle book on Christmas Day. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was the most gifted Kindle book on Christmas Day. Of Amazon’s top 500 most popular Kindle books, “The Dork Diaries” saw the greatest gain in popularity on Christmas Day. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:29:09 +0100 895267 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/interview-pete-abrams-sluggy-freelance-cartoonist-part-one-of-three/ It has taken me a while to get around to transcribing this, but better late than never. On May 28th, I sat down with Pete Abrams at the ConQuesT SF convention in Kansas City for an interview about his webcomic, Sluggy Freelance. Sluggy is a rarity in that it is one of relatively few webcomics that provides its artist’s entire living, and it has also been in operation for over 14 years (13 as of the interview). Abrams has been interviewed in a number of places already, and I tried to avoid covering the same territory as the others. Further, I wanted to get into how he was able to earn a living from giving his comic away free on the Internet when so few others have been able to do that. I will be running this interview in three parts, starting today. Me: So, for the first part of this interview: There’s this whole thing going on right now about paywalls in the electronic newspaper industry. Everyone’s complaining about how giving content away for free is killing the newspaper industry and so forth. You’ve made a living giving content away for free for over ten years. When did you first think that it might be possible for you to do Sluggy Freelance as a full-time, paying job? Pete: Well, when I started Sluggy Freelance, webcomics wasn’t anything like it is right now. I mean, there were very few strips in existance. So there wasn’t anyone else’s strip to compare myself to and ask myself if I could make a living doing it or how long it would take. When I started, I knew that most businesses took two to three years to become profitable—I heard that at some point. And when I started the strip, I made it daily and I treated it like it was my profession before it was paying me full-time. And sure enough, what happened was in about the third year I suddenly started making a profit and was able to support myself at that point, and it’s been growing in profitability every year since then. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 13:15:00 +0100 895269 http://blog.booklistonline.com/2010/12/27/reading-the-screen-band-of-brothers/ In December, 1944, the Wehrmacht — the German army — was trying to push through the Ardennes mountains in Belgium. Easy Company, of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, was among the defenders in what came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. Stephen E. Ambrose chronicled this, and other Easy Company missions, in his 1992 book Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normany to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, which HBO made into a ten-part miniseries in 2001. It is a remarkable series, dramatic and horrific and visceral and tragic and heart-rending (sometimes all at the same time), and it is one of the best book-to-television adaptations you’re ever likely to see. Here’s a clip from the Battle of the Bulge episode:     One reason the series captures the flavor of the book is that Band of Brothers is a visual book. Check this out, from page 82 of the 2001 paperback reissue: Time for the second gun, Winters thought to himself. He left three men behind to hold the first gun, then led the other five on a charge down the trench, throwing grenades ahead of them, firing their rifles. They passed the two Jerries at the machine-gun who had been wounded by Winters and made them prisoners. The gun crew at the second gun fell back; Easy took it with only one casualty. That could be, with very minor changes, stage directions in a screenplay. Ambrose’s vivid, dramatic writing style creates pictures in your mind; all they had to do when they made the series was recreate those pictures on the screen. Another reason why the series works so well: the screenwriters and producers — including a couple of guys called Spielberg and Hanks — made sure to keep some of the book’s smaller, but more pleasing, moments. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 10:22:51 +0100 895381 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/27/what-happened-next-feminism-women A great year for women? Twelve months ago we predicted that it would be. Were we right?This time 12 months ago we promised it was going to be the biggest year in feminism ever. So was it? Er, sort of. We weren't wrong about it being a celebratory year. But our predictions of the feminist events to watch in 2010 were a bit hit and miss. Where did we strike gold? The significance of the movie Precious, the story of an overweight, illiterate teenager in 80s Harlem, pregnant by her abusive father ("primarily female cast", "a must-see", we said). Come the Oscars, the film won six nominations and two awards. What did we overestimate? The impact of Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It! ("a great film"). That turned out to be a bit of a howler. The film went right under the radar, more's the pity.So what else did we get right? Well, it was always going to be a bumper year and maybe we could have even got a bit more excited about it. 2010 marked the 40th anniversary both of the publication of Germaine Greer's still controversial The Female Eunuch and of Kate Millett's landmark Sexual Politics. It was also four decades since the agenda-changing first ever National Women's Liberation conference. This killer combination of events galvanised campaigning groups everywhere and if anything our predictions of a feminist bonanza in 2010 underestimated the resurgence of grassroots activism.The first ever Feminism Summer School, hosted by UK Feminista in July, was a major success, picking up international coverage. And the Reclaim the Night movement was invigorated in force, with more than 2,000 women attending candlelit vigils in central London in November, where DJs kept the crowds going until 2am. Meanwhile more than 1,000 people attended London Feminism Network's October conference. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 08:00:17 +0100 895143 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/Bm7l0crjhDc/ralph-nader-really-congressional-hearing-on-the-espionage-act-and-the-legal-and-constitutional-issue.html On December 16, 2010, the House Committee on the Judiciary conducted a hearing on the Espionage Act and the legal and constitutional issues raised by WikiLeaks. The link to the video webcast is available of this page. The witness list... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Mon, 27 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895850 http://ricklibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/ricklibrarians-books-that-matter-and.html 2010 was a good book year for me. As I look back, November was especially stellar, as almost every book that I read for a few weeks was superb. It was difficult deciding which were best of the year, but I took a stab at it anyway. I also selected movies and music.In this post, I also include links to all my reporting from library conferences and to all my reviews of new reader's advisory sources.Have a Happy New Year for good reading and cultural experiences.Recent NonfictionClaiming Ground by Laura BellDangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour by David BianculliThe Grace of Silence: A Memoir by Michele NorrisI Am Nujood, Age Ten and Divorced by Nujood Ali and Delphine MinouiThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca SklootLife List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds by Olivia GentileLighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain by Roy Morris, Jr.Mark Twain: The Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years by Michael SheldenA Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls LaNierNine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William DalrymplePacking for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary RoachZeitoun by Dave EggersRecent FictionCorduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall SmithThe Man from Beijing by Henning MankellThe Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia StuartGreat Old BooksFirst Person Rural: Essays of a Sometime Farmer by Noel PerrinIn Patagonia by Bruce ChatwinRoseanna by Maj Sjöwall and Per WahlööChildren's BooksAn Egret's Day by Jane YolenFace to Face with Elephants by Beverly JoubertMarching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don't You Grow Weary by Elizabeth PartridgeSaving the Ghost of the Mountain by Sy MontgomeryZen Shorts by Jon J. Muth and Zen Ties by Jon J. ... Mon, 27 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895302 http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2010/11/upgrade.html Upgrade is a tutorial site from City University Library "working with the Careers Service, Learning Success and the Student Centre". It covers a number of information literacy and study skills areas, for example: information searching, critical thinking, exam techniques, "Using your personal information safely", interview preparation. The site includes exercises and videos: http://www.city.ac.uk/upgrade/index.htmlPhoto by Sheila Webber: Christmas bauble, 2010. (Source: Information Literacy Weblog) Mon, 27 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895294 http://www.librarymonk.com/2010/12/from-dan-on-twitter-this-week-85/ well delicious isn't quite dead yet, mostly dead? undead? what's the best term here? # Now I'm thirsty… http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/amazon-provides-a-dose-of-humor # My Blackberry Is Not Working! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI # CIA? WTF? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/22/cia-wikileaks-taskforce-wtf # Powered by Twitter Tools (Source: Library Monk - the blog of Dan Greene) Sun, 26 Dec 2010 16:16:00 +0100 895627 http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2010/12/prison-libraries-true-value-lies-beyond.html A very good essay in the Boston Globe Ideas section today by Avi Steinberg, who recently came out with the memoir, Running the Books about his stint as a prison librarian in the Boston area Suffolk County House of Correction. He writes about the periodic, well, probably ongoing, attacks on prison libraries, from well-meaning reformers who fear that the books will undermine the principle of punishment or might encourage prisoners to consider making a break for it or more fruitless appeals. Steinberg writes with excellent detail about the experiences he had as a prison librarian that lead him to the opposite conclusion. In his opinion, the true value of the prison library lies not so much in the reading material, as in the civilizing, educating locus of the place. The prisoners, who learn that the library is a haven that can make them feel like normal people for that short visit, run there when allowed, they are so eager to arrive. Prisoners who are allowed to work as library assistants value the privilege, and take the leadership skills into life after prison. It was more educational that spending time in the recreation yard, and it was less formal than the classrooms. It was a public space, and often the only time these individuals had ever been exposed to a library. They were learning important skills to take with them after they were released, even if they only read glossy magazines. Steinberg's argument is the classic rehabilitation argument, but it is an important one, and he gives some very good details from his time at the Suffolk County House of Correction. Steinberg introduces the reader to Fat Kat, his head of circulation, and unofficial captain of the inmate prison work detail. Fat Kat's name describes both his physical appearance and his boss persona. He was mid-way through his sentence when Steinberg met him. ... Sun, 26 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895153 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/26/20-things-we-learned-in-2010 Observer writers and experts chart the concepts, trends and buzz words that defined the past year and are likely to shape the next one1 The new politics is, in fact, the old politicsNick Clegg will regret many things about 2010. One will be his decision to produce a Lib Dem election poster warning that the Tories would raise VAT. A few weeks later Clegg, installed as deputy prime minister, was backing coalition plans to – yes – raise VAT.Then there was the pre-election pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees. Six months later Clegg was pushing a policy to triple them.These shifts were damaging not just because they were old-fashioned U-turns but because they fatally undermined the party's raison d'etre – its commitment to deliver a new, honest politics. A vote for the Lib Dems, Clegg had said, would be "a vote that counts".It was all part of his broader attempt to promote the merits of voting reform – the Lib Dems' core policy. Fair votes through proportional representation would mean that everyone's vote would matter and everyone's voice would be heard.Floating the idea of "new politics" and calling for an end to the duopoly of the "old parties" made Clegg more popular than Churchill for a while. But it is dangerous to take the moral high ground in politics.A mid-December poll for the News of the World found 61% of respondents saying that they didn't trust Clegg, compared to 24% in April. In a few months, he had gone from being one of the most trusted politicians to one of the least trusted.To many, the "new politics" had begun to feel very much like old politics – if not rather worse, as angry protests hit the streets and chants rang out about promises broken. Toby Helm2 Kanye West is pop's top innovatorIn 2009, Kanye West had the distinction of being called a "jackass" by the US president, after rudely interrupting an acceptance speech by his fellow performer Taylor Swift at an awards show. ... Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:07:13 +0100 894991 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/26/20-things-we-learned-2010 It was a year in which game-changing developments in social media competed with a new political turf wars over the 'squeezed middle'. Here a team of Observer writers and experts chart the concepts, trends and buzzwords that defined the last year and are likely to shape the next one1 The new politics is, in fact, the old politicsNick Clegg will regret many things about 2010. One will be his decision to produce a Lib Dem election poster warning that the Tories would raise VAT. A few weeks later Clegg, installed as deputy prime minister, was backing coalition plans to – yes – raise VAT.Then there was the pre-election pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees. Six months later Clegg was pushing a policy to triple them.These shifts were damaging not just because they were old-fashioned U-turns but because they fatally undermined the party's raison d'etre – its commitment to deliver a new, honest politics. A vote for the Lib Dems, Clegg had said, would be "a vote that counts".It was all part of his broader attempt to promote the merits of voting reform – the Lib Dems' core policy. Fair votes through proportional representation would mean that everyone's vote would matter and everyone's voice would be heard.Floating the idea of "new politics" and calling for an end to the duopoly of the "old parties" made Clegg more popular than Churchill for a while. But it is dangerous to take the moral high ground in politics.A mid-December poll for the News of the World found 61% of respondents saying that they didn't trust Clegg, compared to 24% in April. In a few months, he had gone from being one of the most trusted politicians to one of the least trusted.To many, the "new politics" had begun to feel very much like old politics – if not rather worse, as angry protests hit the streets and chants rang out about promises broken. ... Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:05:53 +0100 894994 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/26/gullivers-travels-jack-black-letterman I was six when first I came across Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels in the form of the 1939 animated movie by the Fleischer brothers. It was the first full-length cartoon by Disney's only rivals at that time, and I remember enjoying it. The film took in just the journeys to Lilliput and Brobdingnag, and a decade passed before I discovered that Gulliver's Travels was a great work of satire that had fallen into the hands of children, and despite being written by a distinguished clergyman it contained much that was considered unfit for the young.I've since seen a number of adaptations, but only one of real worth: the version Sean Kenny, who died tragically young in 1973 aged 40, co-wrote, co-directed and designed at Bernard Miles's Mermaid theatre. It was a remarkable imaginative and intellectual achievement, taking in all four books (so kids got to hear about Laputa, Glubbdubdrib, the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos, as well as Lilliput) and including a sea sequence shot in a pond on Hampstead Heath. Mike d'Abo, the Cambridge-educated pop star, played Gulliver, and I think the show might have been called Gulliver Travels. Less celebrated than the original Oliver! or his sets for Theatre Workshop and the National, Kenny's Gulliver is a memory I cherish of a great artist of whom Ken Tynan once said: "I have a fearful premonition of the next show Mr Kenny designs. As soon as the curtain rises, the sets will advance in a phalanx on the audience and summarily expel it from the theatre."In Rob Letterman's truly dire 3-D version of Gulliver's Travels, Lemuel Gulliver has been demoted from 18th-century ship's surgeon to 21st-century clerk. Stuck for a decade in the mailroom of the New York Herald, he's played by that all-purpose slob and loser, Jack Black. ... Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:05:20 +0100 894997 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/26/the-way-back-review Slavomir Rawicz never actually made the epic trek described in his classic book The Long Walk, but Peter Weir's movie version is utterly convincingMy generation growing up during second world war and the early years of the cold war first learnt to hate the Germans and Japanese, then to discover that our believed wartime allies from the Soviet Union were just as bad and the benevolent, paternal Stalin was as monstrous as Hitler.There was a literature at our disposal during the postwar decade to help us understand that change, significantly Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Orwell's Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty- Four, and the symposium The God That Failed written by former communists. To these were added in the mid-1950s an international bestseller, The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz, a Polish army officer captured by Russians in September 1939 when Germany and the Soviet Union carved up his country, and sent to a prison camp in Siberia. His book was one of the first detailed accounts of gulag life that most people had read until Alexander Solzhenitsyn published One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and later The Gulag Archipelago.The book's big selling point, however, was not the horrifying story of life in the camps but the story of how seven men escaped from a remote camp and travelled 4,000 miles by foot across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, Tibet and the Himalayas before the surviving members of the party found sanctuary in India in 1941. Solzhenitsyn wrote that escaping from the gulag was "an enterprise for giants among men – but for doomed giants", and The Long Walk is an inspiring tale of courage and survival against superhuman odds. ... Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:05:13 +0100 894998 http://textundblog.de/?p=3908 Direktlink YouTube Ein Klassiker. Viel Spaß. © Markus Trapp auf Text & Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: (Source: Text & Blog) Sat, 25 Dec 2010 22:56:24 +0100 895528 http://www.lisnews.org/surprising_potential_prison_library Article in the Boston Globe by Avi Steinberg who made a name for himself as a prison librarian. People tend to see a prison as a monolithic institution, a place solely dedicated to locking criminals up. But many inmates experience prison in a more dynamic way, as a clash between institutions. And what I experienced every day was that, in the collision between the institution of prison and the institution-within-the-institution, the library, something constructive and potentially long-lasting was being formed. Prison libraries aren’t miracle factories. The day-to-day was often far from inspiring. Glossy magazines and mindless movies were, for many, the main attraction. Pimp memoirs were among the most frequently requested books. And yet, even an inmate motivated by nothing more than a desire to watch “The Incredible Hulk” in the back room of the library was much more likely to come across something educational — a book, a program, a mentor — once he entered the library space. Just as important, this inmate was becoming a loyal patron of the library, something he could carry with him to the outside world, and perhaps pass on to his children. In prison, I saw inmates literally run to the library. I wondered then, as I wonder now, how much we might gain from thinking ambitiously, creatively, how to harness the energy that currently fills this little institution-within-an-institution — and find ways to cultivate it more deliberately, to direct it over the prison walls and back into the lives of our neighborhoods. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Sat, 25 Dec 2010 15:27:49 +0100 895877 http://lisnews.org/surprising_potential_prison_library Article in the Boston Globe by Avi Steinberg who made a name for himself as a prison librarian. People tend to see a prison as a monolithic institution, a place solely dedicated to locking criminals up. But many inmates experience prison in a more dynamic way, as a clash between institutions. And what I experienced every day was that, in the collision between the institution of prison and the institution-within-the-institution, the library, something constructive and potentially long-lasting was being formed. Prison libraries aren’t miracle factories. The day-to-day was often far from inspiring. Glossy magazines and mindless movies were, for many, the main attraction. Pimp memoirs were among the most frequently requested books. And yet, even an inmate motivated by nothing more than a desire to watch “The Incredible Hulk” in the back room of the library was much more likely to come across something educational — a book, a program, a mentor — once he entered the library space. Just as important, this inmate was becoming a loyal patron of the library, something he could carry with him to the outside world, and perhaps pass on to his children. In prison, I saw inmates literally run to the library. I wondered then, as I wonder now, how much we might gain from thinking ambitiously, creatively, how to harness the energy that currently fills this little institution-within-an-institution — and find ways to cultivate it more deliberately, to direct it over the prison walls and back into the lives of our neighborhoods. (Source: LISNews.org) Sat, 25 Dec 2010 15:27:49 +0100 894960 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/could-computer-games-be-the-journalism-of-the-future/ Michael Humphrey has an interesting blog post on Forbes where he posits the use of video games as a method of conveying current news and events. He points to the CEO of Activision comparing the Call of Duty franchise to Facebook, pointing out that media is evolving, and the latest CoD game has already racked up 600 million hours of play time in just six weeks. And he talks about a new book called Newsgames: Journalism at Play that looks at the idea of combining gaming and journalism. While Humphrey is a bit critical of the way the book sometimes plays fast and loose with the concept of journalism, he suggests that there is a place for genuine old-school journalism to exist within computer games. If games were to practice journalism as a discipline, and advertise itself as such, it would have to be very much the same kind of journalism that newspapers, television and journalistic Web pages offer. If not, then call it something else. But I think these standards can be applied in most entertaining ways. Even though the game development process can take years, he suggests, if a game was developed based on an ongoing issue (such as the politics or warfare of a given area) then updating it to keep pace with current events could be much easier. Indeed, this could be done with gaming systems that exist now. City of Heroes has an “architect” system that allows players to create their own missions or chains of missions, which they can do fairly quickly and easily. Other games, such as Star Trek Online, are implementing similar systems. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility to imagine someone creating didactic missions incorporating references to the latest events in such a game. An entire game built from the ground up around these events could work even better. ... Sat, 25 Dec 2010 06:13:52 +0100 894940 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Hangingtogetherorg/~3/QQYp9vyryio/ As 2010 winds down, we’d like to call attention to some of the things we’ve worked on or created this year. You can see a rundown of highlights here. I hate those end of year “10 best” lists. For me, each list represents a number of [books, cds, movies, apps, restaurants] that I once again failed to get to in the current year and probably won’t in the next. I also hate being told what I should [read, listen to, watch, play with, eat]. But I love WorldCat Genres, which is a great way to browse and discover fiction (or movies) based on my own tastes and preferences. For example, I love autobiographical fiction, because it’s usually bittersweet and sometimes dishy. Browsing in WorldCat Genres, I can see some newer books that are in this genre that look tempting, as well as some old favorites, and related movies. I like this way of constructing my own lists, based on similarities in the WorldCat data. And then there’s Classify. Classify is an experimental web service that reveals the classification (Dewey Decimal Classification, Library of Congress Classification, or National Library of Medicine Classification) that has been assigned across a FRBR work set. A good example is a book I’m reading now, Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run. You’ll see, at least for DCC, the classifications mostly adhere to one class number, but also tend to be assigned to two other class numbers. Additionally, Classify reveals the FAST subject headings for the FRBR work set. So what? So this is a person-friendly prototype for what is actually a web service. Imagine farming a portion of your cataloging workflow off to a webservice. If there’s overwhelming agreement on classification (90% of those items that have a class number are all the same), then the class number is assigned automagically. If there’s variance, a human intervenes and makes a decision. ... Sat, 25 Dec 2010 00:41:10 +0100 895035 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoblinCartoons/~3/ZhU_hwHOea4/ Joshmas is upon us again. This means we’re a week away from the end of 2010. (It also means I’m now 41, but let’s not focus on that.) I don’t generally do New Year’s resolutions, but this year, I’ve decided to actually make some. Since this is the end of one year for me and the beginning of another, why not make my resolutions now? This past year has been a very good one, but it’s also been difficult. Separating from Julie has pushed me to take a really hard look at myself. I’ve spent the past year reflecting, self-evaluating and digging in the dirt. I’ve come to understand a lot about myself, all for the better. Part of this self-discovery has been getting inspired by creative people in a big, big way. Getting to know Tessa Gratton and Natalie C. Parker has been very inspirational. Wil Wheaton‘s very honest blogging about his writing and his struggles with insecurity has been extremely inspirational. Bonnie Burton and Jane Wiedlin are big inspirations, too. Last weekend, Kevin Smith wrote a series of incredibly inspirational tweets that he turned into two fantastic blog posts. And my friends Laura and Gareth Skarka posted public declarations of creative endeavors that inspired me a whole hell of a lot. So…my New Year’s resolutions are as follows: if 2010 was a year of self-therapy and sorting things out in my head, 2011 will be a year of play, a year for me to get excited and make things. I want to push myself to do more creative play, to write prose and poetry, to blog more about comics, movies, TV shows, games and the like, to make trash that is ugly and beautiful, to make mad mistakes and happy accidents. I’m going to be daring and unreasonable. I’m going to dream out loud. The most important resolution is to DO IT EVERY DAY. ... Fri, 24 Dec 2010 19:07:08 +0100 894839 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/VkrK6hXs2-M/ Once again, it’s that time of the year where the whole world goes on a standstill for a couple of days as we keep treasuring those precious little moments, you know, the little things that matter in our lives, with our family and loved ones and start celebrating Christmas as it deserves. From here, from this blog, I would want to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful time and a Merry Christmas to everyone out there who maybe celebrating. All along with the best wishes for the New Year, with lots of Happiness, plenty of good Health and Prosperity! It surely has been a fantastic year and I would want to share with you all my eternal gratitude for being there all along, for keeping coming back to the blog time and time again and for engaging in the conversations and make it a unique experience for yours truly! My sincere thanks to each and everyone of you! Hope we can continue the dialogue in 2011 and beyond! Whether face to face or virtually; whether over here or on various other social networking sites. Take good care everyone, have a wonderful time with those who matter the most to you in these special times and I am sure I will be seeing you all soon in one place or another as 2011 comes along! For now, I would just want to wrap up this blog post with you one of those YouTube video clips that will make you giggle big time, specially, if you are a social networker yourself! Can you imagine a Christmas 2.0 and what it could have been back then? Well, this is probably as close as it gets… I am sure you may have seen it already, but if you haven’t, hope you enjoy it! Merry Christmas, everyone!! – ¡¡Feliz Navidad!! (Source: E L S U A ~ A KM Blog) Fri, 24 Dec 2010 18:56:38 +0100 895531 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/12/24/the-friday-fillip-229/ Think of it as a stocking. (How did socks become stockings — and not sockings, eh? Blame belongs to the Old English, it seems, whoever they were.) Yes, a Christmas stocking just crammed with little goodies, the sort of things to keep you occupied while the rest of us sleep in for just a little bit longer, which is what we’ll be doing here at Slaw for the next little while, I imagine. (The Christmas stocking thing didn’t begin as a distraction, it turns out, but rather as boots with gifts for Odin’s flying horse, Sleipnir; Odin would be so gratified, he’d replace the straw with sweets or toys.) I’m referring to QI. Which stands for Quite Interesting. Which, by turns, is a British TV show, a book, a website and a blog. And like a Christmas stocking, QI is crammed with little gems (or lumps of coal) that you’d likely not find anywhere else. The TV show is a BBC quiz/comedy show, MC’d by none other than the ubiquitous Stephen Fry and “panelled” with a quartet of funny folks. You can’t get it here, but you can watch dozens and dozens of snippets on YouTube. Fry tries to ask questions about trivia and the contestants ad lib. Now, I was raised on a diet of The Goons, Beyond the Fringe, and Monty Python, so I have that peculiarly British sense of humour that leaves the Germans baffled and Americans thinking they’re missing something important. If you’ve not been similarly warped, QI as a quiz might not appeal to you. But that’s okay. Because there’s the website — which is filled to overflowing with quite interesting facts. (For example, on the site today is the startling revelation that General Franco owned an arm of St. Theresa of Avila and kept it with him his whole life; he died clutching it. ... Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:00:18 +0100 895180 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blogpocket/~3/QSqi-cB5BQ4/ Click here to view the embedded video. Tiempos convulsos los que nos ha tocado vivir, en los que hay que cerrar filas contra los enemigos de la libertad. La Navidad es más un momento de reflexión que otra cosa. Desde Blogpocket.com te deseamos una muy feliz Navidad, seas del credo que seas, y seas de donde seas. Estés donde estés. Que se cumplan todos tus deseos y sueños. Estos días atrás, vivimos uno de los momentos más peligrosos para la libertad en España. Todo porque algún experto ha decidido que hay un problema y hay que resolverlo. Así se cometen y se han cometido las mayores tropelías en la historia. Laurie Anderson nos canta este precioso “villancico” titulado Only an expert, cuya extraordinaria letra (muy autocrítica) no tiene desperdicio, como puedes leer a continuación. Esta canción, la escuché por primera vez en vivo, durante un concierto junto a Lou Reed, en julio de 2009, y me parece que describe perfectamente la situación global que estamos viviendo. Sólo un experto puede hacerse cargo de un problema porque la mitad del problema es ver el problema y sólo un experto puede hacerse cargo del problema. Sólo un experto puede hacerse cargo del problema. Así que si no hay ningún experto haciéndose cargo del problema entonces en realidad se tiene el doble de problemas, porque sólo un experto puede hacerse cargo del problema. Sólo un experto puede hacerse cargo del problema. En los Estados Unidos nos gustan las soluciones. Nos gustan las soluciones a los problemas. Y hay tantas compañías que ofrecen soluciones. Compañías con nombres como La Solución de las Mascotas, La Solución Capilar, La Solución a la Deuda, La Solución Mundial, La Solución del Sushi. La solución a la deuda… ahora bien, sólo un experto puede ver que allí hay un problema. Y estas compañías son expertos listos para resolver estos problemas. Porque sólo un experto puede hacerse cargo del problema. ... Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:36:07 +0100 895122 http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/mike-shatzkin-how-book-marketing-could-change/ In his latest blog post, publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin talks about an interesting discovery he made in the wake of interviewing publishers for a presentation on current trends in book publishing contracts—all the publishers seem to agree on the importance of working out new ways of marketing books in a post-e-book world. The decline of shelf space also means a decline in marketing opportunities. Up ‘til now, books themselves have been critically important in marketing the books—seeing a title on display at a bookstore is its own form of advertising, and will place an awareness of the book in the mind of the shopper even if he later goes on to buy it from somewhere else. (And in that vein, books have also long been used to advertise other things; the whole point of a tie-in novelization has historically been to serve as a mini-movie poster—the studios could care less about whether the book takes a loss, or is even worth reading, as long as it drives awareness of the movie by being faced out in a bookstore.) Shatzkin draws a distinction between “expensed marketing”—advertising a single-title in ways that serve to promote that title only, and “investment marketing”—building a brand to promote many titles over time. He notes that “expensed marketing” is what publishers and bookstores have always done, but believes the way forward is “investment marketing” instead. It doesn’t make sense to go to the trouble of digital promotion for only one book. He suggests a way of doing this through attacking the problem of search and discovery, how difficult it is to find an e-book you want without having a physical store to browse through and examine titles. He would like an e-book app that would offer him a catalog of books tailored to his interests, and alerts when new such books are published. ... Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:15:00 +0100 894828 http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/it-looks-weird-lets-shoot-it.html Video: Legendary chupacabra found in Kentucky? I think not, but you decide: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Seems wrong to shoot something just because it's an oddity. (Source: The Rabid Librarian's Ravings in the Wind) Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895453 http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/nice.html Cherokee, Apple partner to put language on iPhones According to Wikipedia, 'since 2002, all Apple computers come with a Cherokee font installed.' Also, 'Cherokee Nation members Joseph L. Erb and Roy Boney, Jr. developed an iPhone application for Cherokee language text messaging and are in the process of developing Cherokee language social network and video games.' The Cherokee language, Tsalagi, has a written syllabary invented by Sequoyah in the early 19th century--which was particularly interesting as Sequoyah did not read any other script prior to his work on the syllabary. (Source: The Rabid Librarian's Ravings in the Wind) Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895452 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/Df9EGlOa5co/wikileaks-founder-assanges-first-cable-news-intervice-since-being-released-fro-jail.html Details with MSNBC interview video here. [JH] (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894850 http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2010/12/keewl-search-engine.html "Only for Kewl People". I really hate that tag line. My immediate thought is 'Well, I'm not, so I'm not wanted here, bye bye.' It's a social search engine. It has a trending option, searches the web, photos, video, news, social web, blogs and shopping. I don't like the layout - it looks very cheap and unhelpful. 'About us' doesn't work. No help screens. I've no idea what resources it actually searches on, or how it gets its data.On the plus side, it's fast and gives good current data, especially with news and social media, with information that's only a few seconds old. However, the basic approach doesn't attract me. But that might just be me. :) (Source: Phil Bradley) Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894816 http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2010/12/picture-of-a-search-engine.html I'm always on the lookout for good image search engines, particularly those which allow me to use images that are in the public domain or CC enabled. Unfortunately, while 'Picture of a' attempts the latter, it fails on the first. It doesn't have many photographs available - library? No. Librarian? No. Snowman? No. Even when I can find images, I've got no way of knowing where they come from, or who the creator was. Even if I can use images for nothing, it's nice to credit the photographer. There are 8 categories available, and it's just basic stuff. The thing that I found which was of most note was the 'related' option. As the graphic shows, related to puppy are pictures of roads and pies? We talking roadkill here or what? Strange... Can't really recommend it, sorry! (Source: Phil Bradley) Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894813 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/HfcHbjRvEbo/ As we keep witnessing how the iPad is entering a whole bunch of new markets for tablets that perhaps never thought they would be making it that far, while being taken by storm by the iPad itself like they are at the moment, here I am, once again, ready to go and share with you folks the next blog post from the series of My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week, this time around with Week #9. First though I would want to share with you folks a couple of rather helpful articles you may want to check out, specially, if you are a librarian or perhaps an English language teacher. They are just basically a couple of articles with plenty of helpful tips and recommendations on Apps to check out, specially for those two groups, which I am sure is going to keep you all busy for a while. To name: “40 iPad Apps That Librarians Love” and “iPad Apps for English Language Teachers“, respectively. ... Fri, 24 Dec 2010 02:17:23 +0100 895533 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/24/guardian-first-film-first-album-awards Will A Single Man overcome Monsters? Can Rumer conquer Mount Kimbie? Here are the nomineesAn alien invasion movie, a stately adaptation of a Christopher Isherwood story about a man in mourning, a vibrant piece of UK hip-hop and the debut from Burt Bacharach's latest protege are among the contenders for this year's Guardian First Film and First Album awards, the shortlists for which are announced today.The awards – won last year by Gideon Koppel for Sleep Furiously, his documentary about a dying Welsh hill village, and the xx for their eponymous album – reward the best film made by a first-time director from anywhere in the world, and the best debut album from a British artist. Koppel and the xx will be among the judges for the 2010 awards.The biggest films on the shortlist are Monsters, the low-budget alien invasion movie directed by the young Briton Gareth Edwards, A Single Man, adapted from an Isherwood story by the former Gucci creative director Tom Ford and Casey Affleck's I'm Still Here, a hoax portraying the supposed emotional and professional implosion of its star, Joaquin Phoenix.Six British directors made the shortlist, where they are joined by three Americans and a Frenchman.Frontrunners for the music award include Seasons of my Soul by Rumer, Disc-Overy by the London-based MC Tinie Tempah and the underground dance music of Ikonika, whose album Contact, Love, Want, Have won critical plaudits for its unusual and innovative use of sound.Guardian critics voted for the shortlists, the 10 films and albums winning the most votes moving through to the final stage. As well as last year's winners, the judges will include Guardian critics and significant figures from the film and music industries. ... Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:01:09 +0100 894725 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/23/gullivers-travels-review Jack Black stars in a defanged version of Jonathan Swift's 18th-century satire. By Peter BradshawTo make a faithful version of Swift's 18th-century satirical fantasy Gulliver's Travels, you'd probably need to get Tim Burton to team up with Ken Loach. Or maybe get Michael Winterbottom to make something with the witty, freewheeling, questing spirit of his Tristram Shandy film A Cock and Bull Story. As it happens, this moderate new Hollywood version is directed by Rob Letterman, whose previous credits include Shark Tale and Monsters Vs Aliens and co-scripted by Shrek writer Joe Stillman. As is traditional with Gulliver adaptations, the third and fourth sections of the book are entirely missed out – that is, the sections with the Struldbrugs, the Yahoos and Houyhnhnms – and all we get is the first two tales, in which Gulliver first visits Lilliput, where everyone is very small, and then (briefly) Brobdingnag, where they are very big. Jack Black plays Lemuel Gulliver, a nerdy present-day loser in the mail-room of a fancy magazine, secretly in love with the travel editor, Darcy, played by Amanda Peet. He bluffs his way into a travel assignment in the Bermuda Triangle, where he finds himself in the land of the little people, where everyone is either a British actor (Emily Blunt, James Corden) or speaks with a British accent (Jason Segel). It isn't too bad: there is one funny sequence in which Gulliver puts on a theatre show for the benefit of his minuscule new friends, purporting to be scenes from his own remarkable life, which are all horribly plagiarised from movies like Star Wars and Titanic. But as so often, this diluted Gulliver's Travels is presented as if it were a children's story, clearly influenced by similarly defanged versions of Alice In Wonderland. Actually it is a very different, fiercer beast. A grown-up Gulliver is what we need.Released on Boxing Day.Rating: 2/5ComedyAction and adventureJonathan SwiftPeter Bradshawguardian.co. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:36:00 +0100 894727 http://www.teleread.com/drm/looking-back-at-a-look-ahead-my-e-book-piracy-prognostications-from-2006/ I was just looking back at a post I made in August of 2006—my first post here as a regular contributor, in fact. This came well before the advent of the Kindle, and was sparked off by a discussion of e-book piracy on the eBook Community email list. It’s interesting to look back on it in light of the sea change in e-book demand brought about largely by the Kindle, Nook, and (more recently) iPad. The article was a discussion of the relative e-piracy situations between music, movies, and e-books. My thesis was that, at the time the article was written, the music and movie industries were worrying a lot more about e-piracy than the publishing industry, largely because there was relatively little demand for e-books at the time. I looked at the philosophy of the Pirate Party, who admitted that file sharing could harm rights holders—but so could progress in general. They felt it was not their job to come up with a new business model for rights holders, but rather to make the flawed current system untenable so the rights holders would have to innovate. I also brought in some interesting survey results that showed significantly more teenagers believed it was legal to copy CDs or movies their friends paid for than ones their friends got for free. And I compared the birth of piracy of music and movies to the state of e-book piracy. Whereas the music and movie industries immediately felt threatened by Napster and Gnutella, mp3 and DeCSS/DivX, book scans had been circulating on the Internet since well before Sean Fanning’s last haircut but—apart from certain irascible types—no one in the publishing industry seemed to feel threatened enough to take action. Why? Because unlike e-music and e-movies, e-books currently fail to offer a compelling experience in comparison to their original format. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:57:49 +0100 894759 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/dec/23/green-hornet-kick-ass Michel Gondry's superhero might be creating a buzz, but haven't we heard this 'ordinary guy decides to fight crime' shtick before?It might not have performed well at the US box office, supposedly the ultimate arbiter of future big budget movie-making, but Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass has certainly made a profound and lasting impact on the world of comic-book films. Perhaps it's a little like the old adage about the Velvet Underground's first album (albeit on a rather larger scale), that each of the 1,000 or so people who bought it went out and formed a band. Or perhaps Hollywood is aware of quite how many people illegally downloaded a copy of the film.In any case, I doubt that films such as Michel Gondry's forthcoming The Green Hornet, which arrives in the UK and US on 14 January, would have looked quite the same before Hit Girl and Big Daddy's big-screen debut. Kick-Ass seems to have created a "third way" for the genre that eschews both high camp and "dark and serious" approaches in favour of a postmodern take, allowing the audience to laugh at various genre tropes. In a sense, it's the superhero film's answer to Wes Craven's Scream, which poked fun at horror sensibilities yet remained a pretty scary movie in its own right.But back to The Green Hornet, which is looking increasingly like the heir to Kick-Ass. A new featurette for the film (below), which stars Seth Rogen as publishing-heir-turned-crimefighter Britt Reid, and Jay Chou as Kato, pitches the project as a different kind of superhero movie in which the protagonist is just an average guy who decides to take up a career fighting crime. Sound familiar?"We knew that me as a superhero is not something that people would expect," says Rogen. "So to start with something that people could totally see me as, which is a moron that drinks all day, and slowly turn that guy into a superhero, became something that was interesting. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:24:11 +0100 894610 http://www.lisnews.org/creating_book_talks_and_book_trailers_libraries Creating Book Talks and Book Trailers for Libraries Just as movies advertise and promote the latest and greatest upcoming releases, you too can create and promote books by creating a book trailer. These are similar to a movie trailer and are designed to catch the viewers’ attention and spark an interest. “Coming to a nightstand near you!” book trailers are great because you can showcase something that has just been published or you can be retrospective and create a book trailer on a personal favorite. These are really fun to make and are a chance for you to take all the skills you have learned from this book or from your other video projects and apply them. (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:05:20 +0100 894880 http://lisnews.org/creating_book_talks_and_book_trailers_libraries Creating Book Talks and Book Trailers for Libraries Just as movies advertise and promote the latest and greatest upcoming releases, you too can create and promote books by creating a book trailer. These are similar to a movie trailer and are designed to catch the viewers’ attention and spark an interest. “Coming to a nightstand near you!” book trailers are great because you can showcase something that has just been published or you can be retrospective and create a book trailer on a personal favorite. These are really fun to make and are a chance for you to take all the skills you have learned from this book or from your other video projects and apply them. (Source: LISNews.org) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:05:20 +0100 894661 http://50.16.230.151/article/thursday-threads-2010w51/ Receive DLTJ Thursday Threads:by E-mailby RSSDelivered by FeedBurner When I say “<blank> is a question answering system. A question can be posed in natural language and … <blank> can come up with a very precise answer to that question” — what comes to mind to fill in the <blank>? If you guessed a system developed by IBM to appear alongside human contestants on Jeopardy, you’d be right. That quote comes from video posted by IBM earlier this year that is the topic of the first DLTJ Thursday Threads entry. This weeks other entries look at possible erosions of copyright first sale doctrine, the state of open access publishing, and a proposition for new definitions to terms of art in data modeling.If you find these threads interesting and useful, you might want to add the Thursday Threads RSS Feed to your feed reader or subscribe to e-mail delivery using the form to the right. If you would like a more raw and immediate version of these types of stories, watch my FriendFeed stream (or subscribe to its feed in your feed reader). Comments and tips, as always, are welcome.Reference Librarian of the Future? IBM Supercomputer ‘Watson’ to Challenge ‘Jeopardy’ StarsIBM 'Watson' Video on YouTubeAn I.B.M. supercomputer system named after the company’s founder, Thomas J. Watson Sr., is almost ready for a televised test: a bout of questioning on the quiz show “Jeopardy.” I.B.M. and the producers of “Jeopardy” will announce on Tuesday [December 14, 2010] that the computer, “Watson,” will face the two most successful players in “Jeopardy” history, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in three episodes that will be broadcast Feb. 14-16, 2011.For I.B.M., “Watson” is an important test of artificial intelligence. Scientists there have been talking to “Jeopardy” about a man vs. machine match-up for the better part of two years. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:06:53 +0100 895465 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/infoesfera/~3/mS5T-LS0MBU/terror-en-la-escuela.html “El verdadero terror es despertar un día y darte cuenta que tu salón de secundaria gobierna el país” Kurt Vonnegut Hay personas que se toman a broma lo del acoso escolar, conocido como bullying en los paises de habla inglesa, y siguen pensando que es cosa de crios y que "cuando maduren" esas cosas despareceran. Puede. Puede que desparezcan para quienes infieren el maltrato, pero jamás las víctimas olvidan las humillaciones y ofensas, por muchas horas de terapia que pasen junto al sicólogo/a.  Y esto lo dice una de esas víctimas que día tras día, mes a mes, curso a curso sufren la violencia tanto física como verbal en sus propias carnes. Pero, lo peor del caso, es que este tipo de abusos se dan cada vez a mas temprana edad, y así tenemos ejemplos de niños de guardería que acosan, y pegan sistemáticamente a ciertos compañeros, independientemente del sexo. La violencia flota en el ambiente de crispación generalizada y los críos lo absorben todo, tanto de la calle como de su familia y la tele. Ya les puedes decir que no deben hacer tal o cual cosa, que si lo ven en cualquier lugar, los niños proceden por imitación, para ser "mayores" ante los demás y demostrar que cada uno es el rey y todos los otros sus vasallos.Por eso, antes de que estos maltratadores en potencia - lo seran de no poner remedio - pasen a mayores, se hace  conveniente alertar a padres y educadoeres de que, en ocasiones, es muy necesario un buen azote a tiempo, y no dejarse amedrentar por los pequeños, pues, de ello, depende la salud de todos. Leed con sumo cuidado el siguiente artículo del que se desprenden algunos datos interesantes. Cuando entré a la universidad, lo último que tenía en mente eran mis traumas de la infancia. Desgraciadamente, la emoción por el primer día de clases fue opacada por una sensación de horror aplastante cuando reconocí a una de mis compañeras de sexto de primaria a través de la explanada. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:11:00 +0100 894714 http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/online-gallery-art-of-american-soldier.html This looks really neat. This is a collection of paintings and drawings created by American soldiers, many of them unseen until now. You can view an online gallery now, and visit D.C. to see the exhibit, which will later go on tour. From the site:More than 15,000 paintings and sketches created by over 1,300 American soldiers in the line of duty have been in curatorial storage in  Washington, D.C. for decades, seldom made available for public viewing.  Art of the American Soldier will bring these powerful works of art into the spotlight at the National Constitution Center from September 24, 2010 through March 31, 2011.  The exhibition, featuring a never-before-seen collection, was created by the Center in partnership with the U.S. Army Center of Military History and the National Museum of the United States Army.  Following its world debut at the Center, the exhibition will begin a national tour.Video trailer below: (Source: The Itinerant Librarian) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895487 http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-post-2010-basics.html We have almost made it to the end of 2010, and we have made it to the holiday season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, Festivus, or some other holiday (or you just enjoy having time off at this time of year), may you have a peaceful and safe time. As I have done in previous years (here is the one from last year if interested), here is my small gift to my three readers where I go around and collect interesting, amusing, or just miscellaneous things that may be of interest this holiday season.Once again, I have enough for a series of posts. So, we will start today with The Basics. I will also make a post for readers and another one for humor and lists. So, stay tuned this week.  The BasicsOne of my favorite links this season is NORAD's Santa Tracker. For years now, we enjoy keeping track of Santa as he makes his way around the world. This never fails to make me smile. Apparently, they now even offer options to track Santa on your mobile phone (please, just don't do it while you are driving). I can always count on the U.S. Census Bureau to put together a set of facts and figures about the holiday season. Here is their 2010 Holiday Season fact sheet. And wow, PNC Financial Services is still doing their annual calculation of the Christmas Price Index. This year marks their 27th year doing it, and I always find it very entertaining. Here is the 2010 edition. Small note: the site does have an auto-play this year, so you may want to adjust volume accordingly. It does have a very interactive element I think kids will enjoy (as well as kids at heart). You want to be safe this holiday season. From GovGab, here are some fire safety tips for your home. GovGab also offers some tips and advice on "Drinking and Driving During the Holidays." The idea here is to be safe and responsible when you drink during the holidays. A drink here and there is a very traditional thing to do (if you choose to consume alcohol. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895486 http://lovetheliberry.blogspot.com/2010/12/movie-of-week.html Law Abiding Citizen -- STOLEN! (Source: Love the Liberry) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 895096 http://theloftonline.blogspot.com/2010/12/bored-over-break.html We have some fun activities coming up over the next two weeks! Next Tuesday, 12/28, at 2:00 pm Mrs. Lukich will be hosting Play Doh Sculpting. Don't miss out on this chance to make your very own creations out of Play Doh!On Friday, January 7, Mrs. Bailey will be hosting the second installment of the Bake Off. Remember that this year's theme is Frosty Fun. We have re-structured the bake-off, so it doesn't matter if you had to miss the first session. Come and have fun!If you can't come to either of the programs, remember that we have movies, CDs, and games, as well as books and magazines which can help you while away the hours this holiday vacation. (Source: The Loft online) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894779 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/Ple33mRbfz4/dashing-through-snow-with-norad-and.html (Cross-posted from the Lat Long Blog)Every Christmas Eve, children all over the world ask themselves—and their parents—questions about Santa’s magical journey. How does Santa visit so many children in one night? Will he eat the cookies I left out? How does he fit all those presents into his sleigh? These childhood mysteries are part of what makes the Santa tradition so special.There’s one timeless question that we’re proud to say we can help answer: Where in the world is Santa at this very moment? Thanks in part to recent advances in warp-speed GPS technology and some very clever elves (elveneering?) NORAD Tracks Santa is once again prepped and ready to go.Starting tomorrow, December 24 at 2:00am EST, visit www.noradsanta.org to follow Santa as he journeys around the world delivering presents to children in more than 200 countries and territories. There are a few different ways to find the jolly old man in his unmistakable red suit over the course of the day, so feel free to track him using any of the following methods:See Santa on a Google Map: On your home computer or laptop, visit www.noradsanta.org and choose your preferred language. You’ll see a large Google Map on the page displaying Santa’s current location and his next stop. Click the video icons to watch “Santa Cam” videos, and click the gift icons to learn more about each city.Watch Santa fly with the Google Earth Plug-in: From www.noradsanta.org, click on the link Track Santa in Google Earth. You'll see Santa steering his sleigh right on the webpage. If you don't have the Google Earth plug-in, you can get ready by downloading it ahead of time.Follow Santa on your phone: Track Santa from your mobile phone by opening Google Maps for mobile and searching for [santa]. Or, visit m.noradsanta.org on your phone’s browser.Subscribe to his YouTube channel: Santa’s home on YouTube is at http://www.youtube.com/noradtrackssanta. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894702 http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2010/12/information-literacy-in-our-future.html There is an exhibition with posters from this exercise with my students in Second Life (which I blogged about here), and this video has snippets from the session held on 8th December in which I talked about the activities. If you have a Second Life avatar you can visit it at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/230/35/28/ (Source: Information Literacy Weblog) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894605 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DepravedLibrarian/~3/igerMeWI5LM/ [via Leila Taylor] Tagged: music (Source: Depraved Librarian) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 03:28:33 +0100 894989 http://joblist.ala.org/modules/jobseeker/controller.cfm?rssjobid=16302 Head, Knowledge Access Design and Development (New York University, New York) New York University Libraries The head of this newly conceived department will lead a service-focused team in designing, implementing, and assessing an array of metadata-reliant processes and other strategies for enabling intellectual access to the research resources in all formats of the NYU Division of Libraries. ... Thu, 23 Dec 2010 02:10:01 +0100 894476 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/12/22/slaw-makes-bruce-cartons-10-go-to-blogs-of-the-year/ Bruce Carton at Law.com’s Legal Blog Watch has honoured Slaw by picking it as one of his “10 most watched” blogs of 2010. He’s got a video of them all, which just so happens to start with you-know-which blog. Click on the image below to go to his post and the video. We are proud to be in the company of the following great blogs: Consumerist Jonathan Turley Legal Juice Legal Satyricon Lowering the Bar Simple Justice Slaw.ca SPAM Notes Texas Lawyer THR, Esq. Many thanks, Bruce. (Source: Slaw) Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:04:14 +0100 895186 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Hangingtogetherorg/~3/F9-jfg-UgKw/ As 2010 winds down, we are reflecting on what we’ve worked on or created in a mini blog series. You can see a run down of highlights here. Is copyright making you blue And you don’t know what to do Take advantage of others’ tactics And put in place Well-Intentioned Practice! I want to give a shout out to the National Library of Australia for what has become an annual display of talent and imagination. Each year the staff performs for their holiday party, and they share with the rest of us on YouTube. The results are funny and toe-tapping. This year’s theme was Putting on the Writs,” an homage to the trials and tribulations of adhering to copyright law. National Library of Australia. We feel your pain. And we’ve been moved to do something about it. In the US. For unpublished materials. Following on the heels of Shifting Gears, we began to realize what a barrier copyright law presents to those working with unpublished materials. We convened an advisory group. We held an event. Out of this came a document called Well-intentioned practice for putting digitized collections of unpublished materials online (we call it WIP). WIP encourages institutions to take a risk management approach (rather than apply item by item assessment). WIP has been a success, and has been endorsed by numerous organizations and individuals. And we’ve just learned that we’ll have a session focusing on Well intentioned practices at the Society of American Archivists meeting in 2011. While WIP is based on US copyright law, as a risk management approach it may work in other situations. We’ve written about WIP in the past. Here are two previous posts on this topic. And if you haven’t seen it, here’s Puttin’ on the Writs in its full glory. If you want to see even more of our accomplishments look at this summary of our accomplishments over the last five years. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:42:41 +0100 895038 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/12/22/black-eyed-peas-spoil-blakes-flash-mob/ For a short moment, we had some innovative law firm marketing going on with Blakes flash mob dance! The Youtube video was here. That is until lawyers for the Black Eyed Peas called copyright foul. Youtube is now displaying the infringement image below: I say boooo to the Black Eyed Peas and Will.I.Am. It’s tough enough to get lawyers to leave their offices and walk down a couple flights of stairs for a fire drill. Can you imagine getting close to 50 of them dance in the middle of a shopping mall? Unheard of. Happy holidays! :) (Source: Slaw) Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:37:32 +0100 895187 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blogpocket/~3/ljQc4rh2ilA/ El otro día, Alfredo Rivela me pasaba un vídeo muy bueno, con una animación acerca de una de las conferencias de Ken Robinson. Sobre Ken Robinson puedes leer en la Wikipedia y buscar en Google. Para resumir digamos que es un experto en educación. Si no lo conocías, como yo, y te interesa no solo la innovación en la educación, sino también la innovación en cualquiera de las facetas de tu vida, te invito a ver los siguientes vídeos (con subtítulos en español). Para Ken Robinson, el futuro no se puede predecir. No sabemos lo que sucederá dentro de 4 años y los niños que estudian en el colegio ahora, seguramente realizarán trabajos que todavia no están inventados: “Para que las economías prosperen necesitamos niños que piensen de forma creativa y entiendan los valores culturales. Necesitamos profesores que no sólo sean capaces de enseñar cosas, sino que dejen a los niños espacios para cultivar su talento. Cada persona aprende de forma diferente, por eso es importante la forma de enseñar“. 1. ¿Matan las escuelas la creatividad? Este vídeo es la versión subtitulada en español de Do schools kill creativity? (2006), en una de las conferencias de TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) y en ella Ken Robinson habla de cómo la educación que se imparte en las escuelas mata la creatividad, algo que él mismo define como “ideas originales que tienen un valor“. Click here to view the embedded video. 2. La educación necesita una revolución 4 años más tarde de la conferencia del vídeo anterior, Ken Robinson, ampliaba su discurso en Bring on the learning revolution! : “Nuestro sistema educativo no necesita una reforma. Necesita una revolución. Durante demasiados años hemos fomentado la educación a base de un modelo de comida rápida. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:55:04 +0100 895125 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/6526 BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Upcoming events and digital media // December 22, 2010 [SAVE THE DATE 1/11] Berkman Center Luncheon Series: "The Master Switch" with Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch and Professor of Law at Columbia University (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/01/wu) [SAVE THE DATE] BERKMAN LUNCHEON SERIES on THE MASTER SWITCH ================================================================================== 1/11/11, 12:00pm ET, Harvard Law School **Please note earlier start time for this date only** RSVP is required for those attending in person to Amar Ashar (ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu) Topic: The Master Switch Guests: Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch and Professor of Law at Columbia University Tim Wu presents his widely acclaimed new book THE MASTER SWITCH:  The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. "A Masterpiece" - Lawrence Lessig.   "A ripping yarn" - The Atlantic About Tim Tim Wu is an author, policy advocate and author of The Master Switch.  He is a professor at Columbia Law School, the chairman of media reform organization Free Press. Wu was recognized in 2006 as one of 50 leaders in science and technology by Scientific American magazine, and in 2007 Wu was listed as one of Harvard's 100 most influential graduates by 02138 magazine. Tim Wu's best known work is the development of Net Neutrality theory, but he has also written about copyright, international trade, and the study of law-breaking. He previously worked for Riverstone Networks in the telecommunications industry in Silicon Valley, and was a law clerk for Judge Richard Posner and Justice Stephen Breyer. He graduated from McGill University (B.Sc.), and Harvard Law School. Wu has written for the New Yorker, the Washington Post, Forbes, Slate magazine, and others. He can sometimes be found at Waterfront Bicycles, and he once worked at Hoo's Dumplings. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:48:00 +0100 894458 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/library/n_n.html Videos of selected 2010 AGU Fall Meeting lectures are now online. Some of the lectures are:The Sagan Lecture Isotope Geochemistry and the Study of Habitability and Life on Other Planets Presented by J. EilerShoemaker Lecture Template for the Terrestrial Planets: The Moon Presented by C. M. PietersBowen Lectures The Double-Edged Sword of High-Precision U-Pb Geochronology or Be Careful What You Wish For Presented by S. A. Bowring, Earth Volatiles in Earths interior Presented by H. KepplerEdward Bullard Lecture Geomagnetic Secular Variation as a Window on the Dynamics of Earth's Core Presented by A. Jackson (Source: New) Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:46:22 +0100 894842 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Elsua/~3/OtNmEbiaJYI/ As we come to wrap up another another one of those unforgettable years (2010, that is…), specially, for the Enterprise 2.0 movement and, as we come to prepare things already for 2011 and beyond, one cannot keep but continue reflecting about the real impact of Social Computing within the enterprise and how it is changing the way we think (and behave!) towards the traditional concept of work. Today, in this blog post I would want to reflect a little bit further more on what the future of the workplace is, and, more specifically, how the use of all of these social software tools is changing the way knowledge workers get their jobs done. Much smarter, but not necessarily harder. The challenge though for all of us to answer is whether that really is the future of the workplace. Or not… Welcome to Social Business! Back in November, Imran Ali put together a rather insightful blog post over at GigaOm under the heading “The Future of Work: How Jobs Change in the Next Decade“, where he referenced a recent piece by Gartner on the changing nature of the workplace itself, specially within the next 10 years over at “Gartner Says the World of Work Will Witness 10 Changes During the Next 10 Years“. Both articles are really worth while to set the right context on how the workplace of today will definitely transform itself into the workplace of tomorrow thanks to the enormous influence of social computing within the enterprise and beyond. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:56:17 +0100 894537 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BabyBoomerLibrarian/~3/wlMwfZeH2VA/posting-for-visiting-assistant.html INDIANA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES-BLOOMINGTON Metadata/Cataloging Librarian Visiting Assistant Librarian (Two Year, Non-Tenure Track Appointment) The IU Bloomington Libraries are seeking an innovative and service oriented individual for the position of Metadata/Cataloging Librarian at the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries. This is a two-year, full-time, non-tenure track appointment in the Libraries' Technical Services Department. Founded in 1820, Indiana University-Bloomington has grown from a small state seminary into the flagship campus of a great public university with over 42,000 students and almost 3,000 faculty. Innovation, creativity, and academic freedom are hallmarks of IU Bloomington and its world-class contributions in research and the arts. The Indiana University Bloomington Libraries (http://www.libraries.iub.edu) are among the leading academic research library systems in North America, having recently been named the top university library by the Association of College and Research Libraries. The IUB Libraries provide strong collections, quality service and instructional programs, and leadership in the application of information technologies. The collections support every academic discipline on campus and include more than 6.6 million books, journals, maps, films, and audio/visual materials in over 900 languages. Users can access more than 400 databases, 43,000 electronic journals, and 224,000 electronic books, as well as locally developed digital content. The IUB Libraries are active members of regional and national associations and consortia including the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Digital Library Federation (DLF), and is a founding member of HathiTrust, a shared digital repository. IU is the principal investigator for Kuali Open Library Environment (OLÉ) and is working with academic library partners to develop a next generation open source library management system. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:10:00 +0100 894502 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/dec/22/dan-brown-lost-symbol Bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code working on screenplay for forthcoming adaptation of his novel Given the critical apathy that greeted the big-screen adaptations of Dan Brown's bestselling novels The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, it might come as little shock that studio executives are reaching out to a new screenwriter for the next instalment in the series.What might be more surprising is that producers have not turned to him before – for the man in charge of script duties for the forthcoming film version of Brown's The Lost Symbol will be ... Dan Brown.According to the Hollywood Reporter, Columbia Pictures has decided to draft in the novelist to adapt his most recent novel. The Lost Symbol sees Brown's regular hero, the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, caught up in a Freemason plot in Washington DC. It sold more than a million copies on its first day of release last year.Ron Howard, who directed the films based on Brown's earlier novels, has not yet agreed to return for the third movie. Tom Hanks, who played Langdon in 2006's The Da Vinci Code and 2009's Angels and Demons, is also said to be unconvinced about completing the trilogy.The first two films took $758m (£490m) and $485m respectively at the worldwide box office.Tom HanksDan BrownFilm adaptationsBen Childguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (Source: Guardian Unlimited Books) Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:12:46 +0100 894468 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/12/22/happy-holidays-3/ As this is my last Slaw post before the holiday, I would like to wish Slaw readers (and of course all the Slaw contributors) a happy and safe holiday season. Please enjoy the card, which was created for our firm by a London artist (a higher resolution image is here), and the Harrison Pensa Christmas video. (Source: Slaw) Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:19:58 +0100 895190 http://www.teleread.com/drm/star-trek-digital-download-expiration-why-should-media-be-like-milk/ While this is not specifically about e-books, it is about an experience in transitioning from physical to digital media, and it should provide a lesson to all fields that are taking these steps—including books to e-books. A number of movies, especially titles from Paramount or Disney (such as Pixar’s Wall•E), have been coming with an “extra third disc” lately, containing a DRM-girt digital copy which can be transferred either to iTunes or Windows Media Player. This saves the buyer the trouble of ripping the thing, and lets the studio charge a little extra and feel they can keep some modicum of DRM control over the final product. Yesterday I received a friend’s Christmas gift—the Blu-Ray 3-disc version of the Abrams Star Trek movie, from my Amazon wish list. (I don’t have a Blu-Ray player yet, but I believe in future-proofing.) On the back of the box, in the fine print, I noticed the following: The enclosed code that permits “authorization” (i.e., transfer of digital copy from DVD-ROM to your computer) is not valid after November 17, 2010. Authorization is not possible outside of the U.S. No refunds if authorization is unsuccessful or unavailable. Needless to say, I was curious whether my digital copy would, in fact, work, so I did a little googling. I found an Amazon discussion of the expiration date, in which a number of people complained, and one person posted the responses he’d gotten from Paramount. At first he just got a brush-off: “Thank you for your interest in Paramount Digital Copy, but unfortunately that feature offering is no longer available for Star Trek.” But later, he received another e-mail: Thank you for your interest in "Star Trek" and Digital Copy. Due to popular demand, we are extending the redemption period for the Digital Copy offering on this title. Please try your Digital Copy disc again as you should now be able to redeem your digital copy of "Star Trek. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:15:00 +0100 894415 http://www2.cincinnatilibrary.org/blog/entries/little-taste-of-summer During these cold, snowy and sometimes over holiday-ed winter days, a breath of summer can work wonders for our sun-starved psyches. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (2010) by local Cincinnati area author Beth Hoffman is a delightful dose of summer, full of glorious summer days and strong Southern women.This wonderful book, previously recommended by Susanne, is available in Print, Large Print, audio book on CD, and electronic resource in both audio Overdrive and Adobe eBook formats. If you've never tried downloading an electronic book, try this one. It's worth it!I listened to this book as an audio book on CD, read by actress Jenna Lamia who also reads the audio version of The Secret Life of Bees (2002), another engaging story about a young girl in the South in about the same time period as Ceecee. This book is also available on cassette, as a Print or Large Print book, downloadable audio book and eBook, and a movie on dvd. And, the Library has a Secret Life of Bees Book Club to Go.As I have written before, I also love the books of Sarah Addison Allen. She takes us away into small-town life, summery and wintry, with believable unique characters and beautiful gardens. Most of her books are available in audio, large print, and downloadable books. I was happy to learn today that her 4th book, The Peach Keeper, is due out in March.So settle in by the fireplace, have some popcorn and a long cool drink of sweet tea, and enjoy summer in a book. (Source: Turning the Page...[Combined Feed]) Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:38:46 +0100 894778 http://www.betabib.org/2010/12/22/retrospect-chalmers-bibliotek-2010/ Mot slutet av året så brukar man göra små listor och funderingar över vad man gjort det senaste året. Förra året gjorde jag någon slags toppen och botten. I år tänkte jag summera lite annorlunda och utgå från biblioteket där jag jobbar och lyfta höjdpunkterna som jag ser dem. 1 februari 2010 lämnade jag Högskolebiblioteket i Jönköping för att bli avdelningschef på Chalmers bibliotek i Göteborg. Att gå från en specialistfunktion som systembibliotekarie med fokus på utveckling av bibliotekets elektronsika tjänster till en befattning med personalansvar och tydligare strategisk inriktning på arbetsuppgifterna har varit spännande. Det är uppenbart att Chalmers bibliotek är i en mycket positiv utvecklingsfas nu. Här är de saker som jag uppskattat mest under året på Chalmers bibliotek: Chalmers OA policy Från den 1 januari 2010 råder en Open Access policy på Chalmers. Den innebär att: All forskning som Chalmers forskare publicerar ska göras tillgänglig i ett öppet arkiv, i normalfallet inom 6 månader efter publicering, dock senast efter 12 månader. Detta betyder att Chalmers forskare ska deponera en fulltextkopia av alla sina publikationer i elektronisk form i Chalmers Publication Library (CPL). Referens till publikationen ska också registreras i CPL med hänvisning till den deponerade kopian (tidigare beslut C2004/700). Överlåtelse av upphovsrättigheter skall om möjligt undvikas. Författaren bör tillförsäkra sig rätten att kunna parallellpublicera sitt arbete och skall i varje fall ha rätt att deponera det i ett öppet arkiv senast efter sex månader, eller i undantagsfall 12 månader. Chalmers forskare rekommenderas att publicera sig i tidskrifter som är fritt tillgängliga, s.k. Open Access-tidskrifter, när så är lämpligt. Dispens från denna policy kan ges undantagsvis. ... Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:45:05 +0100 895160 http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/christmas-disappointments-are-books-the-new-clothes/ This YouTube video has been making the rounds of the book and e-book blogs lately, so far be it from me not to join the crowd. In it, a three-year-old is nonplused at opening a Christmas present and discovering it contains not toys but books. His parents explain in a comment that this was essentially the boy’s first Christmas where he was old enough to understand what was going on, and Christmas’s presentation in the media gave him a fairly lopsided picture of what you’re “supposed” to get for Christmas. He does like books, he just wasn’t expecting them. A number of grinches have apparently disliked and posted extremely negative comments about the review, but I find it rather charming actually. Kids that age aren’t old enough to know how they’re “supposed” to react, and sometimes that innocence can be fun to watch even if they have a negative reaction. And I’m pretty sure I remember reacting in a similar fashion to getting clothes for Christmas when I was a kid. (I probably would have been thrilled by books. Even at that age I was already a voracious self reader.) Even after I learned better, I still never liked them. At eBookNewser, Jason Boog wonders if the kid would have reacted the same way to getting e-books for Christmas. While it’s hard to say given that e-books are notoriously hard to gift, I would guess not—as I mentioned in September, studies have shown that kids love e-book reading. Books for Christmas? Poo! (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Wed, 22 Dec 2010 05:18:34 +0100 894418 http://librarychronicles.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html#4718597466007797693 The older I get the harder it is to explain to people that our little boutique resort and movie set was once a big vibrant city. The merger in which Whitney will be folded into Hancock, a smaller lending institution, comes as New Orleans, once the banking center of the South, has seen many of its banks get gobbled up by out-of-state financial institutions. Most recently, in March 2005, Capital One Financial Corp. announced the purchase of Hibernia Corp., owner of the then 135-year-old Hibernia Bank. The central theme of my lifetime in New Orleans has been the dissolution what remained of that city; slowly but surely for a while and then rapidly and surely. (Source: Library Chronicles) Wed, 22 Dec 2010 05:00:00 +0100 894586