Saturday, December 27, 2003
HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Almost!)
As the year winds down, the "Best of the Year" lists start appearing. I enjoyed this one over at yourDictionary.com Top Ten Word Lists of 2003. CNN ran a story about the lists Web Site Picks Year's Top Word. The word: "Embedded," as in the reporters assigned to accompany military units during the war, beat out "blog" and "SARS" as the top word of 2003.
The Independent reviewed the year's best Science books. Many of the books are about mathematics, so that leaves me out! The only one I have read is A Short History of Nearly Everything which was a fun read. As I mentioned last post, I read Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire. Could not put it down...I even had to take it with me to my son's basketball games to read during halftimes and between games. Highly recommended by the SSL!
You might find something useful in 15 Top PowerPoint Tips over at PC Magazine. I will use the minature slide show tip for sure.
As a mom, I enjoyed J.M. Coetzee's comments when he received the Nobel Prize in Literature: "My mother would have been bursting with pride. My son the Nobel Prize winner. And for whom, anyway, do we do the things that lead to Nobel Prizes if not for our mothers?" Coetzee's Nobel Prize website is great. You can click over to the text of his Nobel lecture (which is wonderfully whimsical) and even see his fancy diploma. I better get working on reading some of the things in his bibliography.
As the year winds down, the "Best of the Year" lists start appearing. I enjoyed this one over at yourDictionary.com Top Ten Word Lists of 2003. CNN ran a story about the lists Web Site Picks Year's Top Word. The word: "Embedded," as in the reporters assigned to accompany military units during the war, beat out "blog" and "SARS" as the top word of 2003.
The Independent reviewed the year's best Science books. Many of the books are about mathematics, so that leaves me out! The only one I have read is A Short History of Nearly Everything which was a fun read. As I mentioned last post, I read Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire. Could not put it down...I even had to take it with me to my son's basketball games to read during halftimes and between games. Highly recommended by the SSL!
You might find something useful in 15 Top PowerPoint Tips over at PC Magazine. I will use the minature slide show tip for sure.
As a mom, I enjoyed J.M. Coetzee's comments when he received the Nobel Prize in Literature: "My mother would have been bursting with pride. My son the Nobel Prize winner. And for whom, anyway, do we do the things that lead to Nobel Prizes if not for our mothers?" Coetzee's Nobel Prize website is great. You can click over to the text of his Nobel lecture (which is wonderfully whimsical) and even see his fancy diploma. I better get working on reading some of the things in his bibliography.
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
This evening, I went over to the public library to borrow holiday music CDs. Unfortunately, my favorite, the Charlie Brown TV special soundtrack, was checked out. However, I WAS able to check out the Jingle Dogs Christmas Unleashed CD. I love to torture my poor husband with the Jingle Bells Boogie track!
Looking for holiday gift ideas? A book is always a great idea. You might want to look at the Economist best books of the year list Home Entertainment. Based on their review, I checked out Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire from the library this evening. I will let you know if I liked it...
A dictionary is always a great gift for the student on your list. MSN's Slate has this review of collegiate-type dictionaries. The Merriam-Webster is rated tops. Myself, I have always preferred the American Heritage which is listed second.
Just for fun on the web, I have been watching the weekly installments of the new animated Dr. Who series "Scream of the Shalka" over at the BBC Cult website. And believe me, the Shalka can scream! The BBC Cult sites are fun. I am a big Star Trek fan (I prefer the term "Trekker.") and the BBC Star Trek site is fun. I raised my son to be a Trekker too and we eagerly await the new Enterprise episode each week. My favorite Star Trek captain? Why, Voyager's Kathryn Janeway of course!
This evening, I went over to the public library to borrow holiday music CDs. Unfortunately, my favorite, the Charlie Brown TV special soundtrack, was checked out. However, I WAS able to check out the Jingle Dogs Christmas Unleashed CD. I love to torture my poor husband with the Jingle Bells Boogie track!
Looking for holiday gift ideas? A book is always a great idea. You might want to look at the Economist best books of the year list Home Entertainment. Based on their review, I checked out Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire from the library this evening. I will let you know if I liked it...
A dictionary is always a great gift for the student on your list. MSN's Slate has this review of collegiate-type dictionaries. The Merriam-Webster is rated tops. Myself, I have always preferred the American Heritage which is listed second.
Just for fun on the web, I have been watching the weekly installments of the new animated Dr. Who series "Scream of the Shalka" over at the BBC Cult website. And believe me, the Shalka can scream! The BBC Cult sites are fun. I am a big Star Trek fan (I prefer the term "Trekker.") and the BBC Star Trek site is fun. I raised my son to be a Trekker too and we eagerly await the new Enterprise episode each week. My favorite Star Trek captain? Why, Voyager's Kathryn Janeway of course!
Monday, December 08, 2003
Are you interested in blogging too? To join the blogger club, you will need to choose which blogging software to use...well, you are in luck. The latest PC Magazine has a new review of Blog Tools. The only good thing the reviewer has to say about our host Blogger is that it is easy and free. And it is! This article is part of a number of articles on web communication tools "Take Back the Net."
Also in the issue is a case study Blogging for Business showing how blogging can help fight crime. Maybe this blog stuff can really be for more than just fun...
Have you seen the MLA Policy Statement on Expert Searching yet? One thing that I liked was that the first expert searching skill mentioned is being able to do a good quality reference interview, the "ability to accurately identify an information need through effective personal interaction and to clarify and refine the need and retrieval." It takes a good old-fashioned librarian to get the job done right!
Also in the issue is a case study Blogging for Business showing how blogging can help fight crime. Maybe this blog stuff can really be for more than just fun...
Have you seen the MLA Policy Statement on Expert Searching yet? One thing that I liked was that the first expert searching skill mentioned is being able to do a good quality reference interview, the "ability to accurately identify an information need through effective personal interaction and to clarify and refine the need and retrieval." It takes a good old-fashioned librarian to get the job done right!
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Nice to see you! I was waiting until after MIDLINE was published on the web to post any more entries to SSL ... but publication has been delayed, so I am just going to keep on blogging!
Our host for SSL, BLOGGER, has some helpful hints for those of you who either blog from work or discuss work on your blog -- see How Not to Get Fired Because of Your Blog.
This one had the bloggers buzzing last week ... PC Magazine pundit John Dvorak says that the blogging revolution is over. The reasons why? "The first is wholesale abandonment of blog sites, and the second is the casual co-opting of the blog universe by Big Media."
Blake Carver over at LISNews is editing an upcoming issue of The Reference Librarian (Haworth Press) covering blogging and librarians. Anyone want to contribute?
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a beautiful one! But Monday's was even better!
Are any of you out there fans of Calvin and Hobbes? At our house, we have all the comic collections. Who could not love a book entitled Something Under the Bed is Drooling? There is a great article about Bill Watterson in Cleveland's Scene magazine.
Our host for SSL, BLOGGER, has some helpful hints for those of you who either blog from work or discuss work on your blog -- see How Not to Get Fired Because of Your Blog.
This one had the bloggers buzzing last week ... PC Magazine pundit John Dvorak says that the blogging revolution is over. The reasons why? "The first is wholesale abandonment of blog sites, and the second is the casual co-opting of the blog universe by Big Media."
Blake Carver over at LISNews is editing an upcoming issue of The Reference Librarian (Haworth Press) covering blogging and librarians. Anyone want to contribute?
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a beautiful one! But Monday's was even better!
Are any of you out there fans of Calvin and Hobbes? At our house, we have all the comic collections. Who could not love a book entitled Something Under the Bed is Drooling? There is a great article about Bill Watterson in Cleveland's Scene magazine.
