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October 27, 2006

How would you like your mouse chopped?

A colleague forwarded me a link to Butt Kicking Librarians. It is fantastic and it seems to blow the top off of a closely guarded secret. Librarians are very interesting people.

I have very eclectic tastes and as I have taken classes in dance, stone carving, folklore, beading, Gaelic, etc. there is usually at least one other librarian in the class with me. In my stone carving class there were four of us. What interesting hobbies or skills do you have?

Posted by anna at 9:16 AM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2006

Ms. Dewey

Great post from Library Thing

Thing-ology Blog
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
I smell a cease-and-desist letter
Have you seen MsDewey.com? It's an odd, somewhat diverting "search engine," with terrible results, but featuring a funny—and hot, albeit scary-hot—actress who flirts with you, insults you and generally hams it up to the questions you give her. Play around, but ones like "Kiss me!," "How old are you?" and anything mentioning Bush have specific responses. The calculator to the right came out in order to insult my manhood! (more)

Posted by anna at 4:51 PM | Comments (0)

The Citizendium Project

Have you heard about Citizendium yet? It is similar to Wikipedia only different. Read all about it...

Introduction

The Citizendium (sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), a "citizens' compendium of everything," will be an experimental new wiki project that combines public participation with gentle expert guidance. It will begin life as a "progressive fork" of Wikipedia. But we expect it to take on a life of its own and, perhaps, to become the flagship of a new set of responsibly-managed free knowledge projects. We will avoid calling it an "encyclopedia," because there will probably always be articles in the resource that have not been vouched for in any sense... MORE

Posted by anna at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2006

This is what all the excitement is about

If you want to go directly to the Google link and create your own search engine here is the link http://google.com/coop/cse/

This is what it looks like:

Custom Search Engine


Harness the power of Google search to create a free Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests. Specify the websites that you want searched - and integrate the search box and results into your own website.

Build and customize your own search engine
Specify the sites you want to include in searches.
Place a search box and search results on your website.
Customize the look and feel to match your website.
Invite your community to contribute to the search engine.
Make money from relevant ads in your search results.
Learn more: FAQ and featured examples.
Already have a Custom Search Engine?
Check out your search engine's homepage and control panel on your My search engines page.

Posted by anna at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

More about customized search engines

This is anotrher interesting article that appeared Oct. 24, 2006 about "customized" search engines. Maybe because it appears in CNNMoney.com but, I find it interesting that this feature can be used to generate revenue. Very interesting...

Google launches personalized search engine
With new service, users can create customized searches of specific Web sites and even generate advertising revenue, company says.
October 24 2006: 7:56 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The online search giant Google Inc. unveiled a new service Monday that allows users to create their own personalized search engine for their own Web sites or blogs.

The free service, dubbed Google Custom Search Engine, allows organizations or individuals to create a customized, content-focused search engine, that can be limited to specific Web sites, ultimately allowing users to create a search engine around a specific topic such as a sports team, according to the company.

Users of the customized search engine can even adjust its look and functionality or use Google' AdSense program and ultimately generate revenue, Google said...MORE

Posted by anna at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

User created customized search engines

From Gary Price's Resource Shelf...

Search Engine Watch Blog and News.com report that Google has launched a tool that allows users to create “customized” search retrieval engines. Surprised? ResourceShelf is not.

In the past few weeks we’ve seen a similar tool from Yahoo and then from MSN Live Search...MORE

Posted by anna at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2006

Happy Birthday iPod

Ah the iPod! It is hard to remember what life was like before these babies....Wait I still don't have one!

Apple's iPod is turning 5

The ubiquitous device has sparked frantic growth for Apple - and revolutionized the music business.
By Grace Wong, CNNMoney.com staff writer

October 20 2006: 11:10 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Apple's iPod celebrates its fifth birthday Monday, marking a milestone for the music player that not only reinvigorated the "other" computer maker but revolutionized the way people buy and listen to music.

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod on Oct. 23, 2001, he said: "With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again."...MORE

Posted by anna at 1:37 PM | Comments (0)

Are teachers and computers responsible for plagiarism?

Very interesting and thought provoking article from the United Kingdom, that appeared in Ars Technica
on Oct. 20,2006. It dares to ask some tough questions...

Are teachers and computers responsible for plagiarism?
10/20/2006 11:59:37 AM, by Nate Anderson

Plagiarism, always a problem, has exploded into an epidemic at universities as the Internet and article databases now make it simple to cut and paste; students increasingly grow up in a "Rip. Mix. Burn." culture that is used to slinging digital material across the world without giving too much thought to copyright. But is it really the students who are to blame? Baroness Deech, who heads the UK's student complaint agency, argues that teachers and technology share the responsibility....
MORE

Posted by anna at 1:19 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2006

Which Search Engine is Better?

Tired of trying to figure out whether Yahoo is better than Google or vise versa? Try looking at the Search Engine Watch Blog.

Posted by anna at 1:52 PM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2006

(Humor) Products Google Should Develop

Great <essay by Evan Eisenburg that appeared in Time on products that Google should consider developing. Really, who wouldn't want such great services as Ex Search (Find out if they're seeing anyone,) Koogle (Find Recipes for potato or noodle pudding,) Blobber (Impose your consciousness on the rest of humanity,) and Garble (Translate ordinary speech into legalese, adspeak, Bushspeak and dozens more,) just to name a few.

When you print this page, it is suitable for hanging in your cubicle.

Posted by anna at 4:06 PM | Comments (0)

I'll have a Butter Burger with that Textbook

Great article by Elizabeth Owuor of the Christian Science Monitor appeared in the Oct 12, 2006 USA Today about how students can get free electronic version of textbooks. The "catch" is they come with advertising...

"When student Shah Nizami walked into the campus bookstore at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, last spring, he was told not to buy a textbook for his business finance class. On the first day of the class, Mr. Nizami found out why: His finance professor, Yash Puri, told students they could download their books from the Web free of charge.

"I had already spent over $400 on books — when he said it was free, I was [relieved]," Nizami says, adding that the free textbook saved him about $150.

The catch? The books contain advertisements from a number of companies including FedEx Kinko's and Culver's — a fast-food restaurant in the Midwest...MORE

Posted by anna at 1:19 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2006

Internet Addiction Soaring on College Campuses

Here is another piece of not too shocking news, college students love using the Internet and can waste fast amounts of time using it for other things besides assignments. However, I did find it interesting that it was actually labeled and addiction. The September 17, 2006 issue of the Lansing State Journal ran an interesting article entitled "Internet Addiction at MSU Increasing."

"For all its utility, it's no secret the Internet is one of the most effective distractions ever invented. That is more true among the younger generations, who are more comfortable in the online world and more apt to find hours spent surfing sites such as Facebook compelling....MORE

Posted by anna at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)

Text Messaging "More Authentic"

Not so shocking news teens and early twentysomethihgs like to IM and use text messaging. What surprised me was the statement below from an October 9, 2006 article in the Columbus Dispatch entitled "Don't Say It, Type It"

"Teenagers and early 20-somethings would tell me that things like face-to-face and telephone and even e-mail are a cold medium and you can’t trust them, but the way you can really be authentic is through texting and instant messaging," said Jan English-Lueck, a San Jose State University anthropology professor. MORE

Posted by anna at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

Social Libraries

I thought this sounded liked a great opportunity. Please let me know if you participate.

Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 12:54 PM
Subject: [LIBREF-L] Call for Participants: Five Weeks to a Social Library

We are pleased to present Five Weeks to a Social Library ( http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/), the first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries. The course was developed to provide a free, comprehensive, and social online learning opportunity for librarians who do not otherwise have access to conferences or continuing education and who would benefit greatly from learning about social software.
The course will be taught using a variety of social software tools so that the participants acquire experience using the tools while they are taking part in the class. The course will make use of synchronous online communication, with one or two weekly Webcasts and many IM or Skype chat sessions made available to students each week. By the end of the course, each student will develop a proposal for implementing a specific social software tool in their library.

Five Weeks to a Social Library will take place between February 12 and March 17, 2007 and will be limited to forty participants. However, course content will be freely viewable to interested parties and all live Webcasts will be archived for later viewing.

We are currently accepting applications for participants in the course.
The application process is designed to ensure that the course will benefit those librarians who have the most to gain from learning about social software and who would not otherwise have access to conferences or continuing education.
If you are interested in learning how to use and implement social software tools at your library, please consider applying for the course.
The course will cover the following topics:

* Blogs
* RSS
* Wikis
* Social Networking Software and SecondLife
* Flickr
* Social Bookmarking Software
* Selling Social Software @ Your Library

If you are interested in becoming a participant in the course, please visit the Application for Participants http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/application.

For a preliminary listing of some of the social software experts who will be presenting during the course, please visit the Preliminary Program http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/prelimprogram.

For more about the organizers of the course, please visit the About Us page http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/aboutus.

--
Meredith Gorran Farkas
http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/

Posted by anna at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)