Flickr Commons

Greetings,

Many of you may be familiar with the online photo sharing resource called Flickr . Flickr allows you to post and share photos online, while tagging them so that they can be searched more easily.

Flickr has created a new service that allows you to tag and describe older photos, many of which are from archived collections such as the Library of Congress. The stated mission of the project is to allow users (the public) to contribute information about these photos, and hopefully make them easier to find, and to increase the awareness of the existence of these collections.

Pay a visit to the Commons and explore what you find.

JWF

New 7 Wonders

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a story on January 7th, 2009 about online voting for the 'new' 7 wonders of the natural world . This voting is being organized by a group that conducted voting last year for the 'new' 7 manmade wonders of the world. This time, voting is being limited to wonders that are natural.

The current phase of the voting is involves scaling down the nominees from over 200 to 77 for the next phase of the voting. The process seems to be well thought out, as each nominee must have an official sponsorship committee to be eligible to move into the next round.

A list of the winners of the 7 manmade wonders is available here . Note that the closest the USA came to getting an entry was the Statue of Liberty, which made the semifinal round.

Glancing at the nominees for the natural 7 wonders, I was interested to see how many I had not heard of, and that some things I had expected to be on the list were not, such as Arches National Park in Utah . (Although another arches park in Libya is present.) US located nominees include Lake Superior , the Grand Canyon , Niagara Falls , and Buck Island Reef in the Virgin Islands . Note that Lake Superior and Niagara Falls are shared with Canada.

It does appear that you have to provide your email in order to vote.

JWF

Making a comeback

Thanks to Sarah Hey at Stand Firm for highlighting this opinion declaration by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. Ms. Noonan happily shares her conviction that reading books will come back in style! She refers to several titles she's read this year. I was touched by the last sentence in her declaration:

that all can change, that a life—and a world—can be made better all of a sudden, out of the blue, unexpectedly. But you have to be listening. You have to be able to hear.

Ms. Noonan was referring to "Mother Teresa's Secret Fire" by Joseph Langford. This is a title I was not familiar with.

I went to GALILEO and selected Book Index with Reviews . Here I read the reviews, clicked on the link to World Cat and the link to EBSCO (which has access to digitized articles from thousands of magazines). WorldCat let me know the closest library that holds this title. The EBSCO link brought me an interesting article about this title.

Book Index with Reviews in GALILEO is the place to go for information about a book someone mentions - to use this source at home get the current password for GALILEO from your Georgia librarian.


-kls

Not so much the green maverick on Main Street

Associated Press writer, Jeff Karoub, penned an article referring to the annual list of words compiled by the faculty at Lake Superior State University. What fun to read the list and think about the popularity (or over popularity) of words in common use.

The Oxford English Dictionary ,which is available to Georgia residents through GALILEO, has examples of the changes in meaning that words go through over time.

Here's what the OED offers on maverick

2. An unorthodox or independent-minded person; a person who refuses to conform to the views of a particular group or party; an individualist. Also in extended use.

1880 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 19 Aug. 4/5 We..will crush radicals, greenbackers and all other foes of democracy, especially those independent gentlemen, those political mavericks. 1892 R. KIPLING Life's Handicap 195 A very muzzy Maverick smote his sergeant on the nose. 1948 Chicago Daily News 11 June 16/7 One Republican Senator, and not by any means a conspicuous maverick, pointed out that the Senate might have acted. 1957 Oxf. Mag. 17 Oct. 22/2 The story is not just of local boy making good, but also, and more significantly, of maverick making friends. 1989 Money & Family Wealth Mar. 25/2 Although the Abbey National is one of the oldest building societies, in recent years it has cultivated an image as a maverick and a mould-breaker. 1994 Hypno 3 69/2 James is a maverick of disturbingly beautiful techno.

Yes, maverick has several meanings and a history to our understanding of what a maverick is!
What I noticed is the RSS feed that the OED offers to those who might like to add a word to their vocabulary. So here's to New Years resolutions- subscribe to the OED RSS feed and use that word twice before the next word appears in your feed reader. Amaze your acquaintances with the expansion of your vocabulary.

You may get the current password to access GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.

-kls

0-16

Part of being a librarian is having a familiarity with statistics. Knowledge of where and how to find statistics is part of the job description. Statistics are also a part of our everday lives, from the price of gas to stock prices.

One statistic that you have probably heard a lot about in the last week has been 0-16. This figure has been widely reported in all avenues of the news media, including on venues that are not sports related. 0-16 refers to the the record of the Detroit Lions football team of the National Football League. Losing Sunday, the Lions became the first team in league history to lose all 16 regular season games.

Several teams have had perfect losing seasons in the history of the league. Perhaps the best known is the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs went 0-14 that year. However, the Bucs had a bit of an excuse. That year the Bucs were an expansion team, not expected to compete. (Note that the NFL expanded its regular season to 16 games in the late 1970's.) The last pure 'defeated' season before the Bucs was during World War II.

Several teams have gone winless but have managed to get a tie over the course of a season. The Dallas Cowboys, in their first year, went 0-11-1. More common is the dreaded 1-15 season, a mark achieved by several franchises, including the Patriots, Colts, Dolphins, and Jets, all of whom currently or once played in the AFC East Division. The Miami Dolphins spoiled some fans idea of the ultimate season when they won their singular victory late last year, ending the notion of having one team go undefeated in the regular season, the Patriots, with another going undefeated. The Panthers once went 1-15, winning their first game and losing the rest. The 1989 Cowboys were perhaps the most famous of the 1-15 teams, winning the Super Bowl just three years later.

One great website for football statistics is Pro-Football-Reference.com. This website contains a plethora of information on coaching records, draft picks, and player stats. And most statistics are better than the dreaded 0-16.

JWF

Boxing Day

The last week of the year . . . A time for winding down, putting away all the Christmas decor, and figuring out where you put the free 2009 calendar that you got in the mail.

Speaking of calendars, you may have noticed on yours a little known and understood holiday on December 26th known as Boxing Day. But what in the world is Boxing Day?

Boxing Day is a holiday associated with the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries of the British Commonwealth. Boxing Day is celebrated on the 26th of December, unless that day falls on a weekend, in which case Boxing Day is often moved back to the next Monday.

There are several possible explanations for the origins of Boxing Day. The entry on Encyclopedia Britannica (available through Galileo , get the password from your Georgia Librarian) notes that Boxing Day may have started out of two possible traditions. The first was the giving of alms or donations to the poor, often collected in small boxes, at Christmas. The second was the later tradition of servants having the day after Christmas off. Servants were often given the day off and were given boxes of goodies (similar to care packages).

There are other origins of the holiday. The urban legends website Snopes.com notes that in all the origin explanations, the main theme is that of the poor being given something by the wealthy.

Boxing Day in Canada has evolved into something similar to the huge post-Christmas shopping day in the United States. Sales and returns at big box stores are often the theme of the day. Britannica also notes that, for whatever reason, English colonists in America did not carry the holiday over from England, perhaps explaining why Boxing Day is not an official holiday in the United States.

Now you can stare at December 26th on your calendar in 2009 and not be confused.

JWF

1000 posts

When I logged in, I noticed we had 1000 posts on this blog...who would have thought I had so much to say?

Sharing the online resources (and the print resources) available to North Metro Technical College students is enjoyable. Noticing the 1000th post notation reinforces the adage- "time flies when you're having fun".

I'm on break till January 5th but as I see or hear something I'll share. Which brings me to the Early Word blog- "steal this for your next speech". It made me laugh out loud.

I used to be a part of a giant public library system that would mail books to your home.....so when Brian Williams got to the.... well- you'll see- just watch and listen...and think of me laughing.

-kls

It's not just inked anymore

What do you think of when you hear the word encyclopedia? Several shelves of dark colored thick volumes with gold lettering on the spines and big numbers or letters at the bottom of the spine...the traditional 22 volumes of print....with an index that you might consider using if you're really into cross referencing?

Yes, that was the style encyclopedia I used for many years. In my earliest library days there were CD's that could be loaded on a computer. Then encyclopedias became available through a subscription service online. Wiki-pedia, the people's encyclopedia, became the free way online to find pop culture information (and quick facts). So what was a self respecting encyclopedia publisher to do?

Encyclopedia Britannica has moved well into the 21st century. I attended one of their webinars and came away thinking - this isn't the encyclopedia anymore!

It's a portal of information- full text articles from EB, magazine and journal articles from ProQuest and Ebsco, web sites vetted by humans, images, video-clips, and time lines. There are enough links within each page to make the most ardent web surfer happy.

Best of all you can create Workspaces and collect all those links into your personal library on a topic. We're going to use the workspace option for our History classes and English classes. We have collected web sites on delicious but this will add another dimension- best of all the link to the workspace can be e-mailed (or saved on delicious)!

What a wonderful well rounded resource the encyclopedia has become. It's available through GALILEO. You may get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian!


-kls

Serendipity

Yesterday I mentioned the phase of the moon in my entry. Shortly afterwards I read what Mary Ludwick on LM_NET posted from the NASA Science News for December 9, 2008 -Not all full Moons are the same. This Friday's is the biggest and brightest full Moon of the year.
The full story may be found at NASA's page!

Isn't serendipity fun!

From Encyclopedia Britannica via GALILEO:
Main Entry: ser·en·dip·i·ty
Pronunciation: -'di-p&-tE
Function: noun
Etymology: from its possession by the heroes of the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip
: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for

You get the current password to access GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian

-kls

What phase is the moon in>

A cartoon co-incidence today -Rhymes with Orange refers to T. Oedipus Rex in paleo-psychiatry while One Big Happy plays on the word Rex as wrecks.

I started thinking about Oedipus Rex and realized - my brain is turning to jello and I couldn't remember anything- was it Shakespeare or Greeks? Who wrote it?

To get a quick answer I could have done a Google search but I thought better of it- and went to our OPAC and searched. We have four titles - two print and two electronic books. All looked like more information than I really wanted.

We purchase the full Credo Reference and have a search box on the library page. A search in Credo brought me 171 results. I chose The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin (yes, it was first on the list). I was reminded of the Greek myth and the play by Sophocless with a reference to Freud.

All in a paragraph in a reputable source- just as easy as Google without the angst of worrying if this is a credible resource!


-kls

The perfect gift

Can you guess what this item is?

• No assembly required
• No batteries needed
• Does not become obsolete
• Can be taken anywhere
• Does not cause carpel tunnel syndrome
• No small parts to lose
• No annoying sound effects
• No updates or upgrades needed
• Never needs ironing
• Easy to wrap
• Good for hours of entertainment
• Easy to store
• Always fits
• Will not cause strife at airport security
• User friendly
• Easy to share files with friends
• Doesn't need extension cord
• Bookmarks easy to manage
• Great topics of conversation
• Never comes in the wrong color or size
• Doesn't need to be serviced by a dealer
• Doesn't need spare parts
• Easier to wrap than footballs
• Looks good with any decor
• Doesn't need watering or fertilizing
• Won't irritate your allergies
• Doesn't go out of style
• Doesn't get aphids or draw ants
• Doesn't bark or need to be walked in the middle of the night
• Won't stretch, shrink or fade
• Won't scratch the coffee table
• Won't get stale
• Doesn't have zippers that break
• Can be used over and over by many people
• Not empty when finished
• You can open this again and again

Thanks to Cindy Kilpatrick for sharing this list on LM_NET


----it's a book!

I smiled as I went through the list. My youngest has asked for a complete set of the Ian Fleming, James Bond books. Nice- very nice- no batteries....

-kls

the House of Lords

Greetings,

Most Sunday evenings I tune in to watch the delayed broadcast of the Prime Minister's Question Time on C-SPAN. Question Time occurs live on Wednesdays from the British House of Commons in London. The House of Commons is the lower house of the British Parliament, and serves as the equivalent of our legislative branch and most of our executive branch of government. During Question Time, any Member of Parliament, or MP, can ask the current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, a question, to which the Prime Minister replies. The 30 minute show is a jostling affair, with the members of the three main political parties hollering and cheering as their respective leaders get in various jabs and jarbs with questions and responses. The Speaker of the House tries to referee it all.

This Sunday the Question Time did not air. Instead, C-SPAN aired delayed footage of the ceremonial opening of the parliamentary session. This opening involves the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, and the upper house of the Parliament, the House of Lords.

The House of Lords was once the domain of the titled nobility. Nobles were given membership based upon their birth into a titled house. Over time, the power of the House of Lords, like that of the monarch, declined and became rather ceremonial in nature, with most power resting in the hands of the House of Commons. Her Majesty's Government is controlled by the party that wins the most seats in the Commons, although there are members of the Government's cabinet who come from the House of Lords.

Today the Lords serves as a bit of a reviewing body on laws passed by Her Majesty's Government. Interestingly, the Lords is also the highest judiciary body in Great Britain, with a small group of 12 members of the House of Lords fulfilling this duty.

Members of the House of Lords are called 'peers.' As mentioned above, membership was once dominated by 'hereditary peers,' those peers who inherited title by birth from their families. A dark time for the House of Lords was the Commonwealth period following the English Civil War. During this time both the monarchy and the Lords were abolished, and England was ruled by general and Parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell. The Lords was restored after Cromwell's death, when the monarchy was restored.

During the mid-twentieth century, legislation was passsed which enabled the creation of Life Peerages. Life Peers are those who are given title for service to Britain. These titles are not passed down to their children but expire when they die. Many former Prime Ministers and other notable members of the House of Commons, such as former PM Margaret Thatcher, have been made life peers. (Interestingly, the last Hereditary Peerage, which can be passed on to children, given to a non-member of the royal family, went to Thatcher's husband Dennis.)

Some peers are referred to as the Lords Spiritual. These members sit because of their office within the Church of England, which is the official state church. Unlike the other peers, Lords Spiritual may not show a preference for or identify with a particular political party. Other peers may choose to identify as Labour, Conservative, or Liberal Democrat. A few peers do not identify with any of the three major political parties.

The Labour Party has been more outspoken on the issue of reforming the nature of the House of Lords when compared to the Conservative Party. At one time, the Labour Party called for the abolition of the House of Lords. One of the platforms of Tony Blair's 'New Labour' election campaign in 1997 was reform of the House of Lords. This succeed in limiting the number of hereditary peers to 92 members, a minority of the members in the House of Lords. Votes on further reform showed support for making the House either 80% elected or 100% elected. However, these votes were not binding. The current government position is to move the House into a body of which 1/3 is up for election every general election, with an elected composition of either 80% or 100%.

Regardless, of future reforms, the House of Lords is a fascinating example of an upper house of government as compared to our own US Senate here in the United States.

BBC Guide to the House of Lords

JWF

Planning ahead

It's quite chilly outside. Several staff saw snow flurries yesterday. When I went to GALILEO to look for a database, I noticed In the Spotlight (on the right hand side of the home page) the All About Birds web site (yes, Virginia, there are web sites in GALILEO).

All About Birds is a website from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that includes information about watching birds, learning their nesting behaviors, attracting birds, indentifying them, recording observations, and getting involved in bird conservation. The site includes guides, images, maps, sounds, videos, and much more. There is also a link to the Macaulay Library, an archive of animal sounds and videos.

I thought- winter (see the first two sentences) would be a great time to prepare for Spring- study the birds, listen to their songs. Think warm thoughts!

kls

Who invented that?

Yesterday I talked about gathering stories about your family- what if you hear that Uncle Bill invented something? How do you find out if that's 'true'? Dear Myrtle (a genealogy blogger) shares the experience of one of her readers with Google Patent. Myrt notes how one can search by name or by invention.

Thinking of simple Christmas gifts from my youth, I searched for 'hula hoop'. Amazing how many patents there are for the wide variety of hoops.

Which lead me to GALILEO to search for 'hula hoop'. From the home page I selected the Company and Industry information link, then Company information, I left the 4 suggested databases and searched for 'hula hoop'. Interesting current articles about this long lived toy!

From stories about family to stories about companies - tie them together by using authoritative resources.

kls

And we talked

Thanksgiving is a delightfully American holiday when we celebrate our blessings which range from a variety of food stuffs to friends and family. Some travel to visit kin over the long weekend. A family reunion may take place - where cousins see each other for the first time in years. The conversations around the table vary from reminiscing about long gone relatives to catching up on life's current little details. If someone in your family has started collecting the stories about the extended family, where are they keeping those tales? My family has a wiki that is accessible by invitation and password. The stories collect, get edited and enjoyed. Here's another way to preserve those stories.

Story Corps is extending the National Day of Listening through the holiday season.
This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives — it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood. By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won’t ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.

Go listen, record, and share the stories of our lives!

kls

the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Greetings,

Ah, Thanksgiving . . . A time for turkey, family, fun, fall, and football. The National Football League is closely associated with the holiday, as for many years the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys have played respective games against rotating opponents on America's turkey day. Given the dismal state of the Lions over the last decade, there has been talk of taking the games away from Detroit and Dallas and rotating all four spots among the 32 teams. However, much of this talk has died down now that the NFL Network has started to air a night/third Thanksgiving game that features two rotating teams each year.

Today, Thanksgiving Eve, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced its twenty five seminfinalists for induction to its hallowed halls. This number will soon be paired down to fifteen and also includes two senior nominees (guys who played a long time ago). Among the semifinalists are some perpetual semifinalists, including Ray Guy, Lester Hayes (Go Raiders!), and those eligible for the first time, including Shannon Sharpe. A player must have been retired for five years to be eligible, and a coach must have been retired for one year to eligible.

Despite its name, the Pro Football Hall of Fame focuses on the NFL/National Football League. However, some of the enshrinees spent portions of their career in other leagues, such as Minnesota Coach Bud Grant in the Canadian Football League and 49ers quarterback Steve Young in the 1980's United States Football League.

The Hall is a museum that is shaped like a vertical football. Some have compared the shape to an old orange juice squeezer. The Hall is located in Canton, Ohio. Why Canton? Canton was home to the Canton Bulldogs, one of the original professional teams in the sport, and is also home to some of the most competitive high school games you will find. The area around Canton is also considered one of the birthplaces of football.

The inductees will be voted on and announced the day before the 2009 Super Bowl. Some get in their first year of eligibility, such as Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, while others wait for many years to be inducted, such as Steelers wideouts Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. Other greats rise up out of the seniors pool to be inducted. Each inductee receives a distinctive yellow blazer, a ring, and has their bust cast in bronze for display in the museum.

The museum also houses famous memorabilia from past games. My personal favorites from my two visits are the white cleets Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett wore when he ran the 99 yard run from scrimmage against the Vikings and a pair of Rams running back Eric Dickerson's goggles. They also have Oilers coach Bum Phillip's belt buckle, which was the size of a small helicopter pad.

If you are ever in Canton/Stark County, give the Hall of Fame a visit.

JWF

Bidding for what

Over the weekend various channels were running stories about the assassination of JFK 45 years ago.

Mike Huckabee interviewed Dan Rather for Saturdays show on Fox. Mr. Rather shared the story about the bidding for the film taken by Abraham Zapruder.



Who would bid today - with the ubiquitous news crews and the everyday person with a camera phone who may post to their blog, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr - providing immediate, unfiltered access to the event.

-kls

The Power of Art at the Library

Greetings,

Need a bit of art in your life to spice up the drab days of late fall and early winter? Look no further than the North Metro Tech Library.

We have just acquired the DVD edition of the BBC/PBS series 'the Power of Art' by Simon Schama. The series focuses on eight great works of art. Each episode takes the viewer back in time to the creation of the piece and examines the cultural and social context in which it was created. The episodes also look at the life of the artist and how that shaped the creation and style of the work. The episodes span several different periods in time and art.

We also have the companion book to the series, for those of you seeking further information. Both the dvd and book are reserve materials, which means that they are available for use within the library.

Schama is a writer well known for his works on the French Revolution and slavery, among other topics. You may recognize him from his tv series 'A History of Britain,' which aired on the History Channel several years ago. Schama is known for his distinctive delivery and narrative prose.

JWF

Get in Shape Georgia

The President's Challenge is a government program designed to get Americans into better physical shape. The website for the program is very interactive and has programs and activities geared toward children, teens, adults, and seniors.

You can create an account on the website and use your account to log your activity. At the adult age level, there are bronze, silver, and gold award levels. You achieve these awards by logging your activity in your account. The website tabulates up the amount of points you earn for each activity based upon time, distance, degree of intensity. The website keeps track of your points and will display the progress that you have made toward your goal. Once you have reached an award level, you are eligible for a certificate from the office of the President.

There are many great features on this website. It also saves you the time of having to keep track of your activity on paper. I am personally using the website. I have a goal of completing the bronze level before President Bush leaves office and getting a certificate from him, then getting a certificate from President Obama for the silver level. At present I am over 50% complete with the bronze level.

JWF

Cornhusks and the Electoral College

Greetings,

The eyes of the electoral world were upon the state of Nebraska for a brief moment on Friday. It was announced that Barack Obama had won one of the state's five electoral votes. This is due to a system of awarding some of the state's electoral votes based upon who wins in a particular Congressional district, not on who wins the popular vote statewide.

All fifty states have electoral votes. Each state has two for its US Senators, and at least one for the number of members it has in the House of Representatives. Example, California: 2+53=55, Wyoming: 2+1=3, Tennessee: 2+9=11. Remember, it is not the candidate who wins the national popular vote who becomes President, but rather the candidate who wins the most electoral votes. As a result, candidates fight to win individual 'swing' states to gain the most electors rather than run a campaing to pile up the biggest amount of votes nationwide. (Note: It is possible to come in 2nd in the popular vote but win the electoral vote and become President. Ex. Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 and George W. Bush in 2000).

Forty-eight of the fifty states currently award all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote within the state. Some have argued the fairness of this system, as a candidate might win California by one vote (theoretically), but not pick up any of its 53 electoral votes. Colorado voters in 2004 defeated a statewide referendum that would have awarded their electoral votes on a proportional basis.

Nebraska and Maine are the two exceptions. These states award their electoral votes in a unique way. The two electoral votes for the two US Senators in each state are awarded to the winner of the statewide popular vote. As a result, McCain picked up two in Nebraska and Obama two in Maine.

Here's where it gets a bit trickier. The remaining votes are awarded based upon the candidate who wins the most votes in each of the Congressional districts in the state. Until 2008, there was nothing unusual about this as in both Maine and Nebraska the statewide winner also won in each state's Congressional districts. However, that changed in 2008. After the counting of mail-in ballots, it was determined that Barack Obama had won more votes than John McCain in the Nebraska 2nd Congressional district (the smallest district in the state, which includes the city of Omaha). As a result, one of the Nebraska electoral votes was awarded to Obama for a 4 to 1 McCain to Obama split in the state's electoral votes. (Maine awarded all votes to Obama). Also, the Republican candidate in the 2nd district won the Congressional election, which would seem to indicate that many voters in the Nebraska second congressional district voted a split ticket.

And in a further peace of trivia, Nebraska is the only state government to not have an upper and lower house in its legislature. It operates on a unicameral system, one where there is only one house in the legislature and one in which the members are officially non-partisan.

JWF