Distillations of Library Research

Roy Tennant points to a distillation of library research at his libraryjournal.com blog - http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/1090000309/post/650053465.html.

Looking for someone who has a good summary of what really is (and is not) in the new healthcare reform legislation.

Not sure I've found a great place yet, but Slate's Guide to Health Reform looks like a jumping-off point.

Many things still point to August 09 and earlier versions of bills/proposals/etc.

And the Wall Street Journal carried an opinion piece that says this is the start of bitter fights over funding and policy that will consume the nation for decades to come.

A whole slew of links to financial literacy since April is Financial Literacy Month.

Good idea for having a conversation with your spouse about money and where to get started.

Going back to Joseph Campbell, "follow your bliss" doesn't mean just doing what feels good: it means doing what you would give up everything else for.

Stuff won't make you happy, experiences will

Advice from the Unclutterer on doing things, rather than buying things.

Wouldn't mind having a corner desk like this one you can build yourself for $50, but I'm not sure I have a place for it.

Mashable offers Five Ways to Identify the song stuck in your head.

I used to work with a music librarian who provided roughly the same service, you hummed a tune, and she could tell you what piece of classical music you were humming. Don't think she probably was good with pop tunes, so maybe Shazam, Midomi, Musipedia, Tunatic or Name My Tune will work for you.

Here's the article I most wish were an April Fool's day joke - University of Louisville official given a $1 million buyout, but, it's not.

The jokes about "I'd not work for a lot less" are not even funny anymore. What happens to people once they get to a certain level? Why do they seem to lose all perspective?

Interesting idea - social networking site to discuss books - http://www.bookdiscussions.com/

(new, and a work in progress)

There are add-ons to Facebook, etc. that let you show people what you are reading or have read, but this looks to be a place to talk about books.

I would like to see an idea like this integrated into library catalogs some day (or at least an Amazon-style "review" feature).

Not sure how to start asking a question at the reference desk?

Here are some good ideas from Spencer Jardine (Coordinator of Instruction at Eli M. Oboler Library, Idaho State University):

It seems to be useful when students volunteer information. Many reference librarians will ask for some of the following information, but if it comes first from the student that's great.

* Tell us what you have tried already
* Explain your assignment:
o how many sources do you need
o what kinds of sources do you need
o when is the assignment due
* Do you just need to get pointed in the right direction i.e. a useful database, or would you like some pointers and tips on using the database?
* Ask for a business card or contact information from the librarian. It will flatter the librarian and then you can ask follow-up questions.
* Give the librarians clues about your topic. Which aspects interest you the most?
* Where are you in the research process? This is similar to the first bullet point, but it is useful to know if a student is just starting, somewhere in the middle, or wrapping things up by locating one last source.
* Reference librarians can help students find statistics, though the statistics they find might not be exactly spot-on with their topic since most are of a generic/general nature.

One way to look at your time

http://www.studygs.net/schedule/

via Dan Miller (http://www.48days.com)

Some cool web sites for real estate include

http://www.homepath.com for foreclosures

http://www.redfin.com for interesting $/sq ft etc.

Added the Yahoo Answers badge - find me that as stevestone_ky

Adding more videos at YouTube - find me there as stevestoneky

What they should have told you

Scary and true http://www.viruscomix.com/page347.html

new post

testing

Convergence of Media Day - NYTimes is social, video (and I hear they put out a paper)

Read/Write Web reports that NYTimes has entered into an agreement with LinkedIn, so they are a social company.

Get Rich Slowly says that "everyone is talking about" the NYT special report on the American Way of Debt, which includes video interviews with the subjects, so they are a video company. I know I've seen interactive features from the Times before, including graphics, calculators, slideshows, etc., but this is the first time I've seen video. Although they had been moving this way with narrated slideshows.

So, media is converging. Or the NYTimes is taking over.

Web Tools I actually use: facebook

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) lets you keep in touch with other people, or meet new people.

It is similar to MySpace, and I thought MySpace was the clear winner a few months ago, but Facebook has added new features, and I think it is clearly superior to MySpace now. It is also possible to make a MySpace page that is unreadable, and Facebook gives you choices, but not too many.

So, you set up a Facebook account, and you tell it where you work and where you live, and it puts you in those "networks" so that you will find more people in these areas.

You search for other people, and click "add as a friend" and they get a message letting them know that you would like to add them. They say "yes" or "no", and sometimes add in where they know you from.

Facebook also lets you create groups, and add events, and probably will be adding other features.

Facebook lets you update your status, and then your friends see where you are/what you are doing. Or, if you choose to share that with the world, everyone can see it.

Web Tools I actually use: flickr

Flickr - (http://www.flickr.com )

Flickr lets you share pictures. You upload your pictures to flickr, and other people can see them.

You can tag them with words or phrases that will make it easier for (and others) to find your pictures.

People can comment on your pictures. You and others can "annotate" your pictures so you can identify people in a group shot, for instance.

And since you can take digital pictures of things, you could take a photo of a whiteboard after a brainstorming session and upload it to flickr, and people could comment on it.

Lots of possibilities for geography classes, you can find pictures of Transylvania or any region of the world you can imagine.

You have control over who sees your photos, you can set photos so that only you see them (so at least they would be backed up in case your hard drive ever died), so only family can see them (so all the pictures of children in your life), so only friends can see them (say pictures from a drunken party), or that friends and family can see them.

Web Tools I actually use: del.icio.us

Delicious - (http://del.icio.us) - don't use a "www"

Del.icio.us is a web page that lets you save your bookmarks on the web.

So, you use it, and you no longer have to worry about your bookmarks being on your home computer or work computer (or lab computer), you log into the website, and they are all there.

When you add an entry, you can also "tag" it, to add a useful search term to it. So I tag all my library stuff "library" and all my frugal stuff "money".

But remember, it's on the web, so you can share with others. When you do enter (post) a bookmark, it shows you how many other people have also added it to their account.

If my user name is "queequeg83", which it is, and you want to look at what I have tagged as "library", you can go to http://del.icio.us/queequeg83/library.

So, if you are teaching an English 102 class, you could tag things "eng102" and tell your students (or put into your blackboard pages) to go to http://del.icio.us/yourlogin/eng102 and they will see the links that you want them to see. And if a link gets old, you can remove it, and the students won't see it next time they visit the site, and if you add a new thing, it will show up.

And, going beyond what I have done, you can identify friends who are using delicious and send them links.