Posts
I'm currently in the process of writing some lesson plans to teach a class at Rivendell College next semester on research strategies and information literacy. No yawning, its important stuff. But because a topic like that can make people get a little soporific, I wanted to find some amusing YouTube videos in connection with libraries and research that might entertain the students and lighten the mood. I ran across this gem from 1946:
"I don't know who wrote it, or what the title was, but I know it was a blue book."
"Well, you are in luck, young man. We have all of the blue books over here!" (What I wish the librarian had said.)
I also love the microfilm machine. Looks like it was the first one invented. I'm sure Edison wanted it back.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
School starts again
School is off to a busy start. Rivendell College started classes on Monday morning and the library has been used right away. It makes me happy to have a place where all the books can be in one room! With chairs, desks, a copy machine and even a sofa.
I'm excited that I've been able to help the students get to know some of our free online library resources. Two of our classes have assignments having them come in the library and speak with me about good websites for different subjects (thanks Bill!). The students are always amazed at the amount of quality material that is out there on the web. You just have to filter through a lot of junk sometimes to get to it. That's way I put it all in one place.
I am so looking forward to this school year and all the learning that will be going on.
I'm excited that I've been able to help the students get to know some of our free online library resources. Two of our classes have assignments having them come in the library and speak with me about good websites for different subjects (thanks Bill!). The students are always amazed at the amount of quality material that is out there on the web. You just have to filter through a lot of junk sometimes to get to it. That's way I put it all in one place.
I am so looking forward to this school year and all the learning that will be going on.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Queen and Commonwealth
During our time in London, we did LOTS of stuff. In addition to the wonderful exhibitions at the British Library, we had the great pleasure of going to through the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. The Palace is open for just a few weeks each year in the summer when the Queen goes on holiday. We were there the second day it was open! Truthfully, I planned our trip so that we would be able to go to the Palace. It was amazing. I was overwhelmed at its beauty, the stuff on the walls, the history and importance of it all.
One of the neat things we got to see was a special exhibition of some of the Queen's dresses she wore on her Commonwealth trips throughout her reign. It is called "Queen and Commonwealth Exhibition." My daughter LOVED this exhibition, as did I. We marveled at the stunning dresses and saw how small in stature the Queen is when looking at her dresses close up. There are also many gifts given to Her Majesty on her different trips on display. Those were cool to see, too.
Of course photography is strictly forbidden in the Palace, so I don't have any pictures of the exhibit. I did find a short YouTube video from The Royal Channel that shows the Queen going through the exhibition before it opened. You can see the dresses behind her. Check it out.
If you live in London, or are going to be there before September 30, go through the Palace. It is worth it.
I really should work for the London Tourist Board.
One of the neat things we got to see was a special exhibition of some of the Queen's dresses she wore on her Commonwealth trips throughout her reign. It is called "Queen and Commonwealth Exhibition." My daughter LOVED this exhibition, as did I. We marveled at the stunning dresses and saw how small in stature the Queen is when looking at her dresses close up. There are also many gifts given to Her Majesty on her different trips on display. Those were cool to see, too.
Of course photography is strictly forbidden in the Palace, so I don't have any pictures of the exhibit. I did find a short YouTube video from The Royal Channel that shows the Queen going through the exhibition before it opened. You can see the dresses behind her. Check it out.
If you live in London, or are going to be there before September 30, go through the Palace. It is worth it.
I really should work for the London Tourist Board.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The British Library Rocks!
Hello again!
Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. It has been a busy summer.
We have just returned from our trip to London and it was brilliant. We did so many things! We are still recovering.
People have asked me what were some of my favorite things we did on our trip. There are many, but the one that works best for this blog was our visit to the British Library. I know, I'm such a dork. The actual library was cool, but there were two collections we looked at that were outstanding. The first collection was in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery. It houses so many treasures, it is truly amazing. I has a special room for the Magna Carta. But in true British fashion, it is simply under glass in a small room along with some other associated documents. I saw a Gutenberg Bible, hand written lyrics of the Beatles, the Codex Sinaiticus, Jane Austen's writing desk, Da Vinci drawings, hand written scores by Mozart, Handel and Mendelson and so many other treasures. My poor husband and daughter left the gallery long before I did. All of this was free of charge! Check out the treasures online here.
The other exhibition we saw was Henry VIII: Man and Monarch. It has many, many original documents connected with the life of Henry VIII. It has not only books, but letters, decrees, diaries, paintings, illuminated manuscripts and all kinds of materials which walk you through his extraordinary life and the people who intersected his life (Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Cramner, Cromwell, his six wives to name a few). Many of these materials in the exhibit are only on loan to the British Library for this special exhibit, so it was a great honor to see these things all in one place. There was so much to see in this exhibit that we had to go back the next day so we could finish looking at it all. This exhibit is wonderful and if you get a chance to get to London before September 6 (the last day of the exhibit) you should make an effort to see it. It really is phenomenal. Click here to look at the online exhibit.
Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. It has been a busy summer.
We have just returned from our trip to London and it was brilliant. We did so many things! We are still recovering.
People have asked me what were some of my favorite things we did on our trip. There are many, but the one that works best for this blog was our visit to the British Library. I know, I'm such a dork. The actual library was cool, but there were two collections we looked at that were outstanding. The first collection was in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery. It houses so many treasures, it is truly amazing. I has a special room for the Magna Carta. But in true British fashion, it is simply under glass in a small room along with some other associated documents. I saw a Gutenberg Bible, hand written lyrics of the Beatles, the Codex Sinaiticus, Jane Austen's writing desk, Da Vinci drawings, hand written scores by Mozart, Handel and Mendelson and so many other treasures. My poor husband and daughter left the gallery long before I did. All of this was free of charge! Check out the treasures online here.
The other exhibition we saw was Henry VIII: Man and Monarch. It has many, many original documents connected with the life of Henry VIII. It has not only books, but letters, decrees, diaries, paintings, illuminated manuscripts and all kinds of materials which walk you through his extraordinary life and the people who intersected his life (Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Cramner, Cromwell, his six wives to name a few). Many of these materials in the exhibit are only on loan to the British Library for this special exhibit, so it was a great honor to see these things all in one place. There was so much to see in this exhibit that we had to go back the next day so we could finish looking at it all. This exhibit is wonderful and if you get a chance to get to London before September 6 (the last day of the exhibit) you should make an effort to see it. It really is phenomenal. Click here to look at the online exhibit.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Europeana
Europeana is a new virtual library of images, text, recordings and videos from all over Europe. The digital artifacts come from museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. It is currently in beta, so it's not as slick as I hope it will be. But it will eventually have millions of digital items available to access.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Dumping Dewey
A co-worker of mine came into the Rivendell library yesterday and asked me if I had seen the article in the paper about libraries getting rid of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system. I found it on the web today from both the Denver Post and Library Journal. There is a library district here in Colorado that is in the process of dumping the DDC for something they apparently came up with called WordThink. It is based on BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communication). Basically, they are going to make the districts libraries set up more like bookstores in grouping their books. They say that this is better for browsing and that people complain that they don't understand how the DDC works.
Good luck. I see so many problems with this. How will someone be able to find an exact title if it isn't shelved in an exact place? They may have figured out a way to do this, but it will involve some kind of system that will still be a mystery to some people.
Lots of books could go in two or more different subjects. Does a book on the History of Christianity go under history, Christianity or more generally, religion? It's not a bookstore where you can put a few copies in one place and some in the other.
I also think they are doing a huge disservice to their patrons by not teaching them how to use the DDC or any classification system. It really isn't that hard understand once it is explained. You can then use this knowledge in any other library that uses the DDC. You wouldn't say to someone that can't read, "Oh, that's okay. You don't need to learn to read. We'll have you listen to audiobooks instead." No, you teach them.
The DDC and the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) systems both group books by subject. That's the whole point of classification systems in the first place. I run two libraries, one with DDC and one with LCC and I see people browsing all the time. They sometimes need some help finding right area to look in, but that is what we librarians are for.
Good luck to them.
Good luck. I see so many problems with this. How will someone be able to find an exact title if it isn't shelved in an exact place? They may have figured out a way to do this, but it will involve some kind of system that will still be a mystery to some people.
Lots of books could go in two or more different subjects. Does a book on the History of Christianity go under history, Christianity or more generally, religion? It's not a bookstore where you can put a few copies in one place and some in the other.
I also think they are doing a huge disservice to their patrons by not teaching them how to use the DDC or any classification system. It really isn't that hard understand once it is explained. You can then use this knowledge in any other library that uses the DDC. You wouldn't say to someone that can't read, "Oh, that's okay. You don't need to learn to read. We'll have you listen to audiobooks instead." No, you teach them.
The DDC and the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) systems both group books by subject. That's the whole point of classification systems in the first place. I run two libraries, one with DDC and one with LCC and I see people browsing all the time. They sometimes need some help finding right area to look in, but that is what we librarians are for.
Good luck to them.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Bing
Sigh. When will it end? Yet another search engine has been launched, this time by none other than Microsoft. Which means there is a large number of people who won't use it for just that reason. Be that as it may, Microsoft now brings us....Bing. Yes, like the cherry. Or the last name of Chandler from Friends (which was the first thing I thought of when I heard the name of this thing--or Miss Chanadaler Bong for those who remember this episode one of the best episodes ever). But I digress.
Bing was developed to give Google a run for its money. Good luck with that. Anyway, I did my normal Henry VIII search and it looks pretty much like the way Google returns its results. There aren't as many advertisements along the right side like Google has, so that is a bonus. One thing I do like is when you put your mouse over the line that comes up on the right side of any of the results, it will pop up a window that shows the first few lines of the webpage. It also has available on that thumbnail links to other websites referenced on that page. This thumbnail gives you the ability to preview the site without having to go to it. That's pretty handy.
It also has your search history on the left side of the screen. This is cool because it will help you remember what you may have already tried when searching for something, or what worked and you want to go back. On the left side it also gives you related searches that might be helpful.
Across the top are images, videos, shopping, and maps (like Google maps). One thing that Bing does that Google doesn't in connection with the videos is that when you put your cursor over a thumbnail video, it will start playing the video. The images are more interactive with the cursor as well.
In the end, it does pretty much the same thing as Google, only with a few more interactive bells and whistles.
One interesting thing: When I searched Henry VIII on Google, I got 5,770,000 results. When I searched the same thing on Google, I got 10,200,000 results. Five million more hits? Why? And to what end? I'm not going to look through 5 million, let alone 10 million.
It will be interesting to see if Microsoft and Bing can make a dent in Google's stronghold.
Bing was developed to give Google a run for its money. Good luck with that. Anyway, I did my normal Henry VIII search and it looks pretty much like the way Google returns its results. There aren't as many advertisements along the right side like Google has, so that is a bonus. One thing I do like is when you put your mouse over the line that comes up on the right side of any of the results, it will pop up a window that shows the first few lines of the webpage. It also has available on that thumbnail links to other websites referenced on that page. This thumbnail gives you the ability to preview the site without having to go to it. That's pretty handy.
It also has your search history on the left side of the screen. This is cool because it will help you remember what you may have already tried when searching for something, or what worked and you want to go back. On the left side it also gives you related searches that might be helpful.
Across the top are images, videos, shopping, and maps (like Google maps). One thing that Bing does that Google doesn't in connection with the videos is that when you put your cursor over a thumbnail video, it will start playing the video. The images are more interactive with the cursor as well.
In the end, it does pretty much the same thing as Google, only with a few more interactive bells and whistles.
One interesting thing: When I searched Henry VIII on Google, I got 5,770,000 results. When I searched the same thing on Google, I got 10,200,000 results. Five million more hits? Why? And to what end? I'm not going to look through 5 million, let alone 10 million.
It will be interesting to see if Microsoft and Bing can make a dent in Google's stronghold.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)