Posts

Showing posts from June, 2010

Love this headline!

NOT! Are Libraries Necessary, or a Waste of Tax Money? One of the nation's biggest and busiest libraries is the $144-million Harold Washington Library in the Loop. It boasts a staggering 5,000 visitors a day!. So we decided to check it out. We used an undercover camera to see how many people used the library and what were they doing. In an hour, we counted about 300 visitors. Most of them were using the free internet. The bookshelves? Not so much. An hour. This is what they saw in an hour. Wondering how much they looked around. Here are some selected comments. Comment 1 I am not sure what parallel universe Ms. Davlantes was living in when she aired that report yesterday. She spent over one hour in the Bucktown-Wicker Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library, which was busy with readers checking out and returning books, computer users, visitors, students, parents reading with their children, and teens volunteering for the Summer Reading Program. Are libraries relevant? Of course th

Accreditation might not stay with school if it sells

For-Profits. I always wondered how they got accredited seeing some of their programs. I figured that some of them hired a temp staff to do all the work that goes along with accreditation. I've been on accreditation teams (in- and visiting). They are long processes and examine every aspect of the school. Another way they get them is to apparently just buy a school that is about to going but happens to have accreditation. Wow. Corporate take overs. No wonder students feel like they are buying grades for little to no work. It's like Walmart, or Target or Sears. Critics of for-profit higher education have of late drawn attention to what they see as a pattern of "accreditation shopping" in which for-profit entities purchase financially struggling nonprofit colleges, and then hold on to the regional accreditation that the nonprofit colleges had for years, even as the new owners expand or radically change the institutions' missions. Well, the North Central Association of

The things I've learned so far in my reference course

General items: some information is just really hard to find. college libraries have some resources (like specialized databases) that are far superior to those found other types of libraries. google.com/scholar can be helpful. google.com/books can also be helpful. there are encyclopedias or dictionaries for more topics that I probably even know exist. some things are bears to cite. sometimes you have to break down and ask someone else for help. Specific items: Vita Sackville-West, her husband and children. The book that ran for the most weeks on the NYT bestseller's list. There is a very nicely annotated list of all the Coretta Scott King award winners from the time of it's inception to present. The advantages and disadvantages of English as the official language of the USA. There are other poems that begin with "I wandered lonely as a cloud" than the one I learned in middle school. O'Henry worked under an unusual set of circumstances writ

Dependent on God

The Lone Wolf Librarian has presented an excellent collection of quotes by the Founding Fathers. Outstanding  food for thought. Approaching American Independence Day – “Founding Fathers” Declared Dependence on Creator God

The worst opening sentence . . .

Image
This award (from the English department at San Jose State University) is presented for the worst opening sentences for imaginary fiction. They are indeed atrocious!

Lobster Dogs

Image
OK, This showed up on b oingboing today: Did you smile? I sure did! It made me curious about people dressing their dogs up as lobsters. Guess what - there are more than a few pix on a google image search - like this one: So, how did your dress your dog today?

Maps and APA

ppfffffttttt You know, they really should just stick with the basics and let everything fall into that one format. Make a sample with everything that might ever be needed and just leave off the parts not available.

It's a gril?

Image
Bless their hearts! I know they wanted a girl!

It really is a small world

A few weeks ago, I posted about Dave Black jokingly saying he was gonna tell his students their comps were in German. Well, today on the Baptist Board , John of Japan posted that his son was one of those very students! Here's the thread . You'll have to go to the last few posts. John started this thread in 2006 ;) Congrats to Paul for reaching this milestone in his program.

Where would you rather be?

Image
I'd like to be here . . .

$160 million

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that's some big bucks. Where's it going? Indonesia. Straight from the President's mouth ( Remarks by President Obama and President Yudhoyono of the Republic of Indonesia Before Bilateral Breakfast Meeting ): And the second area is education, where we’re looking to put an additional $160 million into joint programs that can enhance cooperation on educating our youth, which is obviously one of our top priorities in terms of future development. "We are looking to put." Who is we? Does that mean that Indonesia is going halves? The phrasing is a little odd - does that mean it's not a done deal? I'm all for supporting the education of youth, even youth in Indonesia, but they will benefit more and we will pay more I'm sure. There's no way to write this without sounding stingy. This household has always operated on the philosophy of digging deep to give in both time and money, but is that a function of the

There is a Balm in Gilead

Sang this in church this morning. It's been a long time since I heard it.

Saturday Night Entertainment!

Courtesy of Joel , Mark and Jim For those of you who missed their antics in the blogosphere and on FaceBook ;)

Five TV Shows I Enjoy

I don't watch TV exactly, but I do have shows line up in my HULU queue, so I do watch those at my convenience. M erlin - this is a sci-fi channel show. I've been an Merlin fan since I was a kid and read The Once and Future King. Merlin and Arthur are both young men in this one. Lie to Me - I love Tim Roth's sassy character and the way he always gets the best of someone by psychoanalyzing them. Fringe - Another sci-fi show, but on ABC. It's just weird at times. Dual universes. Reminds me a bit of Sliders, but much darker and ominous. Characters have developed nicely. Always some very odd twist. FlashForward - I like this one enough I wanna buy the book to see how they compare/contrast. World changing event happens where everyone sees a glimpse of  their futures for the same time period. FBI is trying to find out why and how it happened - how to keep it from happening again. Lots of intrigue. mmmmm that's only 4 DollHouse - didn't make it. This show

College towns - recession proof?

Well, not quite, but they seem to fair better as do state capitals. College towns do OK in recession For others, there was no heady boom — but no dramatic downturn either. A USA TODAY analysis reveals two categories of cities that have weathered the recession and housing market meltdown better than many boomtowns: College towns and state capitals. In some cases, these cities have grown even faster during the recession than before. It's a positive article in comparison to so much out there.

Whoa! Caner's contract won't be renewed

This is amazing, and I honestly didn't expect to see this headline: LU won’t renew Caner’s contract as dean of seminary good for Liberty. (and he will apparently stay on in a teaching capacity.) HT

What wall mounted map would you chose?

Image
This map will go in a public library branch NC.  You get two choices on this poll. Please make one the map territory, and the other the map type. Thank you for your participation :D [polldaddy poll=3389620]