nichole's auxiliary storage

JMFilter v3

http://librarypop.org/: pop music and movie collection development and libraries, with some neat charts.

Board game under Creative Commons license.

I'm sure you saw this on MeFi, but - remind you of anything?

Shari Elf tribute album released

Long-awaited is right! It's worth it, though (for Shellboy alone). More via Shari's news page.

I hope the release party in Milwaukee works out, because I'd love to finally meet Shari. JM pointed out that I might have to bring my violin. Not so sure about that. And apparently the tracks will be in iTunes. Good grief.

Abdomen Zest

Of the Encyclopedia of Family Health, 3rd edition volume titles, I like v.15 best:

1. Abdomen-Astigmatism
2. Ataxia-Breech birth
3. Bronchitis-Counseling
4. Cramp-Environmental hazards
5. Enzymes-Growth
6. Growths-Hospice care
7. Hospitals-Ketones
8. Kidney dialysis-Mastication
9. Mastitis-Muscles
10. Muscular dystrophy-Osteoarthritis
11. Osteopathy-Physical therapy
12. Pigeon chest-Psychososmatic problems
13. Psychotherapy-Scans
14. Scarlet fever-Sore throat
15. Spastic colon-Syringing
16. Tai chi-Typhus
17. Ulcers-Zest.

The 2nd edition titles are good too.

1. Abdomen-Baldness
2. Bandages-Carpal tunnel syndrome
3. Cartilage-Diagnosis
4. Diaper rash-Fleas
5. Flotation therapy-Hemophilia
6. Hemorrhage-Infectious mononucleosis
7. Infertility-Liquid diet
8. Lisping-Mind*
9. Mind-body therapy-Obstetrics
10. Occupational hazards-Personality
11. Perspiration-Prostaglandins
12. Prostate gland-Rubella
13. Saint Vitus' dance-Smell
14. Smoking-swellings
15. Symptoms-Twitches and tics
16. Typhoid and paratyphoid-Zest.

*a Buddhist term?

Ebscopost

A friend of mine lost her job when Ebsco bought Admanco in Ripon, WI.

130 workers fired the day before New Year's Eve. Damn.

Dr. Batch

Connexion tutorials have a problem with Firefox. I have a problem keeping a straight face with all the "batch processing" and "batch search" and "batch report" talk they bandy about.

Craft envy

Yarn aliens and radicals are everywhere. Meanwhile I'm working on two secret gift projects, both nice enough but perfectly flat, and I can't post pictures yet. Jealous!

Habitat for Humanity Souper Bowl

From the current Habitat for Humanity of Dane County email newsletter:

The Souper Bowl, the UW Habitat Chapter’s biggest fund raiser, will be held Saturday February 5th [2005] from 4:00pm to 8:00pm at West  High School.  Local artists, teachers and students from five area schools collaborate to organize the annual fundraiser, traditionally held the Saturday before the NFL Super Bowl. Students and artists craft ceramic bowls that sell for $15.00 including soup, bread, dessert and beverage. This year the event will offer a package deal to accommodate patrons with families.

It's fun. Get there early or you'll end up with tiny grey-blue ones like these:

Rainbow Brite and chakras

What do the Rainbow Brite cartoon characters have in common with the seven Hindu chakras? There may already be a thesis on this topic somewhere. Until then, I've compiled a chart: Rainbow Brite and chakras: an armchair comparison.

I don't remember much of Rainbow Brite the show. There might not have been much to remember, since it's apparently based on a greeting card character.

One thing I do recall - Karsten, the German exchange student who stayed with us, found my Rainbow Brite read-along book and record and practically wore through the vinyl playing the song "Paint a Rainbow in Your Heart." (I think he was homesick.) Check those lyrics: "Paint a rainbow inside of you"? "Make Room for a Rainbow Inside"? Hmmm.

I know even less about chakras beyond this rockin' tutorial. So weigh in if you do.

Thanks to Dainec and Spiritman, whose CD cover art jogged something in my brain the other day.

Turnip blood

Sheriff Hamblin responds to a Capital Times editorial calling for him to "rethink" the Dane County jail on the heels of Wu's suicide. While he doesn't say "you can't get blood from a turnip," he implies that his budget is stretched to the maximum. The Cap Times doesn't really have any answers, nor do I (tap the annual paint budget, maybe?).

We recently got an email reminder at work not to accept collect calls. Apparently jail inmates have been trying to call the library collect lately.

Pied piper

I chatted with a woman on the bus last weekend. It started with wather talk and pet dog stories, but when I told her I'd just finished my library degree, her face lit up and she asked what that was like - turns out she's a nurse who's been thinking of a midlife career change.

She didn't say the stop words ("I just love books!"), so I told her I was glad I'd worked in libraries before starting the degree; that the program here is two years long and has its ups and downs; that many people choose librarianship as a second career; and, when she said what she liked least about nursing was being on call, that there's no "on call" for most librarians except possibly sysadmin-types and directors.

I gave her my card before I left the bus. Part of me hopes she calls so I can elaborate - specifically, to warn her that talk of librarian shortages is vastly exaggerated, and that especially if she has to stay in Madison, she must be willing to wait for a job. The other part of me says that a happenstance bus chat won't be her only source of information about the field and I should just relax.

Fellow library-types, how'd I do?

JMFilter v2

More quick links of general interest, but especially for JM's attention:

Name some overlooked pop gems and their prettier sisters (last week, so I'm slow).

Would you eat sushi if it were made out of Twinkies?

And congrats, you made this post famous for standing in the new style. Today, anyway.

Information ladies

Check out Bighappyfunhouse's pictures today.

Metadata justice

Last spring, a marketing and web design company inexplicably scraped one of my library school group projects for metadata. They hid my name and those of the other group members and our client in text that was the same color as the background beneath their footer. (There's a lot of other unrelated garbage still in there. It's pretty funny.)

I emailed the other site's creator twice, nicely, over the course of six months, to remove my name from their "keywords," which yielded a promise to fix it but no results.

Then I emailed Google like the tattler I am. Guess what?

DABLEETED!

Into the black-hat SEO pit with them in under 2 weeks. Google their own real name and you can't even find them in fewer than 2 clicks. I kind of feel bad now...no, wait, not really.

Strumble?

My mom uses the word "strumble" to describe how one paws through a box of Legos to find the right piece. I thought it was a real word, but I guess not. Too bad DARE's not to the ST words yet.

Out

Yesterday I was walking down State Street when a man near Lisa Link Peace Park called to me, "Miss! Miss!" This is not unusual, but he was insistent, so I put on my "panhandler face," turned, and saw he was someone I knew as a jail library patron. He was smiling so broadly I couldn't help but grin.

We stood there for a minute as he shook my hand and said, "I'm out." He reached for one of those one-armed hugs, which I gave back. I said "Congratulations." He thanked me for bringing him books, then invited me to his upcoming birthday party at the Pub. I said I probably couldn't be there, but thanks, and to take care. He waved and smiled and headed on.

Other jail library volunteers have met their patrons again, but I had no idea that when it finally happened to me I'd be so moved.

I've got some Jolt, you bring the Fritos

The inauguration coverage made it sound like the class jock's been elected, and the rest of us will want to spend the next 4 years playing D&D in our basements. (That's my least bleak take on it at the moment.)

14 new jail finds posted

Finally. Not really safe for work.

Morgan Spurlock's next project

WisBlawg writes that the Super Size Me director will be exec producer of an FX documentary series called "30 Days," one episode of which will put a prosecuting attorney in jail prison for 30 days. Lots of comments at TalkLeft.

A matter of choosing one's problems

Sustain Dane is facilitating several Voluntary Simplicity discussion groups. I'd go, but I bet I already mastered the first step by saying "no" to the eight-week time commitment, and to buying the $20 supplemental booklet.

Hm, the next step might be trickier, but this looks like a good place to start.

Or not - every page tries to sell me, or get me on another listserve.

OK, that's enough cliched rabbit hole traipsing for one day.

---

Maybe In Medias Res (via 11D) is worth a read on this.

Slightly related.

Niche

My priest just called me - she wanted to ask if I would be interested in weeding and cataloging the (Episcopal, if that pronoun confounds) church library.

Would I?

Yes, of course, especially if it means I can maybe play around with some kind of DIY-cataloging toy, and spend some time with another librarian-in-waiting from the congregation, grousing about library school and the local job market. I had suspected that despite lots of other opportunities (from re-joining the choir, to MCing, to helping JM with his projects), the perfect one would eventually come along. Gee, Davey.

Get back to work

Really. Get back to work.

Mark Taw, via 43 Folders.

Classics in the slums

Via Bookslut (what did I read before Bookslut?), a City Journal article by Jonathan Rose, "Classics in the slums."

I sent the link to the Jail Library Group list and our adviser opined that the author was a fine print culture historian; another volunteer wrote to say it reminded him of the core ideas of Wayne Wiegand's classes on the foundations of librarianship and the reading interests of adults. I even sent a note to Rose to thank him, and got a warm reply - apparently he'd given a talk at the UW and had met some JLG volunteers.

As if on cue, this week's JLG wish list is chock full of classics right alongside the usual LaHaye/Jenkins stuff and an oddly touching request for coloring books.

Gaming in the library

I recently talked with a colleague about games in the library, and she told me that there are the tentative beginnings of a plan afoot to bring computer gaming programs to ours. This NOLA program naturally grabbed my attention.

FRBRize this

If Stuart Davis is right (and he's repeated it enough) that "Bach invented the Beatles, and the Beatles invented pop music," and if FRBR were to be brought to its logical conclusion by a passel of drunken catalogers, we'd end up with all of pop music as an expression of one work. And much easier collection development: "Do we have Das wohltempierte Klavier? Good. I'm going on break."

Ugh, just ignore me. (PSA: Stuart's on his way.)

On an only slightly related note, pity the poor untangler of Jason Molina's band history. 's good, though.

JMFilter v1

Instead of barraging you with emails, dear, here's what I'll mean when I'll ask "Did you see that thing about...?"

Data and music from Lorcan Dempsey:

Another example of how data guides behavior. This time in the music business, where apparently record companies are getting automated help in predicting the likely success of tracks.

Santa Claus conquers the Martians on Internet Archive (MSTified in which season? Help me out, man) via BoingBoing.

U Can't Graph This: math music via BoingBoing, which killed it before I could get a peek.

Hollow yadda yadda of Death: wacky band names from Madisonian pop music aficionado.

You're not funny

Last May my school indulged each and every one of the ca. 70 grads with time at the podium, in addition to several keynotes and other addresses. This made for a 3+ hour ceremony. I wish these tips for a good acceptance speech from Slate had been around, and assigned reading. Stevens is writing about actors at the Golden Globes, but still.

People? You're professionals receiving a positive job evaluation from your peers, not Alcoholics Anonymous members getting a 10-year sobriety medal. Wear a nice dress, crack a couple of jokes, and go away.

Zing!

Upon finding two unopened bags of walnuts in the pantry when I went to put away a third

I asked JM, "What can I make with 5 pounds of walnuts?"
He said, "Happy squirrels?"

Bloglines as world-class reference librarian

[updated with link to newsletter 1/26/05]

Bloglines, my favorite RSS aggregator (to the tune of 126 feeds), posted this in its January email newsletter.

Bloglines Member Profile

In each issue we will feature a member profile to share the innovative ways people are using Bloglines. Today's member profile:

Username:	SFSmiler
Occupation:	Senior Scientist, Oncology Drug Discovery
Location:	South San Francisco, California
Member since:	October 2004
Subscribed to:	43 Feeds
Blogroll:	http://www.bloglines.com/public/sfsmiler

How do you use Bloglines?
Every day I read my feeds delivering science news, HubMed abstracts, comics, gardening blogs, word of the day, and quotes of the day.

What's your favorite feed?
HubMed (http://www.hubmed.org/) is an RSS search interface to the National Library of Medicine's open-access biomedical and life sciences journals. With HubMed and Bloglines, I just set up some searches, subscribe to the feeds, and get all the newest articles delivered directly to me, so I can share them with my research team.

It's like having a world-class reference librarian send me daily citations and articles for our research targets.

Murder suspect commits suicide in jail

I first heard it on the radio this morning, but the Cap Times article goes into much more detail of what's an amazingly complicated case. (Last May, an inmate committed suicide by hanging in the same building.)

[Sheriff Hamblin] said the jail at the City-County Building, which is about 50 years old, "was not designed with the safety and security of inmates in mind."

"The problem with the City-County Building is the line of sight is obstructed," he said.

Hamblin said investigators are looking into jail logs and mental health records to see if there was any reason to suspect Wu was a suicide risk. Such inmates are typically placed under observation in a segregation unit in the newer facility at the Public Safety Building. Inmates with mental health, disciplinary or medical problems are placed in the newer facility, despite that fact that the jail there is considered medium security, while the jail at the City-County Building is high-security.

With the State Journal kicking off a multi-part series on corrections in Wisconsin, I don't know if I can keep up with this none-too-pleasant subject.

update: DCLRC Blawg has compiled some links on the story.

Odontophobia

This one's for JM, who's getting a cavity filled today: a long essay on fear of teeth, via BoingBoing.

My mom's in the tooth care business, which gives me a layer of familiarity and intellectual remove that has saved me from real dentist angst and countless fillings.

Sometimes, though, like when I had my wisdom teeth out, I have to drum up my old relaxation routine - to imagine in detail every step involved in grooming a horse, which I researched for a middle-school English class "demonstration speech."

I have a near-phobia about walking on concrete, marble, or other hard surfaces, however. Unbidden thoughts of tripping and landing on my face, bloodily, with much wailing and chipping of teeth, often torment me. This is especially bad whenever I approach stairs. So that's my weak spot - if I pass you on a frozen Janurary sidewalk, please don't abuse it.

Prinsil ≠ Prinzel

Sean told me of an ad on an audiobook that mentioned a character named something like "Prinsil" in "Portuguese Irregular Verbs" by Alexander McCall Smith. Not quite, as reported at the Chicago Sun-Times and in some comments at Languagehat. Too bad.

I can't decide if I would like McCall Smith's books. Are they too precious? Or are they actually funny?

Games in the library

Laura at Creative Librarian writes about the possible benefits of a computer game demo night at the library. Though I'm more of a board game gal, I still say, hear hear. Play literacy works for the littlest ones; why stop there?

Jesscoalesce is no longer with us, but she once asked why more libraries don't stock board games. I'm still not sure. Fuzziness of vision? Too hard to circulate? Chess and checkers, those venerable canon games, are a common exception.

Then again, before investing too much in a program, a library might want to check into what established gaming groups exist. Maybe a bring-your-own-board-game night would work. Or game swap night. Hmm.

update: my husband, the game designer, has spurred a little discussion of this over at boardgamegeek.com...sneaky monkey.

Pilot project on visual display of library information

Antarctica + OCLC = something to keep an eye on.

Identity theft

Classy: Meta-credit bureau CUNA Mutual Exec faces federal identity theft charge. Via i=i.

My identity was stolen - that's part of what made 2004 so wretched. Right after we got broken into, I checked my credit report for the first time and found out that - unrelated to the burglary - someone in Milwaukee had used my name to order $100 worth of crap from Swiss Colony, then never paid for it. Obviously, it could have been worse.

In four years, Swiss Colony never found the real me, though I never left the state. They were a pain to clear my record with, too. And their web site still navigates like molasses. Yes, I can hold a grudge.

So, check your credit report, even if it won't protect you from overzealous soccer dads.

Painting jails and pimpin' monkeys

At it again last week - seems like they paint the jail every year. Hmmmm, looked fine to me.

A few avid readers in the women's bunks were released, and the books they'd stashed in their lockers overflowed from the library cart and onto the floor. I had to leave some there because I couldn't carry them all out. The women seem to read more books than the men. The men seem more likely to use them to cover their Ramen snacks in the microwave, or to wedge under table legs.

A couple weeks ago an inmate wrote a request for info about pet monkeys. This week he asked me if we'd found anything. I told him I hadn't had luck finding a book, but maybe I could print some articles and bring them in. I asked what kind of monkeys he was curious about, and he said, "You know, the pimpin' ones with the little hands." This sparked a conversation about monkeys that we still going when I wheeled my little cart back into the hall.

Wonder what the groom's cake looks like...

Is it me, or is "Family Jewels" not the best name for a wedding cake design?

Chicken

Not quite interesting enough for thisisbroken.com.

These "mini chicken sandwiches" should not even be in my house. It's salt in the wound that a serving is 2 sandwiches and they come wrapped in threes. And the URL on the box is invalid.

Giant leaps

Chicago Public barely edges out Madison in the race for wi-fi. Kudos.

Yes.

The National Catholic Reporter on Susan Sontag, about whom I am ashamed to say I know very little. Via Bookslut, this idea from Patrick Giles is like oil on the waters of my churning, useless brain:

She spoke that night as if seeing clearly and acting responsibly, whatever one’s context of belief, was for her the great act of faith.

No.

What a rude awakening. Via Chez Miscarriage, a bill before the Virginia legislature would make it a misdemeanor for a woman to fail to report to law enforcement within 12 hours a miscarriage that occurs without medical attendance.

D. When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother womanat or after the delivery or abortion or when inquiry or investigation by a medical examiner is required, the medical examiner shall investigate the cause of fetal death and shall complete and sign the medical certification portion of the fetal death report within twenty-four 24 hours after being notified of a fetal death.

When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance, it shall be the woman's responsibility to report the death to the law-enforcement agency in the jurisdiction of which the delivery occurs within 12 hours after the delivery. A violation of this section shall be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.
VA HB1677, to amend § 32.1-264.

More discussion and call to action at Democracy for Virginia. Good thing, because it's so wrongheaded that I can't even begin. I guarantee that regardless of your politics, there is no good reason to tolerate this idea.

I am so glad I can still be thankful I live in Wisconsin.

(update: read til your ears bleed at MeFi.)
(update 1/12: the bill has been withdrawn. Here cease the updates.)

Ostrich

Isthmus' cover story for January 7 is on PTSD in vets of the Iraq war (it's not online, but a similar article is at Military.com). I'm getting ahead of myself.

Some suggest you should cut down your media intake when a family member is at war. I suspect that I'd have a hard time with that. Where are my peril sensitive sunglasses?

Update: Dan Frosch, the author of the article in Isthmus, writes for several alternative newsweeklies, and versions of the story have been published in other papers. So there may well be a copy out there; I'll dig it up...

McCartney

092       a782.42166092$bM127me
100  1   aMcCartney, Paul.
245  10 aEach one believing :$bPaul McCartney on stage, off stage, and backstage /$cPaul McCartney ; [selected, organized, and edited, Caroline Grimshaw ; Bill Bernstein, photographer].

What did Paul do on this book to get to be the main entry? Other than get his picture taken, that is. Hence the book mark in the cutter I chose, "M127me," since "M127m" was taken. Maybe "mememe" next time.

Oh, here it is, on the verso: "This is the book that grew out of his concept."

Anyway, I am not fooled. Paul has long since died and been replaced by a robot simulacrum.

Library hierarchy of needs

This bears repeating: Aaron at Walking Paper sketched a library technology hierarchy of needs. Great stuff.

Thinking: where does the technology piece fit into the library as a whole - which levels of a holistic library hierarchy of needs would technology occupy? Where's funding? Staff and internal communication? PR, outreach, Friends groups? (Etc., etc. - my vocabulary here could use finer tuning.)

Can a library excel in some ways and be dysfunctional in others? Can a library, which by its very nature attempts to fulfill many users' higher needs, provide for those needs even as it struggles at the bottom of its own pyramid?

Money, Education, and Prisons; Prisoners' Reading Encouragement Project

Matt at Working Knowledge tipped me off to one of his clients, the Madison-based Money, Education, and Prisons task force. I'll have to remember to ask him if this Project Reentry is related to Reentry Productions.

Also, via the JLG listserve again, the Prisoners' Reading Encouragement Project of New York.

Raise ya glasses, clear ya caches

This blog has a new style - click on over. The banner image is a snapshot of blurry winter trees off the interstate.

Lucy says it for me

Happy New Year.