A Couple of Nice RSS feeds

If you want to keep track of new DVDs that have been added to the Library's collection, there's an RSS feed for that. You can find the RSS feed here. So, I added that to my Google reader feeds. There's a great selection of discs that includes Criterion collection movies, documentaries and PBS-type shows.

I also added a feed to the Library Renewal site. If you haven't gotten to know it, you might want to give it a look. Library Renewal is a group of library supporters, workers, and activists who are fostering dialogue about changes in the publishing industry and the effects of those changes on libraries. Their site is at www.libraryrenewal.org.

(13 & 14)

Round Up

Lucky photo of a ride at the Kentucky State Fair. ISO 100, f3.2, .25sec, 9mm.

Ól, ceol, bia agus craic

For good food you can't beat tapas at The Blue Dog Bakery and Cafe on Frankfort Avenue in Louisville. They're only open Thursday - Saturday evenings, from 7:00 pm until 10 or 11:00. Wine list and full bar, plus a variety of meat and veggie tapas and outstanding pizzas.

Need something good to listen to? How about some Arturo Sandoval. Try the free music player at http://www.arturosandoval.com/. Even people who think they don't like jazz are going to find their hips starting to move when they hear what this guy is doing.

And if you need to slow it down and read a good book while you're sitting on a beach or at poolside, for Summer reading I highly recommend Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez. This is a novella about demonic possession or intellectual obsession, or both. Beautifully translated from the original Spanish, it's a lyrical and mesmerizing storytelling turn from one of the great masters of our era.

[Insert non sequitur about wikis here:]

I can see where wikis can be really useful in some settings, and I've actually used and helped create at least one for that sort of thing. But I am one of those old fogeys who also doesn't think that a wiki is quite right for some endeavors. I don't think that the so-called wisdom of the collective mind is the equal in terms of authority and expertise a credentialed, focused, peer-reviewed body of research.

(18 - 19 -- in case you couldn't tell.)

So much information, so little time.

There are so many resources available through local public libraries these days. From the web site of my own local library I have access to a complete online "library" of useful and valuable material. There's Morningstar, the searchable New York Times, and full text of thousands of magazine and newspaper articles. The Heritage Quest database has Census records up to the 1920 census--no more wandering around looking for the exact reel of microfilm you need. And I also really like the Novelist site for those "What book should I read now?" kinds of questions. And the thing is, that without a library card you can't get to any of that content. But with a card, it's all free and accessible from home. It's like something out of science fiction.

What do I wish more people knew about?
HeritageQuest.

What would I keep before everything else?
That's a really hard question, but the thing that seems most useful and hardest to duplicate in print are the full-text magazine and journal databases like Ebsco Academic Search premier. In addition to academic journal content, it also includes full text from things like "Smithsonian" and "People Magazine."

(12)

If this makes no sense to you, then ignore it.

It's a work thing:

10b: 3-18-2008, 4
10c: Telos, no; Brit Journal, yes (Ebsco Acad Search Prem., FT with 12 mo delay); Clin. Medicine, yes (Ebsco Acad Search Prem., FT from 2004-).
11a: Duane F. Kelly; B; 4-stars
11b: Yes, from Ebsco Masterfile Premier, from August 2009. (Probably ought to be something that references C-R on the Consumer Info page.)
11c: I found 94. You'll probably want to select another specialty.
Highland Coffee will annihilate you.
12: See above