Law Librarians of Puget Sound : Blog

Further postings are at llops.org

State of Wikipedia

from : http://jess3.com/the-state-of-wikipedia/ (check the link for additional goodness)

 

Awesome News on Libraries and the Comic Book & Graphic Novel

8bitlibrary.com reports that their American Library Association interest group, on Comics and Graphic Novels, has taken off. I’m no longer an ALA member (AALL and SLA fit my needs) but this is great news for the medium and for librarians.

Etymology

http://www.etymonline.com/

 

I Love this site.

Aliens in the Library

On Blogging

A New Year’s resolution to blog more is a worthy goal. Whether it be to document your life, adventures, movies, or new socks, blogging remains a way to challenge one’s writing abilities, take part in online social activity, and even learn more about yourself.  This post isn’t admitting to any NYE resolutions. However, you can find regular library postings at [LLOPSCited] (I contribute there as well).

If you don’t have a blog or blog irregularly, I recommend taking a stab at web-based composition. It offers a nice way to look back throughout the years, see where you have been, and see where you may go. In comparison to social networks, blogs offer linearity and depth. The blog post is central to the viewer, not surrounded by other tweets or Facebook messages. I wish more of my friends blogged, it would allow me to know them better, rather than through the quick and sometimes impersonal Facebook post.

Blogging can become tedious and in some cases feel like work. To not admit the negatives would be to lie. Twitter is simple and in many cases more appropriate. Like all things on the web, blogging is changing/evolving. It needs to meet your needs and your uses. If it’s been awhile since you’ve last blogged or you have never blogged, give it a try, see where it leads.

Kid President

Check out the winning art work for the kids.gov poster contest: “How Do I Become President?”:  rad design, classic coloring (check out the race yellow numbers!), and seamless information presentation. Odd though, where is the ballot-fixing, gerrymandering, court manipulation, corporate back-door policy, and oodles of campaign dollars?Yet the winner, David, did get #2 perfectly: “I promise”….

 

[via Gov Gab]

Stop Thief!

A complete nutter out of Alabama has reportedly been jailed and fined for stealing over $5,000 in library books [ai.com], The Anniston Star :

“Titles of the books police and library officials say Smith stole include the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, The Art of Brazilian Cookery, by Dolores Botafogo, and a number of murder mysteries.”

This makes absolutely no sense (not the titles but the act itself). It doesn’t sound like she was turning the books around to make a profit but keeping them for her own collection.  And I wonder if she removed the library labels or kept them.  Will her library rights be revoked for life? A library thief leaves me with so many questions. At any rate though, stealing from the library is as bad as stealing from your own grandmother and/or drinking unicorn’s blood.

[image source]

PressDisplay

My favorite news database is PressDisplay. More than likely you have free access with your library card. Check out your public library website list of databases or call your local librarian.

PressDisplay touts itself with:

Over 1,000 U.S. and international newspapers in 40 languages. Newspapers are available in full-color, full-page format with a 60-day archive.

Sears is the new Google/CIA/Big Brother?

The FTC has released a report detailing an invasion of privacy by Sears. In short, Sears enticed users with $10 in order to have them downloaded software to assist in consumer research. This software then collected an insane amount of web-surfing data. [via LibraryLaw Blog]

Sears now has to cease the operation and delete all collected data. I wonder if lawsuits are on the horizon or if the agreement keeps Sears safe. For the most part, no one reads software license agreements (not that most of us could make sense of the legalese anyway). Either Sears really gets the Internet and how to manipulate it or they are a bunch of goombas. At any rate, users need to be better educated on WWWdangers, especially potential offers from “trusted” companies.