Alfred Nobel and the Prize That Almost Didn’t Happen - New York Times
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, M.D.
Published: September 26, 2006
History of the Nobel prize...
Monday, September 25, 2006
WSJ.com - Talking Tech: As Online Libraries are Formed, Issues of Control, Privacy Are PostedSeptember 12, 2006; Page B3
Brief interview with Internet Archive founder on reservations about Google's library project.
Brief interview with Internet Archive founder on reservations about Google's library project.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Who is Louis Bayard? Salon Books
By Louis Bayard
Entertaining review of new book by Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings, called "Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs", by a former Jeopardy contestant. Reveals that success is a lot to do with buzzer technique. The book is not just about Jeopardy but about trivia, quizzes, etc. A "validation of geekdom", as it were.
By Louis Bayard
Entertaining review of new book by Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings, called "Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs", by a former Jeopardy contestant. Reveals that success is a lot to do with buzzer technique. The book is not just about Jeopardy but about trivia, quizzes, etc. A "validation of geekdom", as it were.
BBC NEWS Business Trivia hunters ask the texperts
A friend sent this to me the other day. Another commercial venture into what reference librarians do!
About a question-answering service in UK.
Relevant also to virtual reference efforts (where librarians answer reference enquiries via chat or IM etc.), since in this case they use SMS - which of course makes sense as the technology of choice to many people nowadays. Are some libraries using this yet? (In societies where SMS is prevalent). I bet Singapore, if any.
One difference between these answers and reference is the reference interview - in this case, they would just answer the question that is submitted without the benefit of the interview. Then again, this is how often email reference is done.
And of course, reference is FOC! (most of the time, anyway. Not necessarily in special libraries which charge-back). People are paying for a fast and convenient service, but you can also walk into/email/chat with a reference librarian at a public library and get it free of charge. (But probably not 24/7. There was a 24/7 virtual reference effort... wonder how that's doing).
A friend sent this to me the other day. Another commercial venture into what reference librarians do!
About a question-answering service in UK.
Relevant also to virtual reference efforts (where librarians answer reference enquiries via chat or IM etc.), since in this case they use SMS - which of course makes sense as the technology of choice to many people nowadays. Are some libraries using this yet? (In societies where SMS is prevalent). I bet Singapore, if any.
One difference between these answers and reference is the reference interview - in this case, they would just answer the question that is submitted without the benefit of the interview. Then again, this is how often email reference is done.
And of course, reference is FOC! (most of the time, anyway. Not necessarily in special libraries which charge-back). People are paying for a fast and convenient service, but you can also walk into/email/chat with a reference librarian at a public library and get it free of charge. (But probably not 24/7. There was a 24/7 virtual reference effort... wonder how that's doing).
Friday, September 22, 2006
Learning How to Read Slowly Again - New York Times
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Published: September 22, 2006
What to read? How to read? How much of the the original cultural context do we need to know to appreciate a novel? Review of 4 new books on reading. Makes them sound much more interesting than one would expect (somehow reading a book about reading doesn't seem to me to be as good as actually reading one of the books in question). Still, the Francine Prose one looks particularly promising.
HOW TO READ A NOVEL: A USER’S GUIDE, by John Sutherland; St. Martin’s Press; 260 pages. $21.95. Available in November.
READING LIKE A WRITER: A GUIDE FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BOOKS AND FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WRITE THEM, by Francine Prose; HarperCollins, 273 pages. $23.95.
THE THINGS THAT MATTER: WHAT SEVEN CLASSIC NOVELS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE STAGES OF LIFE, by Edward Mendelson;
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In other news, all about Google's new philanthropic initiative. This interesting idea came up: providing same language subtitles to tv shows to promote literacy.
http://www.planetread.org/
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Published: September 22, 2006
What to read? How to read? How much of the the original cultural context do we need to know to appreciate a novel? Review of 4 new books on reading. Makes them sound much more interesting than one would expect (somehow reading a book about reading doesn't seem to me to be as good as actually reading one of the books in question). Still, the Francine Prose one looks particularly promising.
HOW TO READ A NOVEL: A USER’S GUIDE, by John Sutherland; St. Martin’s Press; 260 pages. $21.95. Available in November.
READING LIKE A WRITER: A GUIDE FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BOOKS AND FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO WRITE THEM, by Francine Prose; HarperCollins, 273 pages. $23.95.
THE THINGS THAT MATTER: WHAT SEVEN CLASSIC NOVELS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE STAGES OF LIFE, by Edward Mendelson;
---
In other news, all about Google's new philanthropic initiative. This interesting idea came up: providing same language subtitles to tv shows to promote literacy.
http://www.planetread.org/
Thursday, September 14, 2006
More Quotes from Librarians
Infonation is a Canadian Library Association Web site promoting librarianship as a profession in Canada. Cool site, with lots of testimonials from librarians who love their jobs, and all kinds of librarians too... besides the quotes, you can "Take the Tour" and see what Pascal, Aurea, Erica, Todd, and others have to say....
Infonation is a Canadian Library Association Web site promoting librarianship as a profession in Canada. Cool site, with lots of testimonials from librarians who love their jobs, and all kinds of librarians too... besides the quotes, you can "Take the Tour" and see what Pascal, Aurea, Erica, Todd, and others have to say....
Friday, September 01, 2006
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