Circulation » reference

A Google a Day

lindybr1 — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:46:13 +0000

Here’s a site to practice your web searching skills: a Google a Day.

Be careful. You might find yourself wasting as much time here as you would on Facebook, LOLcats, or whatever your fancy. Have fun!

via @SwissArmyLib

Quick and Easy Co-Browsing: Channel.me

lindybr1 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:57:15 +0000

Want to co-browse a website with another person at the same time? Check out channel.me. Share the link via Facebook or through email, and your friend can open the website and view with you in real time. Chat together, add notes, switch to other pages – this is pretty neat.

One (big) issue is channel.me doesn’t provide much information about their product, so I wonder what they do with information shared during browsing sessions. Despite this possibly major privacy issue, it is so easy to use and the applications are endless.

Thanks @webmaster_ref for sharing this resource!

The Intenet Public Library & Librarian’s Internet Index = IPL2

lindybr1 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:20:05 +0000

It’s official: the Internet Public Library (IPL) and Librarian’s Internet Index (LII) merged today. Check out the new and improved website, with ever-so-much-more trustworthy, authoritative, librarian-approved resources.

Remember the days of music videos?

lindybr1 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:13:46 +0000

Remember when MTV and Vh1′s programming consisted of music videos 24-7? My memory goes back to 1987 when Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car video appeared on the TV screen – it was the first music video I saw as a wee lil’ tot.

I’ve heard folks make comments about how MTV and Vh1 rarely show music videos these days, moving to high-quality programming such as Tool Academy, Rock of Love, Parental Control and The Real World (which isn’t really so real is it?)* It makes one wish back to the simpler days of music…

Enter mtvmusic.com – MTV’s database of all their music videos. Fast facts: search by artist, song, genre…search for vintage videos (yeah, Wham is on there… so is C&C Music Factory, Billy Ocean, Milli Vanilli, Run DMC, and so on)…

Of course you can search YouTube for music videos – you can probably find all of the above there too, but mtvmusic.com has a social aspect to it where you can create playlists and share videos via the usual social media sites.

So take yourself back and watch a few vintage gems such as Ah Ha’s Take on Me or Aerosmith’s Crazy…

Or kick back and have some fun with the newer stuff, say, Beyonce’s Put a Ring on It?

I’ll leave you now with a pop-up video of Wham’s Wake me up before you Go-Go. Ah, memories:

Wham! |MTV Music

*Now I do admit that I have been known to watch these shows on occasion… I work with students, so I need to know about pop-culture, right?

From the NCES: Compare Public Libraries

lindybr1 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:24:26 +0000

Library fans, MLIS students, and librarians alike – I discovered a new online resource today via the National Center for Educational Statistics: Library Statistics Program – Compare Public Libraries.

Ok, I bet most of you librarians knew about this resource already, but for a rookie MLIS student, it was new to me. As I played around and perused the various links, it occurred to me what a great resource this would be for those who are applying for jobs in public libraries. After all, when one is applying for a job at a library, they should definitely do their research about it! This site can provide that information for you. Want to know how many librarians at a specific public library have their MLIS? Need to know information about circulation statistics or total expenditures? Other items of interest you can discover: information on employee benefits, salaries and wages expenditures, operating revenue and expenditures, organizational characteristics, size of collection, and types of services.

Furthermore, if you’re curious about the differences between libraries, this site allows the ability to compare them! I tried it out by comparing two libraries within 15 miles of one another: Corvallis-Benton County Public Library and the Albany Public Library. You can choose all sorts of variables, in this particular example, I only chose one variable (local revenue).

What’s even more exciting is that one can create reports based on this information and download the data into an Excel spreadsheet. So Groovy!

In honor of LIS5661: Goverment Info

lindybr1 — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:40:13 +0000

I recently started another class toward my Reference & Instruction specialization: LIS 5661 – Government Information. To start it off appropriately, I would like to educate you with Schoolhouse Rock’s – How a Bill Becomes a Law.