uExpress
uExpress offers new columns from national columnists like Dear Abby, News of the Weird, Ann Coulter, Focus on the Family, and many more.
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September 30, 2005
FactCheck
The Annenberg Public Policy Center offers Factcheck.org, which looks through recent political news and gives the facts of the matter. The Center is neither liberal nor conservative, simply giving the facts and not drawing conclusions.
September 29, 2005
Medallion Press
Medallion Press has a sweet site filled with information on their authors and new releases. You can also browse by genre.
TV.com
TV.com is the place to go for information on television shows, schedules, news, and much more. View video clips, chat on the foums, and see what you missed last night.
September 28, 2005
Opus 1 Classical
Opus 1 Classical has information on classical music performances around the world. You can browse concerts by cities and dates, and view concert highlights from select international cities.
Writely
Writely is an online word processor that lets you create a document online and then share it with others online who can join you in editing it. Very cool.
September 27, 2005
HarperCollins for Librarians
HarperCollins Publishes Librarians Resources offers all sorts of information of interest to librarians, including booking authors, guides for book clubs, newsletters, and giveaways.
Meta Medical Search
OmniMedicalSearch is a meta-search engine that offers easy searchs of sites like PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine, National Cancer Institute, MedlinePlus, and HealthFinder.gov.
September 26, 2005
Quotations
QuoteGeek is a site filled with great quotations. You can do a search or browse the collection by themes, categories or first letter. A really good place to look for your next sig file.
Commentary Today
Commentary Today offers the latest columns from some of the most popular political columnists today. Columns represent both the left and right side of American politics, from Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan to Molly Ivins and Maureen Dowd. The site offers the opportunity to discuss individual columns online as well.
September 25, 2005
Women of Protest
Women of Protest from the Library of Congress American Memory Project has photographs from the records of the National Woman's Party. You can view photos of the suffrage prisoners, a timeline of their work, and essays on the history of their suffrage campaign.
Hopi Tribe
The Hopi Tribe offers a very nice homepage on their tribe. It has information for visitors, as well as sections on their ancestral land, Hopi villages, press releases, and information on the Hopi Emergence.
September 24, 2005
Ancient Calendars
Calendars through the Ages is a gorgeous WebExhibits site. It explores the various forms of calendars that people have designed throughout history.
September 23, 2005
Stroke Information
Internet Stroke Center at Washington University offers stroke information for patients and health care professionals. Sections include types of strokes, symptoms, neurology images, clinical trials, and assessment tools.
PhysLink
PhysLink offers the latest physics and astronomy news stories, discussion forums, job ads, ask the expert, directories of recommended sites, and much more.
September 22, 2005
Einstein Archives
Einstein Archives Online is a joint project between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. It offers digitized manuscripts of Einstein's writings as well as a database of tens of thousands of related archival items.
September 21, 2005
Religion Facts
ReligionFacts is a site that offers facts about religions throughout the world. There are feature articles, a search engine, and a list of religions covered. They include Bahai, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Judaism, Scientology, Sikhism, Taoism, and Wicca.
September 20, 2005
Free Opera
Opera Web Browser is now available free and not just for a day. Opera did have ads to help fund themselves, and those ads are now gone too. Just the browser remains and it is a great browser. Simple to use and FAST to install.
Literary Traveler
Literary Traveler offers articles on traveling to settings of books, author's homes, graves, and more. They have a listing of places of interest, authors, books, and tours. It is a fascinating way to travel through books.
September 19, 2005
WEBoggle
WEBoggle is an online boggle game that pits you against other human players. All you need to do is find a screen name that is not in use at the time, and you can play. No downloads, just a fun, quick game of boggle.
September 18, 2005
Can't Find on Google
CantFindOnGoogle.com is a site that offer assistance to people who can't find what they are looking for on Google. What an opportunity for librarians! First, I think we should all use this site to help others understand that Google does not have everything, plus it is a good lesson in how NOT to search for things online. The only problem is that often the comments that others leave have less to do with answering the question asked than with disputing whether a certain show is good or a girl is hot. But in between, there are some very good opportunities to answer real reference questions online.
Adopt a Library
ALA Creates 'Adopt a Library' Program to assist Gulf region libraries recover and rebuild
We will have a small coin jar out on the desk for donations starting next week and have registered to be partnered with a library. I am just hoping that as a small public library we are assigned to assist another little library. Somehow that would make it much more special for our patrons and for us.
September 17, 2005
Favre
Official Website of Brett Favre is a great site for Packer fans to visit. With a video gallery, message board, articles, and a short biography.
Hybrid Vehicles
September 16, 2005
RetroCrush
If you enjoy pop culture, then retroCRUSH is the perfect site for you! Filled with all sorts of articles, forums, a newsletter and podcasting, this site is just plain fun. They have great rankings like the 100 scariest movies and the 100 coolest pop culture vehicles. Set aside plenty of time to explore this site.
Living and Raw Foods
Living and Raw Foods is a site dedicated to eating raw. They offer recipes, a FAQ on this style of diet, articles to read, books, online chat and news.
September 15, 2005
FoodieView
FoodieView is a search engine for recipes. It offers search capabilities on over 110,000 recipes. You can search by ingredient and get a free recipe box of your own to save the recipes you find in. Their list of food sites is wonderful too with an emphasis on cooking and food blogs. Sweet!
September 14, 2005
Digital History
Digital History offers an online history textbook filled with interactive features and multimedia. The site has timelines, flash movies, games, visual history, exhibits, and primary sources.
Holt Uncensored
Holt Uncensored is an online column about books and the publishing industry by Pat Holt, former Book Review Editor and Critic for The San Francisco Chronicle. The column includes book reviews, interviews with authors, and publishing issues.
September 13, 2005
Shift to Education in Public Libraries
Library Journal - Save Professionalism is an article that calls for a return to the educational role of libraries rather than our current focus on information. The article is filled with reasons to return to education as our main focus. As a small library director, I think that small libraries have always had an educational focus. We train people to use new technology, offer programs with educational value, host literacy programs, proctor exams for patrons, and much more. But just think of small libraries truly embracing education as a focus. Wouldn't be automatically be networking more with the schools in our communities? Wouldn't we be looking more deeply into our community to see where education is lacking and where we can plug in? It seems to me to be a very positive shift in focus and could do a lot to make the library seem even more involved and reactive to community needs than we do now.
I also agree that the problem with focusing solely on information is that it does not inspire funding the way that education does. Information also leads us to cutting budgets rather than fighting to be funded because we are so vital to our communities. And of course, any article that criticizes the HAPLR library ratings is an article I can embrace.
September 12, 2005
Meditation Site
Learning Meditation is a site that offers instruction on how to meditate. It includes learning to relax, a selection of suggested meditations that you can listen to, suggested reading, and favorite sites.
ENN
ENN: Environmental News Network offers news, photos, commentary, and special reports. You can also listen to environmental radio programs on podcasts. Subjects covered include sustainable economy, ecosystems, energy, water, conservation, food and wildlife.
September 11, 2005
Amazing Gardening Site
Exploratorium Science Of Gardening is an incredible site filled with great images combined with great information. It is a site that invites you in to explore and to learn. This is definitely one you have to try for yourself, especially if you are a gardener. The site is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
September 10, 2005
Science Site
Science @ Berkeley Lab is an online newsletter that is published every few months. Topics in the most recent edition range from breast cancer to hurricane winds to stardust.
September 9, 2005
Boredom in Small Libraries
In the latest edition of American Libraries, Beyond Bored wrote a letter stating "I am the director of a very small public library with a great staff...but the library runs on autopilot and I still find myself bored out of my mind." The response of Elisa F. Topper is wonderful. Full of positive ways that this person can become less bored at work.
But I have a different perspective as a fellow director of a tiny library. I applaud the fact that Beyond Bored has written grants and done web design, but directing a small library should be more than dry managerial tasks. As the sole leaders of a library serving a community, we need to be passionate and caring. Once you start really caring about a community it is hard to be bored, because there is always more that you could be doing. I have projects and programs that I have thought of doing for a decade now. They don't get done, but before I ever said I was bored, I would have tried them.
Also the fact that Bored's library works "on autopilot" disturbs me. Where are the risky programs? Where is the cutting edge technology? As librarians we need to shake it up a little when it gets too dull. I am constantly changing things at our library. In the next month, we will be starting a new gaming series for teens, beginning to do in-house book reviews, and rearranging shelving because of crowding: all with a staff of four with me being the only full timer. My job remains fresh and new after over a decade of working in the same small community because we change and grow. It would be very dull if we worked on autopilot, but we don't. We work on trying new things, failing spectacularly, and picking up the pieces to try again. Our community inspires us to keep on trying new things, keep on reaching and learning, just as in return, I hope we inspire them to do the same. In my library, I don't need an autopilot setting, but you might want to have a parachute because there is sure to be turbulence but a lot of laughter along the way too.
Feed Change!
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Thanks for your patience, sorry I didn't realize that the change in MT versions would whack my feed.
ReadPrint
ReadPrint is a collection of thousands of free books. The collection focuses on classics like Milton, Shakespeare, Bronte, and Austen. The site has an author index or you can search by title.
September 8, 2005
Archaeology Magazine
Archaeology Magazine offers online feature articles, reviews of exhibits and programs, interactive online digs, interviews, and the latest news.
September 7, 2005
Van Gogh Site
The Vincent Van Gogh Gallery not only displays the paintings and drawings of Van Gogh, but also offers perspectives and information on how they should be viewed. In addition, the site offers historical information on the artist.
Anthropology Site
Anthro.Net offers a large collection of recommended sites that focus on anthropology. Sections include ancient civilizations, language and culture, indigenous peoples, evolutionary theory, ecology, and social theory.
September 6, 2005
Grammar Guide
A Concise Guide to Grammar and Style is a very handy online guide from infoplease. Nice to have it right at your fingertips in case of reference questions.
Ask an Expert
Ask an Expert lets kids ask questions of experts in many fields. To find the expert you need, you can either do a keyword search or browse the categories Categories include science, animals, money, careers, law, home improvement, arts, computer, cultural, health, resources, entertainment, education, and repair. Then those categories get more specifc so you can find the person you need.
September 5, 2005
Writing-World
Writing-World offers articles and columns on writers and writing. The site includes links to related sites, tips on writing fiction, information on classes and contests, recommended books for authors, and much more.
Bioneers
Bioneers is a website that presents solutions to same the earth. From activists to reports to conferences, you will discover many sources of inspiration here. The site also offers a podcast blog that you can subscribe to via RSS.
September 4, 2005
Nancy Pearl Book Reviews
94.9 KUOW: Seattle's NPR News and Information Station offers Nancy Pearl's book reviews online. The latest review is there, plus a link to earlier book reviews. It is interesting that the reviews are written out, not listened to, but Nancy Pearl's recommendations are outstanding in any format.
September 3, 2005
Consumer Complaints
Complaints.com offers a database of consumer complaints. The site can be searched and you are welcome to add your complaints to the database as well, or if you are a business to reply to complaints on the site. There is also an email newsletter and the choice to browse the complaints by date.
The Compulsive Reader
The Compulsive Reader bills itself as a "haven for book lovers," and it certainly is. The site is filled with book reviews, interviews with authors, and news articles.
September 2, 2005
Divorce Site
Divorce Magazine offers featured articles, plus a selection of articles on specific aspects of divorce. It also offers online resources, support, a listing of divorce professionals, FAQs, and statistics.
September 1, 2005
Wikiquote
Wikiquote is a wiki-based site featuring quotations. It offers quotes in a variety of languages, translations of non-English quotations, sources, and links to Wikipedia. As with all wikis, you can participate yourself by providing quotes. The site can be searched by keyword, or browsed by general subject.