News & Current Affairs

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released a survey of opinion on the 2000-2009 decade.   The report was presented under the title:  ‘Current Decade Rates as Worst in 50 Years: Internet. Cell Phones Are Changes for the Better’. http://people-press.org/report/573/#prc-jumpDecember%2021,%202009
Princeton Survey Research Associates International conducted telephone interviews for survey purposes.   The [...]

Continue Reading Current Decade is Worst in Years BUT Next Decade Looks Better

I learned about GoogleLab’s ‘Living Stories’ collaboration project with the New York Times and the Washington Post via ResearchBuzz.  I see great potential in this application.  Is this the new RSS Reader?  The new Wikipedia?   To understand ‘Living Stories’ watch the brief video on the page.
Currently, the following TIMELY stories are included:

Health Care Reform

Afghanistan War

Global [...]

Continue Reading Introducing Google’s “Living Stories”

The New York Times had an interesting essay called, ‘Steal These Books’.  To quote:
‘With the recession, shoplifting is on the rise, according to booksellers. At BookPeople in Austin, Tex., the rate of theft has increased to approximately one book per hour.’
You won’t believe what the most frequently stolen book is! 
Read on….http://www.nytimes.com

Continue Reading Bookstore Clerk: ‘Where did that book I recommend often go?’

One of our teachers in my school was wanting some good material to teach a lesson on the Panama Canal.  I set off looking for materials and enjoyed the journey!  The Panama Canal is fascinating to me.  Here are some of the resources that I found (that weren’t blocked at my school - ex. YouTube [...]

Continue Reading Exploring the Panama Canal

Ran across two interesting articles today and ironically they were both about the return of a book after 60 years or more later.
One of the books was a book of art compiled by Hitler for a planned musuem, the ‘Fuhrermuseum’.  The book was removed from Hitler’s home and is to be returned to Germany in [...]

Continue Reading The Return of TWO Books Some 60 Years Later! One related to Hitler and the other Napoleon.

On Saturday morning I had the pleasure of seeing Jon Scieszka share his favorite children’s books on CBS’s Early Show .  A posting on ‘The Early Show’s’ Website, ‘Holiday Reads for Your Kids‘, described Scieszka’s expertise:
‘In 2008, Scieska was appointed by the Library of Congress to be the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. [...]

Continue Reading Holiday Books for Children

I was watching the South Carolina* Gamecocks play the Florida Gators and noticed a player with a nice name on the back of his jersey, ‘Integrity’.   I thought, now that is a name to live up to!   Then I noticed another whose jersey said, ‘Courage’.   I thought, ‘Huh,  that is odd!’   Now I was curious [...]

Continue Reading A nice tribute to the military…

The Library of Congress offers ‘Endangered Species: Selected Internet Resources’ in their Science Reference Services.  Learned about this from ResourceShelf.com.  Read their post about it - http://www.resourceshelf.com

Continue Reading Endangered Species Internet Resources

InsideHigherEd.com posted an interesting article about ‘the university library of the future’.  The article simply entitled, ‘Libraries of the Future’, begins:
‘The university library of the future will be sparsely staffed, highly decentralized, and have a physical plant consisting of little more than special collections and study areas.’
Read on…http://www.insidehighered.com

Continue Reading University Libraries of the Future

TheStar.com had a great article on the role of libraries today AND the future of libraries.  The article, ‘A tale of two countries’ libraries’, looked at public libraries in Canada and the U.S.A. to see what is working.  Here is an excerpt:
‘In a 2006 poll, 78 per cent of Americans said if their local library [...]

Continue Reading “Libraries are back big-time, they’re having a renaissance.”