WebJunction spotlight

WebJunction spotlight, originally uploaded by February 28.

WebJunction is terrific library community and gateway to a myriad of practical, valuable resources:

WebJunction is a cooperative of library staff sharing and using online resources that enable us to identify and embrace appropriate technologies and apply them to our daily work.

To sustain this effort, we partner with library and cultural heritage organizations and those that support them in meeting their objectives through effective use of collaborative, web-based technologies.

a black night wind was up, and the library faced it steadily

Every fixture rattled.  Librarians wearing black velvet led users downstairs.  The chimney roared.  The gramaphone stood open, a record on it–”the arm with the needle bent back like a cobra ready to strike,” said Eliza as she passed through the lounge with a tray.  Then the music started, users and librarians came together and the dance began.

please leave

Please leave your wet shoes in a paper sack in the bathroom, and leave crumbs for the ants on the sofa in the reading room.  Can I have an apple?  The apple you left in the stacks a fortnight ago?  Thank you.  I love apples.

You don’t have to wake up, but you have to please leave.  The library is closing and the ghosts have started to arrive.

typing: eyes closed, mouth open

What is ordinary consciousness and why does my job seem to be a mandate to sequence technology, organized resources, and the drumming human wilderness of movement, need, and intention into a contained, useful modality?

A student tells me, ‘be well’ and I reply ’stay fresh’.  Medical students, librarians, and bags of chips need to stay fresh.  Another student walks by with the the words ‘don’t make me give you drugs’ on her shirt.

Librarians manage all kinds of things all kinds of ways.  While some librarians bark and froth, I blush.  Blushing is good for me.  It’s OK to drop your eyes and hide from the group.   Change your middle name change the way your hands touch the air and end your sentences with a nervous laugh.  As you change I am determined to discover why I am typing, eyes closed, mouth open.

eskimo, a bird’s head, the music of Madagascar

Sleep or moving

or in bed awake this is the bird’s head. The order is 3

naked feet in snow.

meme: 5 to the next

inspired by Library Super Hero Jennimi

1. Put on a blindfold and feed the cat — explore the ordinary by unplugging/ scrambling your senses

2. Translate a news report from a language you don’t understand — find ways to keep your imagination sharp in an environment of information saturation

3. Illustrate your ideas

4. Invent a new dance

5. Connecting with other people is easier than ever; explore human connection by consciously making eye contact

catalog your hair

Bait, persuasion, enticement, and the luxury of knowledge and pleasure of information.  Woven into this fabric are the portraits of two librarians — one controls a vocabulary made out of needles and fire which burns and pricks the imagination.  The other wears fur-covered boots and commands a machine that gives every mystery a voice, an eye, and a letter of introduction.

twitter is fun and fun is good



twitter is fun, originally uploaded by February 28.

podcast: sound of the stacks

Holy Synesthesia! Sound of an Image is a psychedelic application for the Mac that translates picture into music. Quote from Tim Omernick, creator of Sound of an Image:

A very, very long time ago…

Before The Beatles, before Mozart, even before Pythagoras, there was a caveman named Ogg. One day, Ogg the caveman picked up a stick and struck a rock in a rhythmic fashion. Nobody knows why he did it, or from where his rhythm came. What we do know is that Ogg’s idea has survived to this very day, his primitive beats slowly transformed through time into intricate musical compositions. Ogg’s music makes people laugh, cry, and feel nostalgia for days past. Ogg’s music sells iPods.

And I think there’s a little bit of Ogg in every one of us. My stick is the ability to write software, and my rock is my Macintosh.

I like that last line–I like the way it sounds, the way it looks. Librarian, what is your stick and your rock? What does your name taste like?

sound of the stacks

Recommended: Poison Prevention Program

The Poison Prevention Program of the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is a comprehensive online gateway to excellent poison education and prevention resources for children, parents, and teachers.

Resources include: curriculum materials and classroom activities for K-2 teachers; factsheets and poison awareness games for parents and kids.

Also features a ‘locate nearby poison prevention center’ button, and a series of fun educational videos (screenshot of “Poison Palace” below) produced by UB Doctorate of Pharmacy students.

Similar in scope: http://www.poison.org/

poison palace