Soldiers and art

Through Resource Shelf I learned about this exhibit called the Art of the American Soldier going on at the National Constitution Center. The online gallery gives an amazing peek into the act of dealing with war through making art about it. The images offer a wide range of perspectives from the comedy of cartoons to the stark image of a realistic bandaged face. Dating from 1910 to 2010, this one hundred year span of art is quite startling.

It's no secret that art can help people. Making art can be more than just expressive; it can be necessary to who we are, in whatever moment we are dealing with. Take a look at the American Art Therapy Association for what's going on in the news and research about art therapy.

What to do if Delicious disappears

If you haven't heard-Yahoo! is trying to get rid of its popular bookmarking site Delicious. And, like the article says, people are freaking out. This worries me, as I rely on it to a handle on what I see on the web (see my linkroll). According to the Delicious blog, they're not disappearing. They're looking for a buyer. If you're like me, you take some tech news with a grain of salt.

Here's a short article on 5 Delicious Alternatives. It can't help to be prepared.

National Archives Site Redesign

Take a look at the National Archives and Records Administration Site! The redesign is fabulous! It looks clean and friendly.

Consumer Trends!

Take a look through trendwatching.com's list of Consumer Trends for 2011. They include several predictions toward giving and social consumerism. In general, I see these trends as quite positive, even for libraries. I'm all for large economic powers giving back to not just their local communities, but the global community too.

Consumers are becoming more and more web-social savvy and putting in their two cents on a service or product. Not only does this create community, it also creates a certain level of accountability on the part of the manufacturer. You can't hide from a bad review that everyone is reading.

Also included are trends toward the demand for green products and products that help us live better. The list is quite interesting! Check it out!

Hurry! NaNoWriMo is almost over.

I was late to the party on this and NaNoWriMo is almost over. What's that? It's National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by midnight, Nov. 30. No kidding. Why? Because it's fun! This is all about quantity, not quality. (The site emphasizes this.) Last year 165,000 people did it! You can too. Of course, if you haven't started by now....
You have 8 days
That's only 6,250 words a day
You can do it!

Science Fiction or Non-Fiction?

I just found a fun website via Resource Shelf. Purdue University runsImpact:Earth! It even has it's own Intro Video that looks just like a movie trailer!

If you've always wanted to calculate the impact of an asteroid (with specific density, etc). on the Earth (and who hasn't?), then this is the resource for you.

Or, perhaps this website isn't your thing but you like to watch movies about asteroids colliding with Earth. Here's a list. (Please note that I do not endorse the viewing of any particular film listed here, especially Armageddon. It's a stinker, IMHO.)
Armageddon
Deep Impact
Meteorites
Doomsday Rock
Fire in the Sky

The encyclopedia-a most underrated resource!

Every now and then I like to do a random search for something I know nothing about. (Okay, I actually do this often.) It keeps me on my toes. Today I felt like finding out about strange encyclopedias. I regularly use WorldCat so that seemed like a logical place to go to get a a million and one results. As I'm doing this, I realize I want reviews of encyclopedias. So off to another resource!

I also did some looking on Booklist Online. (Note: to get the long view of the reviews you do have to be a subscriber. However, some of the titles feature "buy it on Amazon" links. You can go use these to hop on Amazon to see reviews listed there too. Some come directly from Booklist.)
The American Beauty Industry Encyclopedia
The Encyclopedia of Perception
Liberators, Patriots and Leaders of Latin America:32 Biographies 
The Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were: Creatures, Places, and People

Celebrate Sept 25-Oct 2, 2010! Read a Banned Book!

It's Banned Books Week! That means it's time to celebrate! Get out to your library, your bookstore, your e-book, reader, your blog, your wherever/whatever and support the right to make your own reading selections. Here are a couple of sites that give the background, events, interesting fact, and courses-of-action on Banned Books.
American Library Association (ALA)
Banned Books Week
New York Times-10 Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week
Banned Books.com

New Thesaurus

Wordnik has a new thesaurus.Wordnik offers a few extra features not traditionally found in a dictionary or thesaurus. It gives Flickr images that are tagged with the searched word, Twitter tweets that use the word, statistics on how many times it has been searched, and a chart of "occurrences of the word, per million words". There are also nerdy extras, such as the Scrabble score of the word. Do you know how many times the word "kitten" has been looked up? I do. (628 as of this writing).

Weird Books!

I thoroughly enjoy lists of strange titles, odd book covers, and hilariously out-of-date volumes. Therefore, when a friend sent me a link to Abe Books' Weird Book Room. Oh my, these books are funny. Here's a list of some of my favorites:
Fantasy: The Incredible Cabbage Patch Phenomenon
Cadaver Dog Handbook
Cheese Rolling in Gloucestershire
Hanging Out the Upside Down Exercise Book
50 Sad Chairs

Take a look at this list. I'm sure you'll find something unusual.

Archive o-rama

The Internet Archive has a subscription-based service called Archive-It. It's a place where organizations can keep their "born digital" content. It looks like a range of k-12 schools, small government offices, and universities are choosing to archive their digital content here. I searched through the public collections. It seems to me that organizations are still getting a handle on what they want to store in Archive-It. A lot of the pages I ended up on didn't have much content or were unclear. In any case, this fee-based service might be a great place to store content. It's worth keeping an eye on.

Some startling numbers

Today I came across some statistics that, frankly, shocked me. Here they are:

1.)"One in six working Londoners is functionally illiterate."
This is in the So Why Can't They Read? put out by the UK-based Centre for Policy Studies.

2.)"The number of food-insecure people at the aggregate level will not improve much over the next decade, declining by only 1 percent. While there will be notable improvements in Asia and Latin America, the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to deteriorate after 2010. Food-insecure people are defined as those consuming less than the nutritional target of 2,100 calories per day per person."
This comes from the Food Security Assessment, 2010-2020.The report is put out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.

Fun Facts and Bibliographies to the Rescue!

Facts too often suffer from being boring. Allow me to present some place where facts, can be, and actually are, fun!

The Library of Congress Science Reference Services put together Everyday Mysteries . You can type things in the search box and find out things like:
Who Invented the TV dinner? (yummy photos!)
Can zebras be domesticated? (I don't want to ruin this one, but some of you may be disappointed.)

Other good places to hunt out facts are resources listed in bibliographies. The Library of Congress Science Reference Services has many fine research guides that have such bibliographies. Perhaps you think, "Oh, bibliography...boring." Not so! Check out some of these:
Picnics
The Science of Smell
African American Women in the Military and at War
Beer and Brewing

See? Facts can be quite entertaining!

Moving Image Archive News

A friend sent me a link to this site, the Moving Image Archive News. It's a specialized news site that deals with historical film collections, newly-found lost gems, archival issues, cultural documentation, and promotes resources that touch on those areas. It's pleasingly put together. The site is self-described as "a clearinghouse of information on film archiving and related endeavors".  You'll find all sorts of interesting articles, such as the archival capturing of  the everyday life of American Indians on film. Check it out.

The graveyard-a nice spot for information

Maybe you like to research your ancestry. Perhaps you've discovered a long-lost rum-running uncle or a charismatic suffragette aunt. It's exciting to see what the past holds, especially when it's tied to you in some sort of way! There's places to go to get this sort of info. Here are a few resources to try:
Your public library-public libraries will have not only resources, but usually a guide on how to search for genealogical information.
Your local genealogical society-you may or may not have this in your community. I'm lucky to live somewhere that has one-the Seattle Genealogical Society
Ancestry.com  You will hit a pay wall pretty quickly on this site.
Cindy's List free, various categories
RootsWeb free, unless you decide to search through Ancestry.com
Genealogy.com free , but you will need to create an account
Ancestor Hunt  free, listing of search engines by category
Public Domain Genealogy -requires you set up an account (but free)

My personal favorite-Find A Grave! This website lets you search "over 47 million grave records". Try the "Famous Grave" search. It's fun!

This is a very basic list. There are lots of ways to find genealogical information. Talk with you local librarian to find out more. Genealogical research is complex and exciting. You never know what you'll find.

LCSH-It can get weird.

The Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) list is an amazing thing. While cataloging is a serious business, it also carries within it some comedic gems. Most of these gems can be found in the LCSH. What are subject headings. To put it very simply-they are words chosen to describe works, items, things, etc. They are standardized terms, a.k.a. controlled vocabulary. The Wikipedia entry on LCSH is a good place to get a basic understanding of how the subject headings work.

Now comes the funny part. Some of the subject headings are bizarre! Here's a link to a wiki of Wacky and Weird Subject Headings. You may need to type in a code to see the list. Don't worry, it's worth it! Some of my favorites are:
Boating with cats (May Subd Geog)
Boring--Periodicals
Church work with cowgirls
Donkeys in numismatics
Folk dentistry
Potpies (May Subd Geog)
Stunt nematodes

the list goes on.... If you happen upon a strange LCSH that's not on the list, you can add it. The next time you're looking for something in the library catalog, check out the subjects assigned to it. You might be surprised.

The Archive, A Grand Place

History is fun! You know that feeling of wonder you get when you discover a drawer of old photos? One great place to do that (virtually) is the National Archives and Record Administration. It's a fun site with lots of great resources, including a link to the National Archives Flickr Photostream. You'll find fabulous historic images like the (copyright-free) poster shown above. Have fun hunting through this!

Who likes chart tools?

 I enjoy a good chart tool. I'm not a heavy creator of charts but I appreciate what great instruments they can be. Presenting data visually makes it accessible to a wider audience. The reader does not have to be an expert to look at a chart to see that something is happening in the situation that the data belongs to.  I just happened upon QuickStats, a chart-making tool for the National Center for Educational Statistics. Its part of the NCES Datalab, which was mentioned in one of my favorite blogs, ResourceShelf.

What is all this technology doing to us?

Multitasking is almost a prerequisite for living. Gadgets galore fragment our attention spans into small pieces that click and work together at the same time. The ipod, smartphones, laptops, netbooks, portable game systems, and other devices have made life seem easier and faster. But does this have any effects? Certainly, some think so. Others think our brains will just adapt to the barrage of attention-stealing devices. Take a look at "Hooked on Gadgets and Paying a Mental Price," in the Technology section of the New York Times. It's something to think about-while you're thinking about everything else.

Bing Health Maps

Hey! Bing has a fancy new tool. It's called Health Maps. It's an easy, colorful way to get health information at the state and county level. You can choose a state and a community health indicator. A map of results is drawn right over the location you selected. It's quite handy! The data is drawn from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

It's science in a podcast

I enjoy listening to science-y podcasts. It's a good way for me to be an armchair biologist and keep up with the latest, weirdest, science-related news.

My current favorite is on How Stuff Works.com. It's the Stuff from the Science Lab Podcast. The podcasts have titles like "Death by Volcano", "Velociraptor Awareness Day", and "Book Sniffers and You".  They're funny and educational all at the same time. You also don't need a mega-science background to understand what these podcasts are about.  Check it out!

Gang History

I just happened upon a gem via Docuticker that demands to be shared. It's a bulletin on the History of Street Gangs in the United States. This bulletin comes from the National Gang Center.

Market research, you're my hero!

Market research is amazing. Why? Because it is so strange. There's marketing info out there on everything. Everything. Who collects this stuff? Generally companies and governments are the places where the market research comes from (and goes to). The big player in market research is (of course) Market Research.com. This company lives to get data and put it together in palatable formats. And these reports are expensive. Just take a look at the price listed for the 2003-2008 World Outlook for Child-Oriented Mini Pizzas, Pizza Squares, and Pizza Novelties. (Did you even know that there was such a thing as child-oriented mini pizzas?) That $795 price tag is not a typo.

So what can you do if you need market research and you don't have a connection? Remember, governments also collect this type of data. In the U.S., that means it should be available to the public, for free. Take a look at the Market Research Library on the U.S. Commercial Service site.

Trade associations are another great place to find free info. They're promoting an industry so they'll have great data to share. For example, take a look at the Pet Food Institute. This site has a section just for researchers and media. You know what that means? That's right, data!

Now let's go back to pizza for just a moment. I did a Google search on "pizza industry" (w/o quotes) and I found this trade publication, Pizza Today. I found some interesting industry news here. There isn't much hard data, but there is some trending info within this industry, which can also be very helpful.

The thing to remember about market research is this-it's out there. Somewhere.

Science, at your fingertips

Let's say you have a need to know about SARS in China. And you don't have access to a fancy scholarly database. Now let's say you are a researcher who wants to disseminate your work published but also vetted and made open to the public. Although very different, the people in these two scenarios could have their needs met at the same place- The Public Library of Science (PLoS). It's an open-source, peer-reviewed gem that can help you find out about SARS in China, pink eye, and the sounds elephants make when bees get too close for their comfort. The collection included journals such as PLoS Pathogens, PLoS Computational Biology, and my personal favorite, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Personal debt burdens by state

I saw a piece on personal debt burden rankings by state on the news this morning. I then heard about it again on Docuticker, a great blog that focuses on reports from government agencies, ngo's, think tanks, and other similar organizations. This data got my attention because I live in the city with the highest debt burden per person-Seattle. Good old Rain City tops the list at $26,646 per person. Perhaps a good new slogan for the city could be "Seattle, We're Spendy".


As with all data, it's important to know where it comes from. This particular list is drawn from a consumer credit database owned by Experian Information Solutions. According to Hoover's Online (premium subscription, you may not see this in the free version), the are a global credit reporting company. Their databases contains 215 consumers and 15 million businesses.

In case you wanted another look at how much Americans owe, take a look at the U.S. National Debt Clock: Real Time.

Eradicate pests!

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has a new online exhibit. It's called Health for the People: Continuity and Change in Asian Medicine.  Check it out! You'll find some wonderful posters and medical advertisements from China from the 1920s to the 1970s.

What does the word purple look like?

This image is a visual representation of the word purple. It comes from Visuwords, an online "graphical dictionary". This dictionary takes a work, its meaning, associated concepts, and puts it in a graphic form. Visuwords uses WordNet, an open source database produced by Princeton. Not only is this a great tool for visual learners, it's also really fun. Try it!

This isn't the only graphical dictionary out there. Take a look at: Lexipedia and Visual Thesaurus(paid subscription requried/not free).

data, data, data!

This week I was reminded about the American Community Survey on the US Census Bureau home page. You'll find it under the American Fact Finder links. It's cool and you should take a look at it. Why? Because it's free demographic information! Who would need such a thing?
Let's see...

• Students!
• Job seekers
• Business owners
• Entrepreneurs
• Non-profit organization
• Grassroots campaign workers and volunteers
• Social services
• Retirees trying to find the best place to live
• Architects 
• Anyone who wants to see data on their communities!

Try it out! Play around with the categories and see what you can find out about where you live.

Being safe, being informed

Due to the recent earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and car recalls, safety is at the front of the line of Big Concerns. This isn't a new thing. It's a constant thing. Just take a look at the prevalence of hand sanitizer (yes, I have several plastic bottles of it myself).

Can we really be safe? I can't answer this with any great confidence in either  "yes" or "no".
However, I believe that we can be informed. While it's impossible to stop a volcano or an earthquake, we can know more about the products we buy. Here are a few places to go to know about recalls and product safety issues.

Consumer Reports
This is probably the first resource that many latch on to when buying a car or investigating a recall. It's a great place to start. However, a lot of the content is for paid subscribers only. Check your local library. You may have access to more of the site if you go through them.This independent,  nonprofit organization has the largest consumer testing facility in the world.They've been testing products and reporting on them since the 1930's.

US Consumer Products Safety Commission
This is the web page for the commission. You'll also find quick links to recalled products, recent news on products, and you can also report an unsafe product.

US Consumer Products Safety Commission-SaferProducts.gov
If you are into consumer product safety policy, then this might be for you. This page discusses the Consumer Product Safety Risk Management System. You find Reports to Congress and recent recalls. You can get on a recall alert email list too.

Consumer Federation of American
This is a non-profit research and advocacy group. They've been investigating products and publishing newsletters since 1968.

When in doubt, go directly to the manufacturer. Get to know the products you buy. Stay informed.

Google and China, breaking up on April 10

It's been too long since I've had something to share. I'd like to point out a recent event that touches the arenas of privacy, freedom of speech,  and intellectual freedom. Oh, there's a business aspect to all of this too.

I'm hoping you've heard the recent news about tension between Google and China.
If not, here are some articles, blog posts, and reports to glance at:
Google to leave China on April 10-cnet.com 3/18/10
Google's Quixotic China Challenge-BusinessWeek 3/24/10
A new approach to China: an update-Google blog 3/22/10 
Google Stops Censoring Search Results in China-BBC News 3/22/10
US-China Economic and Security Review Commission Annual Report 2009-this report is quite large, see Chapter 4, China's Media and Information Controls-The Impact in China and the United States

Basically, Google (among other companies) was the victim of a "sophisticated cyber attack". Google believed that part of this attack was an attempt by the Chinese government to get at the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The Chinese government has denied any involvement. China also routinely requires search engines to censor search results on terms like Tiananmen Square and the Dalai Lama. ( note that, in China, sites such as Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter are also blocked.)


I'm making this sound fairly easy-to-understand. But it's just not that simple. China is a massive market. At the risk of sound extremely simple, I'll say this-the Chinese government demands information be presented (or not presented) in a certain way. Any western company will have to deal with this. Even though Google may rule search in many places, it doesn't in China. Google has a very small percentage of the search market there. The search engine Baidu is much more popular.

I was actually in China when all of this was happening. It was interesting to see the news reports (they were in Chinese, which I don't speak) on this. People were leaving flowers on the Google sign at the headquarters. While I was there, I was able to access my gmail account. I can confirm that facebook and Youtube are blocked.

Clip Art Library

Have you ever looked through the standard clip art choices and felt like they just were not working for you? I have too. I don't generally enjoy using clip art, but it really helps liven up a PowerPoint presentation, Word document, etc. There are clip art sites but they aren't always free and the images are always in the public domain.

One of my favorite LIS blogs, Librarian in Black, recently mentioned the OpenClipart Beta Library. It's a clip art site that is free and all of the images are public domain. Check it out!

And the Oscar goes to...

Yes, it's the Hollywood Prom. The Oscars are tomorrow (3/6/10). While you may or may not agree with the academy's choices, you can enjoy the history that surrounds this one very flashy event. Once again, I found something on Resource Shelf(RS), that bears repeating. The RS took a look at free databases that deal with the Academy Awards. I'm talking about just more than lists of winners. RS found databases of speeches, nominees, movie credits, and scripts. Check out the post: Academy Awards & the Movies: Several Databases (Free) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
I did some searching around and I discovered the Sally Field "You like me" speech from her 1984 Best Actress win for Places in the Heart.

While doing some searching about for this post, I happened upon the site Learn About Movie Posters. It's a busy looking place where you can search for all types of movie posters (in various languages, too). You'll also get artist info, if it is available. It is a commercial site, but don't let that deter you. I found the Egyptian poster for one of my favorite movie gems, Beastmaster. 

Cover your mouth!

Ah, spring is in the air. But wait! It's still cold and flu season! You know what that means? It means we should reflect and remember on the public health campaigns of the past. We're in luck! The National Library of Medicine has a new exhibit. It's called An Iconography of Contagion. This exhibit features public health posters from the 20th Century. The exhibit key alone is worth looking at.

Looking for a good book on disease? Give these a try:
The Ghost Map
Influenza 1918

Now go wash your hands.

When is too much enough? Data as far as the eye can see.

I was just perusing one of my favorite blogs, Resource Shelf . I enjoy this blog because it's easy-to-navigate and straightforward about what's going on in info science and related disciplines. One particular post from this week got more of my attention because I find it to be a key issue from now until far into the future. What's that issue? Information Management. The post title is "Managing Information: A Special Report (10 Articles+ from the Economist)". Here's a quote from it that surprised me:
"Only 5% of the information that is created is “structured”, meaning it comes in a standard format of words or numbers that can be read by computers. The rest are things like photos and phone calls which are less easily retrievable and usable."
(here's the link to the Economist article I took the quote from, "Data, data, everywhere".) Note that in the article the terms "data" and "information" are interchangeable.

Wow. I had no idea that 95% of data was so "unstructured". If it isn't structured, then how will it be organized and maintained? Does most data need to be organized and maintained? My gut reaction to these questions is maybe. It truly depends on the context. A car company will need to organize and maintain information far more stridently than a 5-person book club.

Who is a stakeholder in this whole business of structuring information? If you take prescription medicine, drive a car, have a bank account, own pets, buy things, etc... Everyone who owns, uses, makes, sells, contributes to, analyzes and does things because of data is a stakeholder. I could have stopped at "everyone".

Bridges

I've been reading Dan Simmons' newest novel, Black Hills. I'm a fan of his work, especially The Terror. Black Hills is historical fiction told by a Lakota Sioux man named Paha Sapa. Some of the backdrops in this story are Custer's Last Stand(1876), the building of the Brooklyn Bridge(finished in 1883), and the Chicago World's Fair (1893), and the blasting of the Black Hills to make Mount Rushmore (first opened in 1916). Without giving too much away, I'll just say that the descriptions are wonderful. This story is rich, amazing, and thought-provoking. I'm sad every time I have to stop reading to do things like work, study, or sleep.

Before reading this, I had never really considered how the Brooklyn Bridge came to be. It's an incredible history filled with machines, hard labor, death, and nearly impossible dreams. And all of it sits on wooden caissons. From what I understand, they sank the caissons and the men worked inside of them. Curious about this? Here's some great places to go to know more:
Ken Burns' Brooklyn Bridge
Great Buildings: The Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge Website
Building Big-PBS databank

Hoaxes!

Today I came across an issue of Archaeology Magazine. I'd never looked at this publication before. This magazine drew me in due to my fascination with potsherds, ruins, dirt, and art history. The pictures are also, well, pretty. I immediately went online to see the electronic form. It's quite nice.

Right away I saw a link that I could not refuse-Archaeology's Hoaxes, Fakes, and Strange Sites. This stuff fascinates me. If you've ever pondered the existence of Atlantis or the Loch Ness Monster, then this might be worth looking at. Keep scrolling down and you'll get to "Seductions of Pseudoarcheology". Did the Mayans come from Atlantis? Is the world's largest pyramid in Bosnia? I'm not going to give any secrets away. You'll just have to read and find out.

This leads me to think about all the informational hoaxes we encounter every day. These could be in the form of weight-loss ads, phishing scams, and virus-loading pop-ups. Such hoaxes are fairly easy to spot. Many info hoaxes are far more subtle. I'm talking about un-cited, un-researched, untested, un-vetted, and just plain dangerously wrong information being passed off as fact. (Please note: I'm not talking about most opinion-disseminating sites, okay?)

Here's a small list of Hoax Sites. This list includes the hilarious (brain transplantation) to a site that is devoted to misquoting and hating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.(yeah, they're not all funny). Even if you're not doing research, it's still important to know where info comes from. Here are a few places with guidelines for evaluating web pages:
University of Washington Libraries-Criteria for Evaluating Online Information
UC Berkley-Evaluating Web Pages
Cornell University-5 Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages

Be careful where you get your info....it could be leading somewhere fantastic or it could lead you directly to the Great Egress.

Medicine, how curious

The world of medical information is a strange, vast, amazing place. You don't have to be a doctor, or even an armchair biologist to appreciate the bizarro evolution of medicine. One great place to see some curious medical history is in the Library of Congress Pictorial Americana: Medicine collection. Here you'll see ads, products and illustrations that deal with the history of American Medicine.
One of my favorites is the image of Gilbert and Parson's Hygienic Whiskey(for medical use).

Another great place to find historical medicine-related images is the Images from theHistory of Medicine collection of the National Library of Medicine. Here you'll find an array of images from caricatures to photographs. You'll also see results in languages other than english. I searched the term "bitters" and found this ad for Burdock Blood Bitters.

Hi! Welcome to the Cabinet

This blog is intended to be like a Cabinet of Curiosities; a place for the obscurities of information. Cabinets of Curiosities were strange collections of natural objects that were meant to be oggled, pondered about, and marveled over. In this blog, I will present resources that, hopefully, cause further explorations in the world of information.

Looking for a good mystery/horror novel about Cabinets of Curiosity? I recommend Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.