OK, this song is going to be in my head the rest of the day. Rob Manuel’s site, titled Realistic Internet Simulator, is basically a game where you kill as many popups as you can in a given time period. Amusing, yes. Kill the popups, kill the popups, kill them all…
Last night I saw Control Room, simply the most interesting documentary film I’ve seen in a long while. According to IMDB, it’s a “a documentary on perception of the United States’s war with Iraq, with an emphasis on al-Jazeera’s coverage.” I think of it more like a documentary that examines how political and nationalistic propaganda plays a role in various media syndicates. If you’re lucky enough, go see it at your local arts theater. If you’re not that lucky, and I realize a lot of people are not, NPR has a page where you can hear an interview with al-Jazeera reporter Hassan Ibrahim–highly recommended. Best $9 I’ve spent in a while I must say.
Phil Bradley points us to this article from Pandia about the web searching behavior of adult learners. From the article…
Only in three out of the fifty scenarios the participants went on to the second page of search results.
While not surprising, I think it is important for us to remember this, as it applies not only to search engines but to library catalogs too (imho). If it isn’t on the first page, it might as well not exist for most people.
In May, the US Department of Justice issued a Guide to the Freedom of Information Act. As stated on their site, it is “an overview discussion of the FOIA’s exemptions, its law enforcement record exclusions, and its most important procedural aspects.”
The section that addresses the exemption to the act for Homeland Security Information starts out with: “Due to the horrific events of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath throughout the world…” and goes downhill from there. Officials are encouraged to carefully reconsider “previously unclassified or declassified information, which may be classified or reclassified, as appropriate, pursuant to the amended executive order.” Even though this is all stuff that I already knew, it’s still distressing to read it.
Still, this site is a good place for some general, somewhat plain language explanations of FOIA.
via BeSpacific
Business Review‘s How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People: A Manager’s Guide lists 15 things managers can (& do) do to prove their ineptness. Read this, if only to be reminded of what not to do if and when you become a manager (if you aren’t one already, in which case, please don’t do these things)….
#12: Give people the illusion of empowerment. Tell them they have control over a process, and hold them accountable for the results, but then micro-manage the process to meet your pre-determined ends.
Thanks to Steel White Table for the link
Some random sites for your enjoyment this fine Wednesday.
All sites shamelessly found & stolen from J-Walk & Steel White Table.
Rachel Singer Gordon has an article in LJ entitled “The Men Among Us.” While the article is not earthshattering in its revelations, Singer Gordon does have some interesting quotes from male librarians, and highlights that while only 18% of librarians are male, library administrations are still heavily dominated by men (something that bothers me a great deal).
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I’m not big on these random quiz things, but this one was interesting, and being a former Lit major, I had to bite.
How much of a literary geek are you? |
Via the Shifted Librarian, NextUp.com is offering a voice-powered RSS newsreader, NewsAloud. I am most interested….so, now I can convert LISnews posts to MP3 and listen to them on my iPod as I do my grocery shopping. Or, for those of you who commute, one could listen to news feeds on mass transit.
Michael Stephens has posted an excellent list of Ten Things a Blogging Librarian Must Do on his Tame the Web site. The big one that I would recommend is to cite your sources. Too many times on blogs, many of them library-themed, someone will post on something, sometimes stealing the very words of someone who posted on it earlier, and claiming that the ideas & words are their own. Now, I can attribute a small percentage of these cases to simple mistakes. I myself read a lot of blogs, and sometimes forget where I read about something first, but be honest–say that! Cite, please. Just cite. Link to trackback URLs. Name the site you found the link on. Name the blogger who posted it. We all know, even if you don’t say it, that you saw it on librarian.net or BoingBoing. Please. You’re not fooling anybody.
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