The Wizard of Oz - A Tale of Library Circulation

Very fun! Perfect for Saturday afternoon viewing. From the Salt Lake County Library.

Cites & Insights Cites the Vital Library!

My little post about lists vs. blogs called Library Listservs*: Not Dead Yet has made an appearance in the July, 2007 issue Cites & Insights in the Making it Work section. Thanks, Walt!

*Note: Walt has rightly pointed out that "Listserv" is a trademark, so I'll be sure to use the more general term "electronic mailing list" in the future.

Quotation Marks

A few weeks ago, for the Eight Random Things Meme, I complained about people who misuse quotation marks, so wouldn't you know it, I *am* the quotation marks. What does it all mean?

I'm also pleased to be associated in any way with a book by the esteemed and fascinating Marjorie Garber.

Thanks to Mark and Joy for bringing this entertaining little quiz to my attention.

Your Score: quotation marks

You scored 53% Sociability and 64% Sophistication!

There is a lot more to you than meets the eye. You certainly get plenty of "action," but you'd be happier if those who lusted after you were more selective. You hate being used as a general intensifier; haven't these people ever heard of underlining? Italics? And yes, you remember the cruel words Mr. Joyce directed at you.

But you let none of this get you down; those who abuse you are destined for a "special" reward, sooner or later. You feel particularly warm toward periods, commas, exclamation points, and question marks, and usually wish to have them next to you. Parenthesis can sometimes trouble you.

Link: The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test written by Gazda on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Google Health Advisory Council is Formed Sans Medical Librarians

I'm not the first to post on this, but I'm officially joining the chorus of folks who are justifiably baffled that Google has formed their Google Health Advisory Council without including a single medical librarian. Maybe they think they don't need us because they have Dean Ornish? And, as Open Medicine points out, they don't include any nurses either. For that matter, I don't see any allied health professionals. It seems that Google has a limited perception of who has a stake in and extensive experience with providing health information to the public.

New (6/29/07)
Rachel from Women's Health News has this to say: "I want to know how a company trying to connect people to health information doesn’t bother to get a few medical librarians on board, given that’s our skillset, profession, and raison d’etre. It’s what we have master’s degrees in. It’s what we do every. single. day. Grrr. Bad Google. If you start a health advisory council and annoy the docs, nurses, and medlibs right away, how good a job have you done?"

Other comments from bloggers:
omg tuna is kewl
UBC Academic Search - Google Scholar Blog
Kevin, M.D.
Emergiblog
Pixel RN

8 Random Things Meme

I just realized today that Joy tagged me for the 8 Random Things Meme, so here are eight things you may or may not already know about me:

1. As a young child, I desperately yearned for a dog, but my mom wouldn’t let us get one, so my brothers and I instead owned a series of gerbils, all named after mythological figures: Odysseus, Theseus, Sigurd and Atalanta. None of them lived very long, as they tended to escape the gerbil cage and plunge to untimely deaths after crawling into the forced air heat vent.
   
2. My most earnest, heart felt desire is to be able to raise one eyebrow at will, thus conveying a sense of paralyzing irony.
3. In my youth, music dominated my life for a long time. I aspired to be a professional cellist, but I don’t play anymore.
4. I adore peanut butter but can’t stand peanuts. Go figure.
   
5. I’m PK twice over, as both my father and grandfather were Presbyterian ministers.
   
6. I grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio during the Mistake on the Lake era. Yes, Cleveland is where the river caught on fire.
   
7. I suffer from an irrational fear and loathing of slugs. Eewww.
   
8. It irks me tremendously when people put quotation marks around words for no legitimate reason; for example, when people use them for emphasis. Stop the madness, people!

I think every single person in the biblioblogosphere has either completed the meme or been tagged, so I give up on trying to tag anyone. If you see this and want to do the meme, feel free to pretend that I tagged you.