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Are you a Library Blogger?

mrschu81 — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:09:55 +0000

Online publishers—and that includes educators and librarians who regularly write or blog for the Web—may now receive a free subscription to the online Encyclopedia Britannica.

"This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers," advises the April 29 announcement by Britannicanet.com.

Considering that regular subscriptions to the online reference cost $70 for individuals and 65 cents per student for schools, is the mighty Britannica taking a financial risk? "We don't think so," says Corporate Communications Director Tom Panelas. "It's going to create more exposure for us and ultimately bring more people and give us more subscriptions.

"People who publish on the Web are the people shaping and driving the main issues of the day," Panelas explains. "We think Britannica belongs in the middle of those conversations, so we want to make our material available to the people shaping those discussions."

Though the complimentary subscriptions last only one year, they are renewable—so long as the subscriber continues publishing, Panelas says. The offer is not intended to "hook" future paying customers, he adds.

Once subscribers gain free access, they can then set up "widgets" which, Panelas explains, will enable readers of subscribers' work to access clusters of Britannica articles on the topics they cover.

The company will review all applicants, who are asked to fill out an online form. They need to be able to state that they publish regularly and to supply a URL and description of their work. Writers offering e-commerce sites with no content are not eligible, nor those who maintain a simple Facebook page. Nor is anyone who creates a new blog with a single post in order to snag a subscription, says Panelas, tongue-in-cheek.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6556229.html?rssid=190

The Know-it-all by A.J. Jacobs

Reader Girl — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:18:58 +0000

subtitled: One Man's Humble Quest to become the smartest person in the world.

One word: funny.

Read this one for book group. It was my pick. I really enjoyed his humor and the amount of useless information he obtained. And I learned a few things along the way.

Basically the book chronicles A.J.'s attempt to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A (or a-ak) to Z (Zywiec). Not to ruin it for anyone, but he succeeds, and along the way inserts various vignettes about his family and other tidbits from his life.

The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (50 NF)

cultnation — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:33:48 +0000

The enormity of the task I have set myself in reducing the number of physical copies of books I own hit me this morning when I realised that I had not yet considered any of the non-fiction titles in my collection.

In the short term I thought that the best option would be to start a separate list for my non-fiction ‘keepers’ and so the new '50 Non-Fiction' list was born. Like my ‘100 books…‘ list I will be updating this list progressively as I pull more of my books out of storage and review the titles currently on my shelves.

As an example of what to expect, here is a copy of the first entry in the new the list.

The Encylopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs - Robert Beer

1999, hardcover, approx. 390 pages

ISBN 1-57062-416-X

Robert Beer has collected in this amazingly hand illustrated volume the complete spectrum of Tibetan symbols and motifs. Each illustration is accompanied by detailed notes explaining variation in style and the historical and /or religous significance they play in Tibetan culture.

Link to title at books.google.com
Link to product page at Amazon.com
Link to product page at publisher Shambala Publications

LookUp!

ttechnotes — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:08:24 +0000

Sometimes you want to look up the meaning of a word, but that can be tedious with copying opening new tabs, pasting etc. This extension makes that process quicker! You can use it with Wikpedia, AskOxford.com, whatever!

Available here. (Doesn’t install automatically - open the file in firefox)
If you are a mozilla registered user, also available in the mozilla sandbox. (safer and recommended)

How to use
Highlight a word or a group of words and right-click. You will be presented with a list of sites where you can search for the highlighted words! To edit the site list go to Tools > LookUp! > Options... and add, remove or edit the list.

If you have problems, criticisms, bug reports, post them here!

Cheers, hope you enjoy it!

(I'd really appreciate a review - please include your Operating System name and version and Firefox version, thanks!)