Friday, September 17, 2004

Search Inside the Search?

Amazon.com announced this week that it was entering the Search Engine Wars with its own search engine service, A9.com. The service will allow users to store and edit bookmarks, keep track of links visited by page, and make and retrieve notes on visited pages. A9 currently uses Google search results, with Google and Amazon sharing advertising revenue gleaned from the combined effort.

Competition in the search field continues to drive innovation, with new competitors like A9.com, Vivisimo and KartOO bringing new approaches to searching, and with Google and Yahoo adding features like searching WorldCat. Better tools should lead users to better, more focused results. Stay tuned.

"Amazon to Take Searches On Web to a New Depth", by John Markoff, The New York Times, September 15, 2004, p. C6.

Friday, September 10, 2004

Book Life Number Accelerator?

I rediscovered this funny little site the other day: Book-A-Minute. It provides VERY short encapsulations of classic works. If you could read all works this fast, your Book Life Number (see July 23 entry) would sky rocket. Got a few seconds to dust off War & Peace? Here's the entry:

Leo Tolstoy

History controls everything we do, so there is no point in observing individual actions. Let's examine the individual actions of over 500 characters at great length.

THE END


The same people who offer Book-A-Minute also have Movie-A-Minute. Big fun.


Keeping an Eye on Censorship

Sonoma State University's Project Censored has published its top 25 "censored" stories for 2003-2004. Judged by a panel of journalism/communications/media professors, librarians (including ALA-OIF's Judith Krug and ALA Past President Nancy Kranich) and other notables, the list represents stories that were under-reported in the traditional news media,

According to Project Censored, the top 5 stories for 2003-2004 were:

  1. Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy

  2. Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Holds Corporations Accountable

  3. Bush Administration Censors Science

  4. High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians

  5. The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources



Whether you agree with the tenor or verity of these stories, they represent important issues to be explored and discussed.

The panel of judges for this years list can be found in the Metro Times, September 8-14, 2004, p. 18.

According to Mr. Webster

In Sunday's New York Times Magazine's "On Language" column, Barbara Wallraff (pinch hitting for William Safire) led us to her corner of the literary world. Ms. Wallraff is senior editor of The Atlantic Monthly and editor of the newsletter Copy Editor: Language News for the Publishing Profession, and author of Your Own Words. In performing her daily tasks for these various jobs, Wallraff uses dictionaries, as many as seven at once. Her insights into the vagaries and misconceptions we carry about modern dictionaries make fascinating reading. For example, weren't we taught that the first spelling of a word entry is the preferred one? (Not necessarily true). And that all good dictionaries are basically alike? (No, no, no).

Ms. Wallraff exhorts the dictionary user to read the fine print: footnotes, end matter, whatever. That's good advice for users of any reference book.

On Language: Dictionaries--Just because they say it doesn't make it so, by Barbara Wallraff, The New York Times Magazine, September 5, 2004, p. 18.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

September 11 Remembered

On Saturday, September 11, libraries across America will be hosting programming as part of the September Project. Participants will share and discuss their ideas about democracy, citizenship and patriotism.

I am proud to be a speaker in one of our local September Project programs. Programs like this one highlight the important position libraries have in American society. Libraries remain the intellectual hubs of our communities. They bring important ideas to our citizenry through programs and materials. They provide a safe haven for individuals to explore important issues, without preconceived notions or agendas imposed by the institution. Libraries are what is good, solid and right in the world, and they need our support and participation.

Attend a September Project program in your local library.