howard stopped by this morning to tell me about a website called shejay, which is an international network of female djs. it has a ton of mixes.

this is just what i needed to get me through my last bout of finals.

current listening B. Traits, LIVE in Whistler, BC

My personal world map

visited 4 countries-
like to visit 36 countries

Create your own world map

i randomly ran across 2 animal abuse stories today. i don’t understand how people can be this horrible. i honestly don’t get it.

- in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia a restaurant manager was keeping two cheetah cubs tied to a fence and would force them to fight with each other for amusement. the animals have been rescued and will soon call the National Palace home. the cubs seem only to have known abuse before being rescued by a veterinarian and a group of US counterterrorism troops, the owner had purchased the animals from poachers who had blinded one of the cubs by kicking her in the face.

- a Florida man buried his 5 month old puppy, named meatball, alive as a punishment for digging too many holes. the man faces charges and animal control is attempting to gain custody of the puppy and find him a good home.

on a happier note, Tai Shan, the newest panda in the DC zoo is apparently mugging for all to see. There’s 2 years left until he’s sent to China - I can’t wait to see him.

T603 update

775 / 4,500 (16.0%)

w00t!

Maureen Dowd’s new book “Are Men Necessary” has raised quite a ruckus. I haven’t read it - yet, but honestly i bet those who are railing against it have only read (or heard) the title.

Columnist Lori Borgman of the Indianapolis Star schools her readers in a piece entitled Yes, Maureen Dowd, men are necessary. A cute, if not original title during the holiday season bearing a close resemblence to the title of the film about little girl named Virginia who didn’t believe in Santa Claus. Lori reminds us that men, for the most part are, “maligned, vilified and marginalized.” After slapping around second wave feminism a bit (although without which, I doubt she’d have that columnist job, but we can set that aside for them moment) she goes on to say that:

“Men protect.
Men provide.
Men take responsibility.
Men tend to be steady.
Men temper women’s concerns for security and safety with a sense of adventure and risk.
Men teach boys what it means to be male.
Men and women together can accomplish what neither is able to accomplish alone.
Men tend to be direct and have simple needs; chief among these would be food, love and respect, though not necessarily in that order.”

So now that we’ve essentialized the genders down to the core and have set aside the need for food, love, and respect as things essential to men (?), we have an emperically based list of things that men, aside from “abusers, perverts, and slackers” do.

Considering that the wage gap still exists, women are just over 50% of the US population but in the state legislature make up at most, only 33.9% of the representatives (Delaware) and at the least 10% (Alabama) by state. There are only 14 women in the US Senate and 66 in the House, and there are few female CEOs, I’m not sure what Lori is getting all upset about. She sounds like she’s ready to get autographs at the next Promise Keepers rally, but don’t expect me to cry into my beer about the “much maligned” male sex.

Or wait, am i not supposed to drink beer?

i have three final papers to write (plus a small assignment, 1 brief and 2 lengthier presentations, and a db to fix, but…) i thought that i’d start keeping track of my paper progress

T603

269 / 4,500 (5.0%)

L597

100 / 3,600 (2.0%)

independent study

50 / 2,100 (2.0%)

i’ll post my progress tomorrow or at the end of the day.

RI Libraries Overblock Under CIPA
Library Journal (1976) 130 no10 18-19 Je 1 2005

After a report written by the ACLU of Rhode Island criticizing the state’s public libraries with too full compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), libraries began to consider how to allow adult patron’s full, uncensored access more easily and consider less stringent blocking standards. The report noted that the company chosen to provide filtering for Rhode Island’ libraries actually went beyond that which was dictated by the Supreme Court ruling. The ACLU also reported that at least one third of libraries do not notify patrons that they can ask a librarian to deactivate the filter.

Nationally a survey revealed that most, but not all libraries who responded to the survey implemented procedures which allow quick disabling. That said, individual librarians reported that since July 1, 2003 most had gotten 50 requests or less to disable the filter, possibly indicating that librarians aren’t telling adult patrons that the filter can be disabled.

****

This report is brief, but it does bring up a recent take on the issue of filtering now that CIPA has been in place for over two years. Filtering software is getting better, but is still imperfect. Considering that the internet is still and will always be growing, there is always the possibility of sites being blocked that shouldn’t be.

It seems that it would be a simple solution to place a notice at each individual computer terminal that gave information about the filtering software and letting each adult patron know that it can be turned off if they wish it to be. Just because a notice exists though, does not necessarily mean that patrons will read the notice. There also seems to me that patrons might be reluctant to ask that the filters be removed because they’re afraid of how that might make them look - like they’re specifically looking for “questionable” material. I also think that the attitude that a librarian takes when talking to patrons about filtering or when a patron asks for the filters to be removed is very important - the patron should not be made to feel that they are asking for something “special”.

At MCPL filters are not used. A policy that I think is nice for everyone - staff and patrons alike. That said, not every library can afford to operate without federal dollars and must use some kind of filtering software.

Community Information, Electrified
Library Journal (1976) Net Connect 4-6, 8-9 Wint 2005
Tim Rogers, Atabong Fombon, & Erica Reynolds

This article addresses fulfilling patron’s need of community-specific information. Examples of community information include information about social services, non-profit groups, and what resources are available within the community for residents in general. Providing community information has been a growing trend for public libraries and many libraries are trying to figure out what the best method is for storing this kind of information. This article uses some preliminary data from a 2004 survey that asked questions about community information projects taking place in libraries across the country.

Many libraries use their internal online catalog to store community information. This might be the easiest method as the system is already in place. There is a move by some libraries to use things like Access, SQL, and MySQL to manage this information. This approach allows for a great deal of customization and can provide greater access to patrons.

Community calendars are another way to augment the information contained in the OPAC or library-created database. Often these can be established so that organizations can upload their own events and be responsible for the maintenence of their portion of the calendar, solving the problem of the high time cost involved with the creation of a community calendar. However depending on other agencies to update and essentially maintain the community calendar could seriously compromise the accuracy of the calendar. It seems to be best that the library take the responsibility for maintenence of the calendar.

Ultimately the article concludes that a web entity which includes both directories and calendars is best practice. This method provides content and not just links to content and allows an inroad for libraries to help in creating community - not just providing access to it. One Colorado library also provides a service where they create and maintain pages for organizations without websites.

***

The MCPL has had a methodology in place for providing community information to patrons for some time. Before the OPAC there were a series of notecards containing information about various organizations within the community. Post-OPAC this information went into the digital database. When searching for it you type in the kind of information you’re looking for, for instance, “public health” and then “community”. These terms will get you the community information you’re looking for. This is very useful for reference librarians but it seems to me that this is probably not so intuitive for patrons. The MCPL certainly seems dedicated to providing this kind of information to patrons so creating the sort of best practice solution described in this article, a database and community calendar system, might be a good direction to go in.

One yummy thing we had for dinner was a nice salad.

James Carville’s Simplified Salad
(from Had Enough? A Handbook for Fighting Back)
6 oz. romano cheese
1/3 C bleu cheese
3/4 C lemon juice
1/4 C white vinegar
2 1/4 t salt
1/2 C olive oil
1 1/2 C plain salad oil (i used canola)
1 t finely chopped garlic (i used a heaping teaspoon)
1/2 bunch parsley chopped
salad greens

grind romano cheese and mix with crumbled bleu cheese. refridgerate in airtight container
mix remaining ingredients (except for salad greens) well. place in container in the fridge
prepare greens
just before serving toss greens with dressing then add cheese mixture.

I was a bit skeptical of this salad due in part to the fact that the dressing ingredients look a bit lackluster. i was wrong. it was amazing. great salad recipe. can’t wait to make this for a potluck.

(this recipe is crossposted to tastykake, my food blog)

this morning when i woke up my head was all stuffy and i felt like someone hit me with a truck. i’ve been in denial about it all day. but when i tried to leave the house this evening i realized just how crappy i feel.

it’s official - i’m ill.