"Infrastructure Beautiful"

[2005-02-27]
New York Times architecture piece by Fred Bernstein in Sunday , Febrary 27, 2005, edition, explains mysterious object that has emerged across from Lake Whitney in Hamden. Turns out it's a water filtration plant, covered in stainless steel shingles, and in the shape of a giant pipe, designed by Steven Holl. Considered antidote to NIMBY phenomenon. Artful design may have added $2 to $3 million to $49 million plant, but Policy Board was convinced it was worthwhile following presentation by Yale Professor Plattus. Bernstein compares this with Yoshio Taniguchi project in Hiroshima, which, in opening up a huge incinerator plant to the public, created a "museum of garbage" tourist attraction.

Design your own ceramic mug

CafePress lets you design your own mug along with t-shirts, coasters, etc.

OCLC Connexion

[2005-04-12]
There's a slide presentation to guide NACO record creation via Connexion.

[2005 03 30]
Ernie and Patricia co-lead Expert User session on configuring OCLC Connexion.
Current release: 1.3. Decision not to push directly through to wksts since this would require two reboots plus we didn't want to install on every single machine. We may install right away. Cut off date for Passport is May 1st. If Microsoft .NET Framework not already installed (check control panel under "Add/Remove programs" under letter 'm'), need to download from PC-Amigo, which can take a while. Should already be there on new machines, though. To obtain original password, Not on support page: OCLC Passport: tools--> macro-->logon macro-->edit-->authorization and password, without quotation marks.

Install Connexion from PC Amigo: select "run". For installation folder, click "Everyone", even if I'm the only one using my machine.

Training for using the application will take place in April in Lecture Hall. For now, just configuration.

• Tools-->Options-->Click third radio botton under "Internet Access", i.e., "OCLC Dedicated TCP/IP (http://connecxion ... .)


• Then "Authorizations" tab (and password), hyphens not necessary. Library Unit name can be HBR or HEB, etc.


• Check "Export" tab--> File--> Create-->Select "File" (Default)-->OK-->find "Voyager" folder-->Catalog--> OCLCimp-->IMPORT.DAT (i.e., keep file name same as it was).


• Make sure font default is Arial Unicode MS.


• Under General tab: 15 minute timeout with 5 minute warning.


• Configure "Label Printer", then click "Apply" (always do this to save settings).

For documentation: Yale Cataloging Tools and Resources-->OCLC Connexion client tutorials--> Search WorldCat

Vera Drake

A new favorite film: "Vera Drake", viewed May 30, 2005. Directed by Mike Leigh; Vera played by Imelda Staunton. Interesting rehearsal technique, where actors improvised and developed their own scripts, seems to have payed off brilliantly. Roger Ebert's review is dead on. Ebert's a deeper thinker and better writer than one might expect based on his television persona. I guess the TV studio has a dumbing-down effect. Ebert has a nice database of what he considers to be the Great Movies of all time.

Google

[2005-04-29]
Per Google Corporate History, "On September 7, 1998, Google Inc. opened its door in Menlo Park, California." Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Watch has several good articles on Google. "Google Scholar Offers Access to Academic Information" was filed shortly after the release of Google Scholar in November, 2004. Google's mission: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google Print. According to John Price Wilkin of the University of Michigan, Google digitizing all 7 million books from Library.

Finkelstein on Dershowitz Book: "Hoax"

Video recording and transcript of Dershowitz and Finkelstein debate, moderated by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman: "Today author and professor Norman Finkelstein takes him on and charges that Dershowitz makes numerous factual errors in his book. Dershowitz denies the charges. Finkelstein teaches at DePaul University and is the author of four books including The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering."

RLIN21 (documentation)

RLIN21 bidirectionality guidelines, documentation for the ad hoc record-saving technique, and updates on the infamous Page 400

"Twisted Path of Love" (Kumashiro)

[2005-02-25]
"Koibitotachi wa Nureta" [literally, "Lovers Get Wet"] directed by Kumashiro Tatsumi, Nikkatsu studio, 1973. A so-called "pink film", or "Roman Porno", but not a shallow work. Reminds one obliquely of "Easy Rider", of characters without future, savoring pleasures and sufferings of the moment, but mostly oblivious to long-term consequences. Protagonist is Katsu who returns to run-down Japanese coastal town, finds solace in arms of boss's lonely wife. Reviewer sees Katsu, who denies having been raised in same town, representing Japan's loss of identity following Second World War and disorienting effect of U.S. occupation. Recommended for background reading: William Johnson's "A New View of Porn: The Films of Tatsumi Kumashiro." Film Quarterly Fall 2003, vol. 57, no. 1, pp.11-19.

"Yale Global"

YaleGlobal Online Magazine

Life Enhancement

[2005-05-27]
May 28 article in NewScientist.com: "11 Stepts to a Better Brain," mentions smart drugs, specifically modafinil and Ritalin, as well as music lessons, standard "mnemonists" tricks, getting enough sleep, eating vegetables, neurofeedback, etc. Also mentions the School Sisters of Notre Dame on Good Counsel Hill in Mankato, Minnesota, where David Snowdon of U of Kentucky conducted study of nuns aged 75-107 years old who seemed remarkably resistent to mental decline.


[2005-03-20]
"Ideas & Trends" section of 3/20/05 NYT Week in Review, Kate Zernike asks whether steroid use among atheletes is much different from, say, lawyers pulling all-nighters with Provigil, students improving SAT scores with Ritalin, and musicians reducing stage fright with beta blockers. Does any of this count as cheating, she wonders. Cites George W. Bush's 2004 State of the Union Speech, that steroids in baseball "sends the wrong message: that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character."

[2004-12-22]
Sharper minds, Article by Melissa Healey in L.A. Times. Modafinil ("Provigil"), seems to raise mental acuity in test subjects 50%. Cambridge University psychologist Barbara Sahakian: "In my mind, it may be the first real smart drug ... A lot of people will probably take modafinil. I suspect they do already." Another memory enhancing substance HT-0712 under investigation at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island.

Related link: The Good Drug Guide. See also testimonials on RemedyFind.

[2004-12-28]
Not related to cognitive enhancement per se, rather broader issue of using available drugs in enlightened way, AP wire in MSNBC reports that Ecstasy to be tested on terminal cancer patients

Harvard Libraries

Harvard Libraries

Language Acquisition

Learning a Language in the Digital Age

"Serial Work as Bibliographic Entity"

Kristin Antelman's "Identifying the Serial Work as a Bibliographic Entity." published in the October issue of Library Resources & Technical Services (vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 238-55), winner of Best of LRTS Award.

Antelman is Associate Director for Information Technology, North Carolina Sate University, Raleigh.

Titles and authors are week identifiers for serials works. Antelman quotes Yee: "The title is a frail reed to bear the burden of displaying relationships between works in our catalog.... the title must be propped up with parenthetical additions completely invented by catalogers and difficult for users to predict." ISSNs are also inadequete, since they typically point to manifestation level, rather than abstract work. This creates "appropriate copy" problem which URL resolvers work around through proprietary title equivalency keys (a kind of provisional work-level identifier).

The very idea of a 'work' applies to serials only problematically. Antelman quotes Smiraglia: "A work, at a basic level, is a deliberately, created knowledge-record representing a coordinated set of ideas ...", which applies to serials only sometimes and even then rather loosely. Antelman invokes Wilson and Smiraglia to describe serials as "bibliographic families"; and Svenonius, "super-works". Publishers have found solutions in indecs and ONYX, etc., but libraries should be wary of hitching wagon thereto, since need for intellectual property rights management is over-riding for publishers, while organization of knowledge predominates in libraries.

One conclusion: "We need to put a greater emphasis on relationships between abstract entities and less on identification of the physical item"

Herbert Newman: Urban Space

[2005-04-13]
"Architecture in America: Building of Buildings: The Transformation of Cities"

"On Wednesday, April 13, at 7:00 pm, renowned architect, urban designer and teacher Herbert S. Newman, will give a special presentation on how buildings effect the life of cities."

Benefits

Benefits Office -Website-: "2-5550 "

[2004-09-07]
Benefits Office -Website And here's the Medical Spending Account Claim Form

OpenOffice 2.0

OpenOffice 2.0 offers major enhancements according to Tectonic newsletter. Beta version can be dowlnloaded here or from various other mirror sites.

Yashar Books (open access full text)

Reading Room includes links to source materials, including daf yomi site that includes audiovisual commentary to each page (?)

Biblical studies (full text)

Passage Lookup (Bible Gateway)

Skeptic's Annoted Bible

Skeptic's Annotated Koran

Tikkun Korim

King James Version (Bartleby)

Bible JPS 1917

English Bible Versions

Net Bible

Bible (Mechon Mamre, based on JPS 1917?) Interlinear Hebrew and English

Other full text resources from Mechon Mamre:

• Mishna (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/h/h0.htm)
• Tosefta (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/f/f0.htm)
• Talmud Yerushalmi (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/r/r0.htm)
• Talmud Bavli (http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/l/l0.htm)
• Rodkinson English translation (http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm) (1903, only Moed and Nashim).
• Images of each page of the Babylonian Talmud (http://www.e-daf.com).

Taxes

Sign in to Turbo Tax. Per Library Links, consider browsing Nolo legal encyclopedia for advice, as well as other sites.

Research Tools

[2005 03 07]
Julie Linden announces that a "new link called 'Create Bibliographies' has been added to the Research Tools category. This link points to: http://www.library.yale.edu/cite/. This page gives an overview of RefWorks and EndNote, two major citation management tools supported at Yale."


Yale Databases

1911 Encyclopedia Britanica

Bartleby.com online reference works, e.g., American Heritage Dictionary.

[2004 08 26]
Yale now has site license for RefWorks, a web-based bibliographic database. Allows importing of citations through Z39.50, and various other conduits, and allows annotation of references.