The World Almanac - feedback wanted

The World Almanac is Calling all librarians to "tell us what parts of the World Almanac you use most often... or what parts you've never used in all your years behind the reference desk... or what facts and statistics you think we've neglected for too long."
And I'm not just mentioning it cos they link to me - honest!

Five Non-Library Blogs

I was tagged by Cliff Landis (thanks!) in this meme from Rachel, the Liminal Librarian.

I found it quite difficult to narrow it down to only 5!

1. Blaugh - the (un)official comic of the blogosphere
2. The World Almanac
3. Interesting Thing of the Day
4. Jon Aquino's Mental Garden
5. Web 2.0 Explorer

I also just want to say thanks to Rachel for starting such an interesting meme! It has been great to see what non-library related blogs other people in the Biblioblogosphere are reading, and I have added quite a few to my blogroll. So thanks to Joshua M. Neff for the link to Wil Wheaton's blog/TNG reviews , Amanda at Blog without a Library for Bokardo, Jessamyn for This is Broken , and The Librarian in Black for Neil Gaiman's blog.

I'll have them if they don't want them!

UK Schools refuse gifts of 'boring' classics

Law Librarians Should Learn to Drive Their Stock Up

Following the post on Lis News, I just read this excellent article at Law Librarians Should Learn to Drive Their Stock Up
While I object to the first sentence "Shhhhh! That's what you'd expect to hear from law librarians." - Since when? I agree with the rest. Salaries at UK law firms are similarly varied - I left a job I loved, with great colleagues, because the pay was just so low, and the HR department or whoever seemed to place no value on law librarians at all. Just take a look at the LisJobNet, or one of the other library job websites, and you'll see salaries for Library Assistant positions that range from the lowest of the low, to higher than the mid-range salaries offered for qualified Librarian positions. It is madness.

The article had some good ideas for improving a librarian's standing in the firm, including:
Billing for your time: This is something that was done at a couple of firms I have worked at, but not where I work currently. I found it annoying having to ask for file/matter numbers all the time, but it was good to let lawyers know that we charged for our time, it seemed to raise our position, and I wish we did it where I work now.
Preparing an annual report: This is an interesting idea - and something I'd never heard of before. Particularly useful, I suspect, if you do charge for your time, or are considering it. Most law firm libraries already gather some statistical data on enquiries, circulation, etc, it would be a simple matter to bundle it together to show how much money you have charged-back for the firm, how often various resources are used, which departments use the library more etc.

Spring!

Today is the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox, so I have been having a look at a few sites about it.

The BBC's religions site has a page on the Spring Equinox

And the Religious Tolerance Organisation has an interesting article looking at the Spring Equinox in different beliefs.

Wikipedia has interesting info on Equinoxes generally.

I came across this fantastically long-ranging list of Vernal Equinox Dates and Times of Day each year for 1096 years
1452 - 2547'

This astronomy site includes a movie illustrating the tilt of the Earth's equatorial plane relative to the Sun, and also, discusses the superstition that it is possible to stand an egg upright on its end on the date of the equinoxes

Happy Ostara!

Risky Business - Blogging

Saw this post on Joho The Blog's blog this morning (Fired simply for having a blog). Surely this is unfair dismissal! It's certainly unfair anyway.

There are plenty of other cases of people being sacked for their blogs, but mostly (as far as I know) the person was not anonymous, and/or mentioned their employer in some way (whether or not their dismissal was fair is another question):

Of blogging and unemployment:
I was fired for blogging

Plus, the NY Times wrote an interesting article about it: Job Posting

It has all got me thinking as to my own reasons for being anonymous on my blog, and wondering how many other bloggers remain anonymous, and for what reasons.

Fear/Comfort/The ability to express yourself openly/Self-consciousness?

And if you are 'fessing up to your identity - why? Was it a conscious decision? Did it even occur to you to be anonymous?

*Update - Sacked blogger wins tribunal case

Definitions

I've been noticing lots of dictionary/definition sites recently, so thought I'd pop them all in a list together.

Metaglossary : "harvests definitions from the entire web". It searches the internet for definitions of a word or phrase, and brings back summary results in context, along with links to the source. It works quite well, depending on the word or phrase - a search for JavaScript, for example, returns four results, all of which look relevant. A search for eldritch only returns one result. You also get the option to move results up and down the list depending on their helpfulness, and to submit a better definition (if you're registered).

WordSource: "The Social Dictionary". It provides definitions, synonyms etc, and related photos, allows tagging (if you're signed in), and has a hangman game! It also allows you to search for words by prefix or suffix.

Visual Thesaurus: "An interactive dictionary and thesaurus with an innovative display that encourages exploration and learning". Which is nice. You type in a word and you get a spider diagram thing, with similar words, and you have to hover over a yellow circle for the definition. A bit odd. Definition for eldritch identical to that on WordSource.

Ninja Words: "A really fast dictionary... fast like a ninja." Hmm. Works pretty quickly, true. It keeps the words you have looked up on screen, so if you look up several words, they are all displayed in a list, which I quite like. You can also look up a random word, which is fun, and possibly useful for compiling qord puzzles.

OneLook: This lets you look up definitions or translations across over 900 online dictionaries. Which is a lot. It just provides a list of links to definitions, and a quick definition.

Laziness

Ok, so I've been feeling rather lazy recently, and haven't done much in the way of posting. I've been really busy at work, so have slacked off in other areas I guess. But I have been keeping up with my reading (just about, there's so much to keep up with!), and here's what has caught my eye:

Column Two's How to write good FAQ's (hey that rhymes!)
WikiWrit, a wiki 'holy book', found via Monkey Bites which makes me feel a bit better about the world after my horror of seeing the abomination that is Conservapedia (which I am so not linking to).

Lots of articles about how annoying Snap is:
Snap makes me crazy - Librarian in Black
Does Snap Make You Snap? - lo fi Librarian
Is Snap Preview the most hated Web 2.0 function ever? - Guardian Technology

So many things about Yahoo Pipes that I'm not sure I can take any more! I will have to look into this more, but just not now!

Lis-Bloggers mailing list - looks like being a great resource.

I've also been reading with interest the debate over Bloglines vs Google Reader (both on blogs, and the Lis-Bloggers list), and I have to say, I'm sticking with Bloglines. I tried both for a while, but I do prefer Bloglines, possibly because I am used to it, and all its problems (better the devil you know and all).