LISNews: Librarian News

Read this story from the Anti-Defamation League about the recent recognition of an Albanian Moslem Family.

Makes our political arguments look petty.

Conservator has a delightful song reproduced at his site. Even if you don't agree with the political tone it is a scream.

MPOW is looking for a researcher. The pay is probably in the mid40's to low 50's to start. MPOW has excellent advancement, life work balance, diversity and all that good stuff (no really it does).

The Business Researcher is responsible for providing relevant research and analysis to assurance, advisory and tax partners and staff. This can range from
providing quick fact checking to synthesized research that demonstrates the ability to use sophisticated research skills (source selection and search strategies)
and to produce value-added research responses and research analysis (interpretive and analytical reviews of information/data). Additional responsibilities can
include but are not limited to helping train staff on desktop resources; taking part in product trials; contributing to evaluations of information products; conducting
reference interviews to develop full scope of request while carrying research request assignments; providing navigational/training instructions where appropriate;
liaising with other PwC research groups and resources as needed to fulfill requests; continuously increasing knowledge of critical source tools and resources
relative to end-user research needs; synthesizing and codifying research findings into a meaningful response; taking part in vendor updates and performing
preliminary evaluations of information products; applying knowledge of firm strategy/organization to developed solutions. This is a great opportunity for a
librarian to work in a non-traditional librarian position.

Feel free to send me your CV. I'll forward them all to HR. There is an ulterior motive, the $5K referral bonus I'll get.

I have several useful URLs for you now that patrons are coming in for tax forms.

(One of the things I hated about the public library).

Everybody already knows about irs.gov, most people know about forms.gov (forms from all agencies including the IRS).

State forms can generally be found at a site run by the Federation of Tax Administrators < a href="http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/link/forms.html">www.taxadmin.org/fta/link/forms.html

I have also compiled a list of relevant URLs for tax information and forms as an Adobe Acrobat file. Please click on this link to get a copy of that document. [ Also available as a Word document so you can click on hyperlinks.] I compiled it so feel free to share it.

Oh, Canada!

Happy tax season

I'm going to this (we'll find out if it valuable or a time waster then ... these things go 50/50)

Finding the 'Search' in Web 2.0
A panel with Forrester Research, Comcast, and Reed Business

Date: January 16th
Time: 2:00 p.m. EST

Join Forrester Research, Comcast, and Reed Business for a spirited discussion about the role of search as a key enabler for the user experience of Web 2.0.

In this era of user-driven innovation and changing business models, Search is a critical component in Web 2.0 offerings - it's how you interact; it's how you discover; it's how you deliver; it's how you buy. Search is how users and customers connect to your business, content, and services. Smart Search can turn smart conversations into smart assets.

Questions for the panel:
Why are most online businesses gravitating to communities? Is it YouTube/MySpace backlash or is there real value?
How do you see search creating competitive differentiation for your company?
How is search offering new opportunities for monetizing digital assets?
Is the value shifting from content owners to gatekeepers like GYM (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft)? Why and why not?

It is free, you have to give out some personal information but I have given fast my info before and they don't bug me too much.

N.B. I hate the term webinar.

Parents of slain US GIs were told thier sons and daughters were heros according to an Associated Press report (which of course will not be widely distributed).

The report is here.

The Kurds and other Iraqis who were imprisoned, enslaved, and tortured by Hussein are indeed glad we were able to liberate them. Certainly all is not well in Iraq now, but it is much better than it was under a murdurous tyrant.

© 1897 New York Sun

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor-

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

As I leave to celebrate Christmas with my family and friends I number among my blessings those on LISNews who freely share their ideas and opinions. It is through a dialogue such as this that we can truly learn, that we can truly see what others see, that we can truly begin to understand ideas different from our own. I know that some on here are of different faiths and share different beliefs, however I believe we share a common goal of peace and understanding among all and for that I will pray at Mass this evening.

May you find everything you desire, may your lives be filled with peace and may we all be a little less skeptical in this skeptical age so that we are able to see the good in those around us no matter how hidden it may be.

I think this is just spiffy. I can deposit checks I receive into my checking account using my scanner and my broadband connection. It is just amazing. I scan the front, scan the back and click a few times and the money is in my account right away. Check21 the regulation that made electronic images of checks as valid as their paper counterparts allows this new facility.

Here is a news story about it. I did it yesterday with 2 ten dollar checks from some rebates. I was credited instantly. This beats Web 2.0 with a big stick.

This is a nifty little tool that allows you to locate a USPS mail drop box and also provides pick-up times.

Link

I wonder why the USPS does not have this service?

There are only 14 mailboxes in American Samoa

The classified documents that Sandy Berger stole from the NARA that he thought he may have thrown away in his office trashcan were hidden under a trailer at a construction site. It started out as a simple oops I forgot to return them and has eveolved in to a involved scheme to steal the documents.

What a scumbag. The article is here

What kind of adult steals things, what kind of adult goes through all those shenanigans to steal things. Hiding stuff in his socks, hiding classified documents under a trailer. What a scumbag.

Tonight begins the celebration commemorating the dedication (or Hanukkah) of the Temple after Antiochus destroyed it. The 8 candles (well 9 really but one is for light alone, not sacred light) represent the miracle of the oil. As the temple was rededicated, there was not enough lamp oil - only enough for one day, yet the lamps burned for eight days - the time needed to produce more sacred oil.

That is how Mrs. Potash one of my lay teachers in elementary school explained it. (Oddly I didn't die having something religious explained while in school.)

Hanukkah has become a bit of a secular celebration now to compete with the secularization of Christmas. But whatever holiday you observe have a wonderful and safe holiday. More importantly may the holidays remind that each day is a Holy day and we must work toward a long and lasting peace in the world.

Wiley has the < a href="http://images.ucomics.com/comics/nq/2006/nq061204.gif"> right idea for OJ.

I have a lot of crap. Old but working crap, new crap I seldom use and some crap that I have no idea how it wound up in my house.

I hate to throw stuff away that still has life in it and some stuff just never sells on eBay (why is that capitalized like that?) or is just too much of a pain in the neck to sell on eBay or other sites.

I found the freecycle.org local sites and I have been able to get rid of some dandy stuff. I gave away an upright Hoover to a couple who could not afford one jsut now but their's died the same day I bought a canister (canisters rock by the way).

I gave away one of those fax/scanner/printer things that did none of them very well but all of them fairly well. The thing was just annoying for me but some teenager is making use of it.

I got rid of an old sheet fed scanner and about half a dozen stuffed toys I got from office supply compaines and other vendors.

I hated to throw these things out as there was nothing really wrong with them, they would still be useful to someone, but I just didn't have a way to connect them to people who wanted them until now.

If you need something or want to give something I suggest that you try your local freecycle site. You can find your local site by going to freecycle.org.

Reuse, recycle, retread, reheat, reply, regift, reproduce!

If Hammond and Xerox merged would they make reproductive organs?

Our friend Greg is not brooding over the elections (nor am I - heck I didn't even vote for Katherine Harris (R- whacked) I wrote in someone appropriate). Greg is moving on with bringing a sustainable Democracy to the world. (If you can think of a better system let us know.)

Greg has an intersting item on a plan to put a bookmobile in Cuba. I think we should all pitch in and help. I'll go I have vacation time and I am a pain in the arse to Commies.

In that spirit I'll donate on official Commie T-Shirt size mediumish-large (they don't put labels on shirts in Cuba) given to me by an official Communist Cuban during the FIL in Guadalajara last year. (Of course we were in some bar smoking real Cuban cigars and drinking real Mexican Tequila and debating the benefits of our respective governmental systems - always the diplomat am I. Oh, and I paid the tab.)

This fine shirt as seen here on the old couch/cat bed and given a typical Republican inspection by Baxter the cat can be yours if you simply sign up to participate or donate. Since we're on the honor system I'll accept the first cc to the group using the addresses at Greg's site offering cash or time (I'm tired of typing all the links scroll up.)

Saturday November 11th is Veterans Day.

Thank you to all who served and all who serve. Without your service we could not have the vibrant Democracy we cherish.

By now I am certain everyone has heard what Senator Kerry said

You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," he said.

Now I know what he intended, that the President will get stuck in Iraq because he didn't study hard. Well I didn't get an undergrad in History at Yale, or a Harvard MBA, so I can't envision how hard one needs to study for those degrees but I fathom it was a bit more than an MLS from a state school.

However that is not germane to this missive. What is important is that Kerry did more today to hurt Democrats' chances than Foley did to the Republicans. Foley is a pervert and everyone failed to get him inline before he did something stupid.

Kerry however broke many of the laws of politics and public speaking (although to his credit he was not sending suggestive messages to children as far as I know). Kerry failed to realize that people don't consider the people for whom they are voting, and the issues on which they are voting to be a joke. He tried to make a joke and he insulted millions of people.

Further he failed to address his community college audience and rather used it as a platform to bash the president. There is a time and place for everything, and promoting the positive changes the Democrats have in mind would have been appropriate. However since he apparently feels the world revolves around him he took a jab at Bush, which failed miserably.

Second he felt that we all are Ivy League graduates and we would all understand the subtlety of his remarks. Well I hate to tell him that most people didn't go to Yale, heck most people don't have a BC law degree. Speaking of that law degree, he should understand the term 'plain meaning' and realize that most people are going to interpret his remark in that spirit.

He also failed to just 'fess up to his mistake and launched into a barely intelligible diatribe blaming the administration for everything from his burnt toast this morning to the Lindbergh kidnapping.

Dear Senator,
If your mouth is closed you have absolutely no chance of putting your foot in it. However please keep offending voters it will make it all that much easier for the people I want elected to gain or retain office.

N.B. Matt's election prediction, no shift in the balance of power, Democrats may take the House (although I am not betting on that - and I do bet at Paddy Powers). I'm not convinced that the Republicans will lose control; sure they may lose a few seats but not control. We'll see how accurate I am come next week.

Either way this country will survive; I'll support those who are elected, and continue to express my opinion to them. You know what we are supposed to do rather than make jokes and offer criticism that is not constructive.

It seems odd to me that a man who wrote books about adults fellating children and other 'literature' with which I could do without is running for Senate.

I know there are plenty of perverts in this country, but < a href="http://drudgereport.com/flashaw.htm"> these excerpts seem to only encourage them.

A Depew (Buffalo suburb & Guinness Record holder forMost Bars Per Square Mile ) mother is upset because a local physician made fun of her in myspace.com.

The Buffalo Evening News (owned by giant corporation Berkshire Hathaway) reports that the brilliant and gorgeous doctor made disparaging remarks about several people on her myspace page.

Her myspace page is gone now, but a brilliant librarian (that is why we learn these skills) has found the google cache. Yale undergrad, MD @ UB, Deaconess Family Practice resident, why don't I meet girls like that (oh she's not too keen on men accordnig to her my space page).

I'd move back to Buffalo. Heck, I'd walk back to Buffalo.

So I offered my services as a librarian for twenty five bucks on ebay. Link here, as expected there were no takers.

I did get a nice note from another librarian (who has a blog at http://trainlibrarian.blogspot.com ). It was a very encouraging note. Librarians are nothing if not a supportive bunch.

I may put the advert in the Oracle, the USF student paper. I wonder if anyone will contact me then. Of course if they do I'd feel obligated to help them and since the fee I advertised on ebay is quite low (especially compared to what my firm would bill me out at if I were to go to client sites)somehow I'd get screwed. We'll see. Perhaps we could get a network of librarians to do that. Raise the price to fifty bucks, take $10 as the overhead for running the site and pay the librarian $40 for an hours work. Hmmm... I wonder how that would work. I wonder if it would work or will people just use google answers or yahoo answers or continue to turn in crap

Happy Thanksgiving my Canadian friends!