mcbride

Anonymous Patron writes “Fines and fees are too tame for Vikings. Check out the punishment for overdue books in the Hagar the Horrible comic for Monday, April 5.” (link changed to Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

slashgirl writes “This article discusses the issue of so called “chick-lit” books–the literary equivalent of a “chick flick” it would seem. ‘Booker Prize-winning author Beryl Bainbridge has dismissed chick-lit as “froth” and Publishers Weekly, the U.S. book trade bible, suggested in an article last October that the genre is overcrowded and may be on its way out. But don’t tell that to Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout, the 40-ish Toronto-based authors of Speechless…'”

An Anonymous Patron writes about an interesting article at Technology Review concerning Google’s place in the websearch wars. Competition, their potential IPO, and the future. Read the full article at Technology Review.

David Rothman writes “Neither John Edwards nor John Kerry can summon up the courage so far to oppose the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

Stealthily passed in ’98 when the press was fixated on the Clinton impeachment controversy, the act will transfer billions over the years to Hollywood and the rest of the copyright elite from schools, libraries and consumers.” Read more on this issue at the TeleRead weblog.

According to a press release Thursday from Dialog, BIOSIS Previews has some new features (press release available). Highlights include:

• the addition of CAS Registry Numbers to more than nine million BIOSIS Previews records
• the addition of more than 6,300 sequence data accession numbers
• the addition of BIOSIS Major Concepts, an indexing field that enables researchers to identify and retrieve targeted information by conceptual terms, now added to every citation back to 1969

The update is on both Dialog and Dialog DataStar services. The CAS Registry Numbers should prove extremely valuable for adverse event pharmaceutical alerts that search MEDLINE, EMBASE and BIOSIS.

Katie writes “Oh, that Satchel! Get Fuzzy“ Friday Funny.

Pete writes “BBC News Online has a nifty article here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3452315.stm about researchers who have gone back to the future to deal with the problem of information overload.

The device, called the Executive Dashboard, is from an MIT spin-off company Ambient Devices http://www.ambientdevices.com“

For all you techy librarians, do you use any Linux distributions in your organization? Which version of Linux do you consider the best for your purposes? I’ve used the Linux Online distribution page (http://www.linux.org/dist/) to evaluate all the different offerings, and I’ve installed several. I was unhappy with RedHat, and other flavors have produced similar disappointing results and challenging installations, especially on older Celeron-based PCs. (Article Poll Inside)

bentley writes “Eight years ago, Australian Glen Goulds and Japanese Natsuko Shioya fell in love. Almost two years later, while she was home to talk to her parents about moving to Australia, Natsuko, 23, died in a freak accident. Glen, 37, spent three years getting to know her family and Japanese aesthetics. In her memory, they built a library in Indonesia, near the village where Glen and Natsuko met. Glen designed it–complete with tea-room and Japanese garden–and once a month contributes AU$1,000 to pay the staff and buy more books. The sign at the door reads, “This place of peace and harmony is dedicated to the memory of Natsuko Shioya, a gentle, humble and selfless soul.” [More]” (Author’s note: Check your tears at the door, or they are bound to come out. A true love story.)

Gary D. Price sent in an article in the Philadelphia Business Journal about the relaunch of HighBeam eLibrary Research. The piece presents the company’s current plan, some historical information, as well as their long-term plan. They’ve got high goals, such as, ‘Our overall vision…is to become the place where individuals can go to do online research,’ said Patrick Spain, chairman and chief executive officer of HighBeam Research LLC.”