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Originally uploaded by WebJunction.

Jen having fun at the WebJunction reception. Those feathers were everywhere by the end of the night.

A few folks have written about Wordle, the new site that creates beautiful word clouds. I just tried one for our new Master in Biostatistics program, and here’s the cloud:

I LOVE this!  I think I’ll make one for each of the majors.  How cool would it look to decorate the library with matted and framed versions of these???

I was lucky enough to have been invited to a conference call that gave a few folks a sneak peek of the new WebJunction site.

It. Is. Amazing.

Think WebJunction meets Facebook meets Flickr meets LinkedIn meets Delicious.  And then some.

The look of the site has been tweaked, which is what you usually get with an updated website.  But the added and improved functionality was what had me excited.  The site will incorporate much of the 2.0 toolbox: tagging, commenting, rating, recommendations by members, social networking.

While I have always been a fan of WebJunction and an advocate on their behalf, I must admit that I tended to visit the site when I needed specific information.  I didn’t tend to hang out on WJ.  This new site design may change all that.  With the added social networking and communication features, the ability to create groups, post photos, query members, get recommendations, see what friends are doing…..I can see this becoming a Librarian’s Facebook.

The site is slated to go live sometime in July.  I really can’t wait.

Kudos to the WebJunction team for creating this!  Great, great work.

This is priceless. From Scribal Terror, may I present:

Candidate for a Pullett Surprise
by Jerrold H. Zar

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it’s weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o’er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore a veiling checker’s
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we’re lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know fault’s with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word’s fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw’s are knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.

By the author’s count, 127 of the 225 words of the poem are incorrect (although all words are correctly spelled).

Fabulous!

Love this. From the always fun blog Neatorama:

In 1994, New York University physics professor Alan Sokal made headlines when he published his article “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity.” in the sociological quarterly Social Text. He then revealed that he had submitted the article as a hoax and that the text was a parody of postmodernist philosophy. Sokal completely fooled the “scholarly” editors of Social Text into printing his parody of their intellectual presuppositions.

In this vein, you, too, can enjoy instant pomo goodness with the Postmodern Essay Generator, courtesy of the blog Communications From Elsewhere. Just click on “refresh” for instant, angst-filled, tenure-track gratification.

Heh.

I was a preliminary judge again for the Minnesota Book Awards, and I loved it as much this year as I did last year.  What a great task - to read 25 books!  My category was Genre Fiction, of which I am a particular fan.

The judges assembled on Saturday to choose the finalists.  It was a tough decision, as there were a number of terrific reads. We could only choose four, however.  The finalists in Genre Fiction are:

• Code Black by Philip Donlay (ibooks)
• Maiden Rock by Mary Logue (Bleak House Books/Big Earth Publishing)
• Protect and Defend by Vince Flynn (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster)
• Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster)

They’re all terrific reads and I recommend them all.  If you’re interested in learning which books were chosen as finalists in the other categories, you can visit the Minnesota Book Awards site. 

Area Eccentric Reads Entire Book

Heh.

Well, “Briana” contacted me again this morning.  Surprise of surprises, the deposit company where the theoretical $800,000 resides wants some information about me.  What was a bit chilling is that the information they want is my passport number.  I had been expecting a request for my social security number, but passport?  Is this some group looking for legit passport numbers in order to forge US passports?  <shudder>

I contacted the Department of Public Safety, and while talking to them, attached the transcripts of the chats.  They now have all they need in the way of evidence to pass it upstairs for investigation.  Hopefully, they’ll catch this jerk before he can snag some unsuspecting person into giving him what he wants.

Again, this speaks strongly to librarians educating our patrons - especially our elderly patrons, who are more susceptible to this sort of crime.

I recently had the opportunity to read an advanced copy of a wonderful new book by Minnesota author Brian Freeman, and I wanted to share my thoughts on the book.

“Stalked”  is a terrific read.  Brian is a mystery writer and crafts riveting, fast-paced stories with interesting twists and turns.  I started the book on Friday night, picked it back up on Saturday morning, and didn’t put it down until I was finished.  I couldn’t read fast enough, I was so drawn into the story.  And I didn’t see the ending coming, either.

The book won’t be out officially until February, so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a bit to read it yourself.  But make a note and grab it when you can!  In the meantime, he’s got two other terrific novels - “Immoral” and “Stripped.”  If you like mysteries, you’re gonna love this guy.

MPOW will be hosting Brian in an author visit on March 20th, so if you’re in the area and are interested, mark your calendars and meet Brian!

It’s that time of year again! Beloit College in Wisconsin has released the Mindset List.

When they welcome the class of 2011 in the coming weeks, American colleges and universities will be saying hello to the generation born as the Cold War was ending. For them, a Russia with multiple political parties and a China with multiple business enterprises seems quite normal. They’ve grown up in a time of triumphant capitalism, where it’s common for stadiums to be named after corporations and where product placements have always been yet another clever way for companies to sell their wares.

Each August for the past decade, as faculty prepare for the academic year, Beloit College in Wisconsin has released the Beloit College Mindset List. Its 70 items provide a look at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students, most of them born in 1989. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. Latchkey kids for most of their lives, students entering college this fall think nothing of arriving home with parents still at work, then e-mailing or texting their friends, instantly updating their autobiographies on “Facebook” or “MySpace,” and listening to their iPods while doing their research on Wikipedia. They’ve grown up with Rush Limbaugh urging his fellow Dittoheads to excoriate liberals, with having been taught by an equal number of women and men in the classroom, and with women having been hired as police chiefs of major cities.

Food has always been a health concern. Consumer awareness about ingredients and fats has always been energized. They’ve never “rolled down” a car window, and to them Jack Nicholson is mainly known as the guy who played “The Joker.” As usual, they remind their elders how quickly time has passed. For them Pete Rose has never been in baseball. Abbie Hoffman’s always been dead. Johnny Carson has never been live on TV, and Nelson Mandela has always been free. As for the Berlin Wall, what’s that?

In addition to those mentioned above (no BERLIN WALL???), there are some jarring entries:

7. They have grown up with bottled water.

13. “Off the hook” has never had anything to do with a telephone.

23. Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM.

43. Being a latchkey kid has never been a big deal.

55. MTV has never featured music videos.

Check out the whole list at Beloit College. It’s mindbending.