Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Daylight Saving Time is coming faster than usual

I much prefer falling back to springing forward when it comes to Daylight Saving Time. Having said that, I'm all for taking advantage of what daylight we have, even though moving into Daylight Saving Time (DST) is going to be more complicated in 2007 than it's been for a while. This year, instead of starting in the first week of April, DST begins on March 11.

WSU Information Technology Services has posted a nice set of guidelines for helping us get through the changes in DST this year. They've cleverly named their DST page Y2K Lite. I highly recommend looking at what they have to say, especially if you're as dependent on your calendaring software as I am on Outlook.

If you're interested in some of the history of Daylight Saving Time, you might want to check out Daylight Saving Time, which provides a nice history of DST, including legislative changes, correct spelling, and a great Incidents and Anecdotes page that helps put our current Y2K Lite into perspective.

And if you want to know what time it really is, try The Official US Time for a nice, clickable time zone map.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Web Working Group Retreat

Many more people use the WSU Libraries' web site on a daily basis than use any of our physical sites. This is why I didn't mind spending an entire day (well 9:30 am- 3:30 pm, but you get the idea) working with fellow library employees to improve our web presence.

The Web Working Group, of which I am a member, met today to plot and plan ways to make our web site easier to use. The WWG is one of the busiest and most energetic groups in the Libraries (probably in all of WSU, if that's not too immodest) and we get a lot done in terms of maintenance and upgrades to things like our online catalog and our article search tool. But today we talked about the big picture our our web, and are hoping to make some very large improvements in terms of how easy it is to use. I can't go into much detail yet, but we are planning to

  • Make our public pages patron-focused
  • Evaluate what pages/features on our website people find most useful and make getting to those pages easier
  • Work with the new WSU web page templates to make our front page cleaner, with fewer links
  • Work towards migrating to a Content Management System so that pages are maintained consistently

Awfully ambitious of us, and how we make all of this happen will depend a lot on the information we gather in the next few weeks, but it's highly satisfying to be part of such a positive plan for the future. And my colleagues on theWWG deserve a lot of praise for their dedication and determination.

All comments and input about ways to improve our web pages are welcome - just send them to Erica Carlson Nicol

Friday, February 16, 2007

Online Northwest Conference, Done

Online Northwest 2007 is over, and I'm going to get some impressions down here before my brain cells carry out their threat to stop working for the day.

The conference started off with a keynote address from Stephen Abram, one of the rock stars of the library world, and for good reason. He's reliably visionary and provocative. Here are some highlights from the keynote:

    Google is generally better than we are for "who, what, where" questions, but we are much better at "why" questions, and need to start publicizing that fact.

    Everything is social, and just seems to be getting more so. Libraries need to integrate themselves into our communities, and we should use social networking software to do this - we need to offer RSS feeds (though we don't need to call them RSS feeds), and presence in sites like MySpace and Facebook are necessary if we're going to be relevant to our users.

    "If you don't use IM, you are basically immorally serving your users," not just because it's another viable way to connect, but because the cell phone will be the dominant personal tech device in the very near future and we need to be ready for that.

    Being cute isn't getting us [libraries] anywhere. We have to start demanding money.

So, invigorating.

And kind of a hard act to follow, but I was pleased that Alex and I managed to hold the attention of our audience when we presented on WSU's federated searching tool. We ended up with a lot of good questions, and I'll post the link to our PowerPoint slides soon.

The last session of the day that I attended was "Not a Series of Tubes," By Rachel Bridgewater of WSU Vancouver. This was possibly the clearest delineation of internet copyright and technology policy that I've ever heard, with very good descriptions about how issues like net neutrality affect not just libraries but everyday people who use the web. I'm hoping to link to her presentation materials as soon as they're up, too.

It's been a long day, but my mind is buzzing with new ideas that I get to bring back to work with me, and I'm tickled about this - clearly the sign of a good conference.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Online Northwest

I'll be heading out to Online Northwest in Corvallis, OR tomorrow. I enjoyed attending last year, but this year I'm really looking forward to it, partly because I now know that there's a really amazing Thai restaurant in Corvallis, and partly because this year I'm presenting with a WSU collegue. Our presentation title is "Integrating Metasearch into Your Library: Social, Technical, and Practical Obstacles," which, translated, means that Alex Merrill and I will be discussing the process of launching a metasearch tool here at WSU, including lots of information about what went wrong and why, and how we learned from that and managed a successful launch. Should be hair-raising. Er, fun, I mean.

Monday, February 12, 2007

New Books in Anthropology at WSU Libraries

All books on this list are in the Holland and Terrell Libraries' collection. If you are curious about a title, please click on it to see further details and information on availability.

  • Aguilar, Mario I. Rethinking age in Africa: colonial, post-colonial, and contemporary interpretations of cultural representations.
    GN645 .R48 2007
  • Barker, Graeme. The agricultural revolution in prehistory: why did foragers become farmers?
    GN799.A4 B38 2006
  • Breglia, Lisa. Monumental ambivalence: the politics of heritage.
    F1435.3.E72 B74 2006
  • Conway, Susan. The Shan: culture, arts and crafts.
    DS530.8.S45 C66 2006
  • DeBernardi, Jean Elizabeth. The way that lives in the heart: Chinese popular religion and spirit mediums in Penang, Malaysia.
    BL2080 .D43 2006
  • Doyel, David E. & Dean, Jeffrey S., eds. Environmental change and human adaptation in the ancient American Southwest.
    E78.S7 E68 2006
  • Dunand, Françoise. Mummies and death in Egypt.
    DT62.M7 D8513 2006
  • Early, John D. The Maya and Catholicism: an encounter of worldviews.
    F1435.3.R3 E37 2006
  • Foley, Robert. Unknown boundaries: exploring human evolutionary studies.
    GN281 .F67 2006
  • Galush, William John. For more than bread: community and identity in American Polonia, 1880-1940.
    E184.P7 G35 2006
  • Ganz, Nicholas. Graffiti women: street art from five continents.
    ND2590 .G348 2006
  • Karpf, Anne. The human voice: how this extraordinary instrument reveals essential clues about who we are.
    PN4162 .K285 2006
  • Lavender, Catherine Jane. Scientists and storytellers: feminist anthropologists and the construction of the American Southwest.
    GN560.U6 L38 2006
  • Macdonald, Charles J-H. Uncultural behavior: an anthropological investigation of suicide in the southern Philippines.
    DS666.P34 M23 2007
  • Matson, R. G. & Kohler, Timothy A. Tracking ancient footsteps: William D. Lipe's contributions to southwestern prehistory and public archaeology.
    E76.45.L57 T73 2006
  • Nelson, Sarah Milledge. Handbook of gender in archaeology.
    CC72.4 .H36 2006
  • Neale, Jenny. No friend like a sister: exploring the relationship between sisters.
    BF723.S43 N43 2004
  • Notar, Beth E. Displacing desire: travel and popular culture in China.
    DS797.86.D37 N67 2006
  • Odland, J. Claire. Fashioning tradition: Maya huipiles in the Field Museum Collections.
    GN2 .F4 n.s. no.38
  • Peace, Sheila M. Environment and identity in later life.
    BF724.85.H65 P43 2006
  • Peck, E. J. (Edmund James). Apostle to the Inuit: the journals and ethnographic notes of Edmund James Peck, the Baffin years, 1894-1905.
    BV2813. P42 A3 2006
  • Powell-Martí, Valli S. & Gilman, Patricia A. Mimbres society.
    E99.M76 M55 2006
  • Quilter, Jeffrey & Miller, Mary Ellen. A pre-Columbian world.
    E55.5 .P73 2006
  • Regis, Helen A. Caribbean and Southern: transnational perspectives on the U.S. South.
    GN2 .S9243 no.38
  • Reyes, Angela. Language, identity, and stereotype among Southeast Asian American youth: the other Asian.
    E184.S695 R49 2007
  • Ring, Laura A. Zenana: everyday peace in a Karachi apartment building.
    HN690.5.K33 R56 2006
  • Robertson, Elizabeth C. Space and spatial analysis in archaeology.
    CC72.4 .U55 2002
  • Robson, Eleanor; Treadwell, Luke & Gosden, Chris. Who owns objects?: the ethics and politics of collecting cultural artefacts: proceedings of the first St. Cross-All Souls Seminar Series and Workshop, Oxford, October-December 2004.
    CC135 .S7 2004
  • Talalay, Lauren E. In the field: the archaeological expeditions of the Kelsey Museum.
    CC101.M268 T35 2006
  • Tokeley, Jonathan. Rescuing the past: the cultural heritage crusade.
    CC135 .T645 2006
  • Walter, Chip. Thumbs, toes, and tears: and other traits that make us human.
    GN281 .W35 2006
  • Wells, Jonathan C. K.; Strickland, S. S. & Laland, Kevin N. Social information transmission and human biology.
    BF444 .S62 2006
  • Yengoyan, Aram A. Modes of comparison: theory & practice.
    D16.8 .M697 2006
  • Sunday, February 11, 2007

    New Books in Women's Studies at WSU Libraries

    All books on this list are in the Holland and Terrell Libraries' collection. If you are curious about a title, please click on it to see further details and information on availability.

  • Ali, Kecia. Sexual ethics and Islam: feminist reflections on Qur'an, hadith, and jurisprudence.
    HQ32 .A45 2006
  • Brown, Mary. Boom: marketing to the ultimate power consumer--the baby boomer woman.
    HC79.C6 B76 2006
  • Carpenter, R. Charli. Innocent women and children: gender, norms and the protection of civilians.
    KZ6515 .C37 2006
  • Derrida, Jacques. Geneses, genealogies, genres, and genius: the secrets of the archive.
    PQ2663.I9 Z62713 2006
  • Eaton, Gale. Well-dressed role models: the portrayal of women in biographies for children.
    CT21 .E2155 2006
  • Ferrell, Robyn. Copula: sexual technologies, reproductive powers.
    HQ1075 .F474 2006
  • Fonda, Jane. Jane Fonda's words of politics and passion.
    PN2287.F56 A3 2006
  • Franklin, Diana Britt. The good-bye door: the incredible true story of America's first female serial killer to die in the chair.
    HV6534.C5 F73 2006
  • Grown, Caren; Braunstein, Elissa & Malhotra, Anju. Trading women's health and rights?: trade liberalization and reproductive health in developing economies.
    HF2580.9 .T735 2006
  • Harrison, Charles. Painting the difference: sex and spectator in modern art.
    ND1460.S44 H37 2005
  • Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy. The cult of thinness.
    BF697.5.B63 H47 2007
  • Hunt, Krista & Rygiel, Kim. (En)gendering the war on terror: war stories and camouflaged politics.
    HV6432 .E64 2006
  • Incite! Women of Color Against Violence. Color of violence: the Incite! Anthology.
    HV6250.4.W65 C627 2006
  • Jeffrey, Leslie Ann. Sex workers in the Maritimes talk back.
    HQ149.M4 J44 2006
  • Korn, Fadumo. Geboren im groben Regen or, Born in the big rains: a memoir of Somalia and survival.
    GN484 .K6613 2006
  • Nolin, Catherine. Transnational ruptures: gender and forced migration.
    HV640 .N65 2006
  • Ribane, Nakedi. Beauty: a black perspective.
    GT497.S6 R53 2006
  • Riverbend. Baghdad burning II: more girl blog from Iraq.
    DS79.76 R587 2006
  • Simons, Margaret A. The philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir: critical essays.
    B2430.B344 P45 2006
  • Simonsen, Jane E. Making home work: domesticity and Native American assimilation.
    NX180.S6 S572 2006
  • Skalli, Loubna H. Through a local prism: gender, globalization, and identity in Moroccan women's magazines.
    HN782.Z9 M34 2006
  • Skidmore, Colleen Marie. This wild spirit: women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada.
    F1090 .T47 2006
  • Speed, Shannon, et al. Dissident women: gender and cultural politics in Chiapas.
    F1435.3.W55 D57 2006
  • Staples, David E. No place like home: organizing home-based labor in the era of structural adjustment.
    HD2333 .S82 2006
  • Stearns, Peter N. Gender in world history. 2nd ed.
    HQ1075 .S73 2006
  • Stiehm, Judith. Champions for peace: women winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
    JZ5540 .S74 2006
  • Wadud, Amina. Inside the gender Jihad : women's reform in Islam.
    BL458 .W33 2006
  • Friday, February 9, 2007

    New Books in Communication at WSU Libraries

    All books on this list are in the Holland and Terrell Libraries' collection. If you are curious about a title, please click on it to see further details and information on availability.

  • Agbese, Aje-Ori. The role of the press and communication technology in democratization.
    PN5499.N5 A53 2006
  • Applegate, Edd & Johnsen, Art. Cases in advertising and marketing management: real situations for tomorrow's managers.
    HF5823 .A7935 2007
  • Barrett, Mary & Davidson, Marilyn. Gender and communication at work.
    HD30.3 .G455 2006
  • Beder, Sharon. Free market missionaries: the corporate manipulation of community values.
    HD59 .B375 2006
  • Beeler, Stan & Dickson, Lisa. Reading Stargate SG-1.
    PN1992.77.S738 R43 2006
  • Berenger, Ralph D. Cybermedia go to war: role of converging media during and after the 2003 Iraq war.
    P96.I73 C93 2006
  • Cashmore, Ernest. Celebrity/culture.
    P94.6 .C376 2006
  • Castells, Manuel. Mobile communication and society: a global perspective: a project of the Annenberg Research Network on international communication.
    HM1206 .M62 2007
  • Crow, David. L →R: left to right; the cultural shift from word to pictures.
    P93.5 .C75 2006
  • DiFonzo, Nicholas. Rumor psychology: social and organizational approaches.
    HM1241 .D54 2007
  • Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. Arab media in the information age.
    P92.A65 A73 2006
  • Finnegan, Lisa. No questions asked : news coverage since 9/11.
    PN4738 .F56 2007
  • Hachten, William A. The world news prism: global information in a satellite age.
    PN4784.F6 H3 2007
  • Hallock, Steven M. Editorial and opinion: the dwindling marketplace of ideas in today's news.
    PN4888.E28 H35 2007
  • Heffernan, James A. W. Cultivating picturacy: visual art and verbal interventions.
    P93.5 .H44 2006
  • Holden, Todd Joseph Miles & Scrase, Timothy J. Medi@sia: global media/tion in and out of context.
    P94.65.A78 M43 2006
  • Ickes, L. R. Public broadcasting in America.
    HE8689.7.P82 P833 2006
  • Klein, Allison. What would Murphy Brown do?: how the women of prime time changed our lives.
    PN1992.8.W65 K54 2006
  • Lavery, David. Reading Deadwood : a western to swear by.
    PN1992.77.D39 R43 2006
  • Lenard, Thomas M. & May, Randolph J. Net neutrality or net neutering: should broadband internet services be regulated.
    HE7781 .N46 2006
  • Mathews, Mary Beth Swetnam. Rethinking Zion: how the print media placed fundamentalism in the South.
    PN4888.F86 M38 2006
  • Mbaine, Adolf. Media in situations of conflict: roles, challenges, and responsibility.
    P96.W35 M43 2006
  • Moeran, Brian. Ethnography at work.
    HF6182.J3 M636 2006
  • Moore, Linda K. Emergency communications.
    TK6570.P8 M66 2007
  • Moran, Albert. Understanding the global TV format.
    HE8700.4 .M597 2006
  • Napoli, Philip M. Media diversity and localism: meaning and metrics.
    P96.E25 M39 2007
  • Partington, Alan. The linguistics of laughter: a corpus-assisted study of laughter-talk.
    P95.45 .P37 2006
  • Relke, Diana M. A. Drones, clones, and alpha babes: retrofitting Star Trek's humanism, post-9/11.
    PN1992 .8 S74 R47 2006
  • Rich, John. Warm up the snake: a Hollywood memoir.
    PN1992.4.R52 A3 2006
  • Schaefer, Todd M. & Birkland, Thomas A. Encyclopedia of media and politics.
    Reference P95.82.U6 E47 2007
  • Sheffield, Tricia. The religious dimensions of advertising.
    HF5821 .S49 2006
  • Sherr, Lynn. Outside the box: a memoir.
    PN4874.S472 A3 2006
  • Thussu, Daya Kishan. International communication: continuity and change.
    P96.I5 T48 2006
  • Toth, Elizabeth L. The future of excellence in public relations and communication management: challenges for the next generation.
    HD59 .F827 2007
  • Watson, James & Hill, Anne. Dictionary of media and communication studies.
    P87.5 .W38 2006
  • Weisman, Alan. Lone star: the extraordinary life and times of Dan Rather.
    PN4874.R28 W45 2006
  • Zelezny, John D. Cases in communications law: liberties, restraints, and the modern media.
    KF2750.A7 Z44 2007
  • Thursday, February 8, 2007

    Want to buy a cupcake? Want me to wash your car?

    I'm thinking of the possibilities of library bake sales and car washes, a post-Midwinter state brought on by seeing all of these cool databases that I want. I've met one librarian in my lifetime who was satisfied with her collections budget. I find that I'm intensely jealous of her all the time.

    After the Midwinter Conference, we get to look at some fabulous databases on a trial basis, and some of them would be very good for the teaching and research faculty we support. It's like window shopping for academic librarians, and it's fun.

    It's also bittersweet, because with the exception of that nameless librarian who exists far, far away, very few librarians are satisfied with their collections budget. We want to give you more. More full text, more years of coverage, more images, audio files, and more coverage for more subjects. When your life's work is helping people access information, it seems as though you can never do enough to increase that access. And, very often, Libraries are not funded as they should be, and the people who work in them (and the faculty they support) are faced with decisions like these:

    Database X is great and has lots of full-text coverage in this area where we do a lot of research, but to afford it, we'd need to give up database Y, which covers different publications and is highly useful for another area of research. Do we get X and let go of Y, or hang on to Y and hope that someday we can afford to get X.

    So, perhaps double-chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate icing? I thought so.

    Thursday, February 1, 2007

    Goodbye, Molly Ivins

    Molly Ivins, fantastic political columnist known for her contributions to public interest journalism, passed away Wednesday. The world will miss her wit and her unabashed liberal perspective. One of the things I'll miss most about her is her respect for her readers. Here's a video snippet as an example:



    If you're interested in Molly Ivins's books, here's a list of those at the WSU Libraries: