It's finals week, and things have quietened considerably. Fewer students, fewer faculty, still plenty of staff as we begin to scurry about the work of the interregnum.
That's why I had time to finish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. In truth, this is probably the sixth or seventh time I've read it, which does help the 846 pages go by much more quickly. The story helps; it's rich in detail and offers endless newness with each reading. It's a pseudo-historical chronicle of England in the early 19th Century and the renaissance in English magic that occurs in that period, thanks to the effort of the two competing magicians mentioned in the title.
Yes, it's a fantasy work at heart, but so superbly executed that you hardly notice that you're reading anything other than a fascinating account of the life and times of Jonathan Strange and his teacher-turned-nemesis Mr. Norrell, as both work to bring dignity back to the practice of English magic by battling Napoleon at Waterloo and socializing with the day's peerage. Along the way, they fall afoul of a mad fairy who takes advantage of their early-on carelessness to entrap the wife of a significant member of the House of Lords and all-out abduct Jonathan Strange's wife, which precipitates the book's crashing end. In the middle of it all, they must navigate a suspicious government, a fickle public, and underhanded toadies with their own agendas. All of it is written in this wonderfully archaic nineteenth-century style that almost makes you feel as though you're actually reading a contemporary account.
The book is filled with innumerable footnotes referring to nonexistent academic documents, conventional-wisdom anecdotes about fairies and magicians, and truly fascinating historical background about an England that almost sounds like it could have existed.
Now, moving on.
This will be the last blog post for a little while -- I'm taking a break for Christmas and New Year's. We'll be returning on January 8 with an eye toward the Spring semester. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a little bit about good movies to watch over Christmas break.
I'm not talking about stuff like A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause, or Christmas with the Kranks. Those flicks are all playing on pretty much an infinite loop on most family-oriented cable networks until December 25.
The funny thing about holiday breaks is that, during the period just before and after Christmas, one usually finds oneself at loose ends. When you have a couple of weeks of nothing to look forward to, it's easy to take up residence on the family couch and start ordering takeout from your mom's kitchen. When you slip into that period of holiday ennui, you need something to watch that doesn't have snowflakes swirling around a network logo in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
One of the best ways to occupy all that time is through the judicious application of movie marathons. Trilogies, series, TV shows on DVD, anything that's at least six hours long. Those films have to be exceptionally absorbing or exceptionally ridiculous to be worth the time, so the following should not be taken too seriously. Here goes:
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King
C'mon. Who doesn't love the Lord of the Rings movies? Lush scenery, expansive battles, beautiful people, and a bona-fide epic storyline tying it all together. Peter Jackson demonstrated his love of monumental scale and created one of the best book-to-movie adaptations of all time. Never mind that The Return of the King has about 12 endings stitched together; Sam and Frodo's bromance makes it all worth it.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 2; Grindhouse: Death Proof, Planet Terror
I lump both Kill Bill and Grindhouse together because they're both part of a similar oeuvre. One could argue that flicks like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs fit into this group, but they were earlier movies by Quentin Tarantino, so don't quite partake of that 21st-Century violence-and-horror sensibility. The Kill Bill movies are gleaming and slick, a fantastically-narrated achronological revenge narrative in which a pregnant blushing bride (who works as one of the world's greatest assassins on the side) has her wedding interrupted by her coworkers' killing spree, taking the lives of her groom, the preacher, the preacher's wife, a few of her friends, and a few of his. The incident puts her in a coma and she wakes up four years later with her womb empty and her head filled with rage, and proceeds to go on a bloody rampage until she fetches up against her former boss and lover: Bill.
True to form, the Kill Bill films are bloody, clever, violent, and beautifully-done. On the other hand, the Grindhouse films are somewhat different. Done in the style of 1950s-era B-movies, they're grainy, scratched, and stuttery ... most of the time. Both films were helmed by different directors, but with significant roles for both in each. Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof tells the story of a homicidal stuntman who enjoys killing young women with his specially-reinforced car, until he comes up against a group of beautiful -- but exceptionally bloodthirsty -- women. This film has some of the most fantastic driving scenes I've ever seen, winding through the hills of Tennessee as the hunter becomes the hunted.
Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, however, is a different beast, and far closer to the B-movie archetype; a shadowy group of scientists tries to sell their biological weapon to the Army in a deal that goes spectactularly bad. The weapon is released, an entire Texas town gets transformed into cannibalistic, pus-oozing zombies, and the only hope lies with a one-legged stripper and her estranged lover, a felon/undercover Federale who should not be permitted near a gun.
El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Three of Robert Rodriguez's early films, this trilogy spans a period in the life of El Mariachi, an innocent Mexican mariachi player who falls in love. A lot. The first woman he falls in love with turns out to be involved with a local drug cartel, and is killed for her troubles. This incident sends El Mariachi on a lifelong trajectory of vengeance against the rapacious cartels that proliferate in Mexico. Yes, more killing, violence, and rage, but the trilogy focuses much more on El Mariachi himself and his attempts to regain his innocence. Set against the backgroup of the most beautiful Mexico you've ever seen, it's a deep examination of what makes us human and what can cause us to lose that humanity.
Star Wars: Episodes I-VI
Yes, all six episodes. It'll take you a couple of days to get through. It's worth it, though; even though the more-recently-made Episodes I-III are distinctly inferior to the older Episodes IV-VI, watching all six in sequence will give you a much better idea of what George Lucas was trying to do with his space opera. It isn't all ray guns and funny-looking aliens -- it's a work that tried to measure up to the likes of The Thorn Birds or Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, a generational saga that tried to be epic in its scope but instead ended up being a biography of Anakin Skywalker: his rise, his fall, his final redemption. The whole saga probably would have been better had it picked one -- generational epic or focused biography -- or the other. Still, it's a good try, and you see plenty of flashes of greatness, especially as you work your way toward the final episodes.
Heathers, Clueless, Mean Girls
Lest you think I'm all about explosions, death, murder, and war, here's a good collection of three movies to watch in sequence. They're unified only by their genre: teen high-school mean-girl comedy. Why do I recommend this? It's a great way to start thinking about how times have changed. Heathers was released in 1988, Clueless in 1995, and Mean Girls in 2004. Heathers is the story of a popular girl with a heart and her unfortunate tryst with a sociopath, and the tragedy that results. It's chock-full of dark humor ("Heather, what is your damage?") and will have you laughing at the teen sociopath's attempts to rationalize his actions using some faint echoes of Randian Objectivism. Unless you believe in it, in which case, it's got a sympathetic character you can root for!
Clueless takes you into the life of an affluent-but-shallow girl and the unreal world she inhabits, which is shaken by the advent of a grunge-chic chick from the East Coast. There's plenty of goofy humor (the movie that launched a thousand "Whatevers") and most of the high school depicted is populated by stereotypical sketches, but a film like this says much more about the culture that produced it than the one it portrays. The same is true about Mean Girls, although it is much closer to the reality of contemporary high school, mixed in with the snappy comebacks one more typically sees in sitcoms. Still, the ending gives you that "we met the enemy and he is us" moment that can often act as a valuable reality-check.
Anything by Mel Brooks: Spaceballs, History of the World Part I, Blazing Saddles, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Producers, Young Frankenstein
One of the original Hollywood spoofers, Mel Brooks has a longstanding reputation for lampooning popular culture in his movies. Most of the humor is juvenile, the acting isn't great, and the special effects are pretty hit-or-miss ... but they're funny! Brooks doesn't take moviemaking very seriously, so don't expect to get absorbed into a whole new world or anything -- a film camera smashes a medieval stained-glass window, a spaceship radar dish gets jammed with raspberry, the most insulting of all jams, and a German woman with a lisp discovers the truth about black men -- but all of his movies are immensely entertaining.
Popular wuxia films: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; House of Flying Daggers; Kung Fu Hustle
Wuxia is sort of a genre of Chinese historical martial-arts films. Not "historical" in the literal sense; although many of those movies are loosely based on historical accounts and/or stories, the operative word here is "loosely." They're more like period pieces, which may or may not strive for plot consistency over historical accuracy.
With that said, all four films are generally kung-fu love stories. The first three are serious and set in actual historical periods that cover around 2,000 years of Chinese history, ranging from the Warring States period (around 400 BCE; Hero) to the Qing Dynasty (sometime in the late 18th Century; Crouching Tiger), stopping in at the decline of the Tang dynasty (859 CE, to be exact, for House of Flying Daggers). All three are beautifully filmed, using sweeping landscapes and some of the most amazing colors you've seen in a long time. The fights are especially well-choreographed and make heavy use of slow-motion filming, as well as lots of gravity-defying stunts.
The one odd duck in the bunch, Kung Fu Hustle, is a total spoof of the previous three. Set in Shanghai of the 1940s, Hustle is the story of a rogue who accidentally foments conflict between one of the city's poorest districts and one of its most notorious organized-crime syndicates. However, the poor residents of the district are much, much more than they seem -- as is the fool who got them involved in the first place. Underpinning the story is this sort of gleefully cartoonish sensibility, one that allows the harridan of a landlady run someone down on foot Roadrunner-style, only to be thwarted by an inconveniently-placed billboard, or the Number One Killer in the World and his taste for cheap pink plastic slippers. It's hilarious and one of the most absurd films I've seen in a long time. It serves as a great relaxant after the seriousness of Crouching Tiger, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers.
And ... that wraps it up. Have a good holiday, everyone!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
break time!
It's the last week of classes? Whoa. Uh ...
Whoa. When did that happen? It feels like only yesterday that we were schlepping a few tons of lemonades and goodies outside to greet the arriving freshmen and their families and doing our best not to sweat too much. Now here we are in December, it's the last week of classes, and pretty much everyone who matters on campus (i.e., students) is in the process of slowly slinking off to their respective holiday destinations. Of course, we've still got finals week, but who cares about those?
We survived!
I have to admit that this was my first full Fall semester. I arrived last November right before Thanksgiving, so honestly didn't see much of the onslaught all the other Library staff had just gone through. They warned me all through the past year, but honestly ... how busy could it possibly be?
I feel stupid. And tired. But good! We saw a lot of students in here over the last few months, taking full advantage of what we have to offer. We spent a few weeks bugging students, faculty, and staff alike to share their feelings about us, with interesting results. It seems people appreciate having us here, but are dubious about the building itself, which is a bit like an old warhorse that can't tell left from right (just try finding the bathrooms around here ... ). Not an unfair assessment, but the Fall semester has, so far, left us feeling pretty good.
Before I go on to describe what we'll be doing once the semester officially ends, I just had to plug another fantastic English book after last week's Origins of the Specious: Word Nerd.
Unlike Origins, Word Nerd's not a narrative text; it's actually a lot closer to an actual dictionary, albeit one that discusses surprising definitions and word factoids. For instance, did you know that the word "absurd" comes from Latin? Ab- is a prefix meaning "completely," while -surdus means "deaf!" Apparently, the original sense was "deaf to the truth" or "deaf to the voice of reason." It really makes sense -- in those times, the vast majority of the population was illiterate, so tradition and, in some schools, education were passed on orally and retained strictly by memory. The ability to hear had a much bigger premium placed on it in that era than in our highly-visual times, so someone who could hear but refused to listen was seen as contravening prevailing norms -- hence, "absurd."
Mostly, Word Nerd's great for people who like esoteric words, like "pelage" for the "fur, hair, wool, etc., of a mammal;" funny usages, such as "cube" for "an extremely conservative person;" interesting origins, such as "urchin," which originally meant "hedgehog," "goblin," or "elf;" and plain useless stuff, such as knowing that "hesperian" can be used in place of "western," along with "boreal," "ortive," and "austral," for "northern," "eastern," and "southern," respectively -- but only if referring to the act of rising in any one of those directions!
It isn't the kind of book you'd actually read for pleasure, but it's pretty fun to skim through for word nerds, appropriately enough.
So what's happening with the Library and your librarians over the winter break? Plenty.
The Library
We've been busy getting people to take surveys so we can check up on how we're doing and figure out what people want this year. There have been a lot of results, so we'll be spending the break on getting those results together, figuring them out, and deciding how to respond to the feedback we've gotten so far. We'll also be planning our outreach to various groups before and during the Spring semester.
We'll also be losing one of our librarians next summer; Jane Rutherford is retiring. It's an exciting time for her! It's also an exciting time for those of us who are still going to be around; it's a great opportunity to reassess our priorities, examine how we're providing our services, and figure out how we can best meet everyone's needs in response to the changes that are going on around us.
We'll also be hard at work writing LibGuides for new courses as well as new and old resources. Last semester saw some strong LibGuides usage, and we're looking to build on that.
Diana Gates
Diana has three major projects for the Deaf Collection, which includes everything deaf-related. Out-of-print materials and foreign materials are going to be a big focus. She's also planning to continue the hunt for deaf people from the past and finding publications or productions to add to the collection, one of her favorite parts of the job, although it can be time-intensive. Another project involves contacting deaf schools to obtain copies of their yearbooks to fill in gaps in the collection. The third project is deciding which of 3000 u-matic videotapes should be preserved and transferred into digital format. And, of course, she plans to prepare for a new semester and focus on other tasks involved.
Laura Jacobi
Cleaning. Laura will be doing a lot of cleaning. Her files, the Service Desk area, the Library's Web site, call numbers 360-369 (social problems and services), and our standing orders, which are essentially things that we get on a recurring basis, like encyclopedias, almanacs, directories, and bibliographies. Many of those are updated yearly and keep our Reference section full and up to date. However, these days, those items don't see much use, so we're reducing the money we spend on these and applying that money to other, more heavily-used services.
Laura's also responsible for scheduling librarians on the Service Desk; when the holiday period rolls around, people start taking time off, and things can get hopelessly complicated between all the subs, changing hours, and varying levels of student use. This necessitates making a new schedule from scratch once everyone's holiday plans are finalized. In addition to that, of course, we've got a whole new semester coming up, and individual librarians' schedules can change depending on new weekly obligations, student assistant availability, and operating hours, so an overall schedule for the Service Desk needs to be written for that, too. No shortage of stuff to do!
Jane Rutherford
More LibGuides, plus, as the Library's resident Web-based potentate, she'll be spending the break working on the Web site. She'll also be planning out a big meeting with the faculty in one of her departments to discuss the curriculum and materials to order. Through all of that, she'll also start the process of cleaning out her office, transferring data from her old computer, and generally getting ready to retire.
Patrick Oberholtzer
Patrick plans to order new items for his subject areas, which seem to be multiplying, in addition to weeding older, outdated books from his parts of the collection. Since a lot of what he does relates to math and the sciences, this seems like a good idea! He'll also be meeting with faculty in different departments to discuss changes in the curriculum and work on some LibGuides (one of our big projects for the break) for History & Government.
In January, Patrick's also heading to Boston for the ALA Midwinter Conference, an event eagerly anticipated by librarians everywhere. Unless, of course, it's in a place like Boston in a month like January ... but it's still exciting! He plans to attend workshops on assessing information literacy, next-generation catalogs, and providing reference services in the digital age. He'll also be trolling the exhibition floor for any new products and databases for the Library, focusing specifically on stuff relating to developing countries and biology.
Jim McCarthy
What am I doing? Mostly drinking rum-laced eggnog, dodging snowflakes, and looking for holiday-themed videos of kittens on YouTube.
Okay, maybe not. I am visiting my family for Christmas, though -- spending a few days in sunny Florida is, I think, just what the doctor ordered! I'll also be checking through my files, looking for missing books in my subject areas that may need to be replaced, getting ready to undergo another big weeding project from the parts of the collection relating to English and Linguistics, and writing LibGuides for some classes and the Literary Resource Center, a terrific database focused on literature and all related pursuits. It's seen a surprisingly good amount of use already for something we've only had for a month, but I plan to promote it to faculty and staff over break, along with a few other databases that should be used more heavily than they are. There are also a few existing guides that need to be revised, updated, and expanded.
I'll also be working on ordering new stuff, talking with faculty about shifting focus to certain parts of the collection, and doing a little work related to the Library's Web site. More on that later. Also planning out a few new displays for the Spring, and possibly setting up a few fun workshops, both early in the semester to get people's minds off the winter and later to help with the stress of getting ready for graduation or plain old all-around school-related stress.
Oof. Students are lucky. They get a whole freakin' month off. Still, we're better off than most corporate drones -- only in academia can one get at least a week off every year without cutting into their vacation time! We're all looking forward to the holidays and getting started on the behind-the-scenes stuff that we don't usually have time for in the middle of the semester, and when everyone comes back in January, there'll be some new stuff to look forward to!
Heck, it's the end of the semester. No Question of the Week this week or next. If you're leaving early, enjoy your break; if you're sticking around for finals, good luck!
Whoa. When did that happen? It feels like only yesterday that we were schlepping a few tons of lemonades and goodies outside to greet the arriving freshmen and their families and doing our best not to sweat too much. Now here we are in December, it's the last week of classes, and pretty much everyone who matters on campus (i.e., students) is in the process of slowly slinking off to their respective holiday destinations. Of course, we've still got finals week, but who cares about those?
We survived!
I have to admit that this was my first full Fall semester. I arrived last November right before Thanksgiving, so honestly didn't see much of the onslaught all the other Library staff had just gone through. They warned me all through the past year, but honestly ... how busy could it possibly be?
I feel stupid. And tired. But good! We saw a lot of students in here over the last few months, taking full advantage of what we have to offer. We spent a few weeks bugging students, faculty, and staff alike to share their feelings about us, with interesting results. It seems people appreciate having us here, but are dubious about the building itself, which is a bit like an old warhorse that can't tell left from right (just try finding the bathrooms around here ... ). Not an unfair assessment, but the Fall semester has, so far, left us feeling pretty good.
Before I go on to describe what we'll be doing once the semester officially ends, I just had to plug another fantastic English book after last week's Origins of the Specious: Word Nerd.
Unlike Origins, Word Nerd's not a narrative text; it's actually a lot closer to an actual dictionary, albeit one that discusses surprising definitions and word factoids. For instance, did you know that the word "absurd" comes from Latin? Ab- is a prefix meaning "completely," while -surdus means "deaf!" Apparently, the original sense was "deaf to the truth" or "deaf to the voice of reason." It really makes sense -- in those times, the vast majority of the population was illiterate, so tradition and, in some schools, education were passed on orally and retained strictly by memory. The ability to hear had a much bigger premium placed on it in that era than in our highly-visual times, so someone who could hear but refused to listen was seen as contravening prevailing norms -- hence, "absurd."
Mostly, Word Nerd's great for people who like esoteric words, like "pelage" for the "fur, hair, wool, etc., of a mammal;" funny usages, such as "cube" for "an extremely conservative person;" interesting origins, such as "urchin," which originally meant "hedgehog," "goblin," or "elf;" and plain useless stuff, such as knowing that "hesperian" can be used in place of "western," along with "boreal," "ortive," and "austral," for "northern," "eastern," and "southern," respectively -- but only if referring to the act of rising in any one of those directions!
It isn't the kind of book you'd actually read for pleasure, but it's pretty fun to skim through for word nerds, appropriately enough.
So what's happening with the Library and your librarians over the winter break? Plenty.
The Library
We've been busy getting people to take surveys so we can check up on how we're doing and figure out what people want this year. There have been a lot of results, so we'll be spending the break on getting those results together, figuring them out, and deciding how to respond to the feedback we've gotten so far. We'll also be planning our outreach to various groups before and during the Spring semester.
We'll also be losing one of our librarians next summer; Jane Rutherford is retiring. It's an exciting time for her! It's also an exciting time for those of us who are still going to be around; it's a great opportunity to reassess our priorities, examine how we're providing our services, and figure out how we can best meet everyone's needs in response to the changes that are going on around us.
We'll also be hard at work writing LibGuides for new courses as well as new and old resources. Last semester saw some strong LibGuides usage, and we're looking to build on that.
Diana Gates
Diana has three major projects for the Deaf Collection, which includes everything deaf-related. Out-of-print materials and foreign materials are going to be a big focus. She's also planning to continue the hunt for deaf people from the past and finding publications or productions to add to the collection, one of her favorite parts of the job, although it can be time-intensive. Another project involves contacting deaf schools to obtain copies of their yearbooks to fill in gaps in the collection. The third project is deciding which of 3000 u-matic videotapes should be preserved and transferred into digital format. And, of course, she plans to prepare for a new semester and focus on other tasks involved.
Laura Jacobi
Cleaning. Laura will be doing a lot of cleaning. Her files, the Service Desk area, the Library's Web site, call numbers 360-369 (social problems and services), and our standing orders, which are essentially things that we get on a recurring basis, like encyclopedias, almanacs, directories, and bibliographies. Many of those are updated yearly and keep our Reference section full and up to date. However, these days, those items don't see much use, so we're reducing the money we spend on these and applying that money to other, more heavily-used services.
Laura's also responsible for scheduling librarians on the Service Desk; when the holiday period rolls around, people start taking time off, and things can get hopelessly complicated between all the subs, changing hours, and varying levels of student use. This necessitates making a new schedule from scratch once everyone's holiday plans are finalized. In addition to that, of course, we've got a whole new semester coming up, and individual librarians' schedules can change depending on new weekly obligations, student assistant availability, and operating hours, so an overall schedule for the Service Desk needs to be written for that, too. No shortage of stuff to do!
Jane Rutherford
More LibGuides, plus, as the Library's resident Web-based potentate, she'll be spending the break working on the Web site. She'll also be planning out a big meeting with the faculty in one of her departments to discuss the curriculum and materials to order. Through all of that, she'll also start the process of cleaning out her office, transferring data from her old computer, and generally getting ready to retire.
Patrick Oberholtzer
Patrick plans to order new items for his subject areas, which seem to be multiplying, in addition to weeding older, outdated books from his parts of the collection. Since a lot of what he does relates to math and the sciences, this seems like a good idea! He'll also be meeting with faculty in different departments to discuss changes in the curriculum and work on some LibGuides (one of our big projects for the break) for History & Government.
In January, Patrick's also heading to Boston for the ALA Midwinter Conference, an event eagerly anticipated by librarians everywhere. Unless, of course, it's in a place like Boston in a month like January ... but it's still exciting! He plans to attend workshops on assessing information literacy, next-generation catalogs, and providing reference services in the digital age. He'll also be trolling the exhibition floor for any new products and databases for the Library, focusing specifically on stuff relating to developing countries and biology.
Jim McCarthy
What am I doing? Mostly drinking rum-laced eggnog, dodging snowflakes, and looking for holiday-themed videos of kittens on YouTube.
Okay, maybe not. I am visiting my family for Christmas, though -- spending a few days in sunny Florida is, I think, just what the doctor ordered! I'll also be checking through my files, looking for missing books in my subject areas that may need to be replaced, getting ready to undergo another big weeding project from the parts of the collection relating to English and Linguistics, and writing LibGuides for some classes and the Literary Resource Center, a terrific database focused on literature and all related pursuits. It's seen a surprisingly good amount of use already for something we've only had for a month, but I plan to promote it to faculty and staff over break, along with a few other databases that should be used more heavily than they are. There are also a few existing guides that need to be revised, updated, and expanded.
I'll also be working on ordering new stuff, talking with faculty about shifting focus to certain parts of the collection, and doing a little work related to the Library's Web site. More on that later. Also planning out a few new displays for the Spring, and possibly setting up a few fun workshops, both early in the semester to get people's minds off the winter and later to help with the stress of getting ready for graduation or plain old all-around school-related stress.
Oof. Students are lucky. They get a whole freakin' month off. Still, we're better off than most corporate drones -- only in academia can one get at least a week off every year without cutting into their vacation time! We're all looking forward to the holidays and getting started on the behind-the-scenes stuff that we don't usually have time for in the middle of the semester, and when everyone comes back in January, there'll be some new stuff to look forward to!
Heck, it's the end of the semester. No Question of the Week this week or next. If you're leaving early, enjoy your break; if you're sticking around for finals, good luck!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Using databases for personal research
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I met up with some friends and we ate, talked, played games, and just had an all-around good time.
Over the break, I also polished off The Origins of the Specious by Patricia T. O'Conner and feel immensely smarter as a result.
The reason? I get yelled at from time to time for trying to flagrantly split infinitives, pronouncing "forte" as though it were an Army post instead of the French word it isn't, indiscriminately calling a spade a spade, refusing to be gobsmacked by a British accent, and finding prepositions to end a sentence with.
Hogwash, says O'Conner. Although she repeats a lot of stuff I already knew -- being an avid reader of blogs about linguistics, lexicography, orthography, and syntax, as well as a librarian specializing in that subject area, it's hard to avoid being saturated with descriptivism -- she does so in a very entertaining way, and also manages to reveal new information. For example, did you know that in spite of what some Londoners (*cough* Prince of Wales *cough*) might say, British English is not the "better" version of English? There is no better version, but if you were to seriously argue it out with an angry Mancunian, the truth is that a lot of so-called Americanisms are actually holdovers from before the Colonies split from the Crown.
You can thank Noah Webster for that -- he's the guy who compiled the first English dictionary on our side of the Atlantic -- and his competition with Samuel Johnson, who did the same over in England. Webster decided he'd prefer to maintain the more traditional orthography (like "theater"), while Samuel Johnson, being the radically progressive sort, decided to adopt the spellings that had emerged in recent decades (like "theatre"). The same is true with our "-ize" and their "-ise" -- ours is the older ending, while theirs is actually the result of various attempts to Latinize the English language by cutting up a bunch of French words and sticking them on the end of English words. This has continued even today, with "kerb" and "flat" being adopted by Britons over the more old-fashioned "curb" and "apartment."
Even more interesting is the difference between British and American accents. They pronounce things differently than we do, and the assumption is that their way is the more old-fashioned, the product of a thousand-year-old monarchy (give or take a Cromwell or two), while we're the upstarts. O'Conner blew me away here -- apparently the British pronunciation is newer than ours! After the Revolution, the English language was torn asunder, and, in Britain, began evolving away from the common form almost immediately. They lost the 'r' (in a debate which might have killed Percy Bysshe Shelley) and gained the broad vowel (like "pawth" instead of "pahth"), while ours stayed pretty much the same.
This means that we in the United States sound an awful lot like seventeenth-century Englishmen! I like to think that William Shakespeare himself might have felt at home in the Mall of America. Take a look at the book sometime -- it makes English sound much more like the fascinating language it really is.
Before we move on to today's main topic, I'd like to make a suggestion. It's getting close to Christmas, and it's one of those times of year when you may end up getting a bunch of new stuff. If you'd like to make room for it all, consider donating any extra books or movies to the Library. Just make sure any movies you bring are captioned or subtitled and that everything's in good condition. Check ALADIN Discovery before you bring it all in, though, and make sure we don't already have what you bring in. We'll still take it, but if it's not in better condition than what we have, it may go on the Book Sale shelf.
In the meantime, let's talk a little bit about more general research of the kind that you'd most likely use Google for: personal curiosity! Sometimes Gallaudet students, faculty, or staff want to research stuff just for their own edification, outside of class -- I know I do -- and they're more than welcome to do so with our databases.
Let's say you want to find out more about what's going on in Congress. Or the twinge in your knee after your last pick-up basketball game. Google's a pretty good place to go! However -- and this is a big however -- Google has its flaws and you have much better resources at your disposal when you're affiliated with Gallaudet as a student or faculty or staff member.
We'll take a look at the two examples (Congress, knee twinge) mentioned above and how you can use your affiliation with Gallaudet to find the best information available.
To start with: Congress. Most of what happens in Congress is public information and is avidly covered by news outlets and individual bloggers on the Internet, which means that lots of information can come easily to hand. However, searching for stuff on Congress can lead to getting drowned in political attack Web sites ('Ginny Brown-Waite, D-Fl: Does She Eat Babies? Anonymous Sources Say Yes'), fluffy news articles ('Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Opens Binghamton IKEA to Fanfare'), and the politician's own propaganda engines ('Press Release from the Office of Senator Max Baucus: Sen. Baucus Meets, Greets Foreign Heads of State').
Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff is genuine information about what's happening in the legislature. Still, it can take a lot of time to sift through a mass of conflicting and unreliable sources, when you just want real, unbiased reporting.
Fortunately, there's a solution: CQ Weekly. That's one of our databases, which you can find by going to "Databases by Subject" in ALADIN and clicking on the list item that says "Multi-subject:Articles/Dissertations." CQ Weekly reports on Congress: what issues are before the legislature, what senators and representatives are doing, fundraising status, all sorts of things Congressional. CQ also offers useful tools like appropriation charts, quick summaries of bills to watch, vote charts, and listings of current public laws, all of which offer frequent and regular updates. It's a beautiful thing.
CQ Weekly, incidentally, is one of a group of databases owned by CQ Press. We've also got access to CQ Researcher, which provides incredibly useful summaries written by seasoned journalists on the state of current issues in the United States and around the world. Both CQs are always worth checking out.
As for that pain in your knee ... well, it could be any number of things, right? Google brings up 7.21 million search results for "knee injury." Yikes. Now what?
Now -- and this should have been done before checking Google -- the first thing you should do is see a doctor and get it treated. Seriously. Quit self-diagnosing.
If, after you've seen a qualified medical professional, found out that it's being caused by damage to your meniscus, and begun treatment, you're still curious about why this sort of thing happens and other ways to treat it, head to ALADIN. Look for "Databases by Subject" and find the list item that says "Audiology/Human Biology/Medical Sciences" and take a look at it. There are a few good possibilities there; the most obvious-looking ones are both called PubMed (Central and Medline) and are run by the National Library of Medicine. Central is a full-text database, while Medline only collects citations, so if you're going to use either, go for Central. However, they're both extremely technical, so unless you're highly conversant with human biology and medicine, try CINAHL instead: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. This, too, can be technical, but for the most part, it's more practically applicable -- you can see articles listed about various types of meniscal injuries related to basketball and the most common treatments for them It's pretty nice!
If you're not looking for scholarly research about your knee, though, the National Library of Medicine also provides a free public resource named (confusingly) Medline Plus at http://medlineplus.gov. It's a terrific resource for the ailments that come as a result of day-to-day living.
You should bear in mind that our resources cover many topics and by no means are we limited to politics and orthopedics; it's always a good idea to take a quick look at our listing of databases in order to fully understand exactly what you do have access to. If you come across a database name that doesn't obviously denote its content -- ProQuest comes to mind -- ask a librarian.
In general, though, we do have an amazing amount of resources, both online and off. It really is to your benefit to take advantage of all you have available to you, even if it's for personal purposes rather than for school-related reasons. Using our databases in this way brings another benefit: it's practice. The more you use our databases, for whatever reason, the more you learn about how you can use them, and the better you'll become at performing academic research. Plus it makes your librarians feel good. Everyone wins!
Next week is the last week of classes, so everyone's going to be busy focusing on schoolwork. Because of that, we'll be doing a puff piece: What goes on in the Library after everyone's gone home for the winter break?
Question of the Week
I remember last winter, during break, the Library was open. Will that happen again this year? Also, I kind of freaked out when I tried to renew a book online and it said my record expired. Is this normal and why does it happen?
We will definitely be open during winter break, except for December 25-January 3, when we'll be closed for the period between Christmas and New Year's. Otherwise, our hours will be Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. You can certainly come in and check stuff out when we're open!
As for your record expiring, that is normal. It's built into the system as a consequence of our semester system -- all records are set to expire at the end of each semester, and are then updated at the beginning of the next semester after you've registered for classes and we know that you are, in fact, coming back. Just come on in, let us know if you'll be back in the Spring, and we'll fix you up.
Over the break, I also polished off The Origins of the Specious by Patricia T. O'Conner and feel immensely smarter as a result.
The reason? I get yelled at from time to time for trying to flagrantly split infinitives, pronouncing "forte" as though it were an Army post instead of the French word it isn't, indiscriminately calling a spade a spade, refusing to be gobsmacked by a British accent, and finding prepositions to end a sentence with.
Hogwash, says O'Conner. Although she repeats a lot of stuff I already knew -- being an avid reader of blogs about linguistics, lexicography, orthography, and syntax, as well as a librarian specializing in that subject area, it's hard to avoid being saturated with descriptivism -- she does so in a very entertaining way, and also manages to reveal new information. For example, did you know that in spite of what some Londoners (*cough* Prince of Wales *cough*) might say, British English is not the "better" version of English? There is no better version, but if you were to seriously argue it out with an angry Mancunian, the truth is that a lot of so-called Americanisms are actually holdovers from before the Colonies split from the Crown.
You can thank Noah Webster for that -- he's the guy who compiled the first English dictionary on our side of the Atlantic -- and his competition with Samuel Johnson, who did the same over in England. Webster decided he'd prefer to maintain the more traditional orthography (like "theater"), while Samuel Johnson, being the radically progressive sort, decided to adopt the spellings that had emerged in recent decades (like "theatre"). The same is true with our "-ize" and their "-ise" -- ours is the older ending, while theirs is actually the result of various attempts to Latinize the English language by cutting up a bunch of French words and sticking them on the end of English words. This has continued even today, with "kerb" and "flat" being adopted by Britons over the more old-fashioned "curb" and "apartment."
Even more interesting is the difference between British and American accents. They pronounce things differently than we do, and the assumption is that their way is the more old-fashioned, the product of a thousand-year-old monarchy (give or take a Cromwell or two), while we're the upstarts. O'Conner blew me away here -- apparently the British pronunciation is newer than ours! After the Revolution, the English language was torn asunder, and, in Britain, began evolving away from the common form almost immediately. They lost the 'r' (in a debate which might have killed Percy Bysshe Shelley) and gained the broad vowel (like "pawth" instead of "pahth"), while ours stayed pretty much the same.
This means that we in the United States sound an awful lot like seventeenth-century Englishmen! I like to think that William Shakespeare himself might have felt at home in the Mall of America. Take a look at the book sometime -- it makes English sound much more like the fascinating language it really is.
Before we move on to today's main topic, I'd like to make a suggestion. It's getting close to Christmas, and it's one of those times of year when you may end up getting a bunch of new stuff. If you'd like to make room for it all, consider donating any extra books or movies to the Library. Just make sure any movies you bring are captioned or subtitled and that everything's in good condition. Check ALADIN Discovery before you bring it all in, though, and make sure we don't already have what you bring in. We'll still take it, but if it's not in better condition than what we have, it may go on the Book Sale shelf.
In the meantime, let's talk a little bit about more general research of the kind that you'd most likely use Google for: personal curiosity! Sometimes Gallaudet students, faculty, or staff want to research stuff just for their own edification, outside of class -- I know I do -- and they're more than welcome to do so with our databases.
Let's say you want to find out more about what's going on in Congress. Or the twinge in your knee after your last pick-up basketball game. Google's a pretty good place to go! However -- and this is a big however -- Google has its flaws and you have much better resources at your disposal when you're affiliated with Gallaudet as a student or faculty or staff member.
We'll take a look at the two examples (Congress, knee twinge) mentioned above and how you can use your affiliation with Gallaudet to find the best information available.
To start with: Congress. Most of what happens in Congress is public information and is avidly covered by news outlets and individual bloggers on the Internet, which means that lots of information can come easily to hand. However, searching for stuff on Congress can lead to getting drowned in political attack Web sites ('Ginny Brown-Waite, D-Fl: Does She Eat Babies? Anonymous Sources Say Yes'), fluffy news articles ('Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Opens Binghamton IKEA to Fanfare'), and the politician's own propaganda engines ('Press Release from the Office of Senator Max Baucus: Sen. Baucus Meets, Greets Foreign Heads of State').
Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff is genuine information about what's happening in the legislature. Still, it can take a lot of time to sift through a mass of conflicting and unreliable sources, when you just want real, unbiased reporting.
Fortunately, there's a solution: CQ Weekly. That's one of our databases, which you can find by going to "Databases by Subject" in ALADIN and clicking on the list item that says "Multi-subject:Articles/Dissertations." CQ Weekly reports on Congress: what issues are before the legislature, what senators and representatives are doing, fundraising status, all sorts of things Congressional. CQ also offers useful tools like appropriation charts, quick summaries of bills to watch, vote charts, and listings of current public laws, all of which offer frequent and regular updates. It's a beautiful thing.
CQ Weekly, incidentally, is one of a group of databases owned by CQ Press. We've also got access to CQ Researcher, which provides incredibly useful summaries written by seasoned journalists on the state of current issues in the United States and around the world. Both CQs are always worth checking out.
As for that pain in your knee ... well, it could be any number of things, right? Google brings up 7.21 million search results for "knee injury." Yikes. Now what?
Now -- and this should have been done before checking Google -- the first thing you should do is see a doctor and get it treated. Seriously. Quit self-diagnosing.
If, after you've seen a qualified medical professional, found out that it's being caused by damage to your meniscus, and begun treatment, you're still curious about why this sort of thing happens and other ways to treat it, head to ALADIN. Look for "Databases by Subject" and find the list item that says "Audiology/Human Biology/Medical Sciences" and take a look at it. There are a few good possibilities there; the most obvious-looking ones are both called PubMed (Central and Medline) and are run by the National Library of Medicine. Central is a full-text database, while Medline only collects citations, so if you're going to use either, go for Central. However, they're both extremely technical, so unless you're highly conversant with human biology and medicine, try CINAHL instead: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. This, too, can be technical, but for the most part, it's more practically applicable -- you can see articles listed about various types of meniscal injuries related to basketball and the most common treatments for them It's pretty nice!
If you're not looking for scholarly research about your knee, though, the National Library of Medicine also provides a free public resource named (confusingly) Medline Plus at http://medlineplus.gov. It's a terrific resource for the ailments that come as a result of day-to-day living.
You should bear in mind that our resources cover many topics and by no means are we limited to politics and orthopedics; it's always a good idea to take a quick look at our listing of databases in order to fully understand exactly what you do have access to. If you come across a database name that doesn't obviously denote its content -- ProQuest comes to mind -- ask a librarian.
In general, though, we do have an amazing amount of resources, both online and off. It really is to your benefit to take advantage of all you have available to you, even if it's for personal purposes rather than for school-related reasons. Using our databases in this way brings another benefit: it's practice. The more you use our databases, for whatever reason, the more you learn about how you can use them, and the better you'll become at performing academic research. Plus it makes your librarians feel good. Everyone wins!
Next week is the last week of classes, so everyone's going to be busy focusing on schoolwork. Because of that, we'll be doing a puff piece: What goes on in the Library after everyone's gone home for the winter break?
Question of the Week
I remember last winter, during break, the Library was open. Will that happen again this year? Also, I kind of freaked out when I tried to renew a book online and it said my record expired. Is this normal and why does it happen?
We will definitely be open during winter break, except for December 25-January 3, when we'll be closed for the period between Christmas and New Year's. Otherwise, our hours will be Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. You can certainly come in and check stuff out when we're open!
As for your record expiring, that is normal. It's built into the system as a consequence of our semester system -- all records are set to expire at the end of each semester, and are then updated at the beginning of the next semester after you've registered for classes and we know that you are, in fact, coming back. Just come on in, let us know if you'll be back in the Spring, and we'll fix you up.
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