From The Content Pyramid

I wonder if this blog will become a catch-all for works in progress that I wish to share. Here is a list of writing resources that I am compiling. It is a list containing titles somewhat randomly pulled from the PE and BC sections of the library stacks.

I am hoping to find further input from writers, librarians, and teachers who have favorites to recommend. The end result should be a list of readable and perhaps entertaining guides that take the pain out of the student writing experience.

So far, I’ve enjoyed Junk English and am enjoying The Pen Commandments.

Cheers & happy reading,
R.D.

Composition Resources

Bell, Janis. clean, well-lighted sentences. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. Print.

Burckmyer, Becky. Awesome Grammar. Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press, 2008. Print.

Corbett, Edward P.J. The Elements of Reasoning. New York: Macmillan, 1991. Print.

Fogarty, Mignon. The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2009. Print.

Frank, Steven. The Pen Commandments: A Guide for the Beginning Writer. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. Print.

Fulwiler, Toby. College Writing: A Personal Approach to Academic Writing. 3rd ed. Portsmouth, N.H.: Boynton/‌Cook, 2002. Print.

Harvey, Michael. The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2003. Print.

Hopper, Vincent F., et al. Essentials of English. 5th ed. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Barron’s Educational Series, 2000. Print.

Klein, David, and Marymae E. Klein. How Do You Know It’s True? New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984. Print.

McInerny, D.Q. Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking. U.S.A. : Random House, 2005. Print.

Ruby, Lionel. The Art of Making Sense: A Guide to Logical Thinking. Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1954. Print.

Smith, Ken. Junk English. New York: Blast Books, 2001. Print.

Turley, Richard Marggraf. Writing Essays: A Guide for Students in English and the Humanities. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2000. Print.

(This list was created with Noodle Tools using MLA 7^th edition rules.)

The “Social Media Training Plan” from Bryan Carnes, Roen Janyk, and Erin Rickbeil provides an detailed 8-week plan for teaching social media in academic libraries.

Inkmesh is an e-book search enging so you can “Find FREE ebooks and compare ebook prices for the Kindle, iPhone, Nook, Sony Reader and more.”

Here is an overview of Nook e-reader reviews excerpted from Nook Review Roundup:

“…The grand conclusion after factoring in every nook review and every nook vs kindle comparison seems to be -

1. Things aren’t perfect and they aren’t bad. The Nook has significant pros and significant cons and its a good competitor for the Kindle.
2. The Nook is slow and the lack of speed is it’s main flaw. B&N blame Android 1.5 and promise to fix the speed issue with a January software update. 
3. Averaging out reactions gives the Kindle a slight edge. 

Let’s dig deeper into each nook review and after that we’ll go over the Nook speed problem and all the pros and cons.  

What does each Nook review conclude on Nook Vs Kindle?

1. Technologizer Nook Review – They recommend delaying your decision since Nook isn’t available for Christmas and needs to get the January software update to fix its issues so it can trump the Kindle. 
2. Engadget Nook Reader Review – Feel the Nook doesn’t fulfill its potential. 
3. Slashgear Nook Reader Review – Very pro-Nook and pick it as the best eReader. They state the UI as the Nook’s biggest advantage (Yup, it is strange they’d pick the one element every other reviewer thinks is a weakness). 
4. Gizmodo Nook Review – ‘if you have to pick one, stick with the Kindle’.
5. Bloomberg – It sort of says the Nook’s slow speed kills it. However, it concludes that a multi-purpose device will kill dedicated eReaders.

Average out these reactions and the Kindle holds the edge – you might want to dig into a deeper Nook Vs Kindle comparison post…”

Here is a Nook Review on video:

For my final post, I’m straying a bit from a specific library’s use of mashups, to a mashup that can be (and undoubtedly is being) used by librarians the world over:  LibWorm.  As a future librarian, I feel there are so many good ideas “out there” on the ‘Net that could be of use to me in my professional career, but there are not enough hours in the day for me to effectively search for everything I could want.  So a search tool like LibWorm, a search engine for the “biblioblogosphere,” seemed especially useful when I first found it described on this page from the Talis competition.

Here’s its FAQ page, where it basically says it is meant to be a “professional development tool” and current-awareness helper for librarians or people interested in libraries.   How does it work?  As much as I can tell, it provides an RSS feed from RSS feeds.  (No, really!)  Currently it mashes together 1400+ feeds related to libraries (found from lists on existing wikis and constantly submitted by individual bloggers, so the list is growing) and adds a search interface; so librarians can search for terms, or look at categories, tags, or subjects that interest them.  Then when they find a particular category or combination of search terms that’s most useful for them, they can set up their own RSS feed to get that information delivered to them.  If I’m in a time-crunch (and who isn’t?), I like this already!

Obviously this isn’t linked to any specific library, so I can’t analyze how well it is tied into the library’s other services.  But I would imagine this type of service appeals to librarians (or those interested in libraries) who are already at least moderately tech-savvy (know what RSS is and how to set one up, though the homepage here also includes directions for that to help out newbies).  I could see myself using this once I get into a specific library role and want to be updated on podcasts in academic libraries, say, or Personnel/HR/Jobs (hey, maybe I should subscribe to that one now, can’t start looking for a job too early… ), or Humor for when the jobsearch gets depressing…

On the usability front, this website scores well on my card.  Its front page (screenshot to left) seems to have taken a tip from that search-meister Google and made its home page very clearly all about searching.  No ads at all (a pleasant surprise!), lots of white space so one’s eye clearly goes to the search box, a few links to the Feed Categories, Subjects, and Tags, but nothing that detracts from the search capabilities.

If one clicks on the categories or subjects, one gets displays like these two screenshots:

We get a few Ads by Google now (hey, nobody’s perfect), but other than that, the display is still very clean, with navigational links at the top and one-click access (the orange buttons) to set up the RSS feed.  Honestly, I can’t see how they could make it any easier.  Findability… well, that’s unfortunately a bit harder.  I found it from the Talis page, and on trying a couple Google searches, for “library blogs RSS” and “library biblioblogosphere” (I know, that term’s a stretch for the layperson to know), I didn’t see LibWorm in the first couple pages.  So it might be suffering from its newness, or whatever things Google’s algorithms consider.  But I really hope it becomes more findable, because it deserves it!

Another thing I like about LibWorm is that it seems rather international — when I searched for “mashups” I got this results page, with 3 results on the first page alone that looked like they were in Italian and Swedish (I’m guessing?), and almost certainly I would get more if I searched for a non-English word.  So this is a tool useful for international librarians or any interested non-English-speakers.  Speaking of the search results page, it again makes it easy for someone to set up an RSS feed into their own personal reader (it offers Google Reader, Newsgator, and Bloglines buttons), and it automatically sorts by date (though Relevance is also an option).

Overall, excellent layout, visual appeal, ease of use, and a very handy tool for busy librarians everywhere — what’s not to like!  What do you think?

Excerpted from TechCrunch post See That Funny 2D Barcode In The Store Window? It Might Pull Up A Google Listing:

“…Google has mailed out window stickers with two-dimensional bar codes (aka, QR codes) to the most-searched for or clicked-on businesses in its local business directory. Anyone with a QR code reader in their phone can scan it to call up a Google Mobile local directory page for one of these ‘Favorite Places,’ which generally includes a map, phone number, directions, address, reviews, and a link to the store’s website. (It’s a mobile version of Google Places).

Local businesses can also set up coupon offers through their Google directory page, which would turn the QR code into a mobile coupon, and help entice someone standing outside a store to come in: ‘If you found us on Google, you get 20% off.’

Japan is already QR-crazy. Google wants the U.S. to be next. In conjunction with the QR code sticker roll-out, Google is also giving away 40,000 Quickmark QR Code Reader apps for the iPhone, which normally cost $1.99 apiece. But you can use any QR code reader. There are a bunch of free ones, some on Android phones as well.

There are now over a million local businesses which have claimed their Google local listing, up from a few hundred thousand last summer. If these QR code stickers become popular in the U.S., it could encourage more small businesses to claim their listings and give Google cleaner data…”

This web log announces itself as a place where professionals from the libraries, archives, and museums that make up the Research Library Group at the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) can “talk about the intersections we see happening between these three different types of institutions.” There are two ways to access the site-from the OCLC’s main page: the sidebar presents the titles and links to recent postings, or from the Blog page of this site, which describes briefly each of the thirteen blogs it supports. Of the thirteen, this seemed the most interesting because, well, intersections can be interesting places.

This is a pretty new blog, just going back to the beginning of this year, but there are already hundreds of postings sorted into 18 categories, ranging from modeling new services to supporting scholarship. I am quite impressed by the quality of many of the postings- much energy and thought has gone into ones like this, for example, where the writer has taken the trouble to acquire and translate a PowerPoint from Japanese.

The site is clean and no-nonsense. In the sidebar, you get the mission, contributors, and archives of the site and that’s pretty much it. No links to Flickr photos or the like, although the postings themselves are generously adorned- although not overwhelmed by- hyperlinks and images. If you were new to this service/tool, well, you probably wouldn’t be here because you aren’t an information professional. This is a service set up by the pros for the pros, not for Worldcat patrons. Even still, there is no knocking its ease of use.

What is gratifying to see is that, judging by the comparatively high number of comments to its postings, I can see that this blog is viewed to be an important resource for real information sharing. This seems to contrast with most of the other blogs I’ve seen that really just add up to another avenue of one-way communication- broadcasting. It makes me think that to really achieve this level of interactivity, blogs might have to meet a real communication need for a fairly specific audience. I wonder if some of the other blogs I’ve looked at (not all of them reviewed here, of course) have just developed out of the ‘let’s jump on the blog bandwagon’ philosophy, with the result that they don’t especially distinguish themselves sufficiently from their main library site. These are just ruminations, of course.

As a developing information professional who isn’t sure whether he will end up working in an archive, museum, or library,(or even working at all) I have decided to subscribe to this blog to stimulate thoughts on employment goals and research topics.

At the end of this week I am presenting the Information Seeking in a Second Language workshop to faculty at Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology as part of our professional development program coordinated by the Center for Teaching and Learning. These sessions will be in the form of two one hour modules. Module one will focus on the Sylvia Edwards model and module two on Krashen’s Affective Filter Theory, inlcuding the analysis of the student transcripts.. This now means I have three versions of the workshop to offer.

1. Full day Workshop

2. Half day Workshop

3 Two related but independent sessions on either information literacy or affective filter theory.

From Map of Wikipedia Article-Density By Nation

From Global Web Index:

“…• The social web is mass market: Hundreds of millions of web users are creating and sharing content every month
• The massive impact of China: The vast Internet population coupled with hugely socially active set of web users, makes for a massive volume of content creators. However due to the inward looking nature of Chinas internet economy combined with the language mean that this volume of content does not impact the broader Internet
• Low engagement in Japan: We also associate Japan with technology innovation, and actual while you might not think it, the low engagement is indicative of progress. Why? Our map shows PC activity and we know from this research that a huge number of Japanese users are bypassing PC altogether and using mobile devices to access social platforms and create and share content. Just over 34% of social network users only accessed through mobile in the month of the research, this is compared to 3% in the UK, a staggering indication of where the future is heading
• The low level of microblog engagement: Despite the Twitter hype, microblogging is still not a mass social activity and nowhere near the size and scale of blogging…”

Awesome Visualization of Social Media Usage Around the Globe [Infographic]

Posted using ShareThis

Excerpted from new eReaders – Digibook eReader, Pocketbook 901:

“…Digibook ADB 106 eReader

Ambiance Technology of Netherlands announced the Digibook ADB-106 eReaderwith these specifications (see the flyer on your kindle - at-digibook) -

Display – 6 Inches Electronic Paper Display
Resolution – 600×800 pixel (16bit Greyscale )
Processor – Samsung Arm 9 Core
Operating System – Linux 2.6
RAM Memory – 64MB SDRAM
Battery – 900mAh Li-ion Battery
I/O – High Speed USB 2.0
Expandable Memory – SD Card/ MMC
Text Format – TXT, PDF, EPUB, RTF, TCR, PDB, PRC,MOBI, OPF, OEB,HTM, HTML, CHM,FB2, DJVU, IW44, IW4, DJV
Supported Audio – MP3 (32kbps-384kbps)
Supported Image – JPEG, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP
Languages Supported – English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch,Portuguese, Italian, Russian
Dimension – 178(L) x 128.4 (W) x 9.9(H) mm
Weight – 228g

PocketBook 901

PocketBook 901 has a 9.7″ plastic eInk screen and goes on sale in early 2010. The large screen size and the flexible screen seem to be the big selling points.

Here are more details -

Uses a flexible plastic screen that is resistant to shock and bending.

Light weight of only 350 grams.

Small size – Dimensions of 24.02 × 18.07 × 1.1 cm. 

Flexible plastic screen is 9.7 inches.

Slot for an SD-card reader;

Availability of dictionaries. 

High-capacity rechargeable battery;

Ability to simultaneously store up to 10 000 books in memory and map the device

 More details at this translated page.

Scan eReader

Scan 5″ eReader from Scan.co.uk - 155 pounds (on sale for a few days) and includes ePub, PDF and Doc support.  The details -

Media Format Supported: TEXT: TXT, HTXT, HTML, PDF, EPUB, DOC
Audio: MP3/WMA/WAV Sound and Speakers too.
Image: JPG, TIF, BMP, PNG, GIF
Background Music.
Screen: 5″ 800×600 Hi-Res Monochrome Screen.
Memory: 4Gb Memory with SD Card.

To see more of the various eReaders that are available please check out myElectronic Book Reader landscape post…”

… nice sentiment for a Friday, courtesy of Noah and the Whale.  And today I’m sharing my experience of RDF (Reader Development Fund) bids.  Imagine having a massive pot of money available to help you stage whatever reading development event you can dream up, working with whoever you like, and drawing on all sorts of colleagues for help.  The only catch is that you’ve got to outline your intentions in a bid, and justify why you want the money.  It’s a bit like Dragon’s Den.  And it’s the way Staffordshire allocate funding to all Team Leaders (including me) every year.  Seems to me like a very sensible way of doing things.  So at my first District Team meeting, which takes place next Tuesday, I need to outline some of my preliminary ideas so we can thrash them around in our teams for a couple of months.  After all, it’s competitive and we’re against every other district and every colleague with another idea, in theory.  Apparently the trick is to not have too many ideas, or all of them might be successful bids and you might end up with a very busy year!  So – do I go with something relatively simple like organising an event for the National Year of Music (yes, that’s 2010, apparently), a promotional drive like promoting reading to train commuters (at least I’ve done that before), or how about developing links with our ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) communities in Burton?  Bringing in authors for a festival like Voices week, which could celebrate all sorts of cultures at once?  A poetry slam event, which I’ve always wanted to do?  The funding can go on absolutely anything, as long as it’s well-presented.

Needless to say, I’m finding it quite difficult at the moment to bring some of these ideas down to earth and encapsulate them in anything remotely like a bid outline.  But I suppose that doesn’t matter for now – ideas are the important thing.  So many things we could do – so little time!  Quite an exciting time of year, this. Oh, and the Christmas tree count in our library is currently two – the children’s team have yet to reveal their glamorous centrepiece for the season…