Just for fun

Turn yourself into a Simpsons character.

Here's the closest I could come to me:

Comic art spares no one

The publication of cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed has raised a storm of protest in many parts of the world. I was thinking about these protests while supervising the final session of the Agora Days South Park class. Jono and Rohun played The Super Best Friends episode, in which Stan goes to Jesus for help in extricating his buddies Kyle and Cartman from the clutches of the Blaine-tology cult. As South Park aficianados know, Jesus is a regular (highly caricatured) character on the show. This episode, which first aired on July 4, 2001, brings together the "Super Best Friends," who are caricatures of other key religious figures: Buddha, Mohammad, Krishna, Joseph Smith, Lao Tzu and (oddly enough) Sea Man. Apparently today's protesters do not tune their television sets to South Park very often.

Graphic novelists also understand the power of cartoon art. I just finished reading our copy of the late Will Eisner's The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (GN Ei87p). The Protocols is a notorious forgery that was originally concocted to convince Tsar Nicholas II that Jewish leaders and bankers were scheming to take over the world. The forgery succeeded well beyond its original purpose. Eisner masterfully recreates the story of its perpetuation. Here are couple of his sequences:





While Eisner's book does not directly parallel the work of the Danish cartoonists (or, for that matter, the South Park opus), all of these creations illuminate the power of media and medium, word and image.

This week's magazine rack

Thought I ought to get back to library things, but the Technology Think Tank class is persistently rattling around in my head. So I thought it was funny to see these covers on the magazine rack, one from Technology Review and the other from Mad Magazine (sorry, but you have to admit that I haven't put up a cover from Mad in a long time):

Captured for posterity

Horace looks confused about that star left move, but Kayla's got it down.



There I am, fiddling away while the library...?



Many thanks to Monica Fountain for the photos!

A new blog is born

Check out the Technology Think Tank Agora Days class blog.

As for the English Country Dance class, we've got a record 30 or so people signed up, as well as an appreciative audience. Some of the guys are pretending to be embarrassed, but they're not fooling anyone.

Still looking for a rhythm section...

Agora Days!

Agora Days is one of my favorite traditions at Uni High. We take four days out of February, during which all kinds of people (students, parents, teachers, folks from the community) teach all kinds of classes. The fruits of these efforts are often evident in the hallways. Rose's balloon twisting students will be walking around with their creations. I'll also expect to see Shruti's henna-festooned students roaming around. Not to mention some lovely braids on the heads of those in Sharajonnie's class.

My job this week, other than to handle the rigors of what we sometimes call Audiovisual Hell Week, is to attend the Technology Think Tank class. And I will play the violin for the English Country Dance class. Jonathan and Jane, the good folks from our local English Country Dance group, will be teaching the class for the third time. Boy, I sure could use a rhythm section.

The Good Grief department

These gems from recent postings on LISNews:

The RIAA says ripping CDs to your IPod is not fair use (or, just because it's "allowed" doesn't mean it's in the realm of fair use).

After years of declining growth, publishers are finding growth in comics. Well, duh.

Library board members take the law into their own hands.

A picture is worth a thousand words: Google goes to China (on Chinese terms).

Busy week

Every day this week I've had four or five classes and one or two meetings. Whew. One of my meetings today was with a group of librarians that is looking at developing gaming collections and services in the University Library. Very cool. I passed on this video clip that my friend Meg shared. Stick with it -- it illuminates important elements of gaming and social interaction.

Sci Fi art

We've got a new book display up highlighting books we think are fabulous but seem to be well-kept secrets. One such title is The Chesley Awards For Science Fiction and Fantasy Art: A Retrospective (700.415 G767c). This award is given annually and covers a lot of ground. Everything from space ships, mythical characters, and weird aliens to ethereal landscapes and abstract scenes. Here's a visualization of the cloning process:



"The woman on the video screen is the assassinated donor to the clone baby. Here she posthumously warns her clone of danger in a recording being fed as taped information through sensors." Efficient, don't you think?

Ah, me of little faith

Not only was the book NOT returned late, it was returned early. I am told that more like it are on the way. It's job-related research. Really truly.

Google and the "f" font

With Dublin City University professor Alan Smeaton, Google is exploring techniques for searching handwritten documents. As things stand now, historical material has to be painstakingly transcribed before it can be searched. Smeaton is starting with the George Washington Papers that have been digitized by the Library of Congress. This collection includes hand written documents that have been transcribed, which means Smeaton can compare the results from his technology with the results from the current search system. If it works, this will be a very exciting development for history buffs.

Here's one thing I learned while scanning through this collection. Apparently there was a problem with soldiers having overly easy access to liquor:

As every method hitherto practised has been found ineffectual to restrain the paltry tippling houses and Ginn-shops in this town, from selling liquor, contrary to orders, to the Soldiers, to the Detriment of His Majesty's Service, and irreparable loss of their own Health.

The Gargoyle is now online!

Our student newspaper, the Gargoyle, has gone online. Joy! I subscribed to the feed immediately. As well as the feed to the Gargoyle staff blog. There are also links to the Director's new blog (no feed?) and to this humble blog. Very cool.

The design of the OG (online Gargoyle) is elegant and slick. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was hosted by a school of 3,000, not 300. I was especially interested in the Statement of Principles and the Gargoyle Policies pages. Meaty, thoughtful pieces of prose. Sometimes we're not so cutting edge around here, but the OG implementation is way out front. I'm proud to have a connection to it.

Your full service library

The French 4 class just left, having finished their research on the German occupation of France during World War II. This afternoon I'll be introducing the Computer Literacy 2 students to more databases than they ever knew existed. Tomorrow the subfreshman science classes start the annual Cutting Edge research project. And Friday, Mr. Vaughn's sophomores will start their inquiry into the human costs of the French Revolution. But all this serious research isn't the whole picture. This morning a student checked out a book she'd requested from the University Library's main stacks. A veritable how-to book on a subject that, hmmm yes, on a subject that can't be spoken about in certain company. Not a book I'd purchase for this library. But the understanding we've forged with our students and parents is that our students are full-fledged users of University Library resources. It's up to them to know what their limits are and to act accordingly. Knowing the student, her age, her level of maturity, I'm not worried. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see if the book comes back on time...

Finding fun in work

As ever-observant Aaron was stamping our new copy of Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, he noticed that our identity stamp can sometimes produce unintended meanings, like so:

New books are a lot of work

We are surrounded in here by the new books I purchased and by the mountains of books we are reclassifying. Umpteen things have to be done to every one of them before they are shelf-ready. They have to be searched in the catalog, stamped, cataloged, and labeled. Many are sent off to be permabound (rebound with those hard covers that have the pretty paper covers laminated within). Big thanks to volunteers Emily, Aliisa, and Aaron who stamped the heck out of these puppies so they'll be returned to us after their journey to the bindery. Noam will come help us tomorrow.

Now here's a thought. Just carry a hundred books around with you in your pocket. How? E-books! Sony is trying it again. They are using a new technology that its makers claim duplicates the experience of reading from paper. For libraries, that takes care of the labeling/binding part -- will the rest of the work go away too? There's still the selecting, purchasing, cataloging (so people know it's available), etc. Nonetheless, since I can barely find my desk right now, I'm intrigued...

Shopping spree

I spent all yesterday afternoon at Pages For All Ages bookstore spending a gift card worth $524.85. This windfall represents our takings from the store's Community Book Fair held last fall. We are deeply indebted to the generous families and friends who designated our library to receive 15% of the value of their purchases during the Fair. And because of the nice discount Pages gives to libraries and schools, our $524 actually bought $697 worth of books!

I used this opportunity to pick up a lot of fun stuff - the kind of things our hard-working students can relax with. I also went armed with a list of requests generated by members of RifRaf (our book club) and the Manga club. So my pile 'o books is an eclectic mix of interesting things -- everything from White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer to The Princess Diaries, Fox Trot, Zits, David Sedaris, and Terry Pratchett.

Now we get to catalog all these lovelies using our new scheme.

Postscript: I am also indebted to strongwomen Michelle G. and Sam N. for hauling the books from my car to the library. Josh C. "supervised."