For the boys

Aaron found an interesting item on the shelves a couple of days ago -- The Amazing Adventures of Gargantua and His Son Pantagruel: Edited for Boys by Francis Rabelais (Fiction R11Og1940). The book jacket notes "Lovers of Rabelais will welcome this version because of its fidelity to the spirit of the original text, and even more for the ingenioius way in which the unsuitable passages have been rephrased for the young reader." This edition has been in our collection since it was published in 1940. Then, in 1952, some radical librarian purchased a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica's Great Books of the Western World (808.8 G798). Sure enough, volume 24 has the unexpurgated translation of all five short comic novels about the giant Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. So much for the young readers.

I did a quick comparison of one story, called "The Six Pilgrims in the Salad" in the 1940 version and "How Gargantua did eat up six Pilgrims in a sallad" in the 1952 version. You will be happy to hear that no pilgrims are actually digested. Gargantua plucks them out of his mouth after one jabs a sore tooth. Then, only in the 1952 version, Gargantua relieves himself. The pilgrims are carried away by the stream, straight into a wolf trap. Now that's what I call a bad day. And a great example of boy humor.

Here is the 1940 depiction of the pilgrims seeking shelter in the produce:

Gaming at the library

The University Library is embarking on a new adventure by starting to collect video games and systems. To inaugurate the collection, the Undergraduate Library is sponsoring a DDR Tournament and Game Night this Saturday, April 29th. Does gaming seem like a strange thing for an academic library to be pursuing? It's not as strange as you might think. On this campus, researchers are studying gaming and developing games for all kinds of unexpected uses. Public libraries have been getting into the gaming business for a while. There's even a Second Life Public Library. After all, the gaming industry now rivals the movie industry in terms of dollars spent and general popularity.

Speaking of Second Life, I could use some remedial help with basic navigation. Last time I was on (just call me "Redbud Potato"), I found a party and was able to start dancing. But then I couldn't figure out how to stop dancing. I left the party, transported to other places, and still could not stop dancing. In Real Life this is not a problem for me. But in my virtual life, I'd rather have some control over my limbs, thank you very much.

Strangely quiet

The school is strangely quiet today. The entire freshman class has gone to Allerton Park for a 3-day retreat. I watched them line up for the buses this morning. It's also the Day of Silence and about 80 Uni students (out of 300!) are participating.

But elsewhere around town, things are heating up for Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival. I had my own Ebert-sighting this morning. As I was coming back from a meeting on campus this morning, he and his wife Chaz were walking up Wright Street. Now, if only I can get to a movie or two.

Online comics

This morning I asked Elizabeth what I should blog about and she immediately suggested online comics. You all know that I'm partial to Unshelved, which is updated daily on our website. What are you reading? Send me your favorites and I'll compile them for a later blog entry.

In the meantime, Friday night I was up until 2:00 a.m. finishing A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly (Fiction D7186n). So good on so many different levels. It's got everything -- compelling characters, romance, history, and a murder mystery.

Bits of this and that

Some random goodies from LISNews:

A parent in Georgia wants all Harry Potter books removed from the Gwinnett County Public School system. Too bad she hasn't read any of them (they are "too long"). The Gwinnett Daily Post would like to "put a 'Silencio' (self-explanatory) curse on the whole thing."

While we agree the books seem to fly off the shelves as if they've been hit with an "Accio," we've not seen a report of a kid casting a "Densaugeo" (enlarges the teeth of the victim) on their little brother.

More about anthropodermic bibliopegy, the practice of binding books with human skin in this news story about an alleged thief of one such (very old) item.

Check out this cure for information overload. Sorta reminiscent of the world's best blonde joke.

I am inspired by the second-graders who replaced bloodied books in their school library. Apparently the intruder wasn't very graceful.

Now you see it...

...but in a day (or a week, or a month) you won't. So you have to quickly go take a look at the Uni High home page. Run your cursor over the Library link. Be patient, the rollover loads slowly. But it's worth the wait.

I wonder whose idea this was? Laura D., who looks absolutely fascinated by the book she's reading, or some clever Uni Web class photographer?

But be quick, before the website goblin decides to put up a new image in its place!

What teenagers REALLY think

What happens when 2,000 high school and middle school students from throughout the state of California are given digital cameras and one month to capture their day-to-day life experiences? The results are documented in 350 full-color images in My So-Called Digital Life: 2,000 Teenagers, 300 Cameras, and 30 Days to Document Their World (Q.779.9305235 P716m). On the back cover, project creator Bob Pletka asks "Are we ready to hear what teenagers want to tell us about themselves?" After a quick look through the book, I'm not sure I am. At least, not in terms of what they have to say about school. Image after image, caption after caption, all describing the boredom and pointlessness of their school experiences. Of course, awful schooling is not the only topic this book depicts. Many wonderful, even uplifting moments are captured. But I kind of got stuck on the school stuff. Maybe if they hadn't included the picture of this kid sleeping on the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature...

Spider 1, Tiger 0

I spent much of the weekend absorbed in Neil Gaiman's new book, Anansi Boys (Fiction G127a). Gaiman invents a kind of sequel to the age-old rivalry between trickster-spider Anansi and his arch-enemy Tiger, who claims to have been the source of all stories before Anansi stole them. Instead of Africa, the action takes place primarily in London and in Florida -- and in a number of places that only exist in the imagination. The guy can really write. His books are so different from one another, at least superficially. But they never fail to transport me to a magical place in my mind. Gaiman also has a wonderful website. Besides all the usual public relations stuff, he maintains a daily journal and links to all manner of fan sites and other useful resources. Here's a banner for Anansi Boys. [Only problem is, it's a bit too wide for Blogger, so the sidebar is getting squashed at the bottom of the screen. And when I downsize the image, it loses that lovely animation. I will Seek Help tomorrow. Sigh.] (Mega-thanks to student Ellen Rockett for teaching me how to tame this image!! Now I know the real reason I log into IM at night...)

Social networking video (and a secret)

First there were MySpace and Facebook, then Flickr, and now there's YouTube. That's right, share your videos online, tag them, and see who else is making videos like yours. Take a look at this fun rock 'n roll video created by University of Pittsburgh library school students for National Library Week. Tags include "library," "books," and "rock." YouTube also displays thumbnails of the 4 (out of 21,872) videos that are related, and they actually do look related. But clicking on "rock" produced some interesting results. Rock music, rock climbing, rocking babies, pro wrestler "The Rock." The English language is a funny thing.

Oh, a secret. Free books in the library. Yes, free books. Some of you may have seen this coming.

Not your typical sports books display

Corinne and Jenny did a bang up job of creating this new display on "Books by, about, and for the sports fan" --



All sorts of interesting (and unexpected) stuff here. Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp (PB WHI), Baseball at War: World War II and the Fall of the Color Line (796.3570973 G3772b), Pro Wrestling: From Carnivals to Cable TV (796.812 G829p), a novel called Rough Waters ("What doesn't kill them will make them stronger..."), Losing Is Not an Option: Stories (Fiction W15571l), Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America's Youth (796.3230973 W538s), and bunches of other good titles. Come take a look.

Library poetry

I am pleased, no thrilled, that subfreshman Katherine Allen gave me permission to post her poem called Library.

Here, everything exists.
Here, time goes awry.
Those alien deserts slumbering,
Chinese marching forever,
Dinosaurs roaming the open land,
they go on forever.
As long as those dusty pages exist,
they go on forever.
Rows and rows of metal shelves, holding
Life and Death
White-hat books and Black-hat books.
Feel the old and comfortable leather?
Smell the smell of ancient books?
Taste the taste of funeral dust?
It's only what is captured here.
Only what is to be here for eternity.
Only what is trapped in the labyrinth of time and paper.
Everything inside is invisible, silent.
But it speaks, oh

it speaks.

There's a reason people think libraries are hard to use

On Monday and Tuesday I'll be at a conference called Access and Infrastructure: Navigating Our Libraries in the New Information Landscape. I'll be on a panel to talk about how "millennials" search for information. The audience will be mostly academic librarians, many with technical services (behind the scenes) jobs. It's not terribly fair to make sweeping generalizations about an entire generation, but I'd say that most teenagers and college-aged folks have much higher expectations of their information systems than previous generations did. Perhaps this is because they have direct experience with systems that work quickly, easily, and transparently. So why should they put up with legacy information systems that don't work as well? I plan to use a search on car repair to demonstrate the Millennial User Experience. Here's what happens when you search our (University Library) catalog using a "subject heading" search. Horrible. Here's a key word search. Better, but not great. Here's a Google search. Lovely. And finally, here's an Amazon search. Outstanding!

It used to be that if you had trouble finding books in a library, you felt like it was your fault. In worst case scenarios, libraries could be intimidating places that made you feel stupid. Now there's something to offset that kind of searching experience. We can't pretend anymore that library catalogs are user-centered creations. They work well for us librarians, not so well for library users. But solutions don't come easily or cheaply. Still, I'm glad the library world is taking a good hard look at these issues.

Girls in groups

Guess I'm on a roll with the camera this week. But I couldn't resist capturing this Kodak moment:



The library was pretty quiet this morning during first period, but even so, I've observed that girls seem to form in piles rather than spread themselves around to the empty spaces. Michelle and Chelsea were highly amused during their joint reading of "What Freaks Him Out About You" in this month's issue of Seventeen. Point number 2, about how girls go to the bathroom in groups, particularly set them off. This is a mystery? Michelle's comment:

What would be the point of going to the bathroom by yourself??

Meanwhile, Jie sat alongside them, having abandoned her usual manga for the current issue of...Fortune (!?). One day she'll be the boss of us all.

Digital camera magic

It's so easy and gratifying to instantly document life with a digital camera. Here's my record of what Eric, and now Chris, were able to achieve with our Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure:





While Nancy's balancing act may be impressive, wait till you see the beautiful math-y thing Mr. Russell was able to document with our camera and a little help from Geometer's Sketchpad.

NEW new book shelf

We'd been fretting about how no one seemed to notice the new book shelf which, though placed right next to the magazines, was somewhat obscured in a shadowy, cluttered corner. Then Lor (thanks, Lor!) suggested a new arrangement which makes the shelf much more noticeable. Now all those tantalizing new titles are getting plenty of attention. Here are Cordelia and Greg craning their necks to get a good look.



Looks like it may be time to reprise our nostalgic 1980s Saga of the New Book Shelf.

The worst Web threat yet

Instead of linking to some of the best of this year's April Fool's Day content (like the delicious Google Romance service), I thought I should be serious and instead alert you to the true cost we all pay for Web-disseminated "harmless" April Fool's Day pranks. Many thanks to Christopher "Infomancy" Harris (no relation) for lifting the wool from my eyes. What is this this terrible menace? It is nothing less formidable than the "Digitally Re-Shifted April Fool's Joke." Indulge me in a lengthy quote:

1. The Digitally Re-Shifted April Fool's Joke (DRSAFJ) as a Foundation: Too many people on Slashdot and BoingBoing and other blogs are using this as a platform to try and show people they are "hip" to internet humor. Look, if you want to be hip, make sure you don’t miss "Talk Like a Pirate Day" next year, okay?
2. Degrading Collective Intelligence: Friends don't let friends post bad information to Wikipedia - this is not just a PSA message, this also applies to the DRSAFJ!
3. The DRSAFJ is the Next Intel Inside: People post these horrible DRSAFJ, and then the next day they have to introduce further information clutter by going back and posting notes about how it was just a DRSAFJ and that it wasn't real and then you end up with these posts stuck all over blogs like the Intel Inside stickers that are stuck all over my laptop.
4. End of the DRASFJ Release Cycle: Look, how about we spread out the release of the bad information throughout the year? Then it is easier for us to do the research and discredit these false posts. I mean what is the allure of today anyway? Why not a July Fool's joke? This is Digitally Re-Shifted, after all. We can write them today but delay the posting until later! See how silly that sounds? Once the April Fool's joke was Digitally Re-Shifted, it lost the very essence of being an April Fool's Joke.
5. Lightweight DRASFJ Models: If we must involve ourselves, we need to think bigger! What’s one little blog post, after all… How about next year we break out of the lightweight DRASFJ model and we pull an April Fool's joke on the speed of light or the laws of thermodynamics? Hah, can't be done you say? Then how about we just stop this altogether?
6. DRASFJ Above the Level of a Single Blog: The other problem with the Digital Re-Shift of these jokes is that blogs link to each other. I have been speaking with ICANN about a possible solution to this menace. Next year, they are going to drop all of the primary router tables on this date so that nobody can get to any websites and thus cannot link to these pathetic DRASFJs.
7. Rich April Fool's Joke Experience: In the end, this is what it is about! We need to make sure that both the joker and the jokee have a rich experience. The shared moment of physical closeness during an analog April Fool's joke is lost with the DRSAFJ. How does the joker know the jokee is reading the joke? The jokee can just unplug his or her computer and go outside to walk aimlessly through the streets calling out "Fool me once, fool me twice, I am a fool looking to be fooled!"

Okay, now it's up to the rest of you to spread the word! Just think -- today's web-embedded April Fool's joke is November's War of the Worlds mass hysteria...

P.S. Disclaimer/spoiler that I fear is necessary: Christopher is no more serious about this than Jonathan Swift was about his solutions for overpopulation. But he (Christopher) is so clever about it, dontcha think?