down the rabbit hole...

I'm into poetry.
And since I talk a lot about libraries, information and whatever else... I have to include some straight up classic literature.

A new "Alice in Wonderland" book just arrived the other day. It's a reprint. Probably due to the psychotic-looking movie that just came out. No, I haven't seen it yet. I'm sure I'll make it there eventually. I think I need to read the book again first though.

Here is a poem at the beginning of this book. I had to read it silently and then I had to read it aloud, and now, I'm going to have to read it a few times more because it's a little intrigueing.

All below belongs to Lewis Carroll

All in the Golden Afternoon

All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretence
Our wanderings to guide.

Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour,
Beneath such dreamy weather,
To beg a tale of breath too weak
To stir the tiniest feather!
Yet what can one poor voice avail
Against three tongues together?

Imperious Prima flashes forth
Her edict 'to begin it'--
In gentler tone Secuna hopes
'There will be nonsense in it!'--
While Tertia interrupts the tale
Not more than once a minute.

Anon, to sudden silence won,
In fancy they pursue
The dream-child moving through a land
Of wonders wild and new,
In friendly chat with bird or beast--
And half believe it true.

And ever, as the story drained
The wells of fancy dry,
And faintly strove that weary one
To put the subject by,
'The rest next time--' 'It is next time!'
The happy voices cry.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland;
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint event were hammered out--
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! A childish story take,
And with a gentle hand
Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's withered wreath of flowers
Pluck'd in a far-off land.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'"

And this is mine below:

What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations in it?

The imagination builds itself,
The dreams take a fly,
The synapses spark,
The attention becomes hard to pry,
It may be a lie,
but to you it may be the only truth you really believe inside.

-A highly wired lady.

boxpunx

The other day, a fellow I work with at the library introduced me to these things called box punx. He found them on this website: http://harlancore.com/boxpunx/

I have to admit, they are pretty interesting. They are like these little creatures made out of paper all folded in odd ways. I had a hard time making myfirst one. I thought it was a little tougher than origami but young adults/teens seem to pump them out like a mini box punx factory.

If you decide to make one, you have to print out the template first. It prints out as a piece of paper with one odd shape on it. The instructions are towards the bottom of the paper. You cut this odd shape out and fold it according to the instruction and voila... you've created a box punx.

Don't ask me, I just work here.

-a highly wired lady

Can you teach yourself?

The other day I was speaking to a friend of mine on the phone. It was a usual conversation with this friend since. We spend a lot of our time talking about engineering, math, computer science, physcis and what some people would "nerdy" stuff. As we kept talking he told me if I had ever heard of MIT OpenCourseWare. And I said no. He began to explain what it is and he also gave me the website, which I will share with you.
MIT OpenCourseWare is this website (published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is for those who are looking to bone up on specific subjects or, if you are ambitious, dedicated and self-motivated... to go through an entire course online. Now, it's not like you are signed up for the course or you pay anything (yes, it's free.) It is courses that were offered in the past to MIT students, undergraduate and graduate level that are now posted to the public. Now, almost all of the coursework, including the syllabus, video lectures, lecture notes from the professors, exams, assignments, texts needed... it's pretty much all there. Just download it and work. There are no time constraints, you work at your own pace
I couldn't believe it when I found it. I was looking through the various majors, the coursework... it just seemed surreal. Now, it's not really an online course if that's what you may be thinking. There's no credit. And, I would be pretty sure that MIT is not going to offer any course online for free. There are a lot of reasons to use the site. For example, say you are an older young adult and you are looking to test out of a certain course. If you study and do the coursework, you can test out of it without having to pay for a class at the university or community college.
I guess it just depends on your style of learning. If you can learn this way and retain what you've learned through this methodology... then I would say, go for it. Especially if you are strapped for cash and time.
I had to mention it because it is an amazing resource, totally unbelievable.
I remember my friend saying "well you're the librarian, you should know about this." And I just shook my head because I knew it was true. It wasn't meant as an offense (what my friend said) but it just made me think.
So, you want to know how to find this... put in your address bar... ocw.mit.edu
Look to the left of the page. And, like I said, this is probably for the older young adults, but it's also for those who want to peek.
And that's about all.
-a highly wired lady

why I post and post and post

A Librarian, who I work with, presented an article to me today, "Librarian, cybrarian tribute is long 'overdue'; Here's a love letter to cool needed pros" By Craig Wilson.

This article appeared in on the front page of the USA Today newspaper; the date published is Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010.



There is a quote at the top of the article that reads "We have had this huge burst of information, yes, but how do you know what you want or need? That's where a librarian comes in: to usher people through."



This above quote is one of the major reasons I write this blog. Because information is at you everywhere. And it is accessible to the majority of the population in one way or another. Librarians' job is to know how to help you find the information that you need, that is appropriate for whatever info request you may have. It's not our job to give you the answers to things (no, we do not everything; people seem to think this.) It's our job to help you find your answers and that is through either teaching you how to use various information resources or steer you in a direction where you may be able to find them yourselves.



The past weekend. There were two ladies from our library system that went to an event called "School to World". They were there to represent the libraries by showing tweens and teens what we do and what we can offer them, for free. That we exist. That we are alive and well, for the most part. To me... this is the part of librarianship that is most important. The public needs to know how we can fit into their lives and the community. And, it is so important for the young adult generation to help us librarians learn how they are using information resources to find knowledge or their truth. What they are using to write their papers. Sometimes, I'm more interested in what they can show me and what I can learn from them versus what I know and can show them. But, it's always good to trade methods.



This generation will soon be the next information professionals or librarians. And they use and perceive information through different routes and in diverse ways. I believe that it is my job to help me create the library based upon what I know and their needs. And, how am I supposed to know if they do not know how important their you-tubing is or their wiki stuff. I used to think Myspace and Facebook was like "their" domain and now I'm starting to think... they have this whole other social networking web-world that most of us are unaware of unless we ask.



I just spoke with a woman on the phone during a reference question and after I explained to her some things about our library she was thankful and said that she didn't realize how important it is that our tax dollars go to libraries.

In my opinion, for whatever it counts, it is important to support libraries.

I had a friend awhile back tell me that he wants to be able to access whatever information he wants, any type of information, for free, whenever. Me, being a librarian... I was like, well... that's sort of possible but there is some information that is not free, that's just the way it is right now. However, Libraries subscribe to a wealth of information that is normally not free and un-google-able. This information is found in databases (each database is like a library of its own.) Databases are never free. The library pays a lot of money to subscribe to them and we offer them to our patrons/customers for free, as long as you have a library card.

Librarians are good people to help you with databases. There is a ton of information in these but if you don't know how to use one, you can spin in circles and eventually feel like throwing the computer out the window. Trust me.

So that's a good reason why you need libraries and librarians.

Don't be afraid to ask. Don't be afraid to ask to learn.

Because of the wealth of knowledge that exists in libraries... "Libraries are an arsenal of liberty"
Think about that one.

I even get on TMI overload sometimes.
-a highly wired lady

I actually had time to watch tv

This post is related to something I saw on TV, which is, an information resource so I can talk about it here.

Before I begin though, I have to let you know of an unforgettable quote from my friend and volunteer's blog. She writes, "I say thank-you and more than that, maybe next time you'll let me have my own ideas." Her blog is http://xxlikeitorleaveit.blogspot.com
You can find the link on the left hand side of this page.

Okay, so now I can talk about TV. I am not a usual watcher of TV except for the Olympics that just finished but one evening I sat down, just before the closing ceremony of the Olympics was going to air. And, of course, the national news was on.
So, big deal right? Honestly, I don't really watch the news, I like to listen to NPR but that's a different story. So, anyways... the news is on, blah, blah, blah and I'm lying on my catch listening to story after story of news coverage that is negative and maybe you could say paranoid? I don't know that's my opinion, but it was like, all of a sudden, I felt inadequate about something. Then, and this is the ta-dah, the commercials. No joke, almost every, if not all the commercials, were dedicated to pharmaceuticals advertising their newest drug. It's odd with those commercials. You never really know what sort of treatment the drug is for. A little misleading, but go ahead and talk to your doctor about it, right.

So why would I bring this up? How does this have to do with libraries. A lot actually. Especially if you want to be informed of good resources for health information. Now if you are a hypochondriac sort, I wouldn't use this because you will think you have every disease or illness that exists. I'll put out one really good source for now... http://medlineplus.gov It's called Medline Plus. It is a creation of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health. It's consumer-based health information, which means it was and is made for the public.

Okay, let me go back to the commercials. You may find this interesting or not. When I was in library school I took a class at the law school called advanced legal research. Now, let me tell you first that libraries at law schools are completely different in so many ways; yes there are other types of librarians out there.
In the course I had to do a project on the prescribing of off-label drug use. So this means... a doctor/physician prescribes a drug to you for an illness, condition, whatever, but it has never been approved by the FDA (federal drug administration) for this use. Some say this could be illegal or malpractice (thus where the law came in.) Physicians actually do prescribe certain drugs that have not been approved by the FDA for this specific condition, but they do it because of their experience and knowledge. However, it has been known that pharmaceutical companies have been known to push specific drugs onto younger docs or just docs. And sometimes, it has been noted that drugs pushed are pushed for off-label use. Well, the pharmaceutical company can't really do that, or they're not supposed to.

Anyways... going back to the commercials. When a pharmaceutical company advertises it's drugs on television you better believe they are approved by the FDA for that use. They are. But it's funny... you see I used to be a medical librarian and I remember having to do research for this one doc on this drug called Abilify. This medication is considered a anti-psychotic medication. But now, five or more years later, I see that this medication is now being commercialized as an add on to an anti-depressant. Weird huh. So, five years ago, if this drug were advertised as an add on to a anti-depressant, a law suit would have been slammed on the drug company for advertising the use of an off-label drug. It's weird, I know. If you've read this far.

But now, maybe you see how Librarians and Information Professionals play a role in this research process. They find the information that these doctors, lawyers, and scientists need.

Just goes to show you... you better know your information... and more importantly... how you display it to the public.
Does that make sense?

And seriously, can the news be a little more negative? No wonder why pharmaceutical companies put their ads in these slots.

-A highly wired lady.