Wednesday, July 30, 2008

cuatrocientos cuarenta--!?Que te pasa?!

I don't know about all you other catalogers out there, but I find this business about OCLC dropping the 440 uncontrolled series title line and using only the 490 controlled series title line (with a first indicator of "0" instead of "1", no less!) sans dovetailing 830 line a bit misunderestimatingly confusing as to its purpose...and now I hear "e-mail talk" of the droppage of the 490 controlled series title line and using instead the (formerly) dovetailing 830 line...I mean, it just seems a little unnecessary to go through all this droppage and indicator changing and so forth when we catalogers (probably) know when to use a 440 or 490, etc. ...!... But I suppose it doesn't really matter, as we continue to do what we want to with our records when we download them from OCLC, anyway...But, there you have it, and I'm sure you agree totally!

dicho interesante--!si se puede!

I was given a sticky tab note at work the other week that had on it an interesting word creation:

"Blamestorming: When making it one person's fault just won't do."

I came up with my compound word joining example, but it's not as good, no doubt:

"Brainsnoring: When anything other than zoned-out, glazed-eyed consciousness won't do."

And I bet that if you make an attempt, you can come up with your own C.W.J. example! Try it; it will be a fun time!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

mejor tecnologia para la biblioteca

http://www.aquabrowser.com/

This was a product I was very impressed with when I learned about it at the TLA conference back in April--if only all library "discovery platforms" worked this well!

Fijate!

Check out this new research tool which is freely available to all who use the internet...(It would have been nice to have it around during the ol' college career up to now!) The "ztour" video does a good job of explaining all the perks:

http://www.zotero.org/

Zotero works in conjunction with Firefox and integrates all kinds of disparate research methodologies and technologies. It is probably being used mainly in the academic world at the moment, but can definitely be useful to most anybody doing a significant amount of research...

Sunday, July 13, 2008

aconsejo "seguro"




If tendonitis or carpal tunnel is making your job difficult, one option has always been the standard horizontal ergonomic keyboard (bottom photo). However, this traditional type of ergonomic keyboard eliminates only certain harmful typing positions. A vertical ergonomic keyboard, on the other hand, may be more helpful for you (top photo). You can read more at http://www.safetype.com/. I use one at work, and it's been a definite improvement for me. There is a lot less pain in my wrists when I type because of this simple yet effective keyboard.




Tuesday, July 8, 2008

la palabra es la llave

If most library online catalogs would only yield the accurate results with keyword searching that Google can, there would be a lot more satisfied library patrons out there--as well as librarians! Consider that if you search with these following phrases on Google, you can instantly get access to a great amount of knowledge about each subject, which isn't always the case when searching on a library's catalog...

CERN
Kiersey vs. MBTI
Musical Modes