Roller Derby Librarian – Read Books or She’ll Bust You in the Chops

By day, she’s Beth Hollis, a 53-year-old reference librarian in Akron, Ohio. By night, she’s MegaBeth, an ageless dynamo on the roller derby rink.

“All my life, when I tell people I’m a librarian, they say, ‘You don’t look like a librarian,’ ” Hollis said. “And now that I’m a roller derby girl, they say, ‘You don’t look like a roller derby girl, either.’ So I don’t know where I fit in.”    Full Story

Searching the NY Daily News

I was helping a patron the other day and was surprised that we could search the NYDN archived artcles back to 1990 & print the articles for free. So many newspapers charge for accessing older articles. Thank you for helping us help the public NYDN!

A.I.R.R. Logo unveiled

As requested, I created a logo for the group of people on staff that Lynne has dubbed the A.I.R.R. (Animal & Insect Rescue & Retrieval) squad. Due to popular demand, I am making the logo available here on our blog. I think we should put it on t-shirts and give it out to members, but it’s just a thought.

Trailer Friday: The Men Who Stare at Goats

50 Best Websites according to TIME

Some are as useful as a GPS device, others aren’t that useful but give you something to do when you had nothing planned for the day. Put them all together and they become TIME.com’s 2008 picks for the best the Web has to offer:

50 best Websites 2008

Wikipedia Changes Editing Policy

“The innovative online user-written encyclopedia Wikipedia is growing up, and with its growth comes a massive change to how it operates. Back in its early days, Wikipedia could be edited by anyone. Then it nixed the concept of anonymous edits and required authentication. Now contributors can write what they want, but if editing certain articles, the changes must be verified by an experienced volunteer before publication.”   Full Story

Arterial Road Info Comes to Google Maps (also Crowdsourced Traffic for GPS Users)

“Highway traffic updates on the Internet are nothing new, but Google Maps has just added a feature that lets users see live traffic info for arterial, non-highway roads. The feature is already available in “selected cities,” which includes Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York.

As pointed out on the Google LatLong Blog, people who drive on a daily basis not only want to know the status of the highways, they usually would like to see how the roads around the highways are looking, too. Arterial roads—medium or high-traffic roads that are not highways—now show color indicators depending on the current traffic status, which can be helpful in determining a route on the fly.”   Full Story

Footnote.com – a demo genealogical database to try out (from inside the library only)

“Ebsco has a arranged a trial for Footnote.com. Footnote is a social networking genealogy site that has drawn a lot of interest from Suffolk libraries. It has a slew of primary source historical documents and genealogy information. All libraries are IP authenticated, so you can enter the site by going to http://www.footnote.com.”

Tech giants unite against Google

“Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google’s attempt to create what could be the world’s largest virtual library.  Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive. They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works…In its defence, Google has argued that the deal brings great benefits to authors and will make millions of out-of-print books widely available online and in libraries.”   Full Story

Film Adaptation Of ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ Ends Where Most People Stop Reading Book

“LOS ANGELES—Executives at Paramount Pictures announced Monday that production had finally wrapped on The Brothers Karamazov, a new film adaptation that concludes at the precise moment most readers give up on the classic Russian novel.

The 83-minute film, which is based on the first 142 or so pages of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s acclaimed work, has already garnered attention for its stunning climax, in which the end credits suddenly appear midway through Katerina’s tearful speech about an unpaid debt.

“We are very excited to be able to bring several chapters of this timeless masterpiece to the big screen,” Paramount CEO Brad Grey said of the movie, which was shot, on and off, for two years. “Anyone who’s ever tried to sit down and trudge through this incredible book is going to be absolutely blown away by the faithfulness of our film.”   Full Story