I am 2.5 weeks away from being finished with INFO 780 Special Topics in Digital Reference. There is still a lot to be done. I owe 2 new pathfinders and 1 updated one for the Internet Public Library. And, there is a group project that is due this Sunday. My part has been finished for a while but I missed some things in my draft and revised that this morning. All that is left is putting it together which is work but most of the thought and research work has been finished.
I am developing new Pathfinders for Choosing a Cat or Kitten and Finding Mystery Novels. I have drafts of both of them and am continuing to research the topics. The research is fun as always and I have found some interesting new sites to include.
I have been working this morning on updating the Celtic Culture pathfinder. The pathfinder that exists is good and well organized but many of the links are now dead and new ones need to be found.
We also have a couple of small things due such as an analysis of our own contributions. I find this somewhat difficult to write but have an idea of how to approach it that should work.
We had a discussion post due this week about technological and social changes that we think will affect digital reference in the future. I wrote about the utility of bibliomining for improving digital reference and also suggested that I think that notions of privacy are changing and that will affect digital reference and the services libraries offer. I expect the privacy part to be somewhat controversial and am interested in the comments that I will get.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The Fisher Boy by Stephen Anable
I just finished The Fisher Boy by Stephen Anable. It is set on Cape Code, mostly in Provincetown with some forays to Truro (although as the author notes, not a depiction of Truro that is geographically accurate) and Gloucester, MA. Mark, the main character, is part of a troupe of improvisational actors who are looking for bookings in the summer.
Bad things happen in Provincetown this summer, beginning with a dead dog deposited on the steps of the party that always opens the season and a murder of a friend of Mark that soon follows. Added to the usual crush of summer residents is a group called the Christian Soldiers and young blond-hair people who are pan-handling and claim to be from a Scandinavian ship. Added to this is the opening of an exhibit of the paintings of Thomas Royall that includes information about a utopian community that he founded in Truro and that ended badly.
All of this comes together to make a kind of Cape Cod-gothic novel. I doubt that it really conforms to the true gothic genre but there is something about the baroqueness of the plot that reminded me of gothic novels.
As a lover of Cape Cod and a lover of mystery novels, I enjoyed this book greatly.
Bad things happen in Provincetown this summer, beginning with a dead dog deposited on the steps of the party that always opens the season and a murder of a friend of Mark that soon follows. Added to the usual crush of summer residents is a group called the Christian Soldiers and young blond-hair people who are pan-handling and claim to be from a Scandinavian ship. Added to this is the opening of an exhibit of the paintings of Thomas Royall that includes information about a utopian community that he founded in Truro and that ended badly.
All of this comes together to make a kind of Cape Cod-gothic novel. I doubt that it really conforms to the true gothic genre but there is something about the baroqueness of the plot that reminded me of gothic novels.
As a lover of Cape Cod and a lover of mystery novels, I enjoyed this book greatly.
Pathfinders
In my current course in Library School, Special Topics in Digital Reference, one of our assignments is creating Pathfinders for the Internet Public Library. Pathfinder is another word for subject guides which help the user find information or resources related to a particular subject.
I have chosen to update one pathfinder on Celtic Culture and develop two new ones: Choosing a cat or kitten and Finding Mystery Novels. I think that the current Celtic Culture pathfinder is well-organized by needs to be updated because many of the links are currently broken or the website has not been updated in the last few years.
The research for "Choosing a cat or kitten" has been pretty straightforward--there are so many good and active organizations that have published guidelines for choosing a cat. I even found one that includes a strategy for choosing a cat from a shelter with pretty specific guidelines for identifying the cat with the personality that you seek.
The mystery pathfinder is great fun to research but organizing it is another issue. There are so many types of mysteries and some many sites to choose from. Right now, I am listing them and annotating the websites but it will be interesting to go back and figure out the best method for organizing it.
I have chosen to update one pathfinder on Celtic Culture and develop two new ones: Choosing a cat or kitten and Finding Mystery Novels. I think that the current Celtic Culture pathfinder is well-organized by needs to be updated because many of the links are currently broken or the website has not been updated in the last few years.
The research for "Choosing a cat or kitten" has been pretty straightforward--there are so many good and active organizations that have published guidelines for choosing a cat. I even found one that includes a strategy for choosing a cat from a shelter with pretty specific guidelines for identifying the cat with the personality that you seek.
The mystery pathfinder is great fun to research but organizing it is another issue. There are so many types of mysteries and some many sites to choose from. Right now, I am listing them and annotating the websites but it will be interesting to go back and figure out the best method for organizing it.
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