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Sex and the City - Movie - Review - The New York Times

Sex and the City - Movie - Review - The New York Times.

Movie Review
Sex and the City (2008)

The Girls Are Back in Town
By MANOHLA DARGIS, Published: May 30, 2008

A little Botox goes a long way in “Sex and the City,” but a little decent writing would have gone even further. A dumpy big-screen makeover of that much-adored small-screen delight, the movie was written and directed by Michael Patrick King, one of the guiding lights and bright wits of the original series, based on Candace Bushnell’s newspaper columns and subsequent book. Once again, Sarah Jessica Parker has stepped into the dizzyingly high heels of Carrie Bradshaw, that postmodern Lorelei Lee — a hardly working New York writer with a passion for men and Manolos — but this time she’s taken a terrible tumble.

I haven't seen the film yet, but here's the NY Times' review.. I gather from this first paragraph, they didn't like it much.. let's see what the fans and those seeing it on the big screen say.. post your comments here...

CommunityNetworking2008: Steve Cisler

CommunityNetworking2008: Steve Cisler.

CommunityNetworking2008: Steve Cisler
Friday, May 16, 2008

Community Networking champion Steve Cisler passed away this week. He was an inspiration to and supporter of many people and initiatives in the U.S. and globally. Please use this space to post your recollections, stories and expressions of gratitude to Steve and for his family and friends. rl Posted by Richard Lowenberg at 11:03 AM
31 comments

Steve was one of my early gurus, a friend and online associate.. he made an impact, always willing to help, and he will be missed...

TheStar.com | Education | This is not your parents' library, or yours either

TheStar.com | Education | This is not your parents' library, or yours either.

This is not your parents' library, or yours either
We never had this as kids! Toronto Public Library offers a new literacy playground
May 29, 2008 04:30 AM, by Kristin Rushowy Education Reporter

From the light-up entrance to the silver rocket ship to the wall of spinning blocks, this is so not the library you grew up with.

The Toronto Public Library today opens the first of several planned KidsStops – an indoor literacy playground – located in the S. Walter Stewart branch in East York, which has been closed since September 2006 for a major renovation.

"This is a different direction," said Ken Setterington, child and youth advocate for the Toronto Public Library, during a sneak peek yesterday of the new space. "What's really nice is we want people to come to the library not just for books, we want them to come to have fun, to explore and learn."

Sydney Pollack, Director of High-Profile Hollywood Movies, Is Dead at 73 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Sydney Pollack, Director of High-Profile Hollywood Movies, Is Dead at 73 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com.

Sydney Pollack, Film Director, Is Dead at 73
By MICHAEL CIEPLY, Published: May 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay as director, producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like “The Way We Were,” “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa” were among the most successful of the 1970s and ’80s, died Monday at home here. He was 73.

The cause was cancer, said the publicist Leslee Dart, who spoke for his family.

Mr. Pollack’s career defined an era in which big stars (Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty) and the filmmakers who knew how to wrangle them (Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols) retooled the Hollywood system. Savvy operators, they played studio against studio, staking their fortunes on pictures that served commerce without wholly abandoning art.

Mr. Pollack was always an original, and I loved his acting as well as his directing.. he managed to keep his values and play his own way inside the Hollywood Establishment.. he will be missed...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Movie - Review - The New York Times

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Movie - Review - The New York Times.

Movie Review
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
By MANOHLA DARGIS, Published: May 22, 2008

CANNES, France — “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is a movie for boomers of all ages, though you can bet the bank that plenty of tots will be tagging along with Mom and Dad, Granny and Gramps. Like the 1981 blockbuster “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the first in a monster franchise that has spawned two previous movie sequels, a television series, comics, novels, video games and Disney theme-park attractions, this new one was directed by Steven Spielberg, cooked up and executive produced by George Lucas (with Kathleen Kennedy) and stars Harrison Ford as the archaeologist-adventurer-sexpot with the sardonic grin, rakish fedora and suggestive bullwhip.

This latest Indy escapade, which was shown out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival and will probably scoop up more money than the rest of the selections combined, serves as a reunion for the principal creative team. Almost two decades have lapsed since the third installment in the series, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989). In the years since, Mr. Lucas — whose logo for Lucasfilm received the loudest applause at the press screening in Cannes — continued to build his special-effects empire and resurrected the “Star Wars” franchise while Mr. Spielberg has oscillated between serious-minded projects and financially instrumental entertainments.

Google Book Search and WorldCat agreement [OCLC]

Google Book Search and WorldCat agreement [OCLC].

News releases
OCLC and Google to exchange data,
link digitized books to WorldCat

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 19 May 2008—OCLC and Google Inc. have signed an agreement to exchange data that will facilitate the discovery of library collections through Google search services.

Under terms of the agreement, OCLC member libraries participating in the Google Book Search™ program, which makes the full text of more than one million books searchable, may share their WorldCat-derived MARC records with Google to better facilitate discovery of library collections through Google.

Google will link from Google Book Search to WorldCat.org, which will drive traffic to library OPACs and other library services. Google will share data and links to digitized books with OCLC, which will make it possible for OCLC to represent the digitized collections of OCLC member libraries in WorldCat.

For a cogent inquiry into what this means for libraries at large, read Peter's insights...

Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web: The University of South Carolina Beaufort

Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web: The University of South Carolina Beaufort.

bare bones 101: A basic tutorial on searching the web

"Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are going. "              --Anonymous

INTRODUCTION
So, you're still getting those 1,670,000+ responses to your search queries on the Web, and you're still too busy to do anything about it, like reading the lengthy, and sometimes confusing, "help" screens to find out how to improve your searching techniques.

Look no further! Real help is here, in the USCB Library's BARE BONES Tutorial.

You can zip through these lessons in no time, any time. They are very short and succinct; each can be read in a few minutes. Feel free to jump in wherever you like, skip what you don't want to read, and come back whenever you need to.

The information contained in the following lessons is truly "bare bones," designed to get you started in the right direction with a minimum of time and effort. For more comprehensive and detailed help on searching the Web, consult our recommended list of sites in Lesson 20 at the end of this tutorial.

An excellent brief tutorial for Web searching.. it covers search engines; metasearching; subject directories; library gateways and specialized databases; most major search engines; and has a Spanish version, too.. enjoy!

Search TRLN - Triangle Research Libraries Network

Search TRLN - Triangle Research Libraries Network.

Search TRNL - Triangle Research Libraries Network

* About Search TRLN
Search TRLN provides a single search interface to the TRLN Libraries' Collections. Learn more about TRLN. Learn more about the Search TRLN Project.    

* Search & Request
Faculty, students, and staff of the TRLN institutions can request materials for expedited delivery from within the Search TRLN interface. Learn more about the TRLN Document Delivery Service.    

* Frequently Asked Questions
Quick facts about Search TRLN
Where can I learn more about TRLN Document Delivery?

Check out the news release for more on this innovative library network search interface and resource..
             TRLN Launches "Search TRLN"

ALA | Serving Non-English Speakers in U.S. Public Libraries

ALA | Serving Non-English Speakers in U.S. Public Libraries.

Serving Non-English Speakers in U.S. Public Libraries
2007 Analysis of Library Demographics, Services, and Programs

American Library Association (ALA) study provides new information about library services and programs developed for non-English speakers, including effectiveness of services, barriers to library use, most frequently used services and most success library programs by language served. Download the full report.

Key Findings | Implications | Background | Next Steps

For Drive-In Theaters, an Unexpected Revival : NPR

For Drive-In Theaters, an Unexpected Revival : NPR.

Movies For Drive-In Theaters, an Unexpected Revival
by Nancy Mullane
Listen Now [4 min 39 sec] add to playlist

All Things Considered, April 21, 2008 - In this era of video iPods and minivan DVD players, a renaissance in the drive-in movie business seems unlikely. But in the past decade, nearly 100 drive-in movie theaters have opened or re-opened.

One example of this trend: the Solano Drive-In Movie Theater in Concord, Calif. At 7 p.m., even before the manager opens the box office, there's already a line of cars waiting to get in. It's a bargain at $6.75 for an adult. Children under 11 are free.

Librarians' Internet Index: The Food Chain (NY Times)

Librarians' Internet Index: The Food Chain (NY Times).

The Food Chain
URL: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/series/the_food_chain/

Description:
"Articles in this series will examine growing demands on, and changes in, the world's production of food." Some of the topics include rising food prices, the effect on agriculture of biofuels, drought, food shortages, costs of shipping groceries, and specific crops such as wheat, corn, and rice. Some articles require free registration for viewing. From The New York Times.

LII Topics: Agriculture, Economic Aspects, Food & Beverage, Industries

Publisher:
The New York Times Company

Cellphones That Could Save Your Life - Forbes.com

Cellphones That Could Save Your Life - Forbes.com.

In The Air
Cellphones That Could Save Your Life
Elizabeth Woyke, 05.02.08, 1:57 PM ET

When fierce storms hit California in early January, submerging streets and felling power lines, Steve Livingston was prepared. Armed with a text message alert from the San Mateo County Office of Emergency Services, he dodged the flood and made it home safely.

A few months earlier, when a surprise earthquake shook the region, Livingston, chief marketing officer of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based mobile transaction firm mBlox was in Los Angeles on a business trip. Alerted by a text message from the same service, he rushed to call his family back in Hillsborough, near San Mateo. "The pervasiveness of text messaging makes it one of the best ways to communicate to masses of people," he says.

Cellphones have long functioned as the front lines of emergency calling. As technology evolves and phones morph into ubiquitous, highly personal gadgets, they're becoming genuine safety devices, crammed with features designed to protect us from accidents and injury. Between flashlights, heart monitors, global positioning data and text message warnings, it's no exaggeration to say that cell phones can save lives.

Pew Internet: Writing, Technology and Teens

Pew Internet: Writing, Technology and Teens.

Reports: Family, Friends & Community
Writing, Technology and Teens 4/24/2008

Teens write a lot, but they do not think of their emails, instant and text messages as writing. This disconnect matters because teens believe good writing is an essential skill for success and that more writing instruction at school would help them.
View PDF of Report
View PDF of Questionnaire

The Parallel Information Universe - 5/1/2008 - Library Journal

The Parallel Information Universe - 5/1/2008 - Library Journal.

The Parallel Information Universe
What's out there and what it means for libraries
By Mike Eisenberg -- Library Journal, 5/1/2008

The Web 2.0 “buzz” starts with new technologies such as virtual worlds, cell phones and handheld devices that offer 24/7 web access, tagging, social networks, and blogs and brings together various web capabilities in unique combinations (known as “mashing”—such as maps that also include the latest real estate property assessments). But Web 2.0 is about much more than the technology—it's about a change in focus to participation, user control, sharing, openness, and networking.

Pulled together, these technologies are a “parallel information universe” next to our own universe. This parallel universe provides us with constant feedback, resources, monitoring, information, connections, education, and interaction. It can be individualized and personalized, and we can interact individually or collectively with it. The key for libraries is that this is a parallel information universe. Libraries—as institutions founded on meeting people's information needs—need to take the lead in this parallel information universe. Some libraries are diving in already, but the library world as a whole must engage with these developments and determine how we can use them to meet our users' information needs better.

Thoughtful, insightful.. where we are today snapshot.. a good think piece...

Congressional Research - Main - Home Page

Congressional Research - Main - Home Page.

Welcome to UC Berkeley Library's Congressional Research Tutorials

These tutorials show you how to find Congressional materials in the Library and on the Internet. The tutorials are Flash videos. They should start playing automatically when you click on any tutorial in the left-hand sidebar. If they don't, you may need to download the free Flash video player. If you have suggestions to improve these tutorials, or would like to see a tutorial on an aspect of Congressional research that we haven't covered yet, please write to us.

Excellent tutorial site.. kudos to the UC-Berkeley team for this effort...