Highlights

Links I Love Friday*

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: “The Orchestra was formed in 1985 as a bit of fun….” Great fun! Here’s a video of The Orchestra playing “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.”

Search SUNCAT for the subject “Ukulele” and you will find only the subject “Ukulele music,” leading to one CD: “Tone poems III.”

Search for the keyword “Ukulele” and you’ll find a book for children that offers to help you make 10 musical instruments, including the ukulele: “Nifty Thrifty Music Crafts” by Felicia Niven.

Did you know there were such things as banjoleles and guitaleles? I didn’t but found out while searching Flickr for pictures of ukuleles: The Ukulele Pool on Flickr.

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Another one of YOU (who just happens to be my mother) sent me this link to a video of a tractor accompanying three guitars: http://videos.komando.com/2009/01/27/sweet-georgia-brown/.

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*I’m writing this early—the Sarasota County Libraries are closed today and tomorrow. My mind seems to already be on vacation.

Happy Independence Day!

Links I Love Friday

PBS’s FRONTLINE/World, Stories from a Small Planet - “Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground”: Ever wondered what happens to the computers and electronics that you throw away or recycle? This segment of FRONTLINE/Word—which aired on TV last Tuesday—shows you. It’s both fascinating and horrifying.

Looking for more information? A SUNCAT search for the subject “Electronic waste” brings up “High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health” by Elizabeth Grossman.

If you like FRONTLINE, too, search SUNCAT for “Frontline (Television Program)” to find episodes you can check out.

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“Social Networks Around the World” on ReadWriteWeb: Facebook seems to be quite popular all over the world, but have you ever heard of Tuenti or Badoo? How about Odnoklassniki?

I fall victim to the tendency to think that everyone else is exactly like me and the people that I know—doing and thinking and using exactly what we do. Do you find yourself doing that, too? So, it’s good to be reminded that that is not the case.

(Speaking of social networks: remember, you can now follow the library on Twitter.

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MakingOf, www.makingof.com: An insider’s look at the making of entertainment—“MakingOf is a behind-the-scenes Web destination…that provides an intimate, fresh look into the process of creating entertainment by the insiders themselves….Film school for everyone!….”

This site looks like fun if you’re the sort of person who likes the “making of” bonus featurettes on DVDs almost as much as the movies themselves.

Get your geek on. Support the Library.

“Geek” means having a passion for something. “Geek the Library” is an awareness campaign from OCLC, that I read about on LISNews.org.

“No matter what you geek, the library helps you explore your passion. Get your geek on. Show your support. Geek the library.”

I geek crafts and art and movies and things that make me laugh. I geek libraries, too!

What do you geek?
Look for it at the library!

"I before E except after C"

Have you seen this story?: “British schools told to scrap ‘i before e’” and “Schools to rethink ‘i before e’.” The British government has decided there are too many exceptions, like “veil” and “sufficient,” to make the saying useful.

I find that rather sad, partly for nostalgic reasons—I clearly remember my mother teaching me that when I was little—but mostly because I’ve always found that mnemonic** helpful—I doubt I would ever spell “receive” correctly otherwise.

Perhaps the British government could just add “and except when it’s not” on the end: “I before E except after C and except when it’s not.” That’s helpful, right?

Do you use “i before e, except after c” when you’re spelling?
What other mnemonics and rules of thumb do you use?
I’d be lost without “righty tighty, lefty loosey” or the version I use in public, “right to tighten, left to loosen.” In elementary school, I relied on “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking; the second one is silent.” And you?

**I thought “I before E” was a rule of thumb, but trusty Wikipedia told me it was a mnemonic device. Now, if only there was a mnemonic to help me say “mnemonic” correctly. Maybe “mnemonic” is said correctly in this movie, “Johnny Mnemonic.”

Looking for other mnemonics? Search SUNCAT!: subject = Mnemonics.

Links I Love Friday

Liam’s Pictures from Old Books, http://www.fromoldbooks.org/*: “Over 2,430 high-resolution free images scanned from more than 160 different old or rare books, with extracts!”

I like the “Borders and Initials” section, but I tend to love fonts too much.

*YOU—ok, this time “you” is my boss, but she’s still a YOU—sent this to me after seeing it on librarian.net.

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The Uniform Project, http://www.theuniformproject.com/: A website for one woman’s charity fund-raising effort and sustainable fashion project—“Starting May 2009, I have pledged to wear one dress for one year as an exercise in sustainable fashion….The Uniform Project is also a year-long fundraiser for the Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots movement that is revolutionizing education in India….” (Read more here.)

I think any project of this kind is fascinating: it involves making one’s life an unabashed performance, and it seems a little too navel-gazing.

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Yard Sale Treasure Map, http://www.yardsaletreasuremap.com: This mash-up of Google Maps and Craigslist lets you search for yard sales in an area you specify. (Click on the tiny “FAQ” link in the lower right corner of the page for more information.)

I think we all know what I’ll be doing this Saturday thanks to Yard Sale Treasure Map!

Speaking of yard sales, have you heard of the “World’s Longest Yardsale”? It’s dates are fast approaching: http://www.127sale.com/.

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Finally, if you like yard sales and personal projects, you might like to read “All My Life for Sale” by John D. Freyer.

A Happening in the Library

All kinds of things happen in libraries during the summer…or anytime!

Looking for something fun (like this) to do this summer, check out the summer programs at your library.