(I completely deleted this content unintentionally. Duh!)

BugGuide.net is a great spot to find information about a variety of critters. The site contains images, complete taxonomy, wors cited and other references. This could be a

great tool in the classroom or at the library. Those libraries with social bookmark sharing should add it to their science, grade school or whatever lists!

The site is hosted by Iowa State University Entymology and carries the following disclaimer pertaining to authority:

Disclaimer: Dedicated naturalists volunteer their time and resources here to provide this service. We strive to provide accurate information, but we are mostly just amateurs attempting to make sense of a diverse natural world. If you need expert professional advice, contact your local extension office.

Anyhow, I really like this site!

From everywhere in the IS blogosphere, but for me, from LibrariesDirect:

OCLC has announced that it will launch a new destination website that will allow users to search the holdings of libraries participating in the WorldCat database directly rather than finding the records as part of search-engine results.

The firm says the aim of WorldCat.org,to be released in beta form in August, is “to make library resources more visible to Web users, and to increase awareness of libraries.” Unlike the Open WorldCat program, which inserts “Find in a Library” pages into the results from Google and other search engines, the new site will give library holdings greater visibility by providing a permanent destination page with a search box to access all 70-million-plus records in the WorldCat database, not just the 3.4-to-4.4-million-record subset harvested by Open WorldCat’s search-engine partners.

As in Open WorldCat, each linked search result leads to a “Find in a Library” information page for an individual item. By entering geographic information, users get a list of nearby WorldCat libraries that own the item and links to the libraries’ online catalog records.

OCLC will also offer a free modularized version of the WorldCat.org search box that users or organizations can install on their websites, as well as free web toolbars and other plug-ins and a variety of open-source software and web services such as RSS feeds.

Chip Nilges, vice president of OCLC New Services, said in Information Today online July 17 that WorldCat.org is designed to complement the syndication model of Open WorldCat rather than to replace it. “There’s a symbiosis,” he said. “There’s value in having a place to go to search the world’s largest library catalog and there’s also value in capturing users who may not know about libraries.”

When I was in library school, WorldCat was one of my favorite tools. Well, that and ISI Web of Science. I think this is really exciting. Formerly you’d have to have a w3 to use WorldCat (unless you knew how direct to it through google). But now it will be coming with all kinds of bells and whistles like toolbars and RSS feeds. I can’t wait to play!

Busy weekend full of free tickets to shows/parties. Didn’t really go to all of them. First place prize goes to Diplo and CSS at the Mummers Museum for being the most shockingly awesome show ever. Second place goes to Peaches for being Peaches.

I didn’t take pictures at either, but I really wish that I had at Diplo. It was so much fun. And the Mummers Museum is both very interesting and full of rich cultural artifacts, but also really crazy to be at at night for a show with all of the concert lighting and stuff.

This doesn’t have much to do with the information world, but I wanted to tell a little bit about my little mini vacation this past weekend. I’ll even give away my secret favorite Jersey shore beach location! After the jump!

Belleplain State Forest was our campsite. It is about an hour and change away from Center City Philly. We weren’t going to arrive until much later than we planned, so we (Christopher, Sarah, Jeremy and I) ate dinner, packed the car and headed off to the Walt Whitman Bridge around 9 pm on Friday night.

Setting up camp wasn’t much of an issue. Belleplain is great because it provides comfortable amenities if you are sort of vacation camping (i.e. too cheap to get a hotel, or just enjoy the outdoors) rather than a complete wilderness camping experience. We didn’t bring firewood so we made a charcoal fire to cook our veggie burgers and these potato things (okay, not things since they are actual small white potatoes that Sarah seasoned or something. They were around for most of the trip) We relaxed around the fire for awhile and then called it a night in anticipation of a full day at the beach the next day.

Something funny happened on the way to the beach when we were stuck in traffic on the final stretch of state route 550. A kid was selling water on the side of the road, I always feel tempted to buy all the water in hopes that the kid can then go outside and play gfor the rest of the day, but I know tha is stupid wishful thinking. I was driving and the kid was at Chris’ window really trying to make a sale. Chris told him that I was “allergic to water” and the boy said “she can’t be H2O intolerant!”. It was so funny that we had to buy water from him, I offered to buy two and he needed to go back to the cooler to get the other. When he returned he told Chris that this one was for me because it was the coldest! What a kid.

We went to Sea Isle as usual the next day and it was absolute crap. The ocean was very cold, the sky was cloudy, and it began to rain. We returned to the campsite and began planning the rest of the day.

We wanted to go to Estell to see the old munitions factory ruins. The park office was closed (although very pretty) so we ventured off on our own with a map. The trek proved way too buggy for us, and we all agreed to abandon the walk. Which was a good idea because when we started driving again we came upon the Estell glassworks (?) ruins. And it was interpreted so nicely!

On the way back to camp we came upon the Tuckahoe station of the Seashore Railway. So neat. The picture at the water pump cracks me up, I look sincerely dissapointed that there is no water to be found. Chris taught me about the different train models, but I don’t remember right now. Then we went to the Ocean City boardwalk for dinner. We played Skee Ball, ate Mack and Manco’s, Kohr Bros, went in the goofy photo booth and went on the Ferris Wheel which I nearly barfed on. I feel bad because Sarah took all of these fun photos of me and Doc and stuff, and I didn’t take any pictures at all. Its a Cole and Doc centric set for sure.

When we returned to the site that night I passed out in a chair by the fire immediatly. Before the fire was even lit (we got firewood). I was so tired from driving and walking and eating boardwalk food!

The next day turned out to be the absolute perfect beach day. We decided to go to the Sea Isle beach that Doc and I went to with his parents when they had the condo last year. Totally beautiful. Its right by Townsend’s Inlet at like 90th Street. Best Jersey shore beach that I’ve been to yet! There is a nice walk through the dunes to get to the beach. The water was clear, warm and had just the right amount of waves to make the day fun.
After hours of fun we decided to head out through Wharton State Forest. We wanted to stop and tour Batsto, but it was late and Sunday and closed. So we did some pseaudo off road exploration along the Batsto River, ending up at the Caranzza Memorial.

A beautiful and relaxing weekend. We used several good books about the Pinelands to guide us through the weekend. I’ll post the reading list sometime soon when I can get a look at my library record to see what I had taken out!

I have a billion things to post, but It is going to be awhile to get everything up. I have a review of Peter Jones’ Nailed to write, along with some goodies on imigrant library services, gaming and the New Jersey Pine Barrens!

I went camping at beautiful Belleplain State Forest in New Jersey this weekend. New Jersey sure does have the very best parks!

This probably isn’t my business to talk about, but I am concerned nonetheless. Grade inflation is when a really bizarre number of students are receiving top grades in courses. I have definitly seen this in my academic experience. This article asserts tha, among other effects, grade inflation may release graduates into the workforce who are not equipped to function as one would expect a graduate to. I am sure that this refers to both knowledge based performance as well as skills-based performance. I for one realy needed the kick in the but from a Professor if I handed something in late or didn’t quite live up to what the Prof knew that I could do. It has prepared me tremendously for the workplace!

“Rojstaczer, who operates a Web site on grade inflation and writes about higher-education issues, attributes grade inflation to a cultural shift.

“Students are now consumers of a product rather than acolytes trying to obtain knowledge,” he said. “We now view them as customers. The customer is always right.”

I’m not saying that this is universally true, but there is definitly truth to this statement. I said that at a point in my academic education I felt as though I had gone shopping at the mall for my degree (important note: this was only during a period of time where I was very frustrated! So don’t batter me!).

Anyhow, I think we can all thik about the implications of this. I don’t need to lay it out, thats for certain.

The article:Too many A’s, B’s at colleges? Grade-inflation criticism argued, Mike Cronin . The Arizona Republic . Jul. 1, 2006 12:00 AM

Tipped off from The Kept Up Academic Librarian

From Research Buzz:

UNEP’s Production and Consumption Branch has published on the web its Creative Gallery on Sustainability Communications or you know, its gallery on funny and thoughtful ads on the subject. Love it. Might be a really nice addition to your Furl or de.licio.us

Here’s a screenshot of a particularly excellent Philadelphia Eagles one:

And here’s a favorite of mine that I’ve seen on tv about the “clean locomotive”

This looks so good, I can’t wait to read/watch it when I get home from work tonight.:

Reference 2010: the Librarian 2.0 in Your Future presented by Stephen Abram, Vice President, Innovation, for SirsiDynix and immediate past president of the Canadian Library Association, at the May 15, 2006, Reference Symposium, Library as Place: Physical Realms, Virtual Possibilities.

I always throw around the term “Web 2.0″ without much explanation. To be honest it makes the term sound like a new installation of software or some cheesy news letter. I kind of wish there were a better term for what Web 2.0 actually refers to. Which is?

Web 2.0 is the direction that the web is taking where information is being used in everyday life and not as a cool novelty (technological fetishism). We can see evidence of Web 2.0 in blogs, wikis, podcasts etc. There’s a lot of talk about it (see my previous post about Tom Stites). But nonetheless Web 2.0 is exciting and really important in libraries.

I’m looking back on just about the past week and thinking of several meaningful conversations that took place about, more or less, the topic of democracy. Over our Thursday night pre-quizo dinner the topic traveled from enviromentalism (which is brought upon by talking about Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth), to science in the media. I was recalling a lecture in a class during my undergrad where we talked about several potential trends in the portrayal of science in the media:

• Science was once covered in significant sections of some major national newspapers. In whole sections and of a higher quality. Meaning the coverage was not just about pop-science and food science, but was broader in depth and breadth.

I wouldn’t know how true this is because I haven’t seen (well, also haven’t looked) for any studies supporting this. But I have personally noticed the lack of good science in the newspapers. Another point:

• The public image of science and scientists is tarnished. This begins with scientists on television and film being portrayed as these individuals with intelligence and quirks far beyond that of everyday people. The ‘us’ and ‘them’ idea makes scientific knoweldge seem so unaccessible that most folks would rather just leave it to science to understand.

Personally, looking at the way that librarians are thought of in public opinion – we can clearly see this. We’re seen as tightly wound, strict, quiet maintainers of quiet who work in the dustiest and quiestest (can I say quiest again?) places. People don’t even understand what it is that we do. I have close friends who still think that I scan books for checkout! Right! My point being that the image of scientists and professionals that work in these fields needs to change so that people aren’t so put off by it.

In my opinion certain conversations that are huge in the public discourse could be a bit more fruitful if everyone had stronger science backgrounds or not even that a greater interest in science and science education. The conversation on stem-cell research might not have to be led by the moral police – maybe people would be able to allow for a more open attitude if they already understood science more. The same goes for the important and vital issue of the environment.

I’ve gotten a little bit sidetracked, but we were having a conversation that ended with mutual agreement that something about public opinion and the media. Plenty of evidence is accessible to support the fact that the media is out of the public’s hands and is in no way a reflection of events or opinion. No system and obviously no objectivity exist in so much as to allow the reader confidence in the media that he or she is consuming. By that I mean that the proccesses that we assume facilitate a democratic media are indeed nonexistent and in their fragile existence nothing but flawed and troublesome.

So I mentioned how I think that Web 2.0 technology is brilliantly promising in its potential to communicate ideas and make that communication accessible with greater ease than the owned-media.  I sort of take it back, or reconsider it after looking at Tom Stites guest posting/address entitled “Is Media Performance Democracy’s Issue? ” over at Citemedia.org. Stites asks if the web movement, web authoring and publishing doesn’t also take away from a larger and more relevent issue involving mass-market journalism?

I thought to myself, of course not! (dummy). I use an aggregator and read a ton of blogs everyday, I read several newspapers and listen to NPR about three times a day and podcast my favorite programs that I miss while at work. I switch between favorite columnists in the weeklies that I read and which ones I go to first on a regular basis. I feel like I am engaged in the media that I consume since I get it from multiple sources, Anyhow, how silly am I? I’m a well-educated, somewhat gainfully employed twenty-something in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. This is certainly not a reason for high and mightiness, and Im not making it out to be that way. Its just facts are facts and that is who I am. Tom Stites points out:

“But while the Web is highly democratic within the slice of the population that uses it intensively, so far this slice is small and elite.”

A nice way of reminding me (well, us) that we’re a slice of a bigger picture. Ton Stites goes on to address his concern for the rest of America. The wage-earners, the paycheck to paycheck folks who comprise our great nation. You know, real hardworking American citizens. If we put the digital divide aside and look back to traditional news media: these folks are not represented and not being given the type of media that they need, deserve and possible expect.

To fawn for a moment, what Tom Stites states in this speech/address/whatever, inspires me so much. He goes on to say that people who have no reliable information about issues that are important to their everyday lives will turn to and trust propaganistic media opinion to guide them through these issues. This produces:

• people supporting policies and ideas that they do not fully comprehend
• peopele electing leaders who do not represent their economic interests.

His message is clear:

Why is it that less than affluent Americans are being zoned out of serious reporting?

“what we’re talking about here is a class divide – two classes of citizens, one that’s well served with quality reporting and one that’s left to the vagaries of the manipulators. Given our country’s cherished values, this is a disgrace. And it is a terrible threat to democracy, which we all know can’t function without a well-informed citizenry.”

So now we’re getting into intense potentially upsetting waters where people start to throw around that “L” word (you know, its a synonym for The Left…) and no one pays attention to the message at all. Because that too, to me, is a huge problem. Stites goes on to discuss the type of advertising appearing in the papers and the probelmatic implications of it on bringing the news to the rest of America.

Advertisers such as Lord and Taylor, expensive car dealers and wine retailers constitute the regualar reliable advertisers in newspapers. Their clients aren’t the regular folks, their customers are the more affluent folks. As Stites sheds incite to, newspaper staff consider other advertising to be “waste”. The newspapers write to the affluent readers with everyone else in the country simply being present in unflattering ways in stories. It is no wonder that less than affluent citizens have abandoned newspapers. The trends supporting this adbandonment are not in the advertising alone: stories that are not locally relevent, provide too much abstraction and statistics also contribute no doubt.

You have toread the way that Tom Stiles leads the audience through an exercize in the shoes of a hard working single mother as she would see the way that the Boston Globe covers stories. Its fantastic and I can’t paraphrase it here. Stites talks afterwards about how the image of the single mother isn’t distant for him since it was based on his experience growing up. His mother subscribed to the newspaper back then and read it everyday. So too does my mother, one of the hardest working women that I have ever met. Every four days she works four days of twelve hour shifts and everyday she comes home at night and reads The Scranton Times. I do think that the Times is relevent to my mother’s needs. But then again my mother isn’t really representative of that destitute situation at all. She may watch her money here and there but it is so that she can enjoy that items that the pages talk about like nice dinners, concerts and travel. So nevermind. I just wanted to give a shout out to my Mom.

Stites really does raise the question: why can’t these papers reflect regular people’s interests. Perhaps Stites closing thoughts are the most inspiring:

“So my plea to all of us, myself included, is that we keep America’s discarded readers in mind as we work to strengthen journalism and shore up our withering democracy. We need to remember that they’re citizens, too, and to take care to make sure they have easy access to quality journalism that squarely addresses the issues that affect their lives. “

Happy Independence Day! 

Photo courtesey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.