Wow

Gee, I feel like I've hit the big-time.

During a slow moment, I Googled cool librarian (as is, no quotes or signs) and was treated to this sight - third on the list! I of course realize that this has little to do with popularity at this point, but it's cool nonetheless.

Patriot Act Vote

"WASHINGTON - The House voted to extend indefinitely the anti-terrorist USA Patriot Act, while limiting to 10 years two provisions of the law that have become linchpins in the ongoing congressional debate: allowing federal agents to use roving wiretaps and to search library and medical records. " Read the "whole story" here.

More from me on this in a bit.

So, do you want to know how it ends?

With all the Harry Potter frenzy, many people - people who aren't all that into the series but pay some attention - want to know who dies in this installment. I personally couldn't care less as this is not my genre, but for those of you who want the answer - without doing all of that silly reading - you might want to check out The Book Spoiler. This site appears to deal with the bestsellers, and relies on submissions from readers. Hmmmm, I can't decide if I will take advantage of this or not...

wiki wiki wiki wiki

Peg Riley sent me a great link to the ALA Chicago 2005 Wiki. This wonderful resource, put together by Meredith Farkas, offers an incredible amount of information on the conference, and much of it is as helpful now, if not more so, than before and during the conference. A great place to post your experiences (if you went) and get pointers if you plan to attend an ALA conference in the future.

For those of you who missed my lame 80s musical reference in the title...

Cool Utility

A friend of mine just sent me a link via TinyURL, and I immediately thought about how useful it would be when using online databases. As online database searches often result in unwieldy dynamic URLs, this neat little utility could make e-mailing your search results a lot easier. Check out the site for other usage ideas, and even the code to add the utility to your web page.

Random Tidbit

Today someone asked me what the benefits of Epsom Salts are. Hmmmm, I knew they are good for muscle aches, but why, I couldn't say. The encyclopedia had some basic info, but a quick search lead me to the Epsom Salt Industry Council - who knew?

So, what is it that I do?

Because I sometimes have a hard time explaining what, exactly, it is I can do / have done for patrons and clients, I will periodically throw an example at you.

Right now I am working on an uncomplicated project for Express Surveying. ES is a small company, and as such, the owner doesn't have the time (or in this case the desire) to do basic research - and this is where I come in. Currently, I am creating a database of fencing contractors that will be used in ES's latest marketing campaign. While this is not an intellectually taxing project, I am actually enjoying it quite a bit. As a librarian, I love to find (and compile) things - it really doesn't matter what the "things" are.

Welcome to the Blog

Welcome to the maiden voyage of the Cool Librarian Blog.

If all goes as planned (and it rarely does), this blog will serve to keep folks (who are interested) updated on the goings on at Cool Librarian Research - projects, promotions, interesting questions and interesting answers, etc. It will also be a place to find random (ie: what I find interesting) morsels about librarians/librarianship, information, and books.

While it's nice when blogs are updated daily, I would expect to find new posts here 2-3 times a week - perhaps more. If you would like to "subscribe" to the blog, please see the links under "Syndicate / Subscribe" for some options. Not sure what this means? Oh, look, a short explanation of RSS and site syndication. Need more info? If you need a news reader or aggregator, you can try Pluck (Windows or web based), Bloglines (web based), NetNewsWire (Mac OS), Straw (Linux), Newsgator (web based), or, My Yahoo or My MSN. See that, information about information already!