librarygrrrl.net

I use Bloglines for most of my blog reading. (My list of public feeds is here if you’d like to grab any of my feeds.)

Lately, though, I’ve found some great feeds/feed sources that I want to write about, in order to use them in my job.

Hubmed: Get a feed for a search of the Pubmed database. Searches can be on topics, authors, or journal names. I like the journal name search in particular, because I suspect it would allow libraries to highlight the findings coming out of our more expensive library resources.

Encyclopedia Britannica: They have a feed called “this day in history“. Again, could be cool to use this to display content on a library website.

Oxford University Press online journals all have RSS feeds! Find feeds on each journal’s page. All their online journals are here.

New items in the Tri-College Libraries. You can modify this feed in a variety of ways - subject (broadly defined by LC call numbers), material type, and location (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, or combined Quaker collections.)

That’s all for now.

Heather at Sparkomatic tagged me on this latest book meme. I suppose I can find some time to answer!

Q: You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

No idea. I’m one of those horrible people who’s never actually made it through F451. Maybe that will be my summer reading project, and then I can answer this question better.

Q: Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Oh yes! Lots of them. There are all sorts of characters in various fantasy series that I’ve had crushes on - usually elves and the like. Yes, that should set the geek alarms ringing. My most recent human fictional character crush was on Thursday Next.

Q: The last book you bought was:

I just hit up Borders for gifts this weekend, and I know some people who read this are recipients of them, so I won’t tell you what those books were. But one of the ones I got for myself is 1000 Places to See Before You Die. Travel bug has bit, and hard.

Q: The last book you read.

Unfortunately, The Cluetrain Manifesto. I did not enjoy it, not one bit.

Q: What are you currently reading?

The Eternity Code, which is the third book in the Artemis Fowl series. These are both fun and fluffy, my two requirements in leisure reading.

Q: Five books you would take to a desert island.

1. The Oxford English Dictionary. The shorter 2-volume edition, for letting my mind wander over words and their meanings and origins (and because I suspect that bringing the 30-some-odd volume longer edition is somehow cheating…).
2. Watership Down. Because it’s an epic story of fleeing, fighting, and finding home again.
3. Book of Women Poets: From Antiquity to Now. Because I figure with some free time on a desert island, I might begin to understand and appreciate poetry more.
4. I’m going to borrow Heather’s idea of a blank book/sketchbook, so I can chronicle my experiences.
5. National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky. I confess that I swiped this from someone else’s list, but I think it’s a brilliant decision. What better to do at night than to watch and learn about the stars?

Q: Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 people) and why?

I’m actually not going to pass it on. If you’d like to do it, feel free, but I can’t think clearly enough to pass it on to anyone right now.

Because I’m still so enamored with our haircuts, here are a couple more photos.

As reported in Feministing, a pharmacist employed by K-Mart in Arizona recently wrote a letter to the Arizona Republic encouraging pharmacists to lie to customers about the availability of (what can only be assumed to be contraceptive) medications. Bitch. Ph.D. calls on folks to contact K-Mart and ask for action about him. Below is the letter I sent through their web form. If you think that pharmacists should be required to dispense medications which a.) they stock and b.) are prescribed by doctors to patients, you might want to contact them too.

I would like to know whether or not you intend to continue to employ a pharmacy manager who thinks it is okay to lie to customers before I decide whether or not to continue shopping at your stores. Dan Gransinger, a pharmacy manager from Scottsdale, AZ wrote a letter to the editor of the Arizona Republic on April 15, 2005 in which he tells pharmacists to lie to patients about the availability of medications stocked in their pharmacies. Would you like for all of your store employees to lie to your customers about the products available in your stores? Do you think it is appropriate for the pharmacist to make a decision about whether to dispense a medication which a patient and his/her doctor have determined is necessary for them to have? If you do think that is appropriate, you can count on losing my business, the business of my friends and family, and the business of like-minded individuals. Lying to customers and forcing them to go elsewhere is unacceptable and immoral. Shame on Dan Gransinger, and shame on K-Mart for employing him!

This: A new Nature’s Rest mattress and boxspring!

That: A new kitchen faucet!

This: A new Kohler bathroom sink!

That: A new bathroom faucet!

What a good day it’s been so far. I updated the University Mews web page a bit, in case you’re interested in reading about the place I call home in Philadelphia. Tonight I’m going to scan in the most recent document I found and post it on there. Stop by later if you’d like to see it.