Free Online Databases

As study is compelling (erm, inspiring) me to expand my information literacy, I've just cornered our Corporate Librarian, Nina, and asked for a hand selecting professional journals for regular reading.

Nina gave me a very thorough introduction to the free online databases provided by CityLibraries Townsville and the State Library of Queensland (accessible to staff and patrons through the SLQ website and our own website).

Of course I knew of the existence of our online databases, and I'd used them very occasionally for simple searches. But having a highly skilled professional give you a guided tour -- and more than a little instruction on how to search -- just made me think these databases are an absolute hidden gem.

Among other things, they provide full-text articles from hundreds of encyclopediae, newspapers, journals and magazines covering the entire gamut of human knowledge, fully searchable, with the ability to set up e-mail alerts and RSS feeds to subjects of interest.

After demonstrating how to use all this to easily take care of keeping my information literacy current, Nina then showed me how to use the databases (particularly ProQuest Science, available through SLQ) to research for purposes of writing or pursuing a hobby, and again the amount of good, reliable, searchable information available (full-text or abstract, with a number of options for setting up alerts) was simply breath-taking.

Which is to say to my colleagues if, like me, you haven't explored our free online databases, do and, if you do, Nina is a supremely skilled and cheerful guide.

Catching Up... Or Not...

Well, finally scratching up some time to return to... well... everything. Week before last (and a little of last week) I was pretty sick, and let everything drop. Didn't write, didn't study, didn't keep up with the Learning 2.0 program (or read or eat or much else).

That was then, this is now. Catching up seemed as if it should be easy -- but it's not as if the world stands still. Backlogs grow, and work has been busy. Learning 2.0 can be hard when each day ends with the basics barely addressed.

I have gotten around to rewriting the rejected story and sending it off elsewhere (to Beneath Ceaseless Skies, for the curious), and I've gnawed at the bones of the final assessment of my current subject, and I've at least read through the posts I'd missed at CityLibrariesLearning -- working through the discoveries likely to take me awhile.

Why is there never enough time?

CityLibrariesLearning RSS

The CityLibrariesLearning RSS activity is up, providing a bit of information about RSS and encouraging us to choose a reader and subscribe to a few feeds.

To the extent that I use RSS at home, I use an excellent Firefox add-on called NewsFox. Doing without at work felt like a bit of a hardship. Still, I elected to use My Yahoo! as my reader, to subscribe to the feeds of some of the blogs from our Learning 2.0 program.

The first thing that leapt out was that none of the blogs seemed to have RSS links or buttons anywhere on them (again, I'm used to Firefox displaying available RSS automatically in the URL bar). It took a disgracefully long time for me to realize that adding /feed/ to the blog's URL made it into that blog's feed URL. Then I thought I'd better take a moment to add a link to my own blog to spare other's the suffering (not that the audience is there, but, you know, that's not the point).

(Fellow confused Learning 2.0 people, can find help at Neal's Analog is Here blog.)

Still, minor frustrations aside, I did enjoy the exposure to other RSS readers, and I probably will keep using My Yahoo! for work-related feeds just for its convenience. The hard part is trying not to feel old simply because I still kind of prefer Usenet (a kind of social network popular during the Bronze Age)...

Rejection

One of my short stories was just rejected (specifically, the first submission of the first story I wrote after deciding to get my writing back on track).

Not the depressing experience it could have been. This rejection was in response to a rewrite request, and it was extremely kind and constructive, so a "good" rejection. Given that this was the first of my new attempts, I find the result heartening. Not as heartening as a sale, of course, but still not remotely soul-destroying.

Despite having a bit of a time shortage at the moment, I know I need to get more out there -- so I'll naturally send this one on to someone else as soon as possible, and get some new things out there as well. The goal becomes having enough out at one time that individual rejections don't... matter as much.

Head Slap

I did forget to spend some time doing a Web 2.0 related post for my library's Learning 2.0 program (though truthfully I don't think I'd have gotten to it anyway). But I've decided to abate my onus by mentioning a couple of almost relevant comments on LibSusan's Blog, one of them a typo-ridden double-posting for extra added idiocy.

Leisure

I decided to make this weekend all about leisure. Frankly, I needed the break. While I did (and do) have a very long list of things I ought to be doing, I have just spent two days twiddling my mental thumbs in whatever way delighted me. Reading (Something Fishy, The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing For Young Adults, and the terrifying introductory chapters of Italian Verbs For Dummies), a little writing in a carefree, non-achieving kind of way, a bit of old-fashioned idle net-surfing.

Non-productive in the most extreme way, if you don't count the it's-never-wasted aspect of reading. But I do feel better for it. (I'll pay next week, but that's future-me's problem.

And yes, this is a non-post, a bit of froth, a place holder. It's just been that kind of weekend...

Reading

I’ve just finished reading Something Fishy by P.G. Wodehouse. Not his full genius, but still funnier than most everything else. A Wodehouseian couple tangle romantically, unaware that they are participants in a decades-old tontine that will deliver $1000,000 to the last in their circle to get married… but even sillier than that makes it sound.

Next on the reading list… Nothing Serious by P.G. Wodehouse.

Yes, I’m a Wodehouse fan. Everyman’s Library has been releasing nice collector’s hardcovers of Wodehouse’s entire output, a couple each month, for years, and I own the lot. But I ration reading them to forestall the day when I run out of them.