Kudos to Microsoft for enabling an easy way to add them. No longer do we have to download fonts, insert symbols, or mess with virtual keyboards. There’s an add-in for Word 2007. Granted, it’s been around since 2001, but it’s much easier to use in the new format of Word. Östen Dahl originally wrote the plugin, which works for Word 97, 2000, or later.

Just get the uniqoder.dot file and save it to your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\Startup folder.

Special thanks to Hans-Jörg Bibiko for providing the template, modifying it for Mac Word, and providing a nice, simple explanation on his website.

Visit http://email.eva.mpg.de/~bibiko/downloads/uniqoder/uniqoder.html to read more and to get the template.

Apparently it’s not an “official” competition, but if it’s successful it could lead to more of these kinds of things. I can see it being particularly useful for getting debate teams together from different parts of the world without having to travel.

Cnet has a good article about Chrome: Why I Switched from Firefox to Chrome. The author, Stephen Shankland, does some great comparisons and talks about the strengths and weaknesses of both browsers. It’s definitely worth a read and some clicks on the embedded links.

And definitely give Google Chrome a try. It’s a little different but you will probably like it.

Would you voluntarily submit to being instructed about a topic where you already consider yourself to qualify as an expert in that subject matter? If you did – or were forced to – you would probably find it incredibly boring or tune it out all together. Well, a new report may help to explain why some students react this way to the academic library’s information literacy education program.

Check out Steven B.’s excellent article about the 2008 ECAR Study and its findings regarding student learning styles and proficiencies with technology. It’s a very good read.

This morning I found a website that lists actual job titles of librarians. These are titles that have been posted on job lists or submitted by employed librarians. The site is called Real Job Titles for Library and Information Science Professionals.

If your job is changing, you can use this site to get ideas for an appropriate job title. You can also check to see if your title is listed. If it’s not, there’s a link to submit that title via email to Michelle Mach, who has done such a wonderful job of assembling and organizing the list.

A creepy treehouse is a place built by scheming adults to lure in kids. Kids tend to sense there’s something creepy about that treehouse and avoid it. Hence, a new definition: “Any institutionally-created, operated, or controlled environment in which participants are lured in either by mimicking pre-existing open or naturally formed environments, or by force, through a system of punishments or rewards.”

It’s an interesting take on that vaguely unsettled response we sometimes get from students when we try to be too cool, try too hard to seem fun and playful, when we make familiar toys unpalatably “educational.” Setting up an outpost in an attractive playspace with an ulterior motive is just . . . creepy.

Please visit the ACRLog and read her full article. It’s quite insightful and applicable in today’s “Library 2.0″ environment.