BiblioTech Web

Here’s a search engine that I just found out about. It’s called Ixquick and it’s a metasearch engine, like Mamma or DogPile. When you search Ixquick, it looks through AltaVista/AllTheWeb, Ask Jeeves/Teoma, EntireWeb, Gigablast, Go, MSN, Netscape, Open Directory, Overture, Wikipedia, WiseNut, and Yahoo!, bringing you the combined results all on one page.

While it certainly has some nice features, like giving you the option to have your search term(s) highlighted on the resulting page or like providing you a narrower focus (theoretically more accurate) in your search results (a recent search of mine got “63 unique top-ten pages selected from at least 7,089,054 matching results”), the most popular feature right now is something they DON’T do.

They don’t collect any personal data on you or your searching. When your session is done, they delete your information. They are the “first search engine to stop recording privacy details” and yet they still let you search many of the big-name search engines. Read their press release: Ixquick.com eliminates ‘Big Brother.’

Most of us know how useful RSS feeds can be. Well, I recently found out about a collection of high-quality RSS feeds that should be bookmarked by all librarians: Tapesty Comics! It has been well documented that humor is a critical element to health, well-being, and even contentment in the workplace. From that point of view, Tapestry Comics has what you need. There are 174 feeds listed! Do you like Dilbert or Garfield or PvP or Unshelved? You can subscribe to the RSS feeds and get them in your aggregator. No more worrying about missing a day (okay, I’m sure we don’t really worry about missing, but it’s nice to catch up) and you can view them when you get the time. They even have quick-clicks to add them to your Bloglines and My Yahoo! accounts.

With 174 different comic strips to choose from, I’m sure you’ll find SOMEthing at Tapestry Comics that will brighten your day via RSS!

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has identified 582 World Heritage sites that it considers of “outstanding universal value.” The World Heritage List includes 812 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. These include 628 cultural, 160 natural and 24 mixed properties in 137 countries.

In the United States, there are 22 of these sites, 17 of which are natural. Below is the list of the ones in the United States. For the complete list, visit the World Heritage List.

* Mesa Verde (1978)
* Yellowstone (1978)
* Everglades National Park (1979)
* Grand Canyon National Park (1979)
* Independence Hall (1979)
* Kluane / Wrangell-St Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek (1979, 1992, 1994)
* Redwood National Park (1980)
* Mammoth Cave National Park (1981)
* Olympic National Park (1981)
* Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (1982)
* Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1983)
* La Fortaleza and San Juan Historic Site in Puerto Rico (1983)
* Statue of Liberty (1984)
* Yosemite National Park (1984)
* Chaco Culture National Historical Park (1987)
* Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (1987)
* Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (1987)
* Pueblo de Taos (1992)
* Carlsbad Caverns National Park (1995)
* Waterton Glacier International Peace Park (1995) *

Yes, it’s time for more Library Humor. It’s a Shockwave cartoon called Overdue. Check it out! (Get it? That was a joke, too!)

Here is another example of how people are collaborating online to help each other in education. Email and websites (even without RSS feeds) are building community and being used to share specialized information to help other people. Below is an example:

StrongBad is a character on the famous Homestar Runner website, a Shockwave-based site that is a favorite of twenty- and thirty-somethings. StrongBad is most famous for answering emails that have been sent in by readers. Of course, he’s often snide in his responses and he tends to make fun of the emailer, but that’s the fun and joy of watching him answer the emails.

Anyway, the most recent email that StrongBad has replied to was sent in by a middle school technology teacher, who wanted StrongBad to come up with an introduction that he could use in his new classes. StrongBad, a self-proclaimed technology expert, gladly complied. Visit http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html and click on “Technology” out of the list of emails. (After watching this one, I’m sure you’ll want to watch some others. They’re extremely funny. You can either click one off the list or click on “random.bat” in the top right corner to have it select a random one for you.)

So, looking for a good overview to technology at a middle-school student level? Look no further!

Here’s a very cool quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which was written over 25 years ago. Even though the book was comedic, or at least tongue in cheek, it was also rather prophetic. Douglas Adams had a good eye for where technology could lead us.

A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about.

Isn’t that insightful? And becoming more true every day.