2009

Code for America! Donate your web skills to local government

How can tech improve the accountability and responsiveness of local government?  Code for America is on it’s way to becoming a new non-profit allowing geeks of all stripes to donate their expertise:
Cities are under greater pressure than ever, struggling with budget cuts and outdated technology. What if, instead of cutting services or raising taxes, cities could leverage the power of the web to become more efficient and effective? What if interacting with your local government was more like using Facebook or Yelp? What if, instead of reinventing the wheel every time, cities shared technology resources?
The website’s pretty minimal right now, since the project’s only in its infancy.  Sign up for email alerts, or check the Code for America twitter feed for more info.

Access Latino Literature Free Online for Hispanic Heritage Month

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 through October 15, Alexander Street Press is offering free access to select full-text, online collections for libraries. Explore poetry, short stories, folk tales, novels, memoirs, non-fiction, and plays in both Spanish and English from Latino writers around the world. Use the links below to browse titles; when prompted, enter username: eviews and password: hispanicheritage . Enjoy, until mid-October!

Making The Library Work For You

(This may Develop into a series depending on how daring I am.)

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’m just your friendly neighborhood Journalism major who works in one of the Library’s many offices. So, I find myself sitting here, clicking through the Library looking for something to write about; like many students I have the typical Generation-Y aversion to libraries. But, then I stumbled on something that made me realize I was wrong.

While there is a wealth of information available to us on the internet (I mean it’s even destroying my job prospects as I write this) there is some stuff you just can’t get. My first thought goes to older newspaper articles or back issues of magazines. And, while it is necessary to learn by doing, it is also pertinent to see what some of the greats have done to earn their stripes. Sadly, that is becoming more difficult.

The Library can actually be of tremendous help in that regard. The Library here at Northeastern maintains subscriptions to various databases that have newspapers dating back to 1690 and they have all the Papers of Record dating back until at least 1991(NYTimes, Boston Globe).  Added Bonus: It’s free for students!

So, not only can I meld my love of a good newspaper article with my love of the versatility of the internet, but I can also rid myself of a previously held, and somewhat misguided, notion that libraries are outdated.

As an added bonus, I’m going to read Distinguished Professor Walter V. Robinson’s article which brought the Catholic Church scandal into the limelight in 2002….See if you can find THAT on Boston.com.

Out with the old, in with the new (Vampire Edition)

It seems you can’t go anywhere without hearing about the Twilight saga. Or how about HBO’s True Blood series?

With the recent resurgence of vampires in popular culture, it’s easy to forget that this little slice of horror fiction was once a mainstay in the literary world (I know, Twilight fans, Stephanie Meyers’ books are literature… sort of). But I’m thinking more along the lines of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire, even Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.

Yes, it seems that the classics have taken a back seat to their new, hipper counterparts. Recently, I came across Bram Stoker’s Dracula under the required reading list on a syllabus for one of my fall classes and couldn’t help but smile. But with the exception of a few of us stubborn readers, no one cares about those books anymore. So in this new age, what’s a classic book lover to do?

Absolutely nothing.

It sounds bleak, but the new fans to the genre don’t know anything about the books some of us can’t live without. However, that’s not a bad thing – they’re forging their own icons. And we can all appreciate the revival of the genre.

Perhaps it’s best to let the classic novels fade into obscurity. But it doesn’t hurt to pay homage every now and then; so the next time you stop by Snell, make sure to pick up one the classics – even if it’s just to skim the back cover. It’ll be good for you.

The Green Car Challenge

electriccar If you have any interest in all-electric cars you might want to check out Jay Leno’s new show on NBC this week.  Electric cars now have not only Ed Begley but another celebrity ally, so tune into his new weekly segment called the Green Car Challenge . Every week he will be having celebrity guests race in a special protype of the all-electric Ford Focus. Drew Barrymore will be the first celeb at the wheel. I wonder how she will do. Of course the Focus BEV(battery-electric vehicle) won’t be on the market till 2011, but if your interested in it check out HybridCars.com for some specs on it. It has a single-speed transmission and can run for 100 miles before needing to have its battery plugged in for a recharge. Maybe the only downside is that  recharging the battery could take from 6-12 hours. Major car companies are jumping on board with all-electric vehicles: Nissan Leaf and Dodge Circuit are two examples that should be on the market in the next few years.