A Visual Dictionary

Graphic designers are always trying to think of ways to visually communicate to the public effectively. Hence when I stumbled across an article while reading the Huntington News this morning, I was intrigued. Lindley Warren, an Iowa native who currently resides in Amsterdam, thought up the idea of “The Photographic Dictionary”. On this site, people regularly send her photos of everything and anything that depict a word in the dictionary, ranging from colors to emotions to everyday objects. After browsing through many of the photographs, it is quite interesting to see what different people’s perceptions of the world are :). Interested? Here is the website: http://thephotographicdictionary.org/home.html

Welcome to Snell Snippets!

It is delightful to spread the word that Northeastern University Libraries now has a blog (you’ve got it, right here!), with a talented team of bloggers.  These bloggers aim to share with you insightful ponderings about information and society, digitial initiatives, leadership in libraries, research sources, reading picks, and much more.  We also want to hear from you!  Please join us in this online conversation.  So, watch this space! Be well and go well, Maria Carpenter, Northeastern University Libraries

How we get information

This is my first post.  So, hello.  I’m Ethan.  I work as an Administrative Assistant in the Dean’s Office of the Library.  When I’m not working, I am also a graduate student at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science.  Most of my blog posts will likely relate to what I am learning in school. The issue of how people receive and use information is a hot topic in the Library/Information Science community.  It is with this topic in mind that I stumbled upon a blog post from the New York Times culture blog ArtsBeat. It seems that the auction house Christie’s has created an iPhone app that allows users to browse their collections.  I won’t go into too much detail but I would recommend reading the article.  Fortunately, people now have access to Gucci hand bags, with a starting bid of $4,086, in the palm of their hand.

Librarian Artists

Reading this month’s Lucky magazine, I was excited to read about featured
New York artist Roz Leibowitz [who] draws impossibly intricate sketches with nothing more than a pencil and an antique sheet of paper, which the former librarian pulls from her collection of 18th– and 19th-century ephemera.
I took a look at some of her other works at the Sears-Peyton gallery, and thought they were interesting, gothic pieces.   I liked the idea of a librarian-artist re-using found papers.  I think my favorite is The Blizzard.  What’s yours?  And do you have any other favorite librarian-artists?

Chat While Reading

We’ve often discussed the future of books and reading on Snell Snippets, so I thought that some might be interested in this “Chat While Reading: The Future of Books?” article from NPR.  Their article focuses on BookGlutton.com but a number of commenters mentioned other communal reading sites like LibraryThing.com.  How do you think a site like this would function differently for classes than a Blackboard chat or discussion page?  Currently, if I have a friend who lives too far away, we’ll just email back and forth about books we’re reading: quoting passages, etc.  Just this past week, a friend who lives in New Zealand and I were emailing back and forth as she finished up Anna Karenina. I think for now I’m going to stick with that more private way of communication and dialogue.  But I also often like to check out Amazon, IMDB, metacritic  or Wikipedia after I read or watch something, to get a sense of its reception and other people’s reactions.  Any thoughts?