Today’s Bloomsday!

Ulysses June 16, the day Joyce’s “Ulysses” takes place, is the time to have a Guiness, re-read your favorite passages (also here) or, if you’re near a radio or computer tonight, listen to WBAI in New York which is broadcasting some passages read aloud, along with period music. In the Boston area, there’s a festival on the Boston College Campus, and another at Back Pages Books in Waltham. The NU Libraries (PR 6019 .O9 on the Snell Third Floor) have several copies, along with essays, readers companions, adaptations, and so on nearby.

Conference Twittering

Observation: Three pages worth of twitters…not so much fun to read, not informative. It’s like reading a couple thousand lines of chat backlog. I signed up for Twitter when I read that SLA (Special Library Assocation) had set up an account for backchannel chatter at this year’s conference. Sounded fine to me, but I think in practice, it’s just too much. BUT. I could see where it would be fun if you were keeping up with specific friends and colleagues at a conference or other large event because in those cases, I’d *care* about their flights and how long they are waiting for a table at a restaurant. Random people I don’t know…not so much. I wonder how many pages of conference twitters will accumlate tomorrow, after it’s in full swing! I haven’t heard about using Twitter for conferences, not sure how well it’s worked or what other people have thought about it. Perhaps people like myself will just lurk and mostly not read the posts while a few groups take better advantage of it.

Green Print

I read about Green Print in Popular Science. It is software that you can download (Buy) and it will help you save on those annoying print outs that have only one useless line of text. Here is the URL: http://printgreener.com/index.html Here is the URL for the flash demo: http://printgreener.com/tutorial.html This could be one of those things that can make a big difference in student’s lives, conserving page prints within the 400 page limit.

Facebook

The Library has a facebook group: I Love NU Libraries!  Joining is a great way to stay up to date on Library events, as well as show your support for the Library.  Join and invite student and faculty friends to do the same.  You can also see promotional videos, along with photos and recordings of past events.  For the fall semester, were going to be looking to increase discussion about our program authors and their books, through the facebook group.  Stay tuned!

All Things Considered

How is everyone commuting these days? The price of gas is going up, and I keep reading articles about people who are switching to bicycles and scooters and public transportation for their commutes. Not sure I’m seeing much difference in bike/foot traffic around here, since I think many people switch to bikes in the summer anyway.  I usually take the T myself, but what prompts me to think about change is that today I decided to try a different route that took me directly to the Orange Line. Turns out that was a great plan on two fronts: it was a shorter commute AND there was a fire or something at Porter Square that caused a lot of delays on the Red Line. Too bad I didn’t think about checking for alternative routes earlier! Anyone else making a change?