T h e U t o p i a n L i b r a r y

TUL is on the move!

ruth — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:04:14 +0000

I’m in the process of moving The Utopian Library to it’s own domain, www.utopianlibrary.com. Stop by and help me paint the place!

…and the toolbar goes live!

ruth — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 11:59:10 +0000

Our library opening page is featuring the new toolbar this week. Take a look, try it out, and explore our library and its resources from… well… wherever you are!

If you miss the opening week, you can relive it through our Front Page Archive.

the modern librarian: “addy will know”

ruth — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:00:18 +0000

Thank you to Jenny over at The Shifted Librarian for hooking us up with “Addy Will Know,” a new song by indie poppers SNMNMNM (and no, I do not know how to pronounce that).

“Addy Will Know” avoids the stereotypes. Serving as a musical tribute to the modern librarian, it is about a real librarian who leads a lost patron to the four books he is looking for. The names of the books are never mentioned, but as a kind of puzzle, he song itself includes call numbers that correspond to the books hinted at in the verses.

I’ve played the song three times and I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet. The chorus is firmly suck between my ears.

Check out the addywillknow wiki for the band’s challenge to librarians: be in their video, enter their contest, and get your local radio stations to play “Addy Will Know” over the airwaves.

And now my challenge to all of you (and especially my local colleagues)…

Download the song and learn the lyrics.
Sing along in storytime… lap-sitters, toddlers, preschoolers, families.
Play “Addy” overhead at low volume in tween and teen spaces and see how long it takes for the kids to start singing in the stacks.
Hum the chorus at the circulation and readers services desks, in the elevator, at the coffee and mocha machines.
Put the “Addy” player on your Web sites (the band provides the code on the wiki).

Go ahead… don’t be shy. Sing. Sing a song.

lifehacker tip: “where the web archives are”

ruth — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:01:25 +0000

Today’s lifehacker feed features some links and clues to “where the Web archives are” — or, those “intriguing resources on the Web… that in the past, could only be found by making appointments in dusty libraries.”

Dusty libraries? Our facilities staff works hard to keep the dust at bay!

But I digress. On with the list, which is compiled by lifehacker‘s weekend editor and Technophilia feature writer, Wendy Boswell…

Historical Information
- David Rumsey Map Collection
- The Rosetta Project
- Google News Archives
- Wikipedia online newspaper archives
- The Rockefeller Archives
- Smoking Gun’s archives (the Backstage Pass is a fun look at concert riders for more than 200 players and bands)
Multimedia
- Balcony Archives
- Mutopia
- NOVA companion sites
- The Television Archive
- September 11 Digital Archive
- Library of Congress September 11 Web Archive
- The British Library
- Moving Images Archive and Audio Archive
Print Media
- Calvin and Hobbes Archive
- Smithsonian magazine
- Air and Space magazine
Science
Web-Specific Information
Government

we interrupt my nap…

ruth — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:52:08 +0000

…for some priceless library humor.

Back in June, David Lee King used GarageBand to remix some Michael Gorman quotes into the wildly fun “bibliopunk” piece, I’m No Antidigitalist. Now Libraryman and Gorman are Disco Dancing for Peace in the Biblioblogosphere with help from JibJab’s Starring You movie maker.

Oh lord… a must-see. But first clear the area of all beverages and spillables.