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Automated Genealogy

Just the other day, I was thinking to myself “with all the social networking sites out there, when is somebody going to design an online genealogy site that works in a similar way – you enter the information you know about your family and ancestors and then connect to other family members who have entered information you don't have?” 

I surfed to MetaFilter that night and lo and behold, there was a link to a new site named Kindo that does something along that line, although not nearly as fully-featured as a hardcore genealogist would want.  The comments in the MetaFilter have lots of good information about online genealogy resources including the mention of another Web 2.0 genealogy site named Geni (which also isn't as full-featured as you might want.)

The highlight of the thread though was finding a site called Automated Genealogy, a volunteer project to type up digital versions of Canada's early censuses.  I took a genealogy class in library school but have to admit that I frequently found it less than enlightening so I honestly don't even remember if this site was mentioned in class or not.  It may have been but I don't remember seeing it. 

So I spent some time poking around and lo and behold, found this which is the record for John and Janet Brown, my dad's maternal great-grandparents who first settled the farm in 1883 that our family still owns to this day.  My dad's grandpa, James Leslie Brown, isn't listed in the record but would've been 23 at the time of this census so presumably had left home.  (Leslie would marry three years later, coincidentally in Weyburn, SK where my dad also got married and where I am currently living.) 

Anyhow, very cool anytime you come across records like this that give you a real connection to the people who came before you, doubly so when it's found almost by accident. 

Posted 14 February 2008 § Internet § LibrarySchool § Main Page § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) °

Heading Home

For the most part, I've really enjoyed being on the road for the past month and a half (with one month still to go roughly).  In fact, I'm thinking that if I don't find a position when this contract ends, I might just offer myself out as a “Internet & computer training consultant” to other library systems across the province! 

Then again, there are times, such as the last couple days when I spent two nights at my parent's house away from Shea and Pace since I was working in communities closer to my hometown than to Weyburn, that it really wears on me, especially after long days like today (which still aren't over – I'm sitting in the library in Broadview, SK waiting for my evening session to start in 15 minutes.)  Then I have a two hour drive home after that.  But the reward at the end of the road makes it all worthwhile…

Posted 13 February 2008 § Baby § Main Page § Work ‡ Comments (0) °

"Gonna Be (Other) Wars" – The John McCain Version of the Latest Viral Obama Video

I posted an Obama video a few days ago which featured one of his speeches set to music by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas that was called “Yes, We Can”. 

Now, someone's done a parody featuring the very frightening words of John McCain…

(via Reddit)

Posted 12 February 2008 § Humour § Main Page § Meme § Politics § United States § Video ‡ Comments (0) °

CLA Student Article Contest

If you're an MLIS student or recent grad, I encourage you to enter this contest.  (I can't tell you how much fame and fortune I've gained by being a runner-up last year!   That does remind me – I better spend my CLA gift certificate for free swag before it expires!)

—

Dear Students:

CLA is pleased to announce the 25th Student Article Contest.

CANADIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

25th STUDENT ARTICLE CONTEST

Eligibility

The contest is open to all students
registered in, or recently graduated from, a Canadian library school, a
library technician program, an information science program, or faculty
of education library program.

Registered students may be full or part
time; graduates should have completed their studies within one year of
the competition's closing date of March 31, annually. Articles submitted must be written while the student is enrolled in a program of study, or within one year of graduation.

Each contestant must submit a faculty member's statement attesting to the fact that the article fulfills the above requirements.

Multiple-author papers are eligible, but in the event such a paper is selected, only one prize will be awarded.

Submissions may be in English or French.

Prizes
First Prize:

$150 cash prize.

Free registration, accommodation and
transportation to the CLA/ACB National Conference (courtesy of Coutts
Information Services, Bowker and ProQuest).

The winning article will be published in Feliciter,
the magazine of the Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne
des bibliothèques. (Winning articles in French would appear in both
official languages). (courtesy of Coutts Information Services <http://www.couttsinfo.com/>, ProQuest <http://il.proquest.com/brand/micromedia.shtml>, Bowker <http://www.bowker.com/>, and the Wosk Family Bursary).

Runners-Up:

First runner-up receives:
$75 choice of CLA/ACB publications.
$150 cash prize courtesy of the Wosk Family Bursary

Second runner-up receives:
$75 choice of CLA/ACB publications.
$100 cash prize courtesy of the Wosk Family Bursary

Content and Style

Articles should discuss, analyze or
evaluate, in a clear and readable style, timely issues in librarianship
or information science. Conclusions and premises should follow
logically, and statements should be supported. Essays or term papers
should be reworked into an article suitable for publication. The style
should be informal but informative. References, if required, should be
drawn from Canadian sources as much as possible and follow CLA/ACB's style sheet  and also available from Valérie Delrue at the CLA/ACB Office at (613) 232.9625 ext. 301 or e-mail: vdelrue@cla.ca

Originality

All manuscripts must be the original,
unpublished work of the contestant(s). Entries must be submitted
exclusively to the Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne
des bibliothèques during the competition period.

Format for Submission

Manuscript length should be between
1,000 and 1,500 words, typewritten on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, double
spaced, with generous margins. Two unfolded copies should be submitted
to the following address, no later than March 31, annually.. Winners will be asked to supply their article in electronic format.

Send to:

    Student Article Contest
    Canadian Library Association/Association canadienne des bibliothèques
    328 Frank Street
    Ottawa, ON K2P 0X8

    Tel: (613) 232-9625
    Fax: (613) 563-9895
    e-mail: info@cla.ca

Please include a separate page
containing the following information: Full title of entry; name of the
author(s); home address and telephone number; name of the program in
which author(s) is/are registered; and a faculty member's verification.

Judging

A panel of judges will read and evaluate all entries; additional evaluators may be called upon to assess submissions in French.

Judges look for originality; value and
relevance of the information presented; consistency and accuracy; style
and readability; and suitability for publication. If, in the opinion of
the judges, no article submitted satisfies these criteria, the panel
reserves the right to not select a winner.

CONTEST CLOSING DATE: MARCH 31, ANNUALLY

Thank you,

Valerie Delrue

Membership Coordinator

Canadian Library Association

328 Frank Street

Ottawa, ON  K2P 0X8

Tel: 613-232-9625 x 301

Fax: 613-563-9895

vdelrue@cla.ca


Posted 10 February 2008 § Library § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Roger Marin Jr. at the London Music Club – February 14, 2008, $7, 9pm start

Nothing says romance like going to see an awesome independent country-rock artist like Roger Marin Jr.  Check him out on February 14 if you're reading this in London (or click the link to see his other dates around SW Ontario.)

Posted 10 February 2008 § Canada § Main Page § PopCulture § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Lateral Thinking Question of the Day – Library Version

Inspired by Barb's request for the toilet paper rolls pictured in my last entry (unfortunately, that was a borrowed picture from Flickr so I can't help out with that), I'll put out this question…

One of our branches had a sign up requesting empty used Kleenex boxes be donated to the library.  I assumed they were needed for craft projects but it turns out that it was something else, completely unrelated to children's programming. 

Can you guess what they were needed for? 

Posted 10 February 2008 § Library § Main Page ‡ Comments (3) °

Friday Late Link – Free On-Demand Music (Feb 9, 2008)

I was going to link to a list of the symptoms of severe food poisoning and leave off at that.  But after sleeping sixteen hours out of the last twenty-four (I won't get too graphic about how I spent the other eight hours but you can imagine…



…I'm feeling a bit better so I decided to do a regular Friday Fun Link, if one day late.)

During a public session a couple weeks ago, I got asked if there was a web site where a person could type in a song and have it play automatically.  My best suggestion was MeeMix.  But I forgot about a couple interfaces I'd seen which use Google's advanced search to find MP3's that people have uploaded to their web sites.  Then a recent MetaFilter thread unveiled a couple more – Songza and Songerize.  So here's a list of all of them that I know about ( should also mention QTrax that was launched recently but down for the time being due to overwhelming interest):

Songerize

Songza

G2P

Google MP3 Search

MeeMix

(via MetaFilter)

Posted 09 February 2008 § FridayFunLink § Humour § Internet § List § Main Page § Photo § PopCulture ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

Some Randomness From The Road

– saw two moose (meese?) right beside the road but behind a fence on my early morning drive to Rocanville (one of our most distant communities at 2.5 hours) this morning.  A pretty rare sight (for me anyhow but then again, I don't hunt) so I actually briefly thought “Those are some weird looking cows!”   But I actually whipped the car around to go have a closer look.  But when I got close the second time, they bolted into the trees, still visible but not as clearly. 

– absolutely the most embarrassing day ever for my public session.  I don't pre-screen my search results, preferring to either come up with suggestions from the patrons or pick something on the spot myself.  So, when I demo my fake Facebook account (with no friends and only a membership in the Regina network), it's helpfully showing me the most popular posts in the Regina network on my news feed – including a humour video clip named “orgasm“.  Then I go to YouTube and one of the “most-viewed” feature clips on the home page is a girl in a thong.  Then, to top it off, I go to LeaderPost.com and the top news story is about prostitution which puts everybody over the top laughing.  “Is there anything on the Internet that isn't about sex?” one lady asks and I have to admit that, apparently, there isn't.

– there's a casino on an Indian reserve about halfway on the drive home so I stopped in for a restroom break.  I'm not a huge gambler and rarely go to casinos but I thought, “Why not? I don't get coffee breaks on the road so I'll take one now!” and threw $10 in one of the slot machines…which disappeared in about ten minutes.  This is my most expensive bathroom break ever (although I think I had to pay at the top of the Eiffel Tower and I have a memory that one wasn't cheap either – captive audience and all.)

– I figured out how to set a scan for my favourite artists on the satellite radio so now, anytime a song by the Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Wilco, Van Morrison, Radiohead, REM, U2 and a few others comes on, I can flip to it immediately.  Wish I'd figured that out about a month ago!

– did I mention that I've been up since 3am since Pace had one of his screaming fits and I couldn't sleep after he finally settled, knowing I had to be up in a few short hours anyhow?  I was good all day but it's finally caught up to me and I'm dead tired now. 

Did anybody else's kids do that when they were around 8 months?  Wake up randomly through the night and scream bloody murder with nothing able to console them?  It might be night terrors but that authoritative source, Wikipedia, says they often don't start until 2 years of age when they happen in children.

– speaking of Wikipedia, the first paragraph of the current version of the page for the community I visited today was something I had dictated to me by one of the public session participants to show how easy it is to edit the site.

– I love that my current work assignment combines so many things I love – meeting people, road trips, teaching about computers & the coolest web sites on the Internet.  Every day doesn't feel like work at all and the hours pass like minutes.  I was on the road today for over twelve hours today and it passed faster than many regular 9-5 days do!

Posted 08 February 2008 § Main Page § Randomness § Work ‡ Comments (2) °

Bookcase of the Future (I Wants)


(via Reddit)

Posted 07 February 2008 § Main Page § Photo § PopCulture ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

My Favourite Authors – A Semi-Scientific Study

Cue the “anal retentive librarian” stereotypes…

I’ve kept a list of every book I’ve read since 1996.  I was recently thinking about who my favourite authors are and instead of just picking the first names that came to mind, I thought it would be interesting to sort that list by author then record everybody whose name appears more than once.

You can probably assume that this technique gives a pretty good indication that there’s something about the author that I enjoy – whether its their writing style, the topics they write about or whatever.  Of course, it’s also embarrassing that there are a lot of great authors who, for whatever reason, I’ve only read one of their books – at least in that time frame.  (I admit I was tempted to slip in a few of their names to give me more “cool” cachet but hey, what’s a blog for if not stupid levels of personal revelation?)

If you don’t know an author on this list, you can do a quick Google search on the name to find out a bit more about them – although, in 90% of the cases, I warn you that it will probably just lead to somebody writing about one of my not-so-guilty pleasures (the Beatles) or one of my guilty ones (professional wrestling.)

Here you go…

Al Franken
Alex Garland
Anthony Bourdain
Art Slade
Ben Elton
Bill Bryson
Bret Hart
Carl Sagan
Christopher Sandford
Chuck Klosterman
Chuck Palahniuk
Clifford Stoll
Dave Barry
Dave Bidini
Dave Margoshes
David Carpenter
Dean Koontz
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Rushkoff
Eric Hansen
Eric Schlosser
Frank McCourt
Fred Stenson
George Tremlett
Gore Vidal
Hal Niedzviecki
Helene Hanff
Howard Stern
Hunter Davies
Hunter S. Thompson
Ian MacDonald
Irvine Welsh
James Mitchener
Jay Ingram
Jerry Spinelli
JK Rowling
John Allen Paulos
John Rocco
Kevin Taft
Kurt Vonnegut
Malcolm Gladwell
Marcello di Cintio
Mark Lisac
Martin Amis
Michael Crichton
Michael Moore
Mick Foley
Molly Ivins
Naomi Klein
Oliver Sacks
Pete Best
Pete Shotton
Philip Norman
Ray Coleman
Richard Dawkins
Robert Fulghum
Robert Harris
Roddy Doyle
Scott Adams
Scott Keith
Stephen King
Steven Michael Berenzky (Mick Burrs)
Thomas Wharton
Tim Sandlin
Timothy Findley
Will Ferguson
Yoko Ono

Themes?  Lots of popular culture and bestselling authors.  More non-fiction than fiction.  Not a lot of literature (I started this list *after* I finished my undergrad degree unfortunately or it’d be a *lot* longer!)  A few Canadian authors but honestly, not as many as I suspected I’d have.  I think, having worked in publishing and with writers, there are a lot of authors who I’ve read one of their books but rarely went on to read a second work because there was always the next new author to try.

What would be really interesting would be to have a list like this going back to the time that you began reading – so you’d have everybody from Dr. Seuss to Franklin W. Dixon.

Posted 06 February 2008 § List § Main Page § PopCulture ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: