ORCON: The Science of Oil Spills

Becoming a Facebook fan of the Ohio Resource Center has already created another student fan of the ORC. Thursday afternoon I was discussing the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with a student creating a lesson on the topic and working with databases, including Middle Search Plus, to find articles for middle school students. When I logged in to Facebook on Friday morning I was pleased to see a wall post detailing the most recent ORC ON topic e-publication, The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

"Current events present us with unique learning opportunities. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico gives us a chance to connect what budding scientists are learning in the classroom to the world. We've pulled together a set of materials that can be used to examine the oil spill through a variety of lenses. - ORC*ON, The Ohio Resource Center

E-publications are presented by grade level, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12, and detail a variety of information such as podcasts, internet resources, lessons, and activities covering the oil spill, it's environmental impact, clean up, and response. After emailing the resource to the student in question, I was thrilled to see her working in the library not long after lunch Friday afternoon. Exploring the Grades 6-8 tab, we found a great web connection link; Gulf Coast Oil Spill Map. In conjunction with Google Earth, this site compares the size of the oil spill with different global locations. Selecting Ashland, Ohio, the oil spill covers an impressive portion of the state from Lake Erie through Cleveland, Ashland, and Columbus, and then trails through the southeastern counties and into West Virginia (screen shot, Google Maps).

I spent a longer period of time working with this application than was necessary, but it definitely provides opportunity to put the spill into a more easily understood perspective for students. To be honest, it was eye-opening for me as well. Visit ORC ON: The Science of Oil Spills, for more great resources.

Taking a circular route

ABC's Good Morning Americahad a short piece this morning with an interesting take regarding college students use of social networking sites. The piece, now an article on the ABC news site, After Years of Telling All, 20 Somethings Start to Clam Up, also discussed options for those who want to have their information removed from web sites. The article highlights an anonymous law school student who even with stellar grades and an impeccable resume was unable to secure a job in a law firm. After investigating she realized her job search was, in effect, being sabotaged by other people hijacking her personal Facebook pictures and posting them explicit comments on a message board. While none of the HR firms interviewed would admit to doing Internet searches on potential new hires, it is an open secret.

It has been a couple of years since I Googled myself to see what still lives on the Internet. After all, being told cyberspace is forever and seeing it are two different things. I took a few minutes this morning and searched. Most of returns were AU library, IRC, CMCIG, ALAO, and blog related. I did find a few understandable oddities; a PUBLIB list serv archive question from September 1999 (I was required to post a question for class) and a web page where an author cited a library handout I created in 2002 because I cited her article in the handout. Two of the most interesting results were blogging search engines IceRocket and LibWorm.

According to the About IceRocket page, they are "pioneering commercial search by putting the interests and wants of consumers before advertisers. IceRocket has innovative blog search technology to search blogosphere. " Arriving at IceRocket Blog Search via a blog post entry from Google, curiosity compelled me to see what I could find. I typed in my name, selected the "exact phrase" option, clicked search, and 345 posts authored by me returned! It seemed excessive until I realized the IRC blog easily has over 400 posts for collection development and information; add in this blog, the IRC book review blog, and CMCIG blog, and suddenly the number is not all that staggering. A perusal of several results pages revealed they were authored by me with the earliest dated 8/29/06 and most recent 3/5/07 (Monday). I was intrigued by a statistical selection, a small green icon next to different entries enumerating outside links. There were icons next to Library Cloud posts, but they did not work. Icons attached to other people's listings did work, so it may be linked the track back option in blogger that is not currently active here.

LibWorm is another blog search engine, "a professional development tool, and a current awareness tool for people who work in libraries or care about libraries." The main page states "Search the Biblioblogosphere and Beyond" and referres to itself as "the librarian RSS engine" with over 1500 available feeds. I first noticed this search engine a month or so ago when it was an outside link in the Library Cloud StatCounter account. When it was part of the returns for my initial Google search this morning, I decided to take another look at the product. A simple search returned over 282 records with only the first two pages actually belonging to me (as an author). An "exact phrase" search returned 44 records, only two pages, all of which were Library Cloud posts authored by me. LibWorm encourages you to create an account and submit a feed. I did create an account, but our feed already existed. Both of these blog search engines provide opportunities to search for library specific information. I have not used either beyond doing quick "me" searches, but they are worth a second look.

Tags: Social networking concerns, IceRocket, LibWorm, Blog search engines

New Wonder #5: The Internet

I am a fan of Good Morning America, often watching in the morning before work. They are counting down the 7 New Wonders and today was New Wonder # 5: The Internet. Assigned to this particular wonder was Elizabeth Vargas who reported virtually from inside the Internet, a visual representation from The Opte Project is pictured to the left, and live. There was no surprise that a substantial part of the report focused on social networking sites. Not only My Space and FaceBook, but also places where adults are creating virtual communities complete with identities, employment, the sale of real estate, and options to make money from the venture. It was interesting to me seeing a stay-at-home mother of two talk about the hours a day she spends in a virtual community (I've forgotten the name).

Yesterday we had a full staff meeting to discuss the library's academic review scheduled for tomorrow. One of the questions put forth by the library director was, "Where will the library be in 25 years?" Will we be building virtual libraries in virtual communities for virtual patrons?

Update, later that same day...

In case you were wondering why I did not name or provide a link to the social community discussed, I could not remember the name. So in true librarian fashion I spent the last fifteen minutes searching out the site with the information I could remember and found it; Second Life: Your World Your Imagination. A few quick statistics on this site include:

• Total membership of 1,409,200
• Logged in the last 60 days 567,011
• Online now 14, 687 (varies)
• U.S. money spent in the last 24 hours, $689, 910

Are we looking at those virtual libraries being built, staffed by virtual librarians, utilizing virtual books, and paying fines with virtual/real dollars ($689,910 of them)?

Tags: New 7 Wonders, New Wonder #5, Internet, Academic libraries