Open Culture

Open Culture’s mission is:

• to explore the best of contemporary intellectual life;
• to connect users with free, high-quality online media - podcasts, videos, online courses, etc. - that makes learning dynamic, convenient and fun; and
• to keep users apprised of new cultural developments and resources worth their limited time.

Their motto (if we can call it that) is "Enlightened ideas and media. Served up fresh". Which is ironic in that the Gestalt Polizei of all firewalls, WebNazi, blocks any access to the resources.
See Paisley. See Enlightenment.

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter, December 2006

EOLSS Online

The Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) body of knowledge is an integrated compendium of sixteen encyclopedias. It attempts to forge pathways between disciplines in order to show their interdependence and helps foster the transdisciplinary aspects of the relationship between nature and human society. It deals in detail with interdisciplinary subjects, but it is also disciplinary as each major core subject is covered in great depth, by world experts. Subjects covered are:

• Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Mathematical Sciences
• Biological, Physiological and Health Sciences
• Social Sciences and Humanities
• Physical Sciences, engineering and Technology Resources
• Chemical Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources
• Water Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources
• Energy Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources
• Environmental and Ecological Sciences, Engineering and Technology
• Resources Food and Agricultural Sciences, Engineering and technology Resources
• Human Resources Policy and Management
• Natural Resources Policy and Management
• Development and Economic Sciences
• Institutional and Infrastructural Resources
• Technology, Information, and Systems Management Resources
• Regional Sustainable Development Reviews

Access from college network until May 2007. No log-in. Great, eh?

http://greenplanet.eolss.net/EolssLogn/searchdt_form.aspx

The Literacy Project

Yet another Google initiative...
The Literacy Project is a resource for teachers, literacy organisations and anyone interested in reading and education, created in collaboration with LitCam, Google, and UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning.
Find books, articles and videos about literacy, or start your own literacy or reading group!

More details @ http://www.google.com/literacy/

Source: Google Librarian Newsletter

Save us all from RSI

Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit.
Workrave alerts you to take a break in an undisturbing manner. When it is time for your break, a friendly small popup window appears asking you to take a break. This window automatically moves out of the way if you keep on working. However, if you ignore these hints too often Workrave acts less friendly and pops up the break window for your own good. The break windows can be configured to completely block your computer for the duration of the break.

Download at http://www.workrave.org/

Source: JISC RSC

Calling all WebCTers!

Free eBooks from the eLearning Guild. (We like free, don't we?)

339 Tips on the Implementation of an LMS or LCMS is an amazing collection of tips from hundreds of your professional colleagues. Nowhere will you find a more comprehensive set of tips that you can use to improve your LMS and LCMS (that's VLE to us UK mortals) implementation efforts.

834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction is a wonderful collection of tips from 336 of your professional colleagues. Nowhere will you find a more comprehensive set of tips that you can use to improve your knowledge and skills in online instruction.

Source: JISC RSC

Disability Equality Duty (DED)

45,000 public bodies across Great Britain are covered by the Disability Equality Duty (DED) which came into effect on 4th December 2006.
DED is designed to ensure that all public bodies - such as central or local government, colleges and universities, health trusts or emergency services - pay ‘due regard' to the promotion of equality for disabled people in every area of their work.
The Disability Rights Commission has produced a range of guidance and information for public bodies and disabled people on the duty so for fuller information go to the address below:
http://tinyurl.com/rjm7w

Source: JISC RSC

Christmas quiz

Not the college library one. Yet.
Throughout December the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is running three competitions based on its special online ‘Advent calendar’. Spot the festive theme that connects a selection of Oxford DNB biographies, and you could win £200 worth of books of your choice.
http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/calendar/

Source: OUP

New Virtual Training Suite tutorials

Intute has released a number of new Internet tutorials for the Social Sciences in the Virtual Training Suite.
The tutorials teach Internet research skills and are aimed at students and staff in UK universities and colleges. They are ideal for supporting research methods, information literacy or study skills courses.
Courses include:

• Internet for Business Studies
• Internet Economist
• Internet for Education
• Internet for Government and Politics
• Internet for Social Policy
• Internet Social Worker

More updates to follow in the coming year. Watch this space...

Source: Intute

Keep on running

Established in 2000 and with offices in London and Chester, realbuzz.com Ltd is an online publishing company specialising in sports and fitness-related websites. They publish their own website, realbuzz.com whose purpose is to help everyone get more out of life.
realbuzz.com has a growing number of pages on sports, health and fitness, diet and nutrition, the great outdoors, travel, entertainment and charity adventures. Users can meet like-minded people, share recommendations and stories, and discuss their favourite pastimes – all online.
Good stuff for the PE-inclined.
http://realbuzz.com

Source: Tips & Advice Internet, v.10, 21.

In my craft or sullen art...

I won't even attempt to rhyme this.
New additions to the Poetry Archive include readings by Walter de la Mare, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves & Dylan Thomas.
Plus a wee Christmas bonus of some lost Philip Larkin readings. (We librarians have to stick together!)
Featured poet is Dundee's Don Morrison.

http://www.poetryarchive.org

Source: The Poetry Archive

Removing Barriers and Creating Opportunities

After a two-year inquiry into the barriers to participation faced by disabled people, the Equal Opportunities Committee of the Scottish Parliament today published its disability inquiry report. Centering on the issues of work, further and higher education and leisure, the report examines the barriers caused by inaccessible transport, poor physical access and attitudes towards disabled people.
Committee convener Cathy Peattie MSP said: "The committee has gathered extensive evidence about the barriers to participation faced by disabled people across the length and breadth of the country. We believe that these far-reaching recommendations for change listed in the report will result in real improvements in the lives of disabled people in Scotland and we challenge all organisations named in the report to raise their service provision to a level which ensures equal access to all disabled people.”

Easy-Read summary (.pdf) can be found here; the full (web-based) report is here.

Source: Scottish Parliament, 28 November 2006

Storming the Winter Palace (quietly)

"The popular caricature of the librarian of yesteryear wasn't necessarily glamorous. That myopic creature in a cardigan, who loved enforcing silence, always used a pencil and whose favourite phrase was "the library is closing in five minutes" might, once, sadly, have been somewhere near the mark."

Well, I'm not glamorous, the cardigan pockets were always good for the fags & lighter. I'm not Tony Soprano but should have been & my favourite phrase was always " No problem".
Still this might tell you what we do. Or could do, given the chance.

Stereotypes? Don't follow leaders...

Rest of the article can be found here.

Source: The Guardian : Money : Work, 25 November 2006

More open access journals

Jan Szczepanski, a librarian at Göteborg University, has collected links and information on Open Access journals for years. His lists contain over 4500 current OA-journals and 757 historic.
Yeah, I know. Hoplessly academic & you don't have time.
We'll have a look & relevant title will wend their way into the library catalogue. Or even here.
If I have the time...

http://www.his.se/bib/jan

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter, 145. November 2006.

studybookshop.com

studybookshop.com is an online textbook exchange that provides students and graduates with an easy way to buy and sell secondhand student books.

They say - "The need for such a site is simple. Students spend hundreds of pounds on new textbooks for their university course only to use them for one or two modules. After graduation, these books are no longer required and therefore remain unused. Studybookshop.com identified a need to sell second-hand student textbooks in order to save and earn thousands of pounds each year for students."

As the proud owner of scores of unread-for thirty-years academic volumes (did I ever read them?) I would suggest that this site is certainly worth investigating.

http://wwwstudybookshop.com

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter

NHS Scotland eLibrary

The NHS Scotland e-Library aims to empower the healthcare family and benefit patient care by providing high quality knowledge support throughout the patient journey.
The e-Library aims to support:

• Clinical and managerial decision-making
• Education, training and lifelong learning
• Research and development

Its audience includes:

• NHS staff of all disciplines – both clinical and non-clinical
• Students and teachers working with the NHS
• Partners in care in the voluntary and local authority sectors.
• Increasingly, it is working with partners to support the information needs of patients, carers and the public to participate in self-care and shared decision making.

The NHS Scotland e-Library is a comprehensive provider of high quality knowledge content, including:

• 5000 + fulltext electronic journals
• 5000+ electronic books
• 100 + databases of journal articles
• 1000’s of evaluated health and social care Websites

It's the bits in red that are paramount here. Any member of college staff with an interest in health & social care is a member of a partner institution, i.e. the college. Registration has potential for you, your students & for the college. After all we're all on that patient journey. We just don't quite know how far along the road we are yet...

http://www.elib.scot.nhs.uk/

Creative writer?

Budding novelists who are frustrated by endless rejections from publishers and agents should take a peek at a website called The Frontlist (www.thefrontlist.com). The site encourages unpublished writers to submit material, and read and review the work of others, which is then ranked accordingly. All very well, you may think, but will the book industry pay any attention? Well, at least two companies are promising to do so.
The literary agency AM Heath and the web-to-book publisher The Friday Project will receive and read the top-rated submissions. Scott Pack, the former Waterstone's enfant terrible now at The Friday Project, says: "The internet is a great showcase for many styles of writing, but up until now fiction writers haven't been served well. We are therefore great fans of The Frontlist and look forward to many hours browsing its content and commenting on submissions ... we hope to find some great novels to publish as a result."

Source: The Guardian Review, 25 November 2006

Bright Lights # 54

New issue of Bright Lights emagazine is now available. Great cinema (not movie) stuff, he said snobbishly.

We took time off from all-consuming hobby of sticking pins in Republican voodoo dolls to post a new issue. You can go directly there by clicking http://www.brightlightsfilm.com, or you can preview the contents at our tasty new blog at http://www.brightlightsfilm.blogspot.com.
We know our readers love a bargain, and we do too. So we've not only put up a GBFRI (great big fat regular issue), but also a bunch of articles on film noir from our 1994 print issue devoted to that
subject.

A competition for discriminating minds...

Catalyst Magazine is running a competition to find the best in student journalism, illustration and photography.
A winning article, photo essay and illustration on race, class, faith and education will each receive £200 and be published in a future issue of Catalyst and on the Catalyst website, www.catalystmagazine.org.
The competition is open to students anywhere in the world.

Q: What do race, faith and class have to do with the way we learn and what we teach? Is the system racist or are we falling prey to a culture of victimhood?
Enter either:
1. an article of up to 1500 words, or
2. an illustration, or
3. a photo essay of 5-10 photographs
They are looking for fresh writing with compelling, interesting arguments, new points of view, probing and critical analysis, engagement with difficult questions and written in clear, plain English.

The deadline for entries is 31 December. Winners will be announced in mid-January. For more information, including submission instructions, see www.catalystmagazine.org/competition.

Technobile

Article in today's Guardian. All I can say that I have a weakness for 18-year malts.

I know too much about computers. More than is good for me around here. When somebody else's computer goes wrong - a program locks up or the broadband stops working - you can guess who they call first...

All I can say that I have a weakness for 18-year malts.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1936691,00.html

Source: Guardian Technology

Firefox 2.0

A word to those who have been converted to the cause.
A new version of Firefox is now available from the Mozilla website.
Download here.
Release notes here.
Press release here.
Damn! My Blue Cats have gone.
But this post is being spell-checked as I type by Firefox. There you go!
Current Awareness? We've got it covered.

Newsblast!

Pageflakes has had a makeover so Newsblast is looking goood!
Newsblast?
The site's Emission Statement (sic) is:
All I am trying to do here is draw together many strands of what should be interesting information (we are educationalists, after all) in one easily accessible website which consists of a mere 4 pages. If you don't think this is useful, fair enough! Build your own.
It's called Current Awareness. Try it sometime.

At least it tells you when it's raining in Paisley.
Link is to the right or click here.

By Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs

Planitax Internet is run by a volunteer staff of company directors, who provide free help and advice for small businesses, to assist them in getting to grips with the internet for business purposes. It includes forums where tips and help on everything from business planning, business start-up, marketing, advertising, design, hosting, tax issues, etc are discussed, plus articles, etc.
http://www.platinax.co.uk/

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter, 144

Health-EU Portal

The Health-EU Portal is the the official public health portal of the European Union and contains a wide range of information and data on health-related issues and activities at both European and international level.
The main objective of this thematic Portal is to provide European citizens with easy access to comprehensive information on Public Health initiatives and programmes at EU level. The portal is intended to help meet EU objectives in the Public Health field, it is an important instrument to positively influence behaviour and promote the steady improvement of public health in the 25 EU Member States.
http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter, 144

Free photos

everystockphoto.com is a search engine for creative commons photos.
They aim to be a community for designers, developers, photographers and other media publishers who want better, easier access to license-specific media on the web. They add value by providing a single integrated search, allowing users to bookmark their photos with private and public tags, and increasingly will be offering advanced searching options, rating systems and other tools.
283441 photographs indexed to date
http://www.everystockphoto.com/

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter, 144

European Journal of Open and Distance Learning (EURODL)

The European Journal of Open and Distance Learning (EURODL) is an open-access journal which publishes the accounts of research, development and teaching for Europe in its most inclusive definition, exploring the potential of electronic publishing. Furthermore, EURODL presents scholarly work and solid information about open, distance and e-learning, education through telematics, multimedia, on-line learning and co-operation.
It is also an interactive platform - a place where you may comment, find links to interesting sites, prepare for conferences or look up conference documentation.
http://www.eurodl.org/index.html

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter, 144

European Educational Research Journal

The European Educational Research Journal is a peer-refereed international journal devoted to Europeanisation in educational research. It publishes aspects of educational research which illuminate the cases and contents of the emerging borderless space of European educational research.
Articles become free-access one year after first publication.
One for the professor?
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/eerj/

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter, 144

Beyond Brunel

Beyond Brunel is part of the Brunel 200 commemorations from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council which aims to show how modern engineers are building on Brunel's amazing achievements.
Tell most people that you are an engineer and they will immediately think of houses, bridges, and the engines and machines that make modern life possible.Yet engineering is about so much more than this.
Find out more at this excellent site.
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchHighlights/BeyondBrunel/default.htm

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter, 144

2.0 Websites

I know that you're not interested but...
2.0 Websites is a portal to all things Web 2.0. Blogs, social networking, wikis, mashing, it's all here.
I thought so. Well, I try.
http://2.0websites.com/

Source:n Internet Resources Newsletter, 143.

The Doors of Perception

Viperlib is a web-based resource library of images and presentation material illuminating the study of visual perception. Viperlib is a trusted source of selected, high-quality Internet information for researchers and practitioners in the social sciences.
One for the psychologists?
What you see is what you get? Perhaps not...
http://www.viperlib.com

Source: JISC RSC Newsfeed

Copyright & Images

TASI, the JISC-funded Technical Advisory Service for Images, has just updated its copyright advice for education with the publication of 4 new documents:

• Copyright and Digital Images
• Roles and Responsibilities for Staff Involved in Building Digital Image Collections
• Roles and Responsibilities for Staff Using Images for Teaching and Research
• Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright

These resources have been created in collaboration with copyright consultant Naomi Korn. They provide in-depth advice about copyright for those creating or using digital images within UK Further and Higher Education.

TASI is at http://www.tasi.ac.uk

Source: JISC RSC Newsfeed

Google for Educators

How many of these posts are about the Great Google & his works? I wonder...
Anyway, in the wake of their (ongoing) flirtation with librarians, Google have launched a website aimed firmly at teachers.
Google for Educators is essentially a guide to the 12 (at present) Google products (their word) with brief descriptions of each, lesson ideas & how each is being used by educators.
The component parts are: Web Search; Google Earth; Google Book Search; Google Maps; Docs & Spreadsheets; Blogger; Calendar; Picasa; Personalized Homepage; SketchUp; and Google Apps for Education.
Certainly worth a look if only for some advice on how to fine-tune those dodgy search skills?
http://www.google.com/educators/

Source JISC RSC Newsfeed, October 2006

Assist-IT

Assist-IT is a valuable resource for staff interested in all aspects of accessibility.
The site is jam-packed with resources: tutorials, video step-by-step guides, free downloads, hints and tips, for learning support staff as well as learners with additional support needs – or anyone who might require additional help with essay planning and writing.
For instance Assist-I.T. has developed a toolbar designed for learners with dyslexia related difficulties called 'My Learning Toolbar', which incorporates mind mapping, homophones, speak my answer and a range of other useful tools. This was promoted in this month’s Microsoft Learning Newsletter as a valuable tool for dyslexic learners.
http://www.assist-it.org.uk

Source: JISC RSC Newsfeed, October 2006

Make mine a CAMEL

New publication from JISC Infonet which should be of some interest to Blenders...
CAMEL is short for Collaborative Approaches to the Management of E-Learning. CAMEL set out to explore how institutions who were making good use of e-learning and who were collaborating in regional lifelong learning partnerships might be able to learn from each other. The publication highlights some of the things CAMEL participants found out about e-learning and about each other. One of the most interesting aspects of the project was the model itself. It is believed that the CAMEL model could have widespread application for many types of people wanting to share experience and learn from one another. For this reason JISCInfonet will also be producing a CD-ROM toolkit for anybody wanting to start up this kind of network. The CD-ROM will be available in late October.
Copies of the print document are available in the staff library.
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/news/camel-publication

Source: JISC Infonet

Innovate: new edition

The October-November 2006 issue of Innovate focuses on the potential of open source software and related trends to transform educational practice.
The first four articles map out the current state of open source technology and offer recommendations for how educational institutions can benefit from its advances.
The following contributions offer detailed accounts of the development, design, and use of specific open source applications as well as a study of how the process of open source development provides a valuable model of pedagogical design in its own right.
Finally, in his Places to Go column, Stephen Downes introduces readers to Intute, an open access Web site that represents a significant step forward in the evolution of learning object repositories. But we all know, use & love Intute already, don't we? Well, don't we?
http://www.innovateonline.info/

Source: Innovate

Information for Social Change

Information for Social Change is an activist organisation that examines issues of censorship, freedom and ethics amongst library and information workers. It is committed to promoting alternatives to the dominant paradigms of library and information work and publishes its own journal, Information for Social Change (freely available online at http://www.libr.org/isc).
The ways by which information is controlled and mediated has a serious influence on the ways people think, how they communicate, what they believe is the "real world", what the limits of the permissible are. This applies equally to information that comes through the channels of the mass media, through our bookshops or through our libraries.
Of course, free and equal access to information is a myth throughout the world, although different situations pertain in different countries. Control is more explicit and cruder in some places, more "sophisticated" and more invisible elsewhere (for example in Britain). One of the aims of Information for Social Change is to document these situations.

Source: Libr.org

Firefox anonymity

Temporary Inbox (4.5 KB) is a small FireFox extension that creates temporary e-mail addresses. Useful when you’re asked to provide an e-mail address for registering with a site and you don’t fancy revealing your regular e-mail address.
As soon as a site asks you to enter an e-mail address, click on the Random email button in the Temporary Inbox toolbar. An e-mail address will be displayed in the box. Copy this address to the online form of the site you want to register with. Then click on the Check button at the top. This opens the Inbox of your temporary e-mail address. This should now show a message containing, for example, your password or a link that you should click on in order to activate your registration. After six hours, your temporary e-mail address will be automatically destroyed.
Should cut down the spam deluge.
http://www.temporaryinbox.com/firefoxextension.php

Source: Tips & Advice Internet

Learner Driver Conference 2006

The Learner Driver was a major conference about the transformation of learning in Scottish Further and Higher Education. Not a refresher course in the Highway Code, The Learner Driver was a conference which reflected the fast pace of change taking place within the educational landscape. The conference examined the potential positive transformational effect that new technology and methodologies can have on the learner experience, and how learners themselves are central to the change.
Downloadable files of the keynote presentations from this prestigious conference which took place this May are now available from the conference website at: http://www.thelearnerdriver.org.uk/media.htm

Highlights are:
Looking to the future: transforming learning in Scotland
Dr Bill Harvey, Deputy Director of Learning & Teaching, Scottish Funding Council.

Looking to the US: A transatlantic perspective on the transformation of learning
Dr Carol Twigg, President and CEO of the National Center for Academic Transformation, New York

Putting into Practice a Learner Centred Vision
John Stone, Chief Executive, Learning & Skills Network

Available in .mp3, .wmv, .pps formats for Windows, Mac OS & Linux.

Source: JISC RSC

Open Source Software killed my baby...

...but it didn't kill me, Lord, it didn't kill me.
We shall persevere in proselytising Open Source...
We shall persevere in championing ICT in FE...

If you're interested, some O/S info. Never know. Might catch on.

DimDim
Looking for a free web conferencing service for your live, e-learning sessions? Dimdim is Open Source web conferencing software which can show presentations, applications and desktops to any other person over the internet. You can chat, show your webcam and talk with others in the meeting and all without leaving your favourite chair. Try it at…
http://www.dimdim.com/

NoteMesh
NoteMesh is a free service that allows college students on the same course or the same classes to share notes with each other. Notemesh works by creating a wiki for individual classes that all users can edit.
http://www.notemesh.com

NVU
A complete Web Authoring System for suitable for Windows and Macintosh and Linux users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. NVU (which stands for "new view") makes managing a web site a snip. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.
http://www.nvu.com/index.php

Source: JISC RSC

TASI Guide to using GIMP

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free open source image editing program with a comprehensive set of tools comparable to those available in commercial software such as Adobe Photoshop.
TASI (the JISC specialist service on digital images) has just published a brand new advice document: Using GIMP software for teaching and research. This guide, also available in a print-friendly PDF version, looks at the GIMP features of most use to those wanting to use images in teaching and research.

Get software for free from: http://www.gimp.org/
Get advice for free from: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/creating/gimp.html

Source: JISC RSC

Learning Spaces e-book

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.
With the next phase of the college "new build" almost upon us, the following e-book will surely be of some interest to all, not just driven librarians.
From the introduction:
"Learning Spaces focuses on how learner expectations influence such spaces, the principles and activities that facilitate learning, and the role of technology from the perspective of those who create learning environments: faculty, learning technologists, librarians, and administrators. Information technology has brought unique capabilities to learning spaces, whether stimulating greater interaction through the use of collaborative tools, videoconferencing with international experts, or opening virtual worlds for exploration. This e-book represents an ongoing exploration as we bring together space, technology, and pedagogy to ensure learner success".

Big download (20Mb) although individual chapters are available. Chapters 1-13 focus on learning space design principles, chapters 14-43 are case studies illustrating those principles.
Coming soon to an intranet near you...

http://www.educause.edu/learningspaces

Suits you sir!

From today's Guardian:
Your local Oxfam shop may well be relieved to hear about this. If you're getting rid of an old jacket with patches on the elbows, heave it over to Lewisham College, which has stumbled on an intriguing phenomenon. Its business students appear unable to turn up to lectures on time, but youngsters pursuing construction or nails and beauty are impeccably punctual. Some shrewd old salt wondered whether the fact that the latter students are given the right kit to wear had anything to do with the difference. Suits were bought for some business students and their timekeeping has improved dramatically ever since. The college is now looking for a sponsor to kit out the rest of the business course. But why should their teachers be left out? They too perform much better in the proper uniform. So if you have an old jacket ...

http://education.guardian.co.uk/further/story/0,,1891310,00.html

Source: The Guardian, FE Diary, 10 October 2006

Vector Park

Trip the light fantastic - emphasis on trip.
Vector Park will seriously test your sanity.
Navigate a broken cable car around a forest populated by bunnies whilst being stalked by a giant finch. No? Doesn't do it justice. Beautifully realised but requires Flash to be enabled.
Please note that the mere existence of this post does not in any way endorse spending endless work hours trying to solve these puzzles. Problem solving? My God, you're on holiday next week. Do it then!

http://www.vectorpark.com

Source: Guardian Guide, 7 October 2006

World Mental Health Day 2006

To mark World Mental Health Day 2006 & do a wee bit of awareness-raising re the prevailing stigma of mental illness, we present a few useful websites.

World Mental Health Day
http://www.wmhday.net/
See Me
http://www.seemescotland.org.uk/index.php
Mind (National Association for Mental Health)
http://www.mind.org.uk/
NHS Scotland
http://www.hebs.scot.nhs.uk/topics/mentalhealth/index.htm
WellScotland
http://www.wellscotland.info/index.html
Depression Alliance Scotland
http://www.dascot.org/
Breathing Space
http://www.breathingspacescotland.co.uk/

Van der Graaf Generator

• Treat yourself to 5 bottles of Coca Cola.
• Read the instructions on the label & then go to the iTunes website.
• Download Van der Graaf Generator's The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other for free! (Well, you'll have to pay for the last track from the original album).

Monday morning blues: Sorry. Doesn't work. Can't download the album as individual tracks. Try Refugees though.

http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/store/music.html

Channel 4 Fourdocs

FourDocs is the broadband channel for documentary from Channel 4. On FourDocs, you can upload or watch four minute documentaries from all around the world, as well as classic feature-length docs from the last 100 years.
FourDocs is full of hundreds of brilliant documentaries of between 3 and 5 minutes for you to watch and review. Some are serious, some are funny. Some you'll learn something from, some you'll be entertained by.
Index is at http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/film/index.html
Fourdocs home-page at http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/

Source: BUFVC

British Library Archival Sound Recordings

Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush...
This site was launched at the end of last month but I haven't heard anything about it from the usual (reliable) sources.
There does seem to be some teething problems, like the Athens login not working or not being mentioned in Athens resource lists... Hold on, I'll just check. No. Not yet.
Anyway the BLASTER (or is that BLASER?) site will allow you to "explore 12,000 selected recordings of music, spoken word, and human and natural environments.
Anyone can search or browse the information on this site. For copyright reasons, only people in licensed UK higher and further education institutions, or in our reading rooms can play the recordings. Downloading is available in licensed institutions.
Please note that content is still being added to the site. Some collections are not yet complete and some have only a small sample of recordings available at present."
Contents page is here.
We'll keep you informed of developments.

http://sounds.bl.uk/

National Poetry Day 2006

Seeing as it's National Poetry Day here in the rain-swept UK, forty miles north of Burns Country, time to indulge you, dear reader. Aye, singular.
Poem of the day is Matthew Fitt's Kate O'Shanter's Tale. Still makes me laugh, well, smile inwardly.
Excerpt & full reading can be found at the Scottish Poetry Library's website.
This poem contains material of a mature nature. Or immature nature.
At least pesky WebMarshal can't block the spoken word. Yet.

http://www.spl.org.uk/best-poems_2004/fitt.htm

Innovate

Don't worry. Not asking you to do anything so, well, risky...
The August / September issue of Innovate has just been published. Innovate provides assessments of emerging technologies for educational practice, studies of recent efforts at technology integration, and a commentary that promises to provoke engaging discussion about the role of technology in education.
Of all the technological developments that hold significance for educators one of the most far-reaching in its future implications is the rapid growth of open source software. In this special issue of Innovate, contributors explore, assess, and illustrate the potential of open source software and related trends to transform educational practice.
Timeous, I would say. Timeous.

http://www.innovateonline.info/

Source: Innovate

A diversion - thinking of Phil the English

If you like flight simulators as well as the satellite images of Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk), here’s something that offers the best of both worlds: Goggles (http://www.isoma.net/games/goggles.html). This very simple online flight simulator makes clever use of Google Maps: just enter a location (e.g. London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin) and then use the keyboard arrows, the A and Z keys and the spacebar to control the plane. The images are impressive and give you a very realistic experience. You can now even link to a specific start location (e.g. your own hometown) in the Goggles flight simulator!

Source: Tips & Advice Internet

Catalyst magazine

Catalyst, a free magazine published by the Commission for Racial Equality, is at the forefront of debate on race relations and racial equality.
Included in this week's issue which looks at Britishness from three varyingly oblique angles is an article on Scottishness. Given the many column inches were taken up this summer with questions of whether Scottish people should support England in the World Cup, or 'anyone-but-England'. Despite devolution, the relationship between England and Scotland, and between Scottishness and Britishness, remains complex.

http://www.catalystmagazine.org/

Source: Catalyst

Before you buy that new printer...

Unless you have shares in Canon or HP, you might like to consider the sage advice offered in this week's Technology Guardian. Apparently...

...if you buy, for example, a set of Canon BJC-8 cartridges, it will cost you around £50. The printer that they use can be had, with a complete set of cartridges, for £62; so I reckon that the printer, on its own, should cost around £12. But you can't, of course, buy the printer on its own. It exists solely to make you go on buying cartridges...

Full article by Andrew Brown in the Technobile section can be found here.

Source: Technology Guardian

VideoJug. Life explained. On film.

VideoJug is a new website which can show you how to change a tyre, tie a full-windsor-knot or make Pilau rice using video tutorials. This new venture is the latest attempt to cash in on the boom in online video in the wake of American sites such as You Tube but, hey, give them a break.

http://www.videojug.com/

Computer games are dumb...

...well, not necessarily (I'm an old Spyro hand myself).
The following games are part of what seems to be global trend of games that make you think. That's think as in think about big, real-life subjects, not think as in how to kill the goons in Ultimate Doom Fantasy VIII.

Manage McDonalds
McDonald's of golden arch fame gets a bad press. See how hard it is to run a multinational dead-meat franchise @ http://www.mcvideogame.com/

Sweatshop
At http://www.simsweatshop.com you are invited to enter the world of the sweatshop and become a factory worker. Do you accept the challenge? Can you tirelessly make sports shoes for less than a dollar an hour as you struggle to support your family.

Operation: Cure The Cabinet
At http://www.trumajorityaction.org, you can play the classic Operation game (remember that?) on an ailing & naked George Bush.

Source: The Guardian Guide

Computer Room (Off The Library) Paper Regulations (Scotland) Act 2006

The above document was published today and comes into immediate effect.
Inasmuch that a humble librarian can even attempt to precis the word-weaving of higher intelligences I suspect that the conclusions can be encapsulated something like:

• There is a printer in the computer room;
• This printer consumes paper;
• Eventually the paper is all-consumed;
• The Print Room (see separate regulations) supplies paper;
• Go to the Print Room;
• Bring some paper back to the Computer Room;
• Fill paper tray.

My simple prose does not do justice to the poetry of the original but should our maisters be after requiring some skivvy to fulfil these fuctions for them, I should be only to glad to...

Privacy or paranoia?

There have been a fair number of posts here recently re Google's (and others'), predilection for recording everyone's search history. An easy solution, of course, is to manually delete the cookie that Google uses to identify the searcher. Yeah, fine, but a pain. Enter G-Zapper, a free utility which might help.
"G-Zapper helps you protect your identity and valuable attention data. G-Zapper will read the Google cookie(s) installed on your PC, display the date it was installed, and determine how long your searches have been tracked. G-Zapper allows you to delete or entirely block the Google search cookie from future installation".

Download the software at http://www.dummysoftware.com/gzapper.html

Source: Guardian Technology

Is there a doctor in the web?

Today's Guardian Unlimited Technology section contains an article on Search Medica, a GP-moderated, UK, medical search engine. 'Course this information was brought to you 10 days ago by your Phantom Engineer. Anyway, read Jack Schofield's article here, the Arkive post here.
Other sites worthy of a mention are the Swiss-based MedHunt, the US government's Medline Plus and WebMD. All worth a look, all written by health professionals & not by, well, slightly misinformed idiots.

http://www.searchmedica.co.uk
http://www.hon.ch/MedHunt/
http://www.medlineplus.gov
http://www.webmd.com/

Source: Guardian Technology

Goodbye EMOL, Hello Film & Sound Online

As was previously posted, the Education Media OnLine service (EMOL) has now become Film & Sound Online.

Film & Sound Online not only has a new, updated user interface but also
has important new functionality. The key improvement is that users of
Film & Sound Online are now able to browse by subject, as all the
service content is classified through the UNESCO thesaurus.

Other new features include a "Lucky Dip", which offers users a random
selection of the service content, a "Showcase", which gives a brief,
visual demonstration of the range of content available in the service,
and a "View or create learning materials" page, which enables users both
to view case studies and reviews and to offer to create learning materials.

http://www.filmandsound.ac.uk/

Source: EDINA

NewsBlast!

NewsBlast! is a new service from the people who bring you all good things informational. God, you don't really deserve us, do you? (Quit whining & get on with it. Ed.)
Anyway, Newsblast! is our very own news aggregator online, gathering together many different news strands from a variety of sources. Here you will find:

• Latest additions to the Intute subject gateways;
• News from the JISC;
• Latest headlines from the BBC, etc.
• Details of the latest developments in education & FE from across the universe.

More will be added in due course. Just think. A team of information gatherers working for you. Just think.

Find Newsblast! here - http://www.pageflakes.com/sgrant.ashx

(Also available in the right-hand menu).

PsychSplash

PsychSplash is a project by Gareth Furber aimed at reviewing the web for Psychologists. The idea grew out of his interest in the web and fascination with how something so huge like the internet could actually make your life easier.
Gareth says "What you will find on PsychSplash is an ongoing commentary of Psychology-relevant websites and applications. I hope to make this an interactive process, hence you will find that you can comment on my articles and make suggestions, express your opinion or just direct me (and others) to sites that you have found useful."
I heartily concur.
http://www.psychsplash.com/
Interested? His Pageflake pages contain a dizzying number of newsfeeds - blogs, news, books & journals. Worth a look.
http://www.pageflakes.com/gareth.furber.ashx#

Source: Intute

For Air Miles millionaires

You'll have to do this at home. Involves a download & install. Bad!
The Schmap Player is a small and easy-to-use piece of freeware. Install it on your Windows PC, select from our growing range of interactive Schmap Guides and then... get Schmapping!
Every Schmap Guide comes with dynamic maps, useful links, playable tours, top picks, plus photos and reviews for hundreds of sights and attractions, hotels, restaurants, bars, parks, theaters, galleries, museums...
There are 10 UK guides at the moment, with more to follow, plus another 46 European destinations & 59 in the Americas.
12 hours later - downloaded this at home with the Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin & New York guides. Truly excellent piece of kit. So there!
http://www.schmap.com/

Economic with the truth

As someone who survived a full term (& a brush with professordom) of Political Economy (the posh term), I've always been a bit suspicious about economists. Alex Salmond, after all, is an economist. However...
EconTalk is an economics podcast hosted by Russ Roberts of the Library for Economics and Liberty. This weekly audio show takes an economic issue and usually discusses it with a researcher in the field. The shows can downloaded, listened to from the website or accessed using a free subscription via an RSS feed. The accompanying website features show notes and recommendations for further reading from economics blogs, academic papers and other websites. Users can access the archive of previous show by subject, featured interviewee or date.
http://www.econtalk.org/

Another site which is worth a look (i.e. materials are freely available) is Econport which is a microeconomics digital library, produced by the Experimantal Economics Center at Georgia State University. It features information on a series of experiments, a handbook of microeconomics with experiments to reinforce learning, a catalogue of annotated microeconomics resources that are available online and a glossary of microeconomics terms.
http://www.econport.org

Source: Intute

Sports Management Report

Sports Management Report is an online full-text journal on sports management. The website includes features, current news, events and jobs in the sports industry. The news section is searchable by keyword. To use the weekly email alert service of Sports Management Report, you are required to register, which is free of charge.
http://www.sportsmanagement.co.uk/

Source: Intute

Dancing on the head of a pin

Interested in the development of Western philosophy? Can't be bothered reading the standard texts? Read on...
Squashed Philosophers is a website offering abridged versions of some classic philosophical texts. Significant works of many well-known philosophers can be found here, and classical and early modern philosophy are particularly well-represented. Also included are some political, psychoanalytic and scientific texts at the margins of philosophy. The abridgement has been carried out by Glyn Hughes (who has performed a similar task for some religious and literary texts).
http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/

Source: Intute

Biting the hand

I wouldn't want you to think that this blog has a wee touch of paranoia about Google (or Microsoft for that matter). Let's just call it acute concern, shall we say? After all, with CCTV round every street corner & the threat of UK ID cards never quite receding, well, we're becoming used to a certain lack of privacy. But I'm not so sure that I want Google, benevolent organisation as it may be, lurking on my hard drive, observing my every move / search / purchase & selling this information on to anyone with the necessary cash.Paranoia? Read the article in today's Guardian G2 supplement by Andrew Brown. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1859629,00.html
They know all about you. Purty scary, part two.

And, turn the page, and we've got Tom Vanderbilt on Dubya's James Bond fantasy. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1859632,00.html Except that it's not fantasy. Is this Bush's secret bunker? Oh that the Smoking Gunmen should have lived to see this. And perhaps they did...

Source: The Guardian

Blend that learning

The Moving Image Gateway (MIG) is a new service that collects together websites that relate to moving images and sound and their use in higher and further education. The sites are classified by academic discipline, some forty subjects from Agriculture to Women's Studies, collected within the four main categories of Arts & Humanities, Bio-Medical, Social Sciences and Science & Technology.
Each site has been evaluated and described. Sites are highlighted which have video or audio streaming. There are some 600 sites on the MIG database at present, and it continues to grow at the rate of ten per month.
http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/gateway/index.html

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter

WetPaint

What they say:
Wetpaint powers websites that tap the power of collaborative thinking. The heart of the Wetpaint advantage is its ability to allow anyone — especially those without technical skill — to create and contribute to websites written for and by those who share a passion or interest. To do this, Wetpaint combines the best aspects of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks so anyone can click and type on the web.
Blogs make online publishing easy — but blogs are monologues. And forums are great for question and answers, but they're too hard to search. And wikis allow the reader to become the writer, editor and fact-checker, but they're just too darn hard to use for the average person. Wetpaint is different. With Wetpaint, anyone with a passion can create an entirely new website and invite others to help them build it. And it's easy — adding to a Wetpaint site is as simple as click and type.

Looks interesting.
Go on. Give it a try.
Sorry I forgot.

http://www.wetpaint.com/

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter

Light up your (science) teaching

"iLumina is a digital library of sharable undergraduate teaching materials for chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science. It is designed to quickly and accurately connect users with the educational resources they need. These resources range in type from highly granular objects such as individual images and video clips to entire courses. Resources in iLumina are cataloged in the MARC and NSDL metadata formats, which capture both technical and education-specific information about each resource. iLumina contains thousands of educational resources and several virtual collections. Please feel free to contribute your own resources to iLumina by following the contribute link in the header."

http://www.ilumina-dlib.org/

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter

DisabledGo - enabling information

Launched to mark the European Year of Disabled People, DisabledGo is an ambitious Internet service which will transform the daily choices available to millions of disabled people, their families and friends. Founded by wheelchair user Gregory Burke and supported by Marks & Spencer and leading local authorities, this innovative service is opening up towns and cities across the UK.
"DisabledGo was founded to empower disabled people to judge for themselves which venues are suitable for their own individual needs. It's about putting the control where it should have always been - with disabled people themselves." - Gregory Burke

http://www.disabledgo.info/

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter

CompWisdom

If you are interested in topics related to computing, programming and the Internet, then CompWisdom is a good choice for you. Their database has thousands of relevant sites stored, and is continuously expanding.
Their search engine is also very fast compared to other search engines, you will find what you are looking for quickly and easily. But being fast is not everything. They also provide you with meaningful results, without filling your screen with unrelated sites or spam. The results you get contain real sentences, not just sites that contain keywords without any relevance. This means that you can often gain a great deal of factual information on a topic without ever having to leave the search page! When users do select a page, they can have much more confidence that the page deals directly and informatively with their topic.

http://www.compwisdom.com/

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter

Artpromote

Explore thousands of art galleries, museums and artists sites from around the world. Browse by subject, medium, movement, nationality and more.
Artpromote is a searchable directory divided into over 200 categories of visual art, music, and literature, and lists thousands of contemporary artists, galleries, and art resources.

http://www.artpromote.com/

Source: Internet Resources Newsletter

Want to make Scotland a sectarian-free zone?

Then this is your chance to help.
Sectarianism has no place in a modern multi-faith, multi-cultural Scotland. People should not be held back by bigotry and prejudice and we need to tackle the sectarian attitudes which have held Scotland back for too long.
The Scottish Executive is looking for a slogan which gives a clear, concise and strong anti-sectarian message and is running a competition to find one. So if you think that you, or anyone you know, is up to the challenge of writing a powerful anti-sectarian slogan then we want to hear your ideas by 23 October 2006. Anyone between the ages of 5-22 can enter.

Further details can be found here.

Search Medica

Search Medica is a UK-based (there's a novelty!) search engine which is aimed firmly at practising doctors (GPs). With it you can search GP approved sites; all of the NHS; or just the internet in general.
SearchMedica has been set up using expertise from Pulse, the GPs’ best-read weekly paper, with major input from growing numbers of GPs daily. SearchMedica search results are independent and ranked according to relevance for GPs.

www.searchmedica.co.uk

Source: Phil Bradley's Weblog

Modern Times

Awesome.
Not Blood on the Tracks. Not Blonde on Blonde. Not Highway 61 Revisited.
Modern Times sure sounds old (on brief acquaintance).
Buy now.
Some pensioners still cut it, that's a fact.

An after-thought. Nice new site - http://www.bobdylanwiki.com/

Following on...

In the interest of fair play, some information for Jambo & Teddy Bear people.
AC Sparta Praha
Official site City guide Language
Molde FK
Official site City guide Language

Followers of Gretna should check out Dingwall. Nice in the autumn, they tell me.