Enjoy!

Pygmy Elephants, Once Thought Extinct, Survived Due to Re-population

Florida woman finds eight-foot alligator in kitchen

Film star grizzly bear kills trainer

Polar bear added to endangered species list

Escaped cows run loose on highway

Sunday afternoon I filled up the gas tank in my car. For the first time ever, I paid over $40. For those of you that drive large cars, trucks, or SUV’s, $40 must sound like heaven. But for myself and my little Honda Civic, $40 is a lot. When I first started driving, only 10 years ago, gas cost between $0.90 and $1.00. Some analysts predicate the the price could hit $5 per gallon by the end of the year and certain gas stations in Germany are already charging up to $8 per gallon. Below are links to articles as well as websites to help consumers find the cheapest gas in their area.

This is one of the more troublesome aspects of the gas crisis. No matter how much the consumer suffers from the rising gas costs, the major gas corporations still seem to making the big bucks.
Exxon-Mobil reports $10.9 billion profit in first quarter

Websites to find gas prices
Gas Price Watch
Gas Buddy
Gas Prices from Mapquest

The following links provide widgets that can be downloaded to your desktop or embedded in the programing of your blog or personal webpage.
Automotive.com Gas Prices Widget
Interdimension Media Gas Widget
Apple Gas Widget for Macs

Finally, here is a list of websites that are also pertinent to the gas crisis.
Fuel Economy
AAA Fuel Cost Calculator
Alternate Fuel Prices - Includes prices and purchase locations for BioDiesel, Ethanol, Electric, Hydrogen, LNG, and LPG.
Google Transit - Planning a trip using public transportation

*The majority of links found in this post were taken from an article in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday May 8, 2008.

National Library Week took place this year April 13-19. Although I do not have a blog planned with the multitude of short, comedic videos that were created for the celebration, I highly recommend taking a look at them. Available on the website, the videos feature comedians getting books from vending machines, ordering classic literature through a drive-thru window, and many others featuring amusing library scenarios. Videos in National Library Week

Random Statistic - 63% of adults in the U.S. have public library cards - ALA Newsletter April 9, 2008.

Library books burned in 1905 due to scarlet fever

Study group recommends changes to copyright law

110 Best books to have in a library (Plus hundreds of comments by readers that make the list a lot longer)

ALA 2008 State of America’s Libraries report

I must start off this blog by apologizing to my loyal readers. For awhile, I was consistent with my blog postings and did not neglect you, my faithful reader. I have been absent for too long now and I will try not to do it again.

That being said, earlier this week I attended a technology session at my yearly staff training. After the meeting, my hand was cramped from writing way too many notes about websites that the trainer and other trainees had recommended. This is one of the reasons that I love the technology lists that are abundantly available. Whether the list has 10, 25, or 150 websites listed, it is always more manageable than searching for “the best of” through a search engine. For example, try searching for the “Best Free Software” in Google or Yahoo.

Enjoy!

The Best Free Software

How to evaluate website quality

Questions bloggers should consider before posting a blog

10 Ways the Internet could die

Top 10 ways to trick out your desktop (Original title)

I think that growing up in a family of health professionals was one of the main factors that influenced my love of learning, and eventually my quest to become a librarian. Often times, the conversation at the dinner table was about diseases, drugs, and medical research, so I have always been extremely interested in health news.

I have no formal health training. I am not a doctor or nurse or medical professional in any way, shape, or form. I do talk to health professionals about the articles that I blog about and there have been many times where I have wanted to comment on an articles, but did not feel comfortable doing so because I am not a health professional. That being said, it is time to start including my opinion (hopefully an informed opinion) on what I blog about.

While the expensive cholesterol drugs may not work better than cheaper counterparts, there are times when the cheaper counterparts do not work for an individual, and the expensive does. An idea would be to try the cheaper drugs first, and if they do not work, than the expensive drug can be a second option.

Study shows that more expensive cholesterol drugs do not work better than cheaper counterparts

Doctorate program for nurses may alleviate primary-care physician shortage

I dislike the arbitrary, anonymous rating that doctors get on websites devoted to rating doctors. A standardized way to rate a doctor would be incredibly useful in this country.

Uniform standards to rate U.S. doctors agreed upon

Non-profit hospitals are making more money than for-profits

Please note that life expectancy rates are falling particularly in lower-income families. Health care for everyone may be a dream, but it should be a reality. And while I realize that the application of Universal Health Care would be problematic, we need to find a way to make health care available to everyone.

Life expectancy rates dropping

Two of the Albany Public Library’s branches, the Howe Library and the Pine Hills Library, are being readied for extensive renovations. The library is hosting an auction to sell furniture and more to prepare for the arrival of new items. The link below is to the APL’s blog, and lists complete information on what will be for sale and when the auctions are occurring. This is a great way to get beautiful furniture at discounted prices and give back to the local library.

Albany Public Library’s Library Auction

The second article is dedicated to my brother, a techie himself who in high school carried a duct tape wallet.

Internet neutrality and the general public

69 Techie uses for duct tape (Original title)

63 Essential WordPress Hacks, Tutorials, Help Files and Cheats (Original title)

Online How-To Video Directory

New blog analytics tool that allows real time conversation

Mayor criticized for placing political appointees in charge of the Memphis Public Library

An Inside Look at the Wikipedia Office

Czech Republic National Library Design Challenged by Mayor and Public

Author Name Pronunciation Guide

If it Quacks like a Librarian…(Original Title)

To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves. ~Claude-Adrien Helvétius

Middle school keeps challenged book but restricts to students with parental consent

Waltham City parent objects to The Lovely Bones

Two popular sex books pulled from shelves again

Federally funded database denied access to ‘Abortion’ articles

Gwinnett County librarians will view browser caches to search for pornography viewers

The 18 pictures of librarians in movies is a wonderful collection of some of the more memorable moments that have happened in the history of libraries in Hollywood. Enjoy!

The Lance Armstrong foundation teams up with ALA to provide cancer resources to public libraries

Arizona school libraries in crisis

18 Sexy Trips to the Stacks in Film (Original title)

Picking a book for a book group with more than 5,000 members

A new librarian looks back at her first year