The new Wowbrary service began yesterday with Hutchinson Public Library's initial email newsletter, which you can view here. This is a great new tool, I think. It features all the new items that come in to the library each week. It provides a view of the end-results of what many consider to be the very core of what a library is: civilization's longest-working knowledge accumulation machine. The Hutchinson Public Library might not be as large or have the same vast resources as some, but we do the same thing here and now that all libraries great and small have done for many centuries. We collect things in one spot, now both on paper and in electronic formats, for the purpose of providing people with a handy "set" of all human knowledge. Specifically, our purpose is of course to provide for the information needs of the citizens of Hutchinson and the surrounding areas. Though that might make it seem like I have a lofty view of what our little library means in the grand scheme of things, I believe it to be true.
Grandiose, lofty ideas aside, I encourage you to sign up for Wowbrary and receive a weekly snapshot of what we are collecting.
On to the "fascinating map" portion of this post. Some people probably know that I am something of a pirate aficionado. (Don't forget Talk Like A Pirate Day, September 19th this year!) Mostly I've read about and studied the 17th and 18th century variety of pirate, but I have been following the current rise in piracy off the Horn of Africa with interest. And one of the reasons I have included the Kansas Government Information blog over there on the right is for posts like their most recent one on maritime piracy. A link they included goes to this "live" map of pirate attacks, both successful and attempted around the world. You can click on a map marker and find out the full details of each incident.
So, thank you for visiting, have fun viewing piracy from the safety of your computer screen, and please consider signing up for Wowbrary, it's useful, I promise!
Wowbrary is great!
ReplyDelete