COFFEE!

Sorry.  Didn't mean to shout...actually, I did mean to shout now that I think about it!  Coffee - coming soon to the library.  It's been a while since our coffee bar was open, but we will have a new coffee bar proprietor next month.  Details to follow.

TED again

I've been doing some background work on what to do about the live stream of the next TED conferences because I think there would be interest in the library hosting it.  But one of my colleagues sent me this link, and now I hesitate.  The article, while obviously opinion, points out some strange inconsistencies regarding the organization.  For my part, I was not aware that TED existed before its recent rise to Internet glory.  Also, I think that while a case can be made for whether the "censored" talk was good enough to be posted, there is a fair amount of insular, "out-of-touch-ness" in the quoted portions of the article that bothers me.  I'm going to have to do some more investigation before we shell out the fairly steep sum (for us) to buy the right to stream their conferences.

After all, I like the TED talks.  They are often thought-provoking, if only rarely earth-shaking in their topic selection.  It bothers me though that an organization would claim to not be censoring their content when their "permanent" members list includes people fitting exactly the description of the type of person targeted by the censored talk.  The action has that "where there's smoke, there's fire" feel to it.  As a library, we stand for freedom of speech perhaps, these days, more than any other institution in the country.

Time for a new look...

Does this happen to everyone?  One day you look at something you've seen everyday and decide, "You know what?  It's time to spruce this up!"

I've reached that day with this blog.  I think it is time to try a new look.  As much as I like the clean white, it has become a little stale.  I've played around with the Blogger HTML5 templates and I really like a couple of them.  I set up the "flipcard" template for use with our new staff/patron book review site and it looks great since there is jacket art for each flip card.

I think for this blog, I'd rather use the "sidebar" template because I don't always have a nice photo to accompany my ramblings...although maybe that would be a good challenge for me.  Anyway, there's a listing down the side (surprise!) and the main body of the post appears on the right.  These templates use the latest whiz-bang stuff:  HTML5, CSS3, and Ajax to allow fast switching between posts and much more rapid image loading, etc.

Just so I have something by which to remember the old look:

As an aside, while I was looking for something new for this blog, I did a Google image search for "sample blog styles" and this was the 6th image in the list:

Bloggers like a nice pint of Porter?

Anyway, the look may change again if I try this one out for a while and it doesn't suit me.  Let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading!

What is TED?

Nope, it's not some guy with a peculiar way of shouting his name.  TED bills itself as a non-profit "devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading".  Here is a little bit about the organization.  There are some very powerful and influential folks behind the TED organization: people like Larry Page, Ray Kurzweil, Craig Venter and Seth Godin and many more.

I invite you to take a look at some of the recorded TED talks here to get an idea of what one would see and hear attending (virtually or in-person) a TED conference.

HPL is considering purchasing a TED Live membership which would allow us to stream the next two TED conference in their entirety for up to 50 audience members.  It isn't an inconsequential fee for this program, so we want to make sure there is a good deal of interest before making the purchase.

So, tell me what you think.  Would you like to attend a TED conference with access sponsored through the library?

KGI Blog Strikes Again! - 1940 Census Information

Those great researchers at the Kansas State Library posted an article about the 1940 census on their blog, the Kansas Government Information (KGI) blog.

The Census Bureau protects the vital information of citizens for 72 years.  After that amount of time has elapsed, the Bureau releases the detailed census records collected.  This year it was the 1940 census that was released to public view.  Naturally, this is exciting news for genealogists and historians!  You might be interested in looking through these records as well.  If you are starting out on a genealogical adventure - happy hunting!  These records should provide a great start.

Hive-mind in Hutchinson...

...or maybe further afield as well.  We are starting a collection of reader submitted book reviews on our website.  At the moment, you can go to www.hutchpl.org, click on "Programs & Services" and under the services heading is a link shouting "BOOK REVIEWS".  Right now, there's pretty slim pickings, but we want to expand it.  We'll be adding the reviews from our Book Bucket List program, we'll continue to add other staff member reviews as they roll in, AND we would like to include reviews from our patrons as well.

If you would like to submit a book review for inclusion on our page, here's the guidelines:

• It should be fairly brief (I'm going to say no more than a couple of paragraphs)
• It should include a synopsis and a "Why I like/dislike this book" section.
• It should include cover art
• It should be your original work, with citations and attributions for any borrowed content.
• It should NOT be published elsewhere
• It should include a brief (1 or 2 sentences) statement about you, the reviewer.

Submissions should be sent to gwamsley@hutchpl.org