Odyssey Online

Plain brown wrappers on
trees, sneak the leafy upstairs
and imbibe May, June.

We are pleased to announce that we have unveiled a new electronic book service, OverDrive.  Currently linked off the top level of the Library web site, this is a compliment to our browsing collection, and the texts from OverDrive are readable by digital devices large and small.  Full details can be found at http://www.stlawu.edu/library/sites/stlawu.edu.library/files/overdrive_flyer_0.pdf , and full text can be found from the OverDrive link…enjoy!

Use Facebook?  Okay, who doesn’t –but while I bet you do know that Facebook keeps some information about what you do whilst your at Facebook.com, you probably didn’t know that every single click you make as been saved, cataloged, and sold to who-knows-who.  An Austrian law student named Max Schrems managed to get the complete file Facebook has on him, and it totaled 1,222 pages.  Perhaps Max spends a lot of time on Facebook but I’m flabbergasted that anyone can compile a 1,222 page dossier on anybody…a definite moment to pause.

And read!  Facebook certainly has become a subject for commentary on both the evolution of the Internet and what an information economy really means and does.  We have a number of titles that comment on Facebook, and all the implications of the Internet’s great equalizer-time-waster-snoop-amusement-park.com

• Tales from Facebook by Daniel Miller
• The Facebook effect : the Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World by David Kirkpatrick
• People Will Talk : the Surprising Science of Reputation by John Whitfield
• Virtually You : the Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality by Elias Aboujaoude
• Rewired : Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn by Larry D. Rosen, L. Mark Carrier, and Nancy A. Cheever
• Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out : Kids Living and Learning With New Media by Mizuko Ito [et al.]
• You are Not a Gadget : A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier

Mr. Lanier was on campus this fall and gave a captivating lecture…much to think about…

This coming Tuesday, January 17, the Libraries will be upgrading a server.  The upgrade is expected to take the entire day: from 8 am to 10 pm. During this time you will not be able to search ODYsseus or Encore for library holdings.  You can, however, use ConnectNY to search for our library holdings.  Books that you find can be manually checked out at the ODY or Launders Circulation Desks.

• Indexes and full-text article databases will be available.

For assistance or more information, please contact:

• Rhonda Courtney x5479
• Paul Doty x 5483
• Eric Williams-Bergen x5405

…ah, the freezing rain and snow is falling and what better than to, by the light and warmth of a computer monitor or iPad, read poems. Or articles about books? Or author interviews?  With the weather not fit for an outdoor trod, here is a short list of places to find good reads, and not reprints of that in print, independent Internet publications:

• Harriet: Blog of the Poetry Foundation
  The blog from the publishers of Poetry, arguably the nation’s preeminent poetry quarterly, a great source for news and commentary on contemporary poetry, also provides a link to the incredible library of poems that the Poetry Foundation keeps online.
• Failbetter
  First rate online literary journal–Failbetter publishes fiction, poems, and author interviews.  As good as any of the literary quarterly’s we take here in ODY, a great thing to curl up with these wintery days ahead.
• A Public Space
  What we just wrote for Failbetter also goes for A Public Space.
• Bookslut
  A great collection of book reviews, news on authors and forthcoming books, and author interviews.
• The Daily Beast: Books
  Articles on forthcoming books, author profiles, and lots of recommended reading lists.
• 18 Rants by Mark Twain About Bad Writing
  What better use of the Internet than ranting, and what better ranter than Mark Twain. Not only does the article have these gems from Twain but a nice summary in the introductory paragraph of recent articles on books and reading in The Atlantic.

…Ronald Searle died last week…the legendary illustrator probably best known for his illustrations in the St. Trinian’s stories, Searle is an important 20th Century artist.  We have two books of his work, Ronald Searle in Le Monde and To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings 1939-1945 (Searle was a Japanese prisoner of war for these six agonizing years).  A lost early in this new year 2012, but a moment to contemplate the truth in his work…

…happy new year! As one can imagine the new year’s onset as also ushered in suggestions for reading, notably, reading of books due out this year. At the Daily Beast Roxanne Coady suggests a number of nonfiction titles (ranging from compassion to economists jousting) to look for, while over at The Atlantic Eleanor Barkhorn has 15 titles in mind (both fiction and nonfiction) to look for in 2012.  Tomorrow will bring some recommendations fresh from the minds of us here at Odyssey Online…