Break Time!

Yes, it's time for vacation! And a little light reading. As a librarian, I would feel negligent if I didn't share my vacation reading list with you, so here it is:

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Because someone handed it to me and said, "This is a great book! You have to read it! But I want it back." It was the "But I want it back." that hooked me.)
• Of Men and Mountains by William O. Douglas (Because I recently had reason to review a variety of very old photographs, many including a young Douglas. What I noticed about the photos with Douglas was that not only was his image captured, but they also appeared to have captured his personality - almost every time. I didn't see that with any other person in any of the other photos. So, I had to learn more about the man, the myth, the mountains....)
• Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito (Because it's tagged as being similar to a Tom Robbins novel.)
• The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Keightley (Because you never know when you might need to know the difference between a Gnome, a Dwarf, an Elf, and a Prechaun.)

'Back in August!

193,000 Mission Critical Government Job Openings

A recent report entitled, Where the Jobs Are: Mission Critical Opportunities for America by the Partnership for Public Service finds that nearly 193,000 mission critical jobs need to be filled in the next two years.

Fodor's 8 Essential Travel Sites

Fodor's Travel Wire has a list of 8 Essential Web Sites for Travelers. I'm not sure they would be my 8 essential, but they're all good. Here are the sites Fodor's will clue you in on:

• Farecast
• AvoidDelays
• SeatGuru
• XE.com
• Steve Kropla's Help for World Travelers
• GeekTools Geek Hotels
• PetsWelcome
• Google Earth

Guide to Foreign & International Legal Databases

The NYU Law Library has a Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases on their site. The guide is divided up into a variety of subject headings and has lots of links to free, online databases. The guide includes Foreign Collections by Jurisdiction and includes a search engine. I tested the search engine, but at the time I am posting this, it does not appear to be working.

Criminals Galore!

USA.gov has an "America's Most Wanted" page. It's a one-stop-shop for finding out about these popular folks:

• FBI's Most Wanted
• U.S. Marshal's Most Wanted
• ATF Most Wanted
• DEA Fugitives
• U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Most Wanted
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Most Wanted
• Sex Offender Registry National Search
• Missing Children
• Interpol's Most Wanted

Clusty Petit

The Clusty search engine is optimized for mobile devices.

Google 411

Someone in my family likes to call 411...a lot. Being a librarian, I find it very difficult to pay for this service. Now I don't have to pay!

I tested out Google Voice Local Search by calling 1-800-GOOG-411. I decided to try something tricky. I requested the phone number for a restaurant named Thai Derm. The computer could not understand me, so I typed in T-H-A-I-D-E-R-M on the phone keys. It immediately connected me to what it called Thai Deerm. Tomato, Tomahto.

The next time, I tried a category...Music. It gave me five options. I chose one, but rather than being instantly connected, I asked for "details" and wrote down the number for the Washington Music Center.

If your mobile phone accepts text messages, you can just say, "text message" to have the details and a link to a map of the location of the business sent to you.

I do find it a little difficult to understand the digital voice (and it, apparently, has the same problem with me), but I think I could get used to it. Now I have to do something really high tech: tape "1-800-Goog-411" on my landline phone.

Legal Forms

I often seem to be looking for legal forms and I always seem to be reinventing the wheel. 'Not very efficient.

So, I started reinventing that good old wheel again, only to find that Hieros Gamos (a site I haven't checked out in a very long time) has a lovely little list of links to free and fee-based online legal forms.

The list not only includes links to U.S. legal forms, but also to foreign and transnational, Canadian, Australian, and U.K. legal forms. You can check it out here: http://www.hg.org/forms.html

WilsonWeb's Journal Directory

WilsonWeb's Journal Directory search seems like it could be very useful. I did a search, selecting all databases. I checked off every box, chose "separated" instead of "combined" columns, and sorted by subject.

That search created a list of 10,296 journals. In that list, you get publisher name, ISSN, frequency, and often a link to the publisher's Web site. You can also search for specific terms in the title. Plus, you can e-mail the list to someone. If you're working on a list of journals on a given subject, this may come in handy.

Día de Julio

Oddly, one of my most popular posts was the one I did about Mario Day. At least, I've received more e-mails about that post than any other. And they have all been positive. Everyone seems to like Mario Day. So why, I wonder, isn't today, July 10th, Julio day?

It should be double-Julio day since the word for July in Español is, as I'm sure you know, Julio. I looked for something on Julio Day, but found nothing of any substance. Just a joke or two.

I did, however, come across a poem by Federico García Lorca, entitled, "Balada de un día de Julio." I happen to have a particular fascination with Lorca. (I think it stems from being in Granada, Spain on the 100th anniversary of his birth and attending (crashing) a ceremony where artist, David Zaafra was unveiling his new city bus murals in honor of the anniversary.)

So, now I need to find an English translation of "Balada de un día de Julio" (there is a single stanza in English here) because:

1. I am fascinated with and greatly admire Lorca and;
2. I need to know for sure that it is actually "Ballad of a day of July" and not "Ballad of a Day of Julio"

Now back to Julio Day. If it has not already been declared, I declare this Julio Day. So, happy Julio Day to all you Julios (of whom I have never known a single one)!

Free Favicons

No, free favicons are not like free radicals...nor flavonoids.

I recently had need to create a favicon. Only I didn't know it was a favicon I needed. I think, perhaps, I've been away from the blogosphere too long....

Anyway, if you've been a little cyberspacey lately, too, and you want to create one of those little icons that are always appearing in your address bar, you want to create a favicon. It is called a favicon because the icon also shows up in your "favorites" when you bookmark it.

You can easily create your favicon for free by using an online generator like this one: http://www.graphicsguru.com/favicon.php. Simply browse for the image on your PC or use the Web address for one on your site. Click "generate" and voila!, you have a cute, little 16x16 pixel favicon.ico.

Now all you have to do is upload it to your root directory and add the following HTML after <head> on your home page:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://example.com/favicon.ico" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon">

That's pretty much it. If you have a virtual domain (domain forwarding), you may have to make a modification in your control panel. I know at domaindirect, you need to go to the "Meta Tags" section and add http://www.yoursite.com/favicon.ico in the "Shortcut Icon" box.

'Pretty durn simple.

Maryland Judiciary Case Search - Updated

Trevor Rosen mentions in his Maryland Law blog that the Maryland Judiciary Case Search site has been updated. He goes on to say that you can now get docket information for Montgomery County Circuit Court (civil back to 1978 and criminal back to 1979).

The site allows you to search Maryland District Court: traffic, criminal, and civil cases and Maryland Circuit Court: criminal and civil cases. For more information on the coverage dates for each court, scroll down to the bottom of the FAQ page.

The Skinny on the Patriot Act

Howstuffworks has a piece on "How the Patriot Act Works." It is divided into the following seven sections:

1. Introduction to How the Patriot Act Works
2. Titles III-X of the Patriot Act
3. Primary Criticisms of the Act
4. A Brief History of the Patriot Act
5. Is the Patriot Act a Success or a Failure?
6. Lots More Information
7. See all Government articles

Blogging & Government - Web 2.0

The IBM Center for The Business of Government has a publication available online entitled, The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0. The report is written by David C. Wyld, Associate Professor, Southeastern Louisiana University, Department of Management.

Professor Wyld has written several other reports for The IBM Center, including RFID : The Right Frequency for Government. The list of Professor Wyld's reports is located here.

¡Feliz Cuatro de Julio!

Here is a link to state fireworks safety laws via an interactive map at the National Council on Fireworks Safety: http://www.fireworksafety.com/laws.htm

You can take a test and check the answers there too.

Your Own Radio Station with Downloads

rc3.org (Rafe Colburn's blog) points out that there is a nice little mashup of eMusic and Pandora Internet radio. What's cool about it is that you conduct a search on an artist's name or on a music title and it creates a radio station just for you, based on that choice. You can give the songs a thumbs up or thumbs down. A thumbs down stops the song in its tracks and starts a new one. That's the Pandora side. Then scroll down to link to the music downloads from eMusic. You can check it out here: http://radio.emusic.com/

Take Control

If you're like me, whenever someone says something about "keyboard shortcuts," you tense up and start backing away from them. They might as well have said, "DOS." I shudder.

I must confess, though, that there are a few keyboard shortcuts that are more than worth your while to know. Just a few mind you. Here they are:

CTRL+F - Have you ever clicked on a link to an HTML page, PDF, or Word document on the Internet and had it open in a window with no toolbar? Horror of horrors! How can you search it? There's no Edit > Find! No binoculars! Ah, but there is a way...just hit the CTRL key and the F key and suddenly your little search box is there. You can search any document on the Web this way. What could be more fabulous than that?

CTRL+C and CTRL+V - How many times have you tried to Copy and Paste your password into the password box only to find that "Paste" is grayed out. It's the same deal when you have to RE-enter your e-mail address on some form. CTRL+C will Copy and CTRL+V will Paste.

There is a full list of Windows XP keyboard shortcuts here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301583

I didn't think I wanted to learn more than the five or so I already know, but I see that CTRL+Z works as Undo, so I guess I'll be testing that one out any minute now.