Digital Planet Team

Juneteenth, third Saturday in June

2009-06-20T09:50:00.001-07:00

Passing the comps!

2009-06-11T18:04:00.001-07:00

Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies!

2009-06-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

Fond Farewell to Ruth

2009-06-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here they come!

2009-06-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

Words

2009-05-28T05:09:00.000-07:00

The finals of the US Spelling Bee competition are held in Washington tonight.

Last year's championship was won by 13 year-old Sameer Mishra from Lafayette in Indiana. Mishra, who won the trophy participating for the first time in the spelling bee competition, took home a cash prize of $35,000.

The word that Mishra spelled to finally win the competition was "guerdon," a term meaning 'something that one has earned or gained'.

And this year's winner is 13 year old Kavya Shivashankar who spelled 'laodicean', which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics, to win the championship. Cool and collected, Kavya Shivashankar wrote out every word on her palm and always ended with a smile. She is taking home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and, of course, the huge champion's trophy.

2009-05-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

Employee of the Quarter

2009-05-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Jacksonville Public Library Employee of the Quarter
2nd Quarter 2008/2009
Congratulations to the following employees:
EMPLOYEE OF THE QUARTER LUIS FLORES
HONORABLE MENTION RUTH ARCENAS
These employees will be recognized at the Board Meeting
May 14th, West Regional, at 12:00 pm.
R&R Committee

WolframAlpha

2009-05-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

New Search Tool Aims at Answering Tough Queries, but Not at Taking on Google
By MIGUEL HELFT
Every new online search service must face the inevitable question: “Is it better than Google?”

WolframAlpha, a powerful new service that can answer a broad range of queries, has become one of the most anticipated Web products of the year. But its creator, Stephen Wolfram, wants to make something clear: Despite the online chatter comparing it to Google, his service is not intended to dethrone the king of search engines.

“I am not keen on the hype,” said Mr. Wolfram, a well-known scientist and entrepreneur and the founder of Wolfram Research, a company in Champaign, Ill., that has been quietly developing WolframAlpha.

Mr. Wolfram’s service does not search through Web pages, and it will not help with movie times or camera shopping. Instead it computes the answers to queries using enormous collections of data the company has amassed. It can quickly spit out facts like the average body mass index of a 40-year-old male, whether the Eiffel Tower is taller than Seattle’s Space Needle, and whether it is high tide in Miami right now.

WolframAlpha, which is expected to be available to the public at wolframalpha.com in the next week, is not a finished product. It is an early working version of a project that has been years in the making and will continue to evolve over years, if not decades. As such, there is much it cannot answer now.

But even as he dismisses the Google comparisons, Mr. Wolfram, a former child prodigy who published his first research paper on particle physics at age 15 and is best known for creating the math-formula software Mathematica, is happy to add fuel to the simmering expectations surrounding his service.

“I think WolframAlpha has the potential to be quite important,” he said.

The goal of creating a computer system that can answer questions has been a tantalizing but elusive pursuit for many computer scientists for more than four decades. Some veterans of the field say Mr. Wolfram may have come as close as anyone yet.

“In many ways, creating a system like this has been a holy grail of lots of folks for some time,” said Nathan Myhrvold, a former chief technology officer of Microsoft and co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, an investment company that owns a portfolio of patents.

“It has wound up being considered something that is virtually impossible,” Mr. Myhrvold said. WolframAlpha has shown “that it wasn’t impossible but really difficult,” he added. “It involved applying lots of different tricks.”

Doug Lenat, an artificial intelligence expert whose company Cycorp has spent the last 15 years developing a system that brings human-like reasoning to some computer systems, said WolframAlpha can handle “an astronomical number of questions,” and could eventually turn into a favorite destination on the Web.

“It may become a massive player alongside Google,” Mr. Lenat said.

Traditional search engines like Google and Yahoo, by and large, excel at finding information that already exists online. If there are Web pages that include the words used in a query, the engines will find them and rank them in order of relevance.

WolframAlpha is different. For starters, it does not gather data from the Web. Instead, its “knowledge base” is made up of reams and reams of data — ranging from the kinds of facts you would find in a World Almanac, to highly specialized data from physics and other sciences — that some 100 employees at Wolfram Research have gathered, verified and organized over several years.

When a user types in a query, WolframAlpha tries to determine the relevant area of knowledge and find the answers, often by performing calculations on its data. If you type “LDL 120,” it will return a graph showing the distribution of cholesterol levels among the United States population, and display the percentage of people above and below that figure. If you type “LDL 120 male 33,” it will adjust the results to focus on that gender and age group.

In response to “how far is the Moon from Earth,” WolframAlpha will calculate the exact distance based on an algorithm that computes the ever-changing distance between the two bodies. The engine that computes answers is largely built on Mathematica.

In its current state, there are many queries that WolframAlpha cannot answer, either because it does not understand the question or because it does not have the requisite data. For instance, it is stumped by queries like “obesity rate,” “housing prices New York” or “unemployment San Francisco” (but it will answer “unemployment San Francisco County”).

“It is going to be very good in some areas and incomplete in others,” said Nova Spivack, the chief executive of Radar Networks, which is using artificial intelligence and other techniques to help people find Web content that is interesting and relevant to them.

WolframAlpha does not actually try to work out the real meaning of a query, as some artificial intelligence systems do, so there are some questions it will never be able to answer. But experts say its approach appears to be effective in many areas.

“He’s done a great job of marrying the acquisition of data with the mathematical algorithms,” said David A. Ferrucci, an artificial intelligence researcher at I.B.M., who is leading a team developing a computer program that will compete with humans on “Jeopardy.”

If successful, WolframAlpha has the potential to become a large business opportunity. For now, Mr. Wolfram said he plans to offer advertising and other forms of sponsorship on the site, and perhaps offer premium versions of the service for researchers. And somewhat coyly, he said he has discussed potential partnerships with the “obvious people,” including search engine companies.

“We are actively pursuing interesting relationships,” he said.

Representatives for Google and Yahoo declined to discuss WolframAlpha.

Mr. Spivack and others said WolframAlpha may become a complement to traditional search engines, which themselves have begun to offer simple versions of the kinds of calculations and data manipulation at which WolframAlpha excels.

“There is a huge space of possible questions that Google doesn’t answer,” Mr. Spivack said. “I think WolframAlpha will go well beyond the academic world to cover business and industry, economics, health.”

Bon Voyage, Peggy!

2009-05-09T06:34:00.001-07:00

Cinco de Mayo

2009-05-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Main Library is my ticket to extended family!

2009-04-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

The year 2005 was probably the worst year of my life. It started out being exciting with the birth of my new grandson in January and when I went to help out my son’s family I fell and broke my right arm and left knee. My husband had to drive to Miami to retrieve me and it was during my recuperation I noticed how weak he was and could not help me at all. Here is where my library family came to my rescue. Jani French came and bathed me and washed my hair and also cut it even though she was scared to death to do it. My coworkers came all the way to Orange Park to cheer me up and after 2 months I came back to work only to have my husband in bad health. That summer when Main closed for preparation on the “Big Move”, I was allowed to stay at Main so I could visit my husband twice a day at either the hospital or nursing home. His passing in December closed the year. So many of my library extended family came to his service and I never would have gotten my life back together without them. When I retire I will miss the friends I have made here you are definitely my extended family.

2009-04-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

« First Dog/Notes from the studio- “A Portuguese what…?”First Dog/Notes from the studio- “Workin’ like a dog!”

Tim Bowers' secret, super high-tech drying system

Because of the sprint to publication, these paintings were done at super-human speed. Instead of cutting corners on quality, I went into my 24 hours a day, seven days a week schedule (taking food and sometimes sleep breaks). My family is not too excited about the schedule but we make it work. The artwork was created with oil paints on canvas, which typically dry very slowly. I add a drying medium but still, it takes time. To speed up the drying process, I created a secret (until now), super, high-tech drying system to help finish the job. (It’s amazing what you can do with a hair dryer and some masking tape) -T.B.

2009-04-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

2009-04-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

2009-04-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

2009-04-13T02:43:00.000-07:00

2009-04-13T02:40:00.000-07:00

On the Ball

2009-03-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

Fog alert

2009-03-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

Seattle Post-Intelligencer to go Web only

2009-03-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

The iconic globe of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is seen atop the company's waterfront headquarters near the Space Needle, in background. The 146-year-old paper prints its final edition Tuesday.

Move leaves the Seattle Times as the only major daily in the city
AP SEATTLE - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has chronicled the news of the city since logs slid down its steep streets to the harbor and miners caroused in its bars before heading north to Alaska’s gold fields, will print its final edition Tuesday.

Hearst Corp., which owns the 146-year-old P-I, said Monday that it failed to find a buyer for the newspaper, which it put up for a 60-day sale in January after years of losing money. Now the P-I will shift entirely to the Web.

“Tonight will be the final run, so let’s do it right,” publisher Roger Oglesby told the newsroom.
Hearst’s decision to abandon the print product in favor of an Internet-only version is the first for a large American newspaper, raising questions about whether the company can make money in a medium where others have come up short.

David Lonay, 80, a subscriber since 1950, said he’ll miss a morning ritual that can’t be replaced by a Web-only version.

“The first thing I do every day is get the P-I and read it,” Lonay said. “I really feel like an old friend is dying.”

Hearst’s move to end the print edition leaves the P-I’s larger rival, The Seattle Times, as the only mainstream daily in the city.

“It’s a really sad day for Seattle,” said P-I reporter Angela Galloway. “The P-I has its strengths and weaknesses but it always strove for a noble cause, which was to give voice to those without power and scrutiny of those with power.”

Seattle follows Denver in losing a daily newspaper this year. The Rocky Mountain News closed after its owner, E.W. Scripps Co., couldn’t find a buyer. In Arizona, Gannett Co.’s Tucson Citizen is set to close Saturday, leaving one newspaper in that city.

And last month Hearst said it would close or sell the San Francisco Chronicle if the newspaper couldn’t slash expenses in coming weeks.

The newspaper industry has seen ad revenue fall in recent years as advertisers migrate to the Internet, particularly to sites offering free or low-cost alternatives for classified ads. Starting last summer, the recession intensified the decline in advertising revenue in all categories.

Four newspaper companies, including the owners of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer, have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in recent months.

While the P-I’s Web site ensures it a continued presence in the Seattle news market, it will likely be a pared-down version of its former self — with a heavy reliance on blogs and links to other news outlets.

The P-I had 181 employees, but Managing Editor David McCumber said the Web site would employ about 20 in the newsroom operation and another 20 to sell ads. He said he would not be working on the new site.

Steven R. Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers, said the online P-I would not just be “a newspaper online.”

“It’s an effort to craft a new type of digital business with a robust, community news and information Web site at its core,” Swartz said.

Hearst said the online edition will include some of the newspaper’s marquee names, including sports columnist Art Thiel, political columnist Joel Connelly and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist David Horsey. Horsey also is under contract to continue drawing for Hearst’s other newspapers.
In February, the P-I Web site had 1.8 million unique visitors and 50 million page views, according to Nielsen Online. Meanwhile the newspaper’s print circulation was down to 117,000, from nearly 200,000 in 1998, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

It’s unclear how the online-only venture will affect the Times, which is controlled by the Blethen family and has a circulation of 199,000. The Times has had severe financial troubles of its own and has cut 500 positions in the past year.

Since 1983, the P-I and The Times have shared business operations in a joint operating agreement in which The Times handles advertising, printing and other business functions for both newspapers.

The P-I has had a feisty rivalry with The Times, which intensified when the Times shifted from afternoon to morning publication in 2000.

The P-I’s roots date to 1863, when Seattle was still a frontier town and James Watson founded its precursor, the Seattle Gazette, as a four-page weekly.

The newspaper changed hands, names and offices several times — including when the 1889 great Seattle fire destroyed its office — before newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst bought the P-I in 1921 through a representative. Hearst later revealed his ownership of the newspaper in an editorial, according to the P-I archives.

“Every idea, every movement, every debate in Seattle’s civic life was reflected on the front page of the paper,” said Leonard Garfield, executive director of the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle.

Some of the newspaper’s more famous employees over the years included novelist Tom Robbins, columnist Emmett Watson and Frank Herbert, author of the science fiction novel “Dune.”

Former P-I columnist Susan Paynter, who retired in 2007 after 39 years at the newspaper, said the P-I pushed the envelope on stories, running early pieces on abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment

Gold's Gym

2009-03-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

Can Do Team

2009-03-14T04:47:00.001-07:00

It's coming together

2009-03-12T03:19:00.000-07:00

Ahoy!

2009-03-11T20:03:00.001-07:00

TV Guide

2009-03-10T07:49:00.001-07:00

A National Library Week print public service ad featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, the 2009 Honorary Chair, appears in the March 9 edition of 'TV Guide,' circulation 14 million.

To market

2009-03-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

Champions have the right stuff

2009-03-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

Bailey's

2009-03-07T06:01:00.001-08:00

Newspaper Captain

2009-03-06T08:57:00.001-08:00

Spring is in the air!

2009-03-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

The Music Man

2009-03-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

The 3D Team is Diminishing the Digital Divide

2009-02-28T09:02:00.000-08:00

Digital Divide: The Three Stages
Summary:
The economic divide is a non-issue, but the usability and empowerment divides alienate huge population groups who miss out on the Internet's potential.
The "digital divide" refers to the fact that certain parts of the population have substantially better opportunities to benefit from the new economy than other parts of the population. Most commentators view this in purely economic terms. However, two other types of divide will have much greater impact in the years to come.

Stage 1: Economic Divide
In its simplest form, the digital divide is manifested in the fact that some people can't afford to buy a computer. Although politicians always talk about this point, it's growing more irrelevant with each passing day -- at least in the industrialized world. We should recognize that for truly poor developing countries, computers will remain out of the average citizen's reach for 20 years or more.
In areas like North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia's advanced countries, computer cost is no longer an issue. Dell's cheapest computer costs $379 (with a monitor) and is about 500 times as powerful as the Macintosh Plus I used to write my Ph.D. thesis. While it's true that a few people can't even afford $379, in another five years, computers will be one-fourth their current price. Would that all social problems would go away if we simply waited five years.

Stage 2: Usability Divide
Far worse than the economic divide is the fact that technology remains so complicated that many people couldn't use a computer even if they got one for free. Many others can use computers, but don't achieve the modern world's full benefits because most of the available services are too difficult for them to understand.
Almost 40% of the population has lower literacy skills, and yet few websites follow the guidelines for writing for low-literacy users. Even government sites that target poorer citizens are usually written at a level that requires a university degree to comprehend. The British government has done some good work on simplifying much of its direct.gov.uk site information, but even it requires at least a high school education to easily read.

Lower literacy is the Web's biggest accessibility problem, but nobody cares about this massive user group.

Senior citizens face the second-biggest accessibility problem, but again there is little interest in the guidelines for making websites easier for older users. Companies don't even have the excuse that it doesn't pay to cater to this audience, because retirees are rich these days. Even though seniors are the main remaining source of growth in Internet use, companies are still endlessly fascinated by young users and ignore older, richer users who would be much more loyal customers -- if only someone bothered to sell to them.

Whereas the economic divide is closing rapidly, I see little progress on the usability divide. Usability is improving for higher-end users. For this group, websites get easier every year, generating vast profits for site owners. Because they now follow more e-commerce user experience guidelines, companies that sell online typically have conversion rates of around 2%, which is twice the conversion rate of the bubble years. That's all great news for high-end users, but the less-skilled 40% of users have seen little in the way of usability improvement. We know how to help these users -- we're simply not doing it.

Stage 3: Empowerment Divide
We have the knowledge needed to close the usability divide, and I remain hopeful that we'll get the job done. The empowerment divide, however, is the hard one: even if computers and the Internet were extraordinarily easy to use, not everybody would make full use of the opportunities that such technology affords.
Participation inequality is one exponent of the empowerment divide that has held constant throughout all the years of Internet growth: in social networks and community systems, about 90% of users don't contribute, 9% contribute sporadically, and a tiny minority of 1% accounts for most contributions.

In researching how people use search engines for my seminar on fundamental guidelines for Web usability, we've found that many users don't know how to use search to truly master the Web. People don't understand advanced search features, they rarely employ query reformulation, and many uncritically select the first search results. Also, many users don't understand how search engines prioritize their listings, and some users don't even know that the euphemistic label "sponsored links" refers to paid advertisements. (For more info, see Consumer Reports' study of what users know about search ads.)

Because they lack the initiative and skill to take matters into their own hands, some users remain at the mercy of other people's decisions. For example, people sometimes accept the default home page chosen by their computer vendor or ISP rather than select one that's better suited to their needs. Again, this means that the user's attention can be sold off like a sheep to slaughter, as indicated by deals where search engines pay computer vendors millions of dollars to be the default setting on shipping PCs.

Similarly, some users limit themselves to "free" Web applications that display ads. What such users don't realize is that better applications (more appropriate, powerful, and liberating ones) are available at a cost that's far less than the value of the time they waste trying not to look at the ads.

Prospects for Bridge Building
The Internet can be an empowering tool that lets people find good deals, manage vendors, and control their finances and investments. But it can just as easily be an alienating environment where people are cheated. Members of the Internet elite don't realize the extent to which less-skilled users are left out of many of the advancements they cheer and enjoy.
Ultimately, I'm extremely optimistic about the economic divide, which is vanishing rapidly in industrialized countries. The usability divide will take longer to close, but at least we know how to handle it -- it's simply a matter of deciding to do so. I'm very pessimistic about the empowerment divide, however, which I expect will only grow more severe in the future.

Inroads

2009-02-28T07:31:00.002-08:00

Monitoring the Mail

2009-02-28T07:31:00.001-08:00

Rocky Mountain News is today's headline

2009-02-27T15:43:00.001-08:00

It came into being on a dark night two years before the Civil War's first gunshots, survived a flood that washed away its press and countless threats to its very existence, then enjoyed, in the twilight of its life, recognition as one of the best newspapers in the country.

But today marks the final milestone in the storied history of the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado's first newspaper and oldest continually operated business.

This is the last edition of the paper of Damon Runyon and Harry Rhoads, of Mrs. Molly Mayfield and Al Nakkula, of Gene Amole and Dusty Saunders and scores of other characters. The paper whose reporters fancied themselves the "Wildcats of Welton Street" in an earlier era. The paper that shed the bawdy image of the tabloid to win four Pulitzer Prizes since 2000.

In the end, it was the economics - not the history nor the people nor the Pulitzers - that mattered.

The Denver metro area simply could not support two major newspapers in the midst of the current economic recession. That came on top of tectonic shifts sweeping the news business, including, most recently, the phenomenon that has seen the Internet siphon off once-lucrative pieces of the business, such as classified advertising.

The end - anticipated since the E.W. Scripps Co. put the paper up for sale on Dec. 4 - officially came a few minutes after noon Thursday when the Rocky's staff was summoned to the news desk.

Rich Boehne, the president and CEO of Scripps, stepped into the newsroom, and everyone knew.

"Tomorrow will be the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News," Boehne began simply. "It's certainly not good news for any of you, and it's certainly not good news for Denver."

King Cake and second line

2009-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Delta Driving and Riveting Discussion

2009-02-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

While I was driving in the Delta listening to NPR, this item was aired and I tossed it out for the opening 'Bagels with Barbara Spring Series.' It proved to be the most riveting discussion to date.

The timeliness was underscored by the release of LJ's amicus brief.

Then, of course, there was this morning's New York Times news item all about the 'Card Catalog of the Internet'.

Defining Reference work

2009-02-21T06:48:00.000-08:00

Reference and User Services Association (RUSA)

Reference Transactions are information consultations in which library staff recommend, interpret, evaluate, and/or use information resources to help others to meet particular information needs. Reference transactions do not include formal instruction or exchanges that provide assistance with locations, schedules, equipment, supplies, or policy statements.

Reference Work includes reference transactions and other activities that involve the creation, management, and assessment of information or research resources, tools, and services.
(The following bullets clarify what is meant by terms within the Reference Work definition.)
• Creation and management of information resources includes the development and maintenance of research collections, research guides, catalogs, databases, web sites, search engines, etc., that patrons can use independently, in-house or remotely, to satisfy their information needs.
• Assessment activities include the measurement and evaluation of reference work, resources, and services.

The CREW

2009-02-21T06:47:00.000-08:00

The CREW Method: CREW is an acronym for Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding.

The CREW Method considers weeding to be a necessary part in the flow of the collection building process. This process is described as a continuous one going from selection and acquisition, to cataloging and processing, to circulation and reference, to CREW and back to selection in a never ending circle with each stage smoothly succeeding into the next. All stages, including weeding, are "a vital part of good library service" (Segal 1980:3).

CREW identifies six benefits of weeding - save space, save time, make the library more appealing, enhance the reputation of the collection, provide a continuous check, and provide continuous feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the collection. The CREW Method emphasizes that weeding needs to be included in the regular yearly work schedule.

The CREW FormulaThe CREW Method has a weeding formula consisting of three parts: 1) The first figure refers to the years since the book's latest copyright date (age of material in the book); 2) the second figure refers to the maximum permissible time without usage (in terms of years since since its last recorded circulation); 3) the third refers to the presence of various negative factors, called MUSTIE factors (Boon, 1995:31).

MUSTIE is an acronym for the negative factors which help identify materials to be weeded.
M = Misleading (and/or factually inaccurate) U = Ugly (worn and beyond mending or binding) S = Superseded (by a new edition or a better source on the subject) T = Trivial (of no literary or scientific merit) I = Irrelevant (to the needs of the community) E = Elsewhere (found elsewhere in the library or available through interlibrary loan)

President's Day

2009-02-16T05:31:00.000-08:00

Newsroom of the Digital Planet Team

2009-02-11T03:29:00.000-08:00

LOVE'S FRANGRANCE
Love is like a fragrant Rose
Whatever shape or form
As solid as the first new bud
In the light of perfect dawn
And when the morning takes its flight
As noontime sets the stage
This Rose unfolds its petals
On Nature's scenic page
Then as the twilight lengthens
And darkness settles in
Its fragrance lingers in the air
To cheer our heart again.
... Jackie Hand

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
...Emily Dickinson

Newspaper Captain

2009-02-08T17:25:00.001-08:00

Groundhog Day

2009-02-02T15:11:00.000-08:00

It's not about the shadow--it's all about the "Phil".

The Case of the missing glove

2009-02-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Newtoview Team

2009-02-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

ILLs

2009-02-01T20:18:00.000-08:00

On the Map

2009-02-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

Denver Public Library

2009-01-28T20:46:00.000-08:00

Bookstore

2009-01-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

Mid-Winter

2009-01-28T20:39:00.000-08:00

Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T04:11:00.001-08:00

Family

2009-01-17T07:30:00.001-08:00

Counting Opinions

2009-01-14T04:11:00.001-08:00

On the Move

2009-01-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

Newspaper Captain

2009-01-13T18:05:00.001-08:00

Bundling up

On Vacation

2009-01-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

In Sports

2009-01-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

All the News that 'Fit to Print'

2009-01-01T20:41:00.001-08:00

Working well

2008-12-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

Total Cholesterol: 195 (Desirable less than 200 mg/dl)
LDL Cholesterol (BAD): 74 (Desirable less than 100 mg/dl)
HDL Cholestererol (GOOD): 95 (Ideal greater than 60)
Triglycerides: 130 (Ideal less than 150)
Ratio Total/HDL Ratio: 2.6 (Ideal less than 4.0)
Glucose (blood sugar): 98 (Ideal less than 100)
Blood pressure: 92/64 (Ideal less than 120/less than 80)

The City of Jacksonville's Vision is: To make Jacksonville's local government the most responsive and effective city government in America, and Jacksonville the best place in the nation to live, work and raise a Family.

The Jacksonville Public Library vision is: Start Here. Go Anywhere.

Rocking around the Christmas tree

2008-12-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

World AIDS Day

2008-12-04T05:43:00.001-08:00

Let it Snow

2008-12-04T05:39:00.000-08:00

Collection Management

2008-12-03T03:29:00.000-08:00

Processing public documents...

Microfilm and media...

Coordinating marketing...

Newsroom of the Daily Planet

2008-11-25T21:47:00.001-08:00

Sorting the bi-monthlies

Seeking yesterday's tabloid

Searching for ILLs

Sifting through Looseleafs

BiblioTrekking

2008-11-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

Periodicals Rotunda Reading Room: Denver Public Library

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96049292

http://www.youseemore.com/ewc/default.asp

http://www.ju.edu/library/

http://www.fccj.org/library/

http://www.unf.edu/library/

We search outside the formal boundaries of our organization for innovative ways to improve what we do.

NetLibrary eBook

2008-11-24T12:29:00.000-08:00

eBooks are here to stay. Here are some of our current interests...

Cubes

2008-11-21T19:32:00.001-08:00

We experiment and take risks, even when there is a chance of failure.

Project Comet

2008-11-15T15:08:00.001-08:00

National Gaming Day @ your library

2008-11-15T00:38:00.000-08:00

On November 15,libraries across the country participate in the largest, simultaneous national video game tournament ever held! Competitors at other libraries see their scores in real-time online while playing at their local library. This blog was born on 11/15/08