Rein Application for Expansion 

What you can do: Contact commissioners urging them to call for EIS.

Fillmore Commissioners are voting Apr 2, 9:00a, whether or not to approve the Rein permit.

Background info: Public comment period expired, and the comments have been reviewed. Important concerns were raised in the public comments, especially from the MPCA and other state agencies, that

the EAW shows the "potential for significant environmental effects."

The written response to the comments indicates that we still don't have enough information about the potential environmental effects.



At the meeting, if they do find the potential exists, they have to call for a full EAW.

If they do not, they can issue a permit for the expansion at that meeting.


We stiill have time to contact our commissioners about the inadequate response to those comments and the need for EIS. Ensure that you make it clear that this is not a comment on the EAW, but on their responsibility to call for an EIS.



How to contact the commissioners
link to site

Talking points



There is a potential for significant environmental

The written response to the comments indicates that we still don't have enough information about the potential environmental effects.

MPCA commented: do an EIS.

An EIS is required, not only to fill in the blanks of basic information, but in addition, to address the project's environmental impacts and provide a comparative analysis of its economic and sociological effects.  We need an EIS that considers reasonable alternatives, including the "no-build" alternative.  We need information on future stages of the proposed mine to examine cumulative impacts.  Only then will Fillmore County officials be able to make a wise decision on a conditional use permit.

 

  The cumulative effects of the Rein mine expansion, along with the other silica sand projects known or discussed in our area have potential for significant environmental impacts.  An EIS is needed to study them thoroughly.

 

Comments are here  and here

IT'S TIME TO BEGIN

Sometimes, not beginning is the greatest form of self-abuse. - John O'Donohue

Summer Reading Program Kickoff June 6

One down; three more Mondays to go.

It's Summer Reading Program time again

I've been given the dubious honor of being point person for the SRP.
Never done it before.
Hmmm.

emmm, where are you?

Looks like I've been wasting blog space. All this time, I could have been expounding on all sorts of things I don't know anything about!

Gosh, how the world has been deprived, and I'm sure they'll be so disappointed... as soon as they notice.

Watching the Moon

Watching the moon

at midnight

solitary, mid-sky

I knew myself completely,

no part left out.



-- Izumi Shikibu, translation by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani

about blogging

http://morethingsonastick.pbworks.com/The-25-Basic-Styles-of-Blogging


http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/04/09/twenty-usability-tips-for-your-blog-%E2%80%94-condensed-from-dozens-of-bloggers-experiences/


http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=97416

favicons
http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/04/favicons-made-easy.html

SnapShots
http://www.snap.com/snapshots.php

Teen Scene site

http://www.skokielibrary.info/s_teens/index.asp

literacy and reading go hand in hand

more Wiki notes

Useful questions in evaluating the Wiki for you:
How many users are you anticipating? 5-6
What OperatingSystem(s) would you like it to run on?
Will it be a project wiki or for fun? both, hopefully
What features do you want? want to avoid? need ability to have video
Is there already a wiki serving your topic? (see PublicWikiSites) NO
. Create simple Web pages that family, friends can edit together
· Post homeworks, assignments, project works and study materials from anywhere / anytime
· Maintain online schedules and calendar for students to track project / assignment deadlines
· Host pictures, slide shows, photo galleries, video clips of school or classroom events
· Encourage parents' participation in activities of classroom and keep updated on events of classroom
· Showcase the positive happenings in a classroom or school in your website


An Access Control List features gives you fine-grained permissioning control. You can set up lists of users (perhaps in groups or roles) who are allowed to access to certain parts of your wiki, for operations such as viewing, editing, creating new pages, etc.

Note on handling wiki vandals
There are some kinds of vandals who are new to the wiki concept, and are responding by seeing if they can get away with adding obscenities. This is a natural reaction to wiki technology (by people who are perhaps a little childish) In these cases it's a good idea to just revert their edits manually, and try to rehabilitate them. The hope is that they will quickly realise the technology is robust to that kind of thing, and that it's more fun to make good contributions.

Evaluating Wikis for Project

Netcipia – support: participation.netcipia.net; ; preview; Email notification; Rev diffs; Conflict Resolution; Internal Comments; Section Editing; Blog

Springnote – no ads; Support/tutor: http://www.springnote.com/en/tour/create; Change summary; preview; Email notification; Rev diffs; Section Editing; NO Themes & Skins; Forum; Blog ; 2G; Wiki download

Wetpaint – host blocking; Support: http://www.wetpaintcentral.com/; Change summary; Preview; Email notification; comment-threaded; Rev diffs; Conflict Resolution; Page Redirects; Page Templates; Forum ; Backup to html

Wikispaces – Support: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour#introduction; Change summary ; Preview; Email notification; Comment –discustion; Rev diffs; Conflict Resolution; Page Redirects; Section Editing; Page Templates; Forum

Zoho Wiki – No ads, Can blacklist; Mailing list: wiki.zoho.com; Support: forums.zohowiki.com; Email notification; Rev diffs; Page Templates ; 50Mb; backup your entire site as a zip file and save in your local drive for your personal use.

From http://www.wikimatrix.org/compare/%40Wiki%2BBrainKeeper%2BBusinessWiki%2BCentralDesktop%2BClearWiki%2BConfluence%2BCospire%2BEditMe%2BGeniusWiki%2BGroupswiki%2BLuminotes%2BMindTouch%2BNetcipia%2Bnexdo%2BPBwiki%2BSamePage%2BSpringnote%2BSwirrl%2BWagn%2BWetpaint%2BWikispaces%2BZoho-Wiki

Google's driving me crazy

It's true, my favorite Web entity is going to send me to the crazy farm (where they grow crazy stuff, I guess). I try to sign in to my blog and it tells me I'm doing it wrong. I clear cache. I restart Camino. I try again and get to my Dashboard, further than before. I "View Blog," and have to sign in again, at which point we start the cycle again. And ain't it fun.

NOTES FOR WIKI

From neatoday magazine: "Turning the Page ," byTim Walker

...used Ning.com to create a class-only, social media group called Verona Lifestyles (studying Romeo and Juliet)

"It's about initiating higher levels of engagement," says Seale, "and making the learning more self-directed and self-motivated." "Let's face it," she says, "being literate today means more than reading words on a printed page and writing an essay."

...being literate also means using critical thinking skills to analyze, critique and evaluate information - essential skills in an information-abundant society.
Central to this new literacy landscape is a highly participatory culture. "The ability to learn from and collaborate with others around the world," Fisch says, "is an amazing development."

Helping teachers adapt to a more interconnected world is one of the goals of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a national group of education, business, and not-for-profit leaders that promotes integrating content mastery with critical thinking and advancing classroom use of technology.

...help students develop critical thinking skills in order to find credible information...

It's part of digital literacy, which Wikipedia defines as "the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and create information using digital technology."

When beginning research projects, they provide a list of ten Web sites they want to use for information, ...teachers help students evaluate their sources.

...look for an author, recent dates, and extensions like .edu, .gov, or .org.

...encourages students to think about why it's meaningful [to the world]. It's not enough to know facts...students need to be problem solvers.

"Ultimately, we have a responsibility to teach our students how to communicate well, to prepare them of the future."

Instead, her students take "To Kill A Mockingbird" to the blogosphere and discuss the novel with a ninth-grade English class in IL, led by a teacher Seale met via Twitter. She also plans to have her students use Flip video cameras to record each other actions out different parts of the novel as they explore character motivation and perspective.

More and more educators, however, are discovering that is precisely digital media's limitless possibilities for collaboration, sharing, and communication that can captivate students. Thanks to user-friendly,
Web-based publication technologies, young people may be writing more than ever, for friends, family, and peers across the US and even around the world.

...creating for and sharing with someone other than the teacher.

...harness their students' enthusiasm and help them develop their raw skills.
"Kids have the passion, the technical know-how. and the creativity," says Hogue, "bur they need educators to teach them how to use digital media constructively and responsibly."

[Bill Blass says] "Most kids live in the digital world, but beyond the actual tools involved, their knowledge of how to make it work for them in the long run is pretty superficial. I know I can make these technologies help them communicate better and prepare them for life after school. That's the power of the teacher."

Tools for libraries

nifty site for my final proj:

http://www.ebscohost.com/flashPromo/librarian_page.html

LIBRARY CALCULATOR

This worksheet has been adapted from the downloadable spreadsheet provided by the Massachusetts Library Association.

LIBRARY CALCULATOR

new word

po·lem·ic
n.
1. A controversial argument, especially one refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine.
2. A person engaged in or inclined to controversy, argument, or refutation.

adj. also po·lem·i·cal (--kl)
Of or relating to a controversy, argument, or refutation.

Adj.
polemical - of or involving dispute or controversy

Es el otono

Autumn. A pretty looking word. Not a particularly pretty sounding, but the eye likes it. Maybe it's the roundedness. Ah well, it's a whole heck of a lot better than Fall, which is a description of a negative occurence.

I love Summer

Me encanta el verano! Hay colores.

this is so fun... (I recommend reading the whole article)

http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/580000658/post/1790042979.html?nid=4697
April 6, 2009

from Annoyed Librarian
The LIBRARY (why don't we just capitalize the whole darn word because it's so important!) has roles. One of my favorites is: "Inspires and perpetuates hope." How exactly the LIBRARY is supposed to do this, I have no idea, but it sure does sound good.

... For example, if I'm a librarian, I "must" "Promote openness, kindness, and transparency among libraries and users." What does this mean, though? How am I supposed to promote kindness among libraries, for example? Does that even make sense? Or among users? Should I wander the library stacks and upbraid any users who aren't being kind to each other? Maybe to promote kindness among users, I could put some smiley face stickers everywhere. After all, no one can be unkind if they have a smiley face sticker attached to their forehead.

What about this one: "Be willing and have the expertise to make frequent radical changes." Let's examine this sentence. "Radical" means going to the root, the most basic and foundational thing. "Frequent" means, well...frequent. Can anyone really make frequent, radical changes? ...This would mean having a willingness to change absolutely everything we do possibly every day. In real life, this would basically mean chaos. Every day we could all show up at the LIBRARY and change all of our procedures. Wouldn't that be fun! You might think I'm willfully misreading this statement, but consider it in the context of another statement: "librarians must commit to a culture of continuous operational change." What else can this mean but that we show up every day and start doing things differently?
... Those phrases are just meaningless gibberish, which only serve to make ridiculous whatever value there might be in the grand and possibly even inspiring statement that the purpose of the LIBRARY is to "preserve the integrity of civilization." Nobody ever preserved the integrity of civilization by making "frequent radical changes." Ever.

We're also told that we have to "accept risk and uncertainty as key properties of the profession." Huh. How effective will we librarians be if two of our key properties are risk and uncertainty? This sounds as ridiculous as "frequent radical change." How about we show up and face the risk and uncertainty that we'll be fired? Oh, and next day we'll be rehired. Then fired again. Then rehired. Then required to mop out the restrooms. Then required to sit quietly underneath the reference desk and eat Oreos. That all seems risky and uncertain in a frequently radical way. "Oh no," you say (and you are such a devil's advocate today!), "it can't mean that!" Well, I hate to break it to you, but it can. Because if one really has to make "continuous operational change" in a situation of risk and uncertainty, then there are no limits. Try everything!
...That's not a job; that's just hell.

#amazonfail -- @ YALSA blog

Twitter FTW

mk Eagle | Technology | Sunday, April 12th, 2009closeAuthor: mk Eagle Name: mk Eagle
Email: eagle.mk@gmail.com
Site: http://pandanose.wordpress.com
About: Although I currently work in Special Collections at the Harvard Law School Library, after graduating from Simmons in January (knock wood) I'll be seeking gainful employment working with teens. Occasional access to natural light would also be nice. I'm currently a member of the YALSA TV Task Force and hope to serve on a process committee. In my copious free time I feed my Netflix addiction, blog at Little Lambs Eat Ivy, and read. A lot.See Authors Posts (21)
http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2009/04/12/twitter-ftw/

By now, many of you have probably already heard the story the Twitterverse has dubbed #amazonfail - the revelation that Amazon.com has stripped sales rankings and searchability from titles it deems “adult.” Consider it the safesearch of the online shopping world. This might be a mere annoyance–most of us prefer to determine for ourselves the parameters of our searches–but many authors and bloggers contend that the stripped titles are overwhelmingly those that cover sexuality, feminism, and LGBTQ themes, with or without content that could be considered “explicit.”

[You can read more about the stripped titles, and why we should even care about rankings and searchability, all over the internets--but you might want to start with Mark R. Probst, Meta Writer, and Jezebel. Oh, and you can watch #amazonfail unfold by following that hashtag in action--if you hop on over to Twitter Search, you'll see that #amazonfail and #amazon are among the top trends at the moment.]

There are very real consequences here for us as young adult librarians–many of the titles being deemed “adult” are actually YA or children’s titles, like Rainbow Boys and Heather Has Two Mommies–but that’s not actually what I want to discuss now.

Anyone with a vested interest in social movements must be using Twitter.

Must. Not should, not could–must.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen stories and movements gain massive momentum by using Twitter. Marriage equality in Iowa and Vermont? Found out via Twitter. Earthquake in Italy? Tweeted. Warnings about viruses and scammers? All over Twitter.

While I’ve been writing this, I have tabs open for #amazonfail and #amazon, and just in the past few minutes over 200 updates have been added for each. Can you imagine if we tapped that same momentum for libraries?

I don’t want this to be another idealistic, vague post, so here are some concrete suggestions:

1. Join Twitter. This one’s sort of a no-brainer for me, but I know plenty of people still don’t see the value. Start out small. Join and just follow me, if you’d like, though I have to warn you I tweet a lot, and sometimes about my cats. (I’m mkeagle on Twitter.)

2. Retweet. See something you like? Pass it on. Make sure you make note of where you saw it–I prefer using my own words and “via @username,” but some folks just copy and paste with RT at the beginning.

3. Use hashtags. I usually don’t know a tag’s even in use until I see someone using it. If you’re going to tweet (or retweet) on the same topic, grab that hashtag. Or you can make your own–that’s what many of us at Women, Action & the Media (WAM!) did two weeks ago, using the general #wam09 tag as well as more specific tags for individual sessions. Hashtagging means you can quickly see the big picture. (If your updates are protected, however, even hashtagged tweets won’t show up in Twitter Search. But your followers will still see the tags.)

4. Cross platform lines. When I put up a new blog post, I immediately tweet it. Many Twitter users send their updates to Facebook. Major media outlets are starting to include tweets in their coverage–which makes sense, since stories are beginning to break through Twitter. You exponentially increase visibility for a cause when you start sharing it over multiple platforms.

5. Tweet about what’s important to you. Movements like #amazonfail pick up momentum because people care. It’s thrilling that so many folks out there are passionate about books and equal access, but I’d be even more thrilled if we could channel that passion into even more causes that need our help. I’m talking about library funding, education, youth advocacy.

Will you be part of the next big Twitter trend?

Unfortunately, only the abstract is free for this:
New Concepts in Digital Reference
Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services
2009, R. David Lankes‌
School of Information Studies, Syracuse University

Abstract
Let us start with a simple scenario: a man asks a woman "how high is Mount Everest?" The woman replies "29,029 feet." Nothing could be simpler. Now let us suppose that rather than standing in a room, or sitting on a bus, the man is at his desk and the woman is 300 miles away with the conversation taking place using e-mail. Still simple? Certainly--it happens every day. So why all the bother about digital (virtual, electronic, chat, etc.) reference?
If the man is a pilot flying over Mount Everest, the answer matters. If you are a lawyer going to court, the identity of the woman is very important. Also, if you ever want to find the answer again, how that transaction took place matters a lot.

Digital reference is a deceptively simple concept on its face: "the incorporation of human expertise into the information system." This lecture seeks to explore the question of how human expertise is incorporated into a variety of information systems, from libraries, to digital libraries, to information retrieval engines, to knowledge bases. What we learn through this endeavor, begun primarily in the library context, is that the models, methods, standards, and experiments in digital reference have wide applicability. We also catch a glimpse of an unfolding future in which ubiquitous computing makes the identification, interaction, and capture of expertise increasingly important. It is a future that is much more complex than we had anticipated. It is a future in which documents and artifacts are less important than the contexts of their creation and use.

http://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/abs/10.2200/S00166ED1V01Y200812ICR001