Organize Your E-Book Library With Free Management Software Calibre

The ebook world is a mess right now. The many different formats, the numerous ereaders, the inclusion of "free" e-books in library databases....all have conspired to create a morass through which it is not easy to navigate. Temporary rescue comes in the form of the free ebook library management system Calibre. This software will help you organize, catalog and retrieve your numerous electronic documents, including newspapers, journals and books.

Read more about this software on the PCWorld blog here.

Caution: Robots Crossing

Is it just me or has the subject of artificial intelligence been coming up a lot lately? It's such a fascinating subject and has intrigued both scientists and humanists since the infancy of digital technology - maybe even before. And at this point it's not just science fiction anymore: artificial intelligence is as real as "auto-correct" on your cell phone and IBM's Watson's appearance on Jeopardy.


Consider these recent articles:

"The AI Revolution is On," Wired, January 2011

"Mind vs. Machine," The Atlantic, March 2011

"Is it Time to Welcome Our New Computer Overlords?," The Atlantic (online), February 17, 2011

"The Chess Master and the Computer," by Gary Kasparov, New York Review of Books, February 2010

"After Winning Jeopardy, What's Next for IBM's Watson? Healthcare," ReadWriteWeb (online), February 17, 2011

Urban Knitting Shows up on the Wofford Campus

From the deputydog blog, a definition of urban knitting: the world's most inoffensive graffiti.

From the CROOKED BRAINS blog: Urban knitting is decorating the city and its monuments in an original way...

Right about the time Interim ended, the Wofford mascot found himself clothed in the warmest and most beautiful hand-knitted scarf. There are rumors about where this beautiful artifact came from, but nothing I can report. I think it's the first instance of urban knitting to appear on the campus since its inception.

Enjoy.

World Politics Review Trial

The library has trial access to World Politics Review through April 10, 2011.  Here is a brief description of this resource from the publisher:

World Politics Review is an online publication and resource for foreign policy professionals working primarily within government, military, academia, intelligence and diplomacy, as well as academic researchers with a serious interest in international relations, foreign affairs, world politics and geostrategy. Updated daily, this resource publishes international affairs analysis that provides in-depth background material on global issues that are not deeply covered by mainstream media sources.

World Politics Review covers topics of key relevance to foreign policy, international politics, and foreign affairs. These include the following:

* Aid and Development
* Crime
* Culture
* Defense and Military
* Domestic Politics
* Economics and Business
* Homeland Security
* Human Rights
* International Law
* Political Theory
* Public Diplomacy and Propaganda
* Terrorism
* U.S. Foreign Policy
* War and Conflict
* Weapons of Mass Destruction
* And many more...

Try World Politics Review now

HyperCities Egypt - Voices from Cairo through Social Media

This is a pretty darn cool digital humanities project out of UCLA:

"HyperCities Egypt" streams and then archives tweets from protesters in Cairo who are taking part in the pro-democracy push that has captured the world's imagination since Jan. 25.

"You just let the program run, and you almost feel like you're there," explained Yoh Kawano, a member of the UCLA Center for Digital Humanities program, who built the program's interface. "It collects tweets live from Cairo and displays them in real time on a map."

Subtitled "Voices from Cairo through Social Media," the program displays a new tweet every four seconds over a digital map of Egypt's capital. Because it gathers tweets from those who have enabled Twitter's "add location" function, the program also maps the precise location in Cairo from which they were sent. And the Twitter users' avatars — often photos of the protesters themselves — accompany the poignant messages, providing a moving immediacy to the experience.

(Via Resource Shelf.)

Facebook Privacy: 10 Settings Every User Needs to Know

Mashable! the technology blog posted a reminder about the 10 privacy settings every Facebook user should know and understand. The short list is:

1) Sharing on Facebook
2) Existing Photos
3) Checking into Places
4) Connecting on Facebook
5) Apps You Use
6) Instant Personalization
7) Info Accessible to your Friends
8) Public Search
9) Friends Lists
10) Enabling HTTPS

Protect yourself by making informed choices about the information you share. Follow the link to the full article: Facebook Privacy

from Mashable!

Crawford Exhibition in the Mary Chapman Gallery, Campus Life Building at Wofford College

Craig Crawford of Lexington County, SC holds the BFA from the University of South Carolina and for the past ten years has been president of Crawford Conservation, active as a painting conservator, and lecturer on art preservation. He has exhibited his own paintings widely, primarily in the Charleston area. His work is representational, yet he creates atmospheric spaces that suggest mystery in the commonplace.

The exhibition runs from January 25th through March 25th in the Martha Chapman Gallery . For more information, call 864.597.4300.

Gmail Priority Inbox

Do you get lots of email? Gmail has introduced this new "priority inbox" feature that you can train to sort the important from the less important. I've been using it for a couple weeks and am finding it really useful.

(And don't worry, if you'd rather use the standard inbox, you still can even after activating the priority feature.)

Google's Art Project

Last week, Google announced its new Art Project, which allows online visitors to tour the galleries and collections of 17 major art museums from around the world.  Here's a description of the project from the Official Google Blog:

"You’ll find a selection of super high-resolution images of famous works of art as well as more than a thousand other images, by more than 400 artists—all in one place. And with Street View technology, you can take a virtual tour inside 17 of the world’s most acclaimed art museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA in New York, The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Tate Britain & The National Gallery in London, Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam."

Visit Google's Art Project

Library Schedule for the End of Interim

Wednesday is the last day of Interim and the Library will be operating on a reduced schedule until the Spring Semester begins on Monday, February 7.  Here are our hours for the next several days:

Wednesday, Feb 2:  8am - 5pm
Thursday, Feb 3:  8:30am - 5pm
Friday, Feb 4:  8:30am - 5pm
Saturday, Feb 5:  Closed
Sunday, Feb 6:  Closed
Monday, Feb 7:  Resume regular hours