I really thought Top Kill was going to work.  I mean they named the thing ‘Top Kill’ which is basically like a double-dare.  C’mon Nature, give me all ya got.

Let’s just get to it shall we, the news is a bummer these days.

Resident Omeka advocate and all around nice guy Scott Voth @scottvoth lead the pack early this week with a post on Scriblio, an awesome way for libraries to manage title content and (hopefully) integrate open source approaches into how students and faculty navigate their collections.  I’d have to see Scriblio in action but if the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation likes it it must be good, just check out that serious portrait on their homepage and the green lamps in the library shot – they know what they’re doing.

The librarians escaped this week!

Linda Wadas @lindawadas posted what might be the best thing ever blogged on the Commons (hint: it’s the video).  I have to say, I couldn’t agree more too.  Everything in a book is important; the typography, the binding, the weight…Kindle is great when you don’t want everyone on the train to know you’re reading Danielle Steele, but who wants to read Bonhoeffer as an e-book?  You want that thing on the bookshelf like a trophy when you’re done with it. You earned it.

Maura Smale @msmale  let us know that this is not  a library skills course.  Hardly.  It sounds like an awesome course and I wish it had been around when I was an undergrad.  It’s also great post in part because she used the word ‘hackneyed’ which we really don’t use enough.  Show me another word with a ‘n’ just arbitrarily stuck in the middle of it that pretty much demands you treat it like a long vowel or else…

Clay Williams @claiborne – Where’s your blog?!

What else, what else, what else?

I play this game every week where I try to guess which Times article Anthony Picciano @apicciano is going to find interesting.  My money was on the piece about the absolutely staggering amounts of debt students were leaving college with but, alas, I was wrong.  Turns out Tony’s Thoughts had a great survey about faculty and social networking that’s definitely worth a look.  There seems to be a disparity of social media users when the humanities are measured against, say, mathematicians for example.  I started to look around the Commons and, while that might be true generally, we still have own resident math folks hanging out here. (Welcome Back Tony!)

So…some co-workers of mine are in this group.  It’s called CUNY Pie.  I kinda thought I had an idea of what it was.  Like, here’s some people from CUNY who like pizza and try out various pizza joints around the city, you know, normal stuff.

That would be how we learn about the pitfalls of assumptions.

Turns out CUNY Pie is something else entirely.  Allow me to quote:

“The crust had the familiar rolling docker pock-marks on the bottom, and was, like many whole pies bought from slice joints apparently used to reheating slices, pulled from the oven about 90 seconds before it should have been. The dough could have used more salt, but the cornicione, especially on the more done sides of the pizzas, had a pleasant chewiness.”

That is not the roughshod work of some rag tag group of CUNYites looking for an excuse to eat pizza and grab a beer.  No no, that is the loving and tender review of someone who has trained and dedicated their palette to seeking the best of the best of New York’s most famous food from the simulacra of Italy.  So have you tried the new Domino’s yet?  It’s rad.

To wrap up the week Michael Oman-Reagan diligently pointed out that May 25 was ‘Towel Day’.  I know the movie kind of suck, and you probably haven’t read the books in years, but damn if Douglas Adams wasn’t one of the greats.  Is it the best writing in English? No.  The best novel (or franchise for that matter)? Hardly.  But you can’t read his work and not want to have at least grabbed a slice with him.

Till next Monday.

UPDATE!

I egregiously left out Joseph Ugoretz @jugoretz and Prestidigitation out of the week.  Well…left out is a little disingenuous.  I opened the blog and the first thing I saw was ‘One Thing I Never Learned in School Was How to Come Up With a Proper Title’ and I took it as a dig.  That oil spill does keep on keepin’ on.  The post is great though, and considering what we’re doing here on the Commons with new media it’s a must read for everyone experimenting with online or blended courses.  I’d be curious to hear more about the experiences Joseph had with his course compared to Adam Wandt  @awandt who we know has been using Elluminate for his online coursework.   There’s a little bit in there about the merits of WordPress over Blackboard but I’m gonna leave that alone, I don’t want a horse head in my bed when I get up tomorrow.

Happy Holiday!  Thanks Veterans!