This came from the ACPL’s Innovation Through Technology Blog.

ACPL Youth Services Tag Cloud from Kaygraphic on Vimeo.

Check it out!

~Susan Mellott

Share This

The VA Officer recommended that I not send in the original since it could get lost and we would be really out of luck.  Instead, I went to the City-County Building (our government offices) and went to the Recorders office and they recorded dad’s DD214 and gave me 2 certified copies for free.

They will be sending me the information for dad’s DD214 being recorded and as I understand, now that it is recorded, if I lose the original I can get a certified copy from the recorders office.

I did not even know about this.  But now that I do, I would definitely recommend that any veteran take their DD214 to their local recorders office and have it recorded.  As I have written about previously, your DD214 is gold and you DO NOT want to lose it!  To see my first post on this, click on “veterans” in the categories list, either at the top of this post, or in the categories list on the right.

There are many benefits that a veteran can get, but they all depend on having the DD214 to prove that you were in the service.

So while you still have it, go get it recorded!

Share This

~Susan Mellott

Vol.12 in this issue .01>> from the smart USA team .02>> smart USA dealer network

12.01>> from the smart USA team

Dear smart Enthusiast, What a way to start the New Year! We are thrilled to announce that the smart fortwo has finally arrived in the United States. The first shipment of cars are here and ready to be delivered to smart dealers. We are also pleased to announce our dealership network which will consist of 74 smart dealerships. By the end of January, 68 of the 74 dealers will be open and operational, subject to licensing and other required approvals. The remaining six smart dealers should be open by June 1st. Thank you to everyone who participated in our online surveys. We are pleased to announce that we have a great amount of interest in smart merchandise and you will soon be able to purchase this merchandise at your dealership and through our e-store. We also had a large number of votes for the naming of our enthusiast site. We are sorting through the most popular names nominated and will let you know the winner shortly. More information about the new enthusiast site will be available in next month’s newsletter. As always, for the latest information about smart please visit our website at www.smartusa.com. We appreciate your commitment and enthusiasm to the smart brand and we are excited to begin changing the landscape of the highways of America. Best regards, Dave Schembri President, smart USA

12.02>> smart USA dealer network

smart USA is pleased to announce its dealership network of 74 smart dealerships across the United States. smart USA dealerships will be branded as “smart center” with the city name (for example – the dealership in Beverly Hills, California will be called - smart center Beverly Hills). Each smart center will have a distinctive smart look, various display and demonstration cars, and a tridion safety cell. For the true smart enthusiasts, vehicle accessories and personal merchandise will also be available for purchase. A list of our dealerships, along with contact information, can be found on our website at www.smartusa.com. This list will be updated as dealerships open across the country. Please contact the dealership nearest you for additional information, including exact opening dates. Official smart USA Dealers State Dealership Name and City Location Market Arizona smart center Chandler Approx. opening date mid-January 7450 West Orchid Lane Chandler , AZ 85226 Phoenix California smart center Beverly Hills Approx. opening date mid-January 9250 Beverly Blvd. Beverly Hills , CA 90210 Los Angeles   smart center Santa Barbara Approx. opening date mid-January 401 S. Hope Ave Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Los Angeles   smart center Laguna Niguel Approx. opening date mid-January One Star Drive Laguna Niguel , CA 92677 Los Angeles   smart center West Covina Approx. opening date mid-January 2010 East Garvey Avenue South West Covina , CA 91791 Los Angeles   smart center Riverside Approx. opening date mid-January 8505 Indiana Avenue Riverside, CA 92504 Los Angeles   smart center Universal City Approx. opening date mid-January 4227 Lankershim Boulevard North Hollywood , CA 91603 Los Angeles   smart center Sacramento Approx. opening date mid-January 2625 Arden Way Sacramento , CA 95825 Sacramento   smart center San Francisco Approx. opening date mid-January 500 8 th Street San Francisco , CA 94103 San Francisco   smart center San Jose Approx. opening date mid-January 3940 Stevens Creek Boulevard San Jose , CA 95129 San Jose   smart center San Diego Approx. opening date mid-January 4750 Kearny Mesa Road San Diego , CA 92111 San Diego Colorado smart center Denver Approx. opening date in February 2855 S. Broadway Englewood , CO 80113 Denver Connecticut smart center Hartford Approx. opening date mid-January 650 Connecticut Blvd. East Hartford , CT 06108 Hartford   smart center Fairfield Approx. opening date mid-January 80 Commerce Drive Fairfield , CT 06825 Fairfield Florida smart center Jacksonville Approx. opening date mid-January 7018 Blanding Blvd. Jacksonville , FL 32244 Jacksonville   smart center Sarasota Approx. opening date mid-January 4821 Clark Road Sarasota , FL 34233 Sarasota/Ft. Myers   smart center Weston Approx. opening date mid-January 3500 Weston Road Davie , FL 33331 South Florida   smart center Palm Beach Approx. opening date mid-January 3974 Okeechobee Blvd. West Palm Beach , FL 33409 South Florida   smart center Coral Gables Approx. opening date in February 272 Valencia Ave. Coral Gables , FL 33134 South Florida   smart center Tampa Bay Approx. opening date in February 3800 W Hillsborough Ave. Tampa , FL 33614 Tampa/Clearwater   smart center Clearwater Approx. opening date in February 19820 US 19 North Clearwater , FL 33764 Tampa/Clearwater   smart center Orlando Approx. opening date mid-January 8675 Commodity Circle Orlando , FL 32819 Orlando Georgia smart center Buckhead Approx. opening date February 2799 Piedmont Road Atlanta , GA 30305 Atlanta Illinois smart center Lake Bluff Approx. opening date mid-January 775 Rockland Road Lake Bluff , IL 60044 Chicago   smart center Lincolnwood Approx. opening date mid-January 4255 West Touhy Avenue Lincolnwood , IL 60712 Chicago Indiana smart center Indianapolis Approx. opening date mid-January 4000 East 96 th Street Indianapolis , IN 46240 Indianapolis Kansas smart center Merriam Approx. opening date mid-January 9400 West 65 th Street Merriam, KS 66203 Kansas City Kentucky smart center Louisville Approx. opening date mid-January 2400 Blankenbaker Parkway Louisville , KY 40299 Louisville Maryland smart center Germantown Approx. opening date mid-January 19750 Germantown Road Germantown , MD 20874 Washington , D.C.   smart center Annapolis Approx. opening date mid-January 324 Sixth Street Annapolis , MD 21403 Baltimore Massachusetts smart center Boston Approx. opening date mid-January 259 McGrath Highway Somerville , MA 02145 Boston   smart center Lynnfield Approx. opening date mid-January 385 Broadway Lynnfield , MA 01940 Boston Michigan smart center Bloomfield Approx. opening date mid-January 1765 S. Telegraph Bloomfield Hills , MI 48302 Detroit Minnesota smart center Bloomington Approx. opening date mid-January 8033 Knox Avenue Bloomington , MN 55431 Minneapolis/St. Paul Missouri smart center Creve Coeur Approx. opening date mid-January 11830 Olive St. Rd. Creve Coeur , MO 63141 St. Louis Nebraska smart center La Vista Approx. opening date mid-January 7010 S. 124th Circle LaVista, NE 68128 Omaha New Jersey smart center Englewood Approx. opening date mid-January 24 Grand Avenue Englewood , NJ 07631 New York City   smart center Edison Approx. opening date mid-January 910 U.S. Route One Edison , NJ 08817 New York City   smart center Cherry Hill Approx. opening date mid-January 2151 Rte 70 West Cherry Hill , NJ 08002 Philadelphia New Mexico smart center Albuquerque Approx. opening date mid-January 1220 Renaissance NE Albuquerque, NM 87107 Albuquerque New York smart center Latham Approx. opening date mid-January 1111 Troy-Schenectady Road Latham , NY 12110 Albany/Schenectady   smart center Buffalo Approx. opening date mid-January 8185 Main Street Williamsville , NY 14221 Buffalo   smart center Manhattan Approx. opening date mid-January 536 W. 41 Street New York , NY 10036 New York City   smart center Roslyn Approx. opening date mid-January 1600 Northern Blvd. Roslyn , NY 11576 New York City   smart center White Plains Approx. opening date mid-January 460 Tarrytown Road White Plains , NY 10607 New York City   smart center Smithtown Approx. opening date mid-January 463 Middle Country Rd. St. James , NY 11780 New York City North Carolina smart center South Charlotte Approx. opening date mid-January 950 N. Polk Street Pineville , NC 28134 Charlotte   smart center Cary Approx. opening date mid-January 2400 Auto Park Blvd. Cary , NC 27511 Raleigh   smart center Winston-Salem Approx. opening date mid-January 691 Jonestown Road Winston-Salem , NC 27103 Winston-Salem Ohio smart center Bedford Approx. opening date mid-January 99 Broadway Bedford , OH 44146 Cleveland   smart center Easton Approx. opening date February 4300 Morse Crossing Columbus , OH 43219 Columbus Oklahoma smart center Tulsa Approx. opening date mid-January 9393 S. Memorial Tulsa , OK 74133 Tulsa Oregon smart center Portland Approx. opening date mid-January 9215 SW Canyon Road Portland , OR 97225 Portland Pennsylvania smart center Devon Approx. opening date mid-January 215 West Lancaster Avenue Devon , PA 19333 Philadelphia   smart center Pittsburgh Approx. opening date mid-January 4709 Baum Blvd. Pittsburgh , PA 15213 Pittsburgh Rhode Island smart center Warwick Approx. opening date mid-January 1557 Bald Hill Road – 2 nd Floor Warwick , RI 02886 Providence Tennessee smart center Knoxville Approx. opening date mid-January 10131 Parkside Drive Knoxville , TN 37922 Knoxville Texas smart center Dallas Approx. opening date mid-January 6113 Lemmon Avenue Dallas , TX 75209 Dallas   smart center San Antonio Approx. opening date mid-January 10739 I-H 10 West San Antonio , TX 78230 San Antonio   smart center Sugar Land Approx. opening date mid-January 15625 SW Freeway Sugar Land , TX 77478 Houston   smart center Houston North Approx. opening date mid-January 17510 I-45 North Houston , TX 77090 Houston   smart center Round Rock Approx. opening date mid-January 2132 North Mays – Suite 930 Round Rock , TX 78664 Austin Utah smart center Lindon Approx. opening date in February 530 S. Lindon Park Drive Lindon , UT 84042 Salt Lake City Virginia smart center Tysons Corner Approx. opening date mid-January 8601 Westwood Center Dr . Vienna , VA 22182 Washington , D.C.   smart center Alexandria Approx. opening date mid-January 1605 Fern Street Alexandria , VA 22302 Washington , D.C.   smart center Virginia Beach Approx. opening date in February 5193 Virginia Beach Boulevard Virginia Beach , VA 23462 Washington , D.C. Washington smart center Seattle Approx. opening date mid-January 311 Baker Boulevard Seattle , WA 98188 Seattle Wisconsin smart center Milwaukee Approx. opening date mid-January 11340 West Metro Blvd. Neenah , WI 53224 Milwaukee Expected smart center Locations State Serving the Market of…. Projected Opening Alabama Birmingham Second Quarter 2008 California Torrance Second Quarter 2008   San Rafael Fourth Quarter 2008 Mississippi Jackson Second Quarter 2008 Nevada Las Vegas Third Quarter 2008 South Carolina Charleston Second Quarter 2008

© 2007 smart USA. All rights reserved.

All illustrations and specifications contained in this email are based on the latest product information available at the time of sending. smart USA reserves the right to make changes at any time, without notice, in colors, materials, equipment, specifications, and models. Any variations in colors shown are due to variations in monitor resolution. Illustrations may include test situations. Some vehicles may be shown with non-U.S. equipment. Some vehicles are shown with optional equipment.

Share This

I will start posting again when I can.  Until then, I hope you have a happy and peaceful holiday season.

~Susan Mellott

Share This

Also, here is an interesting article from the Associated Press (on sfgate.com) that is an interesting read in that it contains some rather negative thoughts about the Smart Car. Here is an excerpt:“Some industry analysts are skeptical about Smart’s chances in the United States, where trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers still command more than half the market and gas prices, while rising, still don’t approach Europe’s.

Schembri won’t say how many vehicles Smart hopes to sell in 2008, but Aaron Bragman, an analyst with Global Insight, said he doesn’t expect more than 20,000, and sales will probably fall off after that. By comparison, the Toyota Yaris — the most popular subcompact on the market — sold 73,874 units in the first 10 months of this year, according to Autodata Corp.

“I think it will be a novelty,” Bragman said. “It’s a very niche market, and I’m not very sure it has much staying power.”

Bragman said for the price, buyers could get a used car with a lot more space and practicality. Unless gas prices hit $5 to $6 a gallon, he said, it’s hard to picture Smart gaining much ground.”

I think they may be surprised at how popular the Smart Car will be. People were very surprised at how popular the Scion XB is, not only among it’s intended audience - young, hip college kids, but also with baby boomers, older people, active people and just a lot of people in general. We own one and are thrilled with it. It is a very, very practical car and I think that they underestimate how many people want a practical car.

And especially for city commuting, the Smart Car is perfect, as near as I can tell. It exactly fills that spot and does so better than any other car available. It is small, inexpensive, gas-efficient and attractive. Not everyone wants or needs a big, gas-guzzling SUV, although the industry seems to think so. Well, we’ll see.

Also, I apologize for the formatting on this, I cut and pasted it from the email newsletter I received and it didn’t come through as well as I’d like. I could edit it to make the columns a little less wide, but the white space I just couldn’t seem to get rid of. But the information is all there

Enjoy,

~Susan Mellott

Vol.11 in this issue .01>> from the smart USA team .02>> smart dealership announcements .03>> road show wrap-up .04>> enthusiast site .05>> smart merchandise

11.01>> from the smart USA team

Dear smart Enthusiast, Thank you for your continued interest in the smart brand. If this is your first e-newsletter – welcome to the smart USA family. This month we have many exciting announcements for our smart enthusiasts. The Reservation Confirmation Program is well underway. Our smart USA team is currently contacting groups of reservation holders every week. Once contacted, reservation holders will have the opportunity to change and confirm their vehicles’ model, color, and add options, as well as update personal information. Upon confirmation, your reservation will be converted into a production order. Your order will then be assigned to the dealer nearest you who will contact you once your order is actually in production. The smart USA team is creating an enthusiast site just for you! Here you will have the opportunity to chat about the smart fortwo, exchange ideas and interact with insiders across the country. This website will be ready for your participation in the new year. smart USA will also be announcing the majority of our dealership locations throughout the month of January, and as they open throughout the balance of the year. Please read below for more details. The US version of the smart fortwo made its debut at the LA Auto Show November 14-25. The smart fortwo will also be featured at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit in January 2008 and the New York auto show in March 2008. Lastly, we are pleased to share with you the official technical specifications for the US smart fortwo model. We hope that this information is helpful as you await the arrival of this amazing vehicle. Again, thank you for your continued interest. Best regards, Dave Schembri President, smart USA

11.02>> smart dealership announcements

We know that many smart enthusiasts have been anticipating the formal announcement of our dealerships around the country. In addition, our Reservation Holders are patiently awaiting phone calls from their local dealer regarding formalizing their order. At this time, smart USA will begin announcing the majority of our dealerships throughout the month of January, and as they open throughout the balance of the year. This is to ensure that all national and state government requisites have been met by smart USA and the local dealers. After the announcement has been made, dealers will begin calling Reservation Holders to discuss the status of their reservations and formalize purchase agreements and delivery of confirmed orders. We are on track to open the majority of our dealerships by the end of January, and begin deliveries when dealerships doors open. Until then, we will continue to contact groups of Reservation Holders by email weekly with our Reservation Confirmation Program. smart USA appreciates your continued patience and enthusiasm for the arrival of the smart fortwo. Please continue to direct questions about your the smart fortwo or Reservations to 1.800.smart.USA or by using the “Contact Us” tab on www.smartusa.com.

11.03>> road show wrap-up

The smart USA “street smart” road show has come to an end with one final stop in the Washington D.C. area December 7-9. The road show has proven to be a major success in every city we’ve visited! The road show visited 50 cities, reaching over 75,000 people through our street team static displays, and test drives. In fact, over 50,000 people had the chance to take a test drive and experience the smart fortwo firsthand. In each city, the smart fortwo was met with overwhelming enthusiasm and excitement! Some people drove as far as three or four hours to attend a road show event. Others test drove the vehicle and were so excited that they got back in line to take another drive. We thank you for your enthusiasm and patience and apologize if you experienced a long wait. We hope you think it was worth your time. Thank you to those who attended the show, met our smart USA team, and took the time to share your questions and ideas with us. With your help, the “street smart” road show exceeded our most optimistic expectations and was a hit!

1.04>> enthusiast site

Attention Insiders: Want to be a part of something new and exciting, and exclusively for smart fortwo enthusiasts? Here is your chance! The smart USA team has created a special enthusiast website where insiders are invited to chat about their car, exchange tips, questions and ideas, and meet other insiders across the country. Before we start, we need your help to name our enthusiast site. Click here to participate in our short online poll and submit your vote for the website name! Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity!

11.05>> smart merchandise

smart merchandise items are coming! Make the sidewalk your catwalk with a new smart tee, baseball hat, keychain, and much more. We would like to see what items best suit your style! Please click here to participate in our one minute online poll.

© 2007 smart USA. All rights reserved.

All illustrations and specifications contained in this email are based on the latest product information available at the time of sending. smart USA reserves the right to make changes at any time, without notice, in colors, materials, equipment, specifications, and models. Any variations in colors shown are due to variations in monitor resolution. Illustrations may include test situations. Some vehicles may be shown with non-U.S. equipment. Some vehicles are shown with optional equipment.

Share This

What technology trends are changing the way we work and play? What trends have you tapped into? Join Michael Stephens, Assistant Professor at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, for an overview of trends and how libraries are responding. Michael Stephens has spoken to audiences in over 25 states and in three countries. He also writes a monthly column, “The Transparent Library,” in Library Journal with Michael Casey. His blog, Tame the Web, is read avidly by many librarians.

If this piques your interest in what Michael has to say, here is a fascinating video that Sean posted on his blog, ACPL’s Innovation Through Technology, by Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer, DOK Delft Public Library, who interview Michael Stephens in Chicago about libraries and innovation.

And here is a brief bio of Michael Stephens:

Michael Stephens, Ph.D., is currently Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois.

After receiving an MLIS from Indiana University, he spent over fifteen years working in public libraries, where he developed a passion for the practical application of technology.

He published The Library Internet Trainer’s Toolkit in 2001, and two years later, he launched his popular weblog, Tame the Web. Since then, Michael’s writing has appeared in Public Libraries, Library Journal, Computers in Libraries, and a host of other publications.

In 2004, Michael was awarded an IMLS doctoral fellowship at University of North Texas, where he conducted research on social software and blogging. Named a “Mover and Shaker” by Library Journal in 2005, Michael joined Dominican’s faculty in 2006 and completed his Ph.D. in 2007. Recently, he has produced two ALA Library Technology Reports on Web 2.0.

Michael has spoken to audiences in over 25 states and in three countries. When not traveling or teaching, he resides in Mishawaka, Indiana, and enjoys escaping to Traverse City, Michigan.

Here is the PSA (Public Service Announcement) for Michael’s speech by Sean Robinson, head of IT at the Allen County Public Library:

And here is a link to the ACPL web page announcing Michael’s speech. I am very excited to meet Michael and to hear his speech. And stay tuned for Sean and Kay’s “Conversation” youtube video with Michael. After the speech, Sean and Kay will be interviewing Michael and then will produce a video of that interview as part of their “Conversation” series.

In the “Conversation” series so far is a 2-part interview with Jeff Krull, Director of the Allen County Public Library, and one with Stephen Abrams, Head of Innovation for Sirsi-Dynix. These areshort, professionally and beautifully produced videos, reminiscent of the style of the famous documentary director Ken Burns.

I am really looking forward to this Friday and then later, to watching Sean and Kay’s new video with Michael Stephens. I hope you all can come see his speech if you are in the area, or at least, stay tuned for my post announcing his “Conversation” video.

~Susan Mellott

Share This

Well, a way to organize your posts and help people see what else you might have written about the same topic is to use Categories (in WordPress) or Labels (in Google Blogger). These can also be referred to as tags (or folksonomies…). An example of this is, say you wanted to see any posts I’d written about Harry Potter. You can go to my categories and click on “Harry Potter” (notice that it gives the number of posts that are tagged Harry Potter after the tag - this is an optional setting in your categories widget). Then you would go to this page that only contains all my posts that are categorized as “Harry Potter”.

You will probably end up needing to go back and check your categories and clean them up periodically so they are useful to get all posts from a certain topic and to regroup those that only have 1 post in a category. And sometimes you might want to add a category and then add that category to the posts pertaining to it after you find you have written a few more posts about something.

If you look at this blog or my Blogger test blog Along the Path to 2.0, you can see that I have a huge list on the right of my blog of all my labels (for this blog, click the arrow on the right of my categories list to drop down the list). Especially in Blogger, it is important to file under broader categories so you don’t end up with a huge list that only contains 1 post like I did. That is not how categories/labels should be used. They should group a number of like posts, not just 1 post.

When I first stated my blog, I categorized everything by a whole bunch of specific keywords and so my earliest posts don’t have useful categories. As an example, I categorized some posts under “google” and “analytics” where I should have categorized them either as “google analytics” or “blog stats” or something that puts them in a category that would group them with other similar posts. Doing the keywords separately means that searching under ‘google’ would give all posts about anything I tagged ‘google” (could be google blogger, google analytics, the google search engine, the company, etc). Now that is fine for a category since it does allow someone to find everything I posted about anything related to google, but doesn’t help for finding those posts about getting or using blog statistics.

There really is an art to categorizing your posts and it is a process of refining and redoing them regularly. It helps if you start out on the right foot, knowing some of these things. I didn’t when I started and I now have sort of a mess and really need to go back an correct them. When you have a lot of posts, it is really a pain in the butt to do that though since it is very time-consuming and you have to do each post individually. So if you start with some good categories, you will save yourself a lot of time!

How to create categories/labels:

WordPress

When you write a post, you have the ability to add categories/labels to your post to help identify and categorize it. You can select and add categories to your WordPress blog in the categories box to the right of where you write your posts. This is the same whether using a wordpress.com hosted wordpress blog or a wordpress.org self-hosted blog.

Blogger:

In Google Blogger (Blogspot), there is a text box at the bottom of where you compose your post that says “Labels for this post:” and you enter the labels you want to use

Wordpress:

Then just make sure you have included a Categories widget (for Wordpress) on your sidebar so people can use it to search by category. The picture to the left is a picture of my sidebar 2 (right sidebar) for my blog. You can see that under the “Odiogo Subscribe Button” widget is my “Categories” widget. I have it configured so that it uses a drop-down box to display my categories. If I click on the little horizontal lines on the right of the widget, it brings up a box that lets me choose if I want a drop-down box or just a list (which can take up a lot of room on your sidebar if you have a lot of categories), and lets me give it a title and show the number of posts in each category. It also lets me choose to Show Hierarchy which to be honest, I don’t really know what that does. It doesn’t change anything when I check it.

If you are using the default sidebars for your template, it will most likely already have a categories widget. If not, and you want to add it, be aware that if you add anything to a default sidebar, it will remove all the other widgets so you will have add them as well.

Also, the template I am using displays the categories that each post is filed under right under the title of the post (see example). So someone could read this post about Picnik and if they were interested in more information about Picnik, they could click on the category “Picnik” at the top of my post and get a list of all the posts that are filed under “Picnik”. Different templates work differently, some have them at the bottom of the post and some don’t include them at all. It is something to look for when choosing a template if you want to have the categories for each post listed. Not everyone uses them, but when I am visiting a blog, if I read a post about an interesting subject and want to know more, I will click on the appropriate category in the post list. Of course, if that isn’t available, I will use the category list on the side to see what else they might have.

Blogger:

To add a category widget (which is called a Label Page Element) in Blogger, you go to template–>page elements and click on “Add a Page Element” and choose the Label page element. You can click on edit to edit it but there isn’t a lot you can do in Blogger, basically just list either alphabetically or by frequency.

And to show the labels for each post in Blogger, choose ‘edit’ in the Blog Posts box on that window and check the “labels” box.

Also, the template I am using (and near as I can tell, most of the templates in Google Blogger) displays the categories that each post is filed under right under the title of the post (see example). So someone could read this post about Las Vegas internet access and if they were interested in more information about Las Vegas, they could click on the category “las vegas” at the top of my post and get a list of all the posts that are filed under “las vegas”.

So as you write your posts, think about what category/label would be useful to search your blog for other similar posts and file your post under those categories. It will help other people find things on your blog. And don’t forget to try it out on other people’s blogs too!

~Susan Mellott

Share This

I wrote a post about online shopping sites you may not be familiar with and one of them was a favorite site/catalog of mine called Archie McPhee’s. They carry all sorts of unique, quirky, down-right-fun stuff that doesn’t cost much. In other words, fantastic stocking stuffers for your zany friends and family.

And after writing about it, I decided to go check out what they have since I haven’t visited there for a while. Well they had some new and really cool things! Since two things that go together really well (in a twisted sort of way) are librarians and zombies, to my surprise they had cool things for both!

The first thing I saw (and you have got to LOVE these) are The Illustrated Librarian Temporary Tattoos. They say neat things, like the heart with “Book Lust” and “Born to Read”. This is great for any librarians or book-readers on your holiday list. Be a Wild Thing (at least temporarily) and sport your oh-so-apropos tattoos.

OK, those are pretty cool, but that is not all they have! You can get your own Librarian Action Figure. Each 5″ tall, hard plastic Librarian Action Figure is modeled after Nancy Pearl, a real-life librarian in the Seattle area. Press the button on her back and her arm will move with amazing “shushing action!” Comes with a tiny plastic replica of her most recent book, Book Lust, and a stack of random literature. The card features a brief history of libraries on the back as well as a realistic check-out card in a classic library sleeve along with two bookmarks and a Nancy Pearl trading card! And if that isn’t enough Librarian for you, check out the DELUXE Librarian Action Figure. Each 5″ tall, hard vinyl figure is dressed in a stylish burgundy outfit and comes in a library diorama with a reference desk, computer, book cart, multiple book stacks and some loose books, including a tiny plastic replica of Nancy’s latest, Book Lust 2. Press the button on her back for the infamous “amazing shushing action!”. And here is a link to her “More Book Lust” book.

And while you are at it, visit Nancy Pearl’s very own website. Yes, she’s a real person and right now you can enter on her website to win a trip for two to Seattle and dinner with Nancy Pearl! Her mission according to her website is “To promote and celebrate the written word”.
Here is a little bit about her: Accomplishments: Director of Library Programming and the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library. Nancy is best known for the, “If All Seattle Read The Same Book” project. This idea of one city reading the same book at the same time has been imitated in cities around the world. She is a book reviewer for the Seattle Times, Booklist, Library Journal, KUOW-FM Seattle, and KWGS-FM Tulsa.

And while I’m at it, here are some quotes about librarians:

What can I say? Librarians rule. - Regis Philbin

Our whole American way of life is a great war of ideas, and librarians are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides. -James Quinn

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. -Jorge Luis Borges

In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us how to swim. -Linton Weeks

And did you know that Casanova was a librarian? “So famous a womanizer was the Italian-born libertine Giacomo Casanova that, a full two centuries after his death, his name remains synonymous with the art of seduction. But for years he spent in the employ of Count Waldstein of Bohemia as a librarian.” And yes, there is a Casanova Action Figure. I’m not sure what the ‘action’ part of his figure is…

OK, on to Zombies! First of all, do you have your Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks? If not, you must get this now. No person can feel truly prepared without it.

Next, here is a quick list of all the Zombie related items at Archie McPhees. And here are some highlights.

First off, the game “WWZD: What Would a Zombie Do?” Notice the lifelike (deathlike?) zombie arm spinner! And it is only $4.95. When in doubt, spin the arm and see if you should “Eat Brains”, “Moan”, “Hate the Living” and more.

And next, the Glow in the Dark, Flesh Eating Zombies Play set. “Wreak havoc on your sister’s precious diorama with this Flesh Eating Zombie Play Set! Each set includes nine 1″ to 3.25″ tall, hard vinyl zombies, complete with blank stares, gaping mouths, open wounds and missing limbs! Turn off the lights and they glow! Fantastic undead fun for the whole family!” And for more fun, you can get the Horrified B-Movie Victims and create your own dioramas. Or have hours of fun playing Zombies vs. Victims, especially after a hard day at work.

And last but not least, coming soon to Archie McPhee - The Remote Control Zombie! “Run! Hide! Barricade yourself in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse! This 7-3/4″ tall, plastic Remote Control Zombie will trudge forward and groan when you activate him by pressing the button on the 2-3/4″ long brain-shaped remote. Horrifyingly entertaining! Articulated at the neck, shoulders and hips. Requires three AAA batteries (not included).” It doesn’t have a picture or a price yet, but it sure looks fun!

Librarians and Zombies Forever!

~Susan Mellott

Share This

If you are like me, you have at least one computer that seems slow now, although when you bought it you thought you had gotten ample CPU size and memory. A lot of people blame their CPU when really they just need to add memory. I have a Dell Dimension 4400 desktop computer with (believe it or not) 256 meg of memory and my Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook has 512 meg. At the time I bought each of these, that was considered ample memory, but nowadays 1 gig is about the minimum you would want and if your computer can accept more, so much the better.

My desktop can only handle a maximum of 1 gig (two 512 memory modules) and my laptop can handle 2 gig (two 1 gig modules). I plan to upgrade both of them to their max and as a matter of fact, have already ordered it and we are waiting for it to come in. It is my Christmas present and I can’t think of a better present than that.

But when I asked for memory, I realized that I did not know what I needed to get. There is a lot of different kinds of memory and it is very confusing. The first thing I did since I have Dell computers is to go to the Dell website and look up each of my computers by their service tag. The service tag is on each Dell computer. If you haven’t done it yet and you own a Dell computer, sign in to the Dell website and go to My Systems and Peripherals. Then locate your service tag on your computer. If you can’t find it, there is a Find My Service Tag link right below the where you would enter it. Be aware though that it requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater. It doesn’t work with Netscape or what I use, Firefox.

When you enter the service tag (and a description, like “Susie’s Laptop”), you will see a wealth of information about your computer. It will give you a complete summary of the configuration of your computer when you bought it. And on the left will be a list of a whole bunch of support and documentation for your computer.

If I click on Manuals, it takes me to the manuals for my specific computer with a “Tell Me How”, “Service Manual”, “Owner’s Manual” and “Setup Diagram”. All very useful, no? In the Owner’s Manual, it has a whole section with pictures on exactly how to add memory (in this case, to my laptop). And it listed the type of memory to get in the Appendix.

It pretty much spells it out for me. Once I had this information, I could go anywhere and look for two 1 Gig 333-MHz DDR SODIMM SDRAM (PC2700) memory modules. And as it states, my laptop comes standard with 256 meg (I have 512) and can go up to 2 gig (1 gig each slot).

But what if I didn’t have a Dell?

Well, thank goodness, there is a very easy way to tell what memory you need for your computer, thanks to Crucial, makers of very fine computer memory. Crucial provides a system memory scanning tool for your computer that tells you exactly what memory you have and what you need. You do have to either be using Internet Explorer (why does everywhere require that?) or to download their system scanning tool which takes a second and pops the scan results up in your regular (in my case, Firefox) browser just like you ran it from there. It identified my exact computer type, the type of memory I needed and how much I had and what I could use. Here are the results of my scan.

Pretty easy to figure out what I need now, that is for sure. Of course, I would not necessarily recommend buying through their website, it is generally cheaper to go somewhere else. I ended up buying mine from Newegg because they were selling the 1 Gig modules for $70 with a $16 rebate for each module. They don’t have the rebate now (and the price is now $80) but looking up PC2700 on Dealcatcher, I see that now Buy.com has the same 1 gig Crucial memory for $58 with no S&H.

Crucial memory is considered very good and reliable and it guarantees that it is compatible with your computer when you run the scan to determine what kind to get. That is especially important with Dell computers since they are known to be somewhat picky.

I ended up getting Kingston memory for my desktop. They were sold out of that particular Crucial memory and the Kingston memory got good reviews. That is one thing nice about Newegg, they list reviews for each of their products. And Kingston has a list on their website of what computers their memory is compatible with and what type of memory to get. It is good for a double-check, but doesn’t actually scan your system the way the crucial website does.

Kingston also provides some Memory Installation Guides. They are pretty generic though. Better to go to the website for your particular computer and see what online manuals or help they have. Or you can always look in the manual that came with your computer I hardly even think of that, I am so used to looking it up online.

So if you are thinking about what you might want for Christmas (or holiday of your choice) or what you might get someone else, think of the gift of memory! It isn’t as hard as you think and it really will make a big difference to how well your computer will run.

~Susan Mellott

Share This

But there are other, less well known sites that offer good prices as well and are equally trustworthy.

A place I have shopped lately is NewEgg (electronics, which may also be an actual store, but we don’t have one here). We bought computer memory and printer ink at a nice discount. Another place is Deep Discount. They carry items like DVDs and video games. I’ve purchased DVDs for people for Christmas and video games for ourselves. I actually ordered Guitar Hero 3 from them a few weeks ago, but cancelled the order since we are trying to save money and didn’t really need it. But it was cheaper there than anywhere else I could find.

And while you may have heard of Cafepress for a wide variety of interesting t-shirts, mugs and related items, you may not know of Printfection. Printfection has the same sort of shirts, mugs, etc related items, but the prices are cheaper and the quality is better. If you are looking for a unique t-shirt or small gift, I definitely recommend Printfection. The ACPL used a t-shirt design for Library Genius 2.0 as part of their Learning 2.0 program and it is now online at Printfection. I think it is pretty cool

And speaking of cool t-shirts, I have one that I really like (actually a tank top) that I got from Cafepress. I do aikido and wear tank top under my gi. So I found this one that says “I’m tougher than I look” and has a cute little picture. Since I am somewhat small and non-threatening appearing, this seemed very apropos.

However, Cafepress is very annoying in that it is extremely hard to find anything. I had to go to my last order to find the store I got this from in order to find it. No other searches worked. Seems like a poor shopping website design. Unfortunately, Printfection seems to have gotten big enough that it is getting harder to search too, although if you get more specific in your search (such as “Van Gogh”), you can find items.

And then there are the “One Day, One Deal” or “One Deal at a time until its Gone” type sites. The Big Daddy of the One Day One Deal sites is Woot!. Woot offers one deal at midnight each night and sells it until it is sold out. It is such an institution that there is a whole culture around Woot! such as whenever a bluetooth technology item is sold, the podcast is about Bluetooth the Pirate. The podcasts, contests and product descriptions are well worth a look, regardless of whether or not you are interested in the item. The writers are incredibly innovative and funny. Here is the wikipedia entry about Woot!. And every so often, they have a woot-off which is one deal after another. They frequently have very, very good deals on items you very well might want. I’ve gotten all sorts of things from them such as a Dyson DC07 vacuum cleaner for $299 (the absolute best sweeper, I will never use another kind and I have 2), an Acer 22″ widescreen monitor for $199 and much, much more such as a blood pressure monitor for my mom, a couple of cool flashlights, a wireless router, a travel mug coffee maker, 2-pack wireless controllers for Playstation 2 and more. I check Woot every morning when I get up just to see what they have and if there is a woot-off on I am at my computer checking until it is over.

And for the One Deal at