“The Librarian of the Internet” : findingDulcinea.com

“How much time have you wasted online, wading through a sea of useless or unreliable information? Online searches may give you millions of search results in under a second, but you’re left to sift through them yourself. Does it make you wish the Internet had a librarian who would refer you only to the best Web sites?”

The paragraph above comes from an online description of a website called findingDulcinea.com, co-founded by Kate Davey ‘04. The site is a combination of news feeds, web guides, indexes and other useful information, packaged so that it can be glanced at for a quick update, or browsed in depth for more information.

What’s particularly endearing to those of us who work in the library is the site’s emphasis on the difference between reliable web resources and the rest of the junk that’s out there. Users who click on the web guides page will find advice and guidance in navigating what amounts to information overload. Kudos to alumna Kate and the Dulcinea Media team for providing both an educational and informational resource!

What’s a PDF, anyway?

Almost everyone has used, or at the very least heard of, a PDF file. However, do you know what “pdf” stands for, and what the big deal is about using it? If not, here’s a quick explanation.

“PDF” stands for “portable document format”. It was invented in the 1990’s by Dr. John E. Warnock, who later would go on to become co-chairman of the Adobe Corporation. It has become a standard viewing and printing platform that allows users to share documents, no matter what program they were authored on.

For example: Say you are composing a document using Microsoft Publisher. You, of course, can open, edit, and read this document without a problem. You can email it to someone else who has Publisher on their computer as well. BUT – what if you need to email it to someone who doesn’t have a license for MS Publisher on their machine? They might receive it, but they certainly couldn’t read it without buying MS Publisher.

Here’s where PDF format saves the day. If you save the file in PDF format instead of Publisher format, then all the recipient has to do is to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader from Adobe’s website to view your document (or any other PDF document that is sent to them).

If the program you’re using doesn’t let you save your file in PDF format, don’t despair! Here in the Library, we have a fully licensed version of Adobe Acrobat Professional installed on every computer with a scanner attached. This full-function software package allows us to create a PDF out of almost any file type. Stop by and we’ll be glad to show you how to do this!

Easter Library Hours

The Phillips Memorial Library will be observing Easter, with different hours.

Wednesday, the Library closes at 10:00 pm.

Thursday, the Library closes at 4:30 pm.

Friday, Saturday, and Easter the Library will be closed.

Monday, the Library will be open until 2 am.

Macintosh updates at the Library

You may have noticed a few more Macintosh computers sprinkled about the library in recent weeks. We’ve added 2 brand new machines which are now available for public use. There are now a total of 3 Macs in the Creation Station room on the first floor, and we’ve replaced the PC with a Mac at the Information Station upstairs. There are also two other Macs located in the Digital Services Lab, along with yet another at the Reference Desk.

In addition, all of the Macs were updated with the latest version of OS X! You can now use OS X 10.5 (nicknamed “Leopard”) on all the machines. This version has some great new visual features that are both productive and fun to use. We’ve left tutorial books next to each machine to get you started, but please feel free to stop by the Digital Services Lab for a personal demonstration!

(FYI – we’ve also set up the Macs to log users out after 30 minutes of inactivity, just like the Library PC’s. Make sure you save your work if you need to walk away from the computer!)