Jules News

Reading Film As A Formal System

2008-04-09T15:18:21Z

]]> 1. Place your film: intertextuality and historical context.

Kiss Me Kate was made at MGM in 1953 - the immediate postwar period.

Directed by George Sidney

Well known director of musical comedies, other light-hearted fare.
Cole Porter musical

Why Kiss Me Kate in 1953?

Confusion in identities between couples long separated by the war.
Postwar spike in the divorce rate, growing social acceptance of divorce.
Idealization of marriage - beginning of the Ward and June era.

Made in 3D

Hollywood unease at the arrival of TV.
Experimentation, spectacular exploitation of new technologies typical of Hollywood

2. Read your film as a "formal system".

Everything you see in a film was done deliberately.

Film content - characters, story, plot
Materials - scenes, settings, actions, props, costumes, music
Filmic techniques - lighting, camera position, camera angle, sound effects, editing
Genre conventions - setting, mood, format, style, pace

3. Analyze your film according to your interest.

What is the content of the film really about for you?

Competitive behavior and irrationality of women to be "tamed".
Misbehavior and moral weakness of men to be forgiven.
Final resolution, and containment of hetero sexuality, in marriage.

Do the formal elements of the film serve its content and meaning?

Settings and costumes
Lighting and camera angles
Pace
Musical score

Blog Styling and Readability

2008-04-01T06:33:00Z

Page organization and styling decisions on your blog can affect whether or not your message gets heard. Here are a couple of examples of how reformers are using social media - one that's highly readable with good styling decisions - and one that's pretty bad.

]]> The good - Beth's Blog is packed with good information. Its page elements are organized in a straight forward, vertical style. Its styling is easy on the eyes and mind and easy to read. It is also clear and simple enough that it will be accessbile to readers with visual or learning disabilities and the specialized software applications that asssist them.

The bad - Net Squared is a blog that's also packed with good info. But its page organization is so jumbled, and its look and feel so overstyled, that the actual content is almost unreadable to even the most able of readers. Moreover, neither people with disabilities nor their assistive software could possibly crack this.

Moral of the story: organization of page elements and decisions about styling matter in making the content of your web products accessible. And easy access is critical to web success.

Marketing Communications

2008-01-18T00:08:58Z

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STRATEGIES FOR COLLEGE RESEARCH

KEY TERMS:

Web - free, unvetted, online world we love.

Deep web - the good stuff you pay for.

Database - information products/services developed by brokers who buy content from publishers and sell it to libraries.

Periodical - journal or magazine, serial publication.

Article - a research paper or chapter draft written and published by a scholar; the unit of database content.

Peer review - process to establish fairness and accuracy in academic publishing.

Paid subscriptions.

Physical collections.

Step 1: Open a research log!

Careful records are the foundation of any college research project.

Word file.

Blog post.

Pen and paper.

Step 2: Online Research

NON-ACADEMIC WEB SOURCES - use at your own risk

Google - to get your bearings on organized presence online.

Wikipedia - opportunity to add your research to web community.

Evergreen Library - get scholarly articles acceptable for college research.

ACADEMIC SOURCES - LIBRARY catalog - search for databases

Evergreen catalog

Off campus access - your name and A registration number!

BUSINESS databases and services - do a title search

Business Source Premier - 8800 business and business news journals, mostly full text, back to 1998

ABI Inform - business, global trade, and industry journals, mostly full text, back to 1998

Hoovers Online - index to information existing businesses

Browse database subjects - library Subject Categories page

Search specific journal title - Evergreen catalog

GENERAL information and scholarship databases

Proquest Direct - all purpose, "Walmart Store" of information market, includes newspapers

Ebscohost - all purpose, "Target Store" of information market

Step 3: Look for books and other tangible media.

Evergreen catalog - books we have here

Summit Consortium - borrowing coop with other college libraries in OR and WA

Step 4: Close your research log.

Save and organize your notes.
Back them up.
Print them and look them over.
Email them to yourself - my.evergreen.edu.

Build a paper file to go with your electronics.

Contact info

unselj at evergreen dot edu

Mondays, 9am to noon; Wednesdays, 6pm to 9:30pm

Made for the Northwest

2008-01-07T18:04:01Z

Emily Carr, Museum of the Northwest

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A CURRENT OVERVIEW OF COLLEGE RESEARCH:

Web - information effectively free of charge.

Deep web - the good stuff you pay for.

Database - information broker buying from publishers and selling to libraries.

Article - a research paper or chapter draft written and published by a scholar.

Peer review - process to establish fairness and accuracy in academic publishing.

Paid subscriptions.

Physical collections.

STEPS TO EFFECTIVE RESEARCH:

Step 1: Open a comprehensive research log.

Careful note taking and records are the foundation of any research.

Proper citation and documentation mark college level scholarship.

Taking notes ....

... Word file.

... Blog post.

... Email string.

... Pen and paper.

Step 2: Assess your topic on the web.

Controversial among librarians and faculty.

Google - to get your bearings on organized presence online.

Wikipedia - opportunity to add your research to web community.

Step 3: Engage the scholarly literature.

Library catalog user interface (institutional passwords) - Evergreen catalog

Periodical literature - library Subject Categories page

IMPORTANT DATABASE TITLES

JSTOR - Johns Hopkins publishers catalog, interdisciplinary content

ARTSTOR - image database from the JSTOR people with good metadata but limited range

Proquest Direct - the Walmart of scholary information (Walmart in a good way), includes newspapers

Ebscohost - ethnography, sociology, some arts

TANGIBLE MATERIALS

Evergreen catalog - books we have here

Summit Consortium - borrowing coop with other college libraries in OR and WA

Worldcat - hyperbolically titled but still extemely useful library union catalog

Step 4: Close your research log.

Save and organize your notes.

Back them up.

Print them and look them over.

Email them to yourself.

Step 5: Analyze and organize your research findings.

Data, information, knowledge (truth, meaning, irony, remembrance), wisdom.

Contact info

Jules Unsel, unselj@evergreen.edu
Ref desk, Mondays, 9am-noon; Wednesdays, 5-9pm

Fun With Flooding and Old Stuff

2007-12-03T19:52:35Z

It's been known since the 5th century BC that people should not place their irreplacable records in the basement of a library. Over the objections of the library faculty and staff, Evergreen's Archives, Special Collections, and Rare Books were placed in our basement as part of the Phase I remodel. Here's a few shots of this morning's festivities.

Krikey!

2007-11-20T04:50:52Z

]]> Cool countdown generator at - http://www.justsayhi.com/bb/countdown

MIT Research

2007-10-19T14:41:50Z

Research in Education

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A CURRENT VIEW OF THE DIGITAL TERRAIN:

Web - information effectively free of charge.

Deep web - the good stuff you pay for.

Database - information broker buying from publishers and selling to libraries.

Article - a research paper or chapter draft written and published by a scholar.

Peer review - process to establish fairness and accuracy in academic publishing.

Paid subscriptions.

Physical collections.

STEPS TO EFFECTIVE RESEARCH:

Step 1: Maintain a comprehensive research log.

Careful records are the foundation of any research.

Word file.

Blog post.

Email string.

Pen and paper.

Step 2: Assess your topic on the web.

Controversial among librarians and faculty.

Google - to get your bearings on organized presence online.

Wikipedia - opportunity to add your research to web community.

Step 3: Engage the scholarly literature.

Library catalog user interface (institutional passwords) - Evergreen catalog

Periodical literature - library Subject Categories page

IMPORTANT DATABASE TITLES

ERIC- Education Resource Information Center, US Dept Education

JSTOR - Johns Hopkins publishers catalog, interdisciplinary content
Proquest Direct - the Walmart of scholary information (Walmart in a good way), includes newspapers

Ebscohost - ethnography, sociology, some arts

TANGIBLE MATERIALS

Evergreen catalog - books we have here

Summit Consortium - borrowing coop with other college libraries in OR and WA

Worldcat - hyperbolically titled but still extemely useful library union catalog

Step 4: Close your research log.

Save and organize your notes.

Back them up.

Print them and look them over.

Email them to yourself.

Contact info

Jules Unsel, unselj@evergreen.edu
Ref desk, Mondays, 9am-noon; Wednesdays, 5-9pm

web 2

2007-08-29T18:20:43Z

Great video that explains Web 2 and how it functions.

]]>

History (of the Book) Repeats Itself

2007-08-10T23:35:25Z

]]> A couple of recent, fun articles with particular resonance for the history of libraries and books.

Monks who honor a vow of poverty become millionaires by making ink for computer printers.

A NASA space probe delivers a sci-fi library to Mars.

Marketing in the 21st Century

2007-08-02T01:15:59Z

]]> STRATEGIES FOR COLLEGE RESEARCH

KEY TERMS:

Web - free, unvetted, online world we love.

Deep web - the good stuff you pay for.

Database - information products/services developed by brokers who buy content from publishers and sell it to libraries.

Article - a research paper or chapter draft written and published by a scholar; the unit of database content.

Peer review - process to establish fairness and accuracy in academic publishing.

Paid subscriptions.

Physical collections.

Step 1: Open a research log!

Careful records are the foundation of any college research project.

Word file.

Blog post.

Pen and paper.

Step 2: Evergreen Library - get scholarly articles acceptable for college research.

LIBRARY catalog - search for databases

Evergreen catalog

Off campus access - your name and A registration number!

BUSINESS databases and services - do a title search

Business Source Premier - 8800 business and business news journals, mostly full text, back to 1998

ABI Inform - business, global trade, and industry journals, mostly full text, back to 1998

Hoovers Online - index to information existing businesses

Browse database subjects - library Subject Categories page

Search specific journal title - Evergreen catalog

GENERAL information and scholarship databases

Proquest Direct - all purpose, "Walmart Store" of information market, includes newspapers

Ebscohost - all purpose, "Target Store" of information market

NON-ACADEMIC WEB SOURCES - use at your own risk

Google - to get your bearings on organized presence online.

Wikipedia - opportunity to add your research to web community.

Step 3: Look for books and other tangible media.

Evergreen catalog - books we have here

Summit Consortium - borrowing coop with other college libraries in OR and WA

Step 4: Close your research log.

Save and organize your notes.
Back them up.
Print them and look them over.
Email them to yourself - my.evergreen.edu.

Build a paper file to go with your electronics.

Contact info

Reference Desk, 867-6252

Summer Hours: Mon-Thurs, 9 to 9; Fri-Sat, 9 to 5

Cool new mashup code

2007-06-07T15:54:16Z

Indigenous Art and Community Arts Organizations

2007-04-13T15:49:30Z

]]> STRATEGIES FOR COLLEGE RESEARCH

Step 1: Open a research log!

Careful records are the foundation of any college research project.
Word file.
Blog post.
Pen and paper.

Step 2: Assess your topic online.

Google - to get your bearings on organized presence online.

Wikipedia - opportunity to add your research to web community.

Step 3: Evergreen Library - to get scholarly information acceptable for college research.

KEY TERMS:

Deep web - the good stuff you pay for.
Database - information broker buying from publishers and selling to libraries.
Article - a research paper or chapter draft written and published by a scholar.
Peer review - process to establish fairness and accuracy in academic publishing.
Paid subscriptions.
Physical collections.

Evergreen catalog - books we have here

Summit consortium - borrowing coop with other college libraries in OR and WA

Online databases and services - do a title search

JSTOR - historic and recent scholarly coverage of the arts

Proquest Direct - wide newspaper coverage, some scholarly for arts

Ebscohost - ethnography, sociology, some arts

Other possibilities - library Subject Categories page

Step 4: Close your research log.

Save and organize your notes.
Back them up.
Print them and look them over.
Email them to yourself - my.evergreen.edu.
Build a paper file to go with your electronics.

Contact info

Jules Unsel, unselj@evergreen.edu
Ref desk, Mondays, 5-9; Thursdays, 1-5

Truth Is Better Than Fiction

2007-03-01T16:33:58Z

This sixteen year old girl rose to international fame on the internet after a geeky guy she hardly knew took a picture of her at a party and put it on a website without her knowledge.

]]> Read the whole astonishing story, which bears a much better plot than the dopey-yet-weirdly-fascinating novel, Cyber Cinderella, that we read for seminar this week, at the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/features/magazine/west/la-tm-corykennedy08feb25,0,591340.story?coll=la-home-magazine

Eyes have it.

2007-02-17T05:46:00Z

Electronic eyes reside in the organic flesh. Read the rest.

The Tyranny of Beauty

2007-02-11T18:41:48Z

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" Tells An Old Tale

This really fun made for TV movie about the lives of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates adopts a traditional story line to relate the origins of the personal computer.

]]> In the film, we meet Jobs as a handsome young college radical, a descendant of the Beat Generation, who seeks spiritual enlightenment, psychological transformation, and creative revolution through primal scream therapy, a carefully considered and artistic strategy of sandal wearing, and high-tone tripping on what appears to be blotter LSD.

We meet Gates, meanwhile, as a sweaty-palmed, adolescent card shark destined by his very smallness to bud into a hustler and thief of gargantuan proportions, sort of the Shrimp Who Ate Seattle.

Jobs' is a Cinderella Story, in a way, He's an orphan with John-Lennon-like issues about family and commitment. He is the vision guy who crafts Wozniak's playful engineering genious into an utterly new idea - a computer for ordinary people. He tries unsuccessfully to interest the business class in developing the personal computer as an idea and finally succeeds when he learns to clothe his hippie beauty in a wrapper of stuffed shirt drag.

Gates is a Babbit of the worst order. Or, the rat Templeton, except that Gates is never revealed to have a heart after all. Just like his dorm room Playboy collection, Gates is a clammy, rumpled, musky stink of a guy, more hot for computer coding than chicks, uninterested in and clumsy with chicks, a guy who considers a date to see the same movie in different town as a species of consummation. Gates gets off on racing bull dozers and on the industrial Altair, the blinking box that he animates with an swindled operating system, the swindle on which the world's greatest fortune is built.

The collision of these two careers is dramatic and in some respects eternal. It takes on the quality of a fable, the tortoise and the hare. Jobs' impetuousness and epic nature eventually burns itself out, while Gates' sneaky perserverance and reptillian hording pays off in the end.

By means foul and foul, Micrsoft wins out over Apple, and the viewing audience may easily surmise that this is due equally to the flaws of both men. Jobs is a hot-house beauty and Gates is a clinging kudzu vine.

The film makers take the cheap way out by emphasixing that Jobs was beautiful and Gates was ugly. Jobs is like JFK in this movie and Gates is Nixon. Jobs is the flawed purity of passion and desire. Gates is the ugly, malformed and sweat-stained avatar of greed and calculation.

Jobs in the hare and Gates is the (bull-dozier driving) tortoise. In our day and age, of course, the tortoise still wins. But the hare makes a beautiful corpse. A beautiful corpse is one of the great monuments to the ashes of desire in our decadent and effed up postmodern popular culture.

The film is, in short, a tour de force of inventive story telling. Fresh, original, and above all, fair to the brilliant people of the world who may happen to be ugly.