Psychology : Education & Misc.

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 13:41:24 GMT

Vintage Drug Ads. Vintage Drug Ads Hilarious vintage ads for psychotropic and psychiatric medications from the 1940's - 1970's. If you're looking for a good time-wrap laugh, this is it. And really, are today's Zoloft ads in USA Today Magazine or Parade Magazine and on television much different? They're simplifying depression to the point of cartoonishness (literally!). (Thanks to Adult [...] [World of Psychology]

Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:43:25 GMT

Mental illness: Surprising, disturbing findings. Mental illness: Surprising, disturbing findings But research has focused on adults. Much more research on the adolescent brain is needed, and large treatment studies not financed by drug companies must be done, says Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which paid for the survey. But there's a shortage of researchers focusing on treating [...] [World of Psychology]

Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:41:20 GMT

Speaking about Blogs.....

Yesterday, Larry Sloma, who (along with Troy Swanson) helped Moraine Valley Community College get all bloggy and RSSified, sent me an email noting that he’s running a pilot project on his new library’s web site. Check out the Highland Park Public Library’s blog, which you can now have read to you.

“Inspired by Gary Price's recent post about Speakwire, we thought we'd try to add a voice to our pilot blog. Works like a charm!

Look for the button labeled ‘Want this blog to read to you?’ near the bottom of the right hand column at http://lishost.org/~hpplblog/.”

That wasn’t enough for Larry, though. Today, I got an email from Troy, saying that Larry had also helped MVCC set this up for their blogs, too. Check out the “Click to Listen” link on the right-hand side of their Library News blog!

Here’s the weird, spooky, serendipitous part. I’m reading my work email tonight (yeah, I’m that overwhelmed at work that I’m doing email from home these days), when the following message from David Mattison appears on the WEB4LIB mailing list:

“I spotted a Google Adsense ad on my blog for a new service called Talkr.com (http://www.talkr.com) that offers conversion of text-only blogs into podcasts. I haven't tried it, but it sounds like (pardon the pun) there's a library application in there somewhere. The company has a revenue sharing program if they select your blog as one of their podcasts. Jenny Levine's The Shifted Librarian blog is one of the blogs already available as a podcast.”

That’s news to me! But, I guess if you’d rather listen to my posts than read them, here’s your chance.

[The Shifted Librarian]

Wed, 08 Jun 2005 13:29:35 GMT

Universal Hymn to Emotions. How a healthy emotional life leads to a successful one. [Psychology Today]

Wed, 08 Jun 2005 13:29:09 GMT

The Socially Savvy. Can emotional intelligence be taught? [Psychology Today]

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:08:45 GMT

Nutrition: Raising the Bar. Are energy bars as healthful as they seem? [Psychology Today]

Mon, 06 Jun 2005 13:22:25 GMT

Corporations Entering World of Blogs (AP). AP - When General Motors Corp. wanted to stop speculation this spring that it might eliminate its Pontiac and Buick brands, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz took his case directly to dealers and customers who were up in arms about the possibility. He wrote about it on the company's blog. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

Mon, 06 Jun 2005 13:20:20 GMT

The Right Carbs. Beans and oatmeal provide the continuous energy you need. [Psychology Today]

Fri, 03 Jun 2005 17:20:31 GMT

For Fruit Flies, Gene Shift Tilts Sex Orientation. The scientific finding will likely prove influential in debates about whether genes or environment determine sexual orientation. By By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL, International Herald Tribune. [NYT > Science]

Fri, 03 Jun 2005 17:19:14 GMT

Is a picture really worth a thousand words?. Is a picture really worth a thousand words? Automated pink bunnies playing the drums. A man made of tires. A burger-selling clown. Almost every advertisement is accompanied by a visual image. And consumers use these images to infer about the product being offered. But are those inferences the right ones? According to an article in the [...] [World of Psychology]

Fri, 03 Jun 2005 17:18:41 GMT

Cave Bear DNA Sequencing Could Be Boon for Human Evolution Studies [Scientific American]

Fri, 03 Jun 2005 17:16:46 GMT

Education: A College Cure?. New strategies to battle mental health issues on campuses. [Psychology Today]

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:28:50 GMT

Understanding sarcasm is a complex business. A research study suggests that recognition of sarcasm involves an intricate sequence of events. The brain's language areas interpret the literal meaning of a statement, the right hemisphere and frontal lobes process the emotional context, while the prefrontal cortex integrates the two. ... [CogNews]

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:27:20 GMT

Brain downloading proclaimed possible by 2050. [ article ] By the middle of the 21st century it will be possible to download one's brain to a supercomputer, according to Ian Pearson, a leading thinker on the future. "If you're rich enough then by 2050 it's feasible. If you're poor you'll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it's routine," he said. ... [CogNews]

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:48:03 GMT

Welcome two ISMHO members to the world of psychology blogs. Two ISMHO members join the ever-growing blogging community. The always intriguing and good for reading psychologist John Suler and online therapist Jassy Timberlake just began their blogs, so I thought this would be a good time to welcome them! Check them out as their contributions grow... [World of Psychology]

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:47:12 GMT

Watching New Love as It Sears the Brain - New York Times. Watching New Love as It Sears the Brain - New York Times (Free reg. req'd) New love can look for all the world like mental illness, a blend of mania, dementia and obsession that cuts people off from friends and family and prompts out-of-character behavior - compulsive phone calling, serenades, yelling from rooftops - that could [...] [World of Psychology]

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:43:27 GMT

Oprah Winfrey. "Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possiblity." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:42:06 GMT

Secrets of Married Men. Men are at a disadvantage in relationships. [Psychology Today]

Tue, 31 May 2005 14:14:01 GMT

Meanings and Effects of Color. Colors often have different symbolic adn emomtional meanings in different cultures. For example, white is the color for weddings in western societies but for funerals in traditional Chinese culture; red is associated with rage in America but with happiness in... [About Psychology]

Tue, 31 May 2005 14:11:09 GMT

Miss Canada Is Crowned 2005 Miss Universe [AP World News]

Tue, 31 May 2005 14:06:35 GMT

Researchers Identify Gene Linked to Heroin Relapse [Scientific American]

Sun, 29 May 2005 14:28:21 GMT

Wrestling with Words. Are stutterers better off accepting their impediment? [Psychology Today]

Fri, 27 May 2005 12:49:46 GMT

Suicide hotline only open from 9 to 5. Suicide hotline only open from 9 to 5 A Canadian province will shut its 24-hour suicide hotline and replace it with one that operates only during business hours. Prince Edward Island, a small province on Canadaâ€™s East Coast, says it is too expensive to operate the hotline around the clock. Starting June 1, it will be open [...] [World of Psychology]

Thu, 26 May 2005 12:59:33 GMT

Leadership Styles. Psychology research approaches leader and leadership in several ways. This article puts an emphasis on the charisma leadership theory and American political race. Read more.... [About Psychology]

Fri, 20 May 2005 13:08:04 GMT

Cool, Shifted SCSU Services.

Rebecca Hedreen is doing lots of very cool things in her users' worlds, not just within the four walls of her building. For starters, her Frequently Answered Questions blog is intended specifically to help distance education students at Southern Connecticut State University (which, of course, gives her an automatic feed for syndication). On that blog, a post from last month notes some of the ways you can ask a question, one of which - Chatango - I was unfamiliar with.

"Please note that I also have new icons for my online status for chat and IM. Generally, if I'm ‘online’ for all of them, I'm likely to be in my office--so I'm likely to be available by phone and email at that time, too.

Please try the various services out--Skype may be of particular interest to our international contingent. If you download the software (and sign up for an account) you can call just about anywhere in the world to another Skype user for free--and to regular phones for a discounted rate. All you need is a broadband connection and a microphone on your computer (not an insignificant requirement).

The chat service (http://delibrarian.chatango.com/) requires no downloads or registration, only Macromedia Flash Player. If I'm not online, you can leave me a message (please include your email!) and I will get it as soon as I login.

The two IM services, MSN Messenger and AIM, do require registration, but they both have web interfaces, so you don't have to download the software. If you are not using them from home, please check the regulations at your workplace, school, or library. Many places still discourage the use of chat and/or IM and I don't want to get anyone in trouble! You may want to point out the number of libraries that are now using IM for Virtual Reference, if you want to try and get policies changed." [Frequently Answered Questions]

I love the idea of offering Skype, Flash-based chat, and IM options to cover the broad spectrum of online – especially distant – users. Hopefully Rebecca will provide more details, and maybe even a review, of Chatango for use within libraries. She’s embedded other cool things on the blog, too, like a link to Subscribe by email with rssfwd for those users that don’t have aggregators. I love this page, too!

My exploration of Rebecca’s work all started, though, with a link to her Library’s page describing Search Plugins and Scripts for the Firefox Browser, where you’ll find what are quickly becoming standard FF search plugins for the catalog and their journal locator. However, she’s also playing around with xISBN GreaseMonkey scripts, and she’s included GM extensions for WorldCat and and her catalog from Amazon! I definitely need some time to further explore this whole concept, but here’s how Rebecca describes it on her Library’s plugin page:

“These scripts create icons next to the titles of books on Amazon.com linking to the CONSULS catalog or the OCLC WorldCat ‘Find in your Library’ database. GreaseMonkey is a Firefox Extension that runs scripts to cause changes in the appearance and/or actions of a web page. Not all web pages will run these scripts.”

Last week, knowledge god Gary Price took some time to light my bulb regarding the NeedleSearch toolbar, a service that makes it stupidly easy to create your own toolbar for your library’s catalog, no programming required! He first wrote this up all the way back in 2003, and it’s still a good read. Highly recommended.

With all of this innovation coming on the Mozilla/Firefox side, you have to wonder how far libraries could take all of this. I want to push a lot of this with our SWAN catalog and create various plugins and toolbars, highlight them all on a single page, and let SWAN members either point to it or copy the code onto their own sites. Rich Allen sent me a link to NOBLE's Firefox Tips and Tricks, which comes close to this. It even mentions Smart Keywords, including how to use this with EBSCO. My only quibble is that all of this is hidden from their home page.

Let power users be power users they way they want to be, not by forcing them to use our advanced search screens! All I need are a few more hours in each day….

[The Shifted Librarian]