Blog Posts by bpardue
Bill Pardue is the Library's Reference and Virtual Services Supervisor and has been at AHML since 1996. He's a soccer fan, an amateur astronomer and he makes a pretty good homemade pizza.
05/09/12
Library users now have full access to ConsumerReports.org. This is an upgrade from our previous subscription to the Consumer Reports Health product, and still includes all of the health-related information that was found there. You can find it listed on our Research/Databases page, as well as in our Consumer and Health categories.
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02/07/12
Looking to increase your tech skills for work or to impress your friends? Several "Basic Computer Skills" tutorials that cover Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 suite (Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint) are now included in Testing and Education Resource Center.
There is a mix of text and video that can help get you started with these essential productivity tools.
Find the Resource Center via our main "Databases" page or our "Education" listings. If you're working from home, you'll need to log in using your library card for access. Then, once you're in, you'll create a personal profile, so you can keep track of your progress. From there, go to "Career Tools" and "Basic Computer Skills."
01/23/12
It has just just been reported that Illinois Senator Mark Kirk suffered an ischemic stroke over the weekend . While doctors are optomistic regarding his recovery, this might be a good time to become aware of the signs, symptoms and treatments for such an event.
The Internet Stroke Center has a brief overview of ischemic stroke, noting that it "... occurs when an artery to the brain is blocked. The brain depends on its arteries to bring fresh blood from the heart and lungs.... If the artery remains blocked for more than a few minutes, the brain cells may die. This is why immediate medical treatment is critical." The related article on stroke includes a list of warning signs, including:
- Sudden numbness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body,
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech,
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes,
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
- Sudden severe headache with no known cause.
The library also owns a number of books on the topic of stroke and you can find numerous informational overviews and magazine journal articles from the library's databases for health information (requires library card login).
01/17/12
The community that manages Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia have announced that they will "black out" the English-language version of the site Wednesday, January 18, in protest of two bills before the US Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate. A number of other sites, such as WordPress and BoingBoing have joined in the protest, as well. Other prominent sites that oppose the legislation, such as Google and Twitter, have chosen not to go dark, but may show alternate forms of protest.
The bills are mainly supported by organizations from the motion picture and music industries, who claim that measures are necessary to prevent pirating of copyrighted content through sites like YouTube.
Opponents believe that the bills make sites like Google and YouTube liable for their users' copyright violations and that they ultimately threaten to "kill the internet" as an efficient way of sharing information.
There are some sites that attempt to give a balanced overview, and you can also find plenty of newspaper and magazine articles about the issue in the library's research databases (requires library card for access).
Where do you stand on the issue? Add your comments.
12/20/11
Could that old office building be an archtectural gem? On Tuesday, December 20, WBEZ radio had a feature story about a group of students and faculty from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who have taken on the task of documenting architecturally significant municipal, commericial and religious buildings in the Cook County suburbs from the frequently-overlooked 1930-1970 period. These and previous findings constitute the Landmarks Illinois "Recent Past Survey," which includes many Arlington Heights buildings, such as St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church and Grandt's Shell station on Northwest Highway. You can search/browse the full database (for Arlington Heights and many other communities) or enjoy some slideshows of select communities from the Survey's homepage. If you're further interested in Arlington Heights history, you may want to check out some books on the Village's history from our collection. Also make sure to take a look at the site for the upcoming 125th anniversary celebration (quasquicentennial).
So, next time, look at that strip mall a little more closely...you might be surprised at what you see! Comment if you have any special memories of buildings listed there.
11/29/11
Tablet computers are all the rage this fall. The ever-popular iPad2 is making lots of headlines, along with some up-and-comers, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Kindle Fire. It's easy to get mired in the mix of features and price points. Fortunately, there are some good sources to help you decide which device is right for you. Consumer Reports' December Issue has a cover story on tablets and there are quite a few other recent articles from other magazines reviewing them (articles require AHML card for access outside the library). You might also want to check out the "review of reviews" that you get from ConsumerSearch.com.
Of course, reading an article isn't the same as actually holding a tablet in your hands. At the library's Welcome Desk, cardholders can borrow an iPad for two hours of in-library use. Staff there can also give you a quick "test drive" of the Kindle Fire, iPad and Motorola Xoom and are glad to give you some general pointers about using them for browsing and downloading ebooks from our Overdrive collection.
09/08/11
Do you own an ebook reader or love to read ebooks from our Overdrive media collection? Then you owe a degree of thanks to Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg and widely credited with being the person who uploaded the very first ebook. Hart passed away Tuesday at his home in Urbana, IL. Hart's connection to Illinois goes back a long way. It was on July 4, 1971 that he typed the full Declaration of Independence into a Univ. of Illinois mainframe computer, effectively the world's first ebook. He continued to add books and encourage others to help him, leading to Project Gutenberg. Since then, it has grown to a collection of over 36,000 ebooks, all free to view! You can search it directly, or discover titles from it (and other free ebook projects) through the "Search the Databases" box on our Databases page.
05/25/11
Noted activist Eli Pariser noted in his recent book and TED Talks lecture that our dependence on highly personalized online tools like Google and Facebook, which tailor results to our interests based on our patterns of use and social networks, has effectively placed many of us in a "filter bubble"--an online world where we never see opposing viewpoints or learn about issues beyond what we've listed as our existing interests. Ultimately, we face the possibility of being unaware of major issues, simply because we simply haven't expressed a previous interest in them.
Can we use the Library to break out of our bubbles? Perhaps! Databases found on the Library's Research page can be useful. Student Resources In Context provide browsable links to magazine articles and summaries to lots of current topics, (such as gun control or political parties), with input from thinkers across the political spectrum. Opposing Viewpoints Reference Center, SIRS Researcher and Issues and Controversies allow you to examine issues and see Pro/Con overviews of major debate topics. Of course, you can browse through our latest nonfiction to see points of view on almost any topic: left, right and center. The Library also features a broad spectrum of events to keep our users both entertained an informed.
How do you burst your "filter bubble?" Comment below or chime in via our Twitter feed.
If you need assistance with any of these tools, contact us by phone, chat, email or text message!
04/20/11
Most music lovers also love best-of lists (think of the movie High Fidelity). Rolling Stone is notably famous for their lists, including "100 Greatest Guitarists" and "500 Greatest Albums." Of course, everyone has choices they agree or disagree with on any of those lists.
Today, RS published on the web their 1989 list of the "100 Greatest Albums of the '80s." It was originally in the print publication, but only found its way online now (reinforcing that not everything is available online right away!). How do you think the list holds up today? For what it's worth, my great delight is that Richard and Linda Thompson's "Shoot Out the Lights" (available by request through LINKIn) makes the top 10!
You can also read recent and back issues of Rolling Stone online through Academic Search Premier on our Databases page (login required for at-home use).
03/25/11
CNN reports today that a number of new words have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), including a number of internet-related abbreviations, like "LOL" (laughing out loud). It also includes new uses for old words, like using "heart" as a verb (as in "I heart the library" instead of "I love the library.").
It's important to keep in mind that dictionaries like the OED are a record of language as it's actually used, not necessarily a guide to the proper use of language. That said, it's full of not only basic definitions, but also in-depth histories of word uses. The library subscribes to the online version of the OED, which you can use from the databases page of our site.
