Library Stuff

Not Library-Stuff, just a darned good video from the employees at Apple.

Alas, how true.

The library is gearing up for fall semester, it’ll be here before we know it. Announcements will fly out the door soon enough. But if you’re looking for something to read in the meantime, take a look at this well-researched article on compostable food and beverage containers from my hometown paper, The Herald (the home page is http://www.heraldnet.com/) in Everett, Washington.

Some of this came to my attention recently on Howard Garrett’s DirtDoctor.com site when someone suggested testing the new Sun Chips compostable bag in his compost pile. It took a long time there to begin to break down, but it finally did show signs of losing the battle to compost micro-organisms.

The article published Aug. 15, 2010, is called “What Packaging is Compostable? It’s Complicated” and is by staff writer Sarah Jackson. Here’s the beginning of the article:

Compostable is the new organic.

It’s a word increasingly showing up on food and beverage packaging.

Disposable cups, take-out containers, throw-away cutlery and potato chip bags emblazoned with the word are trickling into restaurants, grocery stores and coffee shops.

It means the material in question will biodegrade or break down into compost, a valuable, mulchlike material that gardeners use to improve soil and stop weed growth.

But, in an age of businesses eager to promote an eco-friendly image, the definition of compostable is changing quickly and causing widespread confusion.

If you think you can throw all compostable products in your backyard compost, think again.

Some compostable products will break down easily only if they make it to a commercial composting facility.

Others won’t break down at all because they simply aren’t made of the right materials, said Steve Mojo, the executive director of the New York-based Biodegradable Products Institute, which runs a national program that certifies compostables.

“There are many people out there that make claims that are, frankly, misleading,” Mojo said.

Even legitimately compostable packaging materials can be perplexing to consumers because many of them look exactly like traditional plastic products.

In much of the new compostable packaging, traditional plastics are replaced with similar looking, but biodegradable, corn-based plastics.

And, some corn-based plastics have No. 7 recycling symbols printed on them. But they shouldn’t go into your recycle bin with your soda bottles.

Confused?

You are not alone.

Though it is in the typical 1-sentence paragraph style found on many online newspapers, it’s worth the choppy presentation to read the whole thing. This is the science that will allow environmentally-minded consumers to make good choices, and to vote with their pocketbooks. Tell your fast food establishments you want them to serve you on a better type of disposable container.

There are a lot of good links included (like the Sins of Greenwashing – http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/ and ground-breaking composting researchers Cedar Grove Composting in Everett – http://www.cedar-grove.com/)

Though it is infrequent during the summer, the Library-News newsletter comes out several times during the fall and spring semesters, taking the place of the old paper copies of News You Can Use (RIP). That one began in the late 1990s and died an unattractive death around 2005 when we realized that mailroom clerks weren’t putting it in the boxes of our intended audience (faculty and GTAs).

Today I send notices electronically, often through MavWire, and I can’t believe all of the energy I put into distributing several thousand of those news sheets around campus. Now it has more news and images and is delivered to your email with no fuss about finding campus mail labels and manila envelopes. Or a typewriter with a good ribbon. Yup. Even used one of those on some of the mailing labels. Times have changed!

This link will take you to the subscription page for Library-News.

This link will take you to the web version of Library-News.

This was a great photo exhibit, but the building owners asked that the web site take down the images. I’ll leave this link because he has some great finds around New York City to take a look at.

I spent two years working at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, back before the big restoration began, and enjoyed unlimited wandering through the buildings. I usually had a camera with me, and loved photographing the interesting features but also what neglect had done to the island. And based upon that enjoyment, you can see why I find this discovery thrilling: The Abandoned Palace on Beekman Street.

Sharing the Genius: Library Conference Blog

A place for sharing what we’ve learned at conferences.

The most recent entry is at http://blog.uta.edu/sharethegenius/2010/05/27/iol-conference-2010-collaborative-grouping-online/ and reports on the Inovative Learning Online conference.

This year photos of library events have been sent to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. If you like and want a copy of any of these photos, you have a few choices. You can open them at the Star-Telegram (they have the full-sized digital photo) and save it (right click and save to where you want to keep it) or you can buy a print from the Star-Telegram. Or you can contact me, Maggie Dwyer, tell me which photo it is you want, and I can email you a copy of the digital file. Fees paid for prints purchased from the Star-Telegram are retained by the Star-Telegram.

http://click.star-telegram.com/category.php?id=41 will take you directly to the category of Library photos sent to the paper. You can go back through many months and find our events interspersed with other libraries in the region.

The most recent Friends of the Library meeting was also posted this week. Photos include Friends members with Bob Ray Sanders.

The UTA African-American Faculty and Staff Association presents the African-American Issues Forum – Violence in the African-American Community

On March 11, 2010, in the E. H. Hereford University Center, Palo Pinto Room, 6pm, present Ms. Joy Strickland, President and CEO, Dallas Mothers Against Teen Violence.

Ms. Strickland grew up in Dallas and attended Lincoln High School and the University of Texas, Austin. After a successful career in corporate America she returned to the neighborhood in which she grew up to raise two sons. In the summer of 1993 tragedy struck. Her oldest son Chris was home for the summer from Morehouse College and was killed in a random act of violence during a carjacking. Out of this personal tragedy Ms. Strickland organized Mothers Against Teen Violence (MATV), an organization that works to prevent violence among young people and that serves as a support network for other parents and young people dealing with violence in our community. She has won numerous awards for her work. She will come to UT Arlington to discuss the causes of violence in our community and how we can begin to address them.

All programs are open to students, faculty and staff and will be followed by a reception hosted by the members of the African-American Faculty and Staff Association. For more information or if you need special accommodations to fully participate in these programs/events, please contact Dr. Marvin Dulaney at 272-9068 or dulaney@uta.edu. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodations.

Image from Mashable.com

Want to use this time before classes start again to learn a new trick or two?

Thinking about Twitter? Then check out Mashable’s new text:

The twitter Guide Book.

Happy Tweeting!

GIS Day in Central Library

<-Jack Buchanan, Cassandra Lewis, and Taner Ozdil, Nov. 18 GIS Day.

Ruthie Brock, Darren Hayunga, and Josh Been, Nov. 18 GIS Day.

Also, photos appeared recently from the last Friends of the Library meeting:

Mick Cochran and Tommie Wingfield, Friends of the Library, Nov. 13.

David Meadows, Lynne Prater, and Betty Clark at the Nov. 13 Friends of the Library meeting.

Brenda McClurkin, Sondra Cochran, and Mike Cochran at the Nov. 13 Friends of the Library meeting.