Free Comic Book Day 2008!

I first heard of this awesome experience while in the Star Wars Line in 2005. (Yes, believe it or not, I was geeky enough to sleep, eat, work, and do my homework in line at a theater for three weeks, but somehow wasn't geeky enough to know that there was a holiday where places gave out free comics. Go figure.)

In any case, this Saturday is the big FCB Day, coming to an independent comic store near you! Click on the image above to be taken to the website, which answers all your questions ("What... they're really free?" Yes, Viriginia), and also provides a handy comic-book store locator for those of you not already on a first-name basis with the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.

Er, does he actually have a first-name? (Oh indeed he does: Jeff. Why, thank you again Wikipedia, haven of pop culture trivia.)

But I digress... Go enjoy yourself some free comics, and if you don't read comics (the mind boggles), then get an issue or two for your geeky friends and/or patrons. While I was at TLA, I attended this great session on graphic novels with Gene Luen Yang, Tuan Nguyen, and Laura Jewell. One of the library-programming suggestions was to ask your local comics shop ahead of time if they'll donate their extra FCBD copies to you the day afterward. They'd made great giveaways for teen programs and such (I'm pondering using them next year to lure geeky college students through our doors).

The Glow of Promotion

Today, UNT's Women's Studies Program held a ceremony to honor all female faculty promoted at UNT this year. I took photos, because, well, I'm a big camera dork, five of our librarians were promoted, and also because I was one of them: promoted to Librarian II (a year early--woohoo!!). Our president, Dr. Gretchen Bataille, and our new Provost, Dr. Wendy Wilkins, also came and spoke at the ceremony--it was quite nice.

Denton Reads Film Festival (photos)

Last night, the Denton Reads Film Festival double-feature at the Movie Tavern went beautifully. We've got a whole smattering of photos from the event on the Denton Reads Flickr page; click here to see more like the ones below.

Just a News Dump

Are you watching President Bush's State of the Union address? The glory of modern technology: I have the live webcast in a small window on my desktop while I work.

CPI Sues FCC Over U.S. Broadband Competition (via Slashdot).

Heard about NARA's deal with footnote.com? File that under "public information reformatted for private profit." Ah, but at least it's going online in some fashion, eh?

Yes, here it is: DOPA: The Sequel. Just what we've all been waiting for.

On 01.30.07, EDUCAUSE Live! is webcasting "Architectures for Collaboration—Roles and Expectations for Digital Libraries" for free. Register now!

Going the Distance... Learning

I only got to hear the beginning this morning, but the Diane Rehm show on NPR was discussing online higher education (you can now listen to it online). Interesting stats: 1.2 million students in wholly-online programs (both undergrad and graduate-level), but that jumps to 3.2 million when you're counting at the course-level, including students who take both online and on-campus courses (like myself). By 2008, it's predicted that 1 out of 10 students will be taking online courses.

Which reminded me that this Wednesday, 11/15, at 2pm there will be an open house to celebrate UNT's new Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. I'm particularly excited about this, not only because of my personal experience with and interest in online education, but also because while working at UNT's Center for Distributed Learning, I helped research the CTLA project. It is directed by my former boss, Dr. Phil Turner, and the new associate director is Kelly McMichael, one of the talented faculty members on the original Blended Learning project.

Digital Iconography

I really, really love when I get to use Photoshop for work purposes. It's work that feels like play!

...Except, of course, when Photoshop crashes three times in a row because my computer lacks sufficient memory to support it. Sigh. Between that and trying to load pdfs in a reasonal amount of time (since, you know, that's like 50% of my job), my boss and I are looking into possibly improving that situation with part of the annual materials budget. Here's hoping. In any case, here are the fruits of my Photoshop labor:

So tell me, does this icon indicate "CyberCemetery" to you? I wrote this criteria before I designed the image:

• simple
• little or no text
• indicate that it's an archive ("cemetery")
• indicate that it archives government info
• indicate that it archives websites

I started out with the idea of having a headstone read "CyberCemetery" and then be shown in a computer screen--but that was far too complex an image. And I wanted something more than just a headstone, which by itself doesn't really indicate what the CC is (I couldn't come up with any better representation of an archive than the headstone, though). Then it seemed obvious that ".gov" was the solution to the last two points, and made for a much more easily-read image.

Unrelated Banter:

• Yesterday, I was notified that my request to write two entires for the Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction has been granted--hooray! I'll be writing entries for Audrey Niffenegger and for her wondrous book The Time Traveler's Wife. (Unfortunately, my similar request for Douglas Adams and Hitchhiker's Guide were not granted; I'm guessing that someone else got there first.)
• Always wanted to write that Great American Novel? How about 50,000 words to start with? Join NaNoWriMo and UNT's novel-writing Mondays group to get yourself motivated.

Follow-Up to Banned Books Week

"Alton Verm's request to ban 'Fahrenheit 451' came during the 25th annual Banned Books Week. He and Hines said the request to ban 'Fahrenheit 451,' a book about book burning, during Banned Books Weeks is a coincidence."

Best line in the article:
"It's just all kinds of filth," said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read Fahrenheit 451.

I was glad to see, however, that the offended student proactively recommended her own substitute, "Ella Minnow Pea."

Thanks to BoingBoing and Wandering Eyre.