Monday, March 30, 2009

Goodbye friends


Some of my friends have been deleted.  If you are one of them, please don’t take it personally. I was running out of time in the day to read it all.

I reduced my Facebook friends list by about half. I also reduced the number of people I am following on Twitter significantly. But the one reduction that will buy me the most time, is cutting my subscriptions on Google Reader by about 65%. 

I figure the really important news will be retweeted and reblogged by someone I do follow.

So,  farewell old friends…..



Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Library Society of the World “Shover and Maker Award” winner


 

carolyne iiI thank you all for your confidence in me and my abilities. Without you I would never have won this prestigious Library Society of the World “Shover and Maker” award, let alone been nominated for it.

I have been a shover and a maker for many years and am finally rejoicing that someone else has recognized my unique talents.  See: http://www.shoversandmakers.net/sm-award-winners-2009  I should be there somewhere.

 

image

After a degree in chemical engineering and a masters in library science, I am now in my 22nd year with Xerox. I am located in the postmodern structure at the corner of Winston Churchill and the QEW in Mississauga, ON, CANADA.

This last year, in order to win this award, I completed the following – among other things:

  • updated internal library web pages
  • negotiated contracts with a number of big name library suppliers
  • developed and implemented a system to import all the MARC records for our ebook collection (over 12K titles) into our library catalogue
  • worked really hard at understanding US/Canada corporate copyright agreements
  • learned how to build things in Second Life
  • twittered (tweeted?) like mad
  • designed/implemented/populated a database of courses and conferences in our area of interest with web interface
  • supported engineers, chemists, physicists, etc. at two locations in two countries, thousands of miles apart, and kept most of them happy
  • attended SLA in Seattle
  • championed a library booth at an internal technical conference
  • found someone else to handle the interaction with the US government’s iEdison system
  • got a new laptop with vista and had them uninstall it and install XP
  • won an internal award for my community work (foster family for Dog Guide puppies)
  • won $100 gift certificate from SLA for completing the 23-things project (months have gone by and I have not seen the money though)
  • became webmaster for CFUW Oakville

Twitter - http://twitter.com/carolyne/
Facebook - www.facebook.com/people/Carolyne-Sidey-Darimont/508741970
blog – http://carolyne-stuff.blogspot.com
second life – CarolyneSidey Xerox
Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/carolyne/
Webshots – http://community.webshots.com/user/cdarimont
meebo – _carolyne_
email – carolyne (dot) sidey (at) xerox (dot) com 
          library (dot) blogger (at) gmail (dot) com



Monday, March 23, 2009

Ada Lovelace Day : Ruth Adams


Just who is Ada Lovelace you may ask and why am I posting about her.

To honor the birthday of Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer, 1500+ people have signed a pledge to profile a woman in technology on March 24.  This is my contribution. Many people are blogging about her and other women of science. Ruth Wilson of the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology emailed to let us know that their guest blogger from today is the great-great-great niece of Ada - Honora Smith, Operational Research and Management Science at the University of Southampton.

Ada Lovelace, according to Wikipedia:

“Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815, London – 27 November 1852, Marylebone, London), born Augusta Ada Byron, was the only legitimate child of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron. [the famous poet, Lord Byron] She is widely known in modern times simply as Ada Lovelace. She is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the "first programmer" since she was writing programs—that is, manipulating symbols according to rules—for a machine that Babbage had not yet built. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities.”

I have chosen the first women from Canada to be granted a patent – Ruth Adams. She was granted a patent in 1855 (before Canada was Canada) for a Reverse Cooking Stove – one of only 490 issued that year.

From List of Canadian patents from the beginning of the Patent Office, June, 1824, to the 31st of August, 1872 (1882)

No. 492-ADAMS, (R.,) of the City of Toronto, in the County of York, for a "Reverse Cooking Stove." Quebec, dated 20th January, 1855.

I found very little about our Mrs Adams. I looked in every reasonable resource on my local library’s database site. None had any information on Ruth Adams. I did find her name misspelled as “Addams.” The best place for information was inventivewomen.com (http://www.inventivewomen.com/library/library_ruthadams_on.shtml) where she has a full page. This is her only invention, but from the language and drawings in the application, they assume she was well education and bold enough to try.

“Ruth wrote, "My invention has the following advantage over other cooking stoves in use... cleanliness, beauty and convenience. Cleanliness, the smoke and ash are so secured that no inconvenience can arise therefrom. Beauty, as even the foot and kettle can be kept bright and clean. Convenient, as it's parts can be used within the whole."”

She was married (Reverend James Adams) and lived in Toronto. Her husband was from Esquesing, Halton Co. (where I currently live – now Oakville, Milton, Georgetown – Esquesing being near Georgetown) She had been widowed by the time she submitted the patent application and there is no mention of children.



21 years


Today is my anniversary at Xerox.

21 years ago!!



Thursday, March 19, 2009

FIS2132H - The Literature of Science and Technology


Went into Toronto yesterday to speak to the  FIS2132H - The Literature of Science and Technology  class at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Studies.

I want to thank Patricia Meindl for inviting me. Patricia is teaching this class and is the Chemistry Librarian for UofT.

Other invited speakers were Kathryn FitzGerald from MaRS and Leila Fernandez, Science Librarian at York University.

They were a very interested class, asking relevant and probing questions. I enjoyed seeing the UofT campus again – some things have changed, much is still the same after 28 years. (28!!! OMG)What is always the same are the BBQ Pork Buns at the Yung Sing bakery on Baldwin St.    Delicious



Thursday, March 12, 2009

I am a winner!!


 

Just received this email:

Thank you for participating in SLA’s 23 Things. I am pleased to inform you that you are the recipient of $100 for completing all 23 Things. The prizes were generously donated by Dialog and Dow Jones.

At the SLA Leadership Summit in Savannah, 23 names were drawn from a hat and the 23 Things winners were announced to resounding applause. In addition to $100, you will also receive a PDF certificate of completion signed by SLA 2008 President Stephen Abram and CEO Janice Lachance to show [to] your management!

Congratulations on completing all 23 Things! Your hard work is an inspiration to our members and your new skills will be a benefit to you and your organization.

Sincerely,

Stacey Bowers