"I certainly never write a review about a book I don't think worth reviewing, a flat-out bad book, unless it's an enormously fashionable bad book." --
says, John Gardner in Conversations with John Gardner
Quoted from 'Dictionary of Library and Information Science Quotations'     Edited by Mohamed Taher & L S Ramaiah. ISBN: 8185689423 (New Delhi , Aditya, 1994) p.150. Available @ Amazon.com

Friday, October 27, 2006

Unheard history: Who didn’t say what

PS. This is not from my desktop



Unheard history: Who didn’t say what

London, Oct. 26: Mr Spock never uttered the words, “It’s life Jim, but not as we know it” to Enterprise captain James Kirk. And Napoleon did not coyly plead, “Not tonight, Josephine” to his lover. A book published by Oxford University Press this week explains how many of the most famous one-line quotations from history are either fiction or adaptations of the original. “We’re not trying to be clever and tell people that what they believe is wrong,” Ms Elizabeth Knowles, an editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations who wrote What They Didn’t Say, told AP on Wednesday.

“We are interested in the how these expressions have developed,” she said. “It’s language on the move.” Sherlock Holmes, for example, who is widely credited with saying “Elementary, my dear Watson” to his sidekick, only managed “Elementary,” once, in creator Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1894 short story The Crooked Man. The full phrase was coined 21 years later by the hero of P.G. Wodehouse’s Psmith, Journalist, Knowles says. Former Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, asked to name the greatest challenge of his leadership, replied, “The opposition of events.”

That was changed to “events, dear boy, events” by someone whom Ms Knowles has yet to identify. During an interview marking his engagement to Diana Spencer, Prince Charles was asked whether he was in love, and replied, somewhat diffidently, “Yes, whatever that may mean.” In common usage, that has been changed to “Whatever ‘in love’ means.”

“Given the sad history of the marriage, it takes on a new resonance,” said Ms Knowles. Misquotations often flourish, she said, “because they catch the moment better than the original. When we remember things, we all edit them.” According to her book, what the Star Trek hero Spock actually said was “No life as we know it.” It was changed in Star Trekkin’, a song released in 1987 by British band The Firm. What’s more, Captain Kirk and other members of the Enterprise crew did not issue the famous “Beam me up” order until the fourth Star Trek film when what Kirk said was, “Scotty, beam me up.”

The book adds that there is no record of the French queen, Marie Antoinette, speaking of the French peasantry, ever saying, “Let them eat cake.” “This is a case where someone who seemed to epitomise the thoughtless frivolity of the time comes together with a well-known phrase from later years,” said Ms Knowles. Similarly, “Not tonight, Josephine” came from the title of a 1915 song and was later mistakenly attributed to Napoleon, she said. [source: Deccan Chronicle on the web]

See more review "Elizabeth Knowles" What They Didn’t Say @ Google

Monday, October 23, 2006

Web Curator: A harvesting tool for use in libraries

NB. This following info is not from my desk:
PS. This is not a talk about the position of Web master (aka Web curator)

  • SourceForge.net: Web Curator Tool
  • Harvesting Digital Heritage
    New Zealand-led partnership breaks new ground in the management of the world’s digital heritage by developing new system for collecting web pages for digital heritage archives.
    The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mãtauranga o Aotearoa, The British Library and Sytec, a subsidiary of TelstraClear, have announced the successful development of a web harvesting management system.
  • British Library develops web crawling system for preserving webpages
  • Skip to comments. Digital archiving gains new tool, @ www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1709017/posts
  • Digital Preservation Blog's Initiatives & Tools
  • Event: An International Symposium on Digital Curation
    By Jill Hurst-Wahl @ mithdara's Bloglines Preserving Access to Our Digital Future: An International Symposium on Digital Curation, Chapel Hill, N.C., April 19-20, 2007
  • Much more Google


    Technocarati
    Web curator
    Web harvesting
    Copyright issues
    Digital Libraries
    Digital archives
    Digital Preservation
    Digital-libraries
    Digital Culture
  • Wednesday, October 11, 2006

    Kiran Desai wins 'Man Booker' prize - Canadian media coverage


    [image source Ottawa Citizen]

    Questions a writer can't avoid, SIMON HOUPT, The Globe and Mail, Print Edition 10/10/06 Page R1
    Here's a story to cheer the dark hearts of rejected writers everywhere. When Kiran Desai began shopping her novel The Inheritance of Loss to potential agents and publishers a couple of years ago, doors slammed in her face all the way around the world. It's not because she was unknown: Her debut novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, had received effusive reviews and decent sales. Besides, her mother is the celebrated writer Anita Desai.


    Media reports:
  • Kiran Desai wins Booker Oct 11, 2006 01:00 | Toronto Star
  • Indian writer Kiran Desai takes Booker
    On-line 10/10/06 07:07 PM ! The Globe and Mail
  • Booker finalists are out montrealgazette.com
  • Indian writer Kiran Desai wins prestigious Booker literary prize, Vancouver Sun
  • Writer Kiran Desai wins Man Booker Prize, The Westfall Weekly News, Canada
  • Writer Kiran Desai wins Man Booker Prize, Ottawa Recorder, Canada
  • Writer Kiran Desai wins Man Booker Prize, Pierceland Herald, Canada
  • Writer Kiran Desai wins Man Booker Prize, Hinesberg Journal, Canada
  • Indian novelist Kiran Desai wins Man Booker, CTV.ca, Canada

    More from Google News
  • Thursday, October 05, 2006

    Web journals threaten peer-review system

    Thanks Pamela J Howard, for this information.

    Found on MSN.COM
    Web journals threaten peer-review system (9/30/06)
    Scientists frustrated with academic journals can publish research online
    By Alicia Chang, Associated Press
    Updated: 5:01 p.m. ET Oct 1, 2006

    LOS ANGELES - Scientists frustrated by the iron grip that academic journals hold over their research can now pursue another path to fame by taking their research straight to the public online. Instead of having a group of hand-picked scholars review