Freedom of Information Act June 15, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentHow do I request something from the Freedom of Information Act. I’m looking for statistics from the state of California that could be politically embarassing but it is important that I have them in order to highlight an important issue. I hope they comply with my request!
Cheers.
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: FOIA is a federal law. States have similar, but not identical, open records laws for their state records. You’re going to have to know which state agency has the data you need and then make a request following the guidelines of California’s open records laws. Here’s a “pocket guide” that looks pretty useful regarding the mechanics of accessing records: http://www.thefirstamendment.org/capra.html Here’s the pertinent state statute on the web: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/gov/6250-6270.html It’s about a million words long, but there do seem to be some specifics on how to make a request. Here’s an 84 page “summary”: http://ag.ca.gov/publications/summary_public_records_act.pdf
Where are the rest? June 13, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentIf you’re capable of giving a serious answer, I would like to ask you why only 297 questions are listed here
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: The “over 10,000″ refers to the questions and comments in the loose-leaf paper notebook in the lobby of Perkins Library. Please go to http://www.lib.duke.edu/suggest/ and see the links for samples (actually, most all of them) from the “Perkins Lobby edition” back to 1999, with a more selective sample through October 1993. Maybe someday the gap will be closed, but it’s a lot of work to retroactively digitize this stuff. The 297 questions (it should be 298 after this question) refers to the online-only version of the suggestion book, also available from the above webpage.
pope names June 13, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentDear Answer Person,
With the recent papal transition,I was wondering how they chose names such as John Paul and Benedict to substitute their originial names, and why do they bother to change the names in the first place?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: In the New Catholic Encyclopedia in Perkins Reference (282.03 N535 2003), vol. 11, pp. 506-7, the article “Popes, Names of” discusses this. A new name isn’t a requirement, but is a long-standing Church tradition. In early Church history there was a desire to change a person’s “pagan” name to one sounding more genuinely Roman, and there’s always been a desire to show reverence for earlier popes whose views were respected or whose work was well known by the incoming pope. It’s been hundreds of years or more since a pope took a name not used by a previous pope (or combined them, in the case of John Paul I). Dropping his birth name also symbolizes a total dedication to the office being assumed.
Incidentally, in very early Church history instead of II, a second pope went by Junior (or the Latin equivalent).
This, of course, would be an excellent reference question for the folks over in the Divinity School Library. They can probably dig up lots of information on the subject.
NPR radio had a segment on “How Papal Names are Chosen,” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4586228 but AP hasn’t listened to it.
Your identity June 13, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentIf you’ve been following the news recently (i.e. the past two weeks), you would have read/seen/heard that Deep Throat finally revealed his identity. Now, Felt is pretty old. I was wondering if you become as old as he is (which may be a long time from now or very soon), could you divulge your identity and those of your predecessors?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: AP is immortal, so this issue shouldn’t ever come up. What predecessors?
Deep Throat June 13, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentAP, despite what the press is saying, are you Deep Throat?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: I’ll tell you if you’ll meet me at midnight in the lowest level of the Bryan Center parking garage. I’ll be wearing a long trenchcoat and a battered fedora pulled down over my face.
august travel June 13, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentAP- (a.k.a carmen sandiego…where in the world did they ever get that lame name)
i want to take my flame on vacation somewhere on the mediterranean-like the amalfi coast. can you name a place that’s somewhat secluded but has a night life that also comes alive?
oh, and i’d like to knock the girls socks off without breaking the piggy bank so Monaco will have to wait. damn the dollar.
word.
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Which lame name? Answer Person or Carmen San Diego? I guess “Carmen” and “San Diego” sort of go together since they’re both latin sounding. I think it’s just supposed to be something cute to appeal to kids, not something that adults are supposed to find witty.
Anyway, I recommend that you look at one of the travel guides in the library, like the Rough Guide to Italy (Perkins Reference 914.504 I88, R856x). Or purchase a Lonely Planet guide; they have a nice balance for normal people: not just hostels for backpackers and not the high-end stuff for old tourists in bermuda shorts, but a range in between.
Being held captive by the library in a secret carrol, AP hasn’t had the opportunity to investigate these places in person.
I think that getting a mix of the two things (secluded as well as a spicy night life) will be difficult. Maybe spend part of the time in a quiet, romantic village, and part of the time in a more cosmopolitan tourist spot. I’ve heard that Italy will have a more mature crowd than Greece, which will have a higher proportion of drunk teenagers. In the summer, you’re going to get crowds of people from northern Europe wherever you go.
chat rooms and forums June 13, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentI remember back in the day, chat rooms were all the rage. It was why most people got internet in the first place. Are there actually any good chat rooms? How about web forums?
I’m one of those sophisticated types who discuss films, not ‘movies’ and read books, not pulp fiction from the best sellers list. Any tips?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is still around, and there are still clients for this. For windows clients, check a site like tucows: http://www.tucows.com/downloads/Windows/Internet/IRC/ . There are millions of chat rooms, and I’ll leave it to your discretion as an adult as to which are “good” or not (some are and some aren’t). Same goes for web forums and bulletin boards and newsgroups and even email lists.
When you come down to it, what’s the difference between movies and films? Some academics study the Three Stooges and many academic libraries have collections of pulp fiction. Like fine wine, maybe it just needs to age a few years until there’s no more interest from the hoi polloi, whom you wish to avoid.
yo, yo, sex June 13, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commenthey my girlfriend recently got on the pill and things have changed. we used to have sex several times in a row and if we didn’t it wasn’t her fault, you know. now that she’s on the pill though, we can pretty much only do it once a day. Does the pill make a woman less able to lubricate her insides? What’s up with that? Sorry for the personal/sexual content of this question. is there anything we can do? Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Like all librarians, AP must avoid medical (and legal, and tax) questions. Especially when braggartly exaggeration might be involved. For some background information, however, I can point you to the excellent MedLine Plus website from the National Library of Medicine: http://medlineplus.gov/ You can search here for delicate topics with the confidence that it will lead you to authentic medical websites as opposed to what you might get through a Google search. An article on the birth control pill from the Mayo Clinic makes no mention of such side effects, but there’s a wealth of other information that the NLM website leads you to.
Fun, smart books. June 10, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentNow that it’s summer and I have fewer textbooks to read, I’m looking for some fun reading. I loved all the Dan Brown books (eg. DaVinci Code) because they were highly entertaining but at the same time somewhat intelligent (I’m a science geek!). Any suggestions for similar books that I could read? Thanks!
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: For a medival angle, perhaps something from Umberto Eco, such as Foucault’s Pendulum or The Name of the Rose). For a sophisticated mystery, maybe something from John Le Carre or one of the spy novels of Graham Greene.
You might want to go to the database NoveList. You can get to it from the Articles and Databases interface at the library’s website. If you look up a book, you can click the link “Find Similar Books.” This gives you a list of topics related to the book you looked up (for The Da Vinci Code it includes “women crytographers” and “Holy Grail”) that you can click as Required or Preferred (or not at all), publication date, length, and so forth. Since this is a bit cumbersome and some books have very few subjects, it might help to just look at the reviews availble from NoveList, Literature Resource Center, or one of our other fine databases.
Itchy and Scratchy vs. Tom and Jerry June 10, 2005
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Uncategorized , add a commentIf the duos were to get into a duel, who do you think would win and why? Also it would be interesting to consider different combinations (e.g. Itchy and Jerry vs. Tom and Scratchy).
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: I think Itchy is by far the most ruthless and brutal of these cute, cuddly creatures, so I&S would win in a duel. But since the different species fight each other, I think it’s more logical for Itchy and Jerry to team up to totally decimate Tom and Scratchy. It wouldn’t be pretty.
