Evernote August 22, 2008
Posted by Tiffany in : Cool tools, Research Help, Tips for students , 2commentsWish you had a photographic memory? Me too, but since that’s not an option, I use Evernote. Never heard of it? Let me fill you in.
In a nutshell: Evernote is an application that allows you to collect information as you encounter it. What do I mean?
Viewing a website or an email and want to remember a certain passage or image? Just highlight it and copy it to Evernote. Looking through a friend’s class notes and see something you missed? Take a picture of it and upload it to Evernote. The same goes for whiteboards, business cards, fliers, and more! Text within images that you copy to Evernote are completely searchable. Even photos of handwritten notes! Glued to your QWERTY board? Use the phone application to send ideas, to-do lists or other reminders as they come up.
The best part (besides the fact that it’s free!) is that there is a web-based version, so you’re not tied to your desktop. Search your information from your laptop in the Perk or on your web-ready cell phone.
What else? Keep your information private or share it with your friends. Add tags or notes to make your images and entries more searchable or sortable. Want to browse by dates? You can do that too. For some additional bells and whistles, use the Windows or Mac application too (don’t worry, it syncs with the web version).
Still a little confused? Check out this short YouTube video from the creators of Evernote:
New exhibits in Perkins Library August 12, 2008
Posted by Paolo in : Exhibits, Life in the library , add a comment
If you’ve walked through the lobby of Perkins Library in the past few days you’ve surely noticed the beautiful new exhibit cases that were installed there last week. The other morning on my way in I saw Mary Walter, the Assistant Director of Development for the library, taking photos of the new cases and the shimmering reflections from the lights above them. It reminded me a little bit of the Georges Rousse Bending Space project in downtown Durham a couple of years ago, and I asked Mary if I could post a photo here (see one of them here on the right).
The new exhibit cases are now full, with materials from an exhibit titled Pivotal Books / Personal Reflections, which explores the personal nature of books and the relationships that exist between reader and written word. We hope you’ll visit the exhibit in the lobby, and also the exhibit web site, where we invite you to submit your own reflections on books that were pivotal to you and see what other visitors to the exhibit have already sent in.
Just around the corner from the Perkins lobby, in the hallway between the Rare Book Room and the Special Collections Reading Room, is another new exhibit, featuring photographs by Olive Pierce, documenting life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Maine fishing communities, and Iraq. This exhibit will be up through December 2008.
Both of these exhibits, as well as other library exhibits from the past, are available on the exhibits page on library web site.
Keep tabs on your laptop with tracking software August 6, 2008
Posted by Emily in : Cool tools, Duke researchers, Life in the library, Tips for students , add a commentIt’s so tempting to leave your books and laptop in your favorite study spot while you head to the bathroom or to The Perk for a refill. Unfortunately, it only takes seconds for that precious laptop — along with the months’ worth of work saved to its hard drive — to vanish.
In response to what has become a problem on campuses nation-wide, a group of professors and grad students from the University of Washington, the University of California-San Diego and the University of California-Davis has developed Adeona, a free open-source program that can help users locate lost or stolen laptops.
One particular advantage of Adeona (named for the Roman goddess of safe returns) is that only owners have the ability to track their laptops — users aren’t required to report their information to a third party. In fact, Adeona’s website boasts that it is “the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service.”
Take a few minutes to download and install Adeona, and post your thoughts on the new software here.
