Learning | Apronym and Kibosh

I stumbled across a new word today, while I was trying to look up the origin of another word.  It all started when I used the word "kibosh" in conversation recently. You know, as in, putting the kibosh on something, to stop it. I knew what it meant, from context, but I really had no idea where it came from. So I decided to look it up. 

The Oxford English Dictionary (Cake!)

from Pete Prodoehl's photostream on Flickr.com.

Some rights reserved.

I would love to have this on my birthday cake!

I looked for kibosh in the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED is considered the best source for looking up word origins, but it wasn't much help this time. It declares the origin obscure (meaning nobody knows where the word originated,) but it also mentions that it could be Yiddish or Anglo-Hebraic. 

I decided to check our electronic databases. I didn't know if they would be any help, but I thought there might be an obscure article in a scholarly journal in there somewhere. So I went to Academic Search Premiere, and typed in "kibosh."  

That brought up too many news articles with headlines talking about putting the kibosh on things. 

I narrowed my results to scholarly journals. That cleared things up; instead of 66 articles, I had four. One of those four had a word in the title that I had never heard before: apronym. (The word kibosh was also in the article, as part of an apronym for BLOCKAGE; the article was not about the origin of kibosh.) 

Shoemaker in apron, holding his tools. (Cropped.)
from George Eastman House's photostream on Flickr.com.
No known copyright issues.

Never mind kibosh! 

I had to know more about apronym and its meaning. The word I accidentally found has nothing to do with the names of aprons. 

Apronym is a relatively new word; it is a portmanteau of the words a propos and acronym. (For a discussion of portmanteaus, just click on the above link to my 2013 post about them.)

Here's a link to the article where I found the word apronym. It gives some fun examples of apronyms, in which are acronyms that form a real word, with the words that form the acronym relating to the meaning of the word. For example, Seasonal Affective Disorder has an apronym of SAD. It might help to think of apronyms as plays on words, like puns.

She's Crafty | Crafty Resources

When you think of resources that might be available at your local library for crafting the first thought is obviously going to be about books. Library...books...they kind of go hand-in-hand. But did you know your local SSJCPL branch has more than books to help you in your crafty quests? Yuuup, we got the stuff...

In this post I'm going to introduce you, dear reader, to two resources you can access at your branch or on our website easy peasy.

The first resource is a database.

da.ta.base 
noun 
digital information collected and organized in one place from a variety or sources.

Easily searchable, retrievable, printable and sharable, databases are a very handy tool to have.

With our databases you can:

• Find repair information for your vehicle through the Auto Repair Reference Center

• Find your next read by browsing NoveList

• Perform searches of articles and pictures especially for children in Kids Search

Of course, I'm especially excited to talk about one database in particular, the Hobbies and Craft Reference Center! You read that right, crafters, we have an entire database bursting with all sorts of crafty information! Annnd you can access it 24 hours a day 7 days a week from home or during any hour your local branch is open on one of our public-use computers.

Yeeeah baby!

How does a database help you craft? Say you heard a friend talk about a papercutting craft called scherenschnitte and you wanted to learn more about this German art of cutting paper. This reminds you that you just recently read a blog about a library database that might have information about what you're looking for. You hop on your computer or head to your local branch and hop on one of theirs and...

ssjcpl.org -> Research -> Databases -> Fun!

1. Go to ssjcpl.org. 
2. Mouse over to Research.
3. In the menu that pops up, click on Databases. This will bring you to the Database Category page.
4. In this example, to reach the Hobbies and Craft Reference Center, you would click on the Do It Yourself category.
5. You would then click on the blue and underlined title for the database you want to play with.

Once inside the database you have a few options to find information.

• performing a Search
• browse by Category
• browse by Popular Sources
• clicking on the Featured Video
• or pressing the Get Started! button in the Crafts Spotlight area.

To continue our example, let's perform a search for "scherenschnitte".

At the very top of the search results is a promising entry, "Simplified Scherenschnitte". The search result entry tells me that it comes from a periodical, who wrote the article, which magazine it came from, and the date. It will also list thumbnails of pictures featured in the article. At the bottom of the entry it will have all the related files associated to this specific article; be it PDF, HTML, video, and animation. Click on the one you want and it will open your article or media in the browser for immediate consumption.

Once you open the article you have the option to simply read the article, print the article, email the article to yourself or a friend, find out how to cite the article in various formats (helpful if you were writing a research paper on German papercutting), get the permalink for blogging or share the article through your favorite social media sites.

Let's just say, you have options galore.

The next resource I want to highlight are magazines. 

mag.a.zine
Fun, floppy bundles of paper with photographs and/or illustrations.
Also known as: periodical, journal, glossy, zine...

I did a quick search of all of our periodical titles and was blown away that at this moment the library has about 860 different titles! Even though this number includes all languages, all ages, archived titles, and reference items, it's still an awesome number to behold.

Magazines are great for inspiration pick-me-ups. When I'm dealing with the crafting ho-hums and I can't think of anything to make, or I want to make something but I'm having major craft block--flipping through an issue or two usually gives me all sorts of ideas to play with.

And the tips! You will not believe all the awesome tips you can find in craft magazines. I'm thinking of starting a special magazine tip notebook that I can refer to any time I want. 

Get Inspired!

One of my favorite craft magazines is Paper Crafts. This magazine features paper crafted items submitted by designers. The designs are collected into sections and articles based on a theme or to showcase a craft technique, trend, or layout. This magazine in particular is up-to-date and innovative when it comes to trends in design, color palettes, new craft techniques, and what can be done with new products and tools. I never lay an issue of Paper Crafts down without at least a few ideas rattling around in my head.

Well, I hope this post was helpful and enlightening! If I can encourage at least one person to visit the Hobbies and Craft Reference Center or check out a magazine then I say my mission is a success.

Until next time--stay warm, stay informed, and keep it crafty!

Malia & Kaye

Learning | Ombudsman

Ombudsman

Recently, a co-worker stumbled across the word ombudsman while she was helping the customer look up some federal government job titles.  We talked about what an odd word it is.  

I remember an Ombudsman's Office at my undergraduate alma mater; it helped people get through red tape with things like housing, financial aid, legal matters, and so forth. But I never really looked up the word, and wondered where it came from.

I did look the word up in the dictionary; you will find the definition and etymology at the end of this post.  I'm hiding it at the end, because I want to show you a few things about using SSJCPL's website, www.ssjcpl.org.

Consulting the library catalog

I started by searching the catalog. I used both the classic and shiny new beta catalog, and found the same results in each of them. (Try out the shiny new catalog, and let us know what you think! We are still testing it and tweaking it a little bit, but it won't be long before it's the default search on our site.)

The only result from a keyword catalog search for ombudsman was

The Baby Boomer's Guide to Nursing Home Care. 

The catalog suggested trying the term ombudspersons, which yielded a 1973 document from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare: Child advocacy : report of a national baseline study

Learning | How about that weather?

This certainly has been a strange winter. Here in San Joaquin County, we are used to colder days, with rain and fog. After all, winter is supposed to be our wet season.

"Snow Roller," taken on January 27, 2014.
From Miranda Granche's photostream
 on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved.

While denizens of the San Joaquin Valley are enjoying unseasonably pleasant weather (but wishing for rain, because of the drought,) other parts of the United States are wishing they had a respite from the dreaded Polar Vortex.  So much snow and ice! You have seen it on the news, and in the social media. Even places that normally do not have freezing temperatures in the winter are getting snow.

A few days ago, one of my Facebook friends in Ohio posted pictures of a snow phenomenon I had never heard about: snow rollers. Some people call them snow tumbleweeds. 

If conditions are just right, the wind will make snowballs, all by itself. I found an article called "Mother Nature's snow balls" on one of SSJCPL's databases (EBSCO Host's Academic Search Premiere,) which explains that a combination of above-freezing temperatures and strong winds allow the softened snow to roll into balls.

"Snow rollers, snowballs made by the wind," 

from Duncan Rawlinson's photostream 
on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved.

You can read about snow rollers and other oddities of weather if you request the following title through SSJCPL's Link+ program:

Strange But True Weather, by Stacy B. Davids

You'll find a picture of a tumbleweed in The Cowboy ABC, by Chris Demarest.

Miss Moneypennypincher | Don't buy junk!

My husband likes to joke that I spend more time researching the things I buy than actually using the things I buy.  I guess he has a point.  If I spend my money, it is going to be on the best of something.  There is nothing worse than purchasing a piece of junk.  One of my favorite research tools is Consumer Reports, the magazine that researches and reviews pretty much everything, from juicers to Jaguars.  Growing up, I remember my family subscribed to the magazine and got it every month (and I always thought it was SO boring!).  Now that I have a family of my own, I find myself using the magazine all the time to make sure that I am spending my money wisely.  But, the magazine is not free.  Having access to all that info costs money  What if it is money you don't want to spend?

Once again, the library is at your service!  Perhaps the most obvious way you can access Consumer Reports at the library is to come in and look at the magazine.  Many of the libraries keep copies in the reference section, so that they cannot be checked out.  It's here for your viewing pleasure.

However, maybe you don't want to drive to the library and just want to access the magazine from home.  Should you shell out the $30 a year to get access to consumerreports.org?  You could, OR you could hop onto the library website:

Drag your cursor over "research"

Select "Databases"

Click "All databases"

Click "Masterfile Premier" (and then enter your library card number and PIN)

then "Publications" and type in "Consumer Reports".
Look over on the right ---every issue since 1991.

Voila!  Free access to Consumer Reports from home, for free! You just saved between $6.95 and $30!  Plus, you can use the money you just saved to buy something awesome!  Enjoy!

Joke of the day:
How do you make a money pizza?
----With all the dough you just saved getting Consumer Reports for free from the library!!!