Different ways to approach reading:  reading one book for a year  "I'm reading the OED so you don't have to," says Ammon Shea on his slightly masochistic journey to scale the word lover's Mount Everest:  the Oxford English Dictionary.  In 26 chapters filled with sharp wit, sheer delight, and a documentarian's keen eye, Shea shares his year inside the OED, delivering a hair-pulling, eye-crossing account of reading every word.  http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/0399535055/ws00-20  reading books in a particular order:  winners (Pulitzer prize, Newbery medal, Caldecott medal), titles beginning with certain letters

Library Snapshot Day provides a way for libraries of all types across a state, region, system or community to show what happens in a single day in their libraries.  How many books are checked out?  How many people receive help finding a job?  Doing their taxes?  Doing their homework?  This initiative provides an easy means to collect statistics, photos and stories that will enable library advocates to prove the value of their libraries to decision-makers and increase public awareness.  http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/statelocalefforts/snapshotday

Library Snapshot Days by state  See what's happening in your state at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/statelocalefforts/snapshotday/states

Digital humanities is an area of research and teaching at the intersection of computing and the disciplines of the humanities.  Digital humanities (often abbreviated DH) currently incorporates both digitized and born-digital materials and combines the methodologies from traditional humanities disciplines (such as history, philosophy, linguistics, literature, art,archaeology, music, and cultural studies) and social sciences with tools provided by computing (such as data visualisation, information retrieval, data mining, statistics, text mining, digital mapping), and digital publishing.  In an interview on the subject of her work, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, an American scholar and exponent of the digital humanities, offers this practical definition:  "For me it has to do with the work that gets done at the crossroads of digital media and traditional humanistic study.  And that happens in two different ways.  On the one hand, it’s  bringing the tools and techniques of digital media to bear on traditional humanistic questions. But it’s also bringing humanistic modes of inquiry to bear on digital media."  Related subfields of digital humanities have emerged like software studies, platform studies, and critical code studies.  Digital Humanities also intersects with new media studies and information science as well as media theory of composition and game studies, particularly in areas related to digital humanities project design and production.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_humanities

On Oct. 31, 2014 the City of San Antonio, The Nature Conservancy and Bat Conservation International (BCI) announced they have secured 1,521 acres adjacent to BCI’s Bracken Bat Cave, home to the largest colony of Mexican free-tailed bats in the world.  The property, known as Crescent Hills, was purchased for $20.5 million and was previously slated to become a 3,500-home subdivision.  “With passion and commitment, hundreds of citizens, community leaders and organizations came to together to protect a globally important piece of the Texas Hill Country,” said Ron Nirenberg, San Antonio District 8 City Councilman who led the City effort.  “This is a huge win for San Antonio and the entire state of Texas.”  Crescent Hills is located 30 minutes northwest of San Antonio in one of the fastest growing corridors in the state of Texas.  The property is ecologically valuable on a number of fronts.  In addition to its close proximity to the globally renowned bat cave, the property lies entirely within the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone.  As one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world, the Edwards Aquifer provides drinking water for roughly two million central Texans, including the entire city of San Antonio.  The property also contains habitat for federally endangered golden-cheeked warblers, which nest only in the Texas Hill Country.  “The conservation effort also ensures a valuable ecosystem service:  pest control.  At the height of summer, the Bracken bat colony eats 140 tons of insects each night, as more than 15 million bats are foraging in the surrounding countryside. Nationwide bats save farmers $23 billion annually in reduced crop damage and pesticide use.  “The emergence of these millions of bats, as they spiral out of the cave at dusk for their nightly insect hunt is an unforgettable sight,” said Andrew Walker, executive director of Bat Conservation International.  “The protection of Crescent Hills helps ensure this centuries-old wildlife habitat will continue to provide a safe home for one of the region’s most unique and important inhabitants.”   http://www.batcon.org/files/Press_Release_-_Conservation_Deal_Saves_Worlds_Largest_Bat_Colony_on_Halloween.pdf

Modal verbs are a type of auxiliary verb which express the mood of another verb.  They are used to express ideas such as possibility, prediction, speculation, deduction and necessity.  Find meanings and examples for the verbs, can, could, may, might, should, ought to, shall, and will at http://www.learn-english-today.com/lessons/lesson_contents/verbs/modals.html

Follow-up to story on octothorpe Telephone systems people gave us star (*) and maybe octothorpe (#).   I think of # as number and pound--although hash is just one syllable and easy to remember.  Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake do a clever two-minute hashtag dialogue at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dzaMaouXA

Eight Points, a poem by Martha Esbin   Octothorpe!  Octothorn, octalthorp, octothorp, octatherpas.  Octothorpe!  Hatch, hash, hashtag, pound, sharp, number sign.  Octothorpe! Tic-tac-toe, gate, crunch.  Eight-pointed symbol from ancient times for modern times.  Octothorpe!

Follow-up to story on Seuss book  My husband and I are both planning to read Oh, the Places You'll Go!  (a short book of verse for "out-starting upstarts of all ages" that takes about five minutes to get through) today in celebration of  Read Across America Day.  My new project will be to read a poem every day.

Feb. 27, 2015  Two antique books dating to at least the 17th century that were looted from Italy have turned up in California--a relief for the Italian government, which will get the rare tomes back, and a surprise for the San Francisco buyer, who was unaware they were stolen.  The books, “Stirpium Historiae” and “Rariorm Plantarum Historia Anno 1601,” were stolen from the Historical National Library of Agriculture in Italy and sold to the U.S. buyer in San Francisco, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.  The volumes were recovered in July 2014.  The books were among 19 stolen cultural antiquities that will be repatriated to the Italian government this week following 11 separate investigations throughout the U.S.  Homeland Security agents also recovered three frescoes stolen from clandestine sites in Pompeii.  Other stolen items included several valuables dating to 300-400 BC, a 17th century cannon, a Roman bronze bust from the 2nd century,  5th century Greek pottery and the lid to the ancient Roman marble sarcophagus the Sleeping Ariadne.  The cannon was found smuggled inside a large piece of tractor equipment.  It had been shipped from Egypt to the U.S.  Veronice Rocha  http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-400-year-old-books-italy-20150227-story.html

On March 4, 2015, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in King v. Burwell, a case challenging the availability of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) premium subsidies in states with a Federally-run Marketplace (including states with a Federally-facilitated Marketplace (FFM) and states with a Partnership Marketplace).  In addition to expanding eligibility for Medicaid, the ACA increases access to affordable health insurance and reduces the number of uninsured by providing for the establishment of Marketplaces that offer qualified health plans and administer premium subsidies and cost-sharing reductions to make coverage affordable.  The King v. Burwell petitioners are challenging the legality of the IRS regulation allowing premium subsidies in states with a Federally-run Marketplace as contrary to the language of the ACA.   MaryBeth Mususeci  Read issue brief at http://kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/are-premium-subsidies-available-in-states-with-a-federally-run-marketplace-a-guide-to-the-supreme-court-argument-in-king-v-burwell/

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the scientist who won the 2015 Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences tweeted that the color, “That Dress” isn’t an optical illusion but rather a brain failure.”  The color of “that dress” is one of the current controversial optical illusions sweeping the internet today.  According to most people who saw the dress, the dress was white and gold but the manufacturer only produces that design in black and blue. The dress color is showing an optical illusion due to our brain “removing” some colors, as it would to keep objects from looking red during sunsets.   http://www.smnweekly.com/the-color-of-that-dress-isnt-an-optical-illusion-its-brain-failures-says-tyson/18957/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1263  March 2, 2015  On this date in 1717, The Loves of Mars and Venus was the first ballet performed in England.  On this date in 1962, Wilt Chamberlain set the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.