Today is one of the days the International Earth Rotation Service of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures sets aside to add or subtract a second from the atomic clock to "coordinate atomic and astronomical time."  In case you were feeling a little off.

Source: Chase's Calendar of Events, 2008. Lincoln Park Reference, R.905 C487A1

 

Among the many bicycling enthusiasts in Chicago are those who ride bikes as a method of transportation to work and others who work as a bike messengers, some who enjoy a leisurely ride down the lakefront path and others who are masters of the sometimes unnerving art of urban biking. Both nonprofit groups and the City of Chicago (Mayor Daley is a bicycling enthusiast) provide a variety of programming, resources, and events to promote cycling.

For an immediate introduction to these enthusiasts, join the herd on wheels at Daley Plaza (Dearborn & Washington) tomorrow (June 27, 2008) at 5:30 PM for Chicago’s Critical Mass, which convenes the last Friday of every month to celebrate riding bicycles.

The City of Chicago publishes a map of safe biking streets that is particular to the DePaul campus and its academic buildings. There’s also a general form to search a particular neighborhood.

The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation organizes annual rides and events that are staples in the bicycling community, including Bike the Drive and Bike to Work Week. Check out their web site for information on their outreach and advocacy programs, including how to sign up as a Bike Ambassador.

Don’t forget to wear your helmet!

EveryBlock Chicago is a mash-up of government information and Google Maps.  I LOVE the way it pulls together public information from disparate city agencies and departments and adds layers of relevance and accessibility.

You can locate crime reports, restaurant inspection scores, property transfers, street closures and even filming schedules. Search by address, zip code or neighborhood and you'll see a map loaded with the locations of each event. EveryBlock also includes business reviews from Yelp and lost and found ads from Craigslist. You can even look at pictures that have been geotagged in Flickr!  It's a really easy way to explore your neighborhood or your city.

Also known as the Summer Solstice, the first day of summer is the longest day of the year, and usually occurs on June 20th or 21st. This means that the North Pole is titled towards the sun, which happens only once a year (the opposite happens on December 21st when the South Pole is titled towards the sun, called the Winter Solstice).

  *

 

In the United States, there will be about 14 1/2 hours of daylight today, so get out there and make the most of it!

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* Van H. English, "Solstice," in AccessScience@McGraw-Hill, http://www.accessscience.com.

Have an image you need to resize and crop, or perhaps a photo with a bad case of the red-eye?  In order to do that, you could use a photo editing software like Photoshop, Corel or Paintshop Pro.  However,  professional-level software can be expensive. Besides, what if you need it right away?  Luckily, there is a great alternative, and it can be downloaded immediately for the low, low price of $0.00!

Paint.NET is a free photo editing software for computers that run on Windows. The magazine PC World was so impressed they included it as #19 on their “Top 100 Products of 2007” list.  Paint.NET has a very intuitive user interface, and dozens of editing tools.  You can easily resize and flip an image, tweak the color or contrast, and use features like the Clone Stamp for perfect retouches.  Special effects can be used to  make a photograph look like an ink sketch or painting.  More experienced users will want to experiment with “layers,” which allow you to combine two or more pictures.

The most difficult thing about Paint.NET is remembering where to go to download it.  It’s at: http://www.getpaint.net  (NOT paint.net), and installation takes between five and ten minutes.  Help documentation, tutorials and a user forum are also located on the site. 

Give it a try, you have nothing to lose but your red-eye!

On June 28-29, DePaul University will not have access to e-journals hosted on the Blackwell-Synergy and Wiley Interscience platforms. During this scheduled downtime, all Blackwell-Synergy e-journals will be transferred to the Wiley Interscience platform. On June 30th, DePaul University’s access to Blackwell-Synergy and Wiley Interscience e-journals will be restored on the Wiley Interscience Platform.

 

With titles like Thought Bombs, who wouldn’t be tempted to take a peek and turn a few pages? For those of you interested in taking a walk on the wild side, the Anthony Rayson Zine Collection serves up a bit of contemporary anarchy, a healthy political rant or two, and an impressive collection of writings and artwork created by incarcerated persons from all over the United States. All of these zines are published and distributed by Rayson through his South Chicago ABC Zine Distro. By one of those fabulous twists of fate, the most radical materials in this library now reside side-by-side with all of those very serious rare old books in the Special Collections and Archives, Room 314.

Thought Bombs, Rayson’s personal zine, blends a generous dose of rebellion into articles on every conceivable topic from the Iraq War to racism to the prison system to the safety of toll booth operators (Rayson’s day job) with covers illustrated by his children. Best of all, he is married to a librarian. His devotion to free speech and education drives his mission to distribute materials to prisoners and to support their creative efforts through publication.

As an active collection, we here in the Special Collections department are always surprised by the content and format of materials we continue to receive in this collection. Rayson, well-known for his crop circle protests against the Peotone Airport expansion, immediately took a copy of the finding aid we created for his collection and turned it into a zine. How’s that for a marketing initiative?

Images have been added to the Image Collection website focusing on photography of the 20th Century.

Photographers featured include:

• Ralph Gibson
• Mary Ellen Mark
• Margaret Bourke-White
• Robert Frank
• Cindy Sherman
• Edward Steichen
  

For more information about the Image Collection, or for assistance in locating images, contact the Image Collection staff.

On June 23, the DePaul Libraries will launch ILLiad, a service that will improve the efficiency and transparency of interlibrary loan requests. The ILLiad system is used to borrow books or copies of journal articles not held at DePaul or in the I-Share libraries. (Note: The library catalog system will not change, and it remains the quickest way to request books available at DePaul or in I-Share.)

Using ILLiad to request books or articles not available at DePaul has many advantages:

• Easy login with your library borrower ID (begins with 20511) and last name – no need to fill out a form with your personal information.
• Track status of requests online in your ILLiad account – no more wondering what happened to your request.
• OpenURL functionality for full citations – no more typing in the article details.
• Online delivery of scanned articles from other libraries – no more waiting for photocopies in the mail. (DePaul faculty, staff, and distance learning/suburban students will also receive scanned copies of articles held at DePaul in print periodicals).

Using ILLiad is simple:

• To request books, look for this link in the WorldCat database: Request via ILLiad (there will no longer be an ILL button).
• To request articles, look for this link in library databases: Find full text. The link will take you to a new window where the word Article will appear if it is available online through another DePaul database. If not, the ILLiad link will appear; just log in and click Submit. 

Using ILLiad in Google Scholar:

• You may also use the “Full Text @ DePaul” link in Google Scholar if you set your Scholar Preferences to include DePaul.
• To set your Scholar preferences, go to the Preferences page, and look for the section labeled: Library Links. Search for DePaul as your library, and then save your settings:

 

• Then, in your Google Scholar search results, use the "Full Text @ DePaul" link to see if DePaul owns the article you are looking for, or easily request it using ILLiad:

 

  

Afraid to go out of the house this Friday?  You're not alone, many people suffer from Paraskevidekatriaphobia, a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th.  Others are affected by Triskaidekaphobia, the fear of 13. Not to worry though, June the 13th is the only Friday that falls on the 13th this year!

Now, on to your question, "Why is Friday the 13th so unlucky?"  The belief that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day is derived from two long-standing superstitions, the fear of the number 13 and a negative association with Friday itself. The two superstitions are part of a long and fragmented history making it difficult to pinpoint their origin. 

The unlucky 13 seems to have ancient origins giving room for plenty of speculation as to why the number came to be considered unlucky.  Some theories argue that there are mathematical reasons for the fear of 13, others believe that 13 came to be associated with unlucky events.  Whatever the reasons, it is clear that 13 shows up time and time again as the object upon which people have historically projected fear and uncertainty.  One of the first texts to reflect this view is Work and Days written by in 700 B.C.E. in which the Greek poet Hesiod mentions the 13th day of the month as an unlucky day for sewing seeds.  Unlucky 13 is incorporated in the story of the Last Supper at which Judas was the 13th guest.¹

Negativity towards Fridays can be traced as far back as the 16th century in western literature.  The term "friday-faced," meaning sad-looking, and "friday-look," meaning a solemn look, surfaced as early as the the late 1500s.  In 1592, Greene wrote, "The Foxe made a Fridayface, counterfeiting sorrow."  The expression was used again in 1681 by Robertson who wrote, "What makes you look so sad, and moodily? with such a Friday face."  Early in the next century Rowley spoke of a "plague of Friday mornings!" in Match of Midnight.²  Why there's a negative association with Friday is subject to speculation.   

It's unclear when the bad luck of 13 and supertitions of Friday coincided.  One historic event is often cited.  On Friday 13, 1307, members of the Knights of Templar were arrested and their leader was killed.  It came to be recognized as an unlucky date in the calendar.  However, according to Lachenmeyer, Friday the 13th didn't show up in lists of unlucky days until the 20th century.³ 

I hope this cursory history gives you just a taste of the superstitions surrounding this auspicious date.  If you're interested in learning more about the theories of the origin of Friday the 13th, check out 13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition by Lachenmeyer.  It's located in the Lincoln Park Stacks at 133.3359 L137t 2004.  You can find other books on superstitions located in our library catalog. 

1)  Lachenmeyer, Nathaniel. "The Origins of Unlucky 13." 13: the Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition. Thunder Mouth's Press: New York, 2004.

2) "Friday." Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2008.

3) Lachenmeyer, Nathaniel. "The Rise of 13." 13: the Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition. Thunder Mouth's Press: New York, 2004.

*Hiironniemi, Mika. Stand. 2005. <http://www.flickr.com>.