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The weather isn’t the only steamy happening this month. The hottest thing on YouTube is a parody of the Old Spice Guy’s shtick for libraries. Yes, libraries. A little more than a week ago, a video produced by the aftershave’s marketing team debuted in response to a tweet from librarian Andy Woodworth (@wawoodworth) requesting that the Old Spice Guy aka Isaiah Mustafa speak up for libraries. (The Old Spice team has been making custom videos for fans using social media.) The video has had more than 200,000 views. Before you could finish whistling the “Old Spice” tune, a parody appeared on YouTube and went viral—with over 1.3 million views. But wait, there's more for library fans. YouTube has a mother lode of library-related videos from comedy sketches to singing librarians. Here are my five faves: - ACC Library

The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University. The advertisements are from the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisements Collection of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in Duke University's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library Copyright Information Research, Teaching, Private Study, General Interest User Information: The advertisements on this web site have been made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. For these purposes under Fair Use, you ma - ACC Library

Encyclopedia Mythica is "an encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, legends, and more." The Mythology section covers 23 different cultural mythologies ranging from Aboriginal to Roman with articles and definitions of varying length. Characters or events mentioned within one article are linked to the corresponding full-length article entry. Articles may be submitted by anyone, but there is a long list of contributing editors who verify and edit information accepted for the site. There is a 260-image gallery of mythological creatures and the genealogy tables (some of which are under construction) provide information for the major mythical families. The "Consorts and Offspring of Zeus" table is a good example of the helpful information provided in the genealogical section. A pronunciation aid is available from the "Areas" page under "Miscellanea," and the entire site is searchable. This is a great companion for readers of all levels studying mythology. - ACC Library

This site is a useful resource for responding to requests to identify "top colleges and universities" of various types. The site provides annotated lists of online sources of information on the ranking of institutions of higher education, as well as a prominent and well-designed section (with hot-linked footnotes) entitled "Caution and Controversy" on the validity and usefulness of such rankings, and a bibliography of related print and online resources. Sites which rank institutions are arranged by type of program: General/Undergraduate, Graduate/Research, Business, Law, and International. - ACC Library

John Malyon, the creator of Artcyclopedia, says that he wants this site to become "the definitive and most effective guide to museum-quality fine art on the Internet." It is certainly true that a lot has been accomplished in the short amount of time since this website first went online in February 1999. The number of entries has steadily grown to 80,000 works by 7000 different artists on 700 leading arts sites. The criterion for inclusion in the Artcyclopedia is that the artist must be included in an arts museum collection somewhere in the world. The site's best search is by artist, but the user can also search for artworks, art museums, or browse by movement or medium. An artist search brings up links to online museums, image archives and articles about the artist. There are the ubiquitous links to Amazon.com and Allposters.com to purchase related merchandise, but otherwise the site is mercifully banner-free and the author pledges to keep it that way. - ACC Library

The Center for Responsive Politics describes itself as "a non-partisan, non-profit research group based in Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy." Opensecrets.org, the Center's Web site, provides information from the Federal Election Commission about campaign contributions to Congress, to the political parties and the presidential campaigns. The site may be navigated by tabs at the top of the web page, by search engines within the site, or by links to current issues. Everything is documented with citations and methodology. The mission statement, contact information, and funding sources are clearly noted. .Opensecrets.org is a goldmine of data on contributions in politics, helpful both for students writing papers and for avid followers of politics - ACC Library

The Industry Research Desk brings together an extensive set of online tools, most freely available, for researching industries, markets, companies, and manufacturing processes. Included are links to portals for individual industries, home pages for specific manufacturing processes (like welding), search engines, and office tools (like phone books, shipping information, and maps). Unique to this site are step-by-step guides to finding information on a specific industry or company, including information on related print resources available in many libraries. - ACC Library

"The largest human-edited acronyms and abbreviations collection on the Web!" - ACC Library

A comprehensive guide to all forms of popular music and musicians. (Classical music is covered on a sister site, allclassical.com.) The site is searchable by artist name, album or song title, music genre, or record label. Detailed biographies, reviews, and links to other Internet resources are offered for most artists. Discographies include detailed credits which are hyperlinked to other entries for performers or production personnel. Overviews of genres trace the development of musical styles and identify key artists and albums. This is a very good starting point for anyone's exploration of popular music. - ACC Library

This is a huge listing of best websites for finding information - put together by librarians, so you know it has to be a great list! Finding reliable, trustworthy sites can be tricky, so this should be very useful for free information for researchers that can supplement library databases. - ACC Library

Over 8,000 websites created by students around the world who have participated in a ThinkQuest Competition. - ACC Library

The centre for investigative journalism (cij) came into being in 2003 to address a deepening crisis in investigative reporting. The cij provides high-level training, resources and research to journalists, researchers, non-governmental organisations, academics, graduate students and others interested in public integrity and the defence of the public interest. The cij is a non-profit organisation and runs international summer schools, training programmes in beginning and advanced investigative techniques and organises public meetings – all designed to raise and sustain the standards of investigative reporting. Our handbooks, archive material, web and audio resources have helped bring additional investigative tools to journalists and the community unable to attend cij workshops and training programmes. The cij offers particular assistance to those working in difficult environments where freedom of the press in under threat and where reporting can be a dangerous occupation. - ACC Library

Tools and resources for representing data visually, the new emerging journalism trend. - ACC Library

It was born at a 48 hour workshop at MozFest 2011 in London. It subsequently spilled over into an international, collaborative effort involving dozens of data journalism's leading advocates and best practitioners - including from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, the Chicago Tribune, Deutsche Welle, the Guardian, the Financial Times, Helsingin Sanomat, La Nacion, the New York Times, ProPublica, the Washington Post, the Texas Tribune, Verdens Gang, Wales Online, Zeit Online and many others. - ACC Library

Dedicated to making information and knowledge open to all. - ACC Library

Wikidata aims to create a free knowledge base about the world that can be read and edited by humans and machines alike. It will provide data in all the languages of the Wikimedia projects, and allow for the central access to data in a similar vein as Wikimedia Commons does for multimedia files. Wikidata is proposed as a new Wikimedia hosted and maintained project. This page is intended to provide the entry point for information and discussions about the Wikidata project proposal and the status of the project. The initial development of the project is funded with a generous donation by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence [ai]2, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Google, Inc. - ACC Library

A blog by journalism professors about public access of records. - ACC Library

An assistant professor in the University of Arizona School of Journalism has co-written a new book titled The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Public Records to help journalists and citizens better navigate the maze of requesting government documents. David Cuillier teamed with Charles Davis from the University of Missouri-Columbia to produce the first textbook and journalist guidebook dedicated to nuts-and-bolts tips for getting government information. The book includes interviews with more than 70 experts, including Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Brant Houston, the federal public records ombudsman, and Pulitzer winners, such as former UA student Ryan Gabrielson. The book also includes tips gained from their own experiences as working journalists, their research in freedom of information (FOI) issues, and knowledge as access trainers for the Society of Professional Journalists. Cuillier chairs the Society of Professional Journalists’ FOI Committee, and Davis is executive direc - ACC Library

Links to sites providing public records as well as sites that give tips on accessing such information. - ACC Library

A wiki with lists of citizen journalism sites in the US and around the world. - ACC Library

Since 1974, the Student Press Law Center has been the nation's only legal assistance agency devoted exclusively to educating high school and college journalists about the rights and responsibilities embodied in the First Amendment and supporting the student news media in their struggle to cover important issues free from censorship. The Center provides free legal advice and information as well as low-cost educational materials for student journalists on a wide variety of legal topics. In addition, the SPLC operates a formal Attorney Referral Network of approximately 150 lawyers across the country who are available to provide free legal representation to local students when necessary. Approximately 2,500 student journalists, teachers and others contact the Center each year for help or information. Calls come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The SPLC is a nonprofit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) corporation. The Center is headquartered in Arlington, Va, where it shares a suite - ACC Library

"You know the world doesn't need another $150 Algebra One book," he said. "Algebra One hasn't changed for centuries, probably." University of Minnesota faculty will be paid $500 to write a review of an open-source textbook. They'll earn the same amount to adopt such a book in class. Nicolle Allen, textbook advocate for the Student Public Interest Research Group, said Minnesota's peer-reviewed catalog could be a real boost. "There are some sites that list reviews of open textbooks but I think this one is significant because it's actually developed by a Big Ten, well-respected university," said Allen, director of the research group's Make Textbooks Affordable Project. The catalog is part of a national effort to create cheaper alternatives to commercially published textbooks. Some educational foundations have paid scholars to write free textbooks. Other publishers offer electronic versions for free, but charge for printed copies. - ACC Library

An old film about the library profession. Obviously out of date, but interesting to see how libraries have changed. - ACC Library

The challenge for every self-publishing author is to get their book in front of as many eyeballs as possible without breaking the bank. I’ve found that one of the most effective ways for creating buzz for my self-published book was to auction copies on eBay. Here’s the drill: You list one copy of your book at auction on eBay. Browsers see your book and either bid on the book at eBay, or order a copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I’ve noticed that in most cases, my eBay listings for my book not only sell for more than the list price of the book, but immediately after a listing closes, I get sales on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, bumping up my sales there. Then I start over again, listing another copy on eBay. For the same $20 you might pay for a dozen click-throughs using Google Adwords, it’s possible to get 200 to 400 pairs of eyeballs on eBay. - ACC Library

demodirt.com is the leading online publication dedicated to providing demographic and psychographic intelligence about Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers, Matures, and more. It also covers the latest demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal data and trends by race, religion, gender, geographical location, educational attainment, health, household income, and more. The Web site, which is updated several times a week, features analysis from expert sources in hundreds of exclusive articles. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ACC Library

Online Littleton newspaper. - ACC Library

The clearest most thorough explanation of MLA and APA for many different kinds of sources. Students often don't understand the elements of a citation: this site really does a good job of illustrating these elements. - ACC Library

Did you know that adding Shelfari Book Extras to your title may impact the sales of your book? Book Extras are curated factoids that provide readers with helpful information while they’re reading or deciding if they should read a book. Help make your book stand out by providing character descriptions, important places, awards and more to your book metadata. In addition to appearing on Kindle detail pages for free, Kindle customers can access Book Extras directly from a growing set of Kindle devices and Kindle reading applications. - ACC Library

Good advice on e-publishing in various formats and devices. - ACC Library

Tips of publishing e-books in various formats for various devices. - ACC Library