So I thought I might as well share some of my favourite research tools with you.

• Save & edit website content: My favourite Firefox add-on is ScrapBook. With ScrapBook you can capture website or parts of websites and save them. Once they are saved, you can highlight important text passages, add comments,  inline annotations or sticky notes, and cut away all the parts of the saved site that you don’t need. ( A new version of this add-on is still in development: ScrapBook Plus – for the more daring among you ) Zotero is a similar plugin with some extra features interesting for academics and students (citation export …)
• Take notes: EverNote 2.2.1.386 – the old, abandoned version of EverNote (which is now online based, something I dislike where my notes are concerned for some reason). This is basically a notepad for your computer. It ’s sort of like a neverending roll of notes on your computer, simply one after another on and on forever [→ picture]. You organise your notes with tags, there are various templates (phone message, to-do-list, text note …), and there’s also a web clipper Firefox add-on that lets you add website content (either selected bits of text or simply the whole website) directly to EverNote, where you can then edit and comment it [→ picture]. As I said, that’s the old abandoned version of EverNote. But I have the installer and the web clipper Firefox add-on saved, and I’m happy to send it to you. It works fine  for me on Windows XP and Windows 7. If you’re on a Mac, or you don’t like EverNote but you are interested in notetaking software, there’s a useful overview at Wikipedia: Comparison of notetaking software.
• My library at Google Books: I always assume that everyone knows about Google Books and “My library” already … and then I’m surprised when I hear that someone hasn’t heard of it yet. “Google Books”, explains Wikipedia, is a service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google scans, converts to text using optical character recognition, and stores in its digital database. It contains the full text of many books (public domain like those available from Project Gutenberg , but also “orphan works “), a partial view of many more (attempting to lure to the websites of various online bookshops to make you buy the books, of course ) and at least snippet views of even more. In other words, you can more or less look at millions and millions of books. But it gets even better. You can add the books to your “library” and save them for future usage, and organise them on public or private bookshelves. Have a look at my library: JunoMagic’s library at Google Books.
• Google Scholar – how to find the really bizarre cool stuff: Google Scholar is the Google search engine for academic resources. From citations to articles in important magazines™ to textbooks, it’s all there. More or less available for the public. I say “more or less” because I’ve found that for research you don’t get paid for, you need a few tricks to have a good time with Google Scholar. The main thing: always use Advanced Search – because I promise you that you won’t be happy if you get 78,000 results from Biology, Life Sciences, and Environmental Science, Medicine, Pharmacology, and Veterinary Science, Business, Administration, Finance, and Economics Physics, Astronomy, and Planetary Science, Chemistry and Materials Science Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities, Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics …

  Therefore: first pick the subject areas you want to search. Then try a first search limiting “where my words occur” (fifth option from the very top) to “in the title of the article”. Once you have results, take a look at the top menu. The last box on the left-hand side allows you to pick “include citations” or “at least summaries”. Choose “at least summaries”. That way you should arrive at a few hundred relevant results.

  Next problem. You’ve found a very cool article about just the subject you were looking for. But DAMN IT ALL, they want you to pay for it! Sadly, many academic journals don’t have open access. However … don’t despair. At least not quite yet. Copy and paste the title of the article into ordinary Google. Make sure it’s surrounded by quotationmarks. Then hit search. And with a little bit of luck, you’ll find the article for free. Why? Because many scholars don’t just sell their articles, but also upload them to the websites of the university where they are working right now, so that they are more easily available for colleagues or students. Of course you won’t be lucky every time, but I’ve hit gold that way more often than not over the years.

So … now that I’ve shared my favs and tricks, what are yours? When you’re researching, where do you turn, which tools do you use, what’s the site or programme you couldn’t live without?

nerdy

hogwarts_owl

… and I can haz SHINY!

(Yes, I can totally squee over a banner I made. I seriously never expected to end up on any kind of place for this … normally I suck at computer games! And actually, I did suck at the winter games, too … I only ever got zero for Nogtail Slap.) Anyway, go and ogle the banners and congratulate the winners!

Therefore, here be a poll.

Apart from that:

• What is your all times favourite notepad, and what exactly is so great about it?
• What kind of notepad would you love to have, but have never been able to find?
• And just generally, what do you love/hate about notepads?

curious

ETA: Thank you, Duniazade & Fer for your beautiful translation!

Lei tu historia hace tiempo pero ahora mi maquina esta mala y estoy
guardando mis historias en favoritos de mi cuenta para no perderlas (las
tenía en favoritos de mi maquina). Es de madrugada y trabajo y leo a oscuras
para que no me fastidien con la luz, pero no puedo dejar pasar la oportunidad
de enviarte un comentario. ¿sabes? cada vez que la leo me echo a llorar, es
tan fuerte, y me toca tanto. De muy chica me enamore de un muchcho que estaba
desahuciado, murio a los 25, y nunca le dije que lo amaba poque estaba
muriendo y no quise perturbarlo. Solo fui su amiga y lo cuide en el hospital.
Y al igual que Hermione 15 años despues aún lo recuerdo y lo lloro. Y estoy
totalmente de acuerdo contigo… el tiempo no cura las heridas… solo te hace
soportarlas. Cuando os leo en la red pienso que alla, lejos, alfin alguien
puede entenderme aun sin conocerme…que alguien piensa como yo… que no
estoy tan sola. Gracias por existir.

• the Amazon vs. Macmillan kerfuffle: Amazon and Macmillan are fighting over ebook prices. Macmillan (i.e. the publisher) doesn’t want to accept the fixed Kindle prices Amazon (i.e. the bookshop) wants. Of course they want higher prices, too, but also more flexibility – which kind of sort of makes sense. While I won’t buy an ebook for real!book hardcover prices – as a reader and customer, I’m cheap! – as a translator, editor and hopeful writer, I’m also aware that very low prices for books and ebooks will affect how (and IF) can make a living. Friday night, Amazon threw a tantrum and took all books published by Macmillan and subsidiaries (including Kingfisher, Macmillan, Pan, Picador, Boxtree, Sidgwick & Jackson, Tor, Macmillan Children’s Books, Young Picador, Campbell Books, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, First Second Books, Henry Holt, Macmillan Audio, Palgrave Macmillan, Picador, Tor Books, Roaring Brook Press, St. Martin’s Press, and the Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing Group) off its website. Because oh woe, Macmillan has a “monopoly” on their titles.  Read more: witty and wicked, “Amazon.fail and you’re done” at John Scalzi’s blog, or interesting and informative, “Zinc Blinked” at westerblog.
• more about ebooks: Ayerf and Kribu have conspired and got me hooked on the “Percy Jackson” series. I saw the trailer for the movie and thought it might be fun. Yesterday I bought the first ebook of the series (at Waterstones) and devoured it in one sitting. I love my Sony eReader. I’ve also acquired the first book in the “Harper Connelly” mystery seriey by Charlaine Harris. And vowed only to by ebooks for Sherrilyn Kenyon novels from now on. I can’t resist her crack!fic, but I’ve deeply regretted wasting shelf space for the three Darkhunter/Dreamhunter books I acquired over Christmas.
• yet more about ebooks: Setting up an account at a big American-based international ebook seller made me wonder: a) Why do some sites force people to put in states/provinces? Not every country does that in terms of postal addresses. So I put “—” or “n/a”. *shrug* b) Why does an international online ebook bookshop need my phone number? Thankfully I have an online voicebox. But seriously, why??? Do they want to call me and ask if the download worked?

And … weekend. With pictures!

Weekend was BUSY.

Chores, chores, chores on Saturday: taking down the Christmas decoration in time for Candlemas like a good little Catholic (which I’m not … but lazy enough to take advantage of that tradition …), fighting aphids that are trying to devour my hibernating roses, and the usual stuff in terms of swiping, wiping, laundry, dishes … and much blank staring at the trashy translation.

Sunday: watching the local carnival parade, the usual work at the museum, and  then taking down the exhibition. How time flies. (Thankfully.)

Anyway, Sunday. Carnival where I live is very traditional. Not so much about silliness and getting drunk (though of course people are silly and do get drunk), but about driving out the demons of winter with whips and drums and bells. There are wooden masks that may be carved and painted only in a very specific way, and costumes made of sackcloth and adorned with colourful rags.

So far, it doesn’t seem to have worked. Winter is still very much present, with around 20 cm of snow, cold temperatures, and more snow expected to fall …

But the sun is shining today, and in my study it’s warm. So I don’t mind.

okay

(But there’s good stuff, too.)

• Support WTF. Company A – does not read my question. Company B – does not only fail to read my question but responds with sending me a link without which I could not have asked my question in the first place. Company C – blithely tells me that there will be no Windows 7 support for a device that is recommended as an accessory for a Windows 7 laptop. *headdesks*
• Friend. The friend who had surgery for cancer last week is doing really well. Doctors are positive they got everything out (a fist size tumour!) and that there are no metastases. Soon she’ll be off to rehab, and with a little bit of luck the cancer shouldn’t return. Thank you, God.
• Trashy translation. Translation will be finished this week. Proofreading, editing, cutting, and more proofreading lie ahead. I’m right on schedule and have learnt about the erotic effects of the steam of blanched cabbage, and about Bolivian royalty. (Yes. I know.)
• Museum. I got up early to call the mayor. Seems I can go ahead with planning the Museum’s Day 2010. If he doesn’t forget about it, he’ll also mention the project next week to the director of the local middle school so I have a starting point for setting up an appointment. Yay?
• Snow. *can haz nu sno* It’s been snowing last night and all day so far, tiny, fluffy flakes, amassing some 10–20cm at the moment. The local birds have finally broken down and are coming to the feeding station on our balcony. The cats have seen it all before and are not interested. If my camera recharges in time, I may go for a wintery walk later.
• Website. I’ve been working on the story summaries some more and uploading some of the LotR short stories I hadn’t posted on Fancrone Net so far. One day I should revise all of them … *weeps*
• Guy with the wrong phone number. I have bad news for you. Trying it again and again won’t turn the number of my new cell phone into the number you’re trying to reach.

cold

The Voices of Stone

Many thanks to my beta, Lady Masterblott!

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