A good article for those preparing to enter the job market or those beginning a new job search.
September 2008 Archives
The newest online database that the library has subscribed to, JSTOR, is up and running. This database, Arts & Sciences IV, was selected by asking the faculty to test the two databases under consideration, Arts & Sciences III and IV, and provide feedback to me. Using the responses I received I contracted to subscribe to the one that got the most positive feedback. I hope you find it useful.
REEVES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
ANNUAL
BOOK AND RECORD SALE!
September
26 (Friday) 9:30 am - 4:30 pm
27 (Saturday) 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
28 (Sunday) 1:30 pm - 8:00 pm
A WHOLE BAG for $2! Individual items only 50¢!
My family and I enjoy nothing more than getting together over the weekend and correcting each other’s grammar as well as trying to one-up each other with correct word usage and other fun things. In this area I tend to be a stickler for semantics which is what I want to address here. This may not bother many people but I actually sometimes yell at the television (only when I’m alone) when I hear this statement from infomercials or regular advertisements: ”Yours free, only pay shipping and handling.” Although I am sitting within a few feet of many dictionaries I don’t really think I have to look up the meaning of the word “free.” I think we all know what it means—that you don’t have to pay for something. So let me see if I understand this, the item is free BUT I have to pay something! Just once I would like to hear an ad explain that the item is “Yours for only the cost of shipping and handling.” And by the way, don’t you feel that those costs are rather exorbitant? But I guess I’ll have to be content with yelling at the television for the time being.
Now that the summer is over and school is back in session I have begun to think about appropriate topics to include in a library blog. First and foremost I have been thinking about information literacy. However, as one who enjoys listening to the radio or the television I began to think that information literacy, for us, does not begin and end in the classes and library of Seton Hill University. One of the IL areas that we work on is how to “critically evaluate information.” I enjoy correcting mistakes in newspaper and magazine articles almost as much as I do books. But what has been jumping out at me more these days is the seemingly continual degradation of the English language that comes from television and radio. And unfortunately this is not limited to just advertisements and infomercials although I do have to wonder about the validity and downright tastelessness of Dual-Action Cleanse®. But I digress.
I just want to mention something that I hear and read and that for some reason really grates on me: it’s the misuse of the phrase “au jus.” If my college French still serves me correctly those two words translate into English as “with juice.” Listen to fast-food advertisements or read them in the paper. They invariably make statements something along these lines: “Our sandwich is served with the freshest au jus,” “Order your sandwich with a side or our specially made au jus.” And at this point I won’t even express my displeasure of the use of the word “side” for “side order.” But if I were to critically evaluate the information I receive from such ads I would have to wonder just how “fresh” or “specially made” or even “eat-worthy” these establishments’ foods are.
I’m sure I’ll have more such gems in the future but feel free to share the misuses of the English language that really get under your skin.
