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Archive for the ‘learning-materials’ Category

How to get from our Film-collection.xlsx to in-depth bibliographic data on worldcat.org and upcdatabase.com

  1. To access more in-depth (and accurate, especially foreign language-wise) information about the films in our media collection that we can possibly maintain ourselves, we added the ISBN and UPC/EAN identifiers from the collection items to our new online film-collection list. This allows us to link collection items to
  2. worldcat.org,
    1. film-collection-isbn-worldcat
    2. The link is based on the item’s ISBN (barcode-scanning was rarely possible, thus checksum checking becomes mandatory).
  3. upcdatabase.com
    1. film-collection-upc-upcdatabase
    2. The link is based on the item’s UPC/EAN which do come with barcodes, but lookup resources leave things to be desired:
      1. http://www.upcdatabase.com/item/[upc # here]: yields some info for some items (newer DVDs which usually also have ISBNs?)
      2. http://gepir.gs1.org/v32/xx/gtin.aspx?Lang=en-US, on spot-checking, yields only “Trade Item Ownership”, but “no Trade Item Info”, and does not support GET operation.
  1. This links another isolated and non-professional language resource center media collection to the world of non-pseudo libraries,  where the power of crowdsourcing has long been known.
  2. The original plan – which will take more time to implement, especially since it can be automated only in a very limiting way – was to pull into the local collection spreadsheet accurate and multi-faceted bibliographic information, to prevent the common failures of even our usually basic item searches by title:
    1. foreign-language diacritics, given that non-foreign-language-librarians edited the local collection spreadsheet. This requires that foreign character input to be installed on the LRC help desk computers (done for Western) and that student assistant personnel can be trained (theoretically done – will need more practice)
    2. English translations: may provide a safety net for searches, short of automated flattening of all title diacritics.

How to validate an ISBN checksum with an MS-Excel formula

excel-inventory.xls-isbn-check-formula

 

(Sorry, no Excel option in the sourcecode formatter on WordPress)

Learn Chinese character stroke-order with slowed-down animated GIFs

Further to our prior tips on learning Chinese stroke order, now you can take your time, in the LRC: To facilitate your practicing of Chinese character stroke-order, we have used the most helpful site (also available by direct download) created by Tim Xie for the California State University, Long Beach, to create 100 different speed versions, and one comic strip like static image, for each of the several hundred of animated GIFs demonstrating Chinese character writing, and made them available on the LRC computers under Internet Explorer Favorites – Example:

a1f5_strip

You can access the files with the stroke order speed of your preference from the LRCCOED434 student computers, like so:

chinese-stroke-order-animated-html

(Many thanks also to the authors of programmable ImageMagick image editor and corresponding Unix shell scripts that we could use in the production of the slowed down animated GIFs. To create your own version of these slowed down animated GIFs, or others similar websites, feel free to pick up and/or adapt our shell script here).

How to download videos from YouTube.com, and other video sites

  1. Don’t know what this institution recommends – here is a list of software that I have accumulated over time  – I stopped a while ago, since there is always something newer coming out -  try googling what is currently most popular.
    1. http://www.viloader.net/addon.htm: You have to click on download, and save the file with the name you want and in the end you have to add .flv that its the video format. Then when the video has been saved to your PC you have to convert the video in a comercial format like wmv, mpg, etc. or download a flv player to be able to see the videos.
    2. Youtube Catcher can download videos from Youtube, Google Video, Myspace Video, Yahoo video Dailymotion Stage6 Veoh. The downloaded videos can be exported to various formats like MPG,AVI, MP4,3GP, 3G2, WMV, PSP, MOV, FLV with the quality you choose: http://www.teknobites.com/2007/08/23/youtube-catcher-youtube-and-other-video-downloader-tool/
    3. zamzar.com
    4. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25105,
    5. http://www.googlewatchblog.de/2008/04/13/youtube-video-als-mp4-herunterladen/
    6. MPEG Streamclip can download YouTube files. They  are always opened or downloaded in MP4 (MPEG-4) format, so they can be used in MPEG Streamclip.
    7. this works well as of 8/17/2009 1.Go to http://edtech.nwresd.org/?q=node/157 . You will see the words ""download script"" (in blue – a hyperlink). Right click on that text and then on ""Bookmark this link"" (at least that’s what it says using Mozilla Firefox as a browser). You can move this bookmark within your Bookmarks or Favorites Folder wherever you want. 2.Go to YouTube and locate a video you want to save. While the video is actually playing, go to your Bookmarks Folder and click on the ""download script"" link you saved there.3.Next look in the right hand column on the screen – to the right of the video playing. Just below the section that says URL, and EMBED (right below URL) you will see a text that says download as MP4. 4.Right click on that text and then click on SAVE LINK AS. You can choose where you want the file to be saved and you can even rename the file (for me the default name is ""video""). Just to be sure I’d let the video play to the end before checking to see if it actually where you put it.
      1. if (document.getElementById(‘download-youtube-video’)==null && !!(document.location.href.match(/http:\/\/[a-zA-Z\.]*youtube\.com\/watch/))) {var yt_mp4_path=’http://www.youtube.com/get_video?fmt=18&video_id=’+swfArgs%5B‘video_id’%5D+’&t=’+swfArgs%5B‘t’%5D; var div_embed=document.getElementById(‘watch-embed-div’);if(div_embed){var div_download=document.createElement(‘div’);div_download.innerHTML=’ <br /><span id="\’download-youtube-video\’"><a href="\”+yt_mp4_path+’\’">Download as MP4</a> ‘+ ((navigator.userAgent.indexOf(‘Safari’)!=-1)?'(control-click and select <i>Download linked file as</i>)’:(‘(right-click and select <i>Save ‘+ (navigator.appName==’Microsoft Internet Explorer’?’target’:’link’) +’ as)</i>’))+’</span>’;div_embed.appendChild(div_download);}}void(0)

    8. Updates for the the 2013/4 academic year:
      1. YouTube Center, includes download functionality, more on YouTube center here.
      2. Orbit downloader:
        1. Claims to be a generic downloader, and looks complicated enough to convince me of that Smile .
        2. However, I did not have any luck here, at least I did not find a practical (=automated) way to cobbling these clips together (are media outlets, even if they are under non-US legislation and trying so hard, still bound by the fair use legislation?): image
        3. Also changes your browser home page without asking – I can’t say I like the territory I get myself into with these teacher download requests.

The LRC International TV , stations, programs, channels, and subscriptions…

  1. … unfortunately have been discontinued during recent rounds of budget cuts.
  2. That’s why we list a few sources of free international TV that are available on the internet here.

News TV on the internet: Politics and Legislatures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Parliamentary_broadcasters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Legislature_broadcasters
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/about/activities_en.cfm
”On-demand consultation of any event or subject during the week following its transmission on satellite. All products become accessible to any connected media or individual anywhere in the world through the Internet portal of the audiovisual service.  On the site you will find EbS permanently updated transmission schedule, as well as shotlists detailing the content of pictures and links to complementary information sources and photos. Pictures and sound may be downloaded in broadcast quality formats: MPEG2 for video, MP3 for sound and JPEG for photos. This news material is published during or soon after the events, remains available *for at least one month* and is easy to download, process and file.”

German public TV on the internet

French TV on the internet

TV5 seems still in the satellite/per-per-view phase. But it offers free video learning resources: http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/enseigner-apprendre-francais/accueil_enseigner.php