libraries and librarians

My poetry book is available through Overdrive!

For many devoted readers of ebooks, the only thing better than being able to purchase an ebook and download it to their device almost instantaneously, is being able to borrow an ebook from their local library, for free, and download it immediately to their device. Books in any format can be expensive, and sometimes it’s

Read on »

Surrounded by piles

It seems that it doesn’t matter how many plates I’m trying to keep in the air. What matters is that I’m fat. I was on a diet and exercise program — a LONG time ago now — that enabled me to lose 30 pounds. I’ve since gained it all back, and can’t find a way

Read on »

Relaxing a little…then back to work

I’m in Washington, DC, for the Special Libraries Association (SLA) annual conference (followed on Thursday by the Joint Transportation Knowledge Network (TKN) meeting). After having early meetings both Sunday and Monday, today I’m having a relaxing breakfast in my room. I’ve been eating out quite a bit, but my “breakfast” options have been quite limited

Read on »

A good day at work

At work this afternoon, I had such a wonderful feeling: maybe for the first time, I could really feel how close we’re getting to the end of our backlog. I’ve been plodding through the collection for over five years now – and Becky’s been working on it even longer – and I can finally envision

Read on »

Obama uses “the L-word”: Libraries

I happened to click on a headline that said President-Elect Obama had made his most specific statements to date about how he hopes to stimulate the economy. The article, “Obama sketches out recovery plan,” was in CNN’s Money section. One of the five main goals: “modernize classrooms, labs and libraries.” (There was also “rebuild crumbling

Read on »

The book sale

The following paragraph is taken from the book Biblioholism: the Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe: The book world was also intense in those days [mid-1800s to early 1900s]. Fightsoccasionally broke out in bookstore aisles. When the English translation of The Devil on Two Sticks came out, the books were gobbled up insatiably, to the point

Read on »

The 36 hour day

Last Wednesday, June 18, I woke up at 7am Pacific Time, in Seattle. My SLA activities started a bit late; I’d decided not to attend a morning session, and instead, I had a leisurely breakfast in one of the hotel’s restaurants, then took a bus to the Seattle Public Library. After looking around and taking

Read on »

Quick note on Monday in Seattle

Another good day today. Interesting and informative sessions – though I only stayed in my afternoon session for an hour instead of 90 minutes, just tired at that point, and the third speaker’s topic wasn’t as relevant to me as the other two. Got to see Meghan, an old friend from Smith, and we had

Read on »