tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52982072007-04-05T01:00:40.478-04:00Librarian AvengersEricahttp://librarianavengers.orgBlogger1111tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1123466062799940752005-08-07T21:24:00.000-04:002005-08-07T21:54:22.803-04:00New blog/site redesign<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/stampphoto-740232.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/stampphoto-738179.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />How did I spend my summer vacation? I updated my website! This weblog address has been archived, so if you want new stuff, move on up to <a href="http://www.librarianavengers.org/">librarianavengers.org</a>. Grr!Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1121352608759008252005-07-14T10:05:00.000-04:002005-07-14T12:43:41.303-04:00Cartography TricksMaps are fun. Especially obedient maps. <a href="http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/">This blog</a> catalogs some of the nifty things people have done with the Google Maps API. <span style="font-size:85%;">(from boing boing)</span><br /><br />Here's a trick. A couple of years ago, I moved to Ithaca, NY. It's a good place to live.<br />Here's Google's map listing the Sushi restaurants in Ithaca:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/ithaca-740926.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/ithaca-737529.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>For contrast, here's a map showing the sushi restaurants in my hometown of Flint, Michigan:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/flintsushi-705902.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/flintsushi-703854.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>{<span style="font-style: italic;">crickets chirp</span>}<br />Now look what happens when you search in Flint for "Guns":<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/flintguns-713646.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/flintguns-709692.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>Thanks everybody, next show's at nine. I'll be here all week.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1120687533307644092005-07-06T18:01:00.000-04:002005-07-06T18:05:33.313-04:00New Schlock<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.cafepress.com/librarian#stickers,buttons&magnets"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/uploaded_images/magnet-724955.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Remember to properly label your librarian.<br />New librarian buttons and magnets at the Cafepress store.<br /><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/librarian#stickers,buttons&magnets">Get some</a>Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1120683385388801342005-07-06T13:24:00.000-04:002005-07-06T16:57:59.700-04:00Broken!It was a fantastic 4th of July softball game. We played in Beezoo and Lexie's sheep field. There were two friendly German shepherds, a handful of players, a famous digital librarian (whose name rhymes with 'Hill Farms'), and bases made out of flannel shirts. Occasionally, the dogs would grab the ball and run around looking pleased with themselves. Hill Farms kept dropping the ball. Chris hit a home run with the bases loaded. At one point, five sheep and a couple of goats ran through the infield, bleating frantically. "Stop this madness!" they seemed to say.<br /><br />I twisted my ankle running to third and felt a rather alarming 'POP'. Once the adrenalin wore off, I realized I was having a difficult time walking. X-rays were taken, braces and crutches assigned, and I've been hopping around on one leg ever since. Yesterday I got downgraded from an avulsion fracture to a ligament something-or-other. I've been having fun abusing Advil and making up stories about what happened.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1119020279364645072005-06-17T10:56:00.000-04:002005-06-17T10:57:59.363-04:00Conference 3Julie, the wickedcool NSDL representative tells us that she doesn't have any PowerPoint slides and there is a spontaneous burst of applause.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1118935700642085252005-06-16T11:22:00.000-04:002005-06-16T11:28:20.646-04:00Conference part twoCornell catering is trying to kill me. Every single entree or snack for every meal so far has contained nuts. Peanut chicken on a stick last night, pesto (with pine nuts!), nutty granola for breakfast, and peanut-laced snack bars at the break. I'm trying to suck the nutrition out of a cold cup of mint tea.<br /><br />We're starting up again. Ohboy PowerPoint! Constructivist learning theories? Cognitive supports within software? Ok. Here goes.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1118929011124707642005-06-16T09:27:00.000-04:002005-06-16T09:36:51.130-04:00ConferenceI'm liveblogging from the <a href="http://www.wdil.org">WDIL</a> web conference, conveniently held where I work. I got shanghaied into this. I just wanted to meet the wikipedia guy, but somehow I ended up going to the entire thing. I'm no huge fan of conferences, as a rule. Usually the signal-to-noise ratio is insanely low, and I've got the attention span of a gnat when it comes to listening to ill-prepared speakers. Mercifully, coworker Rafe loaned me the office laptop, which is running Ubuntu, a very cool flavor of Linux, so I'll be talking to you guys all day.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1118261596093710962005-06-08T15:47:00.000-04:002005-06-08T16:13:16.096-04:00Microsoft Word took my Baby AwayYou know what I like least about Microsoft Word for OSX? Besides it's very bug-encrusted existence? When you do something simple like make a word bold, it defaults to making the ENTIRE DOCUMENT bold. The only way to avoid this is to click "undo" every time. Brilliant.<br /><br />Alternatives, anyone? Help?Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1118111246914924332005-06-06T22:13:00.000-04:002005-06-06T22:27:26.920-04:00StrangeWhat a strange day. I got to work, and the building was closed. No water, and thus, no air conditioning. The Big Software Launch was today, so we intrepid few stayed anyway, fighting the clock and 95 degree heat whilst the servers politely melted.<br /><br />Then the tornados came. Or tornado warning, which is unusual enough around here. Power lines down, benches blown over, little whorls of superfast litter in the street.<br /><br />And to top it off, I rescued three snapping turles from the road. It's egg-laying day in snappingturtleland, and several turtlemammas thought our dirt road looked like ye olde ancestral breeding ground. Ever try to pick up a snapping turtle the size of a garbage can lid using only a cattail and your shoe? Ever pick up a CD-sized snapping turtle in the act of bravely stomping out in front of a BUS, only to have it kick you and pee on your foot? Ever pick up a mousepad-sized turtle from the edge of the road, and reveal five ghostly white ping-pong ball eggs in a hole beneath her? This was my day.<br /><br />Also, the cow-orkers and I saw a spotted fawn and his mom hanging out in the parking lot. Nature perserve librarian, y'all. It gets no better. Execpt for the turtle pee, which stains.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1117656069706554332005-06-01T16:00:00.000-04:002005-06-01T16:01:09.723-04:00One sentence movie reviewsFor your summer viewing pleasure, here are some one-sentence movie reviews culled from my recent media consumption. Tune in tomorrow for two-sentence movie reviews.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Corporation</span>: Creepy facts set to ominous music.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Star Wars III</span>: Dialog by Elmer Fudd.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</span>: Too much Arthur Dent, not enough Ford Prefect.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Doctor Who (new BBC series)</span>: That Bittorrent guy who gave me these sure is great.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou</span>: It feels like I've watched this movie before...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hero</span>: Swing your swift sword sister, swing your swift sword now.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Finding Neverland</span>: In Which Johhny Depp Acts and some other stuff happens, I dunno I lost track, but there's a really great dog.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Devil's Playground</span>: Why the Amish are stupid.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1117134335367653492005-05-26T14:24:00.000-04:002005-05-26T15:27:51.636-04:00Interview with Kevin Smokler Part Two (Son of Interview with Kevin Smokler)<span style="font-weight: bold;">Erica:</span> Welcome back to day two of "Librarians Grill <a href="http://www.kevinsmokler.com/">Kevin Smokler</a>, editor of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&amp;amp;amp;tag=librarianaven-20&creative=9325&path=tg/detail/-/0465078443/qid=1117029613/sr=2-1?v=glance%26s=books">Bookmark Now</a>". Kevin, yesterday you suggested some ideas for improving library services to authors, such as voluntary writer registrations for libraries to identify and partner with their local writers, and late hours (an idea that patrons love and sleepy librarians loathe!). Today let's talk about literature. In the Introduction to Bookmark Now, you write a passionate rebuttal to the NEA's <a href="http://www.nea.gov/news/news04/ReadingAtRisk.html">Reading at Risk</a> report, which predicts the death of reading and literature in our culture. Could you talk a bit about what made you decide to showcase next generation writers, and have them write about writing, reading, and their place in the cannon?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kevin: </span>At first it was anger at hearing my parents generation (the baby boomers, the rock n' roll generation) asking me repeatedly if my generation read books. Which just seemed foolish given the popularity of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&tag=librarianaven-20&creative=9325&path=ASIN/1932416242/qid=1117134554/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2">Nick Hornby</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=librarianaven-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;l=ur2&o=1" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&tag=librarianaven-20&creative=9325&path=ASIN/1932416137/qid=1117134409/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2">Dave Eggers</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=librarianaven-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;l=ur2&o=1" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&tag=librarianaven-20&creative=9325&path=tg/detail/-/0375501851/ref=lpr_g_1?v=glance%26s=books">Zadie Smith</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=librarianaven-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;l=ur2&o=1" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> and <a href="http://www.thislife.org/">This American Life</a>. But between then and the book that became Bookmark Now, I got simultaneously more involved in working with publishers and authors and interested in blogs, rss, the next wave of online communication. Because I'm a yenta at heart and would rather have my interests in dialogue with one another, I began speaking to publishing professionals about how these technologies could help them reach readers in a hypermedia 21st century. It was then I realized how far behind this business that I love was, how left out of the cultural conversation it was making itself. And that made me sad as well as angry.<br /><br />So I took what was left of the first idea--a new generation of writers who we thought were not leading literary lives and then mixed in data from the Reading at Risk report and the great flux we were all witnessing in the larger world of media. Bookmark Now then ended up as a reflection of what what it means to be creating and disseminating literature at this time in our history. I'm very happy with the result.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1116988028752279862005-05-24T21:58:00.000-04:002005-05-25T10:07:32.826-04:00Bookmark NowSpecial treat, folks. For the rest of the week I'm dedicating this page to an interview with my friend <a href="http://www.kevinsmokler.com/">Kevin Smokler</a>, editor of <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1789&tag=librarianaven-20&creative=9325&path=tg/detail/-/0465078443/qid=1117029613/sr=2-1?v=glance%26s=books">Bookmark Now: Writing in unreaderly times</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=librarianaven-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;l=ur2&o=1" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /></span>. I met Kevin while sitting on the floor at the South by Southwest Interactive conference. He handed me a slip of paper on which was written directions to dinner that night. "Paper email," he said.<br /><br />I'll be e-interviewing Kevin all this week on subjects writerly and librariany as part of the <a href="http://www.virtualbooktour.org/">Virtual Book Tour</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Erica:</span> Kevin, as a long-time advocate of literature and literacy (real literacy, not that "cultural" or "visual" silliness) you and the Librarian Mafia (as we like to call ourselves) have much in common. What do you think librarians can do to improve our services to young writers like those profiled in Bookmark Now?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kevin: </span>Erica, first off, thank you for having me. The opportunity to speak and share ideas with librarians, the ball and socket joints of our profession, is one I don't get very often.<br /><br />A few thoughts: From a professional standpoint, libraries are crucial research centers for us non-fiction authors and many novelists too. But that relationship seems mostly a functional, transitory one, which ends with the book being stocked on the library shelves and the library and staff getting thanked in the acknowledgments. Hundreds of books owe their existence to the research materials afforded by any major library. Why not make hay from that? Why not find the authors using the library in their research and have them give midway seminars about their research and discoveries? Why not have a quarterly reception for all authors using the library to encourage community with the library as the locus? Why not make sure the library is a stop in the publicity efforts for that book? What all this requires, as you can already see, is some way for authors using the library to make themselves known to library staff. Perhaps a special "registration" for authors? There's probably a less ethically thorny solution I haven't thought of yet.<br /><br />Specific to young authors, it comes down to a question of accessibility and convenience. Young folks keep later hours so wouldn't it be great if fund were available for the library to be open late a few nights a week? Wouldn't it be great if library announcements, events, new acquisitions were available via a series of rss feeds so I didn't have to remember to go to the SFPL's web site to remind myself when that Richard Rodriguez lecture I wanted to see was. Wouldn't it be great if the library paid some kid on a bicycle to deliver reserved materials to requesters nearby so I didn't have to remember to walk by the library on X hour and Y day when it's open. The sad truth is that, with Google available on my desktop, if the library is less convenient, I won't bother with it. However, unlike google, the library is a physical place. Highlight the benefits I get going to it instead of staying at home. Art galleries do a "First Thursdays" in cities across the country. What about one for libraries?Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1115736594058333552005-05-10T10:43:00.000-04:002005-05-24T14:58:27.880-04:00Escape from FlintLast night I drove back to Ithaca from my hometown of Flint, MI. I had <span style="font-style: italic;">Great Expectations</span> on tape, and Dickens' verbosity helped get me through the nine-hour drive without plowing into someone out of sheer boredom. Flint was unexpectedly fun. I got to see my favorite old gang, and their cute new kids. Downtown's been sexed up a bit, with some lighted arches and a cobblestone overhaul. The best thing downtown is <a href="http://www.flintcitytshirts.com/">Flint City T-Shirts</a>, my friend Matt's new shop. I got an "I heart MI" shirt, and Erin got one that says "Flint: Baddest town around since 1855."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Things I missed while I was in Flint (Good)</span><br /><ul> <li>Snoop Dogg asking Cornellians "Can U Control Yo Hoe?" (<a href="http://www.lynnedjohnson.com/diary/000428.html">more</a> on misogyny in hip hop)<br /></li><li>Slope day <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericsbinaryworld/8680083/">snowfences</a><br /></li> <li>Cat barfing</li> </ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">Things I missed while I was in Flint (Bad)</span><ul> <li>Beezoo and Lexie delivering brownies at work</li> <li>Tulips blooming in spite of the damn deer (curse you deer!)<br /></li> <li>International dance festival (opa!)</li> </ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">Things I did while in Flint</span><br /><ul> <li>Ate assloads of coneys. Pretty much literally.<br /></li> <li>Went to Wal-mart twice with parents. Bought nothing. Washed off corporate slime afterward.<br /></li> <li>Gave driving tour of expensive public works projects that were going to "save Flint"</li> <li>Tamale night at Erin's grandma's<br /></li> <li>Mourned the death of Angelo's. The walls are bare. They have wheat toast. The waitress called my friend "sir." It's over.</li> <li>Three-hour gossip session with everyone's favorite <a href="http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_1102/ob/ob03_1102.html">Joel</a></li> <li>Got asked out by skeevy Australian waiter while at Olive garden with mom.</li> <li>Introduced parents to veggi burger. Ate chicken in exchange.</li> </ul>In other news, Wendy at <a href="http://www.poundy.com/">Poundy</a> describes the Seattle Public Library most <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendymc/12226586/">aptly</a>.<br /><a href="http://www.storewars.org/flash/index.html">Store Wars</a> should tip you over your monthly bandwidth quota nicely. <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Headphones required. Organic and work-safe.</span>Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1116598070818475412005-05-24T00:30:00.000-04:002005-05-24T14:57:17.000-04:00FlintstyleFriends, we need to have a little talk. Judging from some of your emails, many of you are Woefully Ignorant of one of the most important debates going on the world today. I refer to the fight between Flint-style coneys and Detroit-style coneys. Apparently there is a place claiming to be "Angelo's" located in shiny Ann Arbor (a yuppie Detroit suburb with delusions of grandeur) selling some vile mockery of a coney dog. I'm here to tell you that this is WRONG. Coneys belong to Flint. Flint invented coneys. Specifically, coneys belong to a little place called Angelo's.<br /><br />CUE NOSTALGIC MUSIC<br /><br />From the 1970's on, Flint's Angelo's Coney Island restaurant was a meeting-place of cultures. On a given night you could see rich old women in furs, bikers, prostitutes, gang members, suburb punk rockers (the quasi-urban angst!), and the mayor eating side-by side in its red vinyl benches. The waitresses coughed a lot and if you were really nice, you might get a tobacco-stained smile. They were open 24 hours, every day except Christmas, until the health department made them close for an hour every night to clean. There were fights in the parking lot. You could get fries with gravy. The signs, menu and prices hadn't changed for 30 years.<br /><br />What was the attraction? The unchanging ambiance and the coneys. Ah, the coneys. A coney dog, dear reader who wasn't fortunate enough to be born in Flint, is a Koegel's hot dog (made with real innards!) with a dry spicy meat sauce, finely chopped raw onions, and mustard. Eat it. It's good. Get two, you might as well.<br /><br />There are two genres of Coney dogs: Flint-style and Detroit-style. Detroit-style is all runny and nasty, just a dog with chili on top. Flint-style on the other hand, is coney perfection. These days, the original ones can be found at Tom Z's coney island downtown. Accept no substitutes.<br /><br />When GM has a strike, Flint women cook up sauce in a crock pot, chop up onions, and deliver coneys to the picket line. Flint kids go to Angelo's before prom, carefully lifting their ballgowns off the floor.<br /><br />A few years ago, Angelo's was sold. The new owners fired the coughing waitresses, dressed up the new ones in "Angelo's" t-shirts, took down the old yellow menus, raised prices, franchised the place, changed the food, and generally fucked everything up.<br /><br />Fortunately, the Angelo's-shaped hole in the universe has ushered in a new era. During my last visit, I saw dozens of new coney places that had opened up. Flint coneys are everywhere now. I remain hopeful.<br /><br />Thus endeth the tale of the Vastly Superior Flintstyle coney. Anybody has anything different to say about the quality of the Flinttown dog, then come on up here and say it. I'll fight ya. Come on. You. Right now. Flint!Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1115042349957713412005-05-02T09:48:00.000-04:002005-05-02T09:59:09.956-04:00Best prank ever.<img src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/images/disco.jpg" align="right" />Breaking news!<br />Someone stuck a disco ball on the top of Cornell's McGraw tower. It's still there, but they are going to remove it this morning, so get over here if you want to see it. Or you can try to zoom in on it with the <a href="http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/campusview/">webcam</a>. Here's a site dedicated to some <a href="http://www.alltooflat.com/pranks/lion/">other</a> famous Cornell pranks.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1114702484897768602005-04-28T10:49:00.000-04:002005-04-28T11:34:44.896-04:00Big Bird<img src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/ivoryFeature.jpg" align="right" />There's big excitement here at the Lab of Ornithology this morning since we announced the rediscovery of a once-extinct bird. You can read all about the Ivory-billed woodpecker hoo-ha at <a href="http://www.ivorybill.org/">ivorybill.org</a>. It's been fun to watch all of this from the inside. The Lab kept it quiet for a long time, rapidly trying to raise funds for land conservation efforts before the news leaked and the entire state of Arkansas becomes birder-Disneyworld and someone starts selling Ivory Burgers.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1114442063263354712005-04-25T10:40:00.000-04:002005-04-25T11:34:02.736-04:00ALA tipIf any of you impoverished public librarians out there want to attend the American Library Association conference this year but need a slick way to get work to pay for it, here's a tip. Schedule your departure for the day after the conference ends. Pack large, empty suitcases. Lurk around the publishers' booths on the last day and collect the free and insanely discounted display books that the publishing representatives don't want to haul home. Especially keep an eye on the DK booth and the fabulous Tenspeed Press. If you do it right, the money you spend on travel expenses will roughly equal the amount of schwag you bring home.<br /><br />I won't be attending ALA this year, having defected for South by Southwest Interactive where they have panels on subjects I care about, and the nightlife is an order of magnitude less lame.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1114202696575159722005-04-22T15:35:00.000-04:002005-04-22T16:44:56.576-04:00HerontownHello friends and neighbors. There hasn't been much librarianish going on lately. I'm still working on our cool audio/video catalog application, and am generally enjoying spring. I turned 29 recently, and spent the day hiking the finger lakes trail with friends. We saw a <a href="http://www.illinoisraptorcenter.org/Field%20Guide/rookery.html">heron rookery</a>, which is where Great Blue Herons go to hang out when they aren't busy stabbing fish. There were dozens of them living in huge stick nests at the tops of some very tall trees. They kept flapping around and honking. It was weird and beautiful.<br /><br />Spring means cleaning out and planting the garden, moving furniture around, recovering from the Slime Flu that has been going around our office, preparing for a trip back to Flint (two weekends from now - mark your calendars), watching all of the Father Ted episodes back-to-back, overusing hand sanitizer (see: Slime Flue, above), and eagerly awaiting the arrival of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=librarianaven-20&creative=9325&camp=1789&link_code=ur2&path=tg/detail/-/1594480745?v=glance">I'm Not the New Me</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=librarianaven-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;l=ur2&o=1" alt="" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> in the mail.<br /><br />In the spirit of spring cleaning/redecoration I've been having fun with <a href="http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/">this</a> link. I'll be putting a giant artichoke on my office wall any day now.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1113936640829190902005-04-19T10:02:00.000-04:002005-04-19T16:10:05.733-04:00Fonty goodnessI'm shopping for fonts this morning. I work in a library with a font budget. Life is good. I'm torn between <a href="http://www.veer.com/products/typedetail.aspx?image=RRT0010058">Saint Louis</a> and <a href="http://www.fontbureau.com/fonts/BodegaSerif/styles">Bodega Serif</a>. <br /><a href="http://www.slowwave.com/index.php?date=05-02-12"><br />Slow wave</a> is a comic strip made out of people's dreams. Here's a librarian <a href="http://www.slowwave.com/index.php?date=04-09-04">one</a>. Incidentally, this morning I had a dream that we visited a petting zoo in Mexico which housed the Cheshire Cat.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1113850059253450182005-04-18T14:46:00.000-04:002005-04-18T14:47:39.253-04:00PhotosToo much information? Perhaps. Here's my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianavengers/">flickr page</a> for all you stalkers and family members.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1112975533993399682005-04-08T11:23:00.000-04:002005-04-15T14:26:05.863-04:00Roundup<img src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/images/millionbook.gif" alt="image from the Million Book Project" name="Image from the Million Book Project" align="right" />Two baby librarians were born to my wonderful friends from the Cornell library. <a href="http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/mss10/pics/laia/">Laih </a>and <a href="http://www.kimlamorte.com/">Anika</a> are both nine and a half pounds, super-smart, and will be entering the University of Michigan's Information program in 2028. Congratulations Kim and Brian, and Clay and Mike!<br /><br />I attended a seminar on the <a href="http://www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/MBP_FAQ.html">Million Book Project</a> last night. There were a buncha computer science folks there, and the usual gang of library folks. I was horrified by the scale of the project, which involves sending hundreds of shipping crates of books to India and China for scanning, and wrangling terrabytes of information that takes a week to even copy. Yow. One thing I found curious was their decision to do bitonal scanning instead of grayscale. I'm told that this results in "no real information loss" but many of their pages are really hard to read because of the lost grayscale info. In many cases the entire nature of the page is lost, and the resulting image looks like a rubber stamp of the Mona Lisa. Does anyone with more experience in these matters have thoughts on the subject? They scan at 600 dpi, so it can't just be a matter of storage space.<br /><br />In other news, there was a duck in one of our trees this morning, female mallard who was driven to extremes by an ardent male duck. She was up there for about five minutes, wobbling around until she finally fell into the pond.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1112723339750742302005-04-05T10:12:00.000-04:002005-04-05T13:48:59.750-04:00Index ThisDid you know that there is an <a href="http://www.asindexing.org/site/refbooks.shtml">American Society of Indexers</a>? How meta is that?<br /><br />In a similar vein, our fearless leaders here at the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds recently spearheaded the creation of an animal behavior <a href="http://ethodata.comm.nsdl.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl">ontology</a>. I was browsing through the <a href="http://ethodata.comm.nsdl.org/behavior.v1/">list of behaviors</a> and have concluded that librarians are predisposed to <a href="http://ethodata.comm.nsdl.org/behavior.v1/Aid+giving+%2810.3.3%29.html">aid-giving behavior</a>, and perhaps <a href="http://ethodata.comm.nsdl.org/behavior.v1/Homeostatic+postures+%2811.1.8.1%29.html">homeostatic postures</a>.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1112275468415884702005-03-31T07:00:00.000-05:002005-03-31T08:58:53.460-05:00Stay right there.<img src="http://www.librarianavengers.org/weblog/images/ball.jpg" align="right" />My parents visited this weekend, bringing birthday presents with them. As usual, these gifts were thoughtful, appropriate, kind, and Extremely Heavy.<br /><br />It all started in a few years ago. I had recently moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan for graduate school, and had increased my distance from "home" by about 30 minutes. Ever-supportive, my parents would pile in the car on weekends and we would all have lunch at Zingermans. However, the holidays revealed an unusual pattern. Instead of the usual paperbacks and gift certificates, I started receiving Very Heavy Things. A leaded glass picture frame weighing about 15 pounds. Hardbacked reference books. Anvils.<br /><br />My latest move to Ithaca has upped the ante. The trip is now eight hours long, and for my birthday this year I received a pair of six ton jack stands and an iron tea kettle. I suspect this will be followed by an armoire and a set of shotputs.<br /><br />Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my parents are slowly building an anchor. Soon I will be forced to remain, tethered to my home by a series of carefully-placed items too heavy to fit in the moving van.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1111606814880309582005-03-23T14:32:00.000-05:002005-03-23T14:40:14.880-05:00Construction makes me drink beerList of vehicles parked outside our house:<br /><ul> <li>3 Drain Brain vans. Apparently everyone on staff wants a look at our horrible horrible sewage line.</li> <li>1 pickup truck belonging to the concrete guy. Who you gonna call when you pull up some carpet and discover a maze of cracked concrete patching? Concrete guy! </li> <li>1 scary airbrushed van belonging to the floor guy. This guy is the first to actually finish doing something. We've got one room done downstairs and it's only three hundred dollars over budget. You win, floor guy!</li> </ul> Breaking news! The drain guys have gotten their 150 feet of snake stuck! They can't get it out! It's stuck! I'm so glad I came home from work for this. This is exciting. What will break next? Stay tuned!Ericahttp://librarianavengers.orgtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298207.post-1111443739661122052005-03-21T16:52:00.000-05:002005-03-22T12:12:10.890-05:00Makin' coffeeWhen you grow up and own a house you will discover that houses, like weblogs, hairstyles, pets, and biceps, require maintenance. Often, this maintenance comes in the form of a large man who likes to bowl arriving at your home at 7:30 in the morning to resurface your floors. Assuming you are female and have issued social-class-indicators such as "hey man" and "shit it's early," you will be pounded companionably on the back and asked for coffee.<br /><br />Herein lies a difficulty. In the hope of being judged as a comrade and therefore avoiding the spurious charges and bill-padding that are the norm for your ivy-covered neighborhood, you have opened yourself up to requests for coffee. However, all of this back-thumping and dude-ing has been a ruse. You are really a cuisinart-owning rhododendron-tending yuppie who only drinks tea.<br /><br />Tea. You can't offer this man tea. If you offer him tea, you might as well come down the stairs in a ballgown carrying a Persian cat. My god, your very house is at stake. He could use the cheap leveling compound if he thinks you don't know any better. You have to find coffee.<br /><br />Ohthankgod. You have coffee. Sort of. In the back of the cupboard is some instant that you keep for when your parents visit. Maybe he won't notice. You make it extra strong and dump in a bunch of sugar to mask the taste. He calls you sweetie and says thanks. Sweetie? Shit. Now the girl thing is going to kick you in the ass. He's probably down there screwing up the water/concrete ratio right now.Ericahttp://librarianavengers.org