Title Varies Slightly

To people who follow library issues, Michael Gorman writing on Web 2.0 puts one in mind of, well, let’s say Phyllis Schlafly on the Equal Rights Amendment. You may not agree with everything said, but the arguments will be elegantly stated, and the terms of the argument subtly but significantly shifted from the platitudes of [...]

actually they are not; but I can’t resist a song reference in a blog post title.
Tomorrow I head out to join over 13,000 of my colleagues at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in Washington DC. The phone number I need to summon shuttle vans to help me cope with broken Metro elevators is in [...]

The competing project that is seeking funding is a modification of House office space. When a legislator (sorry this isn’t C-SPAN so I don’t know who’s who) said Congress should be funding NLS, not “ourselves.” Not to be dissuaded, a Minnesota legislator decided to play us against each other by bringing up the lack of [...]

Updating this important story from Planet of the Blind and Wheelie Catholic, I’m pleased to report that responsible people in the American Library Association are taking action to advocate for full funding of the NLS Talking Book service. ALA is a big ol’ bureaucracy, but we can sometimes respond quickly and decisively on urgent [...]

A professional colleague emails to say:
Background:
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a division of the Library of Congress, is at a crucial juncture in the project of switching the format of talking books and their playback equipment from 4-track cassette tapes to digital flash memory cartridges. Cassettes were first introduced [...]

I don’t know who first decided on the phrase “exposing metadata,” but it had to be someone without a vivid imagination. To me, the verb “expose” has three connotations, none of them positive:

What a fellow with a trenchcoat gets arrested for; indecent exposure.
Dying of the effects of the elements, as the weak and sickly were [...]

WooHoo!

Saw the preview at the American Library Association Conference in New Orleans, Cannot wait for the big premiere at ALA in DC next month.

It’s true. The model for tenure is in the Bible; specifically, Genesis, chapter 27.
Jacob works for seven years to get the desire of his heart, Rachel. And he believes he has succeeded. But the morning after the wedding night, he discovers he has married Leah, her sister. He must work another seven years for Rachel. [...]

 
 
PTPL SCHOLARSHIPS FOR 2007
 
Potomac Technical Processing Librarians (PTPL) announce the availability of two $1,000 scholarships for future librarians interested in technical services. Students living or working in the PTPL membership region (DC, Maryland, Virginia) and who are currently enrolled in an ALA-accredited program, including distance education programs, are invited [...]

Husband: This is the third book in the series.
Wife: I just wish I could remember the first book. I don’t even remember the title.
Me: [Butting in]: And don’t you hate it when you go ahead and get the first book and you get halfway through the first chapter, and then you remember…
Wife: Yes! Then you [...]