I think my theme for August is reclaiming space. Moving back to San Francisco reclaimed my city for me; even if we move along later (as may well happen when we eventually sell the house in Florida), I feel I have reattached myself to my hometown in a way that has been restorative and regardless […]
A brief update before heading to Apple HQ for the first-ever meetup of NorCal SCELC members. I have more to say about OCLC (including that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the OCLC board of trustees–I don’t know how anyone got that idea), but not much time to do […]
Innovative Interfaces and its joined-at-the-hip cataloging-company SkyRiver have teamed up to sue OCLC for monopolistic practices. I read the complaint end-to-end today and you can read my somewhat tame, won’t-you-be-my-neighbor assessment on the Chronicle of Higher Ed. My more passionate, from-the-heart assessment: OCLC is a galumphing behemoth, often clumsily distant from its own kith and […]
We did a true staycation, and I’ll work backwards and say that at the end of it I had two very satisfying personal writing days while Sandy has been off at continuing ed. I was going to take one writing day, but it was so relaxing and productive, and I feel so comfortable about MPOW, […]
This is a general catch-up post prompted by the number of people I ran into at ALA who asked, “How ARE you?” in that very pregnant manner that means, so, is your life still screwed up? And no disrespect to people who enriched our lives during the Florida Experiment — I particularly miss my writing […]
Hotter than blazes, but still a great venue, even after a major blister on one foot made me limp. Great discovery: the Circulator, which for $1 brought me from Georgetown (church with my stepmom) back to the CC in air-conditioned bliss. Presentations: “Ultimate Debate 2010: Open Source Software: Free Beer or Free Puppies?†Sunday, June […]
City view, sunny day Originally uploaded by freerangelibrarian I work in a great place… I live in a great city… I have wonderful friends and family and love in my life. And naturally curly hair. I am moved by how many people have written me to share their own stories about fathers and loss. My […]
I didn’t even check my voicemail when I got out of the hair salon, because I could see that my sister had tried to call me twice in a matter of minutes, which means “serious family business.” I didn’t even really need to ask what it was about. My father has been in frail health […]
Note: if you’re a SCELC member reading this, I’m running for the SCELC Board, and I’d really appreciate your vote. My election statement is on the ballot. Voting ends May 21. “Silly Season” is how I refer to the academic end-of-year period from about March through Commencement, a solid extrusion of busy-ness that crams together […]
Today is the go-live day of MPOW’s OCLC authorization for interlibrary loan. Prior to this, our ILL procedure involved paper forms, which partly explains why we did 4 ILLs last year, the other half of that being that we charged patrons, and the third half being that we hadn’t conditioned patrons that we provide this […]