Priceless20baseball20volumes20returned20to20U.20of20I.20Library
This story received national attention but it was good to read the account from “the horse’s mouth.” I have many fond memories of using the Main Library at UIUC, including the Reference Room where the missing volumes were found. I can remember, e.g., using the old NUC volumes while doing cataloging coursework. [...]

Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology: Library Schools Must Teach E-Resource Management (& What Else?)
I couldn’t agree more with the need for library schools to integrate a course on e-resource management into their curriculum. Furthermore, I think it should be a required course. The course I teach at the University of Illinois at [...]

At the risk of sounding rather negative, even petty (or worse), I’ve noticed an awful lot of the inner circle syndrome in library blogland lately. It seems to be getting more and more obvious, but perhaps not to those who might be deemed part of that inner circle. Some time ago I commented [...]

Within the last month or so, the Library of Congress’s online catalog received an upgrade that allows users to view and search for records using non-Roman (Unicode) characters in Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Hebrew, and Yiddish. See more information about it on their What’s New for the online catalog help pages. I [...]

In the past few months, there have been a number of deaths among extended family or friends. While in most cases it was expected, the death of someone you love is hard. Michele’s Uncle Donny died while only in his 50s, of cancer. My Uncle John came really close to death but thankfully is recovering. [...]

Tristan has a dragon painted on his face

Originally uploaded by Steve_Oberg.

Last night we attended the Christmas party for my work. The weather wasn’t good and we debated about not going, but the kids were really excited about going so we decided to go after all. Michele had bought the three younger [...]

I hate this time of year.
That may sound harsh, but it’s true. And the more “jolly holly Christmas-y” everyone around me gets, the more I hate it. I don’t like the way that people spend so much money (more than they can afford). I don’t like the extreme commercialism or consumerism that [...]

The days go by…and although lots of things are happening around here, I have purposely not blogged much about them. I have been thinking (as I do occasionally) about whether it is worth keeping up this blog. As so many others do, I ask myself, why bother? Why do I blog? [...]