Drum roll(yo) please.....

Well, here I am at #23; I've followed instructions and given myself a "pat on the back," but it seems like a cheer or something is more in order -- except that "things" are seeming a bit anti-climactic right about now; worried alot, frustrated often, angered sometimes, punned most always, (even made myself laugh once or twice,) awed frequently, but ultimately learned much.

Thanks to all who helped keep me inside the Nov. 21. deadline. See ya 'round in webland soon, but hope to connect in person sooner.

Down the home stretch......

I was introduced to Project Gutenberg some time ago -- impressive then, and still more impressive now. There seems no end to the growing capabilities of this site and FREE! Even their request for donations is modestly stated. I can't say I'd actually want to read any of the so-amply-offered "books" (for me, this word will always mean two covers, paper and little handwritten notes in the margins,) but I can certainly tell brilliant effort when I see it.

As for Net Library, gosh, I was intimidated. And I couldn't get into Overdrive, but I predict I would have felt the same...... just kind of tired.

Sang a little, danced a little.....

I went to the Yahoo Search suggested by thing #21 -- got samplings of Britney Spears of old, and
Shakira (she brings a whole new meaning to the Spanish I studied in junior high.) Does this mean I was "podcasting?"

The Webbies

-- tried out "Lulu", a top-rated writer's site and learned that "toward" is more American, "towards," more British -- I'll have to keep that in mind.....

We're planning to do some painting in our house, (walls, that is, not canvas), so I tried out a visual arts winner called "Color Blender". "House Beautiful Paint Brush" actually lets you" try on" countless colors -- I'm considering a very pale peach with teal trim and maybe wine and mauve accents. Daring, don't you think? But if I were an artist, I could experiment with shades of color too -- I've always felt inspired by Matisse.....

Fun!

2.0 - "Embracing Constant Change"

Certainly, once upon a time, if one wanted information that couldn't be found in home-owned World Book or Britannica encyclopedias that doting mothers and fathers invested in for the sake of assuring childrens' education (these were way too expensive for my parents , but they still felt obliged to purchase even a much cheaper and less reknown set), a trek to the library was a necessity -- how else could 5, 10, and 15 page papers be written? Well, according to Rick Anderson of the University of Nevada, how very arrogrant of we librarians to pressure patrons this way, especially if they were not "privileged with access to a good library?" -- makeTHEM come to US; what nerve! (And for that matter, can any library EVER be a not-good one?)

Now, as the decades pass and our humility so much more in tact, we no longer expect that "Muhammed come to the mountain;" the "preferred environment" for searching information and "reading" says Mr. Anderson, is, of course, the WEB, and librarians ought to, sacrificially, allow the public its comfort zone; our duties then, if there are still to be any, must focus primarily on helping with customers' (if there still remain customers) computer searches and needs, and less on print services. What about the ensuing assumption, that everyone OWNS a computer (like school teachers notoriouslly do -- how humble is that?) and the librarian should instead, and with every new day, become a "technarian?" And if the public is still inclined to make the trip to the mountain, perhaps our facility should humbly be decked out in everything technological -- empty the shelves of anything that resembles paper and replace with aisles of computers, cd players, and, perhaps most importantly, dvd players for in-house viewing pleasure. (Remember to leave room for any new gadgets coming down the pike.)

Oh, and to really hit home just how humbly we want to present ourselves, let's be rid of our title as Library (the "libr" part smacks too much of the word "book") and be re-named an "E-rary".

I know it's coming, and I'm bracing myself..... but for a little while longer, I need to un-humbly hope that a person will still leave their computers behind, not make a bee-line for ours, and ask me where Arthur Miller's dog-eared copy of "Death of a Salesman" is. Even "Cliffs Notes" are starting to take on a whole new prestige, now that a student, who's report is due "tomorrow," can get "Sparks Notes" on line.

When LIBRaries are, for me, the repositories of civilization's mammoth effort to make sense of our existence, I can't seem to "go quietly into that" keyboard night-- all of this, in my very humble opinion.

EGGszohowriter.....

..... is how I enter this new word processing format; next step, as I always say, TBC (to be continued).

Lifelong learning

The 7 1/2 habits of education can be consolidated into one grand addiction: passion for significance. With the mere devoted intention of perception, you've both given meaning and, in the giving, received your own meaningfulness. That is truly lifelong learning.