Prepping for ALA...

I've had some correspondence regarding this blog lately, and I fully intend to respond before Thursday, but at the moment am trying to keep afloat and put out fires.... something that sounds metaphorically impossible, but I assure you, it's not.

I've been working on my ALA schedule for the past couple of hours, always a complex and confounding process--and, as usual, the most interesting sessions seem to be scheduled for the same times. Ah, well--compromise is a skill, I suppose.

Also a, shout-out to my fellow blogger and GODORT-er, Rebecca Blakely of McNeese Library, who is moderating a session on gender and race messages in Disney films, which I would dearly love to attend... were I not in a GODORT Publications Committee meeting at that time. (See my dilemmas?)

I will be arriving in Anaheim a day early, Thursday morning. I plan to take a mini-vacation to see friends, get to the Santa Monica pier, and soak up some of my native state's atmosphere. If you'll be in the area and have some free time Thursday/Friday for some adventure-seeking, let me know and maybe we can hang out for awhile.

Anyone else dreading the mail lines at the Exhibits Hall? With the added checked-baggage airline fees, I'll bet many more of us will be in that line this time around. I guess if nothing else, the line will be a good place to start all that ARC reading...

Wordle

(aka: Tag Cloud goodness.)

Michael Stephens was blogging about Wordle, and being that my email inbox was empty (for about 1.2 seconds), I thought I'd give it a try. My Flickr librarian pals tried random words or their resume, but I just went the boring, easy route of using my del.icio.us account.

And I have to say, it's a pretty accurate depiction of the topics that most occupy my thoughts.

Except maybe that "shoes" don't appear on here as often as you'd expect...

Shamelessly Promoting New Library Merchanise

Get your own Cyber Cafe pen with the Albino Squirrel logo, now at the UNT Willis Library!

And can I just say, I am totally excited that they have a comfy rubbery grip in a lovely shade of UNT mean green? Okay then, consider it said.

My Boss, Depository Library Council Member

Now that it's official and the press release is out, let me finally burst out with the news I've been waiting to say: my boss, the incomparable Suzanne Sears, is on DLC this year! Yay!!

Of course, this means I'll be a bit busier for the next three years as well, helping to take on more departmental responsibilities when she's away. But it's exciting and huge news and I'll be interested to be so close to a council member.

(And yes, this would fall under the "docs nerd" category of posts to this blog.)

Dallas Library News

You've just got to love your local NPR affiliate, don't you? Well, I do--not only do they keep me up to date while entertaining me on my daily two-hour commute, but Dallas's KERA also provides a blog with updates for artsy, cultural happenings in the DFW area.

And this week they posted not one, but two library-related updates on that blog:

• Dallas Public Library opens a branch location in NorthPark Mall
• DPL also updated their website and OPAC (now with book cover images!)

What more can you ask from a group that endorses libraries, infuses news with perspective and humor, and provides personalities like Terry Gross and Garrison Keillor?

Odd Patent: "Stuffed Horse Convertible to Unicorn"

No, I am not making this up. It's one of the weirdest things I have ever read--my dad somehow found it while looking up patents related to his work... um, which is engineering. Not engineering unicorns--he was as flabbergasted by the results as you might expect.



The killer is not that the patent is for a stuffed toy horse with accessories that make it a unicorn--which seems a bit odd for a patent to begin with--but the fact that the point of it all seems to be the story. The, er, rather eccentrically goofy story. A story with excerpts like this:

"Hi! My name is Sir Whitney. I'm a horse and my colors are all mixed up... My legs are brown and white striped which makes me look like I am wearing shorts and leg warmers."

...One day, Sir Whitney decided to trot to his favorite field to smell the daisies. "This spot looks comfy," he snorted as he sat down. "Eeeeeouch! jumpin' caterpillars!!! what was that?" Hollered Sir Whitney real loudly.

"Great grumbles, can't anyone get any sleep around here?" squinted Sadie, the groundhog. "What did'ya do to my Hornicorn?"

Also, it kills me every time the applicant refers to the stuffed horse/unicorn as "the fanciful main character."

Yeah. I read this at my parents' house this weekend, and ended up laughing so hard I had to sit down. Aren't Gov Docs great?

New Display Photos Up

We've been doing a "favorite/most interesting docs" display for several months now, and I started documenting it for June. Each month, a staff member picks one or more themes and makes a display with themed documents in the "comfy seating" section of our floor.

I'm currently pondering my own choices for August...