Sunday morning at 6am I heard what I thought was a crashing dumpster and discovered that a car had flipped over on Monroe Street after hitting my tree. I always worry about raking leaves in the road but this time the tree was hit. Fortunately, the people in the car and my tree seem ok.Sunday, November 1, 2009
Late, Late Halloween Brouhaha on College Hill!
Sunday morning at 6am I heard what I thought was a crashing dumpster and discovered that a car had flipped over on Monroe Street after hitting my tree. I always worry about raking leaves in the road but this time the tree was hit. Fortunately, the people in the car and my tree seem ok.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Elizabethan Queen Poses for Camera After Sending Subject to Dungeon
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Old Market in Charleston
While visiting Edward and Cary in Isle of Palms, SC, we went exploring today in Charleston and I snapped this picture of the Market. Afterwards we went to the Battery and to the Harris Teeter on East Bay Street to buy shrimp for shrimp and grits. Yum. Yum.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Spanish Language Skills and Sharing Among Nations
Attending the XL Jornadas Mexicanas de Biblioteconomia was a worthwhile stretch for my intermediate Spanish language skills. Although it would have been great to have had a translator and been able to understand some of the finer points, hearing about Mexican libraries first-hand in Spanish by Mexicans in Mexico offers an immediate perspective that I would recommend to anyone.
For example, this morning a representative from OCLC, Bruce Crocco, spoke in English about OCLC's user experience research alongside a distinguished Mexican speaker, Dr. Adolfo Rodriguez Gallardo, who spoke about Mexico´s national consortium catalog for academic libraries, Catalogo Nacional de Bibliotecas Academicas. In his talk, Crocco was concerned about the user´s experience and about improving OCLC´s search algorithm so that it delivers results for two kinds of users, casual users and researchers, most of the time; he feels impacted by the ubiquity of the Google search engine. In his talk, Gallardo showed all the work and cooperation that it takes to create a consortium catalog, he is concerned because his catalog only works for users who have online access. Both catalogs are very successful products.
For American audiences, OCLC is an established bibliographic utility that dates back to the 60's. At American library conferences, OCLC hosts glitzy multimedia productions. Not so in Mexico today. Crocco appeared with a very plain PowerPoint written in Spanish while he talked with a single microphone in English. It was clear that he wanted to increase the use of WorldCat in Mexico, but he did it in a very low-key but good way by offering statistics about how many users searched the catalog in Mexico.
I feel that Bruce Crocco and OCLC would have benefited from the services of a translator, the presence of which would have helped to show respect for the Mexican language speakers in the audience and the country of Mexico. With all the American franchises that line the streets of Acapulco, I couldn´t help wondering about how Mexicans feel about these American businesses really or whether their leaders spoke the Spanish language when they arrived.
For American librarians with Spanish language skills, this conference is a great way to give a talk and talk with Mexican colleagues about research. Short of an "invasion" by Americans at the conference, the sharing of ideas is always good and promotes sharing among nations.
For example, this morning a representative from OCLC, Bruce Crocco, spoke in English about OCLC's user experience research alongside a distinguished Mexican speaker, Dr. Adolfo Rodriguez Gallardo, who spoke about Mexico´s national consortium catalog for academic libraries, Catalogo Nacional de Bibliotecas Academicas. In his talk, Crocco was concerned about the user´s experience and about improving OCLC´s search algorithm so that it delivers results for two kinds of users, casual users and researchers, most of the time; he feels impacted by the ubiquity of the Google search engine. In his talk, Gallardo showed all the work and cooperation that it takes to create a consortium catalog, he is concerned because his catalog only works for users who have online access. Both catalogs are very successful products.
For American audiences, OCLC is an established bibliographic utility that dates back to the 60's. At American library conferences, OCLC hosts glitzy multimedia productions. Not so in Mexico today. Crocco appeared with a very plain PowerPoint written in Spanish while he talked with a single microphone in English. It was clear that he wanted to increase the use of WorldCat in Mexico, but he did it in a very low-key but good way by offering statistics about how many users searched the catalog in Mexico.
I feel that Bruce Crocco and OCLC would have benefited from the services of a translator, the presence of which would have helped to show respect for the Mexican language speakers in the audience and the country of Mexico. With all the American franchises that line the streets of Acapulco, I couldn´t help wondering about how Mexicans feel about these American businesses really or whether their leaders spoke the Spanish language when they arrived.
For American librarians with Spanish language skills, this conference is a great way to give a talk and talk with Mexican colleagues about research. Short of an "invasion" by Americans at the conference, the sharing of ideas is always good and promotes sharing among nations.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
An Empty Pool
Nobody´s enjoying the pool at the conference this morning, while Mexican Librarians meet to consider the future of their libraries. One presenter suggested that the Spanish word for libraries, bibliotecas, could change to infotecas or multitecas as librarians deal less and less with bibliography as the world of information changes.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Dr. Camila Alire
The first presentation of the morning [September 9] was delivered by Dr. Camila Alire, President Elect of the American Library Association. Given in English that was then translated into Spanish by Jesus Lau, Alireªs presentation was titled "Giving What Your Users Want: Marketing Your Libraries." A question and answer session followed the presentation.
Bienvenidos
This is the Conference´s banner. The title of the conference is "Usuarios: Demanda and Oferta Informativa de las Bibliotecas [Users: Needs and Informative Offers for Bibliography]."
Grand Hotel
Librarians from all over Mexico are converging at the Grand Hotel, Acapulco, Gro., for the XL Jornadas Mexicanas de Biblioteconomia [40th Mexican Conference of Library Science] of the Asociacion Mexicana de Bibliotecarios, A.C [AMBAC], September 9 through 11, 2009.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Doug
This is Doug in April 2008 shortly before taking my header picture at the Hotel Chichen, Yucatan, Mexico. We loved seeing all the tropical flora and fauna and highly recommend the hotel.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Obituary of a Friend
Roxy Wrinkles, English bulldog extraordinaire, died on August 19, 2009 at the Alpine Animal Hospital just 53 days short of her 10th birthday.
Roxy enjoyed good food (rotisserie chicken) and plush toys (furballs) for as long as we knew her. She was known to chew furballs for hours in front of the TV where she looked up at other animals whenever they appeared on TV (especially Dog Whisperer) and barked. Although Roxy spent much of her time as close to the human as possible and followed her around much of the time, she also enjoyed sitting on the porch and the front yard when it was good weather tethered with a yellow boat line to her stake. She especially enjoyed riding in the human’s vehicles (front seat) and having the cool air from the air conditioner blow on her face.
Roxy was born in California but lived most of her life in Spokane, WA. Christy got her as a rescued animal at the age of 7 on December 31, 2006 and immediately knew she was special. She could do tricks like “give paw” and she nearly always dipped her head and looked up at you while “listening” to questions. An affect responder who hated hearing harsh words in the household, Roxy licked your face when you cried. Roxy had several adorable sleeping positions: the bull-nosed grub pose (or ham pose) on her stomach and the catfish pose on her back. Roxy greeted her humans whenever they returned home by doing her animated trout dance, a different fish altogether.
Roxy is sorely missed by her friend, Pogo, and humans, Doug and Christy, a wonderful friend, companion, and trooper right up to the end.
Roxy enjoyed good food (rotisserie chicken) and plush toys (furballs) for as long as we knew her. She was known to chew furballs for hours in front of the TV where she looked up at other animals whenever they appeared on TV (especially Dog Whisperer) and barked. Although Roxy spent much of her time as close to the human as possible and followed her around much of the time, she also enjoyed sitting on the porch and the front yard when it was good weather tethered with a yellow boat line to her stake. She especially enjoyed riding in the human’s vehicles (front seat) and having the cool air from the air conditioner blow on her face.
Roxy was born in California but lived most of her life in Spokane, WA. Christy got her as a rescued animal at the age of 7 on December 31, 2006 and immediately knew she was special. She could do tricks like “give paw” and she nearly always dipped her head and looked up at you while “listening” to questions. An affect responder who hated hearing harsh words in the household, Roxy licked your face when you cried. Roxy had several adorable sleeping positions: the bull-nosed grub pose (or ham pose) on her stomach and the catfish pose on her back. Roxy greeted her humans whenever they returned home by doing her animated trout dance, a different fish altogether.
Roxy is sorely missed by her friend, Pogo, and humans, Doug and Christy, a wonderful friend, companion, and trooper right up to the end.
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