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Your mission, should you choose to accept it

Is to tell me: What the hell is this?

Hint: I recieved it as a white elephant gift for Christmas. Consider it a librarian challenge. First person to get the answer recieves the respect of reference librarians everywhere.

Yes, I do know what it is. I just want to see how hard it is to find out with only a picture.

<edit121603>Since Catherine asked: the object is a very hard plastic, and approximately 2 feet long. The two long side protrusions are maybe 4 1/2 inches, with the two small protrusions being slightly less than 1 inch.</edit121603>

<edit121703>No to both Justin and Patrick…it is neither a thing for hanging or a handrail. This is fun! Anyone else wanna give it a try?</edit121703>

By griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

7 replies on “Your mission, should you choose to accept it”

Okay, in order to answer your question, I’m going to need a little more information. First of all, what is the scale of the object? Are we talking about several inches long, or several feet? Also, what kind of material is it made of? Plastic? Metal?

Yeah…what you meant was:
<reference interview>Okay, in order to answer your question, I’m going to need a little more information. First of all, what is the scale of the object? Are we talking about several inches long, or several feet? Also, what kind of material is it made of? Plastic? Metal?</reference interview>

You’ve got to use the code for brackets, otherwise it interprets them.

a Roto Rooter plumbing device? a trombone cleaner? No, wait! Being as my old college roommate was a complete klepto, who was known to produce everything from plywood to doorknobs to an entire flagpole in our freshman dorm room, I have to say–it looks like something that the Town of Chapel Hill uses to hang Christmas stars from lampposts on Franklin Street!! (that’s my final answer)

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