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My grandfather

Papaw and Me

My mother’s father was born in 1920, and served in the Civilian Conservation Corps in Yellowstone National Park, where he once had a bear walk through his tent. He worked for dozens of years at a garment factory in Olive Hill, KY, producing uniforms for the various armed services. At the funeral of my grandmother, some 15 or so years ago, he broke down over the casket and weeped until I thought he could have no tears left. Growing up, he was always a gentle, kind man. Just last year my Mother visited him to find him on the roof of his house, checking for leaks.

My Grandfather went into the hospital today for pneumonia…and at 84, even a common cold is a serious thing. So I’m a little preoccupied with worrying about him. The hospital assures us that he’s recovering, and that most of the danger has past. His fever has broken, and x-rays show the infection seems to be localized in a small part of his left lung. He is conscious, and coherent, and in good spirits.

But I’m still going to worry until he gets home.

By griffey

Jason Griffey was most recently the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he worked to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise was 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 Library IT and a tenured professor 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 a chapter in Library 2035 - Imagining the Next Generation of Libraries by Rowman & Littlefield. His latest full-length work Standards - Essential Knowledge, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, was published by MIT Press in March 2025.

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.

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