Jenny and Michael, in a fit of brilliance, have set up a Win a Wii donation drive for Blake Carver, who runs LISHost, my very favorite internet hosting service. If you read a library-focused blog, there’s a better than average chance that Blake is hosting it…including Pattern Recognition.
So: go and donate, and maybe win a Wii!
Here’s an idea I had today that I wanted to get down so I don’t forget it…autonomous self-checkout with cell phones. Here’s the idea:
You write a web-service that logs the customer into their account from their cell phone browser, and then takes over the camera on their cell. They point the camera at a bar code on the book in question, and you software looks it up in the catalog and checks it out to the patron.
The difficult part for the library is how to enable the deactivation of the security strips that most of us use…ideally, the security system would be tied to the catalog, and would know when a book was checked out and when it wasn’t, and alarm only as appropriate.
This would take library staff completely out of the checkout process (which self-checkout already does) but would ALSO take any specialized equipment out, and allow for nearly complete patron autonomy in the stacks.
The interesting thing is, I’m pretty sure that all of this is possible with current open source software. Certainly there would need to be some development, but I don’t think anything would have to be completely written from scratch…maybe connectors that transfer data from one system to the other.
Thoughts? Is this being done anywhere? Or did I actually have an original thought?
Eliza had yet another friend come into the world…welcome Conrad Ferguson Thomas!
We can’t wait to meet him!
Eliza has a new friend: Amelia Anne Gunnels, born 2/7/08 (less than 8 weeks after Eliza!). Welcome to the world, Amelia! Eliza (and I) can’t wait to meet you. And huge congrats to mommy, daddy, and big brother. A trip to Atlanta is in order this Spring, for sure!
Mardi Gras is a really special time for Betsy and I. During our undergrad days, we made a yearly pilgrimage with some of our best friends down to the Big Easy for Mardi Gras, watching the parades and generally acting silly. Years later, it was where and when we decided to get married, eloping to New Orleans and getting married in the New Orleans Parish courthouse on Lundi Gras of 2001.
It’s a great holiday, and to everyone: Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!
Last year’s 2007 State of the Union Tag Cloud was such a hit, I decided to follow up again this year. A few major differences: Congress is mentioned a lot more this year, while health and oil don’t show up at all. This year’s address looks more active…instead of “fight” we get “fighting”. Overall, the themes are still easily picked out: “terrorists” still play a major part in the speech, and we get “empower” and “hope” and “trust” as themes.
I’ve kept up with the recent Orson Scott Card controversy in libraryland, and I respect nearly everyone who has taken a strong stance against the decision by the YALSA to award OSC the Margaret A. Edwards award for adolescent literature for 2008.
But.
I’m not sold on the controversy here.
There is no denying that OSC is a homophobe…no, that’s probably not strong enough. “Fear of homosexuality” doesn’t approach his views. OSC is a heterosexist bigot, based on his own words, and does not deserve either our respect or our patience. But the two works that are being honored, Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow, are not homophobic. They don’t seem to speak with the same voice as OSC in interviews. They portray strong, smart kids doing incredible things, and should stand above and beyond the idiocies of the author.
The award is given, according to the description online, in order to:
…recognizes an author’s work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.
The works do just that.
The author can be an idiot…hell, it could probably be argued that most artists of any sort are damaged in some significant way. Insanity, adultery, substance abuse, and yes, crazy beliefs…all crop up in the pantheon of artists. Just because the author is nuts doesn’t mean that the work is nuts.
Would I give OSC an award? No. Would I honor the work? Yes, I would. It’s a fine line, but otherwise I find myself having to question every piece of art by examination of the artist.
…so that I could order a few of these.
To celebrate the birth of a baby in a way that makes it feel like the kid’s right there in your arms, a rice shop in the southwestern Japanese city of Kita-Kyushu will send out a customized dakigokochi, a roughly baby-shaped bag of high-grade rice to everyone on your birth announcement list. The bag will be printed with the kid’s picture, stats, and a greeting–and it will weigh the same as the kid did at birth.
One of the million reasons that I love Japanese culture. Wish I had a rice bag o’ Eliza!
It’s off to work mom goes. (Yes, new parents tend to talk about themselves in the third person.)
Do I have to go?? Yes. Do I want to? No. Eliza will be exactly one month old the same day I go back to work. It doesn’t seem fair. Why are maternity leave policies in this country so horrible (or non-existent)? I could have had the semester off, sure, UNPAID. That didn’t make sense with diapers, wipes, and formula to buy. Oh well. I guess going back to work will make me treasure spending time with her even more than I do already.
Romero! The Living Dead!
As most of you know that have been reading for any length of time, I’m a huge sucker for zombies. Romero is the king of the zombie film, so this is a must-see for me. I’m a little worried about it coming out near Cloverfield, which takes the first-person-Blair-Witch style storytelling to a major motion picture, and it looks like this might be seen as a rip off. In any case, Romero + zombie = The Win.
