Monthly Archives: January 2006

A wonderful anniversary weekend

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For the first time in our married life — in other words, in six years — Michele and I were able to spend a night away from our children. We had a wonderful weekend celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary by staying at a four star hotel near the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago. In addition to walking around Millennium Park, which we hadn’t seen before, Michele and I spent several hours touring the Art Institute of Chicago. We spent most of our time in the American artists area, an area neither of us had seen before. I was dazzled by two large paintings by Frederic Remington. Remington is of course well known for his bronze sculptures and there were several of them on display, but his paintings had far more of an impact on me. Their luminescent, bright colors were stunning. We also saw famous works of art by Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, John Singleton Copley, and many others. We had a leisurely lunch in the Art Institute’s cafe and went in search of even more areas of the place that we hadn’t seen already. It was a very satisfying and enjoyable visit. After that, we checked into our hotel (the Swissotel – Chicago) and rested for a bit before venturing out for a fabulous dinner at one of my favorite restaurants anywhere in the world: Frontera Grill (owned and operated by world famous chef, Rick Bayless). We had a great dinner there and then walked over to Michigan Avenue where we window shopped for a while before heading back to the hotel. As an interesting side note, our visit to the Swissotel – Chicago was fitting because we spent part of our honeymoon there six years ago.

The next day (Sunday), we drove back to the suburbs, stopping at Oak Brook to have a great lunch at The Cheesecake Factory followed by a leisurely visit to a nearby Borders, where we bought some books for the kids before picking them up at my in-law’s. They had a great time, also, and it sounds like they behaved very well in our absence.

It was a very nice time for all of us and I am really thankful for the generous giving of Michele’s parents that enabled us to do this. Now that we’ve done it once, Michele and I are eager to do it again.

Home delivery for libraries

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I was quite interested to read last night that a group of three nearby public libraries (Arlington Heights Memorial Library, Skokie Public Library and Indian Trails Public Library in Wheeling) have decided to offer a new service to their users that gives them the option to check out library material via their websites and have the material delivered to the user’s home. Ah, but as Rick (Humphrey Bogart) says in the movie Casablanca to his ertswhile friend, Ugarte (played by Peter Lorre), “For a price, Ugarte, for a price.” I think this is a great idea and I would be interested in using the service as a user. However, I think the price (the article says it would be $4 per item checked out) is too high. Also, one of the participating public libraries stated that it would not encourage return by mail “because of the availability of 24 hr. drop boxes.” This, to me, is an example of where the library needs to think more clearly about the needs or wants of the user. In other words, I think this library is placing too much of a priority on what is convenient for it vs. what is convenient for the user. Think of the Netflix model. One of the main reasons for Netflix’s success, in my view, is the way that the whole delivery and return process is so easy.

So…a big thumbs up for these libraries that are willing to try something very new (and probably disruptive) in an attempt to better serve their users. Thumbs down, however, for the cost for the user to use this service, as well as for not finding a way (at least in one library’s case) to enable return of library materials by mail.

The last shall be first and the first shall be last

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Some time ago I was talking with Keegan about waiting his turn for something — I don’t remember what, exactly. I remember saying to him, “Keegan, you know, the Bible says that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” (Luke 13:30) Without missing a beat, his response was, “So that explains why I never seem to get anywhere, ’cause I’m always the one in the middle!”

The weekend thus far [Updated]

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The weekend thus far has been a very quiet one. Although, truthfully, it is never quiet in our house with three little (and one big) rugrats. Yesterday I woke up with another bad headache that lasted all day. Michele had a bad pain in her neck. So we did nothing, all day. We woke up yesterday to several inches of snow that had fallen the night before, which made the outside look quite pretty. This morning, thankfully, my headache is mostly gone, and Michele feels better, too.

I have been reading reports from ALA Midwinter in San Antonio on various library-related blogs with interest. In a way I wish I was there but since getting married and having kids, I have purposely cut back on professional travel and speaking commitments because family is far more important than professional stuff. I miss being able to see and visit with friends at conferences, though. The ability to read reports “live” from the field on various blogs is surely one of the many reasons blogs are valuable and important.

[Update: My wife, Michele, quickly corrected me with respect to my statement that "we did nothing all day" yesterday by pointing out, quite rightly, that she did a lot of things. She cleaned the living room, kitchen, one of the bathrooms, and the den. I, on the hand, really did nothing but lay around.]

A public park for your brain

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Quote “overheard” from an excellent blog called It’s All Good, derived from notes jotted down during a live symposium sponsored by OCLC at the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting (known as ALA Midwinter). The full quote was “It’s like a public park for your brain” and this statement was made by one of the presenters in the context of discussing the importance of libraries.

Two gadgets away from nirvana

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“…Two gadgets away from nirvana.” I had a good chuckle over that line, which is part of a much longer post about the possibilities for e-books from SimonWaldman.net. The author outlines some good points about the way that certain pieces seem to be aligning in a positive way for the e-book market (both for the publisher, and for the reader). Honestly, I am not (yet) a fan of e-books at all, from the angle of one who has managed or provided access to a fairly large (several thousand) collection of e-books in a library, as well as from the patron angle. One of the best implementations of e-books that I’ve seen in the past few years is Safari Tech Books Online (available for libraries through ProQuest). Other e-book collections and services, however, are not particularly user friendly as of yet, including those provided by netLibrary, eBrary, and Overdrive. The last vendor in particular bugs me because it does not support or allow e-books to be downloaded onto an iPod. I’m sure my local public library and its consortial members have put lots of money into providing access to these e-books from Overdrive but this glaring omission in functionality renders the service useless to me.

I’m not the only one who is sick of Web 2.0 term

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I was glad to note via Slashdot today that I am not the only one sick of the Web 2.0 term. I am equally disenchanted with the corollary Library 2.0 term. It may look slick and “with it” especially in proposals for conferences and the like, but as a way of describing recent developments, it leaves me cold. Let’s focus on user needs, on bringing the library to the user’s space (not just the other way around), on building a two way dialogue with users, of making library data work harder and in multiple ways. But please, don’t categorize all of this under the Library 2.0 meme any more.

NASIG announces slate of candidates for 2006

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A few days ago, the slate of candidates for election for NASIG was announced:

VICE-PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT-ELECT (1 to be elected)
Christie Degener
Char Simser

SECRETARY (1 to be elected)
Kay Johnson
Joyce Tenney

MEMBER-AT-LARGE (3 to be elected)
June Garner
Sarah George
Emily McElroy
Meg Mering
Alison Roth
Bob Schatz

I know all of these people personally and they are good people. I’m glad to see that NASIG, my favorite professional library organization, will continue to be in good hands.