Am I plugged in?

Well, I must apologize now for my lack of postings. I don't know how this many days flew by without my realizing it. Everyday I think, yep, today when I get home I must blog and then I come home and the cat's on fire, and the toilet decided to impersonate Mount St. Helens and my husband is so excited to see me so we can chat that I just run myself in every direction except to my computer to blog. I must admit, when I have time I head straight for the discussion boards...

Anyhoo, I am completely enthralled by Double Fold by Nicholas Baker. It's rather unfortunate that I can't slowly read and contextualize his writing since I am frantically scanning as fast as I can so I can hopefully produce something meaningful this weekend. One week, 3 books, a presentation, last days of school (in the real world), a visit by CIS (council of international schools) for accreditation, and a 2 day visit by my mentor and I'm chalk full of people time and out of words. By the way, did I mention I'm moving in 2 weeks???

While reading Double Fold, I feel completely uneducated and uninformed that something as major as masses of public and university libraries in the US offloading historical and informational news could be happening with no true public outcry. It is a real shame that so few of those in the know feel an obligation to publicly communicate the decisions to trash this type of information. Equally shameful is the way in which Americans (not all but many) pay lip service to preserving history and culture but would not lift a finger or take up the battle cry to contribute to a solution in this dire matter. Let alone contribute time and energy or money to the cause. What are we if not a community? I will now step down from my soapbox but really, isn't this one of those momentous battles we hear of and we have the opportunity to participate.

Back to Nicholas Baker... I'm thoroughly enjoying the descriptions of the side by side comparison of the historical texts and the microfilm versions of several of these papers. As well as the description and detail he uses to give credit to those informed and involved (like Lucy Caswell in Ohio) and of the resources still available that should be protected. I have heard of JSTOR in the past but really didn't understand the goal or vision of the project and the true impact this will have on libraries.

Well, thanks for listening... I'm off for a date with 'ole Nicholas.