Friday but...

[altivo]

So. To work, to catalog and transfer books around in the catalog, process interlibrary loans and all that good stuff. At lunch I was able to polish off the draft of a short submission I wanted to get out. Tomorrow being the deadline, that seemed like a good idea. It went out, but if by chance it is accepted it will need another going over I'm sure. Also called the car dealership to schedule a 12,000 mile service for the Escape next week.

Worked until 5:30, as usual for a Friday had to chase people out the door with brooms. To Woodstock to meet Gary so he could buy me dinner for my birthday, While there, saw niccat23 out with her family and she assured me that she has been catching up on this journal (as if I were going to give her demerits for skipping over it, but you know, all us catalogers are supposed to be anal retentives that way or something.) *waves*

Had too much dinner. Came home to a stack of gift boxes from relatives. My brother and sister-in-law send good stuff, like sourdough bread and small dairy cheeses from Michigan.

Oh, I didn't give the details about those two interesting books I got from Gary this morning.

One is Way of the Horse: Equine Archetypes for Self-discovery by Linda Kohanov. (from New World Library) This is very "new agey" but the artwork on the included deck of cards is spectacular. The artist is Kim McElroy.

The other is American Band: Music, Dreams, and Coming of Age in the Heartland by Kristen Laine. (from Gotham Books) about the culture and experience of the midwestern high school marching bands. Been there, done that, as did both my brothers. In fact, younger brother was a drum major and went on to get a bachelor's degree in music. Should be very interesting, whether I agree with the author in the end or not.

I should be in bed now, because the Christmas bird count is tomorrow and I promised to participate which means being at friend Susan's house at 7:30 am ready to go with binoculars and at least a thermos of hot tea. Then I'm cutting out early from that, around lunch time, so that we can get to Elgin for the annual Sagittarius party. We have so many friends who are born at this time of year that we have a regular annual bash. Also true at work for some reason. Last Friday we had the monthly birthday breakfast, with four of us as the "guests of honor" where typically it is just one or at most two. I could almost think that there are an excessive number of December babies, but that doesn't seem to be particularly true. On the other hand, I have definitely noticed that in all the library jobs I've had over the past 35 years or so, Sagittarians seemed to make up a disproportionate number of my colleagues. Peculiar, even if it is just a coincidence.

Comments

[corelog.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't see you online today, so I'll say it now:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! *mega-snuggles*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*hurrs and snuggles back* Thanks, wuffy.

Yeah, I was too busy finishing that little story in my spare moments and would have been very neglectful had I opened the IM window.

It's snowing hard here. They said last night that we might get an inch this afternoon, but it looks like they may have underestimated...

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday, Altivo, and many more! Good luck with the bird count.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much. :D

I think the birds may all be hiding. It's snowing so hard right now that we won't be able to see them, though last spring we did a lot of counting by ear anyway. I'm not a hard core birdwatcher by any means, but this is fun to do because I rub shoulders with many who are extremely serious about it and I learn stuff from them.

[t-h-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[keeganfox.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! Woot!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you. :)

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I wonder what job Pisceans get more often than other signs...

On another note, do you know of any librarys that still use those old paper card catalogs? It may sound strange, but i sort of miss those things...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The old card catalogs have grown very scarce, for lots of good economic reasons. But I agree with you, there was a special romance to them that is lost with the computerized database. Many libraries still maintain what we call a "shelf list". It's essentially an inventory tool, with one card for each title on the shelf, filed by call number in the order in which the books stand on the shelf. Theoretically, it's also a paper backup of the computer catalog, which could be reconstructed from the shelf list alone (though it's rather unlikely that would ever happen.) We do have one of those at Harvard, and still add cards to it as each title is added, and remove them when anything is lost or discarded. In the process of doing so, I have found cards in there that date back nearly to the library's founding in 1909. Some are actually handwritten. Most of these old artifacts are on the back side of more modern cards created with a typewriter. Evidently they were reusing old cards to save money, but the survival of those really old cards is going to help in building an exhibit to the library's centennial starting about a year from now. I'm saving them all for that.

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Good for you. There's something amusing in a card for every single title...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

After an unrelated conversation with Gary about card catalogs yesterday, I promised to write about the entire card catalog production and maintenance process as I knew it when I was at Michigan State University Library in the 1970s. The description will make it clear why libraries have been so willing to abandon the unit card and the card catalog.

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to reading it- you're always good at communcating things.

[jumpyfox.livejournal.com]

Happy Belated Birthday!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. :)

[cetasdolphin.livejournal.com]

I am also a Sagittarian here having just had my birthday five days ago. Then again I think the reason why I have my birthday then is two fold. One my parents have their aniverisary in March and mother claims I was a late baby to begin with. Not sure if the two aren't connected in someway.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

A happy belated birthday to you. We all know Sagittarians are the best. ;D

[cetasdolphin.livejournal.com]

oh and I forgot to wish you a happy birthday as well, belated as it is. Though I do wonder if all Sagittarian furs reflect their astrology sign? Which we know to be a centaur or horse. (yes my name says dolphin but I do have a lot of likings for equines for the past 2 years now).

[altivo.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, no. Plenty of wolves, cats, probably even raccoons. :)

[saythename.livejournal.com]

A good day all in all.

As for The Sign of the Libarian...

Oddly enough, the only two I've every had chance to ask
about their birthdays would make one a Sag and the
other a Cap.

Go figure. c.c

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Serious astrologers will tell you that the newspaper sun sign is irrelevant to career choice or aptitude. The major statistical study that was done on that found that the signs in the angles of the horoscope had a measurable and repeatable correlation to career choice. In other words, the rising sign, not the sun sign.

Mine is Virgo, which makes good sense. Virgo is associated with pickiness about detail and precision. It has "cataloger" written all over it. ;p

[saythename.livejournal.com]

I can see that. So...

*checks*

Him...Aquarius?

c.c

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Aquarius ascendant is associated with occupations like social work and health care. Honest, I'm not making this up, I had to look to find out. ;p

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Thats oddly correct. @.@

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought too. ;p

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I hope your bithday was good. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It was good, thanks, except for having to go to work. ;p

Waving back

[niccat23.livejournal.com]

...as I catch up again...

And wishing I could figure out the RSS feed. :-)

But anyway: Merry Xmas and Happy Boxing Day to you!

Re: Waving back

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I use the RSS feed. What do you need to figure out?

(Where do you subscribe to RSS things?)