Month: March 2005

“It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon

A Prairie Home Companion® – 30th Broadcast Season Celebration The first live program of A Prairie Home Companion® was broadcast on July 6, 1974 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Garrison Keillor developed the idea of having a radio show with musical guests, drama sketches, and advertisements for fake products, and it ran for thirteen years before … Continue reading ““It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon”

A Prairie Home Companion® – 30th Broadcast Season Celebration

The first live program of A Prairie Home Companion® was broadcast on July 6, 1974 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Garrison Keillor developed the idea of having a radio show with musical guests, drama sketches, and advertisements for fake products, and it ran for thirteen years before going off the air. A few years later, Keillor re-started the program in New York City as The American Radio Company™ where it gained national attention. In 1992 it returned to Saint Paul, and went back to being called A Prairie Home Companion® in 1993.

I grew up listening to this program with my parents. We would be in the car going to or from somewhere on a Saturday evening, and they would tune in whatever public radio station they could find and we would listen. Sometimes I would lie on the living room floor with the stereo on, listening to the program. As a kid, I was more interested in the funny old-timey commercials than in the music or the rest of the program. I would wait through all that other stuff to hear the Powdermilk Biscuits® song or Bertha’s Kitty Boutique™ or Guy’s Shoes® and then laugh at the silliness of it. I don’t remember listening to the show much when I was in high school and college, but after college I lived without at television for many years and re-discovered public radio. A Prairie Home Companion® again became part my regular Saturday evening schedule. (Note: The program is broadcast live at 5pm Central, so some readers may be used to hearing the program in the afternoon. That’s one aspect of the time change from Eastern to Pacific that I haven’t quite gotten used to yet.)

Continue reading ““It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon”

this land is your land

A geographic meme, courtesy of Sorcha. Also, places where US paper currency I have spent in the past four and a half years have gone. bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now… Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado … Continue reading “this land is your land”

A geographic meme, courtesy of Sorcha. Also, places where US paper currency I have spent in the past four and a half years have gone.

bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now…

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

get your geek on

TV Guide Online is running a Star Trek poll and Wil Wheaton would be very happy if you could help keep Wesley Crusher from being voted the most annoying character. I know, it’s hard to believe it, especially when we consider that Wesley was given lines such as, “We’re from Starfleet! We don’t lie!” and … Continue reading “get your geek on”

TV Guide Online is running a Star Trek poll and Wil Wheaton would be very happy if you could help keep Wesley Crusher from being voted the most annoying character.

I know, it’s hard to believe it, especially when we consider that Wesley was given lines such as, “We’re from Starfleet! We don’t lie!” and “I feel strange, but also good!” and the ever-popular “Course laid in, sir.” But it’s true. And so very, very sad.

Not that I care about this sort of thing . . . but actually, I do. I’m really tired of wearing that “Annoying Character” albatross around my neck, and if Wesley is voted most annoying in TV Guide’s big old Farewell to Star Trek issue, I don’t think I’ll ever hear the end of it.

Oh, and if you’re not already reading Wil’s blog then you’re missing out on some great writing.

redirects

I set up my feed on FeedBurner to pick up the index.xml file, and then I stupidly created an .htaccess redirect for that file that sent agents to the FeedBurner feed. Thus, the FeedBurner feed was stuck in a loop and wasn’t being updated. I fixed that just now by creating a copy of the … Continue reading “redirects”

I set up my feed on FeedBurner to pick up the index.xml file, and then I stupidly created an .htaccess redirect for that file that sent agents to the FeedBurner feed. Thus, the FeedBurner feed was stuck in a loop and wasn’t being updated. I fixed that just now by creating a copy of the index.xml feed and directing FeedBurner to pick that up instead. Those of you reading this blog via RSS will suddenly have several new posts.

D’oh.

about

It has come to my attention that I don’t have an About page for this blog. I never really thought that I needed one, but perhaps I do. I first learned of blogs and blogging when I read about Jessamyn West in Library Journal. I started reading librarian.net on a regular basis, and I was … Continue reading “about”

It has come to my attention that I don’t have an About page for this blog. I never really thought that I needed one, but perhaps I do.

I first learned of blogs and blogging when I read about Jessamyn West in Library Journal. I started reading librarian.net on a regular basis, and I was inspired to try this blogging thing myself. The first incarnation of my blog was called “because everyone else is doing it” and was powered by Blogger. Wanting to get away from free webhosts and BlogSpot, I took the plunge and purchased my own domain name and hosting through Powweb. Thus, the eclectic librarian was born.

I have worked in libraries since I was an undergraduate student in 1994. By the time I left to begin the master’s program at the University of Kentucky, I had experience in almost every department of a library. At first I thought I wanted to be a cataloger, but the technology classes interested me more, and I began to explore that aspect of librarianship.

My first post-graduate job was as a serials and database cataloger at a medium-sized comprehensive university in Kentucky. It was mainly a paycheck and a foot in the door of academic librarianship, but after I attended a NASIG conference, I gained a better appreciation of the serials and related electronic resources specialty. My responsibilities shifted more towards electronic resources, mirroring the serials industry’s shift to online access and the issues surrounding that.

Now I am the serials department head and electronic resources librarian for another medium-sized comprehensive university, but this one is in Washington. I work closely with the systems librarian to improve service for our electronic resources. I am still quite interested in the technology aspects of the profession and issues related to them, which is evident in the contents of this blog. I don’t write much about serials in particular, and that’s mainly because most of the innovative work is being done on the electronic side of serials publishing, and there are other blogs that specialize in those issues.

I have a wide variety of other interests, including music, internet–based hobbies, and outdoor activities. I am also occasionally politically minded with a left-of-center flavor and a bit cynical.

Lately I have been writing reviews for Blogcritics.org, so you’ll see a few of these pop up occasionally.

writer’s block?

Ever since Karen highlighted my blog last week, I’ve felt a bit of pressure to publish, but unfortunately the muse left at about the same time. That, and I caught up on my professional reading and didn’t have much to comment on. Sorry to disappoint all the new folks who have subscribed to the feed. … Continue reading “writer’s block?”

Ever since Karen highlighted my blog last week, I’ve felt a bit of pressure to publish, but unfortunately the muse left at about the same time. That, and I caught up on my professional reading and didn’t have much to comment on. Sorry to disappoint all the new folks who have subscribed to the feed.

I have been rather amused to watch the Gormangate furor spread throughout the blogosphere and other online forums. I wish everyone would credit where they get their news from. I’ve been curious to see who read the Gorman article and commented on it and who saw others comments and wrote their own. Without citations or other indicators, often it is hard to tell what the sources are.

feedburner

One of the problems of offering RSS feeds instead of making people come to one’s website to read stuff is that one does not have any good way to measure the number of eyes one is reaching. Thus, I was pleased to learn about a beta service called FeedBurner that will keep stats for you, … Continue reading “feedburner”

One of the problems of offering RSS feeds instead of making people come to one’s website to read stuff is that one does not have any good way to measure the number of eyes one is reaching. Thus, I was pleased to learn about a beta service called FeedBurner that will keep stats for you, and even throw in some Amazon links and ads for revenue purposes, if you like. I prefer the vanilla for this site, as it is only a labor of love. I am now serving my feeds through FeedBurner and as soon as my host fixes some intermittent FTP issues, I’ll be redirecting my current feeds through FeedBurner. However, you can get ahead of the game by subscribing now. [thanks wil]

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