Libraries in hard times

From yesterday's New York Times:

As the national economic crisis has deepened and social services have become casualties of budget cuts, libraries have come to fill a void for more people, particularly job-seekers and those who have fallen on hard times. Libraries across the country are seeing double-digit increases in patronage, often from 10 percent to 30 percent, over previous years.

But in some cities, this new popularity — some would call it overtaxing — is pushing libraries in directions not seen before, with librarians dealing with stresses that go far beyond overdue fines and misshelved books. Many say they feel ill-equipped for the newfound demands of the job, the result of working with anxious and often depressed patrons who say they have nowhere else to go. . . .

"I guess I’m not really used to people with tears in their eyes," said Rosalie Bork, a reference librarian in Arlington Heights, a well-to-do suburb of Chicago. "It has been unexpectedly stressful. We feel so anxious to help these people, and it’s been so emotional for them."

Downturn Puts New Stresses on Libraries (New York Times)

Today's Hi and Lois

If you can account for Chip's hair in the middle panel of today's Hi and Lois, I'll triple your allowance.

Bangs aside, I like the way Chip's Trixie-like tuft resembles a misaligned goatee.

Related reading
All Hi and Lois posts

Swiss spaghetti harvest

From 1957: Swiss spaghetti harvest (YouTube).

(Thanks, Elaine!)

Gmail innovates again

As more and more everyday communication takes place over e-mail, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.

It's Gmail to the rescue, with Gmail Autopilot™ by CADIE.

A related post
Google introduces gDay™ technology

R-word

FeedBurner, broken

If over the past two or three days you've wondered what's become of blogs to which you've subscribed, FeedBurner might be the reason for their absence from your reader. I've had problems for several days with my posts showing up very late or not showing up at all.

If you look at the Feed and Web Statistics section of the FeedBurner Help Group, you'll see that many users are beset with these problems. And you'll soon figure out that the FeedBurner Help Group is a self-help group. There's no support, no "sticky" post with news of what's happening, no nothing. For a Google-owned service, that's appalling.

I just deleted my FeedBurner feed and was pleased to see today's posts immediately show up in my reader. I'm also pleased to see that Orange Crate Art now loads much more quickly without the FeedBurner code that was attached to each post's footer.

Eraser Day

Why should we think of Hymen Lipman on March 30?

[I]t is Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia who has the idea of attaching a piece of rubber inside one end of the pencil. On this day in 1858, Lipman is issued a patent for marrying the pencil to the eraser.

Unfortunately for Lipman, the patent would later be revoked, when the U.S. Supreme Court rules in 1875 that a pencil with an eraser is just a pencil with an eraser and not a new invention.

Hymen L. Lipman makes his mark in pencil history (Smithsonian Magazine)

(via Boing Boing)

"Why the pencil?"

Jeep lovers have the "Jeep wave," given to anyone passing by in a Jeep as an acknowledgment of camaraderie and shared interest. Perhaps pencil aficionados need a nonthreatening equivalent when we see someone who takes pencils as seriously as we do. What might that be?

At (or on) The Dark Side of the Moon, Slywy asks and answers the question "Why the pencil?" Worth reading for anyone who thinks about the tools of writing.

John Hope Franklin's ways of writing

C-SPAN has online a great interview with the distinguished historian John Hope Franklin (1915–2009). I often encourage students to consider the possible advantages of writing essays by hand, so I very much like Franklin's distinction between different ways of writing:

Once I've collected the material . . . , I have two ways of writing. If the problem is complicated, I want to see what I'm doing. I write either by hand or perhaps on the computer, but preferably by hand, to try to work it out, to see what I'm doing, how I'm doing. And I just write in longhand on a sheet of yellow paper, some kind of paper like that. And I write for maybe several hours, just working and reworking.

If the problem is simple and relatively uncomplicated, I will perhaps even begin by writing on the computer, just writing along. But it's a combination of writing by hand and writing on the computer.

Elsewhere in this conversation, Franklin notes that he doesn't do e-mail ("I think it's something of a curse, if I may say so") and describes doing his research "the old-fashioned way." Meaning? Notecards.

This C-SPAN broadcast has some great clips of Franklin looking at his orchids and working at his dining room table, Pilot G-2 in hand. Take a look:

In Depth with John Hope Franklin (C-SPAN)

Homemade music

One of the best things about having "the kids" home on spring break is the chance to make music together. Here is some homemade music, "made in the home, on the premises," and "by one's own efforts" (Merriam-Webster Online). The song is the Raconteurs' "Old Enough," with Rachel's ukulele, Ben's banjo, Elaine's violin, and my harmonica.



And here's one made with a directional microphone and better sound quality (but no video):

"Old Enough" (YouTube)

Rachel and Ben, I'm so proud of you, in so many ways.