Thunderstruck!

Ketchum, IDAHO, Sept. 5, 2013 -- Breaking news on the home front.  My condo is not u/c and set to close Oct. 25.  Loads to do and the semester is rolling right along as semesters do.  The goal for the next two years is to plow through the SLIS program.  Notice that I didn't say power through!  I mean plow in the most literal way.  School is very much like farming.  You work hard to cultivate the land and, at some point, you are ready to plan seed.  Eventually you hope for a harvest but when the seeds are going into the soil you don't except anyone in particular to survive.  You just trust that enough will to make it a worthwhile effort.

I've just learned about a open-source ILS called Evergreen.  It's free.  Free is particularly good when you have no money.  Yet it's popping up at a lot of libraries with budgets.  I'm impressed and curious and excited.  Bandwagon Pam joins the bandwagon of open source.  So the real question is can this be put into use without advanced computing skills (read 'being a hack').  That's what I'd like to figure out by doing! I want to set up a test project of a fully functional library at my fingertips.

Today is also a time of brainstorming.  I've been thinking about finding a way to give back.  Not just to serve those that are already overserved.  A way to serve those that need to be served.  There's always someone in need and you don't have to go thousands of miles to do meaningful service.  Particularly in this day and age -- you don't even have to leave your desk!  It's about partnerships.  It's about living mindfully.  It's about giving back some of what you were given with no expectation of receiving back.

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