Allison V. Smith at the Barry Whistler Gallery

Friends,

I want to tell you that Jen and I are both thrilled to be attending Allison V. Smith's opening of new photographs from Maine, titled Maine. I'd usually say something pithy about the title, but I think it's great.

Rex and the Disaster

Well, friends, I want to tell you my blogging has been less regular than usual because not only have Jen and I been sick, but on Thursday our Mac, Rex, cratered. He acted funny and then wouldn't boot up. We took him into the Apple Store on Saturday, so we should have him back sometime next week. All I can say is AppleCare is your friend. Anyhow, I will do my best to post every day - thanks for sticking around!

Jason

Apologies and the Beinecke

Readers, I want to apologize for my lack of posts. I am feeling quite sick with a cold, but I still wanted to check in and let you know that I am still in this plane, and I anticipate a full recovery by Monday. At least that's what I am hoping for.

Old Movies and Fall

Well, as Jen has pointed out, cooler weather has arrived here in Fort Worth, heralding the arrival of fall. Fall is the perfect time to snuggle up to your significant other (even if that is a cat) and enjoy some movies. To me, fall is the perfect time to watch your favorite old movies. I hesitate to call them classics, as that word has been used too broadly and frequently to have any real meaning.

To be fair, I came to this post via an odd route. Yesterday's post over at A Continuous Lean wrote quite a bit about Steve McQueen and his personal style. It was a cool post, and be sure to check out the photos at the bottom. Of course, I can't think about Steve McQueen and not think about his roles in The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt.

Cataloging, RDA, and MARC

There has been a great deal of talk recently about MARC and RDA - which should not be surprising to those of you all who are catalogers (which is a few of us). Jason Thomale's recent article in Code4Lib, Interpreting MARC: Where’s the Bibliographic Data? was an excellent semi-outsider look at cataloging from a programmer/systems perspective. It has sparked some great discussion around the internet and has, yet again, raised the question - why should we go to RDA for an input standard when the format (MARC) is almost comically outdated?

Library Love: The London Library

By now, you know of my love for the London Library. What a place! Well, check out this wonderful video about the Library, and check out how much love libraries and librarians get. Almost makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Ha. Have a great weekend!

Exhibition Catalogues

So, I have a weakness for exhibition catalogues - and this is not helped by Jen working at the Kimbell, or my volunteering at the Carter. Exhibition catalogues are usually beautiful with phenomenal scholarship and images. They are, though, incredibly expensive books - with the hardback versions being between 70 and 100 dollars. I understand that even at this price, the museum subsidizes part of the cost - meaning that on every catalog purchased, the museum takes a loss. Much of my time cataloguing is consumed with cataloging small, "normal" and large publications created in conjunction with an exhibition. So, the article that Mary Jane and Sam at the Carter shared with me is especially pertinent, and got me thinking about exhibition catalogues: