ArLiS: Thursday, March 24

Well, readers, it’s a blog post from Jason – gasp! What august event caused me to sit down and write another post? The short answer is that I just returned from the 2011 ArLiS/NA+VRA annual conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As you can imagine the conference put lots of new thoughts and ideas into my head, ones which I want to share with you here. In thinking over the past few days how I wanted to share my experiences and reflections with you, and I think (as librarian extraordinaire Erin Dorney does) I will do it on a day by day basis, with some overall thoughts and reflections at the end.

And, as it is brief, allow me to start with my first day, Thursday, March 24th.

Surprise No.1 : Architecture

You all know how that Jen and I are architecture nuts. We love architecture, and loved being around the great buildings of Fort Worth - the Kimbell, the Carter, and the Modern. I set myself up to be alright without any real architecture when we moved here, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the architecture that is here.

Reading...

I miss reading, friends. I just haven't been reading as much as I would like to recently. As a matter of fact, I have two New Yorkers piled up on my bedside table waiting to be read. Why have my reading habits changed so much? I've been thinking about this for a while, and what follows is my best answer to that question.

On Getting Settled

Well, readers, Jen and I have been residents of northwest Arkansas for a month now. It seems to have gone by so quickly - with moving and starting a new way of life together. I am happy to report that things are becoming more and more settled - our routines and our new lives together. I thought I'd share some photos to commemorate the one month anniversary of our move for the post...

Snow Day

Readers, it is snowing like mad outside, and the meteorologists are predicting up to 10 inches of snow, which is incredible! As a matter of fact, Jen made this video earlier today, and I want you to see what this looks like:



Of course, this might look like nothing for many of you readers in the northeast, but it's quite a sight to see for two transplanted Texans.

These Exciting Times

I know, you can hardly believe it - post three this week! There's a lot going on with Jen and I, but I want to tell you that I am making a commitment to blog regularly again - so excuse me if the posts aren't up to what I usually write, let me get my "writing legs" back, so to speak. Jen's posts are consistently great - so that should help make up for my rustiness. I want to talk very briefly about my new job, as well as some other museum things.

Facebook as a Catalog

Well, readers, I have been inundated with periodicals lately. One article that stood out from the flood was From Friending to Research, by Anne Pemberton. I thought this was a great idea - using something familiar to many people (facebook) to explain some of the more abstract concepts associated with librarianship. I have a couple of favorites I want to highlight...