Friday Fun Thing: Carnegie Quote

A friend (thanks, Janice!) brought to my attention a news item in the Princeton Alumni Weekly for May 10, 2006, entitled, ‘Loch’ Carnegie marks 100 years.

Why is this a Friday fun thing, you might ask? As my friend remarked: "How soon they forget!"

The salient quote?

Kenneth Miller ’72, a great-grandson of Andrew Carnegie, recalled skating on the lake as a boy of 3. He said Carnegie’s philanthropy is a lasting legacy, telling of a friend who had remarked, “I can’t figure out how he made so much money, owning a chain of libraries.”

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

ALA Assortments: Early Bird Registration Ending

From Lorraine Olley at ALA comes a reminder that the early registration for the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans ends this Friday, May 19.

To register go here. To see a video on how ALA's Conference will help out libraries and the community in and around New Orleans, go here.

SUBJECTS: ALA ASSORTMENTS

In Memoriam: John Iliff

Today has brought the very sad news that a former Florida librarian turned tech guru, John Iliff, passed away over the weekend. I do not often post in the first person in this blog, but for John, I must.

I first met John in 1990 when he was still at Embry-Riddle and we were serving together on a Florida Library Association committee planning the Connect full-day preconference. We worked together on it for approximately nine months and ultimately birthed a bouncing baby full-day, very well-attended preconference. It was after that event that John became ever more interested in the Internet and its promise and moved into technology to become the nationally know tech guru and tech advocate that he was (he was co-founder of PubLib). John was truly one of the good guys. He not only worked his hardest for the benefit of library patrons and for moving technology to the place that it was helping libraries achieve that same goal, but he also genuinely enjoyed people and had a gift for making people feel that they mattered to him. I’ve missed him since he left Florida and I know they’re going to miss him everywhere else he worked. It is a great loss to the profession. My sincerest condolences go to his family, as it’s an unimaginable personal loss for them.

PALINET (his current employer) has set up a Web site here where information will be posted when available about donations in his memory and where people can share condolences and remembrances of John.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Friday Fun Thing: Free Comic Book Day

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 6, 2006, is the annual Free Comic Book Day. This is "the perfect opportunity to introduce your friends and family to the many worlds of wonder available at your local comic book store. From super-heroes to slice-of-life to action/adventure and beyond, Free Comic Book Day has a comic book for everyone!" To find a participating store near you, click here.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

In Memoriam: Henriette Avram

Henriette Avram, developer of the MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) format, died in late April but the news is just coming out in the national press. There are some fine tributes to her (and some interesting attempts at explaining in lay terms what MARC is) in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The Charlotte Observer. The American Libraries entry, while more concise, had a more thorough professional biography.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

Workshop Wealth: For Middle Managers

Library branch managers and department heads with less than five years of management experience are invited to apply to attend one of four library middle manager symposia in June 2006. How to Juggle Everything: The Job of the Library Middle Manager, a component of the Florida Library Leadership Program made possible by a Library Services and Technology Act grant, is sponsored by the State Library and Archives of Florida in cooperation with the Southeast Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN) and the Northeast Florida Library Information Network (NEFLIN).

These programs, offered in various regions of the state, have a registration deadline of May 15, 2006. Further information on the programs, including dates and locations, is found here and the registration form (pdf format) is found here.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES; WORKSHOP WEALTH