A More Genteel Culture

You might recall a post from several weeks back about how people are generally nicer in the South.  However the topic deserves more exploration.  As I noted mannerisms are different and there is more of an emphasis on politeness. For example it is considered polite to look at strangers passing by and smile.  In New…

What to Do in a Small Town

When I first moved down to Cleveland my assumption was that there was absolutely nothing to do after business hours, let alone on the weekend.   And a clerk at the motel we stayed at the first night here confirmed exactly that.  Yet the real story is different.  As I’ve shown in previous posts, there is…

New Orleans

There are several perks to living down South.   One of them is to be within driving distance of a number of great cities, New Orleans among them.  It was thus a fortunate coincidence that the Society of American Archivists decided to hold their annual meeting there this year.   Now I am a systems librarian and…

Travels and Tribulations

The reason this blog post is a little late is because I was away this weekend.  Specifically I traveled back home for my mother’s birthday.  Suffice it to say it was a good time.  The party was great and I got to eat myself into a food coma two days in a row.  However the…

A Beautiful MAGNOLIA

There are some things that Mississippi does right.  One of them concerns remote access to electronic databases.  For those non-library people reading this blog, the word “database” in this context refers to a service that gives patrons access to electronic versions of scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers.  The largest collection is run by a company…