Girl Singers Galore

Seth and I have the next two Sundays blocked off for our (well, my) Girl Singers:

Lucie Arnaz with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops (in Philadelphia, of course): Sunday, March 2 at 3 p.m.

Everything Is Rosie (a tribute to Rosemary Clooney), in Garden City, Long Island, N.Y.: Sunday, March 9 at 2 p.m.

If you're a friend or just a fan, hope to see you there.

Lucy's Cow Tureen

I waited more than a month to start posting about Lucy, which might surprise those who think of me as a Lucy nut ...

Lucille Ball had really nice taste in her kitchenware. Her son and daughter-in-law are auctioning a cow soup tureen to raise money for their nonprofit Boulder City Ballet Company.

(Photo credit: Arnaz Family via eBay and Lucyfan.com.)

Read about the tureen or see more photos and bid. Unfortunately, I don't have the space to properly display this lovely item, so I won't bid on it.

You can see another example of Lucy's taste in home furnishings in Tom Watson's article about the "wrap event" for Universal City Studio's "Lucy: A Tribute" in Hollywood.

Keep the Knowledge Coming, says Star-Ledger

Originally posted Jan. 30, 2008
Updated Feb. 9, 2008

The Star-Ledger wrote Jan. 30 about the battle to retain funding for the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative, and offers its editorial support. Funding for the Knowledge Initiative, which funds JerseyClicks.org, will end Feb. 29 for want of $1 million.

Patricia Tumulty, the NJLA's executive director, posted the Star-Ledger articles on the NJLA blog. (Go to the entry for Jan. 30.)

The State Librarian, Norma Blake, spoke Jan. 30 to Rutgers MLIS students, and NJKI funding was a hot topic. Ms. Blake noted that being named as as Librarian of the Year by Library Journal gives her more visibility, and a bully pulpit (in the best sense of the phrase) to keep NJKI going. (Video of the dinner honoring Ms. Blake, from ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia, is on the Library Journal site.)

Photos from the SLA Leadership Summit

I've posted my photos from the SLA Leadership Summit, held Jan. 23-26, 2008, in Louisville, Kentucky.

I took pictures of our table at our Friday night dinner, plus a few others of Barbara and me.

I got lots of pictures of exhibits and signs at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, partly because I wanted to share the photos with my baseball-fan brother.

And if you want to see the odds-and-ends, there are a few of the outside of the Louisville Science Museum, and of a paint-can sign.

How Much Does Your Kid's Teacher Make (in New Jersey)?

Note (May 5, 2008): The Courier News has moved its site from c-n.com to MyCentralJersey.com. Thus, the CN links below won't work anymore. (The Asbury Park Press links are fine, as is the site DataUniverse.com.

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Original post from January 27, 2008:

The Gannett New Jersey newspapers have established the site DataUniverse.com.

The local Gannett paper for Somerset County, the Courier News, promotes the database as a way to research genealogy. I think, though, that people will be much more interested in the salary and school information.

The salary information covers the federal level, and in New Jersey, the state, local and school district levels. Plus Rutgers University.

Note that there are at least two versions of the site, which look different, and offer entries to information you won't find on the other:

• Courier News version: Includes access to Somerset, Hunterson and Union County salary information.
  
  
• Asbury Park Press version: Includes access to toll road costs.

I've sometimes criticized local newspapers for being superficial, but this project is really a terrific service and a great use of mash-up technology taking advantage of public information.

To bring it back to a library theme: Datauniverse.com can be a resource for public library patrons, but also for special libraries researching New Jersey government statistics (along with some federal stats and general information).

Tech Tools Coming for SLA

I'm here at the SLA's Leadership Summit in Louisville, Kentucky. (Barbara Burton and I are representing the New Jersey Chapter.)

Much of the discussion today centered on how the SLA and the units/chapters can serve their members electronically. The SLA has implemented some new technology tools, and is working on even more. You can read a little about this on the SLA IT's division blog.

Librarian Honoring Dr. King's Memory

As we approach Dr. King's birthday, a librarian in California has been honored by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Foundation.

Though I take issue with the headline writer's idea of "average librarian," I'm happy to share this article about Lani Yoshimura: Better than your average librarian.