Yesterday I returned from a trip to San Francisco, where I attended a users group conference for the catalog software my library uses. I was able to take some free time in between the conference programs to see some of the sights.
The following are a few things I learned today, while at the conference of the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians at the Monona Terrace convention center.
Current tuition for students of the University of Wisconsin School of Library and Information Studies is $14,688 for the academic year. Back when I was a graduate student in library school (1986-1988), I believe tuition for the year was about $2,400. And you thought gas prices have been increasing too fast.
Odd Wisconsin is one of the more popular sections on the Wisconsin Historical Society’s web site. Which by the way has some wonderful resources in addition to Odd Wisconsin.
On their migration north, common loons stop in Lake Monona. During a break at the conference, while looking out one of the windows facing the lake, I spotted a loon fishing for a meal.
When I’m watching a loon in the middle of April, I get eager for summer camping in northern Wisconsin.
In past years I couldn’t believe how many people waited until the last minute to do their taxes. Invariably, every year on the evening news of April 15th (tax deadline here in the U.S.), the big story would be the lines of people at the post office, mailing their tax returns at the last minute. When I worked at the public library I was amazed by the number of people we would get the last few days before tax day, frantically searching for the tax forms they needed.
Last night I went to my first concert since I moved to Madison and caught Steve Earle’s show at the Barrymore Theatre.
Musically, Steve and his backing band (the Dukes) rocked the house, concentrating on songs from his two most recent discs, “The Revolution Starts Now” and “Jerusalem.” He didn’t ignore his back catalog though, playing excellent versions of older tunes like “Guitar Town,” “Copperhead Road” and “Goodbye.”
This weekend my latest web creation, a site for the Cudahy Family Library, was unveiled. To learn a little about how I developed it, take a look in my portfolio on www.BloyDesigns.com.
Update: February 9, 2007
As of today, the domain BloyDesigns.com no longer exists. Information about my web development work can be found on my resume.
Even though Spring is just days away, we’re still getting snow in Wisconsin. I woke up this morning to see everything wearing a beautiful coat of snow. Here’s a picture I took at work today of the snow covered woods behind the library. As proof that beauty is fleeting, the trees were bare again in just a few hours.
It’s been over three months that I’ve been working at the Edgewood College Library. My shifts at the reference desk there (usually a few hours a day) certainly have been a different experience compared to staffing the reference desk at a public library.
