The PLA Report

My report on the PLA conference is here. It was a good conference but it was exhausting, too. I didn't have much free time and driving in Boston was challenging so I didn't get to see the Car Guys. I did see some of my chums from Syracuse University's MLS program.

I tried some new technologies to make the trip easier and they worked pretty well. PLA had a new conference planner feature on their site, which made it easy to compile a one-page list of the sessions I wanted to see. And Google Earth helped me find restaurants and coffee shops near the convention center. Some of the info in GE was out of date, as I found when I tried to eat at a Thai place. It was gone but had been replaced with a nice burrito cafe. When I searched GE for coffee shops it also showed a tea cafe called Tealuxe. It was close by and I picked up some delicious loose-leaf tea for my wife.

My hotel was in the theater district and I was thrilled to see that Spamalot was showing through mid-April. We wanted to see it in New York but the tickets were very expensive. So we'll be going back to see it on April 10, then finishing the school break week with a visit to family in Rhode Island.

When I got back to the library, I was pleased to see that my shiny new iMac with the Intel chip had come in and been installed. It's blazingly fast with lotsa cool freebies like a screen motion capture tool. This is a very nice computer.

In other news, the British Library has published a list of items that have been stolen over the years. "According to the library, the most serious thefts are the carefully targeted removal of antique maps and plates from rare books by professional thieves, who may use a hidden razor blade to slice out the page." There's a fascinating book about this called "The Island of Lost Maps" by Miles Harvey.

"Now, go away or I shall taunt you a second time."