The Quest

Today, I will embark on a road trip to visit seven friends in seven days.  (Doesn’t that sound like the name of a boring memoir? Seven Friends in Seven Days: How I Saw Some Buddies and Discovered a Life Worth Living.)  I will pass through 7 states and cover roughly 1,547 miles.  Will I discover myself on [...]

Real people read your emails.

Have you ever sent an email to a large organization (perhaps your beloved public library) and wondered if anyone bothered to read it? Of course you have.
I’d like to assure you that if you write to the Film & Audio Department, someone will read your message (I know, since that someone is me). We have three different email accounts - it’s [...]

A Wildly Informal Donor Plus Pledge Drive

When I’m not helping my co-workers save the world with mad research and technology skills, I’m probably at the customer service desk, picking up books I’ve requested.  Much like the star of that classic, oft-ridiculed Hair Club for Men commercial, “I’m also a client.” 
A library client, that is. My hair is doing just fine, thank [...]

Happy Birthday, Fёdor Mihajlovič Dosto’evskij!

Today is the birthday of the great Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881). If Dostoevsky’s big books have been on your “classics-to-read” back burner for awhile, make today the day you finally pick one up.
Though I started reading Dostoevsky with Crime and Punishment, you might prefer reading The Idiot or Notes from Underground first. Or, maybe you’ll want to start with the [...]

Government Documents at CLP

Since 1895, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has offered as much as 58% of all publications printed by the United States Government.   As a member of the Federal Deposity Library Program,  the Library is one of 1200+ conduits for information between local citizenry and the Federal Government .  These materials, along with the professional assistance which [...]

I Left My Heart in Piaggine

If you’ve read my blurb on this blog’s About Us page, you know that I went to Italy on vacation in August 2007. It was one of the highlights of my life. I travelled with my Aunt. She was actually the one who had the idea in the first place. Through her genealogical research about [...]

Naismith’s Gift Remembered

Today marks the 148th birthday of the inventor of basketball, Canadian born physical educator James A. Naismith.
Before we go any further, I think we ought to spend the rest of this post listening to a little musical accompaniment from the incomparable Kurtis Blow.
Mr. Naismith first invented the game in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Although he [...]

Made With Love

Every year I have grand plans for all the homemade holiday gifts I plan on giving everyone, and often by the time December rolls around I’m in the midst of a full-on holiday freakout.  (It isn’t unusual for my family members to receive polaroids of half-knitted socks). If you find yourself in a similar situation, here [...]

Health Care Reform 101

It might be possible that you’re just as confused and unclear about health care reform as I am. In a world where information travels quickly and in large quantities, it’s difficult to feel anything but overwhelmed when it comes to the big issues.
Health care is an extremely important topic and of course, the Library is [...]

It’s 1791 in 2009 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Book Club

Last time around, the Pittsburgh Symphony Book Club included a bassoon solo by the PSO’s  James Rodgers and an almost hour long phone call from Vivaldi’s Virgins author Barbara Quick!
The Pittsburgh Symphony Book Club’s second session will be about the book 1791, Mozart’s Last Year by H. C. Robbins Landon.  Read it and find out [...]