A Conversation with Elizabeth
1999
Trials and Libraries

From:          LMixson
To:            Elizabeth
Sent:          Friday, March 12, 1999 9:15 AM
Subject:       Trials and Libraries
 
So after your description of the trial I never did really understand what the final outcome was?  Did you finally go with the rest of the jury for manslaughter?
 
There is a really interesting full page article in the Post this morning about libraries and the "information age".  It was talking about how many libraries are being overwhelmed with new books.  Another problem is how much of the information in the past 10 years or so is in digital form.  This presents a problem because the technology for a particular digital item typically is only available for about 3-4 years and then it gets replaced with something newer.  It had a lot of references to the Library of Congress and problems they are faced with.  They have some old recordings of presidents that were done on wire recorders in the 50's but they no longer have the machines to play them on. Think about computers now, I used to have a lot of 8 inch floppy disks, then 5 1/4 floppies and now we are using the 3.5 ones in the hard shell (not really floppies even though we still call them that!).  Another big issues is shelf space for the books.  The LoC wants to change there book filing scheme to be by books size instead of by subject.  The computer catalog would tell you what shelf the book is on.  They claim they could save 20-30% space by doing so.  Some of the LoC researchers say this would be a really bad thing because when they look for a book they find all sorts of related books by browsing in the same area.  The LoC says so what, only a very few select people can browse the stacks now, everyone else must put in a request and gofers go get the book.  Well it's an interesting subject.
 
I plan to go with Julie to see her father this weekend.  She went to see him last weekend because it was his birthday and she gave him a cat for his birthday.  Since her mother died her father has been saying he would like a cat to keep him company, to greet him when he got home and to talk to.  We thought he would have liked a dog better but he thought a cat would be less hassle.  Well he didn't take to the cat, it says it doesn't come when he calls and it keeps him up at night by wanting to sleep with him.  So Julie is going to see him again to get it back.  He lives in Delaware which is a three hour trip.  I didn't have any plans and I enjoy the trip so I plan to go with her.
 
Have a good weekend.  Larry

Storage Media
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My computer storage dilemma continues to this day. Photo is display I made of the different storage media I have used over the years and it doesn’t show my going to SD then micro SD storage chips.

Trial