Wellness #42: Staying Well

The Symptom Checker and the Pill Identifier both seem to be incomplete in some ways. The symptom checker doesn't include some symptoms for adults, like skin rashes, that are shown for children. The Pill Identifier is missing some basic shapes like circular and cylindrical. They both can be useful in some cases, though.

The Interaction Checker has actually been very important for me in the past. My uncle was experiencing severe heaviness in his legs several years ago and could hardly walk. He had recently been prescribed a new medication by one of his several doctors. I checked it against the drugs that he was already taking and found this to be a sign of a serious interaction with another medication. Once he stopped the new drug, his complications disappeared. Interactions between medications can be a danger, especially for older adults, when they have a number of different physicians. It is helpful to have a free source like this to check.

Using the local Medline, I searched for Complementary and Alternative Medicine sites and found some interesting possibilities, including:

1) Center for Wellness and Healing (supporting immunity enhancement, natural treatments for diseases, detoxification, etc.)

2) a Humor Therapy Center

3) many therapeutic massage centers.

The Family Health Portrait can be a useful tool for sharing health information, especially on inherited conditions, with members of an extended family. The graphics it generates can also be used for other purposes to illustrate the relationships within a family for a genealogy study.

Addendum to Going Green: "The Happy Minimalist"

Peter Lawrence, a former customer at the Barbara Bush Library, was able to retire from his job with Hewlett-Packard at a young age because of his minimalist lifestyle. He writes of his success in a new little book entitled "The Happy Minimalist" http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=49829

Since this is so in line with many of the things people have discussed in the Going Green segments, I thought I would share a passage from his book about the benefits of public libraries.

"I am a heavy user of the public library. I see it to be the best use of our tax dollars. Here are some benefits:

1) It helps you to be a minimalist. You don't have to own any of the books you want to read. You can always borrow from the library.

2) Saves you money since you do not have to buy books, CDs, or movies.

3) Helps you to read, watch, or listen to whatever you wanted to read, watch, or listen to within a prescribed time. Because there are due dates, you are "forced" to spend time doing something that you wanted to do anyway.

4) It educates you through talks or classes they conduct.

5) It provides an avenue for you to donate your used reading materials, videos, CDs, and even art pieces. [Note: Peter donated some art work for our teen area at the library when he moved from Texas to California several years ago.]

6) It provides an avenue for you to volunteer.

7) It increases the utility per resource (upr) of the city. When a single resource like a book is utilized by several people over the lifetime of the book, the aggregate utility is significantly higher than a book sitting on someone's bookshelf at home and utilized only by that household."

Peter concludes this section with a great quote from Malcolm Forbes: "The richest person in the world -- in fact all the riches in the world -- couldn't provide you with anything like the endless, incredible loot available at your local library."

Wellness #41: Going Green, Part 2

This post is very helpful in suggesting easy-to-do methods that are good for the earth and good for you. My favorite idea that I want to try is cutting the junk mail. I have already been trying to stop junk faxes coming to the library. Most faxes we receive have an automated number listed on them to call to for remove your telephone number from the fax list. It just takes a few minutes to call, and in my experience, it really works. We hardly get any junk on our fax any more.

Something my family needs more commitment to do is to clear out our "electronic graveyard," getting rid of the old printers, PCs, VCRs, etc. We have been computer junkies for a long time, and still actually have an Apple IIe around somewhere. Such good memories!! Fortunately there are about 10 one-day drop-off events for Household Hazardous Waste collection throughout Harris County each year, even some at our library locations. These events do accept electronic items. To see the upcoming schedule, go to http://cleanwaterways.org/newsite/hhw/collection.html.

Wellness #41: Going Green, Part 1

It was depressing but not surprising to see how much more carbon dioxide a United States resident produces as compared to people of other countries. It was even more depressing to find that my family is above average, even though I think we are more careful than many. It looks like there is a lot of room for improvement.

Using the Yahoo! Green calculator, carbon footprint for my husband and I came out as 17.1 tons of CO2 per year, vs. the US average per person of 9.44 tons per year. I guess "per person" that is less than average. Most of our load seems to come from the vehicles we drive (9.88 tons of CO2).

The EPA personal emissions calculator was the only one that showed us as less than average (32,839 pounds of CO2 per year vs. an average of 41,500 pounds). We could reduce this by 25% if we bought a more fuel efficient car and tried to drive less. This version of the calculator was good in that it let you easily see how a change in your actions can reduce your emissions.

I have visited the Bayou City Urban Harvest market on Richmond, and the farmer's market in the Woodlands (http://www.grogansmillvillage.com/gm_gmshopping_farmersmarket.htmtm). I was disappointed by both, as lots of the items were over-priced boutique goods (soaps, heirloom veggies, candles, jewelry, etc.). It seems that to get the real good stuff, you have to arrive at the crack of dawn and be very agressive. That's not my style.

The farmer's market behind Canino's Produce at 2520 Airline is better for produce, but much of it is not locally grown. This is true of many of the farm stands near my home, too. They have some of their own produce (corn, tomatoes, beans, etc. ) in season, but they also buy Chilean strawberries, and sell that at a markup on a table next to their own stuff. As usual, buyer beware.

Wellness #40: Fitness

The fitness calculators on ExRx.net were too informative. They told me more than I wanted to know about where I need to focus. No surprises there -- eat better, lose weight, exercise more.

My life expectancy in the Health Age Questionnaire was 89.3 -- not too surprising as my Dad lived about that long and had many of the same medical issues as I do. What did surprise me was my Health Age. I was pleased to see that it was about seven years less than my actual age. Since you are only as old as you feel, that figure makes me feel younger and have more incentive to improve my fitness levels.

My BMI calculation highlights the need for improvement, but once again was not as bad as expected. I plan to make some lifestyles changes, and will be interested to see how this figure looks in one year.

Someone else doing this module felt that the Calorie Requirement calculator was too generous. I have to say that I agree. If I entered 8 hours for rest, and 16 hours of Very Light activity, it still suggested that I could eat more than 2000 calories a day. That seems pretty high to me. Either that or the diet gurus are promoting way too low calorie requirements for their regimens. With the emphasis these days on ultra-thinness as an ideal, that could very well be the case. Since I am not inclined to actually count calories, I think that just making better food choices, as suggested by the Nutrition module, will be my guide.

I learned a lot looking at the various websites. I sent the video on "deskercise" to all of my staff. I think it could help everyone feel better after a long day.
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-do-basic-deskercise

Addendum to Nutrition: "In Defense of Food"

A very interesting book related to nutrition is "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. His basic theme can be summed up in seven words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

According to the summary of this book in the Harris County catalog: "Humans used to know how to eat well, but the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." Indeed, plain old eating is being replaced by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Pollan's advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food." Looking at what science does and does not know about diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about what to eat, informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the nutrient-by-nutrient approach."

If you are interested in tidbits such as the history of margarine; how nutrition labelling came about; the politics of the food pyramid; the search for the missing secret super micronutrient that can cure all ills ... you will enjoy reading this short but thought-provoking book. It's also on CD if you prefer to listen.

Wellness #39: Nutrition

http://www.nutritiondata.com/

The articles listed under Topics had some fascinating information. As an example, the article on "The Nutritional Effects of Food Processing" shows the nutrient losses resulting from freezing, drying, and cooking food, as compared to the natural raw food. According to the table shown there, dried fruit has up to 80% less Vitamin C than raw fruit. I knew that dried fruit tends to add more calories to your meal, because you tend to eat more of it, but I did not know about this nutrition deficit as well. I see more grapes and fewer raisins in my future.

I also found the concept of the "Better Choices Diet" interesting, even though it is recommended only for very self-disciplined people. Here are the basics: 1) Make a daily record of everything you eat. 2) Determine which food contribute the most calories to your diet. 3) Make Better Choice substitutions for those items. (The site has a list of such items). 4) Repeat. The "Better Choices Diet" takes a long-time to work, but it offers multiple paths to success, whereas most diets with lots of rules offer multiple ways to fail. It sounds like a plan that could work because it encourages long-term intelligent choices.

recipes.sparkpeople.com

Here's a true library recipe, served at a 1997 branch meeting.

Southern Corn Casserole (recipe from a North Channel branch staff member)

*Green Giant White Shoepeg Corn, 3 cups (2 cans)
Cream Cheese, 1 cup (1 8 oz. package)
Butter, salted, 1 stick
*Green Chiles (Whole), 3 oz (chopped and seeded)
*Whole Milk / Vitamin D, 0.5 cups
*Kraft Finely Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, 0.5 cup

Heat cream cheese, milk, and butter until well blended. Add drained corn and chiles and mix together. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (sprinkle with the grated cheese about 10 minutes before end of baking period). Serves 6.

This is a VERY rich recipe, so I substituted light cream cheese, skim milk, used a half stick of margarine, and used half the cheeese. Compare the results below.

Amount Per Serving

---------------------ORIGINAL -------------------MODIFIED
Calories----------------442.6---------------------------291.6
Total Fat---------------- 33.2 g------------------------- 17.3 g
Saturated Fat----------- 20.6 g-------------------------- 5.7 g
Polyunsaturated Fat------ 1.1 g-------------------------- 2.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat-----7.8 g-------------------------- 3.3 g
Cholesterol-------------- 93.2 mg----------------------- 14.4 mg
Sodium---------------- 704.1 mg---------------------- 685.6 mg
Potassium--------------- 50.5 mg----------------------- 16.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate ------26.9 g------------------------- 26.6 g
Dietary Fiber-------------- 1.5 g-------------------------- 1.5 g
Sugars ---------------------5.5 g------------------------- 5.9 g
Protein--------------------- 8.8 g -------------------------6.4 g

The modified version has 3/4 of the calories; 1/2 the total fat; 1/4 of the saturated fat; about 1/6 of the cholesterol. And I bet it tastes just as good! Library Potluck 2.0.

Games & Gaming #38: Console Gaming

A problem with the old arcade games is that I couldn't remember how to play them, and not all of them had instructions. I never enjoyed them very much because of my afore-mentioned lack of speed. I think they are even harder now on my laptop because I don't have the same joystick-type controllers. Using the keyboard or my thumbpad just doesn't cut it. Plus the music playing in the background caused my husband to yell, "What are you doing there? PLAYING GAMES??? I thought you were supposed to be doing library training."



Those old games did attract me to the power of computers, however, and probably helped me develop what little hand-eye coordination I do have. My favorites were later-generation games like the early King's Quest or Seventh Guest that were less about agility and killing and more about problem solving and strategy.

Boy, do those historic consoles look old!!! I guess someday the Wii's and SuperNintendo systems will look like that, too. We used to own a Mattel Intellivision console, and had lots of games for bowling, football, golf, and so on. My brother and sister and I spent a lot of time playing, and really did enjoy it because of the interactive aspect. That still seems to be a huge part of the attraction of such games.

Of the consoles available for the library today, I would like to purchase a Wii because, as their ads say, "Wii is not just a gaming console. It's a reason to get together with your friends and family and play today's hottest games." I think it has appeal for kids, teens, and intergenerational programming.

Libraries are great because they don't force people into one way of thinking or being. Some people may come for the games, and that's all. Some people come for the games and get into books. Some people come for the books and find out about the games. Some people come to pay bills over the Internet, and read the newspaper. Some people come because they like to talk to the staff. Some people come because we have great AC. Hey -- everybody is welcome!

Games & Gaming #37: Game On @ The Library

Last night at a board meeting, I failed to convince the Friends to buy a Nintendo Wii system for our library. I was hoping that I could use one of these articles to help them understand that games can have a place at the library. I am not sure that either article makes a strong enough case. The NYT article might help, but it is about more than just games for programming. It is about big bucks to buy games to circulate, and I am not in favor of spending ever scarcer resources for that. The Shifted Librarian article is a mixed bag, too. The pro-game message is diluted by phrases like "Others browse the library for comic books ..." or "He talks smack and teases gamers ... or "The council plans tournaments and develops rules (such as no cussing)."

Personally, I don't think that offering games as programming to attract teens to the library is any different that what we do now by having puppet shows for kids or domino tournaments for seniors. We want to bring people to the library to enjoy themselves and feel welcome. While they are here, we can introduce them to our materials and other services. I am sure that a teen who came to the library for a gaming program and had a good time with friends is much more likely to come back with friends to work on a school project.

American Library Association President Loriene Roy has commented that “Gaming is a magnet that attracts library users of all types and, beyond its entertainment value, has proven to be a powerful tool for literacy and learning.”

ALA has announced a $1 million study into the impact of gaming on literacy skills. The ALA will build a model for library gaming that can be deployed nationally. The Librarians’ Guide to Gaming will be developed in collaboration with leading gaming experts in order to create a comprehensive online literacy and gaming toolbox. It will then be tested in selected libraries before being rolled out across the US.

At PLA in Minneapolis this year, a session on intergenerational programs at the library included some excellent family competitions based on the Nintendo Wii concept. I am determined to gather more information and go back to the Friends' group to gain their support for this proposal.

Regarding the Carnegie Mellon games, I could not get through the highest level. Speed is not my strong point, and that is a big part of a lot of games. I am thinking that since so many of our paid shelvers and volunteer shelvers are young, developing our own Dewey-based "Shelve This!" type of game might be a good teaching tool.

Games & Gaming #36: Online Role Playing Games

I appreciated the opportunity to get acquainted with Runescape. We have had several online tournaments/scavenger hunts at the library, and it is good to be familiar with what those young customers (mostly young teen and pre-teen boys) are so interested in. Here are some things I learned:

1) The numbers are amazing! As of today, 130 million accounts had been created, and 130,092 people were currently playing. That is a VERY MULTI-player game.

2) The game MUST be educational. After all, its is headquartered in Cambridge, England.

3) The tutorial is helpful, but tedious. It would take me a lot of playing hours to know what I was doing, especially since I am very slow at moving around. The game would teach me some orientation skills, I'm sure. Probably many of the skills used here are similar to those used in other games (picking up objects, arming yourself, running, attacking, etc.), so most of the kids would not have as big a learning curve as I do.

4) My character is standing in the middle of Lumbridge in the clip above. I have finally found the Range Tutor, gotten the bows and arrows, taken them back to Sir Vant, killed the druid who was helping the dragon, climbed back up the ladder, and am now looking for the Fishing Tutor. All in only two hours!

5) I could not figure out how to capture a close-up picture of my character. I chose a strong gray-haired, olive-skinned woman with a great figure and purple clothes to match. If only wishing could make it so!

Games & Gaming #35: Games? In the Library?

Fifteen minutes! Are you kidding? Nobody can play just 15 minutes! Not with so many games, such tempting games, such addicting games. I have dark circles under my eyes this week, staying up until midnight just fooling around. Then I passed some sites on to my husband, with the same result for him. I am sure we fed quite a few people with our donated rice.

FreeRice and WordSplay/WEBoggle can certainly improve your vocabulary. Sudoku is good for strategy building and observation. The web-based jigsaw puzzles are actually easier than the real thing because all the pieces are oriented in the right way.

Supposedly wasting time with these trivialities will make my dinosaur brain stay sharp. Hey -- it beats medication!

Maps #34: Geocoding and Geocaching

GEOCODING

The link to Mapquest's geocoding process doesn't work any more, and I was unable to find an alternative one.

I decided to find the geocode for the Texas Repertory Theatre, which seemed to work just as entered, even though the instructions lead you to think you need to enter a physical address. Its coordinates came back as: N31°10.13934, W100°4.6074.

Then I checked these coordinates in Google Maps. Oops! Guess that physical address is important. These coordinates come out somewhere in the boonies SE of San Angelo, TX.

I will try again using the exact address (14243 Stuebner Airline, Houston TX 77069). This time I got these coordinates: N29°59.42868, W095°30.03054.

Checking these coordinates in Google Maps got me right where I needed to go! Guess I will steer clear of using names.

The marker is a bit off from the exact location. It is probably closer to the red-roofed building. However, getting this close to the Stuebner-Airline/FM 1960 location, plus the theater's own sign, would get you there. And the trip would be worth it! They have done some great productions this year. Check it out the current schedule at http://www.texreptheatre.org/.

GEOCACHING

I looked for geocaches within 10 miles of zip code 77379. There were lots! I chose to see the details of one called "Friedhof Klein." This was a perfect choice, as I am very interested in the local history of the Klein area. Its coordinates are N 30° 02.803, W 095° 31.335. The URL is http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?pf=&guid=48c960c5-9677-46fb-a966-18d502764ac1&decrypt=&log=y&numlogs

Here is the description: "Site rich in local history. Visiting hours are 8am - 6pm daily, but residents need not be consulted to find this cache. High traffic area, be discreet. Site founded in 1872, during diptheria epidemic that swept throught the community. Some of the oldest markers, bearing inscriptions in German, are near the back of the site. You'll notice some names familiar to the area. Take some time to pause and reflect. "

This sounded to me like one of the old cemeteries in the area. When I checked the coordinates on the map, I found that indeed it was the old Klein Cemetery. I used to travel regularly down the Klein Cemetery Road when boarding my dog. I visited the cemetery on occasion, but never looking for a geocache. Reading the logs showed that hundreds of people had visited this site since it was first hidden in 2004.

Zooming out on the map, I realized that there are HUNDREDS of sites all around this area, many in places I often walk. Now I am really excited about going out to try this!

Thanks so much to the Barbara Bush Team who helped put these mapping exercises together!

Maps #33: Relocating With Online Maps

Activity 1 (Houses): I used the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) site to identify a nice down-sized eventual retirement house: in my price range, in the northwest part of Houston, one story, easy maintenance, new construction not yet lived in, fenced yard for the dog. It sounded perfect. Then I decided to see it in larger view on the map. A birds-eye view revealed to me that the surroundings for this house were not quite what I had in mind!! This method of house-hunting can save a lot of gasoline!

Activity 2 (What's Nearby?):

For this exercise, I decided to check out my son's newly purchased house, about 5 miles from my house. The "Walk Score" for this property was 37 out of 100 -- still car-dependent, but probably pretty good for most northwest Houston subdivisions. The elementary school is only about two blocks away. There is a grocery store, a restaurant, a park, and a drug store all within half a mile. Granted, it is about a mile and a half to the nearest Starbucks and the nearest bar, but that is probably good news! Worst news -- it is almost 3.5 miles to the nearest branch library, and it is not even mine!

"Discover Our Town" was not very helpful, since you could not narrow a search enough to be close to a specific locality. The HAR site lets you see the average property values in your neighborhood, as well as "Nearby Places", although it didn't seem to find much. The worst drawback is that you can search only for properties currently for sale.

Maps #32: Current Events

Google Maps Mashups was fun to explore. Here is what I tried this time:
1) Earth Tools (#80)lets you see the exact latitude and longitude for any location on the map. You can also use it to find elevation. My house is 141' above sea level (higher than I thought). This site would help those folks who want to know the elevation of a home site they are considering for purchase.
2) The map of 2008 presidential campaign contributions (#10) was interesting, but did not change my vote.
3)Exploring and Mapping the Bible (#25) would add depth to any Bible study. It goes through the Bible chapter by chapter and maps all the locations mentioned. Here is a sample showing Nehemiah Chapter 1, with the verses in the box on the left and the sites on the right side of the map.

In the past, I have monitored my son's plane flight as he flew to Colorado during a bad winter storm. It helped me stay relaxed instead of worrying, as I knew exactly where he was at all times. I knew that the plane would be late arriving because it had to detour south a bit because of the storm.

The map to the right is an overview of the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign. The huge libraries here are some of the few academic institutions that use the Dewey Decimal classification instead of Library of Congress classification. This is the campus where I got my degrees in biology and entomology, and practically memorized the 595.7's.
I was disappointed that you could not use the Terra Server site in much depth without a paid subscription.

Maps #31: Have Map, Will Travel

View Larger Map

This map created in Google Maps shows many of the places important to me as I was growing up in Blue Island, Illinois. This type of map could be very helpful in putting together genealogy materials for a family history.

Google Maps is incredibly powerful. It is hard to imagine being able to see satellite views of almost everywhere and being able to collaboratively edit maps. The street view blows me away.

I wish it was a little easier to use. I got stuck in quite a few places, and kept generating errors in ways I couldn't understand. I expect this will improve in time.

Spring Cleaning #30: Take a Load Off Our Drives

I use the S drive regularly. Examples: store staff photos for the awards ceremony; put a copy of a PowerPoint that the Marketing Team wants to see as an Outreach tool; put a copy of a Friends brochure that another branch might want to use; put a copy of a video for the the e-branch to load to the web page; put a copy of a poster that we need to be printed.

The P drive is full of stuff that all our staff needs to access: picture files for recently taken events, so that everyone who took photos can contribute; instructions for openings / closings; sheets for recording statistics; building and equipment repair files; procedures and forms for working with volunteers, etc.

My Z drive is also full of useful items relevant to my job as a manager: inventories of equipment; documents related to ongoing projects; Friends of the library bylaws and minutes; staff meeting minutes; collection profiles; contracts; budgets; grant proposals, etc.

At our branch we have a fourth type of drive, called the Q drive, or "Super Drive." This is one that the branch librarian and the three team leaders (Circulation Services, Adult Services, Children's Services) can access, but the regular staff cannot. This includes such things as interview questions, branch staff lists, Sunday staff lists, locker numbers, security procedures, tracking sheets for performance appraisal due dates, etc.

We save a lot of stuff because we need a lot of stuff. However, we surely have more stuff saved than we really need, and this exercise has been useful for pointing out the NEED to WEED.

My most obvious contribution in the past week has been to purchase an external hard drive, and to move a lot of archival pictures (e.g. the photo record of the construction of our library) and files onto that drive and off the server. I hope this made a small dent in the amount of space available on our servers. Did anyone think about doing a "before" and "after" spring cleaning comparison at the system level to see if we have been successful?

Spring Cleaning #29: E-mail

Confession: I am an e-mail addict.

I don't know how I kept in touch before there was e-mail. Mike L. says I am one of the super-users at HCPL, and he is probably right. I believe in communication as a management tool, and I send lots of e-mail to my staff, the library Friends, my community partners, and the Sunday staff that work at my library.

That means I also get lots back. And this is where things sometimes go awry.

I already have LOTS of folders, and I try to respond/file/forward/delete e-mail everyday. It STILL builds up. I have been deleting right and left for this exercise, and my Outlook Inbox is still well over 1,000 items. Bad. It is going to take me some time yet to get back on track. But I will DO it.

My address book is large, too, as one might expect, but it is pretty up to date. I review it on a regular basis.

One useful thing I have found to clear the storage volume quickly is to start with the the "Large Mail" and "Unread Mail" folders in Outlook. I have also been better lately at saving important attachments to a file and then deleting the e-mail copy. Too often in the past I used to save both. This was particularly bad if you made changes to one of the versions, but not the other. Invariably, you send someone the wrong version.

Besides my work e-mail, I have a regular home e-mail through my cable provider. I also have a more flexible e-mail through the free online Google/gmail that I can use in case I have fears of being spammed when I sign up for something. These days you get enough spam even when you are actively trying to avoid it. It that regard, "10 Minute Mail" sounds like a useful site to use on special occasions. "Spamhole" may be, too, but unfortunately, I was Forbidden to Access the link that was given in the iHCPLnextgen blog.

A pet peeve of mine is the forwarding of hoax e-mails. Often senders are unaware of how they can check on the validity of these before forwarding, since some sound pretty real. I try tactfully to send them a reply from Snopes.com or TruthorFiction.com or Purportal.com ("The bunk stops here...") so that they have a weapon in their arsenal for the next assault.

Spring Cleaning #28: Don't Clutter Up Expensive Cyberspace

The explanation of GTD made me tired before I even read about it. GTD was TMI -- 3 models, a 5-step work flow process, 6 levels of "focus" and 5 stages of the natural planning method. You do the math.

Since one of the steps in the work flow process was "Spend more time doing than organizing", I decided to follow that advice and pass on most of the GTD theory. The one thing I have absorbed is the suggestion that "If it takes less than two minutes", do it now."

I complained to one of my staff members that I had too many files (electronic and paper), too much e-mail, too many pictures, too many notebooks. Her response was -- "You have to. It's YOUR JOB."

There is an element of truth in this. Part of the branch manager's job is to preserve some record of what has gone on at the branch. To provide some sense of tradition, to aid continuity, to honor the value of past endeavors.

The ideal is to keep only the items of most worth, so that the accumulated bulk of the past does not prevent moving forward. This exercise has encouraged me to be a better evaluator of the worth of what is saved.

Which makes me think. Right now we are worrying about cleaning up our local "neighborhood." We are encouraged to store things "out there" on the Internet. Is there a maximum capacity that the Internet can handle? With more and more people storing semi-useful things like their blogs, their libraries on Library Thing, their photos on Flickr, their videos on YouTube, etc., how long will it be before we get messages asking us to clean up our larger mess in Cyberspace? Will Google ever grind to a halt because there is just too much junk to look through?