Will reading from ink on paper bring the same odd glances that those who
still type (if any) on a typewriter now receive?
There is something mystical about the experience of settling in with a
newspaper. A park bench, a library couch, a kitchen table is transformed into
a sacred place when holding the golden pages of stories. There is a thrill to
seeing the rolled up print on the doorstep or a flat version on a bookstore
shelf. My fear is that my sacred simple pleasure of reading a newspaper in
print will be replaced by digital devices. Is this nightmare keeping you up
at night too?
I cannot bond with a cold device delivering downloaded words on a screen; not
to mention the loss of the religious ritual associated with the printed page.
But it looks like I may have to mourn this pleasure sometime in the future
even though it may be with screaming and hair pulling (my o... (more)
Today I met with the perfect moment of destiny, the kind of fate that just
seems to bring all the right elements together in an unexpected way.
I was suppose to meet a long-time friend for coffee at a Starbucks not far
from where I live, but having had an all night bout of insomnia, which seems
to be happening more and more now that I am over 50, it became a matter of
emergency that I had to get in the car and start driving before I found
myself asleep, the kind of sound sleep that is unaffected by the phone
ringing. I was suffering from extreme tiredness and lack of movement wasn... (more)
Are you old enough to remember the 1982-1993 TV show Cheers and its theme
song lyrics by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo?
“Sometimes you want to go
where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came;
you want to be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same;
you want to be where everybody knows your name.”
Now imagine the creation of that same kind of community feel, but instead of
inside a common location of physicality put the community within the confines
of an electronic screen and you have the popular phenomenon of Facebook.
“We believe that Facebook represe... (more)
As someone who worked for a historical society during the time of its initial
transition into digital formatting, I have first-hand knowledge of the
complexities involved. When this major change first began, we were in a small
building where almost all of our records were cataloged and accessioned in
the old fashioned way. That meant card catalog indices housed in wooden cases
with drawers full of hard copy records. It seems hard to imagine that little
over a decade ago we were working in such a, retrospectively speaking,
primitive environment. Since then, so much has changed it ... (more)
Francie Helm, Information Specialist, Programming Consultant 
Bret Piatt
Steve Pieczko
Rob DiStefano
Scott Chasin
Jon Shende
Nathaniel Borenstein
Stephen Jannise
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