The Playful Antiquarian » Administrative Matters http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain. -- Louisa May Alcott Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:54:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ The Playful Antiquarian returns http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2006/05/12/the-playful-antiquarian-returns/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2006/05/12/the-playful-antiquarian-returns/#comments Fri, 12 May 2006 13:27:37 +0000 vernica http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2006/05/12/the-playful-antiquarian-returns/ Or, jack of all trades, master of library and information science with a concentration in archives management…

I am happy to announce that, at last, I am done with my graduate studies at Simmons College. Yesterday, in celebration of my newly discovered freedom, I read Book the First of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and enjoyed a home cooked meal of puttanesca sauce with “interestingly shaped noodles”. And, I have more playful diversions planned for the next few weeks.

As promised, I am planning to resume blogging on a regular basis. Please bear with me as I get back into the swing of things and prepare to move this weblog to WordPress.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2006/05/12/the-playful-antiquarian-returns/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ New (old) tagline http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2005/02/12/new-old-tagline/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2005/02/12/new-old-tagline/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2005/02/12/new-old-tagline/ I have changed my tagline back to the tagline I used in the Thinking While Typing incarnation of this weblog. It is the overused, but well-loved, quote from Louisa May Alcott’s Work: A Story of Experience.* Although I have never been fired from a job for causing a fire by falling asleep while reading, I identify with Christie, the main character, in that scene. I also like Alcott’s earlier description of Christie’s bookish inclinations:

Christie loved books; and the attic next her own was full of them. To this store she found her way by a sort of instinct as sure as that which leads a fly to a honey-pot, and, finding many novels, she read her fill. This amusement lightened many heavy hours, peopled the silent house with troops of friends, and, for a time, was the joy of her life.

That quote, however, is too long for a tagline.

* The link above is to a digital version at the Project Gutenberg site, but for readers interested in a print version, Open WorldCat lists a 2001 edition of this book, as well as some earlier editions.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2005/02/12/new-old-tagline/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Site Maintenance, Nov. 23-30 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/11/23/site-maintenance-nov-23-30/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/11/23/site-maintenance-nov-23-30/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/11/23/site-maintenance-nov-23-30/ Please be advised that I will be doing some site maintenance during the next week or so, including recategorizing, deleting, and editing some archived posts. Edited posts will reappear in aggregators that track changes, so please ignore any old posts that may appear. I will add a note to all edited posts and that should help prevent confusion.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/11/23/site-maintenance-nov-23-30/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ No comments (but much commentary) http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/10/15/no-comments-but-much-commentary/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/10/15/no-comments-but-much-commentary/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 vernica http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/10/15/no-comments-but-much-commentary/ As I reported/complained on j’s scratchpad, my attempts to quiet the obnoxious comment spammer(s) seem to be futile. Although there are no comment links and (supposedly) no access to commenting by non-editors in the discussion group, my discussion group and linked e-mail account are still being inundated.

Hoping to learn more about Manila and comment spam, I conducted a little casual research, and I stumbled across a post by Betsy Devine about the same problem. In fact, it seems to be the same annoying spammer.

Evil, awful spammers … While I can tolerate spam e-mail, telemarketers, and junk mail to a certain extent, such incursions in this space make me feel almost vengeful. I know it is not personal, and I know that it is automated and indiscriminate. Yet, I am troubled by it. It awakens in me all of the emotions that I used to feel when I worked at a library circulation desk and would find a book that someone thoughtlessly or maliciously defaced or destroyed. Grrr …

If only there were a digital equivalent to a medieval book curse.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/10/15/no-comments-but-much-commentary/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ A quiet blog is not an abandoned blog http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/10/13/a-quiet-blog-is-not-an-abandoned-blog/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/10/13/a-quiet-blog-is-not-an-abandoned-blog/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 vernica http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/10/13/a-quiet-blog-is-not-an-abandoned-blo I am still here, but I am working quietly in the background.

Soon, I will transform this weblog into a more serious, academic space and transfer my quirkier, off-topic posts to The Playful Antiquarian. As part of this process, I will delete many of the posts here, but I will try to keep most of the posts linked to by others, as well as posts with comments.

At the moment, I have turned off the comment feature and blocked new discussion group comments. Comment spam was becoming a nuisance, and deleting unsolicited, unwarranted, and nonsensical ads from my weblog (and the inbox of the e-mail account that receives this weblog’s comment notifications) was not a good use of my time. More importantly, it was quite depressing, like the junk mail that masquerades as a birthday card or happy greeting or the telemarketer call that catches you when you are in need of encouraging words from a friend. So very sad …

Many apologies to any readers wishing to leave comments. I promise to restore comments as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/10/13/a-quiet-blog-is-not-an-abandoned-blog/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ The playful antiquarian, part 2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/08/12/the-playful-antiquarian-part-2/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/08/12/the-playful-antiquarian-part-2/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 vernica http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/08/12/the-playful-antiquarian-part-2/ My new home at Frassle has expanded a bit. Recently returned from Rare Book School, I have decided to use the precious free time that I have (before school and an impending move throw my life into chaos) to set up a Playful Antiquarian publisher site at Frassle. At the moment, the content is the same as my Playful Antiquarian feed, but as I figure things out, I hope to add more content.

Sorry for all of the recent site-hopping. With any luck, Frassle or some combination of Frassle and my other weblogs will be my location for the foreseeable future.

Addendum: I forgot to mention RSS feeds. There is a feed for the regular blog post section of my publisher site and a feed for my noteworthy links. Enjoy!

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/08/12/the-playful-antiquarian-part-2/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ The playful antiquarian http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/08/03/the-playful-antiquarian/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/08/03/the-playful-antiquarian/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 vernica http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/08/03/the-playful-antiquarian/ As some readers may have noticed, my Rare Book School notes are on another weblog. I started a weblog at frassle because after seeing a demo of the latest version at last week’s meeting at the Berkman Center, I wanted to try it out. I am very happy with my second (third? fourth?) weblog, but I only started it a few days ago.

I had hoped to double-post my RBS dispatches, but the server for this weblog has been down quite frequently, especially late at night and early in the morning — the only times I have to post at the moment. The people at the Berkman Center are working very hard to maintain the server, and with any luck, it should be more stable soon. Until then, check The Playful Antiquarian or Paper Clips. If I am not blogging here, I am probably blogging somewhere else :-)

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/08/03/the-playful-antiquarian/feed/ 1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ A playful experiment http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/04/05/a-playful-experiment/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/04/05/a-playful-experiment/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/04/05/a-playful-experiment/ Do not be alarmed. This weblog has not been commandeered; I am just experimenting with a new look and new title.This is something that I have wanted to test for several months now. I did not want to start a new weblog, but at the same time, my weblog, as it was defined and designed, was not working for me. It felt like a shirt with a scratchy tag–irritating to the wearer but seemingly fine to others. The scratchy tag, in this case, was the fact that most of my new posts were being categorized as “off-topic but interesting” and “friday frivolity.” I took this as a sign that I needed to re-evaluate my weblog and its overall focus.

I am hoping to create a weblog that comfortably incorporates my interests in printing and paper history, children’s literature, and arts and crafts and also allows me to show my playful side. I want the freedom to mention interesting things about my daily work without the obligation of being “the special collections weblog” and to talk about libraries and librarianship without being “a librarian weblog”. Most of all, I need space to evolve and change intellectually.

As I have said before, this is my playspace. Play is about fun and about experimentation. I will see how this experiment goes. If it does not work, I will change everything back, and of course, if it works, I will proceed from there.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/04/05/a-playful-experiment/feed/ 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Samuel Johnson, Leab Exhibition Awards, Dr. Seuss and my extended absence http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/03/02/samuel-johnson-leab-exhibition-awards-dr-seuss-and-my-extended-abse/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/03/02/samuel-johnson-leab-exhibition-awards-dr-seuss-and-my-extended-abse/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/03/02/samuel-johnson-leab-exhibition-award I suppose that the few readers that I have may be wondering why it has been quieter than usual in this whispering corner of the blogosphere. In special collections news, I have not reported on Houghton’s acquisition of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson. I have also let the announcement of the 2004 Leab Exhibition Awards by RBMS (the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association) pass without acknowledgement. More shockingly, the Seussentennial has arrived without a Seussism from me. (By the way, many birthday wishes, little sister, if you are reading this!)Of course, I have good reasons for being so neglectful. Mostly, I have been busy, but I am also recovering from a repetitive strain injury. To say the least, I will not be updating this weblog much in the next few weeks (or possibly months) while I am on the mend. (sigh…no weblog posts, no Sims, no knitting…time to find new hobbies). As I have said before on this weblog, visit the excellent sites in my blogroll and keep me in your news aggregator. With any luck, I will be back soon.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/03/02/samuel-johnson-leab-exhibition-awards-dr-seuss-and-my-extended-abse/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ An experimental post http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/01/07/an-experimental-post/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/01/07/an-experimental-post/#comments Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/thinking/2004/01/07/an-experimental-post/ I had hoped to post this yesterday but afterwork projects, early evening activities, and my self-imposed early bedtime did not allow for much time to work on my weblog. That being said, this is an experimental post.

Yesterday I decided to gather all of the interesting links I found on my aggregator and online throughout the day and put them all in one post. I like to think of it as my online notebook.

I am trying this to see if it makes maintaining my weblog a little easier. In the past, I was overwhelmed by all of the links that I came across. I had many links that did not need much, if any, commentary. It felt strange (aesthetically) to post them separately. Now, these lone links have a home.

My hope is that this will allow me to add more news and information on my weblog while also freeing up mental energy for longer, more personal posts and essays. So, without further explanation, here is the first installment of links…

Special collections links

Special collections links I missed while I was on vacation

Weblog links

Off-topic but interesting

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