Some observations on the news, this fine Tuesday morning:
- Throngs Show Their Potent Role in Economy. You know, I misread this headline as Thongs Show Their Potent Role in Economy, and it certainly caused a double take.
- MediaNews to Pay for Most of McClatchy Deal. If you didn’t know by now, the owner of the Los Angeles Daily News is buying the San Jose Mercury News. After the purchase, I dropped a note to Mr. Roadshow to ask him if he would start a Southern California column. Alas, he didn’t think so, but I think it would be a great idea.
- Henriette D. Avram Dies. You often don’t feel the impact of someone you don’t know, but you’ll agree with me in this case. Henriette D. Avram died April 22 of cancer at the age of 86. She was responsible for replacing ink-on-paper card catalogs at the Library of Congress with computerized systems. After working at the National Security Agency early in the Computer Age, Avram joined the Library of Congress in 1965. With no background in library work, she was assigned to develop the library’s first automated cataloging format. Combining two complex fields, computer programming and intricate cataloging practices, she and a small team completed the MARC Pilot Project — for Machine Readable Cataloging — in 1968. The system quickly became the preferred format for libraries throughout the country and, ultimately, around the globe. Avram designed a mathematical code using cataloging numbers, letters and symbols to denote different elements, or fields, of bibliographic information.
Now to get ready to go to the workshop…
