Library Cats
I like libraries. I also like cats. So how is it that I had no idea that library cats existed? I wonder how many reference questions they answer?…
Libraries
More buzz about Knoxville’s new library
The Metro Pulse, Knoxville’s alternative newspaper, has a nice article / editorial on Knoxville’s proposed new library. The library appears to have widespread public support and numerous building sites to choose from. Added to this is the desire to have a library on par will the Nashville Public Library, a lofty goal indeed.…
Digital Cuneiform / Tennessee Library Association
UCLA has a Cuneiform Digital Library online. I’ve only seen a few cuneiform tablets, safely behind glass of course. Digital libraries like this are great because it allows access to things people probably wouldn’t be able to see otherwise. But the tablets will definitely last longer than this incarnation of the digital library will.…
John Ashcroft – Master of Tact
Added March 11, 2026: The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 began the the modern surveillance state. It only got weirder from here. Maybe we should try Rolling Back the Post-9/11 Surveillance State?
From the Associated Press, John Ashcroft is quoted as saying people are being wrongly led to believe that libraries have been “surrounded by the FBI,” with agents “dressed in raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses.…
Digital Gutenberg Bible
The University of Texas at Austin now has their Gutenberg Bible online. It’s not the first one to go online, but the more copies that go digital, the less the originals get used. More people can use the digital copies, so the work is more widely distributed and the original is preserved.…
Wild animals as librarians
“You see, I don’t believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that’s been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians.”
-Monty Phython
I read in the Johnson City (TN) Press that a bear got into the old library at ETSU.…
Now where did we put that Holy Grail again?
The Vatican Museum is now online. It joins the Vatican Library and Archives which were already online. Maybe one day I’ll make it to Rome but for now this will have to do.…