something nice for the end of the week

there's nothing like job security: library loans on the rise in the u.s., although technically this article says nothing about visits to archives being on the rise so maybe it's an even 50/50 "win some/lose some" situation!

i like the little chunk of obama's ala speech, too, although i think at this point in time pretty much any news article on anything at all has to feature some kind of quotation from some speech he's made, preferably within the last six months, full points if it's from the inauguration. seriously. i read articles yesterday about britain's public school system and they quoted obama. it wasn't quite entirely irrelevant, but it was really close! i can only assume there was some editor somewhere in london leaning over his desk, saying, "people love this guy! quote him! it'll get the hits up! we have to keep our stats higher than the sun!"

oh, and if you really have nothing at all to do this weekend and an aching desire to make that "to read" list enormous, check this out: the guardian's 1000 novels project. i'm not exactly certain how they've picked the novels in question but somehow or other they have divined a list of 1000 novels -- divided neatly by genre -- that they feel should be common knowledge. i don't know if the list addresses issues like non-english novels, novels in translation, etc., etc. the main page just says:

"Over seven days our writers recommend the best books to read about crime, war, fantasy, travel, science fiction, family and love. Don't agree with their choices? Series editor Philip Oltermann will be blogging on Saturday; come back and tell him why not."

i haven't spent a lot of time here 'cause, well, i had other things to do this week like go to work and sleep, but the lists look interesting if nothing else -- always good for a "but, hey, what about---" moment.