Jigsaw puzzles, the art of science fiction, online speeches, and more.

1. Go where it is
   
2. The answer depends on the question
   
3. Research is a multi-stage process
   
4. Ask a Librarian
   
5. Information is meaningless until queried by human intelligence
6. Information can be true and still wrong

1. Tara Calishain
2. Jenny Levine, part I
3. Jenny Levine, Part II
4. Reva Basch
5. Sue Feldman
6. Jessamyn West
7. Debbie Abilock
8. Kathy Schrock
9. Greg Notess
10. William Hann
11. Chris Sherman
12. Gary Price
13. Barbara Quint
14. Rory Litwin
15. John Guscott
16. Brian Smith
17. Darlene Fichter
18. Brenda Bailey-Hainer
19. Walt Crawford
20. Molly Williams
21. Genie Tyburski
22. Patrice McDermott
23. Carrie Bickner
24. Karen G. Schneider
25. Roddy MacLeod, Part I
26. Roddy MacLeod, Part II
27. John Hubbard

200TH ISSUE

Numbers that end in zeroes somehow seem weighted with symbolic value. A birthday ending in a zero, like I've just had, is more of an occasion to reflect on the direction of your life than the ordinary birthdays. The fact that this is the 200th installment of ExLibris is an occasion to reflect on what I'm doing with it, and how long I want to keep doing it.

I invite your thoughts. What in ExLibris is of particular value to you? Is there something I should do more of? Less of? Are there things I haven't done at all that you'd like to see here? Send your answers to me at: marylaine at netexpress.net. I'll be thinking about it during the break I'm taking to work full time on Library Journal's Movers and Shakers issue. ExLibris -- possibly a remodeled ExLibris -- will return in January. Meanwhile, here's my Christmas card for you.

* * * * *

It's three in the morning of Christmas Day
and Santa's four continents behind.
With baby gyms, dollhouses, toy motor speedways,
the poor man's going out of his mind.

He's got ratchets and drillbits and screws, brads and bolts.
He has driven screws, hammered and pliared.
The scariest words in the whole English language
Are these: "SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED."

He's plugged printers and modems and speakers and such
into color-matched slots in computers;
He's configured and entered new passwords, and now
what he needs is a stiff drink at Hooters.

But since duty calls, he picks up his sack
full of Game Boys, Nintendos, and Sims,
and batteries, triple A, B, and C,
also D, spilling over the rims.

Wistful, he thinks about long ago Christmases:
blocks and Play-Doh and books and stuffed toys,
that were played with or read from or cuddled, but didn't
have green flashing lights, or make noise.

The only power needed was imagination.
The toys could be knights and their vassals,
or princesses, monsters, or aliens from space,
or skyscrapers, houses, or castles.

A merrier Christmas than Santa's I wish you:
one that's completely unwired.
May you go to bed early on this Christmas eve
because NO assembly's required.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL,
AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

* * * * *

COOL QUOTE:

Anyway, here's a story from my childhood, which I tell every year at this time:

My father warned about the TV Monsters. These creepy creatures lurked in a dark forest, waiting to catch and chew up an unwary kid. But there was a way to get safely through those sinister woods. The TV Monsters couldn't hurt you if you held a book in front of your face.

You know what? It still works.

"Give the Gift of Reading." Dan Gillmor's eJournal, December 3, 2003 http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/
archives/001552.shtml#001552

* * *

You are welcome to copy and forward any of my own articles for noncommercial purposes (but not those by my guest writers) as long as you retain this copyright statement:

Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2003.

[Publishers may license the content for a reasonable fee.]

Please do NOT copy and post my articles to your own web sites, however. Instead, please copy a brief excerpt and link to my site for the remainder of the article.