A SpotsBug’s World

here comes the sun…and bad news

The sun finally arrived on my last full day here in Jacksonville.  The temperature and humidity stayed relatively low so it was a beautiful day here on the river.  The conference was also better today.  A few really good sessions that gave me some material to think about and apply when I get back home.

The conference let out a little early on the last day so I took advantage of the nice weather and walked all over downtown.  Then hopped in the car and took a brief trip across Hart bridge to the South shore to see if I had been missing anything.  Nothing really that I could tell, but I didn’t drive all the way out to the beaches either.  Something tells me there is probably more action there.

I returned to the North shore and took a walk down the Riverwalk to Jacksonville Landing.  This is a place reminiscent of the 80s Miami Vice scene – at least that’s what I decided.  There I found a food court among other things and decided I’d stop for a quick bite.  While I was there, a live cover band started to play outside in the plaza area.  They sounded really good, playing everything from Journey to ZZtop, to Train.  Lots of other things in between.  It was a nice, relaxing way to end my travel to Jacksonville – sitting on the balcony, breeze coming in off the water, sun setting, and good music to listen to. 

After taking in the sights and sounds I walked back to the hotel and called my mother.  Bad news, my grandmother is in the hospital again and worse, her house had been broken into the night before and her purse was stolen.  She was home the entire time, asleep.  I thank God nothing happened to her.  This could have turned out so much worse – I won’t even think about the “what if’s” of this situation.  The burglar only took her purse and nothing else and did so quietly, no harm to my grandmother.  But her money, checkbook, credit cards, identification and house keys were all in her purse.   

She had already been having a good bit of health trouble the last week or so and fell in her home a few days before all this happened.  With all these things considered, my uncle and aunt decided it was best to call EMS.  So she is in the hospital now and will probably be sent to a nursing home – at least temporarily. 

I am so worried for my grandmother.  I love her dearly.  For so long she was the center, the heart of our family.  Now that we are older and some have passed away, we all don’t spend as much time together as we used to.  And I often don’t show it or visit her as often as I should, but no matter what, she is a trememdously important person in my life.  I plan to see her when I return to town. 

So on this day that the sun decided to arrive, I’ve been given a little cloud for my sky.  I’ll just keep praying, it’s all I can do.  

still

It’s still not-so-sunny-Florida today. 

The conference is picking up a little bit though.  Still not exactly what I had expected but I have learned a few helpful tips to take back with me.  I’ve learned how to perform better OCR in order to provide better textual enhancement to digital images.  I’ve learned about some new metadata structures and standards.  And I’ve heard some items that reinforce what I’ve already been doing which makes me feel more sure about myself and what I’m working on.  Overall, it never hurts to hear things again I suppose – whether you’re already putting some methods into practice or not. 

I have also had the pleasure of meeting fellow librarians and archivists that have their own projects going on.  That has been interesting to hear what everyone is working on and realizing that the issues I deal with everyday are felt everywhere.  I am not in isolation!  One of our speakers is an archivist that is currently working diligently on a project to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls - fascinating stuff. 

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and hopefully the most informative.  I’ll be learning about copyright and long term maintenance of digital assets.  And then I’ll head back home to a hotter and sunnier place.  Then starts the process of applying some of the helpful information I’ve picked up here. 

not so sunny Florida

I’m in the Sunshine State for a work conference on digitization.  It hasn’t been all too sunny here though.  Overcast, rainy, and cool pretty much describes the forecast.  Amazingly enough, with the record heat that most of the Eastern seaboard is experiencing, Florida is one of the cooler places to be right now. 

Anyway, as for the conference, so far it has gotten off to a slow start but I’m hopeful that things will pick up with the upcoming sessions.

I’ll keep you posted…  in the meantime, I send greetings from not-so-sunny Florida.