Yes, Virginia, censorship does still exist

While on the one hand I love to hear librarians in the news. It thrilled me to hear an interview with a librarian on NPR this morning until I realized why they were talking to a librarian. Recently, a large medical database decided that "abortion" would be a stop word. Essentially, this means that it stops the search from working. If you were to try and search for abortion in this database, you would retrieve nothing back. You might ask, "how can that be? Aren't there are a lot of scholarly, research articles about abortion?" The answer is yes, which is a big problem. In my mind, this is a perfect example of politics determining access to information, which should not be. If we allow these practices to continue, it could be as bad as the futuristic society found in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Luckily, the change to the database has been reversed, and the ever-previous access to information has been restored. But if it happened once, do we have to worry about it happening again? It could. Optimistically, I'd like to believe that it might not happen after a change in our administration, but that's just too Polly Anna-ish for me.

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If you're going to San Francisco...

We went to San Francisco a few weeks ago, partially because I had a meeting in Sonoma, but partially to have our last weekend getaway before baby. We took advantage of the fact that work was paying for part of it, and flew up to hang out in the City. Saturday, Katie took us around town and we saw the Chinese New Year's Parade in Union Square. It was rainy and really windy, and all of the marchers and floats were covered in plastic. But it didn't take away from the festivities.

Sunday we hung out with Katie at the SF MOMA. They have some fabulous exhibits, but I have to admit, that I really don't "get" it all. But I still appreciate it.

Monday, we leisurely drove from San Francisco to Sonoma, through the Presidio and up Highway 1. We didn't do much but sit in the car, but it was absolutely gorgeous. Once we made it to Sonoma, we had a fabulous dinner at the Fig Cafe, in Glen Ellen. I highly recommend it for anyone in the area.

Even though it was a short trip, we managed to eat really well, and enjoy ourselves as usual.

Baby shower...

We are woefully behind at sharing our photos with everyone. I'll be updating and emailing as quickly as possible, but in the meantime, check out our photos at Shutterfly, and watch for new ones!

Allie & Aaron's Photos @ Shutterfly

Empty libraries make Dewey cry

I'm not sure if I like the purpose or design of this t-shirt better. Most times, the only people who think like this are librarians, but this time Glarkware outdid itself. Known more for their irreverent and non-sensical designs, Glarkware is dontating the whole sticker price of the shirt to this year’s book drive charities the Rockhouse Foundation and Children’s Institute. If you'd rather not have the t-shirt, you can dontate directly at Dewey Donation System. Go on... do a good deed for libraries.