Nashville Public Library

[dmarley]

Excuse me while I wax rhapsodic for a few moments about the Nashville Public Library. I know that there are places with niftier and more extensive facilities, but it's only in the last two or three years that I've realized what a godsend it is to have a kick-ass public library system.

It doesn't matter that their actual collection isn't anything as impressive as even a half-decent academic library when I can get on the Athena system, browse the catalogs of darn near every local university for books about pirates and 17th century history, and inter-library loan what I need without even getting out of bed. Much better than driving the forty-five minutes to MTSU or paying $20 a year to Vandy for a max of four visits and no borrowing priviledges (both of them are on Athena anyway :)). Public library cards are free to residents of Davidson County, so it's like getting borrowing rights to every local academic library for free. How cool is that?

(No, I'm not obsessively researching POTC, why do you ask?)

Comments

[ladypredator.livejournal.com]

Ah, you discovered ATHENA. Pretty cool isn't it. :)

I can always get you stuff too, you know. There are advantages to being a professional librarian. *g*

[dmarley.livejournal.com]

I love Athena. I discovered it about three or four years ago, and never looked back. When I first started using it, I thought it was almost too good to be true, that I could get pretty much anything I wanted from any of the local university libraries.

As a side note, I also discovered while browsing that MTSU does, in fact, have the most extensive collection of Marlowe-related materials, even more than Vandy. I never would have thought it, but apparently I went to the right place for my MA.

And don't worry. If the public library ever lets me down, you'll be the first to know. ;)

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Damn, now I have library envy.

My local isn't hooked up to ANY other library systems, let alone academic.

So if I want to ILL something, I have to know the title on my own, and then I have to hope that they will randomly find it, because it costs $1/search. Bah.

But, go you! Go research PotC! Yay!

[dmarley.livejournal.com]

Ow! $1 per search? Yikes.

That would have killed me in grad school. I probably made thirty or more inter-library loan requests every semester. But even though I showered them with forms, the ILL people at MTSU liked me because I always had 95% of my ILL requests filed before mid-terms, instead of waiting until two days before the paper was due. I was an obsessive little geek, but I got a lot more sleep. :)

[pktheater.livejournal.com]

You are so cute with a new fandom. Wow... I've got a book or two on pirates I'll loan if you wish.

And on the subject of reading, please bring the marked up copy of the Piers stories Saturday if you can remember. I've been a bad boy about writing lately and I'm hoping more marked up pages will spur me to write more.

[dmarley.livejournal.com]

I know. It's so difficult keeping one's dignity while being a big ol' fangirl. Sigh. If, however, you wish to enable my fangirl obsessing, I would deeply appreciate the loan of any pirate materials you have. :)

I meant to bring the story last week, and totally forgot about it. I'll try to remember to stick it in my backpack before tomorrow. See you then!

[pktheater.livejournal.com]

I have no problems with someone being a fangirl. Case in point, re-read my user profile. And I'm all about the swashbuckler era, so I'm happy to share the info.

Thank you for the critique of the stories. I've not had a chance to look through them yet. I will this week, I hope. And soon... a new novel.