Bill The Librarian

The Vietnam Memorial Wall

Bill Drew — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:34:23 +0000

This was sent to me. I do not know the original source but I have verified the information. Please pass along.

THE VIETNAM WALL

Interesting statistics from the Vietnam Memorial Wall

There are 58,272 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2011.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date, and within each date, the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 37 years since the last casualties.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956, his name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

8,283 were just 19 years old.

There were 33,103 in the largest age group — 18 years old.

12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock, was 15 years old.

997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam ..

1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam ..

31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia. I wonder why so many from one school.

8 women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

Beallsville, Ohio, with a population of 475

, lost 6 of her sons.West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

The Marines of Morenci – They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the littleArizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail and stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci’s mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

The Buddies of Midvale – LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales – were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah — Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 – 2,415.

For most Americans who read this, they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces and we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.

Please pass this on to those who served during this time, and those who DO Care.

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

Rebooting my career

Bill Drew — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:34:48 +0000

Rebooting my career

Friday, May 11, will be my last day as an academic librarian. I will be moving to a new position at Rome Technical Library, U. S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) ( official fact sheet) in Rome, NY. The official purpose of AFRL/RI is:

The Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate is located in Rome N.Y. The Information Directorate is focused on basic research and advanced development in the cyber domain. Its diverse workforce of more than 800 military and civilian scientists and engineers are charged with leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting information technology capabilities for our air, space and cyberspace force.

I will continue my blogging about libraries in the 21st Century and may blog a bit about my new job. You will not see many frequent posts as you have in the past. I will still write about library services in New York State and rural broadband access.

Why is this a reboot?

I have worked in academic libraries since 1982 (?) when I started as a circulation clerk at Olin Library at Cornell University. I need a change and this is the opportunity that I have been looking for since May 2011. I have enjoyed working with students, faculty, and academic librarians but I am getting tired of being a study hall monitor and helping students that don’t even have basic reading and writing skills. I may sound a bit like a curmudgeon. That is not my intent.

With this new positions I will have new challenges and opportunities that I never had in academia. One of the requirements of my new job is that I attend three continuing education opportunities each year and it will be paid for by my employer. This includes national conferences as well as local and regional events. I am looking forward to that after many years of working in institutions where there was virtually no money set aside for real travel and training.

My new duties

Here is a piece from the posted job description that outlines briefly my duties:

Job Description:
Croop-LaFrance, a premier Information Technology service provider in upstate New York is seeking a highly motivated Librarian to join our team. The ideal candidate will provide professional services to maintain and update the library collection in support of the information needs of the scientific community in a small, full service library.
Duties include cataloging, reference service, online research, acquisitions,ILL, and web page maintenance. The selected applicant will be able to direct and train a small support staff.
Position Duties:
Provide Librarian support services at Rome Research Site (RRS), maintaining the library collections of books, serial publications, documents and other materials, assists groups and individuals in locating, and obtaining materials, furnishes information on library activities, facilities, rules, and services.
Assist in use of reference sources, such as card or book catalog, or book and periodical indexes to locate information.
Issues and receives materials for circulation or use in library, assembles and arranges displays of books and other library materials, maintains reference and circulation materials.
Answers correspondence on special reference subjects, may compile list of library materials according to subjects or interests, and may select, order, catalog, and classify materials.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more of my adventures in librarianship.

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

Good bye – Maurice Sendak

Bill Drew — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:58:50 +0000

Good bye – Maurice Sendak

He sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are..

My children loved his books. He changed the course of children’s literature.

Rest in peace. More on Maurice Sendak:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/406796/january-24-2012/grim-colberty-tales-with-maurice-sendak-pt–1

http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/12708/Maurice_Sendak/index.aspx

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

Wild Blue Yonder!

Bill Drew — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:58:31 +0000

Wild Blue Yonder!

Official anthem of the U.S. Air Force. The Rome Labs are part of the Air Force.

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

Moving On!!

Bill Drew — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:36:18 +0000

Moving On!!

I have accepted a job offer to work at Rome Labs at the old Griffis Air Force Base at Rome, NY. My last day at TC3 will be May 11. My new job title is technical librarian. I will be helping the government librarian run the research library that supports several hundred scientists at the Rome Labs. I will be doing a bit of everything from cataloging to reference to maintaining the web site and more. My employer will actually Croop-LaFrance. They have the contract to provide personnel within the library and other parts of the Rome Labs. If you need to reach me after May 11, please use bill.drew@gmail.com or via the comment form in the menu at the top of the page.

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

New Version of WordPress Fixes Slew of Security Bugs | threatpost [http://threatpost.com/]

Bill Drew — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:31:59 +0000

New Version of WordPress Fixes Slew of Security Bugs | threatpost [http://threatpost.com/]

If you use WordPress you must update it now!

A new version of the WordPress software is available, and the update includes fixes for a number of security vulnerabilities, including a bug in components that are used to upload media to WordPress sites. Version 3.3.2 also has some other fixes for cross-site scripting and other flaws.

WordPress is used widely for both personal blogs as well as somewhat larger sites, and it has become a frequent target for attackers in a variety of campaigns. WordPress sites often are used in mass-injection attacks in which attackers compromise those sites and use them as platforms for infecting visitors through drive-by downloads.

Full article

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

Changes in the website

Bill Drew — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:32:18 +0000

Changes in the website

I have done a bit of work recently to improve the functionality and ease of use of my website. I have looked at the usefulness and need for the various plugins. I have also switched themes from Atahualpa to Coraline. While Atahualpa is a great theme, it is much more than I need and I have found Coraline loads much faster.

I have examined the plugins I am using on my site and have deactivated and deleted many of them. Even deactivated plugins will slow down a WordPress powered site.

I created a new header logo for the site. It is about me, who I am, and what has influenced my life over the years. I have intentionally left out any images of my family for their privacy.

What do you think?

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

Building Websites with WordPress

Bill Drew — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:32:42 +0000

Building Websites with WordPress

I am doing a WordPress.com workshop for librarians Friday, April 20 at the SCRLC in Ithaca, N.Y. It is hands-on. Here is the URL for the demo site for the workshop.http://scrlcworkshop.wordpress.com/

Here is the agenda:

Building Websites with WordPress

Creating a free website for your library or organization is easy using WordPress.com. In this workshop you will learn, hands-on, how to :

What is WordPress.com?
Create a WordPress Account
Use the Dashboard
Pick a theme
Use your site as a website
Create a home page
Add more pages
Create custom menus
Add widgets and other good stuff
Use your site as a blog
Write posts
Use Categories and Tags
Add images to posts
Add social networking features
Understand your Privacy Options
And more!

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

Rep. Virginia Foxx thinks you’re a loser if you have student debt

Bill Drew — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:36:44 +0000

Rep. Virginia Foxx thinks you’re a loser if you have student debt

I just signed a petition, and I’m spreading the word!

During a recent radio interview, the Chair of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, Virginia Foxx, announced that she has “very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt.” At a time when over half of students at public, 4-year-colleges graduate with debt, Foxx’s comments are out of touch, inadmissible, and ignorant.

We are calling on Speaker Boehner and Congress to publicly denounce Foxx’s remarks.

Sign the petition here:
http://act.rebuildthedream.com/sign/denounce-foxx?referring_akid=563.254504.e9JsIH&source=taf

Thanks.

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew

Support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012

Bill Drew — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:52:35 +0000

Support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012

Subject: Support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012

Hi,

I signed a petition to Rep. John Kline (MN-2), The United States House of Representatives, and 2 others which says:

“Total outstanding student loan debt in America is expected to exceed $1 TRILLION this year. Millions of hardworking, taxpaying, educated Americans are being crushed under the weight of their educational debts, while the economy continues to sputter. Support a REAL economic stimulus and jobs plan. Support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 (H.R. 4170).”

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/support-the-student-loan?source=s.em.cp&r_by=4044188

Thanks!

Bill the Librarian - Online Home of Bill Drew