Library Stuff

A bit different from my situation, but Dave hates it when people spell names wrong too. In his example, the writer should have checked. In my case, I never told anyone to spell it correctly…

In the spirit of the original (and with the creators permission), Blake started Refgrunt.com. If you have ever wanted to Refgrunt, now is your chance. C’mon, everyone is doing it…

I am the fortunate victim of the name Steven. While that may sound oxymoronic, it isn’t.

I love the name Steven and have always been fond of hearing my name said by others. I like the way it flows off the tongue. However, my first name can be spelled three different ways. There’s the classic ‘Steven’, which I love. There’s the shortened ‘Steve’, which I don’t really like, but have grown to except. Then there’s ‘Stephen’, which I don’t like…at all (I’m not sure why. I have met plenty of nice Stephens over the years). Thus, my name can be spelled many ways and is done so all over the library world (even ALA screwed it up!!). The effect of all of this is my “low” Google ranking for the word ‘Steven’ (I’m on the second page). I think I could easily be on the first page, if link popularity means anything (and I know it does). I think ‘Steve’ and ‘Stephen’ are used just enough to dilute the ranking for my real name.

Jenny is #1 for Jenny (although her title tag in Google is a bit screwy) and Dave is #1 for Dave, because they are heavily linked and no one refers to them as Jennifer and David respectfully. They are a “household name”. So, lets make a pact, you and I. I’ll use your name the way you want it to be cited and you can use ‘Steven” when you you want to cite me.

I have never told anyone (including ALA) to use ‘Steven’ instead of ‘Steve’ or ‘Stephen’, so this is as much my fault as it is yours.

One last note. Since Google is now using using truncation, the ‘Steve’ issue may not be as bad as I make it out to be (as a matter of fact, none of this is!).

I had a few minutes between finishing up a consulting report and delving into the latest Joyce Carol Oates, so I took the plunge and transferred the new interface over to the Library Stuff domain. I think it looks pretty good. Not a lot of changes other than the right column now has a bit of color and I’m using Blogger again (for reasons that will be explained in an upcoming essay). For those that subscribe to the RSS Feed, the URL will stay the same.

During my “break” from blogging, I also took stock in what I am actually trying to accomplish with this weblog and realized that I needed some sort of change. I’ve wanted to publish more of my written work online so I’ve decided to start a semi-regular column. I will be writing on many topics including RSS and weblogs as well as conducting interviews, writing book reviews, and others. In fact my first piece will be a book review of First Have Something to Say, by Walt Crawford which I finished last night. More details on the new writing projects when the first one comes out (expect it in the first few weeks of January).

Well, he doesn’t really “review” them per se, but quotes a few weblogs that have linked to him in the past and offers a one/two sentence comment. If you don’t read MLC, you are missing out on some enjoyable reading. I grabbed the feed about 4 months ago and have been chuckling ever since.