In memoriam
My father, Max Rosenstein, died on October 30. Our frequent father-daughter trips to the bookmobile when I was a child had a strong influence on my decision to become a librarian.
When neither my parents or my siblings understood the title of this blog, I used a family story to illustrate disambiguate. I’d like to share that story now.
When I was growing up, only 8 Rosensteins were listed in the local phone book. Ironically, two of the families, both with first initial M, lived on the same street, which was only a few blocks long. One day a new car was delivered to our house. I wanted to keep it, but it was quite apparent to us that the car was for the other M. Rosenstein on our street. In order to disambiguate the Rosensteins, the driver would have needed the full first name or the correct house number.
Before I started this blog, I read Blogging for dummies. One of the recommended decisions was how personal the blog should be. I had decided that for the most part I would not get personal, but I had to mention the passing of my father.
November 11, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Lois:
My condolences on the passing of your father. Thanks for sharing your story. It is often difficult to explain to non-librarians (and sometimes to non-technical services librarians) what we do and why it is important. It’s nice to have meaningful examples.
-Beth
October 1, 2009 at 3:00 am
Dear Lois: My condolences to you on the loss of your father. I lost mine this year also. I loved your story of the new car delivery and the relation to division,subdivisions, cataloguing. Excellent. Norm Barry. South Okanagan B.C. Canaada LIbr Tech student.