Fall, the best season of all--and the busiest! (October 11, 2021)

I've lost track of the number of times I wrote myself a note to update the blog recently. I want very much to end my participation in the so-called cult of busy--that flurry of activity which never seems to end--and to savor what is around me: a beautiful season, fascinating students, and new and energetic partners. Alas, I have a to-do list which needs attending before I can do that.

Today, I start with a long-overdue introduction. Donna Sanders is my undergraduate intern this term, and is working hard to support the EJLPP with some new number-crunching and data visualizations. She's got a lot of experience in Excel, and we're going to use her work to supplement the visualizations that Lauren Della Piazza Hartke did a couple of years ago, and that I've expanded to include to other parts of Europe. Donna's task is limited to the Spanish and French sections of the Project; I'm working on North, Central, and Eastern Europe at the same time. Lauren had covered the English institutions. I also have some information on the Italian institutions, but have not been able to follow through very much on that just yet. Fortunately, I have set up an agreement with a colleague in Italy to add to that section. With any luck, I will be able to update that soon.

In addition, I'm so proud to include the CRAI Biblioteca de Reserva from the University of Barcelona to our partners. I've added information about CRAI to the "About Us" page, and am working on incorporating over 1,000 new records they shared with us to the database. In the last three weeks, I've had to take a detour from that in order to meet two deadlines, but by the end of this month, will be able to get back to that work which is well underway. After I finish organizing the data, I'll upload it as an updated spreadsheet.

Enjoy the sweater weather, the fabulous vegetables, and your fall indulgence of choice, whether it's football, pumpkin spice things (someday, someone may be able to explain why the focus is on pumpkin spice rather than apple spice, but I digress), leaf-peeping, or any of the other joys of my favorite season!