I had the privilege of hearing Marcus Jackson read a selection of poems from his first book, Neighborhood Register, on October 6. Published by CavanKerry Press Ltd. in 2011 as part of its New Voices series, the paperback contains 41 poems, most based on growing up in Toledo. According to the foreword written by Toi Derricotte, the book registers the lives of people in a neighborhood--a register of one speaking from the inside, a profession of loyalty. While the book looks like autobiography at first, the poet is hardly ever at center stage--he has a way of stepping back so that the light shines on the other. You will not forget this neighborhood, or this poet.

Another story of growing up in Toledo, this one in prose, is Journey of the heart: a loving family memoir by Virginia Hannaford Eyster, with four 4 editions published between 1986 and 1995. It took readers by surprise when they felt emotional while reading it, even if they had no connection with Toledo. It took publishers by surprise when its popularity was widespread rather than regional.

The Incas were masters of plant domestication, especially potatoes. Their development of the potato was remarkable: from 8 species of weeds having toxic tubers to more than 3000 distinct potato varieties. They pioneered a seven-year potato crop rotation to prevent decimation by a nematode pest whose life cycle was six years and constructed an ingenious agricultural research station in the high Andes that reproduced growing conditions of different ecological regions of the empire. The base of the excavated depressions was consistently 15 degrees warmer than ground level and each agricultural terrace corresponded to 3000 feet (900 m) in altitude. Using this complex, the Inca could experiment with new crops and anticipate yields from anywhere in the empire, from the lowland rainforest to the montane cloud forest to the high Andes. http://www.mongabay.com/07davis_incas2.htm

ONLINE: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals covers interesting subjects in the September-October 2011 issue:
Meaning-Based Computing: Text Analysis Takes a Great Leap ForwardClick here for FREE full-text version. Terence K. Huwe
INTELLIXIR: A Patent and Literature Analysis Product: Q&A With Developer Jean-Michel Careil Mark Hutcherson
Dow Jones: Firmly in the Knowledge Business Barbie E. Keiser
American FactFinder: Take Two Joann M. Wlekinski
Limits in Intellectual Property Protection Vera Münch
Productivity-Enhancing iPad Apps for Information Professionals Curtis Brundy
Where the Jobs Are, Free and Open Source (FOSS) Waits for You Stephen E. Arnold Link to current or past issues at: http://www.infotoday.com/online/ Some, but not all, information is free.

Alpha, bravo, charlie are code words for letters of the alphabet to help prevent misunderstandings. See other code words at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

The Mason–Dixon Line (or Mason and Dixon's Line) was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America. It forms a demarcation line among four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (then part of Virginia). In popular usage, especially since the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (apparently the first official use of the term "Mason's and Dixon's Line"), the Mason–Dixon Line symbolizes a cultural boundary between the Northeastern United States and the Southern United States (Dixie) and legality of slavery as a result, although the Missouri Compromise Line had much more definitive geographic connection to slavery in the United States leading up to the Civil War. The line was established to end a boundary dispute between the British colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania/Delaware. Maryland had been granted the territory north of the Potomac River up to the fortieth parallel. Pennsylvania's grant defined the colony's southern boundary as following Twelve Mile Circle counter-clockwise from the Delaware River until it hit "the beginning of the fortieth degree of Northern latitude." From there the boundary was to follow the 40th parallel due west for five degrees of longitude. But the 40th parallel does not in fact intersect the Twelve Mile Circle, instead lying significantly farther north. Thus the Pennsylvania's southern boundary as defined in its charter was contradictory and unclear. The most serious problem was that the Maryland claim would put Philadelphia, which became the major city in Pennsylvania, within Maryland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason%E2%80%93Dixon_Line

Ahead of the 2012 elections, a wave of legislation tightening restrictions on voting has suddenly swept across the country. More than five million Americans could be affected by the new rules already put in place this year -- a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections. This report is the first full accounting and analysis of this year's voting cutbacks. It details both the bills that have been proposed and the legislation that has been passed since the beginning of 2011. Find link to full report at:
http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/65235

You say you wanna revolution? Well, let’s head across the pond then and check out a new law in England and Wales that allows non-lawyers to sell legal services. Under the Legal Services Act, taking effect October 6, banks, supermarkets and the like can offer legal services to consumers, according to this BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15187154 on the new law. These would-be competitors to law firms can create what are called Alternative Business Structures, which will offer a one-stop stop of legal and financial advice to consumers, according to the BBC, which notes that some regulatory kinks still must be ironed out before solicitors can join the alternative structures. Here's another report on the new law from The Lawyer: http://www.thelawyer.com/law-firms-forced-to-wait-for-abs-approval-as-lsa-comes-into-force/1009671.article
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/10/06/a-legal-revolution-is-underway-in-england/

American Libraries has launched an “E-Content” blog (http://americanlibraries.org/e-content) that provides information on e-books, e-readers, e-journals, databases, digital libraries, digital repositories, and other e-content issues. The blog complements the new section on e-content that appears in the weekly e-newsletter American Libraries Direct and focuses on similar issues. Read more at: http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/65243

LYON, France—In a nondescript storefront in a quiet, cobblestoned neighborhood, Brigitte Hautier practices one of the oldest professions in France. She is a public writer. This latter-day Cyrano de Bergerac still performs many of the services her professional forebears did: She writes résumés, polishes job applications, composes eulogies and even the occasional love letter. She does this mostly for working-class people with little education, many of them immigrants with a tenuous grasp of French. Even in the age of the Internet, it turns out there's plenty of demand for the écrivain public, a vocation that dates back centuries to times when most people needed a professional to perform writing on their behalf. The latest trend in the public-writing industry is producing biographies commissioned by those who want the histories of their grandparents, many of whom had first-hand experiences with the Nazi occupation of France, preserved in writing. In France, public writers have been in vogue since the 1200s, when artisans and tradesmen began settling in cities in greater numbers, and needed help not only writing, but reading letters of all kinds. The role of the public writer or scribe has existed since at least the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs, and remains in much the same spirit throughout the world. Jane Mace, a British consultant and author of "The Give and Take of Writing: Scribes, Literacy and Everyday Life," says public scribes are still found today in most developing nations, often setting up writing desks "in hot countries, under trees," next to post offices or other government buildings. Saskia Sassen, a professor of sociology at Columbia University, says it's logical that the profession has endured in France since "the French are famous for having invented bureaucracy in the 12th century." She says, "it's perfect that they have this." Read more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576597221746691088.html