Headed Way South Again

We are rapidly approaching our next journey to the Land of Oz and I could not be more excited. A conference hosted by the Art Libraries Society of Australia and New Zealand offered an opportunity for me to go back to the land I love and present a paper. They have also asked me to participate in a closing panel discussion, all held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. The theme of the conference is "Persistence of the Real," and I think with my curmudgeonly take on modern library practices I can reliably comment along those lines.

While we are so looking forward to the trip, there is also the embarrassment of traveling overseas so close on the heels of this disastrous national election. It will be difficult to represent a country that now has gone on record as favoring a candidate who is a racist, misogynistic idiot, but perhaps it will actually help me in my presentation to the conference. After all, my claim has long been that the internet is making idiots of us all, and there can be no more compelling evidence that widespread voting for an orange skinned baboon has helped make that case. What a change from our last trip to Oz, when I was actually proud of our president!