Here’s what we’ve found as we’ve traveled the local PDX web (complete with our comments) for March 14th:

• dailywireless.org » Comcast: Mobile WiMAX this Summer in Portland – I didn't know that Comcast was an investor in Clear/WiMAX – did you? Will be interested to see how this is priced…
• The Portland Tribune | Historical Society hopes to reopen research library – …Society officials announced that the library, which is popular with historians and researchers, will reopen by the end of this month with a skeleton staff…
• Ban smoking at all TriMet bus shelters, MAX stations and transit centers | TriMetiquette – Christian says:
  

  I have an idea for TriMet that will not only make more Portland public transportation riders happy but also might be another possible source of some extra income in the form of ticketing offenders:

  Let’s ban smoking in and around all TriMet bus shelters, MAX stations and transit centers…

Related Posts

• December 30, 2009 -- Worst. Commute. Ever. (12)
• December 7, 2009 -- Portland Police: The Problem is Perception (3)
• October 8, 2009 -- PDX in Your Pictures: Silver Dude on the Bus (1)
• October 6, 2009 -- OurPDX Shared Links for October 6th (0)
• September 28, 2009 -- A Green Line Redux (2)

Did you know Multnomah County Library has a blog?  You probably did and I’m late to the game. I honestly don’t use my local library as much as I should.  When Neighborhood Notes hooked me up to An Embarrassment of Riches, I was overjoyed, especially since the first post I read turned me on to a great book.  I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic writing, so when they posted about this topic, I lept and grabbed the first used copy of Jim Crace’s The Pesthouse I could find.   I’m about 100 pages in and hooked.  I’m not a book reviewer, but I will tell you this – it is about a couple who need to deal with the world after everything they know is taken away.  This after everything had already been destroyed.  I would never have found this book had it not been for that blog.  It is now in my RSS and I already have a few books in my wish list over at the book trading site BookMooch.  I have vowed to read more and watch TV less in 2009.

Go check out another city gem in the blogosphere – An Embarrassment of Riches by Multnomah County Library.

Related Posts

• July 29, 2009 -- Danes Love Dwarfs (and you can too) (0)
• October 10, 2008 -- Friends of the Library Sale in St. Johns this Weekend (0)
• September 3, 2008 -- Calling Nerds who Like Books: Neal Stephenson in PDX (3)
• July 30, 2008 -- Friends of Library needs Space for Fall Book Sale (1)
• June 26, 2008 -- PORN (7)

Stock your shelves with books for the winter and help your local library at the Annual Friends of the Library Book Sale.

October 11-13, in the beautiful St. Johns neighborhood, the Friends of the Library is holding it’s legendary bottom-dollar sale. So many books, CDs, DVDs, and tape will be up for grabs that it fills an entire car dealership building. (In this case, the old Sterling Auto dealership on the corner of North Lombard and North Richmond).

Hours are as follows:

Saturday Oct. 11 9am-9pm
Sunday Oct. 12 11am-5pm
Monday Oct. 13 9am-3pm

Hard backed books start at $1.50, with paperbacks and kiddie pages starting at 50 cents. Of course, all proceeds from this sale goes to support our beloved Multnomah County Library. I hope to see you there! (Otherwise, I will assume you are a book hater and will shun you forever more.)

Related Posts

• July 29, 2009 -- Danes Love Dwarfs (and you can too) (0)
• January 25, 2009 -- A reader’s blog – An Embarrassment of Riches (2)
• July 30, 2008 -- Friends of Library needs Space for Fall Book Sale (1)
• October 10, 2009 -- The Daily Environmentalist (0)
• March 15, 2009 -- SLL: Talking the Globe with Liz Grover (0)

The Friends of the Multnomah County Library’s amazing Fall book sale needs a home. From an email today:

We need your help for the fall sale. We are seeking a warehouse-type site of
around 15,000 square feet in Multnomah County for about 10 days in October.
Our preferred dates are Sunday, Oct. 5, through Tuesday, Oct. 14.

We prefer that it have lots of close-by free parking and transit access for
customers and that it have two restrooms. Recent sales have been held on
properties that formerly were used for a car dealership and a supermarket.

The Friends of the Multnomah County Library is a 501c3 private nonprofit. We
offer about 100,000 donated used books and audio-visual materials at the
fall sale. Proceeds after costs go for public library programs and purchase
of materials through grants. They have included supporting the popular
Pageturners reading groups and branch-specific literacy projects.

We always hope to keep our lease fee low to be able to devote as much sale
money as possible to the library. Last year, a building owner allowed us to
use the property rent free. When this happens, we do our best to advertise
the owner’s good will.

We carry our own full liability insurance and expect to pay utility costs.
We have been putting on this sale for nearly 30 years, never have had
complaints from property owners or incidents of vandalism, and we leave the
property cleaner than when we came in. We have paid staff as well as
volunteers working the sales.

For those of you who haven’t experienced one of these sales, they are epic. And proceeds support our lovely library.

Any ideas? Please do let me know.

Related Posts

• January 25, 2009 -- A reader’s blog – An Embarrassment of Riches (2)
• October 10, 2008 -- Friends of the Library Sale in St. Johns this Weekend (0)
• October 10, 2009 -- The Daily Environmentalist (0)
• July 29, 2009 -- Danes Love Dwarfs (and you can too) (0)
• March 15, 2009 -- SLL: Talking the Globe with Liz Grover (0)

I did not know until this morning that anyone with a Multnomah County Library card can access the Greatest Work of Philologic Scholarship Ever Completed*, the Oxford English Dictionary, free of charge, and right from your browser.

The online version of the dictionary provides access to continual updates as the lexicographers toil towards the Third Edition. The Third Edition isn’t expected to be completed for a Very Long Time (2018 if you believe the Oxford University Press, 2037 (!) if you believe Wikipedia). But you–YOU!–can follow along as they release updates to the online version.

If you are a card-carrying member of the library, go here. You’ll be asked to enter your ID number (it’s on your card) and your PIN (typically the last four digits of your phone number).

Enjoy!

* This, of course, is just my opinion. But don’t you agree?

p.s. This all came up because I wanted to research whether I had indeed gotten a new word into the OED. Turns out I did! See more on my blog.

Related Posts

• March 14, 2009 -- OurPDX shared links for March 14th (0)
• January 25, 2009 -- A reader’s blog – An Embarrassment of Riches (2)
• October 10, 2008 -- Friends of the Library Sale in St. Johns this Weekend (0)
• July 30, 2008 -- Friends of Library needs Space for Fall Book Sale (1)