ACRL in PGH!

I (Kelly) had the opportunity to attend the annual conference of the Association of College & Research Libraries last week when it came to Pittsburgh! This was my first national conference since graduate school (a looooong time ago), so I made the most of the 36 hours I attended in person. 

The conference was held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. This was my first time visiting the venue, and it was perfect for a large conference such as this one. 

The fun & games area included this self-serve photo booth. You could elect to get a photo or a gif of yourself, and I opted for the still image. 

The games and relaxation area also included oversized Jenga, coloring tables, a bookshelf mural where you could add your favorite book title, and much more. I didn't spend much time there, but it was fun to walk through. 

The weather was cold but beautiful, and the many outdoor decks and patios had stunning views of downtown Pittsburgh. 

Because I was only at the convention center for the first evening and first full day, I tried to attend as many in-person-only sessions as possible. I wish I'd had more time to explore the exhibits hall. It's always exciting to see what new initiatives and resources are out there! I did get to chat with some folks from OCLC (who provide our WorldCat Discovery tool, among other things) and the representatives from Sage (a major publisher in the social sciences). 

I also got to meet representatives of an up-and-coming AI research tool and of several open-access publishing collectives. We're planning to do more to connect students and faculty with open educational resources in the coming months, so stay tuned!

Friday Reads: A Gentleman in Moscow

For this week's Friday Reads, Adam shares A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, a delightful novel about a less-than-delightful situation. 

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is a Russian aristocrat, a learned man of impeccable manners and wit, whose life of leisure changes drastically when he is brought before a Bolshevik tribunal in 1922. Declared a "Former Person" by the new Communist government, Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in his current Moscow residence, the grand Metropol hotel, where he is moved from his luxury suite to a cramped attic room, and threatened with execution should he ever set foot outside the hotel. He passes his days reading, making his weekly visit to the hotel barber, dining and drinking in the hotel's restaurants and bar, and getting to know the hotel's staff and other guests. He befriends a bright, enthusiastic young girl named Nina, who shows him the hotel's hidden nooks and crannies. He begins an affair with a famous actress, and takes a job as headwaiter in the hotel's fanciest restaurant. I'm only about halfway through the book, and it's only 1930, so I look forward to finding out what happens to the count and his acquaintances over the coming decades. How will the count experience, from the confines of the hotel, the lean years of the Depression, the terror of Stalin's purges, the brutality of World War II, and the onset of the Cold War? Will he ever get to leave the Metropol?


This novel as an absolute joy to read. It's not just that Count Rostov is such a likable character, or that Towles captures Rostov's inner life and the workings of the hotel so beautifully, or fun little details like the chapter titles all beginning with the letter "A." The book is so elegantly written, and with such warm humor and a light touch, that it feels just about perfect. It's one of those novels that's so well-written that it seems effortless, as if the text just came to be in its final form through some sort of magic.