At the beginning of the computer revolution, circa 1985, PC's offered the promise of individual liberty. In the work place, managers could run their own spreadsheets instead of waiting for the mighty MIS (Management Information Services) department to generate a report from the mainframe.

Instead of big, centrally administered computers, we have had millions of independent machines, all doing whatever their owners wanted them to do. This fundamentally changed the balance of power in many a company -- and enabled a headlong rush into general productivity.

When I was in Kindergarten, I got mono (infectious mononucleosis). Twice. This meant that I missed a lot of school. It also meant that I was "sickly."

In my neighborhood, a rough and tumble collection of blue collar families, it was not a good idea to be puny. When I was finally fit enough to go back to school, things were hard twice.

A while back, a list of gag book titles made its way to a librarian e-mail list. One of the titles was: "Living With Attention Deficit Disorder: Practical Strategies for Hey Look What's on TV!"

It's a provocative joke. As early as a generation ago, educators were noting the effect of Sesame Street on student concentration. Whereas once classroom instruction and curricular design tended to be fairly linear, TV changed that.

One of the most interesting things about my job is the opportunity to observe the interests of a rapidly growing group of people -- the library patrons of Douglas County.

Another interesting thing is the opportunity to poke through our rapidly growing collection. Two of the books on tape I've recently listened to have given me some new ways of looking at our community's behavior.