New Year's Request -- and New Dog Intro

As the year 2010 emerges, I am asking my viewers -- on cable and on the blog -- to check in with me, so that I may estimate better the impact of some of these video efforts. Please send me a note at this address: batofminerva@gmail.com -- to let me know that you are following the blog or watching the show. Responses or suggestions for future directions would also be welcome.

My best wishes for a good New Year.

Peter Shea

"Things keep happening to me."

I interviewed Meredith Gillies, Library Assistant to the Children's Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota, as part of a special show on the collection's 60th Anniversary. (She poses in front of the cake from the anniversary exhibit.) She told me her story after the tour, how she came to a job that she really likes, and a very rich creative life, through a series of lucky accidents and also through taking a lot of student jobs seriously over the years. I think the story of Meredith's persistence and optimism and good luck is one that lots of job-seeking undergrads need to hear - if only to get it straight that this sort of story is possible.