Spent today working through the religion department's latest set of requests, which, if I were to purchase all of them, would put their budget about $2,500 in the red. My supervisor said, "They'd spend the library's entire budget if we let them." It is obvious that as soon as they get their hands on a catalog from Eerdman's, Baker, Fortress, etc., they casually circle everything that looks mildly interesting; oftentimes we already have the item on the shelf or on order. This is why we need to give collection development librarians power! The sad irony is that I have plenty of money to spend on subjects I'm not interested in (business, education, science).

Here's an interesting bibliographic problem. One of the requests was for a two CD-ROM set called "Voyage Through the Bible," produced in 1996. The item was listed in the Insight Media catalog with a brief description of its contents. Checking our OPAC, I noticed that we had a 2 CD-ROM set called "Charlton Heston's Voyage Through the Bible," also produced in 1996. I got the item and found that the description on the package sounded similar to the blurb in the Insight Media catalog. However, I can't be sure. Our item was produced by Jones Digital Century; the Insight catalog doesn't say who produced their item, nor does it give anything like an ISBN number. About $250 hinges on this problem. I tried WorldCat but only found the same item we already have. I emailed Insight but haven't received a response. Perhaps one of the listservs I subscribe to can help.

The latest Netflix movie I saw was another French import, Harry, un ami qui vous veut bien. Although it's about a psychopathic murderer, it was very low-key; I guess the French don't like American gaucheries like suspenseful soundtracks or the expression of emotion. But it was a good diversion. I just finished a terrific book of film essays by Larry McMurtry and so I decided to rent The Last Picture Show, which, besides the McMurtry connection, is also apropos because it portrays life in small-town Texas.

I was talking church with a psychology professor and he said he had heard that one or more of the Catholic parishes in town have an open communion policy. That's something to think about, at least.