William Denton of the FRBR blog [1] and the new OpenFRBR [2] project and I had a great time chatting in the winebar at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa last month during the Access conference.

We covered a lot of ground, focusing on FRBR [3] and his new project but also dipping into aspects of Canadian history and hard-boiled slang along the way, to mention just a few. He did write to correct one thing he said during our discussion:

'In our talk, I mention the "Last Spike," an important event in Canadian
history that marked the completion of the first trans-Canada railway. I
say it was a gold spike, driven in place in either the late 1870s or
early 1890s. In fact, it was plain iron and it happened in 1885. Anyone
interested in learning more about this should read THE NATIONAL DREAM
(1970) and THE LAST SPIKE (1971) by Pierre Berton.'

Other notes from the show:

• William's Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang [4]
• Notes on the history of the Chateau Laurier [5]
• The correct title is The intellectual foundation of information organization [6] by Elaine Svenonius

Find it in the feeds listed at left.