This week we talk with ALLUNY Treasurer, Membership Chair, Parliamentarian, Past President, former Webmaster, and author of the long-running ALLUNY newsletter column “But I Digress….”
Elaine Knecht
Title: Director of Information Resources
Library: Barclay Damon LLP
Locations: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Elmira, NYC, Boston
TwitterHandle: @emknecht
Five Questions:
1. Favorite thing about your job? I’ve been in this position for almost 13 years, and while there is a good deal of repetition, the best thing is that there is so much that is different. As we are a firm with seven primary practice groups and 33 practice areas, assignments range from the mundane and pretty simple – retrieving documents, proofreading memos, stuff like that – to the really wild and crazy. For example, is there any scientific study that establishes a maximum number of times, in a 24-hour period, that a man can “perform” sexually? (The answer, by the way is – if there is one, I didn’t find it. I found only anecdotal evidence.)
2. A skill you’d like to learn? I already have half-a-handle on several skills that I’d like to get much better at: playing the piano and the violin (not at the same time); counted cross-stitch. I think it would be very cool, and useful, to learn how to code.
3. Favorite travel destination? If you know anything about me at all, you know the answer to that is… PARIS. (France, not Texas.) The first time I was there was during my semester abroad as a sophomore at UB. After getting my Master of Fine Arts degree in the mid 70s I went back to study with a particular vocal coach. While there, my now-husband came to visit and we were married in the office of the Mayor of the 9th arrondissement. We’ve been back five times, most recently celebrating our 42d wedding anniversary at a performance of Verdi’s La Traviata at the Opera Bastille. The next trip is scheduled for the Fall of 2020 (combined with a few days in Rome).
4. Favorite quote? (from a librarian’s perspective) “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx
5. If you could live in a book, movie, or TV show, what would it be? A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman. Even though I know intellectually that the 14th Century was HORRIBLE (the Black Death, the Hundred Years War, the Great Schism of the West), I’ve been fascinated by that period since encountering Tuchman’s history text that reads like a riveting novel. Imagine seeing the construction of Brunelleschi’s Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, or hearing Machaut performing his own compositions (fortunately, he survived the Black Death)