About Tom Keays

I think that XFN and FOAF somehow mandate this sort of disclosure statement on websites (a future W3C standard, maybe). I'll try not drag it out too long.

Professional

Four of the categories in the menu bar relate in one way or another to what I do for a living or are closely connected to my professional interests. Rather than repeat it in detail again, I invite you to poke around and see for yourself. Here's the synopsis. I created and house several databases related to my job as the chemistry librarian that live on this server. My blog and links sections will give you some sense of the things I read and think about, while my portfolio will tell you a little bit about my work as a librarian and will inform you about various web development interests and projects. I also do web design and consutancy work. Please contact me for more information.

Morris

My most consuming hobby (non-techy, non-librarian) interest is in morris dancing. I have been a musician (whistle / pipe & tabor / concertina) since 1982 for Thornden Morris, a women's Cotswold team based in Syracuse, NY. In 1984, I helped found the Bassett Street Hounds (then men's Cotswold, now mixed Border) in Syracuse. In 1999, suffering from severe Cotswold withdrawal after the Hounds became Border-only, I joined the Binghamton Morris Men and the American Travelling Morrice.

In the virtual realm, I started the Morris Dancing Discussion List (MDDL) in 1988 and, soon after, created the related Morris FAQs. I also run all the private listservs for the Syracuse morris teams as well as for BMM and the ATM. More details on my online morris projects can be found in the portfolio section.

Music

Musically, my tastes run towards Irish and Cape Breton music. I also like, but haven't quite wrapped my head around, Scandinavian music. I play tinwhistle, Irish wooden flute and Anglo concertina.

I am an avid supporter (but infrequent attendee) of the local Irish music session. I have found that John Chamber's abc TuneFinder, which indexes and searches collections of traditional music on the web in abc musical notation, is an excellent source for finding session tunes. I wrote an abc TuneFinder Firefox plugin as a search aid. The Wooden Flute TuneDB and Henrik Norbeck's collection are two of the best individual tune collections on the web. I am a regular reader of the IRTRAD-L and abcusers listservs.

Locally, I manage the Central New York Friends of Folk Music (FOF-CNY) listserv as a way to share information about upcoming music and dance events.