Many a true word ....

The top sign has been around for at least 20 years; the lower one is priceless (Captured Caption says MthruF.com. Photo accessed from Failblog.org; holder of IP rights unknown.)

Just for Laughs: Musical Bookshelf

Musical Book Shelf Arrangement @ Yahoo! Video

Would you read this book? "The Apothecary"

This is the first part of an original "e-manuscript" for which all intellectual property rights are reserved by the author (me). Hope you enjoy these first 500 words - and hopefully not only because they're free.

-------------------------------------------

THE APOTHECARY

The Apothecary and the cat sat in the bath in companionable silence. Each lost in their own thoughts, or possibly in mute reflection. It was impossible to tell the difference.

The bath, a large old-fashioned clawed-foot type, sat in the centre of a sparse room notable only for the black and white floor tiling and stark white walls. Those privileged few who had seen this room could visualise this scene in a motivational poster with captions referring to attributes such as austerity or minimalism, or perhaps emptiness. If only it were not for the existence of the two occupants of the bath.

Many thought the Apothecary to be elderly, given the wispy nature of his long grey hair and the extraordinary length of his dirty grey beard; the later he kept in a straggly plait whilst the former was too sparse for such formality.

Little can be said of the cat, being a standard ginger tabby, other than the fact that its coat was waterlogged and its whiskers drooping. And, of course, the fact that it was sitting in a tub of water by its own choice.

The Apothecary was an enigma. His neighbours knew little about him. There was rarely any noise from his small, narrow terrace in a row of similarly non-descript houses. As far as those with whom he shared a driveway knew, he kept regular working hours and appeared to walk to whatever occupied his days. He kept no car, and had never been known to have gone away for any more than a single day.

Had anyone asked, none of the other residents would be able to recall any visitors. Salesmen and charity collectors did not call at the Apothecary’s house. The low iron-railed front gate was kept locked. And yet all would agree he was pleasant enough in his responses to casual greetings by others. The Apothecary did not initiate conversations.

In truth, the people in his street felt better acquainted with the cat. It spent its days sitting on the window sill of the only window that fronted the street, until the Apothecary came home in the afternoons and pulled down the blind. The cat was mainly motionless throughout the day, apart from the constant twitching of its tail. Not even the occasional bird that perched briefly in the pocket-sized and cemented front yard could produce any response from the cat.

A group of young hooligans once theorised that the cat was mechanical, and threw a rock at the window. The cat flattened its ears and bared its teeth, but if it hissed those beyond the glass could not hear it. There was, however, no doubt in their minds that the cat was glaring at them with such malevolence that they were convinced they should spend their energies elsewhere.

Had the cat cared, it would not have been uncomfortable with being referred to by its species. The Apothecary, had he known, would perhaps have been puzzled by the title given to him by the strangers that lived around him. He knew little more about chemistry than his cat. It was history that bound the two together.

To be continued ....

Whew! For a moment there ...

My email in-box is once again flooded an outpouring (or maybe inpouring?) of information of highly variable interest - at least to me. I'm sure the senders, spammers excluded, were enthusiastic in their desire to share various bits with those on their mailing list.

One message in particular caught my eye; the venerable and conservative State Library of New South Wales was notified of a March. Had the current trend to library militancy struck? Nah. "March at the Library" is a listing of the events for this month.

Ah well, back to the Silk Purse Project.

"Author, Author"

Apropos of nothing in particular, today's quote of the day comes from Jerome K. Jerome, whom I first read as a teenager - due only to the fact that I was told that I "wouldn't understand it". Which, incidentally, was correct. I've since re-read Three Men in a Boat twice, and I'm happy to say I do now actually "get" it.

JKJ (which you notice is incredibly close to JKR, but without the same magnitude of fiscal reward) is credited with saying "Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen."

I'm not sure that I completely agree with this, as I find I often have to not only schedule my idleness but also make arrangements for an appropriate venue - otherwise it just doesn't happen. Any other attempted dormancy is almost instantly detected by the Fun Police and immediately terminated. To be honest, I'm not certain that the amount of work involved qualifies the "down time" as idleness in the purest sense.

Maybe I'm missing JKJ's message? "Stolen", as in taken from someone else? Would that mean I need to find someone else being idle, then give them my work so I can partake of their dormancy? Gee, I don't' think that's going to work either. Sigh.

Fine Dining and Information Accuracy

A personal recommendation for those dining in Blacktown Australia - officially the nation's largest city, population wise; you could do a lot worse than Hi-lights Revolving Restaurant.

Although only five stories high, you'll get views you couldn't hope to obtain in the finest eateries in New York, Paris, London, Fargo, etc.

Taking around an hour for one complete revolution, during an average mealtime you'll be treated to sites such as the roof of the Blacktown Council Chambers where you can marvel at the vast array of telecommunications equipment; the Westpoint shopping mall rooftop car park where with luck get to watch a real-life Grand Theft Auto in progress; the vista of Blacktown railway station, which was recently awarded the Highest Crime Location on the metropolitan CityRail network; plus distant views to a large number of arterial roadways.

We partook of a fine repast last night, for reasons that would take too long to explain here. (I do try to keep posting to less than 5,000 words.) I chose the rib-eye steak, which although was cooked to perfection, was accompanied by the world's smallest sides; 2IC had the barramundi (fish and chips); and little Miss Sophistication elected the Hamburger and Fries option. Dessert was satisfactorily lacking in nutritional merit.

While the live pianist was a nice touch, my small imbibing of beverages (of the type prohibited at most work sites) did not stop me from detecting the flaw in the musician's repertoire; in celebrating with some other diners at the venue, he played "Happy birthday to me" rather than "Happy birthday to you". It's that sort of sloppy attention to detail that could destroy an otherwise excellent dining experience.

Look who is advertising themselves ...

I had to read it twice. Yes, it's real. No, I have not included a link.

Note that "this advert is not endorsed by this blog". It was found on the sidebar of a Facebook Page.

The good thing (for me at least) that as I have not yet lost the capacity for surprise, clearly I have not yet become jaded by the "offerings" of the Internet - as well as those other Professional Places Of Which We Will Not Speak. At least, not here, and not now ....

Published Article # 1 for 2011

Sydney broadsheet Sydney Morning Herald yesterday published my latest offering, in the infamous Column 8 section. I'm so glad that I'm not the only one amused by my musings ... otherwise there may be those who have "mental health concerns" about me. No, wait! That complaint has already been made ...

The Warrior Library in Real Life

Unless you live in or near the town of Warrior, AL (Zip 35180, population 13,225 according to Zip-Codes, or 3000-odd according to a number of other sources ), you may never have heard of it - nor the Warrior Public Library.

Obviously the staff there are, by default, Warrior Librarians. You can "check out" the library website (http://warrior.lib.al.us/) , but don't forget to bring it back on time.

A little library joke there. OK, it wasn't a very good one. Mea Culpa, yet again.

Folklore and Library Administration

I recently purchased a pair of Peruvian Worry Doll earrings at a local fete, and was interested to hear the folkloric background of these enchantingly cheerfully colored figures.

Apparently, legend has it that one could tell all one's troubles to these dolls, then place them under one's pillow - from whence they would vanish, taking one's problems away with them.

Needless to say, they don't quite work for the vast majority - particularly adult users who's mothers aren't prepared to get up in the middle of the night to remove them.

This struck me as particularly pertinent ... how many of our profession have poured out our deepest most professional concerns to personnel Up The Management Line (or Food Chain, depending on your organization) - only to never hear from the manager ever again. Not to mention the troubles not actually going away either.

Just a thought.

Struggling with GMDs ...

In the never-ending quest for consistency, a whole stack of assorted GMD's got a thorough smacking today; CO (COmputer equipment) and SO (SOftware) got the old Global Change treatment and became ELs (Electronic resources). The two genuine SO (SOund) resources had a manual change back to the correct designation. "L" (Library equipment) joined the EQ (EQuipment) GMDs, and nary a grumble was heard.

Which I guess is one of the positive attributes of working with MARC record fields, as opposed to actual PE (PEople). Notably though, PE isn't a recognised SCIS-compliant GMD, although they are still pretty important.

Still unresolved is what to do about another all-sorts arrangements for what may be loosely referred to as "movies"; the MO (MOtion picture) variety which might be on a VI (video) tape, or as an EL (electronic resource) - although not a computer program. They ("movies") may also fall into the classification of FI (FIlm) if the content is mounted on a nitrate-style medium, as opposed to a "flicks" if on SL (SLides) flashed (FL if FLash-cards) at a high enough speed.

OK. That's it. I'm going to LE (LEave it alone) for a while, before my toenails start curling backwards.

Tomorrow I'll have another go at sorting it all out. Why, do I hear you ask? Because the web cats linked to the library software management program generate icons for our users so they can see what media they are not going to be allowed to access. Makes sense? No, I thought not. Glad to hear it's not just me on this one.

Information Currency in Real Life

The most excellent book "Clean it fast, clean it right" (Brendenberg ISBN 174121162x) was one of my more fortuitous purchases for The Home Library - a mere seven bucks for remaindered stock following the release of a new edition.

How much updating can a 1998 copyright-dated book on cleaning need in 2011? Well, gee and heck, nothing significant changed for removing vomit or grease stains. Grease is grease, right? And vomit ... well, let's take it as read. It's still fairly early in the morning here, at least for a Saturday.

Anyways, I wanted information on a homeopathic-style polish for copper, as in the metal. Yep, it was right there on page 131. "One tablespoon of salt, one tablespoon of flour, one tablespoon of white vinegar". Simple?

Would that be mined rock salt or evaporated sea salt? Iodised? Crushed, powered or crystal?

Can wholemeal flour be used, or does it have to be the refined pasty stuff; celiacs would be unlikely to possess such a product. Would it be OK to substitute cornflour? Or an oat derivative?

"White" vinegar? Oxidized alcohol. In Our Global Village, wouldn't a rice vinegar introduce a modicum of gracious culinary delight? Fruit vinegars, wine, balsamic, so many to choose from, and yet we are limited to plain old ordinary "white" vinegar.

Then there's the additional pressure of making socially responsible decisions. Even the briefest consideration of the countries of origin of the above-mentioned ingredients exposes the possibilities of their respective histories of human rights abuses; unsustainable environmentally unsound practices; domestic fiscal policies particularly in relation to the monetary support of school libraries, and similar issues of international concern.

As always, the devil is in the detail. So I bought a bottle of the commercial product "Brasso", for less than the cost of the book. Admittedly, the can of metal cleaner doesn't give anywhere near the same level of aesthetic satisfaction sitting on a book shelf ...

Catch me if you can ...

(Hint: One of these is NOT me)

Valentine's Day: Display and Competition

Amazing what you can do with a ten dollar budget, a "free" hour (OK, laugh here - I did) and a box of bits left over from previous years.

The competition this year involved getting teachers to nominate their favorite "romance" story, film, poem, song, TV show, etc - then printing the teachers' name and their favs all mixed up so the kids could "guess" which teacher nominated what.

Fun for all, particularly the small child who walked away with a big box of chocolates at the end.

Prophets and real life

I'll admit it; sometimes I have a look at my horoscope. They're sometimes good for a laugh. Often they're so generic they have to come true. But today's (Sydney) major broadsheet instructs me to: " ... Keep track by documenting everything important in writing, and [keep] a detailed list of everything ...". Is that spooky, or what?

Video of the Day: Reading a book

Many thanks to loyal supporter Bridget for the heads-up on this one!

The Universal Patron?

Way back when, there was a song "The Universal Soldier". It's so far back that even recalling the first line -without resorting to some form of Internet Research (ie Googling) - is just about impossible for the average Person In The Library, let alone the Man in the Street.

But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, together with the brilliance of a human mind, "they" have come up with a composite graphic for The Face of any city, location, and - by extension - presumably mindset.

It may (or may not) be a simple progression then to produce a composite face for a library's most valued clients; and one for known library vandals, returns defaulters, computer regulation violators, and other categories of miscreants.

What we could actually do with such a graphic leads to so many possibilities, it makes one's ears bleed just from thinking about it. But that could be just me ...

The Western canon goes East

ANZUS is still alive and kicking (if that's not too violent an image) ; and it seems as if all treaty participants are still participating in the move from the West to the East ... the western canon appears to have moved into modern warfare. (And yes, the pun is intentional. This time.)

It's been many years since I bought my last saddle and accompanying tack, but still wanting to keep up with latest trends I came across this intriguing fact. Australian saddlers are making "equipment" for our American Cousins. For use in you-know-where.

It's probably best to go to the website for more information, coz I don't want to get into any more trouble than I'm usually in. Still, it's not like this is any state secret or anything. It comes up on a Google search for Australian saddles. Heck, the manufacturers even have a "civilian model".

Library Display: Holiday Activities

"Not an overwhelming effort, but considering a zero budget and a 10 minute Window of Opportunity for book selection, construction, printing, and pinning, not too shabby a result." This self-assessment was brought to you by End of Year Inertia, the Number 4, and the letter V.

Film as Text: A commercial opportunity?

OK, not quite I, Robot, but needing a much lower budget. All roles via honorary cameo appearances by real librarians, filmed in actual libraries - so no prop costs; unscripted in a faux documentary style. Michael Moore, eat your heart out!

This blog entry brought to you by a cool weather change - after a week at, near, or over 100 degrees.

English as she is wrote

Fantastic news: "NSW 15 year olds rank amongst the best in the world in literacy, according to the latest (2006) OECD's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Only Finland significantly did better than NSW ..."

"Only Finland significantly did better ..."???

Surely that should be "Significantly, only Finland did better ..."; or possibly "Only Finland did significantly better ..."?

If you listen very carefully, you can hear the literarti letting out a global sigh. Irony, thy name be formal reporting on literacy levels.

The full report (2010-2011) was available online at the time of this entry. Enjoy.

Win an author visit?

OK folks ... no-one knows everything, right? And there's so many authors in the world, that no one librarian can have heard of all of them, right again?

So there should be no shame in a secondary Teacher Librarian not knowing about "a beloved children's author illustrator with more than 36 million books in print". You still with me here?

The way I figure it, I may not have heard of Jan Brett, but then again there's a good chance she won't have heard of me. Sounds fair and reasonable, at least to me. I may not do "reasonable" very well - from some folk's perspective - but "fair" is mandatory.

Anyways, there's currently a competition to win a "school or library" visit from Jan Brett. I almost entered into the competition, until it came to the part about entering personal information. I'm still more than a little wary of that, since my personal bank account got hacked. (Luckily the bank stepped in after a mere one-cent transaction had been detected. Well done, St George Bank!)

So, being in the situation I am currently in, I paused to reflect on any possible negative ramifications my winning may produce. I couldn't find anything in the competition rules that precluded the author from travelling to Australia (return airfares currently being around USD$1400 LAX to Sydney); at least a few days hotel expenses (excluding The Y, around AUD$300 per night), meals, etc. Oh-oo ... Code of Conduct, Clause 26.5 et al.

So technically, the Author Visit would be the property of my employer. Which I guess would mean that Jan Brett may have found herself in Head Office reading her Hedgehog stories to folk in suits and/or "up" hairstyles, complete with note takers, observers, members of the press, and a disgruntled Teacher Librarian writing indignant blog entries.

Probably lucky for everyone that I closed the competition page before I finalised the competition entry details.

Library Advocacy and Social Networking

It seems that many may have lost touch with what's happening in Libraryland, but with Web2.0 and social networking, we can thank Facebook for bringing at least one issue back to the front. (Hopefully that makes grammatical sense?)

ALIES has "uploaded a print2-sided and fold" flyer to help in their campaign for a library in every school". Whilst not wishing to seem negative about any effort of this type, I'm not sure who the flyers are intended for. Those that already are convinced of their worth (libraries, not flyers) don't need one; those that make the decisions and hand out the money have already been told, given the research, lobbied and more - but have remained unmoved.

It's a similar story for understaffed, underfunded, underutilised and misunderstood current school libraries ... and for that matter, Teacher Librarians. Here in Australia, after much gnashing of teeth and sweating of brows, we finally got a Federal government 'enquiry' ... but without the power to actually change anything, regardless of the findings.

Good luck with it, folks.

A Different State of Mind

Having returned safely, facing nothing more dangerous than a collapsing bed (two of the struts were too short), I have indeed returned with a different mind-set. Amongst many reflections was questioning the wisdom of continuing with a number of current commitments ...

In the mean time, I've been revisiting a few of my (almost) long-forgotten pursuits that brought me so much pleasure in the distant past:

No, I'm not praying for inspiration at the start ... there was a spider on the ceiling which had to be "relocated" before anything could proceed.

World Peace has to start somewhere ...

I'm off for a little personal Reflective Retreat - a cabin in the mountains with a bed (well, a mattress on boards) and a fridge. I'm not taking anything electronic (except my eBook reader) loaded with a few selections, and an electric kettle - which strictly speaking isn't "electronic". I can do without almost all the creature comforts, but even the drifters on ye olde range had hot coffee at the end of the day. But it being bush fire season 'n' such, no camp fires allowed.

Yeah, OK - there's a shower/toilet block a short ways up the track, but that's it. Back in a few days, bush fires, landslides, falling trees, venomous spiders and snakes permitting ...

An exercise in futility?

Having spent months trying to decide if, then what, eBook reader I might purchase, I've just come across one on Summer Sale at a local purveyor of such electronic devices. Even better, they were running a competition to actually win one! "In 25 words or less, tell us why you want ..."

I wish I had an eBook,
Like all my librarian friends;
Then I'd read a thousand tomes
And other odds and ends.

I did try for something in Iambic Pentamiter, but it was a little too difficult to stay under the word limit, get some rhyme happening, and make any sense. But still, this isn't too bad, is it? And only 22 words. Bet there's more than a few recipients of my more formal correspondence that wish I could be as brief and to the point with them.

Anyways, the downside of it is that if I should happen to win the competition, the prize - according to my employer's Code of Conduct - goes to my employer, as we are only allowed to "accept" prizes up to the value of $50.

Ah well, maybe they'll let me use it over the holidays or visit it or something. The CofC doesn't say who would actually get to hold the eBook reader in protective custody, in order to save me from being open to possible allegations of corruption. I must check into this, in the unlikely event that I win.

So much to do, so much of it most probably pointless. Sigh.

Comic Sans Criminals - help is available

If my faithful reader has font-related issues, particularly the overuse of Comic Sans font, they could do worse with their time than pop over to the Comic Sans Criminal website. If you've wondered when you should - or perhaps should not - use that popular font, a ready reference guide is available.

The site promises other resources, such as other 'comic' fonts, and 'dislexia fonts', but as I didn't check those out, I can't rightly say if they're easy to download, install, use 'n' such. But you're bright folk; I have every confidence in your ability to check it out ... and if necessary send me a stern (but hopefully gently) missive of 5,000 words or less.

Advertising and Librarian Image

Once again, the advertising on Facebook has proven more diverting than some of the "apps". It's interesting to see this offering from 3M's advertising division, showing happy - but very professional - information and literary gurus in a modern brightly lit setting. Now I'm wondering if what our profession actually needs is not demonstration of the value we add to society, commerce, government, and education, but perhaps an actual advertising campaign of the Madison Avenue variety.

Goodness knows, we've been providing proof of both the pudding and research types, for (literally) millenia. And we're still fighting the same battles with the same result ... because we're using the same methods. Someone famous (you look it up, I'm on holidays) once said something along the lines of if you want a different result, you have to do it differently.

But of course, it always comes back to who is going to do the "organisation" (produce the tender document, vet the submissions, oversee the campaign, etc), plus who/how is going to finance the strategy ... not to mention how the success will be measured.

Are we there yet?

Stumper: The fowls of the heavens?

Serendipitous discovery landed me on the page Spiritual Meaning of Birds, Fowl, where I was surprised to read that at least Biblically "birds signify things rational and intellectual"; OK, owls I can accept - from at least the literary point of view - but the average garden-variety chicken?

Which then made me wonder where/how the acceptance of "bird-brained" (as in silly, of limited attention span, etc) came about, as opposed to the intellectual quality of your basic fowl. Of course, like all good cliff-hangers, I'm not going to reveal the specifics of which particular "bird-brainism" was engaging me at the time.

Nevertheless, for my own protection, I must point out the reference to "AC" on the above-mentioned hyperlink is not me. I did not put the reference there. I do now know who did. I have not gained any monetary or other benefit from the "AC" link on the Bible Meanings page.

Curses!!! I didn't mean to wreck the cliff-hanging experience for my reader. Sorry about that ...


Anyways, as an aside - it being the holidays 'n' all - this is an image of Keuleman's Laughing Owl, courtesy of Wikipedia. It is reproduced here under Creative Commons licence.

"This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years."

So if you're resident in another country that possibly does not apply the Rule of The Shorter Term, I guess the answer is to not look at the image?

However, a really fascinating fact about the Laughing Owl is that it hasn't been seen since 1914. Which I guess is about the last time anyone heard someone whistling a tune for no apparent reason. Now that's going to be a really hard one to research! Good luck with that.

And so it continues ...

Yesterday finished up the stock take of Classics; not a huge collection, but with more than half of the books requiring catalogue corrections, the "clean up" took more time than the actual inventory process.

Today was Professional Development day; ditto for tomorrow. Then it's 5 weeks annual holiday, where I plan to once again to bring order to the chaos currently known as the Home Office. Do notice particularly the word "plan".

I'm at the stage where I'm almost prepared to "do a deal" with a Teacher Librarian Colleague whereby I will go do their stock take for them at their library, in return for them coming and doing a heavy "weed" of the Home Office.

Only problem is, of course, that they're likely to throw away all my useless little treasures, souvenirs, miscellaneous documents ... and all that realia that is currently clogging up a whole room. Wait a minute! If I didn't have that stuff, I wouldn't have the problem. Hmmm ...

Stock take and Other Duties ...

Finished inventory on Fiction last week, today it was the Reference collection, Visual Texts and the "Quick Reads". No library work tomorrow, it's the school's "Big Day Out", where I'm going to be supervising students walking from the school to the railway station, on the train, then to the theatre for three hours of Harry Potter, then to the Food Court for Lunch, then back to the station, another train, then the walk back to school. Heavy rain is forecast for the day.

And I actually volunteered for this. I did have the option of skipping "Big Day Out" and continuing stock take.

So all those folk who claim I'm crazy can use this as evidence ...

A Nice Letter, but too little, too late ...

Dear Webmaster,

While browsing the web I noticed that you maintain a list of Library Skills resources here:

http://warriorlibrarian.com/ARCHIVE/00archives.html

LessonCorner has organized a collection of Library Skills lesson plans and worksheets.
If you would like to link to them please use the following url:

Library Skills Lesson Plans - http://www.lessoncorner.com/Reference/Library_Skills

In recognition for your work helping teachers find online resources, we would like to offer
you a free lifetime premium membership to LessonCorner. To enjoy this offer simply sign
up for a free membership - https://www.lessoncorner.com/signup/
Then reply to this email with the username you chose and I will
activate your lifetime premium membership.

About Us: At LessonCorner our goal is not only to create the best
collection of worksheets and lesson plans on the web, but also to make it free.
Our freemium business model allows all users to access many of the site's features.
In addition, users can receive a free 1 year premium membership by sharing
their lessons and worksheets with the community.

Thank you for your time,
Kathy Johnson
- LessonCorner.com
support@lessoncorner.com

Yes, it's another website ...

Visually pretty good, nice design and easy editing ... but let's see what unfolds at http://amandacredaro.webs.com/

Library Laughs

I read today of the Zen Librarian, who searched the Internet for nothing and got 20 million hits on Google.

Currency parity and your home library

Yep, my AUD$50 worth of books arrived from Amazon yesterday. The AUD$48 freight I had to pay meant that I would have actually been ahead if I'd bought the books here. The only advantage is that I only had to wait 3 weeks instead of the 8 weeks if I'd ordered them through my local bookstore.

But then again, I'd have been able to buy twice as many. Hmmm ... there's a moral in there somewhere.
.

A landmark day!

Today, as far as I know, I didn't get into trouble. Of course, I may well find out differently tomorrow. Sometimes I don't find out for several months, which I guess illustrates that old saying about ill winds and blowing no good. Or maybe it's the silver cloud thing? Although at times ...

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. " Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Although London and Sydney are half a world apart, I guess wind is wind. Excuse me.

How important is the truth?

From the diary of SAM (Sydney [University] Alumni Magazine) is January 14 2011: Festival Cafe ... a glass of wine, a bite to eat and an animated discussion on a recurring them of the (Sydney) Festival theme: When we tell a story, how important is the truth?

Tickets from usual agents. Over 18s only. (It doesn't say why .... too much cheese? Or too much animation?)
.

The Worst Librarian Ad Ever?

Facebook can be interesting from a wide range of angles, including the auto-feed advertisements. These are "tailored" to each individual log-in and supposedly "smart" from the perspective of AI. The ads are selected on the basis of keywords that a user ... ummm ... uses.

So my log-in produces a side bar of ads for items such as shoes (who'd have thought?), books (duh!), hugely expensive holidays in exotic places (a girl's gotta have dreams, right?), and now, through the power of Artificial Intelligence, programming algorithms, and probably a splash of witchcraft - I'm now getting fed ads on becoming a librarian.

OK, we can all do with professional developing, and there's always new fields opening up in cataloguing (yep, that's a pun). But I'd be hesitant to rush off and sign up for anything as a result of this particular ad. I did check into the identity of the advertisers, and was more than a touch surprised. You'd have thought They could have done a little better in the PR department.

Just a thought.
.

Column 8, Strike 3?

From Sydney Morning Herald of 24th November 2010



From Sydney Morning Herald of 23rd October 2010




From Sydney Morning Herald of 24th August 2010


That's three times in four months (twice as the lead); is this a record? Will they offer me my own regular column? The great Erma Bombeck started with the obits ...
.

A news clipping for Jay ...

Back in the day, they used to say "4 out of 10"; so what's going on? Less adherence to the MHA? Less tolerance? Better diagnosis? Worse employment outcomes due to poor corporate administration - by folk who are even more nutso?

Color me surprised ...

Recognise anyone here? (Click image for larger version)

Information Literacy and Real Life

I've been spending a fair bit of time developing a new set of lessons around the topic of "research", now that is has become "problematic" to use the existing set of online, interactive, self-paced lessons. For the next two weeks, in which our 'graduating juniors' prepare to move into Senior mode, they'll be revisiting a number of topics such as sources of information, assessing quality of information, you-know-the-rest.

It's lunchtime now, but I'm just having a quick cruise through news sites to see what current items I could work into the presentation and accompanying worksheets.

There still seems some debate as to whether or not restricting research to a single source was responsible for our Australian (southern hemisphere, big island-y thing on maps between the Asian sub-continent and Antarctica) prime minister being represented wearing an Austrian (central Europe, landlocked country near Switzerland) milk-maid outfit.


When I originally heard the breaking story this morning - yeah, OK, things are a little slow down here at this time of the year - my first thought was that the confusion of Austrian and Australia was due to geographical illiteracy. Maybe we'll never know.

Still, it's a nice example of what can happen when aren't sufficiently information literate. With the Internet (and yes, I still capitalise it as the proper noun that it is), now the whole world can squirm along with you when you achieve a Fail at this level.


Photograph above by Ray Strange. http://www.news.com.au/

When the pen is as mighty as the sword

Here's something else for my very long list of things I didn't know. According to a reasonably reliable website, but not citing any references, I read that "Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and his associates, using sharp shorthand styluses meant to be used with wax tablets."

I guess that would make the 'pens' as mighty, not mightier, than the swords? Although they had to use pens because if they'd taken swords their plot would have been foiled. (B'hahahahha. If you don't get the pun, go look up 'foil'.)

Me bad. Apparently.

Image sourced from http://www.thisnext.com/tag/dead-fred/

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This is what they mean by "me time"?

I'm at home for a few days, following some minor-ish surgery whereby a large chunk of 'meat' was removed from my personage; 8 stitches were involved. It's all covered up with tape etc, which is sort of a shame in a morbid sort of way. How in the name of all that is self-serving can one get any sympathy unless there is visible evidence of bodily damage? It's not like I've got anything in stiff plaster or slings, or crutches or anything. Still, I suppose that's why we have blogs, isn't it? When ya just gotta get the message out there!!!

So anyway, now I'm home with instructions not to do anything that might tear the stitches open. I'm not doing the website any more, so there's several days worth of entertainment down the drain; even watching the TV is limited by how long I can 'lounge' before needing to turn over - without twisting anything. Shopping is "out", which from a financial perspective is probably a good thing. Needless to say, anything in the way of housekeeping, cleaning up, etc is completely out of the question. Some would say "luckily". Back to the Good Doctor tomorrow for a change of dressing and an update of stuff.

Thanks heaps to all those that enquired if I was dead. Obviously, not quite yet.

Image above from http://www.elfram.com/blog/glenyce_right_cheek_for_blog.jpg

Cinemagraphic Bacchanalia

Watched Balibo last night on the TV (remember that piece of technology?!) and just returned from seeing Social Network - which cost the exorbitant price of 20 bucks (because, I am told, it was on the iMax screen) ... in a nearly empty cinema.

Yep, both good movies, although Balibo with its heavy political theme it sort of Missed The Boat in not mentioning the government cover-ups etc. Social Network was a quite different story (no pun intended) in exposing a few ugly underlying truths.

Interestingly (at least for me, and since this is my blog, this may possibly be the last place on earth - or in cyberspace - where my opinions actually matter) were the trailers. Coming soon the next Nania, Harries Potter, plus sci-fi Skyline.

Walking through the foyer, one couldn't help but not Harry Connick Junior's upcoming Date Due. Wow! At last a library flick? Sadly not ... the time frame referenced relates to child-birth.

Sigh.

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Too much information?

Take a deep breath before checking out the image here. Those of delicate sensibilities should probably do something else. I thought it was amusing, but to each their own. But you have been warned ...
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Where's the Old Site?

It would seem that despite the efforts of the Powers That Be, Warrior Librarian is not quite as dead as some folks might wish.

A colleague is in the process of composing an article on the topic of the Image of Librarians, past, present and future for Access, the journal of the Australian School Library Association.

Said colleague was looking for the World-Famous Online Satirical Journal for Librarians, with its own ISSN and everything; yep, at the time of writing this, Warrior Librarian is still accessible at the old URL - Unfortunately as a Read-Only version.

Seems like a lot of folk miss that small piece of information at the bottom of the index.html page.

That very same customisability is one of the things I miss most about hand-cut html coding. But for now, at least this particular e-format allows folk to maintain the rage, as it were, without undue (and I guess ultimately unnecessary) Net Distress. This is a term I have just coined to describe what many folk have expressed in long outbursts of uncontrollable angst regarding the frustrations of hand-cutting code. If you've been there, you've done that. There isn't a t-shirt, as far as I know.
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A theatrical experience ...

OK, I've spent four days sourcing, sorting, storing and moving boxes. I guess if truth be told, I played more of a 'facilitating' role than an actual physical contributor - but By Golly! Had it not been for the gnashing of teeth and the wringing of hands etc, not much would have actually happened. But this way, we Reclaimed the Site with regard to the spare bedroom, the space under the stairs, and what was laughingly referred to as The Homework Room.


So really it was without any guilt that I trotted off to our local cinema for a few hours comedy relief. What did I think of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps? Given that I'm apparently not allowed to publish any book reviews (in case I somehow make some sort of gain as "secondary employment"!) , and I still haven't been informed as to whether or not there's a prohibition on other types of reviews, I'm a little hesitant to say very much at this stage.

I can reveal - I believe without risk to myself (although notably I have been wrong in the past) that this movie did not actually run from 6:30pm to 9:30 pm, as shown on the ticket. Sure, the doors opened at 6:30pm, and shortly thereafter the mobile Candy Bar arrived. There were even gaps between the ads and the trailers. They turn the lights off for a reason - so you can't see the time when that movie actually starts. I'm not sure what the reason was for also turning off the air conditioning. But I guess as long as they could still power-up the projector, things were probably largely in our favour.

And no, there hasn't been much change in status to the Home Office Cleanup Project. But thanks for asking.
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Will four days enough?

Today's proactivity was to hire storage space for a 'number' of boxes which can't be tucked into any more corners, under anything, above anything, or anywhere else. Everything that can be trashed has gone - more or less. And quite a few things uncovered that will one day make a fine display in a yard sale.

But just as "you can't clean anything without getting something dirty", a flurry of activity has erupted in other areas of the house (and household). The spare bedroom is going to become a sewing room. Apparently. The former "homework room", once the cobwebs have been removed and the archaeologists have finished their dig in there, will become a sort of shared "Kraft Korner". I am told (by my teenage daughters) I will be allowed to make an appropriate sign saying just that. "Kraft Korner". I am to spell it that way, and not use apostrophes. Is there no end to this cruelty?

Our Home Office will also become semi-devoid of assorted boxes, which will also go into storage. Which I figure is sort of a shame, considering how much time and tape I devoted to giving them that professional archival appearance. On the bright side, after four more days of this level of disruption, it won't be quite so traumatic to go back to the Day Job. Will it?

You'll have to excuse me now for a while. I'm off to check out Neat for inspirational ideas on being ...errr... neat. Which is way better than actually lugging around heavy boxes of stuff.

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Can productivity = fun?

Made using Image Chef (www.imagechef.com), with whom I have no financial or any other relationship. Geez, I don't even know who does their brilliant coding, but by golly! it sure is a lot of fun over there.

When technology meets culture

Maybe it's because it's the end of the footy season here, or the influx of immigrant folk from places where body art has significance in the native culture, but there does seem to be a huge increase in tattooing at the moment. Not that I'm suggesting in any way, shape, or form that there is anything intrinsically wrong with a 'tat', mind you. There used to be a tattooed librarians website.

I'm all in favour of people expressing themselves in any manner that does not impact on anyone else; that said, my kids have been told the consequences of getting tattooed. They will be disinherited; other worthy recipients will be identified and have have our accumulated debts bequeathed to them. Possibly someone in Nigeria with several million dollars that they have to dispose of quickly.

But back to the issue of tattooing. I couldn't work out why The Other Half's jaw dropped when I told him I was popping out "to get some ink". And the visible relief when I returned with a twin pack of printer cartridges.

Is truth stranger than fiction?
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Upgrading overdue notices?

I was looking for a novel way to present overdue notices; but could only produce a novella. (It's OK to laugh here ... I did.)

Anyways, it occurred to me that one problem with the effectiveness of such reminders is that being generally small and flat, they tend to get lost. OK, they get thrown away in many cases, particularly by recurrent recalcitrants. Making them bigger would only lead to the backs being used for shopping lists, or plot outlines - dependent of course on the identity of the defaulter.



That left only the option to change the shape - but into something that might be considered "fun" for the sender as well as the recipient. I have not patented this idea, nor do I intend to do so. You have my blessing to use as-is, adapt, modify or otherwise alter in any way to suit your purpose.

However, given the recent past history of my more creative innovations, it may be best to check with the NSW government to see if they want to claim copyright on this, me being an employee and all ...

You can find one set of instructions for making a Creative Overdue Teller here, but please note I have no affiliation with that website and do not receive any pecuniary rewards from same. It was the first one to come up on a Google search for "fold fortune teller".

Disclaimer: I am not cognisant of my employer's relationship with the above linked website, although I am given to understand there is a financial relationship between them and Google.

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