Are YOU OK?

Today was "RUOK Day". The purpose is to raise awareness of suicide prevention, and introduce small kindnesses such as asking someone who is stressed, troubled, in a crisis, etc if they are OK.

Then, of course, you have to be prepared to listen - really listen, not just stand by looking at your watch with one foot poised for take-off. That's the hard part.

You'll never know how much you can do for someone in a crisis situation, until you listen to what they have to say.

The three objectives of RUOK Day are:
(1) Help employees and students feel good about themselves by connecting with, and supporting others.
(2) Increase connection and support within groups.
(3) Through reducing stress and depression, help reduce Australia's suicide rate.

Stress and depression are the largest contributors to lost productivity in Australia, directly costing employers an estimated $10.11 billion a year (Medibank 2009).

The R U OK? at Work initiative is intended to help combat workplace stress by urging employers and business leaders to actively encourage positive, meaningful conversations between staff and ensure they know who to turn to when they’re not OK.

Every workplace can choose how they would like to run R U OK? at Work, all we ask is that when employees take time out for a coffee or a break on Thursday September 15, they're encouraged to start a conversation with someone they care about.

Interestingly, just a few weeks ago I was told - officially, and in writing - that under our employment conditions, there is "no entitlement to a morning break". This was in response to a number of other questions I asked ... I didn't even raise that issue, only those of parity and natural justice. Is it any wonder there are increasing instances of stress in our profession?

I really really wanted to make a few phone calls today, and just let a few people of my acquaintance know that its people like them, with their bullying, intimidation, inflexibility, self-serving selfishness, pettiness and abuse of their position are the reason why there are so many work-place related suicides.

I didn't make those phone calls. But I have third-party documentation witnessing that a number of workplace bullies read this blog - ironically so they can use it as fodder for their whining, trite complaints. It's possible that I'll be told to remove this posting. Also possible that I'll get yet another reprimand, and maybe worse. Guess what? I still figure that my employment arrangements do not negate my right to have an opinion and express it publicly. Last time I looked, Australia was still a democracy.

I will await the inevitable, and share the outcome.

Shame File: School Library Expenditure

How can a school spend $0.00 on their library, and then bank over a million dollars? These figures are from a school's annual report. Just to let you know that this is a government high school in NSW, but not one where I am employed (nor ever have been).

This is a public document available through the Internet, without any password etc requirements. You can locate it through a Google (or other search tool) search for "NSW school annual report" [insert year]. You will get a clearer image by clicking on this one, which will enlarge it.

At the bottom of the document it says "the school" invites you to contact them for more information. I wonder if anyone did.

Sort of makes me want to go check out some others ...






Hey! Just for comparison, this is the library expenditure for the geographically closest school to the one above. Interestingly, the schools are about the same size.

You can see this one spent more than $25K on their library, and banked "only" $708, 000.

Their income was $3,285,896 for 1165 students ($2820 per student). Library expenditure was $25231 ($21 per student).

Notably this school excels academically.

The first example's income for the same year was $2, 999,720 for 1200 students ($2499 per student). Library expenditure was $0.00 total, or equal to 0.00 per student.

Both schools are in an area of socio-economic advantage. Both are for the 2010 school year. Go figure ...

It's so hard to get good help these days ...

... but when you think about the fishy pay, lack of training, not actually caring too much about the outcomes, toilet facilities, etc, then I suppose it's only to be expected. So here's a tip - don't expect much from your cat, except cat hairs in your printer. Sigh.

Where do YOU go to scream?

So it was just another one of those days, where somewhere back down deep in the reptilian part of your brain you know that a good deep scream will somehow help you cope. The question is where does one go, if you're in a city - let alone an office?

Back in the day where horror flicks were all the rage, one could have popped in and let loose with the general movie goers, at the appropriate times, of course. No one ever screams at the pictures any more - at least not that I've heard for maybe 20 years. Maybe I'm going to the wrong movies?

Folk in rural areas might be able to find a spot isolated enough for a belly roar - but for city folk by the time you've driven anywhere far enough away from folk who might become alarmed, the urge for a bellow will probably have passed.

In an office? Forget it. Someone will call in SWAT or ALA or something, and you'll have to fill out forms and be assessed and maybe even have your shoelaces taken away. Or so I believe - I'm not talking from experience here.

There's a woeful lack of soundproof areas available for primal screams. Under OHS (or OSH if you're in another hemisphere), someone should do something about it.

Just my thought for today.

Poster #2: Inclusive Education

Don't forget your artificial plants ...

Poster #1: Teaching and learning for horticulturalists

Give your potted plants clear instructions (click image to enlarge for easy reading).

The New Gig continues ....

... with another desk "make over". Ah yes, a few more lunchtimes well spent on workplace ambiance.



Not to mention an increase in the depth and scope of the Visual Resource collection. The ephemera off to the extreme right side is my lunch - you can't get much more ephemeral than that, can you?

This I gotta see!

Today, I discovered an "undo" button on the office shredding machine. I'll try to remember the camera for tomorrow so I can prove I'm not making this up (who knew that the day would come when my word was not longer good enough).

I gotta try to work out how I can see the shredder working in reverse - I can't imagine how it's going to join up all those little strips of paper and return them back to the original document.

Did funding go down the toilet?

I know that one shouldn't laugh - but have just come across the (Australian) National Public Toilet Project. You can enter your location, or proposed location before you travel, and find where the toilets are, or even use the trip planner. How good is that?!!!

This is brought to us as a project of the National Continence Management Strategy. Really.

Which leads nicely into today's Critical Question: What happened to those Home Toilet Libraries? Perhaps the convenience of that particular multitasking could be enhanced to a community level? Imagine Public Toilets with a set of Encyclopedias available within the same building. Improve your mind while attending to .... errr ... other needs?

Completely unrelated is the news that in NSW, there will be $20 million funding available in tied grants for the Premier's Sporting Challenge. Sadly, such tied funding is not available (yet) for the Premier's Reading Challenge. Nor, obviously, such brilliant original reading promotion, and literacy supporting strategies, such as the above.

The New Gig

At the moment I'm format-shifting public domain data. Same employer, different work site, different reporting line.

Initially the physical environment was a little bland, but was soon cheered up by (my own private funding) expenditure of less than twenty bucks. Sure, it's still not exactly vibrant or titillating, but at the moment no one is sure how long this gig will be - a few weeks or months? Maybe it needs a poster or two?

What your favorite author says about you ...

... from Huffpost Books is quite interesting. This site says that if you are a Kurt Vonnegut fan, then you "... have an original and slightly absurdist way of looking at reality..."

So it really isn't your favorite author speaking about you personally. After all, how many people could someone like Kurt Vonnegut actually have met. Considering the billions of Internet-enabled folk world-wide, any of whom might land on that website, statistically it's pretty unlikely that he'd know any of them. Particularly as he died in 2007.

Nevertheless, the site does give food for thought. Shame the list stopped at only 12 authors. I wonder what the analysis would be for a reader with a passion for Chaucer? Or perhaps Matt Drudge? Or those that retire to bed with Library Management Policies ....

The Knee: Part 2. Diversional Therapy

I can't believe someone was actually interested in my knee! Apart from the medicos who use their fees to put their kids through college. Thanks hugely, Felicity!

Since you asked - and I'll really try to keep this at less than 20,000 words - it's healing nicely. The strange thing though is that after I found out about The Site Manager's complaints about me last November, I pretty much lost interest in even reading. But in preparation for the convalescent (knee) period, I visited the most excellent Max Webber Library and borrowed heavily. They have a borrowing limit of 30 items, which doesn't seem like a 'limit' at all to me.

I also bought a few books at Bargain Basement prices, owing to so many fine bookshops going into liquidation. Very, very sad, really. Happy to say though, that I am now once more enjoying reading. Funny, that.

How disruptive can an unconscious Warrior Librarian be?

The Knee certainly seemed to have taken on a life of its own; I hadn't realised that - until at the dinner table one of the Resident Teenagers asked if there wasn't something else I could talk about.

Typical teenager. If it wasn't about them it wasn't interesting. I mean, this is about me! What could be more important than that?

So last Friday, I underwent the dreaded - although officially described as minor - operation. I was told that the knee surgery was very successful. Great news, huh? The fact that I stopped breathing ("transiently") and had to be resuscitated apparently made me "transiently" famous.

And I missed just about all of it, except the end part when I awoke to ECGs and oxygen masks and about 200 people running around me dressed in medical staff garb. OK, it may not have been 200. I didn't actually count them. And I wasn't in any condition to hand out survey forms and collate statistics.

But anyway, it just goes to show that even when I'm unconscious, I still inadvertently cause dramas. Sigh.

I wish I'd written this ....

I'm sorry if you're really busy doing important things, but you really do have to drop everything immediately and read the following article "An Honest Facebook Political Argument":
http://www.collegehumor.com/article/5996384/an-honest-facebook-political-argument

Huge thanks to the original clever author Chase Mitchell, who also has some other pretty good original stuff at the same page.

Organising "Personal" Papers: I've been busy ...

Stage One is almost complete. At the moment, most of the labels have not been permanently fixed; as the archive boxes fill up, there's the usual shuffling about and starting new boxes.

Some of them are filled beyond capacity by single-topic files - gee, bet you can't guess which topics. Not.

Luckily my local stationer had few mark-downs recently. Added to which, of course, it's given me something to do.

Educational Value of Facebook?

The passage below is an excellent definition for the Fantasy genre of fiction - but lacks any attribution, statement of authorship, references ... nor paragraph structure.

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in fictional worlds where magic is common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of (pseudo-)scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (which are subgenres of speculative fiction).In popular culture, the genre of fantasy is dominated by its medievalist form, especially since the worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings books by J. R. R. Tolkien. In its broadest sense however, fantasy comprises works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today.Fantasy is a vibrant area of academic study in a number of disciplines (English, cultural studies, comparative literature, history, medieval studies). Work in this area ranges widely, from the structuralist theory of Tzvetan Todorov, which emphasizes the fantastic as a liminal space, to work on the connections (political, historical, literary) between medievalism and popular culture.

We are making progress, but by golly - there's still a long way to go.

Senior Moments: The Carjacker

Too good not to share ... but unfortunately attribution not yet available (I'm working on it). Click on image for a clearer and larger view.

When LS meets RL: Part 2

I've never been in a library that didn't find it necessary to provide signage of the Bleeding Obvious type. And I don't believe there is a household in the Western World that has teenagers who are not Selectively Blind, as well as Selectively Deaf, regardless of how technologically proficient they are.

So here's a helpful little sign that is about to go into service. You are welcome to adapt to your own needs, be it at home or at work.

When Library Science meets Real Life ...

... or, I was so bored that not only did I actually did put the spice rack in alpha-order, but created a "closed stack" (actually "closed basket") for lesser-used spices. This will be shelved in a designated cupboard known as The Cupboard with the Other Stuff in it (COS).

That may well become the second in a series of two cupboards for such purposes, and thus will be known by the acronym B-COS.

But wait, there's more! I also used "promotion" of those products that I believe would be more popular if they were used more often (like, der!) . Plus, I "inter-shelved" non-spice formatted flavorings for A More Sophisticated Palate. Yes!!!

I gotta get out more, ya know?

When budget insufficiences call for desperate measures

"Surveillance cameras may be in use." Pictured is one of many notices on the [Sydney] CityRail network. Needless to say the may should be emphasised - because there really wasn't any.

It's a bit of a give-away when other signs around CityRail buildings say "24 hour surveillance in operation".

So, is CityRail, and by association the government, trying to "intimidate" the public? I figure a "reasonable person" (which I am reliably informed is terminology from our fine legal system) would consider this nothing more than an attempt to encourage appropriate behaviour.

Others may disagree. But here's the "rub"; such a sign in a library would be trying to achieve the same goal - particularly when said library may well not have a sufficient budget to actually install CCTV.

Interestingly, such equipment - which is now available at such a low price there really isn't any reason for even the smallest library to install same - has been proven to reduce theft, graffiti, bullying and many other socially unacceptable behaviour.

"Intimidating"? Only to those with evil intentions. Desperate indeed.