A creative use for culls and weeds

Artwork by Canadian paper artist Calvin Nicholls.  Yes, they are all made of paper. 

Another Home Library Dilema

Another day, another Box of Bits to assess, review and amend as necessary. OK let's be honest, it's just more of a decade's accumulation of stuff I really didn't need, but got because it was free and you never know when it might come in handy (BIWFAYNKWIMCIH - which is possibly the world's longest and most meaningless acronym - but remember you saw it here first, if it becomes popular or gets used by someone else in a publication where the attribution is missing) ... geez, now what was I saying?

Ah yes, the box of bookmarks; collected from book sellers, conferences, random mailings, journal inserts, and so forth. With only four readers in the household (not counting the cat, who only thinks she can read) even I am prepared to concede that we may have slightly more than we need.

The question is, what ones - if any - should I keep? The remainder can go to the Day Job Library, where no doubt they will end up strewn around the playground minutes after distribution. Which is really sad, because they're really bright and colorful, and represent a decade's worth of targeted BIWFAYNKWIMCIH ...

Ad H.O.C. Irony?

How's the "Value Added" Home Office Clean-up going? Slowly, but thanks for asking anyway. But possibly of more significance are the treasures that are coming to light. Sort of more like an archaeological dig than a library cull.

The latest dusty tome to emerge is "Getting Organised" (ISBN 0826467709; Continuum Publishing 2004). What a find! Unfortunately it got lost again with the hour, but at least it got photographed before it slunk back into the chaos ...

Home Library Weeding

There's few things more spontaneous at Warrior Librarian Central than the sound of the scarpering footsteps of rapidly disappearing family members whenever I say "Hey! Let's move the ....". This of course is my own fault, having devoted years of Pavlovian-type training to conditioning these folk to associate the word "move" with many days of carting books between rooms.

This holiday period, the decision has been made that at least some of them have to go. Books, that is, not family members. And of course, the placement of storage/display furniture has to be rationalised. Luckily, with the Day Job Library (DJL) budget being just AUD$1,000 for the year (that's books, stationery, freight, hardware, software, everything), many of the near-pristine tomes will be donated to the DJL. Others will head off to third world country's school libraries, with the DJL weeds. Others will get some exposure via the Library Office.

Luckily for me, there's one family member who didn't abandon me. OK, their contribution was mainly supervisory, apart from the duality of their role - as a furry bookend.

Letting go?

Just read today's horoscope over at Facebook: "You're maybe just a wee bit too attached to some idea or gadget -- or person. Now is the perfect time to pull back to a healthy level of attachment, even if it feels like abandonment at first."

And you know, that's sort of good news for me. I had been Formulating Strategies for doing some pretty hefty cleaning up, house-wise. I thought I was going to have to throw out a goodly number of my Martin Luther King clothes ("I have a dream..."), but now I find out it's only ideas, people and gadgets that have to go. Not any of my insanely high stilettos, nor my ridiculously short minis (both from another era, several eons ago).

People-wise, I'm pretty confident that those I have I either want to keep, or are filed under 'evil but necessary".

Ideas-wise, I think I'm "good" - if I ignore the fact that I'm obstinate, self-opinionated, and often wrong. Which only leaves gadgets that have to go. I think I've got a broken stapler somewhere ...