Internet Footprints?

You've seen/read/heard that well-distributed piece about footsteps in the sand, right? And you know that saying about lines drawn in the sand? Well, this has pretty much nothing to do with either of those. It's morning tea time, and I'm just about coffee'd out.

So I thought I'd sign up for a few things, as one does at times like this. First cab of the rank was a new "fan" page over at ning.com. This will allow you to sign up to become a member of a very small, select - may I say even possibly elite - group, the Fans of Amanda Credaro. I don't know how long membership will be open for, but it IS free, which is really the most important thing, isn't it?

I signed up for something else too, but now that my loyal reader has rushed off to check out the possibilities at ning, I guess I'll save the other one for another day.

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 ...

Slithy toves in portmanteaux

Huge thanks to Business Balls for their clear and concise explanation of this particular fascinating aspect of our bizarre language!

Anyone with 5 minutes to spare, and good eyesight (or a magnifying facility in their browser) could do worse than checking this out.

Like, it's sort of related to work 'n' all, isn't it? At least, you could very likely make a good case to support your contention that you aren't really goofing off or wasting company time and resources. Good luck with that, and let me know how you get on ...

Where's Wally, and why?

Latitude: 33.799210 S
Longitude: 151.110828 E

... physically about half way between the Information Unit and the Library Unit, but abutting (which is apparently better than head-butting) the Premier's Reading Challenge unit.

Philosophically? Many people would like to say that I'm on my own planet as usual. I prefer to think of it as a parallel universe, only with better coffee.

Physiologically, pretty much OK.

Pedagogically? Working on DER (Digital Education Revolution) science resources, of course!

Fresh approach to increasing library access?

Here's something new ... instruct your school librarian take on the role of a teacher's aide and provide 'support' outside the library, so the library has to close numerous times. Yep, that's sure going to bump up library use, promote reading for pleasure, assist in developing Information Literacy, develop meaningful and measurable improvements in outcomes. Not.

Mind you, today's contribution to this particular aspect of the education revolution was pretty much restricted to being asked by "a real teacher" to get her a chair so she could rest her sore foot on it. Gee, but its great to have gotten two master's degrees to provide such a critical input into the program.

Sigh.

Moody Blues and other human follies?

While indulging in much-needed Retail Therapy, couldn't help but notice the number of retailers of "Mood Rings". Which lead me to reflect on the simultaneous inventiveness and stupidity of my species. Why the heck would anyone need an accessory to tell others how they are feeling?

Wouldn't howls of outrage, sighs of resignation, sobs of indignation, The Silence and similar 'cues' give more than just a vague hint of current Affective Domain status? Or maybe that's just me. It would seem that Professional Poker Player would not be a viable career alternative to Librarianship ...

Holiday Reading

Like to guess what I did with my five weeks annual leave? Didn't quite make it through the whole stack (no pun intented), but made a sizable dent ...

The Sarcasm Punctuation Mark (SarcMark)

At long last! A "sarcasm punctuation mark" to put an end to email misinterpretation, and possibly end flame wars (or more likely, start them). It costs $1.99 to download, which puts it outside many library budgets ....

See this article from Telegraph.uk.co

On a wing and a prayer?

I have been very, very slack with keeping the blog up to date; but trust me when I tell you that is hasn't been for lack of adventures in LibraryLand, particularly in the realms of Administrivia, Beaurocracy, and EgoManiacal Whatsits.

However, tonight's big news is that I just found out that a very kind (virtual) friend of the non-library variety had posted a prayer for me over at The People's Steeple (which will require you to log into Facebook to access). Was it a prayer for keeping what's left of my mind - I hope all those who have been given a piece of it are better human beings for that - in tact? Was it a prayer for a larger functional budget? An epiphany for those that control matters bibliotechnical?

The prayer for a speedy recovery from the March gum surgery was answered. Let no one doubt the power of the Internet.

End of an era?

Just a quick note to let all 11 of the Warrior Librarian fans know that Yahoo!Geocities has informed all and sundry that as of 28 October 2009 all sites hosted there (including the Original Warrior Librarian) will cease to exist.

The good news is that almost all of it is cached at the Wayback Machine, and a new and brighter Warrior Librarian Weekly will soon be available once some Other Matters have been finalised. More information is here ...

Google Digitization Project

For those of you with an interest in copyright matters, and published works, the deadline has now passed for opting out of the Google Digitization. But you do have until 5 January 2010 to claim the Cash Payment on offer from Google, and by extension obtain the percentage of the profit Google will be making from your work.

Careful with filling out the online form, though. Or you may find yourself in ongoing correspondence with the process administrators, such as:

Dear [name removed for obvious reasons],

I'm not sure if you noticed that my email address ends in the country code "au" ... I am resident in Australia. Unfortunately your toll-free number is not available through overseas directories, so it is of little help for you to continue to refer me to that number.

I do thank you though for your explaination that you require that "rights holders who wish to have changes made to their book listings send said corrections in the form of a signed request". We do indeed live in Strange Times! Is it not absurd that the "signed request" that you require - presumably for security purposes - is so much more easily "forged" than a digitally traceable email?

However, if you check the Google Settlement Entry for the rights holder details for the book that I wrote you will see that I have actually been able to correct the error (that I have been asking for your assistance in correcting for some months) myself, through my secure password-encoded log in.

Sigh.

I am certain that you will understand that the above does not inspire confidence, in regard to appropriate administration of the processes with which your company has been engaged in the matter of Google's digitization of copyright protected publications.


Regards,
Amanda Credaro


Too narky? Perhaps. But it is now on its way through the ether, regardless.

Street Smarts or Dumb and Dumber

For a while now, I've been noticing that people seem to be getting stupider. I almost had myself convinced that the problem was really just me, that I myself was getting crabbier and less tolerant. Until yesterday.

Racked items in KMart's Children's Clothing section had tags attached at the neckline "Warning: Clothing must be removed from hanger before wearing". No one would possibly make this up. Not even me. Q.E.D.

The History of American library humor ...

Jeanette Smith of the New Mexico State University Library wrote:

I have been researching and writing a book on the history of American library humor, and now that my 451 page manuscript is complete, I am contacting people that I mention and make short quotes from in the book. You are, of course, an important library humorist worldwide and in America. Below, I have attached material from your work in the book, with full citations. May I use this material in my book? ...

I really do love it when folk ask permission first! I wonder if I'll be getting a complimentary copy of the published work? Most probably not; the only folk to have done so thus far were ALA, who honored me with a copy of The Whole Library Handbook 4 in thanks for my humble contribution (p 368).

You'll have to get hold of your own copy of Jeanette Smith's book to find out which quotes she is going to use. And no, I'm not getting a commission on sales. As usual.

The Lost Widget ...

There's a terrific little widget to publicise Dan Brown's latest offering, which would have been appearing here to impress all 10 of my blog fans. Sadly though, Blogger tells me that I am not allowed to use the html necessary for the widget to be displayed.

Geez, but doesn't it make your toenails curl backwards when the simplest of technology falls down when the administration of it become the barrier. There's nothing malicious in the code (no pun intended, Mr Brown), a bit of Shockwave, a touch of embedding for display purposes, and so forth.

But my 10 loyal fans can still see the widget and "grab it" with immunity from http://www.thelostsymbol.com/ where it is generously on offer to all.

Postscript: No birds this week, so far. But it is only Tuesday.

A bird of another feather

Yep, another bird flying around the library again on Friday. Not the cute little 'blue jay' of previous fame, but the ubiquitous Indian Minor, an import by a previous generation and charged with contributing to the extinction of native species.

The Indian Minor doesn't get good press, nor any legal representation, but all that aside this particular feathered fiend flew (another 'f' word) through the library, and did in fact poop a number of times. Once - that I found - on our newly shampoo-ed carpet, and another on the back of the shelf at the end of our Reference collection.

We've got 'rules' about how high we can climb on ladders and such, so I'm still not quite sure as to who will get up the tops of the shelves and clean them, nor when. Not the cleaners' role, apparently. It may be lucky that there's a 10 year accumulation of dust across the tops of the books on the upper shelves - it may just save the books from the messages left by little birds ...

My New Hero

There is more than one Mohammad Tariq in the world, so if you are Googling, make sure you include "Keddies" in the search terms. You will unveil a story worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.

This particular Mohammad Tariq took on a major law-firm, who had ripped him off mercilessly when they were supposed to be Acting On His Behalf. Mohammad Tariq - eventually - won.

You're probably thinking "that's nice", or something similar. Unless you are a compensation lawyer, in which case you're probably in the middle of shredding documents. Almost worse than a lone-voice-in-the-wilderness, Tariq fought against the establishment. He was threatened with incarceration as "mentally unstable" on one occasion. He was charged $49 by his own lawyer for being told said lawyer was taking a holiday. He was charged hundreds of dollars for phone calls that could have been (and most probably were) made by clerical assistants.

Tariq took to 'sandwich-board' protests. In April this year, one newspaper described him as a "one man headache" when he protested outside the TV station on which Keddies front man has a football talk-show. The same newspaper changed its tune in August, when barrister Michael Robinson, appointed by the Supreme Court, found that ''Keddies in each case has practised systematic duplication and overcharging, which, in my opinion, is deliberate and has in many cases led to the charging of costs that are grossly excessive''.

Mohammad Tariq took a stand and won. Sure, it took him 3 years, but he never gave up - despite all the 'experts' that told him that he would never win; he was wasting his time; he should get over it. Etc. Just a personal opinion, but I think he should be the official Poster Boy for natural justice and fair play.

Weirdness and Mind Power

I have to start, right here, by swearing to you that this is true. You can choose to be sceptical, which is your right. If I was sitting where you are now, and about to read what you are about to read, I can honestly say that I wouldn't believe it either. But that's probably more to to with being a cynic than anything else.

So I'm working away, doing what I'm paid to do, during the course of which some YouTube resources were being evaluated. A small and unexpected deviation into the area of Zen philosophy resulted in a number of footages of streams/forests/mountains with the feely-floaty musical background.

Next thing I knew, and I kid you not, into my office flew a Superb Fairy-Wren. Our American cousins should maybe thing along the lines of a "blue jay". It fluttered around alarmingly for a bit, then settled on the top shelf of my professional resources. For a moment there, I thought it might poop on the folders containing the last 7 years of stock take records. That alone gives pause for reflection.

I co-opted a colleague from a nearby office, and together we gently encouraged my little feathered visitor back out into the Wide World. Bird poop on stock take records might be a fair call, but it sure would be a financial tragedy on expensive reference books.

Being Friday, Staff Morning Tea was the next event on my schedule. Don't laugh - its a serious venue for exchanging information, strengthening working networks, ensuring sufficient sugar levels are maintained until lunchtime.

But Blow-Me-Down! (an Australian expression meaning a surprise of sufficient proportions to knock an individual horizontal). When I came back from Morning Tea, my small feathered friend was perched next to the main door of the library, waiting to be let back in.

Now the really spooky part of this is the thought of what might have happened if I'd been reviewing material on, for example, Continental Drift. Would we have had an earthquake?

Just wondering.

The Cable Guy

So today, our cable TV service Team Member made a "courtesy call" to make sure that we're happy with the service. Only a cynic would note the phone call came after the contract period was finished, and now being Free Agents we can sign up with some one else, if we've a mind to do so.

Was I happy with the service? "No". Really? Why not? Coz we're paying over a hundred bucks a month and still having to go down to the video store and hire something worth watching - although our cable service provides access to over 40 different stations, including six movie channels.

And then, not only do they show rubbish on the channels we are paying for, they also want us to pay them even more money for the "premium" movies. "Premium" in this case translates to movies that people probably wouldn't mind watching.

No, of course I'm not happy. Will this be feedback be conveyed to the appropriate personnel? "But of course!" And which personnel would that be? Unfortunately the telephone line seemed to have dropped out at that point.

Gee, I hope the telco Team Member makes their curtesy phone call soon to see if I'm happy with their service.

Not too long ago, I was awarded a great honor - I was appointed the Mystic Archives Librarian of the Dark Brotherhood. Yet another honorary position; you don't get paid for having fun. Apparently.

If you're not a FaceBook subscriber, this (at the moment) may mean nothing to you. However, if you're a librarian, you will no doubt be shortly rushing off to research the Dark Brotherhood. If you're in the second group (the librarians), remember that I'm only the librarian, and not responsible for the Dark Brotherhood's past activities.

Part of my virtual duties includes regular interaction with the library's patrons. No, you can never escape, even in cyberspace. But the question was posed to the other members "What would you do if you were stuck in the Dark Ages?"

Geez ... as the Librarian of the Dark Brotherhood, obviously I'd use the time to catch up on the cataloguing backlog; I sure as heck don't have the time to do it at the moment, what with having to slave over a hot keyboard 24/7.

OK, I don't *have* to be 24/7 at the keyboard, but if I leave the 'net for anything other than the absolutely necessary, who knows what critical information I might miss out on? And THEN what am I going to do if a library user comes and asks me something - in my capacity as The Font of All Knowledge and The Keeper of the Toilet Key - what am I going to do? Break into a soft-shoe shuffle and hope they back quietly away and never come back again. Sure, that's always worked in the past, but eventually folk are going to expect a little service from The Librarian at some stage ...

And today I did shelving ...

No, not as in "put the books on the shelves" ... as in "unpack the metal frames, brackets and shelves, get a screwdriver (and a big mallet) and assemble them". And THEN put the books on the shelves.

The final result looks great, but it's still not something I'd like to have to do every day - or even every month, year, gig, lifetime ...

So we went from this (left hand side pictures) to that (right hand side pictures).












The colour/color change can be credited to either an innate artistic flare, or to photographic incompetance. You choose ...