Well, I thought it was funny...

you can buy this at The Literary Gift site.

I particularly liked their Description: "the perfect mug for librarians: we tried to do a mug which said "Go away I'm cataloguing, and shelving, and being nice to borrowers..." but we couldn't fit it all on."

I have left this blog on hold for now, as the official blog seems sufficient for the specific library tasks, and I don't have quite enough interest in the general process of librarianship to pursue too many links (heading towards writing books now, instead of lending them), but this mug made me laugh (even if the Shhhh cliché is pretty out of date, now).

Slow clap for li-berry

Slow clap for li-berry

Library is stirring more trouble

From the blog: Everything I Like Causes Cancer

The oddest people work in libraries

http://www.examiner.com/libraries-in-chicago/from-jabba-the-hutt-to-library-technician-toby-philpott

What's your image of a 21st Century Librarian?

OK, OK, library assistant... (sigh)

Librarian's Worst Nightmare?

I just noticed a local band called Librarians Worst Nightmare, who recently won a Battle of the Bands and can be heard around Cardiff.

It made me wonder what a librarian's worst nightmare might consist of. (ending sentences in a preposition? Leaving out an apostrophe?)

According to a recent article it is Yahoo Answers, a system so flaky that it makes Wikipedia look seriously responsible and maintstream as a reference source.

Or perhaps, an earthquake?

We used to like the coincidence of Mr Hudson and The Library, because we had a regular in the Local Studies department called Mr Hudson (RIP), who was a fairly daunting 'customer'.

Our new library, indeed, was opened by the Manic Street Preachers, on the tenuous connection that one of their songs mentions a library!

Design for Life starts "Libraries gave us power..."

Although it does continue:

Then work came and made us free
What price now for a shallow piece of dignity

I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my dirty face
to wear the scars
To show from where I came

We don't talk about love
we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end

Which perhaps does not reflect on libraries quite so well - literacy? irony? Well, whatever...

We have bands and solo musicians playing in the library on Saturdays, now.

Well, will you look at that!

Kansas City Public Library looks like this! Snopes confirms it is not a fake.

The Community Bookshelf, it’s called, and you can see it on their website

I came across this on Cracked, which has a series of pictures that you won’t believe weren’t photoshopped!

Berglas's Corollary to Parkinson's Law

I was leafing through my old copy of Systemantics recently, because it still amuses me, and I work with ‘’complex systems’ of course.

One that I came across online recently was Berglas’s Corollary to Parkinson’s Law.

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

According to Wikipedia, there are modern corollaries like:

Data expands to fill the space available for storage.

But Berglas’s Corollary amounts to:

No amount of computer automation will reduce the size of a bureaucracy

And whether you see these rueful laws (mostly invented by scientists) as pure jokes, or containing a grain of truth, you might want to compare them to real life.

When I joined the library service the department was part of Leisure, Libraries and Parks (LLP). We then changed to Leisure and Lifelong Learning (LLL), before becoming Culture, Leisure and Parks (CL&P).

Guess what? We now belong in Citizen Services (part of Housing and Neighbourhood Renewal).

Oh, and I haven’t worked for libraries as man and boy. I have only been here 13 years!

I don’t intend to single out our authority for this, and am aware that a certain amount of re-arranging of management hierarchies must prove necessary in different economic and political climates (quite apart from management fashions).

I only mention it because of the inevitable complications that arise from such reshuffles. Trashing a load of headed notepaper is not the only problem these days.

Because we use complex computer systems, containing folders and cross-references, files and documents with embedded links, etc., it means that all kinds of things can go wrong if one folder gets renamed. I find people whose email address still carries the LLL listing, files and lists that you need to search with LLP, etc. I guess the less said about the unfortunate acronym CLaP the better.

Berglas's Corollary or Why it is Important that Software Projects Fail

Conclusion

We have provided empirical proof of Berglas's Corollary, and clearly shown that software does not improve real productivity. Further, we have shown why it is essential that most software projects fail. No one need ever again be embarrassed by participation in a failed software project. Rather they should be proud to have spared society from yet another burden of complexity.

Some may misinterpret this article as satire. Surely it is not really desirable for software projects to fail. But the facts speak for themselves.

Parkinson's Law - Where all this started

A smile for Monday morning

I don’t seem to be keeping my current reading list up to date. I was leafing through my old copy of Systemantics recently, because it still amuses me, and I work with ‘’complex systems’ of course.

One that I came across online recently was a corollary to Parkinson’s Law.

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

According to Wikipedia, there are several modern corollories like:

Data expands to fill the space available for storage.

But Berglas’s Corollary amounts to:

No amount of computer automation will reduce the size of a bureaucracy

And whether you see these rueful laws (mostly invented by scientists) as pure jokes, or containing a grain of truth, you might want to compare them to real life.

When I joined the library service the department was part of Leisure, Libraries and Parks (LLP). We then changed to Leisure and Lifelong Learning (LLL), before becoming Culture, Leisure and Parks (CL&P).

Guess what? We now belong in Citizen Services.

Oh, and I haven’t worked for libraries as man and boy. I have only been here 12 years!

I don’t intend to single out our authority for this, and am aware that a certain amount of re-arranging of management hierarchies must prove necessary in different economic and political climates (quite apart from management fashions).

I only mention it because of the inevitable complications that arise from such reshuffles. Trashing a load of headed notepaper is not the only problem these days.

Because we use complex computer systems, containing folders and cross-references, files and documents with embedded links, etc., it means that all kinds of things can go wrong if one folder gets renamed. I find people whose email address still carries the LLL listing, files and lists that you need to search with LLP, etc. I guess the less said about the unfortunate acronym CLaP the better.

Berglas's Corollary (the complete article)

[excerpt] Conclusion

We have provided empirical proof of Berglas's Corollary, and clearly shown that software does not improve real productivity. Further, we have shown why it is essential that most software projects fail. No one need ever again be embarrassed by participation in a failed software project. Rather they should be proud to have spared society from yet another burden of complexity.

Some may misinterpret this article as satire. Surely it is not really desirable for software projects to fail. But the facts speak for themselves.

NB: The wonderful clock image was found at litemind/parkinson's law

Noisy Librarians!

The library staff no longer shush people: they can chat, laugh, talk on the phone, even eat noisily if they want!

And yes, that sentence remains deliberately ambiguous!

This morning I was training a couple of members of staff to use our new shelf scanners (and admittedly I do have a rather booming voice) when I got shushed by a member of the public who was trying to revise!

No, we don't provide any quiet areas for study any more.

Still, I don't think I am the first member of library staff to be accused of being noisy.

Noisy Library Staff

Noisy Library, Peaceful Mind from Eva's Book Addiction.

Southwark Noisy Library Day on Flickr


Letter to The Times from Sue Mckenzie, President of the Association of London Chief Librarians

A noisy library is a joyful thing

Too creative with the truth

The local papers rang the library, enquiring about an incident which had been reported to them.

Whoever alerted them failed to realise how creative our Leisure Department are.

They seem to have missed the announcement of a visit from crime author Peter James, for a book signing - disguised as a Wanted Poster.

We also have some wonderful messages scrolling across our plasma screens, from the BBC feed.

Quite often they seem so gnomic and unlike a headline that you wonder how you would trace the story, but some seem so eye-catching that staff have accused me of smuggling them in!

Today the one that stopped me was:

Mammoth dung clue to evolution
(it didn't help that my brain read that as something like - massive 'dung-clue' to evolution).

Probably this story... :-)

B.O.O.K. Technology & P.E.N.C.I.L.s

This just turned up in an old file. I thought it came from Anon, but the Warrior Librarian gives this attribution (if so, that was when I was still in school - pretty anticipatory!):

Heathorn. R.J. (1962). Punch Magazine, May 9, 1962. Circulated through bulk emails, 2000, 2001.

Breakthrough in Educational Technology

New Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge Device


BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology; no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use, even a child can operate it. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere - even sitting in an armchair by the fire - yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Here's how it works:

BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now, BOOKS with more information simply use more pages. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. BOOK never crashes or requires rebooting, though, like other devices, it can become damaged if coffee is spilled on it and it becomes unusable if dropped too many times on a hard surface, but it is far more durable than all personal computers on the market. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pin-points the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

An optional "Bookmark" accessory allows you to open BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session - even if the BOOK has been closed. Bookmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single Bookmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous BOOK markers can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK.

You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with optional programming tools, Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylii (PENCILS).

Portable, durable, and affordable, BOOK is being hailed as a precursor of a new entertainment wave. BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking to invest. Look for a flood of new titles soon.

Tatiesque PlayTime

I went on media silence, as I didn't want to pre-empt the media coverage, or tempt the fates for our Central Library opening day on March 14th.

As it happened that first Saturday went very well, with a huge flood of visitors to the see the new building, and almost everything working.

Since then, however, the scenario has reminded me a little of a Jacques Tati movie. I don't normally identify with Luddites (and nor did he really, let's face it, insisting on filming on 70 mm film, with stereo sound, etc) - but the nostalgia for human ways of doing things (of his character, Monsieur Hulot) still pervades libraries, and I look on with semi-detached bemusement. Both (older) staff and users often refer to the simplicity of a set of little cards in envelopes, and a rubber stamp. Obviously, there are some distinct advantages to catalogue and online searching, and tracking where items end up, using computers, but that is only true when everything works.
We have had so many new things set up at the same time and at the last minute, that teething troubles could be predicted (like the restaurant's grand opening in Playtime). When the book sorting is done by a Heath Robinson contraption (that then fails to work), or the lifts can't make up their mind whether to take you up first, or the other passenger down first, or to stop off or drop off people on the way (and when you step out of the lift there is no obvious number to tell you which floor you are at, I know it would have delighted M.Tati). He could just get on the cctv and catch the moment(s) when I step out of the lift, look around to read the big floor number on the wall behind me, do a double-take when I realise I am not on the floor I expected, and lunge to re-enter the lift as the doors close, and it zooms away.

And the wonderful Escheresque zig-zag of stairs does make stair access a rather long way around...again, the shortest distance between two points would have delighted him - that you can see your friend working on a floor below, and wave, but then have to figure out how to

meet.

Reminds me of the people on the railway station at the beginning of M.Hulot's Holiday - running from platform to platform in response to PA announcements announcing a change of plan - or Hulot confronted by the office maze.

And then we have the infinite range of furniture, of every kind of design and colour you can imagine - again, something Tati gently satirises quite frequently.