Free Thinkers Accept the Mystery

Actually, I intended to use FreeThinker in the technical sense - of 'atheists' who don't like defining themselves with a negative term.

I don't think of 'God' as a default setting, which I have to deny. (a-theist).

My default setting remains an experience of a mysterious environment - which contains and includes me (a mysterious point of consciousness). I expect 'believers' to have to convince me that someone or something 'created' this mystery.

I don't have an answer, as I find equally acceptable the idea(s) that it always existed, doesn't exist, could be defined as 'my dream' (solipsism), etc.

Libraries remained my allies in holding out for a variety of explanations, when surrounded by a culture (if not a people) with a default setting of 'God'.

At least Cardiff Libraries provide copies of The Freethinker*

I just got an email alert about this piece from About.com:

Get Atheist Books in the Public Library
Get Public Libraries to Provide Atheist, Freethought, Secular Literature
by Austin Cline

"Why Are Public Libraries Important?

[...]Getting enough atheist, freethought, skeptical, secular, and humanist material in libraries is important because not everyone can obtain this material on their own. Some people don't have enough money to buy the books and magazines and few have enough money to buy all the books and magazines. Libraries can carry a broader array of material than bookstores as well as a deeper selection of older material - including material no longer in print. Where else will you find magazines and journals from several years ago?[...]"

*The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of irreligious cartoons in the 1882 Christmas edition, Foote was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to 12 months hard labour. Despite this setback the magazine has remained in print ever since. You can read more here.

If I had the time to travel...

Fortunately, a lot of conferences attempt to become more accessible over time - and Web 2.0 meetings (almost by definition) offer alternative media and transparency, and access.

I just came across Douglas Rushkoff's keynote speech from San Francisco, at Web 2.0 Expo, a coupla weeks ago.

“How the Web Ate the Economy and Why it’s Great for Everyone.”


Find it on his MediaSquat site (worth 18 minutes of anyone's time...)

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.

Are we just a load of Bullocks?

In the small hours, after a 'Sixties night' at The Globe in Cardiff, I search for any sign of our wonderful new library in Google (gotta keep it simple) but ended up with Fred Bullock...back in the early twentieth century, dying for his country and all - peace be with you frater librarian.

Shouldn't we have a more modern link though, like, within the last ninety years (say)?   The new central library looks fairly modern, but does it yet understand the balance between internet and books (we need both) that evolved over the last twenty years?  This remains a general library dilemma, not just Cardiff's problem.

I don't feel convinced that we have the balance right, just yet.

Still, that photo (that young man) come from our local studies collection - via Gathering Up The Jewels.

Why not come and look, as we digitalise our collection of old pix?  You don't even have to come and see the building, you could build up a virtual relationship with our collections... Go to our online catalogue here and click on Local Studies.  This gives you remote access to search all the currently uploaded pictures, maps, etc.  Some (in copyright) will have watermarks on them, but contact us (or visit) to see the whole thing.

Psst.  Did I say the new Central Library will open this Saturday, 14th March?  It surely can't be a secret any more.  Can I post photos of the interior yet?  See next week's thrilling episode. Does Anon get reprimanded for sarcasm?  Does he lose his job for negative thinking - also known as contingency planning, or Plan B (in the vernacular)?    Whatever.    We're in countdown mode, 5,4,3,2,1...days to go.

Wales UK shows you the exterior...  Still no easily available inside images, and I don't feel safe to publish until after Saturday - even though pix appear in the local paper-paper (not their digital version) for Friday 6th March.

Assistive Technology

As my work drifts away from hardware (computer first-aid), leaving more and more of that to ICT, I have been re-training towards working with people even more.

Apart from setting up a Moodle environment, for staff to access training, I have been working on an Accessibility training module - ATIC provided, at RNIB Cymru - which I am finding very interesting.

It does not only relate to blind and partially-sighted people - as the software that reads back text (for instance, JAWS or Supernova) could also help non-literate people, people with dyslexia, people using English as a second language, etc. And the magnifying aspect of some of these software options could assist even people like me (short-sighted people seem so common they don't seem to fall into the 'partially-sighted' group) when I have left my computer glasses at home.

And 'throwing away the mouse' to learn navigation just through the keyboard can help everyone...

The tutor on the current course I am doing has set up a blog, for more details about this issue.

Find the ATIC blog by clicking here.

Images, Imagine, Imagination

Clearing up my hard drive, I came across a couple of random images.

The first comes from the blog of a friend who does artwork for all kinds of fields, from graphic novels to album covers, online and in paper form - Bobby Campbell (Penman for Hire).

I believe it was done for a friend, but he OK'd me publishing it here.


The other is part of a wonderful series by Arcimboldo, but this one I hadn't seen before - The Librarian (1556).

What Do You Want? Information!

Even a brief glance through this blog might convince people that I don't know what I am talking about.

I didn't take a degree in anything, let alone library and information studies.

I am enjoying the Effing Librarian, and the Annoyed Librarian's posts (see blog list on the right). And I refuse to make the word 'library' a taboo - in spite of all the image problems.

"We are librarians working in libraries, not audience development officers working in infotainment provision centers."
The Annoyed Librarian, posting at Library Journal.

The effing librarian's comment on the above article

I dropped out of school before A-Levels, back in 1964.  At the time I had no idea that much of my generation would drop out in disgust with the form of education we were offered, and its irrelevance to the world we expected to end up living in (and here we are!)  I didn't join in with college sit-ins, and trying to change the system, I just walked away, so if education curricula improved at all I can take no credit.

I won't bore you with how and why I ended up in show-biz, films and circus - but they all seem a long way from books, I know.  Ten years ago (turning 50) I took a job in a library, and I'm still here.  I had always been a user of libraries (more so, having dropped out of formal education) so have a certain zeal about providing such a service to maverick autodidacts (who always tend to show off their vocabulary, apparently - something to do with an inferiority complex).  OK, OK, the self-taught and lifelong learners.

Prisoner: Where am I?

Number Two: In The Village.
Prisoner: What do you want?
Number Two: Information.
Prisoner: Which side are you on?
Number Two: That would be telling. We want information, information, information...
Prisoner: You won't get it.
Number Two: By hook or by crook we will.
Prisoner: Who are you?
Number Two: The new Number Two.
Prisoner: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are Number Six.
Prisoner: I am not a number. I am a free man.
Number Two: Ha, ha, ha, ha....

Don't make me laugh...

Although this blog (unlike others I write) intends to remain focused on libraries, it does seem a shame that I immediately end up po-faced and solemn.

so, post-VD (Valentine's Day) - I offer a page I came across which amused me - from Library Journal:

Never Mind the Bollocks, Librarians Invented Sex, Stupid
Alfred Kinsey's "Lost" Report on Librarians and Sexuality

And I got pointed to that from A Compendium of Sexy Librarianness

Although I find the word 'sexy' rather tiresome these days (now that even cars, apparently, can 'be sexy' or advertising campaigns, or watches, or shoes, or whatever). All rather irrititating and fetishistic. But, hey, I got all solemn again. Some of this relates to an earlier post on stereotypes - and the Compendium offered a link on that, too.

I did like the Kinsey / Dan Brown joke, though.

Libraries for All

I am still a bit disappointed that the wonderful new central library in Cardiff doesn't hit the top of the Google charts when you look for news of the grand opening on March 14th 2009.

I have found sites listing the address as at Frederick St (that building was knocked down over two years ago), and John St (we have now closed, and are in the process of moving). I have tried to inform ones that offer the option to update their info. It's not really my job, I know, but since Google Maps has spent the last two years sending Central Library visitors, using SatNav, to a private address down the bay, I figure every little helps!

Cardiff Central Library
Mill Lane
Cardiff CF10 1FL
Wales  UK

I did notice that The Sprout had a little piece about it, which at least offers a tease of what we have to offer.

Swansea Library seem to have their own blog, although I can't quite tell if there really is someone called Paige Turner, or whether that name hides a sinister cabal of subversive staff (?)  Last year, when they opened their own new Central Library they had pictures of work-in-progress, video clips, etc.  (sigh).

And then again, when a library gets built because the tax-payers actually wanted the upgrade, you can end up with the astonishing Seattle Library, or the one in Minneapolis (entry from Wikipedia), whose budgets make Cardiff's look miniscule, I suppose.  Although, to be fair, those two do get listed as America's Most Literate Cities.

Seattle has maybe twice the population of Cardiff, but when consulted directly, in 1998, the public gave 69% approval to spending $196 million to upgrade the city's library service.  A large chunk of it went towards the award-winning Central Library (Wikipedia entry).  And yes, they are a wealthy city (dot.coms, internet, computers, etc).

Minneapolis, who consulted its citizens in 2000, got voted a $140 million package to similarly improve their services. Their population is not a lot bigger than Cardiff's. Their new Central Library opened in May 2006.

Words, wurdz, werdz...

For all my years, I continue to enjoy the modern world, even if everyone borrowed far too much money to live beyond their means, and burned up the planet in the process.  Whoops, sorry, wrong blog!

Working in a library has brought me around to the world of words and books, the world that (when at school) I think my mum thought I would end up in.  It only took 40 years!   Not only do I now write on websites, blogs and wikis, but I have completed two novel-in-a-month projects, and right now find myself proof-reading OCR printouts.  I am one of 150 volunteers, proofing a 600 page book for release as a PDF.  I have a bit of a proof-reader's eye - as typos jump out at me when reading hard copy.   Still, they seem to slip by me on screens at times.  It is a different kind of reading.

Fun to collaborate in a big project, though.