way behind on books

This morning I got up and found all four cats sitting in front of my computer monitor waving little Union Jacks and watching coverage of the Royal Wedding.  They wouldn't let me near the screen so I went off to make breakfast.  One doesn't have to be a "Royal Watcher" (like the cats) to get interested in the pomp and circumstance - never mind the hats. 

It got me thinking of a book I read from our Grade 7 class room library The Little Princesses - which was a fascinating insider account of the lives of Elizabeth and Margaret from child hood to the birth of Prince Charles.  I really enjoyed reading it back then and on checking the web today to confirm the title and author I was a little saddened to learn that the writer, their Governess; Marion Crawford was denied permission by the Royal Family to publish a memoir and completely cut off following the publication of this book - though apparently the Royals continued to entertain the publishers who recruited her to write it in the first place.  I had no idea the Grade 7 library shelf contained a book considered "scandelous" in the previous decade.

Wordle & Library Thing

I had seen a wordle before but it was fun making them - I must try Fern's idea of listing some desires or aspirations to make one - while I was playing I just pasted some quotations in and it was funny what words ended up together sometimes.

We had talked at a staff meeting about using Library Thing to list the books we have in the Popular Science Library so that was my plan when I signed up.   - So far I like it quite a bit - though I ended up adding books before the tags on a couple of them and the tags ended up on the next book - a little housekeeping called for there.

Because I have a workplace project earmarked for Library Thing - it is a nice practical place to finish the program.  This has been a good opportunity to learn how to do things I had heard about but not felt motivated to try.  Thanks to the Committee and the individuals who worked so hard to get this all set up.

I have really enjoyed reading people's blogs and seeing all the creative ideas the library clan has.  This was fun.  kthxbai

Another great book

Today's book is Green Glory by Richard St. Barbe Baker - I was reminded of St. Barbe Baker recently when I started looking for material to support a display for International Year the Forests - he is a hero in the world of tree planting - an environmentalist before the term was coined - he was among the first hundred students to enrole at U of S and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetary.  But in the years between - he travelled the world planting trees and encouraging people to plant trees on a massive scale. One of his great ideas was to employ armies to start reclaiming the Sahara by planting trees.  To find out more check out this website

Community Walk

In recent years have really enjoyed using google maps to get directions to places - especially in the city.  It is so much easier than trying to write down directions from someone over the phone, "and then you take a right at the next intersection after Warman road," as a tourist I ALWAYS have a map in my tote bag and consult it a lot.  When people ask directions at the circ desk I find it really handy to be able to give them one of those simiple campus maps.

I found the community walk mapping tool fun to play with - tho when I attempted to create a path from my house to my favorite shops - it had me cutting through busy intersetions, and across people's yards - through their houses - sort of like the crow flies. (if crows really fly in straight lines which I doubt) - so I need to see if I am doing something wrong there.

widgets

I've had a weather widget on my home computer since I got it.  When I don't like its forecast - I google Environment Canada and let the two of them argue.

Adding the countdown widget was easy when I followed the instructions correctly (okay the 3rd time - blush) 

I guess the trick is being choosey - what do I really want to know so often that I want it on my desktop or browser opening page?  Too many widgets slow down the startup but some are very handy.  Since I spend half an hour outside between home and work, the weather is important to me.  I just did a little peeking at all the dashboard widgets for Mac users and there are some amazing options - I could calculate stuff to keep my acquarium's healthy or get pasta recipies endless possibilities.... I might never go outside again...umm then I could ditch that weather widget...;-)

Diigo looks interesting

In trolling around the Diigo groups and communities - I kept finding interesting articles.  I could see using this tool to research topics with a lotta help from the other Diigo members.  What I like so far is that it is a little bit like looking at blogs but - sometimes writing a blog feels like shouting down a well - while Diigo is more like talking in a room full of like minded types.  Or maybe a room full of people doing "show and tell" on a mutually agreed topic.

Then I decided to join and the form worked right away - unlike flickr which may be the result of the campus network being less busy this week.  Now I shall have to try the toolbar at home....except I use Safari as my browser at home and I don't think it is one of the approved ones....I shall have to see - may have to start using firefox at home as well.  natter natter natter  ....- on to widgets

This week's book & this morning's news item

Sunday afternoon we were out and about and Murray suggested dropping by McNally Robinson.  Near the entrance, a vaguely familiar looking man* was pitching a book and politely asked us if he could tell us about it. I glanced at the cover and title "South Asian Adventures with the Active Poor" and knew it was the kind of thing we like to read, admire etc. So we chatted.  It was about his family working - with women and children in Bangladesh to set up schools for the poorest neighbourhoods. Star Phoenx Story

Profits from the book support the charity (wow just like Happy Leopard Chapbooks)  We bought copies.
It's a great read - you can go buy your own copy here If you liked Three Cups of Tea, you will like this one too.

*Gem Munro was a columnist in Saskatoon at one time - wrote some great stuff about Riversdale - that's why he looked familiar.

Reading a book set in Bangladesh made me very conscious of how luxurious my lifestyle is and how different from the people in the book. Like how many shelves of books are there in my house ?  I just take being able to read them for granted. ... and then there are those little expensive devices - which leads to the news item:

Tech addiction symptoms rife among students
This story on CBC caught my attention this morning - I know there is a connection between consumerism, and sweat shops, the poverty of Bangladesh and the affluenza of Saskatoon.  I just wonder who the real victims are?

Twitter

Quantum (our invisible Library Cat) has set up a twitter account - with a little assistance from me. We tried yesterday afternoon and the network or perhaps the intertubes themselves were sluggish and it didn't seem to take but this morning everything went clickity clack.....well except I didn't remember our passwurd and had to get them to send me a chance to change it....which worked well.

Surprising number of cats on twitter.Perhaps as Rachel calls them - these "mini-blogs" just beg for playfulness.  We also decided to follow some library twitter accounts to see what sort of thing they tweet.

big discovery - you can say quite a bit with 140 characters.  Not the information Haiku struggle we were expecting.

Social Networking

I was encouraged to get a facebook account when I was on Strike.  I didn't find it too useful at the time and discovered - it is nay impossible to delete a facebook account afterwards. So I deleted everything I had uploaded - and posted a message that I had "left facebook"  but I still get the odd email from someone wanting to "friend" or advertise something even though it is several years since I logged into it.  I guess I disliked how it just added event advertising clutter to my inbox.

I looked at the demographics of  orkut and noticed there are not enough people in my age set using it to show up on the bar graph so perhaps it's a new trick few of us old dogs are learning.

OTOH I sometimes enjoy seeing the tweets that are embedded in some of the blogs I like to visit or news sites - they sort of remind me of that cute little "today's smile" joke box on the front page of the old globe and mail.  What I find really lame are the twitter sites that people of importance have set up because it is the trendy thing to do but don't bother maintaining - or only tweet such safe things that you might as well wait for their annual newsletter. They tweet formal announcementish things that I would expect to find somewhere on their blog or website like "events" or "press releases"

Twitter seems to work best in very specific communities of interest -  How could a library best use this form of communication?  Maybe immediate things like "our photo copier is out of order - the closest one that works is in the Blah Library."  or "will the person who spilled that latte all over the serials reading area table find somwhere else to study?" - okay maybe not that.  ;-)

Using Flicker

Well whatever was causing problems went away and I was able to upload and play around with flicker.  I think it is an invaluable tool for informing the world about invisible library cats - so that's something - when April  1st lands on a Friday it is safe to talk about these things.

George the Library Cat

At this link: "http://www.flickr.com/photos/christchurchcitylibraries/3394740380/"
you will find this lovely photo of a Library Cat: George who was cat in residence at Canterbury Public Library from 1963 to 1976 in the city of Christchurch.


Here is another photo of George that I really liked which appeared in the Christchurch Star Feb. 21 1975.



we don't have any photo's of the Natural Sciences Library Cat "Quantum" because she is invisible.

And an appropriate book

On Photography by the late Susan Sontag is a very thought provoking treatise on the uses of pictures. When I think how exponentially the number of photo images has increased since this book was written - it sort of boggles my mind.

flickr as a lurker

I have enjoyed finding things in flickr over the years - especially when relatives post photo streams of my great nieces and nephew - wonderful tool for sharing family photos around the globe. Especially for me since none of my family lives in Saskatchewan - or the prairies.

I have never been tempted to share many of my photo's before this exercise because - 1. I take really dull photos which only really appeal to me, 2. see 1. 3. Years ago when I took up photography (using a dark room and all the chemistry involved) it was such a complex process and every shot you took had a cost attached even if you bought bulk film (which was beyond my level of dedication) and processed it with a contact sheet instead of prints. (really this paragraph IS going somewhere) I had the rules instilled into me that were articulated in this assignment - ie you need permission to take pictures of people and to publish or post them. In fact we were also aware, us photography buffs at the time, that it was very rude to take pictures of people of certain ethnicity and we should be very sensitive to cultural attitudes towards cameras.

A few years ago ( OKAY about a decade ago ) one of my friends complained bitterly to me that she HATED how people with digital cameras at conferences felt they could just shoot random pictures of participants and audiences and post or publish them. Yet we all seem to do it. Only at the culturally sensitive events do they announce that you can request the photographer remove you from any pictures prior to posting or publishing them.

So I like taking pictures of animals and inanimate objects - no permission documentation required

Flickering access

So I am caught in a revolving door - I bravely filled in the option to set up my own flicker account to share a series of photo's showing evidence of alian life in the Natural Sciences Library. Cool I can use my google account to set up a flicker account. But everytime I try to sign in - it tells me that I have signed into Yahoo successfully. However the connection between my google account and my yahoo account has failed so please sign out and sign in again with the google account. Same message every time. (maybe I should be using the beta version of the April 1st GMAIL Motion or Google Docs Motion - (very cute - I like the pictures) I fear it will be gone April 2nd.)

Maybe the network is a little busy or something - I will try this again. Meanwhile I will try and see if I can find some more evidence of alien life here ;-)

UPDATE - we have contact!/