Library life: you know you are still sensibly immature...

...when you laugh at rude Dewey Decimal: there's SEX and POO on the shelves!

Library life: It's embarrassing when....

you use the service desk computer to add a new profile picture of yourself when you were about 7 (here, as it happens - do you like?) and somehow accidentally add it to the screensaver slideshow!

Library Life: You fear library work may be doing your head in...

...when you are shocked that the new edition of Chitty on Contracts has a different colour title patch to the old one.

Books on the loose!

I can tell from the shelves there are books on the loose,
Like that song with the lines about a moose in the hoose.
Scattered they lie on tables like the wounded in battle,
Round them up I must like great herds of cattle.
Out to them I trudge like a shepherd in fog,
Or another part in the library machine, a cog
And build mini towers of books to carry home,
Back to the shelves and place in the order of tomes
As prescribed by our old friend Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey,
Knowing that it’ll be the same again real soon - oh phooey!

Library life:It would be nice if...

the Torts section was somehow replaced with Tortes.

Library Life: I'm liking...

working in a VERY quiet library with the sounds of clock bongs every 15 mins or so.

Library Life: It's really nice when....

You look up from working and see that everyone in the library has their heads down, cogs alomst audibly whirring.

Library Life: It's really nice when....

Students come back into the library after the summer and greet you like old pals catching up....

...also rather humerous when this happens and you can't remember them at all!

This is the end...?

Hello finishing line!  All has been done, all has been sampled merrily.  Some things I have liked (or already liked), others made me say, "Meh!"  Some things have still to be investigated further such as Flickr and the other search engines - google is a reflex, no wonder it's entered speech.  

LinkedIn and twitter are the things that I have used the most, LinkedIn still in a formative way.  Googledocs, too, I have thrown lots of docs onto for use on scribd, while delicious I had problems uploading my bookmarks onto and so have left alone but everything looked at here has the potential to be time-saving and useful and whatnot.  It just takes me more time to get there with some things and thus:

What I will try and do is update this blog slowly as I discover more and delve deeper into these 23 things and learn more about being a library bod in general. 

So: stay tuned, folks! (Hopefully not my last words....)

Google... and beyond!

I never think about using anything other than google to search.  And even after this weel's things, I imagine it would be extremely difficult to get out of the habit and use a different binary loco. 

The searches I ran ("gillingham", "city" and "James Atkinson") didn't turn up up massively different results across google, yahoo, bing and ask jeeves, though there were some small differences.  I was more intrigued, though, with some of the other features such as the Popular Q&A on ask jeeves and the Related Searches on bing which looked fun and useful. 

The meta search engines were the real revelation for me - I can't understand why these aren't used more - why search one engine when you do the lot - zuula seemed the best, and most random at times - which just makes it all the more fun, of course - esp when it reminds you of your Victorian namesake's hair remedy: http://www.uniquebottles.co.uk/PotLids1.htm

A google a day might be the coolest thing I've seen here, and a good way to round things off.

Two weeks for the price of one! Though possibly a rambly and tangled mess:

Last week I was looking at Sharing in the form of SlideShare, wikis and delicious.  All three looked useful tools, for me perhaps more through looking for information than sharing at the moment.  Though a wiki can be a handy way of storing information.  I used to use one for storing information on all the football matches I've ever attended.  But it's gone now, along with all the info. :( Perhaps I can start again on wikispaces sometime..... The prospect for using them rather than a group e-mail is good and potentially very useful.  Evernote, too, the cool extra thing could be handy in a similar way, though I rather like post-it notes, I must say.  Actually, OMG!!!  I've been writing rhymes using my e-mail as storage - why not Evernote.  There are time-stamping issues, maybe but not if I'm not fussed.  Maybe time to get a hold of this mess?  I put this blog up on the UK library blog wiki thing.  Hello if you've arrived from there! [Had a look after writing up to "stuck in my ways" and may stay there as it looks like Evernote deletes your notes every 29 days?]



I'm trying to utilise delicious more but found it difficult to send my bookmarks into it at home, will persevere though, because it would be so darn handy to have bookmarks on the internet like that rather than trying to remember every site I like while on the move.  Really rather goodn and handy - thank you! 



This week was multimedia!  YouTube I have wasted some time on before with music videos and clips of old shows.  Using it for library information has a wealth of possibilities, espeicially if you can find eager media or film students!  Certainly the clips featured on the 23 Things blog were good - esp the dinosaur search clip, I think that helped me enough that I could help students better in future!  And myself.  Just need to think synonyms and key concepts!  hmm, snacks or treats AND chocolate or caramel or nuts...?  Not sure that one would work, actually - I shall heep practicing!  Same with the dalek one.  I like daleks.  


Podcasts are one of those areas I've happily ignored despite knowing I'd like it.  Bit like most of the internet, actually.  Bit stuck in my ways.  I've added a couple to Google Reader but don't exactly have the time for them, which is a shame.  Doing one would be a lot of fun, though.  Either just messing about or attempting comedy skits or something, stories, whatever.  Or connecting it with work, even - each day over the Day in the Life week twice a year.  Or get cats involced and do a podcat.


That is all.


Except for playlists....

Better late than never?

Hmm, bit late this week in writing up my exciting findings!  This is due to a surprise visit form the head honchos - yes, I think I will blame them! - on Monday which led to me not getting to this bit til now.

It was all about the office this week, and online tools that may help.  I've never used PowerPoint (or even done a presentation for a long, long time) but Prezi makes me want to confine it to history, I think (though I'm not sure I want to do a presentation!).  It looks super sharp and whizzy!  Although, I've not yet tried it (the website was a bit defunct on Monday), I really would like to give it more of a whirl.

Doodle and Remember the Milk didn't realy get the saliva flowing in the same way and I sort of just stared at them briefly.  The latter I'm sure would help me a lot, mind.  But.  Not now.  Silly, really, not to try, but, as I said, I had not much time...

I did do a survey though.  A VERY simple one to ascertain a preference for tea or coffee.  As with the others, this could be a very useful tool, particularly as a simple way to gain information from users and will keep in mind.  In the meant time, 2 people did my survey.  Both tea drinkers.

Google Docs got me the most excited and I am very keen to try and use this more, esp in conjunction with iGoogle which I've been playing with more this week.  Could be very good for sharing documents - whether they be stories or more work-related - with people.  So much easier than blogging or e-mailing, potentially.  Super.  Will be playing with it more - probably in conjunction with my adjacent blog, twitter and scribd....

Til next week....

Toodle pip!

Morning after update

I'm starting to get going with LinkedIn now: I'm building up connections through work (including me auntie!)- may try and find people I was at uni with too.... need to build up my profile too... should be fun to see where, if anywhere, it all goes...

Week 4: Frieeennnnd!

I feel last week I didn't really get into the spirit of things.  The whole flickr experience left me a little confused somehow but I'm back now and ready for some socialising: internet-style!

Some sites I'm already familiar with (in fact, it was while glancing at 23 Things soon after I started at City that I set-up a twitter account), others not, so this will be a good one for finding out more. 

Twitter then: was good to read more on its use and possibilities - the ten tools sound interesting, will look into those a bit more.  I already follow some City Uni twitter accounts, but looked for others through them, choosing to follow the Bodliean Digital account plus Barbican Music Library, which looks interesting and handily close to work.... and they are following me too!!!

I also have a LinkedIn account but have never used it for ANYTHING, so let's find out more! And I can't find anyone so it may be a while before I do anything more...

... but after some poking about I can see the potential there - will report back later with more intrigfuing developments.

end of day: will come back later...!!!!!!!!!!!

I made a set! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimtim81/sets/72157629255366208/

Week Three: A command to blog!

My pet frog poses with his new buddy, a photo by artmonstergirl on Flickr.

Well this Creative Commons things looks good and interesting. I write a lot of stories that I post or blog in a couple of repositories without really thinking too much about copyright, so will look into this more. Copyright possibly can be too restrictive and it's probably a good thing to be more flexible. Mind you, most people might not care much these days and re-use without thinking a lot of the time.


I searched flikr for frogs, not sure why. My favourite picture is attached....

I thought some uploading would be in orderm, too, and have uploaded some silly cartoons I drew once: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78126843@N07/ Though everything's in reverse and I can't work out how to change this, so it's all gone a bit wrong!

I'm not sure what else to say this week.  Pictures are fun? Flickr seems to be a pain, but hopefully this will change...

Week Two: The Voyage Continues...

Onwards I sailed into Week Two, dear friends, ever inwards and upwards!

To iGoogle, something I'd seen written on the google website but never taken the time to explore further.

On first setting it up, I went too far, clicking too many boxes, leading me to a gadget strewn wasteland of things I didn't really want (US news, including celebrity bobbins!).  So the next thing for me was to learn to delete before carrying on.  Fortunately handy little menu tabs appear when you wave your mouse arrow over each gadget and this was easy to do.

As was adding more (avoiding both work disciplinaries and an angry fiance by ignoring the porn options)- I tried ones I have on my phone and played with moving them about in order create a reasonably uncluttered screen - a widening option helped with this a bit.  

Then to Google Reader and adding rss feeds, which looks like a nice little chap to have sat there... I've spent years ignoring the possibility of rss feeds, happy to work my way through a series of sites committed to memory and/or my bookmarks. I think I will definitely explore options further - thus enabling me to get back into the internet comic I used to read.... so, thanks 23 Things and see you soon!

Limping over the start line

In terms of jazzing it up, I have merely copied the main 23 Things City blog!  But this is OK, right?

In terms of setting-up, all was very simple.  Although there was a small spanner in the works because I didn't realise I had an account setup that I could use already!  Still, one reset password and I was away!

I'm familiar with blog basics from wordpress but this one looks like it will let me do a bit more with it without needing html knowledge (possibly wordpress would allow this but I don't think it does...).  Being in some way entertaining is the main hurdle, perhaps!

I shall now insert an image:

And some tags... (I've never done this before, it intrigues me much, and may get used a lot in the other blog I set up at the same time as this: The Habadashery of Stories)

See you next week!

Starting at the very beginning (Week One)

Well here we are and this is it.  Months after starting at City and months after 23 Things ended, I am doing it!  Why?  Because I want to!  (BTW, I overuse exclamation marks- as you may have noticed!) 

I work as an Information Assistant and am doing this not just to fill my CPD time but because the areas it covers I know little or nothing about and I want to know a bit more...

It's not my first blog but the other one I've mostly only been putting stories on for a long time, so this will hopefully be a nice return to writing about stuff.  Other than doing that, I watch football, listen to music, watch films, eat... the usual stuff, really.

Right, I'm off to jazz this thing up, then I'll blog again about the set-up!