Shiny Things!! Shiny Things!!!

Interesting blog post over at Tame the Web on the idea of applying Cover Flow view from Itunes to digital collections.

Check out how Villanova University has put it too use.

Ok, this won't save the world or cure cancer, but I would much rather leaf through a digital image archive this way. DSpace, get to work on this for me.

Oh NOES! Authors may stop writing

From an interview in the Times (London), Tracy Chevalier says authors may stop writing because of an epidemic of internet book piracy. I have been riding the pirate ship for a heck of a long time and I have hardly ever seen a copied ebook online. Sure, they are out there, but to say they are obscure poetry books is pretty ridiculous.

People may actually buy her books if she just stopped writing the same damn story over and over and over.

The meaning of life is...

Question of the Day - March 29 2008

10 minutes into the day and we have a wiener.

Patron: Where can I find stuff on this? (hands me a battered copy of Sci. Am. with a cover article on nanotechnology)
Me: Nanotechnology, 4th floor Science and Tech.
Patron: (looks around and leans in) When I was at Vancouver General last year, they injected me with nanytes.
Me: Better get that looked at then.

Question of the Day

Patron: I want to find someone to eBay some stuff for me.
Me: Uh, are you wondering how to use eBay to sell items? (we have an Intro to eBay class)
Patron: No. I don't know computers. I just want someone to sell my stuff on eBay and to split the profits with me. I heard that I can make a lot of money with eBay.

Sadly we don't have a bulletin board where people offer services such as this. All I could think was "I bet somewhere on Craigslist is an ad for someone who will sell your crap on eBay for you"

Code4Lib Journal

Issue two of the Code4Lib Journal is out now. Some interesting articles in this issue. Two that caught my eye:

Free and Open Source Options for Creating Database-Driven Subject Guides

Using Google Calendar to Manage Library Website Hours

Being a Librarian is Like... so Zen, Don't You Know?

Over at AttentionSpan, there's a link to a Yahoo!Education fluff piece about 8 low-stress careers. Included are preschool teacher, nursing assistant, and IT support. WTF?!? Though equally shocking in the AttentionSpan blurb is mention of librarian as an actual low-stress career. Yeah, right. There must be some other reason for the accelerated graying of hairs, the mean disposition, the loathing and unhappiness each and every shitty morning (or afternoon) before work. At least in Britain they know better. According to the BBC, librarians are some of the most unhappy worker-bees in that fair country. Beers and cheers to that!

Bow down and kiss my school ring you filthy paraprofessional

Rachel Singer Gordon has an interesting piece on what makes a "librarian."

Speaking as someone who holds both a Library Technician diploma and an MLIS, for myself the difference is entirely on the outside. I am treated differently because of the piece of paper (which I have actually lost), but I do not think my abilities have changed at all pre- and post-library school. Of course I have more experience now and more abilities, but I truly believe I could do the same work to the same degree even if I never set foot in those hallowed halls.

Book Bag Blog? Why?

In an obviously desperate attempt for attention - but perhaps more so a cry for help - the Unviersity College of Dublin's library has created a blog dedicated solely to posting pictures of its common-looking book bag in locations all over the world. As if anyone gives a toss where their rather plain looking book bag (mercifully produced under ideal labour conditions using organic cotton) has been or where it's going. Honestly, why don't librarians spend their time on improving library systems and the delivery of service to its users rather than these wasteful exercises in meaningless self-promotion? Show me a single university kid who cares about these book bags and I'll show you... well, a disingenuous librarian in the making,

The Worlds Mostest Modernist Library

The DOK Library in Delft, Netherlands. Jenny Levine over at Shifted Librarian has tour and review of it. Very Ikea-esque. Wonder how many alan keys it required to put together?

iMac pods? I wants!!