Terrible poetry trumps...erm...Harry Potter

Mr McGonagalls works attracted a bid of £5,500, while a 1st edition of Harry Potter and the Philosphers Stone only managed £5,000.
Bad poetry has a special sort of attraction from the looks of it!

Am I X, Y, or Millennial?

I was born in 1978.
In some places, this makes me a Generation X-er...in others, I'm Generation Y...
Then again, I might be a Millennial, who were born between 1977 and 1995...

Depending on where you look, you can find someone who'll tell you you're either X, Y or Millennial.

Does it matter which Generation you are?
And what happened to Z?

Following the Hedgehog Librarian

As posted on her blog, a library meme.

"Below are the top 106 books tagged “unread” in LibraryThing.

The rules:

Bold what you have read, italicize books you’ve started but couldn’t finish, and strike through books you hated. Add an asterisk to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your To Be Read list."

Jonathan Strange & M. Norrell

Anna Karenina

Crime and Punishment

Catch-22*

One hundred years of solitude

Wuthering Heights

The Silmarillion

Life of Pi: a novel

The Name of the Rose

Don Quixote

Moby Dick

Ulysses

Madame Bovary

The Odyssey

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Eyre

A Tale of Two Cities

The Brothers Karamazov

Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies

War and Peace

Vanity Fair

The Time Traveller’s Wife

The Iliad

Emma

The Blind Assassin

The Kite Runner

Mrs. Dalloway

Great Expectations*

American Gods

A heartbreaking work of staggering genius

Atlas shrugged

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Memoirs of a Geisha

Middlesex

Quicksilver

Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West

The Canterbury Tales

The Historian

A portrait of the artist as a young man

Love in the time of cholera

Brave new world

The Fountainhead

Foucault’s Pendulum

Middlemarch

Frankenstein

The Count of Monte Cristo

Dracula

A clockwork orange

Anansi Boys

The Once and Future King

The Grapes of Wrath

The Poisonwood Bible

1984

Angels & Demons

The Inferno

The Satanic Verses

Sense and sensibility

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Mansfield Park

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest

To the Lighthouse

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Oliver Twist

Gulliver’s Travels

Les misérables

The Corrections

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

Dune

The Prince

The Sound and the Fury

Angela’s Ashes

The God of Small Things

A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present

Cryptonomicon

Neverwhere

A confederacy of dunces

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Dubliners

The unbearable lightness of being

Beloved

Slaughterhouse-five

The Scarlet Letter

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

The mists of Avalon

Oryx and Crake : a novel

Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed

Cloud Atlas

The Confusion

Lolita

Persuasion

Northanger Abbey

The Catcher in the Rye

On the Road

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Freakonomics

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The Aeneid

Watership Down

Gravity’s Rainbow

The Hobbit*

In Cold Blood

White teeth

Treasure Island*

David Copperfield*

The Three Musketeers

Some points about this list -

I have a definite avoidance of girly 'period' novels going on: I can't stand hard-done-by swooning heroines who have to be rescued from their tragic circumstances by the actions of an honourable man!

I quite like Dickens.

I like science fiction / fantasy.

Some of the books I've never heard of, so I can't tell if I want them on my To Be Read list!

To join or not to join?

I have a terrible, dirty secret. One that will make some librarians gasp in despair, and others maybe will feel relieved that they're not alone.

You see, I'm not actually a member, or user of public libraries.

There, I said it!

In fact, the only time I've been a member of a public library was at Uni, when I joined the local public library...and never used it. As a child, my Mum was a librarian in the local branch, and she just borrowed out books for me on her ticket, so we never got around to getting me a readers ticket. In secondary school, I used the school library, and sometimes the local library, with Mum still borrowing books on my behalf.

Now, as an adult, what I do is go to the local charity shops, buy a pile of whatever books from there that take my fancy at £1 each, read them, then give them back for resale. This means I give to charity twice over, once with the sale to me, and again with the donation back to them to resell. Also, I'll have an occasional shop at Amazon, buying enough of the £3 paperbacks to get free shipping, reading them, then again, giving them to the charity shops. I very rarely keep any of the books I buy, due to both space issues, and a knowledge that it'll be many years before I've forgotten enough of the contents to be able to read them again without thinking "I know what happens next".

I don't have any dependants, my money is entirely my own to spend as I see fit, so I don't feel that spending £15 to £20 a month or so on books is extortionate, although I realise there could be many people who would think spending that much on books regularly is insane.

As someone who isn't addicted to a particular author, reads fast but hates deadlines (ie return dates), tends to choose books to pick up based initially on their spine art, and is constantly fighting a book hoarding instinct, is there really any reason for me to use public libraries?

What could persuade me to switch from my buying and sending to charity habit, to joining and using a public library? Purely in relation to books - I'm aware public libraries have a lot more than just books in them, but I have my own computer and internet access, and don't want to join any sort of groups, so it would have to be the books that would tempt me in.

Am I a bad librarian for not being a member or user of my local library?

I don't understand

Why has this man been allowed to only perform community service after stealing 288 items worth £26,00 from the Catholic Archives in Edinburgh, as blogged before?

The reason for not imposing a custodial sentence? He had already served time for similar thefts in England, so a custodial sentence would be "oppressive".

Erm...so now a valid defence is "he did it before elsewhere, but he's very sorry"?
Surely that's not right?

Worth waiting for!

I'll definitely be having a good look at the online archive of the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament, from the first surviving act of 1235 to its dissolution in 1707.

It's been a huge amount of work (11 years), and looks very impressive! I used to like reading the 19th century reprints of the Acts which this work replaces, so this should make things a bit easier!

Even found a few mentions of my family name...and attempts by a widow sharing my surname to be paid the money her husband was due fromt he Army, back in 1649. She got it ;-)

Records of the Parliament of Scotland to 1707.

The trouble with Scots

As an accent, apparently if baffles transcribers in Devon, leading to mistake in court transcripts.

Although the residents staying at Her Majesty's Pleasure in Barlinnie may prefer their accomodations new name of Barrel Annie....

Turning off Beacon

So, as I continue to get pop-ups on Kongregate asking if it's ok to publish what games I'm playing in my Facebook feed, I decided to try and find out how to turn off Beacon...which I didn't even know was turned on. It seems to only be doing this because Kongregate is an American partner site.

It's in there, in the Privacy settings. If you want to do this too, go to:

Privacy >
News Feed and Mini Feeds >
Actions on External Websites >
Tick box marked "Don't allow any websites to send stories to my profile."

Save changes.

I did NOT like that!

So, I was sent a link to a fun game, Chronotron.
I was playing away, getting past versions of myself to work out puzzles, when a little pop-up appeared on the bottom right of my screen, saying that Beacon was telling my friends I was playing Chronotron on Kongregate, before sliding back into obscurity.
So I went over to Facebook, and sure enough, that information had appeared in my profile!

This is my first encounter with Beacon, and needless to say, I don't think my friends want to know when I'm playing a game on a totally separate website, so I disabled it immediately.
But I didn't know that Beacon was activated, or affected UK users? Maybe I need to find out more about it, as who knows what else it'll be informing my friends I'm doing on other websites!

"A bunch of over-the-hill slappers"

A judge in Canterbury's certainly spoken his mind about the behaviour of a trio of women who robbed and assualted a 31 year old man.

Can't say I disagree with his assessment of them though!

Link via Arbroath

Totally off topic

But...I just booked my tickets for the opening night of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!
How excited am I?!?!?

Yeeeeeeeeee-ha!!!!

*bounces off into the distance*

Current strangest blog search terms

I do get hits on here from some very odd search terms (which has actually prodded me about another point, to be blogged on later), but I have to say, todays is probably a winner, just for the disturbing thoughts about the searcher that it brings to mind:

"ruminants and librarians"

Is there someone out there looking for librarians that chew the cud? Or do they think that somewhere, there's a librarian in charge of a library of ruminants, all peacefully grazing in fields according to their classification?

Enquiring minds want to know....

JK Rowling wins appeal against photo use

JK Rowling has won her appeal against the use by a newspaper of a photograph of her young son, taken while he was being pushed by her in a buggy on a street in Edinburgh in 2004.
And frankly, I don't blame her.
Regardless of what she does or doesn't do in her professional life, that should not have any effect on her personal life. If she's at a professional event, she knows she's going to get photographed, and she prepares herself for that.
She shouldn't have to worry about photos being taken of her and her family while they are enjoying private, family time together, or even, as in this case, just going down the street. And her children shouldn't have to grow up worrying about being pursued by photographers, when their personal life has nothing to do with their mothers job.

Result of criminal appeal to be shown on TV

The appeal by Nat Fraser of his conviction for the murder of his wife Arlene will be filmed today, and the footage shown later on the BBC.
There will be no footage of Nat Fraser himself, or of the members of the public, just the judges giving a summary of their verdict.
I think this is a good step for the Scottish justice system. This case been very controversial, with huge difficulty for both sides in proving guilt or innocence. Being able to see the judges explain, themselves, exactly why they will uphold or quash the conviction should be far more persuasive to the public than a reporter reading out a transcript.

Lets just hope Lord Justice Clerk Lord Gill, Lord Johnston and Lord Osbourne make their judgement easily intelligible to the layman. And laywoman.

Future publishing of posts in Blogger now active

Yay, the draft feature (was which starting to get annoying, as I had to remember to go to Blogger in Draft to do a future post) has now been launched as a standard feature of Blogger.

I had already been using this feature on both my personal blog and this one, but it'll be a bit easier to do now.

Woo-hoo!!

Mr McGonagall again

Strangely timed, after my post of a couple of days ago, but a collection William Topaz McGonagal's work will be auctioned here in Edinburgh on the 16th of May.

Ah, the mangled wording and dodgy rhyming of The Tay Bridge Disaster - rock on Mr McGonagall!

Copyright and CaseCheck

Got time off for good behaviour yesterday, and was allowed out for a CILIPS training event: "Copyright in the digital age: an introduction for information professionals".


Chair: Tony Donnelly, Chief Librarian Glasgow Metropolitan College

10.00 Registration and coffee

10.30 Welcome and introduction

10.35 An overview of copyright in the digital age (JISCLEGAL)

11.00 Keynote Managing digital rights (Paul Pedley, Head of Research at the Economist Intelligence Unit)

11.45 The challenges of digital preservation (Simon Bains, Digital Library Manager, National Library of Scotland)

12.30 Using Creative Commons licences (Dr Charles Duncan CEO Intrallect)

1.00 Lunch

2.15 Managing intellectual property rights in digital learning materials:The Trust DR project. (John Casey, EDINA)

3.00 Digital licenses: a practical guide (Alan Rae, Dundee College)

3.45pm Summary and close

Unfortunately, John Casey was unable to attend, but I was actually a bit relieved about this - I had the Scottish Law Librarians Group AGM to attend at 4pm, to could have been pushing it for time otherwise!

The content of the seminar itself was very interesting, but I couldn't help but feel that I had a bit of a headstart on librarians in other subject areas - working in law, I already knew about most of the topics covered. Looking at the text of legislation wasn't something new for me, I know about database rights, and the British Horseracing Board case and its implications, and the other cases mentioned throughout the day. Some of the speakers were aiming at an academic audience (although their main points worked for all information professionals), and discussed things relevant only to a purely academic setting, such as ERA, which I had never heard of.

Overall, it was a good refresher course, the Creative Commons section was very useful to me: I've never really considered Creative Commons before, but that's probably because I don't create any material of note. Also, the bit on the challenges of digital preservation was very good too. I have to admit though, I'm slightly disappointed that it wasn't actually going into more depth about copyright, and the effects of new technology on it. I was hoping for perhaps a bit more detail about what is and isn't possible to do with digital materials, but I suppose that's hard to do, without having everyones electronic content licences there to examine!

The best thing about the event I think was meeting another law librarian, Kate McIntosh - it's always nice to get to know more people in the profession, and as an added bonus, she's also fab! (and apparently reads this blog, which is the first time I've met a 'real' person I didn't know who knew of it...*warm inner glow*)

Afterwards, it was off the the SLLG AGM (with me managing to slip in late for the last bit of the Committee Meeting...BAD Committee member me, being at a course instead of a Committee meeting!!), where Stephen Moore from CaseCheck talked to us about his fabby product.

Basically, it's a collaborative blog where recent Scottish cases of note are posted, with a synopsis from experts, saving shedloads of time trawling through the horrendous ScotCourts website for judgements. And I'm not exaggerating, it's awful - if you want an exercise in lunacy, try doing a few searches on it, and wondering how it can return results of 300% accuracy... CaseCheck also covers Employment Appeal Tribunal cases (another one that used to be a nightmare to search, and still can be, it's very unforgiving). And even better...it's FREE!!!

Here's how it works (as far as I can remember - I was suffering slightly from copyright-overload, so forgive me if I get some bits wrong) : Experts in their field (e.g. Digby Brown for the personal injury section) will write the expert opinion on each case, and users can comment on the cases posted on the site, which encourages discussion of the legal points brought up by each case. Links to the source material are provided wherever possible, and also to legislation if available.

A weekly email newsletter brings topics of possible interest to the legal profession straight to your inbox (I already subscribe to this, and shamefully, I like the gossip bit best!), and the recruitment section is very busy, and growing.

There are RSS feeds aplenty (this is indeed a spiffy thing!), and they're experimenting with Yahoo Pipes to see how they can use them to enhance the site and their offerings.

Overall, it's a brilliant new tool, especially for any Scottish law librarians looking to keep up with the output of the courts!

Although the Terms and Conditions section appears to ban reuse of material, I did ask yesterday if it was possible to use the postings, with the source properly attributed, within our internal current awareness service, and was told this was fine, as it's basically a free a type of marketing for the service. Once I have this confirmed in writing / an email (I don't work for lawyers for nothing you know!) I'm likely to be making it a regular visit...now, where do I find the time to add this material to current Awareness from!??!

Spidey lodges at the Library of Congress

The LOC Blog reports that they've acquired 24 pages of the original drawings for the first appearance of Spiderman in print.

Maybe his Spider Senses told him he'd be safe in their archives?

Harry Potter as a set text?

Really?
Erm....why?

I think Vanessa on the Fidra Blog says it all best....

Lets just hope the SQA doesn't get such daft ideas into their collective mind, or the youth of Scotland will be churning out fan fiction / poems based on William McGonnagall's work...although JK Rowling may have got there first, having already borrowed his surname for a character!

Transcripts of Old Bailey online

From the Guardian, news that the transcripts of Old Bailey trials from 1674 to 1913 are now available online.

I spy a few interesting hours to be spent browsing this site!

Definite improvement from Lexis Nexis

Having had to delve in quickly already this morning, I'm liking the redesign.
My main delight is the fact that, when using Stair Memorial Encyclopedia (our main reason for subscribing), there's now a lovely new option.
Previously, to see a whole section of the encyc, you had to click individually on each separate paragraph.
Now, when you click into a para, there's a lovely option in the top right that says "View whole of"...it's a joy!
Now I can scroll merrily through the encyclopedia, without thinking that it'd actually be quicker to use the paper version!
Well done Lexis Nexis!

Now, off to get used to the navigation (already re-sorted my bookshelf) before someone else needs me to do something useful with it!

What counts as 'using' a mobile phone then?

It's pretty hard for others to prove that you're using it if you're looking at text message...sure, you're not taking a call, or texting yourself, but you're certainly not giving your full attention to the road...

P.S. BBC, it was on the 7th May LAST year he was caught, not this year...unless he's invented time travel and kept the secret to himself.

A strippers truncheon isn't offensive

According to the High Court, in the final decision of Aberdeen student / strippogram Stuart Kennedy handed down today.

He obviously wasn't trying to impersonate a police officer...unless there is actually a Sergeant Eros out there, who moonlights as a stripper in his spare time?

Updating the UK Library Bloggers wiki

In response to my original post about needing help to double check entries and add last visit dates for the UK Library BLoggers wiki, the lovely Jo and Christine have kindly volunteered to help out, yay!!!

So, over the next wee while, we'll be revisiting all the blogs already on there, and checking the original quick synopsis is accurate, and adding in a date of last visit.

In my meanderings last night I found that already, in the month since I'd first visited, one blog had shut down and moved to another address with a new focus, and a new university departmental blog had started...it's all go with us library bloggers!

So thanks again to Christine and Jo for giving their spare time to help with this task!

No decision on Shetlands Scottishness, or lack of...

The issue regarding whether Shetland is part of Scotland won't now be heard, as the case was settled before going to court, and reported on the 20th April ( Scots Law News, 784).

Hector MacQueen in SLN points out the reasoning why it wouldn't have been possible to win it in the first place!

So, we keep the Shetlanders, whether they like it or not... :-)

Book sculptures

Now, I've had the problem before of trying to dispose of outdated law textbooks, both recently outdated, and a hundred years or so past it. Not a soul wants the pesky things - not art groups (for interesting materials), not theatre groups (for historic-looking props). It's frustrating, as nobody likes to throw 'good' books out, but out of date law books are almost dangerous - rely on something in an old book that's now been superceded, and you could get in trouble.

So...isn't this a better way to re-use old books?
That's some beautiful book-based things that man makes!

Link via Neatorama

Librarian goodies

I do love Etsy, it's a fab place to find all sorts of funky goods...and after a friend posted a link to this cool necklace (I am SO having that!!), I also found this shop. The maker is a librarian, and there's lots of library themed jewellery. As someone who doesn't wear earrings, most of her fun stuff is something I wouldn't use, but the pendants are tempting...as is the squid librarian...

How to celebrate a Chartership

Be gifted a large pink unicorn pinata by your boss.
Arrange a lunch with your Mentor and boss, explaining to Mentor that a pink friend will be joining the table, and causing much trepidation.
Walk down street with large pink unicorn pinata.
Join Mentor for lunch, and settle Uni at table.
Boss arrives and is happy her suggestion of lunch companion was able to join us.
Enjoy lunch.
Be amused throughout lunch by waiter studiously ignoring the pink unicorn at the table.
Leave and return to office.
Deflect attempts by workmen to beat poor Uni on the way, by telling them that he's too young.

Done!

Link to UK Library BLoggers wiki

I added a permanent link on the right hand side to save peeps searching for the link for the wiki, which is now buried under my random ramblings...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sweary words!

People that do things like this to historic books make me mad!!

In a previous workplace, it could be frustrating when you found passages of text in Institutional writings / law reports underlined with ink, and notes made in the margins - the courts won't accept photocopies of defaced texts like that.

But it was hard to argue with the perpetrators, as the ink was from ink wells, and the writing was copperplate...and the original annotator had probably died 150 years before you were born!