Magical mystery tours

I must admit, I've never been inside Kensington Palace: the strong associations with Diana have always put me off, and there are so many other fascinating places to go - there are four more Royal palaces just in London for a start!

That said, this article about the new Enchanted Palace exhibition has just catapulted it up my to-do list!

* Photo by Ben Oh, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

One foot in front of the other

Reference by walking around - I think I ran into that concept under that name in the One Person Library / OPL Newsletter, about a decade ago, when I was just starting out as a solo librarian, and at least once a week I'm glad that it's a tool in my tool kit.

It's so simple and yet so effective; reducing the 'friction factor' of asking a question to almost nothing. The questions I get asked when I pass someone in a corridor, or when I'm straightening the newspapers or doing any one of a dozen small jobs I intentionally space throughout the day to give me reasons to be walking about the library being visible and ready to be asked, often start 'I wasn't going to bother you but as you're here' or 'I don't suppose you know, but' or 'this is probably a really dumb question, but' - which is to say, exactly the kind of things that people might *not* ask if they had to come up to a desk, or come across to my office, however open-door and accessable I try to make myself. They're very often questions I can answer, so that people get whatever it is they need, whether that's directions to Abbey Road or advice about how to untangle an unclear citation, or where such-and-such a book is shelved. It also gives me some clues about what people are not asking, which is useful when I'm thinking about signing, or 'how do I...' tips, or reminder emails. And the newspaper rack gets straightened. In short - everybody wins.

* Photo by Ben Werdmuller, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Little things

It's a small thing, but I just managed to put together two MySQL queries that extracted the information I needed from the system, without help, in a reasonably sane amount of time. Several different logic-checks seems to prove they're both giving me what I thought I was asking for, and the numbers match up with the pattern I was expecting. It's a long way from mastery, and it might be a small step, but it's a step in the right direction.

Check point

This has been a very productive three day week, and I did achieve my goal and clear my cataloguing backlog. There are just two copies of a single title still on my 'to process' shelf, and they're waiting for a call number to be generated for it by my wonderful colleague back on campus who lends her expertise with particularly tricky titles.

I also did a spot check on the dvd collection, had a couple of really productive conversations with colleagues, got all my paperwork up to date and filed, chased a batch of outstanding book orders, fitted the new shelf-ends, updated the shelf signs, and generally did everything I was hoping I'd get done to make sure I was starting the second half of the semester on a sound footing (except clear all the shelving created by my cataloguing spurt, but if that's not a task for a Monday morning, I don't know what is.)

So, I may still be here 45 minutes after I should have finished for the day, but I'll be off tomorrow with a clear conscience, and come in on Monday to a clear desk in a more organised office, which feels like a good place to leave things.

* Photo by Stéfan, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll's Alice stories were some of my favourites when I was a child - not my absolute favourite, which was Black Beauty, but books that I read and re-read, and have a great affection for. I never took to the Disney version, but I am a Tim Burton fan, so I've been really looking forward to seeing his take on the stories, and carefully avoiding interviews and reviews so as to go and see it with fresh eyes and an open mind.

Burton's film is not a faithful adaptation of the books, more an 'inspired by' fantasy, and it leaves out some of my favourite moments and characters, but it picked me up and carried me away, and I don't think I stopped smiling or being delighted at any point. The colour-scapes, the design, the use of the 3-d, the costumes, the whole rhythm of the piece, as well as some absolutely fantastic performances - well worth having paid out the extra for the big-screen 3-d screening.

If you want to see just how far both the technical medium and the conventions of our visual language has come since 1903, have a look at the first film version of Alice in Wonderland, restored by the BFI for its centenary. The long version is here, or the 3 minute highlight reel is here.

(If you've been meaning to re-read the originals, Project Gutenberg has the e-text of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.)

* Photo by seriykotik1970, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

World Book Day

Today's World Book Day in the UK, National Grammar Day in the USA, and National Procrastination Week wherever created-by-press-release holidays are celebrated. It's also the last full class day before break week for my students, which is why I'm not using any of those occasions to hang an event on - the library's been getting quieter and quieter all day as people finish their last classes and head off.

I am spending some quality time tonight curled up with my current book, though, which is at least in keeping with the theme of the celebrations.

My break plans are to take a couple of long weekends*, to dig into a couple of ongoing projects in between, and to blitz my cataloguing backlog, so we can start the second half of the semester with the richest possible array of resources on the shelves, and a clean slate in my office to use as I start to focus on resources for the Summer School classes.



*(although, seeing as the last couple of days have been fuelled by the power of Lemsip and hot and sour soup, I suspect I'll be spending the first weekend succumbing to this cold.)

* Photo by Tania Ho, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.