Monday, November 12, 2007

Press Events Calendar

Is Islam good for London? I really don't know, but I now know there's going to be a discussion about it, courtesy of Roy Greenslade's blog. His newly launched Press Events calendar aims to be as comprehensive a guide as possible to all manner of conferences, debates, lectures and speeches, in Britain and elsewhere, that touch on journalism. Looks like a great resource - just wish I had the time to go to all the events.

The perils of the sandwich.

So it's all change at Alton Towers. Roger is off and
into his shoes will step John Mulholland, current deputy
editor of the Observer.

Mulholland once wrote for the Guardian's media pages,
before leaving to edit the Sporting Life, the turf bible beloved
of the late, Queen Mother. However, Mullholland's tenure at the
Sporting Life was brief. Having nipped out for a sandwich one
lunch time, he returned - with sandwich - only to learn that
his bosses had sacked him.

The advice, then, is simple : always get your sarnies
from the trolley.

Friday, November 09, 2007

A recent trip down under revealed that the image of the librarian is once again under the spotlight. A new ABC sitcom, 'The Librarians' hit Australian tv screens last month, introducing an ecletic mix of fictional information professions which tick all the politically correct boxes - there's a muslim, a wheelchair user, a homosexual, even a bit of dyslexic eye candy for the head librarian to ogle . Apparently the show's creators did their research, visiting a number of public libraries around Melbourne and to get real librarians interested in tuning in, they sent out a short video, reassuring librarians of their respect for the profession. Their solemn promise - no 'shooshing' and no cardigans seems to have been kept; the tanorexic, drug dealing children's librarian in the pick mini-dress certainly sends the twinset and pearls scuttling back to the charity shop. Interest from the Australian library community has hit fever pitch, even the Australian Library and Information Association has set up a blog dedicated to the show. The show's creators were recently interviewed by the in Sydney Morning Herald. Time for a UK comedic take on our esteemed profession?