My temporary escape

Nearly everything we do these days involves sitting at a computer (it's the future!) so it's nice when you get to do some proper old-fashioned research. The Family Records Centre in London provides access to birth, death and marriage certificates and, while you can order over the web or by phone, you can only get a next-day service by going in person and searching though the indexes yourself. And it's an excuse to escape the office.

Where we've all been going wrong . . .

Came across "A Librarian's guide to Etiquette", a blog from a US librarian. Includes tips on answering the phone and how librarians should dress up for Halloween.

Google was around in the 60s shock

Came across this, which shows how Google still managed to cater for our searching needs even before the web was invented.

Head over heels for librarians

One from the archives - check out Tears for Fears showing their love for the librarian in their Head Over Heels video (not sure where the chimp comes in...).

Continuing Professional Development

Sue Hill talked about professionalism in the info industry at Online Information a few weeks ago. It's all about attitude and work ethic, apparently - have integrity, try to excel at every opportuity and engage in Continuing Professional Development (courses, mentoring, joining a professional body). Some practical tips - be aware of 'hot' skills in the industry (think web 2.0 at the moment), write a skills list to focus on your strengths and highlight areas you need to develop, and formulate an action plan to see how you can advance your career.

Read about the conference on the Information Today blog.

People who work in the information industry

Listened to a Today programme debate on Radio 4 this morning about the serial killings in Ipswich. The debate (between Roy Greenslade and Tina Sanders) centred around whether the victims should be constantly referred to as prostitutes. The presenter said that it's an inescapable fact that the victims are all prostitutes, and that if all the victims had been (and here there was a slight pause, perhaps trying hard to find a diametric opposite) say, librarians we would all be calling them librarians. I came away thinking at least we now know what the exact opposite of a librarian is, even if we're not sure whether to call them "prostitutes" or "women who work in the sex industry".

All New Adventures of Librarian Flynn

This month heralded the eagerly awaited sequel to The Librarian: Quest for the Spear. In this installment our hero Flynn Carson attempts to uncover the secrets of King Solomon's Mines. The typically American over the top trailer is worth checking out just for the immortal last line: "You never what you'll find in the library." Unfortunately the New York Times is less than impressed by Carson's new adventure which is broadcast on the US channel TNT. Look out for another upcoming US mini-series starring Peter Krause of Six Feet Under fame. It seems Peter is ready to take on aliens in The Lost Room but is not yet ready to challenge the demon that is the librarian stereotype

The oldest profession in the 21st Century

In the interests of journalism I spent an hour this lunchtime browsing the punternet website looking for contact details for Ipswich prostitutes. Other than a couple of sideways glances from colleagues as I filtered through the sites of 40something BBWs (Big Beautiful Women) I didn't encounter any problems.

I was a little surprised that I could surf this sort of thing at work without anyone questioning it (though maybe the editor will pull me aside for a little word later), but it's a good thing professionally that my company doesn't block sites and stop me from doing my job. I bet librarians in the filter-obsessed US would struggle - most of the sites would be blocked by NetNanny or CyberPatrol.
See here for earlier discussion of filtering software.

Party season

Sore heads in the office today courtesy of the AUKML 20th birthday party last night. I'll post something a bit more serious later on but one interesting little fact is that 56 bottles of bubbly (not to mention all the other stuff) were consumed by around 70 people.

Trexy

There was an interesting talk from Nigel Hamilton, CEO of trexy.com, at Online Information last week. Trexy is a way of saving your 'search trails', so you can access them again without having to rerun the search, and stores all trails in a database so you can check whether anyone else has done the search before you. It allows you to search any site that has a search engine built in (4,381 at the last count). And there's a goat involved somewhere (though not this festive one, under threat from arsonists). You can read more on the trexy blog.

From modems to mash-ups

Here is a great potted history of newspaper libraries in general and the one at the Guardian in particular. From World Reporter to Intranets and modems to mash-ups and integrated content. Appeared in December's Cilip Update

Information Professionals' Christmas Party

And so to the Information Professionals' Christmas Party, the event that always seems like a Guinness Book of Records attempt to cram as many weird acronyms (Biall anyone?) on to one invite. Anyway, last Monday, on the kind of balmy November evening that gets one in just the right mood for misletoe and Santa, I trotted along to the Science museum to enjoy the festivities. Champagne was served and the reception was all rather jolly. There was the usual photo session for the scores of sponsors and the now infamous 'raffle' that seems to be restricted to five people. Nice prizes if you can get them. It was then hiking boots on for the long march to where the food was being served. After last year's bread bun debacle, it was a pleasant surprise to be served Thai curry and coq au vin. However, as I chewed on the tasty bird fIesh the presence of a crashed aeroplane exhibit reminded me of those poor chappies in the film Alive. Very tasty.

Suitably stuffed, the information professionals moved on to the serious business of partying. The only downside of the magnificent venue was that its sheer size meant that the party was a bit spead out thus making networking/chatting /pulling difficult. Still there was always the dance floor. Now as someone who rarely dances I realise I'm being a tad hypocritical here. However, as an observer I feel duty bound to report the unbelievable scenes at the Science Museum discoteque. To the strains of Michael Jackson's Thriller, I witnessed a line of at least four IPs doing that funny zombie/arms up like a kangaroo dance that Michael and his chums do in the video. Thankfully someone recorded it. See you at next year's party?

Wikipedia rated by experts

The debate continues . . . A recent piece of research by "First Monday" (a peer reviewed journal on the internet) found that experts found Wikipedia’s articles to be more credible than the non–experts. The report goes on to say: "This suggests that the accuracy of Wikipedia is high. However, the results should not be seen as support for Wikipedia as a totally reliable resource as, according to the experts, 13 percent of the articles contain mistakes."

A viable alternative to Wikipedia

uncyclopedia is a wiki that has been designed to challenge the growing power of Wikipedia. However, the difference is that while Wikipedia tries (hard) not to get its facts wrong, Uncyclopedia goes all out to subvert the truth. It's an ambitious parody project and like the site it is lampooning anyone can add or edit any of its existing (150,000) entries. The only guideline from the creators is "please be funny and not just stupid". An example entry on Australia states: "Australia is a minimum security prison turned British colony that is either part of South East Asia, a British colony, or America Jr. depending on whose opinion you ask." Given the growing use of Wikipedia in the profession, I can't wait for a journalist to get their wikis in a twist . . .

Arrghhh! We're all gonna die!

Yep, it's Monday. Happened upon a list of what your chances of dying a certain way are. The National Safety Council in the US have produced a long list and a WAYS TO GO simple chart. They released the info in response to constantly being asked by journalists what the odds of dying of "x" are. Given that I've got a mere 193 to 1 chance of dying from accidental poisoning by exposure to noxious substances I think I'll cancel my 14 million to 1 national lottery subscription.

AmbientLibrarian

Great idea it might be, but unfortunatley AmbientLibrarian is not a site for all things Brian Eno. Instead it's a wiki dedicated to helping information professionals learn more about available web technologies, with Library 2.0 as its main focus. If anything's going to explain what it's all about, this it. Well worth a visit.

The Librarian: Seen the film? Now read the comic.

With a sequel to The Librarian about to be aired in the US, the brand has extended to a soon-to-be-released comic book. Get an 8-page sneak preview here. For the uninitiated, it has been described as "if Indiana Jones were a librarian . . " You have been warned.

Is it safe?

It's what we're all supposed to be good at, but how exactly do you go about assessing the quality and validity of information? A useful list of Top 10 Tips, compiled at the end of TFPL worshop, can be found at Karen Blakeman's blog.

Morgue Mama rides again

Just finished Dig, by CR Corwin, the second Morgue Mama book starring Hannawa Herald-Union librarian Maddy Sprowls. This time she's investigating the murder of Gordon Sweet, university professor of garbology and fellow college beatnik in the Fifties - does it involve illegal dumping at the local tip, a campus murder in 1957 or a 40-year argument over Jack Kerouac's burger of choice?

Maddy's definitely old school (she has a stash of old cuttings files in her basement and refuses to use a computer - she wouldn't last two minutes in a news library these days), and catchphrases like, "Good gravy!" wear thin quickly, but it's hard not to like her. It feels authentic; when a junior reporter describes Maddy as a "desk-bound gnome who watches over the morgue", you just know the author has worked at a newspaper (Rob Levandoski, who uses the pen-name, was a reporter for several years). There are a few unnecessary subplots, but the story rolls along at a reasonable pace and it's nice to read a novel where the librarian is the central character, even if there are a few clichés thrown in.

Dig, as well as the first book, The Cross Kisses Back, are published by Poisoned Pen Press.

Random library blog of the month

Red Tape, the blog for Government Documents Librarians of Michigan. Discover why Michigan needs a new state constitution and whether organic apple farming is viable there.

Another random(ish) blog yours truly gets a mention at the Global Journalist, and its list of blogs.