Dogger, Fisher, German Bight

If the post title means nothing to you, try either getting up much, much earlier in the morning (even earlier than Olympic Breakfast) or reading/watching the wonderful Kes / A kestrel for a knave. Yup, it’s the shipping forecast. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the resit computing assessment board, whiuch for mysterious reasons I got invited to and couldn’t quite bring myself to decline. Names: they read rhem out. Grades: they read them out. Discussion: minimal and inconclusive. Same old issues. But then right in the last 5 minutes the external examiner brings up referencing and I have to jump to attention to have my say. How can it only be 3pm? A member of computing staff has just invited me to a meeting for 4 hours ago, so his brain is clearly equally addled by the shipping experience.

This morning, met with manager and colleagues to start thinking about the next implementation plan. But we haven’t implemented the stuff from the last implementation plan yet. Should we rename this new document the ‘Fantasy plan’ or the ‘Completely unattainable bloated targetfest’? Feeling overwhelmed by targets, interim targets, personal objectives, oh and a truckload of actual normal work which still needs my loving attention. How on earth am I going to get everything done.

As a completely side issue, the Foo Fighters: what are they for? I don’t get them. I must have been three sheets to the wind when I agreed to be vocalist for a gang of 30- and 40-something rocker guys. Have made it abundantly clear that Cookie monster vocals were not part of my choral training. But the FFs I just don’t get, pure and simple.

Ho hum. Time for a bun. Or more likely time to get back to populating my graduate attribute maps. Don’t ask. Involves pink and green and all manner of wondrous commitments.

Anything for a free lunch

Feeling more sluggish than Malfoy… could it be the after effects of the burger and chips I got free for helping out with the intensive summer school? Should never have followed this with a blueberry Geobar. It’s slightly scary that the new batch of students were born in the 1990s. I am not officially Past It.

It’s fitting then that my mental distraction (everyone should have one of these on a Friday afternoon!) is coming up with a songlist for the guys. Let’s not call ourselves a band. More a motley crew of three guys whose wives want them out from under their feet occasionally, plus one more guy and his wife (moi) who’s stupid enough to go along and attempt to screech vocals over their combined racket. Latest plot is for everyone to suggest half a dozen songs, we agree a common list and work on those. But what to suggest…?

Suppliers have all crept out from under their stones this morning. One little victory – finally get new resource up and running. This will save on aggrieved phone calls from the engineers. Villain of the dfay is the company who seem to think we belong in the same pricing tier as institutions four or five times our size. Er, how?

Tomorrow will be rolling up sleeves and tackling the final revisions to the draft CDG Strategy. After which I shall have earned something red and fermented.

White bread for the sandwich

Been hard at it today preparing a session on information literacy for the next crop of unsuspecting lecturers on the PGCHET course. Not sure quite how we got this gig, but management showing a lot of interest so clearly this is regarded as premium content! Have chucked a spoonful of Brabazon, a pinch of CIBER, a proclamation and a couple of definitions into the pot, along with a little exercise, a discussion and of course a video clip from YouTube. Should be fun. Bound to be a few stroppy individuals in the group (whadda we have to do this fooooor, doncha know I’ve got groundbreaking experiments to set up and module descriptors to obsess over). I know; I am technically still one of the stroppy individuals on the course, having survived 2 modules and trying to gear up to get some material together for module 3.

While juggling powerpoints and generally cogitating, am finally sampling the benefits of Last.fm. Very cool music selections, can go into my happy space while I work.

But back to work now… need to leave early today to go to my unhappy place: the dentist. Then might juggle a few more CDG draft strategy revisions around into what is fast becoming yet another document of doom, albatross-on-a-roll, ticket to Confusion Central.

Toes in the water

So here I am at SALCTG’s Show and Tell Web 2.0 extravaganza. About 25 good library staff and true have gathered in a windowless PC lab at Napier Uni, forgoing bright warm sunshine outside, to find out just what the heck everyone else is actually doing in the web 2.0 arena. We’ve talked wikis and blogs, catalogue widgets and instant message enquiry services, and flown around the Sistine Chapel in Second Life. We’ve shared a few frustrations and misconceptions and many of us have felt outclassed by others’ presentations. There is so much more to be learned but it all needs time. I need to get under the bonnet more and gain confidence to enhance things, peek at the HTML a bit, not just go bargain basement with everything.

Stuff I’ll be looking up that I haven’t tried before… Meebo; Dapper; FeedBurner; Eurekster. Maybe. If I have time. Eat an Aero bar to sustain myself.

Have a good chat at lunchtime with a PhD student who is researching the psychology of learning technologies… plenty to analyse there I shouldn’t wonder! Actually find I have some business cards in my purse so encourage him to keep in touch.

The world is small and one of the delegates turns out to be a fellow musician who knows some muso friends of mine. And there are biscuits, hurrah! I need my strength if I’m to make it through Peebles tomorrow…

Incomings and outgoings

Yesterday saw our first official Revalidation course up at Causewayside in Edinburgh. I joined with Margarets Forrest and Chapman to hopefully cover all points of view – CILIP as award provider; the assessor; and the candidate. We hope we created a welcoming and positive atmosphere, and indeed the afternoon did seem upbeat (even though we left a glorious summer day outside for an overly air conditioned windowless seminar room). It was a small group, and most people seemed comfortable asking questions. Ventured slightly into Fellowship territory at the end of the day. I think I will go for it. Well, maybe. Next year. Or the year after. When I’ve had both arms broken by my activist colleagues, no doubt.

Have you noticed how some names are more hallowed than others in the profession? I don’t mean specific individuals; I mean literally certain names. ‘Margaret’ is one such name. Chapman, Forrest, Watson and more. ‘Sheila’ does well too: think Corrall and Webber. ‘Keith’ gets about – Trickey, Nockels, Wilson. In my first library post, I worked with 3 Janes, 5 Annes and 7 Sues. It did get rather muddly. I’ve met a couple of Amandas on my professional travels, so that bodes reasonably well. (Did you know it means ‘charcoal’ in Lusoga?) I wonder whether there are any inauspicious names for information professionals? ‘Louis’ would give rise to some bad poetry, I imagine…

Back to Chateau Inbox today and hard at it all day with documents to finish, critical meetings and discussions, plus a host of new electronic resources each with their own peculiarities and demands. I’ve had to resort to using flags on my emails and it’s starting to look like an Olympic opening ceremony.

Tomorrow a musical interlude – off to Glasgow for the Scottish Recorder Festival, an annual jamboree with guest stick-waver and a nice lunch in between playing sessions.  Looking forward to being uplifted and achieving something with my fellow players – the ultimate in quick wins – see a piece for the first time, play it, rehearse, improve, perform. Also get to dip into some more short stories on the train.

Don’t forget – this week’s Doctor Who promises an ultra scary story set in a Library…

All issues big and small

Busy times as the Career Development Group National Council is almost upon us – Monday and Tuesday see our biggest business meeting of the year, and for 2008 I am its Mummy. Yikes. We have some wighty matters to discuss including finance and governance. Monday night also sees my Presidential Reception at the beautiful British Library, in the company of around 70 of my assembled colleagues – fellow group members, Past Presidents and officers, the great and the good of CILIP, even my boss (although I did warn him off staying at the Tavvy…) I am expecting another night when style will triumph over substance (hasn’t Boris shown us that…) and I will be relying on my trusty Jackanory binder for moral support and pre-menopausal memory lapses.

Flicked through the Big Issue yesterday, Lisa at Dundee Station always saves me one. The seller’s profile at the back this week caught my eye:

“I want to better myself, and books can help you do that. It’s mainly biographies I read; crime and sport stuff… True-life stories by people who’ve had a hard time are more interesting to me than fiction because real people have got a story to tell. Their experiences can make you think”.

I don’t agree about fiction but I do agree on the enabling power of books! Librarians should stop apologising for the books!

Also been enjoying Young Musician of the Year category finals on BBC4 this week. Technical ability goes without saying; it’s more about the performance, how to communicate with your audience, how to choose the programmes that will delight and inspire them. Sound familiar?

Alles in ordnung

Well, you may have raised a virtual eyebrow at my recent silence. I have been closed to the blogosphere due to full time engagement with the real world. Last week I spent several days in Germany – a collaboration between the Scottish Recorder Orchestra and our Dortmund equivalent. We stayed in a beautiful guest house (complete with swimming pool), rehearsed 8 or 9 hours each day and generally bonded together. We each pieced together what we could of each other’s languages, with simultaneous translations by our conductors during rehearsals. On Sunday we performed a wonderful concert in a high school gymnasium. I have played in hundreds of concerts over the years but have rarely been so moved.

OK so this is nothing to do with the profession… but the same motivators apply: cooperation; reaching a common understanding; purposeful activity leading to high motivation and great reward for all concerned. Are you speaking my language? Are we on a wavelength?

Tonight I go to the Scottish screening of ‘Hollywood Librarian’ in Glasgow. Very exciting. I am dressing up. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a feather boa in rural Fife…