CW's superglu

• suewaters Great resource on workplace innovation

... here, anyway.

With M's help, all the posts on this blog have been moved over to a new home. Yes, I think it's finally time to leave Blogger. I don't have any major plans, although I'd like to experiment with a few things (more on this over the next few weeks), so if you'd like to follow my progress, point your aggregators at The New Site.

Because it's Information Awareness Month this month, over at LINT, we're running a little contest asking folks to think about the library - the one you work at, the one you visit, your favourite (or not-so-favourite!) library - and what it will look like in 2010. You are welcome to create an account on LINT and post your vision there, or email us. The prize for the best entry is a signed copy of Meredith Farkas’ book Social Software in Libraries.

I'm especially curious to hear from any all of you readers who don't work in a library. What do you love about the library? What are your gripes about your library? Or don't you visit a library at all - why not, and what would make the library more relevant to you?

Feel free to email me, leave a comment here, or go visit LINT and tell us what you think. Entries close 20 May.

This post is actually my answer to Bibliobibuli's question on her blog: What are YOU reading? Any good?

For the first time in ages, I'm only reading one book at the moment: To Fear a Painted Devil, by Ruth Rendell. Started it last night.

I've just finished Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge. ZOMG!!1 (I'd like to write a better review but my head is still spinning from all the ideas. Wearable tech, libraries without books, mysterious rabbits, Dangerous Knowledge, Librarian Militants. I heart Vernor Vinge.)

Also Stasiland by Anna Funder. A very readable book, about the secret police in the East German Communist regime and their impact on East German society. People do horrible things to each other.

I would be reading Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, but it's a library book, and someone else wants it. I ordered this for the collection, why can't I hang on to it a bit longer? (I've only had it for a couple of months...)

I also want to start reading Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. I have some ideas for an article I'm writing with the LINT folks, and want to see if this book supports them.

And I really ought to stop gazing at the stacks in my room and start reading:
The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
Life: A user's manual by Georges Perec
Panggil Aku Kartini Saja [Just call me Kartini] by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
And then there's all the books I noted in that reading challenge I wrote about in January.
And a small list of journal articles I've come across.

It occurs to me that this list is never going to get smaller, mainly because I buy so many books. I think I buy at least one book a week, and some weeks it's more. (Last week? Four books. Just ordered four books, from Amazon. Sigh.) And then there's all the library books. I could probably stop buying books today and never run out of things to read.

Paco the supermodel
Originally uploaded by CW.

Life's completely changed for me now Paco's here.

We've been to puppy school. Paco was a bit wary of the other puppies at first - all bigger than him - but he quickly decided Mia the Alaskan Malamute was his favourite. Even though she can put his entire head in her mouth.

Paco can sit, drop, and come, and he's learning to shake hands (we're using a Dutch word pootje "little paw" as the command). He's a bit strong-willed though and doesn't always want to obey. Reminds me of a certain cat sometimes... (M and I like to imagine a meeting between Paco and Baubles.)

The park is one of my new favourite places.

I can talk to you about the virtues of liver treats as training aids, as compared to Schmakos.

Nylabone comes in flavours. Yes, flavoured nylon.

One can be very creative stuffing a kong.

And there's a whole new world of doggy fashions out there...

I always thought those dog owners and their well-dressed pooches were a bit too precious, but Paco actually shivers on cold mornings (and is reluctant to get out of his warm bed) at the moment and I can see the point now!

I'll have to take a picture of Paco in his other outfit, a red velvet and fleece Dracula-look coat - very smart!

When we got home on Friday night, the phone line was dead and we had no connection to The Net.

M called Telstra right away (thank goodness for the mobile) but given that it was 7pm on a Friday night, there was nothing they could do until Monday, maybe Tuesday. (Tuesday?!?! I tried not to dwell on that.)

I hadn't realised how much we rely on The Net.

We lost all access to the simplest information. M needed to buy some computer equipment for his aunt - we didn't know the number of the dealer, or their opening hours on a Saturday. Maybe we should keep the print phone books when they're delivered this year. But phone books don't allow you to browse what a computer dealer has in stock, or compare prices with other dealers...

We had to buy a newspaper to check movie screening times.

No news on demand. Waiting for the radio, or worse, the tv, was terrible. What's happening?? I don't care that Paris Hilton's going to jail or that a football player's back in town from rehab...

No access to a few things I'd saved in gmail, to read later. Sigh...

Worst of all, I had no idea what people were doing.

I lost all desire to get up early - nothing to do at 5am! - and slept in to 8am.

The weekend was very busy. We started Dutch language class (more on that later), did all the usual weekend chores (food shopping, laundry, cleaning), visited family, went to the park, took Paco to play with canine friends... So even if we'd been connected I wouldn't have had much time to spend on the computer.

I really didn't like the feeling of being out of the loop, though. All the old media choices that were available to me were static, limited, and utterly unsatisfactory. I felt isolated and unconnected, and that feeling was always there - even though I told myself that if anything really earth-shattering happened someone would call and tell me - I felt cut off and like I had no control over all of my usual channels. It was quite unlike other weekends where I decide to switch off and feel perfectly fine about it. Perhaps this past weekend was different due to the lack of choice in our disconnectedness.

To Telstra's credit, their technician called just after 7am Monday morning and came over to check our line at 7:30am. It took two and a half hours, but he discovered that the neighbours' electrician had cut our phone line right through - our line goes through their property - causing the immediate and unequivocal black-out. He fixed it, and in the process also cleaned our apparently corroded line up so that our connection is now twice as fast as it used to be. Hoorah!

Three: Half an Hour, written by Stephen Downes. Stephen writes so clearly and well, and always has a perspective I hadn't considered. Take his two most recent posts, on Cat Blogging and Copyright and Creativity, Again, for example. And his post expressing his annoyance at having to change his Flickr details - while I just sulked, his post said it all.

Four: Library 2.0: An Academic's Perspective, written by Laura Cohen. Laura often writes about things I'm pondering - but while I do so in a half-arsed sloppy way, she produces these great, well-considered posts that complement what I'm reading, help me focus and keep me thinking. Lately I've been thinking about the place of libraries within the communities they serve - I'm reading The Library: A Distinct Local Voice? and her post on online community spaces at universities: ohhhh! (see what I mean? Articulate, I am not particularly.)

Five, and finally: Tropic Temper by Glenda Larke. I'm cheating a bit because what I like most about Glenda's blog is her photos of Malaysian jungles. See Royal Belum - so why don't you go there? for example. I also learn a lot about the fauna, and about parts of Malaysia that you don't normally hear/see much about.

Glenda is also a fantasy author. M and I have read her Isles of Glory trilogy, and M is currently reading the second book in the new Mirage Makers trilogy. He's enjoying it immensely and even used a word I don't often hear from him to describe it: "Compelling!" I think he's a bit peeved that he picked the books up before all three books have been published, though. Not sure when book three comes out, probably next year.

So these are my five blogs that make me think. What are yours? I'll tag... Kathryn, Fiona, snail, Peta, Morgan, Bronwyn, Michelle...

Apparently there are rules for this meme:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Great map (feels Ursula LeGuin-ish to me) - thanks M for the link! (Click on image for larger version.)

At the moment I generally bob around the Blogipeligo. In stormy weather I might get blown up into the Bay of Angst, and occasionally get washed up on the shores of the Wikipedia Project. I enjoy my excursions to Flickr and Last.fm, but it's been a while since I've ventured onto WoW island, though, and even longer since I've visited Second Life (which I find rather barren* boring, despite the friendly locals). I love the fact that much remains unmapped - MetaFilter? Twitter? LibraryThing? Ning? And where do libraries fit? (Or do they? Most of our web presences remain static and underdeveloped.)

Update, sometime later: in mentioning this map, danah boyd's got another interesting take on it, and the online "world", so to speak.

* barren is probably carrying the island/environment analogy too far - I don't think it's quite fair to say SL is barren, even if I find it dull and clunky. I blame this on having had far more enjoyable experiences in gaming environments.

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to name another blog in this list this morning (we had a late night - puppy school then a birthday party) but it's easy: blog number two out of five blogs that make me think is No Impact Man.

This is a newish blog written by Colin Beavan in New York City, and it's a tale of his and his family's adventures over a year, as they try:

"to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…

"What would it be like to try to live a no impact lifestyle? Is it possible? Could it catch on? Is living this way more fun or less fun? More satisfying or less satisfying? Harder or easier? Is it worthwhile or senseless? Are we all doomed or is there hope? These are the questions at the heart of this whole crazy-assed endeavor."

The very idea fascinates me.

I've been thinking about the thinking meme (no pun intended) ever since I got tagged, and wondering who I'd list. Actually, I first saw this meme on Yang-May Ooi's blog, and it got me thinking then, too. Which five blogs would I say "make me think"?

I think I'll actually cheat a little and vary the meme a bit, and instead of posting about five blogs in one hit, I might just post as I think of them.

The first blog in my list is The Useless Tree. Written by Dr Sam Crane, the blog is subtitled "Ancient Chinese Thought in Modern American Life". I enjoy Dr Crane's writings on Chinese, particularly Taoist, philosophy, but his posts about his disabled son, Aidan, were what really made me think. Like this post:

"But Aidan is worth it. His value comes precisely from the challenge he poses to the usual definitions of ''value.'' He is a living reminder that the range of human experience is broader than the narrow confines of balance sheets and business plans. While he will never pay back society in financial terms, he certainly gives to those around him.

"To my wife and me he has given the gift of perspective. A good day now is not a matter of more income or greater social status or new things from the mall, but a time of fewer seizures or his comfortable sleep in his own bed. He has expanded the world of his little sister, Margaret. Though only 4, she is not afraid of wheelchairs or white canes; she knows that not everyone walks or talks or sees.

"He has a similar impact on his friends at school -- yes, he is entitled by law to be included in the local public school. His classmates were put off at first by the wheelchair, the seizures, the strangeness. But after a simple explanation -- ''he was just born that way'' -- they come to accept him, even compete to push his chair or hold his hand. Some have forged real friendships with him, asking to trick-or-treat with him at Halloween or inviting him to a birthday party.

"His most profound effect, however, is the reflection he inspires in many who meet him. Without a word, he poses the deepest questions. What is a life? What makes any life, even one so limited, worth it? Strangers have come up on crowded streets, touching his shoulder or tousling his hair, giving us their abbreviated answers. Usually they say something about love or grace, something well beyond the material concerns of everyday life. With Aidan, it's never about productivity, it is about humanity."

I was very sad when I learned that Aidan passed away, aged 14. The eulogy his Dad gave for him brought a tear to my eye.

I've been thinking about Seth Godin's post, Ego, for a few days now. Basically Seth says that "People like to be recognized, respected and trusted." He suggests that "If I come to your fancy restaurant for dinner, why not ask me about some of my preferences on the phone and laser print a menu that highlights some of my faves." I really like this idea. Imagine having an experience that is customised for you next time you go out for dinner.

As well, I like to be recognised as a repeat customer if I visit a shop regularly. It's not about expecting freebies or obsequious service though - just a simple "Hello [I recognise you, I know you have been coming here every time you need a {insert item name here}]" will suffice.

This year I was reassigned to a different faculty (or division as they are known at MPOW). I moved from business to science and engineering. Apart from the change in disciplines (challenging enough!) I have found the change very interesting to observe. It's made me realise how much the interactions and relationships between people matter, and what a huge difference knowing a person makes, even in more formal situations.

By the time I left the business school I had built up a really nice network and had a good grasp of who's who, what's what and all the division's priorities. There were a few moments in the first few weeks in science and engineering when I thought that I must have been crazy to think that this change was going to be a good thing. It was very unsettling to realise that I had no networks, I had no idea who I needed to talk to to get X done, or what people in this new area thought of Y. I had to start all over again.

So what's all this got to do with Seth's post, you're wondering? Well, I've been pondering how that added human dimension is vitally important in my job. Besides having the skills to know where to find information, people skills, being interested in the people you're supposed to be helping also makes a huge difference. Looking like you care (and actually caring) has a very positive influence on your interactions with people (not very profound I know). Especially at MPOW, which is a large university where it is easy for students (and staff, sometimes) to feel like they are Just A Number. I hope I do make a difference to the students I do come into contact with. Remembering that anything I do could make a difference to whoever I come into contact with (students, staff, colleagues) - this is a good thing to keep in mind. Especially when I'm answering that umpteenth EndNote query.

Late post, because I have a day off today.

It's just as well I don't have writer's block when it comes to blogging, otherwise I'd still be trying to write posts for January now, or something.

At the moment I'm trying to tidy up and finish two abstracts that have to be submitted by tomorrow. So far, to procrastinate, I have:

• eaten breakfast and brunch
• drunk three cups of tea
• expanded my mighty galactic empire (did I mention that Galactic Civilizations II is a good game?)
• finished a book (Wolf to the Slaughter by Ruth Rendell).
  
• started another book (Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge).
• flicked through a couple of other books I am reading: Walt Crawford's Balanced Libraries (more on this later), and T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell's The China Study.
• pondered what I would write for a couple of memes: this one, and thanks for the tag, Woody. (I think I need to finish at least one abstract before I do anything else!)
  

I've decided that I don't like writing for more formal media, but I'm sure it's good for me.

Sad Paco
Originally uploaded by CW.

Paco knows our weekday morning routine quite well now. About half an hour or so before we leave the house - showering, brushing, dressing - he starts getting droopier and droopier, his expression more and more mournful.

I haven't been using Twitter very much these past few weeks. Just haven't had much reason, or time to post updates. Also, the thought of posting "doing citation count", and "still doing citation count", and "still..." depressed me no end. I've much preferred to attend a conference vicariously, and learn about everyone's hectic and interesting lives. I've been surprised at how much I've been enjoying that aspect of Twitter. As David Weinberger says: "Twitter is about the intimacy of details."

I switched off phone updates, though, as it was very distracting to have my mobile phone constantly vibrating throughout meetings, but I might switch it on again for a while. I've been getting my updates via RSS, but that's always got a slight delay to it.

I haven't got that many Twitter friends at all (only 19!) but I don't particularly mind as it's still relatively easy to keep up with that number of friends. I could have more, but I haven't added quite a few people because I didn't recognise them at all (even after pondering their profiles) and found myself disconcerted at the thought of adding complete strangers. And yet I have added a few people who live here in Perth, whom I have not met. For some reason I like the fact that I have these 'friends' who live in my hometown. I suppose we do have something in common!

For a while after I started blogging, every time I wandered around the city, I looked at passing strangers and wondered if they blogged. Now I wonder if they twitter.

A bit later: M reminded me of this cartoon from Hugh MacLeod which says it all, really:

Been thinking recently about priorities and how I'm going to make enough time for all of them.

Made a list of Stuff I Do:

With family (includes Paco)

Reading

• For pleasure
• "Professional"

Blogging

• Here
• LINT
• Comments

Games

Watching tv/movies

Exercise

Quiet time

Language stuff

• learning new
• working with existing
  

This is in rough order of priority, or maybe that should be order of frequency.

I haven't added writing to this list, something I want to do more of. I had my Emsig yesterday (MPOW's version of the annual appraisal - stands for Managing for Continuous Improvement and Growth - the MCIG, everyone calls it Emsig - sounds like an agricultural production target in a command economy or something...). The Boss is keen for me to keep writing. I'm finding that although I don't find always the process particularly easy, I do enjoy getting my thoughts on paper (or onscreen). I volunteered to work on a couple of papers, after telling The Boss that LINT folks are working on another at the moment. Which reminded me that I was meant to have converted my two conference papers from last year into journal articles.

I don't really have any strategies for making more time, apart from watching less tv and spending less time on games. As it is, I'm not spending all that much time on both these days.

Looking at the list, it occurs to me that I would like to have exercise as a higher priority. I don't think quiet time is high enough on the list, either. Language stuff is too low on the list, but this might change soon, as M and I are going to be attending Dutch language class soon.

The only item on the list that is completely non-negotiable is family time, but that's as it should be, I think.

About a week ago Kathryn Greenhill wrote about asking permission before you take and/or use a stranger's photograph.

What's the right thing to do? I've never really given it much thought before. At MPOW we have a consent form that people sign before we use their photo on our website. I assume we ask for permission before we take the photo itself.

We generally also ask people to let us know if they are going to take photos or do any filming in the library, but I've been told that that's just so that we can ensure they don't obstruct or disturb other users of the library, and not for any other reason. So we might ask them not to take pictures on the first day of semester when it's extremely busy in the library, for example. But I don't think we generally refuse permission otherwise.

Pretty straightforward, isn't it?

Last week I was talking about photos and permission with a colleague. She argues that it is actually illegal to take someone's photo, even in a public place, without their permission. I was quite surprised to hear this - I think that it is just a courtesy to ask for permission - but that got me wondering, is there any law or injunction against taking photos without permission? I just don't see how such a law would be enforceable. I can imagine that for certain military installations, and in certain venues, like in a court, one could be forbidden to take photos or videos. And I suppose if one was in a shop the shopkeeper could reasonably refuse to allow you to take a picture - a shop isn't really a public space - someone owns or leases it for business purposes.

My colleague also thought that we have a responsibility to protect our clientele from being photographed or filmed without permission, but I really can't see how we can stop anyone from taking a snap of anyone else. (Nor would I want to!) Especially these days with cameras so handily embedded on mobile phones and things like that. Wouldn't that be an issue for the photographer and the person being photographed to sort out themselves?

Am I completely wrong here?

You would, of course, ensure that if you were going to take photos of someone and create a photo essay or caption about that person, that you would get the facts straight. But that's another issue altogether.

There's a lot to be said for having a regular, that is, two-day, weekend.

I had to work yesterday. Some of my colleagues and I ran our regular (once a semester) weekend seminars for part-time postgraduate research students. I only had to work in the morning, and ran a whirlwind Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Using Library Resources But Were Afraid to Ask Didn't Know What to Ask session. A whirlwind session in that we condense six seminars into one, for those students who work or have other commitments during the week and can't normally attend the seminars we run for full-time students.

It was hard working on a Saturday after a long week - Friday was completely frantic, and I barely sat down until about 3:30pm - but it was worth it because the students were very appreciative. It was also one of those sessions where I completely got In The Groove, so to speak, and I seemed to express myself really well - everything I needed to say just seemed to flow. This was despite not remembering my profile user name and password when I was trying to log in to show the class how to use ScienceDirect alerts.


Lounging
Originally uploaded by CW.

While I was working, M and Paco wore themselves out by going for a walk and avoiding magpies. M says the birds kept swooping and trying to attack them.

Am I the last person to read about this? Just spotted: Borders to leave Australia? which points to an article in The Guardian about the book chain's plans to "focus resources on its remaining domestic chain, which it plans to "revitalize, refocus and ultimately reinvent". In another reversal of strategy, it will reopen its own branded e-commerce website early next year, ending its alliance with Amazon.com."

I wonder how well the Perth shop is doing. It's always quite busy when I go there. I was amused to hear that some of my family members think the shop's "just like a library, they have so many books, and you don't have to buy, just go and sit in their nice chairs and read and make notes if you like". I was asked to recommend fantasy authors the other day, and "Are they available in K-Mart, 'cause it's always cheaper there?"

Speaking of cheap books, I noticed that Borders is selling the 7th Harry Potter at hugely discounted prices (something like $30 instead of the new-release hard cover price of $50). How can the small bookshops compete? Bibliobibuli blogged about this the other day, about how an independent bookseller in Malaysia says he won't be selling the 7th book, precisely because, given the crazy discounts the bigger bookshops seem to be offering, he would have to sell it "at a substantial loss" (I guess the big bookshops are making a loss too. See Borders).

I don't think I've ever rushed to buy a Harry Potter book - I'll definitely be waiting until the hysteria dies down a bit before getting a copy. And I don't think I'll buy it from Borders - I'll see if I can get it from the public library (the queues will be long, though), or maybe my favourite bookshop, Planet Books (they don't seem to have an active website, googling turns up my blog post!).

Update, lunchtime: Via LISNews, a Yahoo! News report. "...it is giving up on a decade-long effort to expand its own book-superstore concept internationally and will sell or franchise most of its 73 overseas Borders stores, the [Wall Street] Journal said."

Finally got my Joost invite this morning but am paranoid of chewing up too much bandwidth so I haven't been looking at too many programmes (yet).

Joost bills itself as "a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping." And it's free (once you get the invite) - and provided you have enough bandwidth.

So far I really like the look and feel of it but I'll tell you more about it as I play with it. A couple of shows had errors but most of what we looked at came through fine. According to their blog, "the majority of traffic for popular content [is] being delivered solely within the Joost P2P network. However, it has also shown that mixing P2P and traditional HTTP traffic provides its own unique set of problems. We were aware of the kinds of issues we would encounter and now we are getting the full P2P effect that we designed for we can work on improving the interaction with the other back-end services. This means that some viewers will get errors when trying to view some shows, which is regrettable, but it does have the positive benefit that knowing that now means that we can work on fixing it, which we are doing." (Did I say I really, really like hearing from the creators of a product?)

I don't seem to have any invites to give away yet. Hopefully soon!

I am getting very good at typing with a puppy snuggled in my lap.