Smiley someone

Library Roots

2009-10-01T19:39:00.005Z

So, Library Routes, courtesy of Woodsiegirl and her connections.

How did I discover I wanted to be a librarian? Like most people, it seems, by accident. I went to university doing a subject I loved (English), with no particular career in mind. I had used libraries growing up, and at school, but they weren't second homes - I'm used to books coming from charity shops as much as libraries. My childhood ambitions were low - I think I wanted to be a shopkeeper for many years - but not as low as those of the awful career-matching software provided by school. I distinctly remember being told by the software that I should be a lollipop lady. Having said that, a vegetarian friend was told she ought to be a butcher, so I shouldn't complain.

I digress. At university, I briefly flirted with the idea of events management (borne of three years of front of house management for the student theatre society), but realised that it was actually awfully stressful and I only liked the idea of it, not the job itself. So I did another of those career-matching programmes, which was clearly more ambitious than the school one, because it told me I ought to be an archivist. There are varying opinions on how great the leap is from archivist to librarian, and I'm not sure how I made it, but I think it must be due to a friend who wanted to be a museum curator, and so was applying for library graduate traineeships. No, I don't remember the logic, although I'm sure there was some! I spoke to the university careers service, found out all about graduate traineeships, looked in to some of the Masters courses and found myself with an Aim and a Career.

As for my route - well, I'm in my first professional post, and it's at the same place I was a trainee, in a civil service library. I was lucky enough that a post came up a month after I finished my Masters at UCL, I applied and was successful. I liked working there first time around, and I like it again - all of my library experience so far is in the public sector, but there's a whole lot of future ahead, so we shall see!

Resurrection?

2009-10-01T19:26:00.004Z

The time has come (the walrus said) to admit that, despite claiming not to, I do actually have a blog - albeit one I've not updated for two years, and one that I never gave out the address to, so was really just a vanity project. Anyway, it has been resurrected, in order to contribute to the Library Routes Project and now that I've found it again I may find myself updating it.

If you've read this far back, feel free to read the past babblings - I'd be interested to know if people think it's worth picking up on it again (based on the content, not on the general virtues or otherwise of blogging). There was never any rhyme or reason to what I wrote about (although there are definitely recurring topics) so I've no idea whether I'm just being vain in linking to an ancient blog rather than creating a new page on the wiki!

Right...

2007-08-30T13:11:00.000Z

...I really ought to get on top of this blogging lark.

But not now, because I can't think of anything to say, and don't feel like updating the great no one that reads this with what's been happening.

In brief: moved house, yay! Finished work, yay! (free time) Missing my job, which I loved, and the people, boo! Looking forward to going back to uni to qualify as a librarian, yay! Been catching up with lots of people I'd forgotten about, yay!

So mostly yay.

I love good books...

2007-07-13T20:07:00.000Z

...and I like GoodBooks too. They're worth listening out for.

More musings on blogging...and a speedy update

2007-07-11T20:18:00.000Z

The daft thing about a blog, like any other regular writing, is that the more you do, the less time you have to write about it. So, to summarise, since writing last time, the following things have happened:

A camping holiday on a fruit farm (good farm shop; excellent apple juice) in the Cotswolds. Great fun, a couple of lovely long walks and the rain managed to mostly to come when we were in the tent or car. Hayfever made the last day a bit rubbish, but otherwise I'm still a camping fan! I wasn't very impressed with Cirencester, it just seemed the same as everywhere else, but we went to Stratford, which had more character (despite the tourists and the ubiquitous high street shops - there seemed to be more life to it). Although being an English graduate and Shakespeare fan I'm likely to think good things of his birthplace. The actual house, by the by, is more interesting for being the age it is than for being his house, probably because, as his birthplace, they're less able to tie it to his adult and writing life, unlike somewhere like Wordsworth's Dove Cottage.

A trip to the CILIP Umbrella conference which was enjoyable - my first conference, and I even got to speak at it! It was well worth going to, I got the chance to find out a bit about other library sectors to the one I work in and meet some people. Apart from our presentation on our project to renovate and restock the tsunami-affected Hikkaduwa library in Sri Lanka, I attended sessions on management programmes for the cultural sector (including the fascinating Clore leadership programme) and another on knowledge management in the notoriously ever-changing structure of the NHS. The venue was quite good too, although an awards ceremony seen via a poor quality video link from an overspill room was a bit of a shame. Still, meeting a consultant who proceeded to go behind the screen and make shadow puppets during the awards certainly enlivened things a little. It was a well-organised conference, and we raised a pleasing amount of over £200 for the Hikkaduwa appeal. Donate more, fictional readers of this blog! (Note to self: give the address to some people!)

Flat hunting in London. I've never done the flat-hunting thing before and what struck me most (apart from the expense of everything, and the juggling of concessions in what you want that you have to make in order to ever settle on anything) is how quickly things go! Flats seem to be taken as soon as they're advertised, it's absurd. Still, we think we've found one. We hope.

I did get to see Shrek 3! It was good fun, although getting a bit more Disneyfied than it has been it's still funny and great, but it seems to be focusing a bit more on the heartwarming message of acceptance than the first two did. Still, worth a visit if you're a fan, and worth seeing on DVD if you're less bothered.

Other things undoubtedly happened too, but I can't remember them. I read lots of books, most recently Yann Martel's Life of Pi and F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, but I'm running out of enthusiasm for this long posting, so won't say anything except that I enjoyed them both...although I thought that Life of Pi was one of the most original books I've read recently, and one I'd recommend, and that Tender is the Night is also a very good book with moments of brilliance, especially in the way that things occur both suddenly and over a long time simultaneously, but which I enjoyed less than The Great Gatsby.

This post is going to have far too many labels.

Google Use Simulator

2007-06-09T11:19:00.000Z

This seems like an interesting site. It's a visualised help file for Google, so under the 'Google screens' tab you can navigate through Google and have the information about how to use any given feature immediately there.

It's more intuitive to use and clearer than a usual help file, and 'Searches' at the top has some information about how to do things if you don't know where that particular option is on the search screens already. Worth browsing.

2007-06-01T18:30:00.000Z

I'm reading Julian Barnes' England England at the moment. I don't really like it, it just seems so self-conscious. Having said that, I really enjoyed the opening section about Martha Cochrane's childhood, and I like the fact that the prose has periodically been broken up with lists; I like the disjointing effect it has. It's so cynical though! I wonder whether all of his books are like that.

On a less literary note - I'm really looking forward to Shrek 3. The first two films were great fun, I hope this one follows it up. Although on the whole, I'm not a fan of eternal sequels, so I hope this is the end of it. It's not so much that you can have too much of a good thing as that it stops being a good thing entirely. It's going to be good though, I'll enjoy it much more than I'm enjoying the book.

2007-06-01T18:16:00.000Z

Where I live, a chicken is kept. It's not my chicken, although I have no objection to its presence. Still, it does get annoying having to go and feed it and let it out each morning, and planning your evening around a trip to the bottom of the garden at a time you know the chicken will be inside, as its run is too muddy and uneven to be able to chase it in. This morning, in my dressing gown at far-too-early o'clock (about half past six), a mouse jumped out of the chicken feed when I opened it. It's really not what you want at that time of the morning.

Still, it's not my job to feed it tomorrow, so I can have a lie in. Grand.

2007-05-21T21:41:00.000Z

I'm beginning to notice that my posts seem to pick up something of what I'm reading at the time. Not in the sense that I write anywhere near as well as Alan Bennett or Elizabeth Gaskell (I'm currently reading Wives and Daughters), but when I was reading Bennett I definitely wrote more like diary entries. Now I'm reading 19th century writing I'm getting less concise - I wonder whether I'll start being more descriptive too.

Now that I've noticed it, one of three things will happen: it will start happening more; it will happen less because I'm thinking about it, or I'll forget about it because it's nonsense. I imagine the latter is most likely.

Springtime camping

2007-05-21T21:20:00.000Z

As I went a walking one morning in May...

...I was actually on my way to the showers, which were right across the other side of the field that we were camping in the corner of.

Camping in summer is great. Camping in mid May, as I learnt this weekend, is also great, but is colder and windier. Our tent kept inflating like a parachute, but at least we had poles, unlike the £20 tent one friend had bought from Halfords, which initially had no poles and eventually had the wrong poles, as Halfords supplied the wrong ones when chased. It was quite literally held together with string, but remarkably held up for the whole weekend.

Camping is so utterly different to any other holiday; we had barbeques for breakfast and spent all our time outside, in the evening round a campfire. The campsite was good - they not only let a group of twenty odd mid-twenties people camp, but gave us a field to ourselves so that we didn't get in anyone's way.

Next time someone suggests camping in May though, I'm taking a heater.

Dilemma

2007-05-12T18:10:00.000Z

A girl on the train complained on her phone that, having had ID saying she was 22, she now couldn't suddenly have ID saying she was 18, although she had just had her 18th birthday and therefore could have genuine ID. People would notice.

Should she continue with the fake ID and risk being caught out or use her genuine ID and risk someone realising she had been using a fake? A terrible dilemma.

Sweeps

2007-05-06T11:39:00.000Z

Sweeps festival in Rochester this weekend; a wonderful gig from Sid Kipper, who plays the walnuts better than anyone I've ever seen.

The town was also flooded with Morris Dancers, which makes for an enjoyable afternoon watching the range of reactions from real enjoyment through bemusement and incomprehension to mild terror. I love the folkiness of it all, it's such a laid-back atmosphere, but I have to wonder what some of the locals make of it all.

Walking in the air

2007-05-02T19:33:00.000Z

To what extent can The Snowman be described as a tragedy?* Discuss.

[with civil service librarians over lunch in the middle of a library visit. To a surprisingly high level; I'm convinced much higher than I ever achieved about tragedy at university.]

*thanks to A, for unknowingly prompting this discussion

Translations

2007-05-02T19:17:00.000Z

I'm always very amused by the type of thing found on engrish.com, although not in that context - having loads of mis-translations all in one place takes the fun out of coming across them unexpectedly.

In the instructions for a new breadmaker:

"if necessary, fill the hole with heat-resistant margarine"

Hikkaduwa library

2007-04-26T20:37:00.000Z

I am training to be a librarian, and one thing I have become involved with through work is a twinning project with Hikkaduwa public library in Sri Lanka, which was devestated by the 2004 tsunami, which damaged the fabric of the building and destroyed much of its furniture and 70% of its book stock. We've funded replacement stock and locally-sourced furniture which will hopefully be better able to withstand any future weather. We've now commenced on a refurbishment project, and recently presented the Urban Council there with a cheque for 1 000 000 rupees to begin.

More information is available here. The website is a bit sparse at the moment, but we're working on it.

Untold Stories

2007-04-26T20:23:00.000Z

Having come across him only briefly during my English degree (when one of our supervisors used it to demonstrate exactly how dim we were, which was nice), I finally read some Alan Bennett today. I've possibly done things the wrong way round, though, because I'm reading Untold Stories, without any prior knowledge of his work and so no real context for the references he keeps making to his own plays. I've not found it a problem; it's the best kind of literary criticism, where the extract has an explicit link to the point being made, but it is odd and slightly like being back at university, to have play extracts in the middle of prose. He's very readable, though, I like his mode of expression.

One thing that has struck me is how open he is about his own feelings - ambivalence? - towards the depression and dementia of his mother and aunt. These have both affected my nan; in her case, it is possible, or likely, that the one led to the other. Like Iris, the film about Iris Murdoch, Bennett's writing has made me think a lot about nan's state, and particularly about my attitude to her. If I were to start writing more than just this blog, I think it might be about that; my very own untold story, if you'll excuse the smug connection of the end of this post to the beginning of it.

Shoe trouble

2007-04-17T19:17:00.000Z

In a rush this morning, so I was still doing up my belt and putting on my cardigan when I got into the car...got as far as the train (too far from home to go back when I need to be in for nine like today) only to realise that I had put on odd shoes - both black, but otherwise visibly different, particularly as one had a heel and the other didn't.

So there I was, walking along Victoria Street in London where I work, surrounded by the clattering tide of commuter's heels, and desperately trying to walk with my feet always horizontal to the ground in the (inexplicable) belief that walking like I have cramp and with a pronounced limp from having one foot higher than the other would draw attention away from my feet.

I decided that I couldn't put up with feeling like an ass all day, so I decided to go and buy some shoes. Whilst I was in there picking some out, I noticed at least two other women in exactly the same situation!

This cheered me up no end - plus I got some pretty shoes without all the usual stress of shoe shopping, which I normally hate! What a great way to start the day.

Squirrel

2007-04-15T13:29:00.000Z

"This fellow's fur was like sunshine on the fibre of a cocoanut"

Isn't that a beautiful way to describe a red squirrel?

All the very best

2007-04-10T19:33:00.000Z

I was brought up on folk music - specifically, on Vin Garbutt. I saw him recently and as usual, he didn't disappoint. He really is everything that good music should be; he's a funny, warm man who in the middle of his set had to stop because he was chuckling so much at one of his jokes. He has an incredible range and his songs cover everything from traditional love ballads to protest songs. It really is folk music at it's best, and I'd tell anyone to go and see him.

Go see!

Fire and Brimstone

2007-03-31T12:45:00.000Z

Went to see Derek Brimstone on Thursday, at Orpington Folk Club. It was really good; he plays the guitar incredibly (as verified by people who actually play music, and therefore know about these things, unlike me) and some of his songs are beautiful. He sings mostly more gentle songs, going by the set he played, including a couple of songs not in English - one of which was in Swahili, if I remember correctly.

In between songs, and sometimes in the middle of them, he would talk and tell jokes - proper old-fashioned jokes with real punchlines. Much of the set was hilarious, although most of the jokes were fairly coarse, so not to everyone's taste. Even those who generally object to strong and coarse language, however, couldn't help but enjoy this wonderful man; he's never aggressive, or offensive, he just tells his jokes and stories and plays his music.

He gave the impression that he is likely to retire soon; this was only his second gig of the year, so he is clearly winding down. I only wish he puts it off long enough for me to be able to go and see him again. I would recommend him to anyone, for his wonderfully well played guitar and his beautiful songs and for the delight of sitting and listening to his songs and his playing and his jokes for an evening.

Spring!

2007-03-27T19:41:00.000Z

I love the weather at the moment. Crisp, sunshiney mornings are definitely the best. It's happy weather, and I can come home on the later train and it's still not dark!

2007-03-27T19:00:00.000Z

I'm reading Nicholas Nickleby at the moment. I like Dickens; there is always so much in his novels, and if all else fails (which it never has, for me) there's always villains and coincidences and all the ingredients for a good shallow melodrama. I'm still trying to work out how everyone will turn out to be remarkably inter-related - or specifically, who will turn out to have abandoned Smike with Wackford Squeers.

Having been almost articulate and literary for a while there, I ought to admit that, try as I might this evening on the train, I couldn't concentrate on Nicholas Nickleby; inexplicably, I kept getting distracted by Heat, being read by the woman beside me. I don't know whether it's the pictures or the colours, but I did keep looking over for features that appeared to be mostly made from archive photos and quotes. I was disturbed too, by the fact that a page of sightings of famous people should be headed "they can't get away from us", as if that was something to be proud of on the magazine's part. Still, clearly something about the magazine appealed, because I couldn't stop reading it over her shoulder!

Blogs and winkis

2007-03-24T19:11:00.000Z

Someone I know kept, until recently, talking about "blogs and winkis" as social networking tools. Being unable to set up a "winki", I thought I would set up a blog instead and see what happens.

It will be interesting (for me, anyway), to see what I write, given that a blog is by its nature public and yet, unless I start giving people the address, no one is likely to read it.

*Please leave a message after the tone*
I'm renowned for leaving long, meandering answerphone messages which don't usually say much. I wonder whether this will be the same.