the book depository

War and the Library

2007-04-09T14:25:00.000+01:00

Looted Library, Reborn, Still in Peril

From The Guardian: In the three years since he took over the Iraqi National Library, Saad Eskander has repaired the damage from theft and arson, played detective and advised his employees on staying alive.

He has transformed the library, burned and looted in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003, into a symbol of hope in a country mired in sectarian violence, crime and political bickering.

Ms. Dewey

2007-03-28T23:29:00.000+01:00

Ms. Dewey

A search engine presented by an 'interactive' sultry librarian called Ms. Dewey. Odd!

Useful sites

2007-03-27T14:59:00.000+01:00

Good Reads
A social networking site that promotes reading; add your friends and read their book recommendations and reviews.

Library Thing
Catalogue your book collection online!

Brevity is the soul of wit.

2007-03-27T14:48:00.000+01:00

To cut a long story short

Ernest Hemingway once said his best work was a story he wrote in just six words: 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn.' We challenged some contemporary authors to be equally economical.

Culturepush held a contest recently with the same restrictions. The results here.

The ambitions of Google

2007-03-27T14:39:00.000+01:00

Off the Shelf

Google has a plan to put books online - and an unlikely ally in the Bodleian Library. Bobbie Johnson and Oliver Burkeman report on the battle to control human knowledge .

I finally finished my course and am now a qualified librarian. Hoorah! Onwards and upwards.

Digitisation project

2006-06-29T15:04:00.000+01:00

Legal victory for Google in library project

Google has won a crucial victory in a German court as it tries to persuade publishers that its drive to digitise library books to get at the information inside is not an attempt to smash copyright laws.

Sorry for the long break from this blog, been extremely busy with school and work.

Dealing With Antisocial Teenagers In The Library

2006-04-29T11:10:00.000+01:00

Brought to book

Library earns top award for its groundbreaking work with antisocial teenagers

Airplane Library (well, not quite)

2006-04-29T00:01:00.000+01:00

Library design from salvaged passenger jets

Judging a book by its cover

2006-04-17T12:54:00.000+01:00

Allow us to judge a book by its cover

A beautiful book is a beautiful thing. I may not get too hung up on whether or not something is a first edition, but that doesn't mean I don't have taste.

I guess I'm with Wilde on this one: only shallow people don't judge by appearances.

Wikipedia

2006-04-14T19:45:00.000+01:00

Another good article on Wikipedia

Wikipedia and other online databases provide a soupy morass of information, but where can we find the variety of views that leads to wisdom

gender-conscious novels

2006-04-10T21:33:00.000+01:00

A tale of two genders: men choose novels of alienation, while women go for passion

I'm more 'male' in my reading habits...my most favourite books are from the 'male' list, like 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'High Fidelity', '1984' etc. Maybe I just have too much anger in me. None of the books in the 'female' lists spoke to me that much; I've never been a big fan of Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters.

Banned in the library

2006-04-10T21:19:00.000+01:00

Librarians ban visible underwear

writing poetry on teacups

2006-04-03T15:10:00.000+01:00

Return my work, says Guantánamo poet

Sad tale of a man who was accused of being a terrorist and spent his time in jail at Guantánamo Bay writing 25,000 lines of verse, which were not given back to him when he was released.

the third wave of feminism

2006-03-31T20:43:00.000+01:00

The third wave - at a computer near you
Feminist blogs are booming. But are they globalising emancipation - or just playthings for the rich and well educated?

Some academic essays on feminism, gender and technology can be found here

web portal

2006-03-25T22:46:00.000Z

Finally finished the web portal for my digital libraries class and handed it in yesterday after a few (very) late nights of staring at the computer screen. It's not assessed on design skills (phew) but on information retrieval and classification skills, so I have been trawling through the web for the most resourceful sites on architecture for students in the UK (who are the target audience I have chosen) and abstracting/summarising each site. Maybe one day if I buy server space again and have the time to expand on it further, I will upload it and hopefully it will be of some use to others.

public libraries

2006-03-25T10:39:00.000Z

Outcry over loss of public libraries

Library overhauls to lure back adult readers

This is really shameful but I haven't been to a public library in this country. I use the academic one at school for research, work in a commerical library, used to volunteer at a NGO/charity one and have also stepped into a few other specialised and museum libraries for interviews, but not been to a public one *bows head in shame*...except for the Idea Store at Whitechapel briefly but that was just to admire the building. I must definitely, definitely get myself to the British Library soon.

wikipedia

2006-03-25T10:21:00.000Z

Wikipedia study 'fatally flawed'
A study on the accuracy of the free online resource, Wikipedia, by the prestigious journal Nature has been described as 'fatally flawed'.

The previous study that was mentioned is this
Wikipedia survives research test
The free online resource Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica, a study shows.

No....I believed in the survey, I really did. I do adore Wikipedia though, despite its (occasional) inaccuracies and biases. One day I'm going to create a scholarly entry titled 'The pile of dirty clothes sitting on my room floor', or 'Cheryl's increasing addiction to ebay' and upload it on Wikipedia. Just you wait and see.

if robots could write novels

2006-03-21T00:25:00.000Z

Creative sparks: The artistic lives of machines

"Creativity is fundamentally human", writes Ken McAllister, so what happens when we are relieved from our duty to create? (from the latest issue of Adbusters.)

top 1000 intellectual works in libraries

2006-03-20T23:45:00.000Z

"Top 1000" titles owned by OCLC member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the "purchase vote" of libraries around the globe

Ok, why is Garfield in there?

dorkfest

2006-03-18T10:01:00.000Z

Dork Fest

A weekend gathering at the edge of art, science and uselessness. Dorkfest 2006 is a two day showcase of inventions and explorations into electricity and its (stranger) uses. The event will give the public an opportunity to see the creations from a global network of dorks. (Although others might call them artists, inventors, programmers and musicians.)

Possibly nerdier than a Star Trek convention. Yay!

literary tradition?

2006-03-15T13:17:00.000Z

Behind every great male writer ...

The women behind some of the most esteemed male writers (not Dan Brown), and the men behind respected female writers.

ad astra!

2006-03-14T22:24:00.000Z

Now we can google Mars.

A brief article from BBC.

Library of unwritten books

2006-03-13T18:08:00.000Z

Library of unwritten books

An art project in which people are asked to describe ideas for books that they have thought of writing. From those interviews limited edition mini-books are made and then exhibited.

recent acquisitions

2006-03-11T22:14:00.000Z

The university library has been holding second hand book sales lately, and I was very lucky to pick up 6 books for the price of two pounds. Two pounds! That is less than what I usually spend on lunch. And they are such good books as well...I found Jean-Paul Sartre's 'What is Literature?', Gunter Grass's 'The Tin Drum', F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Crack-up with Other Pieces and Stories', a biography of Sartre by Maurice Cranston and 'Britain since 1945: A Political History' by David Childs (I think I need to brush up on my British history since I have limited knowledge in this field and have lived here for more than 2 years now, so this seems like a good place to start).

Picked up two more books at the second hand book market under Waterloo Bridge today: Truman Capote's 'Breakfast at Tiffany' and Tom Sharpe's 'Wilt'. However, with all the readings I have to do for school, I don't know when I actually have the time to read these books. May have to put most of them aside for later. Still, I'm gleeful to score some good bargains.

for those who like beckett

2006-03-11T22:00:00.000Z

The centenary of his birth in April is coming up so there's a Beckett Centenary Festival 2006 at the Barbican, with film and stage adaptations of his works. Also, in The Guardian today, there's a long article on Sam the Man.
The full text of Waiting For Godot can be found online here.

work #1

2006-03-09T13:21:00.000Z

I love my job. Every morning when I come into work I make myself a cup of hot chocolate and then settle down into my seat to scan through newspapers and news websites for the lastest in aviation news (I work for a law firm that specialises in aviation law). From the BBC to The Guardian to the Telegraph to Financial Times to insurance newspapers, my duty is to sift through them all and compile articles on airlines/airplane crashes for the daily bulletin for the lawyers who are too busy to go through the papers themselves. Thus, I am their conduit of information....I compile the bulletin, send it to the general office to be distributed, mass-email the lawyers and then upload it to the intranet. The rest of my time at the legal library is spent doing more 'traditional' library tasks like dealing with journals, checking in/out books, looseleafing and occasionally dealing with inquiries.

Recently a friend remarked that my job is pretty "grim", which I suppose it is because I'm always scouring for articles on airplane crashes (on slow days when there are no air crashes, I actually feel a slight hinge of disappointment.) But by default I get to keep up to date with current affairs, so I feel like I'm constantly learning (on some occasions I may even find an article or two in the Financial Times interesting, which is quite disturbing).

world book day

2006-03-02T13:23:00.000Z

Happy World Book Day, everyone!

A slew of links today to commemorate this special event:

Firstly, the World Book Day site.

Also: SPIT-LIT 2006 celebrating women's writing

An article on the beauty of books in the Times today: A book of beauty is a joy for ever . . . it will never pass into nothingness

Lastly, ever wonder what Shakespeare looked like? The only true painting of Shakespeare - probably

da vinci code trial

2006-02-28T18:06:00.000Z

Da Vinci trial pits history against art

Everyone in the world seems to have read this book (apart from me). This trial is interesting though because of the intellectual property issues involved. To what extent can originality be copyrighted, especially in this time and age? Incidentally my friend Ginette is writing a thesis on this, and it should be interesting to read her finished product.

edit:
Originality Sins
A pretty good article on the subject of originality, with some references to the trial.

book lover's journal

2006-02-26T22:32:00.000Z

I have this gorgeous book lover's journal which helps me keep track of the books that I have read. I write down little reviews of the books along with the dates when I have finished reading them. Also, there's a section where I can record books that are recommended to me by friends. Pretty handy.

bookshops in london

2006-02-26T18:25:00.000Z

Guardian provides a list of the finest bookshops in London.

Recently I found an anarchist bookshop tucked away in an alley off Whitechapel Road, which is weird because I used to live there but didn't notice it till lately. It is independently run by volunteers and has a very small, specialised collection of books and zines. If you are into your anarchist literature (they have feminist and situationist books as well), it's worth checking out Freedom Bookshop.

long overdue

2006-02-09T10:44:00.000Z

Will Borrower Pay $6,114 Fine for Overdue Library Book?

Book Overdue for 61 Years, but the Fine Is Waived

children's books

2006-01-31T13:02:00.000Z

From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses ... what the top writers say every child should read

I only read The Wasteland when I was in university, and I'm still trying to understand it, 3 years down the road...kids these days must be a lot smarter.

My reading tastes as a kid were a lot less complex. My favourite books were by Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton, like everyone else. I also loved The Chronicles of Narnia and the Encyclopedia Brown series. When I have the time, I must re-read them again.

possible dissertation topics

2006-01-23T10:35:00.000Z

I've come up with 2 possible topics for my dissertation:

1) Libraries as 'reading and writing spaces in stone': the evolution of library buildings and locations
2) An examination of library services in Singapore

My lecturer is keen on me writing the second topic. 'You know you want to,' she says, 'you're just resisting it.'

I think the first one would be interesting as it would cover concepts of space, digitization in libraries, shopping mall libraries, and architecture. The second one would be closer to my heart as it is about home and more sociologial in nature. I would write about how the government has successfully implemented its information policy and invested in libraries to harness human capital, and how libraries are well-loved by Singaporeans and in many instances have become more than just a library: they are also meeting points, cafes, performance spaces, etc.

the book depository

2006-01-20T18:15:00.000Z

...is a beautiful set in the film 'the cook, the thief, the wife and her lover'. Lots of dusty hard cover books strewn everywhere, books piled up to the ceiling, books almost filling every inch of space on the screen.

first.

2006-01-14T18:01:00.000Z

i have thought about doing a library blog for a while now and ivan of rambling librarian encouraged me towards it, so here i am. this blog is a bit geeky, and will be mostly recording my work/thought process on my dissertation (still deciding what to write..eep!), studies (doing my masters in information services management), job (library assistant at a legal library), little tidbits of news from the exciting library world, book reviews, etc. anything related to books and the organisation of information, yes.

i did say it is a bit geeky.