Limerick for a departing campus nurse

Oh, how we will miss our Nurse Trout!
She keeps us from growing too stout
She checks out the fannies
Of girls, mums and grannies
And tells them they’re all up the spout!

Pools

There are four swimming pools in my life: the ‘Fred’, the ‘Harry’, the ‘Jock’ and the ‘Albert’ each with its own unique ambience.

The daggy old Fred was originally called the Fred Dwerryhouse Swimming Pool but now has the far less interesting name, Ringwood Aquatic Centre. I swim here to avoid the peak-hour traffic on my long trip home. The Fred has truly bizarre showers - the water is on a timer and each cubicle is different. The most generous allows you a minute but the one I was in earlier this week gave me only 7 seconds.

Visiting the Harry, the ironically named Harold Holt Memorial Swim Centre (it turned out he couldn’t) is like taking a trip to Lourdes. There are lots of very elderly and infirm folk drifting along hoping for a miracle. The lanes aren’t labeled Fast, Medium and Slow but ‘Visible Signs of Life’, ‘Float Like a Lotus Blossom’ and ‘I’m Not Waving, I’m Drowning!’

The Jock is the pool at Melbourne High School and it’s for serious swimmers. You rarely have to share a lane here and can swim unimpeded. I occasionally get to swim beside budding young AFL players, usually from Richmond so I’m keeping a lookout for Ben Cousins. There are one or two things I’d like to say to him.

The Albert, aka Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, in Albert Park, in an unpredictable place. Ordinary mortals are regularly excluded because of competitions or even if Leisel, Libby or Eamon feel like training that day. But if I do get in I’m treated to a cacophony of sound and light, waves, water slides, fountains, music, aerobics and sometimes the hilarious sight of synchronized swimmers practicing their routine on the side of the pool. If you think it looks funny in the water, wait ‘til you see them doing it on dry land. Great entertainment.

Amazing! An insect read my blog and knew how to edit the banner. Many thanks whoever you are. Now I have to think of some witty slogan to replace it. Maybe the butterfly can help again.

Can anyone tell me how to edit the banner on this blog? That stuff about Sarawak is so out of date but I don't know how to get rid of it. I have millions of readers out there. One of youse must know

I’ve got half an hour or so to spare so it’s a good time to polish off the last of the 3 extra things.

Kartoo

Kartoo is rather fun but I did get some weird and wacky results looking for images to insert into a presentation I have coming up soon. Then, egotist that I am, I tried to find a picture of moi but it offered me August Strindberg instead. Hmm… must be because he wrote ‘Miss Julie’. Still, it’s good to try something other than Google Images.

Voyage RSS feed reader

I became rather wary of feed readers after the 23 things when I found them to be a distraction when I least needed it. On my first attempt at Voyage my screen froze, on my second I retrieved an article called ‘Spider forces family out of home’ which led me to a treasure trove of man bites dog stories. More distractions! Very entertaining though.

Semantic Web

I’ve been hearing about this for a while but the case studies linked to our Wiki helped make it clearer. The concept-based search is a great advantage especially when it can manage multiple languages. The diagrams illustrating the technology look horrendously complex so I am glad I’m an end-user rather than a developer in this instance.

Now I have done all my things. I hope there won’t be too many more encores. I just want to go to the cinema for free, thank-you.

23 things plus 5

I've just linkedin to 4 colleagues who I'm trusting to advance my illustrious career shortly. Get on with it gals! I've been looking at VuFind for quite a while as well as a couple of other similar products such as AquaBrowser http://www.aquabrowser.com

They make resources look attractive but obviously don't impact on the quality of what is retrieved.

23 Things - Gallop to the finish line

OK. It’s time to make a belated lurch to the finish line on the 23 things. I still have 4 to go officially although I’ve done 3 of them without realising they were on the list.

The countdown:-

Thing 18

The aspect of Library 2.0 that most interests me is user involvement in the creation and maintenance of products and services. Libraries are the natural habitat of technological innovation and the willingness to share ideas and applications discussed by Eric von Hippel in ‘Democratising innovation’ is part of our professional ethic. Library 2.0 is also progress towards really putting customers first that we talk a lot about but actually do in a fairly limited way.

Thing 20

I found two clips on Youtube when I searched for ‘Swinburne Library’ though one was recognizably set in ‘Mr Tulk’, the café around the corner from the State Library in LaTrobe Street. The other involved dressed-up library users racing up and down the aisles between the book stacks.

Next I watched 4 students wreaking havoc in the Monash University Library and spoofing a library tour at the same time. Then ontoanother group of students surreptitiously devouring Big Macs in the Matheson. Hmmm, time to find something more edifying but what search terms to use?

I attempted to watch a tour of the beautiful Library of Congress having been on one myself several years ago but unfortunately the camera operator had so many technical problems it was unwatchable.

The best thing I found was a video on a children’s interactive library which synergised with Thing 18 above. Nice!

Thing 21

Onto the Sirsi Dynix Institute to listen to a Podcast. This is a site I’ve used a bit with students so no worries here. Another Thing accomplished and the end’s in sight.

Thing 23

The Wash Up. Although the Things hung over my head like the Sword of Damocles for months I’m glad to have done them and am already using several to good effect. We librarians are guns at adopting and adapting new technology and proof positive that one is never too old too learn.

Will I keep blogging? Of course. Blogging is vanity publishing at its best. You can see your name in lights and no-one is obliged to read it if they don’t want to. What could be better than that? Finishing the 23 things that’s what.

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Yesterday was the fifth and final celebration for my special birthday. Entering a new decade is a fearful experience and it’s good to have lots of people around to see you over the hump. We had lunch at “The Point” on Albert Park Lake – very pretty, very pleasant, great company and conversation and some amazing gifts. I feel very spoilt but I still want one more thing – a change of government on Saturday, topped off with a win in the seat of Bennelong. Then I can die happy.

Today is my birthday. It’s one of those Big Birthdays that end in zero and get you thinking about the meaning of life and the state of your superannuation fund.

A number of luminaries share my birthday:
1. The late great miss Veronica Lake who taught me that it was OK to have long lank straight hair;
2. The loathsome Prince Charles who gives me a focus for all my negative energy;
3. Condoleezza Rice – great to see a woman in power but some of her political ideas are a worry;
4. Senator Joseph McCarthy - now we’re in really dangerous territory; and
5. Claude Monet – any one of his paintings would be an acceptable gift should you be wondering.

Google Docs

Set up my Google docs and started sharing the writing of the ANZIIL report with Mary, Zarina and Sue, inviting Tom as a visitor so he’d know we were really doing it. But the next day some intruder with a Gmail address had joined the group and our document had disappeared! So it’s back to sharing on G drive I guess.

Hurray! At last I have my star for Week 4 and my cinema tickets are on the way. Bake up the popcorn! Freeze up the choc tops!

The original four family members (now we have seven) Left Foot, Right Foot, Grumpy Girl and Petite Soeur

Information Literacy and Mango Tarts

The ANZIIL symposium in Hobart last week was a great success judging by the comments on delegates’ evaluation sheets. This was good news for the organising committee as we had a few difficulties along the way, most notably our man on the spot moving from Tassie to Brisbane just before the symposium and our Chair also changing jobs and being unable to attend.

It appears though that the glory days of Information Literacy are over. The feeling is that there’s less support from senior management confronting issues of accountability and effectiveness. It’s difficult to demonstrate the lasting benefits of many of our interventions.

On the plus side, the lovely lovely unmatchable, unmissable CRIG information literacy forum is coming up soon. The forum is timed to coincide with the mango season and, apart from the presentations, the highlights of these gatherings has always been the socialising and networking over a mango tart. The mango tarts were legendary but I’ve been told that for the second year in a row there will be none.

It’s a portent of doom. The thin end of the wedge. How long before no mango tarts equals no information literacy? I fear the worst.

A quiet Friday arvo so I've knocked over a few more of the 23 things. I've used Google Booksearch many times but have had another look. There's still not many full books I want to read on it. I've set up an iGoogle homepage but found it did not transport from one computer to another. I've del.icio.used and posted photos of four late great pets.

There's lots of websites about Second Life and some articles in the databases too. It was reading one of these that alerted me to the existence of Web 3.0. And we're just coming to grips with Web 2.0! Enuff already!

I'm off to the ANZIIL symposium on Sunday so probably won't be blogging until the end of next week. See ya!

Star Quest

There is a black hole in the galaxy of stars alongside my blog. Week 4. I SWEAR TO GOD I have done all of the 23 things up to and a little beyond that point. So, Big Brother, I eagerly await the arrival of my Village cinema tickets any day now.

SWINBURNE LIVING LIBRARY TOURS THE ANCIENT WORLD

There's nothing like a night shift to get you romping through the 23 things. I've Flickrd and Googled and now have a few doz more passwords to remember. What have I learnt? According to Google Maps I could be getting home in one hour and 3 minutes instead of the hour and 20 it takes me now. I don't believe it.

I've sussed out Facebook and Myspace and know that they are not for me.

Now that I've arrived at the rest week I'm going to indulge myself by blogging about Living Library's tour through the Ancient World. LL visited the Topaki Palace in Istanbul to interview Suleyman the Magnificent; Delphi to consult the oracle; Olympia to win gold for Australia; Pompeii to ask for a ‘please explain’ from the vulcanologist; Rome to ask Romulus and Remus about establishing an empire; etc.

Pictures and details are on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/15224574@N08/

Here’s a few to go on with.

OK, I've just polished off the Week 5 stuff, including subscribing to some feeds and blogs on health issues. I expect to be a complete hypochondriac within a week.

I've just done the Library Thing (23 things week 4) and now I know that 87 other people also enjoy the novels of Barbara Trapido. That'll come in handy.

After zillions of attempts and frustrations and much advice from peers, I have finally managed to Simpsonise myself. And it looks just like me!!!

23 Things

Just back from leave, I'm very late to the party on the 23 things. Have got as far as Flickr but have resisted putting up my holiday snaps. Didn't think you'd be interested.

Here are the 23 things I wish I were still doing:
munching a light and crispy pizza in Rome
savouring a chocolate gelati in Sorrento
browsing the market in Amalfi
sipping a limoncello
admiring the view from the ferry on the way to Capri
inspecting the ruins at Pompeii and running in to a former student)
visiting Santa's grave in Bari
touring the colosseum
sneaking into a bar in the Piazza Venezia for a free pee
dining right on the beach at Tolo with the waves lapping around my feet
consulting the oracle at Delphi
running down the track at Olympia
singing my heart out in the theatre at Epidaurus
having a picnic lunch in the grounds of the public library at Nafplion
baking in the Athens heat
climbing halfway to Heaven at Meteora
picking up the great vibe on the streets of Istanbul
admiring the homes of the rich and famous from the middle of the Bosphorus
rapping with Suleyman the Magnificent at the Topkapi Palace
shopping for cushions in the Grand Bazaar
steering clear of the Istanbul carpet salesmen
getting high on the aroma in the Spice Bazaar
choosing among a dozen different breads to have with my kebab.

Sigh!

In his book ‘Microtrends’ Mark J. Penn identifies 75 consumer groups which are growing in importance for marketers. I seem to belong to several of them: Wordy Women (gotta admit to this), Southpaws Unbound (militant lefthanders), Powerful Petites (women tired of buying their clothes in children’s boutiques) but most of all, I am an Extreme Commuter.

Driving from St Kilda to Lilydale every day I have tried most of the time-passing activities Penn discusses. I have decimated the audiobook collections of every library in the south-eastern suburbs and can claim to have read all sorts of weighty tomes I would never have struggled through if I’d had to read them myself instead of having a professional actor read them to me. Being stuck in the middle of the Glen Iris level crossing while some fruity-voiced actor reads Proust to you is a unique experience.

Language tapes are another option. Penn claims you can learn Spanish in 16 hours and get a job as a UN translator. I haven't achieved those dizzy heights but, on and off for 10 years I have practiced my parley vous and can now place an order at a restaurant or book a hotel in Paris while simultaneously negotiating my way around the number 6 tram at the corner of high Street and Glenferrie Road.

Penn is right about the marketing opportunities. Extreme Commuters are a captive audience eager for anything to make the drive more pleasant. Libraries should be targeting us. Just be careful with the relaxation tapes - ZZZZZ.