As with my Glasgow colleague, I am beginning to bring together evidence for my Chartership portfolio.
I have a draft of my Evaluative Statement already, as I felt that this would help give shape to the evidence selection. The statement is also a pain to write, with its tight word limit and demands for evaluation and [...]

Many of you will already know Unshelved. Always funny, often hilarious and sometimes just weird. And they do nice t-shirts too!
Also always good value, the Warrior Librarian. The book is pretty funny too.
And why not try Rex Libris. Damn hard for me to get hold of, even with two fine comic shops near to home; [...]

No councillors, save as members of an oversight board. No ‘consultants’ (where do they go when efficiency savings come round?) No ‘experts’, unless they’re prepared to put their bodies where their words are.
We could try just the librarians and the visitors, working together. Public libraries could work much better if they were just given the [...]

In the comments to Tim Coates’ post on CILIP/MLA, Verity Penglais argues that no-one would notice if CILIP went, except insofar as money from dues would go back into frontline services.
Leaving aside the charming assumption that councils would use money they currently spend on CILIP fees to boost frontline services, there is the issue of [...]

I don’t have a connection at home, which in a lot of ways is a nice thing So I do my testing and browsing here at work.
I thought I’d have a look at LibraryThing, Shelfari and Revish, specifically at what they tell me about The Book Thief. (Shelfari link; LibraryThing link)
My notes tell me I [...]

I’ve submitted my response to the MLA Blueprint. Not a nice form; it assumes you like the Blueprint From there it just asks which of the bits you like best essentially.
 You can use the free text areas to have a more genuine say, but it’s still not a good form. Still, I’ve done my [...]

Who’s heading to Hatfield for Umbrella?
I’m looking forward to it, though I’m not a natural socialiser or networker. The first-timer lunch should help…

Now, this is not about David Cronenberg (”do not despise the things of the body; that is Manichaean error”; I wish I could find who said that.)
Rather it’s about an intriguing bit of OPAC work  flagged up by Michael over at 025.04
Will RDA allow for the colour of a book cover as part of physical [...]

Are libraries about information? No; at least that shouldn’t be their focus
Are libraries ‘just’ for books? No
Should they be ‘mainly’ about books? For now, yes
Should they be about ‘anything we can think of’? No
There has to be a limit to what libraries are charged with doing, be that by government, commentators or librarians. Libraries should [...]

Flicking through The Times I come across an article on bookshops, browsing and the internet. Authors saying that they miss browsing and the serendipity of the bookshop; but one didn’t miss the old bookshops with ‘an old dragon’ at the desk or only the works of Mao on the shelf.
Now, I remember independent bookshops too, [...]