warriorlibrarian.com Blog

Here’s a typical scenario … the patron/library user/client has enough metal in their face to prompt visions of administering first-aid, or calling the paramedics; they’re dressed like they’ve just been picked up mid-ocean by a passing freighter; they’re grasp of reality seems to be based on a civilization not yet discovered.

Yet you treat them with the same respect (or possibly indifference, depending on your training/mood/proximity of supervisor) as anyone else.

Is this tolerance? Or apathy? Are we becoming increasingly ‘inclusive’ and/or compassionate? I just don’t know. Or maybe it’s more a case of I don’t care ….

Ryan Pitylak, 24, once listed as the world’s “4th worst spammer” seemed pretty philosophical about the size of the penalty imposed by the US Attorney General. 

“This has been a real good learning experience for me,” Pitylak said.  He recently sold a car and house for $US430,000.  Not many young adults have amassed those sort of assets at 24 years of age.

So, one has to think that if the world’s “4 worst spammer” can achieve this, imagine what a really good one could have done ….

Well, wellness sure has taken off.  I’d always thought that a number of my various workplaces were already heavily involved in wellness.  “There isn’t enough time/staff/funds/whatever to do …”.  Response: “Well?”

But that aside, everyone has to be proactive and individually responsible for their own health and well being.  Or so we are instructed.

Anyways, this morning I forewent my usual three cups of double-shot expresso - notably without sugar and with low-fat milk -  and partook of one litre of a health ‘drink’ that stated clearly on the label that it was good for “Body and Mind”.  Maybe the Gentle Reader can detect an improvement in writing quality. 

But as for the ‘body’ bit - I don’t seem to be any taller, thinner or younger.   Yawn …

How should information professionals promote the use of Interactive White Boards? And should they? Now *there’s* a journal paper just waiting to be written … by somebody else. Thank you.

Anyways, it seems like rather than just rely on the free stuff off the Internet (and yes, there IS some worthwhile bits - and bytes, even - amongst the dross) the best use is in providing a viewing platform for groups too large to sit around a monitor, in situations where a demonstration of functionality would be useful.

Enter the dragon.  No, wait … wrong genre.  OK, enter the web cam.  Interesting concept to appraise, assay, audit, canvass, case, check, check out,, consider, criticize, delve into, dig into, explore, eye, frisk, go into, go over, go through, gun*, inquire, inspect, investigate, look over, look see, parse, pat down, peruse … you get the picture.

I particularly liked watching the raindrops run down the lens of Sydney’s The Rocks webcam, with the harbour ferries scuttling about in the background; was eternally grateful that my workstation would not run the ActiveX controls necessary to view Tarantula Cam from the Museum of Victoria; and spent some time trying to get the point of South Australia’s Spinach Cam … only to find out that there really wasn’t any point. It records the significant (?) events at a BMX bike track. Sigh.

Actually in the chilly twighlight of Sydney in winter, but that doesn’t sound nearly as poetic…

It was Parade Day for Blacktown City Festival, and the crowds were out in force, as usual. I’ve always wondered what makes people bring their dogs to parades … where humanity is so closely packed that people use their stollers/pushers/prams in much the same way that mariners use ice-breakers on route to the Antarctic. Do they think the dogs enjoy it? Or is it some sort of status symbol? Or maybe they’re just lunatics?

“Sign of the Day” was spotted at one of the craft stalls - I’m not lazy, I’m motivationally challenged. Would have been good for Grouchman’s room, but he’s already got enough excuses to fill a book.  Maybe he should publish?

Many thanks to the world famous, and long-time fan of Warrior Librarian, Claude Razanajao for bringing this to our attention.

Interesting, the review reads “Sept ans me séparent déjà des expériences vécues en Australie. Expériences d’un Français en terre australienne, d’un didacticien du FLE en « stage intensif » d’apprentissage de l’anglais, enfin d’un praticien du FLE à l’université de La Trobe et de Monash (Melbourne).

Ces expériences simultanées et entrecroisées, rares pour un enseignant / chercheur en FLE, méritaient un effort d’analyse et d’introspection pour rendre compte de ce que signifie « apprendre une langue étrangère ». Cet effort, il est vrai, a été facilité par le continuum de remarques et de réflexions qui caractérise certainement la vie affective et intellectuelle de tout individu vivant à l’étranger, dans un autre contexte linguistique et culturel.

Je ne chercherai donc pas à me réapproprier ces textes écrits à Melbourne, ou plutôt dans quelques-uns de ces « suburbs ». Je chercherai plutôt à utiliser les tracés laissés par ces diverses expériences pour présenter les textes qui suivent : « Traces d’apprentissage », « Théorisons un peu de vécu ! », « Le corps disant », etc.”

So it’s probably pretty good. Although it’s going to take ages to put the whole book through Babelfish …

Whoever ‘composed’ this message should receive untold gifts of wealth, or at least a little certificate of some sort. (You work out which is most likely …)

There should also be commercially available signs which inform library patrons of what is, and isn’t,  allowed - not only in the library, but also out on the street. 

Although, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that they might already be around.  It’s just that no-one reads them … or maybe they do, but just ignore them.  Or is it just the Rhett Butler’s of the world, Scarlett?