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A.B.Credaro Sub-Editor: A.B.Credaro Night Desk: A.B.Credaro Head of Production: A.B.Credaro Webmaster: A.B. Credaro Layout: A.B. Credaro Publicity: A.B.Credaro Catering: A.B.Credaro Hair Stylist: A.B. Credaro Wardrobe Supervisor: A.B. Credaro Correspondence to: Note: The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author. Any resemblance to real librarians (living or dead, or somewhere in between) or real libraries, may be a coincidence - but probably not. Biblia, the Warrior Librarian, was created by A.B.Credaro. The practice of Warrior Librarianship is common, and therefore quite possibly in the public domain. As such, it is likely to be exempt from any copyright restrictions. However, this does not limit Warrior Librarian Weekly, its agents, employees, heirs, spouses, family pets, or others connected with the zine, from trying to make an easy buck from its use. Universal permission is granted to any website to create a link to any page on this site. Notification of such links is appreciated, but not mandatory. In other words, this would be nice, but you don't have to. All material on this site was written by A.B. Credaro unless otherwize stated. Requests for permission to publish or circulate any content should be directed to same. |
Overdue crimes
Whilst some facilites opt for a mere suspension of borrowing rights, others have introduced a sliding scale of fees, with ultimately an invoice for the cost of the material's replacement. But even with the latter option, there are still problems with the actual charge amount. Should libraries incorporate a processing charge to cover time in re-ordering, right through to end processing? Given that a minimum of about 2 hours of library time is required to get a book on a shelf (give or take about 4 days, depending on the complexity of the cataloguing required), what would be an appropriate amount to charge for wasting a librarian's time? That pretty much depends on whether you are going to charge at salary rates, or genuine worth .... ... There is no more to read >> School librarians in the media
The letter most recently submitted to the Sydney Morning Herald (at the time of publication of WLW) was headed: Are there two Australian Councils for Academic Research (ACER)?. It continued: The ACER Report, "The Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement: A Review of the Research" [available online at: http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/schoollibraries.pdf], released earlier this year, received indiscernible coverage in the mass media. Covering more than a decade of research over three continents, scientifically valid studies have proven a positive causal relationship between academic achievement and the effectiveness of school library programs. Further, this 40 page report outlined the decline in school library support in Australia (see Amanda Mackler SMH December 8, and Sue Morton SMH December 9). However, featured in today's paper [see:http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/09/007.html] are the new findings of ACER's Research Report 36: "Influences on Achievement in Literacy and Numeracy". Reported with gusto by the media is the coincidental linkage of academic achievement with parental socio-economic status, and residential locality. The reports author was unable to explain the relationship, but is quoted as saying it might be attributable to mothers interacting more than fathers with their pre-school children. It isnt rocket science, ACER. Those areas more heavily populated with high-income families are more likely to have better-resourced school libraries, often through the fund-raising activities of their schools teacher librarians. Direct observation indicates that the more experienced principals on whose discretionary powers (eg clerical support and the allocation of babysitting duties) the effectiveness of library programs depends are more likely to be found in the more desirable suburbs. Anecdotal evidence indicates that families with one or more professionals are likely to have home reading modeled by parents; students in these circumstances can readily access appropriate, contemporary reading materials from their well-stocked school libraries, where their teacher librarian is ready, willing and able to guide them on their way to becoming informed, literate, productive citizens. The miracle (independent of Christmas or ACER) is that so many school libraries manage to do so much, with so little. Imagine what could be achieved with more support! Sure, the paragraphs are too long. The style of prose could not be described as 'elegant', nor witty. And yes, if it is published it will be edited back to around 50 words. But at least now you know why there isn't much else to read in this edition of WLW ... ... There is no more to read >>
Interestingly (at least to us) were the Sophist's view that winning an argument was more important than actually being right. Which goes a long way to explaining many of the incredibly innane decisions that are made concerning libraries. Clearly, despite the view of many historians, Sophism has not been dead for over 2000 years.... ... There is no more to read >>
MORE ORIGINAL HUMOR
Research has shown that the average librarian will take 5-10 minutes to read this web page. Anecdotal evidence is suggesting that many librarians fear they do not have enough time to investigate the humor links. The majority of the 90+ original library humor items in the Humor Index are designed to take less than 2 minutes to read. However, if you choose to hang around there for hours reading them all, then re-reading them, then WLW cannot take any responsibility. You now have the choice of using the genetically unmodified Alphabetical Index or the dolphin-safe Dewey Version. Caffeine-free version has been temporarily canned, pending an FDA investigation ... MOST POPULAR BIBLIA PAGES TO DATE:
AMAZON BOOK SALES: has slipped slightly from last week's sales ranking of 55,122 to 70,661 this week. Strangely, the Amazon link to "explore similar items" delivers Harry Potter 5. Rowling must be thrilled ...
... There is no more to read >> |
The inaugural Library Conference of the Year must go to the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva. WLW's invitation must have gotten lost in the mail ... Can we get some sort of prize over to Britain's Mark Sheahan, UK Innovator of the Year 2003, who sang the praises of the British Library in helping with his invention ... There must be a misprint in the report from Canada's CBC Saskatchewan headlined "STORM gathers over library closures". It states that 50 people launched a concerted campaign to save three Regina Public Library branches. 50? ... Why does Chicago's Daily Herald seem surprised that library use is increasing? Maybe someone could leak this information out to the politician's responsible for funding ... Meanwhile, over in South Africa, over 1,000 schools without libraries are being provided with an internet connection so they can access Encarta. And also provide every student with an email address by 2006. According to the project's spokesman, this is "a great opportunity for SA to leapfrog the US and UK " ... The Madras University in India as announced its bid for international accreditation. Included are plans concerning the library, but little information is available at this time - apart from e-governance (we guess this means no-one with any real power or authority will come near the place) and a "performance-linked welfare program" for staff. Scarey .... What could be more international (for libraries, at least) than Melville Dewey's birthday? Thanks to Australia's Adelaide Advertiser for informing the uninformed ... There is no more >>
Behind every argument is someone's ignorance. Louis D. Brandeis
Many thanks to (Australia's) Kerry Neary for bringing our attention to the singing horses. A simple 30 second stress-reliever, but needs your sound switched on for this one .... There is no more >>
Thanks to the Scout Report for alerting us to Today in Literature for those with an interest in this topic ... There is no more >>
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One of the many questions that have been plaguing libraries of all types is the issue of overdue fines. Particularly since budgets got a lot tighter.
Although the front pages of major Australian newspapers are not exactly running hot on the issue of libraries, there have been a number of Letters to the Editor.
This week, the WLW Reseach Team undertook an investigation of the evolution of education systems and paradigms. (We love that word, especially since we learned how to pronounce it - and also spell it. Anecdotal evidence suggests that we may even know what it means. However, there have been no exhaustive studies in this area to date.)
MASS MEDIA: The New Zealand 
CONFERENCES Biblia's next conference appearance is scheduled on 
ACADEMIA: Recently discovered was the fact that both the Warrior Librarian and this website have been included in the course material for the Information Literacy e-course IST 4117. We wrote to them on September 14, asking for a copy of the course notes, but haven't heard anything back yet ...
INTERNET: For some reason, Warrior Librarian Weekly has now been listed in Steven Carr's 
FROM THE MAILBOX: Someone signing their name as Daniel Bazac wrote to tell us about their blog. Unfortunately we misread the name, thinking it was Balzac; but there was no library (or humor) content there ...
