Authorities are still undecided whether the recent traffic incident involving an elderly bearded man in a red suit was completely accidental.

Although the name of the injured pedestrian has not yet been released, associates living overseas stated that the casualty had been depressed since the end of the Christmas period, following a back-strain injury.

Reading from a prepared statement, a spokesman revealed that an unusually heavy workload had resulted from filling requests for multi-volume sets of books such as Snicket and Potter, with their accompanying official merchandise. "Reading material used to be mainly comics, and then only as stocking-fillers. Do you know how much a complete boxed set of young adult series books weighs?" ...

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A scan through online news sources reveals that the most common library news this week is the publication of holiday closing times and days.

With many library staff taking advantage of their annual leave entitlements to spend time opening presents, consuming too many calories, luxuriating in familial grudge matches, their patrons are left roaming the streets seeking quality literature.

There may be some misguided individuals who disagree with the last statement above ....

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A major conference in India featured a keynote address, urging medical librarians to keep their skill set as current as possible.

C.V. Bhirmanandam, Vice-Chancellor of the Tamilnadu Dr M G R Medical University, addressing the national convention, recommended "periodical refresher courses, seminars and conferences organized at regional and national-levels for information professionals" and stated that "the programs should highlight the availability and accessibility of information resources and services".

Under the UGC network facility, a total of Rs 250 lakh had been granted for modernisation, S.P. Thyagarajan, Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, said. Unfortunately a large percentage of the grant money had already been expended on name plates for doors and desks ...

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With publishing houses, research centers and universities, displaying more than three thousand titles, the Libya book fair in Tripoli came to its inevitable close.

For those who have not experienced an off-shore or overseas extravaganza such as this, the fair was opened with speeches where local luminaries congratulated the organizers and stressed the importance of such conventions.

This was followed by a series of seminars, round tables, and drawing exhibitions in the umbrella events which accompanied the fair ...

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Leading humor writer Dave Barry has announced that he will leave the Miami Herald, having joined the staff there in 1983.

Syndicated in over 500 newspapers, Barry's weekly columns were widely acclaimed by people who didn't have access to Warrior Librarian Weekly. But admittedly, Barry is pretty good at humor writing.

Amazon lists 240 titles by the author, although some of those might be different versions of the same book or out of print. The WLW Division of Sticking Their Nose Into Stuff lost interest half-way through the research ...

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NASA has upgraded its warning on the 2029 asteroid impact to a Level 4 on the Torino Scale. This level of warning has not been issued before, and is reserved for "events meriting concern" versus the vast majority of potentially threatening asteroids that merely merit "careful monitoring."

The asteroid's chances of hitting Planet Earth on April 13, 2029 are now listed as one in 60, giving librarians only 24 years to clear their processing backlog and do a complete inventory. This might nearly be time enough to get everything done, given sufficient personnel.

WLW recommends ensuring that all insurance contracts are bumped up to the limit for the whole of April, 2029, not just the 13th ...

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World renowned Claude Razanajao hit the headlines again when he questioned the logic of the WLW archiving mechanism.

Noticing that "when a new issues [sic] of WLW appears, the previous one is not immediately archived. For exemple [sic], the 201 issue is no more on line. Only the 200 and 202 issues are readable at this time."

However, he was able to locate the missing edition by using the site's internal search engine, kindly provided by FreeFind. The previously unarchived edition, featuring the prior Claude Razanajao story, has now been linked with the other back copies of WLW.

Rather than being a technical issue, the deficiency is due to a lack of time, motivation, due care and the use of el cheapo (as in unpaid - and you can't get much cheaper than that) staff, who have now been spurred into action ...

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Some pretty exciting developments are underway here at Warrior Librarian Central, now we've packed up the Christmas decorations. Although there's been quite a break since the last edition of WLW was released, the hamsters have indeed been busy working under the hood.

As a hint, WLW recommends that you take the time to upgrade your browser if you're still using IE 3 or something similar. Otherwise things are going to look pretty much the same as they always have ...

Is your library manager a saint or a sinner - or something in between? Now you can use the exclusive WLW ratings chart, without any fear of retribution.

Peter Lewis has kindly provided this online activity exclusively to Warrior Librarian readers (which I think might have been mentioned). And yes, we know you can't read the writing on the graphic here. It was an attempt to fill the space with something appropriate ...

Rate Your Boss HERE >>

The general public perception of library work being all beer and skittles was shattered recently, when A.B. Credaro published yet another seminal work. Citing no less than 49 published references, with a further 10 recommended reads on the topic of workplace stress, the author didn't pull any punches when it came to laying all the cards on the table.

Significantly, Credaro promoted the use of workplace humor in order to address some of the deficiencies in the Occupational Safety and Health legislative protection. Although based on Australian school library data, the findings translate well across all continents and types of libraries ...

800kb pdf (7 pages) of article >>

Retired public librarian Ellanie Sampson, one of the original WLW fan club members, has now opened the New Mexico branch office of the WLW corporate empire. After spending over thirty years serving the general public's reading and informational requirements, Ellanie summarized her career for WLW.

Aside from working in a school library during my junior and senior years in in Albuquerque, I worked in the slide library in the School of Art at the University of Oklahoma at Norman for about 3 years, then as Administrator of the Northeast Missouri Library Service. I spent 20 years in a small library in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Politics changed over the years and got funny, so I left T or C and hired on with the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System as branch manager at East Mountain.

With such a well-rounded background, all we have to do now is find Ellanie something to do so she can be a tax write-off for us, without us spending any actual money ...

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According to Managing Information online, real-life library folk gave The Librarian: Quest for the Spear mixed reviews.

TNT's website containing plot summaries - but without spoilers, so the pedantic can read it without fear of having the entire fabric of their personal universe shattered - doesn't mention any sequels, although the title itself could be an each-way bet for the producers.

Sadly, TNT has not seen fit to air the production on Australian television, nor release a DVD. So WLW cannot endorse its viewing at this stage ...

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Here at Warrior Librarian Central, we pride ourselves on maximizing the use of time. Sure, the executive office suite (similar to that pictured here) is a little chaotic. But we know where everything is! Most of the time, anyway.

OK, we'll admit we've lost a few important documents, but it wasn't like they were of any vital archival significance to the continuing development of the human race. Just bits and pieces, like from the Tax Office. We're pretty confident that that sort of thing will be reposted to us again.

What we really need in here is a fridge, and a supply of fridge magnets. You too can save yourself a lot of time and trouble filing bits of paper in your own personal home office. Besides which, the beer can't stay packed in cardboard boxes forever ...

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Although some people might find that putting their foot in their mouth is physically difficult, the Warrior Librarian is occasionally in danger of getting Athelete's Gums.

But there are those odd occasions when something worth quoting might pop out. Usually not. There have been some things that were said (or written) that have been quoted by other people ...

A semi-random selection >>