A former librarian at an independent girl's school, and described as "an information specialist for Northern Light", published a particularly narky review of Biblia's Guide to Warrior Librarianship, following which the reviewer appears to have gone into hiding.

Despite the fact that her review ends with the information that " ... she is establishing an independent information consulting company ...", there doesn't appear to be any trace of her, regardless of extensive Googling and other cheap tricks.

In part, the review states that the book is " ... cute rather than funny and her unfortunate undertone of sarcasm seems to be motivated more by pique than by professional pride ..." The Warrior Librarian took great exception to the accusation of an Undertone of Sarcasm, stating that she'd worked very hard to make that the central premise, not any wishy-washy, half-baked undertone thing.

As the reviewer had also stated disappointment in the fact that the book had a strikingly similar tone to the website, attempts have been made to contact her asking what exactly she had expected ...

No more to read here >>

A recent report from the business division of a major public library has uncovered a major deficiency in the standard user services instructions and notices.

Leaving the library in a clearly traumatized state, one patron was stunned to learn that the black-and-white photocopier would not 'colorize' a black-and-white picture, despite the offer to pay an extra fee.

Although the staff briefly considered an enforced session of instruction, they were restrained from offering explanations that there were also no color photographs available of either God or dinosaurs, that the library card laminating machine could not cover a poster, or that the Internet computers were not able to complete a tax return without them entering the information ...

No more to read here >>

Joint sponsors of the ALISE conference, the highly respected and long established publishing house Libraries Unlimited recently hosted a celebration of their 40th anniversary.

Although the WLW invitation to the Boston-based celebration during the ALISE conference was received several weeks before the event, it rapidly became apparent that the air tickets from Sydney Australia must have been omitted from the invitation envelope.

At this time, there is no suggestion that this is any way a retributive move motivated by the threat to the company's respectability by publishing a library humor book ...

No more to read here >>

Many thanks to Rosemary Shakespeare, WLW proofreader extraordinaire, for alerting readers to the following gaffs:

Reported in Police Life, the Victorian police magazine, was the incident of the Melbourne Age journalist who rang the Victoria Police Media Unit during National Missing Persons Week. He asked if he could be put in touch with a missing person for a story he was writing to promote the week.

In addition, an employment vacancy was advertised elsewhere for "face to face telephone customer service experience". As if things weren't already impossible for displaced library folk ...

No more to read here >>

Having graduated following final exams at school, Young Adult spokesperson Colin Grouchman has now lost access to the secure and protected confines of the school library building.

Currently 'resting' before making any half-serious attempt at anything remotely resembling substantial employment, Grouchman states that he is maintaining his reading practices. Now that his Cliff Notes and study guides have been packed away - notably in pristine condition - Grouchman's literary development has changed gear.

Objecting to the cruel and unusual insistance of his parents that he peruse job vacancies, Grouchman's bedroom shelves are rapidly filling with car magazines and computer games. There's probably other reading material at the bottom of his sock drawer, but even his mother isn't game to look ...

No more to read here >>

More than two weeks have now passed without any communication from world renowned Claude Razanajao, who skyrocketed to fame as the Retired French Librarian With a Sense of Humor.

Having contributed heavily to the ongoing technical development of the website by suggesting a more regular archiving of back copies of WLW, and provided considerable textual and pictorial input, Razanajao is almost certainly working on a new project.

Or maybe there is a communications issue, or something else ...

No more to read here >>

Readers of the last edition of WLW may be wondering what's been going on in the back room here at Warrior Librarian Central. Or maybe they've got better things to do with their time. Which is more likely.

However, following the disposal of a lot of pieces of paper, the Executive Office Suite is in a slightly less chaotic state of randomness than usual. Which looks nice, but may not be an accurate indication of efficiency.

But it's the public perception that counts, right? No librarian worth their Birkenstocks would let their front desk resemble their workroom, nor any publication cry "havoc!" and let slip the blogs of chore ...

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 >>

It takes a special talent to be 'in the poop' at work, when you aren't even actually at work. In the latest of a series of articles (published in peer-reviewed and refereed journals) on the topic of globally falling literacy levels, and the politicization of this issue, A.B. Credaro has seriously put a few noses out of joint. Apparently.

Notably, there is no disagreement on the facts quoted nor the sources cited. The major dissention rests squarely on the identification of A.B. Credaro's place of primary employment, as part of her professional signature. And what will the final outcome be? ...

The latest update (last item here) >>

The CEO of the multimedia global conglomerate is remaining silent on the possible public float of Warrior Librarian. To date, there has been no release of a prospectus and none of the stock exchanges seem to be aware of any proposals to list the company.

Neither the New York nor Australian stock markets were prepared to release any information, although the Charters Towers Stock Market (pictured) does claim to be prepared to sell anything that moves ...

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Do you know your library patrons and/or colleagues well enough to tell a genuine smile? Professor David Perrett and Dr Tony Little of the University of St Andrews have developed an online 'test' to see how well a testee (that's you) can gauge a real smile from a fake.

According to the website, the 20 questions take 10-20 minutes to complete. But it really depends on your connection speed. You'd think that professors and doctors at a university would know that ....

...Do the survey >>

Of the many joys of being the editor of an online library journal, few rate as highly as the opportunity to interview world-famous authors. This may not be a reciprocally auspicious occasion for the other party.

Fledgling e-journal editors might benefit from two top tips. Firstly, don't ask for proof of the author's identity, particularly if they are at a library conference - sitting at a table covered with their books and attended fawningly by their publisher's representative. Admittedly Morris Gleitzman (pictured) was able to flip over a few of his works and indicate his photograph on the back cover. (Although there really didn't seem to be a great resemblance.)

Secondly, don't offer suggestions for improvement to their latest publication. Luckily Gleitzman is a humor writer, and probably realized that the impromptu interview was a joke. Or maybe he didn't ...

... No more to read here >>

[Writing on bureaucracy-speak] " ...makes as much sense as the quacking of ducks. I am fond of ducks, but I do not want them to be in charge ..."

Joe Bennett, in Fun run and other oxymorons

Maybe not as witty or repeatable as the above, some stuff by the Warrior Librarian occasionally gets quoted ...

In-house quotations >>>