‘Pod-casts’ and ‘You Tube’.

Well this all seemed rather easy, so I probably did something wrong. I thought ‘Pod Casts’ were the same as ‘Listen Again’, so I have learned something. Went straight to Radio 4, and received a copy of the latest ‘In our Time’ about the 1857 Indian Sepoy Mutiny/ War of Independence. It is now an icon on my ‘Desk Top’, and ‘down loaded’ very quickly, I am pleased to say. Despite my better judgment, I signed up to ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ on the R.S.S. Google Reader feed. Now I have even more items to wade through.

Despite assurances, I could not find a programme about Ranganathan or Colon Classification for Govinder Bunny on Podcast Alley, or Podcast.com. Searches for “bunnies” yielded results that made me fear for the human race, so I tried the University’s page of Pod Casts. Clicking on the option to “Show full details of all media items” was useful. ‘Introduction to Old English’ from the English Faculty, the Centres for Hindu Studies, and Medical Innovation, all look interesting. Sadly, the lectures are also rather long! Think I shall save them for a rainy day.

Wow, ‘You Tube’ is brilliant!! Found a copy of Maar Dala, my fav. from the 2002 Devdas !!! I used the official Indian filmi company, Eros Entertainment’s, site so hope it was legal (I am scared of Govinder Bunny!). Found how to adjust the volume on the screen, fill the screen, and it keeps the wide-screen letter-boxing. This is too exciting...

Searched the ‘Education’ Channel, and saw some short amateur films from the Open University web-site of the construction of the M1 in 1959. Not being an admirer of cars and roads — preferring fresh air and open fields for gambolling and burrowing — I watched a couple of other Bolly songs to cheer myself up, but then made the mistake of looking for Tujhe Yaad... Couldn’t find it on the Eros site, but saw a good-quality (legal?) screening, and promptly burst into tears. Think I should treat this web-site with caution. Must go and dry my soggy fur, and wipe my bunny nose now. Can I have a cuddle, please?

Friday cheer.

Happier now, as I have cured the ante-penultimate post's desire to use different point-sizes (insert extra Carriage Return at the end of the text), and changed the 'Description' to red, as per an in-coming telex. Hurrah for Fridays!

Evidence-based cynicism.

Just for a change, my previous post was not formatted as desired; what a surprise!! I am beginning to weary of this game... At least I am not alone; "Another week, another web 2.0 application with a stupid name." ES23's Bunny Log.

Reflections on sharing web-page ‘Book-marks’.

If my computer forces a new font for every different post, despite my wishes, I might as well use my favourite! Anyway, first thoughts on ‘Social Book-marks’. I created a Del.icio.us [sic.] account with little trouble, and followed the 23 Things Oxford team’s instructions easily. Added a couple of sites of suppliers of English Fair Trade shirts, and St Stephen’s House Library out of curiosity to my ‘Network’. The latter’s links need checking, but the failed one about the Resurgence Greek Project was 2008. Fascinating to read about the Codex Sinaiticus...

Anyway, if sharing micro-computers, I can see how this would be useful, if one’s web-browser(s) can not remember your settings from one machine to the next. It might be a good way of searching for information as an alternative to Google: checking sites found by friends and acquaintances, whom you know to share your interests, will (should?) yield better results than the deluge of links from Google.

However, if one is a lecturer, does one use this, or teach courses from a web-site page, where these links would be provided openly? Students could share book-marks for their work (especially group projects), but how else could one use these? Using so few web-sites regularly (and then mostly to supplement other sources), I can remember them myself: B.B.C. Weather and broadcasts, Trip Advisor, and a couple of message-board sites. If doing a formal course, my needs would change, of course. I wonder how the young search for sites now.

For libraries, I would expect sites to be advertised via more formal web-pages giving links to subject areas, or a serendipitous discovery cited on a daily ‘blog’ for readers, to save them having to log into another site. Perhaps in the teaching of study-skills for readers, and how to use the library, these shared book-marks could be used as part of a self-directed course on a computer. I wonder how the number of ‘clicks’ and sites to read all this information can be reduced.

The whole rôle of how the young student to-day conducts research is ripe for study. Tagging is interesting, being ‘The Herd’s L.C.S.H. Authority file’. Will this yield a classification system at last orientated around how The Reader, not just The Librarian, thinks? The abolition of the ‘Basic Class’? A system of ‘browsing’ books, via Tags, on the computer, instead of the Open Shelves? I feel this could be the subject of a Monograph by Govinder Bunny, bibliophile extraordinary, and follower of Ranganathan and ‘The Way of the Book-Press’...

Bollywood Widescreen Bunnies.

I am beginning to suffer 'option paralysis' and 'information over-load'. I dare not look at my I-Google page, because of all the 'feed' from my R.S.S. links (especially the Times of India !). If we are all sitting alone at our screens, transcribing the 'flight of ideas' that passes through our minds, when will we read other people's writings, let alone switch off the computer, and go and chat round a pot of hot chocolate/chai/coffee?!? "Social" means meeting others, not exchanging telegraphs!

On hearing this week's project was pictures, our Keeper flounced around the empty library, pretending to be Peter Greenaway's camera-man (except it was still dark!), and re-creating one of his films from when he was young and impressionable. We had to look French and insouciant, on a long table-top, and then he 'cropped' them to a Widescreen ratio. It kept him happy.

When asked to create yet another 'account' for the Flickr site, my heart sank, and I had to have a therapeutic bunny-cuddle. As we wanted these only for fellow 23 Thing-ers to see, our Keeper has taken some 'arty' shots about the library. Transferring the pictures to Flickr was easy, as was arranging them into a pretentiously-titled 'Batch'. However, it was difficult to check if they had been made available to the 23 Things Oxford group: Bunny Auntie Gigi confirmed they were. Some confusion ensued, as I was not sure where to put tags, descriptions, and titles: are all necessary? Why can one not search via 'Tags'? At least the 'Geo-tagging' will ensure there is one picture of Oxford, confusing and utterly boring, if found by a prospective tourist...

Then the fun began. Giving 'Pic-nik' access worked well, but I could not see the point; it seemed to do nothing that 'Paint' or 'Picture manager' did not, and the one useful thing we bunnies would love - 'grabbing' stills from our favourite Bollywood D.V.D.s so we can make some new costumes - remains elusive! Perhaps it has advantages if one spends a long time trying everything, but life is too short.

However... I can see the storage of photographs might be useful, especially to provide 'links' for illustrated web-pages which can not store pictures (I think I am correct in saying not all do). The opportunity for 'Virtual Tours' of one's library, storage of lots of direction signs, and illustrations for Staff Handbooks, would make Flickr a very useful free 'store', if one runs out of space on one's 'K'-disc drive.

Can't wait to re-enact Brief Encounter...

p.s., looking at others' comments, I need to spend much more time playing with Pic-nik: the Christmas card drawing effect is wonderful.

397th Anniversary of Sir Thomas Bodley's Passing.

It's the 29th of January, and we mourn the death of Sir Thomas, in our special ceremony, with the first 'Cream Egg' of the year. Madhuri Bunny, Keeper of the Chocolate, is Mistress of Ceremonies, Amisha Bunny bears the sacred spoon, and Shabana Bunny the chocolate whisk. Govinder Bunny has the Ceremonial Sword at the other end of the table. A fresh napkin is laid on our laps. I am sworn to secrecy about further details... It all proves too emotional for Govinder Bunny, as it does every year, so I give her a cheering bunny cuddle. Later, we all have a party with much chocolate, singing, and dancing, Sonali and Rahul Bunny on the tablas. Govinder is happy again, and shows us her moves; I keep an eye on her nifty foot-work... Naughty Manisha Bunny has over-indulged in the hot chocolate, and needs some T.L.C. to recover from the hang-over. We were all young once...

Lapin Dernier a Marienbad.

Notes from a Reading Room...

More bunny excitement, as we encounter our first Open Shelf book with the bar-code, on the back, now worn away and unable to be scanned. Sotto voce mutterings between our Keeper and his colleagues. Shabana Bunny and I sneak a quick look, when they decide to adjourn for a cup of tea and a moan...

Two web-links of interest, perhaps.

Much excitement at the Secret Bodley Bunny Base, as we cinnamon-land bunnies see p.11 of the January 2010 Blueprint : an exhibition in the Bodleian Proscholium, called Traces of India ! We will be attending en masse... http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/south-asians-making-britain/events.htm Whilst scribbling generally, may I take the opportunity to plagerise a previous colleague's blog: "Your Life Work: The Librarian - The all time best careers video!! "I am stupendously excited to have found this one... it's a US government film from 1946 promoting the merits of librarianship as a career choice. It's truly OUTSTANDING!! "I particularly love its use of the line: "Did you get me the material on the sternocleidomastoid and the zygomatic head of the quadratus labii superioris?" (oooh, the dramatic life of the hospital librarian!). "You have to see it! It's on URL, and the link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smrrZpbvI20 "It's 10mins long, but so completely worth it!" I agree heartily with the comment about the drama of hospital libraries...

Bunnies Feeding in the Vegetable Garden of the World’s Information.

Phew, that did not go too badly. I have managed to subscribe to six web-site R.S.S. ‘feeds’ – I had always wondered what that little orange logo was for – in different ways. I am very pleased to have ‘fed’ on Bunny Auntie Jules’s Blog from the Radcliffe Camera, despite it having no orange logo! On some sites, one clicks on the logo, on others, one has to type in the web-site, and on one (R.A.W.A.) I obtained the feed from the Google blog search, because their link was wrong. However, it was all easy to pick up, with the web-sites offering handy links to help. I am unsure what this ‘feed’ does: I expected a telegraphic ‘ticker tape’ of the last ‘posts’, now scrolling continually somewhere on my screen. It seems that, instead, one has yet another screen (Google Reader) to read, to find one’s links. Will this turn into one’s Web-Browser’s ‘Bookmarks’: scrolling endlessly, but all soon to be neglected and forgotten, bar the top half-dozen...? I shall see. Anyway, I have subscribed to: 1) 23 Things Oxford (of course). I hope Emma slept in this morning, as the diary entries are dated 00.40! 2) The Times of India, which displays as “Finance-Economy-News-The Economic Times”. Why? 3) The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. We bunnies approve of sisters’ resistance to the nasty, book-burning, Taliban... 4) Liberty. More resistors of repression and nastiness. 5) Jules@camera. Not sure what this will do, as it has no orange logo, but news from Bunny Auntie Jules, ex-colleague and bunny chum, will be good. 6) The National Library of Iran. Will this be in English or Farsi? If the latter, at least the calligraphy will be pretty. Couldn’t find a site for Anarchist Librarians, or a general British Library Blog, but this is enough, I think. I will play with the Reader page settings later. p.s. I have tried saving this draft as a txt file, to stop it using previous formatting when pasting to a diary entry. I hope this cures last week’s problem.