Wee keys, Docks, and Open Offices.

Namaste, bunny friends! Falling behind, due to Keeper’s runny nose, and excess admin., so only time for one cute bunny piccy this week: Shabana Bunny, a blur (almost) of satchel and Bodley saarii, speeding an urgent message to the Cataloguing Grotto, for the Faerie Cataloguers to wave their magic wands over a problem book, and make O.L.I.S. perfect again...

More pictures after Easter, I hope.

Had a quick look at the ‘Social O.U.L.S.’ (R.I.P.!) Wet-paint site, and was told three times by an advert I was the 999,999^th visitor... Didn’t know about this site, but it looks relatively quiet at the moment. So I went straight to Wikipedia, and tried changing the Bodleian’s entry page. Had no idea it was so easy! Changed my editing back again, and must have a think about how I could expand the information. Thinking I had little to contribute to such a venture, I discovered a page about drinking chocolate! Madhuri Bunny and our Keeper will be fighting each other off to add to this information, I fear. I have signed up for a Wikispace page, but am not sure what to do with it yet. Editing the latter is somewhat trying, with font options, etc., seeming to change from pts. to percentages at random. Perhaps I could write reviews of drinking chocolates? Or a monograph on its various methods of preparation?

Now to Open Offices. All seems a good idea, really, although it suggests a blind faith in the reliability of one’s connection to the inter-web. The novelty of typing at two characters per second soon wears off, mind you. If staff had the same programmes on every computer (or we all used Sun-Rays?) we could save I.C.T. time. As a devotee of ‘Word’, I did not expect ‘Google Docs’ to do everything, but it seems to write adequate documents (although the Divine Baskerville font is absent). All reasonably intuitive to use, after a little experimentation. The only complaint is the ‘link speed’, and basic nature of the editing available.

Asked Bunny Auntie Gigi to ‘share’ my Google doc., but not allowed her to edit it. Examined the ‘forms’ option, which was actually a survey template: looks very useful. Got through to ‘Think Free’, and have started a brief monograph on drinking chocolate, a subject close to some... Composing and editing seems reasonably easy. I do like the idea of ‘cloud computing’. Whilst a dedicated deleter of ‘cookies’ after every browse, I would not trust Google with any data of mine, but as a concept it is first rate. If we could all use Sun Rays (but with an easier system of saving to Memory Sticks!), and have every programme needed on a common Desk-top, how much easier life would be! More time to spend cuddling bunnies! On a serious note, I heard a programme on Radio 4 about a company hiring ‘black boxes’ to men in suits and with Mobile ‘Phones, instead of their using Lap-tops. I wish I could remember the details, but all their programmes and documents are held on a central ‘server’, and they needed only an internet café from which to work. Is this correct? It sounded like a good idea for our Brand New Bodleian Library. Hope this cloud computing takes off!

Service interruption.

It is with regret I have withdrawn the Live Radio Tele-tweet relay gadget from my Bunny Log, as I think it kept interfering with some browsers, causing the screen to flicker or vanish completely. You can follow my (or usually cousin Madhuri’s!) Telex Relay from the Reading Room on twitter.com; I am “kboxf23”.

Apologies and bunny hugs,

Konnie.

x

More Illustrations to Accompany Monday's Telex Relay.

Bunny Patrols throughout the day keep a discreet eye on readers...

Clambering up furniture with grappling hooks, the best vantage points are obtained to report events...

...until the Reading Room is handed over to the Night Shift, and it is time to return to the Bodley Bunny Base for a snack before dinner....

Some Illustrations to Accompany Monday’s Telex Relay.

The first (‘Dawn’) Patrol of the day poses for the camera, armed with riot shields, tickle stick, and Manisha Bunny carrying the radio-teleprinter (with a pretty girly bow atop, to stop accidents with the ærial), ready to herd any stray mice, and check the traps.

Establishing a temporary base, a report is sent to Lank. Floor Control.

From 08.30, the movements of patrols and readers are plotted in Smarties on the Floor Control Table Map (blue for patrol, purple for confused under-grads., red for naughty readers under surveillance, etc.).

Re-inventing the Wheel.

Move over Konnie, Madhuri Bunny’s toy this week!! I started the task the Thursday before because it looked so exciting. Subscribed to Twitter, watched a brief video of explanation, and sent a few test messages (“tweets”), before being told, on Monday, to include “#ox23”: Whoops! Just like the accursed mobile ‘phone’s use of Morse to indicate an incoming S.M.S. message, so Twitter has not forgotten its history: 70 characters is the standard width of a teleprinter line. Glad to see ‘the ghost of telegraphy past in the machine’—extra Brownie points!!

Transmitting messages is the easy bit. However, if one wants to do anything else, it seems rather more difficult. The web-page does not ‘refresh’ unless transmitting, so one has difficulty checking for messages from ‘Followers’. These are included in one’s list (“Personal Time-Line”), which is annoying. Can one move them to a new folder (‘List’)? Not after their transmission.

I am of two minds about editing messages after transmission: either they are short-lived, in which case not worth correcting or keeping on display for long, or they are of use for many days after transmission (so might need correction). The Twitter web-site stresses the ‘immediate, ephemeral, transitory’ nature of the messages, but some use it for the latter (why not just re-transmit the message, corrected?). I cannot see why one would wish to forward (‘Re-Tweet’) a message, unless it is so short a gloss can be appended.

Final Verdict: for relating the fast-paced drama, excitement, and thrills, of a Bodleian Reading Room, nothing but a telex machine can beat Twitter. I hope to have more chances to portray the daily cutting-edge of information provision. Is there a bunny at BOD LRR that can offer a similar commentary...?

Bunny Patient Stable.

Hullo, bunny friends, Konnie Bunny back again. I am pleased to report that Madhuri Bunny, having commandeered my P.C. for the whole day, had a fit of the vapours, but is now making a full recovery. She has stopped talking in Morse, and had a little hot chocolate earlier this morning. We hope our favourite glamorous telegraphist will be back on duty soon. Meanwhile, here's some music: http://www.youtube.com/user/erosentertainment#p/f/95/HYGgAHo186s

Reading Room Telex Commentary.

We regret to announce that, due to the over-excitement of a little bunny with her new toy yester-day, and her consequent prolonged sedation, the live "Radio Tele-tweet" relay from an R.S.L. Reading Room has been suspended. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and hope normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Lank. Room Floor Control Plan.

The Sea-side Hospital remembered.

Hullo, Konnie Bunny back again. I keep forgetting to thank a fellow '23 Thing-er' for posting the poem Adlestrop. I forget who it was, but it reminded me of Henry Reed's Lessons of War, I. Naming of Parts, and how the landing of the helicopter at our hospital would cause us to stop, and rush to the window, and watch, and say a bunny prayer for the patient arriving. Thank you.

The Ontology of Telegraphy.

I am handing this week’s exercise over to my colleague Madhuri Bunny, Keeper of the Chocolate and Chief Telegraphs Officer, because she has a special interest in this subject. In addition, our Bunny Base Commander, dr Jeremy, is allowing us to use his ‘Linked In’ profile. (Can one be ‘Linked Out’...?)

Thank you Konnie Bunny, it is an honour to contribute to your diary. Watching younger colleagues and bunnies, I have pondered upon how they communicate. Long-gone are land-line devices for different tasks: my beloved telex machine (in a sound-proofed office), the domestic telephone fixed in the hall, with the trusty quill and telegram in reserve. I think what is happening ‘on line’ is the decline in both discussion/message boards for specific interests — discrete web-sites where one must log in — and the use of e-mail, and the growth of remaining wholly on one’s ‘Profile’ (e.g., ‘Book of Faces’), communicating by this alone. Gone is the individual e-mail. One can see why: a single site for all one’s needs!

How long will it be before that very instrument of the Devil, the ‘Mobile Phone’, merges with all other such devices to do everything a P.C. does, enabling one to be eternally on one’s ‘Profile’ on one machine, and communicating only thus? No more ‘logging in to check one’s e-mail’, carrying a separate MP3 player, etc. I shall be very interested to try ‘Twitter’ next week, because, if it does what I think, I can see how this would fit in well with such a trend. Am I alone in feeling a new pang of sentimentality at the loss of a ‘message’ — the twitch of ticker-tape, the grind of continuous (‘tractor-feed’) stationery, the list of one’s ‘In Box’ — in favour of something sent wholly within a single web-site? Sigh.

Sorry, I digress. For libraries, I regret to conclude it appears one should have such a presence. If a significant number of readers prefer to stay on their Social Web-site all day, it seems advisable to adopt it as an additional method of contact. The only disadvantage appears the sheer proliferation of such sites: like V.H.S., Betamax, and Video 2000, how can a library decide which to use? Who has the time to keep pages for Face-Book, Bebo, My Space, etc. (I had no idea there were so many!) up to date, and the more specialist sites such as Linked In?!? Indeed, what is the point of Linked In (especially to staff not paid even the average national wage!)? Surely it is just a matter of time before the more general Social Web-sites start offering such an employment-orientated service?

Thankfully, it seems one can copy most of one’s web-site, which might reduce staff labour. If one can pay for a ‘Face Book Page’ to allow ‘fans’, enrol readers thus automatically to follow the library, and combine it with an ‘instant telegraph’ message system (such as R.S.S.? Although Mari Smith says messages are sent as ‘Updates’, not normal messages), this might be the ideal communication method for those too young to have experienced the joy of a crash-manual typewriter...

p.s., I was going to illustrate this with a few pictures, but am worried they are the property of British Telecommunications, P.L.C., so you might like to browse their archive yourselves:

http://imagelibrary.btplc.com/assetbank-btplc/action/browseItems?categoryId=367&categoryTypeId=1

83656 BODLEY G

Happy Birthday, sir Thomas!

Delicious loose ends.

That’s where it is! Been looking for the Delicious network diagram thingy, and then realised it’s the 'Two Antennæ' link on the 23 Things Oxford posting. Whoops! Will have a quick play with it, before starting this week’s tasks.