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....
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.).
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...?
