The post paper post

Presentation done,
people said nice things.

I know I lost my way at one point in the middle, but I'm sure I managed to do a decent job of saying things until I remembered what I was supposed to be talking about.
Stephen Abram was complimentry, but he's hardly going to be saying it was crap even if he thought it was (which he didn't, because it was me and I'm fantastic).

Now I can sit back, relax and take in a few other people's speaking (and see if I can scout out people to present papers at DREAMing08)

ASLAXX - day two

I've just spent some time playing with my presentation and I am set to go in one hour.
I wrote out what I am going to say (or at least reminders of things I think I might say) on my slide printouts during the first keynote speaker this morning.

I've just introduced myself to Stephen Abram (keynote speaker for DREAMing08) and he's told me he's going to come to my talk (ohh the pressure, I have one of the Library Gurus of my topic stopping in to hear me talk bullshit for fifty minutes).
Well, GAME ON!

ASLAXX

I'm standing at a PC in Adelaide, I am all set to present my paper tomorrow for ASLAXX.

Well I say all ready, I forgot my USB with my presentation on it, so I've just downloaded it from gmail to a new USB I bought. Lucky I saved a copy to gmail,except I didn't.

I put the USB in the PC to save a copy to gmail for emergencies, I then wandered off and forgot to do it and in the process left the memory stick in the PC. So I had to phone home and ask my wife to email it to me.

Still, I have it now and I am listening to jazz, drinking red wine and eating green prawn wraps.

In ADHD news, I also forgot all my business cards (no networking for me).
I also only realised yesterday I am talking for 50 minutes (for some reason I had written a talk of 30 minutes), so I've had to do some editing to get my presentation up to time. Other than that, all is good, I'm unmedicated and @ a conference so expect plenty of library related updates this week.

Tell 'em the're DREAMing

Any of you librarians out there on facebook?

If so, try http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4928502821
It is my (unofficial) group for those of you who might be interested in information on DREAMing08 (the Australian Library and Information Association's next Biennial Conference) which will be in Alice Springs.

Why would you be interested? Well I'll be the MC, I'm on the organising committee, I'm on the programs committee, in short it's all about me.
Well, it may also be about having a fun filled time in the middle of Australia with your workplace picking up the tab.

For those of you who are more interested in the official version of events,
try this http://www.alia2008.com. Or why not try both?

It's aliveeeeeeee

I'm currently:
Failing Uni
Changing Meds
Trying to get ready for ASLAXX
Trying to help others get ready for DREAMing08
Bored (by everything)
thinking I should be documenting this as part of my original idea of blogging about being a librarian with ADHD
Thinking I should go to rugby training occasionally as a bit of physical activity would help no end, but I couldn't be arsed.

Abnormal service will be resumed as soon as whenever.

He said it better than I could

Or at least better than I could today, at the moment I am in a bit of a brain free zone.
I am running by the numbers at work, uni has fallen by the wayside and ALIA 2008 stuff is piling up in my inbox much too rapidly for me to deal with it.
After rejoicing at the fact I was no longer El-Presidente of the rugby club, I've gone an been made secretary of the union. More work which I will fail to do or do in a half arsed manner, up until the point I turn the corner and become manic again and do it all in a week. Why accept the position? Well, all the other positions had been filled by members of one club and they didn't want to be the only ones on the committee because they figured that the morons from the unrepresented clubs would bitch and complain. Anyway, I ended up saying I'd do it.


So who said what better than me now?
Andrew over at Librarian Idol has a great new post about public libraries being free (you get what you pay for?)
He suggests "PUBLIC LIBRARIES - FREE BUT NOT CHEAP" as something we should aspire to and I damn well agree with him.

Plus, we're not free. People just don't know that they are paying to use our services (even those who aren't using them have paid somehow, somewhere along the lines, except kids and those who have never paid taxes, rates, rent... which come to think of it in this town is a large number of people.)

no words for this

I found it at http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus.html
(it is part two, but I liked it as a stand alone)

Back in the library

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible (just as soon as I catch up on 7 weeks worth of email, blog feeds and sleep).

All sorts of stuff coming your way just as soon as I am coherent again.

In the meanwhile I am enjoying duty free Caol Ila and H Upmann.

Hit the road and I'm gone.

I'm running away from work and from this blog for seven weeks.
I'll be in India and the UK and I'll be loving it.
I'll post again when (and if) I get back.

In which I reply to Scott Adams

"Recently a friend joked about going to the library to help with his son’s school project. He said it felt like going back in time, to pre-Internet days. I wonder if libraries have an expiration date on them. I’m guessing yes."

Said Adams in part of a post he wrote a couple of days ago. I as is my want replied as such...

ohhhhh,
now you've put the librarians off side.
boo hiss booo hiss

Oh yeah my my
the library ain't gunna die
yeah yeah my my.

I'm wondering if the library will die (given my vocation I'm hoping not).
But the reason I think not is to do with your mistaken idea of what a library is.
You see a library is not a building for books, it is a place for retrieving information, most people think books because that is how the information has been stored for so long, but we (librarians - or at least the good ones) are early adopters of technology. So libraries have gone from tablets to scrolls then books. We've used microfilm and microfiche, we subscribe to the online databases you can't afford. We have our content online so you can access it from home. A lot of libraries will let you search their catalogue online and then mail you the book you want or email you the information you need.
We have audiobooks in mp3 for you to download, we have books in electronic format for you to read online or on your PDA/phone/camera/internet fridge...

But the real reason the library won't die is that it is a place to store librarians and Librarians (as someone has already commented) are the people who can track down the bit of information you need in amongst the mess of a mass of meaningless crap. Sure, computers can make some of this easier for you to do yourself, but it can make some things harder by hiding the facts you need in the sheer volume of content, and there is no computer yet (or looking like there will be any time soon) which can translate your query from induvidual into a correctly truncated search.

Plus, information needs aside, despite all predictions to the contrary people still like reading real books and the world has more than enough people who don't want to (or can't) buy all the books they want.

Then, there is the social side...
Storytime for preschoolers,
Old men playing chess or reading the newspapers (paper ones or online),
Literacy programs.
Collections of CDs, DVDs, Graphic novels that your mum won't let you buy because of the Japanese proclivity for schoolgirls knickers.
Access to computers for those who don't want/can't afford their own. This is a vital service now as so much of what people need is online, job applications, tax forms, government information all no longer a pamphlet but you need to ensure that there is equity of access to the information.

blah blah my my
this librarian ain't gunna die
I'm gunna burn out
not fade away
librarians way hey

(it will be interesting to hear what he says when he speaks at the Special Libraries Association's annual conference in Denver next week)

we lefties aren't the only ones restoring the balance

I just found this pile of steaming crap online, apparently the book publishing world is trying to force all our children to become dirty liberals.

A California businessman says he is publishing books for young readers to offer a balance to left-leaning tomes on the shelves.
His "Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed," cartoon book about two boys trying to set up a lemonade stand but bail after encountering red tape and taxes, sold nearly 30,000 copies, said Eric Jackson. His independent World Ahead Publishing staked its claim on the conservative market under the imprint Kids Ahead, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
Two other cartoon books took on Hollywood and activist judges.
"You don't hear a lot of umbrage out there about conservative books being foisted onto kids," Jackson said in his Torrence, Calif., office. "There's a need in the market for books that show the other side of the equation."

You're right, no one is concerned that the world is becoming some sort of conservative lead mindless big-brother like international war starting bullshit you tried to kill my daddy Saddam and Obama masterminded the world trade centre bombing Fox news is well thought out and unbiased by Grud I better take a smegging breath Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgh.
So let me scream it now umbrage umbrage umbrage umbrage umbrage umbrage. There, now you hear a lot of it. What he means is that none of his right wing friends ever complain about his right wing bias, well, that's a surprise. None of my Christian friends ever complain that I believe in God. None of my librarian friends ever complain that I believe in equity of access to information, none of my rugby friends ever complain that I don't like cricket.

He's preparing to take on a big gun in the children's publishing world: Scholastic. This fall both publishers will peddle books about global warming -- or in Jackson's case, debunking global warming.
If "The Sky's Not Falling! Why It's OK to Chill About Global Warming!" succeeds, Jackson said he hopes to launch a line of non-fiction children's books presenting a conservative viewpoint on other topics.

This man isn't a conservative, he's a moron. There are almost no scientists left who think that global warming needs debunking. Even the most conservative lobby group funded 'tobacco is harmless' 'have another helping of asbestos' type scientists are only arguing about how much impact humans are having on the process. Even John Howard (last of the dirty rotten stopouts) has pulled a backflip and is going for emission reduction targets.

If it wasn't for the fact that I'm anti-censorship I'd be putting World Ahead Publishing on my blacklist. As it is with luck I'll be able to ignore them because they'll be a flash in the pan in the US and never make it to Oz at all.

To quote from the author of one of this publishing house's tomes, Katharine DeBrecht, former co-captain of Security Moms for Bush (whatever the hell that is).

Liberals have been foisting their ideological agenda on our kids for years, and now they’re beside themselves that someone would stand up to them. Evidently books about socialist fish and gay kings are OK, but a story about hard work and self-reliance is too extreme. Evidently liberals oppose parents who believe in traditional values having a book that will help them teach those values to their children, But, then again, liberals oppose anything that supports religion, traditional families, and the free market. Those institutions are obstacles to their goals of eliminating personal responsibility and establishing a welfare state.

Yes, the Rainbow Fish is a story to brainwash your children into socialist thinking (don't share kids, keep it for yourself, hoard your stuff it is yours, given by God because he loves you more than poor kids). Next time a librarian tries to read your children the Rainbow Fish at storytime, slap them, they want your kids on the dole and probably smoking pot.

Welcome to storytime and pass the scotch.

Questionable Content (one of my regular reads) has asked the question "does the public library have happy hour?"
Well I for one support our new barmaid overlords and will happily transfer to any public library with a liquor license.

The God Fuse

Ten Things Christians and Atheists Must Agree on.

Is a fantastic article on pointless waste of time, a site I visit occasionally for a laugh. Well, this article is a laugh, but it also a well thought out reason why Christians and Atheists should stop acting like dicks when they get together to debate the issues.

I'd give you a synopsis, but this is the internet so you can just click the link and go there yourselves and save me the bother of typing any more.

OK, one last post and then I'm off

I've been meaning to do a post on the search terms that get people here to the ol' ADHD librarian, because there are a lot of seriously fucked up people out there who are being allowed to use Google without professional training or supervision.
Some are obvious,
ADHD is popular
so is
ahdh for some reason.
From there we keep with the theme
adhd + blog + marriage, homosexual and adhd, adhd romance, adhd christian man...
you get the idea if the search is ADHD and goat rapist I'm probably going to get traffic..

There are logical ones which fit some of the topics I've written on.
why did they built the great wall of china or variation on that theme prove my point about how stupid internet users are in this post.
And my Mary Poppins titled rant about my boss must confuse a lot of searchers who want to find things about spoons full of sugar.
jesus underwear is a popular one. That it gets them to my page is less a problem, the problem is why in God's Name (geddit) you'd be searching for that.
Oh and boring searches like rugby league. Stupid leaguies, Union is by far the better game.

bongs that fit in your pocket is less common and to be honest I have no idea why that gets someone to my site. (remind me, did I do a post where I reviewed travel sized hookahs?)

There are a whole raft of searches along the lines of storytime librarian blogs or librarian career, which is nice and fits in with what I'd like to imagine is my core readership..
Then there are the combinations of my two topics along the lines of, books for adhd boys. I hope I'm some sort of help to those searchers (although I doubt it).

By far the most worrying to me though are those people searching aunties in blouse and photos of aunties blouse. I don't know what they hoped to find here and I hope they didn't find it but there are a lot of them.
Go away you sick Aunty Shagging Perverts. There is no incest related porn on my page.
Although, come to think of it, that's a lot of searchers. Perhaps I could up my traffic with a few (tastefully done) photographs of AILFS.
Don't know that I have a lot to write on the subject though. Any of my Aunty obsessed readers want to suggest something?

Where is the ADHDinsanity?

Well,
I'm currently playing politics on another blog. Now being as I'm combining this with my religious nutjobbery, I thought I'd spare my library based readers from having to listen to any more of my rants on the subject. With a federal election looming I'm putting a bit of thought into that side of things, so feel free to drop by and see it, oh and it's not all my work on that blog, but I'm sure you can work out which ones might be mine (hint, look for the post All Christians are Wankers). Otherwise, I'll be posting here still as inspiration strikes, but I wasn't that regular to begin with.


But think about the fun you're going to get if I get this thing off the ground. Someone try to imagine me sharing the stage with the Christian Political Lobbyists on Compass or Insight. Reason enough to support a group, even if it disagrees with your own religion and politics, right!