Calendars again

Google docs calendar for the new year. With GoogleDocs for spreadsheets, forms, presentations and templates, its making buying expensive software obsolete.

Caloundra calendar

The wreck at Dickey beach - Yewenyi.


Mash Ups need high quality software to manipulate picture/text/calendar, will research to locate software that allows this eg calendar could have daily Caloundra diary -

1st January, Ann Street platform, coffee rocks, remnants of coastal plain of last ice age when aborigines lived here 30 k to the east, wind west/southwest, swell long lines 4', sea aqua blue, perfect and no one out!


This image is Dee Why. Take out the crowds, drop the swell size by 3', and you know what I mean! (image - Dave Hunt - Sydney).

2nd January, surf dropping, rock hopping, Moffatt Point platform.

3rd January, Pa Bendall, DVD, Caloundra library.

4th January, climbed North Queensland fig, Moffatt Beach. Brahminy kites flying off cliff tops.

Slamming the boards

There is an answer board for librarians at wetpaint.com. For the Brisbane Square library I think a library blog - interactive if possible - would be best for providing information on events and services with videos and pictures enriching the content.
An answer board would be great as a feedback post where customers could feed comments and have them answered by librarians. Vodcasts and podcasts have huge potential to enliven our library website and promote and report on events, programmes and services.

Social bookmarking

This is a great way to organise links and bookmarks and to find out what others are researching at the same time. My beginning is the ABC aboriginal site.

I'm reading an excellent book at the moment "The Mardu Aborigines living the dream in Australias desert" by Robert Tonkinson. Although first published in 1978 and revised in 1991 the information it contains and insights are as fresh as the day were written which just goes to show that obsolescence is not a necessary corollary of non fiction writing.

Youtube is great for libraries

There's some fun videos on youtube. Looked up Manly library and the closest I could find was a clip on a girl with short hair and a jacket who was taken for being a guy - hence her title "Manly in the library. Harper College video library tour is trying to be funny and just about succeeds, like their deadpan approach to humour though.
There's heaps of humour about libraries, maybe this is where our serious image is being challenged. Try Mr Bean in the libary and the Williams College Library Mystery Tour - library welcome video -

Internet banking security

I have to admit I'm not happy with internet banking. If push comes to shove the banks have it all in their favour. At the moment if something goes wrong they are happy to refund the money.

But wait, that takes about 24 days so you will need another account. I wouldn't like to ask them for emergency funds! I'll post an article on this on the Brisbane City Council Library service wiki, we librarians are so trusting about technology.

Ruth Park - one of my favourite authors

The ABC Radio National book reading at the moment is the Harp in the South , one of Ruth Park's novels set in Surrey Hills in Sydney during the 1940's.

Whether its a fascinating autobiographical work such as A Fence around the cuckoo describing her childhood in New Zealand, a classic childrens tale such as The Muddle-headed wombat, or one of her intriguing youth stories such as Playing Beattie Bow, or a great work of fiction such as the Harp in the South, Ruth Parks works are as fresh today as on the day they were written.

This image is of Ruth Park at an opening of Housing Commission flats in Surrey Hills found at National Library of Australia Online, Ruth Park a celebration, by Marion Halligan www.nla.gov.au/friends/ruth/halligan.html

With her marriage to D'Arcy Niland, there was a truly successful literary partnership, and their legacy is ours to enjoy......

You don't have to travel far....

You don't have to travel far to get away and have a fabulous time. For me one hours drive is way enough and if you look at this great picture from flickr by paccjk of the surf at Caloundra it says it all. The clean off shore northerly winds at Kings Beach create ideal conditons.

There aren't too many south facing beaches along the eastern seabord and this is one of them....

And if the wind is from the south there is the fabulous Moffat Headland to go to or Dickey beach with the old shipwreck looking like a whale's rib sticking up in the sand.

'I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library'

Hi all,

The quote "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library" is from my favourite author, a librarian, Borges, from "Poema de los Dones," in El Hacedor. I've worked in a few libraries now and while not one is actually a paradise there are wonderful worlds in each one.

The first library I worked in was Bankstown City Libraries which was and still is ahead of its time as a public library. Then it was their branch library at Padstow which in the village near the library had an excellent pastry store with glazed fruit tarts that were the perfect way to liven up morning tea times with their delicious flavours.

Next it was the serials section at Fisher Library. Over 30000 journals from all over the world were processed there! The Victoria Park swimming pool was a great place for a lunch time dip located in the park outside the building.

At Tweed Heads I found myself in the retirement capital of the world! One of the most beautiful shires in New South Wales, it has three libraries which are located at Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah. A great memory is driving to Murwillumbah library in the morning via the back road and seeing the flowering buckinghamias with their white tendril flowers along the streetscape.

Now its Brisbane Square Library. A new library for Brisbane complete with booksorter, river views, and the beautiful historic building, the Treasury Casino across the Square.