Category: internet

I’m an elephant

Well, according to this BBC survey on their Lab UK site anyway (found via Shiny Forager)

You are a Web Elephant

Elephant

Slow-moving – Web Elephants like you browse the internet at a stately, methodical pace – just like real-world elephants who rarely see a reason to rush things.

Social – Real-world elephants and Web Elephants are both highly social. Real elephants are able to keep track of their own extended family trees and may even mourn love ones. As a Web Elephant, you often use social networking sites to keep track of your friends of family and are happy to rely on information from sites whose content is created by its users.

Adaptable – Real-world elephants owe their adaptability to their large brains and versatile trunks. As a Web Elephant you are similarly adaptable and are well-suited to carrying out several different tasks at the same time.

P.S. I am not afraid of mice.

Tara Brabazon lecture in Edinburgh, Friday 26th March

I contemplated going along to this talk by the controversial academic Prof. Tara Brabazon (she “bans” first year students from using the internet as a source when doing coursework for her), but in the end I decided that it just wasn’t work-relevant enough to justify the outing (interesting as it would be to hear her).

So, I thought I’d post the info on here in case anyone was interested: book your ticket by 19th March, kids!

Open University course for librarians

As mentioned in CILIP Gazette…or Update (my memory sucks!) the Open University has launched a new course for “information professionals”: “The Evolving Information Professional: challenges in a digital world” is an online course,. available to begin studying at any time.

The blurb says:

This course is for information professionals – librarians, archivists, information and knowledge managers – looking to keep up to date with modern technologies, sources of information and today’s users.

It is for those in the profession who wish to stay relevant in this fast-changing world of information, find out how other information services are facing the challenge and consider ways of proving their worth in the Google age. Among all the issues that the course covers, you will be given the opportunity to reflect on the possible consequences for your service of a new generation of ‘Homo zappien’ users, try out games developed for library users and archivists and consider the implications of the 7 Ps for marketing your service.

All looks very interesting…but in general terms. And I can’t really see myself paying almost £500 for that level of general interest. It may be more useful for public /academic librarians, or anyone who has to deal with a regularly changing group of users.

When they invent a course that includes dealing with lawyers and their….’foibles’, then I’ll be there in a flash! 🙂

A peek into the past

The State Papers Domestic of Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, covering the period from 1509 to 1603 are now available online for anyone who’s interested to rummage though, at State Papers Online.

The papers cover a vast range of issues from the time:

Containing 380,000 facsimile manuscript documents linked to fully-searchable Calendar entries, Part I delivers the complete collection of State Papers Domestic for this era. Every facet of early modern Government is detailed including social and economic affairs.
Key themes of Part I include:
  • Henry VIII’s relations with Europe
  • The Reformation
  • The Dissolution of Monasteries
  • Elizabeth I: Marriage and the Succession
  • Voyages of Discovery of Drake, Gilbert, Hawkins and Frobisher
  • Relations between the Crown and the nobility
  • The rise and fall of the Earl of Essex
  • The diplomacy of William Cecil and Francis Walsingham
Includes:
  • From the National Archives, London: SP 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15
  • From the British Library: Lansdowne Collection Burghley Papers
  • Calendars to all the above series and the HMC Calendars and Haynes/Murdin transcriptions of the Cecil Papers, Hatfield House

Part II will be available from 2009, and will include:

“The Tudors: Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509 – 1603: State Papers Foreign, Ireland, Scotland, Borders and Registers of the Privy Council”