Fancy a change of career?

Fed up with lending books (librarians), interpreting the law in them (lawyers), or just feeling a burning desire to get more fun out of working with books?

This could be the job for you:

The Job:

The Children’s Bookshop in Edinburgh is expanding and opening a new bookshop for grown-up fiction and non-fiction. The manager will need to develop core stock, as well as undertake daily stock replenishment and new stock ordering. She or he will also be responsible for event organisation, cashing up, maintaining the customer mailing list, customer orders and managing any additional staff. The manager will contribute to overall business development. Work days will be Tuesday-Saturday.

The person:

The candidate will have a proven track record in bookselling as well as experience of managing staff and budgets. Good IT skills and excellent interpersonal skills are a must. She or he must be self-motivated, but also work well in a team with other staff and with The Children’s Bookshop. Reliability is vital.

Those nice people at Fidra books are expanding into the world of grown-up books, and need a manager for this new venture. Wouldn't it be nice to actually work with books you'd like to read, and recommend to others to read? (I would strongly advise against reading law books for pleasure, unless your definition of pleasure also includes pulling out your own fingernails, and watching the growth of mould in damp areas). The bookshop will open on the 5th September 2009, and I'm hoing to take a trip over.

Prior to the opening of the bookshop for grown-ups (apparently, calling it an "adult bookshop" might attract the wrong type of customers ;) ), they're using the space as a gallery for illustrations by some wonderful childrens book artists.during a period which also encompasses the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The Fidra Gallery will be open from the 11th July - 29th August...think I might make it over to that side of town to have a look. And if I'm feeling too lazy, it's got a website too.

They're also on Twitter as @FidraBooks

It's so nice to have such a friendly, fun and communicative independant bookshop in town, instead of just the Big Beasts of Waterstone's and the supermarket 'reading for the lowest common denominator' options! Through their blog and their Twitter posts, I feel like I know the staff already, without ever having met them!

I love the smell of musty books in the morning...

Ohhh, there's just nothing like the scent of old, mouldering books to make you feel at home in a library, so when you're feeling lost while sitting at your desk, paging through the latest electronic information source, why not blast a spray of this around, and think back to happy times spent researching obscure points, buried in ancient texts...

Other varieties available...maybe ;)

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! :)

Lawyers are smart...aren't they?

I mean, they've all gone through many years of expensive education, designed to weed out those who're not able to perform to the high levels demanded in the competitive world of the law. In the case of Advocates, Solicitor-Advocates and Barristers, after their initial degree qualification there's even more training involved, again, accepting only the best minds to this higher level of education.

And then, once they're out practising in the Big Bad World, they have to be able to assess information presented to them, the accuracy of that information, identify opportunities and threats, and figure out what's really a sensible conclusion to many issues.

So...with all that education, knowledge, experience and business skill, just how the hell did this proposal get any further than a 4am late-night-cheese-snack-induced nightmare?!?

The Executive Committees of Inner Temple and Middle Temple have agreed to commission a feasibility study to investigate the potential benefits of merging their Libraries and creating a Joint Education and Advocacy Centre.


The study will be overseen by a working group chaired jointly by Master Jonathan Hirst for Inner Temple and Master Stanley Burnton, Deputy Treasurer, for Middle Temple.


The results of the study are likely to be available in the late summer and no decisions are anticipated until much later in the year, after full consultation with staff and consideration by the relevant Inn Committees, Bench Table and Parliament.

In particular, no assumption has been made as to which Inn would house the Library and which the Education Centre, should the project proceed.


Vivian Robinson QC
Treasurer

Now, having worked at a large institutional legal library myself, my brain just shuts down in shock when confronted with a lunatic proposal like this. Really - this is actually a serious proposition, from these "smart" people? Charon QC has commented extensively on this here, and here: please feel free to take part in his poll. Many others have also commented on the absurdity of this proposal.

Even in Scotland the Inn Libraries have an outstanding reputation. Their extensive holdings and experienced staff are essential to the smooth running of the legal system in England and Wales, just as the Advocates Library is here in Scotland. Without the knowledge and skill of the library staff, and the immediate access to a wide range of legal materials they have in stock, the barrister profession of England and Wales would be hamstrung.

So, to propose that that wealth of experience and materials would be effectively halved by merging the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Libraries is verging on the insane! And where is the actual detail on this proposal? What exactly are they studying the "feasibility" of? Cutting staff? Cutting stock or putting it into storage? Losing study space? Saving money? Ahhh...saving money. I think we may have found the reason here. Because you can be sure that this initiative is not for the benefit of the members of these libraries...it'll be about cutting costs, while pretending to (as is a favourite excuse) "modernise" the service.

Because, of course, a modern service is one that has fewer staff, and fewer resources, but looks shiny and pretty. As, after all, nobody reads those musty old things called books any more. And librarians just sit at desks and stamp books. And users can navigate the intricacies of all the massive databases with ease, because they're designed to be nice and user friendly. And all the books that users actually do want (strange, old fashioned users that they must be!) are always right where you want them....

Right?....

Badgers v. Solicitors

I think in this case, the badgers win...

Apparently they're asking for a solution for their badger problem. I do happen to know that, although it's illegal to move a badger without a proper licence, or "interfere" with it and its sett, if a young badger does happen to move in somewhere inconvenient (say...under a joiners workshop), and try and establish its home there, that a period of full-volume dance music / cheesy local radio, played through speakers in that workshop while in the course of using it for the established business seems to be a good encouragement to those wandering young badgers to move along to a more serene location to establish themselves in... ;)

Pride and Prejudice...and Zombies

I'm not one for Regency romances, or any book where the "plucky" heroine has to struggle womanfully against the suffocating strictures of the moral code of her day (in a ladylike, delicate manner), so Jane Austen books have never appealed to me...but if you throw in something a bit different, like zombies, I perk up! So, when I read there was a new book coming out, a mashup of Pride and Prejudice, with zombies, I pre-ordered straight away!

I've enjoyed reading this (despite some editing / proof reading errors: e.g. I know for a fact that the English countryside has at no point been the native home of chipmonks, and the concept of "coy ponds" instead of "koi ponds" in a Japanese parkland setting was a bit jarring), and the addition of zombies definitely made it more entertaining: no walk in the English countryside, or carriage ride to London was safe from violent zombie attacks. And no young lady of refinement is considered to be accomplished unless she is skilled in the Deadly Arts, and has studied them in Japan or China. So the various encounters, and methods of despatching then certainly made for a bit of light relief when the "thwarted love that it was indelicate to discuss" thaaang kept coming up. And, although I early on thought I'd like a copy of the original to compare this to, to see where the differences from the original text are (other than the zombies), now I know I just couldn't cope with having to read it. It ain't made an Austin fan of me...but perhaps it has made a zombie fan of me.

Next, I shall read of one poet's descent into the zombie horror by buying Zombie Haiku...

CILIP Council open session, Wednesday 29th April

So, tomorrow's a big day - CILIP Council are experimenting with an open session to discuss how CILIP could / should be using Web 2.0 tools to interact with and support its membership.

If (like me) you can't be there in person, you can take part via Twitter (although I'm not sure how this is going to be integrated into the session), and the presentations of Phil Bradley and Brian Kelly are either already available in draft form, or will (I think) be made available after the session.

CILIP Council blog post here.

Twitter hash tag is #CILIP2 (#CILIP2.0 tag has been abandoned as the 'point' disrupts some applications)

CaseCheck expands coverage

CaseCheck issued this press release a few days ago, and it's a great service, so I thought it was worth popping on here:

CaseCheck Launches UK-wide Service – Free Access to over 5000 legal case summaries and more

Scotland’s leading online legal information provider, CaseCheck, has linked up with Law Brief Publishing. This collaboration with the English legal publisher will give users free access to a database of more than 5,000 case summaries. The resource is popular with the Scottish legal community and has ambitious plans for the rest of the UK and beyond.

The free web-based resource now covers all major areas of law across the UK and EU, and includes expert opinions covering a wide variety of specialist subjects. Visit www.casecheck.co.uk to find out more.

CaseCheck is the brainchild of legal geek, Stephen Moore, who gave up practicing law for a career in legal information technology. Moore combines his work as a technology consultant with a number of leading law firms, with development of the CaseCheck concept.

Moore explains: “As soon as we launched we began getting great feedback. In spite of there only being 10,000 lawyers in Scotland the traffic picked up really quickly. Revenue grew on the back of that traffic and we became committed to seeing how we could develop the idea into other jurisdictions. It was just a question of finding the right partner.”

Law Brief Publishing was set up by Tim Kevan, a barrister, writer and entrepreneur. Commenting on the tie-up, Kevan said: “From the start Stephen really impressed us with his dynamic and innovative approach. CaseCheck has the potential to be an extremely important application and we are delighted to be helping with that. In return Stephen is able to give our extensive back catalogue of case reports a new audience.”

I love the fact that Stephen Moore is a self described "legal geek"! :)

UK Library blogger wiki update

So, a month or so ago* I did a trawl through all the institutional / professional group blogs on the UK Library Blogs wiki, checked that the ones I'd found before were still there, added any new ones I'd found, and added a new area on entries, for account information on those groups or professionals with Twitter accounts listed on their blog.

I'm trying to do the personal blogs soon too, but with more work, less time to do it in, and my own life getting a bit busy, don't hold your breath for that to happen in the next few days! :)

As always, if you're not on there (and that's quite likely, the Magical Interweb is a big place, with many nooks and crannies hiding things), contact me either via the 'contact owner' option on the wiki front page, or via the email cunningly disguised in the right hand sidebar here, and I'll add you as soon as I can :)


*Oh, looks like it was a bit more than a month, more like two! Time flies!

Not waving, but drowning

I do still exist, I do, but work, home, and professional stuff has been eating up my time!
Hopefully will be back blogging when everything's up to date...which may take some time...so consider this blog on a wee holiday for a few months.

Dear Bloglines...

....I love you, really, I do.

I know, I know: I may have become slightly disillusioned late last year, and threatened to leave you for Greader, or Netvibes, or NewsGator, or any of the other feed readers I tried out when you were having "personal issues" and trying to "find yourself".

But I stayed with your original version, I didn't desert you for that fickle Beta, I liked you just the way you were. And I didn't get on with those others like I do with you.

And I thought you appreciated that. You bucked up your ideas, sorted yourself out, and I thought we were happy together.
Until this week.

My dear, why do you now think I want you to import every post, from every feed I take, dating back to 2007, all marked as new and unread?

I mean, it's nice that you want me to have comprehensive information, but really, it would have been better just to stick with what I asked you to do, which was supply me with the feeds, and make them go away once I'd read them. It's nice that you think I might want to keep them around, but really...no.

And that new thing you're doing of making feeds appear unread, even though I'd read them a few seconds before? And regardless of how many times I "mark as read"? Stop it. It's not as endearing as you may think it is. And it wasn't even funny the first time.

Now, I think we're strong enough to be able to work through these issues together, but it's got to be a team effort. So, if I promise to not shriek in a high pitched manner, and mash the keys, will you promise to stop doing these really, really annoying things to me?

Mmkay?

Yesterday was a good day...

....I got rid of the mail pile, and made big advances in the ongoing game of "Chase My Own Tail" :0

Playing catch-up

Ok, going on holiday for a month sounded like a fabulous plan, but the reality is, you get the best part of a months work backlogged for when you come back, and spend all your time trying to get that done while also keeping on top of the current stuff.

I'm aiming high - by the end of this week, the mail pile should be gone....hopefully.

In the meantime, a link to a story the lovely Hedgehog Librarian sent me while I was off bungee jumping in New Zealand...

The Digital Repository of the National Library of Scotland (which has its very own lovely blog here) has made a choice of technical partner for its ongoing project of creating a Digital Repository of many of the important documents from their massive (and always increasing!) collection.

Also, I just realised that the NLS also has a Flickr account, uploading lots of interesting photos from their photograph collections. A great way to be able to see some of the things you wouldn't always expect a library to have. After all, libraries just hold books...don't they? ;)

The blogging bard

It's a busy time for Rabbie Burns. As the National Year of Homecoming is centred around the 250th anniversary of his birth, he's got a lot of people looking closely at him and his work. So, he's been reanimated, and popped up on Twitter, tweeting poems, line by line. After the initial news reports, NTS actually posted the essential information needed for following him on Twitter: his username - ayrshirebard. They might however want to note that Twitter updates to your phone haven't been possible in the UK for many months.

And now, the revived poet has also taken to blogging!

Robert Burns' Letters will be posting the letters of the bard, on the anniversary of the day they were actually written. He's currently in full love-letter flow, writing to his 'Clarinda'. The content of 91 letters will be being posted, concluding in 2010, when it is hoped the National Trust for Scotland will be able to open the doors of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. Funds are still needed for this (about £4 million), so if you can donate, please do!

Although one plea - pleeease take off the SnapShots thing on links to sites outside the blog, it's the most annoying popup in the whole entire world...ever!

Now....time to try and find a good ceilidh in town for Burns Night....

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"

Faceout Books

An interesting weekly blog about book sleeve design. There's some lovely books out there!

Faceout Books

Final shelving post

I promise!

This is the last of them!


Chair / Bookshelf in one

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Detachable Bookshelf

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Little Wooden Cubes Shelf

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Infinity Bookshelf

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Twisted Bookcase

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Triangle Shelves

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Apple Crates

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Colourful Shelving

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Tree Shelf

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More shelving entertainment

And more fun shelves and library bits and bobs!


Pocket Library

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Hanging Bookshelf

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Batman Chair

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Book Hangers

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Salvaged Shelves

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Maze Bookshelf

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Holibobs!

Miss Jennie has scheduled some lightweight, pretty-bookcases / shelving and random thoughts posts over the next week or two...as she's heading off to the Winter sun of New Zealand, yay!

As of Saturday / some-point-far-too-many-hours-travel-later, I'll be on holiday, escaping to the not-depths-of-freezing-Winter delights of Christchurch. And, I'll be fitting in a trip to Wellington, and probably even a trip to the NZ Parliament building and a tour. Yes, even on holiday, I'm a law geek..

So, toodle-pip, see ya in the new year!

Obama supporting Scottish book trade

Did you know that Obama will be having an effect, even in Scotland?

Some book shelf solutions

Ah, the joys of Crib Candy - so many pretty things appear in my feed reader!

Of course, as a library geek, I keep a note of the nicest shelving solutions...hey, you never know when my employers might go mad and demand a redesign of the Library using only eco-friendly materials, or one entirely suspended from the ceiling, right?!?!

So, here's some of the most interesting book shelves that I've seen recently.

Diagonal Bookshelves

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Slat shelf

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Rotating Bookshelf

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Rotating Shelving System

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Double Access shelf

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Leaf Shelf (with perhaps a OTT claim - "Available in all leaves of the known universe."

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Leaves Bookshelves

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Bamboo Bookshelves

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Think that's enough for now...more to follow!

UK Library Blogs update

I'm continuing to add to this list, as and when I can, and trawl through those already on the list to check for changes since the last visit / my mistakes in the collection of the initial list (my apologies to Neil Infield for accidentally renaming him to Ian!)

Also, I received an email telling me to look at FADE Library's great work on collecting UK health library blogs, which I will(with their kind permission) also add in to the overall list (and blog about in a later post) to try and make it as comprehensive as possible. Unfortunately, my email provider went squiffy and deleted the original email before I could reply, so I don't know who to credit for alerting me to this massive piece of work by the FADE staff, and also means their own blog details were zapped! If this was you, please can you get back in touch so I can add your blog, and say thank you personally!

Mary Queen of Scots...

...got 'er 'ead chopped OFF!

Well, she did in my childhood, while I viciously beheaded poor, innocent dandelions!

And yesterday, the Scottish Government presented a copy of the Death Warrant for Mary to the Blairs Museum in Aberdeen, while the original will stay in Lambeth Palace in London.

Hmmm....maybe time to do a little touristy sightseeing during my next trip in January?

Image source

Capital Collections

From the Edinburgh City Libraries website comes news of Capital Collections, "an exciting website giving online access to some of the amazing and unique prints including photographs, engravings and drawings held by Edinburgh City Libraries."

As a resident of Leith, which has been undergoing insane roadworks to install an unwanted tram network for 2 years now, and facing another 3 years of them before completion in 2011, this photo is pretty topical right now. It certainly feels like they've been messing with the roads non-stop since this photo was taken in 1904!

JLSS Survey

I went to look at the news on the JLSS site, and decided I'd agree to take part in the survey - I thought I might be able to give some feedback about the removal of the Library / research area, and why it should be redesigned. After all, it did say "We would greatly appreciate it if you could complete a short survey to help us improve the Journal website. Click here to have your say"...

Instead, I got presented with the most random of surveys:



Erm...hello?
Exactly what has my home ownership status, and my hot beverage choice got to do with the website redesign, and the missing Library usefulness?!?

Is someone there taking the pee? Were they scrambling to find a way to fill up SurveyMonkeys default setting of 10 questions, and threw in the tea/coffee option?

Come on JLSS, you did an otherwise great redesign of the website (we're ignoring the Library 'thing' for just now), can you please not let it all down at the end with a silly, unfocussed survey?!

Selected Session Cases available online

The Scottish Council of Law Reporting, publishers of the Session Cases, have made selected cases available for free from their website.

In their own words:

For some years the Scottish Council of Law Reporting has provided the law-teaching universities in Scotland with a CD-ROM containing cases selected from the Session Cases® archive to distribute as a learning aid to their students. Technologies change, and the Council is pleased to provide a database of Scottish cases selected from their archive as an open access resource.

The only problem I'm having is finding out a listing or index of what these selected cases are, but hey, for allowing even some access to an otherwise subscriber access only database, I'm not complaining!

The Free Legal Web - who for?

The current Big Idea in the legal / library blog world is the Free Legal Web (FLW). Originally mooted by Nick Holmes, the idea is to pull all of the content currently floating about the ether (legal professionals blog posts, Government information etc) into one portal. That in itself is a big enough task, but what doesn't seem to be clear yet is...who is this Free Legal Web for?

The people involved so far seem to be legal professionals and IT specialists. The legal professionals will be working out some way of getting the useful materials together, and persuading other legal professionals that giving up their valuable time and work (such as blog postings) for this enterprise will be a worthwhile investment, and will reap them rewards in the end. The IT professionals job will be to write the scripts and programmes that will get everything together in the one place, and working well with all the other bits and pieces.

That's all lovely (although it's hard to tell what's actually being done, as the discussions are going on behind an invite-only Google Group, which to me, kind of defeats the purpose of harnessing the collective intelligence of the legal and information professionals), but when this all singing, all dancing portal is up and running, who's going to be using it? I would have thought this was a core question, to be settled right at the start, yet it doesn't seem to have been discussed at any point.

If you're designing a portal to work alongside the subscription legal databases like Westlaw and LexisNexis, then I assume it's being aimed at people already working in the law, and therefore able to understand and interpret the information being presented to them there. The content will be academic / in depth, and of relevance to other members of the legal profession. Certain assumptions can be made about the level of knowledge and understanding of the user, and their grasp of the content. It also means it's unlikely to be being used by members of the general public. Since legal professionals are likely to be persuaded into contributing to the FLW by the prospect of it eventually increasing their business through building of a reputation, this is not a good start.

If it's designed for the general public, to allow them access to the elusive laws they're meant to keep within, then good interpretation of the law is needed, not just access. People working in the law can forget just how difficult it is to find out what legislation means for people without access to subscription databases, information professionals to check for currency and further discussions of legal points...and even the language of legislation, while precise and succinct, can be incredibly confusing for someone with no experience of reading it, confronted with it for the first time. Content for this FLW would need a different focus - explaining the law and its impact on the general public, with references to the original case law rather than references to law reports inaccessible to the general public. Guides equivalent to first year law students introductions to the various aspects of the law would be needed. Clear signalling of whether legislation applies to all of the UK, or only the devolved areas would be essential. In other words, it would be a very different beast then the FLW designed for legal professionals.

So...is it a Professional Free Legal Web, or a Public Free Legal Web?

Copyright joy for law firm libraries!

Yay!
As emailed out over lis-law last week, the Copyright Licensing Agency have developed a CLA licence just for law firms. Body of the press release below:

New licence for law firms

15th October 2008

CLA have announced the launch of a new licence designed specifically for UK law firms.

From 1 November 2008, the new Law Licence will offer law firms additional benefits to the existing photocopying rights.

The Law Licence now enables articles and clippings from law reports, journals and press cuttings (magazines, journals, legal and other periodicals, but not newspapers) to be scanned, stored electronically and distributed externally to clients.

The new licence has been developed in consultation with The Law Society of England and Wales and the City of London Law Society so that it meets the needs of law firms that wish to copy from law reports and journals, business titles and other published media.

Chris Holland, Librarian & Head of Information Services at the Law Society said, “CLA photocopying licences are well established within the legal sector. This new licence gives additional rights to make digital copies, reflecting the much increased use of digital technology in law firms, including the use of electronic case files and shared email folders. It also removes the previous limit on the number of photocopies that could be made for a single occasion or purpose, thus providing more flexibility than the previous law firm licence to photocopy.”

The licence will be officially launched at the Law Autumn event at Birmingham NEC on October 15 & 16 where customers will be able to find out more about the benefits from CLA licensing staff.

CLA’s Andy Greenan, who is leading the licence launch, says, “Law firms want to be able to digitise relevant articles and reports to share with individual clients by email or within a case-based file. For the first time this licence allows that and I am sure demand will be high.”

Law firms that already hold a CLA licence will be able to upgrade from 1 November.

For further information about the benefits of the new Law Licence, please contact CLA on 0800 085 6644, email licence@cla.co.uk or see www.cla.co.uk.

Now, I'm assuming that if the Law Society of England and Wales are happy with this, it's equally applicable for Scotland. Hopefully. Being able to legally scan and store certain things can be handy, although we've often already negotiated these sort of agreements with individual publishers. Any reduction in the amount of time spent faffing abouttrying to work out what we're allowed to do, and with what materials, will be very nice!

Scottish Information Networking event - First steps in blogging

A legal librarian friend forwarded me this event notification today from SIN, the Scottish Information Network. Unfortunately, I didn't get the notification myself (nor did at least one other member that I know of), despite having joined SIN back in April. I think they may need to look at their email /contact list management!

Scottish Information Networking event - First steps in blogging

Dear colleague

Do you blog or are you thinking about blogging? The Scottish Information Network is running an evening event entitled “First steps in blogging” on Tuesday November 4th. Come along and hear advice from some real bloggers or perhaps even plug your own blog! The event will also be an opportunity to meet with other members of the network and find out more about what’s happening in the information world. See below for more details and let me know ASAP if you would like to attend

John Coll
Business Information Services Manager
Scottish Business Information Service
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh
EH1 1EW

Tel:0131 623 3816
E-mail: j.collATnls.uk

First steps in Blogging
6pm Tuesday 4th November, Level 5
Livingstone Tower, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Speakers:
Neil Infield, Manager, British Library Business & Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC)
Neil recently launched the first blog for the British Library’s BIPC called In through the Outfield . He previously worked for Hermes Pension Management and is also a committee member of SLA Europe. Neil is a well known figure in the information world and is a regular contributor to publications such as Information World Review and Business Information review. He will talk about his own experiences in setting up his blog as well as offer tips and advice to existing and would-be bloggers.

Christine Rooney-Browne PhD Student, University of Strathclyde
Christine is currently researching the social value of public libraries as part of her PhD and has written a number of articles on this topic. She also writes a blog called The Library of Digress and she will offer her own insights into running a blog.

There will be an opportunity to put questions to both of the speakers during the evening and the talks will be followed by drinks and nibbles. The event is kindly sponsored by Bureau van Dijk

To book a place please contact John Coll e-mail j.collATnls.uk Tel: 0131 623 3816

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow in time to attend this event. I'd really have liked to be able to meet Christine, who also helps maintain the UK Library Bloggers wiki! Hopefully the wiki will get a mention as a good place to start to find other library bloggers! :)

Edinburgh Festival of Libraries

Starting on Saturday 8th November, the Edinburgh Festival of Libraries will be running a week long programme of talks, walks, tours, presentations roadshows and behind-the-scenes peeks into some of the many different types of library services working in Edinburgh.

Lots of interesting things going on, but I'm kinda ruled out of any of the daytime events by working (I've maxed out my holiday allowance for the year, boo, hiss), which is a shame, because there's plenty I'd have loved to be able to go to!

So, to make sure I still get to do *something*, I've emailed to book a place for the finale event on Friday 14th November:

Finale event - Future of the Book

Panel discussion "The Future of the Book"

Print books or e-books? Uplift or download? Writers and readers or interactive interchange? We are pleased to present a panel of informed people who will present and discuss a range of views on this topic.

The discussion will be chaired by Stuart Kelly, Literary Editor of Scotland on Sunday

Panel members include:

Donald Smith, Scottish Storytelling Centre

Francis Bickmore, Canongate Publishers

Hugh Andrews, Birlinn Publishers

Michelle Harper, OCLC

Join their discussion and get thinking about what part you will play in the future of the book. After the panel discussion, you are invited to continue the discussions on an informal basis and to enjoy a glass of wine, some light refreshments and some good company. This event is supported by OCLC and the National Library of Scotland

Scottish Book Trust, Sandeman House, Trunk’s Close, 55 High Street, EH1 1SR

7.00 pm onwards

Free – to book a place please contact 0131 623 4675 or email events@nls.uk

Just my sort of thing, yay!