Tomb of the Unknown Librarian » pop.cult

Eclipse release party

/paul — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:42:11 +0000

So we held our release party for Eclipse yesterday. We had ten copies for checkout, Sarah and Amytha made t-shirts and they gave as prizes. Sarah also awarded two tickets to see Stephanie Meyer at Books Inc in San Francisco to a couple of very lucky people. About fifteen people showed up. I only stayed to take photos but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Friday’s iPhone media frenzy

/paul — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:33:40 +0000

Friday, I stopped by the Apple Store in Clarendon, a suburb of DC in Virginia assuming there would be a long line, lots of Apple devotees and opportunists. What I didn’t expect was all the media. Local and international reporters and camera operators were swarming over the place. It was a zoo. They opened the doors and I left. I wonder what the Harry Potter media frenzy will look like.

Awesome Tour and Interview at NPR DC

/paul — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:33:00 +0000

Since I missed the ALA tour of NPR, I went to the regularly scheduled tour that includes the control rooms, the studios, and of course the infamous Studio 4A. About thirty people showed up for the tour. It was amusing to see this huge group traipsing through the halls of NPR, up and down stairs, through cubicles and aisleways, trying to fit into the vestibules the studios that are very, very tiny.

Our tour guide, Alan, talked about the challenges NPR faces with their business model, member stations, podcasting and digital distribution. Since programming is podcast or streamed live directly from NPR it bypasses the member stations completely. The concern there is that eventually people won’t see a need to support their local stations. So far it sounds like NPR is only allowing locals to stream certain content live like All Things Considered. Alan also talked about the NPR library and how much digital data they have that is not cataloged and the amount is increasing everyday, not just audio data but media for the web site, photos, stories and commentaries.

After the tour was over, three of us were asked if we wouldn’t mind doing an interview and a promo for NPR. Well duh! Alyssa, Keith and I were interviewed by a producer from NPR who asked us about what we listen to on NPR, who our favorite on-air personalities are, and when we first heard NPR, among other things.

Gaming in the library

/paul — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:25:57 +0000

Now as the proud owner of a Wii, I’m hooked. The ability of the remote controllers to detect motion in three dimensions makes the gaming experience totally suited for a wide range of ages, from kids to vintage adults. The Wii Sports and Wii Play are all you need for rotator cuff injuries, a good case of Tennis elbow and hours of fun. I can’t wait for the library to carry Wii games, especially now that they are outselling PS3 2 to 1.

We’ve been doing a number of gaming in the library types of activities, primarily Guitar Hero for the PS2. Last Saturday, the library held a teen filmaker series followed by a video game marathon consiting of GH2 as well as some retro gaming on my old Dreamcast. Apparently they couldn’t get enough of the Soul Caliber.

My co-worker who organizes most of the Video Game Nights (that take place Fridays or Saturdays 3pm – 5pm) actually will be co-presenting at CLA this year on this very topic. Rock on Sarah!!!

The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers & Rogues… no reviews yet

/paul — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:08:53 +0000

Pyratecon sounds like an informative and fun weekend of pirate lore and romanticizing villainous cutthroats. The book is probably worth a look Talk Like a Pirate Day – September 19.

Via: CNN | Arrrrr, maties — Pyratecon hits New Orleans

LibraryXO.org Live!

/paul — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:10:02 +0000

I must have too much time on my hands. I created LibraryXO.org where users can post stories about the library-world and vote for their favorite stories. The idea is similar (okay, identical) to Digg but it’s only for library news, book reviews, and other fun stuff pertaining to libraries, librarians, and people who are just generally turned on by libraries.

Feel free to submit stories, vote, create a profile, interact with other LibraryXO users, comment, and make suggestions on how to make the site better. It’s a work in process and sure to change in layout, design and content as users begin to make it their own.

I’ll probably have an official launch in a couple of weeks… any excuse for a party.

Technical details: Pligg engine using MySQL, PHP, & CSS etc., hosted on LaughingSquid.net.

Don’t fear the Reader…

/paul — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 23:26:05 +0000

Satisfy your morbid curiosity or craving for a little dark humor. Here is the promised splattering of grim books, morbid music and movies .
I’d love suggestions if anyone has any.

Books
Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers / by Mary Roach
MÃ¼tter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia / edited by Gretchen Worden
R.I.P. : the complete book of death and dying / Constance Jones.
The dead beat : lost souls, lucky stiffs, and the perverse pleasures of obituaries / by Marilyn Johnson
Assassination vacation / by Sarah Vowell
Goth Bible: A compendium for the darkly inclined / by
Book of bunny suicides / by Andy Riley

Travel
Where are they buried? : how did they die? / Tod Benoit
San Francisco bizarro : a guide to notorious sights, lusty pursuits, and downright freakiness in the City by the Bay / by Jack Boulware
L.A. bizzaro! : the insider’s guide to the obscure, the absurd, and the perverse in Los Angeles / by Anthony R. Lovett, Matt Marania
Haunted houses of California : a ghostly guide to haunted houses & wandering spirits / by Antoinette May

Fiction
Crash / by J.G. Ballard
A dirty job / by Christopher Moore
A Series of Unfortunate Events / by Lemony Snicket (not just for kids)
Cautionary tales for children / by Hillaire Belloc and Edward Gorey

Music
Murder ballads / Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Assassins, the original cast recording / music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim ; book by John Weidman
Colma : the musical, original motion picture soundtrack / music and lyrics by H.P. Mendoza

Movies & TV Shows
Better off Dead
Curdled
Delicatessen
Natural Born Killers
Murder by Death
Six feet under
Dead like me

By the way, if you haven’t heard the Nick Cave / Enya version of Don’t Fear the Reaper listen here

A little meebo on the side? MeebOme!

/paul — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 06:34:13 +0000

So I added the MeeboMe Code to the sidebar. If I’m online, Meebo me!

It works great so far, the AJAX with a little Flash thrown in, is rockin! Any visitor to your web site/blog can IM you if you’re online.

This is a great little web application to keep you stay connected with folks who visit your site. If we could only get libraries to sign on, our patrons wouldn’t even need to sign up with an IM service. Imagine a patron visiting our home page and getting directions on how to log into a database, or find a certain book (or a morbid books & more list) from a live LOCAL librarian.

BTW, thanks F.Love, for the reminder on the booklist. Not sure if it’ll fly in the library but I’ll give it a try.

Rumors of eBooks on iPods

/paul — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 23:58:12 +0000

Engadget speculates (with good reason) that Apple’s next iPod and iTunes release might feature eBooks. An iPod with a larger screen seems to be in the works and it would make a lot of sense to read the next Meg Cabot book on an iPod, while listening to Art Brut or the Lovemakers. Will consumers get the ebook bug? More importantly, will libraries miss the off-ramp again on another avenue toward digitial convergance?

Hopefully libraries can offer at the least open source classics for download that will work on the ipod. Oh yeah, I forgot we’ll need MARC records for them, and a third party vendor that doesn’t work with the next-gen iPod. Just fire me now!

Currently listening to: Bang Bang Rock & Roll by Art Brut
What I’m reading: King Dork by Frank Portman

Library ranks 1252 out of 86800

/paul — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:19:51 +0000

I can’t stop playing with the Wordcount website that ranked words based on their common use. The fun part is what phrases get built by the rankings. 8221 – 8222 = Discarded Librarian.

It’s all pretty speculative and based on British word usage, but I can see us using it as a way (at least make the case) to use more common words to describe our resources and services if not just a fun way to waste a little time.

In the debate over what to call library electronic (2857) or digital (4393) resources, online (10113) and web (10182) are pretty close, and while the internet is a household word, it’s use is ranked at 30525.

(thanks Pop Candy)