Tom Roper's Weblog

Welsh Grand National

Apart from the big race at Chepstow, some interesting contests today take place at Leopardstown.

120 Leopardstown: Mansonry
205 Chepstow: Nenuphar Collonges
240 Chepstow: Pepite de Soleil
300 Leopardstown: Vic Venturi
315 Kempton: Petit Robin

King George VI Chase

It is Boxing Day and racing resumes, with the big race, the King George VI Chase at Kempton. I have been through a titanic inner struggle, interrogating myself to try to see if my preference for Kauto Star in this event is sentimental or rational. If Kauto wins, he will join Desert Orchid in the record books, the latter being the only horse so far to have won the event three times in succession. The opposition, headed in the betting by Voy Por Ustedes, are impressive, but if Kauto is at his best, they cannot touch him.

Kempton 130: Massinis Maguire
Wetherby 145: Cloudy Lane
Kempton 205: Punjabi
Kempton 240: Kauto Star  

Pantomime or #twitpanto

I have to admit to a secret liking for pantomime.True, as a child the singing would bore me witless, but the vulgar humour, the slapstick of Wishee-Washee and Splishee-Sploshee and above all the innuendo, amused me no end as a child.

I have just witnessed the most bizarre things, a pantomime conducted on Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitpanto.Or see it here: http://dracos.co.uk/temp/twitpanto/

It was rowdy, bawdy and sometimes hard to follow, just like the real thing.

Support builds for Unison campaign

Poet Laurate and, significantly, the new Chair of the MLA, Andrew Motion, has attacked library closures, according to the Guardian: Poet laureate speaks out against library closures

Meanwhile, at Westminster, an early day motion supporting Unison's campaign on public libraries is gathering support from MPs, with thirty signatories as I write. Early day motions are not, in themselves, very significant: they are not debated in parliament, and the motion is mildly worded. Even so.

On simians

Why should there be a monkey on top of the Christmas tree? The origins of the custom, like well-dressing and beating the bounds, are ancient. But there always has been. Once there were two and adolescents would take pleasure in arranging them in positions suggestive of copulation. This year I could only find one.

CILIP on Open Access

CILIP have developed a briefing page on open access, basic but quite useful, including links to some librarianship OA titles. I'd congratulate whoever did it, if they hadn't spoilt the effect  by putting it in the members only area of the site.

If you're a CILIP member see it here: Open access journals

Ascot

Even ignoring the hyperbole, Ascot has a far far better meeting than one would expect on the Saturday before Christmas, when all eyes are usually on Boxing Day and the King George. It has been enriched by the transfer of races from Cheltenham's abandoned meeting last weekend.

The puzzle race is the International. With the exception of Celestial Halo, any of the field of five seem to me to have a very good chance. In the end I have plumped for Chomba Womba.

Ascot 105: Trabolgan
Ascot 140: Chomba Womba
Ascot 210: Punchestowns
Ascot 245: Ashkazar

The library profession seen through the LRB personals

The London Review of Books personal advertisements have always fascinated me, though I must make it clear that I browse them in a spirit of disinterested academic enquiry. Recently my eye was caught by this one:
My profile here boasts the index carding skills of Miss Marple, the sexual ambiguity of Tank Girl and the wardrobe of Cadfael. Kinky junior librarian (F. 34), lurking in the boondocks of XY9802, tripping over re-evaluations of Nick Cave in back issues of Parallax and her own hem line, WLTM nice academic man or woman to 40 unphased by evening wear once described as “Mrs Doyle Does Dallas”. No Linguists.

I wonder who she is? It is almost tempting to reply to find out which member of this great profession of ours placed it. Instead, I shall scour the Yearbook for clues.

Libraries and librarians figure frequently in the LRB personals, and a not very rigourous analysis identifies various modes:

1. Libraries as a place for encounters: For example:
We brushed hands in the British Library, then again in the London Review Bookshop, reaching for Musil. And then once more on the tube, getting off at Ladbroke Grove. Serial random hand-brusher (F, 32, publicity exec) demands attention, followed by more attention, followed by extended periods of self-pity. It's all me, me, me at box no [...]

2. On the other hand, libraries may be used for more legitimate purposes than hand-brushing:
I spent an entire day in the British Library sourcing obscure reference material to cite in this ad, then I lost it all when I stopped off at Burger King on the way home. Man, 34.

3. Librarians, alas usually female, may be objects of desire:
Librarian-looking punk, 34, seeks punkette-looking librarian.

4. Librarians themselves advertise, sometimes sounding disillusioned with their careers:
‘All he needs are some psychiatric treatments to reduce the strength and regularity of his biorhythmic brain explosion episodes. For one so young, his powers of telekinesis are far beyond that of any project we’ve developed so far. His brain has the power to rule the world. It may cause you some problems at home, but the benefits of the bionic mind far outweigh the pitfalls.’ My school report, 1979 (Porton Down Preparatory School). So much promise then, look at me now. Ex-superhero, now librarian (M, 31) seeks solvent woman to 35 for scrabble, real ale, and spontaneous morphing. Wilts.

What is your favourite preserved body part? Mine is the diseased bladder of Italian biologist, Lazzaro Spallanzani (currently on display in the Scarpa Room in the University of Pavia). This, and many more conversation killers available from librarian and failed travel agent F, 32, Northampton.

It’s a jungle out there! Confused librarian.

4. Library users may offer valuable insights into our services, and may sometimes exhibit antagonistic attitudes towards library staff:
Gynotikolobomassophile (M, 43) seeks neanimorphic F to 60 to share euneirophrenia. Must enjoy pissing off librarians (and be able to provide the correct term for same).

When the authorities eventually remove this covert recording device from my brain, they’ll be able to download not only the most profound musings on the universe ever conceived by man but also possibly the whereabouts of my car keys. Until then paranoid amateur tailor (M, 37, Warwickshire) remains unable to take these cross-stitch manuals back to the library. The chirps and whistles aren’t getting any quieter, and the fines aren’t getting any smaller, but this dog-fur suit is sewing up a storm at box no. [...]That’s not revulsion you’re feeling right now – it’s passion (or possibly it is revulsion).

I am grateful to Whatever it Was, I was Against It, where some of these examples, and more, may be found. The LRB's own anthology of the ads, They Call Me Naughty Lola is highly recommended.

UNISON: library services nearing crisis point

UNISON launched a campaign yesterday to defend the public library service against cuts and closures, deskilling of library workers and privatisation. The union, which organises a substantial proportion of Britain's library workers in public libraries, further and higher education and health, has published a report, Taking Stock: The Future of our Public Library Service(pdf) and has a five point plan, consisting of:

Adequate resources for staff, services and premises
Encouraging staff and communities to shape the library service
Libraries and councils sharing information and best practice
Catering for library users from all backgrounds
Better staff training and professional development

An update: Laura Swaffield has posted on CILIP's Update blog, complimenting Unison on a 'well-timed pre-emptive strike' and praising the report's historical approach and 'great summary of all the evidence that shows PFI is a disaster'. I'd agree, with the minor proviso that some more recent history is elided: a chronology jumps straight from the Public Library and Museums Act of 1964 to the founding of the Library and Information Commission in 1998. Quite a  lot happened between those dates, for example the Green Paper of 1988,  in the struggle against which Unison's predecessor organisation NALGO played a leading role. And Brighton and Hove is not a county.

Lord Levy

Many things our dear British Library does puzzle its readers and the library profession, but the decision to appoint Lord Levy to the British Library Development Board must be the strangest yet. The story was in yesterday's Observer, and there is nothing yet on the BL website, though it is perhaps not the sort of news one would want widely known.

Though once Alvin Stardust's manager, Levy is chiefly famous nowadays for having helped the police with their enquiries during the cash for honours scandal of the Blair years. When my reader's ticket is due for renewal, will I be offered an OM in exchange for a donation?