Tom Roper's Weblog

We marched

I don't think it matters very much exactly how many were there. I've been on some big demonstrations: the march against the war in Iraq, the huge CND demonstration in the 1980s, an anti-apartheid one when Thatcher invited Botha to tea in the same decade. This was of a similar size.

Forgive me if I show some of the library-related placards carried by marchers. When I reached Hyde Park, I'd missed Brendan Barber and Ed Milliband. I dried my tears of disappointment, and listened to Sam West deliver a trenchant defence of arts funding, at threat from a philistine government. This government, he said, is  running the country for people who can afford to buy all their books, not for the people who borrow them.

 

 

 

The media have latched onto some incidents, well away from Hyde Park, involving people who were nothing to do with the march.  Indeed, from what has been revealed of the activities of undercover police officers, such as Mark Kennedy, it seems quite probable that among those involved in the violence were policemen.

 

 

 

Jobs, growth, justice

I'll be marching

Why e-learning will never happen in the NHS

Pah! After I went to the NHS e-learning conference, I was inspired to try out the NHS e-learning repository. It took over three weeks to sort out access through my Athens account, which should have been straightforward.

After that was resolved, I thought it would be plain sailing. So I registered to add content. I got an e-mail back that told me I couldn't: 'as you may be aware, the repository funding has now been agreed for this financial year and unfortunately we are no longer creating contributor accounts except for dedicated SHA eLearning leads, so we are not able to set you up with a contributor account on this occasion'.

There are ten strategic health authorities in England. That means that there are ten people able to contribute content to the repository in an organisation that, we are constantly reminded, is the largest employer in Europe.

It is a fundamental truth that, if e-learning platforms are not open and easy to use, then no one will bother with them. This lesson has yet to be learnt in the NHS.

Cheltenham: Gold Cup day

After another pleasing day, with two more winners, I enter the lists for the final day. Has it rained?
In the Gold Cup, I can see arguments against each of the four leading contenders and go for Willie Mullins' Kempes.
130: Grandouet
205: Dirar
240: Kilcrea Kim
320: Kempes
400: Dante's Storm
440: Barizan
515: De Boitron

LibTeachMeet goes to the seaside: Brighton, anyone?

There's been a flurry of interest today in library TeachMeets, fuelled by Niamh Tumelty's article on the CILIP Update blog. Cambridge, I am proud to say, as a native son of that city, leads the way: see http://www.camlibtm.info/, but Newcastle, Huddersfield, Liverpool, Leicester, Bournemouth and Oxford are all getting going.

Why Brighton?

Brighton is rich in library, information and knowledge workers: two universities, three public library systems, the NHS, school libraries, government libraries, commercial libraries, all those new media companies. I know from personal experience that nearly all of them are involved in teaching activity, and we have some of the country's leading shambrarians in our midst. Several of us think there might be the potential for an event here.

How would it work?

From Cambridge's site:

TeachMeet is a fun and informal way for librarians and information professionals to share new ideas.  We’re looking for speakers willing to give a 5-minute or 2-minute presentation about ‘techie tools and/or teaching tips’ , and for enthusiastic lurkers who are keen to learn something new, engage in discussion, and have a good time!

It’s absolutely 100% free to attend, and everyone is welcome. Whether you’re a librarian, an information ninja, a shambrarian, or something else; whether you’re the head of your organisation or a junior assistant; whether you work in a university, a school, a business, or elsewhere, we’re looking forward to seeing you.

If you want to speak, the only rules we have is that your presentation mustn’t be trying to sell us anything, and you must stick to the timeslot.  You can use whatever presentation format you want: including PowerPoint, keynote, prezi, slide rocket, 280 slides, you could just talk, show something from the web, hold up a poster or you could sing a song!

So, this is very roughly what we have in mind (and I'm making some of this up as I go along, but it's all up for debate)

When: after Easter/royal wedding etc stuff is out of the way, eg early May. Evening would allow us to involve people who commute to London

Where: a free venue (there is no money). Would a Brighton-based organisation like to let us have a space? Best in Brighton, I think, from a transport point of view

Who: sign up in the comments, or e-mail, or tweet using #LibTeachBrighton if you're interested in attending, and if you'd like to present. You're not making a binding commitment at this stage. A de facto organising committee seems to comprise me and @wigglesweets, but I'm sure we could use more people. Everything gratefully received

I'll add to this in time, but that's a start. Comment away....

 

 

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide in the library

Some of the obituaries of Owsley Stanley, who will be remembered as the man who made LSD available on a grand scale in the 1960s, mention the story that he stumbled upon the recipe in the Journal of Organic Chemistry in an unnamed library. How I wish we knew which. I don't even have the citation. Oh for access to Web of Knowledge.

Like any curious young person in the early 70s who had read Aldous Huxley's Doors of Perception, I dabbled. I doubt if I ever had any of Mr Stanley's product, though these things are hard to determine.  I certainly never achieved the transcendent insights that Huxley achieved with mescaline.

I remember one dark afternoon, having 'dropped a tab', as we used to say, wandering the banks of the Cam. I was convinced that the ducks on the river had malevolent intentions towards me. When they took off or landed their webbed feet cleft the water so deep I could see the bottom of the river. It seemed wise to remove myself, and I found myself in the dark, walking along Panton Street. I stopped under each street-light to examine my hand. I thought that someone had it between the fingers, splitting it right to the wrist. I would probably still be in this pitiful state were it not for Dorothy, one of several American girls I knew, all daughters of visiting academics here on sabbatical. Since they came from the land of Owsley and the Dead, we credited these girls with far more pharmaceutical knowledge than they really had. But, though Dorothy may not have been steeped in hallucinogenic lore, she was profoundly sensible and I owe her my sanity. She took me to a friend's house and allowed me to sit quietly for a few hours until the friend's mother returned. When she did, I was able to converse with her quite normally, or as normally as any adolescent of that epoch would with an adult.

Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/8381945/Owsley-Stanley.html

Guardian: Prolific LSD producer and supplier to the bands and stars of 1960s counterculture

Independent: Owsley Stanley: Sound engineer and muse to the Grateful Dead whose LSD laboratory helped shape Sixties counterculture

 

 

 

Cheltenham: World Hurdle day

130 Noble Prince
200: Kayf Aramis
240: Poquelin
320: Big Buck's
400: Quart de Thaix
440: Galant Nuit

Cheltenham: Queen Mother Champion Chase day

A passable day yesterday: seven selections, two winners, three placed, a strike rate of 29%
For today:
130: Some Target
205: First Lieutenant
240: Aiteen Thirtythree
320: Woolcombe Folly
400: Call The Police
440: Plan A
515: Divine Rhapsody

Cheltenham: Champion Hurdle day

No time to post detailed analysis or commentary: we're only a couple of hours away from when the cheer will go up as they set off in the Supereme Novices Hurdle.

1.30: Cue Card
2.05: Finian's Rainbow
2.40: Bensalem
3.20: Peddlers Cross
400: A New Story
440: Quevega
515: Definity

Sandown

All eyes are on Cheltenham this weekend, so I only found two races of interest in today's cards. In the Imperial Cup I take David Pipe's Ronaldo des Mottes, top of the weights, but with a good chance, and in the novices hurlde at 155, Skint, which is what every red-blooded racegoer hopes the bookies will be by next Saturday.