Tom Roper's Weblog

Richard Smith tries to access some journals

In a blog post, the former BMJ editor, Richard Smith, describes a week of trying to access articles. Do read it, though, to summarise, he tries to read five articles. One is freely available; the rest are behind paywalls. He can only get the articles with the help of the author, in one case, and friends who have access in three others. All the articles were written by authors who received no payment from the publishers.

He only tries a library for one article. While he is kind to librarians, saying that, 'in my experience librarians are some of the most helpful people on earth and always seem to feel it as a personal failure that they can’t give you the words you are looking for,' nevertheless, this library can only give him access by making him jump through four hoops, including getting photographic ID. He gives up.

The Journal of the Medical Library Association has announced a special issue for October 2013 on the theme New Century, New Roles for Health Sciences Librarians. I wonder if one new role might be  a more vigorous attitude on our part to removing these barriers?

The last day of Royal Ascot

Circumstances stopped me taking an interest in the previous days of the Royal Ascot meeting. I open the pages of today's Racing Post to find it made up in equal parts of royalist hysteria, such as Alistair Down's piece, pictures of young women in short skirts, and Black Caviar.
Is this beast with, as his owner is supposed to have said, 'the neck of a duchess and the arse of a cook', as good as reports suggest?
I will not oppose her.
230: Jalaa
305: Aiken
345: Black Caviar
425: Mac's Power
500: Mulaqen
535: Simenon

The purity of the sport and sunglasses

In today's Financial Times How To Spend It magazine, the sailor Ben Ainslie, holder of three Olympic gold medals, is asked for his view on how the organisers of the sailing at Weymouth have tried to pander to television companies to make the races more visually appeal for the armchair spectator. The final race in each class will take place far closer inshore than normal and, depending on wind direction, may not make a fair course. Ainslie is quoted as saying, 'Organisers want more races closer to the shore because that is the future commercially. But at the Olympics the purity of the sport should come first'.

Fine sentiments. Turn the page, and there is a full-page picture of B. Ainslie, advertising a pair of expensive sunglasses.

The Black Sardine

The world has rallied to the cause of Martha Payne, the 9-year old schoolgirl whose blog, Never Seconds, where she posted photographs of,  and commentary on, her school lunches, has attracted so much attention today. Argyll & Bute council have stepped back from their attempt to stop her blogging, a thoroughly sensible decision. 

I was reminded of the incident of the boarding house sardine from my schooldays, which ended less happily. A boy sent to the local newspaper a photograph of a single sardine on a plate, claiming that it was his breakfast. The newspaper printed it, but the headmaster, a man whose name was painted on walls around Cambridge as 'Pig M…..[surname redacted]' started an investigation, and expelled the boy. We were outraged at this and a group of us, the nucleus of the Cambridge branch of the Schools Action Union,  started a magazine under the title Black Sardine, printing the photograph on the front of the first issue.  I no longer have a copy, and I doubt if we were aware of our legal deposit responsibilities, so I fear none survive.

Disaster recovery as it happens

One of the libraries where I hot-desk was flooded at the weekend and, so that others may learn from our experience, there's a blog written by the head of service, describing how we deal with the damage and keep the service going. Have a look at Worthing Health Sciences Library Flood 2012 

The significance of the date in the blog title is that this is not the first time we have been flooded. It is, though, the worst.