Reading...

Loving this...part narrated by a 15 year old Alma,  this is a story of lost love and the horrors of the holocaust but it is much more. I give it full marks. Nicole Krauss is married to Jonathan Safran Foer of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The couple live in Brooklyn and I have a crush on this very cool couple.

Are you a digital native or immigrant?

I see that Marc Prensky of Digital Native and Immigrant fame is coming to DCU in September.

Reading...

Winner of the IMPAC Award in 2009. Set in New York. Excellent.

Tile obsession continues...

via desire to inspire

...but this time inside. How long would it take to build up a collection like this?

Organised

via Freunde von Freunden

I find well organised shelving comforting. In foodie terms its the Sausage and Mash of Interiors. It calms me. If only I could catalogue and classify everything....

Give credit where credit is due

The print above created by Pia Jane Bijkerk and you can purchase via her website. I am so bad at giving credit where it's due. Mostly because I saved a picture on my hard drive and didn't reference properly. This is dealt with above - "so get a better filing system" . Oh the shame when a librarian is told to get a better filing system. I therefore pledge that I will credit absolutely everything I put on this blog from now on. Consider me told.

Shelving again...

via Decor 8

Cheap and doable

Everyday things...

via Dos Family

The image above is free shelving that can be sourced from the back of the supermarket. Do you recognise the boxes I have my magazines stored in below? I think there may be some left in the cataloguing room. Covered in vintage wallpaper.

Blackboard Paint

I've used blackboard paint in my house on a very small wall in the kitchen. (Neither of these images are from my house. Will update with credits as soon as I figure out where I got them.) But even if you never use it as a blackboard it's a lovely way to get a flat black colour. Because black will always be the new black.

Happy Birthday Bob

and to the other Mr Bob:

Enjoy Roger Waters tonight!

Wallpaper again...

Remember I was saying that me and First Born were picking wallpaper for her room.

This is what she picked. Do you think my love of 60's and 70's all things vintage is rubbing off?

Me thinks so! It's called Flot.

The Classical and the Modern

This is for Machinetown (in reference to your recent illustration corner) via Decor 8. The beauty of classic art in a modern setting. It needs no more.

Mild Hoo Ha and 3 hour loans in the Junior Section

Google and tag that heading if you dare...The 23 bloggers have stepped it up a notch this week with such hilarity. I've been laughing out loud at the comments. From dinner party discussions to hoo-ha's and radical behaviour. This is a small intense group of mad people. How could you explain this madness to others.....librarians rule.

We own a tree

One of the greatest pleasures of buying a house after renting for over 10 years was being able to put up a shelf or drill a hole in the wall  (him indoors can testify that a lot of our walls now have a lot of holes in them). When I say drill...I mean hack a nail in - usually the wrong type of nail - and causing untold damage. But it's our damage and ain't no landlord going to keep any deposit for that. Another great pleasure was planting a tree. Owning a tree. (I know I know...putting down roots...barf barf). See our tree above.

My Beautiful Eames

Cushion on top made from material from one of my daughter's old dresses.

Oh to have the climate for this

The Eames Chair...there is no better



Above is the Classic Eames DSW Chair. This picture via Emma's Blog.  There is no nicer chair in the world. I have one (just one) in my kitchen in white. This unfortunately is not my kitchen. See more grey!

The Brocante

The Brocante is held on the third sunday of every month. The coffee is great and the music is always good. I might see you there.

Tile Collection

For Pitseleh: You can make out half the collection. My mother brings me back tiles now as well! Not very robust. I lost a tile or two during the big snow.

Sometimes the best things in life are...50p

Kiwi tray for 50p. One of my favourite things. I have a thing about trays, wooden spoons, cups, and tiles! When I go abroad I always buy a cup or a tile. I have the tiles stuck on my wall out in the back garden from all over the world.

Library Thing

I joined Library Thing 2 years ago and its slick - but I keep forgetting to update and I have found myself weirdly uninterested in recommendations or what other people think of the book. It's information overload. I read the Booker Blog intensely each year for about 2 months coming up to the award as I read the shortlist every year and love the discussion and the argument for a short amount of time by a small amount of people on a small amount of books. But I do like Library thing  - it's an excuse for another list. I love lists. Ticking off a list gives me great pleasure. So I see this as an electronic list to go along with my other paper and pen ones. I also keep a handwritten list of books I read. There, I admitted it too. I will explore it more from the library point of view though.

I have asked Library Thing to change my user name and it may take a week for them to do that apparently as I join a queue so I'll link to my page when that is done. For now here are pictures of my "real" Library Thing as opposed to my "Virtual" one. I have books in every room in my house. I have them on the floor,  in the loo, over my wardrobe, in the hallway. They are not in Dewey order but there is  an order to them - fiction, non-fiction, college material, Irish language, history and all authors are together.

The Ideal Bookshelf

I noticed on machinetown's blog the book illustrations. Jane Mount is a New York based artist who will paint a picture of the "perfect bookshelf". So you tell her your favourite all time titles and she will reproduce in the painting. Genius.

I Tweet therefore I Tweet

As Vincent Browne would say I'm now on the Twitter Machine. This I like. My new phone (did I mention it already?) allows me to add the tweeters I follow into my contacts - how cool is that!

Just Wrong...

I'm a big fan of designer Abigail Ahern and this is one of her rooms - all dark and moody. But do you see the wallpaper pretending to be a book shelf? I've noticed this wallpaper in Elle Decoration and Living etc and on numerous design blogs and it is on its way to becoming a design classic. I can't go with this one I'm afraid - its like the pubs buying books by the yard for the olde worlde feel. Sometimes things are just wrong.

This one's for you Du$ty Buxxx

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

The Sartorialist

I'm sure you all know this blog...The Sartorialist...pictures of cool people taken on cool streets.

The images above are from this blog. This is what librarians should look like!

Wallpaper

Looking for some quirky vintage wallpaper for one wall in my daughter's room. I love this. This is from the blog Fine Little Day. This family has the coolest house. I love vintage sixties and seventies wallpaper. I've been know to cover the odd wall or lampshade with the groovy stuff.

I hate facebook but will you still be my friend? Please? Pretty Please...

I'm sorry I just do. I can see why it would be useful. I just don't like it. I don't understand it. I had an account but I deactivated it today. The idea of asking / begging for friends. The idea of being accepted as a friend or not. The idea of being defriended. The idea of counting virtual friends. I love blogging, I love reading blogs, I like Delicious and Library thing. I think RSS feeds are useful. I have a smart phone (one week old....happy birthday babe!) I have downloaded my first app. Get me and my App! (My Track in case you're interested  - maps your run, where, how far, heart rate, etc) but I HATE Facebook.

Is Social Media a Fad?

Looked at the socialnomics video - hard to argue. I don't think it's a fad. I think it's the way we do business. I was wondering on Tuesday morning whether or not to bother to tell my daughter that Osama Bin Laden was dead. Is this worth mentioning to a 13 year old - do they really need to know this stuff? She knew already...she got a chain text via her mobile. Enough said. The news finds us now.

I can see the benefit of Twitter. I think when a big news story unfolds too quickly for print media (recent election) social media comes into its own. I've been a reader of the Irish Times since College (late 80's / early 90's gulp) but you knew the Times was a day behind with the news...we can no longer live with this.

Grey again!

I'm obsessed with all things grey at the moment, can you tell!

Wikis

I'm back. I've been away but now I'm back. Just looking at the library Wiki "we" created and I like it. I can see how this could be very useful. I was recently collaborating with colleagues from other libraries (NUI Galway, DCU, Houses of the Oireachtas) trying to plan a conference. I asked my colleagues to discuss an issue via e-mail and then asked them to contribute using the "Reply to all Button". I was trying to collate the discussion yesterday and it was a great big mess. A wiki page would have been perfect.  Library staff across Ireland all know each other and they collaborate and share ideas in a very selfless way. Its a great profession for that I think. This tool is very useful and I will be using it.

Cartoon Strip

Sorry! The joke is beyond awful! But the Software is great and I have created my first comic strip so yippee!

Grey! Just for you buttonbeano!

Feeds

This is all new to me.  After watching the Common Craft video I realise that I am that person who wastes valuable time searching all my favourite websites & blogs to see if there are any updates. Set up my 3 RSS Feeds - The Library Association, The Man Booker Prize and my Union. What a useful tool. I imagine I will find the Topic Search very good for keeping up with a particular news story in the short term i.e. The Croke Park Deal or Numeracy and Literacy in Ireland. It could be very useful in the library - as a Current Awareness Tool for the Information Service. Sending mails to academic staff could earn us some brownie points...."did you see the latest development in numeracy skills assessment from Australia..." type of thing.  People feel overwhelmed by the amount of information out there (we work in a library and we feel it) -and we could use RSS feeds in a way that could potentially help our users to navigate their way through it. The ideas on the blog from Newcastle are fascinating and I definitely think we should try to do some of them here in our library.

Dating Librarians

Simple

Library 2.0

Take a look at diagram above [I can't remember where I got this but I will find out and reference correctly I promise. Apologies to the creator]
It captures the spirit of Library and Web 2.0

I'm just sayin...

Peter Blake I love Vintage Print

Book Stacks...

Not the traditional library way but doesn't it look good!

Kahlo & Rivera @ IMMA

I am really looking forward to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at IMMA. Not usually one for art exhibitions but having read and really enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna I can't wait. She brought Kahlo and Rivera to life. I would recommend reading the book before going to the exhibition.

Vintage Scandinavian Fabric

I love Scandinavian design. I love this vintage tea towel. I bought it on e-bay. Dare anybody use this for drying the dishes in my house.

Week Two

All done....phew!

Diigo

Imported all of my delicious bookmarks into Diigo. That was handy! I bet Diigo is better than Delicious but I think whatever application you use first will win out...

Getting there with Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3434982/Untitled

ok getting there - but how do I change the link to picture?

Cloud Tags and Wordle

I LOVE Wordle. Possibilities are endless. I have wordled my blog but can't save or copy? Help?

Can't resist

Delicious again!

Ok I've shared my bookmarks. To date I have bookmarked my favourite online shops. Will bookmark more later. I don't like the way its just a list  - a list that just goes on and on - can't I group into folders on the first screen - so with 4 or 5 folders on first screen  - i.e. Library, Shops, Books, etc. with relevant book marks inside the "folder". I know you can group by grouping tags but.... I like a neat front page. Am I doing something wrong or is it not as sophisticated as us librarians would assume it should be. Catalogues and sub catalogues anyone?

Tidy Clutter

There is something so restfully messy about this home work station.