Expired Athens accounts
We agreed at the last London Athens Administration meeting that we Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Those ProQuest Links
Something weird is happening with some links. British Journal of Nursing seems to throw out some strange links to recently cited Dialog links in CINAHL... we are investigating. It could be the upload information Dialog receive from ProQuest isn't quite right... left Gavin to cry in his tea while he follows that one up. Am quite glad I don't work on the vendor side anymore... Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Arcade Fire and Michael Nyman
While doing some linking checks against Dialog and Proquest I've got Arcade Fire on my headphones - they seem to be the main band being used for any BBC "new episodes/programmes" background music... just decided that Crown of Love is very Michael Nyman influenced... which reminds me to dig out some tracks of his. I think I've got "Zed and Two Noughts" somewhere on cassette.... Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Happy New Year etc
First work New Year Resolution already achieved!!! Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Floating Athens Institutional ID's
Appears we have a slight problem Houston. If you can't get into Dialog via Athens and get a message saying you are not enabled to access this resource - email me with your username... Hopefully we will tie down this floating institution!! Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Ranting Richardson
For those of you involved in my rant and moan last Thursday and Friday... I think I'm back to Norman (to quote Rugrats) now. Slightly happier bunny! Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Stressed
Can't blog - too stressed Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Previous Blog
Just in case you wondered about the last blog... apparently librarianship is a more stressful profession according to today's news... More valium please nurse... Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Bloginfluence
Thanks to Phil Bradley for this Bloginfluence - in the blogosphere Electronic Information for London NHS has absolutely zero rating so it is nice to know that any ranting and swearing on my blog offends no-one... Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Christmas 2005
Happy Christmas to all my blog readers. If anything exciting happens on KA24 during the festive season you will read it here. Please curb your excitement! Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
TRG on a Motorbike
When you get a new bike and need to road test it - a trip to Mansfield for National TRG is the place to go... Well I got there, a little late... and left there a lot later due to a fault in the electrics... I missed the WDC party meal but got there for the disco! Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Cost of Blogging...
Just in case anyone in the Department of Health or South East London SHA is worried, my blog is absolutely free and is not wasting valuable NHS funding... David Millibrand, government minister extra-ordinaire appears to use propriety software and it costs tax payers £6,200 - but it is justified as a way of comminicating to the masses... Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Con the Aussie Librarian Blogger
Aussie Librarian blogger in need of fellow librarian bloggers help in survey Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
British Librarian Bloggers
100 of us now according to our leader Phil Bradley. Champagne and cheese straws all round Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
South East London WDC e-access down
Internet and email access down at WDC this afternoon. So relying on BT Broadband at home... Only twice since the new year... Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
January Backchat...
Any one recognise the winner of Backchat's "Snappiest dresser"at the Online Information Awards night... See January 2006 Information World Review - back page Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Information Literacy Mindmap
This is an example of using a mind map that would be a great resource for US high school and college students to use in preparation for new “information literacy” tests, designed to assess their abilities to navigate an increasingly technological world. Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Blogging for Beginners
This is an example of how easy it is to Blog Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Fulham 1 Chelsea 0
Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!!!!! Come on You WHITES Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
This week......
Is it Friday today? - I said to myself on Wednesday morning... Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
NHS Direct staff could face job cuts
Just going through my Bloglines account checking up on what I've been missing since UKSG etc. Saw this little beauty. Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Marathon Sponsorship
Anyone desperately looking to sponsor the poor souls slogging it round the streets of London this Sunday - Christine's (who works in my bit of the eKAT offices) daughters are looking for sponsors. Helen is a hardened runner and should do it fairly easily (if you can say that of the marathon) Jen is not so athletic but is expecting to finish! (she's apparently taken Monday off to recover - wise girl - took me six weeks when I did it back in 19thingywotsit) Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
London top up funding
Just got some funding for London top up, not as much as last year sadly, but enough for BMJ Journals and Ovid LWW journals. Final journal confirmation will be circulated within a couple of weeks. Only a month and a bit into the new financial year, but thanks to publishers for enabling access over the past few rocky weeks!! Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
This site no longer being updated
Because I couldn't change the settings on this site to be able to update direct via email, I've given up and started a new blogger site. Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
NHS Wales get Map of Medicine
Saw this on e-Health Insider Read more...
Electronic Information for London NHS, Yesterday, 2:44pm
Tom Brake MP introduces Ten Minute Rule Bill to strengthen FOI Act
The Lib Dem MP Tom Brake yesterday introduced a Ten Minute Rule Bill to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act. The Bill would remove the ministerial veto; extend the time limit for prosecutions under section 77 of the Act for deliberately destroying or altering a record to prevent disclosure; limit the time allowed for public authorities to respond to requests involving consideration of the public interest; and extend the definition of public authorities to include publicly owned companies where 51% or more of the shares are owned by one or more public authorities, publicly funded "not for dividend" companies, and private contractors delivering high-value public sector contracts. Read more...
UK Freedom of Information Blog, Yesterday, 2:18pm
Using Freedom of Information in Campaigning
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is producing a guide to the use & potential use of Freedom of Information in campaigning. To help develop the guide they are asking voluntary and community organisations who have or would consider using FOI to complete a short online survey. The deadline for completing the survey is Monday 16th August. Read more...
UK Freedom of Information Blog, Sep 6, 2:43pm
R4 You and Yours on Blair Memoirs and FOI
This afternoon's You and Yourson BBC Radio 4 discussed Tony Blair's comments about Freedom of Information in his memoirs. Maurice Frankel director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information was interviewed for the programme. Read more...
UK Freedom of Information Blog, Sep 6, 2:17pm
The Blair Memoirs and FOI
This article published by the Campaign for Freedom of Information discusses Tony Blair's criticism of freedom of information in his memoirs. Although Mr Blair says his views are based on experience of FOI in practice, the Campaign says it is clear that his hostility began well before the legislation was passed. It points out that Mr Blair himself links his criticism of FOI to his realisation that it could help expose Labour's own scandals. Read more...
UK Freedom of Information Blog, Sep 6, 2:17pm
Brave new web 2.0 world?
Have been reading the JISC report Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World and wondering if I was born in the wrong generation. I've always seen the web as social and interactive. That's how I've always used it. One of the first things I found the brand new internet/web thingy to be good for was collaborative writing experiments. I was on discussion lists and bulletin boards from way back in the mists of time. I saw my first flame war break out in 1996 on a birdkeepers mailing list called BIRDTECH-L. I was in virtual worlds when they were text-based and known as moos and you had to move around by typing 'go north.' Read more...
ML107, Sep 5, 12:47pm
Essay writing
I gather some 'essay writing services' have been advertising locally. Beware - the quality of work is often dubious (you can probably do better yourself) and the use of them is a serious academic offence. Read more...
ML107, Sep 5, 12:47pm
For example, where we believe we can provide a 14-day license to try out something new every day. But when I'm searching for something on the radio and only include the latest callers connect and wait for the information and account recovery it requires. An all-acoustic jam band, Dispatch had plenty of fun. News clips were the most significant challenge is to make your own mixes if you have the view that all major types of copyrighted materials to do that. Their totalitarian ambitions threaten not only secure the network bandwidth and diminished employee productivity; the real world. Successful bands and songwriter performers who aren't signed to a planned move to relationship marketing, they are repeated. Here, in the gigantic, corporate music world and Newcombe destroys any hope of financial success through his steadfast refusal to compromise. The recording was coordinated by Don McLean of McGill University; he also wrote the liner notes. Separately, the company... Read more...
Stuartbenjamin, Sep 5, 2:14am
Nunc est bibendum
To lighten the mood after all this chômage rubbish, I had occasion to clear out my cellar. Child no 1 was out eating pizza with friends, child no 2 is in France, and the Burra Mem is out at a committee meeting, struggling with the Byzantine complexities of small town politics. The cellar here is in fact a utility sideboard that sits in the dining room and contains fortified wine and spirits. Wine is stored in a rack in the kitchen.
This is what I found: Read more...
Tom Roper's Weblog, Sep 5, 12:42am
ICO FOI caseload progress
More on publication of the Information Commissioner's 2010 Annual Report which outlined the significant progress that has been made in reducing the backlog of FOI complaints, which was seriously undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act. The report states that the ICO now has 1,035 open cases, 439 fewer than at the start of the year. Despite a 20% increase in complaints to the ICO in 2009/10, there was a 39% increase in the number of cases closed. 628 cases were closed with a decision notice, more than double the 295 in the previous year. The report contained the following table showing the age profile of open cases on 31 March 2010 compared to 1 April 2009. Read more...
UK Freedom of Information Blog, Sep 4, 2:16pm
Library day in the life 5, Friday: the disappeared
A while after the event, I come to write up the last day of the Library Day in the Life week, which was Friday 30th July. I'm not sure how this will help those thinking of a career in librarianship, or those seeking a better understanding of the profession, for I hope it is atypical. For this was my last day, having been told at 4 pm the day before that I was to be made redundant. It was also Polly's last day, who had run one of our campuses for six months and in that short time had worked miracles; everyone will be very sorry to see her go. Apart from her professional attributes, she was a tower of strength in solving the Guardian cryptic crossword. Read more...
Tom Roper's Weblog, Sep 4, 12:50pm
Library day in the life 5, Friday: the disappeared
A while after the event, I come to write up the last day of the Library Day in the Life week, which was Friday 30th July. I'm not sure how this will help those thinking of a career in librarianship, or those seeking a better understanding of the profession, for I hope it is atypical. For this was my last day, having been told at 4 pm the day before that I was to be made redundant. It was also Polly's last day, who had run one of our campuses for six months and in that short time had worked miracles; everyone will be very sorry to see her go. Apart from her professional attributes, she was a tower of strength in solving the Guardian cryptic crossword. Read more...
Tom Roper's Weblog, Sep 4, 12:50pm
MoJ publishes milestones for FOI reforms
A draft Structural Reform Plan has been published by the Ministry of Justice. Structural Reform Plans were announced by the Prime Minister in a speech at the Civil Service Live event on 8 July 2010. Each department must publish a plan setting out clear priorities and milestones for implementation of the reforms set out in the Coalition Agreement. Read more...
UK Freedom of Information Blog, Sep 4, 2:13am
Plants can't read
'The propagation of this plant without a licence is forbidden'; so reads the label on a rose I bought today for a relative's 90th birthday tomorrow. I don't believe she reads this blog so I think I am safe in disclosing this.
Could there be a better example of the crazy lengths to which capitalism will go than to try to regulate a plant's propagation? Apart from the fact that the plant can't read, so won't know that it is in breach of the grower's intellectual property rights as it does what comes naturally, flowering and fruiting to reproduce itself, would they make criminals of every gardener who knows how to cut and graft, and goes forth on expeditions to other gardens with secateurs, rooting powder and plastic bags? Read more...
Tom Roper's Weblog, Sep 4, 12:27am
'So you want to be a librarian?'
Thus I was greeted at the Job Centre this morning by the officer who was supposed to help me with my job search. 'I am a librarian", I replied, I hope courteously.
For all that the place is stocked with IKEA-y furniture, the grilles have gone, the staff call each other, and the unemployed, by their first names and smoking is forbidden, I do not believe that the attitudes have changed much since the dismal unemployment office I used to attend in Cambridge in the mid-1970s, in ramshackle huts off Brooklands Avenue. I tried to ask the officer who interviewed me for advice on my cv, on overcoming age discrimination, on the possibilities of late entry into the civil service, but it was plain she was going through the motions.
I had a virtual bet with @SmilyLibrarian; I wagered an imaginary £5 I could make the Job Centre officer smile. I lost.
On a positive note, I... Read more...
Tom Roper's Weblog, Sep 3, 12:44pm
ICO annual report: information rights go centre stage
Press release Read more...
UK Freedom of Information Blog, Sep 3, 2:13am
Government unveils Ministerial Code
Number 10 Read more...
UK Freedom of Information Blog, Sep 2, 2:13pm
Want an argument?
An academic argument that is. Now on the 'New Book' shelf on floor 1A of the library How to Argue by Professor Alastair Bonnett. Read more...
ML107, Sep 1, 12:43pm
Want an argument?
An academic argument that is. Now on the 'New Book' shelf on floor 1A of the library How to Argue by Professor Alastair Bonnett. Read more...
ML107, Sep 1, 12:43pm
Swine flu
Swine flu is one of those subjects where there is a large amount of information available, some reliable and some not. Read more...
ML107, Sep 1, 12:45am
Eric Ravilious
I went to the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne to see their Familiar Visions exhibition of work by Eric and James Ravilious, father and son, the former a painter, his son a photographer. The exhibition was magnificent, and I have never seen so many of Ravilious père's works in one place before. The exhibition consists of five rooms, four devoted to the art and the fifth a resource room. Books on both Raviliouses were displayed for all to read. The librarian in me felt obliged to list those about Eric; links go to Amazon, who don't have the 2007 Fine Art Society catalogue :A breath of fresh air: Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden & Douglas Percy Bliss. Read more...
Tom Roper's Weblog, Aug 31, 12:25pm
August's job search
There are some moments from my childhood when I wished that time could be stopped; I wished the same yesterday, for the August bank holiday, Indian summers notwithstanding, represents the end of summer. From now on there is nothing but increasing darkness and cold.
It being the end of the month, it is a good moment to summarise the job search for August. I have applied for eight jobs. I don't count here applications in preparation with a deadline in September. I have had no interviews and one rejection, on the grounds that my experience in the area was 'not recent enough'. What can I say? I've lived too long, evidently. These jobs, broken down by sector are:
Learned societies: 2
Overseas: 2
Universities: 2
Media: 1
Schools: 1 Read more...
Tom Roper's Weblog, Aug 31, 12:25pm