A toast to archives

It's International Archives Day 2010. Again we in the profession have an opportunity to promote the use and appreciation of archives within our own countries. The ICA hopes that local celebrations will foster international solidarity among those responsible for the care of archives and their users. I also hope this happens. Archives are one area where the similarities between people of all nations anywhere, and anytime, can be highlighted. At a time when economic troubles are causing us to look internally it's important to remember the wider world stage upon which we live and work and to which our profession contributes.

If the Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) is planning anything I've missed it.

The time shortage continues

It is so frustrating not having the time to blog. This brief post is just to note that I’m as upset as everyone else that Kings College has axed the palaeography chair, and with it the talented, irreplaceable, David Ganz. What were they thinking? Crazy thoughts. I’m also interested in the recent passing of the Digital Economy Bill. The fact that it was rushed through Parliament, with minimal debate in the Commons, makes me suspicious of just what it contains. I should read it of course. There’s that lack of time thing again.

What am I doing with time?

Well it’s a good thing my new years resolutions didn’t include more blogging. What a huge amount of time has passed since January! And why haven’t I posted anything? Because I’ve been busy at work, mainly.

I’ve got a new staff member and it looks like something may actually happen with our digital store. We’ve been counting in terabytes for some time now, so this is good news. It’ll be a relief to move everything off hand held media and onto a backed up system. This will also help with our cataloguing, I hope, as we’ll have to get a handle on everything before it can be uploaded.

Even though I haven’t been posting, I really should check my own site more often. Two people left comments! And here I thought nobody read this site. Yay!

The Kindle comes to the UK

Amazon is going to release the Kindle into the UK. I want one, but they’re a bit pricey. According to the article in printweek.com, the UK version is aimed at “students and newspaper readers [and]…magazine readers” (or are the magazine readers the same people as the students?). Anyway, this is odd.

Surely: (a) students will be reading textbooks not available on their Kindle; (b) students won't have the c. £400 to spend on something they can’t eat or wear; (c) people defined by their magazine and newspaper reading proclivities might feel they wouldn’t get enough use out of such a device, particularly as it won’t include any images, a large and integral part of magazines and newspapers.

More interestingly, there’s an assumption here that the British read periodicals while the Americans are a nation of book lovers. Is this really true?

Did I mention that I want one?

New Year Resolutions 2010

I'm back in London and tomorrow I'm back at work. I spent the past week with friends. We went to north Yorkshire, which was shut due to the bad weather. S0, not a lot of sightseeing done, although we did look at Whitby Abbey over it's high stone wall and walk past the Newcastle Library.

The purpose of this post is to record my NY resolutions. Usually, I have a few of these because I believe in finding ways to improve my experience of life. But this year I haven't found anything that's achievable or realistic. Instead I have these:

1. Do more cataloguing

2. Teach world to sing

3. Become femme fatale

4. Read >50 books (for the LibraryThing Challenge)

5. Campaign for more vegetarian beer and cider in the pubs I visit

6. Try to remember to occasionally use the Twitter account set up many months ago