Shaddow in the Library

Last year I was asked to convene the ALIA WA Symposium 2016. I agreed, because, hey you’ve got to try these things out at least once. I also wanted to use the opportunity to try something different and ‘be the change I want to see’ (Rundle, 2014) . Fast forward…

Since last year my single issue comic purchases has changed. I used to read quite a few X-men titles and mostly physical copies. Now the majority I read are digital and mostly from indie publishers. I've continued to read most of the stories from last year's list, with many of…

While I thought about doing #blogjune again this year, I was reminded of how I struggled to post everyday. While I enjoyed it I think I'll take this June to post a few thought out blogs. Where better to start than looking at my reading lists from the last 12…

Like Uatu I watch our universe and many alternative realities , and like the Watcher before me, I have decided to recount to you a tale of one of these worlds. Recently I have been peering into the reality that is Stargate SG-1 . By 'peering' I of course mean binge watching…

“Knowledge, like air, is vital to life. Like air, no one should be denied it.” ― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta The Censorship is Coming From Inside the Library! When I took over as Branch Librarian for an established public library at the beginning of 2015 I knew there would be…

Comics for life, yo In case you didn’t know, I’m a bit of a comic nerd. Every public library I’ve worked in I’ve made it my personal goal to leave the comic or ‘graphic novel’ (they’re comics people, be proud!) section better than I found…

Discfriends Tom Waits – Blood Money You know that old abandoned carnival at the very end of your street? The one that if rumours are to believed closed down after those people went missing on the ghost train. If you go there on a dark, winter’s night and follow the…

Early last year I decided to get back into buying single issues of comics collecting many lines. I’ve since then paired back my reading, culling all five X-Men titles I was collecting (really got sick of cross overs) and since have started purchasing more indie and alternative titles. The…

This year I’ve started to track what I’ve been reading and so far I’ve read 46 books. Now the majority of those are graphic novels but they still count! I have a terrible habit of borrowing all the new comics I purchase for the library (to help…

It took a weekend of swearing but it’s alive! A while ago I got the wonderful idea to run an adults event teaching library clients how to turn a Raspberry Pi into a retro arcade cabinet. The event went quite well as I had the funds to give clients…

Discfriends Thank Your Lucky Stars – The Smiths (1986) Listening to Morrissey is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket while you’re gently rocked to sleep by angels and all you want to do is hold him and never let go… or at least that’s what it feels like…

The most perfect toast you could ever hope to find. This morning I ate breakfast at Food For Me in Victoria Park. FFM is my go-to place in Vic Park for delicious breakfast and lunch foods and highly recommend them. What makes FFM so great is their bread, making it…

About three months ago I started learning T’ai Chi (aka. Taiji, Tai Chi etc.) as a martial art. T’ai chi ch’uan or tàijíquán is an internal martial art that is used for health, mediation, and defence. It took a while to find someone who teaches T’ai…

A few months ago I was in a vendor presentation for a popular wifi company pitching an upgrade to their login interface. Most of it was pretty stock standard sales pitch and the interface was ten years too late but what made me pay attention was the mention of statistics.…

My story begins with a toaster oven. Several weeks ago a staff member’s lunch went up in (mild) flames and set off the fire alarm in my library. There was a visit by a wonderful fire crew and all that was hurt was the staff member’s pride. Oh,…

I was initially going to rant about toaster ovens today (long story) but instead a job advert has prompted a long running thought I’ve had about eServices Librarians. Having been one for a few years I can see the need of the position in libraries but also how it…

-Blueshift" title="" />Discfriends. A small group of friends recently decided to create an album club to share and discuss new music (thanks Moriarty!). It’s been active for the past four weeks and so far has been a great success, I’ve listened to bands I’ve never heard of…

This year I have decided to participate in #blogjune in an attempt to get me back into a regular writing habit. Blogging everyday for the entire month of June? It’s only slightly less crazy than NaNoWriMo and I’m a two year winner (and will be trying again this…

In my current job role I’ve been focusing a lot on events and initiatives to run in my small, one branch library and I thought it best to start sharing these ideas to the larger library world! We’ll be starting with the first ‘maker’ event I ran, based…

Change. For better or worse, it’s a topic that’s constantly being discussed and debated in the library world. There are a lot of opinions about the future of libraries [1] [2], ranging from the utopian (free digital content for everyone) to dystopian (libraries are dying). The more optimistic…