by You may notice that from time to time I include news from the ancient world. Perhaps you’re wondering why (or perhaps not). I did an MA in Classics before I did my MLIS and still have a passion for it. If you’re wondering why there’s been a resurgence in my interest (which never really left), it’s partly on account of our move to liaisons. Part of my portfolio now includes liaisoning with the Classics department (yay! Bonus – it’s actually the department I did my MA in, so it’s kind of like coming home). So, library stuff will continue to be the main focus of my blog, but you’ll also be entertained by some ancient world news too.
odd stuff
It’s a Queen!
More from the world of Classics. According to Zahi Hawass, Queen Hatshepsut has been found! She acted as pharoah, the most powerful female pharoah they claim, in 15th century Egypt. This is an absolutely amazing find! There’s lots of media coverage on, but here’s one news piece on it.
Weee!
I got a Wii!!!! More to come once I finish playing…
Virtually Yours
A 3d simulation of ancient Rome has been constructed after 10 years of work. The neat thing is that the simulation can show the different time spans of Rome – from late Bronze Age to its fall in the 6th century. Apparently students and tourists will be able to use the simulation, although its primary function is for scientific and architectural study. I’ve seen the ruins and I’d love to see how they’ve constructed the simulation. I wish I could take a look at it!
My Favourite Place
Another reason Halifax is one of my favorite places: free wi-fi in the airport!
Ancient Librarian
Here’s an interesting blog that combines my two passions – libraries and classics. Alexandrine Librarian is a fictional story, blogged by Larry Greenwood, which follows a librarian after he discovers the library at Alexandria destroyed. Below is the official release. Check it out!
What if you showed up for work at your library one day and the
doors were locked, or worse, the building has been completely
destroyed and the collection burned.
That is what happened to Yarrl of Alexandria in 415 AD. You can
follow the story of Yarrl at:
http://alexandrinelibrarian.blogspot.com.
Larry Greenwood, a retired academic librarian, has begun a story
about the life and times of a librarian working at the Great
Library of Alexandria in early 5th century. It is an interesting
look at religious fundamentalism and its influence on ancient
libraries and librarians. The story is serialized in blog format.
Sad State of Affairs
Anyone else catch this sad state of affairs? On Jeopardy, they had a question (no surprise there) – what does the loc stand for in www.loc.gov. Sounds easy right? Not a single contestant was able to answer the question! Certainly something that needs to be remedied!
Beaten Again?
I saw a sign coming home the other day and I keep meaning to take another look at it. It was a text messaging service. All you had to do was text a question, anything they stress, to Just Ask (this is of course if I am remembering the sign correctly). Answering questions – isn’t this our business? Have we been beaten again (see my post on the Find Engine)?
I realize that there are a few libraries offering services via text messaging but I believe it is still relatively low. We can easily offer updates of new content, let patrons know when books are in, and yes, even reference service through text messaging. This is certainly the way many university students communicate and we’ve all heard that email is the way old people communicate! I’d love to know if this service is getting a lot of questions. I’d also love to know who’s answering these questions (which is another reason to take a look at that sign).
As an aside, I’ll be quiet the next few days as I’m off to Phoenix for the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Task Force Meeting (inconveniently timed to coincide with Computers in Libraries, which I really must go to sometime). I’m sure I’ll have lots to blog about during/after the conference.
Greek Tomb
A little bit of classical archaeology for your Easter long weekend. It seems that a Roman-era tomb has been found filled with riches, missed by grave-robbers. A much better treat to find then hidden Easter eggs!
Librarians are Hiding Something
Ok, I’m not hiding something but it feels like I might have been hiding. It’s been a while, but I have been very busy. Not a lot to share today. I’m gearing up to do a virtual reference pilot in Second Life. It should be interesting. As much potential as there may be in SL, until our students our there, we are only helping the SL community (which isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re under staffed, one needs to consider priorities). I recently gave a lecture on learning (my first time guest lecturing – lots of fun) to a first year multimedia class, some of the students seemed interested. It would be interesting to know if any come visit our space on account of that class.
Have you checked out Scribd? It looks interesting. All the web 2.0 social software for your documents. I’m not sure I want people tagging and commenting on my work just yet. I’ve been using Google Docs for collaboration recently and I think I’ll stick with that for now.
And in case you haven’t heard already, the title of this post is courtesy of Stephen Colbert.