LibWorld is a recent publication that’s worth a look for anyone interested in library blogging worldwide. It’s a collection of 30 articles, originally posted on Infobib.de. Each article discusses the library and information blogosphere in a different country; from the large and well-established (USA) to the smaller and perhaps more obscure (Trinidad and Tobago, Malawi). Walt Crawford did the introduction. And I did the New Zealand chapter. I’m mentioning that several paragraphs into the post because I’m not 100% happy with what I wrote; it was a bit of a rush job and I didn’t revise it subsequently for the book (the idea for the book came about when I was offline for several months).
However, there it is, in print. Go take a look, I’m sure something in it will be of interest. You can purchase a copy from the link at the start of this post, or download it for free (PDF, 211 pages). Kudos to Christian, Nadine and Sarah for making this happen, it must have taken a lot of effort to coordinate with all the authors.
I’m alive.
I’m in London.
I have a decent job working in reference for a big City law firm. I am working an awful lot harder than I ever have before, and I’m just about standing still. It’s fun; when it isn’t stressful and tiring.
I live in the stabbing capital of London. From one viewpoint. From another, I’m 10 minutes walk from the London Eye, the South Bank, the National Film Theatre, etc. It’s a trade off, I guess.
I spent around 5 months getting broadband at home. The UK companies make the mere mundane incompetence of Telecom NZ or Telstra Saturn look like top quality customer service. (A special mention to BT for managing to spell my partner’s name wrong, in three different ways; but I’d still prefer BT to Tiscali. Never, ever, ever, sign up for Broadband with Tiscali. Use carrier pigeons or semaphore instead. They are the worst company in the universe).
I can’t work out how to upload files to my FTP server. The site’s still there, but I can’t connect to it with CoreFTP. I’m sure I’ll work it out.
I’m not sure what to do with this blog, but I’ll probably start posting again.
I’m starting to get excited, because in less than two months my girlfriend and I will be in London and looking for work! We’ve been accepted under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, meaning we get a two-year work permit, and we can easily extend it if we want.
We’ll be based in London, at least at first, though we’re considering looking at other cities.
Any words of advice or introductions to prospective employers would be gratefully received.
We’ve both already lived in London, in my case for four years from 1997-2001, so we don’t need too much information about the city. I’ve previously worked in a special library in London, and she worked in a public library, so we have some idea about how things work.
I’m looking for a reference position, possibly in a law firm or other corporate library, possibly in an academic library. Ideally, I’d like a position where I could follow my interests in new(ish) technologies and current awareness. I’m also interested in anything with a CI (Competitive Intelligence) element, where I’d be doing more analysis, not just information gathering or showing people how to use databases.
Wish us luck, anyway.
After taking what seems like a very long break, I’m back blogging. No real reason I was away – a combination of a temporary loss of interest/motivation, and doing other things. (Can I still say ‘life trumps blogging’, or is that passe?). “Other things” includes traveling to Rarotonga for the wedding of some good friends, and continuing education – two MLIS courses, meaning I’m studying half-time and working full-time; not conducive to blogging as well. The courses, if you’re interested: Advanced Reference Services and Competitive Intelligence.
Oh, and I’m an uncle which is pretty cool; my brother and his girlfriend have had a baby son: the first of that generation for either family.
The reason backups (and regular checks of your site) are good? Back in July, my webhost had a server crash, and some files became corrupt, including my blog (you can see where this is going….). As I haven’t been checking the blog, I was unaware of the crash. By the time I noticed, it was too late to retrieve the uncorrupted version, because their backups didn’t go back that far. I’m somewhat sad (I can re-import the really old posts from my Bloglines blog; I’m also hopeful that I can somehow grab the newer ones from a full-text version of the RSS feed; we shall see).
Coming soon: some long long posts giving my write up of the LIANZA conference (guaranteed Paula Ryan free! 
).