Too Sexy For My Books

Now who wouldn’t want to be a librarian

“Tiptoe, Goldfrapp”

Turns out the current downturn in the economy is doing wonders for libraries.  No, not because more people are seeking out the borrowing of books as opposed to purchasing them but rather due to the cosy carrells and steamy stacks.  Coming in at #4 on Scanner’s ‘10 Reasons the Recession Will Rock Your Love Life’ is the return of library-sex.

4. Library-sex will make a comeback.

Combine America’s declining interest in knowledge, free admission, and sultry, stuffy sex-maniac librarians, and suddenly you have an accessible, sparsely populated impromptu orgy club. The public library, with its many dim corners and unlocked “reading rooms,” is a recession-era Plato’s Retreat. Take it from a former librarian: the microfiche room is far from obsolete when reappropriated in the right fashion.

Brings a whole new meaning to Library Lovers

“Dirty Deeds, AC/DC”

Week before last I was given a new (and very unexpected) project at work. I was asked to adjust the relevance ranking on the OPAC. My eyes lit up and in the inside I was bouncing around doing my little woo-hoo dance. Of course I jumped at the chance and said ‘oooh! yes please!’. Foolish, foolish woman. The first thing you learn in the military is to never, ever volunteer. Never.

Adjusting the relevance ranking means changing the precision recall of the algorithm. Simple enough. Erm, no. Thing is I am not really sure what result we are looking for. Nope, been given no guidance on that one. I guess the point is to make observations, analyse usage behaviours and stats, write a lovely long report and pass it on to someone else to decide what on earth to do with it all. Another problem is that I am not a Maths person, I’m not even a Comp Sci bunny. My background is very much in the arts and humanities tradition. English Lit, Medieval History, Music - those are my areas of comfort. Yet I now find myself analysing not comparative translations of The Dream of the Rood but rather a bunch of numbers which cunningly, grotesquely twist and dance in front of my eyes and taunt me with their incomprehensibility. My plan is to just play. Tweak this, fiddle with that and see what happens. I can’t exactly break it . . . can I?

I take comfort in the fact that none of the students (or staff for that matter) will even notice the algo has changed. Heck, most of them wouldn’t even recognise an OPAC if they stood in one, and in this case, that aint exactly a bad thing.

“Master Plan”, Split Enz

On the way home from seeing a screening of ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ I was waiting in the elevator at Queens Way when a group of 4 women (around my age) got in and proceeded to have a loud animated conversation.

W1: Sooo, how is *didn’t-catch-poor-chaps-name*?

W2: He is soooo nice! Did you see those flowers he sent for *her* birthday?

All: Squeals and awwws of ‘how sweet’ and envy

Her: Um, I broke up with him . . . I’m so naughty . . . I did it by text.

All: *skip a beat*

W2: Ooooh! You are naughty!

All: *smile and giggle*

Her: I just said thanks for the flowers but I don’t think we should see each other again.

W1: What did he say?

Her: I haven’t answered his calls!

All: *giggle*

At this point the elevator doors opened and I was whisked away from the conversation. Two things struck me though - one: that a grown woman around 30ish could break-up with someone via text and two: the reaction of her friends. These women all giggled and made out that she was some naughty girl. They actively encouraged and praised her action as being acceptable. If the situation was reversed and the poor sap who bought her flowers (how dare he!) had sent her a text breaking things off and then refusing to take her phone calls - my gods wouldn’t the tune be different.

The giggles and cries ‘naughty’ and ‘that’s the way to do it girl’ would be ferocious howls of ‘the bastard!’ and ‘castrate him with a carrot!’. I (as I am sure most of you have been by now) have been on the receiving end of the ‘I do not think it is a good idea for us to see each other anymore’, it hurt but at least he had the decency to do it over the phone. I hope this poor chap soon realises that he is much better off without her (and her cackling friends) and he finds someone who appreciates his flowers. . . preferably someone who doesn’t own a mobile phone.

“Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S), Motley Crue”

In the last 18 months I have now moved countries twice and houses/flats 5 times and every single time I am always amazed by the sheer amount of stuff I have. Thankfully this move just done was nowhere near as stressful as the last one - if it wasn’t for the support of Kimanada, Kirstine and Liv, I honestly think I’d still be sitting, rocking in corner with a blanket over my head. Although things didn’t go to plan (when do they ever - such as leaving Chester: the leadership duck , behind yet again), my excessive amounts of stuff have found a new home all the way over on the other side of London. Its a really nice new home. A nice new home, with nice new flat mates who do not posses the desire to hurl root-vegetables.

As I settle in I cannot help but think ‘Do not buy any more stuff!’, because the likelihood of my moving again in a few months is rather strong. The thing is where? At the moment there are three loose options, two of them would involve moving countries again. At this stage I am in rather a muddled state of confusion (when am I not?) as to where to focus on next. My current contract finishes at the end of June - which means I am starting to look around for my next form of employment now. The question is though - where do I focus on looking? Home (either Brisbane or Melbourne)? London? or San Francisco?

There are opportunities and benefits in each, along with drawbacks and concerns. Right now I’m nosing about looking at what jobs are to found in each area in about 5-6 months time but I know this decision will not, and cannot, be based purely on career. I know where I’d like to move - thats a clear winner - but I need to be sensible and not run on emotion and think about where is best in terms of every aspect of my life. Not just flibbertigibbet half way across the world on a whim. I am hoping this next move will be something that lasts for quite a while, a good 2-3 yrs at least, preferably longer. Becoming a little tired of bouncing from here to there to over yonder in such rapidity. Ideally I would like to find a job with a 2-3 yr time frame and actually ’settle’ in a place for once and find a nice place where I can rest my 22 pairs of shoes and 6 pairs of boots.

I know I’ll be moving again soon, of that there is no doubt, I just wish I knew where!

‘Changes’, David Bowie

_______________________

* Chester (the leadership duck) is now happily bobbing away in his new home. He seems quite chuffed with his new naval theatre of command but not happy that the ‘powers that be’ keep leaving him in random motor-vehicles. Quack.

One of the first acts of the new Australian federal government was to scrap the RQF (Research Quality Framework - similar to the UK’s RAE).  Yesterday its replacement process was announced - Excellence in Research for Australia:  ERA.

One of biggest issues concerning the defunct RQF was that of metrics - in particular citation analysis.  As I have previously mentioned, the debate over the validity of citation analysis and metrics has long been called into question.  Due to more and more countries looking at citations and metrics to assist in determining the research quality (and grabbing division of funding) of higher educational institutions debate on this issue is gaining considerable attention.

The skewing of authority through citations and references is well recognised, yet the solution is far from evident.  The main concern in using such metrics to allocate funding is the considerable degree of citation game playing conducted by authors and even institutions.  Such game playing tricks include:

• excessive self-citation (where the author will cite to their own works in an extravagant, indulgent manner)
• citing to co-workers, friends and other researchers in their clique - ‘links for the boys’
• only citing to ‘rock stars’ in the field
• citations to papers that do not really support their arguments or even have absolutely nothing to do with their research at all.
• Negative and even downright malicious citations that attack another authors research (and sometimes personal attributes and behaviours - “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries”).
• There are also considerable language, geographical and even gender, race and religious issues and biases that can contort the way in which in author cites.

As long as such behaviours are present (and encouraged) using citations and reference metrics as the base for determining a publications quality and authority and in turn, determining funding and reputation of the publication and research institutions, is always going to be controversial and flawed.

So whats the solution?  Well, frankly there isn’t.  The RQF was criticised for its metrics focus (along with other things), yet one of the keystones of the new proposal is, yup, you guessed it - metrics:   The ERA would use research metrics, such as citation data.  You cannot get away from the fact that despite the flaws, despite the bias and blatant gaming, citation metrics are one of the strongest methods in determining quality and authority of a publication.

“Never mind the underlying social reality, feel the data“  - Cronin, B; A Hundred Million Acts of Whimsy

Heehee - this just dropped into my spam folder . . .

Win A Signed Bass At ACDC.com

Should I enter??

Now just hoping and praying for a similar comp to win this cab and amp . . . *drool*

“Who Made Who?”, ACDC

Lured by the promise of chocolate I attended the SEOLondon pissup following SES London on Thursday night. If it wasn’t for the said chocolate (I’m a simple creature really, just give me tea, chocolate and a foot rub and I’m a happy little bunny) I would not have had the courage to gatecrash go along. I mean these people were the real deal of search types - they knew what they were on about in this minefield of an area . . . or so I thought . . .

Okay maybe that statement was a bit harsh - I know many of them are brilliant at what they do, they just don’t go on about it, especially in a pub when the alcohol is freely flowing. What did surprise me slightly though was the seeming lack of comprehension as to why a librarian could be interested in search. This is something that I would have thought to have been obvious - last time I checked search is based on information retrieval. Sure there are many differences but ultimately the concepts stem from the same pond.

In the simplest of terms: Search engines = indexing information so it can be retrieved ; Librarians (via a catalogue) = indexing information so it can be retrieved. In-bound and out-bound links correlate nicely to references and citations. The areas of bibliometrics and citation analysis has been measuring and analysing the quality and authority of ‘links’ for decades. It is a well established fact that approx only 30% of citations can be viewed as being accurate, the others are incorrect (’broken’), or they are vanity citations, many have nothing really to do with the content of the paper and the list of reasons goes on. The intrigues and attempts to promote ‘your’ work above that of others and to gain ‘funding’ is not new. These issues have existed since at least the 17th century when the practice of referencing emerged in the scientific world. Bibliometricians (isn’t that the coolest job title?) and librarians have been measuring and analysing such behaviours, and trying to come up with ways to combat this skewing of authority long before search (as we know it) became a common term.

I am now starting to have doubts as to whether many in the SEO/M industry truly understand the theory and history of search and information retrieval. Again this is a very broad statement and one which I am hoping is out of line. I recently read a rather interesting snippet regarding a search engine that allowed users to rate the results (wish I could find the link - will endeavour to). The comments proved for very interesting reading as the majority of respondents were rather lavish with their praise in the originality of the idea (again I hasten to add I realise that as with citations, comments also need to be taken with a grain of salt as to who is responding and more importantly who is not). The concept however is not all that new - I am gathering the respondents are not terribly familiar with Salton or Spark-Jones. For the past few decades such experiments have often reared their head only to fade away again. User ranking is favourite and common topic amongst post-grad students.

As many of you know I am rather vocal in my preference for practical and applicable concepts rather than hardcore theory, however to really understand an application, or more importantly to be able to develop new ones, then some grounding in theory is necessary. The more I read and the more I see, the more I start to feel that many in SEO industry don’t have this grounding in IR theory. I feel that many of them would be hard pressed to jot down the formula for precision and recall, or tf*idf, or actively engage in the debate on whether Latent Semantic Indexing (be it the old skool or kicking new-ish style with a probabilistic layer) is of any relevance in search, or the impact of Anaphoric Resolution, or even to be able to construct a working taxonomy. I am not saying this a bad thing - I don’t know. What I am saying is that I have been somewhat shocked by the seeming lack of understanding as to the library and information science world’s contribution to that of search. I hope I am wrong in this feeling.

. . . I think I may have just found the topic for my presentation at Barcamp Brighton 2 . . . right now however am off to hunt down the dark chocolate with orange I have tucked away somewhere . . .

“Into the Galaxy”, Midnight Juggernauts

An example of my quasi-belief in Fate occured this morning (okay ‘fate’ is probably too strong word but cannot think of another better).

What started off as a vile morning - overslept, slipped over in shower (now have large bruise on thigh), ran out of conditioner, battery in toothbrush cut out with only having worked for a minute, didn’t have time to blowdry hair or put on makeup, not enough on Oyster card for the bus, only had a £20 on me, had to get off at next stop and then walk back down to Sainsbury’s and buy some gum (cheapest thing) to get change, only one ticket machine accepting notes working at Brixton (bad enough having to travel to Brixton to catch the tube), fell on escalator, usual evil stuffy commute all the way across London, made it to Finsbury Park with 3 mins before the train was due, long queue for the only working ticket machine, missed train, already late - next train not for half an hour, bought a coffee, spilled 1/4 of it over hand and dress, did the unthinkable and put makeup on in public (forgot to bring small hairbrush), now going to be 1 and a half hours late for work, thinking why don’t I just go back to bed and hide when . . . I saw the first of many firsts this morning. . . .

I saw my first ever real life trainspotter. He was standing unobtrusively with his binoculars, notepad and pen - no anorak! - jotting things down and genuinely looking content and at peace with the world. For the first time today I smiled and got on my train thinking - I’m late and smell of coffee, is that really that bad? Getting off the train and doing the usual waiting-for-the-bus-my-isn’t-it-cold dance shuffle when the sound of sharp hoofs came ringing down the street. A coach and four (beautiful matching greys) smartly bowled past complete with period dressed coachman and footman - the first I’ve seen in the UK.
This morning I also heard my first birdsong for the year and saw my first bunch of daffodils braving the cold. I also saw a man pruning trees back whilst grooving and dancing away to his ipod.

If I hadn’t been running late I never would have seen these firsts. None of these incidents are big in themselves yet they have made my day - its a good day now all because I overslept. Nothing can phase me - including the pile of invoicing that is today’s task . . .

Heres hoping you all oversleep some time soon : )

“Do Ya”, ELO

The lack of blogging has been noted and in attempt to revive too sexy kimananda has sent out the dreaded meme tag. I will rise to the challenge and hopefully this will inspire some frequency in my posting habits.

If I’m going to do this I better do it properly and follow the rules:

- Link to the person that tagged you.

- Post the rules on your blog.

- Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

- Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

- Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

1. Play the bass. One thing (along with craving for the sun) I miss terribly is my bass. One of the groups I am involved with is something called Mesh, a social network bunny for professionals with creative second lives (no, not that kind of SL). I was telling a friend about this group and she asked, quite frankly, how and why I was member? This response had me non-plussed for a while, until I realised that my music is a part of me that people over here are not familiar with. Sure they see my favourite Motorhead t-shirt often and will rarely see me without ipod and headphones but these are just shadowy trappings of music - they are not the real passion. I miss Sunday jams at Bec and Nikk’s. I miss just being around such talented muso types and feeling safe and comfortable enough to just jam and let go. These sessions could and would go on for 12 hrs. I miss my baby. I miss my music.

2. Have a weakness for old movies. In particular old Cary Grant movies. My favourite actor is that dark haired Brit and favourite actress is Lauren Bacall (closely followed by Katherine Hepburn). Hepburn and Grant are amazing in ‘The Philadelphia Story’, whilst not so amazing I also love them in the Howard Hawks screwball ‘Bringing Up Baby’. Those screwball comedies of the late 30s and early 40s never fail to make me giggle. 1939 is considered to be the golden year of Hollywood and I have to agree.

My favourite Lauren Bacall flicks are her debut ‘To Have and Have Not’ and ‘How to Marry a Millionaire’. ‘To Have and Have Not’ is another great Howard Hawks film and the sexual tension between Bogie and Bacall is electric. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I prefer it ever so slightly to ‘Casablanca’ - despite it being based on Hemingway’s novel (cannot stand Hemingway - nor Wordsworth - think they are both very overrated). ‘How to Marry a Millionaire’ is just a silly fun movie. Many consider it to be one of Marilyn Monroe’s greatest comedy roles - I think it is but its Bacall as Schatze that I adore.

3. Have an even bigger weakness for bad, tragic 80s Rock. As I write this I have the the last.fm 80s Rock playlist thundering away and currently listening to a live version of the Crue’s ‘Shout at the Devil’ - oh, now we are on to ‘Don’t Know What You’ve Got’ by Cinderella. I have to put my hand up and admit I own both of these songs. I also have the complete AC/DC collection thanks to Kimanada’s Rock Star Boyfriend. I blame this quirky penchant on my father, my brother and the Stig.

True, my father is more of a rock ‘n’ roll purist (he has a great record collection from the 50s and 60s) but being brought up on a solid foundation of classic rock lead me to be drawn to the punchy bass and heavy, choppy I-IV-V chords of a lot of the rock to come out of the 80s. My big brother is an obvious influence - it was he who introduced me to Def Leppard and Van Halen amongst other rock staples of the era. I managed to hide this tragic tendency under a cover of electronica and 80s pop until I met the Stig - a man who embodies most of the qualities of such music (including the Swedish hair). It was Stig who allowed me to openly admit to my likings of this music and unleash my inner rock chick - who was never really that far beneath the surface.

4. Cannot surf. Despite growing up at Noosa for the life of me I cannot surf. I never really thought about this until a couple of Danes and Norwegians offered to teach me . . .

5. Believe in Fate - too a degree. I don’t believe in three Norns (the maiden, the mother and the other one) sitting up on high somewhere and weaving our destinies but I do believe that you cannot control you future. As a Virgo this has been a very difficult thing to come to terms with - life has a habit of taking you on unexpected paths and journeys. I’ve learnt now not to question such detours nor try and second guess what might happen if . . . instead make the most of what is thrown at you. I still plan, it is my nature but I can throw those plans away if something outside sweeps me up and decides I need to follow it rather than my meticulous list. Never thought I’d end up as a geek in London - but here I am and loving every moment of it!

6. Am a real tea snob. I mean a serious tea snob. Back home I would not buy any other tea than that from the Tea Centre. Upon moving to Copenhagen was continually told that the tea at AC Perch was the best - nope, sorry its not. ‘The best’ is to be found at the Tea Centre, this store is owned and run by a Dane (a lovely fellow who personally introduced me to ‘Ginger Kiss’) who really knows his tea. I still get giddy at the thought of the list of teas found printed on the yellow cardboard. The soothing chant of letters such as T.G.F.O.P and B.F.G.O.P still bring me comfort. Twinings just doesn’t cut it in comparison - mind you I certainly won’t say no to any cuppa! Along with my quasi-belief in fate I believe most strongly in restorative powers of tea - any tea.

There you go - 6 random quirky things about me. Afraid I’m going to dig my heels in and not do the last of the rules - I won’t tag anyone but if you wish to participate consider yourself tagged

‘Kickstart My Heart’, Motley Crue