Flattened

I discovered today the new flat fee for CILIP membership. For the privilege of being able to put a few letters after my name, a couple of journals and a lack of support when requested, I am now being allowed to pay out £172. This is a rise in membership fees for anyone earning less than £30,000.
This [...]

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More hazards

The earthquake and volcano research continued today.
Wait for it, here it comes….  “Miss, how are you supposed to tell which book you need - all the numbers are the same?”
So I remind them (again) about the Dewey Decimal System and how each number can contain any number of different books because they’re all about the same subject, [...]

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Power!

A class today were researching various earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. I’ve already selected the disasters  – those for which the best material is available - to provide ten options.
Now, I’m a storyteller at heart and I love telling the tales at the heart of each event:

The old guy on Mount St Helens who refused to leave despite the warnings;
The prisoner who was [...]

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Invisible school librarians?

I was searching for material for the postgrad assignment when I found an article in the School Library Journal, entitled, The Invisible School Librarian: Why Other Educators Are Blind to Your Value.
This is a ten year old American article, but the title resonates.
A lot of school librarians think they are ignored by teaching departments and senior management, but being [...]

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Dumbledore outed

Dumbledore is gay, according to J K Rowling, and I guess she should know. I imagine that certain sections of the community are going to go mental, some in horror and some in joy.
This does explain his fascination with dark wizard, Grindelwald – it didn’t really make sense before, but everyone does stupid things when they [...]

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12 billion light years from the edge?

Every now and again you find a little gem that everyone noticed except you. Last night, I discovered that the astronomer/cosmologist Simon Singh had complained about Katie Melua’s song “Nine million bicycles” (or perhaps I should say “byskells”).
Singh was concerned at Katie’s “understanding of the scientific method” and the public perception of scientists making “subjective guesses” [...]

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A walk in the woods

Returned with HB and the kids to the lovely park below for  proper explore. Turns out it’s called Cadzow Glen and it went on for a fair distance before coming out close to Hamilton Grammar under an art nouveau-ish arch saying “Cadzow Glen”. That’s how I know.
Took some photos of the sign and then HB got the kids to [...]

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What you find on a walk

Today I couldn’t get parked close to the library and ended up walking through an open green space with sculptures sitting round enjoying the views.
I zoom past this tranquil scene on a regular basis – just one street away is the dual carriageway. I knew there was a kind of park around here, but I wasn’t [...]

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Postgrad Girl

Completed my first week back at uni. I thought it would be strange to be back at work today and Wednesday, but it actually didn’t feel like I’d been away. I have noticed a couple of things though, mainly that I’m paying more attention to what I’m doing and why and how.
This is obviously the result of [...]

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Worrying

It is very late but I don’t want to go to bed because HB isn’t here. HB is in London and I detest being in the house alone. The children are asleep and have been for hours, so it’s just me and the music.
I’m listening to a stunningly beautiful piece of music called “Spiegel im Spiegel” [...]

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