"Self-plagiarism is style"

Great to see that OpenLibrary ("One web page for every book") now has an API!

There's an interesting debate going on via the Code4Lib email list regarding the API. Specifically, should they have used SRU or is exposing a simple API better? Personally, I'm all for simple APIs that non-library techies can pick up and run with.

I've worked as a developer in libraries now for nearly 14 years and I've never used (or even seriously looked at) SRU. When I read the specification, I can feel my eyes begin to slowly glaze over! Perhaps this is just because I cut my teeth writing EDI processing software in COBOL and I've always suspected that people who develop specifications for use in libraries (e.g. Edifact, Z39.50, MARC, etc) are all a bunch of masochists ;-)

Currently doing the rounds of email inboxes at our library is this little gem…

To paraphrase a conversation that occurred in the LSW chatroom last week…

Librarian 2.oooooooooooooooh!
Librarian 3.in.a.bed?
Librarian Phwooooar!

I like the way the poor patron is still trying to read his book!

Fans of Chris Anderson might want to check out this article which appeared in today's Guardian newspaper in the UK: "The big giveaway"…

International flights that don't cost a thing? Books or music you don't have to pay for? Even companies handing out cars? Traditional business is based on the certainty that everything has a price. But now US writer Chris Anderson believes we are at the dawn of a new consumerist era, governed by what he dubs 'freeconomics'.

A big thank you to everyone who came along to my OPAC session at the Library and Information Show last week! If you're looking for the presentation, it's available on SlideShare (I've finished adding the comments to the slides).

During the afternoon, I snapped a few photographs…

Owen Stephens has already mentioned the funky "Smartblades" from Intellident. I dread to think how much is would cost to kit out an entire library, but maybe in 20 years from now most libraries will have smart shelving? Seeing the blades light up (using blue LEDs) in sequence as they scan the shelves is cool beyond words :-)

SirsiDynix were demoing an early ("pre alpha") prototype of "Enterprise" (the replacement for EPS). The search examples shown highlighted that it automatically uses fuzzy searching (e.g. "global warning" also found "global warming"). Over the weekend, I couldn't resist tweaking the "did you mean" suggestions on our OPAC to do something similar (e.g. "global warning" or "nursing practise"). It'll be interesting to see what SirsiDynix come up with to differentiate their new product from "Primo" and "Encore".

Very sad to see that Edward Lorenz, one of the founding fathers of Chaos Theory, has died.

There can't be many people who aren't familiar with the concept expressed in the title of his 1972 paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?"

Lorenz was awarded the Kyoto Prize in 1991 for his work on determinsitic chaos — "a principle which has profoundly influenced a wide range of basic sciences and brought about one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton."

Okay — I have a reference question that might just need the awesome combined power of the biblioblogosphere to answer!

A few minutes into the 1960 film "Psycho", we get to see the following painting hung on the wall of George Lowery's office…

(click to view larger version)

Firstly, is it a Picasso? If not, is it by a known artist? Can you put a name to the painting?

Other paintings in the film appear to have been chosen for their symbolism, so perhaps this one was too.

If you can answer any of the those questions, please put Joel or myself out of our misery!!!

:-D

Just spotted that Tim is busy working on something that I dabbled with last February:

www.colourphon.co.uk

I'm actually in the midst of revisiting my code, as I want to automate a way of locating visually similar images from the "1000 Frames of Hitchcock" project, e.g.:

Anyway, today seemed like a good opportunity to return to Ed Vielmetti's original question about sorting books into the colour of a rainbow…

The Guardian article about celebrity liar and all round Walter Mitty type Robert Irvine made for some chucklesome reading at lunch time today.

Not surprisingly, the "about me" page on his web site is now "Under Construction". Fortunately, good ol' Google still has the cached version from a few weeks ago…

Curiously, his "about" page fails to make any mention of his Knighthood and the castle in Scotland which the Queen gave him :-D

I'm also intrigued by the disclaimer on his home page which reads "The site is not affiliated with Robert.com".

So, to save any confusion, I'd like to take the opportunity to say that this site is not affiliated with Dave.com, Davey.com, DP.com, or WaveyDavey.co.uk. However, I would like you all to start referring to me as "Sir Dave of Huddersfield".

…in particular, the Google cache of web pages that it's trawled.

Although Woolworths have removed the "Lolita Midsleeper Combi" from their web site, you can still find the product via the Google Cache…

(BBC News: Woolworths withdraws 'Lolita' bed)

I can't decide what amazes me more — that a company would name a product for young girls "Lolita", or that Woolworths don't seem to employ anyone who was aware of the single definition of the word!

Anyway, I'm sure I can hear Nabokov giggling quietly in his grave :-D

It's on days like this that I'm glad we no longer live in Armitage Bridge, but halfway up a hill which looks down on Armitage Bridge.

The BBC web site has this photo of Armitage Bridge…

After spending several minutes wondering if the Armitage Bridge that I knew (which is mostly traditional old stone houses) had been washed clean away and replaced by a row of newer looking red brick houses, I noticed that the file name of the image mentions Doncaster (which is at least 50 miles away).

The local newspaper has this video, although be warned that the narrator sounds like she using a megaphone.

Quite a few local roads have been closed and the area at the south of the University campus (Aspley & Bradley Mills) is still subject to a severe Flood Warning from the Environment Agency.