Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

.... for years I thought that a curator was a sort of caretaker, but of a museum or suchlike....

.... a curator was, in fact, a highly qualified person, usually in the fields of history, art, archaeology etc, and very often was responsible for the collections being there in the first place.

I'd not realised either until a couple of years ago!

As you say, I thought it was a fancy word for caretaker - bloke with the front door key.



It must be all that "insider stuff" that those on the inside can't see exists....they all know what they mean so can't envisage that those outside of an industry had no clue

I actually use the word curator now, to mean "A gatherer, chooser, selector of stuff, to bring it together" Not often, obviously, I don't curate my dried food cupboard ... but I could

vivatifosi

I guarantee that the vast majority of people who walk into a library think everyone who works in a library is a librarian. I am neither a librarian nor a library assistant, though I also work in a library. It is probably the same in other places too, like in a church, someone visiting rather than a member of the congregation probably won't know which one is a vicar, which one is a verger, and so on.

PasturesNew

If I were asked to redesign the world .... I'd have virtual libraries where you choose books online and they arrive by drone. It'd also be a "try before you buy" service, collecting commissions for sales - people could order any book they're reading.

Books would be held in one central warehouse, in a cheap spot.

As for gathering/meeting spaces, I'd look at the location of school libraries - and look at staffing those out of hours/school holidays for people who want to browse books and order a book online - they could sit in front of a screen and browse shelves of books miles away, then point at one - and it could be delivered by drone to where they are now, or later at home. School libraries don't get any use after 3.30pm, at weekends and in school holidays - it'd make more sense to re-use those spaces, even if it meant relocating it to the ground floor/similar.

In these ways you've re-purposed space that's already being paid for, at the centre of communities - and provided access to a wider range of books and producing a potential income stream.

Sitting in front of a screen you could also have specialists answering calls/queries on harder subjects. In the main I've found libraries don't have any books of higher level than a 14 year old's level of reading ... they seem to cater for first readers and work up until they've run out of space - and smaller libraries run out of space by the time you get to about GCSE level. So libraries have never got the book you want.

I'd also have the whole of the UK libraries working together... so you can get any book, no matter where you are. It seems nuts to me that there is a book in a library that you can read if you happen to live in Sheffield, but if you're in a village in Northampton you simply don't have it available to you - meanwhile, it sits in Sheffield unread because nobody there is interested in it.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

It is probably the same in other places too

In recent years, with the "uniform" becoming tunics - if you go into a Hospital you can't tell a senior nurse from a cleaner! That indistinction makes it harder to hail one and make a relevant enquiry.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

If I were asked to redesign the world .... I'd have virtual libraries where you choose books online and they arrive by drone. It'd also be a "try before you buy" service, collecting commissions for sales - people could order any book they're reading.

Books would be held in one central warehouse, in a cheap spot.

As for gathering/meeting spaces, I'd look at the location of school libraries - and look at staffing those out of hours/school holidays for people who want to browse books and order a book online - they could sit in front of a screen and browse shelves of books miles away, then point at one - and it could be delivered by drone to where they are now, or later at home. School libraries don't get any use after 3.30pm, at weekends and in school holidays - it'd make more sense to re-use those spaces, even if it meant relocating it to the ground floor/similar.

In these ways you've re-purposed space that's already being paid for, at the centre of communities - and provided access to a wider range of books and producing a potential income stream.

Sitting in front of a screen you could also have specialists answering calls/queries on harder subjects. In the main I've found libraries don't have any books of higher level than a 14 year old's level of reading ... they seem to cater for first readers and work up until they've run out of space - and smaller libraries run out of space by the time you get to about GCSE level. So libraries have never got the book you want.

I'd also have the whole of the UK libraries working together... so you can get any book, no matter where you are. It seems nuts to me that there is a book in a library that you can read if you happen to live in Sheffield, but if you're in a village in Northampton you simply don't have it available to you - meanwhile, it sits in Sheffield unread because nobody there is interested in it.

I'm on my tablet, so can't cut and paste as easily as on my laptop, but much of that is happening already... except the drones that is, I'm pretty sure Amazon will get there first.

Taking the virtual libraries. At our library we will get you any book that you want. There are a number of UK repositories, the British Library being the best known, which get a copy of every book published in the UK. Plus we have reciprocal agreements with other libraries, not just in the UK, but around the world. If that book is available for lending, we will be able to get it for you. Even if the only copy is in New Zealand, if the University of Aucland is willing to lend their copy of a book on the origins of Maori tattoo art, then we can get it.

Similarly you can borrow books electronically using tablets and ebook readers as well as newspapers and magazines, without visiting the library.

You can even scan a book's barcode using the library app while you are out and about, and have that delivered to your local library for collection, save the expense of buying your own.

Battery running out, will write more when I have more juice.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd not realised either until a couple of years ago!
)

I actually use the word curator now, to mean "A gatherer, chooser, selector of stuff, to bring it together" Not often, obviously, I don't curate my dried food cupboard ... but I could

Well, you do in a way!
Why not advertise it as an art installation and charge entrance?

vivatifosi wrote: »

I guarantee that the vast majority of people who walk into a library think everyone who works in a library is a librarian. I am neither a librarian nor a library assistant, though I also work in a library. It is probably the same in other places too, like in a church, someone visiting rather than a member of the congregation probably won't know which one is a vicar, which one is a verger, and so on.

Especially as Vergers wear cassocks, and to the untrained eye, could easily be mistaken for clergy.

(That reminds me of that wonderful short story, The Verger, by Somerset Maugham, made into a wonderful film as one section of "Quartet", I think it was. James Hayter starred. Don't let qualifications hold you back!).


I agree about nurses uniforms.
You always used to know who was an SRN, who was an SEN, who was a Staff Nurse, a Sister, and ........:eek: Matron.

Now, unless you know what their little badges are about, you don't.

Do they still have belts with gorgeous buckles? I expect they are deemed to be a health hazard now.



In the 1970s I spent 6 weeks convalescing in a chest hospital. I attended occupational therapy classes and started making soft toys, which I proudly displayed on the radiator next to my bed.

I think had about six on there when Matron did her rounds.
She told me quite sternly that I would have to remove them, and put them in my case, as they would collect dust, etc.

I was really proud of them, as I'd always thought I couldn't sew, (I can't, but the fur fabric hid a multitude of errors!), so I was rather upset. The nurse looked at me sympathetically.

When Matron had gone, I got them out again! The nurses told me to make sure I hid them before Matron did her next round!

vivatifosi

Books don't get as many issues in a warehouse as they do on display, so that's the best place to have them, on display in a library.

We can't share with schools, that would limit the hours that we are open. But there are projects underway across the country to co-locate libraries with other facilities to reduce the buildings portfolio. Not schools... They don't want strangers in with all the kids on site, but yes to council offices, fire stations, youth clubs, leisure centres, theatres, etc.

ETA.. in terms of having a screen where you have a librarian on the other end, my authority has something like that in its volunteer libraries. Also, there is something called "ask a librarian" where you can ask a question any time, 24 hours a day. When libraries here are closed, reciprocal agreements are in place with places like Australia, New Zealand and the USA, to get your question answered. These queries are answered by a librarian, as they need to understand the offerings of the library authorities they support around the world.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote:

If I were asked to redesign the world .... I'd have virtual libraries where you choose books online and they arrive by drone. It'd also be a "try before you buy" service, collecting commissions for sales - people could order any book they're reading.

Amazon already does this. You choose your book from your kindle and download a sample. The sample is the first few chapters, then you decide whether to buy.

It won't be long before the book arrives by drone, at the moment it arrives fairly instantly by wifi to your kindle or in the post for a hard copy.

silvercar

viva wrote:

We can't share with schools, that would limit the hours that we are open. But there are projects underway across the country to co-locate libraries with other facilities to reduce the buildings portfolio. Not schools... They don't want strangers in with all the kids on site, but yes to council offices, fire stations, youth clubs, leisure centres, theatres, etc.

Already happened in my town. The library has relocated to a building in the centre of town and shares with a coffee bar and council offices and has rooms to hire. Downside is that the library is across three floors, which is less than desirable for the able bodied and a pain for those with mobility issues.

Pyxis

Drones worry me, rather.

I'm wondering how many people with head injuries/how much damage to cars, conservatory roofs it will take before very strict regulations are brought in.

Not to mention how many views on Facebook of people sunbathing in the privacy of their own homes it will take, too.



It was bad enough when, in the 70s , my flatmate and I decided to go up on the roof of our block of flats to sunbathe topless. We weren't overlooked, but then became aware of a helicopter circling. And circling. And circling. And circling.

So we had to go in. Barstewards.

Helicopters are expensive. Think how much worse it will be with drones.