Category Archives: Library

RIP Mick Burrs (Steven Michael Berzensky) 1940-2021

PICTURES OF THE DEAD (from “Dark Halo”) The dead leave us only images of themselves: souvenirs in washed out colours, dried petals pressed in family albums, shadows that stain our papered walls.  They abandon us in our rooms, teach us how to converse with dust, will not let us forget them. But in our glistening reeds […]

Friday Fun Link – The Jeopardy Archive

A comprehensive archive of every question ever in the history of Jeopardy is nerd-paradise. (Librarians are 14th in lifetime winnings by career-type though I’d like to see this graph on a per capita basis too.)

Friday Fun Link – The Big Library: Books About Basic Income

This idea is growing in awareness and after the rush to create CERB a year ago, more and more people are seeing the benefit of some form of a universal guaranteed income. This is a great list of books to learn more about different aspects of the idea.

Some Quick Thoughts On The Stabbing at Lynn Valley Public Library in North Vancouver

Shea and I often talk about how strange it is that librarians are one of the few professions where practitioners actively visit local examples of their workplace in other communities when traveling (she doesn’t have a strong desire to visit hospitals in other places when on a holiday – that’s for sure!). I think there’s […]

The Roud Folk Song Index

Doing some quick research about yesterday’s post led to me to discover the Roud Folk Song Index which I don’t think I’d heard of before but which reminds me once again (as if I need reminding!), why librarians and archivists are so vital to society (and also interesting, witty and funny!): The Roud Folk Song […]

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – My Twitter Account From The First Month of Covid (March 2020)

We’re into the same month as when Covid became real and the world shut-down mid-month so I’ll likely be posting a few different retrospective posts, whether it’s “Throwback Thursday” or not over the next few weeks. For example, here’s all my tweets from March 2020. I loved this tweet (but not that I managed a […]

Freedom To Read Week 2021 – Day Five – Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Calgary #FTRW Committee Council Presentation (February 2004)

Through my work with the Writers Guild of Alberta, I became involved with the Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee.  I can’t find it online now but my memory is that this committee of writers, librarians, publishers and social activists was formed after some MLA held up some book in the Alberta Legislature to denounce […]

Freedom To Read Week 2021 – Day Three – Covid, Libraries & #FTRW

This has been an unprecedented twelve months that has impacted all sectors including public libraries. Libraries have had to pivot in a variety of ways – from implementing curbside pickup to quarantining books to opening up to the idea of staff working from home – and there are numerous articles about the impacts of Covid […]

Friday Fun Link – Which Dewey Decimal Number Are You?

The NYPL has a Buzzfeed-esque quiz that’s pretty fun…

@officialRPL ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas… #yqr

RPL’s Marketing Unit has created some great content recently including this timely video featuring a number of well-known Regina names…