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Friday Fun Link – Reddit Launches Multi-Reddits

For the past few weeks, Reddit Gold members (those who pay an annual subscription fee) have been able to beta-test a new feature called Multi-Reddits. That feature has now gone live for all Reddit members.

With thousands of sub-reddits, it’s difficult to keep track of them all. Multi-reddits allow you to combine similar reddits into themes – food, music, humour or whatever. Then, when you click on the multi-reddit, you see a blend of stories from all the sub-reddits that are included in the multi-reddit. For example, if you subscribe to a multi-reddit called “Canada” which combines the sub-Reddits for each of the provinces and territories, you’d get a mix of stories about what’s going on across Canada instead of having to click to each sub-Reddit separately.

Multi-Reddits can be made private or public so during the beta phase, I created a public one called “Librarians” which collects 16 (as I write this) of the various library-related sub-reddits into a single place which is a great way to get a quick overview of some of the latest happenings in libraries, books, copyright, technology and so on.

Posted 02 August 2013 § FridayFunLink § Library § List § PopCulture § Randomness § Technology ‡ Comments (0) °

10 Random Reference Questions (Day Two)

Was out on the Reference Desk covering a lunch break again today.  Instead of going by memory, I consciously made notes to myself about the questions I answered which I thought would be an interesting companion to yesterday’s post on the same topic…

  1. The current time in Zurich, Switzerland
  2. Help printing an e-mail (our PAC’s only have Internet Explorer and so when people try to print attachments from Gmail, it always seems to be problematic.  Today was no exception and I ended up doing a massive workaround so he could get his print jobs)
  3. Another printer request – this time from a guitarist who wants to enlarge some tab from a guitar magazine as much as possible so he can read it better
  4. Request for the classified section of the paper
  5. Guest pass
  6. Retrieve a request for a Book Club in the Bag selection
  7. Probably the last twenty minutes of the hour I was scheduled on the desk (plus some time that bled over past when I was supposed to be there) was trying to help a patron track down a very specific copy of the Holy Bible that the library had.  I gave him phone numbers for every bookstore in town (Christian and secular) and he dialed them all without success.  He didn’t have a credit card but I did show him that the Bible edition he wanted was online through Amazon and ABEBooks although at what some might view as a steep price.  This is one of those frustrating reference questions – nobody locally had it, he wasn’t in a position to purchase it online but he badly wanted it (at one point, he did the math on what it would cost to stand at the photocopier and hand copy it page by page at $0.15/page.  I think it came out somewhere around $120 which, given the online price, might not actually be that bad of a deal.  Er, is it a copyright or a broken commandment if you photocopy an entire bible, originally from 1611 but re-printed in 1982.)
Posted 01 August 2013 § Library § List § Work ‡ Comments (3) °

10 Random Reference Questions

Although I’m working in RPL’s Outreach Unit, I occasionally go out to help on the Reference Desk, especially since they’re short-staffed right now, because of both summer holidays and some vacancies.

I was out to cover a lunch break today and in one short hour, I got a fairly representative sample of questions you get at a public library reference desk…

  1. Books on studying for the MCAT
  2. Help someone scan and e-mail their immigration documents
  3. Tell kids to not play on the escalator (Public Library Rule #47: “All kids will play on the escalator”)
  4. Guest pass so someone can go on the Internet
  5. Directions to washrooms
  6. Information on drain flies and how to get rid of them
  7. Help someone printing their resume
  8. Another guest pass
  9. Request for Newspaper classifieds (the local paper is on display but we keep the job section at the Reference Desk as it often goes missing when left public)
  10. Somewhat fittingly given where I normally spend most of my day, directed a visually impaired patron to Outreach for a computer that would better suit their needs
Posted 31 July 2013 § Library § List § Work ‡ Comments (0) °

How Much Happens Every 60 Seconds On The Internet?

A lot!

Posted 30 July 2013 § Infographic § Internet § Technology ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Four For The Price of One (Friday Fun/Saturday Snap/Sappy Sunday/Music Monday)

We were out of town this weekend for Shea’s parents’ 40th Wedding Anniversary so I didn’t get around to blogging as we were pretty busy the whole time. Instead of going back and post-posting (er, is that a word? Backdating posts to keep my “daily post” commitment going anyhow), I thought that, this time I’d just combine all the missed posts into a single spot…

FRIDAY FUN LINK
Way back when I got my first guitar, I paid $20 or so for a piece of shareware software that allowed you to play an MP3 and by clicking your mouse during the chord changes, it would recognize what chords were being played and create a chord chart for you. I recently stumbled across a similar online service called Chordify which does the same thing – and you don’t even need to click your mouse when the chord changes happen. Plus, you can link directly to YouTube videos of the songs you want chord charts for which is a great bonus. The songs I’ve done so far are all full of sharps which I think just means that the site doesn’t account for a song that uses a capo and you’ll have to transcribe chords up and down to make them easier to play.

SATURDAY SNAP
Shea wasn’t sure what to get her parents for a gift then had the bright idea to hire a photographer to come to the party to take both candid and posed shots of family and guests.  We don’t have those pictures yet so, for the time being, here’s a slightly less professional one taken on my iPhone.  

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SAPPY SUNDAY
This isn’t a weekly recurring feature on the blog but I thought I’d use “Sappy Sunday” here since every other day I was catching up on has a set theme. And what better way to talk about being away for awhile then this heart-tugging video by Google? 😉

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1sT7QV8nfU

MUSIC MONDAY
RPL’s Dunlop Art Gallery currently has an exhibit called “Play” which features a red piano, both in the gallery and one outside the library (I currently work about twenty feet from the gallery with a window that overlooks the piano outside the library so this is both a blessing a curse at times!) Anyhow, a local musician took advantage of the unique outdoor red piano to shoot a music video for an instrumental piece she composed…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEyiHKeCm0U

Posted 29 July 2013 § Family § FridayFunLink § MusicMonday § Photo § Sad § SaturdaySnap § Technology ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

When Mom and Brother Are Away…

…Sasha and Daddy will play!

Shea was at a fitting for a bridesmaid dress and Pace was at a playdate with a friend tonight so Sasha and I had a fun evening of “Kick Daddy To See Him Say Ow!”, “Dancing and Singing to Old-School Rap Songs” and of course, a personal favourite, “Sneak into Brother’s Room and Jump On His Bed!”

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Posted 25 July 2013 § Humour § Pace § Photo § Sasha § Shea ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

CLA’s “13 Questions With…Jason Hammond”

The CLA Government Library & IM Network has a weekly feature on their web site where they ask various librarians across Canada a standard set of 13 questions that helps give some insight into the wide variety of backgrounds, specializations and interests of people serving as librarians across Canada and beyond.

My own profile got posted the other day and beyond being included with a great group of established and emerging librarian friends, I was happy to get a really good response from friends who saw it on Facebook as well as many of my co-workers at RPL when I sent this link out to our “Fun Group” e-mail list.

My favourite comment came privately from a former colleague on Facebook:

I’m not sure what I liked more about this q&a: the random Flintstones reference, the image of you reading about the Hulk and Ginger Spice, the Vonnegut quote, or simply hearing your authentic passion, charm, and humour captured so well. I miss you, Jason Hammond. Thank you for injecting some of your fabulous-ness into my Monday.

Posted 23 July 2013 § Library § LibrarySchool § Work ‡ Comments (0) °

Music Monday – “It’s like rain/On your wedding day/In a place you chose/That’s not known for rain.”

Two New York sisters (who are obviously future copy editors) re-work one of Alanis Morrisette’s most famous songs so that it’s finally accurate.  Or to put it another way, “The only ironic thing about the [original Alanis Morrisette] song is that it’s written by someone who doesn’t know what irony is.”

“It’s Finally Ironic” – Alanis Morrisette (parody)

Posted 22 July 2013 § Canada § Humour § MusicMonday § PopCulture § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Facebook and My Social Clusters

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Stephen Wolfram recently published an analysis of a huge dataset of how people are using Facebook that is extremely fascinating (so fascinating that I wanted to except some of the best parts but didn’t know where to start!)

One of the findings was that the most common social structure people tend to have two or three major “clusters” of friends.

The most common structures consist of either two or three major clusters, all of them connected. But there are also structures in which major clusters are completely disconnected—presumably reflecting facets of a person’s life that for reasons of geography or content are also completely disconnected.

I’ve tried to analyse my own Facebook “clusters” long ago and found I had 14 identifiable “groups” of friends.

But if I’d followed Wolfram’s methodology back then, maybe I’d have combined some similar “groups” into “clusters” (FIMS/Librarians) and also eliminate others that didn’t have huge numbers (Fredheads/Southeast Regional Library).

Having recently read the Wolfram article, this theory of social clusters was in the front of my mind when we held a 40th Birthday Party for myself at a local arcade today.

Of the nearly 50 people who attended, they very broadly broke down as follows:

1) Family

2) People I know from high school

3) People I know from libraries

4) People I know from politics

5) Pace’s friends and their parents (or the reverse – kids who came with their parents who belong to one of the other groups)

My point? Nothing really – just interesting idea to consider in the real world rather than just looking at Facebook friends in the abstract.

Anyhow, my real point is not about who came to my birthday or which sub-group I see them belonging to. The important thing is this: if you have any interest in social media at all, you should go read that Wolfram article – it’s good stuff. (h/t to CP for the link…on Facebook of course!)

Posted 21 July 2013 § Family § Internet § MemoryLane § Politics § Randomness § Wisdom ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged:

Saturday Snap – A Pink Flamingo Appears: My Birthday at RPL

 

Okay, after tomorrow, I promise the 40th birthday-themed entries will stop!  (Probably.)   But I did want to recap how my day went at work.
RPL has a tradition of passing along a pink flamingo to whoever is celebrating a milestone birthday (for some reason I only thought it went to people celebrating their 50th birthdays – maybe because that’s all I’d seen) but apparently it’s for any milestone birthday.  (Or maybe I look a decade older than my 40 years?)

The lucky recipient wears a Birthday Boy/Birthday Girl ribbon all day and I also thought they were responsible for providing a home for the bird until they can find another sucker celebrator of a milestone birthday to take it but someone said it resides in HR when not “in use” (something I should probably know having worked in RPL’s HR department for my first three years with the organization!) 😉

Anyhow, here’s a shot of the bird on arrival in the Outreach Unit where I currently work…

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Here’s the bird moved back to my desk…

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Here’s the inscription on the bird’s base…

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And here’s me with the “Birthday Boy” ribbon…

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Posted 20 July 2013 § Humour § Meme § Work ‡ Comments (0) °