vapidness

2009-04-13T11:24:00.003+01:00

Ach, wey. Working in archives now, which is marvellous. Did my permaculture design course in 2006, and am trying to potter away doing the diploma, now easier as I'm not full time in the archives any more. I'm about to register as self employed so I can do permaculture stuff without offending revenue and customs. Also the housing co-op is getting active again, which is groovy.

The most heinous omission here is the birth of my grandson, who is obviously the most marvellous person in the universe. And a good drummer.

This blog seems like a good place to deposit some good archive and genealogy links, as well as permaculture stuff and housing bitties.

Linking stuff up, I have a Stumbleupon page and a very underused Bebo page as well.

2007-07-11T12:54:00.000+01:00

After a period of being bitter and twisted, and ill, I'm feeling up to posting again.

I've left librarianship after leaving a part time library assistant's job I took in order to work part time to finish my Masters.

The Master's didn't work out as the tutor I originally had was no longer supervising dissertations, but the Uni didn't tell me this for a few months.

The new tutor was a lovely bloke but didn't understand the subject of my research. At least that what he told me. I should have been able to go ahead on my own, or modify my research, but didn't really have the will to go into the library to study as it was the same library I was getting shouted at (in common with the rest of the library workers) by the senior library assistant when she wasn't shouting at the jannies, criticising part time library staff (especially students) as a group for their lack of dedication, or starting sentences with 'I'm not a racist but'...

This was a pity as it had been a really good job when we were self managing, the users were happy enough with us, and we had had no feedback from management to say there was anything wrong, or not getting done, as a result of the way we were self managing all the tasks we had been told needed done.

After a period of illness, the senior library assistant (LA) had come back to work and soon decided that she wanted to go full time. She couldn't do this as I was working some of the hours she would have needed to be full time.

After a year of being senior library assistant on Sundays, I was called into my line manager's office and told I needed support and would no longer be working on Sundays. No reason was given, to myself, or to my union rep when I went to see them a few weeks later.

My contract stated that hours were not guaranteed, but my shop steward felt we had a good case as an area of responsibility had been taken away without being given a reason (in contravention of the Uni's HR terms & conditions, and employment rules).

My main concern was that library assistants were being discouraged and prevented from providing good customer service to library users, especially part time students, for whom we were the only Uni employees available to speak to at a time they were able to come in. Our supervisor regularly gave us instructions that were in direct contravention of those given by our line manager.

Our line manager instructed us to tidy shelves rather than spend time on the issue desk, as users would look for us if they needed anything, and there were self issue machines available. So most users, seeing no-one available to help them, went away unhelped, without items that could only be issued from behind the desk, unable to pay fines (so they continued to mount up until they could get back in), and without reference info they couldn't find themselves.

The library assistants employed were either librarianship students or qualified experienced librarians who needed to work part time. But we were not seen as being able to provide reference or other services, or able to decide between us how to complete the routine tasks that needed to be done.

As this management approach is obviously in contravention of accepted good customer service, let alone good librarianship, the evening and weekend staff tended to be quite stressed, before being constantly criticised and subject to a shouting at if spending too much time helping someone.

One of the student library assistants mentioned that at her interview she was told that the library had problems retaining library assistants and she asked why. Her interviewer told her that he didn't know. She said that this should have warned her off the job, but she took it anyway, and was now regretting it.

When I spoke to my union rep, after initially being unsure whether there actually was a problem, it became clear, after going over everything that had happened (including many specific incidents I haven't mentioned above) that there was a problem, and a specific problem with the way I had been treated by my line manager. I was told that the union would be more than happy to take up my case, something they didn't do very often as it is usually not as clear that there has been mismanagement.

I said that I thought that I would rather just hand in my notice, now I had had a second opinion on the situation, as things had been so bad that I had no confidence in the library management to correct the situation, or properly conduct an investigation.

My union rep told me that that was what everyone else had done. I was quite surprised, and asked if other library assistants had spoken to the union about the situation at the library, and she replied 'Oh yes'.

I handed in my notice, which handily enough, coincided with the holidays I had left, with no other job to go to (other than freelance work I'd been doing sporadically for a few months after the senior L.A. came back from her sick leave), happier than I'd been in months. I went to sign on, and was advised that I probably would not be getting any income support as I had left voluntarily, but could put in a supporting statement with my claim, along with details for any referees who could support my statement. I put in my union rep as a referee. The DWP found that I had not left the L.A. job voluntarily. I have never heard of that happening before.

I feel crap that I wasn't strong enough to stay in the job and fight, so that other folk wouldn't have to suffer the same working conditions. I also feel crap that other people before me were treated so badly they ended up in the same position (even though I'm not responsible for that). On the other hand, the people I've met since, who left in the same circumstances, all seem really happy in what they're doing now.

I've gone on to customer service/admin work in an organisation where everything everyone does and says is constantly monitored, making sure our 'customers' are absolutely our first priority, and all management is accountable, as are we. I don't think I could be more happy.

I'm not saying that the senior LA deliberately made things up about me to get my hours- she genuinely seemed to believe that most if not all part time staff lack dedication to the work, that overseas students are disruptive and rude, and that the role of part time staff is to work with the stock rather than putting customer service first.

What we think we see is always interpreted through our pre-existing beliefs, so it is likely that anything she saw would have been coloured by these things she seemed to believe about other people. Our behaviour towards other people is also influenced by what we believe, and the first two apparent beliefs above are likely to become self fulfilling prophecies, either in actuality by influencing the way people react to how they've been treated, or in influencing the way other people's actions are interpreted.

I think the views that seemed to be held by the senior LA, and the subsequent effects of such views, may have some relation to the library's inability to keep part time library assistants. They also seem to have a problem keeping full time LAs. This in turn makes me wonder how much of the attitudes of the senior LA that I worked under, came from herself, and how much was part of the inherent organisational culture amongst those managing the LAs.

I did librarianship as an undergrad and graduated top of my year. I went on to do my postgrad diploma in electronic info management because I felt it would enhance the service I could provide for library users. The first job I got on leaving after my diploma came after being asked to take a position after a phone call from a library department based on work I'd done while a student- I hadn't started applying for jobs yet. I was good at librarianship/information work and was dedicated to helping people finding the information they needed to change their lives, or at least, the info that they wanted or needed.

The experience I've written about above has led to me leaving a profession I believed in. I know that the management style and problems I've outlined don't apply to every library or organisation. Unfortunately, speaking to folk who still work in the profession in this area, I think that some of the problems may not be completely absent from some organisations around here, and as moving is not an option, and I am currently happy in what I do even though it is a bit of a waste of five years at Uni, going back into the what might either be a frying pan or even a fire, isn't something I want to be doing.

I was training to work as a voluntary advisor at the CAB for a while, after taking up my current position, and I would like to start again once I'm well enough. I am fairly sure that the year of illness I suffered shortly after leaving the LA job I described above is connected, and both my occupational health doctor and GP thought it could well be a contributing factor.

This is the first time I've even thought about the above in ages- it used to get me really upset and angry in the way I usually get upset and angry about injustices to other people. I think the fact that there has been almost two years now since it all happened means that I can go over it more objectively, without getting involved emotionally in the telling of the story.

I am always concerned in going over things like this that I am seeing things only from one angle, and with bias. This is what stopped me going to the union before I did. I am happy now that what happened was wrong and not all down to myself, even though people I worked with at the time had been telling me this for months.

I'm not saying that I was not in need of support as stated by my line manager- just that it seems suspicious that she would not substantiate her statement with any specifics, or set in place a means of providing this support. I had been in the position for a year with no previous feedback indicating a serious problem.

This brings me to the conclusion that either;

a) she was not given any specifics and made this judgement on general statements made by the senior LA , or

b) She was given specific allegations by the senior LA, which could have been true or not. If true, she neglected her responsibility to myself and our users by not telling me what I was specifically doing wrong, so I could make corrections. If false, she made a decision based on inaccurate information and gave me no opportunity to answer or give mitigating statements.

In either case, I was not given any opportunity to answer any allegations made. This means that if correct allegations were made against me (I have no way of knowing), then for a whole year she was not monitoring her part time staff closely enough to know how they were performing. It was the Uni's policy that all staff get a performance review with their line manager every six months- I never had one while in this position, and never heard of any other part time staff receiving a review.

Ho hum.

Anyway, I'm away to drink tea and cuddle my grandson now.

2005-08-11T16:38:00.000+01:00

Global warming correlates with the diminishing number of pirates. I have always suspected as much and enthusiastically participated in Talk Like A Pirate Day in an effort to do my bit. Talk like a pirate day is on September 19th, which this year happily coincides with Decapitated's gig with Gorerotted, Detonation and Dam at the Barfly in Glasgow.

Gaaarrr... Spheres of Madness, ye lubbers.

The empirical and significant research on the effects of pirate loss on climate change was done by Bobby Henderson who has also investigated intelligent design, and become a bit of a heretic in ID circles. He has written an open letter to the Kansas School Board urging them to give equal coverage to his divergent theory of intelligent design ;

"Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him."

You can buy T-shirts and mugs of The Flying Spaghetti Monster (this does have to be capitalised- check your DDC for deities including His Satanic Majesty). Or you can check the Wikipedia entry for Our Noodly Master if you're not yet converted.

Thanks to Feedback at New Scientist for spreading the word.
_____________________________________________________________________

Found out last week that I've been blacklisted by the RGU's extremely zealous filter. I therefore join the esteemed company of First Monday and Resourceshelf - the blog.

The latter is not Peter Scott's Library Blog - Resourceshelf or Gary Price's ResourceShelf, just so you're not as confused as I was.

_____________________________________________________________________

I've got a Flickr account now which contains mainly photos of kittens but also other things including an ex-crow and some apocalyptic sheep.

2005-08-01T09:18:00.000+01:00

After massive lunching out, back to updating this blog.

The main reason for getting back into it is having bought another machine with imaginary money, so I can get down to some work.

Sharing a laptop really wasn't working.

Also got a new camera so it's likely there will pictures of cats. For instance:

Mackerel and mullet (the one that doesn't have the markings of a mackerel is mullet), new kittens. Well six weeks old, but new to us. Corey and fat bastard are a little dischuffed but getting used to them. The kittens are practising on each other in case of war:

In the meantime I've just resprayed the burner and set the fire so it's well stinky downstairs. Doors are open so kittens have escaped outside.

2005-01-26T21:09:00.001Z

User Satisfaction and Usage
Survey of eGovernment services

2005-01-23T14:57:00.000Z

Definitely been guilty lately of just using this blog as a way of transferring bookmarks between different places.

Mind, I suppose that's valid enough in itself- and if anyone else is interested in the same things, I suppose they might find stuff they hadn't come across.

There probably should be a bit more comment on the content of the sites linked to, if only to remind myself of what's there, without being vain enough to think anyone else would be looking at this.

If i get time i'll re-edit stuff so there's a bit more about site content.

2005-01-23T14:10:00.000Z

sosig e-government links

2005-01-23T14:08:00.000Z

Europa e-government link

2004-11-20T12:55:00.000Z

A really quick and dirty way of searching for articles if you can't be bothered logging in to Athens for a fast search, the beta of Google Scholar is worth a look.

2004-11-10T20:51:00.001Z

Wiwa points out that I haven't published anything here since July.

I have posted a few drafts on e-government, as I'm still pottering along trying to do the disser on technical standards in e-government, and what they tell us about policy that might not be clearly stated anywhere in official policy statements.

Like, for example, the lists of standards in the last Technical Standards Catalogue of the UK e-GIF (government interoperability format) relating to smart cards- ostensibly for security and ease-of-use reasons, but the number of departments (especially in lcal government) reporting that they won't be operationally interoperable for the 2005 deadline might suggest to the cynical person that ID cards have more to do with bodging a cover up of the whole interoperability thing not working very well.

Back to that classic of conspiracy theories- its all due to fuck ups, not infallible masters of our destinies- not that that fact will fuck us up any less.

2004-10-23T13:25:00.000+01:00

the role of the private sector in social inclusion partnerships

2004-10-23T13:04:00.000+01:00

Social Justice ...a Scotland where everyone matters - Annual Report 2002: contents page

2004-10-23T11:50:00.000+01:00

Uk online consultation paper on policy for electronic democracy

2004-10-23T11:43:00.000+01:00

ICT for Communities: Promoting ICT and Digital Inclusion in Scotland - Case studies

2004-10-23T11:15:00.000+01:00

digital communities final report

2004-10-03T10:59:00.001+01:00

Fame results

2004-07-27T14:05:00.000+01:00

GCL, LGCL and seamlessUK to merge

2004-07-20T09:40:00.000+01:00

Anarchist studies

2004-07-14T12:59:00.000+01:00

NISO's UnderstandingMetadata

2004-07-08T11:46:00.000+01:00

cabinet office termination of contract with ITNET UK Ltd

2004-07-05T16:27:00.000+01:00

Metacrap

2004-07-05T08:47:00.000+01:00

The sacred site damage database is a place where you can report damage to stones, or whatever. Would have been useful a couple of hundred years ago when Wordsworth took his chisel to Henge.

2004-07-02T09:50:00.000+01:00

ScienceDirect - Government Information Quarterly - List of Issues

2004-06-30T17:24:00.000+01:00

wow - will the googly universe implode if i blog a link to a blogger page? lets see....

Blogger Knowledge

2004-06-30T16:51:00.000+01:00

E-government 'not yet serving citizens' - ZDNet UK News

2004-06-30T16:50:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS | Technology | Doubts cloud e-government sites

2004-06-30T16:41:00.001+01:00

Cover Pages: e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF)

2004-06-30T16:41:00.000+01:00

The e-GIF Accreditation Authority

2004-06-30T16:36:00.000+01:00

development gateway for E-Government

2004-06-30T16:35:00.000+01:00

E-government news from KableNET

2004-06-30T16:34:00.000+01:00

The World Bank's E*Government pages

2004-06-30T16:31:00.000+01:00

British Government and Politics on the internet, including departments, acts and reports: plucked from the web by Sylvia Milne, a retired librarian

2004-06-30T16:28:00.000+01:00

Government Gateway - Homepage
the place to register all your personal details so they can be held centrally and used by various government agencies.

2004-06-30T16:25:00.000+01:00

EUROPA - IDA Interchange of Data between Administrations

2004-06-30T16:24:00.001+01:00

center for technology in government

2004-06-30T16:24:00.000+01:00

being digital

2004-06-30T16:23:00.000+01:00

GOL-IN - Government Online International Network

2004-06-30T15:14:00.000+01:00

IPF eGovernment Homepage

2004-06-30T15:12:00.000+01:00

e-Government & public sector IT news from PublicTechnology.net

2004-06-30T15:11:00.001+01:00

e-gov.uk

2004-06-30T15:11:00.000+01:00

office of the deputy prime minister- sustaining local communities

2004-06-30T15:10:00.000+01:00

Electronic Government: Information Technologies and the Citizen

2004-06-30T15:04:00.000+01:00

ITNet in Cabinet contract blow | The Register

2004-06-30T15:00:00.000+01:00

Accenture document- eGovernment leadership: engaging the customer

2004-06-30T14:59:00.000+01:00

Accenture document: eGovernment leadership: High Performance, maximum value

2004-06-30T14:58:00.000+01:00

Accenture document: eGovernment leadership: realizing the vision

2004-06-30T14:56:00.000+01:00

UK.gov stuck in 'old economy' mindset | The Register

2004-06-30T14:55:00.000+01:00

Union moots strike over Swansea e-gov plan | The Register

2004-06-30T14:54:00.001+01:00

UK e-gov 'needs shaking up' | The Register

2004-06-30T14:54:00.000+01:00

UK gov holds EDS to account over crap CSA system | The Register

2004-06-30T14:53:00.001+01:00

Accenture boss appointed UK e-envoy | The Register

2004-06-30T14:53:00.000+01:00

Accenture wins $10bn Homeland Security gig | The Register

2004-06-30T14:52:00.000+01:00

BT wins Suffolk e-gov contract | The Register

2004-06-30T14:51:00.000+01:00

SOLACE is the representative body for senior strategic managers working in local government. The society promotes effective local government and provides professional development for its members.

At least, that's the self description from the site.

2004-06-28T16:39:00.000+01:00

Privacy & Human Rights 2002

2004-06-28T16:36:00.000+01:00

Communities Online - Welcome

2004-06-28T16:35:00.000+01:00

The Source Public Management Journal

2004-06-28T16:10:00.001+01:00

Report on Developments World-Wide on National Information Policy

2004-06-28T16:10:00.000+01:00

HMSO - Access to Information

2004-06-28T16:03:00.000+01:00

eGov monitor

2004-06-28T14:34:00.000+01:00

foundation for information policy research

2004-06-28T14:18:00.001+01:00

The IFLA Position on WTO Treaty Negotiations - Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters (CLM)

2004-06-28T14:18:00.000+01:00

The IFLA Position on The World Trade Organization

2004-06-28T14:17:00.001+01:00

WTO

2004-06-28T14:17:00.000+01:00

government information and communication service Page

2004-06-28T14:16:00.000+01:00

European Commission - Information Society - eEurope 2005

2004-06-28T14:15:00.001+01:00

information assurance advisory council

2004-06-28T14:15:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Information Commissioner's Office

2004-06-28T14:14:00.000+01:00

tScheme trust services to e-government

2004-06-28T14:11:00.000+01:00

local government association

2004-06-28T14:10:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Office of Public Services Reform

2004-06-28T14:09:00.000+01:00

e gov- policies for the next decade

2004-06-28T14:08:00.000+01:00

govt StrategyUnit Report: Electronic Networks, Challenges for the Next Decade

2004-06-28T14:06:00.000+01:00

Consultation: Revised Code of Practice on Consultation

2004-06-28T14:05:00.000+01:00

LGOL-X schemas

"These schemas cover a number of transactions including joining a library, press enquiry, logging a complaint, tracking a complaint, change of address, deceased person and single person discount for Council Tax.They are used in conjuction with the LGOL-X transaction engine. Information collected and validated from a web form is then passed through middleware to a backend service conforming to the schemas. The backend service uses the XML to complete a local authority transaction. Each service that a local authority provides should have a schema Transaction definition. These schemas are updated versions of those published earlier in the year and are available for consultation until Friday, 2nd July. Comments should be sent to GovTalk"

2004-06-28T14:03:00.000+01:00

UK GovTalk information on policies and standards for e-government. includes working grouyp minutes etc.

2004-06-28T13:58:00.000+01:00

Consultations
no current open consulations. lots of closed ones.

2004-06-28T13:57:00.000+01:00

e-Statmap - Individuals

2004-06-28T13:56:00.001+01:00

e-Statmap - Business

2004-06-28T13:56:00.000+01:00

e-Statmap - Government

2004-06-28T13:54:00.000+01:00

Illustrated Handbook for Web Management Teams (PDF)- for senior managers this time

2004-06-28T13:48:00.000+01:00

e-govelectronic service delivery reports

2004-06-28T13:02:00.000+01:00

Various Frameworks and policy giving the technical standards etc for UK e-government.

2004-06-25T08:29:00.000+01:00

Stuff for Kat; Artifact: Fashion & Beauty loads of links to textile and costume sites from artifact, plus some less interesting stuff. There're also other subject areas shown in the left hand toolbar.

2004-06-22T08:39:00.000+01:00

I fuckin love this blog- Luddite Librarian

2004-06-11T10:31:00.000+01:00

Brian Martin's Information liberation pdf of the Freedom Press book/pamphlet subtitled 'Challenging the corruptions of information power'.

2004-06-08T11:37:00.000+01:00

Directory of open access journals page for music. If you're not familiar with what DOAJ does, it lists freely available scholarly journals.

While you might not be too bothered about the scholasticism of a journal, or have quite justifiable doubts about the role of peer-review in reinforcing current academic thinking to the detriment of either new or non-conformist ideas and theories, the information you find in this type of source is considerably more likely to be reliable than your average search result from Google.

This is a page of music journals, currently with 12 listings, including journals covering 17th C music, ethnomusicology, electronic music, and a music theory journal.

And you don't have to buy access, or have access to a subscription via an organisation. Which is good.

2004-06-03T13:32:00.000+01:00

Knit your own Clanger! - The 1972 Clanger Knitting Pattern

Now I just need a soup dragon!

2004-06-01T10:56:00.000+01:00

ECAI Iraq is a portal giving information on the cultural history of Iraq.

2004-06-01T10:23:00.000+01:00

Municipal Year Book has search facilities that let you look for municipal employees in England, Scotland, and Wales, by job function, council, or keyword.

So handy for finding out who's actually responsible for,maybe, planning, prior to cross checking against company records for directorships (say) if, for example, a suspicious deal has just gone through near where you live.

You could also cross check with council minutes, which are supposed to be publicly available.

Or you could just use it to find the name of the person in charge of the council tax department, or whatever.

2004-06-01T09:58:00.000+01:00

Also from artifact, The Bate Collection of Musical Instruments has a few pages of images of instruments like gamelans, hand horns and a harpsichord, and the Incorporated Society of Musicians is a professional organisation for musicians in the UK.

2004-06-01T09:54:00.000+01:00

Also found thanks to artifact, info4study is a site for students of architecture, that could also be handy for anyone looking at self build with a view to sustainability and other issues beyond building a box to live in.

2004-06-01T09:49:00.000+01:00

From Duke University of North Carolina, the Duke Papyrus Archive presents information and images of over 1,000 papyri from ancient Egypt held at the University.

This is the UK mirror site.

Found via an artifact update email.

2004-05-27T09:51:00.000+01:00

Scottish Textiles Heritage Online An online archive of Scottish textiles,weirdly enough.

2004-05-26T08:20:00.000+01:00

Pile of links for plants, all suppliers do UK native or naturalised plants. Most also based in Scotland. Barwinnock herb nursery - culinary herbs, medicinal plants

2004-05-26T07:58:00.000+01:00

Poyntzfield Herb Nursery - A nursery with an emphasis on herbalism- has a few items of interest to anyone interest in ethnobotany

2004-05-26T07:55:00.000+01:00

Buckland Plants - another online nursery based in Scotland. Do perennials, alpines, plus native and naturalised plants.

2004-05-25T08:41:00.000+01:00

Herbscents.co.uk Less tedious than you'd think from the name, although the site is a bit annoying, they do some good plants.

2004-05-25T08:39:00.000+01:00

Burncoose - another online plant catalogue for a Scottish nursery selling native and naturalised plants.

2004-05-25T08:19:00.000+01:00

Forward Nurseries Homepage native hedging and trees,cheap but no online purchase facilities. Still worth checking out for the prices alone.