explodedlibrary.info

mini-rant about indispensable remote controllers

Why do some manufacturers of TVs and DVD players design their products so that the device is virtually useless without the remote? *sigh* My flatmate has an otherwise cool DVD/VCR but because he's lost his remote, we can't do anything with it but the bare minimum. Samsung says as much on its website. How many other people have equipment which has been orphaned from its remote and is thereby maimed? Having just been through a major move, I can say that it's fairly difficult to lose a DVD player, but quite easy to lose a remote controller, especially when there are so many of them around. The easiest solution would be if manufacturers always provided a way to access the menu on the actual machine.

how I found my librarian job, part 1

[21/1/05: I have followed up on this post here]

Well, I am settling into Sydney. I’ve found a place to live in Alexandria and I started my job last week. This job is going to be quite a challenge at first, as it’s a special library position in an industry which I’ve never worked before, electricity.

This blog may start looking more at special library issues, which don’t seem well represented in the blogosphere. Why is that? I don’t really know. Not only can a special library be so different and unlibrarylike when compared with regular libraries, but a special library can also completely different from other special libraries.

But before I move on, I would like to pause and reflect on the chapter of my life which has just finished. I’d like to write a little about my experience of finding a librarian job in Australia.

moving to Sydney hiatus

I've been very busy in the past few days preparing for my move to Sydney. I leave tomorrow, taking the boat from Devonport to Sydney. I've been looking for apartments at www.flatmates.com.au, a great free Australian site. I'm not going to have much time for this blog in the next couple of weeks, so please excuse me if I'm slow in responding to comments or emails.

In the meantime, I thought that I'd post a link to Lies I learned in library school. I'm sure a lot of other blogs have linked to it (I've been behind in my blog reading lately), but I found it humourous (in that cynical kind of way) and fairly accurate.

preparing to leave Tasmania

It’s Spring in Tasmania. This has been the first time in my adult life that I’ve ever really been able to enjoy the Spring here. When I was living here before, the months of October and November were blighted by end of year exams and the studying for them. As I mentioned in my other blog, Tasmanian spring is not as dramatic as its Minnesota counterpart, but it still has a subtle and diffuse beauty of its own. I have seen an amazing number and variety of wildflowers on some of the walks that I’ve taken this week.

Once again, I am preparing to leave Tasmania. The last time that I did this was a very melancholy affair indeed. I truly loved the place, and I was going to separated from it by the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, so that I would only be able to visit the place every few years.

This time the parting is a lot easier. Of course, I’m not going to be going as far away. Sydney is only a 90 minute flight away from Hobart, and the airfares have gone down recently. The other thing is that this time my decision to leave Tasmania is completely my own choice, based on what’s best for me.

One reason why I felt so homesick for Tasmania while I lived in Minnesota was also homesickness for Australia in general. Another reason was that I felt I had not yet exhausted the possibilities which the island offered me.

a new job!

Yes, I’ve got a full-time permanent librarian job again! This job is going to be in Sydney, in a special library. There’s so much that I could write about the whole job seeking process, but for now I just want to share this news. The next two weeks are going to be a very busy time as I prepare to move from Tasmania, take the boat to Sydney and find a place over there.