Archives for posts with tag: Amazing

One of the Junior Boys is about to say "Let's get serious for a second."

Yesterday the Polaris Prize Long List dropped. This list is often more interesting than some top-tens at New Years. Anyways, here are my picks from my workweek soundtrack – dripping with some syrupy indie-CanCon pride. Enjoy.

Austra

The Weeknd

Junior Boys (Not on the list this year, so here’s a consolatory double whammy!)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Russian Futurists off to the races.

It’s been a pretty solid week, and it has left me feeling very librarian-y. So, in honour of that and of Friday here are some of my workday soundtrack highlights.

Stars (remixed by Final Fantasy).

Some vintage Broken Social Scene.

Newish Russian Futurists.

Have a great weekend!

Grouplove offers some advice.

I shouldn’t complain because my week was shortened by a 4-day weekend, jet-setish vacation, but what days I have worked have been a tough slog. I came back to deadlines, change-ups, and newly vague projects. At least the library sound track plays on, even if I don’t have much time for regular blogging. Here’s some music that helped.

Grouplove!

New Bon Iver!

Chad Vangaalen!

Have a great weekend!

I will be here.

I’m going to New York City for the first time ever for any reason this weekend. And, let me tell you I am gosh darn excited (and a little nervous. It is a huge, dense, epically mythic metropolis, after all. It is bigger than anything this Canadian boy has every seen before.)

Of all the things to see, my heart is set on the NYPL’s Map Room. Oh yes. Maps! I’ve wanted to go there since I was a little kid watching PBS in the 80s. There’s more! It’s a great time for a bibliothequeophile to visit since the NYPL is turning 100 and is really working that angle.

So besides sight-seeing, shopping, and whatever else I can find in a city like New York, I will be seriously geeking out. Apologies to my travel companions, in advance.

Also, here’s a cool video of New York’s the collective digital (un)consciousness.

Pastiche—A Collective Composition of New York City, by Ivan Safrin & Christian Marc Schmidt from Christian Marc Schmidt on Vimeo.

Hooded Fang: practice space plus kitten!

It’s the May 2-4 in Canada. In honour of the long weekend, here is a Library SoundTrack post featuring songs for the car, the bus, the deck, the dock, the beach, whatever. Have some fun, crack a beer, get your conversation on. In Canada, this weekend is the summer’s starter pistol. Bang! Let’s go.

First, Seattle’s The Head and the Heart.

Vancouver’s congenial-as-all-get-out Dan Mangan.

Toronto’s Hooded Fang.

and Purity Ring (from somewhere in Canada).

Have a great weekend!

From Gizmodo:

Gone is the frustration of not finding the book that the system swears is exactly where you are looking. Gone is the having to sneak through dark corners of stacks and walk all over the library to find a single tome. However, also gone are the serendipitous encounters with texts surrounding the one you were looking for, guiding your research and interests in new directions.
Which is a shame, for sure. But even then, maybe you can still make your way to that fortuitous find but in a whole new way. And without that librarian glowering at you. [University of Chicago Libraries via Geekosystem, Big Think]

OK, let’s put aside the regressive librarian stereotyping and look at what they’re showing us. It seems like a pretty complex and expensive solution. When it breaks, how catastrophic is it to services? I don’t know if this is something will necessarily take off except as a show piece.

I’d say it’s a little analogous to the infamous Zip drive. The Zip drive was an OK innovation that ended up being a huge waste of money for people who bought one and then immediately had to abandon them for the CD-R/W drives – which were way more flexible for data storage.  I think elaborate robot libraries will probably lose out to eLibraries made up mostly of eBooks, online journals, etc. The tipping point will be when when eReaders improve in flexibility, quality and price (as they will, inevitably).

Also, it is easy to say this sort of set up would render librarians obsolete. But really, it’ll be the clerks and pages who would be replaced – likely by a crew of oil stained, retro-engineer types (like below) . Think about it, the look of the thing reminds me of Babbage’s Difference Engine. In such a case, steampunk fans would be happy.

All the singles in the air!

I’ve been busier than ever at work lately (hence the dearth of substantial posts). But rattling inside the petty pyramid of responsibility as I am, I still get to listen to music.

So, here are some picks from this week. I’m going to forgo the exegesis I usually throw in here, except to say that I like these songs for good(different) reasons…
Enjoy!
M. Ward

Architecture in Helsinki (please ignore their new album- sheesh)

The Vaccines

Have a great weekend!

This came to me via @indie_librarian via (@wawoodworth)


More details on this event here. (Note: fans of the #Partyhard library agenda are probably in love with this idea.) Also, check out this design contest.  It’s a pretty hip and locally driven aesthetic they’re breeding. As a design minded fellow, I can’t understate how much I like this kind of stuff. Good on you, CPL.

I saw all this and suddenly wanted a job at the Chicago Public Library. But really, what I want is a job where I can work with some community to build something similar. Data management is OK, but, man, I miss working with clients/users/information-seekers/people-about-town/etc.

For now, here’s to better living through design.

Canada’s 41st election started out sort of dull and predictable (c.f. the lack-lustre debates). But, the recent news about the NDP’s surge has made things pretty darn interesting. I’ve been glued to the polls and news reports.  (This is my way of saying:  I’m too distracted to keep up the pace I set on this site, right now. Regular posts will resume next week.)

I’ve been looking around for ways Canadian libraries have supported voter engagement and turnout. Libraries across the country have put up information tables, dug out history and contemporary politics books for displays,  and posted information and links online.

Is there more the library community can do than displays and links? What about cultivating the next generation of young voters? Are there election themed story-times out there? Are we engaging new Canadians in their new home’s politics?

The LIS community should be thinking of ways to help create and nurture engaged political communities. They’ll come in handy when libraries need protection from book banners and budget hawks. This will take more than just blog posts and Bristol board displays during election season. But, the results could be huge!

Libraries are political (but not necessarily partisan). History has shown how access to books and information (not to mention community space and communication tools) are powerful political tools. To ignore this is to ignore the important role libraries have had and can have in the direction of our nation and our world.

We have to play a role in shaping the future, if we want to have a role to play in the future.

Canada Votes May 2nd!!!

***Find out More***

Party websites:
www.liberal.ca
www.conservative.ca
www.blocquebecois.org
www.ndp.ca
www.greenparty.ca

CBC’s Reality Check on Platform Promises

Register to Vote:
www.elections.ca

Apathy is Boring

Wintersleep looks like nice enough fellows.

Once again, it’s the day when I lay out some of the songs that I’ve been rocking in my library cubicle.

Ok, I have to put up two clips by this band, mostly because I think Wintersleep are worth the time.

I’m attached to their album Welcome to the Night’s Sky in a way that chokes me up a little. (Personal exegesis: in the history of my life, I can’t imagine identifying so perfectly with an album. It really fit at the time, and that was hella helpful.)

This next one’s from their new album New Inheritors, which is just as good, but not, you know, so embued with personal experience.

Trace Decay may be my second favourite bed-sheet ghost video. I believe Department of Eagles takes that prize.

Lykke Li‘s new album Wounded Rhymes came out a few weeks ago. I’m not a fan of the title as it sounds like a Bones Thugs and Harmony lp. But, the music’s good, so I don’t really care. Rich Kid Blues has to be my favorite track off it. It has a great Wall of Sound bombast to it.

Have a great weekend!