These images are from a run I did this morning on a really glorious day.

After some inspiration from Kim and some assistance and advice from Sophie, here is my iPhone home screen post. I guess it is really another meme post.

A few days ago I managed to install the ios4 operating system and Sophie told me how to put everything in folders. My folders seemed to pick up labels based on what application went in first, but Sophie has since told me that I can change their labels.

I’m very fortunate that my iPhone is provided by my employer. Before I was given this phone early in 2009, I had a Palm Treo. I liked the Treo but found the plan I was on very unreliable and once I had used the iPhone for about a day I realised that the Treo was really a very clumsy device. The early Palm PDAs worked really well and I never went to a meeting at work without them. Then they changed to a Windows mobile operating system and everything went pear-shaped. One of the attractions of the iPhone is that “you already know how to use it” (as Apple says about its iPad). It is a very intuitive device. And, as I work in a university, if there is something I cannot figure out, I just step out into the Library and ask a student.

So by now you’ve probably realised that I don’t have that many applications on my home screen. There are a few things I never or hardly ever use, like some iTunes U sites I was looking at, Stocks, iTunes (but I use that on my laptop), Shazam, RunKeeper, Ping, Evernote, Contacts, ShapeWriter, Dropbox, YouTube & Safari (I really don’t browse the internets much on my phone) and BlockChalk.

I do use most of the following things on a regular basis:

Phone & Messages – of course

Mail – to check both work email and Gmail. I find it very reliable. I’ve got “Fetch” switched off because it was really expensive on data when I was overseas. I found that it is just as easy to download email when I want to check it. The Maps app is also data hungry, especially when you are moving.

iPod – I LOVE my iPod. This is my fourth iPod and it is a bit problematic as they all have different libraries now. This one is nearly full, but I listen to the music whenever I can. I think I have about 3-4 sets of earphones that I use regularly while walking, o the light rail and in bed sometimes when reading. I think iPod has been directly responsible for me buying much more music over the last 5-6 years.

Rage – I use the Rage app almost every weekend to see what is on and to set up my music video recordings on ABC TV. It is brilliant app that allows you to browse all clips broadcast each night and it has a great little fave feature for both songs and artists that collects your list for you. I also use Unearthed (a Triple J app that allows you to download and fave new music).

I get app upgrades from and sometimes search the App Store.

I’ve used Bump occasionally, but wish I could remember to use it more to swap contact details as it seems an awful lot more sensible than swapping business cards these days.

I sometimes use the Facebook and IMDb apps when I feel I need to, but they’re not top of the charts.

I look at Weather quite often (to help me decide whether to run, ride or catch the light rail to work), but it isn’t reliable nor very informative, so if I really want to know what might happen I usually look up the Sydney BOM forecast on Safari.

The Westpac app is excellent and I do use it occasionally. So too is Google and I’ve used the voice search feature very accurately when trying to find a bike shop with grubby hands after running out of spare tubes after a flat on my pushy.

Probably my most used apps are TweetDeck and Echofon, both for Twitter. They now live in the Social folder along with Facebook. And no, that isn’t Grindr there with them. Well it might be, but only because Stephen Fry talked about it on Top Gear one night. I only read the articles.

Thanks to @bonitoclub for this idea.

Using only song names from one artist (anyone you like), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title.

My life according to The Cure

Are you a male or female: M

Describe yourself: I’m a Cult Hero

How do you feel: Boys Don’t Cry

Describe where you currently live: A Forest (Tree Mix)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? In Between Days (Shiver Mix)

Your favourite form of transportation: The Walk (Everything Mix)

Your hobby: Let’s Go To Bed

Your best friend? Close to Me (Closer Mix)

You and your best friends are: The Love Cats

What’s the weather like: Going Nowhere

Favourite time of day: A Night Like This

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Sleep When I’m Dead

What is life to you: Hot Hot Hot!!! (Extended Mix)

Your relationship: Fascination Street (Extended Mix)

Your fear: Killing an Arab or Sinking

What is the best advice you have to give: Trust

Thought for the Day: To Wish Impossible Things

My soul’s present condition: A Reflection

My motto: Play for Today

One thing I’ve learnt from my brother’s recent death is the power and importance of real friends and the support they provide when you really need them. Family are very important, but they’re not enough. I have witnessed the love of my mother’s friends, my sister’s friends, my brother’s friends, my sister-in-law’s friends and benefited from that of my own. I doubt I would have survived as well in one piece without them.

This post was inspired by Kathryn on Librarians Matter. I’m not telling a joke because I shared my best one (“pull my finger!”) with @pinkfairiedust in my office this afternoon. She declined. So, instead of a joke I offer some poetry. I hate poetry. This is one of very few poems I can recite. It is by the Spike Milligna (the famous typing error) and is called Baboon.

There once was a baboon
Who one afternoon
Said: “I think I’ll fly to the sun”

So with two great palms
Strapped to his arms
He started his take-off run

Mile after mile
He galloped with style
But never once left the ground

“You’re travelling too slow”
Called a passing crow
“Try reaching the speed of sound”

So he put on a spurt
By gosh how it hurt!
The soles of his feet caught fire

There were great clouds of steam
As he raced through a stream
But he still didn’t get any higher

Racing on through the night
Both his knees caught alight
And smoke billowed out from his rear

Quick to his aid
Came a fire brigade
That chased him for over a year

Many moons pass by
Did Baboon ever fly?
Did he ever make the Sun?

I’ve just heard today
That he’s well on his way
He’ll be passing through Neesden at One.

Thanks to @fionaweb for this meme. It was a lot of fun.

Here are the destructions:

1. Open your library (iTunes, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool!

Opening Credits: Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand

Waking Up: Our House – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

First Day At School: Flux (Live at the Enmore, Sydney) – Bloc Party

Falling In Love: Regret – New Order (geez, what is that saying for me!)

Fight Song: The Submarine – Whitley

Breaking Up: Procession – New Order (really?)

Prom: Road to Recovery – Midnight Juggernauts (but I don’t do proms!)

Life: Babylon – David Gray (this is not even supposed to be on my iPhone!!!)

Mental Breakdown: Ruined in a Day – New Order (how appropriate)

Driving: Nothing in My Way – Keane (ditto)

Flashback: I Feel Better – Hot Chip (I’m so pleased that this was delivered)

Getting Back Together: Square One – Coldplay

Wedding: Slippage – Goldfrapp (not that I’m allowed to have a wedding anyway)

Birth of Child: Today Will Be Better, I Swear! – Stars

Final Battle: Parachutes – Coldplay

Death Scene: Liar – New Order (this can’t be right)

Funeral Song: Perfect Kiss – New Order (so Shuffle is random, right?)

Remembrance Song: She’s So High – Blur

End Credits: This is the Life – Two Door Cinema Club

The image I took with my iPhone while listening to music on my way home tonight. It was a really beautiful scene and the camera does it no justice.

I saw this bike as I came to work today. I had ridden at home and then walked to the light rail because it was a wet morning so whoever owns this is more hardcore than I am. As a fixie rider he/she is more hardcore anyway: there are no rear brakes, so one brakes and slows down by pressure on the pedals. There is no coasting on this bike, even around corners. The front brake just helps you feel better in emergencies.

There are some really good details on this bike. On a quick look it all seems to be mostly new components and probably a restored frame. I can’t really tell what it is, perhaps an old Cervello (my brother would have been able to from this iPhone pic), but it was probably resprayed before being rebuilt as a fixie.

Maybe it was once a track bike. The narrow handlebars make it ideal for squeezing between a bus and a road train travelling in adjacent lanes. And they are set really low with the red head set spacers helping to keep it so low above the straight forks. (I use extra spacers to lift my handlebars up.) It would be a very agile and responsive bike. I love all the red details including the red rims on the Velocity wheels and the great looking seat post. Maybe a red chain would have been too over-the-top? I don’t much like the chain rings and cranks. I don’t know what they are, but they are certainly not Campagnolo.

Today a work colleague sent me something that pointed to some research by our (UTS) Institute for Sustainable Futures on Green Travel Planning. They are looking for support and potential participants for projects they are developing: one on car-sharing in multi-residential developments and the other is a course on travel planning for professionals engaged in planning relevant new developments for 2011.

They say the initiative to plan travel for workplaces can result in substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and reduced traffic congestion for workplaces like university campuses, industrial parks, hospitals, office precincts and multi-residential developments. That, however, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try to do something along the same lines in smaller institutions like libraries. We should certainly incorporate a green travel plan as a design consideration for our Library of the Future which is in its very early planning stages. Maybe we could also make a realistic contribution now just by setting an example for others to follow.

Perhaps it is too late in an existing institution to incorporate much that involves substantial investment in facilities or even additional construction, but there might be other steps we can take that could make a realistic, if small scale contribution. We could for example:

• raise awareness among our staff and encourage the use of alternative forms of transport that are more environmentally friendly (public transport, cycling and walking where feasible);
• encourage and perhaps facilitate car sharing or pooling arrangements;
• lobby for cycling or public transport subsidies instead of salary packaging for cars;
• improve and encourage the use of end-of-trip cycling and running amenities like showers and lockers;
• seek funds and/or equipment to improve video or online-conferencing facilities in our workplaces (vice long-distance air travel);
• arrange bike maintenance classes for staff and provide basic shared repair facilities at work;
• look more closely at flexible work arrangements that encourage working from home where appropriate or travel during non-peak periods;
• highlight and profile those of our colleagues who make the effort to use more sustainable forms of transport as examples for others to follow;
• run and celebrate regular voluntary Car Free days; and
• try some schemes that offer incentives to car poolers, bikers, runners, walkers or public transport users.

The implementation of some sustainability initiatives in our library is now on our strategic plan for the coming year after it was suggested by staff at our planning days. Maybe working up our own Green Travel Plan is a good start. What are you doing in your workplace?

The image is one of my bikes in my office at work.

Over the long weekend a close friend visited from Melbin. He bought me this orchid in memory of my late brother Muz. I think it is stunning.

Hello academic library experts!

We are dealing with a couple of complaints from students (I suspect because the library is very busy at present) who say that our library staff are not doing enough to manage selfish, anti-social or even noisy behaviour by other students in areas of the library designated as quite or silent zones. We’ve also had to remove a computer mouse that was super-glued to a desk top recently and that will necessitate a lot of expensive repair work to the long desk top that was damaged in the removal process.

We do have our reshelvers and security staff talk to students if they notice anything inappropriate and we can also deploy our student rovers against such behaviour, but I suspect the more that we react, the more students will either counter-react or find another way around it. Last year I talked with many US academic librarians who told me that students mostly self-manage behaviour in their library “commons” and group study spaces. We seek to gently encourage the same thing here, but we don’t want to go as far as encouraging student vigilantes and we don’t want to be too “precious” about the space.

So, I would be interested in reading about any successful initiatives you may have tried recently to encourage more cooperative, tolerant and appropriate behaviour by students in THEIR library.

The image above is the University of Nevada Las Vegas Lied Library learning commons.