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.

Thanks to Bonito Club for this meme.

Two names you go by:
1) Mal
2) Malcolm (but I hate it!)

Two things you are wearing right now:
1) Old Nike Free shoes
2) G-Star jeans

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship:
1) Fun
2) Decent sex

Two things you like to do:
1) Excercise (swim, ride, run)
2) Visual arts

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1) The leak to be fixed in my house & all damage repaired
2) The new camera I purchased online ages ago to finally arrive!

Two things you did last night:
1) Watched Animal Kingdom
2) Ate Turkish food for dinner

Two things you ate today:
1) Cheese & spinach roulade with salad
2) Muesli

Two people you last talked to:
1) Gary (a close friend from Melbin)
2) My Mum

Two things you’re doing tomorrow:
1) Breakfast with Gary
2) Working

Two Favorite Holidays
1) Hawaii
2) Sweden

Two favourite beverages
1) Piccolo Latte (espresso)
2) Coffee

Two things about me you may not have known.
1) I hate hot spicy food (like chilli)
2) I barrack for Hawthorn in the AFL

Two jobs I have had in my life:
1) Army officer
2) Intelligence analyst

Two movies I would watch over and over:
1) Magnolia
2) Big Wednesday

Two places I have lived:
1) Melbin
2) London

Two of my favourite foods:
1) Choklit
2) Even more choklit

Two places I’d rather be right now:
1) New York City (‘cos I’ve never been)
2) Milan, Italy (ditto)

Oh. the image is a decent-looking fixie I saw after the Melbin Midsumma parade earlier this year. Go figure.

Sydney sometimes feels like that to me. A bit of a race or a competition. Survival of the fittest, or those with a parking fairy.

Today I spent wandering around the 17th Biennale of Sydney with three of my best friends. Frankly, most of the contemporary visual art that we saw (mostly at MCA) was pretty lame, especially the junk masquerading as “video art”. Apart from Bill Viola’s work at the MCA, it really is self-indulgent, second or third rate rubbish in my opinion. What we saw at MCA is from all over the place and not just Australian, so in saying that it is mostly rubbish I guess the problem stems from poor curatorial selection because it isn’t indicative of the state of Australian contemporary art practice. I have better contemporary art hanging on my walls at home. The Biennale selections just don’t rate for me, nor did they compare with the quality of work still on display at the State Library of NSW in their One Hundred exhibition. In that exhibition there is something for everyone from Banks’ HMB Endeavour journal to a really beautiful illustrated letter from Brett Whiteley to his mother. I’m so glad that I didn’t miss this great exhibition.

Later on we went to see the brilliant Australian film Animal Kingdom (see image & link to the film website). It deserves all of the rave reviews it is getting and Jackie Weaver deserves some big acting award for her portrayal of the convincingly disturbing crime matriarch, Janine “Smurf” Cody. She is seriously creepy. It is a big leap above the recent spate of TV crime dramas that are based on real events in both Melbourne and Sydney. It is more relaxed in the way it portrays the story and it looks so much better. The acting is better, the direction and writing is superb and the film just works so well.

It is easily the best Australian film I can remember seeing for a long time. The violence in the film is both direct or inferred and you never quite know when it is going to happen, or not. There is a lot in its title and they manage to stay true to that right up to the final scene. I also liked the way they frankly portrayed the lives destroyed by crime and the fact that at some stage most criminals make a big mistake or come undone. They are not all brain surgeons or lucky for their entire lifetime. Don’t miss it and see it in a cinema, not on DVD.

How many films do you see a year at the cinema?
Probably around 30 or so. (I’ve joined the Dendy now I live so close to Newtown, so intend to see more from now on.)

What’s your favourite film(s)?
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Jesus’ Son, Magnolia, The Dreamers, Downfall, Without Limits, The Good Shepherd, Wings of Desire, Mou Gaan Dou 1 2 & 3, The Ignorant Fairies, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Lawrence of Arabia, Big Wednesday, Donnie Darko, Fargo, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Latter Days, Lords of Dogtown, An Englishman Abroad, and A Single Man.

Who is your favourite director?
Don’t really have one, but I liked what Tom Ford did recently with A Single Man and have a lot of respect for David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia & many others).

How do see most movies (eg tv, cinema, download, dvd)?
Cinema and DVD.

Do you think 3D movies will be a fad…again?
Yep.

What film do you hate the most?
Avatar. Absolute rubbish.

Do you have a guilty pleasure?
Porn & the films of Ashton Kutcher.

Who is your favourite film reviewer?
I suppose I like the reviews of Margaret Pomeranz & David Stratton because they usually give you different perspectives. There is also Paul Byrnes in the SMH and I read his reviews most Saturdays.

How many times have you seen The Sound of Music?
Several & enough.

Name a film, or films, you’ve seen multiple times?
The Sound of Music, The Great Escape, Star Wars, Gallipoli, Field of Dreams, Magnolia, Lawrence of Arabia, On Golden Pond, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Big Wednesday, & probably several others, but I cannot remember them all.

Have you ever yelled comments at the screen in a cinema? (…did people laugh?)
Not since uni and I cannot remember.

At the end of my previous post I said what I really admired about those libraries that are putting themselves out there: guts, initiative, energy and imagination.

Have some fun. Put yourself out into the spaces we all talk about: YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, blogs, etc. But beware: someone will eventually pull the cat’s bum face on you.

Do you snack while watching TV?