Sunday 30 October 2011

Recycled Book Crafts

Nicked from Kirstie's Handmade Britain - I love this woman's work and am already thinking about recycling books from the library to make Christmas decorations.

http://rarenotions.co.uk

She had some lovely Bauble type items but I've also found these with a quick search of the web. I reckon combined with the butterflies I already know how to make they'd make an ace Christmas tree

Paper baubles from The Guardian

Strip Baubles

Folded Paper Baubles

Contrasting Glued Baubles

Friday 21 October 2011

Heritage Cirqa (And the Harry Potter Great Hall)

While there is still money in the budget I'm being allowed to attend staff development events. (Or as another member of the team put it, go off on my jollies) The fact that our Library Management System provider happens to be based in Oxford certainly makes these events more enjoyable but that aside the open day yesterday at Heritage was certainly valuable.


The main aim was to introduce Cirqa, a major upgrade for the system that will be available next year. While I have a natural tendency to distrust anything a LMS provider says until proven otherwise I am genuinely excited about the difference Cirqa will make to the way we use our systems.  It's just starting BETA though so I think it'll be a while before we see it live.


http://www.isoxford.com/heritage/cirqa


After the technical bits in the morning we had a chance to talk to our support guys and discuss the failings of Heritage amongst ourselves. It turns out we're not the only ones experiencing weird systems stuff so we all had plenty to discuss. 


In the afternoon we had an excellent tour around Christ Church, including the Great Hall from Harry Potter (much smaller than you would think) and a visit to the library, something that is not normally on the public tour.



What I'm Reading

It's Study Week next week and with not much else planned I've brought home two wonderful books to keep me occupied. It's been a while since I've read anything apart from fiction so I'm really looking forward to a bit of self education.


The first is Patrick Mauries Cabinets of Curiosities, a wonderful encyclopedia on the origins of the Wunderkammer. I happened on this book by chance while browsing a publisher catalogue and immediately bought it for the art library. Even though I get to keep it for the next few months I'm still tempted to add it to my Christmas Wishlist.


The second is a book called Beauty in Decay from URBEX. It's a photographic exploration of abandoned spaces and architecture which I find both beautiful and sad at the same time.  It's the sort of book I'll pick through, dipping into during quiet moments. (Unlike C of C which I'll read cover to cover) Again, it's probably going to end up on my wishlist for Christmas this year.