A few thoughts on Baking with Kim-Joy: Cute and Creative Bakes to Make You Smile

Baking with Kim-Joy: Cute and Creative Bakes to Make You Smile by Kim-Joy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is joyful. I am yet to make any of the recipes, but I keep borrowing this as an ebook, and reading it again. There is a halloween cake with meringues as ghosts and some spooky pears. I am sure that everyone needs a space turtle cake in their lives with the incredible colours it provides. There are pages of instructions for some cakes but this seems helpful rather than overwhelming. The recipe I want to make first are the Tangzhong Cat Buns (think a tin of bread rolls that look like sleeping cats), but first I need to add some food dye to my kitchen supplies. The Space Turtle Melonpan Buns also look joyful. Macarons are turned into many animals including cats and koalas. The lemon tarts with meringue cats also look lovely as do the Pigfiteroles in Mud (choux pigs in chocolate).

This would be an interest addition to reading group discussions.

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I am doing this as my #GLAMBlogClub post for January, because I am struggling for humour this year, so I thought this joyful book may help.  With the struggle for humour I have been exploring data instead. The NSW Department of Primary Industries has excellent data on the extent of the drought in NSW, and the Bureau of Meteorology has excellent climate data including for temperature and rainfall. The Fires near me site or app also provides useful data.  Apologies for not providing drought and fire map links for other states, but I am trying to not spend too long on this blog post. If this is all too grim, have a look at the Customer service wolf. 

Make sure you have a look at Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service Birdie stories which are written to help children through stressful events, and can be helpful for others to read as well. You could also contact an organisation like Beyond Blue for help.

local studies and making

Knitsonik does amazing work with knitting and sound. Her books encourage others to connect their lives to knitting, and there is a lot of potential for interesting local studies knitting (you really need to look at the knitted designs about bricks, fruitcake and roads). Knitsonik also combines knitting, sound and place (have a look at her work on this).

What a beautiful workshop today, all making knitted jewelry from my handspun silk, while exploring the books of Lady Zoe Hart Dyke (aristocratic 1930s sericulturist who established a silk farm in a castle...where our handspun silk was grown...) and listening to my recordings of silkworms from 2015. This intangible heritage project funded by @aceagrams and hosted/supported by @the.merl has provided one of the richest opportunities yet for me to engage knitters in my creative knitting and sound process and practice, I am so grateful for the experience and to all the knitters who have come so far! Last one is next week... Sheep bells. Looking forward to it already.

A post shared by Felicity Ford (@knitsonik) on Mar 31, 2018 at 6:59am PDT

Other knitters are also working in this space. Perhaps you have some local knitters, spinners, woodworkers, coders, crocheters and other crafters who can help tell the story of your place.

This post has been sitting in my draft files for a while. I thought it was time to move it along.

A few thoughts on the book New top technologies every librarian needs to know

New Top Technologies Every Librarian Needs to Know by Kenneth J. Varnum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book brings together many technologies being used in libraries, some of these have been around for a while, but sometimes with little implementation in libraries. Each chapter provides a solid basic introduction to a technology or a tool for example linked open data, data visualisation or digital publishing. There is usually a description of how the technology is used in a library as well as how it could be used in a library. There are helpful further references at the end of each chapter. This is a book to dip into, and come back to as it is episodic in style.

I read this as an ebook on the Indyreads platform which is provided by my workplace.

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Question for #glamblogclub

This post is a few, mostly unconnected thoughts, and some questions. Asking questions is important, but you don't want to sound like you are conducting an interrogation. This is important with colleagues as well as with people who use your library. You also want to make sure you are listening for the answer/s and not thinking about what you will say next. Pauses can be okay.

When you are helping someone find information, do you help them with formulating their question, or do you answer the question you think they should have asked? I once worked with someone who felt it was much better to answer the questions she thought people should have been researching, rather than the questions they were looking to answer. This is different to helping someone formulate their question, and not nearly so helpful (unless you want people to avoid asking you questions, and it could be very frustrating for students with school projects to do.).

Biblioteka Haburas Moris, NGO Roman Luan, Atauro Island

The reference interview/conversation or readers' advisory interview/conversation is about finding what the person is looking for, rather than the answer you want to give, and really helping them with their questions, rather than showing off your answers. It is also about listening so you are really providing the assistance/training they are seeking. This is not a post of inspiration but of a reminder of the basics.

 From earlier posts, there are a few more questions:

• How equitable is the help your library provides? 
• Who do you make space for in your library?

In case you are wondering about the photograph, it is from Biblioteka Haburas Moris, NGO Roman Luan, Atauro Island showing a locally produced book in Tetum.  There were other books in the library which certain donor organisations had given without asking the right questions.  For example on this island there was no postal service and no internet - so a book on how to use ebay was not going to be very useful.  The book on ebay use was only one example of the donor organisation not questioning what they were actually trying to do for the community. So if you are giving library materials to other countries think very carefully about it, and make sure you ask the right questions.