Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Library Shelving Entropy


If asked to give a layman's definition of the second law of thermodynamics I'd likely explain that in a closed system the level of disorder tends to increase over time. The common misuses of this theory asides, I offer libraries as a proof.

It starts innocuously enough. Two books are reversed on the shelf. Or one's lying down at the end of a row of books. A few days later six books have hopped to other bays of shelving and large gaps in the fiction collection have the whole thing looking dishevelled. When you go to put one of the bay-hoppers back where they belong you find two books that have made an epic journey from a collection on the other side of the building. Others have disappeared into the blackness behind other books and under furnishings where they can hide for weeks.

Before you know it: 

This, thankfully, is from Wikimedia Commons, not from my own camera.
The library I work in offers significantly lower levels of entropy (phew).

Any member of staff who has been handed the routine but sometimes mildly terrifying task of searching the notorious missing report or any of the other lists for materials that aren't where they were expected to be can confirm this to you.

Shelvers, shelf tidiers and shelf readers might fight the forces of entropy with great enthusiasm and persistence but the laws of physics can never be truly overcome.

Ebooks may offer a sort of salvation - but to look wider to the world of digital resources the work of entropy is plain to see.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Travel Journal - Phuket, Thailand (Part 1)

Sometimes when I travel I keep a journal. I recently took a week long trip to Phuket, Thailand and thought I'd share the journal this time. I've twitched it a bit here and there from my personal copy, but hopefully that makes it all the more interesting.


Sunday, November 10, 2013

Found Alphabet - S

 

This S comes from Kuala Lumpur International Airport - I was in transit and spotted this on a a lamp in the cafe where I was enjoying a rather excellent teh tarik and some samosas.

The one below was meant to be my S, it's the pavement of a market area in Patong, Phuket. I waited for tuk tuks and market shoppers to get off it for a moment... but the angle and framing just aren't right. This is the best I can get it to be.



*grump*

On the upside my holiday was incredible and I'm working on writing up my travel journal.