ASSAULT ON RAILWAY PORTER
While under the influence of liquor, William James Whitla made himself very obnoxious on the train from port to Christchurch on Wednesday evening. He did not produce his ticket on demand, but instead used obscene language to the assistant-guard. This was in a first-class carriage, and when the porter asked him to leave, he remonstrated, used more language, and struck the porter twice. Evidence to this effect was given by the guard, the assistant-guard, and the porter in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Whitla pleaded guilty to all the charges except that of using obscene language, and this he did not remember. For using obscene language, the Magistrate, Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., sentenced him to two months’ imprisonment with hard labour. For assault he was convicted and sentenced to two weeks’ imprisonment with hard labour, and on the charges of failing to produce his ticket and being found drunk he was convicted and discharged. (The Press, 23 March 1928, p. 3)

A nostalgic homage to the glory of libraries and librarians harnesses Larkin and Keats to point up our lost visions of social betterment……

Intrigued? Read more at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/16/the-beautiful-librarians-by-sean-o-brien-poem-of-the-week

The 2014 NZ University Challenge series is screening on Prime at some odd time. As it’s easy to miss, you can view it on Youtube:

University Challenge (NZ) 2014 – E02: Lincoln vs. Auckland

Episode 1: Waikato vs Otago

My older son Marcel is in the Lincoln team.

Max

Fine Arts students often want to know where books and catalogues on contemporary art are located. With the specific nature of the LC classification system, there is no simple answer – there are numerous classifications used for contemporary art, depending on generality or specific art medium, country, topic, etc. So to make it easier to find them, I have created a contemporary art books page on the art guide, linked under the Books tab.

Max

Newsflash: Liaison Librarians’ report recommends humour for building workplace morale and improving team productivity:

“Key Learnings on Humour: There is a clear correlation between positive humour and positive affect, both for individual contributors and team-wide. Positive humour encompasses the typology of affiliative, coping and self-effacing humour. Successful operationalisation of workplace humour leverages improved group communication, strengthened performance orientation, increased goal consensus and buy-in, enhanced perception of psychological safety and learning capability, and superior group cohesion. Collectively, the enhancement of team communication, performance orientation, consensus, learning and cohesion activates improved team productivity (Mesmer-Magnus, Glew, & Viswesvaran, 2012, especially pp. 169-170, 176; Romero & Pescosolido, 2008).”

From: Team Challenge: Academic Liaison Team culture and steps to high performance
Report written by Cuiying Mu, Elizabeth Cooke, John Arnold, Kim Allan, Margaret Paterson and Theresa Buller
Friday, 8 August 2014

So wouldn’t it be great to see more humorous contributions to Counterculture!

Max

The Chapman Archive at Auckland University is New Zealand’s largest and most comprehensive collection of broadcast news and current affairs. Its catalogue is available to other tertiary institutions and secondary schools in New Zealand and Australia, and access is available to individuals and organisations who are signatories to the Screenrights Licencing Agreement.

UC students who want to use it need to contact the Archive directly. Any questions about accessing it can be referred to me or to the COMS guide, where I have added information and links.

Max Podstolski

Until an appointment is made to cover Elizabeth’s hours, I am acting as the point of contact for English enquiries.

Max

Where have all the teaspoons gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the teaspoons gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the teaspoons gone?
Girls [sorry, that should be “people”] have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

[with apologies to Pete Seeger]

Gresham Bradley from eTV emailed me this information. He will talk about it all at Wednesday’s presentation:

We are in the middle of a major investment programme for eTV that has several steps:

First: All the recording technology being replaced. This work is underway now. You will get 24/7 recordings of all channels held for 7 days. This means that we will not miss any programmes which is what is currently happening due to machine failure, and staff will be able to ask us to keep programmes for a week after it was broadcast, so solving the inevitable “did not know I wanted it till I saw it” problem.

Second: More Live Channels, a Noticeboard system (MySchoolTV), a Live Events interactive page, a fully online Shop for content purchases into a Library Catalogue.

Third: A completely new User Interface to make all these new features work.

Fourth: The eTV code is being totally updated to enable many many more important features to be offered. Just one of these is online clipping of videos (think editing), another is vastly improved searches, much better metadata tied when available to the Closed Captions of programmes. There is lots more but I won’t go into it all here.

This means that all remedial work on the current eTV code is on hold. Including email alerts.

Max

Gresham Bradley of eTV will be giving a presentation on Wednesday 5 Sept., 11.00-12.00, in James Hight 210.

He will be talking about the latest major eTV upgrade, so it should be well worth attending to find out what’s in the pipeline.

All Library staff are welcome to attend. Liaison Librarians, please invite any academic staff who may be interested.

Max