Foolscap records - digging out and photocopying

I helped a staff member today with accessing historic committee papers for a project, the easy part was pulling them out! The index system holds firm, everything is where it should be and the files are ready for use.

Having got them out, clearly photocopying some items would be helpful to allow him to work better.

It was a pleasant surprise to get hold of these documents from the 60s and take it all in. I certainly enjoyed the language used and their presentation but making copies was another thing all together! The complication was that these documents were in foolscap format which is longer in length than A4.

Photocopies on trays designed for A4 certainly made life difficult, I need to go out and see how others get around managing foolscap in an A4 world! I ended up orientating the page to cut off margins but not text but it was messy and quite frankly difficult. I am sure there are better ways of dealing with this, but I was pressed for time.

This also reminded me that some of the mid 90s electronic papers are in WordStar format which will present it's own challenges to retrieve and display again!

Future possibilities with Libraries - the Amsterdam model

Amsterdam Library - Openbare bibliotheek amsterdam

I went on holiday last weekend with my wife who is also a Librarian. Before we

returned to the Amsterdam Central Station for the final train journey back to the Airport we left a couple of hours free to checkout the nearby Amsterdam city library. It was well worth the effort and could have spent all day there!

There were 7 floors of amazing library action! From an amazing open reception area to a top floor restaurant La Place.

There were plenty of Windows PCs for general internet access and Microsoft Office applications - with no login required whatsoever. Yes I could walk up to a machine and just use it straight away without needing any temporary logins!

Then there were loads of Macs all setup in much the same way for internet access and iTunes, you could plug in your device and download to your hearts content whatever you desired. Amazing and check out the furniture as well!

I don't work in libraries nor do I use them much which I am ashamed to say. However this visit to Amsterdam City Library changed my whole view on what they can achieve and how the service can be delivered.

Check out these "study" booths, great little hideaways dotted around on several floors complete with power sockets, network points and a very generous amount of room to work in. Cracking way of separating those that wish to study privately from the people that prefer the social group interactions.

The way the materials - books, DVDs etc were presented was superb, check out these round and curvy columns and bonkers lighting!

And of course, what library would be complete without a piano for the general public to use!

You didn't think they would let me play it do you? I should have tested their definition of experienced players!

New .docx format beginning to embed and causing problems for sharing

Within the department I work, we are increasingly experiencing more and more complications with the new Microsoft Office .docx format introduced with version 2007.

We still work with Office 2003 and the docx file format is not integrated with our own document management platform, so you are not able to edit and manipulate such objects without clumsy manual interventions. Subsequent releases will address this, but that means a global upgrade to LiveLink which obviously is not something performed overnight.

This conflict was inevitable as more people migrate to Office 2007 or 2010 and use the new format by default who interact with us.

We have the file conversion tool by Microsoft but this comes with so many caveats and warnings that clearly this is not a perfect solution.

External customers are asking for help with the new file types where documents are provided by other sources we do not control. Clearly a public sector organisation cannot recommend solutions to individuals - it is their call which is naturally not a helpful position.

I hope that this new file format - heralded as more open, is worth the pain and investment required.

Where we do control matters, we issue papers and responses in PDF format so we have greater confidence that the recipient will be able to access and view the file in the way it was intended.