I went to my universities library today for the first time in a very long time. The irony wasn’t lost on me, as an almost fulltime (I have one day at home with my boys) researcher, that I shouldn’t be so well acquainted with the library is a bit funny. Most of my library use these days is through google and I read the papers on line too. Anyways here I am in the library, its an amazing 5-star place, looking for yesterdays paper. Sadly I need to pay for the full article, as I’m too cheap to pay and googleing the article doesn’t get me the article for free this time :(.
Anyways eventually I find the paper, behind the current days issue, or where it should be, as it was missing and theres no label on the shelf either. Its hiding behind a flip top shelf where all the past few weeks papers are. My thanks to the helpful counter staff for the secret passage directions, apparently I am supposed to take a number to be served, its all a bit …exciting, but as its friday at the end of semester things are quiet.
Next step is to photo copy the paper, sadly there are no photocopiers that take coins anymore and my photocopier card is… I don’t know where. Fortunately helpful counter staff point out all I need is my staff card, or my staff number. So finally I’m ready to go but there is a pin number assigned, which after trying my favourites doesn’t let me in. A quick visit to my librarian friends and thats all taken care of, it looks like I have $0.80 available from a department that was two or so productivity reorganisations ago
So what was I looking for…well here’s some irony, its a nice article on academics blogging and here am I blogging.
Net gains of digital profile
- BY:
MARTIN DAVIES AND MARK KING From:
The Australian September 26, 2012 12:00AM
GONE are the days of academics slogging away at research that virtually no one reads. They now have to take on the cumbersome, and for some unnatural, activity of promoting themselves, almost as much as TV stars or celebrities.
Richard Dawkins, A. C. Grayling, Susan Greenfield and Niall Ferguson are not only excellent academics but also household names precisely because they could reach out as intellectuals, packaging their work for public consumption.