Brute Force Vulnerability Discovery

A bunch of books dropped into the book drop, through the return slot (amazing enough in this age and joyful because my nostalgic Luddite long term environmentally-sound storage loving self likes the clunk the books make as they go in).  As is my wont I check them over to make sure they don't need repair work done (no soddering irons required) and check titles for things of interest.  Fuzzing!?  What **&^ is Fuzzing.  Has it to do with the fuzzy bear on the cover?  Of course it does, because as I have know since I was small Fuzzy wazzy was a bear, and it turns out Fuzzy wazzy is now clogging up computer programs with with his fuzz (much random data - not to be confused the BIG data) to see when they will crash.  It is a brute force test, looking for the vulnerable bits, don't you know.  Though I am quite sure the grizzly on the book cover is really only interesting in catching that salmon jumping toward his open maw - no brute force required, just intelligent placement.

Fuzzing: Brute Force Venerability Discovery.

clicking through a train of thought

 745.5 F66 1987  

Just helped a student locate Plants of the Bible (who knew!) BS (as all good religion related books are) 665.M71.  Being keen to be helpful even as she charged off, I dropped my eyes to the subject link: Nature in the Bible. Click.  I think there was something about nature, but, calligrapher and illuminator such as I am, my eyes fell on: Decoration and Ornament. Click.  I am offered the option of 59 subsections:  Click.  And what do I find? Felt Marker Decoration!  A train of thought leading to the joys of the Curriculum Collection of the Education Library.

favourite title of the day

So, as I shelf read (making sure all the call numbers bounce along in the order they should), or arrange books at the shelving point ready to pack, or packing them, onto a shelving truck, my eyes run over the titles and now and then my eye is caught.

Today:  An Idiot's Fugitive Essays on Science*,  with a two page errata no less.

*Q 126.8.T78 1984.  And don't get any ideas the common denominator is any brighter thirty years on.

One ping only

In the summer our library changed from Meebo (which had been successful and therefore sold and put to death) to LibraryH3lp for use as our online reference interface.  I miss Meebo's calming blue colours, LibraryH3lp is elblanco boring.  I miss the squishablity of the conversation windows that allowed me to put my conversations 'down' out of sight if the conversation has paused or stopped.  But what I missed most about Meebo was the comforting little 'pong' it made when letting me know someone was calling.  LibraryH3lp screeched.  It was painful.  It was frightening.  I had to turn my speaker way down.

Then one coffee break not too long ago I popped over to another branch and was talking to a co-worker who was doing online reference.  Screeeeech.  "Oh," she said, "my submarine is calling.  And there I was, suddenly on the bridge of the Red October, with Sean Connery asking me for 'One ping, one ping only.'  I have turned my speaker back up a bit.  And I am happy.

quick cataloguing tip

Or is that trick?  It's great anyway because it saves you writing a note to the overworked people in cataloguing, attaching it to the book, letting someone haul the book over to the catalogue department, having them print a new tag, affix it to the book and reverse the process to you.  Go to the catalogue (online in these fasinating modern times). Check for the correct number.  Discover it is only the difference of a 0 that should be a 9.  Pull out your trusty dryline whiteout, and whiteout the 0.  Pick up your trusty black pen and write in, carefully now, practice a few times first if you feel you need to, a 9. Situation saved. Shelve the book.

Visit from Italia



Photo by thrillwnc

 Well google translate was no help, but the Italian gentleman and I managed to work out between us what he wanted and how I could help him.  He now has a map of campus and is off to photograph all the library branches.  Somehow I don't think any of them will come off as beautifully as this picture from Italy.

me vs the ipad: round six

Okay, Henry could have won this one.  But he has a small disadvantage.  He's too big.  We have a basement in this library.  And I mean a basement, don't stop on the landing, go allllll the way down.  It is a maze.  Look for the wall of red books (American Supreme Court something-a-ruthers for those who are interested) and you will find the exit.  Otherwise it is a "bodies of students lost in this library will be retrieved Mondays and Thursdays only, no exceptions" kind of basement. (One poor young foreign student thought I was serious! eek).  I go down into the basement, in which I could find my way out blindfolded, one a week to seek out books which are labeled "missing".  Ie, we have no idea where they have ended up.  It is true, humans work here, no digital breakdown required, we don't have to be rebooted, we do this naturally: we make mistakes. 

So, there I am, in the basement, and low a student appears.  "Can I help you?"  Yup.  So I charge about the back roads of the basement and pull out the books he needs.  But there is a problem, he's new in life and missed that part of education which demanded handwriting was something you could actually read.  Especially if it was your own.  And here is where Henry would have had his moment.  I could have looked up the book and got the call number* by using Henry, who, bright little bug that he is, has access to the internet.  But I was searching for missing books and had that list in my hands, as I have to make a note of each time I look for them.  Carrying the list and Henry around with me was not a happening thing. So, I had to send the poor student all the way up the long staircase, step by step, on foot, to the main level where the computers are.  Sigh.

Now you will say I could use Henry to hold the book search list and mark off the dates on which I had checked for the books.  And I don't doubt you are right. But given that we are not allow aps due to the need for credit card back up and due to the fact that I have already stated the difficulties of Henry's note taking abilities....I will leave you with this little story.  Belonged to a group that send out a few hard copy newsletters to the luddites among us.  A friend in the group said she could print out the mailing list for me on stickies so I would not have to slave away by hand with the envelopes.  After four hours she had not sorted out how to get her computer, printer, and paper to work in concert.  I wrote the envelopes out by hand each month for five years, and still hadn't used up four hours of my time doing it.

*Yup its true, with hundred and eighty thousand, give or take, titles we do not sort them by colour but by library of congress call number.

Law in and out

Snow has come, the walks are shovelled, most of them.  And the University being a large institution, and the season being winter, has turned on the air conditioning.  Co-workers gather at the window to see the snow outside, hoping for spring inside.

Random sample

The Law Library here has a wonderfully high ceiling.  In places, five stories.  I can stand on the third floor and look down on all the baby lawyers, and one must face facts, baby business people too, as they study.  I stopped to watch them today.  In the howl of the digital worship around the world I found what I saw enlightening, and to my paper booked little soul, comforting.  Of the 47 students I could see from my vantage point, 2 were asleep, 7 were working solely with computers, 8 were reading from paper (4 books, 4 printouts), the rest had computers and were surrounded by paper and were bouncing between the two technologies.  Like the pencils that went into space with the Russians, some technologies have staying power.  Even when new ones claim they are dead.

Coming in first for the environment....the library

In a contest between the book and the e-book, the library wins.  I sparked off this picture* because, being me, I wanted to know what happens after we are done with the tool.  What I have long suspected is true, books are the superior technology.  Using the quick comparison presented by Daniel Goleman books cause less damage in production, in transportation ("You’d need to drive to a store 300 miles away to create the equivalent in toxic impacts on health of making one e-reader"), and in disposal. Now, go to the library and use a book we all own, read it, and someone else will read it, and someone else will read it, and someone else....all without making more copies.

Libraries are brilliant.

*I found it on Stephen's Lighthouse, the original article by Les Grossman gives a bit more, but he is talking about a different aspect of the advantages of books.

senior technology retains cache

Well, its coming in folks, the stats, and it turns out there are a goodly number of us who are still looking at the long term, and I might point out, long lasting, out lasting, and bio-more friendly, technology of print on paper over print on a screen (do you really want to know what screens turn into when they try to biodegrade?  ---- eeeeeekkkkk run screaming from reality).

Barry W. Cull has written a paper on the subject, my favourite quote from which is: students prefer to read on paper, although they also want the convenience of online digital text. Liu has found that graduate academic library users like the access provided by online electronic resources, but prefer to print the electronic documents in order to read them. 

My little bookmaking heart is filled with glee.  My poor eyes, currently starting at a screen, as are yours, think longing of ink on paper.  Even if that turns out to be e-ink on e-paper? Given the attributes of the common denominator I expect so (remember to run screaming from reality).  When, I wonders, are we going to start pronouncing that ei-nk (sounding remarkably like ink only longer in front), and what will the anthropologists think of us with such a large part of our vocabulary showing e's out front?

play to your strengths

Libraries have:

real, professionally trained staff that help, a bias towards quality, geographic proximity with communities, alignment with learning or community goals, hard copy and electronic resources, a bias towards patron privacy and confidentiality, bridges across the economic and ability divide, trust

Google has:

more stuff, a neat algorithm, a unified brand, a mobile strategy at the point of need, only focuses on the big stuff

Stephen Abram

and we are mobile too:  UofS Library App

Exciting a book binding library assistant

Well, at least if I get to do the soldering.  I have been thinking seriously of taking the back off my retired mac. The thing I like about being a book binder and repairer is that I actually get to do the work, so if librarians get to start teaching people neat stuff, I am in.  In this article by Seth Godin he talks about the future of librarians not as keepers of the books (he keeps saying dead, but like calligraphy, book making will step gracefully into being an art and it will never die), but as being connectors bringing data and people together.  Sounds like community.  I think we'll start with a potluck and I will show you how to take some of your favourite data and turn it into a work of art.

Replacing the library tour

Looks like fun to me. I say we take a field trip to New York and test run it. (The link is not showing up...click on New York, no not this New York, the first New York.)

I made a map so we wouldn't get lost.