The Complaints - Ian Rankin

In his first police procedural novel, since retiring Rebus, Rankin introduces a new character Malcolm Fox. Fox works for "The Complaints" the police department that investigates other police officers.Fox is less of a loner than Rebus and less bad tempered but like Rebus he is cerebral cop with a strong sense of justice.For those who are still mourning Rebus Fox is an interesting new character who I'm sure Rankin will flesh out and develop.Another success for one of crime fiction's most literary writers, highly recommended

Chess Nomads v Radcliffe & Bingham 21.9.09

Sandeep Dhir - White
Steve Baker - Black

1 d4 d5
2 h3 Bf5
3 a3 e6
4 g4 Be4
5 f3 Qh4
6 Kd2 Bg6
7 Bg2 Bd6
8 e3 Qf2
9 Qe2 QxQ
10 Nxe2 f5
11 Nc3 Nf6
12 Ke1 a6
13 b4 Nd7
14 Rb1 f5xg4
15 f3xg4 Bxc2
16 Rb2 Bg6
17 Nf4 Bxf4
18 e3xB o-o-o
19 Re2 c6
20 Rxe6 Rd8e8
21 Rxe8 Rxe8
22 Kf2 Be4
23 Nxe4 Nxe4
24 Kf3 g6
25 h4 Nd6
26 Be3 Nc4
27 Bc1 Re4
28 Rd1 Nb6
29 Kg3 Na4
30 BxR Nc3
31 Re1 Nxe4
32 Kg2 Kd7
33 h5 Ke6
34 h5xg6 h7xg6
35 Kh3 Kf6
36 Kh4 b6
37 Kh3 Draw

Jo Nesbo - The Dark Star

A couple of people have told me that if I like Scandinavian crime fiction, and I do, then I should try Jo Nesbo. So as i'm giving a talk "Wallander and Beyond" I thought I had better catch up with this Norwegian writer.

Nesbo's main character is Harry Hole a Detective with a drink problem (why do fictional detectives always have a drink problem are all real detectives alcoholics as well?). Harry is bit old school unashamed of acting on hunches and intuition but he is extremely intelligent and joins dots that his colleagues don't even realize are dots.

The Devil's Star, on the face of it, is the story of the hunt for a serial killer but it is in fact much deeper and cleverer than that simple premise suggests.

Nesbo is very good storyteller and I would highly recommend this series.

I've read a few Norwegian writers now and unlike Swedish writers they don't seem to place a great emphasis on a sense of place and atmosphere. These stories are set in Oslo but it could be London or Paris or any European city. For Norwegian writers the story rather than the place seems to be the important element.

On to the second one in the series now

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin a review

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin has a very simple storyline. Eilis is the youngest daughter of a widow living in 1950's Cork. Work is hard to come by and the family is supported by Eilis's older sister Rose. So when a job opportunity comes up Eilis sets of to Brooklyn. The story has three phases the build up to leaving home, then adapting to life in NY and then the return home when tragedy strikes.

The book has has many themes family, hardship, loneliness, love and class. But this isn't a book that's held together by it's storyline or even it's themes but by it's characters. The characters are beautifully drawn, real people you can identify with and care about, especially Eilis.

Colm Toibin is an author that I've never got around to reading before. From the blurb I expected a worthy, slow and rather dull book, but it was the opposite. I was engaged from the first chapter and it never felt like a chore.

Information strategy etc.

Saturday morning and it is glorious, makes a change this summer. The grass is somping so I can't mow it but I will spend some time in the garden tidying up and relaxing after a busy week. Could watch England v Australia day 2 but I think that may be more frustrating than relaxing.

In library world, we spent the end of the week working on our Information Strategy to improve the current service and develop it. The agenda that it sets for the next 12 months + is huge and from my point of view will be the first real test of the new structure. I need to get into a position where I can get ahead of the team and spend more time directing so I can get the best out of them. At the moment I feel like I'm spending too much time dealing with the present rather than moving the service forward. But as we keep saying it's "early days"

IT and Libraries

For a Librarian to deliver a quality service they need not only to have the skills and ability to use IT but also the equipment to put those skills into practice. Poor and dated hardware, out of date applications and inadequate line speeds are at best a hindrance and at worse a serious handicap to both good customer service and productivity.

IT costs a lot of money and when you are talking about providing adequate IT for a whole service the figures can be frightening. But you have to balance the cost against the benefits, just like any business has to. It's too easy to save money by deleting IT projects, however the losses, although often hard to measure, are significant . Reduced productivity, frustrated staff and often loss of customer.

Notts Libraries v Gedling Sports 30.7.09

After a dreadful couple of days of pretty much persistent rain it seemed very unlikely that we would be able to play cricket this week. However an afternoon of occasional sunshine and a strong breeze dried the pitch just enough to make play possible, though there were a few swamp like areas.

For a number of years now, King George V Park in Arnold has been a batters pitch and tonight was to be no different. After winning the toss NLCC chose to bat(partly because 3 players hadn't turned up in time, 1 of which never turned up). We scored freely reaching 139 for 1 in 18 overs. A good score on the majority of pitches but an achievable score here. Mike Hayward got a career best of 82 not out and Mike Berry, in an unusual supporting role, got to 44 before losing his wicket.

Gedling scored steadily and were always in touch with the required run rate. I came on to bowl the 9th over with the opening batsman still in and proceeded to get "carted" all around the park, taking the pressure off the batsman. My next three overs were much better, going around the wicket I was able to limit the run scoring and in the process took 2 wickets. They needed 6 off the last over and Mike Berry was unlucky to see the second ball smashed just over Tom to the boundary and Gedling reached their target with 3 balls to spare.

A shame to lose but a good tight game that could have gone either way, a bit of needle between the players (fueled by a few disputed LBW decisions) and a rarity this summer, some sunshine.

In a close match everybody ponders the things they could have done better, in my case that poor first over, batsmen wonder if they could have turned a few of those singles into twos, the keeper and fielders think about those few fumbles that allowed the batsmen to steal extra runs. But at the end of the day being one fielder short makes a big difference

Powerpoint slides from yesterdays Web 2.0 day

The slides from yesterdays web 2.0 training can be accessed from the following link:

http://www.slideshare.net/secret/v7azCeNH56QGyG

As my name appears on the first slide it makes it appear that this was all my own work, this wasn't deliberate, honest!

The sun's come out maybe we will play cricket tonight?

Web 2.0

I'm sitting in Carlton Library Nottinghamshire with 15 other librarians, pooling our knowledge, teaching ourselves about web 2.0 and deciding how we can use it to improve services to our customers.

Outside the rain is coming down in sheets. Our cricket match against Gedling Sports tomorrow night is looking like it might be called off if things don't improve