Tom Roper's Weblog

Socialmeter

Coo! I have a socialmeter score of 75 for http://tomroper.typepad.com/ and 40 for the running blog.
Is this good? I cannot tell.

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And while we're talking about classification...

...see this from The Onion: Dewey Decimal System Helpless To Categorize New Jim Belushi Book
There's a response on the Dewey blog and I look forward to a totally serious one from Lorcan Dempsey.

Obscure library classification schemes

There's an interesting debate going on in the LibraryThing Thingology blog (the theoretical LT blog) about classification systems and their electronic availability. If I ever had a free hand to choose a classification scheme for a general collection, untrammelled by the legacy of any previous system, I'd be very tempted to use Colon, or Bliss.
But a mention of an obscure one, the Blegen classification, for classical studies libraries, reminds me of some of the more obscure ones I have used in my time. When at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons we used Barnard, for which there is no Wikipedia entry. I may write one. I used to visit the Marx Memorial Library, which has its own system, which I was once told was based on that used at the Lenin Library in Moscow.
Classification and taxonomy are in the news. See the Guardian:
In praise of taxonomy
Guardian 12 August 2006 (though I thought that the ICZN taxonomy had been available online for some time)
And in the London Review of Books a fascinating investigation of medical and psychiatric taxonomies by the philosopher Ian Hacking:
Hacking, Ian
Making up people
London Review of Books 2006 28(18): 23-26
(Online version for subscribers only)
Hacking gave the tenth British Academy lecture in April this year, Kinds of People: Moving Targets, on much the same subject.

"Here is true fame"

For I discover this blog has been listed in the excellent Cites and Insights. The latest issue contains Perspective: Looking at Liblogs: The Great Middle - a look at 213 library-person weblogs. Walt Crawford is very through in his approach and assesses the blogs he looks at thus:
Starting date (from internal evidence)
Frequency of posts, March-May 2006
Number of comments, March-May 2006
Comments per post
Total length of posts, March-May 2006
Average length of posts
Blogrolls
Typeface and alignment
Colour usage
Creative Commons
Software

Here's my entry:

Tom Roper’s Weblog
Tagline: “ ‘…an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge…’
R.B. Sheridan The Rivals, 1775.” Author: Tom
Roper. Established October 2005. First March title:
“CILIP National Councillor election results.” Most
comments (4): “Beach huts: I speak out.” [showing I have my finger on the pulse of the issues that matter to this great profession of ours-TR]
Metrics: Many posts (70), comments (19), long
overall (6,654), terse posts (95 words per post).

Actually it was established long before October 2005: my first post, on the death of Alan Davidson, was in December 2003.

Booker Long List

Or the Man Booker prize, as we must call it. Sponsors become twitchy and disagreeable if they aren't given their full and proper titles.
It's here. I would like Howard Jacobson to win.
These are William Hill's prices, not that I'd bet on anything so culturally valuable and significant:
Mitchell, David: Black Swan Green 5/1
Carey, Peter: A Love Story 6/1
Waters, Sarah: The Night Watch 7/1
Unsworth, Barry: The Ruby In Her Navel 8/1
Jacobson, Howard: Kalooki Nights 10/1
O' Hagan, Andrew: Be Near Me 12/1
McGregor, Jon: So Many Ways To Begin 12/1
St Aubyn, Edward: Mother's Milk 14/1
Grenville, Kate: The Secret River 14/1
Murr, Naeem: The Perfect Man 16/1
Lawson, Mary: The Other Side Of The Bridge 16/1
Lasdun, James: Seven Lies 16/1
Hyland, M J: Carry Me Down 16/1
Robertson, James: The Testament Of Gideon Mack 20/1
Messud, Clare: The Emperor's Children 20/1
Matar, Hisham: In The Country Of Men 20/1
Edric, Robert: Gathering The Water 20/1
Desai, Kiran: The Inheritance Of Loss 20/1
Gordimer, Nadine: Get A Life 25/1

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No comment

Sometimes life defies parody. The Financial Times, like every other newspaper, led on Saturday with a terrorism-related story. But they know their readers well: "Anti-terror boost for duty-free" was the headline.

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Sussex Research Online in beta

A blog about the development of a beta version of the University of Sussex's Institutional Repository has gone online. it may be found at: http://researchonline.lib.sussex.ac.uk/. The repository itself, in beta, is at: http://eprints.lib.sussex.ac.uk/

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Goodwood: Stewards Cup day

200: Multidimensional
230: Alexander Goldrun
305: Desert Commander

"Self-plagiarism is style": The Library 2.0 Idea Generator

Hilarious: "Self-plagiarism is style" The Library 2.0 Idea Generator.
With thanks to Alan Fricker for pointing it out

Ascot, York and Leopardstown on King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes day

345 Ascot: Marching Song
350 York: Best Alibi
420 Ascot: Hurricane Run
650 Leopardstown: Gaudeamus