blogging and hawking at the cardiff library

Off again, on again since mid-January -- and mostly off -- the sign-in service for Google Blogger is currently working at the Cardiff Library. A couple of weeks ago, after talking to three different library assistants about the ongoing situation, a woman wrote a letter to the library's information technology team for me. On the weekend, a gentleman called and told me what I had been hearing since January, which was that the problem was being worked on.

It was good to hear from someone affected by the situation as he too is a blogger and understood my frustration, unlike quite a few of the staff, who disturbingly sad to say -- especially for a library -- seem unaware of blogging.

I wasn't planning on posting today, but as I am able to sign in, I thought it was a good time to give the Cardiff Library some better press than I have been giving it.

The central library's new building, which only opened two years ago -- almost to the day -- has won several architectural awards and is physically striking. It has an environmentally-friendly green roof with a resident falconer and falcons protecting it. From work I can often see a person huddled in winter gear on the roof. The falconer sits like a lone shepherd, spending his/her day in the elements with the birds of prey keeping nuisance birds away from the sky turf. Who would think that falconers could find such ready work? This is a fascinating and quite a unique employment situation. See this site for more ways to use birds of prey: http://www.falconryservices.co.uk/

I commend the architectural awards, but can't believe that last spring the Sunday Times Travel magazine called the Cardiff library one of the six best in the world. This is simply incredulous. The Toronto Reference Library spins hoops around Cardiff's as do several university libraries I have been in.

Alas, I'm spinning away from my good press intentions. I will continue my love/hate relationship with the library here and be kinder to it as we take a high arc along a learning curve and be more grateful for the use of their computers.