By Way of Introduction...

Both as an outsider looking in, and now I guess as an insider looking round (Hi, pleased to meet you - I'm Tony Hirst, I just started as an Arcadia Fellow...), it seems to me that one of the great strengths of the Arcaida Project is the opportunity it provides to cast a fresh eye over Library life in Cambridge.

So as I start my 10 week stint here in Cambridge, here's a bunch of immediate impressions from day one...

Firstly, the Cambridge system is a multi-layered one. I've been here a day and already collected four sets of computer credentials (they all use the same ID, but initially at least came with separate passwords): PWF (Public Workstation Facility), Hermes (email/webmail), Raven (Cambridge U wifi network) and the local University Library network. I also need a new wallet...



With a college home in Wolfson College, my work home and hideaway office is in the central University Library, a brick built fortress that reminds me in more ways than one of Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight... Can you guess which is which...?!;-)



(Quarr Abbey Guest House is the photo on the right, taken by Lawrence Lew, OP.)

As part of my time here (a time in which I hope to see whether the OUseful rapid hacks'n'prototypes approach can deliver interesting demos and ideas to the Cambridge library context) I'll be looking for opportunities to work across the diversity of Cambridge's libraries, of which there are plenty, though the Newton Catalogue works across many of them, I think...?...


View Arcadia - Cam Libs in a larger map.
Display QR-code for map link [via SplashURL.net]

This map is also my Library spotting guide - I'll be changing the markers as I visit/spot each of the libraries...

(Note that the position of the markers may also be a little 'off', which I'll try to address as I wander around. The geocoding I used was based on address/postcode and then uploaded to a Google MyMap: Arcadia - Cam Libs. A machine readable list of Cambridge library locations with lat/long data is already avaliable here, so that might be something worth playing with... Human readable lists covering central libraries, department libraries, college libraries and other affiliated/specialist libraries can be found on the Cambridge University Libraries Directory website.)

But that's enough techie stuff for here - I'll probably be posting hacks and the like to the Arcadia category on OUseful.info, although I may set up an Arcadia Hacks blog too...:-)

And now let normal service on the Arcadia blog be resumed....