Twitter

I've decided not to create a Twitter account. Weighing the fors with the againsts, the againsts have it. It could also be a personality issue. It seems to have no relevance for me whatsoever. I am unlikely to 'follow' anyone else; it is even less likely that anyone will follow me.

I'm probably harbouring some prejudices. That users' tweet is immediately off-putting to me. I recently listened to Wagner's Ring; this took 27 years to write and is nearly 20 hours of some of the most beautiful music ever created. People have died trying to perform it. New instruments had to be invented. Buildings have been erected for single performances. Ear drums have been shattered (I exaggerate maybe). There is so much I'd like to say about it. Well, it's all about love and redemption. But there's not much can be said in 140 characters. And then there are the novels of Proust, and Ullysses, the Ramayana, The Golden Bough, even Moby Dick.

Hollingshead Exhibition

Josh Hollingshead is a young artist from Dorset who I think is likely to gain much recognition. His second exhibition is being held all this week in Swanage at L'Artishe Gallery in the High street. I have one or two of his pictures but he now has really matured. He recently toured Africa and this seems to have been the inspiration behind the paintings in the exhibition. I was particularly amazed by this one:


If you plan to see this. check with the gallery first. I must say, the painting is much better than it appears in the above image.
Peter

On Libraries

It is sometimes easy for us to take for granted the great libraries we have and work in these days. I’m thinking particularly of the book collections. (Being overwhelmed by the sight of miles of books is not the same as being overwhelmed by using electronic resources which has nothing ‘hallowed’ about it). The collection here at Hartley (University of Southampton) is massive by any standard. It started off small but by 1937 there were around 50,000 books; this had grown to about 550,000 in 1977. Around this time the budget for books was about £40,000 a year so the collection had a massive spurt of growth through the 80s and 90s. I have asked some staff members about the present size of the book collection (no one seems to know) and estimates range between 2 and 6 million, which tells me nothing really other than that it is very big and many times bigger than the ancient library of Alexandria; this is not to mention the many thousands of journals and manuscripts (pamphlets, government publications, music scores, DVDs  etc. etc., and the online collection is perhaps even larger than all of this). How does all of this compare with the great libraries of the past? The great library of Nineveh was perhaps the original model of collecting a massive body of knowledge, but we would not now think of it as especially big. Queen Elizabeth’s library, run by the enigmatic Dr Dee, only ran to hundreds of volumes, as did Bede’s (the entire collection of Monkwearmouth/Jarrow running only to about two hundred books). Even the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge only ran into the hundreds up until the 17th century. We are therefore very lucky, we happy few. But all is not so happy. The day is fast approaching when people will come to your house, look at your walls lined with books and say ‘What are those for?’

NetVibes

Netvibes seems to be a very useful tool. I have just attended a very entertaining session and now have a a netvibes account. It is pretty intuitive to use and is a tool likely to be used straightaway (there's no reason not to). If I can my ebay to stop being bilingual I'll be very pleased.