The Team Digital Corrections Whisky Trial Trail Committee met today to ensure all Actions from the previous meeting were complete and that we were poised in readiness for our adventure.

Meeting notes

Present: Alex, Gill, Lee, Paul
Apologies: Cake, Coffee

Minutes of previous meeting
1.2 Replace failing rear tyre on bike.

• Action: Alex
• Outcome: Could do better
• Subsequent Action: Task assigned to Paul while he was out of the room. In absentia he promises to sort out the tyre in Braemar

1.5 Clean chains, polish bikes

• Action: All
• Progress: Epic Fail
• Subsequent action: All agree that clean bikes and chains are unnecessary.  We are not racing the Giro.

1.8  Bring first aid kit

• Action: Lee
• Progress: completed above and beyond the call of duty.  First aid kit complete with massive supplies of hangover curing potions such as Irn Bru, crisps and Cocodamol

2.1  Procure calorie free snacks of the cake variety

• Action: Gill
• Progress: completed satisfactorily. 1 kilogram’s worth of calorie free cake purchased from the Temple of Marks and Spencer. Included is the famous Cherry Genoa cake complete with magical restorative powers.

2.5  Plot distilleries and arrange visits

• Action: Paul
• Progress: completed satisfactorily.  At least 14 distilleries plotted.  2 visits planned (The Glen Livet & Balvenie).  Buckets purchased for Sunday morning.

Agenda items

2.  Weather

The Team discussed the weather on the trip and deployed Speedy Tony’s Norwegian-Weather-Site-of-Much Awesomeness.  Confirming that it will be mostly dry, with mostly clouds and mostly a bit breezy and mostly Baltic.  Team agrees that fur coats (faux or otherwise) should be appropriate attire.

3. Footware

It was agreed that Ikea zip-lock plastic bags should be added as an extra layer of sock-age due to Baltic-ness. Action: Gill to bring zip lock bags

4. Problematic Team members

The Team discussed their concerns that a certain member had been known on previous tours not to share cake.  Protestations were noted.  Action: Gill to share cake

5. Date of next meeting

21:30 18th May.  The Malt Lounge, Braemar Lodge. Braemar.

I am in training again.

For the Whisky Trail Trial summer tour

Training involves:

• looking at my bike and imaging myself powering up hills on it
• looking at my thighs and thinking … they’ll do
• looking at the bottle of Laphroaig in the cupboard and trying to convince self that I love whisky
• drinking beer.   For rehydration purposes you understand!
  • well it’s only 5 days til out trip
• eating lots of carbs (aka chocolate, cake and more cake)  for … eh …carbo loading … honest
  • well it’s only 5 days til our trip
• watching Giro d’Italia from the comfort of the sofa
  • and thinking “Those skinny boys are a bit … skinny” as I eat another slice of cake

Get oot the f**cking water you stupid dug!

Planning for Team Digital Corrections Whisky Trail Trial is coming along nicely.

1. We have all secured access to bicycles.  Which is a good thing given that this is a bicycle tour.  Some people in The Team have dirty bikes. Some people have faulty bikes. Some people have dusty bikes. Some people have red bikes. Some people might not take their red bikes but take their plastic bikes.
2. We have negotiated modest accommodations for the evening of pre-Whisky Trail Trial in the Braemar Lodge Bunkhouse.  In no way did the fact that the Lodge has a Malt Lounge serving … oh I dunno … maybe 80 whiskies, influence our selection of this facility over the local Youth Hostel.
3. There are some concerns that the 2nd highest pub in Scotland will be closed when we arrive at 1030am but we’ll address that issue on the day.
4. Luncheon venue for 1st day of tour … Glenlivet distillery
5. Evening accommodation secured in Dufftown where there are 8 distilleries
6. Day 2 …. a day of pain and that’s not due to the hills!

… for the two days of cycling in May when you understand that:

• the teamies will gather the evening before tour commencement at the Nearly the highest pub in Scotland (we’ve done Highest Pub in Scotland and Highest Pub in Britain)
• there is a BIG uphill just outside the Nearly the highest pub in Scotland which may be troublesome
• there are several distilleries on the way to our midway accommodation location
• our midway accommodation location is Dufftown
  • Dufftown is Whisky Capital of the World
  • there are 9 distilleries there
  • it is compulsory to sample a dram from each distillery
    • some people in the team don’t like whisky
• previously it has been proven that it is impossible to cycle with a whisky hangover
  • there are indications that walking may also present problems
  • and speech may become more incoherent than usual
• our cars won’t be parked in Dufftown.
  • No-one will come rescue us
    • We will have to cycle with sair heeds
    • there will be crying
    • and tantrums
    • and worse
• it is neither big nor clever to barf at the side of the road

… I’d let it ride my bike. And of course I’d have to call it Maddie.

I made a new year resolution this year. I don’t usual make one, except the usual DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL IN JANUARY. The new year resolution is especially designed to stop me standing in the collection of Edinburgh Central Library, looking more gormless than usual, and not being able to find anything to read.

So the plan is … that this year I will mostly read Pulitzer Prize winning novels.

And here’s what I think so far:

• The road. Outstanding. RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY VERY FAST!
• Olive Kitteridge. As dull as a dull day in Scotland.
• To kill a mocking bird. True fact – The best book ever in the history of all things book. <- according to me. And also according to The Torygraph
• The shipping news. Brrrrrrrrilliant.
• American Pastoral. Turgid drivel. Mr Roth you stole hours of my life.

Next …. Ironweed and The color purple

I must escape the UK next summer.  I must. I MUST.  The Olympics will be in London.  I cannot stand to be in the same country at the same time as the inane British sports commentators.   So therefore I must go.  I could go South but it’s summer and I don’t do hot.  I could go West but I’ve done that.  I could go Mid East but my Arabic is disgraceful or I could go Far East but that’s too far away.  So North?  Maybe I will go North to the spectacular, income stripping lands that are Scandiwegia.

So red1 and me will consider a little tour of Norway and Finland.  Maybe something like this.  Perhaps use of trains and ferries and buses will be employed to help us on our way. Well …. we’re gonna think about this.

…. seems to be not forthcoming despite:

• red1³ guitar of much redness & prettiness.  It’s very cute and has lipstick tube pickups.  How much cuter does a guitar have to be? Does your guitar have lipstick?
• Valvetronix amp of much synthesis.  With Red Hot Chili Pepper Californication mode.
• a pink plectrum!
• dedicated yet talentless geeetaarrr player accompanied by bleeding fingers and split nails
• abilities including; The trees (beyond badly played), California dreaming (Mama Cass turning in grave), Redemption song (Bob weeping) and Gimme Shelter (not a chance)
• a capo which makes me two thirds of the way to a Capote

aka The red guitar.  So I have had my new red guitar for nearly two weeks now and I’ve have been learning guitar for one month.  These things I know/have done/:

• electric guitars are easier to play than acoustic guitars
• it seems that you should really practice scales.  But I don’t understand why.  I hate practicing scales.
• electric guitars make for sloppy technique
• if you crank the power output of the amp up to 11 and the volume up to 11 and the gain up to 11 and switch the amp processor to Boutique metal no-one will notice the sloppy technique
• there are some switches on the guitar and some knobs, but these remain a mystery to me
• practice doesn’t make perfect, sometimes it makes it worse
• I need bigger more bendy fingers
• if you lean your guitar against a cranked amp you sound like Pete Townshend
• Le Chef recognised my attempt at Alone again or.
• Johnny Marr … you bastard!
• Alex Lifeson has been playing guitar for 50 year.  I have been playing guitar for 50 hours.  I have a way to go yet.
• Ziggy played guitar
• Jimi Hendrix is dead.  Inhaled vomit. Very messy.
• RAWK God status is distant
• my neighbours hate me
• I’m off out now to buy some lighter fluid

0520 WHAT!  What hour is this! The remnants of my plague keep waking me up early either that or it’s those screeching seagulls.  Why are there seagulls screeching in Edinburgh?  It’s not like we live at the seaside.

0525-0700 Get up. Write yesterday’s LDITL blog.  Make coffee in my beloved, but dying, Francis Francis.  Drink coffee, OJ and eat some gooseberries from my veg patch.  Watch the news.  Leave for work.

0720-0730 Delete emails.  Answer a few emails.

0730-0830 Yesterday I was told by Colin that Voyager 8 (a new release) was out. News to me!  So I go on the Ex Libris website and take a look around.  Skim the technical requirements, read the road map.  I note that the release is, of course, version 8.0.0.  I ain’t putting any software that has double zero in it’s release name anywhere near our production system.  So I start planning to have the upgrade applied to our test system.  Send a message to Dave (aka Dr Solaris) about getting our test server patched in readiness for the upgrade.  [Note: some organisations undertake their own Voyager upgrades.  Recently Ex Libris have worked to make this easier.  However, despite my being qualified to upgrade Voyager  (I have special certification) I NEVER do the upgrade and ALWAYS get Ex Libris to do it. Our Voyager implementation is complex (application and database zones, 10 or so Voyager databases) and given that the Library pays A HELLUVA LOT OF MONEY for Voyager, well, being Scots we like to get our money's worth.]   I idly  speculate to a colleague in an email that we might upgrade to Voyager 8 sometime in the new year once all the zeros disappear from the release name.

0830-0850 Make my list of things to be raised at Mid-Year Review.  We hope at mid-year that we’ll transfer the budget for Voyager, Aquabrowser, Syndetics, 360 link, Summon and other bits and bobs from IS to Digital Collections. This has been an anomaly since I transferred team a year ago.

0850-0900 Poke at the overdue problem.  No email overdues today. So I can do my fault finding.

0900- 0930 Write business case to attend the DCMI conference at Koninklijke Bibliotheek in Den Haag.  Also note in the business case that I could usefully visit Europeana colleagues to discuss getting our data in to Europeana  While poking about on the DCMI website I discover that Le Chef is presenting a NISO webinar on International Bibliographic Standards, Linked Data, and the Impact on Library Cataloging.  Again, news to me. He never tells me anything!  It’s pretty cool he’s doing this but I can’t attend coz I will be prancing about at the Edinburgh International Festival doing –> this.

0930-1000 Review the message Glen sent me about their integration of the e-legal deposit metadata in to their Aquabrowser implementation.  I get a sneak preview (via their Aquabrowser development service) of how the data will look.  Very cool!  When we implement in to our Aquabrowser it should look the same as Wales.  Drop an email to Robin at Serials Solutions (he’s our Aquabrowser engineer) and ask when he can add the BLDLS connector to our Aquabrowser development server.

1000-1030 Delete emails.  Send emails

1030-1100 Go with Paul to see Alison (web editor) and Marie (External Relations Manager) in the main building to discuss Summon project.  After our meeting Paul and I notice in the External Relations office that there are some little tables that have been left over from our Golf Exhibition.  We beg to be given one coz we could use it as a coffee table in our new office which we move to next month.  We beg so convincingly that we get the table and are told about the possibility of free Robert Burns coasters for our table as well.  While search for the said Robert Burns Coasters in the External Relations storage area I resist the temptation to snaffle the stuffed lamb that I find there.  I kind you not!  The National Library of Scotland has a stuffed lamb!  And I’m not talking sage and onion stuffing!

1100-1200 Attend to tedious chores.  Updating Resource Discovery objectives paper.  Approving invoices. Delete emails.  Send a few emails.

1200-1230 Lunch! Machete my way through the tourists to get to the sandwich shop. Read about the re-opening of the National Museum.  Plan RAWK stardom

1230-1400 Attend to even more tedious chores (aka admin) most of which is finance stuff.  In my career as a librarian there are three aspects of the role that I have always tried to duck and dodge and my advice to librarians-in-training is to do as I do!

1. Never have anything to do with financials.  God it’s so dull! And boring! *yawn*
2. Never have anything to do with serials.  Serials are a head f*ck.  If you do have to do things with serials make sure you have a serials librarian with you to clutch on to for support.
3. Never admit you knowing anything, ANYTHING! about copyright.  People will just pester you to death with questions “Does the 10% copying rule apply to article level electronic journals or … yadda yadda yadda”  Like WOTEVA!  You are not a lawyer.  You are a librarian.

1400-1500 Flora explains to me how the Digital Object Database (DOD) manages hierarchy and how I can create records in the system.  I am planning to test the DOD to see how well it manages metadata for article and issue level electronic serials.  Regrettably I don’t have a serials librarian to clutch on to (see above) but I manage to grasp what she’s showing me without my brain exploding.  I then create several records in the DOD and am impressed at the speed at which I can generate the hierarchies. It’s much faster than creating the manual hierarchies in MARC using the 773 and 774 fields.

1500-1530 Conference call with Mike at the British Library and Martin … eh …  in the main building across the road! We discuss the revised timescale for the electronic legal deposit shared infrastructure access project.  AKA getting legal deposit metadata in to the Aquabrowser.  Hopefully, if all is well, will have something to show by the end of September. Mibe.

1530-1600 Poke about.  Make lists. Send email.  Delete email.  Chat with teamies.

1600 Run from building.

1601-bedtime.  Meet Le Chef at front door of work.  Machete tourists.  Go shopping to John Lewis.  Go to the Guildford Arms to have a pint of Weissbier.  Drop iPhone in water. Buy tea (tea as in meal, not tea as in beverage).  Cook tea.  Read how to dry out a very wet iPhone.  Buy silica gel packs for the iPhone drying. Practice guitar.  Go a bit mad on Amazon buying books for planned RAWK stardom.