Following our look at haunted libraries in the US last year, this Halloween we turn our sights to the phantoms haunting the libraries and private collections of Britain. From a headless ghost, to numerous abnormalities surrounding a vast collection of magical literature from a late ghost hunter, here are some stories around apparitions that have been glimpsed among the stacks – you can choose whether or not you believe them to be true….Apparitions in the archives: haunted libraries in the UK | OUPblog
Twelve Great Libraries Reveal Their Oldest Treasures
"The New York Public Library, for instance, has not only cuneiform tablets and ninth-century gospels, but also a Gutenberg Bible and a copy of The Bay Psalm Book, one of the oldest books printed in America. In addition to its own cuneiform tablets and Gutenberg Bible, the Library of Congress holds one of the oldest examples of printing in the world, passages from a Buddhist sutra, printed in A.D. 770, as well as a medieval manuscript from 1150, delightfully titled Exposicio Mistica Super Exod." … [Read More]
“Each picture serves as an homage calling out palpable echoes etched into the pages by a margin-scrawled note, a yellowed coffee splatter or sticky peanut butter and jelly fingerprints,” writes Mansfield in a book essay. “It’s easy to feel a sense of abuse and loss, but they say much more. They show the evidence of everyone that has touched them, because they were well read, and often well-loved. They were not left on shelves, untouched.”
The public library is a vast source of almost entirely free information. Yet many people don't take advantage of it. Most of us have spent time in the library, usually in our youth or with ... In praise of Public Libraries
Libraries are among the few public institutions that are truly democratic. Librarians are the gatekeepers to these beacons of hope, the keepers of our intellectual and cultural history. They welcome everyone who walks through their doors. Rich or poor, young or old, you can use the library to find a book, research your family history or school project, and lead your children into a life of literacy In Praise of Libraries By Holly Robinson
Shhh! Take a peek at 15 of the world's most exquisite libraries
But did you know that librarians have always been lowkey the most fun people on the planet? Here are seven times that librarians have debunked the stereotype that they are uptight scolds ready to shush those who dare to have fun in their sacred institution Librarians are secretly the funnest people alive
Libraries SavedLives Yet most ignorant characters who worship so called liberal economies - they know price of everything but value of nothing - made fun of librarians and libraries
Pooling treasurers' wisdom a win for all
Evasion and avoidance work is the main game in tax administration, and in my view, it is under-resourced, not just by the ATO, but also by policing authorities to whom the ATO refers cases.
~ Tony Long
Certain Tax Men are Funny too: Reminiscences in a post-truth world by Tony Long
"There is a certain freedom and perspective that comes with retirement. It offers the
occasion to express opinions unvarnished by the interests of one’s former employer.
Very occasionally, some take this freedom and use it to vent what seems like a
career’s worth of frustrations. However, I enjoyed working for the ATO. You don’t
spend 34 years with one organisation unless either you believe in its objectives
OR you consider yourself otherwise unemployable ...
"
(GST Visits beyond accepting tea or coffee:) One staff member, in a story that may be apocryphal, made what must have been a helpful advisory visit to a brothel and was apparently offered a quid pro quo — a particularly appropriate expression in the circumstances. As the song says, “It’s been the ruin of many a poor boy …”. The person concerned apparently took up the invitation to consider his future elsewhere.
Many of us here would have criticisms of our employer organisations. But we would also feel two things: that the flaws of that organisation are not necessarily apparent to an outsider, and that, on balance, the organisation warrants a generally favourable reputation. In relation to the public service, those two beliefs have been partly dismantled by the ABC series Utopia. It is a show that is classified as comedy, and I can see the humour in it. But my enjoyment is diminished by the recognition, to a disturbing degree, of some of the personality types who inhabit it.
The Kitty Flanagan character “Rhonda” does exist, and with the same lack of self-awareness, but coupled with a level of self-promotion which contributes a toxicity to the package. I note that in the credits at the end of the show, the producers of Utopia do not add the usual caveat “any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental …”.
My theory to explain that absence is that these characters are not works of fiction. The scriptwriters are remarkably well informed about the public service environment and possibly, I imagine, of some faddish elements of private practice. For some time, I couldn’t work out how these people weren’t found out for their vacuity. The answer I decided was that language has been devalued, and that the rise of “managerial” terminology has robbed some senior people of their powers of discrimination and judgment.
If you require convincing of this, then read any one of the books by ex-Paul Keating speechwriter Don Watson, who covers the territory very well. In fact, Watson gives an example in his book Bendable learnings about some text that had been given to him from what was said to be an ATO document. Here’s the problem: I looked at the text and I could easily understand what was being said there. It wasn’t like the Khoisan African language that goes (tongue clicking noise) or like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. These words had a meaning despite their apparent random order, and that meaning is more readily apparent to those of us who have been exposed to them on a regular basis — and like exposure to plutonium, there are long-term health consequences. The only reassurance I can give you is that human soufflés like Rhonda exist largely in managerial roles. They will not be found in TCN nor in most of the senior technical interpretation positions. They are therefore, for practitioners, easy to avoid.
~ Tony Long
Certain Tax Men are Funny too: Reminiscences in a post-truth world by Tony Long
At the 2017 National GST Intensive in Melbourne, in September,
long-time Institute member and supporter, Tony Long, delivered an
elegant, yet wryly amusing, after-dinner address reflecting on a life
of service to the ATO. In particular, as a founding member of the GST
financial supply team, Tony shares numerous anecdotes that are, in a
departure from the usual technical focus, most worthy of sharing with
the membership. Resonating most loudly with the audience on the night,
Tony’s analysis of the parallels drawn by the ABC comedy series Utopia
is both amusing and scarily accurate! While the views expressed are
those of the author and not the Institute, his speech is commendable, as
something a little different and both an enjoyable and enlightening
read. Matthew Pawson, President of The Tax Institute.
"There is a certain freedom and perspective that comes with retirement. It offers the
occasion to express opinions unvarnished by the interests of one’s former employer.
Very occasionally, some take this freedom and use it to vent what seems like a
career’s worth of frustrations. However, I enjoyed working for the ATO. You don’t
spend 34 years with one organisation unless either you believe in its objectives
OR you consider yourself otherwise unemployable ...
"(GST Visits beyond accepting tea or coffee:) One staff member, in a story that may be apocryphal, made what must have been a helpful advisory visit to a brothel and was apparently offered a quid pro quo — a particularly appropriate expression in the circumstances. As the song says, “It’s been the ruin of many a poor boy …”. The person concerned apparently took up the invitation to consider his future elsewhere.
Many of us here would have criticisms of our employer organisations. But we would also feel two things: that the flaws of that organisation are not necessarily apparent to an outsider, and that, on balance, the organisation warrants a generally favourable reputation. In relation to the public service, those two beliefs have been partly dismantled by the ABC series Utopia. It is a show that is classified as comedy, and I can see the humour in it. But my enjoyment is diminished by the recognition, to a disturbing degree, of some of the personality types who inhabit it.
The Kitty Flanagan character “Rhonda” does exist, and with the same lack of self-awareness, but coupled with a level of self-promotion which contributes a toxicity to the package. I note that in the credits at the end of the show, the producers of Utopia do not add the usual caveat “any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental …”.
My theory to explain that absence is that these characters are not works of fiction. The scriptwriters are remarkably well informed about the public service environment and possibly, I imagine, of some faddish elements of private practice. For some time, I couldn’t work out how these people weren’t found out for their vacuity. The answer I decided was that language has been devalued, and that the rise of “managerial” terminology has robbed some senior people of their powers of discrimination and judgment.
If you require convincing of this, then read any one of the books by ex-Paul Keating speechwriter Don Watson, who covers the territory very well. In fact, Watson gives an example in his book Bendable learnings about some text that had been given to him from what was said to be an ATO document. Here’s the problem: I looked at the text and I could easily understand what was being said there. It wasn’t like the Khoisan African language that goes (tongue clicking noise) or like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. These words had a meaning despite their apparent random order, and that meaning is more readily apparent to those of us who have been exposed to them on a regular basis — and like exposure to plutonium, there are long-term health consequences. The only reassurance I can give you is that human soufflés like Rhonda exist largely in managerial roles. They will not be found in TCN nor in most of the senior technical interpretation positions. They are therefore, for practitioners, easy to avoid.
