Toots for dazzlepansy@glammr.us account

Written by St John on 2025-01-21 at 12:16

I've been fooling around with a #Python script for converting #MARC bibliographic records to #Markdown for use with a static website generator. Probably only has an audience of one (me), but it's not complicated and it solves an interesting problem for private #librarians: how can we get our collections out there when LibraryThing isn't enough but a full OPAC is too much?

https://github.com/dazzlepansy/marc2md

[#]Libraries #Cataloging #Code4Lib

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Written by St John on 2025-01-19 at 23:46

The Theosophical Society in Altadena has burnt down, resulting in the loss of the entire library of 40,000 books and the Society's archival collections. It was founded by Madame Blavatsky, among others. An incomprehensible loss.

https://wildhunt.org/2025/01/la-fires-claim-theosophical-society-building-and-archives.html

[#]Libraries #Archives #LosAngeles

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Written by St John on 2025-01-05 at 23:40

Oooh ducky, this #DoctorWho novel is really hotting up.

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Written by St John on 2025-01-01 at 13:23

It's a new year, which means it's time to review my year of reading. I count 22 books, which isn't bad considering it excludes grad school reading. Some highlights from last year include a biography of Tiny Tim and an anthology of queer pulp fiction.

https://www.stjohnkarp.net/books-wot-i-read-in-2024/

[#]Books #Reading @bookstodon

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Written by St John on 2024-12-24 at 12:29

Problem is, that's not the gambler's fallacy. The gambler's fallacy is that after a string of losses, the next game is more likely to be a win. This is false because each game has the same probability. Harry is not betting the next game is more likely to be a win, just that a win will eventually be inevitable. However, I don't have a statistics brain so I took it to a friend who does, and he confirmed Harry's plan is not the gambler's fallacy.

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Written by St John on 2024-12-24 at 12:26

Sam Bankman Fried has written contemptuously of his fellow inmates' lack of understanding of statistics:

"One day, Harry came to me with a new betting strategy: he would bet $100. If he lost, he would bet $250, and then $600, etc., until he won, and eventually he would win, so he was almost certainly going to make money doing it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that there was in fact a name for this strategy: "the gambler's fallacy." [0]

[0] https://archive.is/lqjQU

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Written by St John on 2024-12-18 at 21:11

Today in the #TimeLibrary: students' kinetic installations about time and perception! I love my job.

[#]Libraries #Librarians #Horology

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Written by St John on 2024-12-16 at 13:07

"Try this easy weeknight recipe! Take your Hungarian melon-baller and flay 2 or 3 ripe ostrich eggs in a pre-heated wok. Be careful not to let the flanges get overdone. Simmer for 3-4 hours stirring regularly, then season with a custom blend of Somalian spices." Every recipe ever.

[#]Cooking #Recipes

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Written by St John on 2024-12-10 at 00:37

I digitised nine 78 rpm records over the weekend. I brushed as much dust out of the grooves as I could, but they're still quite crackly. What do you reckon, #archivists? Is it worth doing a wet clean? That sounds like so much work.

[#]Digitization #Archives #PreservationReformatting

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Written by St John on 2024-12-03 at 15:14

I just had a paper published: "The Interconnectedness of All Things: Understanding Digital Collections Through File Similarity" in Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture.

https://doi.org/10.1515/pdtc-2024-0042

Come hurl your abuse and academic reprisals at me!

[#]Archives #DigitalPreservation #DigiPres #Code4Lib

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Written by St John on 2024-11-19 at 18:03

Airplanes, automobiles, and sex machines: the three genders.

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Written by St John on 2024-11-19 at 18:02

The #LibraryOfCongress #classification manual is hilarious. TR717.3 is photography of machinery, special subjects. The three special subjects listed are airplanes, automobiles, and sex machines.

But the manual instructs that collections of photographs in certain fields be classed with those fields. That means all your books of photos of sex machines have to go in the sex machine section, while books about how to photograph sex machines go in TR717.3.S49.

[#]Libraries #Librarians #Cataloging

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Written by St John on 2024-10-26 at 12:33

Food Bands is the best word game. The Grateful Bread. Celine Dijon. Fleetwood Mac 'n' Cheese. Death Cabernet for Cutie.

I could go on like this all day. Hit me with your best puns!

[#]Games #Puns #WordGames

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Written by St John on 2024-10-26 at 09:34

The consensus seems to be Armenian. I would never have guessed! Thanks to everyone who pitched in. I'm always bowled over by the collective breadth of everyone's knowledge and their willingness to help solve a mystery.

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Written by St John on 2024-10-25 at 18:28

Internet friends, your help is required! I found these pages of handwritten notes in the back of a watch repair handbook from 1961, but I can't read the script. It looks like maybe handwritten Cyrillic? Some English words are discernible. Can anyone identify it?

[#]Libraries #Librarians #Mysteries #LibraryMysteries

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Shared by St John on 2024-10-22 at 00:51 (original by Cory Doctorow)

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Written by St John on 2024-09-22 at 10:59

Some shots from the Hudson River Greenway and the Met Cloisters a couple of weeks ago. I took these with a Leica M3 and Kodak Tri-X 400 film, developed and scanned at home.

Full disclaimer: I don't know what I'm doing. I rarely do.

[#]Photography #FilmPhotography

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Written by St John on 2024-09-09 at 14:20

Saying "have got" is perfectly good grammar and its use to mean "have" is completely standard. Technically, though, "got" is the past tense of "get", so when you ask someone "Can't you see it? Haven't you got eyes?" you're really asking, "Haven't you obtained eyes?" Which I guess you did at some point in your foetal development, but still.

[#]English #Grammar

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Written by St John on 2024-09-03 at 12:57

I don't have much to add to the conversation but I do think it's important to add to the chorus of voices and say that I've deleted my #NaNoWriMo account over their sponsorship from and advocacy of LLMs. I've had that account since 2005. I tried and completed the challenge five years out of those nineteen.

I've written about the use of "AI" before. It's not just unethical because it steals the work of others, it also devalues a part of us that's very much at the core of our humanity.

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Written by St John on 2024-08-31 at 10:10

[#]TimWalz, on the other hand, eats with gusto. Not only has food been a key part of his political platform, there are photos and videos of him absolutely relishing food at county fairs and restaurants. I'm well aware he plays it up for the campaign, which is exactly what you'd expect a politician to do, but the key point is it's not a lie. The photos and videos predate the campaign. The enthusiasm he exudes looks genuine, as opposed to the soulless, remote alien he's running against.

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