Author Archives: Frank Norman

About Frank Norman

I am a retired librarian. I spent 40 years working in biomedical research libraries.

Librarygeddon

Posted on 30 September 2016 by Frank Norman

The Library, the collection When it’s done right it is a wonderful thing. The collection dedicated to meeting a specific need: carefully selected, sensibly arranged, appropriately indexed, comprehensive in its coverage and range of formats. It is precisely calibrated to meet a … Continue reading →

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Paradigm – the sculpture

Posted on 27 September 2016 by Frank Norman

Recently I attended the first public event at the Francis Crick Institute’s new building next to St Pancras.  Ironically the event was not about science but was a conversation with an artist, sculptor Conrad Shawcross. He created the enormous sculpture … Continue reading →

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The Lasker book prize

Posted on 15 September 2016 by Frank Norman

Well, not really. The 2016 Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science has been given to Bruce M. Alberts for “Discoveries in DNA replication, and leadership in science and education”.

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Changing horizons

Posted on 8 September 2016 by Frank Norman

Much years. So change. Sniff.  I have left the place where I worked for the past (almost) 27 years and I have started in a new place of work.

Posted in Libraries and librarians | Comments Off on Changing horizons

Book sequences

Posted on 23 August 2016 by Frank Norman

You may have seen some of my #nimrlibrarybyebye tweets, showcasing books that we have been transferring to other libraries. I will write a proper post about them sometime soon. The ‘byebye’ in the hashtag is to signify that nearly the … Continue reading →

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Library Day in the Life – July 2016

Posted on 22 August 2016 by Frank Norman

The Library day in the life project was a great way to let people know what librarians do. It was an excuse for us to document a day or week in our working life in excruciating detail and, in my case, to inflict … Continue reading →

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ReCon 2016 – my favourite small conference

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Frank Norman

ReCon has become my favourite small conference about publishing and research. It’s held each June in Edinburgh. I attended it in 2015 and really enjoyed it. There were stimulating presentations on non-trivial topics, and plenty of interesting conversations over coffee and lunch. … Continue reading →

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Important conversations and confusing journals

Posted on 30 June 2016 by Frank Norman

A few weeks back I was a roomful of senior librarians, having Important Conversations about Publishers (ICP). More recently I sat and listened to a number of ICPs at the UKSG Conference – bookended by talks from Ann Rossiter and … Continue reading →

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Metavation

Posted on 17 March 2016 by Frank Norman

I first came to work at NIMR Mill Hill back in the blessed innocent times of 1989. After a few months my boss sent me on a course about ‘Motivation’. The course was organised by Aslib, and was held at … Continue reading →

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In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye

Posted on 1 April 2015 by Frank Norman

It’s the last trumpet. It’s been an intense few months up on the Ridgeway; preparations for our big change have gathered pace. At first things went slowly – infuriatingly slowly –  but as the years crept on so we felt … Continue reading →

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