Author Archives: Frank Norman

About Frank Norman

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

Hurtling towards Christmas

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Frank Norman

We are speeding towards 25 December, being sucked inexorably into the black hole of Christmas – that infinite mass of festivity and self-indulgence that you can only escape from if you are equipped with the Scrooge-on factor. Usually I like … Continue reading →

Posted in Froth | 7 Comments

Fees, subscriptions and the messy business of payments

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Frank Norman

Martin Fenner has posted on Gobbledygook about submission fees and open access, drawing attention to the release of a report on submission fees that was commissioned by Knowledge Exchange, a partnership of JISC (United Kingdom), SURF (Netherlands), DEFF (Denmark) and … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing, Open Access | 9 Comments

Trading places

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Frank Norman

I started blogging on Nature Network in August 2008 but this will be my last post here. I am grateful to Nature Network for helping to get me started with blogging. I started as a reader and occasional commenter here, … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogology | Comments Off on Trading places

Out, out damned print!

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Frank Norman

We all like to grumble about Safety Departments. They are a wonderful source of red tape – always fussing over unsound practices and health and safety rules.  I think safety officers tend to have a slightly obsessive nature. This is … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of Libraries, Libraries and librarians | Tagged | 8 Comments

Patience please!

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Frank Norman

I am just getting started on OT. Please be patient for a day or two.

Posted in Blogology | 3 Comments

Confused about my sectorality

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Frank Norman

I have a love/hate relationship with the Law of Excluded Middle. You know, it’s the logical principle that says either ‘A’ or ‘not A’ must be true; there can be no Third Way. It tells you that you can love … Continue reading →

Posted in Research Councils | 3 Comments

Youth, energy and inspiration

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Frank Norman

Last week was quite busy and tiring – there were too many things going on at once at work, combined with (or causing?) a tendency for me to wake up at 4am and not get back to sleep. The most … Continue reading →

Posted in Libraries and librarians, Mentoring | 2 Comments

A very special feature

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Frank Norman

This week’s Nature has a special feature on schizophrenia: A special collection of articles focuses on the challenges of schizophrenia, from spotting early symptoms during adolescence to changing the stigma associated with the disease. It tells us that over 0.5% … Continue reading →

Posted in Friends | 3 Comments

Finding history in weeding

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Frank Norman

I mentioned here recently that my Library is going through another wave of major relocation and disposal. Previous waves over the last 15 years have seen us moving large card catalogues, abstracting and indexing tools and older journals and putting … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Collections, History | 2 Comments

Power and authority

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Frank Norman

At the beginning of this week we had the cameras in. Plus a bit of razor wire, some iron bars, fake police cars and a few actors. No doubt there were gaffers and all those other strangely-titled people that you … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 3 Comments