Christine Mackenzie interview from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
Shaking and on the last drops of unleaded we reach Sale, Gippsland, Victoria and refuel the Lizzard King. The rain pours down and we are actually getting a bit fed up being the Drought Busters. We get safely to Melbourne and thanks to our Tom Tom [...]
I still have pieces of hat between my teeth and a rather upset stomach. Oz kitchen for poor excuse for a fisherman is deadly. If the snakes and floods don’t kill you a Kangaroo leather hat will. This trip has been well laid out and the travel distances are just managable. It takes us about [...]
Road to Melbourne: Picton Library from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
After another rainy night we pack up our wet chairs and get out of Sydney before it gets to us. It is another 1000 kms to Melbourne and we need to revive a little before we are ready to break some barriers and speak [...]
Sydney from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
There it is. The city unfolds itself and opens like some sort of shell. We find our camping park after some miscommunication with our Tom Tom and see that it is situated only 20 yards of the first graves on a huge cemetary. We probably have a couple [...]
Road to Sidney, part one from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
Byron Bay and the lighthouse are in every way what we hoped they would be. The most Eastern point of the mainland of Australia. We are overlooking the bay and think of the crew of captain Cook and how they saw this country for [...]
Brisbane City Council Library from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
We wake up early as we know the traffic in Brisbane gets insane and our Tom Tom is not 100% reliable at times. During breakfast we decide that after the four hour presentation and tour around the library we will try to make it a [...]
Queensland State Library from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
After our touch of summer and presentation in Perth we left early for the airport with the hotel shuttle. The flue is getting worse and all my muscles ache. The last thing I look forward to is another 5 hour flight, but it has to be [...]
Perth Down Under from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
After amazing food at the local Chinese Duck restaurant, where we find out that people in Australia bring their own beer and wine to the restaurant we go for one big beer at a local pub. This day has been so long and we are so [...]
ShanachieTour Down Under: Trailer from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
Finally the ShanachieTour kicks off. It seems like yesterday that we landed in Amsterdam after our little tour from London to Monterey. The weather was much the same as this morning. Drizzle and cold and depressing. We really enjoyed getting our ShanachieTour book and the [...]
Amazing. Who could have a thought that in two years time we would be back in London as keynote of the second day at Internet librarian International. It seems yesterday when we were illegally filming at Internet Librarian International 2006 after buying tickets to the conference. The first time we met Marydee, Dick Kaser, and [...]
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Another 4500 miles on our Shanachie flying account. After 12 hours, with one stop on the Dominican Republic we land on tropical Jamaica. The land of Reggea music, rum, jerk food and libraries and we want to explore it all. No flues, fever or other setbacks this time. We are exited and ready to enjoy [...]
Monterey, the final episode
There it is. After 5000 miles we are guided by the sound of the Sea lions towards our hotel and the conference center. Right next to fisherman’s wharf we park the mother ship to leave her behind for two nights. We have been lost in beautiful national parks without internet, so there [...]
Christine Mackenzie interview from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.
Shaking and on the last drops of unleaded we reach Sale, Gippsland, Victoria and refuel the Lizzard King. The rain pours down and we are actually getting a bit fed up being the Drought Busters. We get safely to Melbourne and thanks to our Tom Tom we find our camping park at Coburg. Award winning park it says, but internet is a slot machine that allows you a few minutes per 2 dollar. There is an internet cafe and so we set out again after a shower to read some mail and maybe see where we are expected to show up in the next coming days. Well, just our luck, when we find the cafe and pay, the server is down so it is no use. Thank God Christine MacKenzie calls us if we want to have dinner at her house and we gratefully accept the offer.
Chris has done such an amazing job and has been such a help in organizing the tour and bringing in the money. We owe her big time. Besides that she has organized a sort of Shanachietour with Australian librarians across Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Singapore in search of best practices. We have given her and her colleagues a tour through our DOK in Delft and they were so eager and enthousiastic. Can not wait to see them again. After a real good meal we have some good laughs with Michael, Christine’s Husband, who works in a special library and declares Jaap mad for building our own ILS at DOK. We find out that there is a lot of work to do. The next day we have to give a presentation at the State Library of Victoria. Three hours seems easy after this tour and the group is again so willing to join in the discussion about the future of libraries and best practices at DOK and other places. Excellent day, but again we have seen nothing of Melbourne. Chris has arranged for us to pick up our Lizzard king and stay at the house of Jane Grace, Manager Outreach of Yarra Plenty Regional Library. The day program has been so hectic that we forgot to eat and we are near to starvation when we get to the Thai restaurant. Jane knows all about marketting and shows us some brochures she makes. She has also stayed a while in the USA with our friends in Charlotte in an exchange program. Well I would love to have her work at DOK for six weeks. What great talent. Hang on to that girl Chris.
After a night in a real bed we are expected in the State Library for some interviews and some discussions. We take the train into town and get that feeling of going to work again. It is a nice day and we get there in time. As it turns out we are not just there to interview, no they expect us to lead a 2 hour discussion on libraries with a group of almost twenty librarians. Wow, talking about improvisation on the spot. After this I am not going to worry about any presentation ever again I promise myself in vain. After a energetic exchange of ideas we get a tour around this great library by Debra Rosenfeldt and Michelle McLean. The reading rooms are beautiful and especially the room named after Sir Redmond Barry is impressive, but the most beautiful part of the building is without a doubt the Dome. A small version of the Library of Congress in Washington it seems, with exhibitions and the story of Bushranger Ned Kelly. They have his original armour and his deathmask. What a story. The Irish Ned, after a life of murdering and plundering like a sort of Jesse James, was hanged by judge Barry, who founded the State Library and who was told at the hanging by Ned that he would see him in hell. It was only twelve days after the hanging that the judge suddenly found his death. These are the kind of stories and libraries that Shanachies like.
We are invited to stay the last nights at Christine’s place. Exiting discussions and a good laugh. These tours again proof to be so valuable. It is an honour to have such amazing librarians in your network as we met during this tour. The New Librarians Symposium4 brings together amost 300 new librarians and they are ready to take on the challenges. Not shy, but outspoken and critical, they follow the sessions and always seeking for answers. We are on as the one but last keynote and have 45 minutes. Not enough of course, but we put our whole heart in it and love every second. It is a great honour that dr Sherman Young in his presentation “ Bring out your Dead: The role of books in a post web 2.0 world” refers to our presention as being Rolling Stones material and that he feels like a support act playing after the main show. Ridiculous of course, the man is very good and gives an excellent presentation. Pity we did not tape it. After dinner with the new librarians at the members club in the Cricket stadium, which we hear is a tremendous honour in Australia, we go back for that last beer and last night sleep. We have travelled almost 3000 km in Australia and more than 25000 on a plane. We have done over 24 hours of presentations and visited many libraries big and small. Australia has been wonderful and if libraries find more ways to combine forces and learn from eachother’s experiences they will be an example to libraries all over the world. We have seen the potential in the libraries and in the librarians and it is only the Governing bodies that we have to convince of the power and essential use of our role in the community in order to provide us with the funding to do our work in the future. First thing to do is to get speed on that digital highway I’d say.
Shanachies like to thank all those who have helped and contributed along this trip and hope to come back to this massive, beautiful country soon.
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