Networks for the birds

On Sunday, 21 June, I took our parrot outside in her house (cage) for some sun and air.  However, the small flap was open and Io escaped at great velocity in the direction of the park.  That afternoon and the next morning I walked through the park and surrounding treed areas calling ‘Io’ without result.

We phoned and visited Vets, Shopping Centres, schools, a local pet shop, put advertisements in The West, Quokka, the local paper and  Sunshine radio, and made leaflet drops to houses close to the park.

Sunday night saw a minimum of two degrees and  rain.   It rained on following days.  The risk of meeting feathered predators and rough weather is completely different from the comforts of home.

As the days went by it seemed that the chances of finding Io were diminishing.

On the evening of Wednesday, 1 July there was a phone call from Vince who walks a dog in the park.  He had talked to a young couple who had found a one-eyed parrot but he did not know where they lived.  The following afternoon we were in the park at the right time but we did not see the couple.  Several  hours later we had a phone call from Renee, who with her partner, John, had rescued Io.  So were able to bring her home.

Networks are funny things.  Some parts of a network may be redundant but you can not predict what is going to be most useful.

Sources of information are important.  Vince still had our flier in his bin so he was able to phone us and tell us that a one-eyed parrot had been found in the park.  Human networks are critically important.  Renee’s grandmother saw our advertisement in the Quokka and phoned Renee, then Renee phone us.

The network  reached our neighbours:  She said ‘They’ve got their parrot back’, and he replied ‘Bugger me’.

LIBRARY WEEK @ LEEDERVILLE CAMPUS

This is what Leederville Library/Bookshop staff do when the Network is down.
Kick their shoes off and chillout with a good game of Spider Solitaire!!
Back to the serious stuff – “Library Week”.

Network down

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Leederville Library staff and Jan (Bookshop) put on a lovely spread of yummy food for staff & students to celebrate Library Week.  Leederville campus staff & students managed to consume all of the O.J. and tasty foods.

Finance staff counting the beans

FOND FAREWELL FOR SYLVIE!!!!!!!!!

One of our amazing librarians, Sylvie is leaving us! She is off to the big smoke of Sydney and will be sadly missed however we all wish her well. Please give her a call or email by Thursday 21st May if you would like to say “goodbye”

The Libraries have an account with Twitter

Just to let you know that the Central TAFE Libraries now have a Twitter account called ……. wait for it …….. CentralTAFELibs.    Nice and original isn’t it??

So drop in every now and then and see what tweets have been added.

Another Library Cat

From BBC News comes this report Literary cat makes library visits about another Library cat (see our previous post Dewey the library cat). I find it so useful to use a feed reader and subscribe to RSS feeds to keep up to date with topics of interest. This one was a light-hearted report amongst what is often doom and gloom in the news.

Kidnapped!!

Kidnapping at Leederville Library & Bookshop

Background:
Jan (Bookshop) decorates her little area with fluffy yellow chicks to help celebrate Easter – one day one of her little chicks went missing …

1 st APRIL 2009 – an email arrived for Jan from Kidnappedchick@live.com

Dear Bookshop Owner,
Everything is fine. I am being treated well. My captors are very nice.
I am safe. I will be kept out of danger as long as you comply with their demands.
Cheep Cheep!!
Easter Chick
P.S. They have attached a photo of me so that you can be assured I’m being well looked after.

1 st April 2009 JAN’S RESPONSE

So happy to see you safe – please check out your surroundings – is there anything familiar? I will go to any lengths to get you back my darling! What are their demands????
I await your reply

Yours loving mother
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

2nd April 2009 email from Kidnappedchick@live.com

Janice (loving mother of chick),

Easter chick is still alive (see attached photo as proof)

Last night was a little cool so Easter chick had to be moved undercover (joke!!!) you may pickup something from her surroundings – but don’t come looking for her, as you are being watched.

Our first demand is that you secure all of the other Easter chicks safely into a coop – an open box with a label will be fine, this will show us that you are serious about looking after all of the chicks.

Yours sincerely,

Easter chick kidnappers.

2nd April 2009 Jan’s response

Easter Chick Kidnappers….

Thankyou for the reassurance that my chick is still alive. I have urgent meeting to attend at Perth Campus at 9.30am. On my return I will build said coop and gather my chicks! I promise I will not contact police – just keep my baby safe!!

Janice………loving mother of Chick

4th April 2009 email from Kidnappedchick@live.com

Mother,

I’ve escaped my kidnappers – I am trying to get back to you before they capture me again.
I managed to get a lift with a kind lady in her car to the train station. The guard let me on the train for free because I’m under 3 years (which was good as I don’t have any money!!!)
I know you would like shopping so I went to all the shops to see if I could find you, but didn’t have any luck as you can see.

Will keep in touch -Your loving Chick xxxx

 
    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

 

6th April 2009 Jan’s response

My dear darling chick

So good to hear that you’ve escaped! Use your charm to get back to Leederville. Where are you? Did you notice what station you got out of the train on? Your brothers and sisters are so worried about you – please try to get back to Leederville. Don’t forget you can try bribing someone to get you back here – I’ve got a reward for them. Please try hard and mind you don’t get trodden on!

I remain your loving and worried mother

>>> Easter chick 6/04/2009 12:30 pm >>>
We managed to recapture the little escapee, proof is attached. We have done a recon mission to the Library and are satisfied that you can look after little chick – the henhouse is a suitable home for Little Chick – will email you instructions on how to get Little Chick back.

7th April 2009 Jan’s response
My poor darling looks squashed in the Photocopier. However, I am so pleased she is safe. I await your further instructions.. ……God speed.
Chick loving motherxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Your wish is my command – your reward will be waiting for you. Have a happy Easter!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

7th April 2009 email from Kidnappedchick@live.com

As you can see we have taken great care of Little Chick and introduced her to the some of our favourite pursuits.
We hope that you will pursue her surfing lessons as she has shown a natural ability for water sports.
When you get to hold Little Chick in the palm of your hand you might notice that some of her feathers have changed, this is not from mistreatment its from natural chicken changes!!!
We have setup a drop off point at the Students Service Counter at Leederville Campus (after lunch Wednesday 8th April) and only ask for chocolate chickens to replace Little Chick.
We have had the maintenance man give Little Chick the once over and he agrees she’s okay.
…. Advice for next Easter – keep all of your little chicks under your wings!!!

From the Easter Chick Kidnappers,
Have a very Yummy Easter!!!

 

 

 

 

 

7th April 2009 email from Kidnappedchick@live.com

Till next Easter – when we may do this all over again!! Start saving your pennies for next years Big ransom demand!!

7th April 2009 email response from Jan

With loving gratitude
Easter Chicks Mother XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

7th April 2009 email from Kidnappedchick@live.com
It’s been fun…………………….until next year XXX

Little Chick’s kidnapped Noticeboard with daily updates – staff and students at Leederville were able to keep up to date with the ongoing drama, as Jan printed out the emails and attached photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the ransom payment , the lovely ladies at Leederville Student Services acted as the go between for the ransom dropoff!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s Jan thrilled to get Little Chick back in one piece!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
and here are the Easter Chick Kidnappers looking suitable guilty!! (aka Yve & Sylvie)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Till next year… remember to keep all your little ones safe and have a Yummy Easter!

Leederville Library and Bookshop Staff

Umbrella Art

Have a look at these fantastic artworks using umbrellas – very creative.

Now where did I leave my black umbrella…?

Twouble with Twitter

Jigsaw Saga @ MtL.

Following a recent visit to eCentral Lib.  I was most impressed to see students doing the jigsaw there.  After asking  Jo where to get them,  I set off the purchase some jigsaws of our own, and subsequently set one of them up on our table in our reading area.   Trish put all the pieces in a large open box, for ease of access, and placed the empty container near by.  I  started it off by putting a few pieces together…

…but the next day, it was all packed up.  Trish informed me that the cleaners had put all the pieces back in the big box, and discarded the box it came in with the picture, because “it was empty”.  I took off to the cleaners store and found the boss there, with the box, that he had got out of the bin for us.

The following day we repeated the exercise, and once again …

… the picture was packed up (but the box was left behind fortunately).  This time I got Mat to make up a “help do our jigsaw” sign, but on the 3rd morning it was once again…

… packed up.  This time we decided to do a large notice of “attention cleaners…please leave the jigsaw”, and at long last the jigsaw stayed where it was. 

However the students didn’t show much interest, until this week…

… when finally breakthrough!!! a number of students have been sitting down and doing it at last.  We have been very pleased.

… but can you believe it…this afternoon a student came to the counter with the box, for Trish asking,  “where do we get these”.  Trish took the box, thinking it was empty, felt the weight, looked over at the table… and sure enough…the students had packed up all the jigsaw. 

One wonders if we were really meant to have these jigsaws after all…

Medieval helpdesk

For anyone who has used a helpdesk…very funny, and goes to show, you can’t take anything for granted.

more about "Medieval helpdesk ", posted with vodpod