Sot23

23 Things

This blog is part of The University of Southampton Library's first attempt at the "23 Things" programme. It's been knocking about in academic libraries for a few years now (we don't really seem to be at the cutting edge in many things!), and now we're giving it a go.

I'm actually involved in delivering some of the sessions - I'm co-lead on the blogging part, and sole lead on the browsers, Twitter, Flickr and Creative Commons images sections.

What On Earth Are You On About

I should explain... "23 Things" is a programme designed to introduce library staff to a wide range of the new social media and online tools that have appeared in recent years. Since so much of academic libraries' work involves online content, and so many of our staff and students use all of these tools, we think it's useful to encourage our staff to experiment with these resources.

Sadly, there isn't a huge amount of opportunity for us to use these tools in our work - but this programme will at least introduce staff to resources they might not otherwise have encountered, and they may discover that some of the tools are useful outside of work.

So Why On Earth Are You Blogging About Zombies?

Because it's an interesting way to flesh out the blog, and to show off some of the things that you can do with Blogger - such as inserting images and videos. And now I have a taste for it, I might put some of these posts up on my personal blog.

And, let's face it, the zombie genre is fascinating for many reasons. Whilst the reanimation of corpses might not be particularly likely, a devastating outbreak of a pandemic flu virus is quite possible - in fact, it's long overdue - and many of the same themes about transmission of the virus, infection control, quarantine and public order are strongly related.

What's more, good zombie stories actually revolve around the human aspects of the story - coping under extreme stress, survival when society breaks down, relationships with fellow survivors, defence against other armed and violent groups... after the initial survival stage, the zombies themselves often become just a side issue.