Daily Thoughts 7/15/2010

Der Gemeindeschreiber, Gemälde von Albert Anker, 1874, 64.5 x 51 cm, Privatbesitz, Von Anker bis Zünd, Die Kunst im jungen Bundesstaat 1848 - 1900", Kunsthaus Zürich, uploaded by Adrian Michael. I am not sure what it says, but I like the picture. Germany has donated large amounts of images and content to Wikimedia and Wikipedia as a state effort. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Bundesarchiv

Daily Thoughts 7/15/2010

The Bookcase You'll Want to Live In from the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jul/13/the-ark-bookcase

State Cuts Library Aide and NYLA reacts. This article has a bit on Mount Vernon Public Library and mentions one good thing, there now will be cooperative bidding for services which might reduce some of our costs. http://books.lohudblogs.com/2010/07/13/state-cuts-library-aid-nyla-reacts/

There is something else happening here with the message that the internet can provide all we need. The problem is that it comes at a price. Netflix is not free, it is a lending model for videos where people can send the videos back by mail. Another service like Netflix, except for books is Bookswim which sends 3 books a month in the mail for $23.95 which get sent back in packages sent in the mail, much like Netflix. http://netted.net/2010/07/15/shelf-space/?id=Today#toggled The emerging models on the internet cost money, in most cases more than a library does. In an increasingly competitive business world, many publishing companies see libraries as indirect competitors for their revenue.

Today, we did a Brown Bag Book Talk where people sat with us from 12:15-1:45 p.m. and discussed the books they were reading during the summer. A lot of the patrons were reading books on spiritual subjects like feng shui, dreaming, and buddhism. One patron mentioned the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho who is a Brazilian writer. It was interesting talking to patrons about what they were interested in reading. In a way, this was directly tied in with my Readers Advisory 101 class which helped me focus on what was being said.

I also took some time to collect some of the new graphic novels for my Graphic Novels Club next week on Wednesday. I like talking about books and graphic novels with patrons.

On a more serious note, I spent some time looking at Buy a Book forms which many libraries use to get donations. These usually involve someone making a donation to purchase books. The books purchased then get a bookplate with the persons name on it on the inside. We try and pick out the nicer, more literary quality books, illustrated books, and art books when we put bookplates tied in with donations inside books.

All of my colleagues are back which is a tremendous relief. I am happy that we got the money to keep going. However, it is far from over. We still have to figure out how to get more allies, raise funds, improve library services, get more people through the front door, and improve our public relations. Government budgets do not look like they will improve in the near term.

I am going to Poets House tomorrow http://www.poetshouse.org as part of the New York Library Meetup. Hopefully, I will get to talk to some people there and have a very nice tour of a poetry library. Maybe, it will help me do a better poetry program in the future.

On the train home, I read some more of Booklife which is turning out to be quite interesting. I am reading about online booktrailers, public relations for authors, blog tours, and many other surprising subjects. The book is better than Jeff Vandermeer's fiction which is saying a lot. I very much enjoyed his fantasy novel, Finch.