Daily Thoughts 7/8/2010

In the time of the Ptolemies : The Alexandrian Library. (1908), Harpers Magazine, J. Andre Castaigne

Daily Thoughts 7/8/2010

There is an article up on Mount Vernon Public Library on the http://www.savelibraries.org/ website. It is the quietest it has been in a long time. I am spending a lot of time at the reference desk because our first job is to serve the patrons who come in. Providing the material and research which they need is what matters.

I had a little time to check the displays to make sure they were in order, look at the new books to see what was coming in, and take some time to do a little organizing of my desk. I also checked out The Zen of Social Media Marketing, An Easier Way To Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue by Shama Hyder Kabani.

The latest issue from Library Resources & Technical Services was sent to me as part of my membership to ALCTS. There is an article called Challenges and Responsibilities for Collection Management In a Digital Age by Tony Horava.

The library is very much down to a skeleton staff. Depending on what happens in the next week will determine a lot of what we are going to do in the coming year. I cannot imagine that it will be any easier next year.

I tired to read more of Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson, but eventually lost interest in the story. I didn't find the historical reasoning for reverting to a steam age to be that convincing. I am going to return it tomorrow.

I have started reading the Zen of Social Media Marketing which is very much a kind of pep talk mixed with marketing and social media. Shama Hyder Kabali has the whole book online for free. It seems to be a way to sell her company. I am hoping I can find a few tips and tricks. So far, I really haven't found anything at all. It is happy fluff. A nice mental break from more serious reading.

Daily Thoughts 6/12/2009

P. G. Wodehouse

Daily Thoughts 6/12/2009

This morning I spent time weeding the oversize books. I still have quite a bit more to do in the oversize section. I am weeding the 700s. This is a difficult section to deaccession because so much of the material does not date, especially the material on master architects, painters, sculptors, and artists.

The person who does young adult programming reminded me about the New York Anime Festival which is free for librarians with a professional pass. It should be a lot of fun to go to. The program is on September 25-27 at the Jacob Javits Center. http://www.newyorkanimefestival.com/

During the afternoon we added some more display shelves to the new books area. It is starting to look quite nice. I think we will also be displaying dvds and audio books as well soon.

On the way home, I read some of Fundamentals of Technical Services Management by Sheila S. Intner with Peggy Johnson. It has given me a few ideas about weeding, mending, and preservation which I had not thought of before. I rather like the idea of creating a separation between processing books and preservation of books.

I also spent some time discussing Books In Print as an online service and thinking about Baker and Taylor's Titlesource 3. I have to spend some more time evaluating the service.

I have been a member of the American Library Association for a very long time. I am really not sure what it has done for me. It is a union card. I am also a member of RUSA which is the Reference and User Services Association. I enjoy reading the RUSA magazine, I have even ordered a few reference books which they recommended in their magazine. Right now, I am looking at joining ALCTS (Association of Library Collections and Technical Services). I am hoping that it has something useful to offer that I will be interested in. I think I might actually look at joining a committee. I never really considered joining any of the American Library Association committees. Collections is much more interesting to me than reference.