Daily Thoughts 7/14/2011

[Group of young women reading in library of normal school, Washington, D.C.]
Date Created/Published: [1899]


Daily Thoughts 7/14/2011


I read a bit more of On Leadership on the train to work.


This morning, I checked the Twitter account, got a donation of books, checked the displays, and checked the Ereference.  There were a number of interesting donations; Catullus the Complete Poems, The Life of Pi by Yan Martel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson were a few of the books worth adding to the collection.


I received an invitation to Google+ in my email this morning.  Hopefully, it should be interesting.

We added a set of eight more pictures to our Historic Library Images, Adult Circulation Through Time...
http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/node/282

We have two programs.  One is a Wills Workshop where wills are being discussed.  We are also opening the computer lab on Thursdays from 2-4 p.m. to help with the overflow from the cybercorner.  People seem to mainly be doing job search online.

The books, Curation Nation Why The Future of Content Is Context How To Win In a World Where Consumers Are Curators by Steven Rosenbaum came in for me to read.  This is a book on content.   Also the science fiction book, Out of the Dark by David Weber came in for me to read.  It is a book about alien invasion of earth.

Web Bits


What skills does a Digital Archivist or Librarian Need?
http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2011/07/what-skills-does-a-digital-archivist-or-librarian-need/

The 5 Most Stolen Books by Gabe Habash
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/?p=5788

Daily Thoughts 3/16/2011 (Advocacy, Holds)

"In order to have more, it is necessary to produce more. In order to produce more, it is necessary to know more.", 1921

Daily Thoughts 3/16/2011

I tabulated some more of the surveys today.  People are asking for more educational programming, more new books, and a quieter place to read among other things.  I am hoping this will give us a better idea of what our patrons.  Also people are interested in ereading devices and want some instruction on ebooks.

I also spent some time checking the displays this morning.
Two books came in for me to read, Michio Kaku, Physics of the Future How Science Will Shape Human Destiny And Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100.  This is a popular science table.    Also, The Book of Bunk A Fairytale of the Federal Writers' Project by Glen Hirshberg came in for me to read.

I went to the board meeting of the library and stayed until eleven at night.  A lot of it was union negotiations and discussion of grants and advocacy for the library.

Afternoon Thoughts

Library of Congress, Washington DC, from pre 1910 postcard.

Afternoon Thoughts

Today has been another rather busy day. I read a bit more on the train into work. When I got here, I found I had the video V for Vendetta waiting for me. I still have not checked it out. I've spent most of the afternoon ordering books in three different categories, computers, industries, and careers.

They still have over 200 books from my 300s order to process waiting in the storage area along with a book truck of graphic novels. I am looking forward to having them process the graphic novels. I check out books from the library like everyone else.

Other than that, I did a little bit more with the law books. They are starting to have a bit of a back log.

I changed the small display from banned books to books on writing. I filled it with a variety of classic books; On Writing Well, The Elements of Style, The Reader Over Your Shoulder, and other titles.

I went to check out V for Vendetta and found I had a few other items waiting for me, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp on dvd, The Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez, Marsbound by Joe Haldeman, and Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now. Sometimes I get surprised.

Morning Thoughts, Writing and Reading

The famous Waterman Fountain Pen, a pen that feels good in the hand.

Hello, good morning. Things are not bad today. I requested an interesting title, Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie. I think Salman Rushdie is still under the threat of death. This book is on order at a couple of libraries. There are no copies in the system yet. I will be looking forward to when it comes in.

I could not find that many interesting books to read in the review sources today, so I went to a few blogs. After looking through, The Thin Redline, I put Untapped The Scramble for Africa's Oil by John H. Ghazvinian which looked interesting. The other book which I put on hold was The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr which I found on Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog. I have links to both of these blogs in my side bar.

Writing And Reading:

I am just thinking conceptually today. One of the reasons that I write is to improve my reading. There is a point in reading where no matter how many vocabulary books you read, speed reading books, concentration courses, and other attempts to improve your reading it does not help.

Writing and reading about how to write have improved my reading comprehension considerably. After reading On Writing Well and The Elements of Style, I have a much better sense of what good writing is. Good writing can make even the most boring subjects interesting in my experience. Also learning grammar, punctuation, and style has helped me recognize it in other peoples writing.

This blog has also given me a chance to write reviews on books; something which I had never done before. I read a tremendous amount of reviews. Today I read Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and a copy of the New York Times Book Reviews. It is a very different experience writing a review than reading one. Blog reviews are much more informal and longer than standard book reviews in magazines.

I am really enjoying the process of writing on a blog. I try and write every day. I think the more I write the easier it becomes for me to write. This is very much a truism. At this point, I am not writing for money, but to improve my skills.

It also seems that what I am reading has changed considerably. I am reading more nonfiction, especially nonfiction that has to do with the writing or creative process, as well as design books. I think that design books have a lot to do with the writing medium. Templates, column widths, fonts, borders, and other design features can make blog easier to read. The proper term is readability which combines easily with a similar term usability.

This is my short thought for today. Nothing new has come in for me to read yet. I have seven books on hold. Maybe, if I search around for a bit, I will find something else to read.

I found a book called Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier. There is a short introduction by Neil Gaiman. I am enjoying it so far. The book is oversize, quarto, or what you might consider a coffee table book. It is fully illustrated in color. The book is c2008.

I read it on the train home and during lunch. It was a really interesting book. I am going to work on writing a short review for it tomorrow. Mark Evanier, the biographer, has a blog called http://www.povonline.com

Todays Wandering Thoughts

I found a couple of books that seemed to be worth reading and placed them on hold. Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu. This book came out in 2008. I hope this book has a section on the famous book, Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredrick Wortham written in 1954 on how comic books cause juvenile delinquency. Just to give you an idea of where I stand, I really like the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, http://www.cbldf.org/

There is also a new book called The Philosophers Apprentice by David Morrow. It is science fiction book. David Morrow writes very interesting science fiction. There is a review for it in Locus Magazine already. I think my review will probably be a bit different.
http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2008/03/locus-magazines-faren-miller-reviews.html

I changed something with my link exchange. Money Saving Tech Tips was nice enough to include me in his list of choice links. He has been following my blog for quite a while. So, I decided to expand my link exchange to include sites other than books. http://money-saving-tech-tips.blogspot.com/

I think that the metatags and new banner have considerably improved my traffic. I have not done any keyword analysis of the subjects which I am attaching to my blog. Keyword analysis basically, checks to make sure you are using the keywords which get the most blog traffic. I think at times it can be dishonest. If I really wanted to get a lot more traffic, I would include words like sex, Madonna, youtube, batman, pornography, spam, and similar things. I think it will be better in the long run to just use the right words to describe my blog.

There are a few things I have noticed about keywords. If a keyword is capitalized it is less likely to be a high traffic keyword. Also, it is good to include plurals of keywords; library, libraries, librarian, librarians for example.

Two of my holds came in. The first is Predictably Irrational The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely. The second is a dvd, Wallace & Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The dvd case has some chew marks on it, probably left by a little kid. There are any variety of things you will find in library books; coffee stains, water damage, shopping recipts, bookmarks, food stains, and other things in library books when they are returned. Very rarely you find one dollar bills used as bookmarks.

I decided to add a list of a few publishing blogs which I found rather interesting with some unique professional content. It is on the sidebar.

I accomplished something I finished reading all seven of the books on the Mythopoeic Award Book Challenge. I also reviewed all seven of the books which is an interesting accomplishment. I rather liked doing the concept of a book challenge. I might even do the Graphic Novel Challenge, although, I have already read most of the graphic novels in the challenge already.
http://foxywriter.com/2007/12/27/mythopoeic-award-challenge/

I tried to read Predictably Irrational The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely, but could not get into the book. The subject was interesting, behavioral economics, but the writing was not. I tried the fifty page rule: read fifty pages before you put a book down and it still did not hold my attention. I will try something else tomorrow. I was surprised because the book reminded me slightly of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt which I liked.

The Ebony Horse, Ali Baba And The 40 Thieves, Thoughts on Blogging

arabian-berber horse

I was reading the Ebony Horse, a story in the Arabian Nights. I have the paperback right now in front of me. It is the Richard Burton verson. I found the story to be surprising because it is the classic science fiction gimmick story, where you have a special device or machine that allows you to do a unique thing. In this case it is a horse which looks like ebony. If you press one button it ascends into the air, if you press another button, it descends to the ground. It is even described as having an internal mechanism or motor. This object is what allows the story to happen. At one point, the hero of the story, the prince even lands it on top of a palace roof. This is one of the oldest gimmick stories I have seen. Maybe the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg is another gimmick story.

Another story from the Arabian Nights which has an intriguing piece in it is Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Morgiana Ali Baba's servant boils alive 38 thieves in oil. They meant to kill Ali Baba. What is intriguing about this, is this is not the kind of thing a modern hero can do. I don't think it would be possible for Harry Potter, Batman, or Nancy Drew to get away with boiling people then putting them in a hidden mass grave. In modern stories, the hero is supposed to do the action. Morgiana is his servant, eventually to become the wife of Ali Baba's cousin. Morgiana does a lot of the things which save Ali Baba.

I have gotten various requests to do things with my blog. Add a comments section to the blog, change the format so Entrecard is higher up on the screen, add a third column. The add a third column has been the hardest part for me. I haven't found a decent tutorial that tells me how to do this easily. It would be very useful if someone pointed out a decent tutorial for me.

I tried to read More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon. I couldn't get past the first three pages. I guess my tastes have changed. I really liked reading it a long time ago. It is considered to be one of the best science fiction stories ever written. I find my taste has changed in reading. Maybe, it is because I want to read something newer with a more modern perspective. I have been focused on reading books which have just come out.

There have been suggestions for books to read. I have put them on reserve at the library. Even for a librarian this is a tricky proposition. Our library is part of a library cooperative, not a system, this means every library has its own rules and we share resources. So, each library kind of does its own thing and it is hard to know how fast they are going to act with interlibrary loans.

I am waiting for the books I put on hold, Wind Follower, and Oil. I could call the other libraries and demand "Why hasn't my book come? You must send my book. Please check the shelves." I might do it in a week or so. But, I have to be careful to maintain goodwill. Librarians can get pretty cranky about these things.

There is the possibility that the books are lost, stolen, or misplaced, or just taken out then returned with checkout. Some customers (library patrons) like to read their books in the library, so they find special places to put their books so they can come back and read them every day without other people taking them out. Often these are books with a lot of demand on them. Holds are often about patience. Because, I am already in the building, I can wait for my holds. I, like everybody else have to wait for the books I want quite often.

In order to get items to read, I put a bunch of books or movies on hold, maybe about ten of them, then expect I will get three or four in the next week, and the majority of them much later, some of course will not show up at all.