Daily Thoughts 8/11/2010 (Budget, Advocacy)

16th Century Decorative Alphabet.

Daily Thoughts 8/11/2010 

Paintings of different peoples Ideal Bookshelves.  http://idealbookshelf.typepad.com/




We had our order meeting today.  I also read a little bit on preservation from a few websites. I am printing up the shelf talkers for tomorrow right now.




I finished reading Smart Start-Ups and Mental Health Naturally on the way to work on the train.



Things are getting rather interesting in the book trade.  It seems that Amazon is now challenging Barnes and Noble with ebooks.  It looks like things are very much up in the air in the book world.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/business/media/12bookstore.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&src=busln




I feel a bit perplexed.  Recently there has been talk about budget shortfalls in the city of over $4.4 million dollars by the end of the year.  This makes it look like we will need to be even more ready than before by the end of the year.  There is talk of retirement packages.  I am not sure what to make of this.  People cannot collect social security until they are 66 which is a rather interesting conundrum.  It is eye opening. 



The math is rather interesting.  We received $250,000 until the end of the year out of $400.000.  This leaves 150,000 in debt leftover.  If we were $400,000 in debt July of last year and did the exact same thing we would be $550,00 in debt by the same time next year.  If you add in inflation of 5% to a 3.8 million dollar budget, you would need another $159,000.  Add $550,000 to $159,000 and you get $709,000.  I am not sure if this makes sense.  Lets say the city decides to cut the library funds by 3% because of a need to save money, that would be another $100,000.  I can imagine an $800,000 shortfall by next year.  This would be an absolute worse case scenario.



This is why people need to find ways to save money as well as generate revenue, get more people into the building, get donations, and get grants.  This is a possible truth of what we may be facing.  It is also a reason to think about advocacy and other things.




On the way home,  I read something a little bit different, a 55 page print out of the guidelines for a conservation/preservation grant from the New York State Board of Regents for libraries.  I was reading the section on photographs.  We have some interesting old photographs in our library.  A number of them have been used in books.  There is a box of old photographs of our library.  The box of course is a greyish acid free cardboard.  The photographs would make for an interesting display in our lobby.  The foundation date of our library building is on November 16.

Daily Thoughts 7/18/2010

Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton's Close, Canongate, w:Edinburgh Designed by Malcolm Fraser Architects, shortlisted for Channel 4's Building of the Year 2000, Picture taken by Brian D. Osborne, Creative Commons Share Alike Attribution 2.0, Found on Wikimedia.

Daily Thoughts 7/18/2010

I checked Google Webmaster Tools this morning and found two sites that were interesting with links to mine. The first is More Vikings which uses this title because the author wishes Jane Austen had more vikings. It is a blog about speculative fiction. I like their lists of different genres including Noire, Steampunk, Weird Westerns, and Cyberpunk. http://www.morevikings.com/

Another blog which had me in their blogroll is http://shakespearewroteformoney.wordpress.com/ It reviews many literary titles.

I changed the signature on my personal email to include a link to this blog and added a link to the Mount Vernon Public Library Foundation http://www.mvplfoundation.org/ . In addition I went into my work email and changed it to include a link to the Mount Vernon Public Library Foundation with the words please donate.

There is something called Signature Marketing. This means if you work in a company, all of the signatures should contain the persons name, title, address, phone and extension, a link to the company, and a link to the products for sale. This way if someone sends out a message, they will always be selling the company.

First-ever National Study: Millions of People Rely on Library Computers for Employment, Health, and Education 77 million people used library computers and Internet access in past year
http://www.imls.gov/news/2010/032510.shtm

Jeff Vandermeer on a Persons Private Booklife Versus Public Booklife

I read some more of Booklife on the train to work today. While I was reading Publishers Weekly, I came across a starred review for The Third Bear a collection of fantasy short stories by Jeff Vandermeer. I also put Clay Shirky's new book, Cognitive Surplus Creativity and Generosity In A Connected Age on hold. I don't usually work Sundays. This is the first time.

On the way home, I finished reading Booklife on the train. The book is more about the process of being a writer than about how to be a writer. It explains what is being done, not how to do it. I will probably write a review later this week.

New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup Combined Meeting

New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup Combined Meeting, June 17, 2010 6:00-9:00 p.m.

Tonight was the first combined meeting between New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup. It was at the City University of New York Graduate School for Journalism on 219 West 40th Street, Room 308. This was a chance to do a combined meeting on advocacy for public libraries. It was also the New York Library Association's first allied meeting to increase membership. New York Library Association is interested in increasing its activities in lower New York. Tinamarie Vella hosted the meeting.

Most of the New York Library Associations's activities are held upstate. For example, The Empire State Book Festival held on April 9 & 10 was held in Albany. The next NYLA conference will be held on November 3-6, 2010 in Saratoga Springs New York.

I found it to be quite interesting. We talked about the purpose of New York Librarians Meetup and what we planned to do for the future. Part of this was about future plans for the group. Stephanie L. Gross who is the Organizer for the New York Librarians Meetup mentioned the visit to the Jane Austen Exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum as well as the visit to MOCCA (the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) done earlier.

There were discussions on the We Will Not Be Shushed Read-In at Brooklyn Public Library which ran from Saturday June 12, 5 p.m. to Sunday, June 13, 5 p.m. http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/events/notshushed.jsp . Attendees described the different advocacy campaigns for New York city libraries. This included the postcard campaign to support libraries as well as numerous organizations which were associated with advocacy.

Tinamarie Vella provided two excellent handouts. One was a list of advocacy resources on the internet for librarians. A few of them are http://savelibraries.org/ Save Libraries , Geek The Library http://geekthelibrary.org/ and, http://www.ilovelibraries.org/ I Love Libraries . These are all worth looking at. The second handout was a guide to what the New York Library Association can do for you.

I have participated in sending postcards, making phone calls, and contacting my local representatives about libraries. There were a few resources I had not seen before which Tinamarie Vella listed, Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) Advocacy Page was one of them. http://www.metro.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&Itemid=142 .

The meeting touched on lots of different issues in librarianship. We got a chance to look at the NYLA (New York Library Association) website http://www.nyla.org/ which has job listings as well as a variety of sections on different subjects in librarianship. The NYLA New Members Roundtable has a mentoring section for librarians. http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=214 . All first time members are signed up for the New Members Roundtable. Currently, I am a member of the American Library Association and the Westchester Library Association. I just signed up on June 18, 2010 as first time member of NYLA for $25.

We also examined the New York Librarians Meetup page http://www.meetup.com/NYLibrarians/ . On the New York Librarians Meetup we discussed the need to get people more active. If you are interested in social networking for librarians in the New York metro area, it is an excellent place to join. Participating has been quite enlightening.

People asked how they could use ALA Connect which is the social networking site for the American Library Association http://connect.ala.org/ . I have used it mainly for taking classes online. It is excellent for this. I am going to be taking the Readers Advisory 101 class and will be using ALA Connect to participate in discussions for the class.

I also learned about other organizations that are tied in with libraries in New York. One of them which I heard about for the first time was the Deskset. The Deskset has dance, charity, and reading events. I have never been to their events, but they sound interesting. Their blog touches on reading, libraries, and books. http://thedeskset.org/.

A more traditional group, The New York Library Club was discussed. This group holds formal dinners and events. http://www.nylibraryclub.org/

One of the possible venues which was mentioned for a library meetup was the Poets House http://www.poetshouse.org/ . This would be a fantastic place to go. I very much love poetry. I hope they have the chance to do this. Another member offered to host meetings at Queens College which would be quite interesting.

There was also some mention of the larger professional associations, the ACRL NY chapter (Association of College and Research Libraries), ALA (the American Library Association), and the SLA (the Special Library Association). With budget cuts and layoffs there has been interest in increasing membership in professional associations and advocacy.

Metro New York was discussed as well in the context of professional development. http://www.metro.org/ Metro offers an excellent set of courses for librarians. I took a course on Twitter for librarians there. They are quite formal and professional in their approach. Metro recently introduced a membership for individual librarians called myMetro http://www.metro.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=210&Itemid=98

The atmosphere was very congenial. The room had an overhead projector to display web pages as well as lots of comfortable seating. Coffee and cookies were served to attendees. They had printed badges with our image from the NY Librarian Meetup web page. One of my quirks is that I collect conference attendance badges. This will go into the bag with other conferences attended; Book Expo, Tools of Change for Publishing, PC World, New York Comic Con and others.

This a short, informal summary of my experience at the meeting. I may have some more formal thoughts tomorrow. I learned a lot from attending the meeting. This is a major purpose of social networking; to go out and meet and learn from the people who you interact with on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and other places. There are many people who I hope to see from the networks I have joined. People go to Tweetups, Meetups, and other events.

Daily Thoughts 6/2/2010

Mr. E.A. Bond Principal Librarian of the British Museum, 1879

Daily Thoughts 6/2/2010

Today was a quiet day. I checked the displays and tried to get my orders ready for next week. I also am working on some bookmarks for Latin American authors. It should be interesting doing them. I also spent some time going over the mystery ordering with a colleague. We processed some of the books from Book Expo America. We focused mainly on romance titles which are very high demand right now.

I spent some time talking to the Brodart representative who is a book distributor. They only do books which is different than most distributors. The representative was interested in the ebooks section of Book Expo America, The International Digital Publishing Forum. I saw there was a conference, but did not go to the sessions http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/en/Press-Information/Press-Releases/IDPF-Partners-with-BEA-in-2010/

I also made an appointment today to talk to the Bookletters person about widgets and links for our website. I am also looking at a suggestion form so patrons can recommend items.

It looks like we may be in a budget crunch soon. There is a petition going around for funding for our library. It could be very serious very fast. Libraries are increasingly being viewed as something which is not an essential service. Literacy is being seen as a luxury. I have decided to go to a join New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup advocacy meeting on June 17, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. http://www.meetup.com/NYLibrarians/calendar/13673687/