Daily Thoughts 11/22/2010 (Writing That Works, Ebooks, Shelving)

Thomas Sully, Portrait of a Young Girl, circa 1824, Oil on Canvas


Daily Thoughts 11/22/2010

I spent a little bit of time straightening out the displays.  I also called a a number of different people about ebooks.  I am applying for the Sony Library Program for ebooks.  It is a free program.  I also called Apple about Ipads and learned that they offer Ipads to libraries in New York through their Government Program with 3% discount.  I also learned about that Nook can sink and share books with up to six nooks through a single account.  This is good to know for libraries.

I received a quote for the cost of Freegal, a download service for libraries for music MP3s.  I like the way the service works.  You can listen to a minute sample of each song, but not the full song. Then you can choose to download the song based on the patrons available quota of downloads each week or month.  We are paying based on our circulation and community size.  This can be found on the IMLS library statistics search engine.  http://harvester.census.gov/imls/search/index.asp

I am also looking at the Elite Street service from BWI.

We may also be looking at new shelving for the oversize books.  These books are often quite heavy and regular shelving won't hold them very well.  We may be looking at steel shelving.  I have to look through the Highsmith, Gaylord, and Demco catalogs tomorrow.

I am reading Writing That Works How To Communicate Effectively In Business by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson. It is a very practical work.  It reminds you to use plain language, eliminate jargon, and write things that get work done. Writing that gets work done is even more important perfect clarity.  There is also a reminder that what you do with a computer is more important than having the latest model.

Partly because I had a computer virus yesterday and had to have my machine cleaned and clear out the registry, I did not get a chance to write any reviews yesterday.  I now have a variety of new software on my machine, Hitman Pro antivirus, Hijack This, Malware Bytes antimalware software, a new firewall, a new registry cleaner-- Ccleaner, Google Chrome, and other software.

I decided not to review The Referral Engine or Content Strategy for the Web.  I guess I was a bit computered out.  There is a lot of new media language and jargon in these books.  When you have been trying for six hours to get everything working on your computer, it can be a little much. I am probably going to review Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk soon. It is a bit lighter and more humorous.

Web Bits

Library cuts are not just happening in the United States, there is a lot of reporting of cuts in England.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/22/library-cuts-leading-authors-condemn

Daily Thoughts 5/14/2009

Jack London The Sea Wolf

Daily Thoughts 5/14/2009

Part of this morning was spent shifting books in the 700s, specifically the art books. I still have quite a bit of shifting to do. I also did some roaming reference where I am assigned to seek people out on the floor who are looking for answers. I also weeded some fiction titles with very low circulation. There were a few other miscellaneous tasks to complete throughout the day, starting to file some looseleafs for the law collection.

This afternoon, I spent some time talking to our representative about large print books. We need them to provide us with more African American titles as well as more of the New York Times Bestsellers in large print. I sent them some lists of suggested authors to see if they could customize the standing order to better meet our needs.

Tomorrow, I think I am going to go in the technical service area and check to see if we can order new copies of some books instead of sending them to the bindery. There are quite a few titles that need to be rebound. New copies may be cheaper than rebinding in some cases.

There are a couple of new benches in front of the new books area. They add a nice touch to the area.

Web Bits

Amazon is selling ebooks as a loss leader on Kindle. http://www.teleread.org/2009/05/13/amazon-losing-money-on-999-e-books/

A few profiles on independent bookstores in New York from the Bookweb blog. http://ibnyc.wordpress.com/category/indiebound-spotlights/

Daily Thoughts 3/30/2009

Photo Credit : NASA

Daily Thoughts 3/30/2009

I've started reading How The Way We Talk Can Change The Way We Work by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. This book is a workbook which focuses on a method of changing your goals and dealing specifically in ways to committ to change by acting on complaints.

Today was another day, nothing special today. I was shadowed by one of the new librarians. I decided to go over active listening and knowledge elicitation techniques. Things like scenarios where you have more than one place to find what you are looking for (usually there are at least three places to find a common piece of information). Quid pro quo; having information ready to give a patron like flyers, small facts, bookmarks and similar things to get them to better tell you what they want. I think that quid pro quo (something for something) is actually a Roman strategy where when Roman soldiers would enter a new territory, they would send out a person with bits of information about themselves to give to the locals in exchange for local information.

Also, systematically clarifying a patrons questions, asking for support materials like homework assignments or magazine articles finding alternative search terms for what a person is looking for. This would include definitions, spellings, plural forms of words, alternate spellings of words and names, searching by publisher, mixing and matching pieces of titles, and other strategies.

I called the local YMCA director and the Friends of the Library to get them to agree to be part of the block cleanup and planting for Earth Day. I'll probably call the neighborhood associations tomorrow and visit two churches that are near us. I am supposed to have a bunch of people who want to be part of the event by the end of the week for the mayors office. The Friends of the Library head suggested I might want to get some younger people to help.

I wrote my portion of the monthly report as well as what I plan to do this week. Libraries are big on paper. We have lots of it.

I checked on the shelving in the main library. They ordered a whole new set of metal bookends which was nice to see. The library aides did a nice job of putting the books in order-- edged ( the books being one half inch in from the edge of the bookshelves with all spine labels visible) and having three to five inches free at the end of each shelf of books with a bookend placed.

It is funny how sometimes when you think you have done nothing is when you have done the most sometimes. Things just fall into place.

Safari Books Online sent me a thank you letter through the mail for trying out their online service. I was rather surprised by this. It looks like excellent marketing.

Daily Thoughts 3/20/2009

Evert A. Duyckinick, Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and Women in Europe and America. New York: Johnson, Wilson & Company, 1873.

Daily Thoughts 3/20/2009

This is a nice little article on the first color ebook reader. http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/03/worlds-first-co.html

Today had a few unexpected things. I went over shelving with the library aides and the person managing shelving. I reminded them that all the books should be edged; one half inch from edge of the bookshelves and even. There should be no books lying on top of the other books. At the end of each shelf there should be a hands breadth; four to six inches of empty space left at the end of each shelf. When the books are not edged, it is often hard to see the spine labels. When the books are too tightly packed together, it breaks the spine of the book and causes books to split in half.

I also walked around and looked at the shelving to check for repairs and sections of books that were out of order. This is called "walking the shelves". It looks like I am walking back and forth systematically between the aisles and looking over the bookshelves from top to bottom. It is more than doing individual shelf reading where you check to see if individual books are out of order.

I am going to be selecting extra pieces with a colleague for the slat wall displays that are going up for new books. This should be interesting. We also got new book detection systems for the library.

I went to a meeting at city hall for Earth Day which is April 22, 2009. The main focus of the discussion seemed to be neighborhood cleanup and recycling. They wanted civic organizations to adopt blocks for neighborhood cleanup. The largest church had agreed to do some pickup of trash and light painting around our neighborhood. We do need it. They are also asking us to do something for Arbor Day. I am planning a display of environmental books for Earth Day. Also, it is about the time for planting flowers.

I read some more of Social Software In Libraries. The author was going into areas which we have not done yet, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), VOIP (Internet Telephony), screen capture software, instant messaging reference, vodcasting, podcasting, and a wide assortment of technology. There is a tremendous amount to think about in this book.

Daily Thoughts

Wisdom, mural by Robert Lewis Reid. Second Floor, North Corridor. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C., Caption underneath reads "KNOWLEDGE COMES BVT WISDOM LINGERS".

Daily Thoughts

Most of this morning was spent weeding the reference books as well as changing the location of some titles to the storage stacks to create room. We are relocating the periodicals desk to a new location.

Right now, our library is moving around furniture. The cybercorner got moved to a new location and is current;y under renovation. They are running new wiring through the floor. The computers are being updated. Because the cyerbcorner is closed right now, it is very quiet. Some of our stacks are going to be moved around as well.

I spent some time figuring out where to put the dictionary stand and the atlas stand and talked to the director about rearranging the furniture in the Job Information Center. I am really not quite sure how to rearrange the furniture in the Job Information Center.

I also filed some looseleafs for the New York Code of Rules and Regulations. I find filing to be relaxing sometimes. It is a very basic kind of activity.

Today was the African American Read In Chain in the community room from 1:00-4:00 p.m.. People read poetry, read from plays, and gave speeches in honor of African American History Month. They had a nice spread with salad, lasagna, cookies, and water. I had my lunch while listening to someone recite poetry.

I finished reading Jack Payne's Six Hours Past Thursday. The best part of the story in this book was the unrelenting antiheroism of the main character which eventually does him in.

Afternoon Thoughts

Sterling Memorial Library Stocks, Yale (Public Domain Image)
I got this from wikimedia.org



One of my reserves came in today, The New Weird edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer. It is a short story collection of science fiction and fantasy in the tradition of Weird Tales. Ann Vandermeer is an editor for the newly reborn Weird Tales Magazine. It should give me a few new authors to look at.

Today has been a very slow day. Mostly, what I am doing is figuring out detail work to make my area more organized. I am going to have all the atlases in the atlas stand labeled ATLAS so they are not put on the regular shelves. I am also going to go through and check all of the multicultural and job information center books to make sure they are all properly labelled. I am tightening up the collection.

I have also been selecting books for discard. Someone always double checks the books to be discarded to make sure we don't make mistakes.

I am also looking over the books that came in to make sure they are labelled properly for reference before they go on the shelves.

The other thing I have been doing is placing new pocket parts in the law books and discarding the old ones. Today is my day to be particularly uptight. Go over the details to appear that I am doing my work properly.

Yesterday, my library aide went through and straightened all the books on the shelves, three to five inches space at the end of each shelf, spine visible on the shelf and each book a half inch in from the edge. Check to see that the books are not too tightly packed together, this splits the spine of the book.

Make sure all the bookends have cork on the bottom so they don't slip. (This is of course the ideal, it never is quite this way.) Double chcek to make sure that everything is in dewey decimal order. Make sure there are no books left lying around.

It reminds me of the librarians nightmare. In college someone once told me he would love to push the stacks over sideways so they crashed into each other like dominos falling sideways one after another. He would run through the library pushing over the stacks, then knocking all the books on the floor.

Sometimes the kids or teenagers like to push the books all the way to the back of the shelves. Or they like to run through the library knocking books on the floor. For awhile, where I work now, they used to have gangs that would run through the library and knock books on the floor. They don't have this anymore. Maybe it is just one of those library myths.

Once while I was in California, while I was working as a library aide in four year college, they had an earthquake at the main library. We spent a day wandering around picking up books off the floors and putting them on shelving carts. While we were picking the books up off the floors, other people were straightening out the shelves so we could start putting the books back on the shelves. On the second day, we started putting the books back on the shelves. We got overtime for three days. We worked for ten hours each day to get the library back in shape.

I also worked part-time as a library assistant at University of Pittsburgh in library school. The stacks have a very different feel to them. We had condensed rolling stacks for the government documents on tracks. You would turn a wheel and the whole stack would move creating an opening so you could walk down the aisle. I sometimes worried that I might get crushed. But, they had automatic sensors so you wouldn't get caught while the stacks were being rolled close. Government documents are mind numbing things. They assigned me to do this. I also answered reference questions at the main desk. So, in a way, I started as a reference librarian and I am still one.

Fuelmyblog and other social networking sites, Walking the Stacks, Jackie Ormes African American Women Cartoonist

Today, I am top blog on Fuelmyblog. It is one of those popularity contest things where you aim to get the most recommendations. Fuelmyblog is a type of social networking site. I enjoy looking at the different sites. They are identified by pictures. I like it when I get showcased. I hope it means more people will read my blog. I removed the link because it only stays up for the day you are featured.

I also changed the banner at the top of my blog after some not so kind complements on the quality of the banner. I used Microsoft Photodraw V.2 to create the new banner. Last time, I used paint. It was not that hard to figure out Microsoft Photodraw. I also created a new thumbnail icon for Entrecard.

Occassionally, I take the time to make a full circuit of the stacks or shelving to make sure everything is in order. I check for items that are lying on top of other books, misplaced books, sections that are out of order. I do a circuit of the area which I am in charge of business, law, reference to make sure everything at least looks neat and in order. If anything is slightly out of order, I let my library aide (they changed the name from pages) know where to put things in order. I also pick up loose material on tables and check to see that the public access terminals for looking up books are working. Adults and children like to hack into the catalogs for looking up books so they can get internet access without having to signup to use computers.

As part of this I take the time to look at the new books section every other day so I know exactly what is there without having to leave the desk. In addition, I occassionally look at what is being processed to go upstairs that needs to be added. Yes, we do see what is going to be put out before the patrons, so we can often get things before the patrons. I will also occassionally look around in the storage area, we have two floors of mezzanine (basement) where we work to look at the older books. There are a lot of really interesting older titles.

When I was looking at the new books section, I came across a rather interesting title, it is an oversize book. It came out in February 2008. Jackie Ormes, The First African American Woman Cartoonist by Nancy Goldstein. Jackie Ormes's work first appeared in 1937. It is the first time I have seen this. There apparently is an Ormes Society which supports African American women cartoonists. http://theormessociety.com/ . The comic is a title called Torchy Brown in Heartbeats, an African American romance cartoon. She also made the first African American character doll from comics, Patty-Jo. The cartoons are very interesting to look at.

Jackie Ormes The First African American Cartoonist is reviewed in the forthcoming March 30, 2008 New York Times Book Review on P.13. The review is worth reading, for the most part it is on target.

The Recruiter, The Competitive Intelligence Professional And The Librarian

Aynsworth Rand Spofford, Librarian of Congress, 1864-1897

For a while during the internet boom, I worked as a sourcer locating people for an internal recruiting department. There are some librarian positions at the larger recruitment agencies and outplacement services. At the outplacement companies they help executive locate companies and find information on companies they are applying to.

Internet Sourcer is a kind of specialist position, it is finding people on the internet to interview as hires. It can also include other things like examining company web sites, tracking certain kinds of news, looking at layoffs, finding sales leads, and identifying similar companies to the company you are working at.

At the company, I took the beginning, AIRS training-- Advanced Internet Recruting Strategies. http://www.airsdirectory.com/, What this really means is that I was trained in how to find people on the web. Recruiters look at web sites, forums, people databases, blogs, alumni associations, social networking sites and anywhere that people may gather on the internet. They often take the time to learn the more advanced commands in internet search engines like link, url, file type so they can find specific documents leading to resumes or people. They also use specialty people search engines http://www.zoominfo.com/ , a biographical database, http://people.yahoo.com/ an excellent people finder.

I also used many more web tools as a recruiter than as a librarian. I had the Alexa toolbar which I checked to see who used a certain site. I used the http://www.completeplanet.com/ deep web search engine, I had several tools on my desktop like http://www.webferret.com/
and http://www.copernic.com/


In addition, they extract information from web sites, phone numbers, titles and addresses using software like Black Widow Site Sucker, or Webmole email extractor. There are various trainers who show people how to find people on the web. Probably the most famous of these is http://www.jobmachine.net/ , Shally Steckerl. There are others as well.

This makes many of them more proficient in searching the web than many librarians who are mainly focused on searching for documents and basic information. In fact in most public libraries, librarians are discouraged from letting people use email, forums, or blogs because they consider it disruptive. Things like myspace.com and facebook.com are frowned upon. But, this is where people are going to now. Social networking sites are becoming very popular. There is even one to share personal libraries, http://www.librarything.com/ .

Things like http://www.linkedin.com/ are an incredible opportunity for people who find people as their business on the web.

Librarians in the public setting and in many cases in the corporate setting have fallen very far behind the curve in using the internet to find information. They are now just getting into blogs and other social networking software. Recruiters have been there from the beginning because they are looking for people.

The other group which is using the web much more extensively than librarians in many cases are the competitive intelligence professionals. People like David Carpe use the internet as a source for finding information about competitors companies. http://www.researchzilla.com/ is one of David Carpe's websites. They also spend a lot of time finding people to interview so they can find out what is really happening inside a company. The web is a giant interconnected group of people that are writing about themselves, their interests, the places they are working at, the places they are working for, and just about anything else under the sun.

Librarians are not connected into the people part of the web. The web is not static, it is not the printed page. It changes dynamically. This is a nice little diagram of what social networking is:
http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html . People share websites in clusters. There is usually a central authoritative website which most people are linked to or discuss. The same goes for newsgroups. There are usually one or two people who have the most clout in a forum or newsgroup. Finding these people often identifies who you can ask where certain information is.

Librarians should take the time to learn more about how the internet works, especially the people focused part which is being ignored for the most part.

A lot of the strategies I have used to promote this site have come from my brief experience as a sourcer. I have searched newsgroups to find the proper group to post to, I have searched forums to identify where to drop links, I have looked at social networking sites to see where I can post comments or get widgets.

Anyways, this is part of my two cents for the day.

I have learned quite a bit trying to promote this web site. It has been a very interesting experience so far.
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Let me get back to what I am focusing on books. I am thinking about bookselves right now and the proper way to shelve books in a bookstore or library.

Ideally when books are placed on the shelf, all the spine labels should be visible as well as writing on the spine, they should be hal an inch in from the edge of the bookshelf. The books should not be packed too tightly together because it breaks the spine of the book and causes it to split in half.

There should be a bookend on each shelf with approximately 3-5 inches of space at the end of the shelves. Shelves should be dusted regularly.

No books should be laid on top of other books. This can be dangerous because this leads to a chance for the books to fall off the shelf and hit somebody. Larger books can be dangerous especially if they fall and hit someone in the head or foot.

Ideally bookshelves should not be too deep and should include a bracket in back to prevent the books from falling behind other books.

I've always found steel case bookshelves to be the best. Wood may look nice but it is not very practical in some cases.

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I am further into A Feast for Crows. I am on about page 60.