Daily Thoughts 3/9/2009

Dante by Ilya Repin

Daily Thoughts 3/9/2009

I spent some time this morning finishing up our fiction statistics for circulation. James Patterson is the most popular author in our fiction collection followed by Eric Jerome Dickey. The two most popular categories which people read are African American authors and suspense books. In suspense, court room dramas are the most popular. People read a little bit of romance, chick lit, and horror as well. Science fiction and fantasy are not that popular. In mystery, Harlan Coben, Walter Mosley, and Ruth Rendell are very popular.

I also spent a bit of time weeding the reference books in the mezzanine. I focused mainly on the 100, 200, and 300 dewey categories.

I presented the pattern which I use for programming; a poetry/spoken word program and a Sunday film every month. This does not cost any money for us except for the movie license and the snacks. I also seek out one general program that is offered for free. This month it is a program by a lawyer on living wills. If someone offers to do a program for free, I also accept that. There is a person who offered to do a program on teaching poetry in April. This way, I can generate three to four programs a month most of the time. Other people do programs as well. I am thinking of doing a Reading Challenge in the library and a "senior film" series in the fall.

The last two books of the three part series, The Blade, The Ring, and The Chalice by Deborah Chester have come in, The Ring and The Chalice. The movie, Poetry In Motion, has also come in.

I am trying to convince people to come for my poetry/ spoken word open microphone tomorrow. I have four people coming so far.

I read some more of Words In Your Face. They tell us that there are three spaces for slam that stand out, The Nuyorican, louderArts, and NYC-Urbana. I have been to none of these spaces. I am not sure when I might get a chance to look at them. Maybe, someday, I might take a look. I finished reading Big Bank Take Littlle Bank Poetry by Paul Beatty. The book was published as the prize for winning the first National Poetry Slam. I enjoyed reading it, but reviewing poetry is another story...

How Do You Review Poetry?

Is it spoken word or poetry?

I cannot tell the difference.

Are you grammatically correct?

If so, do you break rules?

Do you know what rhythm is?

My rhythm is different than yours.

Do you rhyme all the time?

I dont find this so sublime.

Are your words very colorful?

Red, yellow, black, brown, white.

Do you keep a smooth tone?

Are you an angry poetic poetic?

Can you count the word stresses?

I count differently than you.

Are you a master of syllabification?

My word breaks do not match

Are you an academic intellectual?

Do your words scream the street?

What is poetry, What is poetry?

Define it for me right now.

Daily Thoughts 3/6/2009

Gustave Courbet, Portrait of Baudelaire 1848-1849.

Daily Thoughts 3/6/2009

Today was another quiet day. I finished writing up the distribution of circulation by dewey decimal call number in an excel spreadsheet and sent it to our director. She was happy with it. It took me a couple of hours to finish it correctly.

I am also considering hosting a "Senior Law Day" which is a day of free programs put together to help seniors with their legal issues put together by our cities Office of the Aging. I would aim for June to do this. I like having plenty of time to plan programs so they get properly advertised.

The new librarian is shadowing me at the reference desk. I have been going over things like interlibrary loan requests, holds requests, in house holds, reference policies and procedures, email reference, and other desk procedures today. Yesterday, we walked around the building and talked about where the different parts of the collection are located; playaway audio, dvds, reference books, mysteries, fiction, urban fiction, nonfiction, cds, computers for internet, computers for typing, job information center, business reference, and all the different functions of the library.

I put the film Slam Nation on hold. It is a film by Paul Devlin mentioned in the book Words In Your Face. I am about half way through the book. It is enjoyable subway reading.

Daily Thoughts 3/5/2009

The 'Glasses Apostle' in the altarpiece of the church of Bad Wildungen (Germany).Painted by Conrad von Soest in 1403, the 'Glasses Apostle' is considered the oldest depiction of eyeglasses north of the Alpes.

Daily Thoughts 3/5/2009

Wings

Madame butterfly

Whisper your wings

Flapping breeze

I am looking at Big Bank Takes Little Bank by Paul Beatty. Paul Beatty won the first National Poetry Slam prize which was to get his book published. Words In Your Face talks about this process. Surprisingly, Words In Your Face, contains very little poetry, it is mainly the history and politics of the slam scene in New York.

It looks like Words In Your Face is going to take quite a while to read. The text is dense with interviews. I just read an interview with Maggie Estep who is considered part of the first wave of New York slam poets.

Today was another constantly busy day. I spent a lot of time at the reference desk this morning. I also did some more shadowing with the new librarian. I am mostly done with showing her where things are on the main floor. There are a lot of other small things which need to be redone.

I also spent some time decoding the circulation statistics. I am comparing circulation by specific dewey call numbers and trying to figure out what it means. I have figured out quite a bit of things after looking at the numbers. The most popular books in the art books section are on knitting and crocheting, oversize architecture books, graphic novels, and classical composers. Computer books are quite popular, so are Christian inspiration titles. People read Freud a lot in our psychology section.

There are a few odd and unexpected things. James Patterson is the most popular fiction author in our library. People like to read books on perfume. The circulating law books are the most popular books in the social science section. The most popular history books are on World War II. People read a lot of english grammar books. In the sciences, math is the most popular subject followed by biology in our library. People read more engineering books than cookbooks. Shakespeare is the most popular subject in literature, and Othello is the most popular subject in Shakespeare in our library. In biography, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther, and Saint Augustine are the most read about figures.

In the computer books, Windows is the most popular subject. For test books, accounting civil service tests are the most requested. I am about half way through the statistics sheets going towards the less used material. It is quite interesting.