Daily Thoughts 2/13/2011 (Content Management, The Grand Design)

The Sonnet, 1839, William Mulready, Oil On Panel

Daily Thoughts 2/13/2011

Due to unforseen circumstances, I could not make it to the Book Squared conference.  I would have liked to go. 

I have had a chance to read the rest of The Content Management Bible which was excellent.  It is about how to handle a content management system from the ground up.  There is very detailed information on requirements, logical design, adding content, creating specifications, and many other practical aspects of content management.  I can recommend it without reserve. I also had a chance to read The Web Content Strategists Bible by Charles Sheffield which is about the practical aspects of becoming a content strategist.   He self published this book through CLUEfox Publishing.  It is better in its design than many large publishing houses.

Lastly, I finished reading The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow.  The book is fascinating.  It covers both philosophy and history in physics. Then it goes into the idea of a final unified theory of physics called M-Theory.  Here are two quotes which I especially liked. "Where does that leave us? If M-Theory allows for 10 to the 500th power sets of apparent laws, how did we end up in this universe, with the laws that are apparent to us? And what about those other possible worlds?"  The second quote which I liked is "We create history by our observation, rather than history creating us."

Daily Thoughts 2/11/2011(The Content Management Bible)

Mark Twain at Breakfast 1895 On US leg of round the world tour

Daily Thoughts 2/11/2011

I watched True Grit starring John Wayne.  I think the Charles Portis book was much better.  They made the character Mattie Ross too mild mannered in the film.


I also read a bit more of The Content Management Bible.  It is making me think about how it would apply in a library or publishing setting. Part of looking at content is determining what the requirements and goals of a content management system are.  This book is not hardware or software specifically, it is more about ideas and creating a framework to work inside.  My next stop is metadata.  This is something which I have to learn if I am going to move forward.

Daily Thoughts 2/10/2011 (The Content Management Bible)

Henri Fantin-Latour, The Two Sisters, 1859, Oil On Canvas

Daily Thoughts 2/10/2011

Today, I spent some more time working on my technology grant, checked the displays, updated the Twitter account, and did a little bit of weeding in the 800s.  I also checked the email reference.  We are getting more email reference lately.

We had lunch with one of my colleagues who had been laid off.  She is going to be doing a library internship at The Museum of Conjuring Arts which is about magic tricks, hypnosis, and old fashioned trickery.
http://conjuringarts.org/about/mission-statement/

The book, The Web Content Strategist's Bible by Richard Sheffield came in for me to read through interlibrary loan.  I am enjoying reading The Content Management Bible by Bob Boiko.   The author is discussing how to implement and choose content management systems.  There is a step by step process which is fascinating.  I find reading Bob Boiko like reading the philosophy of data.

Web Bits

It’s time for libraries to be heard on broadband and funding support, Opportunity Knocks Editorial
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/888585-264/opportunity_knocks__editorial.html.csp

Petition to Save the Poe House and Museum In Baltimore
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-the-poe-house-and-museum-in-baltimore/

Daily Thoughts 2/9/2011 (The Content Management Bible, Twitter)

Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg: Navicula sive Speculum fatuorum. Straßburg, 1510

Daily Thoughts 2/9/2011

I checked the displays, updated an announcement for an event on Twitter, and am editing the web survey so we can do it as an in person survey as well.

An example of how an event spreads virally.  We posted a poetry event on our website and now it is picked up by a local Mount Vernon poet. http://maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick.tumblr.com/post/3201489198/poetry-reading-mount-vernon-public-library

On the way home, I read some more of The Content Management Bible.  It is 1122 pages long.  I like what I am reading.  Some of the ideas are quite interesting from a library perspective, "content makes ideas visible" and "content is neither hardware nor software."  For me it is almost the philosophical grounding of what you put into computers.
Web Bits

New York Libraries Say Governor's Proposed Budget Cuts Are Disproportionate
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/889158-264/new_york_libraries_say_governors.html.csp

Daily Thoughts 2/8/2011 (content management bible, open secrets)

Der elegante Leser, Georg Friedrich Kersting, 1812, Oil On Canvas

Daily Thoughts 2/8/2011

Today has been rather quiet. Today, I checked the displays in the morning and did a little checking on inventory.  I also worked for a little bit on a technology grant and spent some time looking at the new library Twitter account. It is growing slowly and steadily.  I also did a little more weeding of the 800s in the storage area.

I read some of the New York Times Book Review and Kirkus Reviews.  I put the book The Physics of the Future How Science Will Change Civilization and Daily Life by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku on hold.  Another book that caught my interest is Open Secrets Wikileaks, War and American Diplomacy by the New York Times  http://www.nytimes.com/opensecrets/ .  It is appropriate that it is released as an ebook.

I read some more of The Content Management Bible on the way home. It is describing the process of how you choose to put content into large databases. It is itneresting to read about.

Daily Thoughts 2/7/2011 (The Content Management Bible, Twitter)

Honore Daumier, Der Leser, Oil On Wood, 2nd Third of the 19th Century

Daily Thoughts 2/7/2011

The book, The Content Management Bible, 2nd Edition by Bob Boiko has come in for me to read.  I am taking the time to learn some new skills. 

I checked the displays this morning and did some email reference.  I also did a little bit of weeding in the storage 800s.  We have started inventorying the collection in the storage area to make sure that things are properly entered into the catalog.  Some of it is checking for items that are market missing but are there, looking for items that are zero circulation, checking for duplicates, and other tasks.

We now have a Twitter account for our library. http://twitter.com/mtvernonlibrary  We are starting to ask people to follow the library.  We have two followers right now.  If you are in Westchester and on Twitter, please take the time to follow.

I read some of The Content Managment Bible on the way home.  The author was writing about the difference between data and content.  Content is data that is made usable.  Content translates raw data into usabile information.  Then this usable information is put into networks to create knowledge which people can learn from.  It has a certain logic to it.  It is a little different than the logic I am used to in every day life.