Daily Thoughts 6/19/2009

Herman Hesse, photograph taken 1927.

Daily Thoughts 6/19/2009

Today was another pleasant day. On the way in to work, I finished reading The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics and Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt. It is a very interesting title. I am going to probably write a review tomorrow. I think the book will give me a better idea on how to review graphic novels. There is a lot of terminology in the book which was new to me.

This morning I had a few gift books added to the collection. I also filed some looseleafs for the law collection, this time it was New York Official Code of Rules and Regulations. We are getting a lot of requests for summer reading already. A lot of people are asking for Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.

The laws for immigration have changed for citizenship and green cards in the United States. The citizenship test books before 2008 are not valid. I ordered several current books on becoming a citizen as well as a few books on getting a green card because of this.

I also spent some time this morning going over Titlesource 3 from Baker and Taylor with the childrens staff and looking at it a little more closely.

They are moving around furniture today. This includes putting in new carpeting in some parts of the library.

I left a bit early this afternoon to take care of car trouble. On the way to pick up my car, I read The Visible Librarian Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy by Judith A. Siess. It talks about how customer service is essential in retaining library patrons.

Daily Thoughts 6/17/2009

Soren Kierkegaard in the coffee-house. Sketch in oils by Christian Olavious, 1843

Daily Thoughts 6/17/2009

Proposed layoffs for libraries and cuts in service have been reduced considerably. This is good news for libraries in the five boroughs of Manhattan. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6665611.html

I spent a few minutes looking through http://books.alltop.com/ this morning. It is a news feed for books. I liked the blogs and sources they chose. I even found a few things to order for our library. It seems to cover a nice selection of news.

Queens Library in New York has won the library of the year award from the American Library Association. This is an article from the Daily News, a newspaper I sometimes read during lunch with my coffee. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/06/15/2009-06-15_boro_wins_library_of_year.html

American Library Association has created its own social network called ALA Connect. They are seeking librarians to come join the network. It is a fairly new network for librarians. http://connect.ala.org/

Today was a solid day. We are preparing to lay carpet on Friday, so we had to clear off some of the display space. I also filed some law looseleafs, Guide to Employment Law and Regulations. We are preparing to do some more organization in the technical services area. I think it will be helpful to do this. I am also hoping to get some of the gift books processed.

I read some more of A Complaint Is A Gift on the train home. It is a practical book on customer service; it includes things like service recovery and how to reduce the number of complaints.