Daily Thoughts 7/11/2010

The Clark County Historical Museum building, located at 1511 Main Street in Vancouver, Washington, United States, is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under its historic name "Vancouver Public Library", Photo taken 23 October 2009 by Werewombat, Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike 3.0. Found on Wikimedia. This is an image of a former library.

Daily Thoughts 7/11/2010

Life continues. I am practicing on Wordpress. This is a set of links to newspaper articles and web articles related to the layoffs and demotions at Mount Vernon Public Library. http://mvpldownsizing.wordpress.com/?p=4&preview=true

I am going to suggest a book called We The Media by Dan Gillmor. It is about how the web allows every day people to report on just about anything. It is fundamentally about the end of the division between ordinary people and journalists. Even though the book was written in 2004, it has become even more applicable today than it was before. Citizen journalism is becoming easier and easier to do. I have found the concepts very useful in writing about the layoffs I experienced. It explains the general concepts, not necessarily the tools to use social media as a way to report events. http://oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/index.csp

Daily Thoughts 4/12/2009

Ralph Waldo Emerson Portrait

Daily Thoughts 4/12/2009

We The Media, Grassroots Journalism By The People For The People by Dan Gillmor

In We The Media, Dan Gillmor lists four characteristics of an excellent blog, voice, focus, real reporting, and good writing. I like to think my own blog has an original voice-- my own, a specific focus on books, librarianship, and publishing, takes the time to talk about real issues, and tries to be entertaining and informative. I am of course still working on these things. The center change in journalism according to Dan Gillmor is that it is no longer a lecture but a conversation between writer and reader.

Sometimes when you are reading a book you learn something which surprises you. This book is available through a Creative Commons license. This means you can download and read it, but not sell it. Here is the web address. http://oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/index.csp . I wish I had known this earlier, I would not have waited for the library to finish labeling and adding security sensors to the trade paperback I had just read.

I don't think this book really needs a deep review because it is readily available go and read it online if you can. If you write for the web for a living this book is pivotal. If you believe in citizen journalism this book is excellent as well. One of the opening quotes is "Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one." -- A.J. Liebing. This book shows you how you can partake in the press through the internet.

Daily Thoughts 4/11/2009

Bookplate of Edgar Rice Burroughs

Daily Thoughts 4/11/2009

I put The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines on hold. He writes humorous fantasy. This book was on the Locus bestseller list so I thought might be fun to read.

I am focusing right now on reading Fundamentals of Collection Development & Management by Peggy Johnson. The book is very nice general overview. It does not go into a lot of detail, but it gives you some guidelines about what a collection development librarian does. The book was printed in 2004, so it is within the last five years in terms of practice. I found an interesting quote which I posted on twitter in the book, "The high purpose of book selection is to provide the right book for the right reader at the right time." Francis K. Drury. I might replace the word book with either information or media to update it to current practices, but it is spot on.

I finished reading this book tonight. Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management was an interesting book. It told me much of what I might need to do in the coming months: put together a user survery, review the way our books are shelved, review collection policy, look at our standing orders, examine our holds reports to see what we need to purchase, think about a three year plan for collection development are some of the ideas presented which may be worthwhile. It also went over the history of collection development and a lot of theory.

What it did not do is show me in any way how to do collection development. This is a common problem with the professional literature of librarianship, the literature tells you what you should do, but not how to do it. There is an assumption that you will learn by doing in a hands on sense. It is very hard to find books that are oriented towards practice. Maybe I have to read more professional journals, blogs, and wikis to get the current practice part.

I am also reading We The Media. It is quite enjoyable. They already mentioned a book called The Transparent Society by David Brin. David Brin is one of my favorite science fiction authors. There seems to be a strong connection between writing about the intenet and being a science fiction author. Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross are both on the Locus Bestseller list for science fiction and are very involved in issues around intellectual freedom and the internet.

Daily Thoughts 4/10/2009

The picture tilted "Taking a rest after reading books" is believed to be a self-portrait of the painter Jeong Seon.

Daily Thoughts 4/10/2009

Web Bits

This article was on Publishers Weekly. It is the experience of a childrens bookseller with the new ebooks and a reminder that there is a tremendous amount of free material available now.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/660000266/post/1700043170.html It looks like a rehash of other articles I have read. I think of it as a confirmation of what may happen in the future. I am finding it easier and easier to get free ebooks to read. It is pretty much a guarantee that everything in the public domain will be put up on the web eventually. Not only will it be put up for free, people will continuously work on making it more accessible and easier to use. One person will see it, then decide it was too hard to read and try a new way to present it so it becomes easier to read.

The free ebooks will not only drive the new ebook sales, they will drive the technology forward with open access. People will innovate to make it easier to use the free content that is available. I predict this will bring a lot of more obscure books out of the academic world into the mainstream. Classics will become sources for all sorts of new experiments like this monstrosity which I have been looking for in the library, Pride and Prejudice With Zombies. The canon will become experimental and mainstream.

Right now, I am sitting in my local library typing away on the computer. I just wrote the Bat Manga review. I was at Barnes and Noble earlier today looking at books. Sometimes, it is relaxing to sit here and type away.

I am back home. I watched Fantastic Four on dvd today. I really enjoyed it. Many critics gave it very bad reviews. It was good enough to make me want to watch the sequel, Fantastic Four The Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Right now, I have two books in front of me, both of which I have started reading, We The Media Grassroots Journalism By The People For The People by Scott Gillmor and Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management by Peggy Johnson

Daily Thoughts 4/6/2009

The Octagon Library at the Queen's or Buckingham House, original home to George III's collection of books, 1819

Daily Thoughts 4/6/2009

I read The Claws That Catch by John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor on the train to and from work. It was a light entertaining science fiction read published by Baen Books. If you need a little bit of escape with a mix of politics, speculation about future technology, and some fighting at the end it is a fun book. Oh and add in music as a weapon and a bit of mind bending anime and you have just the right amount of silliness to add an extra laugh.

Right now, I am reading Jack Kerouac On The Road, The Original Scroll. He was high when he was writing the scroll. He claims that it was only "coffee" but other people say differently. Supposedly he taped together eight long pieces of writing paper to make the scroll. I have started reading it. It reads continuously as one single story. There really is no need for paragraphs in the way he is writing. It is of a singular journey focused on a single character. The book is truly amazing and much more raw than the novel. The first part which is literary criticism is kind of boring, except for Jack Kerouac's life. But then writers biographies have always been more interesting to me than commentary on their writing.

I have been coordinating the shifting, weeding, and relocating of books of one of my colleagues who is on vacation. It took a bit of time to do it correctly. I also have been working a little bit more on Earth Day. I spent a little time this morning reviewing processing of books for the Job Information Center with technical services as well. I am waiting for them to finish processing We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People (Paperback)by Dan Gilmor(Author). I think there is quite a bit on blogging as journalism in the book.