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.

Who does Windy Pants Patrick think he is?

Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully is a winner from the start!

Strawberry Freckleface gets all happy when her parents go to work early because she gets to go to Early Bird at school and that is the most fun. At least most of the time. There are usually all kinds of cool things to do, except for when it rains. That's a real bummer. On those not so dry days, they have to go inside and that means dodgeball. Not so much fun.

All the kids are afraid of dodgeball, actually they are afraid of Windy Pants Patrick, who is the school bully. So on this particular day, Strawberry Freckleface has had enough and she comes up with a plan. But will her plan work or will her worst fears come true?

Okeechobee Book Reviews says, "Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully is a super cool book! The pictures are as delightful as the story and really make the book a lot of fun. It is so refreshing to see a superstar doing something valuable with their time. This books is an asset to kids everywhere and I hope parents will take the time to talk about the fears and solutions with their kids."

Most people know Julianne Moore as a renowned actor, but she is so much more. As an advocate for children, she is using her superstar powers for good, and not evil, by not only giving of her time with Save the Children, but this is her second picture book (with LeUyen Pham) for children and a great follow up to her debut with Freckleface Strawberry. Young readers are delighting in her fanciful stories and these books are among her greatest contributions to the development and education of children. Julianne is truly a role model for the ages.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2009

In 1867 Hans Christian Andersen was subrenting an apartment from a female photographer, Thora Hallager, at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. This photo of Andersen was taken in October 1867.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2009

I did not have any books to read on the train with me this morning. I picked up a copy of the New York Times for today instead. I read about books. There was this article from the Times which I found entertaining. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/books/16kaku.html?ref=books We have the title Fools Gold, but don't have the title Dumb Money by Gillian Tett.

Today has been a steady day. I have done some more weeding in the oversize books, this time it was in the music and film books. I mainly looked for very old technical books. There were a number of books that needed minor repairs as well. The repairs were mainly replacing old plastic covers on the books or mending tears in the books. This will go to technical services for mending.

I also spent some time thinking about doing a survey for the library. Sometimes it is good to think about things and plan. Our computer technician put a copy of Professor Teaches tutorials on the different microsoft products, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and Publisher. I have to go back and do more of the tutorial on Publisher. I may do a bookmark on writing. I am caught up on most of the detail work around the library. I kept up the current events display and checked the new books display this morning.

I also updated the list of websites for reviews which we use in collection development. It is mostly internet sites on books and graphic novels right now. Many of the sites are in my sidebar.

My diet is going well. I am down a pants size. I still do my exercises from the book Yoga RX and listen to the cd from I Can Make You Thin. It is working slowly and steadily for me. I still have quite a way to go.

I picked up two more books to read, Creative Capitalism A Conversation With Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Other Economic Leaders by Michael Kinsley and The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics and Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt.

There is another business book which looks interesting, A Complaint Is A Gift, Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong, 2nd Edition by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller. This was recommended by a librarian at the Westchester Library Association conference. I started reading this book on the train on the way home. It is about how to use complaints for "service recovery." The authors point out that most people who complain are regular customers. People who don't complain and have problems simply don't come back. Complaints are an opportunity to fix problems with service and products. The book is mainly focused on businesses, but I think it applies to service agencies and libraries as well.

I spent a little time on Google Webmaster Tools. It was rather interesting. Apparently the words most used to find my blog are "mature manga" and "jim collins good to great". The two sites with the most links to my site are http://www.chicagohistoryjournal.com and http://www.apolloalliance.org . The Chicago History Journal is a fine organization and the Apollo Alliance is a very progressive alternative energy organization. Both are excellent sites. I can say that the Apollo Alliance does have a book based on them Apollo's Fire Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy.

It's Easy to be Green!

Going Green. I'm loving how it seems to be a growing trend right now because it's so important to protect our environment! And it's so easy to go Green! So I guess that means today I'll be talking about...

Teens going Green!

As a teen myself, I find that protecting my environment is so important. And it is so easy to do! There are so many different things that teens, themselves, can do in an effort to go Green.

- When using a camera, use rechargeable batteries instead of the one-use batteries. Everytime you recharge the batteries, which also have a longer lifespan, you are saving the environment from numerous batteries being thrown out into it.

- When going shopping, bring your own reuseable bag for the cashier to put your purchases into. It really helps to cut down on the amount of plastic bags being wasted each year. And if you happen to forget your reuseable bag, reuse the plastic bag or throw it into the recycle bin instead of the garbage.

- Recycle! This one is huge! So many items are simply thrown away when they could easily be recycled! Paper, plastic, cans... They can all be tossed into a recycle bin instead of a trash can. It makes it easier, too, when a recycle bin is placed next to a trash can in a house! That way it becomes easier to recycle!

- Turning out lights and shutting down appliances (yes, the computer included!) when not in use cuts down tremendously on the amount of electricity used! And they are so easy to do! When leaving a room, just flip the light switch off or shut down the computer so it is not wasting electricity running all night while you're asleep!

- Carpool! When going out to lunch with your friends, instead of all driving separately, conserve gas and have one person drive everyone to lunch! And you can alternate who drives so it's fair to everyone! This way gas is not wasted unnnecessarily!

These measures are all so easy to use when deciding to go Green. But they're not nearly all the methods available for use. So let's share! What are some of the methods you all use to go Green?

Alyssa Montgomery
http://amontgomery99.blogspot.com/
Author of Where Are You?, Mr. Mysterious, and 9:53 PM (from the Heat of the Moment Anthology).

Universal Healthcare Debate Model- IT job opportunity!

What we all need for the healthcare debate is an analysis tool built on use case examples versus system cost. Lets pick say 20 typical American profiles and build an analysis model to showcase the costs and impact to the "average american". I think it would be interesting to see the use cases identified against the standard "polling demographic groups" to allow us to cross reference the cost benefits by the "voting public".. Ultimately, that is what will be necessary to get us all to give up something for the "greater good"..

Next.. we need a basic cost plotting where we view the systemic cost projections versus the "pay go" savings provisions. These system costs/benefits need to be plotted for projections and assumptions in the 1 year, 3 year, 5 year, 10 year and 20 year timelines.. Is this a lot of work? Yes? but the gov't can do it.. Lets see them just build a website to show the American public how all of the different proposals stack up.. honestly, transparently, with avenues for commentary built in right in..

We ALL want to see more people with better healthcare. Lets just do it transparently an with data right out front in way that the general population can understand it. Job opportunity for someone who wants a website that will get millions of hits and traction for advertising and beyond..

How To Get Control of Your Time And Your Life by Alan Lakein

How To Get Control of Your Time And Your Life by Alan Lakein

While I was at Barnes and Noble, I bought this mass market paperback for $6.99. It is a very quick read. The book is only 160 pages long and can be read in afternoon. It was originally published in 1974 so it has withstood the test of time.

The book shows tried and true methods of time management and goal setting; the A list of personal goals, the to do list, daily scheduling, and breaking tasks into manageable actions. In addition to methods there are numeroous admonishments and tips; handle a piece of paper only once, "if something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly," learn to say "no", there is an 80/20 rule are some of the ideas presented.

Alan Lakein comes across as sensible and practical. He tries to answer Lakein's question, "What is the best use of your time?" as well as "What is the price of delay?"

This is a short focused book by a Harvard M.B.A. and a recognized expert in time management. The book has sold over 3 million copies.

Moldy teens

Ah, the topic is green teens. Did I happen to mention the robin in my previous post was green?

Since I already posted, I'm simply going to list five things I do to be green (besides riding roller coasters). I challenge each of you to develop your own list. Feel free to use any of my suggestions.

• If I drink a canned drink, I bring it home to recycle even if it's not convenient.
• I will not use Styrofoam drinking cups unless there is absolutely no option - and I reuse Styrofoam packing (I try not to use it all all because Styrofoam is the Devil.)
• My recycle bin is more full than my waste bin.
• I replaced all of my light bulbs with long-life energy saving bulbs.
• I limit the use of plastic bags by bringing re-usable bags to the grocery and other stores; or refuse a bag if I only purchased one or two items.

Your turn.

Norm

www.normcowie.com