Daily Thoughts 5/11/2009

Frank Norris The Octopuss. American Book Poster.

Daily Thoughts 5/11/2009

I read Learn Library Management by Bob Pymm and Damon D. Hickey. Every chapter ends with a series of questions about a library manager that covers the material in the chapter. This follows the contents exactly. You have to read the whole chapter to answer the questions at the end. There is also a case study to work on at the end of each chapter related exactly to what is in the chapter. This is followed by a short bibliography. The chapters make you think hard about what you have just read.

The book was a bit mind expanding. It covered a lot of topics which I don't normally think of security, building maintenance, information privacy, planning, strategic planning, and many other things. The exercises made you think about these things in new ways. There are hypothetical answers to all of the questions at the back of the book. These are very clear, concise one or two sentence answers.

It took quite a bit of concentration to read through this book. The descriptions are quite plain with little room for interpretation. They had excellent short descriptions of matrix management, functional design, and product design. I could understand exactly what the authors were describing.

If you want to get a solid overview of all the different things a library manager does this book is right on target. Both of the authors are library managers.

Today was another very busy day. I weeded some more of the 700s. As part of weeding, I noted a few areas for improvement, flower arranging, coins, books on antique glass, photography, modern print making, and animation.

There were other miscellaneous small activities that needed to be done. I printed up my new bookmark for the graphic novels. Some of the new baskets for the slat walls came in as well. I am finished looking through the Public Library Nonfiction Core Catalog 13th Edition for the 800s and the 300s. I have to look through the Public Library Fiction Catalog next for fiction.

Tomorrow we are having Westlaw training. Westlaw updated their system with a new search engine which is supposed to be more user friendly. Next week we are having Baker and Taylor come in to do some training and workflow assessment.

On Wednesday, we are having another poetry open microphone, and on Sunday there is going to be a childrens film shown. We pick out the films with a committee to see which films will be shown.

I watched a few more Fleischer studio Superman cartoons. I find them to be relaxing escapism. This is another of the ones that really stood out for me.