Saturday, February 27, 2010

Daily Thoughts 2/27/2010


Besuch in der Bibliothek, 1741, Pietro Longhi



Daily Thoughts 2/27/2010

If you get a chance read With A Little Help The Price is Right by Cory Doctorow in the February 15, 2010 Publishers Weekly, Pp. 18-19. It is an excellent article on ebook pricing and the issues surrounding it. I also saw a book which looks interesting: Playing With books: The Art of Upcycling, Deconstructing, and Reimagining the Book by Jason Thompson.

Today was another quiet day. I did more weeding in the mezzanine and a bit more checking through the 800s today. It is moving along steadily. I also checked on having security strips put in books.

I am thinking about the flyers, bookmarks, and other marketing materials in the library. I checked out another book today, The Market Place of Ideas Reform and Resistance in the American University by Louis Menand.

I started reading The Marketplace of Ideas on the way home. The first line of the introduction reads, "Knowledge is our most important business." I rather like that statement. It fights right in with my profesion. I also found out that the series editor for this book is Henry Louis Gates, Jr. from Harvard University. This indicates the book has quite a bit of thought in it. I've noticed that a lot more professors are writing books for the general public these days. It seems ideas are escaping from the "ivory towers."

The first chapter of the book is on the concept of a general education. I got a humanities focused education so I can relate to this. My undergraduate degree was in anthropology. There is not a whole lot of practical application for an undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology focused on modern culture. It was a step towards my professional masters degree in library science.

A public library is of course a public marketplace for ideas. Our job as a librarian is partially to select which ideas which people will partake of. It is considered a place for self education. There are questions right now whether our library is part of the city, or part of the school district. Is self education a form of formal education? or an adjunct to it? It is an interesting question.

3 comments:

70steen said...

a friend of mine is coming to NY in a couple of weeks... what hints do you have for a great trip?? :)

Book Calendar said...

Try and get to the top of the Empire State Building, the view is marvelous. If you like museums, the Museum of Natural History is very nice, so is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I also like The New Museum of Contemporary Art which is very small and kind of interesting on Houston Street. The Morgan Library is also interesting.


If you like bookstores, the Strand Bookstore is a great place to visit.

Forbidden Planet is not far from the Strand if you like comics. So is Time Machine Comics.

The Bowery Poetry Club might be worth a try if you want to see poetry.

The Film Forum is an excellent place if you want to catch a nice independent film. The Anthology Film Archives is also very interesting.

Make sure you have comfortable walking shoes.

KGB Bar has a literary calendar
http://www.kgbbar.com/calendar/

I wish I had more time to wander.

What are you looking to experience. Manhattan has changed a lot.

I am not sure what else to say. I have been wanting to get down to the Soho Gallery of Digital Art. Have not had a chance to do that yet.

What do they like.

70steen said...

Thank you for the information I will tell my friend tomorrow. I know she wants to have her photo taken with a corn dog and a yellow cab lol ...