Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Daily Thoughts 1/18/2011 (What Technology Wants, Job Search)

Paper cut, Therese Huber, Louise Duttenhofer 1776-1829


Daily Thoughts 1/18/2011

I read some more of What Technology Wants.  Kevin Kelly is comparing convergent evolution and convergent invention.  The idea of convergent invention is that often more than one person invents a new technology at the same time.  There are many examples of this from the telephone to the electric light bulb.  Kevin Kelly also describes how many technologies are predicted like the video phone which are predicted but when they become available, people are not interested in them.  I've found the book useful for its different take on technology.

Today, I tried a new program on Job Search sites, but it did not have much attendance.  People were more interested in the handouts on the different websites that are available to search for jobs in Westchester and the books on job searching than the computer lab session.  I'll probably have to make more of them.

We are planning a senior visit from the Armory next month.  It will be a way to offer older people access to the library now that the bookmobile is gone because of lack of funding.

I also spent some time on orders today.  It was interesting looking through the patron recommendations for books and other items from both our website and the collection management form we keep at the desk.  I will be ordering music for the first time.  I spent some time looking at music from the Billboard list.

Web Bits

An article on Weightless Books from Publishers Weekly. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/45783-weightless-books-an-e-bookstore-for-indie-presses.html
I saw Weightless Books at the Brooklyn Book Festival.  They were part of Small Beer Press.  I like their approach which is very independent.

A national survey on budgets and staffing in libraries in the United States.  http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/newslettersnewsletterbucketljxpress/888434-441/ljs_2010_budget_survey_bottoming.html.csp

This quote from the article says it all.  "Nonetheless, the overall trend in FY10 was a brutal grasping by money-starved government officials for the low-hanging fruit of library budgets: 72 percent of survey respondents said their budget had been cut, and 43 percent had staff cuts."

2 comments:

IL said...

Funny...as a scientist, whenever I form an hypothesis I always think, "Well, if I have thought of that, someone else must have too!"

Book Calendar said...

Convergence happens all the time, people think about the same thing but rarely act on it.