Daily Thoughts 12/6/2012

Alessandro Longhi, Painting and Merit, circa 1761


Daily Thoughts 12/6/2012

I am at Metro this morning.  I am taking a class entitled Writing for the Library Press or How To Make An Editor Fall in Love With You.  The class starts at 10:00 a.m. and runs until 1:00 p.m. http://metro.org/events/239/  It should be useful.  Right now, I am typing at one of their computers.  I am a little early. 

On the way to the class, I read some more of Management Basics for Information Professionals.  The author is describing different types of planning.  Long range planning is considered strategy, mid-range planning is considered tactics, and day to day planning is considered operations.  A lot of this is learning how to understand the language used in management.

This morning before I left, I checked the Twitter and Facebook pages for the library.

While walking to Metro, I passed by Forbidden Planet.  It has been so long since I have been to Manhattan, that I just found out they had moved their bookstore.

It was nice going to Metro.  I am a My Metro member http://metro.org/individual-membership/
The class was excellent.  The teacher, Kathy Dempsey provided a complete outline of the class in a handout.  There was also a slideshow to go with the talk.  This made it easy to follow.  The teacher is sending the slideshow to people who attended.

She passed around her book, The Accidental Library Marketer, as well as copies of the April 2012 Marketing Library Services Newsletter and the September 2012 Computers In Libraries journal.

There were a few interesting points she made in the talk that were not part of the class outline.  I learned something new:

1. Check to see if the subject of an article that you are writing was written about recently in the last three or four months in the magazine you are submitting to.
2. Don't submit articles to magazines simultaneously.
3. Don't hand in a full article to a magazine.  Provide a proposal.
4. How editors view subject matter experts like librarians is different than the way they view full time writers.
5. Internal style guides are often related to the word processing software used by a magazine or journal. for some reason this made me think of the Yahoo Style Guide http://styleguide.yahoo.com/

Some of the subjects covered in the class were Impressing and Proposing to Editors, Understanding the Publishing Process, and Dealing With Rejection.

The class was very interactive.  Everyone who wanted to speak got a turn to.  This introduced me to a few new subjects like MOOCs ( Massively Open Online Classes ) and metawriting (writing about writing).

I took an extra handout to bring back to the library.  I usually have to write a brief report on what I do at outside meetings.  Kathy Dempsey's website is http://www.librariesareessential.com

On the way out I had a chance to talk to some fellow librarians.

Right now, I am back in the computer lab from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  I often help people search for jobs and apply online.

I plan on reading Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.

I stayed a little late to go to the Board of Trustees meeting.  There was a special meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. covering central library funding.  The Mount Vernon Public Library is the central library for Westchester county. 

The board meeting was short because tonight was also the budget hearing for the City of Mount Vernon.  When I got to city hall at 7:10 p.m., the lines were so long I could not even get into the room where the hearing was held or hear any of the speakers.  I did a get a chance to get a copy of the preliminary budget for the city.  The budget is a reminder that I have stay focused and keep my head down.

Web Bits

Peek at the Bookshelves of 10 Famous Readers
http://www.flavorwire.com/347797/peek-at-the-ideal-bookshelves-of-10-famous-readers?all=1
I rather like the bookshelf of Jonathan Lethem.