Daily Thoughts 04/29/2013

Monet, Claude, Dans La Prairie, painting of the French artist's wife, Camille, reading in a meadow full of flowers. It was first exhibited in Paris in 1877.

Daily Thoughts 04/29/2013

On the way to work, I read some more of Vote Yes for Libraries.  I am reading about the process of hiring a consultant to help put together a ballot initiative.

This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook for the library.  This week, the library has the Friends of the Library Book and Bake sale on May 3 and May 4, 2013.  I also checked the displays this morning.  May is National Inventors month.

I spent some time checking the purchase alerts, the collection management sheet for patron requests, and the New York Times Bestseller list and the Publishers Weekly Bestseller list.  I have a meeting today to discuss the setting up alerts for popular authors.  I have a list of authors with five plus circulation annually.

I checked out the book, Pimping Fictions African Crime Literature and the Untold Story of Black Pulp Publishing by Justin Gifford.  This is the history of street literature.  People like Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim, and Chester Himes are discussed.  There is also some coverage of more modern urban fiction.  It should be interesting reading because there are some controversies around the idea of street literature.  I took a minute to flip through the book and there is coverage of Terri Woods and Sistah Souljah also.

I sent over a list of authors to put on alert to Baker and Taylor.  A box of advanced reading copies came in from Library Journal.  Marisha Pessl Night Film, Alex by Pierre Lemaitre which is a thriller, Instructions for a Heatwave A Novel by Maggie O'Farrell, Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach A Novel, Crazy Love by Amir Abrams, and A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander Maksik.  We keep a shelf of advanced reading copies in the staff lounge for people to look over.

I have a copy of Library Journal and two copies of the Times Literary Supplement to read.

On the way home, I read some more of the Lean Entrepreneur.  I am figuring out the basic meaning of viable is that there is a customer who will buy your product.   I also read another chapter in Vote Yes for Libraries.  The chapter is focused on who will vote for you and why they will vote for you.  One way to find out who will vote for you is through opinion polls and surveys.


Web Bits

Self Publishing is for Control Freaks
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/2013/04/23/self-publishing-is-for-control-freaks/