Daily Thoughts 07/31/2015

Woman Reading, Henri Matisse, 1894 

Daily Thoughts 07/31/2015

I checked the Twitter and Facebook for the library today.  I also prepared some more material for ordering.

I checked the displays and the gift books.

On the way to work, I read some more of In Montmarte.  There are two sections of images, a set of paintings and a section of photographs of some the artists in the book like Matisse, Picasso, Paul Poiret, Gertrude Stein, and Georges Braque.  I especially like the stories about Picasso's struggles to succeed as an artist.

I spent some more time reading Future Crimes as well. I am reading about how bitcoin and other electronic currencies allow for completely anonymous transactions which are untraceable.  This can be used for criminal purposes.

I spent half an hour learning about, Select Reads this morning. http://www.selectreads.com  There are some very interesting features which include social reading functions like sharing booklists and recommendations through social media and email.  Patrons can create their own lists of books as well as alerts for when new material is coming in. 

I spent some time picking out some titles from the mezzanine on exploration in Africa as well as travel in Africa from the 1920s and 1930s.

We showed the film, Stripped, the Comics Documentary today.  It is a very enjoyable film to watch.  If you want to learn some things on comics this is well worth it.  Part of the documentary about the transition between print and digital comics.

Web Bits 

Libraries, The Value of Just In Case, Not Just In Time
http://www.slaw.ca/2015/07/29/libraries-the-value-of-just-in-case-not-just-in-time/

The Future of American History
http://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/07/29/421624129/the-future-of-american-history