Monday, November 30, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/30/2015

File:Memory-Warner-Highsmith.jpeg

Memory (1896). Olin Warner (completed by Herbert Adams). Bronze door at main entrance of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building.

Daily Thoughts 11/30/2015

I checked the Twitter and Facebook for the library.

I also placed an order for new books this morning.

On the way to work, I finished reading Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor.  I enjoyed the novel.  Even though the book is fantasy, it is still about relationships between people.  The strangeness in the story only makes the people in it more poignant.  This is an excellent piece of modern fantasy.

I started reading Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson.  It is about how computers extend human thought.  The author describes the concept of  extended cognition.  Books extend our ability to remember, calculators extend our ability to do mathematics, and writing externalizes our thoughts.

I checked the displays and gift books this morning.

I read the latest copy of the New York Times Book Review.  I also put out new copies of the Bookpage.  I printed up some flyers for events as well as some bookmarks.

Web Bits


Mount Vernon Library Exhibit Features Work by Foster Children Others.
http://mountvernon.dailyvoice.com/events/mount-vernon-library-exhibit-features-work-by-foster-children-others/606610/
Quite a few people have been requesting copies of the exhibitors form lately. Some of our programs are increasing in popularity.

Creating a Library of Congress for the Digital Age


Sunday, November 29, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/29/2015

A penny for your thoughts...Dollars for your thoughts - NARA - 513735.tif
A Penny for Your Thoughts...Dollars for your Thoughts, NARA National Archives and Recoards Administration-- 51375, December 31, 1940, Public Domain

Daily Thoughts 11/29/2015

I read some more of Welcome to Night Vale.  In this novel, librarians are to be feared.  They are evil ghoulish creatures and the library is a place of fear.


I checked the Twitter and Facebook for the library.

I've decided to stop reading Creating A Learning Society by Joseph E. Stiglitz The concept of learning being internal to corporations and firms and directly related what you do in your work in a corporation is quite divorced from the work which I do as a librarian.  When I look in the index of the book, the word library, school, and university are not there.  There are three pages indexed on education.  It is a different view of how the world works.

I reactivated my Lynda.com account.  I am watching a training video on Management Tips.

Web Bits


For Obama, A New Shopping Haunt Upshur Street Books

Google. Facebook in Race to Build High Altitude Aircraft

Internet would be everywhere.  There are a few other things you can do with high altitude aircraft like high altitude wind and solar power.  Also near space telescopes are a possibility.  Near space is open for exploration.

Education is Not An Adequate Defense Against the Rise of the Robots
Learn to work with machines.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/28/2015

Still Life  - Jean Metzinger

Still Life, Jean Metzinger, 1919

Daily Thoughts 11/28/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook.

I read some more of Welcome to Nightvale.  I rather like the bizarre radio station and the television station.  The touches of strange like imaginary pie at the diner and imaginary corn with the local farmer give this novel a surreal charm.

The book, Smarter than You Think by Clive Thompson came in for me to read today.

I checked out the book, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  It is the selection for the next book club on December 17, 2015 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
I looked through the New York Times Bestseller List and the Publishers Weekly Besttseller list today.  I also read through a copy of the Foreword Review.



Web Bits


A Slippery Number How Many Books Can Fit In New York Public Library

New Study Finds Low Levels of Digital Library Borrowing


Friday, November 27, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/27/2015

File:Marie Spartali Stillman - Love Sonnets.jpg

Marie Spartali Stillman, Love Sonnets, 1894

Daily Thoughts 11/27/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.

I read some more of Creating a Learning Society.  I am reading about how economic stability improves learning in firms.  The argument is that less money and time are available to firms during recessions for learning.  Also, firms in bankruptcy cannot invest as much in research and development.  One of the ideas in the book is that the more an organizations does something, the more they learn how to do it better.

I checked the gift books and the displays today.

I also spent some time discussing the computer lab and the public computers with a colleague.

I spent some time in the computer lab today.

I also sent some information for a flyer to our graphic designer.


Web Bits


The Future of Libraries is Collaborative, Robotic, and Participatory

Can Fewer Books on the Shelf Improve Nebraska Libraries?
http://netnebraska.org/article/news/1001507/can-fewer-books-shelf-improve-nebraska-libraries

Libraries Aim to Fill Digital Gap by Obtaining Updated Technology
http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/Libraries-aim-to-fill-digital-gap-by-obtaining-updated-technology-354037251.html

World Brain

I have been thinking a little bit about the concept of the Synopticon.  The Synopticon could be redone with a focus on the great ideas of the world instead of just the western world. 


Thursday, November 26, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/26/2015





Home To Thanksgiving  - Currier and Ives
Home to Thanksgiving, Currier and Ives, 1867

Daily Thoughts 11/26/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.

I am watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  I like the Charlie Brown holiday cartoons.  They are very sentimental.

I read a little bit more of Creating A Learning Society today.  The book is very abstract it is focusing on macroeconomic concepts, industries and firms.  I found this to be puzzling.  There is very little that is said about actual universities, libraries, corporate training facilities, schools, or online learning.  Learning is an abstraction in this book focused on the creation of intellectual property and ideas.  It removes the practical aspects of education and turns over ideas to the corporate and industrial sector.

The World Brain 

Another attempt at the universalization of knowledge and deciding what knowledge is important is the Syntopicon.

A Syntopicon an Index to the Great Ideas.
http://self.gutenberg.org/article/WHEBN0001436954/A%20Syntopicon:%20An%20Index%20to%20The%20Great%20Ideas

Web Bits


Celebrating Six Days of Service at the LIbrary-- Queens

Raspberry Pi Zero:  the  $5 computer
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/

Library of Blabber, Procedural Books: Infinite Library
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/11/26/library-of-blabber/
Someone put a Library of Babel generator inside a game.  It reminds me of the recent article on Fallout 4 where people returned their library books.  It reminds me that virtual worlds can easily hold large volumes of books or e-books if you may.

Inflatable Space:

Google is about to test something secretive across all the US-- and it sounds exactly like project loon balloons.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/25/2015

At the Writing Desk - Childe Hassam
At The Writing Desk, Childe Hassam, 1910

Daily Thoughts 11/25/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook today.

The Mount Vernon Public Library Friends have a new Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/mountvernonpubliclibraryfriends/?fref=ts

I read some more of Creating a Learning Society today at the laundromat.  I am reading about how intellectual property laws both help and hinder learning.  There is some comparison of open source strategies for technology versus patent strategies.  I find open source to be an interesting idea.

I also read a little more of Welcome to Night Vale.  I am enjoying the slightly paranoid, surreal humor in the setting.

I read through my various places for news and did not find much.  Usually the density of news in my professions slows down as it gets closer to holidays.

Happy thanksgiving.  Be thankful for friends, family, and books.  I was off from the library today.

I placed a hold on the book, Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better by Clive Thompson.  This book contains the famous centaur argument for chess.
Excerpt Rise of the Centaurs.
http://smarterthanyouthink.net/excerpt/

There is another metaphor which goes with the centaur.  This article very much captures the idea of "running with the machine."  Where to succeed you have to very quickly adapt and learn to work with technology.

NYC, Seattle Battle for Title of Fastest Library Book Sorters
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2015/11/11/nyc--seattle-battle-for-title-of-fastest-library-book-sorters.html

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/24/2015




The Gden Reading - Mary Cassatt

 The Garden Reading, Mary Cassatt, 1898

Daily Thoughts 11/24/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.

One of the things I am noticing while reading Creating a Learning Society is that there are examples of giving abstracts ideas like society and the economy characteristics like learning and growing.  It reminds me of the idea of the corporation as a legal person.  I am beginning to understand how this can happen.

I read some more of Creating a Learning Society on the way to work.  I am reading about how different groups have different learning capacities.  Joseph Stiglitz describes how it is more important to learn how to learn that is to memorize things by rote.

We had a staff meeting this morning where we discussed a report by Alan and Leslie Burger of Library Development Solutions written in September of 2015.  It is a first step towards a long term strategic goal.

The Crochet Class was today from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m..  We have two computer classes tonight.  A Fundamentals of Computers class and a Beginning Microsoft Word class.

Web Bits 

New Blog Series to Explore Library Digital Inclusion Roles.
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2015/11/new-blog-series-to-explore-library-digital-inclusion-roles/



Monday, November 23, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/23/2015

















Tu Marcellis Eris, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingress, 1811-8201

Daily Thoughts 11/23/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook.

I read some more of Creating a Learning Society on the train to work.  This is a new theory on economics.  It has some nonstandard ideas.  For example, the author argues that it is necessary for governments to control and intervene in some externalities in economics like pollution and final recessions.  It is not an argument for purely market based economics.  Learning includes things like research and development, innovation, training, and other activities.

I checked the gifts and the displays this morning.

I read a copy of the latest New York Times Book Review.

I spent some time working on programming.

I spent some time covering the computer lab today.   

Web Bits


Renewing the Library of Congress

Global Support for Principle of Free Expression, But Opposition to Some Forms of Speech—Pew Research Study


Sunday, November 22, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/22/2015

File:Charles Emmanuel Biset - Still life with Books, a Letter and a Tulip.jpg
 Charles Emmanuel Biset, Still Life WIth Books, A Letter, and Tulip, Between 1648-1693

Daily Thoughts 11/22/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook.

I read a little bit more of Welcome to Nightvale.  I am reading about the mysterious happenings around town from strange lights in the sky to men in black in the parking lots.

I read some more of Creating a Learning Society.  The argument is that learning increases productivity and innovation for an economy.  The greatest impact on an economy in learning is with technical progress in the industrial sectors.


Web Bits


Quiet Please... In Praise of the British Library

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/21/2015

William Hogarth 006.jpg
William Hogarth, Self Portrait, 31 December 1744

Daily Thoughts 11/21/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook today.

I also started reading Welcome to Nightvale A Novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor.  It is based on a long running internet podcast.  The book mixes fantasy and a bit of surrealism in a desert town somewhere in America.

Web Bits


When the Sharing Economy Comes to Publishing

Readers Will Shape the Future


Friday, November 20, 2015

Daily Thoughts 11/20/2015



Belleville, Illinois the public library was founded 1836 and probable the first in Illinois.

Daily Thoughts 11/20/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.


Last night, I finished reading The Rainbow Trail by Zane Grey.  Zane Grey is one of the few western writers that are still popular.  People also still read Louis L'Amour and Max Brand.  William W. Johnstone and Joe Lansdale are two modern western writers that are still popular.  I like reading Joe Lansdale quite a bit.

I checked the displays this morning.  I also spent some time talking to people about upcoming programming.  We will be showing the short film Ellis on December 19, 2015 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

I also talked to Better World Books about their services.

I finished writing the Final Report for the Latino Americans 500 Years of History grant.  It was a summary of all the different activities we had around the grant.

Sometimes, you see things that are kind of inexplicable.  This article was in the Journal News.  It is baffling to me in some ways.  It left me speechless.

Mount Vernon Tower Developers Await City Agreement.
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/mount-vernon/2015/11/19/library-square/76006216/

An earlier description is even more baffling.
http://newyorkyimby.com/2015/01/first-look-library-square-20-south-second-avenue-mount-vernon.html

There is even a video.  It looks like it is in an imaginary city.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x326ypi

On the way home, I read a very short, philosophical novel of 101 pages called Memory Theater by Simon Critchley.  It has a slightly feverish, hallucinatory quality to it.  The book is a mix of philosophy, mysticism, hermeticism, and astrology.

The main theme of the novel is memory as represented in the memory palace and the memory theater.  There is a description of the Globe Theater of Shakespeare as a device for memory.

The writer of the novel, Simon Critchley is the protagonist.  He receives boxes from a dead professor which contain the professors works.  This leads him down a hypothetical path into memory, hallucination, and philosophy.

Web Bits


They're Watching You Read-- Francine Prose

Rising to the Challenge Reenvisioning Public Libraries-- Aspen Institute

Wonder Follows Wonder as British Library Celebrates Alice's 150th Birthday