Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge by Geoffrey M. Bellman
This book is about how to bring change and lead from the middle of an organization. It talks about informal networks of power and politics inside organizations. The book focuses on support, professional, and administrative positions. There is a focus on identifying peoples wants, creating incremental goals, and moving from what is to what you want the organization to be.
Everyone wants something at work. It often makes things easier if you can help them get it. It can be as simple as a new coffee pot to as hard as a whole series of new safety procedures. Fulfilling peoples wants increases cooperation. I wish more people understood this in workplaces. Throughout the book there are numbered lists with suggestions on how to improve your lot in the workplace. There is a very nice list on how to identify what people want in this book.
In change you look at what is currently happening, then where you want to be. This is not easy at all. Resistance to change is often about personal power and a sense of being respected as well as fear of being taken advantage of. Any kind of change is naturally uncomfortable, but often inevitable. We have a new director at our job, she has been here for a little over a year and has brought quite a bit of change.
Sometimes it is better to do things in a systematic incremental manner to reach your goals. Even if you don't fulfill the main objectives, you end up finishing a number of smaller goals along the way. Sometimes, larger goals seem unattainable. Systematically completing small projects gives enough confidence in your work for you to get larger projects. For example, I started ordering computer books, then I asked to have more money to build out a larger computer books collection because I thought we needed it.
I liked the reminder about your position in an organization being what you make of it. When I first started, I was in charge of making sure the reference books were in order and the law collection. Now, I am a bit overextended. I am currently in charge of ordering adult graphic novels, business books, job information center books, social science books, ereference, some programming, and law books.
There is a nice chapter on cross functional teams. It is a reminder that it is often easier to get things done in teams than as departments. We started a team for Bridges Out of Poverty at our work. During the last month we had sixteen different service agencies come to a meeting, and created a new services brochure. I don't think this would have been possible outside of a team.
This book is very useful if you to expand your role and responsibilities in a support position and bring about incremental systematic change. The book is not a book of theory, it is a book of practice. There are numerous lists of specific actions which you can take. The book has an index and bibliography. It was written in 1992, but almost everything still feels very relevant. There was a second edition printed in 2001. It was based on an earlier title, The Quest For Staff Leadership I would call this a classic of business writing.
Showing posts with label arco books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arco books. Show all posts
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Friends of the Library Bake Sale, Thoughts
Today and yesterday are the Book & Bake Sale for the library. This is run by the Friends of the Library. One of our retired librarians runs the book and bake sale. None of the currently employed librarians are supposed to work in the book sale because it would create a conflict of interest between the freinds which is a separate nonprofit entity and the library.
Currently working librarians are not supposed to be selling books on library property. Patrons would ask us whether we are selling our books if we sold the books in the book sale. Almost daily, we get the question do you sell your books here, can I buy this?
Our answer is no we don't sell the books. There is a good reason for this. People might deface property hoping that we might sell it. They might also try and claim they can buy the new books because we sell books. This happens anyways.
One of the reasons we get this question so much is that there is no big bookstore in our community. There is a small christian bookstore. Also, there is no comic book shop in our community. I think this is becoming more common in many communities.
Small bookstores are closing. Also Amazon, Ebay, and ABE (Advanced Book Exchange) are eating up a lot of the book market which would go to the smaller bookstores. You can order your book from home. With a search engine like http://www.booksearchengine.com/ you can search dozens of stores to find the title of a used book which you want.
The publishing industry seems oblivious to this change. I try and approach them to get authors to come to our library for events. They ask us to partner with the nonexistent local bookstore. On free comic book day, I was asked to partner with a nonexistent comic book shop. It can be frustrating at times.
I went downstairs a couple of times to wander through the tables of books. They were holding the bookfair in the community room. There were tables of old hardcovers and paperbacks which people were going through. I did not find a huge amount which I wanted. I found a copy of The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon which won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. I was going to buy it, but I decided instead to give it to another person who seemed interested in the title. I can always order a copy of it. There was also a stack of old star trek fan guides which were kind of interesting.
I bought my obligatory brownies and cup of coffee from the bake sale table and stood around for a few minutes talking to the older ladies running the sale. Hopefully, the bake sale will generate some funds for a few minor improvements. The Friends of the Library funds a decent amount of our library programming.
Then I went to lunch. There was a local politician who was at the diner where I sometimes go to lunch. He works for the local housing coalition and is on the Board of Ethics for the city. I said hello and suggested he might want to go to the booksale. He has wanted to meet The Friends of the Library for a while.
__________________________________________________________________
I was looking at http://www.biblioimania.net/ and I saw a very interesting looking book, The Library At Night by Alberto Manguel. None of our libraries had it yet. I put in a request for it to be ordered. I rather like reading about libraries and bookstores.
In the coming weeks, I am going to also look for a book on how to write sonnets.
Currently working librarians are not supposed to be selling books on library property. Patrons would ask us whether we are selling our books if we sold the books in the book sale. Almost daily, we get the question do you sell your books here, can I buy this?
Our answer is no we don't sell the books. There is a good reason for this. People might deface property hoping that we might sell it. They might also try and claim they can buy the new books because we sell books. This happens anyways.
One of the reasons we get this question so much is that there is no big bookstore in our community. There is a small christian bookstore. Also, there is no comic book shop in our community. I think this is becoming more common in many communities.
Small bookstores are closing. Also Amazon, Ebay, and ABE (Advanced Book Exchange) are eating up a lot of the book market which would go to the smaller bookstores. You can order your book from home. With a search engine like http://www.booksearchengine.com/ you can search dozens of stores to find the title of a used book which you want.
The publishing industry seems oblivious to this change. I try and approach them to get authors to come to our library for events. They ask us to partner with the nonexistent local bookstore. On free comic book day, I was asked to partner with a nonexistent comic book shop. It can be frustrating at times.
I went downstairs a couple of times to wander through the tables of books. They were holding the bookfair in the community room. There were tables of old hardcovers and paperbacks which people were going through. I did not find a huge amount which I wanted. I found a copy of The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon which won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. I was going to buy it, but I decided instead to give it to another person who seemed interested in the title. I can always order a copy of it. There was also a stack of old star trek fan guides which were kind of interesting.
I bought my obligatory brownies and cup of coffee from the bake sale table and stood around for a few minutes talking to the older ladies running the sale. Hopefully, the bake sale will generate some funds for a few minor improvements. The Friends of the Library funds a decent amount of our library programming.
Then I went to lunch. There was a local politician who was at the diner where I sometimes go to lunch. He works for the local housing coalition and is on the Board of Ethics for the city. I said hello and suggested he might want to go to the booksale. He has wanted to meet The Friends of the Library for a while.
__________________________________________________________________
I was looking at http://www.biblioimania.net/ and I saw a very interesting looking book, The Library At Night by Alberto Manguel. None of our libraries had it yet. I put in a request for it to be ordered. I rather like reading about libraries and bookstores.
In the coming weeks, I am going to also look for a book on how to write sonnets.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Newspapers
Today, I chose not to read any books. I did, however, read several newspapers. I read newspapers mainly for the local content and the feature articles. Both the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have feature articles which will not appear in the Associated Press or Reuters. For general news, I read CNN, and Yahoo News. They pick up the news directly from the wire services. I prefer reading the news as close to the time as the news is printed as possible. This does not give as much time for people to request corrections or object to the content of the news.
There was an interesting article in the Metro Section of the New York Times. This is the local section for New York readers so it does not appear in the national version of the New York Times. New York Times, March 31, 2008, B1, Column 1, Snoopers On Subways Beware Digital Books. This article was about the difference between reading a digital book like a Kindle and a physical book. It is much harder to snoop on what one is reading when you are reading a digital book. There is no book cover on a digital book. A physical book is also more of a conversation piece. I really enjoyed reading the article.
I read the New York Times article while I was at the laundromat, doing my laundry. As usual, I drank a cup of tea with lemon and honey. I was a little annoyed at the shop owner next door. She charged extra for a little plastic packet of honey.
I rather like the pictures in the Wall Street Journal. The stippled pen pictures of executives are rather entertaining. I don't read it as often as the New York Times. There were several articles today on the Feds plans to stabilize the markets. The Wall Street Journal has changed recently, Rupert Murdoch has purchased the paper. This means things will lean a little farther right than they originally did. I think Barron's will become less conservative than the Wall Street Journal with the new ownership.
Rupert Murdoch is famed for Channel 5, Fox News, and the New York Post. The New York Post is quite entertaining. It is so biased at times, that it is quite humorous. I don't take it very seriously. The price of a quarter is almost nominal. It seems more of an effort to push Rupert Murdoch's odd ideals on the general populace of New York.
I like to read the New York Post on the train. Some people would consider this a waste of money. I also like to occassionally read its competitor, the Daily News at lunch time with my coffee and sandwich. The Daily News is a much more mainstream paper than the post. I think it sometimes writes articles specifically just to challenge the articles in the New York Post. Occassionally the Post and the Daily News will comment on some things that are happening in the other paper. They are rival papers.
I spent a little bit of time at my local library today. I had the day off because I am working on the coming Saturday. It gives me a chance to take a short walk from my house and catch some fresh air. There weren't really any books which I wanted to check out today. I did sit down for a bit and look at entrecard, blogcatalog, and fuelmyblog.
I went through two people sitting next to me. They don't have separate carels so it is a bit uncomfortable. Quite literally, there is a person a foot away from you working on a computer screen. It would be nice if there was a shield so I didn't see what they were doing. One person was looking for restaurant manager jobs. He even called for the email in a job listing on his cell phone which was incorrect. The other lady was practicing for the drivers test. Both were doing practical, useful things unlike myself. I was wasting time. I could literally stand up and see all four computer screens easily at my local branch.
There were also several order gentlemen in the library, reading the various newspapers, there is also Newsday, the New York Sun, and a few other papers. The civil service paper in New York which people read is the Chief, it lists all of the civil service positions that are opening up in the five boroughs of New York City, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Brooklyn. Crain's New York is the local business paper.
There was an interesting article in the Metro Section of the New York Times. This is the local section for New York readers so it does not appear in the national version of the New York Times. New York Times, March 31, 2008, B1, Column 1, Snoopers On Subways Beware Digital Books. This article was about the difference between reading a digital book like a Kindle and a physical book. It is much harder to snoop on what one is reading when you are reading a digital book. There is no book cover on a digital book. A physical book is also more of a conversation piece. I really enjoyed reading the article.
I read the New York Times article while I was at the laundromat, doing my laundry. As usual, I drank a cup of tea with lemon and honey. I was a little annoyed at the shop owner next door. She charged extra for a little plastic packet of honey.
I rather like the pictures in the Wall Street Journal. The stippled pen pictures of executives are rather entertaining. I don't read it as often as the New York Times. There were several articles today on the Feds plans to stabilize the markets. The Wall Street Journal has changed recently, Rupert Murdoch has purchased the paper. This means things will lean a little farther right than they originally did. I think Barron's will become less conservative than the Wall Street Journal with the new ownership.
Rupert Murdoch is famed for Channel 5, Fox News, and the New York Post. The New York Post is quite entertaining. It is so biased at times, that it is quite humorous. I don't take it very seriously. The price of a quarter is almost nominal. It seems more of an effort to push Rupert Murdoch's odd ideals on the general populace of New York.
I like to read the New York Post on the train. Some people would consider this a waste of money. I also like to occassionally read its competitor, the Daily News at lunch time with my coffee and sandwich. The Daily News is a much more mainstream paper than the post. I think it sometimes writes articles specifically just to challenge the articles in the New York Post. Occassionally the Post and the Daily News will comment on some things that are happening in the other paper. They are rival papers.
I spent a little bit of time at my local library today. I had the day off because I am working on the coming Saturday. It gives me a chance to take a short walk from my house and catch some fresh air. There weren't really any books which I wanted to check out today. I did sit down for a bit and look at entrecard, blogcatalog, and fuelmyblog.
I went through two people sitting next to me. They don't have separate carels so it is a bit uncomfortable. Quite literally, there is a person a foot away from you working on a computer screen. It would be nice if there was a shield so I didn't see what they were doing. One person was looking for restaurant manager jobs. He even called for the email in a job listing on his cell phone which was incorrect. The other lady was practicing for the drivers test. Both were doing practical, useful things unlike myself. I was wasting time. I could literally stand up and see all four computer screens easily at my local branch.
There were also several order gentlemen in the library, reading the various newspapers, there is also Newsday, the New York Sun, and a few other papers. The civil service paper in New York which people read is the Chief, it lists all of the civil service positions that are opening up in the five boroughs of New York City, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and Brooklyn. Crain's New York is the local business paper.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Playaway Audio Device
I decided to try a playaway audio book which is a new format. It is a preloaded digital audiobook. http://www.playawayaudio.com/ I checked out Petty Crimes by Gary Soto a few hours ago. The total playtime of the preloaded audiobook is 3 hours and 45 minutes. It consists of ten short stories. I will be able to skip the stories which I don't particularly like.
They have packaged the device in an interesting way. Essentially, they put the device into a larger vhs container about three inches by six inches. There is a padded pounch inside the video container containing the playaway. The playaway requires earphones like an ipod would have. For safety reasons we insist that people use their own earphones. It would be unsanitary for people to put in used earphones. I spent a dollar and got some earbuds so I can listen to the playaway. We are selling the earbuds at cost.
The cost of the playaway is much cheaper than an audiobook. It is about $30-$35 for a playaway that can be used repeatedly by a library. We have some audiobooks that cost as much as $100 each. Most are about $60-70 each.
Because the playaway is a new piece of technology, we still are not certain what the exact problems or issues we will have with them as a library.
It makes me a little nervous listening to something on the train. I said, I wouldn't do this thing normally, but the device is intriguing enough for me to play with.
I checked to see if the playaway worked. The battery had run out. We had to replace the battery for Petty Crimes by Gary Soto. After listening for a few minutes, I decided that I didn't much care for Petty Crimes.
I checked out a different playaway, I am Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins. Narrated by Patricia Floyd. The story is good, but the playaway makes tiny little skipping noises. This is annoying. The sound is still pretty clear.
I checked again and I realized that I hadn't plugged in the headphones all the way. My mistake. Anyways, this recording was blessedly short. 1/4 of an hour, just about the attention span of your average ten to fourteen year old. This audiobook is written for between 5th and 8th grade listening level. It is also a book which is regularly assigned for children and young teenagers to read. Some people like to listen to their assignments rather than reading them.
There was a brief advertisement from Recorded Books, the publisher of the digital audio recording (playaway) at the end of the reading. It encouraged you to buy audiobooks on their 30 day layaway plan. It was brief much like the audio recording.
The playaways which we have were purchased by our teen librarian. She purchased mostly assignment titles which teenagers could listen to if they wanted to. Books like Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, or the previously mentioned Petty Crimes by Gary Soto.
They have packaged the device in an interesting way. Essentially, they put the device into a larger vhs container about three inches by six inches. There is a padded pounch inside the video container containing the playaway. The playaway requires earphones like an ipod would have. For safety reasons we insist that people use their own earphones. It would be unsanitary for people to put in used earphones. I spent a dollar and got some earbuds so I can listen to the playaway. We are selling the earbuds at cost.
The cost of the playaway is much cheaper than an audiobook. It is about $30-$35 for a playaway that can be used repeatedly by a library. We have some audiobooks that cost as much as $100 each. Most are about $60-70 each.
Because the playaway is a new piece of technology, we still are not certain what the exact problems or issues we will have with them as a library.
It makes me a little nervous listening to something on the train. I said, I wouldn't do this thing normally, but the device is intriguing enough for me to play with.
I checked to see if the playaway worked. The battery had run out. We had to replace the battery for Petty Crimes by Gary Soto. After listening for a few minutes, I decided that I didn't much care for Petty Crimes.
I checked out a different playaway, I am Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins. Narrated by Patricia Floyd. The story is good, but the playaway makes tiny little skipping noises. This is annoying. The sound is still pretty clear.
I checked again and I realized that I hadn't plugged in the headphones all the way. My mistake. Anyways, this recording was blessedly short. 1/4 of an hour, just about the attention span of your average ten to fourteen year old. This audiobook is written for between 5th and 8th grade listening level. It is also a book which is regularly assigned for children and young teenagers to read. Some people like to listen to their assignments rather than reading them.
There was a brief advertisement from Recorded Books, the publisher of the digital audio recording (playaway) at the end of the reading. It encouraged you to buy audiobooks on their 30 day layaway plan. It was brief much like the audio recording.
The playaways which we have were purchased by our teen librarian. She purchased mostly assignment titles which teenagers could listen to if they wanted to. Books like Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, or the previously mentioned Petty Crimes by Gary Soto.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
More Thoughts For The Day, Startup Start Your Own Blogging Business Entrepreneur Press and J.S. Macdougall
Hello, a few more thoughts for the day. I went through about half my blog and put in the little Amazon pictures for some of the books. It creates a kind of strange redundancy where I have a list of items from Powell's bookstore as well as links to images of the books from Amazon. I am thinking of the saying by William Strunk that if you have something important to say, say it twice.
I also received a few more books to read today from my reserves. I have the business book on blogging and the Rumi book which I will be reading shortly.
Today has been a mildly impatient day. My thoughts are on ordering nursing and GED (General Equivalency Diploma for high school) books for the Job Information Center. We get so many requests for GED books that we run out of them very quickly. One of the largest associations in our area is the National Black Nurses Association. A way for many people to escape dead end jobs in our area is to become either a nursing assistant or a practical nurse. So, we have to order a lot of books for nursing exams. People are looking for the quick path to nursing, not so much the RN but the two year degree.
GED classes are often a first step on the road to becoming gainfully employed. Many people take the GED classes as a first step for qualifying themselves to become a home health aide or nursing assistant.
I sometimes think the civil service exam preparation books and the professional exam preparation books are some of the most important books in our library. People have been coming in and asking for post office exam books and immigration security exam books for homeland security. Some of the homeland security positions are so new that they haven't created test preparation books for them yet.
There are three big test prep companies, Arco, NLC-- National Learning Corporation, and Barron's.
Startup Start Your Own Blogging Business, by Entrepreneur Press and J.S. Macdougall is a short book on how to start a blog for business. It is broken up into three parts; choose an idea for your blog, choose a publisher, and then make money.
The first section talks about how you should choose an original idea without a lot of competition. It tells you that you should choose an easy name for people to understand, something which you know a decent amount about. It suggests that to appear professional, you should buy your own domain, something which I have not done, because it looks more professional and people take you more seriously. It also tells you that you need to post consistently every day on the subject you are writing about. It should take 2 to 4 years to build up a large enough clientele before you are making money. The first few months should be about setting the tone and creating the idea of what your blog is about.
The second part of the blog is about choosing a publisher for your blog. It rightly suggests that you shouldn't use myspace or facebook for a professional blog. I thought this was kind of funny. They go into details about the major blog platforms, blogger, wordpress, typepad, and a few places I'd never heard of before Lifetype and b2evolution. The book says that once you choose your platform, you need to get the blog rolling quickly by joining sites like Technorati, optimizing your keywords, joining link exchanges and trying to create traffic generating activities. There are a few things which I hadn't heard of before like blogexplosion.com and weblogs.com. It also correctly says the way you make money is from the sidebars on your blog. Having a good sidebar system is critical to running a business blog. Think 3 column blog.
The last part is about making money. The first part covers donations... (begging for money). It evens gives a few sites that will help you beg like Click & Pledge and Amazon Honors System. Then it goes into affiliate programs and merchandising. The book makes excessive promises about the results of affiliate programs. It has a very nice section on advertising with quite a few advertisers listed. I joined one of them Adbrite. There is a fairly comprehensive list. It says, ultimately the best advertisers are direct sponsorship of items that exactly match your blog. There is a description of a media kit for advertisers.
The final section of the book suggests that you should incorporate as a business and treat your blog as a business.
I thought the book was expensive for a 97 page book, $15.95. It had a few useful suggestions, however. Get it from your library for a few helpful hints.
I also received a few more books to read today from my reserves. I have the business book on blogging and the Rumi book which I will be reading shortly.
Today has been a mildly impatient day. My thoughts are on ordering nursing and GED (General Equivalency Diploma for high school) books for the Job Information Center. We get so many requests for GED books that we run out of them very quickly. One of the largest associations in our area is the National Black Nurses Association. A way for many people to escape dead end jobs in our area is to become either a nursing assistant or a practical nurse. So, we have to order a lot of books for nursing exams. People are looking for the quick path to nursing, not so much the RN but the two year degree.
GED classes are often a first step on the road to becoming gainfully employed. Many people take the GED classes as a first step for qualifying themselves to become a home health aide or nursing assistant.
I sometimes think the civil service exam preparation books and the professional exam preparation books are some of the most important books in our library. People have been coming in and asking for post office exam books and immigration security exam books for homeland security. Some of the homeland security positions are so new that they haven't created test preparation books for them yet.
There are three big test prep companies, Arco, NLC-- National Learning Corporation, and Barron's.
Startup Start Your Own Blogging Business, by Entrepreneur Press and J.S. Macdougall is a short book on how to start a blog for business. It is broken up into three parts; choose an idea for your blog, choose a publisher, and then make money.
The first section talks about how you should choose an original idea without a lot of competition. It tells you that you should choose an easy name for people to understand, something which you know a decent amount about. It suggests that to appear professional, you should buy your own domain, something which I have not done, because it looks more professional and people take you more seriously. It also tells you that you need to post consistently every day on the subject you are writing about. It should take 2 to 4 years to build up a large enough clientele before you are making money. The first few months should be about setting the tone and creating the idea of what your blog is about.
The second part of the blog is about choosing a publisher for your blog. It rightly suggests that you shouldn't use myspace or facebook for a professional blog. I thought this was kind of funny. They go into details about the major blog platforms, blogger, wordpress, typepad, and a few places I'd never heard of before Lifetype and b2evolution. The book says that once you choose your platform, you need to get the blog rolling quickly by joining sites like Technorati, optimizing your keywords, joining link exchanges and trying to create traffic generating activities. There are a few things which I hadn't heard of before like blogexplosion.com and weblogs.com. It also correctly says the way you make money is from the sidebars on your blog. Having a good sidebar system is critical to running a business blog. Think 3 column blog.
The last part is about making money. The first part covers donations... (begging for money). It evens gives a few sites that will help you beg like Click & Pledge and Amazon Honors System. Then it goes into affiliate programs and merchandising. The book makes excessive promises about the results of affiliate programs. It has a very nice section on advertising with quite a few advertisers listed. I joined one of them Adbrite. There is a fairly comprehensive list. It says, ultimately the best advertisers are direct sponsorship of items that exactly match your blog. There is a description of a media kit for advertisers.
The final section of the book suggests that you should incorporate as a business and treat your blog as a business.
I thought the book was expensive for a 97 page book, $15.95. It had a few useful suggestions, however. Get it from your library for a few helpful hints.
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