Daily Thoughts 11/1/2011

The Pen ts'ao, 1249 C.E. Printed with woodblock, this illustrated book discusses Chinese herbal medicine.

Daily Thoughts 11/1/2011

This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I also spent a little bit of time on the website.  I have been learning to make minor adjustments.  I put up a brief description for a new display of hooked rugs in the Rotunda Gallery by the Hudson Valley Rug Hookers. http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/Gallery

There is a free Library 2.0 Virtual Conference between November 2-4.  I just signed up.  http://www.library20.com

I spent some more time this afternoon practicing on Lynda.com.  I also spent some time talking to people about our computer lab.  We are getting steadily increasing usage.

I also spent a small amount of time weeding in the mezzanine.

On the way home, I read some more of Rediscovering The Greatest Human Strength Willpower by Johan F. Baumeister and John Tierney.  I liked the descriptions of how changing simple habits like posture can increase ones willpower.  I also liked the description of how can increasing discipline in one area like diet or studying can increase discipline in other areas.  One piece of the writing bothered me.  The authors claim that self discipline is more important self esteem.  I disagree with this.  I think both are equally important.

Web Bits

Library With Free Online College Textbooks Makes Debut
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2011/11/ebooks/library-with-free-online-college-textbooks-makes-debut/

I am going to present two ideas that are percolating around public libraries.  The first is the increasing interest by the Maker Movement which is focused on Tech Shops, 3D Printing, and small scale manufacturing and libraries and the second is how coworking is increasingly starting to interact with the library space.

These are ideas.  I don't necessarily agree with them, but they offer interesting new opportunities which libraries could look at more closely.  Part of this comes from concepts of what libraries might look like in the future. 

Library Partners With Tek Venture

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110702/LOCAL/307029959

Is It Time to Rebuild & Retool Public Libraries and Make “TechShops”?

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/03/is-it-time-to-rebuild-retool-public-libraries-and-make-techshops.html

Public Libraries, 3D Printing, FabLabs and Hackerspaces

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/05/public-libraries-3d-printing-fablabs-and-hackerspaces.html

Making Hackerspaces in Public Libraries

http://forum.contactcon.com/discussion/34/making-hackerspaces-in-public-libraries/p1

Perpetual Beta Awesome 3D Printing Video

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/perpetualbeta/awesome-3d-printing-video

Canton Public Library 1st Hack Day Recap

http://soup.hackerspaces.org/post/93975543/Canton-Public-Library-1st-Hack-Day-Recap

The second idea which comes up is the library as an entrepreneurial space.  There already are groups which are proposing the library be used as a coworking space.  Again, this is a small piece of a possible picture.  There are many people who come in now to use the library for its WiFi so they can work.

Coworking at the Public Library

http://www.pcworld.com/article/241574/coworking_at_the_public_library.html

Making Space for Entrepreneurs and Independent Workers

http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=3568&zbrandid=4634&zidType=CH&zid=8535571&zsubscriberId=1031499408&zbdom=http://ala-publishing.informz.net

Every Town Has A Public Library-- Tony Bacigalupo who is one of the founders of New Work City in Manhattan.

http://tonybgoode.tumblr.com/post/174758246/every-town-has-a-public-library

Could Public Libraries Become the Next Coworking Location

http://www.centernetworks.com/public-libraries-coworking

Both of these bring libraries back full circle in a way to their beginnings. I sometimes think that public libraries have lost their focus as a source of technical and scientific knowledge. 

Daily Thoughts 9/13/2010 (Coworking, Publishing)

Picture from Information Commons, University of Sheffield, UK, Author Markpeak,Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Information_Commons_Sheffield_4.jpg   I wanted to get a sense of what an information commons looks like inside a library.  It gives me a bit better idea of what might be going into the new Information Commons at the Brooklyn Public Library.

Daily Thoughts 9/13/2010

I went for a checkup with my doctor this morning.  Things are fine.  I'm just a little tired. 

I have been reading more of Social Media 101 by Chris Brogan.  It has given me a few new ideas.  I am probably going to adjust the banner at the top of my blog a little bit.  I decided not to review Common As Air.

I went by a place called New Work City which is in Manhattan http://www.nwcny.com/ .  They are a coworking space for the tech community in Manhattan.  The space just opened on September 1st, 2010.  They recently had a startup summit on September 10-12. The space is about twenty feet away from the Canal Street exit for the N and R subway line.  You go up a flight of stairs and you are there.  The place has an unfinished feel to it.  The front of the building has still not been filled with desks.  It is very new.

There were several small breakout rooms for conferences.  Four people were using one of the rooms as an office for a new startup.  There was a coffee urn.  The walls were mostly bare of art.

Most of the people using the space were sitting at laptops typing away.  I was met by a gentleman sitting at a desk.  I asked about internet access.  They have wireless access points and some dsl lines.  They are planning on getting some cable modem lines in as well.  It all appears to work quite well.  They will probably have more desktop computers and servers when there are more permanent people in the space.

The fee seemed reasonable $600 a month per person to use the space as an office.

I found the group because I was wandering around looking at MBStartups on Twitter http://twitter.com/mbstartups  around eventually bumping into New Work City.




I got invited to a Publishing Business Virtual Conference and Expo on September 16, 2010 for free.  I am not quite sure what to do with it yet.  http://www.publishingbusiness.com/PBV2010/A1007038_PBv_agendav3.pdf