Daily Thoughts 01/10/2012

1973 U.S. Postal Service stamp in honor of Robinson Jeffers


Daily Thoughts 01/10/2012

This morning, I read some of Michael Lewis Boomerang Travels in the New Third World.  This book is a tour guide to national financial collapse.  The author visits different countries and describes how their economies collapsed.  So far as a reader I have visited Finland where banking speculation crushed the economy, Greece where excessive civil service positions and not paying taxes destroyed the economy, and Ireland where speculation in real estate created a giant housing bubble which collapsed.  It is interesting reading.

I also read some more of Disrupt Think The Unthinkable on the way to work on my Kindle Touch.  The author is writing about the nine minute business pitch made to clients to sell ideas. 

This morning, I checked the Facebook and Twitter accounts.  I also talked to a colleague about central library district funds.  The displays and flyers are in order right now.

I also spent some time sending a few queries to local authors about doing author talks at our library.

I got another call about how to use the Kindle Fire to download free library books.

I put the book, Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson on hold.  It was reviewed in the New York Times Bestseller List.  Seth Godin has a new book We Are All Weird which has gotten very little coverage.  It was released in September of 2011.

On the way home, I finished reading Disrupt on the the Kindle Touch. A constant theme was that it was a good idea to look for everyday activities to improve that most people don't even think about.  I am beginnning to like the Kindle Touch.  I even tried out a free word game called Jigsaw Words.

I also read a little bit more of Boomerang.  Michael Lewis is writing about how German banks helped create the economic mess in Greece, Ireland, and Finland.

Daily Thoughts 01/09/2012

Reading Boy, Eastman Johnson 1863

Daily Thoughts 01/09/2012

I finished reading The Nook Book this morning.  I learned a little bit more about the Nook.  You can use Barnes and Noble as a publishing platform with PubIt.  PubIt converts your documents into Epub format so you can sell them.  http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home

I lent The Nook Book to a colleague this morning.

I also read some more of Disrupt this morning.  The author reminds us that you need to test your products with the real people who will use them.  He also compares prototyping to Mr. Potato Head which is an apt description.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern came in form me to read.  It is a fantasy title.

I checked the displays this morning and printed up some more flyers for events.  I also spent some time checking on supplies which we have; cups, napkins, coffee, etc.

I spent a little bit of time showing a person how to download books from the Westchester Library System Digital Media Catalog to their Kindle today.  A lot more people seem to be coming in with Ereaders lately.

I am looking at Readers' Advisory Service in North American Public Libraries, 1870-2005 right now.  I think people will still want recommendations whether or not the books are ebooks or print books. 

I am looking at the city budget.  http://cmvny.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Adopted-Budget-2012.pdf  The library has been offered $3.6 million this year in 2012.  There was a $3.5 million budget in 2011.  In $2010 there was a budget of $4.1 million.  It is something to think about.

Daily Thoughts 01/08/2012

Daily Thoughts 01/08/2012

I updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts for the library.  I like to read the local papers and see if there is anybody worth connecting to or friending from the standpoint of the library.

I have been reading a a little more of Disrupt.  There is a nice reminder that an opportunity is not a solution.  Nothing is executed yet.

I read some more of The Nook Book an Unofficial Guide.  It got me to look at Pandora which is a way to make personal radio channels on the internet.  I also spent a bit of time trying to get the Nook for PC program to work to no avail. It is a bit buggy.  I learned that Nook has separate applications for textbooks (the Nook Study), and children (Nook Kids).  They appear to be quite different than the regular reader.  I also learned that the Nook is the only E-reader directly attached to a physical storefront.  While the user of the Nook is in Barnes and Noble, special deals are offered and the Nook functions and Barnes and Noble functions as a Wifi hotspot.

Next week is crunch time for the budget.  I am as always hoping for good things to happen for the library budget.  Hopefully, the city will have it ready so they can pay civil servants by the end of the week.

I also put the book Tony Wheeler's Badlands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil on hold.

Mount Vernon Hopes to Finalize Budget by Mid January Plan Contains 4.9% Tax Hike, No Layoffs
http://www.lohud.com/article/20120106/NEWS02/301060018/Mount-Vernon-hopes-finalize-budget-by-mid-January-plan-contains-4-9-tax-hike-no-layoffs



Web Bits
Take This Book: The People's Library at Occupy Wall Street by Melissa Gira Grant
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melissagiragrant/take-this-book-the-peoples-library-at-occupy-wall
This was successfully funded.  I did not buy a copy.  Maybe I will get a chance to look at it one day.

Occupy Wall Street Library Adds Hundreds of Books
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/occupy-wall-street-library-adds-hundreds-of-books_b45088
The Occupy Wall Street Library now has more books than when it was removed from Zucotti park.  I am also going to guess that soon the occupy movement will have more money because of all the free speech lawsuits.

Daily Thoughts 01/07/2012

Keeping up with science Poster promoting the study of science, showing a microscope, open book, and an eye. Date Created/Published: Ill. : Federal Art Project, WPA, [between 1936 and 1939]
Daily Thoughts 01/07/2012

I have been reading Disrupt Think The Unthinkable To Speak Transformation In Your Business by Luke Williams.  I got it free from the Kindle Store.  I am reading it on both the Kindle Touch and the Kindle for PC program.  It is the nice advantage of synching.  The book is about innovation and ideas.  I like the description of using post it notes to make thoughts physical.  Paper makes thoughts physical more so than computers.

This morning, I spent some time going over the Kindle Fire tablet.  It is the second Kindle Fire I have been asked about how they work.  It was quite interesting and quite a bit more than the Kindle Touch.  The manual was 548 pages long.  There were all kinds of things which you could do on it that were content focused.  I am thinking right now about the Apple Ipad.

The book Boomerang Travels In the New Third World by Michael Lewis came in for me to read.

I am working at the library this Saturday, January 7, 2012.  The library has started opening the first Saturday of each month.  Hopefully with better funding we will be able to open every Saturday.  Money is very tight right now.

William Gibson has a new set of essays out called Distrust That Particular Flavor which I put on hold.  It is his first collection of nonfiction essays.

I am taking a few minutes to apply for the reviews center Beta from Library Journal.
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/reviews-center/reviews-center-login/

On the way home, I read some more of The Nook Book.  Nook has an easily rhyming name, Look, look there is a nook, it is not quite a book  I also read some more of the book, Disrupt.  Much of the book is about design and the ideas behind innovation in design, not just business. 

I have been thinking about buying an Ipad.  There are some very personal reasons for me to do this.  I may be getting one quite soon.

Web Bits

Occupy This: Graphic Novels About Economic Justice, Social Movements & Historical Revolutions
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2011/12/collection-development/occupy-this-graphic-novels-about-economic-justice-social-movements-historical-revolutions/