Daily Thoughts 05/20/2012

Johannes Vermeer, A Lady Writing, circa 1665

Daily Thoughts 05/20/2012


I have been thinking a little bit about which systems I should learn.  Publishers often use either Wordpress.org or Drupal for their content management system.  Drupal is much harder to learn than Wordpress.org.  I have an idea how the free, online wordpress.com works, but don't think it is powerful enough to build a large complex website.

I spent some time watching the update to Social Media Marketing with Facebook and Twitter on Lynda.com.  Facebook redesigned their interface.  It was helpful to understand the new timeline and analytics for Facebook.  I still have to take the tour of the new Facebook.  I also started learning a bit of Javascript on Codecademy.  I am finding Javascript much harder than CSS.


Web Bits


The Man Who Took On Amazon and Saved a Bookstore
http://www.forbes.com/sites/philjohnson/2012/05/10/the-man-who-took-on-amazon-and-saved-a-bookstore/?goback=%2Egmp_1515307%2Egde_1515307_member_116879272
There are some interesting insights in this article about how to modernize a bookstore.

Writer's Cramp: In the E-reader Era a Book a Year is Slacking
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/in-e-reader-age-of-writers-cramp-a-book-a-year-is-slacking.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Daily Thoughts 9/28/2011

Pietro Magni The Reading Girl, Etching by William Roffe (1889-1893)

Daily Thoughts 9/28/2011

I read some more of The Swerve in the morning.  It describes the crumbling of Roman philosophy as Rome fell.  The book also describes how the library at Alexandria was eventually destroyed with the
waning of classical philosophy.

This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook account, looked over the displays, and checked on some upcoming programs.  I am starting to plan for programs in January and February.  I am also starting to learn a little bit more of how the website works.  I spent a little bit more time on Lynda.com learning about Microsoft Word 2007.

I also did some weeding in the graphic novels section.

We opened the computer lab today to help people with their job search between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m..  There is a steady increase in the number of people coming in searching for jobs.

Two books came in for me to read, the graphic novel, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles The Authorized Adaptation by Dennis Calero and Visual Quickstart Guide InDesign CS5 by Sandee Cohen.

Web Bits

Amazon Tablet Price Could be a Big Attraction
http://news.yahoo.com/price-amazon-tablet-could-big-attraction-224541425.html

This article is quite interesting because it puts a tablet at $249 very close to the price of an E-reader.  There is also the recent partnership between the Kindle and Overdrive.  Overdrive is the content provider for ebooks for the Westchester Library System. 

Daily Thoughts 9/27/2011

William Morris, Guinevere, 1858
 Daily Thoughts 9/27/2011

This morning, I finished reading Goliath by Scott Westerfeld. I thought it was a rather satisfying ending to a satisfying series. I like how Scott Westerfeld wove real history into this alternate history series. I especially liked the section on Pancho Villa.

I checked the displays, updated the Twitter and Facebook account, and did some weeding in the graphic novels. I also spent some more time learning Microsoft Word 2007 on lynda.com.

We had a donation of computer books today many of which were added.  There were books on Flash, CSS, Drupal and other computer subjects.

We are having the Intermediate Computer Class in the Computer Lab from 6:00-7:00 p.m.. Last time we had overflow from the classes. There is a lot of demand for computer use. We are trying to open the lab more for people seeking jobs. This is very important. A lot of people have trouble filling out online application forms.

On the way home, I read some of The Swerve How The World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. This book is about the rediscovery of the book, De Rerum Naturae (Of The Nature of Things) by Lucretius during the 15th century.  Lucretius poem is beautiful and full of ideas like atomism, the mixture of pleasure and virtue, and a world without fear.  The Swerve is proving to be very enjoyable.  It even tells us that there were 28 public libraries in Rome during the time of the Roman empire.  I am finding the details tied into the history of books more than satisfactory.






Web Bits

Banned Books Week Censorship Map

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/mappingcensorship

Daily Thoughts 9/14/2011

Image based on a photograph of James Fenimore Cooper by Brady, 1850


Daily Thoughts 9/14/2011

I finished reading Blur this morning on the train.  The authors call for a new way of approaching journalism that is related to new media.

I updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  We also had the Internet Job Search Hour today in the Computer Lab.  I spent an hour helping people search for jobs.  I also received the invoice for the computer classes on Tuesday nights.  These are going well.

I spent a little time preparing orders for books for the Job Information Center, mainly civil service test books.  Books for clerical exams, police officer exams, firefighter exams, case worker exams and other civil service positions.

I also spent a little bit of time on lynda.com listening to videos on Indesign.  It is a slow, steady process.

I put the book, Just My Type: A Book on Fonts by Simon Garfield on hold.  It should be interesting reading if you like design.

Web Bits

Mysterious Paper Sculptures Found in Scottish Libraries
http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html

Librarian Census
http://blog.oup.com/2011/06/librarian-census/

This is a rather interesting article.  It has some faults though.  If you group information science with library science, it tells a very different story.  It is a story of information migrating outside of libraries to be managed in large repositories.  Many information architects have a library background.  The story of the migration of many librarians into information technology would be an interesting one to look at.

Daily Thoughts 9/5/2011

Paul Fisher, A Good Book, 1905

Daily Thoughts 9/5/2011

I spent some time updating Twitter and Facebook.  I also finished reading No Shelf Required.  It was interesting reading the different options for delivering and purchasing ebooks.  There are subscriptions, pay per view, automatically buy an ebook after a certain number of views, buy a set of ebooks as a package, subscribe to a series of ebooks as they are released, and many other options.

This morning, I finished taking the Youtube Essentials course on Lynda.com which giave me a better idea how the service works.  I plan on learning a number of different programs while I still have the option to use Lynda.com, InDesign, Photoshop, and Flash.

I started reading A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin this morning. I rather like the story because the author does not stint on villainy.  He makes his treacherous characters truly nasty.  It adds to the story quite nicely.

I took some time to look at the 2011 Washington Irving Book Awards which are presented by the Westchester Library Association.  They are all for Westchester authors.  http://www.westchesterlibraryassociation.org/bookmark.pdf

Daily Thoughts 9/2/2011

[Exterior view. Falling Books, by Frank Eliscu, a four-story relief in bornze over the main entrance. Library of Congress James Madison Building, Washington, D.C.] Date Created/Published: 2007. 

Daily Thoughts 9/2/2011

I read a little more of Lincoln As I Knew Him.  I also spent some time making sure that there was space available for programs which I planned.  I updated the current events display with a few books on Dick Cheney and Mike Bloomberg who were in the news recently.

I also took some time to update the Facebook and Twitter account which are growing steadily.  I also spent some time going through our patron recommendation forms which we take at the reference desk as well as our online suggestion form for material.  There were requests for the authors R.A. Salvatore who is a fantasy writer and Denise Hunter who writes christian fiction.

I compiled the monthly statistics for programs.  The amount of people attending programs has been steadily growing.

I also learned today that patrons can access our catalog fairly easily with tablet devices through our wireless system.  It was interesting learning this.

On the way home, I read some more of Lincoln As I knew Him.  The anecdotes present a person who was strikingly odd looking, had a singular personality, and was subject to deep melancholy.  Most of the anecdotes are very positive.  I also started reading No Shelf Required which is about ebooks.  I learned that the early history of creating ebooks was focused on classic works and works of history.  People were seeking to make literature more available through projects like Project Gutenberg and the Perseus Digital Library http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/  This is the first time I have read about the Perseus Digital Library.

Daily Thoughts 9/1/2011

A "Reader" in cigar factory, Tampa, Fla. He reads books and newspapers at top of his voice all day long. This is all the education many of these workers receive. He is paid by them and they select what he shall read. Location: Tampa, Florida.  Date Created/Published: 1909 January. 

Daily Thoughts 9/1/2011

We are preparing for a presentation on Ereaders on September 7, 2011.  I also confirmed that we will have Kenneth C. Davis coming in January.

This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I also checked the displays.  We also took the library service survey down from the website.  It ended on August 31, 2011.  Now, we have to compile the information so that it is presentable.

The book A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin came in for me to read.  I have been waiting for this book for several years.

I started reading Lincoln As I Knew Him Gossip Tributes & Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemeies, edited by Harold Holzer.  It is a collection of vignettes, letters, and anecdotes about Lincoln.  We are reading a biography on Lincoln as part of the Biography Book Club which is happening on September 20, 2011.

Daily Thoughts 8/30/2011

Magyar Posta, Fairytales

Daily Thoughts 8/30/2011

This morning, I spent some time checking links on the website.  I also updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I am just getting used to the idea of hashtags. 

I also checked all the displays and looked through the bookstore.  There were a few books worth adding to the young adult collection.

We are having our website committee meeting this evening which should be interesting.  I spent some time writing some more time checking for link errors today.

This afternoon, we had a session discussing the different services we have available to the local schools.  We have a very large science experiment collection, lots of classic novels and plays, and lots of test preparation material for the Regents exams and advanced placement exams.  We also have the online learning service, Learning Express which has quite a bit of test preparation material for high school as well as Tutor.com which offers online tutoring.

I had the briefest chance to crack open a copy of the New York Times Book Review.  I placed the book, The Magician King by Lev Grossman on hold because of this.

We had a meeting tonight to discuss different issues around the website.  A lot of it was about making corrections to the website and wireless access.  I also mentioned  SirsiDynix Bookmyne http://www.sirsidynix.com/products/bookmyne.  We also discussed different issues around the databases as well.  We may be getting a catalog computer next to the circulation desk and a few other adjustments.  I have started putting in hashtags in Twitter http://www.hashtags.org/library.  I also have to setup a Youtube channel for the library.  This should be a very interesting project to start.  I have been posting photographs of events on our Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/mountvernonpubliclibrary%20
I am enjoying working with social media.

On the way home, I read some of Hard Magic by Larry Correia.  This is a novel of magic, gangsters, g-men, and good versus evil in an alternate 1930s.  It has all the elements of a mens adventure magazine with lots of pulp style action.  It is very enjoyable if you want a bit of escapism.

Daily Thoughts 8/29/2011

Cover of the October 1920 issue of Popular Science magazine, painted by American illustrator Norman Rockwell It depicts an inventor working on a perpetual motion machine. I did a lot of driving today so I feel a little bit like I've been in perpetual motion.

Daily Thoughts 8/29/2011


I did not do any reading like I usually do.  I spent a little bit of time on the Twitter and Facebook account.  I also spent some time preparing for the website committee meeting tomorrow.  We have a lot to discuss.  This ranges from social media to databases to search engine optimization to the website itself.  Part of this was polishing some reports and thoughts on what I was going to talk about.  I also spent some time checking links on the website to make sure they worked.

I also finished taking a course by Jill Whelan, SEO Search Engine Optimization Getting Started on Lynda.com.  So far, the training has proved to be excellent, easy to understand, and quite useful.

Daily Thoughts 8/24/2011

A Chinese revolving typecase from the agricultural book Nong Shu, written by the Chinese official and agronomist Wang Zhen, published in the year 1313 CE during the Yuan Dynasty.

Daily Thoughts 8/24/2011

This morning, I read a little bit more of Ghost in the Wire.  It becomes clear when the reading the book, that Kevin Mitnick was absolutely absorbed with computers and telephones to the point where little else mattered.  I also read some more of Made to Stick which is describing how to simplify and focus your message.

This morning, I took some time to update the displays, check the gifts, and put together a flyer for a biography book club.  The Friends of the Library had asked for the club as well as some of the people from the Adult Summer Reading program.

I also spent some time checking the Facebook and Twitter accounts.

We have two programs running this evening.  The Womens Enterprise Development Center is running a program called Is Small Business Right For You today and tomorrow from 5:30-7:30 p.m..  We also have Arts Westchester tonight which is doing a program on a grant for local artists from 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Jonathan Lethem has a new book coming out in November called The Ecstasy of Influence.  I rather enjoyed his science fiction writing, especially Gun, With Occassional Music.

Web Bits


52 Ways to Use Your Library Card
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/ALA_print_layout_1_229857_229857.cfm

Daily Thoughts 8/23/2011

Carl Spitzweig, 1880 Der Schreiber

 Daily Thoughts 8/23/2011

This morning, I read some of Made to Stick.  It is about why stories are memorable and hard to forget.  It sets a series of ideas on how to make what you are saying interesting.

We had a very nice donation of manga in the donations this morning.  There were copies of Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Black Cat, GTO, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and other titles which were all in excellent shape.

I took some time to update the Twitter account and the Facebook account.  I learned that I can post as my page if I change my account setting in the Accounts setting of the Facebook page.  This is quite interesting.  I also checked the displays and updated the current events display.

I sent in my planned programs for the month.  I will have to print up flyers for the programs as well today.

Three books came in for me to read, Kevin Mitnick with William L. Simon, Ghost in the Wires, My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker, Hard Magic by Laryy Correia, and The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan.

I also spent a little time reading Library Journal and Publishers Weekly today as well as making some flyers for upcoming programs.


I tried reading some more of Made to Stick on the way home on train, but got bored.  The information is useful, but it becomes repetitive.  I decided to read Ghost In The Wires by Kevin Mitnick.  It is quite interesting.  Kevin Mitnick comes across as being obsessed with computers and hacking and lacking in common sense or caution.  This makes for an excellent story.  He can's stop doing what he is doing even when he is caught repeatedly.

I watched half an hour more of the CS 5 Indesign class which is about half way through the class.  I still have an hour to go.  I'll probably then read InDesign CS5 for Windows and Macintosh by Sandee Cohen.  I also finished watching the Lynda.com session on Facebook.

Daily Thoughts 8/15/2011

Корин А.М. "За книгой", 1900, холст, масло, Дальневосточный художественный музей
Daily Thoughts 8/15/2011

I checked the displays, picked out some young adult titles to be added from the gift books,  updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts, and checked the gift books.  I am also spending some time working on Bookletters today.  I called people for the Writers Networking Event on August 18, 2011 from 6-8 p.m., and the End of Summer Reading Tea on Wednesday, August 17, from 4-6 p.m.  I also spent some time setting up the bag of books which will be raffled off for the participants in the Adult Summer Reading Program.

I wrote a poem for the Writers Networking Event as well as put down five reasons why I write.  We are going to do an exercise as a group explaining reasons why we write.  

I spent a small amount of time updating the Bookletters page today.  It has been a while since I did this.
http://library.booksite.com/7273/nl/?list=CNL7  I also spent some time looking at the website statistics.  I am on a committee for the website.  People are coming to use our online research links.

Two books by the Dale Carnegie Training Institute came in for me to read Stand and Deliver How to Become a Masterful Communicator and Public Speaker and Make Yourself Unforgettable How to Become the Person Everyone Remembers and No One Can Resist.  Right now, I am reading Stand and Deliver which is about how to communicate with people both in person and in front of large crowds.  It is very much a motivational book.  I read a bit of Make Yourself Unforgettable which is about how to have poise and class.  Make yourself Unforgettable is very much a book about how to show confidence.  Neither of the book is a formal work, there are no references and they have strong opinions.

Daily Thoughts 8/14/2011

Set of Books with Cherry Blossoms, Chosui Yabu, Between 1858-1862, Woodblock Print


Daily Thoughts 8/14/2011


I spent some time on http://www.wearemedia.org which is a social media for nonprofits tutorial site.  I also spent some time updating my Facebook page.  It is a learning experience.

I also worked a bit on an online training module from Lynda.com which Westchester Library System provides for two months for employees that are part of member libraries.  I watched a training video on Facebook and am starting another training video on Social Media Marketing with Facebook and Twitter.  I rather like the sound of one idea, "Word of keyboard".

I also have got a new printer today.  They no longer sell ink cartridges for my current printer, so I had to go out and get a new one.  This time, I got a new one with fax, copy, and scan in addition to printing.  Hopefully, this will come in useful.

This afternoon, I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up some magnetic clip bookmarks for the Bag of Books which will be raffled off to a participant in the Adult Summer Reading Tea which is on August 17, 4-6 p.m., as well as picked up some wafer cookies and tea biscuits from the local produce market.

In addition, I read some more of Heartless by Gail Carriger in the laundromat.

Daily Thoughts 8/13/2011

Reading Aloud, oil painting by Charles W. Bartlett, 1892
Daily Thoughts 8/13/2011

I read some more of Heartless by Gail Carriger this morning.  I also started doing some of the writing exercises in Six-Week Start-Up by Rhonda Abrams.  A lot of the beginning is about clarifying your ideas.

I spent a bit more time on Facebook this morning trying to figure out what needed to be done.  The pages and groups are new to me.

Daily Thoughts 8/12/2011

Swedish author Viktor Rydberg reading a book in his rocking-chair. Anders Zorn, 19th Century.

Daily Thoughts 8/11/2011

This morning, I started reading Heartless.  It is light entertainment.  Last night, I started reading Six Week Start Up by Rhonda  Abrams.

I spent some time this morning updating the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I added a Mount Vernon Public Library Facebook Group.  I am not done with Facebook, the next step is to create a Facebook Cause page to accept donations.  I also was asked to start using Twitter hashtags, something which I have not done before.  https://support.twitter.com/entries/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols

I also did some other minor tasks, checking the displays, checking the flyers, checking the gift books, and checking on the email reference.

I spent some time reading the New York Times Book Review and Library Journal for reviews.
I put Stand and Deliver How to Become a Masterful Communicator by the Dale Carnegie Institute and
Make yourself unforgettable --how to become the person everyone remembers and no one can resist
by the Dale Carnegie Institute on hold. I have read How To Win Friends and Influence People which is basically about how to have self confidence.  It is something that is asked for a lot.

I also placed Ghost in the wires : my adventures as the world's most wanted hacker by Kevin Mitnick on hold.

I read some more of Heartless on the way home.  It is pure, silly entertainment.  It is the fourth book in the Alexa Tarabotti series so Gail Carriger has the story down pat.  The writing is very smooth and funny at the same time.

Daily Thoughts 8/9/2011

Studio Shot of Reclining Woman Reading A Book, Silver Albumen Photograph Taken between 1800 and 1899 at the Brooklyn Museum.

Daily Thoughts 8/9/2011

This morning, I read some more of Nonprofit Management 101.  The book reminded me that diversity includes disability which can happen to anyone as well as aging which also happens to everyone. I continued reading it on the way home.  The section on advocacy was quite interesting.  Every chapter ends with a list of books and websites to visit.   I still have not had a chance to check on many of the websites.

I checked the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I also checked the displays.  It is always interesting looking for books which relate to the latest news; subjects like the federal reserve, Apple computers, and Afghanistan.  I also checked the email reference and made sure the holders for event flyers and readers advisory bookmarks were full. I am trying to get an article about Ereaders into the local papers. 

I am also keeping in contact with Kenneth C. Davis.  I have friended him on Facebook and Twitter.  Hopefully, we should have a few people to volunteer for the computer lab soon also.

Tonight we have our computer class from 6:00-7:00 p.m. in the computer lab.  It has been going very well.

Jim Collins has a new book Great By Choice.  He is the author of Good to Great.

Web Bits

Publishing Gives Hints of Revival, Data Show
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/books/survey-shows-publishing-expanded-since-2008.html?_r=1&hp

Why Nonprofit Social Media is Unique
http://socialfresh.com/non-profit-social-media/

Daily Thoughts 8/2/2011

Eva Gonzales, Secretly, 1877-1878

Daily Thoughts 8/2/2011

I am reading Counterinsurgency by David Kilcullen.  It is a book on military counterinsurgency.  I sometimes read these things.  For me it is contemplative much like reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu, or The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.  It is on modern counterinsurgency in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.  It reminds me of the film The Battle For Algiers which is about an insurgency in Algeria against the French.

This morning, I updated the Twitter account, checked the displays, and checked the gift books.  There were a few books by Omar Tyree which I added.  I also looked over the new Mount Vernon Public Library facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#%21/pages/Mount-Vernon-Public-Library/155068971235018

I also took some time to listen to a presentation on ebooks http://www.westchesterlibraries.org/ereaderprogram

The book Successful Business Research Straight to the Numbers You Need -- Fast! by the Planning Shop with Rhonda Abrams came in for me to read.

I spent some time this afternoon making sure the computer lab was ready for the computer class this evening.  We are trying to make sure all of the computers in the lab work.  We got overflow in the lab for the first time. 



Web Bits

Internet archivist seeks 1 of every book written


http://globegazette.com/news/national/internet-archivist-seeks-of-every-book-written/article_39bfcc14-944a-595d-9281-d73f770e74a7.html

Daily Thoughts 8/1/2011

The Two Sisters, oil on canvas, Pierre-August Renoir, 1889

Daily Thoughts 8/1/2011

Today has been a steady day.  I updated the Twitter account, checked the displays, and checked the donations.  There were a bunch of urban fiction books that were donated as well as some classics.  I also checked the Ereference.  We get lots of Local History questions in Ereference.

I am looking at doing some social media things for the library which should be interesting.  I started working on a a Facebook page for the library today. It is very different doing an institutional facebook page compared to do a personal Facebook page. It also feels different between doing a personal Twitter account and an institutional Twitter account.

I stayed late tonight to discuss technology in the library.  We talked about the computer lab, laptops, internet connections, the website, and a variety of different subjects.  A lot of patrons would like more wireless access and more laptops.  We also discussed possibly purchasing some magazine subscriptions for the Sony Ereaders which seems like an interesting idea.

Daily Thoughts 10/9/2010 (social media, twitter, facebook, the monstrumologist)

Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918), 1885, El lector (The Reader), Museo Thyssen Bornemisza

Daily Thoughts 10/9/2010

I created a display this morning for poetry.  I also checked the displays to see they were in order.  A new steampunk book came in for me to read, Dreadnought by Cherie Priest.  It looks interesting. 

While I was looking through various reviews I came across a new Ammon Shea book, The Phone Book: The Curious History of the Book That Everyone Uses But No One Reads.  I rather like Ammon Shea because he writes about things like dictionaries, encyclopedias, and grammar with a very avant garde style.

I had a long train ride home from work.  This being the weekend of a holiday made the trains exceptionally slow, convoluted, and requiring multiple transfers.  This gave me a bit of extra reading time.  I finished reading The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey which was gripping. I could not put it down.  The mad doctor Erasmus Grey who collects, dissects, and eradicates monsters is absolutely convincing.  Will Henry, the orphan apprentice of Grey is also very well done.  The best though is the monster hunter Kearns hired to help them.  Kearns is the apex of nihilism and is an utter beast inside with a very refined exterior.  There is even a discussion guide to the book in the back.  An utterly fantastic read.

Web Bits

Malcolm Gladwell on Twitter and Facebook.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/03/malcolm-gladwell-twitter-doesnt-work


I am going to disagree with this in some ways. Twitter and Facebook can be used to feed into other forms of citizen journalism like blogs and news sites. They are part of a larger strategy which can be used to bring about change. They can be part of a larger advocacy strategy. This is a site called http://www.savelibraries.org/  It feeds news from the web into the site. There are twibbons banners which can be added to facebook and twitter. Save libraries feeds into Twitter and Facebook with news channels. Twitter and Facebook by themselves are just pieces of a larger puzzle. They are channels of communication.



Another piece which is missing from this article is that Twitter and Facebook can be used to host events that allow people to meetup in person over time. For example while they were holding rallies at an earlier date to keep New York Public Library open, these rallies were fed by many other types of groups, meetups, tweetups, and other organizational methods to gather people. On Facebook Urban Librarians Unite was part of the campaign to save Queens Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and New York Public Libray http://www.facebook.com/urban.unite Some of the groups through social media are not short term. A good example of this might be http://www.meetup.com/nylibrarians .  If you are thinking about all social networks being purely a platform for business, The American Library Association also has ALA Connect http://connect.ala.org/

These were just a piece of a larger strategy as well which included other communication channels; postcard campaigns, rallies, letters and email communications.  Twitter and Facebook feed right into journalism.  It is very easy to communicate using forums and other tools directly with the media now.


Many of the people in these groups blog as well and build a slow following. A good example of how to do this is through the book, We The Media, http://oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/  Twitter and Facebook add to the ability to use grassroots journalism effectively.

Thinking that Twitter and Facebook as solely a written medium is also fallacious.  Twitter and Facebook can be tied into Youtube to create videos which can spread quickly.  I have not tried this yet.  It also possible to use podcasts to create audio as well.  It opens an entire new way to report what is happening from the opinion of the person experiencing the events.

There is nothing stopping people from using a complete media strategy with Facebook, Meetup, Twitter, Blogs, and other media.  For these things to be effective people would have to meet in person through specific gatherings over a long time period.  Social media is not an abstraction.  For it to work, take the time to meet some of the people who you are communicating with.

It also is a good venue to invite people for events like Bacon Palooza which is a fundraiser to help autistic children  http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=152396631460119

I just got a book called The Dragonfly Effect Quick, Effective, and And Powerful Ways To Drive Social Change by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith with Carlyle Adler.

Daily Thoughst 8/24/2010 (Book Reviews, facebook, collection development)

Copperplate originally in Jacques Gamelin: Nouveau reueil d'ostéologie et de myologie, dessiné d'après nature..., Toulouse 1779. 

Daily Thoughts 8/24/2010

While I was looking through the August 22, 2010 New York Times Book Review, I placed on hold on The glamour of grammar : a guide to the magic and mystery of practical English by Roy Peter Clark,
reviewed by Ammon Shea. I am a big fan of Ammon Shea. His essays on the Oxford University Press blog are quite interesting. http://blog.oup.com/?s=ammon+shea&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0  . I also placed Common As Air, Revolution, Art, and Ownership on hold as well. 



I am also looking at The Facebook Era Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff by Clara Shih.  I am interested in the reach new audiences part right now.


Today has been another quiet day.  There are two meetings which I am preparing for.  Tomorrow we are discussing collection development, and on Thursday we are having visitors from the people who run our computer systems visit our library.  This morning, I took some time to check the accuracy of the labeling of the new books.