Daily Thoughts 12/29/2009

Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry

Daily Thoughts 12/29/2009

New and Creative Leniency for Overdue Library Books, article from New York Times. http://bit.ly/72KGbt Our library did a Food For Fines drive where we collected can goods in exchange for library fines which we donated to local food pantries. It is an excellent way to both help the hungry and generate positive publicity.

If a person checks out five dvds at a maximum and has a $2.00 a day late fee per dvd if they are returned late, it can very quickly add up to a considerable amount of money after a few late days. Sometimes people can forget very easily. With more expensive items like video games and even preloaded thumb drives, the fine amounts tend to be higher than books.

Where it can get difficult is with teenagers who are absent minded with videos or video games from the library. They can easily add up very high fines which are difficult for them to pay back. Sometimes libraries do "Read Away Your Fines" programs where they reduce a persons fines for every hour they spend reading in the library. Ths program is especially good for children and teenagers.

There is also the option of doing an amnesty for fines for books and materials. Some of the dvds and oversize books can be quite expensive. It is nice to just have the books back sometimes.

I was looking through Locus Magazine and decided to put The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington on hold. I also saw a book which looked interesting on Linked In,
Choosing civility : the twenty-five rules of considerate conduct by P.M. Forni.

I had a chance to walk up to my local library. It was very cold out. I still try and walk a little bit every single day as a form of exercise. I picked up a trilogy of paperbacks, Star Trek Vulcan's Soul, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz. Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz wrote two other novels based on Vulcan, Vulcan's Forge, and Vulcan's Heart. They have been writing for the paperback series for a very long time and have the formula down pat. This story features Ambassador Spock.

Daily Thoughts

Sun Tzu the author of the military classic, The Art of War which is about strategy. I could compare it to Musashi's The Book of Five Rings which is about strategy. Both are well worth reading. These books are not just about fighting, they are about being organized and excellent.

Daily Thoughts

I took a walk to my local library this morning. It started snowing just as I was coming home; so I rushed home and got in the car and drove to get the groceries. It is snowing hard outside.

I picked up a book at my local library, Click What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters Unexpected Insights for Business and Life by Bill Tancer. I am hoping it may give me some insights into why people go to websites. I also picked up two bookmarks. One is for Read Away Your Fines, a program for people under 16 that want to lower their fines. It works by giving people $1 per half hour they sit and read towards their fines. So if you read for an hour, you get $2 towards paying your fine in library bucks, a form of scrip. It seems a little low for fine reductions. The other bookmark is a notice about book renewals; you can renew by phone or on the internet.

I tried to read Click, but it quickly became agonizing. I find web metrics to not be the most fascinating subject. This book is essentially about web data in a very general way. If you are fascinated with statistics you might like this book. Statistics was not my favorite subject. Also, the book is by a first time writer. The writing is a bit dull with not enough variety in its vocabulary. Take a pass and try something else.

The something else is No Limits The Will To Succeed by Michal Phelps with Alan Abrahamson. Michael Phelps won eight gold medials in swimming. I admit my own basis, when I was younger, I was on the swim team. I only won first place once in backstroke. Still, swimming is an excellent healthful sport that keeps you in great shape. This book is about performance and the will to win.

I am realizing that my goal with my website with traffic is not to get massive traffic but to draw in quality traffic that will give me ideas in the publishing and library world. It is not about having a huge number of hits, but having regular readers who show an interest in what I am writing about.

I went and bought a new mouse for my computer. I still had the same mouse with the little rubber ball I had from three years ago. It was working until now. Now I have a Logitech USB optical mouse. I feel a little bit like a luddite; I generally follow the idea of if it is not broken don't fix it. I should probably get a thumb drive for my keychain as well.

Thoughts For Today

I haven't been doing a huge amount lately. I cut up scrap paper into small pieces for patrons to take notes on and picked up some reserve slips for people calling in to make reserves for items to be held at the front desk. It has been a quiet day so far.

On the train in I read a little bit more of Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon. So far, it has been light entertaining space opera with a military touch. I rather like Elizabeth Moon's writing because she has had some military experience as a United States marine and is definitely interested enough in her subject.

Having read a whole bunch of books on grammar and writing recently has changed my reading experience. Now, some books seem much less well put together; others seem to be much better crafted. Reading about writing changes the readers experience.

Sometimes small things of interest pop up in the regular news. Apparently, a Finnish person returned their library book 100 years later anonymously. It is a nice light article. This seems to happen occassionally. People sometimes return their grandparents books which they had laying around the house.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKL1180241320080312

I have been getting various emails from New York Comic Con updating me about what is happening at the convention. If you are a librarian in New York, you can register to attend the conference for free as a professional. I am going on April 18. They had panels on manga, anime, and comics librarianship which were going to the last time I was there. They have been sending me various free movie offers for forthcoming films which are interesting. Unfortunately, I don't have time to go to the films. I saw a really interesting article in Library Journal online. Neil Gaiman is doing an evening to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.


Book News: Neil Gaiman NY Comic-Con Reading To Benefit Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6540270.html?desc=topstory

I took some time to read a little bit of professional literature. I went through my stack of four publishers weekly. The March 10, 2008 Publishers Weekly is especially interesting. It is a green publishing issue. On Pp. 26-32 there is an article called Toward A Greener Future by Jim Milliott. I found it very interesting. Some of the initiatives including e-galleys, and giving editors ebook readers to limit paper use sounded effective. There is also a push to use more recycled paper in books. For example, Random House intends to use 30% recycled paper by 2010.

The sponsor of these changes is an organization called the Green Press Initiative; http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/ I think this is a step forward. I saw, no surprise, Gary Hirshberg, advertising his book Stirring It Up, which I reviewed earlier in the March 10,2008 issue of Publishers Weekly.