Daily Thoughts 01/06/2012

Daily Thoughts 01/06/2012

I spent some more time getting used to the Kindle this morning.  I downloaded a few games for the Kindle.  There are some lightweight apps available to the Kindle Touch.  It also includes an experimental internet browser, MP3 player, and Audiobook player built into the Kindle.  I also tried logging into the Overdrive catalog directly from the Kindle and found it quite difficult.  I might have to sync the library books from the Kindle for PC program in order to get library ebooks. 

I also spent some time playing with the Wifi at a small cafe in our neighborhood.  It was interesting.  In order to use Kindle you have to open an account with Amazon which includes credit card information.  I checked for free ebooks in the Kindle store.  There are over 45,000 of them.  Some of them are quite current.  There is a lot of erotica in the free ebooks.  I downloaded 30 free ebooks to my Kindle.

Right now, I am sitting in my local branch library on their computer.

I am at home, I just finished synching my home computer with my Kindle.  I now have 35 books on my home computer and 35 books on my Kindle.  The Kindle also has two games on it.  A few of the titles are Endgame The End of the Debt Supercycle and How It Changes Everything by John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper and Saving For Retirement Without Living Like A Pauper or Winning the Lottery by Gail Marks Jarvis.

I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up the book, The Nook Book An Unoffical Guide, Second Edition by Patrick Kanouse.

Daily Thoughts 01/05/2012

In the gallery of reading room, Library of Congress, Photograph showing portrait statues of Moses by Charles Henry Niehaus and Isaac Newton by Cyrus E. Dallin on balustrades in main reading room.  Date Created/Published: 1900

Daily Thoughts 01/05/2012

Everyone has new years resolutions.  I resolve to read a graphic novel every week.  I read Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim yesterday.  It is a beautifully drawn black and white comic in the slice of life tradition.  The book won the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz awards which is quite an accomplishment.

The characters were wonderfully done. I especially liked the main character Simon's romantic interest in a blind girl in high school. There was also some excellent lighthearted humor.  The story was very much about growing up as well.  There were some photographs of real places in the back of the book which Derek Kirk Kim used to draw the comic from.

Derek Kirk Kim describes how he was drawing from his own life to draw this comic in an essay at the back of the book as well.  There is a little bit of strong language, but it is not in bad taste.  It is more humorous than anything else.  Derek Kirk Kim has a blog at: http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/

I requested the book, The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning A Post-Peak World by John Michael Greer.  I rather like reading this kind of material.  It makes me realize people are thinking of solutions which are much longer term than what is currently happening.

There is now a circulating museum pass for the Children's Museum in Manhattan which can be checked out from the Reference Desk.

I finally did it.  I went out and bought a Kindle Simple Touch today for my own use.  It is a first step towards moving into the 21st century.  They had a special at Target for $99 reduced from $139.  It is sitting on the computer table right now charging.  I am contemplating purchasing an Ipad and an android cell phone.  I think it was the right move for me to do.  It was quite frankly a bit of a nervous thing to do.

I sat down and read the users manual from front to back for the Kindle Touch.  It is fairly straightforward.
A lot of it is very similar to the Sony E-reader.

I am going to make sure that there are a few computers with Kindle for PC in the Computer Lab.

Web Bits

Occupy Poetry! Starting the New Year With Inspiring Words
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/01/in-the-bookroom/occupy-poetry-starting-the-new-year-with-inspiring-words/

Daily Thoughts 1/4/2012

Yallourn Public Library bookplate [picture] / Allan Jordan

Daily Thoughts 1/4/2012

I finished reading The Life and Legend of Jay Gould in the morning.  I am definitely prepared for the Biography Book Club on January 17, 2012 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.  A few of the Friends of the Library go to the book club.

This morning I checked the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I also opened the Computer Lab from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Right now, I have the Sony E-reader charging.  I also spent some time with a colleague discussing the Kindle and how it worked.  Her Kindle does not have Wifi so she has to sync it with her Kindle application on the pc.  Tomorrow we are going to spend some time looking over the Nook tablet.  I rather like the Nook tablet.

During the last few minutes of my shift, I showed someone how to download books for the Kindle Fire tablet.  It was much easier than I thought.  Kindle does not require the user to download a separate app to use Overdrive.  Also all their new devices have wifi. 

I finished reading World On the Edge How To Prevent Economic and Environmental Collapse by Lester R. Brown on the train home.  It is a very pure left of center vision of how to solve the worlds problems.  I found it to be too idealistic at points.  I agree with his ideas on planting trees, reducing poverty, promoting local agriculture, family planning, and stabilizing failing states. It is idealism at its finest.  I am not sure his descriptions on how to make the ideas work seem practical.



Web Bits

Biblios
http://www.guylaramee.com/index.php?/biblios/text-1/

This is a video on how to use Adobe Digital Editions for the Nook.  Adobe Digital Editions is used for the Westchester Library System Digital Media Catalog.
http://nooktalk.net/news/loading-books-with-adobe-digital-editions-on-your-nook


Which ebooks are most borrowed from libraries and why?
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-which-e-books-are-most-borrowed-from-libraries-and-why/

Daily Thoughts 10/2/2011

James M. Cain author of Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Daily Thoughts 10/2/2011

I read some more of Damon Runyon A Life.  Jimmy Breslin is writing about Damon Runyon's coverage of the mafia.  The stories about Dutch Schulz, Owen Maddey and Al Capone are quite entertaining.   The reader gets the feeling that Damon Runyon was very unpleasant, liked larceny too much, but had a very interesting life.

I also spent some more time on Lynda.com learning about Microsoft Word 2007 and Drupal 7.  I only have access to the training videos for two months, so I think that I should focus on this.

I spent a little bit of time on Facebook and Twitter this evening.  This is a reminder that library ebooks are available for Kindle owners  http://westchester.lib.overdrive.com/FE4723DE-AECE-46F0-966E-7055335E7709/10/411/en/SearchResults.htm?SearchID=757705s&SortBy=CollDate 

If you have an Iphone, or Ipad you can download BookMyne to use the Sirsi catalog.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bookmyne/id350625461?mt=8




http://westchester.lib.overdrive.com/FE4723DE-AECE-46F0-966E-7055335E7709/10/411/en/SearchResults.htm?SearchID=757705s&SortBy=CollDate

Daily Thoughts 9/22/2011

In 1850, Melville moved his family from New York City to Pittsfield, MA, seeking a reprieve from city life and a quiet place to write. He purchased an 18th century farmhouse which he named Arrowhead, and there he completed his most famous novel, Moby Dick. Melville spent his most productive years at Arrowhead, writing Pierre, The Confidence Man, Benito Cereno, and numerous works of short fiction. Melville lived, farmed, and wrote at Arrowhead for 13 years developing many close literacy friendships with other Berkshire authors including Nathaniel Hawthorne. Pablo Sanchez, Prague, Czech Republic 30 May, 2009 Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.


Daily Thoughts 9/22/2011

This morning I relaxed on the train and read the paper.  I took a break from reading. 

I updated the Twitter and Facebook account today, checked the gift books, and checked the displays.  We also opened the computer lab for two hours between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.  I helped some people with job applications in the computer lab.  I also spent some more time on Lynda.com studying Microsoft Word 2007.  This is the wordprocessing program which we have for our computers which are not connected to the internet.

Sometimes, you wonder about the articles in Library Journal.  I was reading about robotic storage for books for academic libraries.  I wonder if you go into the far future, if they will put librarians in cold storage and pull them out when they are needed to answer questions.

I put the new Craig Thompson graphic novel, Habibi on hold.  I also put the graphic novel Ray Bradbury's  The Martian Chronicles: The Authorized Adaptation by Dennis Calero on hold.  I checked out the book Studs Terkel A Life In Words by Tony Parker.  I am reading it for the Biography Book Club.


The Westchester Library System Digital Media Catalog now supports the Kindle.  Overdrive recently made an agreement to lend ebooks with the Kindle device.
http://westchester.lib.overdrive.com/61D5D231-10F4-4926-A140-28026C6642EE/10/411/en/Help-Kindle.htm

Web Bits

The $175,000 Dust Jacket
http://www.booktryst.com/2011/09/175000-dust-jacket-comes-to-auction.html

Amazon Turns Your Local Library Into Retail Book Chain
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2011/09/21/21readwriteweb-amazon-turns-your-local-library-into-retail-84783.html?ref=technology

Daily Thoughts 3/3/2010

Interior View of Appleton's Bookstore, 346 & 348 Broadway, New York, 1856

Daily Thoughts 3/3/2010

Tonight is the final chat for Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management on the ALA Connect site. I am looking forward to finishing the course.

Today I spent time trying out the ordering system for Book Wholesalers Inc.. I am finding Title Tales to be quite convenient and easy to use. Right now, I am preparing for tomorrows ordering meeting. I have quite a bit to discuss. I'll probably have to make some adjustments to the process. I had time to read an issue of Publishers Weekly, but not a whole lot else.

I learned that some university libraries are lending out pre-loaded kindles. They are quite popular. They do go out of the building. http://www.ecampusnews.com/2010/03/01/university-library-sees-demand-for-kindles-soar/ I just am surprised because of the value of the item in question. It would be like letting a laptop circulate outside of a library. I learned that the patron makes requests for what books will be loaded onto the kindle before it is circulated. It is a very interesting idea.

Our final discussion in the Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management was on displays and marketing. I learned that some libraries are able to pull images from their catalog of the new books which they have recently added.

Apparently this is done with SIRSI which is the system we are currently using. These images are being displayed on library web pages. This makes sense. All of the books in the public catalog include an image with them. We should be able to pull these for display on a web page.

.

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.

Wonders of the Library Card, Book Gizmos

Woodrow Wilson's Bookplate.

Library cards are very interesting objects. Where I work, many patrons, we call them patrons not customers in library land often come to my desk and ask for books then tell me they don't have a library card.

This is a rather odd experience for me. I've noticed quite a few people who use the library don't have a library card. Some patrons just come in and read the books in the library only. They'll come in the library and sit down for a couple hours in their favorite spot and read. This is especially true for the newspaper and magazine readers. They will get the daily paper and read their paper then leave.

It has gotten to the point where I can recognize a few of them. There is one gentleman who reads music books and kung fu magazines. Another person reads books on hip hop and cartooning and draws cartoons.

They apparently don't want library cards.

Other people will come in and ask for books for their school assignments then tell me they don't have a library card. I ask them how they are going to check out their books and they say it doesn't matter. But, they keep coming back to get more assignment books. This happens with all kinds of books.

We can't come out and say hey you are you taking the books out without a card. This seems to happen sometimes, a book will go missing for a couple weeks then you find it again. A person will complain, why can't we find this book you should mark it missing. Because of the disappearing and reappearing book phenomena we can't really do it until it has been gone for a couple months. Things reappear in the most unlikely fashion.

Patrons put books back in the wrong places. They think, they are helping us by putting away the material for us. Please leave the books in the book drop or give the books back to the librarian at the desk when you are done with them. Or, if they are especially enterprising, they will hide a book on sex, drugs, or some other subject so they can get it later when they come back. They don't want their mother, their wife, or their friends to know they are reading something so they don't take it out.

Often patrons will come in and ask us what have they read in the last month. We wipe our records after a book is returned. We don't store peoples reading habits. Library records can be subpoenaed by the police or even Homeland Security in the United States. They are a record of a persons character. Lawyers can and do use lists of what people have read as part of their testimony in court. They also comment on whether people have fines and have lost items. They also have lists of what people plan on reading, because of the holds list on peoples cards.

We also wipe record of computer use after a certain period to insure privacy as well. With the new computer logging systems, it requires that you use your card barcode number to logon to computers. While this has caused some drop in usage, it has deterred a lot of problems. There are a lot less fights and arguments around the public computers because a persons identity is known. Also people use a lot less pornography in public.

If a person collects enough fines on a library card, it can effect their credit rating. Some libraries report fines to a credit collection agency. Not returning books in some cases will effect a persons credit history.

Also report your library card stolen or missing immediately and don't lend your card to other people. A lot of little kids will lend their library cards to their friends and then find out their friends have checked out a lot of books and not returned them. This happens a lot. We have to pardon this a lot of the time. The children often don't know not to do this.

Library cards are one of the first cards which a child receives. Usually a child will come with their class and get a library card. The teachers call in first and sends the information in to be processed. Then the class comes to visit, is given a tour, then the library cards are distributed alphabetically to the students.

Sometimes, a person will come in and say they forgot their library card can't they just give their name or show some identification. Because library cards are private records which can be subpoenaed we can't do this. I know it sounds kind of strange and extreme, but we have to be very careful. Some people claim librarians worry more about privacy than most government and police agencies.

The library card can be used to place holds. We have a few people who fill their holds to capacity on movies, then use their childrens or mothers card to get more holds. Movies are becoming more popular than books in many cases to check out. There is one disabled gentleman who calls every day and places two to three holds over the phone using the barcode on his library card for movies. There is another lady who calls and places three or four holds every single day for old television shows like Gilligan's Island and The Honeymooners.

There doesn't seem to be much discernment in what people check out in movies. Most people in my experience seem to check out more two star reviewed movies than well rated movies. It is really incredible. Bride of Chucky, Halloween III, and National Lampoons Vacation are far more popular than Masterpiece Theatre. There seems to be more of a focus on mindless escape than thinking.

The library card is also a primary piece of identification. It is one of the pieces of identification which can be used to acquire a social security number, a drivers license, or a passport. If you read about how people create false identities, one of the steps which people often take is to get a library card.

It is standard to ask for a piece of mail and a piece of identification with a signature or picture to get a library card in most places that I have worked. Usually we only give a card to local residents, but if a person works in the area, we will also issue a card to a person as well.

These are thoughts on library cards.

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Here are some general thoughts. I decided to add some book gizmos to the items I am selling. I haven't sold anything yet, but hey it is still an experiment. I put the Kindle ebook reader and some playaways on my site. Playaways are a plug and play audiobook. You turn the audiobook on, put on the earphones and listen. They are very convenient for libraries.

Kindle is Amazon's new ebook reader. It uses something called electronic ink, a new form of screen display technology. http://www.e-ink.com/

Magnetic bookmarks have a few advantages over regular bookmarks. They don't slip from place, or fall out of books because they are held in place magnetically. They are also slightly heavier than regular bookmarks. I think they are a nice little invention.