This morning we went to the mall for Mother's Day. It was actually very nice. You walk around the outside and sit on the benches. I got a chance to go into the Gamestop for a few minutes. Libraries have been buying games for Nintendo lately. We have a few of them, not too many. One of the libraries not far from where I work ran a Halo tournament as part of their young adult programming. It was a complete surprise.
I took a look at some of the games. Most of the games were too high powered for my computer. I really should upgrade my machine to a new model. I am being grouchy. New computers cost money and I don't like spending money. Plus a lot of the places which offer telecommute work on the side don't want you to have Vista, they have problems managing it. There was not a whole lot which I think I would get even for my own use. I think there is some value in the Sims, Guitar Hero II, Dance Dance Revolution, and even the game Civilization IV.
I am not sure about most of the other games. I have heard that if you play video games you get good fine motor skills. It is supposed to help surgeons. However, like most librarians I am a little bit conservative and I can't really think of why or how video games would fit in a library. I am curious on hearing other peoples views on this.
After going to Gamestop, the Bodyshop, and a few other places to wander around and look at things, we stopped by Boston Market and got some chicken. It was not too bad. There is something oddly satisfying about looking at things in little packages, even if you don't buy them.
Then we went to Barnes & Noble. We never buy anything. I did look around to see if there was anything I wanted to request for my branch. When I got home, using my internet connection, I tried to place holds for Space Vulture by Gary K. Wolf, Time Spike by Eric Flint, and Reaper's Gale by Steven Erickson. My library had none of these books. However, my library system did have The New Weird edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, and The Algebraist by Iain Banks. I also took a look at a few books on blogging which my library does not have Problogger's Secrets to Blogging Your Way To A Six Figure Income by Darren Weiss, and Increase Your Web Traffic In A Weekend by Jeffrey Lee Ford, Jr.. An awful lot of books that are already in bookstores are not in libraries.
I also took a look at the graphic novels section. There was not anything which I hadn't seen at the New York Comic Con already. I think Barnes & Nobles does a better job with manga than they do with graphic novels. They had a huge manga section.
I am seeing an interesting trend in romance where there are now a lot of vampire romances being written now. I almost want to read Mark of the Vampire Queen by Joe Hill. It is in the romance section. Unfortunately, it is not in my library yet.
It was nice to get out of the house and go to the open air mall and walk around. I don't like closed in air conditioned malls. They make me feel boxed in and they are often too cold.
Afterwards we made a short trip to the supermarket to get some groceries. Now, I am sitting at the computer writing my thoughts for today.
I am relaxing a bit my feet are sore. I have been walking a bit too much lately.
I took a look at Library Journal today. They have a short article called "The Parallel Information Universe." I must belong to this, I certainly read enough science fiction and fantasy. Maybe one day, I'll wake up trapped inside a Myspace page. No, but seriously they have an article on Myspace, Facebook, and Second Life.
It is the Second Life thing which got me. I actually have never used Second Life or the Sims. I admit it, I have tried some online games, but not the Sims or Second Life. Apparently, some public libraries have set up library services in Second Life. This sounds kind of over the top. I wonder if I should sign up for an account in Second Life so I can see what it is about.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6551184.html
The next dreaded step of course is providing services for ipods and other digital media devices like cell phones and blackberries in public libraries. They actually had a section on that at the Westchester Library Association conference.
I call it information soup, because you throw a hundred different things into a pot, ebooks, blackberries, wifi, laptops, blogs, myspage, facebook, magazines, traditional books, cell phones, ipods, dvds, videos, databases, internet access, cd-roms, playaways, copy machines, scanners, projectors, and a million other devices and you boil it up with a confused staff and you hope it will turn out to be something that the visiting library patrons will like and be happy with.
Showing posts with label myspace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label myspace. Show all posts
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Westchester Library Association Conference
On May 9, 2008, I attended the Westchester Library Association one day conference held in Tarrytown. I took the Metro North up to Tarrytown. It was a long slow ride. On the way up, I read some more of Robert Grave's The Reader Over Your Shoulder. I am almost done reading it. The conference registration started at 8:00 a.m. which was quite early. I had time to get some grapefruit juice, coffee, and minimuffins.
I got a chance to look at the vendors in the morning. Archie Comics was there. They have a new design for their title Betty & Veronica. I actually like the new style of drawing, it is much cleaner and easier to look at. It looks a lot less cartoonish and the characters are a bit more diverse than before. The vendor gave me a free sample copy. The title is Betty & Veronica, Bad Boy Trouble. I think teenage girls will probably like this in a library setting.
I also picked up a discount sheet for Pimsleur language learning tapes-- 50% off.
The name of the conference was Sparkle, Dazzle, Shine.
The opening speaker was Jeff Connell, The Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Education of New York. His office is in Albany. He is governed by the Board of Regents. He talked about his position in the library world. His responsibilities include educational tv, the state museum, the state archives, and the state library in Albany.
He quoted Thomas Jefferson, "Information is the currency of Democracy." Then he gave a long rambling speech about his experiences as a librarian before he became a deputy commissioner. A lot of it was about merchandising books and improving circulation statistics.
The good news from him is that the state is not cutting the baseline funding of $14 million dollars from the New York State Library, but they are cutting 2% from additional requested funds.
There is also a position open for a new state librarian in Albany, New York..
The reason I was there more than anything else was because of a session called. "May I Please Blow Up The Reference Desk." by Traci Hall, Assistant Dean of Dominican University library. The main point was that the reference desk created physical and cultural barriers to doing reference work. Traci Hall claimed that the reference desk was a symbol of the 19th and 20th century, not a symbol of the 21st century.
She further claimed that the job of the librarian was to help the patron at their point of origin not make them go back to a reference desk. She was quite lively and stated that she was aiming to stir up a bit of trouble. She brought out the example of libraries failing and having to recreate themselves. For example in England, in some of the more troubled libraries, they were renamed as "Idea Stores."
She also used another example of the Infoplank, or Swedish cataloging system that is multilingual. She said we are no longer living in a monoculture, the world is changing into a multicultural, mobile, globalized world.
She then brough up ten key points. I am rewriting them in my own language because, there was a lot of jargon used which might not be understandable for people outside of libraries or in general.
1) We have a diverse multicultural, multilingual, globalized world.
2) People are dropping out of school early, and prolonging their college education. The educational system is failing. We have help people get educated.
3) People learn in groups.
4) People use informal peer review systems like Amazon.
5) We want have things customized for us personally.
6) We want things brought to us instead of having to go there.
7) An immediate human voice is preferable to a computer intermediary.
8) There are gatekeepers to peoples needs.
9) People using social networking want immediate sensation and results.
10) People are trading on popularity and empathy.
After this she started talking about how we need a new kind of librarian. It was kind of interesting. It was also a little overblown. The constant focus on the new was distracting. The message seemed to be teach people how to learn. This was the original basis for building the Carnegie Libraries. Libraries were not originally built for entertainment. They were built for self-education.
This is a summary of her ideas. Because, I am paraphrasing her, I am not sure that this is the exact meaning of what she said. I think it is close. One website which I found interesting that she mentioned was http://www.aadl.org/ Ann Arbor District Library which has their library website completely redesigned as a blog.
After the opening speech and the first lecture, we broke for lunch. I sat with my colleagues and gabbed for a little bit. The lunch was quite nice. I had the vegetarian plate which was vegetables with tofu, a salad, and an apple tart for dessert. They held a raffle, but I had already gone downstairs for the next lecture.
After lunch was over and coffee was served. Traci Hall gave the keynote speech which was on diversity. It was called Library 911. The key points she brought up were that libraries are diverse institutopms with a wide variety of people using them and libraries should be embedded in their communities. They should participate in things like the chambers of commerce and community events. She gave a brief quote from John D. Rockefeller, "I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than for any ability under the sun."
The last lecture I attended was "From Dress Casual to Eye Candy, Outfitting Our LIbraries For Online Social Networking." The librarian giving the lecture said her favorite library web site on Myspace was http://www.myspace.com/brackenlibrary . The library website which she ran on Myspace, Brooklyn College Library had 3980 freinds. It also had music, photographs, and instructional videos. It was very interesting to look at.
Following the Myspace examples, she gave examples of Librarians using facebook. One librarian facebook page which she said stood out was Gerry McKiernan.
One site which she mentioned teaches a free course for librarians on social networking called, "Five Weeks To A Social Library."
http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/
I got a chance to look at the vendors in the morning. Archie Comics was there. They have a new design for their title Betty & Veronica. I actually like the new style of drawing, it is much cleaner and easier to look at. It looks a lot less cartoonish and the characters are a bit more diverse than before. The vendor gave me a free sample copy. The title is Betty & Veronica, Bad Boy Trouble. I think teenage girls will probably like this in a library setting.
I also picked up a discount sheet for Pimsleur language learning tapes-- 50% off.
The name of the conference was Sparkle, Dazzle, Shine.
The opening speaker was Jeff Connell, The Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Education of New York. His office is in Albany. He is governed by the Board of Regents. He talked about his position in the library world. His responsibilities include educational tv, the state museum, the state archives, and the state library in Albany.
He quoted Thomas Jefferson, "Information is the currency of Democracy." Then he gave a long rambling speech about his experiences as a librarian before he became a deputy commissioner. A lot of it was about merchandising books and improving circulation statistics.
The good news from him is that the state is not cutting the baseline funding of $14 million dollars from the New York State Library, but they are cutting 2% from additional requested funds.
There is also a position open for a new state librarian in Albany, New York..
The reason I was there more than anything else was because of a session called. "May I Please Blow Up The Reference Desk." by Traci Hall, Assistant Dean of Dominican University library. The main point was that the reference desk created physical and cultural barriers to doing reference work. Traci Hall claimed that the reference desk was a symbol of the 19th and 20th century, not a symbol of the 21st century.
She further claimed that the job of the librarian was to help the patron at their point of origin not make them go back to a reference desk. She was quite lively and stated that she was aiming to stir up a bit of trouble. She brought out the example of libraries failing and having to recreate themselves. For example in England, in some of the more troubled libraries, they were renamed as "Idea Stores."
She also used another example of the Infoplank, or Swedish cataloging system that is multilingual. She said we are no longer living in a monoculture, the world is changing into a multicultural, mobile, globalized world.
She then brough up ten key points. I am rewriting them in my own language because, there was a lot of jargon used which might not be understandable for people outside of libraries or in general.
1) We have a diverse multicultural, multilingual, globalized world.
2) People are dropping out of school early, and prolonging their college education. The educational system is failing. We have help people get educated.
3) People learn in groups.
4) People use informal peer review systems like Amazon.
5) We want have things customized for us personally.
6) We want things brought to us instead of having to go there.
7) An immediate human voice is preferable to a computer intermediary.
8) There are gatekeepers to peoples needs.
9) People using social networking want immediate sensation and results.
10) People are trading on popularity and empathy.
After this she started talking about how we need a new kind of librarian. It was kind of interesting. It was also a little overblown. The constant focus on the new was distracting. The message seemed to be teach people how to learn. This was the original basis for building the Carnegie Libraries. Libraries were not originally built for entertainment. They were built for self-education.
This is a summary of her ideas. Because, I am paraphrasing her, I am not sure that this is the exact meaning of what she said. I think it is close. One website which I found interesting that she mentioned was http://www.aadl.org/ Ann Arbor District Library which has their library website completely redesigned as a blog.
After the opening speech and the first lecture, we broke for lunch. I sat with my colleagues and gabbed for a little bit. The lunch was quite nice. I had the vegetarian plate which was vegetables with tofu, a salad, and an apple tart for dessert. They held a raffle, but I had already gone downstairs for the next lecture.
After lunch was over and coffee was served. Traci Hall gave the keynote speech which was on diversity. It was called Library 911. The key points she brought up were that libraries are diverse institutopms with a wide variety of people using them and libraries should be embedded in their communities. They should participate in things like the chambers of commerce and community events. She gave a brief quote from John D. Rockefeller, "I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than for any ability under the sun."
The last lecture I attended was "From Dress Casual to Eye Candy, Outfitting Our LIbraries For Online Social Networking." The librarian giving the lecture said her favorite library web site on Myspace was http://www.myspace.com/brackenlibrary . The library website which she ran on Myspace, Brooklyn College Library had 3980 freinds. It also had music, photographs, and instructional videos. It was very interesting to look at.
Following the Myspace examples, she gave examples of Librarians using facebook. One librarian facebook page which she said stood out was Gerry McKiernan.
One site which she mentioned teaches a free course for librarians on social networking called, "Five Weeks To A Social Library."
http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/
Monday, April 28, 2008
Myspace
I created a simple Myspage page, http://www.myspace.com/bookcalendar . I wanted to see what the craze was with social networking sites. It really is not that fascinating to me. When people sign up to use the computers in the libraries, they often go to myspace to post messages or look for hot dates. I guess, I am not part of this generation. Sometimes, if I am not careful and I look to closely, some of the things I see make my eyes burn and pop out of my sockets a bit. It can be a bit explicit or suggesive.
My colleagues often speak of Myspace with hushed tones. I don't think librarians understand social networking that well. Being a librarian in many ways is a very traditional job. There is a sudden invasion of new computer programs and applications which change the way reference can be done. Unfortunately, this is being approached in a quite haphazard way.
Blow up the reference desk, use blackberries to answer reference questions, carrie your laptop around the library to do reference. Roving computerized reference, the wave of the future. I can imagine carrying around a tablet pc in the future and actively looking for people to help. I would be in a star trek style uniform with a big librarian tag on the front and back. I wish people would think through a little bit more as they implemented new technologies.
I also went on Facebook today. I had a bunch of people sign up as my friend. Yesterday, I had one freind. Today, I have seven. It is kind of interesting. Maybe, I will build a unique offbeat literary network. It also showed me a bunch of places that my freinds joined as well. I joined a publishers group and posted something.
I had one person join me on Myspace as a freind. Then I searched for groups that were related to librarianship on Myspace. There were very few, much less than on Facebook.
I think as a potential professional networking tool, Facebook is much more useful. If you are looking for a hot date or a chance to discuss the latest rap song which the teenagers do at our branch, try Myspace.
I finished reading Scott Gier, Genellan Planetfall, on the Baen Free Library Site. I didn't realize it was part of a larger series. Scott Gier has a website devoted to the series. I may read a few more books in the series. Only the first one is free. This is the classic way to hook you. The first one is free, then you have to buy the book or borrow it from the library. This is why it is profitable to give away older books if you are a publisher. http://www.genellan.com/
My colleagues often speak of Myspace with hushed tones. I don't think librarians understand social networking that well. Being a librarian in many ways is a very traditional job. There is a sudden invasion of new computer programs and applications which change the way reference can be done. Unfortunately, this is being approached in a quite haphazard way.
Blow up the reference desk, use blackberries to answer reference questions, carrie your laptop around the library to do reference. Roving computerized reference, the wave of the future. I can imagine carrying around a tablet pc in the future and actively looking for people to help. I would be in a star trek style uniform with a big librarian tag on the front and back. I wish people would think through a little bit more as they implemented new technologies.
I also went on Facebook today. I had a bunch of people sign up as my friend. Yesterday, I had one freind. Today, I have seven. It is kind of interesting. Maybe, I will build a unique offbeat literary network. It also showed me a bunch of places that my freinds joined as well. I joined a publishers group and posted something.
I had one person join me on Myspace as a freind. Then I searched for groups that were related to librarianship on Myspace. There were very few, much less than on Facebook.
I think as a potential professional networking tool, Facebook is much more useful. If you are looking for a hot date or a chance to discuss the latest rap song which the teenagers do at our branch, try Myspace.
I finished reading Scott Gier, Genellan Planetfall, on the Baen Free Library Site. I didn't realize it was part of a larger series. Scott Gier has a website devoted to the series. I may read a few more books in the series. Only the first one is free. This is the classic way to hook you. The first one is free, then you have to buy the book or borrow it from the library. This is why it is profitable to give away older books if you are a publisher. http://www.genellan.com/
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Read With Me Online
Right now, I am reading, Genellan Planetfall by Scott Gier from the Baen Free Library. It is a free online science fiction book. http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/1932657266/1932657266.htm
You can read it with me if you want. I am on Chapter 9 right now.
Yesterday, I went to my local library but didn't find anything I wanted to read. I spent a little while looking around for something to read but couldn't find anything that I wanted to read. I saw something interesting. My local library subscribes to a few issues of comic books, wolverine, batman, justice league, and superman. We don't subscribe to any individual issues of comic books. They also subscribe to Mad Magazine. At my library we subscribe to Mad Magazine. Mad Magazine is a kind of a guilty pleasure.
I looked at the computer books. There was a book on how to do a Facebook page and a Myspace page. I don't think I want to do this yet. It would probably increase my web traffic considerably, but would create a lot of additional work. I might learn something however. A lot of people when they come into the library I work at use Facebook and Myspace when they sign up to use the computer. I overheard the librarians discussing doing a Myspace page for my local library. That would be kind of funny.
There are actually a few librarians with Myspace pages.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=29505353 This is the Myspace page of the Librarian Dress Up Doll. A warning, the page plays "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" as background music. It might be a good exercise for young adult librarians.
On a more serious note, I found the Myspace page for the American Library Association.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=134390181
I guess, this must be important.
When I was sitting down at the computer in the library. An older guy in his forties was checking the calendar for when the rock band, Judas Priest was scheduled to come to town. I was rather amazed that the band was still together. I remember them from when I was a kid.
Today I went back to the library and picked up a few books. The first is Extremetech Hacking Myspace by John Pospisil, I started reading it today. Right now, I am reading about HTML and CSS. I really don't know much about CSS so at least I'll get an introduction to the subject. I already know a bit about HTML
I have had a chance to look through the manual on MySpace. I don't think this is a service that I want to use. It would require me to do a considerable amount of manipulation of the style of the page to get the results I wanted. Also, Myspace while it has a 90 million user base, is focused on a younger crowd, less literary in nature. Supposedly there are a 1/2 million bands which are registered with MySpace pages. MySpace also has its own record label, MySpace Records.
The manual is fairly complex it goes into how manipulate images, create animations, manage audio, manage video, upgrade background images, change the cursors, prepare an overall design for your MySpace page. This is a lot more than I am willing to do. I have pretty basic skills with this kind of thing.
The other book which I haven't started is Facebook, The Missing Manual, The Book That Should Have Been In The Box by E.A. Vander Veer. Facebook seems to be a more appropriate service for my page. The majority of the users are over 25, they include a recruiting function for employers, and seem to be a service much more focused on professional networking than MySpace which seems to be more of a fun site. I think I am going to review this book.
I was hoping that I could use Book Calendar as my identity, but Facebook is being a bit funny. I am supposed to provide a "real name". I am thinking about this. Also, Myspace is doing the same thing. I tried out Book Calendar as a first and last name, but that is not allowed. I guess something like Jack Kerouac is more believable.
You can read it with me if you want. I am on Chapter 9 right now.
Yesterday, I went to my local library but didn't find anything I wanted to read. I spent a little while looking around for something to read but couldn't find anything that I wanted to read. I saw something interesting. My local library subscribes to a few issues of comic books, wolverine, batman, justice league, and superman. We don't subscribe to any individual issues of comic books. They also subscribe to Mad Magazine. At my library we subscribe to Mad Magazine. Mad Magazine is a kind of a guilty pleasure.
I looked at the computer books. There was a book on how to do a Facebook page and a Myspace page. I don't think I want to do this yet. It would probably increase my web traffic considerably, but would create a lot of additional work. I might learn something however. A lot of people when they come into the library I work at use Facebook and Myspace when they sign up to use the computer. I overheard the librarians discussing doing a Myspace page for my local library. That would be kind of funny.
There are actually a few librarians with Myspace pages.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=29505353 This is the Myspace page of the Librarian Dress Up Doll. A warning, the page plays "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" as background music. It might be a good exercise for young adult librarians.
On a more serious note, I found the Myspace page for the American Library Association.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=134390181
I guess, this must be important.
When I was sitting down at the computer in the library. An older guy in his forties was checking the calendar for when the rock band, Judas Priest was scheduled to come to town. I was rather amazed that the band was still together. I remember them from when I was a kid.
Today I went back to the library and picked up a few books. The first is Extremetech Hacking Myspace by John Pospisil, I started reading it today. Right now, I am reading about HTML and CSS. I really don't know much about CSS so at least I'll get an introduction to the subject. I already know a bit about HTML
I have had a chance to look through the manual on MySpace. I don't think this is a service that I want to use. It would require me to do a considerable amount of manipulation of the style of the page to get the results I wanted. Also, Myspace while it has a 90 million user base, is focused on a younger crowd, less literary in nature. Supposedly there are a 1/2 million bands which are registered with MySpace pages. MySpace also has its own record label, MySpace Records.
The manual is fairly complex it goes into how manipulate images, create animations, manage audio, manage video, upgrade background images, change the cursors, prepare an overall design for your MySpace page. This is a lot more than I am willing to do. I have pretty basic skills with this kind of thing.
The other book which I haven't started is Facebook, The Missing Manual, The Book That Should Have Been In The Box by E.A. Vander Veer. Facebook seems to be a more appropriate service for my page. The majority of the users are over 25, they include a recruiting function for employers, and seem to be a service much more focused on professional networking than MySpace which seems to be more of a fun site. I think I am going to review this book.
I was hoping that I could use Book Calendar as my identity, but Facebook is being a bit funny. I am supposed to provide a "real name". I am thinking about this. Also, Myspace is doing the same thing. I tried out Book Calendar as a first and last name, but that is not allowed. I guess something like Jack Kerouac is more believable.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Cartoon History of the Universe And Link Dropping
Right now, I just finished looking at a book which I received as a present, The Cartoon History of the Universe III From The Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance by Larry Gonick. This is a long running "graphic novel" which is about history. What is nice about these cartoons is that they are very open ended and try be comprehensive on which people they cover. The section on Islam for example covers the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Eurasia like Turkey. The humor is slightly irreverent throughout the comic and draws you in well. The history seems to be accurate. The cartoon book has an extensive bibliography, a list of names from history, and an index. I remember reading the smaller comic books when I was a child of six years old. They were were my fathers comics.
Apparently, what I am doing is link dropping, which is the thruth. It has been a more effective strategy than using search engines. I got exactly two hits from Google Blog Search, one was for the book Un Lun Dun, the other was for the Wizard of the Crow. When I look at the free hit counter I am using from hitcounterguru, there is no activity from keywords, just forums and usenet groups. I would have to add my site to a spam style free search engine to get better results from keywords. I would rather be labelled a link dropper than a spammer. On that thought, I looked at the requirements for being listed in DMOZ, a nonprofit directory. One of the requirements is that you not have too many external links, so I think I'll pass with this one.
I was looking at the top ten keyword sets on searchenginewatch, it is quite funny. Almost everything is commercial, the word book or literature isn't even on the site list. Maybe if I talked about myspace.com, cnn, pizza hut, or yahoo 360, I would be on the list of interesting sites.
So I guess I must mention that I like CNN, it is the most read news site. I read it sometimes in the morning along with Yahoo News, something which isn't even mentioned. The only time I watch the news is when I am at the laundromat, I would much rather read it online just when it has come off the wire. If you wait even a single day, the news article gets objected to by some group or other and gets homogenized. It takes about a day from when something is released to the Associated Press to reach the print newspapers. This gives plenty of times for the editors to change the news so it doesn't offend anyone. We don't have a liberal media or a conservative media we have a homogenized media.
Now the second thing I should mention is myspace.com, it is a ubiquitous web site, one of the top ten in use in the United States. I was looking at the Philip Jose Farmer, http://www.pjfarmer.com/ website, one of the truly great science fiction writers, he has a http://www.myspace.com/pjfarmer link which has his personal information and links to him. Philip Jose Farmer is well worth reading. I was actually looking for what his signature looked like on the site.
Myspace.com is probably a site traffic magnet. Somehow, I think I'll take a pass. Although, I am wondering if I posted myself as an African Bull Elephant it might attract attention to this site in a kind of Barnum and Bailey style.
http://www.myspace.com/bullelephant
Now that I have added a link to an important Myspace site, I will further my keyword research by adding a string of the most used keywords in the Label for this Post.
I went and found some more blog search engines to add my site to: myblog2u.com, blogsearch.com, icerocket.com, boingboing.net, Read A Blog, Blog Pulse, and Blog Rolling.com. Boing Boing. net is a truly wonderful site with lots of strange things on it like collapsible paper rocket ships and other oddities. Cory Doctorow, the science fiction writer, is the main editor and poster for the site.
I also took some time to go back through search engine watch and find some more places to apply for a URL entry. These were MSN Live, Search King, and Best of the Web Blogs. I am not really that much of a technical person. Some places gave me the option of pinging my site to other blog search engines. I must have done it from three different places.
It is really up to the editors to decide whether they like what I wrote. This is a really unpredictable thing in my opinion. A lot of writers and editors are really quirky and interesting people. Every editor is looking for slightly different things depending on the guidelines which are presented to them by their employers.
Something you may consider if you are planning a book talk is to have an editor talk instead. Authors are very interested in hearing what it takes to get published, or how people choose which books to publish. Sometimes, if you are very lucky, you can get an editor who also has written a number of books.
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