Daily Thoughts 7/14/2009 ( Collection Development )

Jack Vance, the science fiction writer, with a banjo and a kazoo, photograph taken by Hayford Peirce

Daily Thoughts 7/14/2009

Today was an excellent day. I finished reading The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It is an excellent literary novel and a nice train read. I will be writing a review shortly.

I read my usual Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and New York Times Book Review. I am going through and selecting new titles to order. I have been taken off of doing the law collection and am now being asked to focus solely on collection development and management in the main collection. We are discussing the idea of building special collections and doing more bookmarks, flyers, and other promotional material.

We are working on designing a new label for the graphic novels. Pretty soon we will be merchandising the graphic novels collection as well. I am looking forward to seeing this done.

I am going to be going through the collection tomorrow and checking for books to be mended and those which need covers replaced. We have a man from Ghana who is coming to pick up some of our deaccessioned books to be sent abroad to Ghana. They badly need books. I found this to be very interesting.

I read some more of Say Everything on the way home. It already has a bit of interesting history of the internet, the author is writing about Justin Hall and Wired magazine as part of the founding of the blogging phenomenon.

I also did some floor exercises while watching popeye. It was a nice break from thinking a lot about books.

Daily Thoughts 7/13/2009 ( Popeye )

John Muir American Conservationist (1838-1914)

Daily Thoughts 7/13/2009

I wrote my first draft of an ebooks poster in publisher today. It is based on an ebooks flyer which I did earlier. It needs to be edited, then I will put it up next to the computer center.

I also picked up a couple of things to read and watch. There is a dvd, Popeye The Sailor, 1933-1938, 60 Theatrical Shorts on 4 Discs published by Warner Brothers. I rather like the original popeye more than the later cartoons. Most are designed to be shown in the theater as a trailer before films. They are also not just written for children. Many of the episodes are from the early Fleischer studios which did the original Superman and Betty Boop cartoons. This is the original popeye song.

The next book is Give Me Back My Legions by Harry Turtledove. Harry Turtledove is a professor of Byzantine history. He often writes fantasy novels, but this is a historical novel about the Romans in Germany. It covers the Battle of Teutoberg Forest where the Romans were defeated.

The final book I picked up is Say Everything, How Blogging Began What's It's Becoming, And Why It Matters by Scott Rosenberg. Rosenberg is an editor at Salon.com. He also wrote Dreaming in Code. I am hoping it is useful both as a history and as a way to improve the quality of my blog.

Web Bits

American Library Association conference coverage by Library Journal.

http://www.libraryjournal.com/microsite/49047/ALA+Annual+Conference+News.html

Daily Thoughts 7/8/2009

Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer and scientist.

Daily Thoughts 7/8/2009

This afternoon, I discussed the Official Overstreet Comics Price Guide 2009, 39th Edition in a reference meeting. It is the standard price guide for old comic books in the United States. The major weakness in the guide is that it does not cover underground comics that well. However, I find it to be an excellent place to look not for prices, but to find new titles I have never seen before.

I also have done some more weeding today, mostly in the 700s and the mysteries.

I put another book on hold about blogging, Say Everything How Blogging Began by Scott Rosenberg. Scott Rosenberg is a writer for Salon.com.