Daily Thoughts 12/5/2011

Raja Ravi Varma, A Student, Painting of a member of a royal family in his study room.

Daily Thoughts 12/5/2011

This morning, I finished reading Spontaneous Happiness by Andrew Weil.  He includes an 8 week program focused on creating positive mental health.  Towards the end of the book, he also describes how having a strong social network, gratitude, and charity help create better mental health.

I also read some more of Zahra's Paradise which at times can be quite brutal.  It is definitely a mature story.  It tells a lot about repression and fear in Iran.

This morning, I updated the libraries Twitter and Facebook account.  I also checked the gift books to make sure they were in order.  In addition, I spent some time looking at programming.  We are going to have someone talking about foreclosure in January. 

We are meeting tomorrow for the Technology Committee.

On the way home, I finished reading Zahra's Paradise.  It was a very interesting graphic novel.  There was a glossary, afterword, and a bit on the 2009 Iranian presidential elections.  A lot of the book was about protest and dealing with corrupt government bureaucracy.  This story would be very much tied in with the Arab Spring or the series of revolts around the arab world in Syria, Libya, and Egypt.  There are some note on how computers and cell phones very much change things.  I found this to be a very different graphic novel.  There is a website at http://www.zahrasparadise.com/

I also started reading Free Ride How Digital Parasites Are Destroying The Culture Business, And How The Culture Business Can Fight Back by Robert Levine.   Robert Levine starts out bemoaning the loss of mainstream television like Seinfeld, Friends, and Cheers which I feel no great loss for.  If bands like KISS are what he considers culture, then there is no great loss if some of the white elephants and doddering old fashioned television programming go away.  Robert Levine successfully reminds me that the long tail of greater variety on the internet with the greater ability to choose what I want to listen to and view is better than the walled gardens of 1980s and 1990s television. 

Web Bits

The New Digital Divide

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/internet-access-and-the-new-divide.html?scp=1&sq=digital%20divide&st=Search

Statement by Jeffrey W. Cannell, Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education and Acting State Librarian, New York State Education Department

http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/testimony/

This is important because of the focus on the internet.   Libraries are increasingly the only place which poorer people can get internet access.  Many people come in to apply for jobs and learn basic computing at public libraries.

Daily Thoughts 12/4/2011

A Young Student at His Desk: Melancholy (1630-1633) by Pieter Codde Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille


Daily Thoughts 12/4/2011


I spent a little bit of time updating the library Facebook and Twitter pages today.  I also watched a PBS Nature  dvd, Voyage of the Lonely Turtle.  I find nature dvds relaxing.

I also read a little bit more of Spontaneous Happiness.   Andrew Weil is reminding us that we should have some control of what we put in our mind.  It is not good to absorb too much.  He also reminds us that too much noise and the wrong kind of noise is bad for us.  It is important to be able to understand when too much information is being pushed at you.

In the laundromat, I read some of the graphic novel, Zahra's Paradise.  It is a very stark story about a nineteen year old who goes missing during the demonstrations against the 2009 election of Ahminejad in Iran.  The story is in black and white and is clearly a protest against the current administration in Iran.


Web Bits

How The Internet Is Destroying Everything
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/how-the-internet-is-destroying-everything/

Selling Books by Their Gilded Covers
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/books/publishers-gild-books-with-special-effects-to-compete-with-e-books.html?_r=2&scp=4&sq=books&st=cse
This does not surprise me.  Coffee table size books and books with illustrations and complex art work are hard to duplicate on the internet.  It does not have the same look and feel.

Occupy Wall Street Library

Flash Mob Cataloging-- This is something I can't explain.
http://www.librarything.com/groups/flashmobcataloging

I have been thinking about what will happen to the Occupy libraries.  Currently, Occupy Toronto library has been dismantled, Occupy Wall Street Library has been dismantled (you might call it mobile) their website exists but the library itself does not have a physical location, and Occupy Los Angeles has been dismantled.

Occupy London library has expanded.  Occupy DC library is working so is the Occupy Boston Library, if you look on Library Thing there is an Occupy Portland library, an Occupy Maine Library, and an Occupy Seattle Library, there is also Biblioteca Acampada Del Sol, and the Oscar Grant Plaza Library in Oakland California.  This leaves a much larger grouping than when the Occupy Wall Street Library started on September 17, 2011.  Most are on Librarything  http://www.librarything.com  which is quite flexible as a social media tool for cataloging.

For me, it is conceptually interesting.

Daily Thoughts 12/3/2011

Europa postage stamps, great works of human intellect
Daily Thoughts 12/3/2011

This morning, I read some more of Spontaneous Happiness by Andrew Weil.  Weil is writing about integrative mental health, specifically depression.  He is describing how to combine alternative medicine with western medicine.  The book focuses on subjects like exercise, meditation, yoga, sunlight, vitamin supplements, herbal medicine, sleep, drug intake, and social isolation.  Andrew Weil has written a number of previous books on integrative medicine.

I checked the donations this morning and added a few books.  There was some urban fiction, classic literature, a number of works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and a few high school assignment titles like S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders.

I plan on reading Bradford of Plymouth by Bradford Smith.  It is about William Bradford the founder of Plymouth colony.  He was the person responsible for creating the first Thanksgiving holiday.  The book was written in 1951 so it will definitely have a lot of old fashioned ideas in it.  It is part of our mezzanine collection.  We are reading biographies of famous people associated with holidays for the Biography Book Club on December 13, 2011 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m..

The graphic novel, Zahra's Paradise A Missing son. A Stolen Election.  Is This Iran? by Amir & Khalil came in for me to read.

I spent some time looking through the Collection Management sheets where we take down patron request at the reference desk.  We had a number of requests for books on cloth dolls.  There is an annual exhibit of cloth dolls every year at the library.  We also recently had some requests for Heavy D CDs.

Web Bits

E-Book market forecast to hit $5.2 billion as book industry burns
http://gigaom.com/2011/12/02/e-book-market-forecast-to-hit-5-2b-as-the-book-industry-burns/

Occupy Bangor asked to remove tents from library property
http://bangordailynews.com/2011/12/02/news/bangor/occupy-bangor-asked-to-leave-library-property-member-says/
A little bit about liability insurance.

Occupy Online: Facebook and the Spread of Occupy Wall Street
http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2011/10/24/occupy-online-facebook-and-the-spread-of-occupy-wall-street/

This is really interesting stuff.  It says there are over 400 Occupy Facebook pages which is a lot of people with over a million posts related to the subject.

There are 487 Different sites on Facebook. This means that there will most likely automatically be something happening somewhere which is newsworthy given the raw volume of protest sites.There will be a lot more things like Occupy Bangor appearing almost daily.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An-A-lITWCO8dHZSVkRjMk5MRU91MXFzRVpSWjRtWGc&hl=en_US#gid=0

It belies a much more sophisticated internet and social media strategy than many people realize.

Daily Thoughts 12/2/2011

Le Pêcheur à la ligne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1874

Daily Thoughts 12/2/2011

On the way to work, I read a little bit more of Survival of the Beautiful.  It has a lot of interesting ideas in it.  I rather liked the idea of cuttlefish being able to signal different meanings with their body from desire to anger.  I also liked the section on paintings by elephants and what they mean.

I have been spending a little bit of time on the website. I also have been updating the Facebook and Twitter account for the library.  The announcement for the Kenneth Davis author reading on January 12, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. is up on the website.  http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/KenDavis

We also have an ancestry display in the First Avenue Display Case called Early Scarsdale Along Saxon Woods Road. http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/First-Avenue-Window

We spent some time discussing the website, the library survey, the computer lab, ordering, and other issues.  There are so many different things that need to be worked on.

Yesterday we got donations of DVDs and VHS tapes.  We have been getting a lot more VHS tapes lately.  People must be clearing them out of their house.

The Holiday Tree is up in the front lobby.  There is a lot of gold decorations on the tree. We also have a small display requesting that people donate bestselling books.  We are also seeking donations of new books, CDs, and DVDs.  The display has gift wrapped boxes and other holiday decorations to express the spirit of the season.

On the way home, I finished reading Survival of the Beautiful, Art, Science, and Evolution by David Rothenberg.  There is a wonderful quote on P. 187, expressing how art can sometimes appear more real than nature.  "Field guides to nature use painting and diagrams far more than photographs because they show more possible marks of identification than one could ever actually see when confronting an actual, real bird, , though I'm sure computer-animated video field guides are just around the corner."  For the author, David Rosenberg, beauty is the most important and aesthetic quality in life.  It is a different and refreshing view of the world.

Web Bits

Libraries: Are They Obsolete?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ramon-resa-md/libraries-are-they-obsole_b_1123887.html?ref=libraries-in-crisis

The Huffington Post has a Libraries in Crisis Section which is very interesting reading.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/libraries-in-crisis/

Daily Thoughts 12/1/2011

Pierre-Auguste Renoir , La Lecon, 1906


Daily Thoughts 12/1/2011


I read some more of Survival of the Beautiful this morning.  The author is writing about camouflage in nature. There is some interesting material on military camouflage and patterns that are disruptive to the eye called dazzle patterns.

I updated the Facebook and Twitter accounts this morning and spent some time discussing the programming which is listed on the website with a colleague.  I also checked the displays to make sure they were in order. 

The book Free Ride How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back by Robert Levine has come in for me to read.

I have decided to stop reading And So It Goes Kurt Vonnegut: A Life.  There is a review in the November 27, 2011 New York Times Book Review which describes it very well.  The book is heartbreaking and extremely bitter.  It is not something for my tastes.

Right now, I am working on a flyer for an event for Kenneth C. Davis.  Kenneth C. Davis, the author of Don't Know Much About History will be coming to the Mount Vernon Public Library on January 12, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. to discuss his work.

Web Bits
Assembly Hearing on Funding Public Libraries, November 29, 2011
http://www.nyla.org/page/nyla-testifies-at-assembly-library-committee-hearing-531.html