Daily Thoughts 7/31/2009 ( Bibliomania )

Abraham Lincoln, full-length portrait, reading by fireplace. 1868

Daily Thoughts 7/31/2009

Right now I am looking at some H.G. Wells books from the mezzanine (storage). They are titles like The World Brain, Social Forces In England And America, Mankind in the Making, and The Way The World Is Going. I enjoy spending time in the mezzanine because our library is over a hundred years old. H.G. Wells wrote a number of books on history and the social sciences in addition to the science fiction he was mostly known for.

There are many titles from when our library first opened. Right now, I am looking at books to see if there are any rare titles. I probably will be looking at holdings records from Worldcat http://www.worldcat.org/ as well as maybe looking up some price records using different book search engines from the Bibliomania site list. http://www.bibliomania.net/bookSearch.html This site has lots of useful tools if you are interested in collecting books or just learning about old books. If you look at the ACRL Standards for transfer between regular collections and rare book collections it mentions both Worldcat and book pricing. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/selectransfer.cfm

In the morning, I did a bit of weeding in the large print as well as had some books shifted. In the afternoon, I read through the Publishers Weekly and checked to see what plays were currently running on Broadway.

I read some more of In Search of Excellence on the train home, only a chapter though. I was a bit tired so I most relaxed.

Even though I checked out Batman Gotham Knight the animated movie, I did not check it out for the cartoon. It includes an hour long documentary, Batman and Me: The Bob Kane Story who was the creator of Batman. It is an interesting story. It shows Bob Kane's interest in cartooning; his start at Fleischer Studios, then DC Comics, and his eventual creation of batman. There is also mention of Bob Kane's book Batman and Me which is an autobiography.

The documentary has some wonderfully odd moments in it. Batmans cape and outline was modeled after Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machine, and the Adam West Batman television show came about partially as a suggestion from Hugh Hefner at Playboy. Bob Kane also was supposed to have spent an afternoon with Marilyn Monroe. He seems to have tried to emulate Bruce Wayne's propensities in real life.

One of the narrators was Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Stan Lee, the creator of Spider Man and many Marvel comic books also talked about his experiences with Bob Kane. The documentary was much better than the cartoon Batman Gotham Knight.

Daily Thoughts 7/30/2009

The Great Library at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, Canada, 1870

Daily Thoughts 7/30/2009

I did some more weeding in the large print section today as well as the 700s. It is all about consistency. There has been an increase in the use of large print because we have the bookmobile going out more often to the local armory. This means we have to get better material for the seniors to increase circulation.

The library has set up two more laptops for working with the collection. So there are now three laptops to work with the collection.

I'm thinking about programming again. I have not written any poetry in a while. We are going to have a gentleman doing a session teaching poetry in August.

Our computer technician is printing up some signage for genre section in the new books area; romance, African American, mystery, and science fiction. I found another site for African American fiction http://www.mosaicbooks.com/ .

This is a list of the Eisner Awards from San Diego Comic Con. They are the premier awards for comics in the United States. The Eisner Awards are named after Will Eisner one of the greatest comic book artists. http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.shtml

On the way home, I read some of the book, In Search of Excellence Lessons From America's Best Run Companies by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.. In its time this book was a bestselling business book. It is also considered by some to be one of the best business books ever written. I have just started on it. Mostly, it sounds like common sense so far.

Thoughts For Today 7/29/2009

Henry James by John Singer Sargent, 1913

Daily Thoughts 7/29/2009

Today has been another quiet day. I weeded some in the large print and the 700s. I also looked at the new books to genrify some sections. I am thinking of four genre categories; mysteries, African American, romance, and science fiction.

I did a little ordering for the new books focusing on recent books in the media.

Right now I'm reading Xenopath by Eric Brown. It is a science fiction novel featuring a telepathic detective. It is the second novel featuring Jeff Vaughn as the main character. The first novel was Necropath. The setting Bengal station is rather interesting. It is an East Asian space station with lots of Thai and Indian cultural elements.

I also finished reading How The Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins last night. I really haven't had a chance to review it yet.

I feel a little bit scattered today. We also have a section for oversize books, 26 centimeter or taller is the measure we use for quarto books. One of the new ones sitting on my desk is The Art of Harvey Kurtzman The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle. Denis Kitchen is the founder of Kitchen Sink Press one of the early underground comics publishers. This particular edition is published by Abrams Comicsarts. Harvey Kurtzman is best known for creating Mad Magazine. They have one of my favorite of Harvey Kurtzman's comics, Super Duperman in this book. They also have a picture of Robert Crumb at a very young age which is kind of interesting to look at.

I'm starting to accumulate books again. There are a couple more which came in for me, How You Make The Sale by Frank McNair, Montmorency and the Assassins and Montmorency On The Rocks by Eleanor Updale. I think that libraries are very much like bookstores, they have a product to sell; that product is books and other media. One of the main activities in bookstores is called "handselling" where you sell a specific book to a customer based on what they want. In some ways it is not that different from "readers advisory" in libraries. There is quite a bit of crossover between the two skills.

Daily Thoughts 7/28/2009 ( How The Mighty Fall )

The Danish Royal Library, interior view of building in Fiolstræde.

Daily Thoughts 7/28/2009

I finished reading The City and The City by China Mieville. It was very enjoyable to read on the train. I just started reading How The Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins. It tells the story of why very successful companies come apart.

Today was another steady day. I did more weeding in the large print books, and the sports books. The summer youth employees are shifting the 700s right now to free up some book carts. My colleague is weeding the scores. It is sometimes good to know what you are not good at. I don't know a whole lot about music scores. I am still considering where the graphic novels will be merchandised. Somtimes work is about consistency and showing up every day to do what needs to be done.

A person who worked for me for a while as a library aide came by today to ask me for a part time job. This is her second visit. Unfortunately, there are no new jobs right now. People take what they can get these days.

I am looking at Montmorency's Revenge by Eleanor Updale. On the back of the book, there are awards listed for the young adult series; Nestle Smarties Prize Silver Medal and Booksense 76 Pick. Also a starred review in School Library Journal, The Horn Book, and The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books. The book like the author has a very distinctly English style.

I read some more of How The Mighty Fall on the train home. The book mentions five business thinkers; Peter Drucker, Edward Deming, Michael E Porter, and Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. The only one I have not read is the book In Search of Excellence by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. I remember reading Michael E. Porter while I was working doing recruitment research during my dot com days to understand how to better get people from competitors.

Daily Thoughts 7/27/2009 ( Books On The Air )

"Haiti. A drama of the black Napoleon by William Du Bois : With the New York cast." Poster for Federal Theatre Project presentation of "Haiti" at the Copley Theatre, 463 Stuart St., Boston, Mass., showing bust portrait of Toussaint Louverture. From Wikimedia. I liked the image.

Daily Thoughts 7/27/2009

I have been thinking about books in the media. We get a lot of requests for material which people have heard about on the radio, television, and the internet. I think I'm going to have to pay more attention to this. We have been aiming to boost our circulation a lot. These are some places to look for media tie ins.

Books In The Media
http://news.bookweb.org/mediaguide/

NYPL Books On The Air
http://www.booksite.com/texis/scripts/bookletter/showfab.html?sid=5796&qlname=NLAIR

There is also ICV2's movies and television section if you want to know which comics are going to be turned into films. http://www.icv2.com/search/index.php?q=movies/+tv

This is a video of China Mieville talking about The City and The City.

Today has been a quiet day. I have been watching things happen slowly. They have been moving ahead with the shifting project in the 700s. I showed someone how to do weeding with the laptop. I talked about creating a section for genre fiction-- mysteries and science fiction in the "New Arrivals" area who was returning from vacation.

I am thinking of merchandising the graphic novels. It should happen fairly soon.

I checked out Xenopath A Bengal Station Novel by Eric Brown. It is a science fiction novel. I also read the latest copy of the New York Times Book Review. I am also looking at a copy of How The Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins. Very every day stuff.