Daily Thoughts 06/05/2017

Reading Woman on a Couch, Isaac Israels, 1880-1934

Daily Thoughts 06/05/2017

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.

I finished reading Seasteading How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians by Joe Quirk and Patri Friedman. This was a rather interesting book mixing utopian ideals with modern science.  It was very syncretic and drew from aquaculture, biofuels, island economies, seaweed farming, cruise ships, and other sources to create an argument for building floating platforms on the sea.  The mix of the real with the utopian made it very entertaining reading.

I also read some more of Blue Ocean Shift.  I am reading about the process of creating new markets.  One of the arguments being made is that it is possible to enter new markets that are not disruptive.  For example, when the television show Sesame Street came out there was nothing similar to it.

I joined the Facebook group, League of Librarian Gamers.

Web Bits

6 Lessons from the Library: Circulating Board Games One Year Later
https://stuffylibrary.com/2017/05/31/6-lessons-from-the-library-circulating-board-games-one-year-later/

Blog: A Beginners Guide to Hosting a Board Games Night
http://www.programminglibrarian.org/blog/beginner%E2%80%99s-guide-hosting-board-game-night

Day of Dialog Report 2017
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2017/06/books/day-of-dialog-2017-intro/

Daily Thoughts 06/04/2017

The Book, Edwin Dickinson, 1911

Daily Thoughts 06/04/2017

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.

I selected a few titles to order from things I had seen at the show including An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power by Al Gore and  The Origins of Others by Toni Morrison.  I have a lot more catalogs and other items to look at when I get back.

I read some more of Seasteading.  I am reading about the concept of medical tourism where it is cheaper to go to a foreign country or island to get medical procedures done.  An argument is being made that a floating hospital on an artificial island would be far cheaper than land based medical care.

I also read a little bit more of Blue Ocean Shift.  I am reading about the process of creating new markets.

Web Bits

Want to Borrow A Book from Another Library? Federal Budget Cuts Could Stop You.

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/want-borrow-book-another-library-federal-budget-cuts-could-stop-you#stream/0

Rebuilding Mosul's Library Book by Book

http://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2017/05/rebuilding-mosuls-library-book-book/

Lynda Carter and the Library of Awesome

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/06/03/lynda-carter-library-awesome/

The Space Age: Library As Location

http://litablog.org/2017/02/the-space-age-library-as-location/

Daily Thoughts 06/03/2017

Memories, William Merritt Chase, 1885

Daily Thoughts 06/03/2017

I checked the Twitter and Facebook for the library this morning.

Last night, I read some more of Seasteading.  I am reading about how to build stable structures in the ocean which can be linked together forming seaward farms, aquaculture, fuel production, and living arrangements.  The center of the book has color pictures in it.  I rather like the picture of the seascraper.

I read some more of Seasteading.  Joe Quirk is arguing that the economy of a floating platform will be like Hong Kong, Singapore, Mauritius, or other prosperous island nations.  It makes for a good, but not completely convincing story.

I started reading a galley of Blue Ocean Shift Beyond Competing Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.  This book is a business book about how to identify and shift to new markets instead of competing directly with your competitors.  It is a followup to the bestseller, Blue Ocean Strategy.

Web Bits

PW Book Con Show Daily

http://www.digitalpw.com/digitalpw/bookcon_june_3__2017?pg=1#pg1

A colleague is going to this.

News Maker Sarah Jessica Parker

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2017/06/01/newsmaker-sarah-jessica-parker/

Senate Dear Appropriator Campaign by the Numbers

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2017/05/senate-dear-appropriator-campaign/

Lowlights From Comic Censorship History

http://cbldf.org/2017/06/lowlights-from-comics-censorship-history/

The Audie Awards
https://www.audiopub.org/winners/2017-audies

Daily Thoughts 06/02/2017

Strawberry Man At Fourth & Race, 1862, Unknown

Daily Thoughts 06/02/2017

Today was the final day of Book Expo America.  I shipped back a 37 pound box of books to the library which included a variety of catalogs.

There were a number of interesting things which I saw on the show floor.  For example, I got the book, Girls Who Code by Reshma Saujani which is teen book focused on teaching programming to teenage girls.  I also saw a teen book called Getting Started With Coding Get Creative With Code by Camilla McCue, Ph.D. which is teen book in the For Dummies series.  Hopefully these will both be useful for when we start doing more teen computer classes.

2017 Big Books at Book Expo

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bea/article/73853-bookexpo-2017-the-big-books-at-bookexpo.html

This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook for the library.

I spent some more time walking the show floor and picked up some more books.  I ran into a few more of my colleagues.  The show was a much more tightly run show.

I went to the Annual Librarians Shout N' Share from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. where a panel of librarians made recommendations on galleys that they had found during the show.

I also went to Book Reviews: The Diversity of Race, Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation in the morning.  This was more about how book reviews are done for minority groups than specific sources for book reviews.  There was a discussion of the process of representation in reviewing books.  It was put on by the Children's Book Council.  http://www.cbcdiversity.com

I spent some time checking the New York Times Bestseller List and the Publishers Weekly Bestseller list when I got home.

Web Bits

Inside the Magic Library at the Conjuring Arts Research Center

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/conjuring-arts-research-center

Daily Thoughts 06/01/2017

Lyubov Popova, Portrait of a Philosopher, 1920

Daily Thoughts 06/01/2017

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.

I went to Book Expo America this morning.  It was a smaller show this year.  It looked like there was a lot of consolidation in the publishing industry.  I could finish walking the show flower in several hours.  It used to take me more than one day to walk the show floor.

There were less galleys out on the floor.  Many of the publishers are now using a combination of Netgalley http://www.netgalley.com or Edelweis to get electronic review copies of most books.http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/

This makes it much less likely that there are as many paper galleys.  I still filled one box of new books to ship back to the library.

At 11:00 a.m., I went to a focus group for librarians to discuss the show.  We spent a little over an hour discussing the show from a librarian point of view.  For example, I often am seeking writers who can come to our library.

I looked through the Publishers Weekly Show Daily at lunch time.
http://www.digitalpw.com/digitalpw/bea_show_daily_june_1__2017?pg=1#pg1

I got some chicken and rice on 34th street and brought it back to the show.  The food is very expensive inside the Javits Center.

At 3:00 p.m., I went to a Librarian Networking Event.  They were serving champagne.  I got to see one of my colleagues from Brooklyn Public Library.

I picked up a galley of Blue Ocean Shift Beyond Competing Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne which is a business strategy book.

On the way home, I read some of Heretics! The Wondrous and Dangerous Beginnings of Modern Philsosophy by Steven Nadler and Ben Nadler which is a graphic novel printed by Princeton University Press.

Teen Titans is the theme for the September Library Card Sign Up Month.

Web Bits

Margaret Atwood and Other Library Heroes are Teaming Up to Help the NYPL

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/margaret-atwood-and-other-library-heroes-are-teaming-up-to-help-the-nypl_us_592ee243e4b0540ffc838b81

Queens library branch hosting epic 31 hour open house

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/queens-library-branch-hosting-epic-31-hour-event-article-1.3211322