Monday, February 8, 2010

Daily Thoughts 2/8/2010

Outing Digital ID: 1258790. New York Public Library

Outing March, 1896

Daily Thoughts 2/8/2010

One book came in for me to read today, The Talented Miss Highsmith The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith by Joan Schenkar. I have been waiting for this for some time. I also am going to read You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier.

Today has been another quiet, steady day. I spent a bit of time checking the displays and checked on my fliers for programs today. I also talked a little bit about the ordering process for books with accounting. Things are moving along. I still have to do some more weeding. I did not get to weeding today, but I did get to read through the New York Times Book Review and part of Kirkus Reviews. We seem to be getting most of the books in the New York Times Book Review before they are reviewed. I have also been noticing that if you read blog reviews many reviews occur before the trade review publications.

I have started the online course from ALCTS on Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management. It is a review course from the American Library Association online. One of the questions was to write four things down which you think you would like to learn about. Here are my four: 1) Better understanding of budgetary management. 2) How to write grants specifically to get material for library collections. 3) Tools to evaluate the collection so it more closely matches the local community. 4) More understanding of the publishing industry.

I started reading The Talented Miss Highsmith on the train home. This is definitely a book which would be written after the authors death. It describes her many love affairs with both women (married and otherwise) and men. It also acknowledges her career as a prolific writer of comic books which has mostly been expunged from her literary life. She is best known for her thrillers. I have not read them. I have seen Stranger On A Train which was an Alfred Hitchcock film which she wrote. Patricia Highsmith refused to meet Alfred Hitchcock. It is very interesting reading. Very dark, moody and compelling.

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