Daily Thoughts 8/27/2010 (online classes, publishers weekly)

nisse writing

Daily Thoughts 8/27/2010

I read some more of the Facebook Era on the train to work.  It is describing how to use social networks as a way for businesses to manage their customer relations.  The main focus right now is how sales people can qualify leads and prepare better presentations before calling people.




This morning, I did some more spot checking of the shelving sections from which I am ordering for damaged material, orderliness, and other things.  I also checked the storage area to see that it was in order and spent some time talking about shelving.  I also checked the displays to make sure they were in order.  We try and display material that can be checked out.  This increases our circulation.  We have been trying different ways to increase circulation.  We are starting to list items in our catalog as on order so more people will place our books on hold. 




We are also putting the September Is National Library Card Month public service announcement on our website.
http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/card/index.cfm





I have been reading the latest issues of Publishers Weekly.  There are a lot more novelists who are writing for graphic novels now.  Two graphic novels that were highlighted were The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Nigffenegger and The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel by Diana Gabaldon.  Another book which caught my attention was The Box: Tales From the Darkroom by Guntner Grass.  This looks like it will be an excellent collection of short stories.  Another book which caught my attention was Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus.  This should be interesting.  The author is a Brooklyn author plus there is a connection to graphic novels and rock music. There also was a release of Jorge Luis Borges On Writing in June of 2010 by Penguin. We have a 1973 edition of Borges on Writing which should be very similar.




The book Common As Air Revolution, Art, and Ownership by Lewis Hyde has come in for me to read.  He is talking about the cultural commons.  Looking in the index, he does mention copyright and creative commons which are two reading interests of mine.




I registered for the October Fundamentals of Acquisitions class from ALCTS.  Hopefully, it should be useful, it is my third online class this year.  I took Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management and Readers Advisory 101 both of which were very good.