Saturday, June 30, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/30/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/30/2012
I bought a copy of the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook by Ron Carlson Ph.D. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff is a popular self help book.
I relaxed mostly today and checked the new computer. The printer is working fine and everything seems to be in order.
Web Bits
Your Ebook Is Reading You
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304870304577490950051438304.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Friday, June 29, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/29/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/29/2012
I finished reading The Age of Anansi this morning by James Lovegrove. It is not a childrens story at all. It brings out the meaner side of the trickster characters. Lokis ability to be either a man or a woman, Hermes tendency to steal things, and other characteristics. I rather like Anansi tricking the Monkey King with peaches. It does not have a typical ending. It is a novella.
I also started reading The Complete Idiots Guide to Creating a Social Network by Angela Crocker. The main focus is on white label and custom social networking software like Ning, GoSocial, Buddypress, and Onesite. It is focused on how to integrate sites like these with social media like Twitter and Facebook.
I also joined the Community Manager, Advocate, and Evangelist Group on Facebook which is a group for people that work with social media. I also plan on following The Community Roundtable on Twitter @TheCR, there is also a Community Manager chat on Twitter under the hashtag #cmgrchat
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/28/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/28/2012
I finished reading The Age of Odin today. Much like his other books it is an action book based on mythology. It features the Norse gods in the final battle Ragnarok which will determine the end of the world. Thrown into this battle is Gideon Coxall, the main character who very much reminds me of an avatar of Ajax the relentless unstoppable soldier and destroyer of men. The way the frost giants are portrayed is quite interesting.
I had a chance to stop by local library and take care of a few things there. Right now, I am reading The Age of Anansi which is a very different kind of story. Anansi picks out a lawyer to represent him in a contest of wits and skulduggery with other trickester gods like the Monkey King and Coyote. I rather like how James Lovegrove describes Anansi helping his lawyer avatar or person who represents him on earth in his law career. It is entertaining and a bit pointed.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/27/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/27/2012
I took a break from reading and thinking about libraries on Tuesday. This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook for the library. I think I am going to buy The Complete Idiots Guide to Creating a Social Network by Angela Crocker.
I went to the local bookstore today and bought The Complete Idiots Guide to Creating a Social Netowrk by Angela Crocker. I also bought The Age of Odin by James Lovegrove. I am looking forward to reading this.
I decided to change my plans and not go to General Assembly or the Data Meetup and stay at home and rest. I also started reading The Age of Odin. I like that the main character, Gideon Coxall is a doubter in a land of mythological gods. It adds a nice touch to the story.
I went to my local library this afternoon. I used the computer at the library and I downloaded a copy of The Age of Anansi which is a novella over the libraries wireless network to my Kindle. I don't have wireless at home which is fine for me. It cost me $3.49 for the novella. Novellas are not usually sold in bookstores and are sometimes hard to find in libraries.
Web Bits
Authors Guild Sees Return of Predatory Pricing if DOJ Deal Stands
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/52787-authors-guild-sees-return-of-predatory-pricing-if-doj-deal-stands.html
This article says a lot of important things both about the book industry and Amazon which are not flattering.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/25/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/25/2012
I do what I usually do. I checked my email, looked at Library Journal online, Publishers Weekly online, and LIS News. I also am looking through Locus Online and SF Site.
This afternoon, I finished reading The $100 Startup. The book is mainly focused on the concept of bootstrapping. It is also focused on people who want an independent lifestyle focused around small business. Chris Guillebeau describes peoples decision to grow businesses to the size they feel comfortable with, choose their own preferred business form, and not be afraid of failure. I liked reading this book, it is quite inspirational. There is a companion website to the book at http://100startup.com
This afternoon, I had a chance to go to Barnes and Noble and look around at different books. I bought a copy of The Age of Aztec by James Lovegrove. I like the mythological theme of the series. The book just came out in 2012. It cost $8.99 for a mass market paperback. Books are getting more expensive.
I stayed up late reading tonight and finished reading The Age of Aztec which had a fantastic ending. It is mix of alternate history and science fiction. There were all sorts of things which were fantastic in this novel which made it even better than the other books, The Age of Ra and The Age of Zeus. This is a far better novel. There are references to the end of an age in 2012 according to the Mayan and Aztec Calendar, the famed Chariots of the Gods by Erik Van Daniken, super science, Mayan and Aztec mythology, and Aztec warrior culture. The mix makes for a potent story filled with constant action.
There is another book which I have not read in the series, The Age of Odin, and a novella which is only available on Kindle which is a trickster story, The Age of Anansi.
Web Bits
Does Pew Study Prove Ebooks in Libraries Are Safe For Publishers?
http://www.idealog.com/blog/does-pew-study-prove-ebooks-in-libraries-are-safe-for-publishers/
As ALA Opens, Pew Issues Report on Libraries and E-books
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/52668-as-ala-opens-pew-issues-report-on-libraries-and-e-books.html
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/24/2012
The shepherdess. Signed with monogram. Watercolour heightened with bodycolour. 15 x 22.5 cm, Myles Birkett Foster, by 1899
Daily Thoughts 06/24/2012
I spent some more time reading The $100 Startup this afternoon. The author reminds us that a business exists to make money, it is not a hobby. He also describes the process of pre-launch where you tell people about a project you are working on before it is launched.
I spent a little more time on Codecademy and Lynda.com on learning Javascript. One of the limits of Codecademy is that it does not work very well in Internet Explorer. I had to download Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox to get it to work properly.
Web Bits
Library of Congress Books That Shaped America
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/books-that-shaped-america/
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/23/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/23/2012
Last night, I stayed up late and read The Age of Zeus by James Lovegrove. It is an alternate history with super science, genetically engineered gods, and high technology battlesuits. There is a fight for the control of the planet with echoes of Greek mythology. The titans are fighting for freedom while the gods seek control of the world. It was fun to read. There was an earlier novel with a similar theme, The Age of Ra by James Lovegrove. I also liked this book as well. It is nice to have some time off.
I spent a little bit of time updating my bookcalendar twitter account.
I read some more of The $100 Startup this afternoon. The book is more about how to create a business that fits your lifestyle that will support you than about how to generate a huge amount of money. Some examples he uses are the 140 word mission statement, the 1 page business plan, and very basic ideas about how to convince people to buy your first product. The example businesses are things like coffee shops, designer maps, yoga classes, and wedding photography. There is a several page appendix which lists the businesses he uses as examples A lot of the ideas are how to generate income from sweat equity more than spending lots money on advertising, marketing, or infrastructure.
I have wanted to go to the NYC Data Business Meetup for a while. I was hoping to learn a little bit more about it. The next one is at Bloomberg LP on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. The focus is on big data. http://www.meetup.com/NYC-Data-Business-Meetup/events/69467412/
I spent some more time on Lynda.com and Codecademy learning about Javascript. Hopefully, with my new computer, I will also get a chance to download Wordpress.org and try it out as well. I have been planning on this for a while. I got the printer working this afternoon.
Web Bits
Libraries Patrons and Ebooks
http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/06/22/libraries-patrons-and-e-books/
Friday, June 22, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/22/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/22/2012
This morning, I started reading The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau. This book is about how to find a passion and create a job from that passion. It is not about how to make millions of dollars. It describes in straightforward terms how to create business value from personal interests. There are many examples from different companies that came from personal interests like coffee shops, airline travel, self publishing, yoga, and photography. Chris Guilleabeau is describing the process of creating your own job from nothing. He also talks about how to be a digital nomad and take your work wherever you are with a laptop and cell phone. It is a different approach to life.
This morning, I spent some time promoting the Annual Adult Summer Reading Contest. I handed out fliers in the Doric Hall entranceway and gave away bookmarks as well. Our library is a Carnegie building so it has a lot of wonderful architectural and artistic flourishes like the Fresco in the Rotunda http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/Library-Fresco. There is also a display on the program in a display case near the rotunda. There were a lot of people who were interested in the program. http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/node/461
I also checked the displays, checked the gift books, and made sure the Twitter and Facebook page were updated.
I spent some time talking about the collection with a colleague this afternoon. I have quite a bit to think about when I get back from vacation.
On the way home, I read the graphic novel adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones adapted by Daniel Abraham with art by Tommy Patterson. This is a story for adults. It has violence, sex, and intrigue in a medieval setting. Some of the imagery is striking. It is a bit different than what I would have imagined in the book. There is quite a bit of nudity in this graphic novel. It belongs in the adult section. The story is very strong. There is also a television show based on A Game of Thrones. George R.R. Martin writes an introduction to the graphic novel which is entertaining.
My favorite character is the dwarf Tyrion Lannister. He is often at the center of the story, because he has a lot of wit and sometimes strong, but biting language. The story is about nobility set in a medieval setting. The story is epic in scope focusing on the Seven Kingdoms with many different characters.
There is magic, but it is a subtle kind of magic. Quite a bit of the magic comes in peoples dreams. I rather liked the Stark's dire wolves. They are very well done. This is the first volume in the series. I think the story followed the book fairly well.
Tommy Patterson's art is highly defined, it reminds me a little bit of P. Craig Russell in his early years. The coloring by Ivan Nunes adds a differnt tone to it with lots deep reds, blacks, greys, light blues, and light greens giving it a stark feeling.
Web Bits
Twitter and publishing, how the industry is faring.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/52656-twitter-and-publishing-how-the-industry-is-faring-in-2012.html
A nice list of Twitter addresses for publishers. I'll probably add some of them to my Twitter feed.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/21/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/21/2012
I had to take care of a few things yesterday. I did get all the pieces of a new computer today and set it up. It is much more up to date than my old one. I am running Windows 7 on a 23" inch monitor right now which looks very nice.
I did get a chance to finish reading Online Community Management for Dummies by Deborah Ng. The last part was focused on how to use analytics from Google, Facebook and other places to see who was looking at your website.
My old computer was truly finished yesterday.
Web Bits
The French Still Flock to Bookstores
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/books/french-bookstores-are-still-prospering.html?_r=1
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/20/2012
Leonid Pasternak, 19th Century
Daily Thoughts 06/20/2012
This morning, I finished reading The Founder's Dilemma by Noam Wasserman. The main focus in this book is the struggle between increasing wealth and the desire for controlling a startup. The main argument is that the more outside funding you get, the more that outside funders will ask for increasing control of a company through stock ownership, choosing new hires, and making decisions. The more control a founder wants the less money they may get.
I am also reading Online Community Management for Dummies. The book is not very technical. It focuses on netiquette, public relations, and communications in groups and social media. There are a lot of suggestions on how to deal with trolls, complaints, and moderation of content.
This morning, I updated the Facebook and Twitter pages for the library. I also checked the gifts and displays. The Friends of the Mount Vernon Public Library are meeting tonight from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Community Room. They asked me for copies of the flier for the Annual Adult Summer Reading Contest which is running from June 22, 2012 to August 10, 2012.
The Mount Vernon Board of Trustees Meeting is also on tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The Computer Lab for Academic Use is running between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
The book, The $100 Startup Reinvent the Way You Make A Living, Do What You Love, And Create A New Future by Chris Guillebeau has come in for me to read. It should be very interesting to read. Chris Guillebeau is very well traveled. I have a copy of Library Journal and the New York Times Book Review to read.
Web Bits
All Hat, No Cattle: A Call For Libraries to Transform Before Its Too Late
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/06/ebooks/all-hat-no-cattle-a-call-for-libraries-to-transform-before-its-too-late/
Affection for PDA
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/20/research-foresees-demand-driven-book-acquisition-replacing-librarians-discretion
Patron Driven Acquisition is an interesting idea. We do a couple of things that are patron related. We have a collection management sheet which we keep for patron requests. We also have purchase alerts lists for books with high numbers of holds on them.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/19/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/19/2012
On the way to work, I read some more of The Object Oriented Thought Process. Object oriented thinking covers programs like Java, Javascript, C, C++, UML, CSS, and XML. It is helping me understand the basic instructions on how to learn Javascript.
I also read a bit more of Online Community Management for Dummies. It is about how to manage communities online from the perspective of a person who is working for a company. A lot of it is about how to promote a community, communicate to people in a professional way, and handle difficult interactions.
This morning, I updated the Facebook and Twitter accounts for the library, checked the gift books, and picked out some more books for the current events and biography display.
I spent a little time thinking about the Adult Summer Reading program. I am starting to gather books for the "book lovers bag," and have started work on a display for Adult Summer Reading.
I also spent some time looking through bestseller lists and double checking the collection management sheets for patron requests.
The computer classes are tonight. They are having very solid attendance.
Web Bits
Special Report Public Library Funding & Technology Access
http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/archives/issue/summer-2012-digital-supplement-0
Birth Of A Book-- How A Hardback Book Is Made Youtube Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuFV5196dYQ&feature=youtu.be&goback=%252Egmp_4120895%252Egde_4120895_member_125620418
Monday, June 18, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/18/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/18/2012
This morning, I read some more of The Founder's Dilemma by Noam Wasserman. The author is writing about how there is often a change in CEO's when a company grows larger. The venture capitalist often insist on replacing people with more experienced professionals. This leads to either people leaving or taking downgraded positions.
I checked the displays and gifts this morning. I also updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts. We are having the start of the Adult Summer Reading Program on June 22, 2012. I also talked with colleagues about lost books and checking the African American section. I am thinking about doing a classic reading list for Between the Covers which is the title of the Adult Summer Reading Program.
In addition, I did a little bit more inventory in the mezzanine.
Three books came in for me to read, The Age of Zeus by James Lovegrove which is a variation on The Age of Ra about alternate history with the Greek gods, A Game of Thrones volume 1 by Daniel Abraham which is based on George R.R. Martin's book, A Game of Thrones, and Online Commuity Management by Deborah Ng. Online Community Manager is a relatively new profession in the computer world. It is a bit more than just social media. It includes blogging, message boards, social media, social media metrics, email lists, and a variety of other topics in a professional context.
Web Bits
Microsoft to Unveil Tablet with Barnes and Noble
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57454866-75/microsoft-to-unveil-tablet-with-barnes-noble/
Friday, June 15, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/15/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/15/2012
This morning, I read some more of The Founder's Dilemma. I am reading about the changing roles that occur when a start up starts to expand beyond the original core group of people. Roles change as well as titles. Not everyone gets to keep their original title.
I also checked the Twitter and Facebook account for the library, the displays, and the gifts. I did a little bit of inventory in the mezzanine as well. I also spent a little bit of time thinking about Summer Reading for Adults http://www.cslpreads.org/
Web Bits
Supreme Librarians In Metaspace
http://slim.emporia.edu/docs/slim_comic.pdf
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/14/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/14/2012
This morning, I read a bit more of It Worked For Me. Colin Powell reminds me us that whatever we are doing, we are doing it to serve other people whether it is in a corporation or government. I also read some more of The Founder's Dilemma and started reading a bit more of The Object Oriented Thought Process.
This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook accounts for the library as well as the displays. I am thinking a little bit about the Adult Summer Reading Program. We also have the Computer Lab open between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
I spent a little bit of time watching about Javascript on Lynda.com and some time on Codecademy doing Javascript exercises.
I spent a few minutes looking at the latest Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. http://www.mysterywriters.org/files/u6/2012_Edgar_Winners_-_Press_Release.pdf
I read through the latest Booklist magazine. There was a graphic novel by Eddie Campbell called The Lovely Horrible Stuff which is about money which should be entertaining.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/13/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/13/2012
I read a bit more of It Worked For Me this morning on the train to work. Colin Powell is writing about how to advance in ones career with a focus on honesty, hard work, and fixing mistakes. He warns people against creating make work for other people and says that a leaders job is to be at the place where decisions are made. Some of the material is very down to earth and insiteful.
I also read some more of The Founder's Dilemma. The author is describing the process of choosing who will be the C level people in a company as well as what it means to be a Chief Executive Officer in a startup. Noam Wasserman is also describing the tug of war between wanting to be in control versus getting more money.
This morning I helped a colleague with creating a display. I also checked the gifts, the displays, and brought in some advanced reading copies and publishers catalogs from Book Expo America.
I also spent some time updating the Facebook and Twitter page for the library.
The computer lab is open between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. today.
I ordered a new computer for myself from Dell. Dell has a union discount program. Our union is qualified through AFSCME.
I also the book Online Community Management for Dummies by Deborah Ng on hold.
I had some time so I looked at Locus Magazine Online and SFSite. I decided to put an older title on hold, The Age of Zeus by James Lovegrove.
I also looked at the New York Times Bestseller List for Graphic Novels. There is a graphic novel for the book The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. It is also a television series on HBO which is extremely popular. This has also popularized the books. I put the graphic novel on hold as well as the first season of the show on dvd. George R.R. Martin hopes to make the series into a 7 volume series. I am noticing that a lot of George R.R. Martin's books are being reprinted because of the popularity of the five volumes that have been released so far. The Winds of Winter, the next book in the series could take many years for him to finish. In the meantime I am looking forward to seeing the television show and reading the graphic novels.
I was hoping to find a science fiction romance among the 2012 RITA and Golden Heart Finalists for the Romance Writers of America. I occassionally like to read science fiction romance which tend to be space opera with a little extra spice. http://www.rwa.org/cs/2012_rita_and_gh_finalists
I was looking at http://www.garysguide.org/ which lists tech events. On Thursday, June 14, 2012 there is a New York Tech Meetup Change the Ratio, Women's Demo Night #1. http://womendemo.eventbrite.com/?ref=garysguideWhat is interesting to me is that Findings http://findings.com/ and Read Social https://www.readsocial.net/ are presenting which are book focused applications.
Web Bits
Overdrive to Provide Streaming Audiobooks to Libraries and Schools
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/overdrive-to-provide-streaming-audiobooks-to-libraries-and-schools/
Reader Store Gives You More Time To Read Anytime Anywhere
http://blog.sony.com/reader-store-gives-you-more-freedom-to-read-anytime-anywhere
This is interesting, because it is a browser based application that allows people to read and access their ebooks from a web browser. It changes things because it does not require a dedicated e-reading device.
The Internet Archive has an Excellent Browser Based Ebook Reader
http://archive.org/details/BookReader
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/12/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/12/2012
This morning, I read a little bit more of The Founder's Dilemma. The author is writing about whether you should hire your friends or family for a startup. He is describing the common dilemmas that occur when this happens. He also describes reasons why a person should start solo. A lot of the writing is about soft issues that have to do with personality and cultural fit inside an organization.
I also read a little bit of It Worked for Me In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell. It starts with 13 points which he follows for leadership. The book comes across as being very down to earth.
Also, the book, The Object-Oriented Thought Process 3rd Edition by Matt Weisfeld came in for me to read.
This morning I brought my last batch of books from Book Expo America in to be added to the collection. I also checked the gifts and displays. In addition, I updated the Twitter and Facebook account for the library.
Web Bits
The Antidote to E-books
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/technology/12iht-ebooks12.html?_r=2&ref=technology
An article about the Espresso Book Machine.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/11/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/11/2012
My home computer finally ended its useful life on Saturday night. The ram got corrupted and neither Dell nor Time Warner Cable could help me fix the errors running on the computer, nor get internet access up. There was no access. I have to update my computer with a new one that is powerful enough to run current versions of Adobe programs, Wordpress.org, and other software.
I read a little bit of The Founder's Dilemma by Noam Wasserman. The first chapter is about how a person decides to found a startup and when it is best to act on this desire. It covers things like industry background, family issues, and career dilemmas. What is interesting is that the age range for people starting companies varies considerably. 35% of people don't start a startup until they are in their 40s. There are also different motivations for different age groups. Some people want control, other people want money.
This morning, I brought in another batch of books from Book Expo America. Many of them are current bestselling hardcovers. There was enough material from donations and material from Book Expo America for the beginnings of a young adult cd audiobook collection which could be very useful. For example, we got The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on CD Audiobook from Book Expo America.
The book, It Worked for Me In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell came in for me to read.
I checked the gift books, the displays, and updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts for the library. I also spent some time checking inventory in the mezzanine. In addition, I watched a bit of the Lynda.com Javascript video and started doing codecademy.com again. I took a break from it during the conference.
Web Bits
The Fourth Annual Librarians Shout and Share Book Expo America 2012
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/06/shows-events/bea/the-fourth-annual-librarian-shout-share-bookexpo-america-2012/
I did not go to this one. I was there last year. The book picks are all excellent.
Marc Andreessen on Why Software Is Eating the World - WSJ.com http://on.wsj.com/pC7IrX
Friday, June 8, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/08/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/08/2012
This morning, I read a little bit more of Clean Tech Nation. San Francisco is the #1 city for investment in clean technology, New York City is the #4 city for clean technology investment according to the book. There are a number of incubators for clean technology in New York. I have not visited any yet. I noticed that the book is reviewed in the June 4, 2012 Publishers Weekly. It gets mixed reviews which for the most part seem about right. This book is more for someone who already knows a bit about clean technology.
I also updated the Twitter and Facebook pages for the library and checked the displays.
I am back to work. I brought some of the books from Book Expo America in to donate to the collection. I also gave a few titles to young adult and sorted through some publishers catalogs this morning. I am looking at the list of RITA finalists from the Romance Writers of America. We also got a donation of fiction books including some Beverly Lewis who writes Amish fiction. I enjoyed going to the conference. The one disappointment I had was that some of the genre fiction was not there. There was plenty of romance and fantasy, but not enough horror, mystery, or science fiction. I also noticed there was a dropoff in the amount of comics publishers as well. This could be attributed to the growth of New York Comic Con.
Two books came in for me to read, The Founder's Dilemma Anticipating and Avoiding The Pitfalls That Can Sink A Startup by Noam Wasserman and John Sutherland, Lives of the Novelists. I have two New York Times Book Reviews to read and a copy of Publishers Weekly. Publishers Weekly had a few special issues at Book Expo America. One of them was on religion.
I read through the New York Times Book Reviews and put the book It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell on hold. I think it should be an informative book. I noticed that Publishers Weekly changed its format for bestsellers. It is now using Nielsen Bookscan which is a big improvement. This means it will include information on how many copies were sent out to bookstores. http://www.publishersweekly.com/bestsellers
On the way home, I finished reading Clean Tech Nation How the U.S. Can Lead In the New Global Economy by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder. I disagree that the answer is to provide more government programs to stimulate clean technology. I think that it draws the wrong conclusions. My viewpoint is that the first thing to work on is to make renewable energy cheaper than coal or fossil fuels. This means I would like to be able to buy wind power at the same price as a coal fired power plant, not pay extra to join a special renewable energy plan from my utility. In many instances, wind power has grid parity with coal. Also, I would like it to be easy to recycle things. I believe in the five Rs, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, and remanufacture. The easier, the better. Make it easy and cheap to get clean technology. Give clear explanations on how Cradle to Cradle manufacturing or industrial ecology work. This should be the same for energy efficiency. I hate the market hype around renewables.
I also do not like the way many of the government programs are put together. Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder have a seven point plan in the book, I want to see a three point plan that everyone can understand. I want to see things said like clean technology creates local jobs, clean technology require local maintenance, clean technology is good for the environment, and that major business people like Larry Page, Vinod Khosla, and Elon Musk are investing in clean technology. In my opinion clean technology should be seen as a business not a government subsidy. Also the book was very international in flavor focusing on China, Germany, Japan, Brazil and not enough on how the United States could be more competitive.
For me clean technology is like desktop manufacturing with Makerbot and additive manufacturing. It is local, creates local jobs, and it says to me this will be made in America. The hype about nanotechnology bothered me a bit in the book Clean Tech Nation.
I started reading The Founder's Dilemma by Noam Wasserman. This book starts with the founder and of course goes from there with the process of adding people. My thought is all startups start with an idea and a founder. The idea is not that hard to come up with, for example, a website that reviews and sells book apps, or reviews ebook originals-- ebooks that will never be in print form. Or maybe, a publishing operation that focuses on providing downloadable ebooks to educational startups or websites.
Web Bits
Social Reading Is Coming Deal With It
http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe/2012/06/social-reading-is-coming-deal-with-it.html?imm_mid=089ee2&cmp=em-toc-newsletter-june7-direct
Bookshout and Read Social seem to be on target. Also Findings is on target. There will be enough companies for this to be definite phenomenon.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/07/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/07/2012
I am going to the Digital Show and Tell from the Book Industry Study Group this morning at 9:00 a.m. at Book Expo America. It should be interesting.
I spent a little bit of time updating the library Facebook and Twitter pages.
Right now, I am going through the list of attendees for Digital Show and Tell and seeing who has a Twitter handle so I can follow them. Occassionally you find interesting things when you do this.
For example, this is a website about different kinds of book apps that are new.
http://newkindofbook.com/2012/06/apps-for-publishers-bea-2012-workshop/
Or an organization like http://artfromkaos.com/
The Digital Show and Tell was very different. I am going to focus on what I found interesting. We had a chance to visit seventeen different new digital projects. Each person had five minutes to discuss their digital project. Then we had one minute to get to the next project. There was a short break halfway through. It was an enlightening experience.
One of the presenters was Bats! Furry Fliers of the Night. I liked this because it was a nonfiction title for kids on bats that used a videogame interface to tell a story. You could see the bat moving around and flying around a simulated 3D landscape. There were bits on echo location. It was quite interesting. http://www.batsfurryfliers.com/bats/
Another interesting site was Bookshout. http://www.bookshout.com/ Bookshout is another sharing application that allows people to share annotations in the books they read. It also encourages people to buy books by making pieces of the annotations sharable through Twitter and Facebook.
Sharing was a theme that was very strong in this years Digital Show and Tell. There was an annotated link function called Mobnotate which creates links between different ebooks and videos to encourage people to buy other books which linked to a book. http://www.mobnotate.com/
Music Word Media presented its iPad App of the book The Caldwell Collection of Viols: A Life Together In the Pursuit of Music by Catherine Meints. The illustrations and layouts were beautiful. The short catalog of work is captivating in a classical sense. http://musicwordmedia.net/
The application which won best in show was WriterCube, cloud based analytics to map real time data for authors sales against their social media. It is supposed to help individual authors market their books. The price was listed at $9.95 a month for the most basic package. http://www.writercube.com/ It is in beta testing phase right now.
I liked the idea of Steampunk Holmes, but did not like the way it was executed. The typography and the lack of strong contrasting colors in the images bothered me. The storyline was interesting and the idea of kickstarter campaign to do a Sherlock Holmes steampunk pastiche was appealing. If the art work and design was a little bit less dark, I would probably like it.http://www.steampunkholmes.com/p/devices.html
I rather liked the Being Global app which is a children's app focused on learning about culture, food, and music from different parts of the world. I liked the colorful paintbrushes and the language teaching pieces of the app. It had a very international flavor to it. http://kitereaders.com/global/
I was curious about the Demibooks Composer which allows publishers to create interactive books for the Ipad without any programming experience. However, it does not allow people using it to see the process or programming behind the books being made. It is an interesting quandry. http://demibooks.com/composer/
Another favorite of the people in the room was Gutenberg Technology which creates a complete publishing platform for paper, web, tablets, and smartphones which can simultaneously publish across multiple platforms.. They showed us an example of an almost copy of a hardcover book which they had put on a tablet. The hardcover book was very nicely illustrated in full color. http://www.gutenberg-technology.com/product-2.php
I watched the presentation on Slicebooks. Slicebooks allows people to break books into individual chapters, then mix and match the chapters from different ebooks together to create entirely new publications. The intention would also include the ability to add in magazine articles as well. This would be useful for example to create custom textbooks for classes from multiple sources. While I was watching, I noticed that each chapter was priced separately. http://www.slicebooks.com/
I had heard of ReadSocial before and seen it used in Bookglutton. http://www.bookglutton.com/ However, ReadSocial is also a separate program that can be used as an annotation system. It was interesting seeing how a single line of annotation could have multiple threads with different people talking about the annotated, highlighted block of text. There also could be links and images added to the annotations. The aim was focused on creating social reading groups online with ebooks. http://www.readsocialapi.com/
Lelivro was an e-book marketplace designed for authors to sell books directly to their readers. It reminded me of Bibliocrunch which has recently changed from a self published book marketplace to a marketplace to help authors find people who work in the ebook world to finish your book. It looks like Bibliocrunch pivoted from the Lelivro idea to something else. http://www.lelivro.com
Vleeo is an e-book subscription site modeled after netflix. It aims to be a "netflix" for e-books. I think it is a pretty interesting idea. I am not sure how it would work in the marketplace. http://www.vleeo.com/
I spent a little time on Wavecloud, http://www.wavecloud.com
It appears to be an attempt to make it easy to discover new ways to find books and contact authors. I signed up and looked around a bit. It is in beta and looks like it needs to sign up some mainstream publishers. However, there are mechanisms to share comments, reviews, Facebook, and Twitter. There are future indicators that it will be able to share videos and photographs as well.
EVN Visual ML was a fairly advanced tool to make ebooks and create repositories of ebooks and other materials. My impression from talking to the person who was demoing the product, the aim was not to create an easy product, but something that could perform a variety of functions from a central repository: editing, content acquisition, print production, epub production, monetizing websites, and custom publishing.. The website is currently under construction. http://www.visualml.com/
Brain Dip Magazine created an application to teach multiple subjects; math, science, reading, and writing around a single current event which was one of Barack Obama's speeches. It looks to be based on a fairly radical educational model called Ask-Investigate-Share Learning & Research Methodology. http://www.braintreeeducation.com/ais/
Free Press Promotional Fiction Sampler was a sampler on five different books. It included summaries of the books, photographs from the setting, and video book trailers for all five novels published this summer. This was done with the Adobe Publishing Suite. It is available as a Kindle Download here http://www.amazon.com/Press-Summer-Fiction-Sampler-ebook/dp/B007SNU1AQ
This is a splash page from Simon and Shuster about it. http://pages.simonandschuster.com/free-press-fiction
This session was very interesting. It was three hours of learning about new and upcoming technology.
After I was done, I walked around a little bit more and bought a Peter Rabbit puzzle and picked up some more free items. I also stopped by the Librarians Lounge and relaxed for a bit.
Web Bits
Top Libraries In US and Canada Issue Statement Demanding Better Ebook Services
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/06/ebooks/top-libraries-in-u-s-and-canada-issue-statement-demanding-better-ebook-services/?goback=.gmp_2655023.gde_2655023_member_122522655
Literary God and Library Champion Ray Bradbury Dead at 91.
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/06/in-the-bookroom/literary-god-and-library-champion-ray-bradbury-dead-at-91/
BEA 2012: The Infinite Possibilities in Digital Publishing
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bea/article/52378-bea-2012-the-infinite-possibilities-in-digital-publishing.html
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/06/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/06/06/2012
I plan on going to Building a Social Library Room 1E09 this morning at 10:30 a.m. I updated the Twitter and Facebook page for the library this morning. This panel features NYPL Labs which works with a variety of social media products. It should be very informative.There is also the AAP Librarians Book Buzz from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in room 1E16.
I also did a little updating to the list of places I hope to visit. I added a few publishers including Atria Books, AMACOM, Algonquin, and Soho. It should be quite interesting walking the show floor today. I also plan on stopping by the Librarians Lounge for coffee in booth 2148.
I watched a session that was from NYPL labs about social media. The first presenter that I saw was Ben Vershbow who was talking about Developing Collections with the Crowd.
I learned that their catalog is linked to their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Part of this is to develop collections with the input of the crowd. There are a number of collections which are research oriented.
New York Public Library has been digitizing its collection for two decades. This means they are going beyond adding keyword dsecriptions and metadata. They are focusing on usable data. The idea is that they can draw on the cognitive surplus of people who have extra time to help them. When people are not working or sleeping, they have time to do different things.
They already have 800,00 images in the Digital Gallery http://digitalgallery.nypl.org
It has become a leading open access repository. Once you have the images digitized you can do different things with them. For example, you can create data sets with coded maps, you can overlay maps together, you can trace the locations of buildings through time in Manhattan. There is even a tool called a Map Warper http://maps.nypl.org
The New York Public Library labs uses social media to recruit people to help with projects. For example they are having people transcribe historical restaurant and banquet menus as well as dining car menus. This creates a record of restaurants prices and items through time.
They are also inventing new applications like the Stereograminator which creates an odd form of 3D image. http://stereo.nypl.org There really is no limit to the creativity which is possible with the collection. They have even started working with Boston Public Library with a Flickr Collection to make more steregraminators.
The next person to talk was Angela Montefinise who talked about using Social Media to Reach the Mainstream Media. She is the director of Public Relations and Marketing. She tries to make sure she gets reporters on her Twitter and social media lists so they will cover the New York Public Library.
Her job is to use compelling content in social media and offer programming which is memorable. For example she used old images of the snow covered lions at New York Public Library during a blizzard, showed peoples cats during Saturday and called it Caturday. Part of her job is to highlight original content . There are many staff members who blog. She has used unique assets like Worlds Fair Material at the New York Public Library. They have even created apps and invited people through meetups to create applications at the New York Public Library.
The next person to speak was Johannes Neuer who is the Associate Director of Marketing. He talked about how Digital Media was planned from the beginning. There was a Digital Foundation Initiative, a Social Media Working Group, Social Media Policy, and a Crisis Plan. The New York Public Library follows collaborative plan for content curation. There is more than one person working on social media. For example, Twitter has ten people working on it with people assigned to post in different time periods using the Hootsuite tool. New York Public Library has over 200,000 followers.
New York Public Library also uses Geolocation on Foursquare. There are over 90 locations. There are also some 150 bloggers in New York Public Library. Content organized with an editorial calendar using Google spreadsheets.
In addition, the content is analyzed using a variety of tools including Hootsuite, Socialflow, Facebook Insites, Google Analytics, and Meltwater Buzz. This is a lot to work with.
This was a lot to think about.
I saw a few more people from White Plains Public Library. After the session was over, I decided to finish walking the floor of the conference and collected a wide variety of books from a number of different vendors. I now have three large bags of books to bring back to my library. I also had a chance to ask a lot of questions about ebooks and different devices. I learned a little bit about the 3M Cloud Library, and some other applications.
I also got to see a lot of different books. There were less galleys than last year. I was quite tired at the end. There were a lot of books on psychology, fiction, and young adult. I did not see as much horror, science fiction, and fantasy. I did see a few vendors for graphic novels. Fantagraphics and Image comics were there. I picked up several comics that were marked as show copies with different pricing.
There was a much expanded digital zone. I had a chence to stop by O'relly books which had both a digital zone booth and a book booth. I do like O'Reilly books for devices like the Nook, iPad, Smart Phones, and Robotics. O'Reilly even had a few books on programming computers for children which surprised me.
There seemed to be many more educational panels going on. There was an educational area in the digital zone which surprised me. A number of people asked to scan my badge so that they could send me galleys and marketing material instead of giving it at the conference. I noticed that most booths were equipped with a handheld scanner or a scanning machine which read a QR code on my badge.
I also noticed that quite a few people were using mock ups instead of full books. For example, Lonely Planet had a mockup with 1/4 of the pages followed by blank pages for the Food Lovers Guide to the World which is coming out on November 1, 2012. It looks like a fantastic book. There are supposed to be fifty different recipes in addition to listings of places to go eat and information about different countries.
By the time I was finished walking the show floor, I was quite tired. I did not send any books through the mail this time. I also picked out quite a few things for myself which I will write about later.
On the way home, I read some more of Clean Tech Nation. I have already read through the section on which countries are leaders in alternative energy. China is spending huge amounts on alternative energy. It is the global leader for clean energy production. Also Brazil is expanding its sugarcane ethanol production, moving into plastics based on sugarcane, and investing in wind power. Right now, I am reading about the different states and which states are the leaders for wind power. It turns out that Iowa is the leader in clean electricity production with 15.4% of its energy coming from renewables in 2010. The statistics are often unexpected. For example currently, 23% of venture capital money is invested in clean technology in the United States. This needs to succeed.
Web Bits
Best Digital Practices Navigating Platforms Digital Displays and the Ghost of VHS, LJ Day of Dialgo
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/06/shows-events/bea/best-digital-practices-navigating-platforms-digital-displays-and-the-ghost-of-vhs-lj-day-of-dialog/
Book Expo America 2012 and LJ Day of Dialog News Roundup
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/06/books/bookexpo-america-2012-and-lj-day-of-dialog-news-roundup/#_
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/05/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/05/2012
I went to Random House in the morning for the Librarians Breakfast. If you are walking into the Louis L'Amour room where the event was held, you see pictures of the different The breakfast was at 7:30 a.m. I got there a little late, but heard most of the presentations. I especially liked the sound of the book, The Headmasters Wager. The setting in a Chinese city in Vietnam was very intriguing. Also the idea of Mahjong, sex, and literature all in one novel intrigued me. Another book which caught my attention was The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe.
There is so much to see at Book Expo America that it can be overwhelming. It is a constant stream of authors, books. librarian, publishers, ebooks, and editors. The floor was quieter this year than last. There were also many more ebook vendors and digital publishers this year. There were also a lot of specialty digital printers.
After the breakfast, I walked back to the Book Expo America. I had some time to wander a bit. I stopped by the Librarians Lounge which is at booth 2148 and had some more coffee and looked at the books from the author breakfast. The librarians lounge was right near the digital zone. I recognized one vendor from last year, Autography which does digital signatures for ebooks. They took a picture of me. They were at the Book Industry Study Group Digital Show and Tell last year. So, it was interesting seeing their product again.
The Digital Show and Tell on Thursday at Book Expo America from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. should be very interesting. I am looking at the people who are showing. I am looking forward to seeing Read Social, Wavecloud, and Bookshout. The session should be very interesting.
I walked around for a bit looking at the different booths. I filled another bag of books which I plan to give to my library. There are so many of them there. Some of them are delightful like Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tinkletrousers by Dav Pilkey which is meant for children. It is quite funny. It also has been banned in a few places because of its extreme irreverence. Another young adult book which intrigued me was Not for Parents New York City Everything You Ever Wanted to Know published by lonely planet. It is honestly one of the first young adult or possibly tween travel books that I have ever seen.
On the more serious side there was Eating Mindfully, Second Edition How to End Mindless Eating & Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food. by Susan Albers, Psyd. New Harbinger the publisher produces some excellent reality based therapy books. I also had a chance to look at the Baker Bible Commentary which is a reference work on the bible. The full color illustrations and desgin of the book are quite beautiful.
I walked a considerable amount of the show floor before the BEA Authors Libraian Luncheon happened from 12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. The luncheon was arranged by the AAP American Association of Publishers and Earlyword. Earlyword.com has some very nice reviews it also consolidates many different publishers catalogs in one place online in an A to Z directory which can be very useful.
The talk was very good. First was Nora Ephron who talked about her novel, The Lion Is In which had a very surreal quality to it. The very fact that there is a lion in a cage in a bar makes it a bit different. The picture of three women on the cover in a car with a lion is quite intriguing. Two of the authors, Dennis Lehane who wrote Live By Night, and Jonathan Evison gave some of the most humorous talks I ever heard about books. Joseph Kanon had a very intriguing book called Istanbul Passage which is a spy story with some very strong moral dilemmas. All four speakers were excellent.
I was exhausted by this time, so I left a bit early to catch some rest for tomorrow. I finished reading The Great Divergence America's Growing Inequality Crisis And What We Can Do About It by Timothy Noah. He goes into why economic inequality damages an economy. I was surprised there was not that much talk about how the middle class moves upwards and drives economies forward. I felt there was a lot missing from this book which might have been covered. I also think it did not really address more radical approaches to economic growth like employee ownership, coworking spaces, experiments in education, and new technology. It was very much a middle of the road read with a generalist approach.
I started reading Clean Tech Nation by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder. The authors write for Clean Edge which is a technology advisory company. Clean tech is very interesting to me. I like the idea of electric cars, led lights, green buildings, wind power, wave power, solar power, and biofuels and believe the United States should lead the world in all of them.
Web Bits
Ebook Adoption in the U.S. Nearing 25%, India and Brazil the Best New Opportunity
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/e-book-adoption-in-u-s-nearing-25-india-and-brazil-best-new-opportunity/?et_mid=560191&rid=233624721
Monday, June 4, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/04/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/04/2012
I am going to Day of Dialog between Librarians and Publishers this morning. It should be very interesting. I am very much looking forward to it. This is followed by a Librarians Dinner at the Yale Club. It should be an excellent experience.
On the way to the event, I read some more of The Great Divergence. It comes across as a liberal argument on why there is so much income inequality. Part of the argument is that we are trading for manufacturing products with China which has much lower wages as well as Mexico which also has lower wages. This depresses the manufacturing sector wages in the United States. In addition to trading with lower wage countries, jobs are also being outsourced. This is increasingly not just blue collar work, but also white collar work like computer programming.
Timothy Noah also argues that lobbyists from corporations are giving way too much money to politicians, especially business lobbyists and this changes government decisions. In addition, there are descriptions of there being less unions, lower taxes for the rich, and less regulation for Wall Street. In addition there are descriptions of an inadequate educational system in the United States compared to Europe.
There were a lot of vendors in the morning. I learned a few things. Midwest tape who we buy many of our dvds from started selling audiobooks in 2008. They are supposed to have a very large selection of titles. I got to talk to the different representatives.
There were lots of galleys and even some original hardcover books. I filled a large bag full of books and audiotapes to bring back to work on Friday. There were some really nice hardcover books.
There were some excellent galleys as well. I put aside a number of galleys to read for myself; Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Prisoner of Heaven which is coming out on July of 2012, Clean Tech Nation How The U.S. Can Lead In The New Global Economy by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder which is nonfiction coming out in September of 2012, Tom Reiss, The Black Count Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and The Real Count of Monte Cristo, and finally The Twenty Year Death by Ariel S. Winter which is supposed to be a pastiche broken into three sections focused on three authors, Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler, and Jim Thompson. The galley is published by Hardcase Case which is a noire specialist.
The first panel was an editor panel with their top picks. Most of the books were available as galleys or hardcovers in the vendor room. One book that particularly caught my attention was Jonathan Kozol Fire In The Ashes Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children In America.
The second panel was on Debut Genre Fiction Authors. I especially liked Ariel S. Winter's book description of The Twenty Year Death. I plan on reading it. I had a chance to talk to him during lunch. We talked about genre fiction, specifically Paolo Bacigalupi and China Mieville.
This was followed by a talk with Gail Collins. We got to pick up a signed copy of As Texas Goes... How The Lonestar State Hijacked the American Agenda. Gail Collins is a columnist for the New York Times.
This was followed by a digital panel discussing ebooks in libraries. There was some talk about how to display high circulation ebooks which was interesting. The goal was to replicate high circulation displays of trade books that are in libraries. There was also talk about having job titles in the ebook section. There was also a bit of discussion on browser based ebooks which do not require applications and are much easier to load.
It was interesting hearing that people weeded ebook collections. This was only possible when libraries had ebooks for many years. It was necessary to both remove the cataloging information and contact the vendor to remove the item from the system. I especially liked the idea that having a catalog of ebooks is like having an infinite closet and the more you have the harder it is to find things.
There was a statement that 4 in 5 libraries now have ebooks, and 1 in 3 of those 4 in 5 libraries got them this year.
I liked the idea of patron driven acquisition for ebooks. There was a comment that patrons sometimes asked for more technical or academic titles when they could request ebooks.
One of the comments was about the big six who are refusing to supply ebooks. Some of the people on the panel said they went with smaller publishers who could provide similar titles in the same genres.
There was a recommendation that ebooks should be in the catalog of a library with all the other books so people can find them and check them out more easily. The information needs to be there. This includes the digitization of local resources like neighborhood archives. In addition, people mentioned the use of tags and keywords in catalog records as well as using nontraditional review sources like Goodreads.
There was also a comment that right now what many people are doing is showing people how to use ereaders either as a brown bag luncheon or as a digital petting zoo with a variety of devices.
The last panel was on spy novels. Two of the panelists said they had worked at the CIA in their pasts. . I picked up a few hardcovers, Chris Pavone, The Expats, and Francine Matthews, Jack 1939, to add to the collection from the panel, I Spy: The Return of The Espionage Thriller. I did not stay for the reception. I headed to the Yale Club for the dinner. It was quite a bit for a single day. I will write about the dinner tomorrow.
I also got to see a few of my colleagues from Brooklyn Public Library, as well as recognized some people from White Plains Public Library, and saw a few people who were at the Book2Camp conference.
Web Bits
HTML5 May Be Winning the War Against Apps
http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/06/html5-apps-datajournalism-doj-lawsuit.html
There are a few things to think about in this article. Overdrive is releasing a browser based e-book reader which should make it easier to read e-books. One of the central ideas is that HTML5 would be platform independent for ebooks.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/03/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/03/2012
I spent a little bit of time updating the Facebook and Twitter page for the library. I also started reading The Great Divergence America's Growing Inequality Crisis And What We Can Do About It by Timothy Noah. This book is focused on economic history and has a lot of statistics. It includes comparisons of why there is more economic inequality now than there was between 1945 and 1973. So far, it has also described how there is more economic opportunity currently in many European countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Germany than the United States. Timothy Noah has also provided statistics on how we are more likely to rely on inheritable wealth for our fortunes than in the past in the United States. A lot of the writing focuses on the shrinking middle class.
I read a little bit more of Visual Quickstart Guide to Javascript this afternoon. Then I watched a bit more of the Lynda.com Javascript class. Now about half of what I am looking at looks like gibberish, which is an improvement. I also did some more exercises for Javascript on Codecademy. I think I will eventually get there, but it won't be easy.
There is an argument floating around that everyone should learn to program among the tech community. It has a kind of slightly righteous tinge to it. Codecademy was based partly on this idea. There are reasons to make coding and computer programming much more accessible to the average person. I am not sure saying you must is the best thing. An article-- You Need to Learn How to Program.
. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/01/learn_to_program_make_a_free_weekly_coding_lesson_your_new_year_s_resolution_.html
There is of course a counter argument. Please Don't Learn to Code. It has some humor in it.
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/please-dont-learn-to-code.html
The truth is that there are jobs for programmers right now, especially in startups. This is a better reason than saying it is an essential life skill. Understanding computers is not necessarily the same as programming them.
I actually have some pretty good reasons to learn markup languages. This blog is available in a view as HTML and it often is useful to be able to look at plugins to see what they do. I on occasion have made adjustments using basic HTML. If you want to use Wordpress, it includes CSS modules so it helps to know some CSS if you want to do anything with Wordpress.org. Also the library website is powered by Drupal. The Drupal editor shows itself as HTML markup language. HTML and CSS are the standard language for creating websites. HTML, Javascript, and CSS are used extensively in programs like Dreamweaver used to make websites.
If I want to understand how some e-books work which I am interested in, it is good to know HTML5 and EPUB3. These are markup languages. Some magazines are converted directly from InDesign or Adobe PDFs into tablet computers. When I visited some of the conferences, some of the electronic magazine vendors asked me if understood InDesign. People often use Photoshop for images on websites as well as for use in InDesign. It is useful to understand how e-books and electronic magazines work. It is a good reason for me to learn this. Also HTML5 is in the process of replacing Flash.
I would be bewildered if I could find a reason to know Python or even C. I am not sure how it would be useful to me. Learning Ruby on Rails would probably be an equally odd thing for me to do. Some of the rhetoric is a bit odd when people say everyone should know a server side language. Maybe, there are not enough server side programmers to fill positions in technology companies..
However, if I am following my profession closely, learning about keywords, digital slideshows, metadata, digital imagery, and digital conversion of both microfilm and paper and other objects could be very useful. You heard the word other objects. I saw it myself at NY Cultural Tech. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is doing an experiment where they take pictures of art objects, turn them into 3D images, then print copies of them using Makerbot.
http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2012/06/01/123d-catch-tips-tricks/
There is another argument which is floating around about what you need to know to survive in the new digital publishing world. This is an article from Guy LeCharle's blog, Loudpoet.. http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/2065280-5-career-tips-to-survive-publishing-s-digital-shift It says some things about survival in terms of technology. He is absolutely correct about learning how things like ebooks, tablets, and other technology work. I still have not gotten myself to get a tablet. He recommends signing up for Codeyear. It was not him that made me sign up for Codeyear. I was at a meetup of ASIST, American Society for Information Science and Technology, and one of the speakers said learn code, Codecademy is a good thing to do.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Daily Thoughts 06/02/2012
Daily Thoughts 06/02/2012
While I was at NY Cultural Tech, I talked briefly about Codecademy, Skillshare, and Generalassemb.ly which are educational startups. I also learned that lynda.com is free from Metro with an individual membership from MyMetro. Several other sources of free education were suggested. The first was http://www.khanacademy.org/ which is a free online video training site with lots of content. There was also http://www.udacity.org/ which offered free college level courses, http://www.coursera.org/ which also is college oriented and http://mitx.mit.edu/ These all offer fairly complex college level courses that are computer oriented. There is also a free learning site which is called P2P U https://p2pu.org/en/ which was interesting.
At NY Cultural Tech it was also suggested that I might want to read Object Oriented Thought Process, 3rd Edition by Matt A. Weisfeld which is a primer on object oriented programming, the basis of C, Javascript, and a variety of other programs. I requested the item through interlibrary loan. It is in the New York Public Library sytem.
This morning, I updated the Facebook and Twitter page for the library. I also checked the displays
and gift books. I also spent a few minutes looking through the website. Two books came in for me to read; The Great Divergence America's Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It by Timothy Noah and The Drowned Cities A Novel by Paolo Bacigalupi. The Drowned Cities is a young adult book.
I also had a chance to check some cd audiobooks that were donated. There were a few worth adding.
The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
On the way home, I read some of The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is in the same future dystopian world as his Printz award winning novel, Ship Breaker. In this novel, one of his previous minor characters, Tool takes a more central role. Tool is a chimaera, a combination of dog, human, hyena, and other creatures and bred for war. Unlike his brethren, he has broken free from dog like devotion to a master. The setting is in a jungle area overrun by warring factions which fight over the remnants of coastal America.
The story takes Mahlia, a teenage girl into The Drowned Cities of the coastline where people fight over scrap metal and territory. It is a damaged world where global warming has raised the sea levels to cover many coastal areas. Mahlia follows Tool into a warzone in the hopes of rescuing her friend Mouse. The story is gritty, with lots of action, philosophy about peace and war, and insights about what it means to fight for a cause.
Paolo Bacigalupi's writing is fantastic. His adult novel, The Windup Girl in 2009 won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook, and John W. Campbell Memorial Award. It was both fantastic and different. His young adult novels are just as good. He often works with Tobias Buckell which I find very satisfying. He also has a blog at http://windupstories.com
Starting on June 4, 2012 with Day of Dialog between Librarians and Publishers I am about to buried in an endless stream of books. These are a few of the books at the Day of Dialog conference.
Hot New Titles Books You'll Discover at Day of Dialogs Editors Picks Panel
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/06/prepub/what-else-is-hot/hot-new-titles-books-youll-discover-at-day-of-dialogs-editors-picks-panel/
These are some books, places, and other things I am Interested In on the show floor for Book Expo America-- I pulled them from various places:
2148 Librarians Lounge
2332-- Baker Publishing Group
Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary Baker Publishing Group
Angels Are For Real Judith McNutt Baker Publishing Group
2740-- Chicago Review Press
Dancing Barefoot The Patty Smith Story Dave Thompson, Chicago Review Press
Deadly Valentines The Story of Capone’s Machine Gun Jack McGurn Chicago Review Press
2828 Copia Interactive
3058—Lonely Planet
Food Lovers Guide to the World Lonely Planet
3140—American Library Association
3153—Publishers Weekly
Show guide.
3239—McGraw Hill
Comic Con and the Business of Popular Culture by Rob Salkowitz
3349-3340 Harper Collins
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Harper).
3358—St. Martin’s
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
3364—MacMillan
The Gift of Fire/On the Head of a Pin Walter Mosley
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking Oliver Burkeman MacMillan Faber and Faber
Weird A Compendium of Dark and Strange Stories MacMillan
The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross September MacMillan/Tor
Pity the Billionaire Thomas Frank Macmillan
Posters from Holt: Paul Auster’s Winter Journal
Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore Farrar Strauss Giraux
Yang Jisheng’s Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine 1958–1962
John Scalzi (Redshirt)
3390-3340 Harper Collins
Louise Erdrich’s Round House
3422 3522-- Norton
3422—Fantagraphics
Thames and Hudson
Jewelry by Chanel
3439—Scholastic
Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic)
3447—Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt
In Sunlight and Shadow Mark Helprin
3466—NBM Publishing, Papercutz
Stan Mack A Comic History of the American Revolution
Nancy Drew Graphic Novels
3531—Yale University Press
Of Africa by Wole Soyinka
3576-- Diamond Book Distributors
3604-- Perseus
Joe Sacco,
Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (finished book)
When I Left Home: My Story (book), Buddy Guy
Adam Lazarus’s Best of Rivals: Joe Montana, Steve Young, and the Inside Story Behind the NFL’s Greatest Quarterback Controversy
We Are What We Pretend to Be Kurt Vonnegut Perseus PGW
Rick Steve’s France 2013 Perseus/PGW
The Dawn of Innovation : The First American Industrial Revolution Charles R. Morris Perseus
3621-3622
Hachette
Dan Rather’s Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News
I Declare Joel Osteen Hachette
Change Your Words Change Your Life Joyce Meyer Hachette
3627-- Little Brown
Free Tote Bags
Zoo by James Patterson
3645-3646—Barrons Educational
3657-3658 Free Press
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susan Cahalan
Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan
3673-- Tuttle
Easy Indian Cooking Tuttle Publishing
Chinese For Beginners Yi Ren, Tuttle Publishing
Korea:The Impossible Country Daniel Tudor Tuttle Publishing
3721-- Quayside
One Drawing A Day A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media
Veronica Lawlor Quayside Quarry
Iron Maiden The Ultimate Unauthorized History of the Beast Quayside Publishing
Complete Photo Guide to Art Quilting Quayside Publishing
Best of Business Card Design 9 Quayside Publishing
Beginners Illustrated Guide to Gardening Katie Elzer-Peters Quayside
3722-3822-- Wiley
Lisa Sabine-Wilson’s WordPress for Dummies,
Deborah Ng, Online Community Management for Dummies;
Harlequin
3739-3740
Brenda Jackson (Feeling the Heat)
Rochelle Alers (Sweet Southern Nights)
3784—Romance Writers of America
3869-- O’Reilly Media (They have been very considerate to me before.)
3904 -- Akashic
3904a – Cinco Punto Press
One Thousand Mustaches Cinco Punto Press
3906—Coffee House Press
Read This Handpicked Favorites From America’s Indie Booksellers
3932 --Dorling Kindersley
Universe Martin Rees DK
3940 --Random House
Jo Nesbo Phantom
Chris Bohjalian Sandcastle Girls
Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie
Elsewhere Richard Russo
Thomas Jefferson by John Meacham
3948-- Kobo (They are one of the organizers for http://www.book2camp.org/ ) and an e-reader company.
3952—North Atlantic Books
The Open Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth, and Trust Robert David Steele and Howard Bloom North Atlantic Books
4028—Penguin Group, USA
Digital Photography Through the Year Tom Ang Penguin
One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper (Dutton)
4062, 4064-- Nolo
4139-- Grove Atlantic
G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen
Sherman Alexie—Blasphemy
4108 Hal Leonard
Jimi Hendrix: The Ultimate Lyric Book, edited by Janie L. Hendrix
4158-4258
Workman
Matti Friedman, The Aleppo Code: True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible;
Jacques Pepin New Complete Techniques Black Dog and Leventhal
4230—Douglas and McIntyre
A Whale for the Killing Farley Mowat D&M Publishers Douglas & McIntyre
4252—Insight Editions
Exploring Titanic: The Expeditions of James Cameron
4270—Abrams
The Art of Jules Feiffer Poster
4339-- Overdrive
4346 – Midpoint Trade Books
Digital Mindset Carol Ingley Midpoint trade Books
Sweet Dreams How To Establish and Maintain Good Sleep Habits for Your Baby
Midpoint Trade Carroll and Brown
4449—Horror Writers Association
4451—Mystery Writers of America
4464—Recorded Books
4469-- Zolabooks.com
4469-- Zolabooks.com
4583—Prestige Media
Free Bags and Bookmarks
4622—Better World Books
Digital Zone. It should be interesting.
Digital Zone
DZ2034 Sony Electronics, Inc. (Our library got a donation of 3 PRS-350 E-readers)
DZ2117 Overdrive
DZ2122 Bluefire
DZ2128 Aquafadas
DZ2206 Jouve
DZ2305 Impelsys/ iPublish Central
DZ2309 O'Reilly Books (Email Invitation)
DZ 2311 Wavecloud
DZ2312 Libredigital
DZ2315 (Enovate Media sent out a general invite to the Ebooks, Ereaders, and Digital Publishing Group on Linkedin.
DZ2415 Gutenberg Technology
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)