Daily Thoughts 11/17/2015

A postcard of Ainola museum and library. It was designed by Swedish architect J. E. Stenberg and completed in 1888. Building was destroyed in a fire in 1929.

Daily Thoughts 11/17/2015

I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.

On the way to work, I read some of The World Brain by H.G. Wells.  It is an argument for a universal encyclopedia so that intellectuals and knowledge workers will have more influence.

I checked the displays and the gift books.

Better World Books came by to pick up their shipment.

There are two computer classes tonight.  A Fundamentals of Computers class and Beginning Microsoft Word class.

I finished reading The World Brain on the way home.  H.G. Wells describes a universal encyclopedia.  He imagines that photographic images will be so reduced that they could be stored easily, a microscopic library of record.  This way every person at their study could have access to almost any book or image.  Part of this imagination is a kind of universalization of learning.  There would be a single worldwide organization which would manage the content of the encyclopedia.  Creating a common set of ideas would help combat war.  The content is very utopian.

This book very much reminds me of Wikipedia in its idealism.

Web Bits

Defining Diversity in Libraries

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/11/collection-development/defining-diversity-in-libraries-charleston-conference-2015/

The Statistical Dominance of Dr. Seuss
http://priceonomics.com/the-statistical-dominance-of-dr-seuss/

New York Review of Books Archive Acquired by the New York Public Library
http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/new-york-review-of-books-archive-acquired-by-the-new-york-public-library/112689

Will Libraries Outlive Books?
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/will-libraries-outlive-books/