Daily Thoughts 02/05/2016
This morning, I finished reading The Most Good You Can Do How Effective Altruism Is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically by Peter Singer. I found parts of the book to be off base. Peter Singer argues that saving lives is more important than museums or education for example. I am not sure that saving a life is more important than improving a life. He also makes some arguments about the possibility of human extinction with artificial intelligence and an asteroid hitting earth that are a bit far fetched.
The central tenet of how to choose which charities to donate to, earn more to give more, and pick out charities which are most effective is an excellent reason to read this book about charity. The other parts, I find questionable.
I have also been reading more from On Her Own Ground. The section on the period around World War I is enlightening. Madame C.J. Walker is a member of the NAACP, the NACW and other civil rights organizations. There is material on lynching, Pan Africanism, African American soldiers in World War I, missionary work in Africa from a Baptist perspective and other social issues.
I checked the library Twitter and Facebook this morning.
I checked the gift books and the displays this morning.
There is a stamp unveiling today. Some of the Mount Vernon Public Library Board of Trustees are here and the mayor, a few police officers, and people from the post office. They are unveiling a black heritage stamp of Richard Allen. Later, I found out the Amani Charter School and Eliot Engel were here as well. The room was standing room only.
I printed up a few flyers.
We had a meeting today to discuss programs. We discussed some different ideas for several months ahead. I had looked at the Programming Librarian calendar before the meeting.
I also spent some time discussing procedures and training for the staff for the public computers.
I wrote the January monthly report and compiled the monthly statistics.
On the way home, I read some more of Drawing Blood by Molly Crabapple. I picked up this book because Molly Crabapple worked at Shakespeare and Company in Paris, the famous bohemian bookstore. http://lithub.com/molly-crabapple-my-life-in-a-parisian-bookstore/ I thought this would be a very literary biography. It is much more, In fact it is a little too much. It is like picking up a Jane Austen novel and getting Anais Nin.
As the biography progresses, Molly Crabapple becomes more and more on the edge. It has turned into something akin to erotica in some parts. For example, Molly Crabapple first starts modeling in the nude for artists, then she begins doing cheesecake photography, then it goes a little further.
Not what I expected, not something which I expected to write about in this blog. Then she starts describing the reasons she is doing this. She can't afford her art supplies. It even describes how she changes her name to Molly Crabapple so she would have a stage name just like Lady Gaga has a stage name. Everything in this book pushes boundaries. It is worth reading, but I will hold off on reviewing it.
Web Bits
Mount Vernon Library Director Responds to Editorial Page
http://www.mvinquirer.com/mt-vernon-library-director-responds-to-editorial-page.html
92 Percent of Students Prefer Paper Books Over Ebooks:
Survey
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