Daily Thoughts 3/22/2011 (The Physics of the Future, Budgets)

Sproatt and Rolph was a firm of architects based in Toronto; the bookplate (Ex Libris) is dated 1915. It shows a woman kneeling with a blueprint or plan of a building which is being constructed behind her, in the Gothic Revival style.

Daily Thoughts 3/22/2011

I read some more of The Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku on the train.  He is writing about advances in medicine which will extend life expectancy.  He describes things like nanomedicine, restricted diets for reducing aging, regrowing organs using stem cells, and genetic medicine.  It is very much a survey of different technologies that are being developed broken into sections.  There are sections on computers, artificial intelligence, health, nanotechnology, energy, and other subjects.  Right now, I am reading about nanotechnology.

This morning, I updated the Twitter account, checked the displays, and tabulated some more of the surveys.  I also reformatted the author lists for African American Novelists and African American Mystery writers.

I was reading Library Journal today.  They are writing about budget cuts.  It looks like there will be both federal cuts to libraries as well as New York state cuts to libraries.  I imagine there will also be cuts at the county level as well.  There are more proposed cuts to libraries in the five boroughs of New York city.  It seems that there are endless cuts.

I did some more weeding in the mezzanine today.  I plan on possibly scanning some old photographs of the library from the local history room to help create a Flickr gallery of the libraries history.

Web Bits

Plan to eliminate Statistical Abstracts of the United States and County and City Data book in US in 2012 http://bit.ly/eiX4Wm

Daily Thoughts 1/4/2010 (Budgets, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web)

Franz Volkmar Reinhard in his study, reading, 1811, Oil on Canvas
Daily Thoughts 1/4/2010

Today was a quiet steady day.  I checked the displays and printed some more flyers for the Library Tour.  I also made sure some programs went into the Calendar of Events.  I also checked out some books, I Live In the Future and This is How It Works Why Your World, Work, and Brain Are Being Creatively Disrupted by Nick Bolton and Running The Books The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg.

We had a session discussing budgets for the collection which I think was productive.  We also discussed book donations.  I pulled together a receipt for material donations and suggested a picture of children reading.  I felt it was quite productive.  I am also thinking about how we might get to help the older people in the Armory who want to get books without a bookmobile.

There was a little bit of discussion of how to handle donations.  I like going through book donations.  I find it enjoyable.  It is like digging for gems in the rough.  It reminds me a bit of when I used to go to flea markets to look for comics and other memorabilia. There is Booksalefinder which lists all the different booksales across the United States.
http://www.booksalefinder.com/

On the way home, I read some more of Information Architecture For The World Wide Web.  The authors are writing about search engines.  They are explaining the differences between precision and recall in search engines.  I am enjoying reading this book.  Many of the concepts read like they came out of my class on cataloging in library school.  I learned that 40% of information architects have a library science background.  The next chapter I am going to read is on Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata.  This is a hot topic in library science. They are often looking for librarians with taxonomy skills.

I started reading I live in the future and here's how it works by Nick Bilton.  Nick Bilton is the Lead Writer and Technology Reporter for the New York Times Bits Blog. He opens the book by describing how he prefers to read the paper in digital form over the print form.

Web Bits

Steve Haber, The Changing Role of Libraries In The Digital Age from The Huffington Post,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-haber/the-changing-role-of-libr_b_803722.html

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2010

Cover of the pulp magazine Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror (October 1932) featuring "The Hunters from Beyond" by Clark Ashton Smith.

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2010

I recommended Swann Galleries as an auction house for rare books. They have an excellent reputation. http://www.swanngalleries.com/index.cgi

Stores See Google as Ally In Ebook Market. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/business/30books.html?scp=1&sq=google%20e-books&st=cse

Today has been an interesting day. There are budget problems where I am and I waiting to see what will finally happen. It is not pleasant. I am trying to maintain my focus today.

I am starting to come to terms with it and think of next steps along the way. It is a matter of deep and abiding patience.

What To Do When The Economy Sucks by Peter Sander

What To Do When The Economy Sucks 101 Tips to Help You Hold On to Your Job, Your House, and Your Lifestyle by Peter Sander.

This is a book on financial self defense. It is how to act conservatively to protect your assets when the economy is not doing well. It is also the basics on financial self defense. It is not innovative. It is the stuff most people don't want to hear. That is why it is good to read.

The language is very straightforward. There are no complex formulas. Go into work, be nice to your boss, show up every day, do your job. Make sure you are not spending too much money.

This book is not rocket science. It is practical reminders on how to cut back when you need to. Keep track of hidden fees attached to your bills, check to see what you are paying for automatically from your credit card accounts, don't buy things simply because they are on sale, if you don't need something cut it. It reminded me to close a few accounts.

If you need to downsize your life because you are in foreclosure, lost your job, are near bankruptcy, or find yourself living beyond your means this book will give you tips on how to do it. The basics of budgeting and investing are in here. There are no golden tricks.

There wasn't a whole lot new for me; I have kept my car more than seven years, but still use public transportation, have very few automatic payments, and understand the latte factor. Tighten up and spend less, a lot of people are doing it in this economy. Be happy if you go out and don't buy anything.

Library Funding in New York State

Library Funding

It looks like there may be a 20% cut in library aide coming up for New York state. I hope this does not leave me in a tough spot. I know it may affect the library where I work considerably. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6614441.html?desc=topstory It may be protest time. Times are about to get very tough.

If you are in New York, you can locate your assemblyperson on this page by putting in your zipcode. http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ . All of the assembly people have an email contact form where you can send a comment directly to them. I have already done this. I'll probably find myself at a protest sometime soon. I regularly write short comments to my assembly people and usually get a response back.

You can also search for your state senator using the zipcode form. http://www.senate.state.ny.us/sdlookup.nsf/Public_search?OpenForm . All of them also have a contact form on their senate web page.

Do not be afraid to contact your local politicians. It is what they are there for. If your politicians democrat or republican is unwilling to take messages they should not be in office. They are there because you voted for them as citizens.

I realize some people think it is not a good idea to be politically active. State employees are funded by politicians. If you are not active sometimes, your job can be voted away, or budgeted away. This especially true when government budgets get tight.

Here is another article from the New York Library Association on the further proposed cuts. http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=1623