Peder Severin Krayer, Marie In A Deck Chair Reading, 1891
Daily Thoughts 05/25/2012
I finished reading Railsea by China Mieville last night. It was the kind of book which you cannot put down. The setting is unique and imaginative. China Mieville also illustrates the book. I think I might write a review of this. The book is written for young adults.
This morning, I checked the displays. I also picked out some fliers and bookmarks for the Friends of the Library. They are going to the Fleetwood Neighborhood Association street fair. I also did a bit of inventory in the mezzanine.
I watched a bit of the Javascript movie and the Dreamweaver movie on Lynda.com. One of the nice things about Lynda.com is that the video training segments are broken into very short segments of anywhere from a couple minutes to a quarter of an hour. This makes it easy to take a subject over a long time period in half an hour a day. Every now and then I get a request to show people how e-readers work. I have gotten a few for the Nook in the last week which was a new experience.
I spent some time reading the New York Book Review and put the book, America's Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It by Timothy Noah on hold. Also the book, Legions of Rome the Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion by Stephen Dando-Collins came in for me to read. Th book has pictures of the different shields of the legions. The latest Kirkus Reviews is also here.
My schedule is starting to fill up for Book Expo America. I am probably going to be doing a lot of networking. I am invited to a librarian dinner, the AAP/Library Journal Dinner at the Yale club on June 4, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. I am also going to the librarian lunch sponsored on June 5, 2012 sponsored by AAP (American Association of Publishers) and Earlyword which is a review source for librarians. I also got invited to visit a number of the different booths already. There is also a librarian Book and Author Breakfast sponsored by Random House and Library Journal at Random House on June 5, 2012 from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. which is a bit early, but it should be interesting. So there will be breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There is also usually a librarians lounge at Book Expo America.
Web Bits
Navigating the Ebook Revolution
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/05232012/navigating-ebook-revolution
To Remain Relevant Librarians Should Help Patrons To Create
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/05/ux/to-remain-relevant-libraries-should-help-patrons-create/
This is an idea that is interesting in the sense of supporting local authors and poets in the community. I think of a library as a more media oriented place than a place to create objects.
Showing posts with label china mieville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china mieville. Show all posts
Friday, May 25, 2012
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Thursday, May 24, 2012
Daily Thoughts 05/24/2012
Daily Thoughts 05/24/2012
Last night, I did a little bit more on Codecademy. I mostly relaxed this morning on the train.
This morning, I updated the Twitter and Facebook account for the library. I also checked the displays.
The book Railsea by China Mieville came in for me to read. This is a young adult fantasy. I rather liked his other young adult fantasy Un Lun Dun. His books have a unique character to them.
The book Visual Quickstart Guide Javascript came in by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith. It is a brand new book with a 2012 copyright. I am going to switch to reading this. I also found out that Lynda.com offers Javascript video tutorials.
We have the computer lab open today from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m..
I was looking at my email today and I noticed that the system was offering Ipad training. I bought an e-reader to learn about e-books. I am a little wary of buying a tablet yet. I know that eventually, it might catch up. An Ipad is expensive. I have been thinking about buying a new computer for a while. The December 2011 issue of Consumer Reports magazine covers computers.
There is the question of buying a laptop versus a desktop. Increasingly, if I want to take some computer classes or go to a computerized meeting, you may be expected to bring a laptop as part of the training process.
I spent some time looking through our Collection Management sheet where we write down patron requests and the weekly Purchase Alerts which tell us what has been recently placed on hold. Most of the purchase alerts are for dvds. The books on the Purchase Alerts are mostly for bestselling authors. The Collection Management sheet is mainly books which we might not have on a wide variety of subjects.
Web Bits
Why Rich People Are Investing in Newspapers Again
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/174594/why-rich-people-are-investing-in-newspapers-again/?utm_source=Daily+Must-Reads+from+MediaShift&utm_campaign=8b47d96a12-Daily_Must_Reads10_24_2011&utm_medium=email
Friday, July 30, 2010
Daily Thoughts 7/30/2010 ( ebooks, reviews )
Daily Thoughts 7/30/2010
Article-- Will the Book Survive? by David "Skip" Prichard http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-28/the-future-of-books-ceo-ingram-skip-prichard-feels-confident/?cid=topic:mainpromo1
"eBook Feasibility Study for Public Libraries," http://www.cosla.org/documents/COSLA2270_Report_Final1.pdf
Checked the displays this morning and started doing my orders for August. I also put out flyers for a public service announcement by Dwayne Wade about library cards and did my first shelf talkers for the authors Danielle Steel and Stephen King. I am going to be doing more as time passes.
I am reading more of Kraken by China Mieville. There is a neat section on Simon a Star Trek obsessed mage which is darkly funny. It is an appropriate comment on fandom.
The new copy of the Overstreet Comic Book Guide 40th Edition came in. I will take a little time to see if there are any interesting ground level comics which I have not seen. It has become a standard guide for pricing comics. Some stores often sell the easier to get comics at half the price guide price and the harder to find titles at full price.
Overdrive sent me some marketing material which I can print up as well as some staff training material. I think I might print up some of the 11" x 17" posters.
The recent Kirkus Reviews has a graphic novel section with a few interesting titles in it; Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, and Siege by Brian Michael Bendis, Illustrated by Joe Quesada really stood out. Siege should be an excellent superhero comic both the writer and illustrator are top notch. Also there is an autobiographical comic by Sergio Aragones called Mad's Greatest Artist, Sergio Aragones.
Roald Dahl has an authorized biography coming out called Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl by Daniel Surrack.
On the way home, I finished reading Kraken by China Mieville. One of the way you know a novel is good is that the main character at the end of a novel is often very different than how the character is at the beginning of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Billy Harrow is a curator at a museum, by the end of the novel he is a warrior adept at saving the world and fighting magic.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Daily Thoughts 7/29/2010 ( readers advisory, book game )
Daily Thoughts 7/29/2010
I put in some comments for my Readers Advisory 101 class on Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. I also read the section on library marketing for readers advisory. I may create some shelf talkers for the shelves. These are cards which say if you like a specific author, then you might like these other authors. Usually they are lists of three to five other authors. Some libraries also sometimes maintain a cart for books that are always popular reads. It is something to think about. A lot of people use the Novelist database to create the shelf talkers.
I did not get as much as I wanted done today. I am thinking about a couple of things to do. We are planning on doing a library card registration drive. We need to get more people through the front door. As part of this, we will probably try to get more Friends of the Library to register.
There are also a few minor things that need doing like updating some bibliographies and creating some shelf talkers. I also need to speak to someone from the Mount Vernon Public Library Foundation.
The book the Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross came in for me to read. It is a mix of espionage, horror and weird tale.
I read some more of Kraken by China Mieville. I am finding a subplot in the book to be quite entertaining about a labor union of wizards familiars and other magical constructs. It is wonderfully quirky.
Guess the book by its cover game http://www.sporcle.com/games/bookcovers.php
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Daily Thoughts 7/28/2010 ( Bayou, Advocacy, Kraken, Made Possible By )
Daily Thoughts 7/28/2010
I am looking at an IMLS Institute of Museums and Library Services grant and trying to figure it out. It is the first time I am looking at this material. It makes reference to a document called 21st Century Skills, http://www.imls.gov/pdf/21stCenturySkills.pdf I find it kind of interesting. It is a bit different. There is also reference to a course called Shaping Outcomes which is about Outcome Based Planning and Evaluation for librarians. http://www.shapingoutcomes.org/
Link to information on save libraries widget. I just added it to the sidebar in this blog. http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/cro/getinvolved/saveyourlibraries.cfm
Jeremy Love's comic Bayou, Issue #1 is now free on the web. It is quite interesting. https://comics.comixology.com/#/issue/2584/Bayou-1
I put Smart Startups How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communites by David Silver, Wiley, c2007 on interlibrary loan. I am requesting it from another library system than my own. This process can take several weeks.
I also requested another book as a hold, Made Possibly By Succeeding With Corporate Sponsorship by Patricia Martin.
On the train home, I read some of Kraken by China Mieville. It is an urban fantasy novel. Somehow, it maintains more believability than most fantasy novels I have read. It is in that eerie space where things are real but not quite real. The place where horrible things happen for not quite explained reasons. There is an almost fortean feel to the novel.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The City And The City China Mieville
The City and The City by China Mieville This novel is almost a detective story, but it becomes something much more. The setting is in the city of Beszel and the city of Ul Qoma two fictional cities in Eastern Europe which share a common border. They almost seem real, but, if you read carefully they become more and more fantastic as you get deeper into the story. Beszel and Ul Qoma are divided much like Berlin might be divided or Jerusalem. There are zones which cross into each city and areas which are in both. This novel touches on how we choose to see the world and how it affects the way we perceive reality. Visitors perceive Ul Qoma and Beszel very differently from the native population. There are hidden things which the main character, Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad must uncover to solve a murder. His inspection is fascinating because it intersects with the politics, myths, legends, and conspiracies between the two cities. This makes it more than a typical mystery. It becomes an urban fantasy. The setting is not usual at all. There are elements of Eastern European, Jewish, Russian, Muslim, and Turkish culture in the mix. There is also mention of Berlin and Jerusalem two other divided cities. Sometimes, I had to put the book down and think about what I had just read. There were many instances of situations in the novel which I had never thought about at all. I think this book will win awards. It is unique. Get it, read it, enjoy it.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Daily Thoughts 7/27/2009 ( Books On The Air )
"Haiti. A drama of the black Napoleon by William Du Bois : With the New York cast." Poster for Federal Theatre Project presentation of "Haiti" at the Copley Theatre, 463 Stuart St., Boston, Mass., showing bust portrait of Toussaint Louverture. From Wikimedia. I liked the image.
Daily Thoughts 7/27/2009
I have been thinking about books in the media. We get a lot of requests for material which people have heard about on the radio, television, and the internet. I think I'm going to have to pay more attention to this. We have been aiming to boost our circulation a lot. These are some places to look for media tie ins.
Books In The Media
http://news.bookweb.org/mediaguide/
NYPL Books On The Air
http://www.booksite.com/texis/scripts/bookletter/showfab.html?sid=5796&qlname=NLAIR
There is also ICV2's movies and television section if you want to know which comics are going to be turned into films. http://www.icv2.com/search/index.php?q=movies/+tv
This is a video of China Mieville talking about The City and The City.
Today has been a quiet day. I have been watching things happen slowly. They have been moving ahead with the shifting project in the 700s. I showed someone how to do weeding with the laptop. I talked about creating a section for genre fiction-- mysteries and science fiction in the "New Arrivals" area who was returning from vacation.
I am thinking of merchandising the graphic novels. It should happen fairly soon.
I checked out Xenopath A Bengal Station Novel by Eric Brown. It is a science fiction novel. I also read the latest copy of the New York Times Book Review. I am also looking at a copy of How The Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins. Very every day stuff.
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