Daily Thoughts 4/15/2009

Johannes Gutenberg

Daily Thoughts 4/15/2009

Daily Thoughts 4/13/2009

Poster from 1940 Promoting Children's Reading

Daily Thoughts 4/13/2009

When I get back I will start helping one of the new librarians with selecting reference books for the business section. I plan on showing her a few things about selecting books. We subscribe to the American Reference Books Annual which compiles reviews for all reference books and also have a nice core list of business reference titles.

My library system finally has copies of Pride and Prejudice with Zombies. Of course, there is a waiting list when you place a hold on this book. I look forward to reading it.

I walked up the hill to my local library and dropped off a few books. I picked up a copy of The Wikipedia Revolution How A Bunch of Nobodies Created The Worlds Greatest Encyclopedia by Andrew Lih with a Foreword by Jimmy Wales Founder of Wikipedia.

Web Bits

A link to the books available through creative commons. I mostly look at the computer books in the nonfiction section and the science fiction books in the fiction section. Some of them are quite odd. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Books

I was looking through http://www.acqweb.org/ which is a site for acquisitions and collection development librarians. It has lots of information on this subject. From there, I went to Queens Library Collection Development policy. I found it interesting because it lists the journals they use for collection development as part of their policy.

What Is The Measure of A Man?

Do you do things in increments?

The new digital order does.

Do you measure each action?

The new digital order does.

Are you tethered to a smart phone?

The digerati are plugged in.

Is your laptop with you at all times?

Company people are always on.

Are you linked into social networks?

Company people are linked together.

Are you incremental, measured, tethered,

Plugged in, always on, linked together

Welcome to the new digital machine.

You have become the measurer of man.

Afternoon Thoughts, Evening Thoughts

Brer Rabbit as a London gentleman.

Afternoon Thoughts

I have to work this Saturday which is kind of hard after going to a conference. Wears you down a bit. I dumped all of my goodies on my desk this morning and went back to the grindstone of everyday work. I was too tired to read on the train this morning.

It was the usual start, replace old Code of Federal Regulations with new codes, order more annual reports, order more books on industries that are big in our area; construction, cleaning, nursing, medical billing, health service, child care, retail, and similar things. This is taking me a while to compile properly.

Then my Saturday partner called out sick so I ended up having to be in charge of the building, and fixing up the little things that pop up like the AARP driving course instructor showing up late, and someone tripping over a hole but luckily not hurting themselves. It was a run around the building like a jack rabbit day.

It has been quite hectic more than usual. I am on lunch right now. I am not leaving the building to go to lunch this time. No sitting at the corner table in the diner today and reading the newspaper. I am fueling up with coffee in the afternoon.

No writing reviews today. Maybe, I'll read some more on the train home. Sometimes you just have to rest and recharge your batteries or get a little battie.

Three books came in for me. The first is Writing & Personality Finding Your Voice, Your Style, Your Way by John K. DiTiberio & George H. Jensen. The second is The Predator State How Conservatives Abandoned The Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too by James K. Galbraith. The third book is Wordless Books The Original Graphic Novels by David A. Berona. There is an introduction by the graphic novelist Peter Kuper. The book is filled with beautiful woodcut illustrations.

Evening Thoughts

On the train home I read Wordless Books, The Original Graphic Novels by David A. Berona. The book is full of beautiful woodcuts taken out of often very stark wordless novels. Many of the wordless novels are set in the great depression during a period of labor unrest and often dark social conflict. The woodcuts seem to be a combination of black and white expressionist art and art deco style. This changes as you read further into the book. There are a variety of wordless novels that are humorous in nature filled with simple gags. These remind me a bit of Sergio Aragones silent humor strips in Mad magazine. The author of this book has a blog which is very academic oriented. I found out about this book from him, http://wordlessbooks.blogspot.com/

Peter Kuper does an introduction to the book. Peter has written a number of books which are speechless. He even has a gallery of artwork from his book, Speechless . This is an art gallery tour of the book. http://www.peterkuper.com/gallery/gallerytour.htm

It is getting late. I will do what I usually do, write a review of the book in the laundromat. Actually, I might sit down and write it out.

Daily Thoughts

Daily Thoughts

I finished doing my social science ordering for the week. A whole lot of books are lined up on carts downstairs. I like seeing the carts filled with books. It is nice to go through them and see what has just come in. Part of four of the orders have come in, graphic novels, manga, computer books, and job information center books. I think, I may take out a few graphic novels tomorrow.

Right now, I am looking at Alberto Manguel, The Library At Night. It is a meditation on the meaning of libraries throughout history. There are numerous black and white photographs throughout the book.

Earlier this morning, I created a new display for the month. I picked out a selection of black speculative fiction authors books. For science fiction, I picked out Samuel R. Delany, Walter Mosley, Octavia Butler, Tobias Buckell and Steven Barnes. For horror, I picked out Tannarive Due. For fantasy, I picked out Charles Saunders and Nalo Hopkinson. There are not a whole lot of self identified black speculative fiction writers.

Another book came in for me today, Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams.