Daily Thoughts

James Jacques Joseph Tissot(1836-1902)Reading the News

Daily Thoughts

I spent much of this morning ordering computer books. It has been very quiet today. I learned that the whitehouse now has its own blog. I find it kind of interesting.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

I spent some time going through Forecast from Baker & Taylor for February for mass market paperbacks. They had an interesting title How Barack Obama Won by Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser. This should be interesting. Mostly, I ordered romance and suspense paperbacks. In addition, I looked through the January 1, 2009 and January 15, 2009 Kirkus Reviews. I mainly ordered social science titles from Kirkus.

Today has been a quiet, pleasant day.

I finished reading Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge by Geoffrey M. Bellman on the train home. It is about how to introduce change while not being officially in charge. The book focuses on administrative, professional, and support positions. It talks a lot about informal networks and informal politics in the workplace.

Daily Thoughts

Doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney inspecting the map of Treasure Island

Daily Thoughts

Libraries as part of the economic recovery. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6630256.html?desc=topstory

Library funds available through the economic stimulus package.
http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/ala-stimulus-funding-summary2.pdf

I took a walk up to my local library this morning. It is very cold and clear out today. There is ice everywhere on the sidewalks. But, there is no wind which makes it nice to walk around outside. The air is very clean and fresh. I dropped off a few books in the bookdrop then came right home. I have enough movies to watch and books to read right now.

I am reading some more of Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge. The first chapter is on the difference between leading and managing. The second chapter is about how to bring change about at any level of an organization. It is quite interesting to read. The author talks about an I, You, Want, and Is triangle diagram. Hopefully, it will help me make some interesting decisions.

I took some time and looked through Sourceforge.net, ZDnet, PcMag, and MacWorld to look for keywords on new and popular products. We have a huge amount of back orders on computer books, the publishers are not able to stock them quickly enough, so I have to figure out new varieties of things to look for or order them direct.

Some interesting new words were Android, Audacity, Bittorrent, Cubase, Digital Television, Evernote, Flickr, Gimp, Google Chrome, Google Docs, Twitter, Turbotax, Windows Azure (cloud computing), and Windows 7.

Sometimes, you don't even realize the obvious, Library Journal has a complete almost monthly review list for computer titles. It should make things much easier for me. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6608687.html?industryid=47113

For some reason, I have not been at my best today. I wish I was, but I'm not. Maybe, things will be much better tomorrow. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Daily Thoughts

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

New York Times articles on the Library of Congress
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/arts/design/16cong.html?partner=rss

I put another book on hold, The Devil's Eye by Jack McDevitt. It is archaeological science fiction which can be kind of entertaining.

Today has been another quiet day. I finished the weeding of the social science books, now I have to do the oversize social science books. We have a selection of quarto titles. I'll probably help my colleague with shifting the 400's, 500's and 600's first to create space in one aisle of shelving units.

I did some weeding in the Job Information Center. I'll be working on getting updated titles for there as well as a variety of updated computer books for the new Windows Vista. People are still getting books focused on XP mostly.

I folded 100 service brochures for the public. This is the first batch that is going out to the public.

On the way home, I scanned through a bit of The Ghost In Love by Jonathan Carroll. I almost think it is more of a philosophical statement about what brings happiness and a sense of fulfillment in life than a novel. I will write a review about it tomorrow. It put me in a very good mood when I finished reading this book. I think I understand a bit more than I did before. There are a few things in it which might change a persons life for the better.

I am now reading Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge, How To Succeed In A Support Position by Geoffrey M. Bellman. This is a book about being productive and doing a good job in a support position.