Daily Thoughts 7/11/2011

The Four Philosophers, Peter Paul Rubens, Between 1611 and 1612

Daily Thoughts 7/11/2011

I read some more of On Strategy on the way to work.  The chapter I am reading now is called Using The Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton.  The writing is the trade language of management.  It has a lot of euphemisms, big words, and power statements.  It is the kind of language which a corporate board or CEO uses.

This morning I checked the reference email, Twitter account, made sure the displays were in order and checked some boxes of donated books.  It was a solid morning.  I also sent a list of professional development oriented publishers to a colleague; Amacom, Jist Works, Career Books, Impact Publishing, Ten Speed Press, Adams Media, and McGraw Hill are a few of the publishers.

I put the book, Out of the Dark by David Weber on hold.  Also, the book, Conquistadora by Esmeralda Santiago came in for me to read.  Esmeralda Santiago wrote an autiobiography called When I Was a Puerto Rican which is on the high school assignment lists.  I had to read it when I was starting my career in Brooklyn Public Library as part of a list of books to read as new librarians.

In the afternoon, I worked on a display for the Adult Summer Reading program.  I focused on mainly adding trade paperback books to the display of foreign authors; Paulo Coelho, Kenzaburo Oe,  some Europa edition trade paperbacks, and a few others.  The theme for Adult Summer Reading this year is Novel Destinations.

I finished reading On Strategy, now I am starting the book Harvard Business Reviews 10 Must Reads on Leadership.  I plan on ordering Harvard Business Review's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself
The series is very well done.  I picked up several sample copies of the series at Book Expo America this year.

Daily Thoughts 7/6/2011

English: A Love Story, painting, oil on canvas, 101.8 x 152.7 cm, by E. Phillips Fox,
1903

Daily Thoughts 7/6/2011

This morning, I read some more of Ernest Cline, Ready Player One.  The book is going to be released in August.  It has a wonderful mix of 1980s cliches and pop culture; everything from Gary Gygax to Duran Duran is mixed in a very ironic manner.  I also read a little more of On Strategy.  The article I am reading now is titled, Reinventing Your Business Model by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagerman.  The first model they discuss is when Apple computers business model for the Ipod.

Today was another quiet steady day.  I checked the displays, updated the Twitter account, and designed the flyer for the End of Summer Reading Tea for the Adult Summer Reading Program.  I also put together a display for the Novel Destinations theme from the Adult Summer Reading package.  I picked out some novels by international authors like Guntner Grass, Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, Chinua Achebe, V.S. Naipaul, and others.

Daily Thoughts 7/5/2011

Caricature of George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (1834-1896). Caption read "Trilby".

Daily Thoughts 7/5/2011

Today has been another quiet day.  I read some more of On Strategy on the train to work.  I also checked the displays, updated the Twitter account, and checked the book displays.

I also spent some time looking through Forecast from Baker and Taylor to look for new titles which we should purchase.  The book Rule 34 by Charles Stross came in for me to read.  I always have more to read than I can possibly read.

I started writing the bimonthly report today which is due on July 7.  Things are very quiet.

We have our first Beginning Computer Class tonight in the computer lab.  The instructor came by at one o'clock to check the lab to make sure everything was working.

I read some more of On Strategy on the way home.  I finished the chapter called Building Your Company's Vision by James C. Collins and Jerry L. Porras.  I rather liked the section in this chapter on BHAG's Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  I also started reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  A major theme in this book is how the world of bits represented by computers and entertainment is becoming increasingly more palatable than the world of atoms represented by overpopulated, messy cities. The concept of bits versus atoms is often talked about in terms of the digital economy.

Web Bits

The Rising Cost of At Home Tech
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/07/the-rising-cost-of-at-home-tech/241210/

I thought this was some interesting commentary on the cost of digital devices.  They are not cheap and they do increase the divide between those who have them and those who don't.

Blogger and Picasa are Going to Be Rebranded by Google
http://mashable.com/2011/07/05/google-blogger-picasa-rebranding/

Daily Thoughts 7/4/2011

Aristotle depicted by Raphael, holding his Ethics: detail from the Vatican fresco The School of Athens, 1510 – 1511


Daily Thoughts 7/4/2011


I relaxed yesterday.  Today I finished reading How Hippies Saved Physics. It was an enjoyable, but odd book. The last few chapters I read were about experiments in quantum physics and faster than light communication as well as a bit on quantum cryptography which supposedly makes messages undecipherable without special codes.  There is an end chapter about how counterculture affects science.  David Kaiser reminds us that the computer revolution was at least partially fueled by the Whole Earth Catalog.


I started reading the second article in On Strategy.  It is The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, another article by Michael Porter who write extensively on competitition.


I spent quite a bit of time reading this weekend.


Web Bits


Publishers and the Internet A Changing Role
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/30/publishers-internet-changing-role


Radical Changes: As We Reinvent Ourselves, are We Losing Our Leaders? by Margaret Tice
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/891010-312/radical_change_as_public_libraries.html.csp

Daily Thoughts 7/2/2011

Gary Zukav author of The Dancing Wu Li Masters, An Overview of the New Physics, Taken 24 December 2009 by Christopher Briscoe

Daily Thoughts 7/2/2011

I have been reading more of How The Hippies Saved Physics.  The book cites many popular science titles like The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav, and The Tao of Physics by Fritzjof Capra.  Popular physics titles often popularize ideas that are on the fringes of science.

In a more modern sense Michio Kaku writes popular science books which include many new ideas from science. Also Stephen Hawking writes some excellent popular science titles.  These kind of titles bring new ideas to the majority often without the filter of the scientific community.

I enjoy reading these kinds of titles.  There many references to books that I would like to read in How the Hippies Saved Physics.  For example, I placed the book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn on hold.

I read a little bit from the book On Strategy. The first article from the Harvard Business Review is What Is Strategy by Michael Porter who has written extensively on the concept of competitive intelligence.

Web Bits

Council, Bloomberg Keep New York City Library Funding Nearly Flat
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/891175-264/council_bloomberg_keep_new_york.html.csp

Cory Doctorow-- No Endorsement --An article on 3D printed objects. 
http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2011/07/cory-doctorow-no-endorsement/

This points the way to some very interesting ideas.  I can see the book changing to include print on demand objects like metal bookmarks, clasps for hardcovers, and other book related objects.