Daily Thoughts 12/2/2011

Le Pêcheur à la ligne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1874

Daily Thoughts 12/2/2011

On the way to work, I read a little bit more of Survival of the Beautiful.  It has a lot of interesting ideas in it.  I rather liked the idea of cuttlefish being able to signal different meanings with their body from desire to anger.  I also liked the section on paintings by elephants and what they mean.

I have been spending a little bit of time on the website. I also have been updating the Facebook and Twitter account for the library.  The announcement for the Kenneth Davis author reading on January 12, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. is up on the website.  http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/KenDavis

We also have an ancestry display in the First Avenue Display Case called Early Scarsdale Along Saxon Woods Road. http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/First-Avenue-Window

We spent some time discussing the website, the library survey, the computer lab, ordering, and other issues.  There are so many different things that need to be worked on.

Yesterday we got donations of DVDs and VHS tapes.  We have been getting a lot more VHS tapes lately.  People must be clearing them out of their house.

The Holiday Tree is up in the front lobby.  There is a lot of gold decorations on the tree. We also have a small display requesting that people donate bestselling books.  We are also seeking donations of new books, CDs, and DVDs.  The display has gift wrapped boxes and other holiday decorations to express the spirit of the season.

On the way home, I finished reading Survival of the Beautiful, Art, Science, and Evolution by David Rothenberg.  There is a wonderful quote on P. 187, expressing how art can sometimes appear more real than nature.  "Field guides to nature use painting and diagrams far more than photographs because they show more possible marks of identification than one could ever actually see when confronting an actual, real bird, , though I'm sure computer-animated video field guides are just around the corner."  For the author, David Rosenberg, beauty is the most important and aesthetic quality in life.  It is a different and refreshing view of the world.

Web Bits

Libraries: Are They Obsolete?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ramon-resa-md/libraries-are-they-obsole_b_1123887.html?ref=libraries-in-crisis

The Huffington Post has a Libraries in Crisis Section which is very interesting reading.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/libraries-in-crisis/

Daily Thoughts 12/1/2011

Pierre-Auguste Renoir , La Lecon, 1906


Daily Thoughts 12/1/2011


I read some more of Survival of the Beautiful this morning.  The author is writing about camouflage in nature. There is some interesting material on military camouflage and patterns that are disruptive to the eye called dazzle patterns.

I updated the Facebook and Twitter accounts this morning and spent some time discussing the programming which is listed on the website with a colleague.  I also checked the displays to make sure they were in order. 

The book Free Ride How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back by Robert Levine has come in for me to read.

I have decided to stop reading And So It Goes Kurt Vonnegut: A Life.  There is a review in the November 27, 2011 New York Times Book Review which describes it very well.  The book is heartbreaking and extremely bitter.  It is not something for my tastes.

Right now, I am working on a flyer for an event for Kenneth C. Davis.  Kenneth C. Davis, the author of Don't Know Much About History will be coming to the Mount Vernon Public Library on January 12, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. to discuss his work.

Web Bits
Assembly Hearing on Funding Public Libraries, November 29, 2011
http://www.nyla.org/page/nyla-testifies-at-assembly-library-committee-hearing-531.html

Daily Thoughts 11/30/2011

Kyōka hassen sono ni. Print shows three men and a woman (poets); one man is standing behind a low screen, reading; another is sitting on the floor in front of the screen, feeding a turtle from a bowl; the third man and the woman are standing on the left.   Date Created/Published: [between 1818 and 1824] 


Daily Thoughts 11/30/2011

I updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts for the library this morning.

The library has the Graphic Novels Club today .  I am bringing in a few things to show including The First Kingdom, an issue of Star Reach, Parsifal illustrated by P. Craig Russell, and a few other ground level comics.  There is also some material from New York Comic Con which I plan on showing.  The club runs from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. today.

We had the Computer Lab for Academic Use today between 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.  I also spent some time learning how to modify the website calendar.

I read some more of Survival of the Beautiful.  There is a lot on the aesthetics of birds focusing on plumage, nest building, and song.  The author focuses a lot on the bowerbird, nightingale, bird of paradise, and peacock.

This afternoon, I spent a little more time getting the graphic novel club material ready.  I also worked a bit with a colleague on a press release announcing the amnesty for lost items from the Mount Vernon Public Library which runs from November 22, 2011 to January 31, 2012.  Hopefully, we should get quite a bit of our material back.  It is now up in the Mount Vernon Inquirer.

In addition, I printed a variety of flyers for different events coming up in December.

I put the book, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman on hold.  It is on the 10 Best Books of 2011 from the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/books/10-best-books-of-2011.html?_r=1&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=AR-E-FB-SM-LIN-TBB-113011-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

I also put the graphin novel Zahra's Paradise by Amir (text) and Khalil (illus.) on hold.  It is a story set in the disputed 2009 election in Iran.

Web Bits


Occupy Wall Street Library


Pathetic: Grown Men Cry Over Occupy Wall Street Library Demolition
http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/11/29/pathetic-grown-men-cry-over-occupy-library-demolition/
A little note on how some of the world sees this.

Lessons from the Occupy Wall Street Library
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish/lessons-occupy-wall-street-library

Once I Understood, the "Occupy" Movement, I Saw How it Fits the Common Core
http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/nonfictionmatters/2011/11/30/once-i-understood-the-occupy-movement-i-saw-how-it-fits-the-common-core/

Daily Thoughts 11/29/2011

Portrait of Maria Adelaide of France in Turkish-style clothes, 1753, Jeanne Etienne Liotard

Daily Thoughts 11/29/2011

I checked the displays this afternoon and updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts this morning.  I also picked out some graphic novels for the Graphic Novels Club tomorrow which is on September 30, 2011 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 pm. 

We have two sessions the Intermediate Computer Class tonight; one from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and another from 6:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. in the Computer lab.  I spent a few minutes making sure the lab was set up for tonight.

Sometimes Blogger does inexplicable things.  I am not sure why there are blue lines on my picture.  I got rid of them this morning.  They were some anomalous html code.

On the way home, I read some more of Survival of the Beautiful.  I am learning that this is a radical scientific argument which is not generally accepted.  The author, David Rothenberg is bringing the idea that there is an aesthetic sense in nature which is part of natural selection to the public.  He is taking his argument outside of the scientific community to gather support from the public.  This book has a similar feel in a way to The Tao of Physics which Gary Zukav used to popularize quantum physics which was a radical idea at the time the book was published.

I also started reading And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut A Life which I am not yet convinced is on target.  The author, Charles J. Shields, did not have permission from the Vonnegut family to use Vonnegut's letters.

Web Bits

Occupy Wall Street Library Releases Writing Prompt
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/occupy-wall-street-library-releases-writing-prompt_b43059
This has a link to the poetry anthology from Occupy Wall Street.

The Occupy London library spreads its wings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/nov/25/occupy-london-library-spread

Occupy Toronto Encampment Ends Peacefully-- 11/23/2011
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1091188--library-yurt-standoff-resolved-as-arrests-continue-at-st-james-park
There is something mildly odd about there being a library yurt.  It is rather hard to imagine.  At least in this instance the protest library was removed intact.

A People's Digital Library and Prefigurative Politics
http://peopleslibrary.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/a-peoples-digital-library-and-prefigurative-politics/

One of the thing I am not doing is creating any kind of real archive or bookmark list.  This is more of a catch as catch can list.  It is free form.

Daily Thoughts 11/28/2011

 William Morris Age 53, Taken by Frederic Hollyer

Daily Thoughts 11/28/2011

This morning I updated the library Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I also took an hour course from Lynda.com called Effective Email Marketing Strategies.  The most useful part was on how to create good subject lines for email.

I have been reading a little bit more of Survival of the Beautiful. David Rothenberg is arguing that there is a close tie between art, natural history, and science.  He tells us that there are mathematical and physical forms that are more likely to occur in nature which are aesthetically pleasing.

I also spent some time watching Encounters at the End of the World a movie produced by Werner Herzog.  It is a movie about Antarctica.  I very much enjoyed watching the divers swimming under the Antarctic ice.  It had a very otherworldly quality.

Web Bits

What is Needed to Educate Future Digital Librarians
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september06/choi/09choi.html 

"A Bit Amish" Comics Legend Alan Moore Goes Online To Honor Harvey Pekar

http://www.fastcompany.com/1797531/alan-moore-and-harvey-pekar-s-comic-friendship?partner=rss

I rather like the writing of both Harvey Pekar and Alan Moore.

Daily Thoughts 11/27/2011

A Man Reading by Thomas Sword Good, 1827


Daily Thoughts 11/27/2011

I put the book Free ride : how digital parasites are destroying the culture business, and how the culture business can fight back by Robert Levine on hold.  

This afternoon, I read some of Survival of the Beautiful, Art, Science, and Evolution by David Rothenberg.  David Rothenberg is arguing that is there an adaptive aesthetic sense among animals.  He is arguing about how things like beauty, camouflage, and complex birdsong have an adaptive advantage outside of sexual selection or natural selection.  It is something different than I usually read about.

Web Bits

10 Recommendations on Green Ebooks for Cyber Monday
http://ecolibris.blogspot.com/2011/11/10-recommendations-on-green-ebooks-for.html

Two Libraries at NASA Center to Close and Go All Electronic
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2011/11/ebooks/two-libraries-at-nasa-center-to-close-and-go-all-electronic/
There is a definite truth to this.  Technical information is increasingly moving online.  This is predictive.

Occupy Wall Street Library

Biblioteca Acampada del Sol (In Madrid)
https://bibliosol.wordpress.com/

Star Books: Occupy Londons Protest Inspires Improvised Library
http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/10/occupy-london-london-occupy-protest-inspires-improvised-library/

The Occupy Archive of photographs and other things.
http://occupyarchive.org/

Visiting the Occupy DC Library  11/14/2011
http://www.constance-reader.com/2011/11/visiting-occupy-dc-library.html 

Much of this comes across as symbolic and utopian to me.  It comes across as a mix of ideas that are not quite coherent but very intriguing. It has an odd feeling of a movement focused more on transparency than actual protest.













http://www.constance-reader.com/2011/11/visiting-occupy-dc-library.html