Daily Thoughts 9/13/2011

The painting collection of Johann Noë Gogel, oil on wood. 1776 Christian Stocklin

Daily Thoughts 9/13/2011

On the way to work, I finished reading The Influencing Machine Brooke Gladstone on the Media.  The last part I was reading was on objectivity, bias, and transparency.  The idea of complete transparency is bothersome.  Transparency does not allow for much anonymity or privacy.

This morning, I updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts and checked the displays.  I also spent some time on Lynda.com studying Indesign CS5.  I also started an introductory course for Drupal and signed up for http://www.drupal.org

A bit on the fresco, "Decorative composition of Gobelin Tapestries" for the Mt. Vernon Public done by Louise Brann. http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/node/286

There is a special meeting of the Board of Trustees tonight at 6:30 p.m.

I read some more of Blur on the way home.  The authors describe how aggregating and selecting news is a form of editing.  Trusted sites become places where people go for news.  People who can successfully select and manage aggregated content are performing a type of journalism.  This is worth thinking about.



Web Bits

Very nice poster of Abraham Lincoln reading.
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/images/NBF11-Poster.pdf

 Lawsuit Seeks The Removal of Digital Book Collection
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/business/media/authors-sue-to-remove-books-from-digital-archive.html?_r=2&ref=business

 

Daily Thoughts 9/12/2011

Three men reading on a bench, Queen's Park, Toronto, Canada, 1908, William James Author


Daily Thoughts 9/12/2011


I read some more of Blur this morning on the train.  The authors have some very interesting things to say about verifying sources and the difference between opinion, fact finding, and truth in journalism. The authors also describe the different levels of reliability of sources from experts to eyewitnesses.


The graphic novel, The Influencing Machine Brooke Gladstone on the Media came in for me to read.

I checked the displays, and updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts.  I also spent some time on Lynda.com learning a little more Indesign.  I have two months which I can use the service so I am focusing on it right now.  I also have been studying hypertext markup language.  Right now, I am watching videos on cascading style sheets. This is not something I understand very well.  I think I can get the concepts, but not necessarily how to do it.

I put the book Into the Hinterlands by David Drake on hold.  It is military science fiction.

I read some of The Influencing Machine Brooke Gladstone on the Media on the train home.  The graphic novel seems to be mainly focused on the history of journalism with commentary on its impact.  The commentary is filled with irony and has bite to it.  It covers subjects like the Vietnam war, Watergate, Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, and various presidential campaigns.  There is quite a bit on media bias.

Web Bits

Town of Clinton, NY, Opens "America's Littlest Library"—in a British Phone Booth
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/891988-264/town_of_clinton_ny_opens.html.csp

Does Google Want to Own or Organize Information?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20103530-93/does-google-want-to-own-or-organize-information/#ixzz1XcRxQyuA

Daily Thoughts 9/8/2011

Man Sitting on a Log, 1895, Karoly Ferenczy
Daily Thoughts 9/8/2011

I read some more of A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin.  I especially like the character of Tyrione Lannister.  He is wonderfully wicked.

I checked the displays and printed some more flyers for events.  I put in a display for computer books and put some fliers for our different computer activities in the display including fliers about our E-readers and social media presence on Twitter and Facebook.

I put the book Willpower Rediscovering The Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney on hold.  A book that caught my attention is A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss which is a scientific argument for the reason why the universe exists.  It is coming out in January of 2012.

I also put the graphic novel The influencing machine : Brooke Gladstone on the media / illustrated by Josh Neufeld ; with additional penciling by Randy Jones and Susann Ferris-Jones.  I like reading nonfiction graphic novels.

The book Blur How To Know What's True In The Age of Information Overload by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenthal came in for me to read.

I read a bit more of A Dance With Dragons on the train home.

I noticed while looking through the Sony Reader store that both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times were 99 cents for single issues. This is half of the $2.00 price on the newsstands.  It also appears to be true of magazines as well.  PC Magazine was listed at $1.49 per issue for each monthly issue.  It is something to consider trying out.

Web Bits

Permanence Matters-- a campaign for quality paper in printed books.
http://www.permanencematters.com/