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

Ellery Queen (left), American mystery writer, and James Yaffe

Daily Thoughts

Cory Doctorow: Writing In The Age of Distraction http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html

Today was interesting. We had two rounds of meetings with local service agencies; one at 10 a.m. and one at 2 p.m. We talked about the services which are available at our library, and gave a variety of handouts to the visiting agencies. The agencies wanted a variety of improvements. They would like a service to fill out government forms; a map of the library, and many other improvements.

We had coffee, tea, fruit, and some pastries. I ended up speaking twice about the service brochure which I wrote with my colleague. This is the first time it has been shown to the public. It is a work in progress right now. I think I did fine with it. I am not that used to doing community outreach.

Something I noticed while we were working on the design of the new services brochure in Microsoft Publisher is that working on this blog has considerably changed my sense of design. Looking at lots of blogs gives you an idea of which two and three column pages work well. You end up reading lots of two and three column documents if you follow blogs. I think that it has improved my basic editing skills considerably.

Manipulating text boxes has become much easier in microsoft documents because of how blogs are broken up into discreet bites. I had previously designed flyers in Microsoft Word, but this is the first time I am using publisher to create documents. I am looking forward to further training in how to use publisher to create documents. So far, I have worked on bookmarks, 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch pages, flyers, and brochures. I think I might try and design a business card in publisher on card stock.

I had a chance to finish reading The Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher on the way home. I will begin writing a review tomorrow. The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson came in for me to read. I once again have to many books to read. It has become a habit now that I have began writing about books that I have several to read.

Many books after reading the first chapter cease appealing to me. I find this happens more and more as I read more. Learning about grammar, editing, and reviewing changes your view on books considerably.