Daily Thoughts 01/09/2012

Reading Boy, Eastman Johnson 1863

Daily Thoughts 01/09/2012

I finished reading The Nook Book this morning.  I learned a little bit more about the Nook.  You can use Barnes and Noble as a publishing platform with PubIt.  PubIt converts your documents into Epub format so you can sell them.  http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home

I lent The Nook Book to a colleague this morning.

I also read some more of Disrupt this morning.  The author reminds us that you need to test your products with the real people who will use them.  He also compares prototyping to Mr. Potato Head which is an apt description.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern came in form me to read.  It is a fantasy title.

I checked the displays this morning and printed up some more flyers for events.  I also spent some time checking on supplies which we have; cups, napkins, coffee, etc.

I spent a little bit of time showing a person how to download books from the Westchester Library System Digital Media Catalog to their Kindle today.  A lot more people seem to be coming in with Ereaders lately.

I am looking at Readers' Advisory Service in North American Public Libraries, 1870-2005 right now.  I think people will still want recommendations whether or not the books are ebooks or print books. 

I am looking at the city budget.  http://cmvny.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Adopted-Budget-2012.pdf  The library has been offered $3.6 million this year in 2012.  There was a $3.5 million budget in 2011.  In $2010 there was a budget of $4.1 million.  It is something to think about.

Daily Thoughts 01/08/2012

Daily Thoughts 01/08/2012

I updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts for the library.  I like to read the local papers and see if there is anybody worth connecting to or friending from the standpoint of the library.

I have been reading a a little more of Disrupt.  There is a nice reminder that an opportunity is not a solution.  Nothing is executed yet.

I read some more of The Nook Book an Unofficial Guide.  It got me to look at Pandora which is a way to make personal radio channels on the internet.  I also spent a bit of time trying to get the Nook for PC program to work to no avail. It is a bit buggy.  I learned that Nook has separate applications for textbooks (the Nook Study), and children (Nook Kids).  They appear to be quite different than the regular reader.  I also learned that the Nook is the only E-reader directly attached to a physical storefront.  While the user of the Nook is in Barnes and Noble, special deals are offered and the Nook functions and Barnes and Noble functions as a Wifi hotspot.

Next week is crunch time for the budget.  I am as always hoping for good things to happen for the library budget.  Hopefully, the city will have it ready so they can pay civil servants by the end of the week.

I also put the book Tony Wheeler's Badlands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil on hold.

Mount Vernon Hopes to Finalize Budget by Mid January Plan Contains 4.9% Tax Hike, No Layoffs
http://www.lohud.com/article/20120106/NEWS02/301060018/Mount-Vernon-hopes-finalize-budget-by-mid-January-plan-contains-4-9-tax-hike-no-layoffs



Web Bits
Take This Book: The People's Library at Occupy Wall Street by Melissa Gira Grant
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/melissagiragrant/take-this-book-the-peoples-library-at-occupy-wall
This was successfully funded.  I did not buy a copy.  Maybe I will get a chance to look at it one day.

Occupy Wall Street Library Adds Hundreds of Books
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/occupy-wall-street-library-adds-hundreds-of-books_b45088
The Occupy Wall Street Library now has more books than when it was removed from Zucotti park.  I am also going to guess that soon the occupy movement will have more money because of all the free speech lawsuits.

Daily Thoughts 01/06/2012

Daily Thoughts 01/06/2012

I spent some more time getting used to the Kindle this morning.  I downloaded a few games for the Kindle.  There are some lightweight apps available to the Kindle Touch.  It also includes an experimental internet browser, MP3 player, and Audiobook player built into the Kindle.  I also tried logging into the Overdrive catalog directly from the Kindle and found it quite difficult.  I might have to sync the library books from the Kindle for PC program in order to get library ebooks. 

I also spent some time playing with the Wifi at a small cafe in our neighborhood.  It was interesting.  In order to use Kindle you have to open an account with Amazon which includes credit card information.  I checked for free ebooks in the Kindle store.  There are over 45,000 of them.  Some of them are quite current.  There is a lot of erotica in the free ebooks.  I downloaded 30 free ebooks to my Kindle.

Right now, I am sitting in my local branch library on their computer.

I am at home, I just finished synching my home computer with my Kindle.  I now have 35 books on my home computer and 35 books on my Kindle.  The Kindle also has two games on it.  A few of the titles are Endgame The End of the Debt Supercycle and How It Changes Everything by John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper and Saving For Retirement Without Living Like A Pauper or Winning the Lottery by Gail Marks Jarvis.

I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up the book, The Nook Book An Unoffical Guide, Second Edition by Patrick Kanouse.