Daily Thoughts 9/29/2011

Ferdinand Bol, Portrait of a Scholar, cerca 1650
Daily Thoughts 9/29/2011

This morning, I read some more of The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt.  The author is writing about Paggio Bracciolini, a man obsessed with books and reading.  The time period is around 1417.  Stephen Greenblatt describes reading as a kind of freedom.  Paggio is seeking copied books from Roman antiquity that were preserved and copied in monasteries.  They are works of authors like Cicero, Catullus, and Ovid.

I checked the displays, updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts and checked the gift books.  We had a nice copy of The Egyptian Book of the Dead which was added as well some new paperbacks by James Patterson.

I spent some time going through the patron requests. A few of the books like That Used to be Us by Thomas Friedman and Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich looked interesting.

I also spent some more time on Lynda.com studying Microsoft Word 2007 and Drupal.
The New York Librarians Meetup has many members attending New York Comic Con  as part of the professional day on Thursday.  The American Library Association will be there as well.  There are a number of library related events on Thursday, October 13.
http://nycc11.mapyourshow.com/5_0/sessions/session_results.cfm?type=date&date=10/13/2011

On the way home, I finished reading The Swerve.  Stephen Greenblatt describes the influence of On the Nature of Things  by Lucretius on Thomas More who wrote Utopia, Thomas Jefferson, and Giordano Bruno.  The book very much promotes Epicurean philosophy.  It is a bit different than my own view on the world.

Daily Thoughts 9/28/2011

Pietro Magni The Reading Girl, Etching by William Roffe (1889-1893)

Daily Thoughts 9/28/2011

I read some more of The Swerve in the morning.  It describes the crumbling of Roman philosophy as Rome fell.  The book also describes how the library at Alexandria was eventually destroyed with the
waning of classical philosophy.

This morning, I checked the Twitter and Facebook account, looked over the displays, and checked on some upcoming programs.  I am starting to plan for programs in January and February.  I am also starting to learn a little bit more of how the website works.  I spent a little bit more time on Lynda.com learning about Microsoft Word 2007.

I also did some weeding in the graphic novels section.

We opened the computer lab today to help people with their job search between 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m..  There is a steady increase in the number of people coming in searching for jobs.

Two books came in for me to read, the graphic novel, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles The Authorized Adaptation by Dennis Calero and Visual Quickstart Guide InDesign CS5 by Sandee Cohen.

Web Bits

Amazon Tablet Price Could be a Big Attraction
http://news.yahoo.com/price-amazon-tablet-could-big-attraction-224541425.html

This article is quite interesting because it puts a tablet at $249 very close to the price of an E-reader.  There is also the recent partnership between the Kindle and Overdrive.  Overdrive is the content provider for ebooks for the Westchester Library System. 

Daily Thoughts 9/27/2011

William Morris, Guinevere, 1858
 Daily Thoughts 9/27/2011

This morning, I finished reading Goliath by Scott Westerfeld. I thought it was a rather satisfying ending to a satisfying series. I like how Scott Westerfeld wove real history into this alternate history series. I especially liked the section on Pancho Villa.

I checked the displays, updated the Twitter and Facebook account, and did some weeding in the graphic novels. I also spent some more time learning Microsoft Word 2007 on lynda.com.

We had a donation of computer books today many of which were added.  There were books on Flash, CSS, Drupal and other computer subjects.

We are having the Intermediate Computer Class in the Computer Lab from 6:00-7:00 p.m.. Last time we had overflow from the classes. There is a lot of demand for computer use. We are trying to open the lab more for people seeking jobs. This is very important. A lot of people have trouble filling out online application forms.

On the way home, I read some of The Swerve How The World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. This book is about the rediscovery of the book, De Rerum Naturae (Of The Nature of Things) by Lucretius during the 15th century.  Lucretius poem is beautiful and full of ideas like atomism, the mixture of pleasure and virtue, and a world without fear.  The Swerve is proving to be very enjoyable.  It even tells us that there were 28 public libraries in Rome during the time of the Roman empire.  I am finding the details tied into the history of books more than satisfactory.






Web Bits

Banned Books Week Censorship Map

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/mappingcensorship