Daily Thoughts 3/5/2011 (Green Jobs)

Walter Crane, by George Frederic Watts (died 1904), given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1915

Daily Thoughts 3/5/2011

I have been a bit distracted today.  Instead of reading books, I have been reading about some things which are happening in the town where the library is.  Eliot Engel who is a local politician is asking for $2,000,000 for a green technology incubator in Mount Vernon. They already have an incubator space.  Also, Kirsten Gillibrand is asking for $1,000,000 to train 115 young people for green collar jobs as part of a training program at city hall.

There has also been some expansion in the green building industry as well.  Werecycle has expanded its ewaste operations for collecting computers and other high technology equipment for recycling.  It looks like there will be a major push for green jobs in Mount Vernon, New York.

For a while we have been buying books on green industry.  Now, it looks like we may have to get quite a bit more material along these lines.

Daily Thoughts 3/4/2011 (The Information)

Alice Sheldon, James Tiptree, Jr., Racoona Sheldon signature

Daily Thoughts 3/4/2011

Today has been another quiet day.  I checked the displays, did some weeding in storage area, checked up on the Twitter account, and made sure people were reminded about the survey.

I am looking forward to A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin coming out on July 12, 2011.  I liked the earlier books.

I started reading The Information by James Gleick.  The first chapter is on African talking drums which are the first large scale long distance signal systems.  It is interesting thinking of musical instruments as carrying language over distance.

Web Bits

Cory Doctorow, Explaining Creativity to a Martian, http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2011/03/cory-doctorow-explaining-creativity-to-a-martian/

Daily Thoughts 3/3/2011 (The Information, Online Learning)

Invention of printing - Gutenberg taking the first proof Gutenberg with 3 other people and printing press.   Date Created/Published: c1869.

Daily Thoughts 3/3/2011

Today has been another quiet, steady day.  I read some of The Experience Economy this morning on the train to work.  I like how they describe the difference between providing a service and providing a complete experience.  For example, a birthday party, a trip down the grand canyon, a game of laser tag, a workshop is an experience.  This was quite different.

This morning, I checked on the survey, checked the displays, and did a little more updating on the Twitter account.  I also spent some time thinking about inexpensive places to take classes for librarians; http://www.webjunction.org/ Webjunction, http://www.ala.org/ala/onlinelearning/index.cfm American Library Association Online Courses, http://www.metro.org/en/cev/mon/ Metro New York, and various Meetups like the New York Librarians Meetup http://www.meetup.com/nylibrarians/

The book, The Information A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick came in for me to read.  James Gleick is the author of Chaos which is a book about chaos theory in physics.  I enjoyed reading Chaos because it reminded me a bit of when I went to the University of California Santa Cruz.

Daily Thoughts 3/2/2011 (Citizen Journalism, Birth of Fire, the experience economy)

First reading-room, Public Library, Melbourne, 1862, Melbourne : The Commissioners, 1873.

Daily Thoughts 3/2/2011

On the way to work, I read Birth of Fire by Jerry Pournelle.  It is a classic military science fiction book on a revolution on mars.  The cover is by Kelly Freas.  The book was an old paperback that was falling apart in my hands.  I like the classic science fiction writers.

Today has been a quiet, steady day.  I checked the displays and pulled some material for the current events display on Libya, Egypt, and Iraq.  We are starting a display for Women's History Month which is this March.

I also spent some more time this morning printing up surveys for the library survey.  People are taking them and filling them out quickly.  I am also starting to get some online surveys sent to us.  We also reached over a hundred twitter users for our library.

Two more books came in for me to read, Losing The News The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy by Alex S. Jones and We're All Journalists Now The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age by Scott Gant.  These books are on public journalism or citizen journalism which is a subject which I find quite interesting.

Today is Dr. Seuss's Birthday.  He is my favorite children's author.  I especially like The Butter Battle Book, The Foot Book, Hop On Pop, and The Cat In The Hat.  My favorite book as a child was One Fish Two Red Fish Blue Fish.

On the way home, I started reading The Experience Economy Work Is Theatre and Every Business a Stage by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore.  This book is about how to create a satisfying complete experience.  Some of the companies the authors are writing about are Marriott, Disney, Crayola, and the National Basketball Association.

Daily Thoughts 3/1/2011 (1812, Twitter, Survey)

Unpleasant News, 1896, Rosalvo Ribeiro

Daily Thoughts 3/1/2011

Today has been a quiet, steady day.  We put out the Public Library Service Survey at the circulation desk.  It is also going to be distributed to a few other places.  Hopefully, it will help us get some more feedback about the library.  The survey is now on the front page of the library as well. http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/node/111

I read some more of 1812 this morning.  The conflict has an edge of cruelty in it more than fear.  The vampires are more violent and loathesome than fearsome.  It makes the style different than most vampire novels.

I also did a little bit more weeding in the storage area and spent some time checking the inventory.  Things are moving along steadily.  The new Twitter account hit 100 people today.  http://twitter.com/mtvernonlibrary

Three books came in for me to look at, Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and james H. Gilmore, and The Lifecycle of Software Objects.

On the way home, I finished reading 1812 by Jasper Kent.  There is a nice element of self deception in the novel which makes it quite interesting.