Daily Thoughts 11/2/2010 (National Blog Posting Month, Acquisitions)

Anthony Trollope is one of my favorite classic authors.  I especially like the book The Way We Live Now.

Daily Thoughts 11/2/2010 

It is National Blog Posting Month--  http://www.nablopomo.com/  The Singing Librarian blog let me know about this. I try to write every single day.  This idea appeals to me.  I registered with the site.

I voted this morning at 8:15 a.m..  They have the new electronic machines.  I was number seventeen in my voting district.

I also took some time to finish the exercises for my class, Fundamentals of Acquisitions.  I read quite a bit today on budgeting, ethics, and vendors.  The class is from ALCTS -- Association of Library Collections and Technical Services which is a subdivision of the American Library Association.  Hopefully, it will be of some use to me soon.  I think I learned a bit about budgeting that might prove useful.

I also read some more of The Story of Stuff. Annie Leonard is talking about distribution.  Part of this is how we have huge amounts of our stuff shipped from China and India in massive diesel powered container ships. It is a reminder of how wasteful we are.  I am also with the author in my dislike of massive impersonal stores like Walmart and Target.  I prefer small downtown shopping areas.

In my opinion, this is not in the book, this will change in ways people may not expect;  urban farming and urban greenhouses are becoming a much more viable industry, also digital fabricators are becoming much cheaper to make and use allowing people to produce stuff very quickly on the local level.  This industry is just starting to make its inroads.  Like print on demand affected the book industry, three dimensional print on demand will most likely have a big impact on manufacturing.  Farmers markets are becoming much more popular.  Also there is an increased awareness where many people want to shop locally.  Fuel costs are not going down either.

Daily Thoughts 10/22/2010 (The Art of Non-Conformity, Acquisitions)

"The Chap Book--Thanksgiving no." "Art nouveau illustration showing two women holding trays of food.", 1895 by Will Bradley

Daily Thoughts 10/22/2010

Today has been quite quiet.  I did a little weeding in the oversize books, checked on the displays and looked over a few things which needed to be done.  I am going to be meeting with BWI this afternoon.  I am also going to be talking to Ingram next week.  Ingram offers a discount of 5% on video games which other vendors don't offer.  I am also planning a visit to a technology center at another local library with a colleague.


I also did some more reading through Booklist this morning for things to order and read the email newsletter Shelf Awareness which is interesting.  Shelf Awareness is well worth subscribing to http://news.shelf-awareness.com/signup.jsp?appid=411 


The BWI visit went well.  We cleared up some issues and the sales representative offered us their free alert service for childrens and young adult books.  I put holds on I live in the future & here's how it works : why your world, work, and brain are being creatively disrupted by Nick Bilton and The master switch : the rise and fall of information empire by Tim Wu.

The book, The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger came in for me to read. If you are interested in biographies in graphic novel form, there is a book called Ethel and Ernest A True Story by Raymond Briggs which is a very sweet tribute to the authors parents.

I spent some time reading from my Fundamentals of Acquisitions class.  I learned that there was an Association of Subscription Agents and  Intermediaries http://www.subscription-agents.org/about-asa which was kind of interesting.

On the ride home, I read some more of The Art of Non-Conformity.  It has slowed a bit.  Some of the things he says are on target.  I especially like his view on self education often being more important than a university education.  He skipped out of high school and started community college when he was sixteen.  I tested out of high school when I was seventeen and went into community college. I don't regret it at all.  Right now, I am reading about how to gain followers and lead. It is a slightly different take than usual.


Web Bits 

Library Inc. From the Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/Library-Inc/124915

Booksellers on owning a cafe bookstore. http://bit.ly/dnLD2H

Daily Thoughts 10/19/2010 (Eco Libris, Acquisitions)

This picture was taken from number 757 of the magazine L'illustration, published on 29 August 1857. Wood engraving after a drawing by Jules Gaildrau. Illuminated Newsstand.

Daily Thoughts 10/19/2010

Today has been a very steady day.  I spent some time gathering selections for my Graphic Novel club tomorrow.  We also got a bunch of giveaways to distribute from http://eere.energy.gov/ .  This included posters, bookmarks, and other material for National Energy Awareness month which is this October.

I also went through my orders in preparation for tomorrows meeting for collection development.  I am also going over the assignments for shelf reading.

I worked a little more on the Fundamentals of Acquisitions class today from the American Library Association.  It gave some nice suggestions for upgrading my suggest an item web form.  I am looking at reading some recent material on acquisitions management.

Web Bits

I found this interesting.  It is a novel being written live for literacy.  The Novel Live.  http://www.thenovellive.org/novel/

The Eco Libris Campaign is a campaign to read books printed on recycled paper. http://www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign2010.asp  I intend to read this book to be reviewed on November 10, 2010; The story of stuff : how our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health--and a vision for change  by Annie Leonard with Ariane Conrad.

Daily Thoughts 10/5/2010 (The Glamour of Grammar, The Shadow Market, Acquisitions)

Leander Engström Girl with book

Daily Thoughts 10/5/2010

I read some more of The Glamour of Grammar this morning on the train in to work.  There was a nice pun about the difference between lie, lay, and lei.  The book, The Shadow Market How A Group of Wealthy Nations and Powerful Investors Secretly Dominate the World by Eric J. Weiner just came in for me to read this morning.




I checked the displays to see that they were in order, checked on BWI to see how the on order status was going in, and did a little bit of weeding in the oversize 300s.  I like to work steadily and slowly on projects until they are done.




The notification that my class from ALCTS Fundamentals of Acquisitions came in my email today.  I am registered and ready to start the class.  It should be quite interesting to do.  There are four online sessions and five modules.

A book came in for me to read this afternoon, Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson.

I spent the afternoon getting my orders ready for the order meeting.  A book caught my attention which should be very interesting;  Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris.  It is a collection of animal stories for adults.  This is a trailer about the book.



I finished reading The Glamour of Grammar on the way home.  The book is about being immersed in the language.  It makes grammar enjoyable. This is a hard thing to do.  The book was good enough that it made me want to read Roy Peter Clark's other book Writing Tools.

Have started reading The Shadow Market.  I don't buy into the conspiratorial tone in the book.  I think that people simply aren't paying enough attention.  The book describes the rise of private equity and hedge funds.  It also describes how countries are creating their own trading funds to control global currency.  There are descriptions of how China will have a larger economy than the United States by 2030, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have formed a trading partnership, and the G7 trading partnership has now become the G20.  The world is changing.  The details are interesting.  I am not sure that the perspective in the book is that accurate though.

Daily Thoughts 8/26/2010 ingram, the facebook era, acquisitions

KAST kast designed by Marcel Douwe Dekker in 1992: The KAST kast is a interior sculpture build with the letters K, A, S, T on their side (This picture was first published in Viva magazine The Netherlands, 18 sept 1992), Creative Commons Share Alike Attribution 3.0




Daily Thoughts 8/26/2010

It is interesting times again.  My library is going to be open on Sundays for half a day instead of a full day Saturday.  http://www.lohud.com/article/20100826/NEWS02/8260346/Yonkers--Mount-Vernon-public-libraries-may-remain-closed-on-Saturdays-in-fall




Today I talked to two other libraries about Ingram which is a distributor.  People have used them for standing order plans and to get new books.  Apparently, they have very fast turnaround time in delivering new material.  It is something to consider.  Ingram uses BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications)  for their classification scheme which is what is used by the publishing industry and bookstores. Public libraries tend to use the Dewey Decimal classification scheme, and academic libraries in the United States use Library of Congress classification.




I also spent some time updating the Bookletters web page for recommended widgets, created a form for tracking missing items and made sure the new book displays were in order.  Today went very smoothly.




I read a little more of the Facebook Era.  The author is writing about how to create connections in networks like Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter.




I am considering taking the Fundamentals of Acquisitions Class in September.  It is a four week course.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webcourse/foa/syll.cfm