Curation Nation How To Win In A World Where Consumers Are Creators by Steven Rosenbaum

Curation Nation Why The Future of Content Is Context How To Win In A World Where Consumers Are Creators by Steven Rosenbaum

Steven Rosenabum is describing a major shift in how media is being delivered.  Consumers of media are increasingly becoming prosumers and creators of their own content.  People create a variety of sites based on their interests from cooking to baseball.  Steven Rosenbaum runs Magnify.net which aggregates video content on the web so many of his ideas come from his direct business experience.

A prosumer is a consumer who proactively chooses what and how they will consume.  A good example of a prosumer might be someone who buys green products, or only buys from the Better Business Bureau.  Increasingly prosumers are becoming creators of their own content based on what they are interested in. 

The tools of content creation are becoming cheaper and easier to get access to.  Social tools like Twitter, Youtube, blogs, podcasts, and other social media tools are easy to get access to.  It is not just the software and web which is becoming cheaper, people now can easily afford smart phones, laptops, and inexpensive video recorders.  People can use these tools to spread their ideas and opinions.

The difference between this book and other books is that Steven Rosenbaum takes it one step further.  He describes how to curate content, picking out and organizing materials for blogs and websites.  He even describes content strategy citing Kristina Halvorson's book Content Strategy.

Then Steven Rosenabaum talks about how curation scales with aggregation mixed with selective content on websites like The Huffington Post, Blog Her, and Linked In. This creates a larger picture of curation both on the small individual level and on the larger scale of big commercial websites.

None of the material is particularly new.  However, how it is presented is new. This is a solid overview of how to organize social media tools.  It pulls many disparate threads together to create a picture of a strategy to manage and organize social content. The book can be a bit diffuse at times.  This book would be useful for people interested in new media.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

This is a literary novel.  The writing is very well crafted.  The story focuses on Victoria Jones, a foster child who has just turned eighteen and been emancipated.  Part of the authors goal in writing this novel is to expose the abusive nature of the foster care systems in the United States.  At times, the novel can be quite difficult to read.  There is a lot of tension in the story.

A major theme in the novel is the Victorian language of flowers, which is a language of emotion expressed through flowers. The author includes an addendum at the end of the book called Victoria's Dictionary of Flowers.  Different flowers express different emotions in the book.  The flowers add color, tone, and feeling to the writing.  The writing uses all five senses.

The action and scenes also take place in very green spaces; a vineyard, a flower market, a flower shop, a floral greenhouse, and a park are some of the settings.  This makes the book very alive.  There is also some sex and quite a bit of writing about the meaning of love.

The characters have an edge to them.  They wound each other emotionally and have a creative edge.  Victoria Jones as she progresses through the novel creates a photographic dictionary of flowers, she selects flowers for weddings, dates, and lovers.  She relates to people in her life with plants.  It is a life at points which is on the edge of homelessness and madness.

The writing is both strong and beautiful.  It is the authors first novel. There is an interview in the back of the book.  The novel is coming out on August 23, 2011.  This was an advanced reading copy sent to me by Library Journal.

How The Hippies Saved Physics, Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser

How The Hippies Saved Physics, Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser

David Kaiser is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  This book is a history of science book.  It is also a popular science book. The book describes how quantum physics which many considered to be fringe science became accepted science.  It is a very strange, eccentric, and interesting story.


The book focuses on a group called the Fundamental Fysiks Group which held sessions at the University of California Berkeley.  Berkeley California is known for its eccentricity and counterculture.  The Fundamental Fysiks Group was instrumental in making quantum mechanics acceptable science.

The cast of characters in this book is very different; Jack Sarfatti, Paul Sirag, and Nick Herbert are the central people covered.  There is also quite a bit in the early chapters on Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein, and Erwin Schrodinger.  There are also numerous scientists spread throughout the book including Richard Feynman and Fritjof Capra who wrote The Dancing Wu Li Masters.

The story is very eccentric and outright strange to the point where it is funny.  There are very surprising sources of funding for the experiments which helped establish quantum physics.  There is the Esalen institute a New Age retreat in California, Werner Erhard and Est who were part of the human potential movement,  Henry Dakin the philanthropist and supporter of paranormal research, and the CIA with its remote viewing experiments.

The experiments themselves are very interesting to read about. They prove things like quantum encryption, nonlocality, and entanglement.  Some experiments do not succeed like faster than light communication.

This is a fascinating history about a very unusual topic which most people have a difficult time understanding.  It shows a process where fringe science is made into accepted science.

The book is very easy to read.  It mostly focuses on the people behind the story, not the physics.  The writing is very clear. There is an index, extensive notes, and bibliography.  There are numerous black and white photographs and easy to understand diagrams.  I found it to be a delightful book to read.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

This is a dystopian novel set in the year 2044.  You could also call it a quest novel, a coming of age novel, or near future science fiction.  It melds many different themes into a unique, funny, and exciting story.  The one common theme that seems to unite all of it is geek culture, video games, and the 1980s.

Wade Watts the main character, is a geeky kid who spends most of his time in the virtual world of OASIS.  Virtual reality in this setting is extremely realistic.  Wade Watts even goes to school in the virtual world.  The virtual world he escapes into is infinitely better than his horrific, crowded, dangerous trailer park existence in the real world. The theme of bits versus atoms pervades this book.  In the real world, even virtual money is worth more than most national currencies.

The story is centered around a contest to gain control of the world wide virtual world called OASIS.  To do this, the entrants must solves riddles that were part of the creator of the virtual world's childhood.  The childhood is a kind of super fanboy and geek festival filled with 1980s references; everything from Duran Duran to Star Trek to the video game Joust.  It is very funny.  It reminds me a bit of my own childhood.

The book adds in many tropes: a love interest, an evil corporation, and plenty of action.  It moves very quickly from scene to scene and makes you want to find out what happens next.  The book made me laugh and smile while I was reading it.  It is lot of fun especially if you are nostalgic about the 1980s, liked roleplaying games, video games, comics, and listened to rock music.

Ernest Cline has a website http://www.ernestcline.com/  .  The book Ready Player One is coming out in August of 2011.  I was reading an advanced reading copy sent to me by Library Journal   I think this book will cross reading genres and be appealing to a wide audience.

Movie Review

The Relic
Summary

• At Chicago's Natural History Museum, a bunch of crates arrive from South America, containing some findings from one of the researchers at the museum. The crates arrive with very little inside, and that is deemed suspicious. On the cargo ship that brought the crates, there were 2 murders that took place and a murder inside the museum. Investigating the case is Lt. Vincent D'Agosta, who's a lieutenant with the Chicago Police Dept, and helping him is Dr. Margo Green, who is a researcher at the museum. And somehow, there is a large, massive, gruesome creature lurking in the museum on the eve of a benefit gala the mayor is due to attend. I give this movie a 5 out of 5 star rating, it was totally awesome!

Cast

• Penelope Ann Miller: Dr. Margo Green
• Tom Sizemore: Lt. Vincent D'Agosta
• Linda Hunt: Dr. Ann Cuthbert
• James Whitmore: Dr. Albert Frock
• Chi Muoi Lee: Dr. Greg Lee
• Robert Lesser: Mayer Robert Owen
• Diane Robin: The Mayor's Wife

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120004/plotsummary

Pictures from the movie

Tom Sizemore as Lt. Vincent D'Agosta

The creature

The exhibit in the Chicago Natural History Museum, titled Superstition

Close-up of Tom Sizemore as Lt. Vincent D'Agosta. In the books, he's supposed to be a Lieutenant with the NYPD, not the Chicago Police Dept.

Book Review

Right now, I'm currently reading a book called Still Life with Crows. It's one of a series of books by authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  In most of the stories these guys write, they feature an eccentric FBI agent named Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast.

The novel Still Life with Crows is about a series of murders in a small Kansas town called Medicine Creek. The townspeople believe it may be what they call the Curse of the 45s. According to the story, in the town there was a brutal massacre of Indians and soldiers and one of the soldiers had his feet cut off and was scalped. So now there are murders and the FBI has been brought in and the townspeople don't like the knowledge of an FBI agent poking around making accusations that the killer may be one of them.

The rating for this is 5 out of 5 stars. It's a little slow in the beginning, but give it time to get good, I haven't finished it yet, but so far what I've read, I love it!




Cabinet of Curiosities
This book has, once again, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast is in it. In this novel, he is working with a New York History Museum employee named Nora Kelly to investigate a series of murders going back 130 years. The story has it that in the late 1900s there was a scientist who believed that a large group of nerves attached to the spinal cord could extend human life, so he decided to start kidnapping people and removing their spines to get at this special group of nerves in a selfish attempt at extending his own life. In the end, Nora Kelly's fiancee, a reporter named William Smithback, is kidnapped and his spine is almost removed but Nora is able to get him out with the help of the eccentric FBI agent.

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars, it's sort of boring.

The Book of the Dead.
In this book, Special Agent Pendergast is mistaken for his criminal brother Diogenes and is mistakenly put into the maximum security ward at a federal prison. To break him out, his friend and colleague, NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta must go undercover to break him out. This story revolves around a tomb found in the New York Museum of Natural History and the supposed "curse" surrounding it. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars, it's interesting, and like most books, it can be boring sometimes and starts out boring, but I assure you it's very good. This book is one of a series of books featuring the strange FBI agent.

The Wheel of Darkness
In this book, Special Agent Pendergast and his ward Constance Greene are studying with Buddhist monks in Tibet. The monks talk of an artifact that has been stolen from them, something called a mandala, which is a Buddhist piece of art. The pursuit of this item takes him through China, London and Rome, and then finds him and his ward on a cruise ship called The Brittania which is headed for New York. Since the mandala has evil powers, whoever comes in to contact with it suddenly changes. The special agent comes into contact with it by mistake and suddenly is different, he only cares about himself and thinks humans are pathetic and should be wiped off the face of the planet. I give this book 4 out 5 stars, it's interesting, it has it's boring parts, but the action in the story compensates for it.

Cemetery Dance
In this story, New York History Museum archaeologist and her boyfriend, reporter William Smithback are celebrating their first anniversary. She goes out to get a cake to celebrate only to return home and find her boyfriend slashed to death. The police are called in and are convinced it's some  psycho nut out there, and as the story goes, the Special Agent and her work together and discover it's voodoo at work here, especially in the neighborhood of Inwood and Inwood Hill Park


I give this one 3 out of 5 stars, it has its interesting parts, but was not overly interesting

Fever Dream
This is yet another story involving the strange agent, figuratively. He thinks back on the time he and his wife were big game hunting in Africa. While there, his wife Helen is dragged away by a lion and mauled to death. Years later, Pendergast in convinced his wife's death was no accident. His little investigation takes him to the areas of the Mason Dixon Line, down in the south. You also find out that before he was an FBI agent, he worked for the New Orleans Police Dept. His late wife Helen was trying to discover a cure for neurological diseases, with her brother and a team of pharmaceuticals were trying to discover how to stop it and when the assignment began going downhill, she was going to expose the project but was killed to be silenced.

I give this one 5 out of stars, I love it, it was a little boring in the beginning but the action compensates for it.

Idea Man A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft by Paul Allen

Idea Man A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft by Paul Allen

Paul Allen founded Microsoft with Bill Gates.  They went to the same high school together and were close friends.  They also were part of the early history of personal computers.  Microsoft was founded on the program BASIC.  One of the reasons it grew to prominence was also because it designed the disk operating system for IBM. 

Paul Allen does an excellent job describing the relentless drive behind people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.  I liked his descriptions of how Bill Gates pulled all nighters programming fueled by caffeine and coffee.  It describes the extremely competitive, constantly demanding, will to succeed of many people in the computer industry.  However, this book is more than just a book about success in business.

Paul Allen originally wanted to be an astronaut but could not be because he wore glasses as a teenager.  He read lots of science fiction and constantly was thinking up new things.  In this book, Paul Allen innovates; he creates new computer products, starts new businesses, and does not stop trying new things.

The second part of the book is about what happens when he leaves Microsoft after getting cancer.  He starts living his ideals: founding a Jimi Hendrix museum, buying two sports teams, the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers, helps fund Spaceship One the X-Prize winner, starts a brain research institute, and becomes a serial entrepreneur.  I found this quite inspirational.

I especially liked his descriptions of being a serial entrepreneur.  He describes his failures as well as his successes in starting various businesses.  This is a story of failing a lot, but succeeding a lot as well.  I also liked his descriptions of traveling all over the world.  It would be some peoples dream to live this life.

This book is about business, ideas, innovating, and living your dreams.  It talks about how to take risks and succeed.  It is also about overcoming the adversity of cancer and trying new things.  The book says a lot about not giving up and paying attention to opportunities.

Bottled Lightning Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy by Seth Fletcher

Bottled Lightning Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy by Seth Fletcher

This is a history of batteries which make the electric car possible.  Seth Fletcher describes the invention of the battery from its beginnings to modern lithium-ion batteries.  It is about more than cars, because lithium batteries were first used in computers and cell phones before they were used in cars.

The book is very much a pro electric car book focused on the benefits of electric cars.  He enthusiastically describes the Chevrolet Volt, the Nissan Leaf, and the Tesla Roadster as the hope for our future.  His focus is not on hybrid electric cars, but on cars that are purely run by batteries.

I very much enjoyed reading about the lithium mines in Chile and Bolivia.  The largest lithium reserves are in Bolivia.  Seth Fletcher describes his visits to the mines.

There is an excellent reminder that ultimately lithium ion batteries are about more than cars.  Large power plants are starting to use giant lithium ion batteries as back up power storage.  This will grow with the increased use of wind and solar power.

This book is worth reading if you are interested in alternative energy or automobiles.  It is more of a story about batteries than just cars. 

Creators of the Superheroes by Thomas Andrae

Creators of the Superheroes Interviews and Commentary about Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, Jack Kirby, and Will Eisner by Thomas Andrae

This book gives a very close look at the personal stories behind the creation of the first superheroes; Batman, Superman, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, and others.  It is more than just about the art of the comics, it is about how the comic business was created.  The book fits in with other books printed by Hermes Press which has many reprints and biographical works on early comics.

The life stories in this book are often tragic.  Bill Finger one of the first writers of Batman got very little credit and died destitute.  The artists often got very little money from doing comics, most of it went to the publishers.   Most of the artists worked on a commission per page.  Unless you were Jack Kirby and had a solid business sense and a huge readership, or Will Eisner who ran his own company, there was very little money as a comic books artist.

There are many interesting details in the book.  I like the photographs and drawings of the women who inspired the creation of Lois Lane.  The book has over 400 illustrations in it.  It is also a coffee table size book.  Many of the images are photographs of the artists life, original comic book panels, and pictures from movies or films.  Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster were movie buffs.  Also Batman and Superman were made into films.

The majority of the text in this book is interviews. A lot of this is about the creative process in making comics.  It also has quite a bit about the artists personal lives.  Thrown in are interesting tidbits like the name Clark Kent is a combination of the movie actors, Clark Gable and Kent Taylor, and Batman's cape was designed after Leonardo's DaVinci's flying machine.

I especially liked the section on Will Eisner.  Will Eisner is considered the creator of the first graphic novel, A Contract With God.  He is also credited with making strong efforts to turn comics into an art form for adults.  He wrote comics as instruction manuals for the army.  This makes his approach different.

This is a fantastic book with beautiful illustrations, excellent interviews, and unique content.  If you are interested in the history of comics you should read this.

Book Review

Memoirs of a Geisha

This book was written by Arthur Golden, and is about these 2 sisters, named Chiyo and Satsu who live in the village of Yoroido in rural Japan. One day they are approached by someone they know as 'Mr. Tanaka', and he talks to their parents about adopting them and taking them to what they think is a better life because their father is a lowly fisherman and their mother is rapidly dying from cancer. Only the place that Chiyo and Satsu are taken to is an okiya(Japanese term for Geisha house). They are basically sold in to slavery and they become geisha girls. The geisha house that Chiyo is sent to has a resident problem, in the form of a vindictive, manipulative Geisha named Hatsumomo, who's bound and determined to make life for Chiyo a living hell. But through out the book, Chiyo, who becomes known as Sayuri(her geisha name) befriends another okiya owner named Mameha(a kindly woman who runs another okiya). The 2 develop a friendship and Mameha starts coming up with ways to knock the vindictive Hatsumomo down a bunch of pegs because she is not a nice person. The book is really good, but you have to stay with it, it's a tad bit slow in the beginning, but gets good in the middle. They even turned it into a movie, I'll put some pictures from the movie to show you.

Ziyi Zhang as Chiyo and Ken Watanabe as The Chairman. Hmm, Ken Watanabe is pretty cute!

Michelle Yeoh as Mameha, Ziyi Zhang as Chiyo and Gong Li as Hatsumomo

Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang as Mameha and Chiyo

Shanghai Girls

Now this book has not been turned into a movie, I'm currently reading it and I have to admit that I'm loving every second of this book, I'm even learning a few words in Chinese, and Mandarin, like Jie Jie means elder sister in Mandarin and Mei Mei means little sister in Mandarin. Any way, this book about 2 sisters named May and Pearl Chin. Their father has gambled away all their money and in order to pay off a local gangster named Pockmark Huang, their father, Baba, has arranged a marriage for them, he has arranged for them to marry the 2 sons of a friend of his, named Old Man Louie. They are to go to Los Angeles and live there so he can pay off their debt. Meanwhile all this is taking place during WWII, when the Japanese were invading China. While the 2 sisters are on their way to the ship, Pearl and May stay with a village woman and during the night, Pearl and May find their mother splayed on the floor of the cabin while Japanese soldiers are raping her. Then the soldiers end up raping Pearl and she wakes up in the hospital to find out from the doctors she may be unable to have children, and when the 2 finally reach America, they go to the Angel Island Immigration Center and Pearl finds out that May is pregnant. The story so far is pretty good and I don't think I've ever read a story so good! In the story, you might keep hearing things like dwarf bandits and monkey people, obviously that's what Pearl and May keep calling the Japanese. It's apparent in this story that the Chinese and Japanese do not get along!

Daily Thoughts 3/23/2011 (Books)

Young and old visit the library on the parkway Poster promoting libraries, showing a family going to the library.  Date Created/Published: Pennsylvania : WPA Federal Art Project, [1936 or 1937]


Daily Thoughts 3/23/2011


This morning, I checked the Twitter feed and tabulated some more surveys.  The surveys are interesting to read.  We also opened the computer lab in the rotunda so people could search for jobs.  It went quite well.  There are two handouts we created for internet job search.


I also spent some time looking at identified pictures from the libraries history.  We have many pictures from 1938 as well as some pictures from the childrens' room in 1909.  I especially like a picture of the old bookmobile from 1940.

Esmeralda Santiago has a novel coming out in July called Conquistadora which is about plantation life in Puerto Rico.  I very much enjoyed her autobiography, When I was a Puerto Rican.  Also John Scalzi is coming out with an authorized version of a book called Fuzzy Nation which is based on H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy books.  Another novel which looks interesting is Embassytown by China Mieville which is about alien contact and language.

Sometimes you see things which are a little funny.  There is a new children's picture book which features surfing called Dude: Fun With Dude and Betty by Lisa Pliscou, illustrated by Tom Dunne.  The title caught my attention along with the review in the March 21, 2011 Publishers Weekly.  It is supposed to be a spoof of the Dick and Jane books.  Another title which caught my attention is Pink Boots and a Machete:  My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer by Mireya Mayor in the March 15, 2011 Booklist.  These are both wonderful examples of how a title can catch a readers attention.  There is a third title which caught my attention as well, this is something I might read; Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, and the American Story by Howard Means.

The March 15, 2011 Booklist is a graphic novels issue.  I put the the graphic book, Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke on hold.  It looks to be a noire graphic novel.

Web Bits

Masterpiece Theater Book and Film Guide
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/bookclub/guides.html

Favorite books

This is the book Farewell to Manzanar. For those who may have never read it or even heard of it for that matter, it's a memoir. It was written by a girl named Jeanne Wakatsuki, it's a memoir about how her and her family lived in California during WWII and how her family were sent to Manzanar Internment camp along with all the other Japanese citizens for being suspected spies. It's a very good book. I thouroughly enjoyed reading it in high school and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it a second time, so if you like memoirs, you may like this one. In the book, at the beginning it has a glossary of terms because there are words mentioned in here people amy not know the meaning of.

Daily Thoughts 3/17/2011 (Advocacy, The Information, Books)

Einen Brief lesender alter Mann mit seiner Katze. Öl auf Leinwand. 59 x 42,5 cm., Man With Cat,
Christoph Paudiss, 17th Century

Daily Thoughts 3/17/2011

Today is relatively quiet.  I put together a brief list of groups that I think are often associated with advocacy for libraries around New York.

Advocacy Links:



ALTAFF - "Citizens for Libraries"
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/altaff/index.cfm

Empire Friends of New York State Roundtable (Friends Groups)
http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=57


Funding History For Libraries
http://midhudson.org/funding/advocacy/funding_history.htm


Geek The Library
http://www.geekthelibrary.org/


I Love Libraries
http://ilovelibraries.org/

Library Advocates Handbook
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/ola/libraryadvocateshandbook.cfm

Library Grants
http://www.librarygrants.blogspot.com/


Library Renewal
http://libraryrenewal.org/


Library Trustees Association of New York State
http://www.librarytrustees.org/


Marketing The Library (Training Module)
http://www.olc.org/marketing/


New York Library Association Advocacy
http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=514


New Poll Shows Continued Public Support For Increase in State Aid for Libraries
http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=1499


New York State Library Library Development
http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/

New Yorkers For Better Libraries
http://www.newyorkersforbetterlibraries.org/drupal/

PLA Advocacy Section
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/plaadvocacy/index.cfm


Save Libraries
http://savelibraries.org/

Save NYC Libraries
http://savenyclibraries.org/

Telling The Library Story Toolkit
http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/ld/t-z/tell-library-story/

10 Faq's About New York Libraries
http://www.nyla.org/content/user_1/nyla_10qs.doc


Turning The Page Online 2.0 Advocacy (Training Module)
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/plaevents/turningthepage/index.cfm


Small Groups

New York Librarians Meetup
http://www.meetup.com/NYLibrarians/


Urban Librarians Unite
http://urbanlibrariansunite.org/

I also put in some more surveys, checked the displays, and updated the Twitter account.

I had some time to read Kirkus Reviews and the New York Times Book Review.  We are not ordering anything right now.  I did put several more books on hold;  The Quantum Thief by Rajaniemi Hannu which is a science fiction novel, Powering The Dream The History of Green Technology by Alexis Madrigal, and The Forgotten Founding Father Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture by Joshua Kendall.  Noah Webster created The American Dictionary in 1828.

I am also considering getting a Vook which is an ebooks with video.  The title is Unleashing The Super Idea Virus by Seth Godin.  The price is $6.99 which is very affordable.

On the way home, I read some more of The Information by James Gleick.  James Gleick is writing about genes as information.  One of the people he writes about is Richard Dawkins who wrote the famous book, The Selfish Gene.  Richard Dawkins is also responsible for the concept of the meme.  I find the idea of a meme somewhat questionable.  A meme is an idea that spreads socially.  I also started reading The Phsyics of the Future by Michio Kaku.  I like Michio Kaku's message because he tells about a positive future through scientific invention and technology.  He likes to say his hero was Professor Zarkov from Flash Gordon.

Web Bits

Converting an Old Card Catalog Case into an eReader Cabinet
http://www.district87.org/bjhs/ereader_cabinet.htm

The World In 2050 Four Forces Shaping Civilizations Northern Future by Laurence C. Smith

The World In 2050 Four Forces Shaping Civilizations Northern Future by Laurence C. Smith





Laurence C. Smith is a geographer and a professor of earth and space science at UCLA. This book is about much more than climate change. It is about how the arctic is changing. This change is fueling a race for new resources in oil, natural gas, fisheries, mining, shipping, and open land.



In the beginning of the book, he focuses on four forces that bring change to the world; demographics, climate change, natural resource demand, and globalization. All of these are increasingly important. Global temperatures are rising, there are more people, more people are moving to cities, there is less water and other resources, and trade is more interdependent worldwide.



I think he may be wrong about some things. He does not factor in new technologies like urban farming, wave power, or digital fabrication. He is basing his predictions on there being no major breakthrough technologies.



The book is fascinating. It is easy to follow the changes he is describing. Brazil, Russia, India, and China are becoming manufacturing powers. India's cities are going to be the largest in the world.



We get to read about the consequences both negative and positive of the four forces. One thing I found especially interesting was his description of how wildlife and plant life are starting to move northward towards the heating arctic. I especially liked his description of a hybrid grizzly/polar bear.



In the second part of the book, he describes how the NORC countries; Canada, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and the United States are going to benefit in some ways from the opening of the arctic. Part of this description is how the United Nations arctic treaties are cementing the NORC countries peaceful control over the area.



Russia and Canada will be the futures largest suppliers of oil and natural gas. Also, there will be more water in the north as the arctic warms, and the southern countries water supplies dry up. The predictions show a pattern of rising importance for the northern countires.



We also learn how native populations in the Arctic will become more important, just like in Alaska where land and oil rights were given to many native Americans; in Canada, a whole new territory called New Nunavut has been carved out of the Arctic for the Canadian native peoples. It is being developed along a similar pattern to Alaska.



This is a fascinating story. I think the changes he is describing will be much faster than Laurence C. Smith anticipates. He is using very mainstream measurements.. There is a lot in this book worth thinking about.

Daily Thoughts 2/17/2011 (Events, Books, poetry, WEDC)

This little boy would persist in handling books above his capacity And this was the disastrous result.  Two panel cartoon showing Thaddeus Stevens standing on the top step of a step-ladder and lifting a large, heavy book from a high bookshelf; he falls off the ladder and is crushed by the book, the "Constitution of U.S." Date Created/Published: 1868 March 21.

Daily Thought 2/17/2011

There are two events of interest tonight.  We have the computer training for business in the computer lab from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and we have an Open Microphone Poetry Event featuring a local poet from 7:00-8:15 p.m featuring Mary Ann McCarra-Fitzpatrick.  She is one of the poets in an anthology called Blood Beats In Four Square Miles edited by James Fair who writes the poetry column for the Mount Vernon Inquirer.

I checked the displays this morning as well as looked over some of the items which we are inventorying in the mezzanine or storage area.  Three new books came in for me to read last night, Bite-Sized Marketing Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian by Nancy Dowd, Mary Evangeliste, and Jonathan Silberman, Data Driven by Thomas C. Redman, and Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord.

I had a chance to read through Library Journal, The New York Times Book Review, and Publishers Weekly Today.  I rather like the forthcoming title, The Most Human Human What Talking to Computers Teaches Us About Being Alive by Brian Christian.

The event for poetry went extremely well. We had the Mount Inquirer come in and take pictures of the event which was very nice.  It should provide some excellent publicity.  James "Jafa" Fair introduced the opening poet.  He is with the ACBAW Association of Community Based Artists of Westchester http://www.acbaw.org/main2.html  .  He video taped and took photographs of the event.

The lead poet was Maryann Mccarra-Fitzpatrick who read several poems from the anthology Blood Beats in Four Square Miles edited by James Fair.  http://mccarra--poetry.blogspot.com/2011/02/poetry-reading-mount-vernon-public.html  Five other published poets also read. Sister Sassy read a chapter from her memoir called "Guerrilla Girl".  It was an excellent reading.

We also filled the computer lab for the computer basics for business class from the Womens Enterprise Development Center. http://www.wedc-westchester.org/

I had a chance to read a bit more of The World In 2050.  The author is describing the relationship between water and energy.  Nuclear power plants, biodiesel, hydroelectric, and coal plants tend to use lots of water.
Solar and wind energy don't use as much.  I am surprised that the author does not touch on tidal power or tidal turbines.

Web Bits

TOC 2011: Keynoter Margaret Atwood Highlights Author Role
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/889316-264/toc_2011_keynoter_margaret_atwood.html.csp

Exploring Your Vision

Weird name, huh? Well, I have an Introduction to Art class here at Gateway and we recently had to do a collage. The teacher says that whatever we put on it, this collage is supposed to draw that towards us. I know it sounds weird, but the collage was fun. If you know me like my family does, you can probably imagine that there were quite a few pics here and there of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.  And there eneded up being almost a million pictures of all things 1960s, and apparently in the eyes of the teacher, with the pictures of Jet Li and Lucy Liu I put on there, I desire strength, and also freedom because I happened to have mentioned that my dad and sister aren't exactly the biggest fans of The Beatles, sometimes known as the Fab Four or The Rolling Stones. And along with other pictures, I definitely ended up putting at least 2 or 3 pictures of Mick Jagger on it, 2 when he was younger, 1of him from 2006 on stage, sorry but this guy totally kicks butt on stage compared to Roger Daltrey of The Who. Nothing against any possible fans of The Who out there, but Mick Jagger doesn't do anything dangerous compared to Roger swinging his mic stand around Tarzan-style. Any way, I put all kinds of stuff on it, and prior to this we ahd to do a worksheet to help us figure out what was going on it, me being the moron I sometimes am, the posterboard that was needed for it, I brought the wrong size and another girl had to give me a piece, it was bright green, love that color. Anyway, here are some of the questions that were asked on that worksheet:


My favorite childhood game was: Candyland, Trouble, Chutes and Ladders
My favorite childhood toy was: Legos(still love Legos, I mean, who doesn't?), Barbie
If I had the perfect childhood, I would now: be no different, I'd probably be the same as I am now.
My favorite thing to read is: The Lovely Bones, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Night, All the Alex Cross stories
The music that makes me most happy is: The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, The Beatles, Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Paul McCartney
My favorite movie of all time is: Kiss of the Dragon, Freejack, Ned Kelly, Rocky IV, The Full Monty
My favorite costume was: Geisha Girl. Last year Geisha Girl was my Halloween costume. I didn't go trick or treating, way too old, I just love the thrill of dressing up. I live for it!
If I could travel anywhere, it would be to: China, Japan, England, Italy, Germany, Russia, Australia
If I could live anywhere, it would be: Australia, England, China, Japan, Italy
Sometimes I'm afraid that if I pursue exactly what I want: I'd get made fun of. I'd be the only one with goals like that, and there'd be obstacles in my way.
If I had been encouraged to follow my dreams, I would: Probably have followed them, but like all things, there would be obstacles in the way
While I love to learn foreign languages, I rarely find the time to do it
My ideal of home is:

• London, England: it's culturally interesting, the only obstacle I'd face is the currency issue, dollars aren't the currency in England like it is here in the US, quid, pounds, etc is in England. But I'd have a whole bunch of fun learning how to adjust.
• Australia: It would have to be 1 of 3 places along the coast: Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney.The reason I'd love to live here is because it has this Wild West feel to, it feels far away and exotic, but feels like a good place to live
• China(Beijing, Hong Kong): The culture is so endlessly fascinating to me, the history, customs, traditions, etc, are all so interesting to me.
• Japan(Tokyo, Okinawa, Osaka, Kyoto): The reason is the same as China. Japanese history, customs, traditions, etc are so interestnig to me.
• Italy(Rome,Venice, Naples, Palermo): The countryside is so beautiful and Italy is an overall beautiful place. Anywhere in Italy is good for me.

My ideal of a partner is: If partner means someone you date, my ideal of a partner would be a guy who is nice, caring, considerate of others, treats people nice, has a romantic side, and a funny side, can definitely cook, with a taste for adventure, loves to have fun. Looks don't matter!
Name five careers that you would love:

• Artist
• Dancer
• Teacher
• Tattoo Artist
• Bartender
• Jewelry Designer
• Video Game Designer
• Interior Designer
• CD Cover Designer(a role model for me for this one career is Peter Corriston, who designed alot of the Rolling Stones CD covers, including the one for Some Girls and the one for Tattoo You)
• Cook/Chef
• Writer
• Traveler
• Interpreter for foreign languages

What do you find inspiring or uplifing to your spirit:

• I'm not sure
• I guess listening to music
• Drawing, painting, anything creative
• Putting together puzzles
• Being alone, doing what I want
• Dancing to the beat of music, doing ballet
• Working on the computer
• Being in my Art 100(Intro. to Art) class
• Reading books

If money was no objection and you were free from all obstructions, what would you do:

• Go to a Rolling Stones concert
• Learn to read, write, and speak Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian
• Go to an Aerosmith concert
• See China, Japan, Italy, Russia, Australia, England
• Live in China, Japan, Italy, Australia or England
• Go mining for opals in Lightning Ridge in Australia
• Become a better dancer
• Learn to play soccer better
• Take my dad to a Broadway play in NYC
• Meet someone famous
• See the world
• Go rock climbing
• Get a tattoo
• Make a change in someone's life
• Be a bartender
• Paint better
• Meet the Rolling Stones
• Meet Aerosmith
• Take my sister to a New York Yankees baseball game
• Live every day like it was my last
• Go to a concert
• As a hobby, do bartending
• Design jewelry as a hobby
• Meet someone new
• Fall in love
• Have enough money to take care of the real important stuff

Libros

For those Spanish speakers out there, this means books in Spanish, but if you know Spanish, you probably already knew that. :)


I have too many favorite books to count. But here's one of my most favorites.

This book is about a 14 year old girl named Susie Salmon. She's your typical high schooler, she just happens to live in what I think may be one of the coolest decades ever, the 1970s. She's your typical high schooler, she has a crush on a fellow schoolmate, an British-born Indian male named Ray Singh. But one day when she takes her normal route through a cornfield to get home, she's approached by her creepy neighbor George Harvey, who lives alone in a green house near the Salmon residence. He builds dollhouses for a living, and unbeknownst to anyone, is also a killer. He takes Susie to this underground shelter he built and that's where he kills her. In the story, it's said he also rapes and murders her. Meanwhile, her family is convinced she's late coming home from school, and when her elbow is found by a neighbor's dog, only then is the family convinced that Susie Salmon is dead. This almost tears the family apart, and the grandma in the family, Grandma Lynn comes to stay. The mother, Abigail, goes to California because she has to get away. And the detective investigating the case, Len Fenerman, starts to fall for the mother Abigail.

Meanwhile, up in the world above, Susie's spirit tries to point here family in the direction of the eerie neighbor in the nearby green house. Up in the in-between, which is what her brother Buckley calls it, she befriends a pretty Asian girl named Holly Golightly, after the Breakfast at Tiffany's character. The story reveals that George Harvey killed her while she was waiting for her father to close up their restaurant. At the time this story was supposed to take place, no one ever heard of missing kids, and even when they did go missing, they all looked the same-white girls with mousy brown hair if not brown hair, mousy hair and white girls.

Daily Thoughts 1/14/2011 (Art)

This picture was taken from the Dictionnaire encyclopédique Trousset, also known as the Trousset encyclopedia, Paris, 1886 - 1891.


Daily Thoughts 1/14/2011

Today was an interesting day.  We had a meeting about scheduling this morning which went fairly well.  The displays are in good order.  I also spent some time talking about ordering with the head childrens librarian.


We have display cabinets in the rotunda which we use as an art gallery. The rotunda has a fresco from the Works Project Administration which is a copy of the Unicorn Tapestry in the Cluny Museum in Paris.  I put in a variety of regular size and oversize books on African American and African artists to complement the show they are doing today.  It complements the Diaspora A Cultural Expression of Art exhibit opening which is this afternoon between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. http://www.mountvernonpubliclibrary.org/node/221


Web Bits

I am planning on going to Book Camp 2 on February 13, 2011 from 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1202042341/estw

Neil Gaiman on Ebooks http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2011/01/neil-gaiman-on-ebooks/

Letting Go of the Words Writing Web Content That Works by Janice Ginny Radish.

Letting Go of the Words Writing Web Content That Works by Janice Ginny Radish.

This book focuses on how to write content for the web.  It is more than just writing content. Janice Radish describes how to write links, describe pathways between different parts of websites, include images with text, and write specific types of informational pages.

Writing for the web is different than writing on paper.  Communication occurs in shorter paragraphs with more concise language.  Because it is more visually oriented, headings are more important, and paragraphs are often broken down into bulleted or numbered lists.

The examples in this book are mainly commercial pages.  There are many full color diagrams, photographs, and web page captures with explanations . This makes the book very easy to follow.  There is also a bibliography and index.

I found some of the things she describes quite useful.  For example, she tells us how to create an ideal user profile, and break apart large blocks of written text into shorter paragraphs with bolded headings and links. 

If you are writing a commercial or informational site this book should be quite helpful.  There are discussons on how to write a frequently asked questions page, add text to images, and create easy to follow directions between home, pathway, and information pages.

I found this book because I was reading about content strategy. Content strategy is about planning for all the different content that will go into a website including words, images, sound, and other media.  It is an emerging field of practice in web development.  It is often aligned with information architecture.

Echo An Alex Benedict Novel by Jack McDevitt

Echo An Alex Benedict Novel by Jack McDevitt




Echo is part of a series of novels featuring Alex Benedict, a recoverer of antiquities in the far future. In this novel, Alex Benedict is following the trail of an inscription written in stone which is part of no known human language. The inscription makes for an excellent gimmick.



The characterization is better than his earlier novels. I especially liked Sunset Tuttle, an explorer seeking alien civilizations for philosophical reasons. He creates an excellent back story for the book.



Alex Benedict's adversaries are more tragic than evil. The novel is more about how mistakes can lead to horrific consequences. The one exception is the sociopathic assassin bent on killing Chase Kolpath and Alex Benedict. However, the assassin is more subtle and devious than a brutish adversary.



This novel successfully combines mystery, exploration, archaeology, and suspense into a superb science fiction novel. It is the fifth in the Alex Benedict series. The third novel in the series, Seeker, won the Nebula Award.