Daily Thoughts 7/18/2011

A Writer Trimming his Pen, Jan Ekels

Daily Thoughts 7/18/2011

I finished reading On Leadership today which is part of Harvard Business Review's 10 Must Reads series.  A lot of it was about self management and self-awareness.  It basically says unless you have yourself organized you won't be able to organize other people.  I also started reading Curation Nation by Steven Rosenbaum.  I like the idea that we are all curators of everything we put online.

Today, we finished a five foot banner in Microsoft Publishers for the CD Music collection.  I checked the Twitter account and the displays as well.

Our Sony representative came by and opened the display for the Sony Readers.  We now have three circulating sony PRS-350 ereaders.  These are the first circulating cataloged ereaders in Westchester county.  One of them has already gone out five times on the new record for the PRS-350.  The checkout is for two hours at a time.  People are coming and using them to find out how an ereader works or want to see how the Sony E-reader is different from the Kindle or Nook.  We have a user agreement for the ereaders.  We got the Sony grant for the three free ereaders.  They also sent us a lot of promotional material. http://ebookstore.sony.com/library-program/

We are not using Overdrive to fill the ereaders.  Right now, we have started by downloading 108 free books from the Baen Free Library, Project Gutenberg, and other sites.  We will be adding more free ebooks slowly and may eventually start purchasing books for the ereaders.

I read some more of Curation Nation.  The author is specifically talking about curating content on the web.  This means organizaing and selecting specialty information for websites.  This can range from cooking sites to books.  The author describes how The Huffington Post rose to prominence by aggregating content from a variety of sources as well including their own content editors.  

Daily Thoughts 7/17/2011

The Tycoons Messengers Reading the Sentence by J.M.W. Silver Photo from "Sketches of Japanese Manners and Customs", by J. M. W. Silver, Illustrated by Native Drawings, Reproduced in Fac-simile by Means of Chromo-lithography, published in London in 1867

Daily Thoughts 7/17/2011


I spent some more time on Google+. The service is currently restricted to 18+ in age and is in beta test.  I am enjoying it in some ways.  It takes a little bit of time to start using these things correctly.

I read some more of On Leadership. I am learning that a lot of the articles focus on self understanding in the context of work.  They also talk about how it is important to think strategically about what you are doing.

Web Bits

Libraries Torn as Public Need Soars, Public Funds Tighten
http://www.lohud.com/article/20110717/NEWS01/107170336

Daily Thoughts 7/12/2011

The Reading Room, 1843, Johann Peter Hansclever, Oil On Canvas

Daily Thoughts 7/12/2011

On the way to work, I tried starting Esmerald Santiago, Conquistadora, but I found the book told the story more than it showed they story making for dense reading.  I am going to try another book.  I read the chapter, What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter Drucker in On Leadership.  Part of his idea is that an effective executive delegates well and runs excellent meetings.  Peter Drucker wrote the book, The Effective Executive.

This morning I checked the Twitter account, checked email reference, looked over the displays, and printed up some batches of flyers and bookmarks.  We make bookmarks using cardstock on a variety of different subjects; inspirational fiction, graphic novels, writing books, poetry, and many other subjects.  We are having our second session for beginning computers this evening at 6:00 p.m.

I am going to read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  It is another advanced reading copy provided by Library Journal.  The language of flowers refers to an English Victorian idea that flowers each have different meanings. The book is coming out in August of 2011.

I am enjoying reading The Language of Flowers.  The imagery of flowers juxtaposed against emotions makes for a very strong story.  The writing is beautiful.