Daily Thoughts 5/13/2010

Book Poster for Bismarck The Man And The Statesman, Autobiography, 1911.

Daily Thoughts 5/13/2010

Today has been a quiet day. I have been looking at signage for different things in the library including dvds and biography. I also have been looking at the shelving to see how everything is. There also has been some work on creating a sample page for Bookletters widgets and links.

The book War At The Wall Street Journal Inside The Struggle To Control An American Business Empire by Sarah Ellison is on my desk.

I am also looking at Book Expo America events. I like a few of them; The AAP (American Associationof Publishers) Annual Librarians Book Buzz from 2- 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 2010 in Room 1 CO 3-4; The Community Social Networking: A Guide For Retailers and Librarians on May 26, 2010 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in Room 1E03; Nancy Pearl Unshelved on May 27, 2010 from 2-3:00 p.m., and the 2nd Annual Librarian Shout and Share on Thursday May 27, 2010 from 3:30-5:00 p.m. (Barbara Genco will be one of the panelists on this session.) There are other events. Hopefully, I will get a chance to get a signed book from both Cheri Priest and David Weber from the autographing areas. I will be going to the Day of the Dialog on May 25, 2010 which should be very interesting.

I am also working on which booths I will visit at the conference. I usually make a list of all the booths I will look at before I go.

I finished reading Dan Roam, The Back of the Napkin. It was interesting reading. It was a methodology to visualize and simplify business goals. I did one of the exercises with identifying customers and found it to be very interesting. I found it useful because it helped me understand basic charts, graphs, maps, and diagrams better. It also has a very nice framework for problem solving.

Daily Thoughts 5/12/2010

French poet, writer and dandy, Robert de Montesquiou (1855-1921) in 1897. Portrait by Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931).

Daily Thoughts 5/12/2010

Today has been another quiet day. We had our ordering meeting. There is a biography which sounds quite interesting, The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century by Alan Brinkley. It went quite smoothly.

I also worked a bit more with the shelf signage. It is starting to look a little better. This evening, I spent some more time with Bookletters. So far, I have figured out how to get hyperlinks and book widgets. It is a steady process. It is going to take some time to begin to get used to the system.

This morning, I read some more of The Back of the Napkin. There is a lot on how to look at things visually so that they are easy to understand and translate basic images into questions that can be easily interpreted. It is a system of visualization and imagery for business. The main focus is problem solving.

Daily Thoughts 5/10/2010

George Washington's Home, The Library, Mount Vernon, VA, postcard.

Daily Thoughts 5/10/2010

The next book in the Leviathan trilogy is Behemoth. It is a young adult steampunk novel set in Istanbul which should be very interesting to read. The book is coming out in October. I enjoyed reading Scott Westerfeld.

I am reading Dan Roam , The Back of the Napkin Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, Expanded Edition. It is about visual problem solving. That is how to think through ideas using simple diagrams and pictures. It is very easy to follow. The author uses stick figures, squares, triangles, clean lines, and other simple methods to make it easy to understand what he is writing about. It is more than a book on just solving problems; it is also about how to pay attention to the world.

Today was very quiet. I am thinking about what I will do for Book Expo America. I have to look at the floor plans to check where I will be going as well as where I will be meeting people on the floor. I am going to plan out which sessions I am going to attend. I also have to figure out what I am going to do at the Book Blogging Expo on May 28 as well.

I also am thinking about what I should do to further my own training and education. There is going to be a webinar for Bookletters tomorrow which should be interesting. I have not done a whole lot of webinars. I am looking forward to reading a book called DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (Paperback)~ by Anya Kamenetz. I am very interested in how online classes work, even online degree programs.

I am also considering reading Iron yoga : combine yoga and strength training for weight loss and total body fitness by Carillo, Anthony. When I had more time I used to lift weights. I now mainly do floor exercises every night. It would be interesting seeing how floor exercises would be combined with light weights.