Redhaired Librarian

Book Meme

I have a lot of half-finished posts sitting in my drafts folder. I’ve been busy with school, Scouts, conferences, and various other things. I saw I got tagged for a meme, though, and since I’m currently procrastinating on a paper, I decided to go ahead and do it.

Book Meme Rules
1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people

All places of public resort require the restraint of a police, and places of this kind peculiarly, because offenses against society are especially apt to originate there.

The next three sentences take up about a page: it’s John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty.

Consider yourself tagged… but I think I’m the last person to do this meme.

MoLib 2006: Using Your Body

“Using Your Body to Reach Their Mind”
Presented by Jennifer Martin, PhD, UMKC
2:15-3:45, Wednesday, October 4, 2006

We did not stay for the whole presentation because it conflicted with another presentation we wanted to go to. Dr. Martin talked about using three in-take modes (hearing/verbal, facial/emotional, and kinesthetic/action) to communicate with library users. She is a drama professor, though, and did not have a great deal of library-specific examples. This session was a great idea, but was not exactly what I was expecting.

Trouble-Shooting

I’m putting these solutions here in case someone else is searching for the same problem.

1. I couldn’t send IMAP email using Outlook 2003. Uninstalled McAfee Spamkiller, and now it works just fine.

2. I couldn’t see .pdf files in Firefox after I bought the Adobe suite. Turns out, I had an old Acrobat Reader lurking around. Once I uninstalled that, I was able to view .pdfs again.

Library Borrows Bookstore Display Ideas

The Central Library in Des Moines borrows some ideas for displays from Barnes & Noble. 

The article mentions the coffee-book link.  Which is interesting to me, because back in the 80s, when I was designing my ideal bookstore, it included a cafe.  Books and coffee go together in my mind.

I’m still mulling over the idea of libraries taking ideas from retail.  A lot of the question boils down to what is a library?  What is the library’s goal?  It seems obvious at first, but then when you start talking to people, you start to realize that everyone who’s interested in libraries has a deeply personal, individual idea of what a library actually is.

The article includes this quote: “Libraries are no different than bookstores,” said Des Moines City Councilwoman Christine Hensley. “It’ll have the coffee shop, meeting rooms, study rooms.”  Libraries are very different from bookstores.  Bookstores don’t have meeting rooms and study rooms.  Browsing in bookstores is for paying customers only– or, at least, customers who look like they have the ability to pay.  The information is for paying customers only.

Another major difference is the availability of old, out of print, obscure works.  Tax laws and the realities of business force bookstores to keep only the newest, best-selling works.  There’s little there for the “long tail,” the niche readers.   

Sometimes I worry that we will lose sight of the idea that the library is for all.  I think libraries can use a few marketing tips, but we need to carefully consider the impact of what we do.  (And frankly, I would rather see us making design and marketing decisions from a solid knowledge of marketing, public relations, and the social effects of architectural/ interior design, rather than from the knowledge of “It works for Barnes & Noble.”  I hope we understand WHY we are doing things.)

To compete, libraries take page from retail

To compete, libraries take page from retail – The Boston Globe

My comments to come later.

blyberg.net » Creating a virtual card catalog

I have finally gotten through my huge backlog on bloglines.  Woo!  Now it will be easier to keep up every day.  While I was catching up, I found this neat post on blyberg.net.

blyberg.net » Creating a virtual card catalog

Tagged by Joy

Joy at Wanderings of a Student Librarian tagged me for the 4 Things meme 2 weeks ago (my world was busy being crazy, so this is the first chance I’ve had to actually DO the thing!

Four jobs I’ve had

• Air Force broadcaster
• Radio DJ
• Associate Producer for local network affiliate news
• Wire news writer

Four movies I can watch over and over

• Princess Bride
• Spinal Tap
• UHF
• Real Genius

Four places I’ve lived

• Las Vegas
• Athens, Greece
• The Azores
• Seoul, Korea

Four TV shows I love

• House
• Numb3rs
• Invasion
• Good Eats

Four places I’ve vacationed
(I’ve not really “vacationed” since we got back to the states.)

• Berchtesgaden, Germany
• Garmisch, Germany
• Leiden, Holland
• Paris, France

Four of my favorite dishes

• Gnocchi ai Quattro Formaggi
• Spaghetti Carbonara
• Good Fortune Wrap from Main Squeeze
• Hummus and pita

Four sites I visit daily (only four!)

• Livejournal
• Blackboard
• 3FatChicks
• ObscureStore

Four places I would rather be right now

• Italy
• Italy
• Italy
• Italy

Continuing Eli’s additions

Four books (or series) I love

• Anything by Jonathan Carroll
• Anything by Holly Lisle
• ” Neil Gaiman
• ” Jodi Picoult

Four video games I can (and do) play over and over

• Zoo Tycoon
• Civilization
• Sudoku
• Four? Who has time for four?

Four bloggers I am tagging
(I’m not going to tag anyone because I’m not sure who has done this already. Consider yourself tagged if you haven’t.)

• You
• You
• You
• You

Blackboard & WebCT Merger

Meredith of Information Wants To Be Free writes about the merger of Blackboard and WebCT. I’m not crazy about this merger because I think both pieces of software are lacking in ways that do not complement each other. WebCT is supposedly more stable, but since Blackboard is the buying entity, that stability might be a thing of the past. I’m taking classes with both software this semester. Frankly, I’d like to see a third software come along. Creating a good discussion board is not a mystery, yet neither Blackboard nor WebCT has managed it. I started my distance learning using email, then went on to WebTYCHO. WebTYCHO was a bit too complicated and slow, but in a lot of ways, it had advantages over Blackboard and WebCT, especially when it came to the arrangement of the discussion board. A good discussion board is essential in distance learning.

Blackboard & WebCT Merger

Meredith of Information Wants To Be Free writes about the merger of Blackboard and WebCT. I’m not crazy about this merger because I think both pieces of software are lacking in ways that do not complement each other. WebCT is supposedly more stable, but since Blackboard is the buying entity, that stability might be a thing of the past. I’m taking classes with both software this semester. Frankly, I’d like to see a third software come along. Creating a good discussion board is not a mystery, yet neither Blackboard nor WebCT has managed it. I started my distance learning using email, then went on to WebTYCHO. WebTYCHO was a bit too complicated and slow, but in a lot of ways, it had advantages over Blackboard and WebCT, especially when it came to the arrangement of the discussion board. A good discussion board is essential in distance learning.

Ideas and Caffeine

I have to stop trying to run on ideas and caffeine. Stuff gets going in my head, though. My research is finally rolling smoothly– at the very last possible minute. Now, I have this idea that I might start podcasting, but I’m not sure exactly what I want to podcast. I really don’t want to do bloggy navel-gazing. A couple of ideas I have are podcasting annotations of YA novels on my Teen/Tween blog or podcasting commentary on various library or education books I am reading or have read. I don’t want to podcast just to podcast, though, and I don’t want to start something I can’t keep up with.