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.

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.

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.

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.)

My comments to come later.

blyberg.net » Creating a virtual card catalog

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