Librarian at work, Librarian at home!

Librarything.com

WOW

Now you never have to leave your work.... even when there is nothing to think about connected to work once you close that library door - now you can be a librarian at home! Why one asks? Good question. Maybe somebody thought that librarians are inherently anal, and need to organize their books at home as they do at work. Maybe someone out there thinks that we librarians think in terms of categories and Dewey numbers at all times, organize our houses and lives by labeling things fiction (my 9 year olds' excuse for not doing her homework) non fiction (MOM!!! I peed my pants - the 3 year old) Fantasy : husband is coming home to cook me a 3 course dinner after which all kinds of romantic events will follow, etc. etc. The truth is, I am sure they are out there - the librarians who organize and straighten, and catalog their lives, but there are many people doing the same that are involved in firefighting, teaching, sales and other occupations. And then there are those of us librarians, whose desks are a dead give away that our lives are not as organized as our shelves....

so I jumped into librarything, teased by its promises of cataloging as easy as 'find and click', thinking I was in for an immediate reorg and relocation of all my books (and my kids', and my husbands', and those left behind by visitors!) NO such luck. The site allows you to catalog, and list your books, but that is about it. So now I can search my own list to see if I do or do not own a book, but they are not sorted or categorized. OK - so you can tag each book, that would certainly make a search easier. Let's remember: we're talking about unorganized people trying to organize such an amorphous growing changing and always out of control thing as their book collection! These people will NEVER remember what tags they used for what kind of book. Was it local eating? adventure or travel? animals or pets? Magic or fantasy?

Maybe someone could design a website that allows us un-organized poor souls to list the many tags we use for all our books, photos, video's, and others.....

Here is what I do like about librarything:

you can compare your bookcase to someone else's. This allows you to find people with similar tastes and look on their bookshelf for titles you have not yet perused... It is like taking a sneak peak into someones living room - exciting and somewhat clandestine...

You can try to have your book group members join - if it is not too personal (there is that living room thing) I know that within my own book group there are very different tastes. The members of my book group have gotten me to read things that I would never have picked up by myself. Because I trust them I think it would be cool to scan the shelves of my book group friends and pick a book that way. Hey - if I really don't like it - they will never know and I will never tell!

(Might give you some secret insight into peoples lives, thoughts, and fantasies too!)

Falling of the wagon (also known as the book mobile)

I almost fell of the VT's 23 things wagon! Almost... not quite.
Then - through the wonders of modern technology I received an email in my 'in box' informing me of 2 other participants still hanging in there!
I was saved! I am back on the wagon!

All due to that one message: 'YOU'VE GOT MAIL!'

This week was dedicated to web generators.

Unfortunately I found the Ben & Jerry's web generator and got lost in flavor land.

Next, I found out the drawback of 'the buck stops here...' Apparently even generous B&J's stops their benevolence at sharing their (fun) artwork. In other words, corporate America (yes even those that start in backyard garages) do not want to play and share: You can play with their images, you can even send them to other people, and share on social networking sites, but you may not save them on your lovely computer.

I am thinking there are many computer savvy people out there who can figure out ways around this, but for those of us who like to just 'click and paste' this is a serious waste of time.

All that fun designing labels and flavors for hours on end - and then - NOTHING: no jpeg., no doc., no nothing....

I did manage to somehow get the picture transported to a word doc, but now have to figure out how to manipulate it from there. Maybe I should look at this as a gift from B&J: yet another opportunity/motivator/challenge to dive deeper into techno world.

So - whilst the world is waiting for the pictorial rendition of my B&J's flavor

LIBRARY LIBATIONS

(with lots of caffeine products of course!)

I will take this opportunity to clarify which of the 23 things occur in which of my blog postings.

I have taken the liberty to write some (opinionated) entries between the WEB2.0 articles, so this list should make it easier to find my ideas on the first 6 things!

blog posting: Continued education, day 1 thing: Blogging
blog posting: Week 2, 7 1/2 habits thing: comments on 7 1/2 habits

blog posting: From Flickr to Fall thing: Flickr

blog posting: Young Adult Fiction thing: Webinars (not one of 23 things but web2.0!)

blog posting: The Beauty of Banned books thing: RSS Feeds

blog posting: A Library's Social Network thing: Facebook

blog posting: Falling of the wagon thing: Web generators

Oh - and I did fall of the wagon: the ice cream wagon - despite my ravings -

a good helping of Cherry Garcia never hurt anyone! (especially not me!)

so thanks B&J, for web generators, motivation/challenges, and great tasting ice cream!

Who Reviews the Reviews?

When reading book reviews, I always wonder: who reviews the reviews?

In other words - who decides that one review is better than another? Who is the best judge of the written word?

Is it the people who sell the books - highly unlikely - they're in it for the money right?

Is it stylists - the MLA and other sources who decide the book is written 'correctly'? Not likely either - that would probably lead to the scrapping of many novels we have all enjoyed due to incorrect use of the English language.

Is it the large pool of English teachers and professors - would they still know what makes a good read, even after analysing and at times shredding books apart in the name of knowledge?

Could it be that publishers really do write objective synopses and reviews - doubtful, since they are pushing 'their' author into the public eye.

Okay - so then there are the professional reviews like Library List, Book List, etc. They do a decent job, they are known for subjectivity and their reviewers generally write good synopsis. But do they know YOU? Do they know what peaks your interest, what gets you riled up, what makes you think days after you have put the book down?

I suggest, that despite the numerous options for those of us whishing to ponder reviews, we take a short walk/drive/bus ride to our local (independent) bookstore or library. Granted, even your local librarian and bookseller are under pressure to perform and drum up numbers for statistics.

There is something to be said, however, for the sense that these individuals have of their village or town. The knowledge they possess about the individuals that make up their community. The relationships that have been forged over months and years allows your local book-friend to give you a review that is thoughtful and personalised, because this person knows YOU! (or your friend, or your grandmother, or your old pre-school teacher..... You get the drift...)

When you find yourself looking for a new good read in the near future:

read the reviews in the magazines, the papers, and on your pod casts - then get yourself to your local book haven, be it library or independent bookstore, and treat yourself to a personalised book chat!

seriously serious about series?

Are we in the book reading world really serious about series?

I have found great pros and con's to all the series being published at lightning speed these days, and am starting to question the quality of each.

What once started as a good idea or premise for a book gets milked to the utmost until the pages run dry.... As I watch my own 4th grader anticipate the latest title in the 'Mysterious Benedict Society' series, and eagerly await yet another Sisters Grimm, I wonder how well written, how intricately plotted, and really, how intriguing these books can be? I cannot keep up with them all, because they are published at astonishing rates. Even books that were great as 'stand alone' titles have been relegated to the 'series' shelf by what I perceive the publishers greedy push for MORE MORE ($ that is) to be. If it was a succes the first time round, then let's keep the formula and replicate it over and over. And yet...... those young readers out there are more savvy then we might think - many of them switch between series half way through, figure out the endings of the book before they turn the last page due to familiarity with formula, or plain don't finish title umpty due to boredom. I was astonished to see a sequel to 'The higher power of lucky' and saddened by the multiples of Penderwick books.

The pro's of the series are clear - they hook the reader, they are predictable and therefore comfortable, they are easy to recommend to young patrons because they are popular, and parents are kept happy because their child is reading.

I would urge these (often very talented authors) to examine the writing of their readers: few children in school write constantly about the same issues and characters. Most young writers use their imagination to help them 'reinvent' themselves and the world around them. There are no series of 'my vacation' or 'our favorite pet', no sequels to term papers and no applause is to be had from the adult population when students reproduce the same formula over and over :

We ask students to be creative, imaginative, and individual in their literary musings -

Lets ask ourselves to do the same.....

new gadgets

Sometime this week I will review thoughts on books and literature related issues, but for today, let me mention the new gadgets and technology that have come my way since starting this course. It is pretty amazing how fast you can learn if given some incentive, and what a BIG world it is out there!

So here is the list

brand NEW(!!!!) teeny weeny 12" computer (maroon I might add:))

discovered my free Verizon phone acts like an MP3 player

found out free phone only takes insanely small plug for earphones : earphone adaptor added

extra memory card for phone so as to download more files

podcasts are now my new motivator for running/walking with said phone

Google reader keeps me updated faster

found cool Iapplet site: Questia Media, Inc

used flickr although not a big fan

joined a group on flickr and added library pictures

made facebook page for our library and so far have 10 fans (that is 4 more than last week)

How's that for entering the world of technology full blast????

Pat on back

back to literary issues

A Library's social network

Who knew that a library (a public place full of people socially interacting whether they like it or not) needed a social network? Apparently we do...

A couple of weeks ago our lovely library was catapulted into active cyberspace by the launch of its facebook page. We were already 'out there' (and you may take that as you whish), but a website is much more static, requires a lot more work to keep it updated, and won't let us bother our FANS with timely updates to the second! Well, now we can.

The main question is - how do we get all those booklovers to visit us on Facebook and click on the 'become a fan' button? As much as Facebook is a kind of free forum for library programming advertising, it requires advertising elsewhere to let people know we are actively socialising!



So - do we pay for advertising to let people know we can advertise to them for free?



For now - we will tell people on our (static) website, on our bookmarks, flyers, and posters, that we are available to them 24hrs a day, rain or shine, recession or no recession - for FREE...

the beauty of banned books

It is through designing a library display for banned books week that I have finally entered the world of RSS feeds!

I have subscribed to some feeds (mostly through School Library Journal) which have provided me with excellent up to date materials with which to enhance the display.

Banned books week allows us all to (re)consider the idea of freedom of speech, freedom to information, and freedom of expression - harder to control in the cyber-world, and therefore more challenged in the the tangible world of libraries by narrow minded people.

The truth is, however, that many books that are challenged every year are the same; and so my display was looking rather tired - tattered versions of Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN, alongside sad looking versions of LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER, piled on top of coverless versions of THE CHOCOLATE WAR, etc.

The RSS feeds, however, have kept me up to speed with the most recently challenged books (TIN TIN, TWILIGHT, etc) I now know that unfortunately Tango the penguin's parents have split, so people uncomfortable with the same sex relationships of our black and white friends can relax: the sequal should present a happy conservative, black and white (literally) family portrait.

IF you haven't tried it yet - sign up for some RSS feeds - you'll be updated in a jiffy, and you can move on with your enlightened life!