Exercise 1: Membership in Book Clubs
I joined my first book club in the late 70's when I lived in Illinois. Those were the years when I was working for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and I met a bunch of terrific like-minded people. Some of us formed a feminist book club, named the Gutsy Women. This was a wonderful bonding among friends, and as I think about it now, it may have influenced my decision to become a librarian later. I had been on a science track before this, eventually earning a Ph.D. in Entomology. All I read was serious non-fiction, and I thought of reading as hard work. The Gutsy Women showed me that reading fiction was an acceptable pastime for intelligent people, and that reading could be fun. I was hooked.
Today I facilitate two books clubs, one at the Barbara Bush Library, and one at my church, Hosanna Lutheran. They are quite different from each other, but both are enjoyable. I would love to start more book clubs, but I am a sadly slow reader, and two required books a month is about all I can handle in addition to my personal reading.
I love the fast-paced face-to-face unpredictable interaction between readers discussing a good book, and I would never consider joining an online book club (unless perhaps I was homebound and couldn't get out).
Exercise 2: Implementing Book Clubs
I am helping to implement book clubs today by doing training for book club discussion leaders. This is offered as part of the "Big Read" grant happening from mid-April through May. The training session open to the public is on Friday, April 24, from 10 am to noon at the Barbara Bush Library. Any staff member who would like to offer this training at their own branch can contact me. I can do the training, help you do the training, or provide the materials for you to do the training yourself. The "Big Read" training will be focused on the classic book "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, but this training could be done at any time of the year, using any book.
The library book club that I host reads a wide variety of materials, from various fiction genres to non-fiction selections. The suggestions come from the participants. You can see what we have read by visiting our Library Thing site. Log in as "bushbookclub", password "barbara". By clicking on the tab for "Your Library", you can see the books this group has read and discussed over the last six years.
Books on Social Networking Sites
I searched again for "The Guide" by R.K. Narayan, as discussed in my first post for this exercise, with these results:
GoodReads: a rating of 3.9 out of 5.0, based on 282 ratings.
Shelfari: a rating of 4.0 out of 5.0, including 21 reviews
Library Thing: a rating of 3.61 out of 5.0, based on 343 entries; no reviews.
Books on Facebook: I had trouble finding this group on Facebook. The first one I found had comments all in Italian. The second was a controlled membership group that you had to be invited to join. All in all, this was not a user-friendly experience.
The sites where I found ratings were quite similar. It sounds like "The Guide" is a "pretty good" book, and one that I will want to read in-between book club selections!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Books, Readers and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online [Exercise 3: Downloading an e-Book]
In 2008, I taught an adult Sunday School series on the book "Real Faith for Real Life" by Michael Foss. I bought the book from Amazon, and had the option to buy the e-book version at the same time for just $.99 extra. It was a good thing that I exercised that option, because I ended up giving the print version away to a student in the class, and had to depend on the e-book to prepare my notes.
With Amazon, you don't really "download" the e-book into your computer. Instead, you view it online through your Amazon account. This was one disadvantage --I had to be at my computer and online in order to read the book.
For the first few chapters, I was able to copy and paste lines into my teaching outline. This was great and a real time-saver. However, I soon hit the copyright "wall" and couldn't do this any longer. This meant that I had to flip back and forth between the book and my Word screen in order to make notes. This was NOT fun.
If you are just reading and not trying to make notes, an advantage is that you can highlight sections of the book, write online annotations, and bookmark special areas. To review what you have read later, you can choose to see just these sections.
I have to admit that I an really tempted by the Kindle 2. You can select from 230,000 titles, most costing only $9.99, and have them downloaded anywhere in 60 seconds. You can carry up to 1500 books with you at a weight of about 10 ounces. For someone who had to carry two or three volumes of the LC Catalog around during library school, that alone sounds pretty fantastic. The screen is supposed to provide an improved reading surface, and the battery is supposed to last 25% longer than the initial version of the Kindle. This sounds like a potentially BIG threat to print libraries as we know them.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Books, Readers and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online [Exercise 2: Searching for a Book]
Exercise 2: Comparison Shopping for a Title
In the previous post, I decided that I might like to read "The Guide" by R.K. Narayan. Let's do a little shopping to see how I could get it.
Barnes and Noble online: $14.00 / $12.60 member price. I was not able to tell if I could get it locally. I was told to "call the store." There were also used booksellers listed on this site, offering prices from $7.00 to $13.30 (plus $3.99 shipping).
Amazon.com: $10.20 new. The used books were priced from $7.00 to $28.99 (plus $3.99 shipping).
Swap Tree Four swappers had this book available. It was recommended that I post ten books I have to swap in order to use the site. It would cost me only postage.
Book Mooch One swapper in Sweden has this book available. You have to post ten books to swap in order to use the site. It would cost me international postage in this case.
In the previous post, I decided that I might like to read "The Guide" by R.K. Narayan. Let's do a little shopping to see how I could get it.
Barnes and Noble online: $14.00 / $12.60 member price. I was not able to tell if I could get it locally. I was told to "call the store." There were also used booksellers listed on this site, offering prices from $7.00 to $13.30 (plus $3.99 shipping).
Amazon.com: $10.20 new. The used books were priced from $7.00 to $28.99 (plus $3.99 shipping).
Swap Tree Four swappers had this book available. It was recommended that I post ten books I have to swap in order to use the site. It would cost me only postage.
Book Mooch One swapper in Sweden has this book available. You have to post ten books to swap in order to use the site. It would cost me international postage in this case.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Books, Readers and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online [Exercise 1: Nearby Bookstores]
The listing of books stores on Houston.com now includes one more -- I added a free listing for the Barbara Bush Library Friends Used Book Store in Spring. The only danger of the free listing is that anyone can edit it. I did notice that a listing for the branch library itself was full of errors and had been co-opted by an outsider! I tried to make corrections, but was unable to do so.
It's ironic that the iHCPL-suggested Google search for book stores includes near the top of the second page of results a link to the iHCPL blog entry suggesting the search. It's a new type of circular reasoning.
Exercise 1: Nearby bookstores
Barnes & Noble, Champions Village location -- This store has been a good partner for us. We have an institutional buying card there, and get a 20% discount on all purchases. They let us do a book fair there periodically, and we earned an $895 gift card there from the last one. They also let us wrap gifts for tips at Christmas, which has been good PR as well as earning a little cash. They do have an online store that is easy to use, and great for building Wish Lists that I take to my local store.
Half-Price Books, FM 1960 and Stuebner-Airline -- This is a good place to buy new cookbooks, gardening books, pet books, etc. for the library using gift funds. It is also a fun place to buy interesting used items for personal use. It has an online website, but the inventory of the stores is not online and is continually changing. This is a place where you can sell your used books, although you are unlikely to get rich doing it.
Bookland, on Louetta and Stuebner-Airline in Spring.
Bookland is a used book store with a good selection of paperbacks. It does not have an online component. Neal, the owner, has been in business a long time, and has helped out with the Friends' annual used book sales in the past.
Cush City, has a retail store in Houston, Texas, located at 13533 Bammel N. Houston Rd., Houston, TX. It also has an online site at cushcity.com. Cush City has the world's largest selection of African-American items. The owner is the organizer of the National Black Book Festival happening at the George R. Brown Convention Center on May 16 and 17 this year.
It's ironic that the iHCPL-suggested Google search for book stores includes near the top of the second page of results a link to the iHCPL blog entry suggesting the search. It's a new type of circular reasoning.
Exercise 1: Nearby bookstores
Barnes & Noble, Champions Village location -- This store has been a good partner for us. We have an institutional buying card there, and get a 20% discount on all purchases. They let us do a book fair there periodically, and we earned an $895 gift card there from the last one. They also let us wrap gifts for tips at Christmas, which has been good PR as well as earning a little cash. They do have an online store that is easy to use, and great for building Wish Lists that I take to my local store.
Half-Price Books, FM 1960 and Stuebner-Airline -- This is a good place to buy new cookbooks, gardening books, pet books, etc. for the library using gift funds. It is also a fun place to buy interesting used items for personal use. It has an online website, but the inventory of the stores is not online and is continually changing. This is a place where you can sell your used books, although you are unlikely to get rich doing it.
Bookland, on Louetta and Stuebner-Airline in Spring.
Bookland is a used book store with a good selection of paperbacks. It does not have an online component. Neal, the owner, has been in business a long time, and has helped out with the Friends' annual used book sales in the past.
Cush City, has a retail store in Houston, Texas, located at 13533 Bammel N. Houston Rd., Houston, TX. It also has an online site at cushcity.com. Cush City has the world's largest selection of African-American items. The owner is the organizer of the National Black Book Festival happening at the George R. Brown Convention Center on May 16 and 17 this year.
Books, Readers and Beyond: #52 What to Read (Sample Advisory Requests)
Because I liked Novelist best in the previous exercise, I used it to do these searches.
Request: Two books suitable for a fourth grade girl interested in animals
"Because of Winn Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo. Summary:Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.
"Misty of Chincoteague" by Marguerite Henry. Summary:Set on an island off the coast of Virginia, a brother and sister have their hearts set on owning a wild pony and her colt, who according to legend, are descendants of the Moorish ponies who survived a Spanish shipwreck long ago.
Request: Two books for her thirteen year old brother who is interested in ghost stories
"Real ghosts, restless spirits, and haunted places" by Brad Steiger. Summary: Presents a description of the common characteristics of ghosts, spirits, apparitions, haunted places, and phantoms.
"All the Lovely Bads Ones: A Ghost Story" by Mary Downing Hahn. Summary: While spending the summer at their grandmother's Vermont inn, two prankster siblings awaken young ghosts from the inn's distant past who refuse to "rest in peace.".
Request: An author who writes like Dean Koontz.
John Saul ("The Manhattan Hunt Club") [Novelist]
Charles Grant ("Symphony," first in the Millennium Quartet) [Novelist]
Stephen King ("The Shining") [Fiction_L Booklist]
Request: Other books in the series that includes "Alanna: the First Adventure" by Tamora Pierce.
Aocording to Novelist, "Alanna" is No. 1 in the Song of the Lioness series that also includes:
"In the Hand of the Goddess" #2
"The Woman Who Rides Like a Man" #3
"Lioness Rampant" #4
Request: Two books suitable for a fourth grade girl interested in animals
"Because of Winn Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo. Summary:Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.
"Misty of Chincoteague" by Marguerite Henry. Summary:Set on an island off the coast of Virginia, a brother and sister have their hearts set on owning a wild pony and her colt, who according to legend, are descendants of the Moorish ponies who survived a Spanish shipwreck long ago.
Request: Two books for her thirteen year old brother who is interested in ghost stories
"Real ghosts, restless spirits, and haunted places" by Brad Steiger. Summary: Presents a description of the common characteristics of ghosts, spirits, apparitions, haunted places, and phantoms.
"All the Lovely Bads Ones: A Ghost Story" by Mary Downing Hahn. Summary: While spending the summer at their grandmother's Vermont inn, two prankster siblings awaken young ghosts from the inn's distant past who refuse to "rest in peace.".
Request: An author who writes like Dean Koontz.
John Saul ("The Manhattan Hunt Club") [Novelist]
Charles Grant ("Symphony," first in the Millennium Quartet) [Novelist]
Stephen King ("The Shining") [Fiction_L Booklist]
Request: Other books in the series that includes "Alanna: the First Adventure" by Tamora Pierce.
Aocording to Novelist, "Alanna" is No. 1 in the Song of the Lioness series that also includes:
"In the Hand of the Goddess" #2
"The Woman Who Rides Like a Man" #3
"Lioness Rampant" #4
Books, Readers and Beyond: #52 What to Read (Comparing Resources)
READ-ALIKES
Novelist
I chose Alexander McCall Smith as my author, since I dearly love the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series.
Novelist suggested five authors for me:
1)Agatha Christie (an author I know but do not like very much)
This seems to stress the mystery aspect of the book.
2) R.K. Narayan (an Indian author with whom I am not familiar)
This selection reflects McCall Smith's desire to explain other cultures through the lives of the main characters. I think I might enjoy reading the suggested title "The Guide."
3) James Thurber is an author I like. One of my favorite pieces is his fable called "The Unicorn in the Garden." Thurber was probably selected because of the humorous nature of his work.
4) Clyde Edgerton is another one of my favorites authors. Novelist describes his books as being about communities of normal people with normal problems treated with humor and compassion. I thought this was a great suggestion.
5) Jon Hassler is the fifth author. I am not familiar with his work, but Novelist describes his writing as darker and more serious than McCall Smith's. It doesn't sound appealing to me.
Fiction_L Booklists
I tried searching by McCall Smith, and had no luck. I then tried searching by setting, since all occur in Botswana, Africa. The closest match I found was "Mysteries Set In Africa." However, his books were not on the list.
I found this site awkward to use because of its organization.
What Should I Read Next?
This site also seemed more limited than Novelist. People who have read "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" listed other books they liked. From the results, ten titles by other authors were listed. None overlapped with Novelist. One was a mystery I did like ("Guardian Angel", by Sara Paretsky, that I liked because I know the Chicago setting), and one was a novel that I very much disliked because of its disfunctional characters ("Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler). McCall Smith has much more normal characters in his work. None of the other titles gave enough information for me to learn whether I might want to read them or not.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
#48: Check it Out!
The possibilities for videos at the library are endless. Here are a few ideas:
(1) Clips from some of our programs. A series featuring authors from our recent African American Read-In will be up soon on our branch page.
(2) How-to clips: It would be helpful to show customers how to use our self checkout machines, or demonstrate how to print using the print vending system.
(3) We'd like to earn goodwill for the library by giving customers some "behind-the-scenes" glimpses, like "What happens when you make a request for an item?"
(4) Our Friends group can do a commercial for their used book store.
One thing I have learned -- all of us have different gifts! There are many tasks involved -- generating ideas; writing scripts; filming; editing; appearing on camera. Myself -- I am definitely an off-screen person!
(1) Clips from some of our programs. A series featuring authors from our recent African American Read-In will be up soon on our branch page.
(2) How-to clips: It would be helpful to show customers how to use our self checkout machines, or demonstrate how to print using the print vending system.
(3) We'd like to earn goodwill for the library by giving customers some "behind-the-scenes" glimpses, like "What happens when you make a request for an item?"
(4) Our Friends group can do a commercial for their used book store.
One thing I have learned -- all of us have different gifts! There are many tasks involved -- generating ideas; writing scripts; filming; editing; appearing on camera. Myself -- I am definitely an off-screen person!
#47 Video Challenge: Post Your Video to YouTube
Here's one of my first attempts at a video. I can already tell you lots of things I would do differently next time.
I do love the music, though. It's my son Victor playing on his electric guitar.
If you can't see the video, go to this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc6x9DUkTt0
I do love the music, though. It's my son Victor playing on his electric guitar.
If you can't see the video, go to this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc6x9DUkTt0
#46 Movie Maker Basics: You Oughta be in Pictures
This was a terrific iHCPL segment. Thanks to Beth for using the "capture" method to demonstrate the use of the Windows Movie Maker program. I had experimented with it on my own before, but I learned a lot from Beth's tips and suggestions. They were much easier to follow than the tutorials built into the program itself.
There is really a lot of power within this little package. There are so many options for titles, transitions, audio, narration, etc. that we can do a lot with it for the library. I think it will take a while to get something that looks even a little professional, though. My products now look like a higher tech version of the old home movies. Practice may not make perfect, but it does create improvement. All I need now is TIME ... and probably a higher quality camera.
There is really a lot of power within this little package. There are so many options for titles, transitions, audio, narration, etc. that we can do a lot with it for the library. I think it will take a while to get something that looks even a little professional, though. My products now look like a higher tech version of the old home movies. Practice may not make perfect, but it does create improvement. All I need now is TIME ... and probably a higher quality camera.
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