Cell Size and Scale

I've always loved stuff like this.

Readin'

You may not believe it but being a librarian isn't all about learning how to use the current social media technology, helping people apply for jobs online and blogging about video games. We also find time to read occasionally.

I've started and stopped a couple of books recently. I was getting antsy because I was having trouble find a book to really focus on. I started one the other day that had been sitting on my desk for a few weeks and it has really grabbed me. The book is a science fiction novel called Orbital Resonance by John Barnes. It's the story of 13-year-old girl living on a space station that has been fashioned out of an asteroid. Asteroid space stations were created to grow food for a planet Earth that has ruined itself through war and disease. The children the book focuses on are the first generation born on the space station and their lives are nothing more than attending a grueling schooling that is preparing them to continue the work of the space stations. I can't believe I've never heard of this book before. There's so much I don't know.

There are two new novels that I am greatly anticipating getting my hands on, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld and Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Coincidentally, both books are steampunk. I've read one book by each of these authors in the last couple of years. Westerfeld's Peeps is a vampire novel that truly has a unique take on the vampire story and Priest's Fathom which is a great take on the old gods subgenre of science fiction. Priest has the distinction of being pimped by both Warren Ellis and John Scalzi. It looks like steampunk may soon become the new vampire so this is a good chance to read some good steampunk before every hack in the world starts pumping them out.

My booktalk audience

My booktalk audience
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

About twice a year I go to Merrrywood, a retirement community on Park Rd, to give a half hour booktalk. I've been doing this for about five years now and I still get a little nervous before I start. It's always a challenge for me to deliver a talk to these residents and come off sounding like I know what I am talking about. I never assume to know what I am talking about but it's nice if others think so.

Having to give booktalks here has forced me to broaden my reading a bit. I can't go in there each time with my usual mixture of World War II, science fiction and baseball books. I am always on the lookout for a book that I will enjoy and that I can use for material when I go to Merrywood. Robert Harris, whose book Pompeii I loved, is a perfect example of a writer who writes books I love that I can use when booktalking.

A Twittering Library

We are trying that new social media thing. I've had a personal Twitter account for a while now. I've been having a grand old time annoying my friends with it. We decided to create an account for the Morrison Library. You can view our Twitter page here. We're trying to build an online community to interact with. We've already arranged to have some guerilla art left in the branch, recommended a CD from our collection and shared a couple of quotes with a quote lover. I hope we can get some library users to join us in our experiment.

We are also on Facebook. A lot of our Facebook entries mirror what we Twitter but we are there too if you want to be a fan. While on Facebook just do a search for Morrison Library and you should find us pretty easily.

Morrison Library is on Twitter

Our username is morrisonlibrary and we've just started. We hope to start interacting with your library users that way. I think it'll be fun if we get some participation. Maybe we can even do reference questions...

Back from Vacation

I got back from vacation Monday. I drove to northern Michigan. That's where I was raised. I have been posting pictures from my trip on my personal blog. You can see them here if you are interested.

New fun stuff on Wolfram Alpha

A while back I mentioned the new search engine Wolfram Alpha in a post. According to what they've been writing on their blog they are constantly upgrading the searches you can do on it. Now you can do word searches. Someday the internet will come to my house and read to me.

New fun stuff on WolframAlpha

A while back I mentioned the new search engine Wolfram Alpha in a post. According to what they've been writing on their blog they are constantly upgrading the searches you can do on it. Now you can do word searches. Someday the internet will come to my house and read to me.

More Fun with Twitter

Yesterday I sent out a Twitter message concerning the location of the local Goodwill computer store. I did not expect the response I received, from the Goodwill people. They must monitor any tweets concerning Goodwill and respond to any that may have questions they can answer. Very smart use of Twitter.

Tweet of the Day

While finishing up the research for a class I am teaching this Wednesday on internet searching I came across this great Twitter message about how the library can save you money.

Library Summer Hours

Library Summer Hours
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Just in case you missed the sign as you came into the library recently, here are our summer hours.

Word Website

Thanks to the mighty Metafilter I came across a new word website today. It is called Wordnik. According to the website they are "ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them." I like this site. Check out the entry for frog. It gives you the word's appearance in public domain documents at Gutenberg site, several definition options, a recorded pronunciation, occurrences of the word in Twitter posts, synonyms and images from Flickr. Pretty impressive.

The Garden

Entrance Garden
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

As you come in the building you can see our garden. For the last two years the garden has been the brainchild and project of one of our librarian's, Kate.

This is a stitch of three photographs. I used the free software called Autostitch. It's a great tool.

We’ve been banished from an Eden of oscillation

Science fiction writer, John Scalzi, regularly allows guests to write an entry on his blog. It's usually a novelist who has a new book coming out. This week China Mieville breaks down the crime novel. Great stuff.

New Search Engine

Have ya'll heard about the new search engine called Wolfram Alpha? It's designed to give you answers instead of linking you to websites. I was messing around with it today and plugged my birthday date in. It will also compute fairly complex searches like largest countries by area in Africa. You can also compare different states or countries by entering them and separating them by commas. I did California, Michigan and North Carolina here. If you look near the bottom you can see it generated a graph comparing the population growth of all three states. I am going to use it for reference questions at work and see how it does me.

Another Wikipedia Story

There is good advice in this article on a hoax played by a Wikipedia user. We use Wikipedia here at the library a lot. It's most useful to me as a tool to start a search. A lot of times a teenager will come up to the reference desk and say something like, "I have to do a report on Some King III." You can then ask the kid who this person is and a lot of times he'll have no idea. You can plug that name in Wikipedia and then you'll know where to start looking. I can tell if this person has enough renown to warrant a full biography or if I'll have to grab a book on his country's history and look the person up in the index.

Philip Pullman Interview

A couple of months ago I read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Quite a few people whose opinions I respect had raved about it so I took the plunge. I was a marvelous book and I thought I would share an interview with him that I found here.

View from the Morrison Circulation Desk

View from the Morrison Circulation Desk
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

If ever wondered what the view was like from behind the circulation desk.

Dracula as it Happens

I've seen similar projects before but this is kinda cool. This blog is posting each journal entry from the novel Dracula on the corresponding day. It started yesterday, May 3rd. Think of it as a blog from the past.

Where be the Swine Flu?

If you are an amateur flu sleuth or just plain scared out of your wits see the map below.

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map