Friday Diversions

Here are some tidbits to keep you going on a beautiful Friday afternoon:

• It's a vase! It's a router! Wha? I liked this comment: "Until today I’ve just layed flowers directly on top of my router, but with this invention my life will change!"


• Looking for the perfect gift? Or something to read over the holidays? This list of the top 100 2008 books is from the NY Times, and may be a useful reader's advisory tool as well.


• Under "You can't tell a book by its cover" we have the top book jackets of 2008.

Sing About the Book You Love

The Librareo contest finalists are short video love songs about a favorite book title. They are disturbing, touching and fantastic. The finalist will be chosen at ALA next week. Which is your favorite?

I am going with the lone guitar man.

The purple crayon entry was way too freaky for me!

Or read 5 Things that Annoy a Librarian - a right on list if you ask me!

Or take a test to see if you are, in fact, a beatnik.

So, How Are We Doing?

Is everyone having a great National Library week? Are you enjoying the "day after" the tax deadline? And how cool is it that we will be closed this Friday when we get together for the day to learn about safety!

Here is something to make your week even brighter - the 2008 State of American Libraries report from ALA. I especially like how they misspelled Public Libraries - but I am not one to talk when it comes to spelling.

Be sure to download the "Quotable Facts About America's Libraries" document to "talk up" the library. One such fact is that Americans spend more than twice as much on salty snacks then they do supporting their local public library. Good food for thought!

See you at the Staff Development Day.

For You During NLW

We may not be doing much for National Library Week this year, but we can celebrate by enjoying some of these links, and certainly the video will make you smile. I appreciate you all, and so do the customers, even if they don't express it with flowers and candy. Happy week to you!

Aha! What if we...

While at the PLA Conference I walked the long aisles of vendors and found these three that made me think

"Aha! We could do that!".

1. LibraryThing for Libraries - added to the OPAC, this is a great 2.0 tool that is easy to implement and inexpensive, and would put us in the "way cool" category with our customers. Explore the wiki of libraries already using this.
   
   
2. Lock-a-Shelf - This shelving comes with a locking device and requires a customer's library card scanned in before a numbered slot would unlock. That would mean our holds would be safe from those that "browse" those shelves for hot items. I hear the cost is prohibitive, but it is still an interesting idea. It accommodates CDs, books on CD and DVDs.



3. Music Pump - These are preloaded credit card sized digital players that carry audio books or music, and can be "read" by your car and play through your stereo or used as an MP3 player. Very clever! The batteries are rechargeable, they come with head sets and the price is often less than that of a book on CD. They appeared to be sturdy and would meet the need of those without an MP3 player or a cd player.

Back from PLA '08

I had a fine time in Minneapolis, MN last week, along with almost 10,000 other vendors, speakers and attendees there for the 2008 PLA Conference. It was cold, but not too cold, and most sessions were stimulating with good speakers. Some, well, not so much.

Here is a blog posting from someone who attended one of the sessions I did. They did the work for me! I agree with most of their observations, and the photo is very cool.

More later this week once I recover from my time and culture shock.