When I'm right, I'm right

And ooooh boy, was I right. I looooooove my Nook. Or maybe I just love the whole concept of the ebook. I regularly scan B&N's list of books, looking for a great book for .99 or 1.98. Sometimes if it's something I really want, I'll go as far as 9.99 as I did for Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything; and Beth Erickson's Longing for Dad. I love being able to lay in bed at night, and scan the booklists, knowing I can just tap BUY and it's all mine. Another feature is that I can get free samples. This means that I can get 15 to 20 pages of any book I'm interested in to download to my ebook. How cool is that? And at the end of that sample, B&N generously gives me a BUY button. Oh, those clever people! So now I know I'm going to read Craig Ferguson's biography American on Purpose. And tho, I may not buy it (sorry, Craig) I know I can borrow it from the Library.

And did I mention they were giving away a free set of Alice in Wonderland screensavers? Yep, they were.

My DH put in an 4gb SD card, and now I can store up to 40,000 books just to carry around with me, to read as I want and bookmark as I need to. I can read a dozen or more books at once. I've discovered Fictionwise (well, I always knew it was there) but now I'm exploring it thoroughly, and Project Gutenberg is one of my favorite websites, cause everything's for free. Just download it as epub and we're home free!

My next move is to start looking up Golden Age Sci Fi authors, and see if I can find them in Gutenberg and add them to my Nook. I've decided I really don't care much about the Ipad. Why pay so much for something I would only use for a few things. My Nook fills my need.

Book Nook

I am getting a Nook from Barnes and Noble for my birthday. I haven't been this excited about something in a long time. I had pointed it out to my DH the last time I visited B & N, and he sort of dismissed it. I went back and did some research on the Kindle, and then back to the Nook. I pushed it a bit with him: "I really like this." He knows that I don't usually push hard with technology as often technology dismays me when it doesn't work. I am not a patient person, and glitches in technology drive me nuts. But the Nook has seduced me. Imagine it containing up to 1500 books in it's memory. And with an extra memory card, it can hold up to 40,000! That's about half of what my branch library holds. Don't get me wrong. I love printed books, the feel of the pages, the smell and the weight in my hand. And I love to read in the bath. But being able to carry 1500 titles whereever I go. It's almost gluttonous. I can weed down my personal library and gain some space in my bedroom and basement. And believe me, this is a good idea....a very, very good idea. Of course, the Nook is backordered until Feb 11th, and my birthday is a bit later than that, but the anticipation is definitely growing.

Starting again

I've been thinking about this for some time, and have finally decided to try to keep up on my blog. Not so much for anyone else, but just for myself. Somewhere to spew thoughts and information that doesn't really fit into my work or home life. If by some chance you happen upon this blog, don't expect great insights, or in-depth information. I'm not that good. I'm a simple librarian, who because she's bossy (says my mother) became a branch manager. Hey, it works for me and pays decently. The first part of this blog was actually a System assignment to become familiar with types of technology our customers were using, and so it was styled that way. That project is over and done with, and I got a 1g pen drive out of the deal, with the library logo. And my husband quickly appropriated it. But as I've taken inventory lately, I've realized that my life includes a heck of a lot of technology, good and bad, and just to relieve and perhaps think through some of my own concerns with it, I'm going to keep up on this. We'll see...

Where has the time gone?

Ok, I'm going to get back to this...I promise. Just as soon as I get my act together.

Thing 23 for Learn & Play at CML

I'm finished, but there's still so much left to do. Even though I've met today's deadline, there are videos from participants that I haven't had time to watch - I still want to do that. And I want to go back and further explore some of the sites we've visited and applications we've tried out, several of which I plan to use in my upcoming work. Lots of people have added themselves to Twitter and I want to go back and browse, and I want to take a look at some of the blogs I didn't have a change to catch up on.

This has been an enjoyable program, and I'm glad I made the effort to do it. I will be encouraging any of my staff who haven't finished, to finish it - and maybe provide my own incentive for their completion. Maybe we'll try to have some sort of regular technology information meeting in 2009, or at least a few minutes to touch base on technology at our regular staff meetings. But there definitely should be some sort of Phase II for 2009.

MOLDI - Needs a new name

Who ever decided this was a good name, please? Yes, I know what it stands for, but please, what can people be thinking? Here's this great concept with a yucky acronym. People, people we've got to be more creative than this! New L&P initiative - find an online acronym generator and give a reward out to anyone who finds the most ATTRACTIVE name for a great program - Please.

Besides all that...I am a great fan of Books on CD, and before that Books on Tape. I have about a 30 minute drive to and from work and sometimes I think that's when my best reading gets done. We're always stocked with BOCD when we travel, and my DD likes to listen to them at night when she goes to bed. She an probably recite the entire story of Winnie-the-Pooh by heart, and in an English accent. But while I browse the digital collection (I refuse to use THAT name) every so often, I haven't been particularly interested in downloading anything. My library card is full, and my car is stocked, and there are books piled beside my bed and the couch. I'm at my limit. If I didn't spend 45+ hours in a library all day, it might be more of an incentive for me. In fact I've often thought that if I didn't work in a library, how would I fit library time in to my life? So for non-library staff, this can be a great alternative.

Reading a book on my laptop would be ok, except I try not to take my laptop everywhere with me. And you just know the battery would die just as I was getting to the good part of the book. That's what put me off buying any type of er-reader so far - the battery life. When an energy storage breakthrough is made, then I'll be first in line, but until then paper is going to be my first choice when it comes to reading material. It may be non-tech, but it fits my needs best.

My DH, in fact, has downloaded several books from this program and is quite happy with it. He thinks the software can be a bit of a pain, but then that's the IT world - there are always glitches. But for the purposes of Learn & Play, I have downloaded Dog Years: a memoir by Mark Doty. And in audio format I've downloaded Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: the calamitous 14th century.

PodCasts - LIS News

Here I've been in tune with some of the latest technology along, and didn't ever really think about it. I've been reading Library and Information Science News postings for over a year, and when they added podcasting I just accepted it as an expanded version of the postings. It's like a little radio news program on what's going on in libraries, and interviews with some very interesting people that I can listen to in my office while I'm working on something else. But again, like websites, blogs, etc. I'm finding I have to be more discriminating about what I sign up for and view or read. There's just not enough time to do it all, get my job done and keep up with my family.