Moku
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Posts by Moku
Library budget cuts
Aug 24th
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/23/libraries-face-increasing-budget-cutbacks.html
Libraries are always the first to go when government budgets get tight. Anyhow I think it really helps get rid of a lot of dead weight and the ones who think it is just a cushy job. Even if everything is digitized they need catalogers to organize it and make it accessible. Of course who needs catalogers or librarians when we have Google. Fortunately Google searches are turning into crap since most of the top links are mostly there because of search engine optimization techniques and paid advertising.
I’m calling this blog The Linearseat Librarian
Jun 21st
The title Linearseat Library just does not inspire me to write anything. Instead of just Linearseat Librarian I’ll change it to “The” Linearseat Librarian since it sounds better. I guess whenever you refer to yourself in the third person with a fictional name it means you got something up your a$$ or in your head.
Moku
Name change and some recommended free WordPress themes
May 5th
I decided to change my website name to the url of my site Linearseat.net. I noticed that there were quite a few sites with the word “Librarian” in it and I just didn’t feel like calling myself the Linearseat Librarian. Actually I visited a few librarian blogs and I thought they were all too academic and scholarly, especially the ones with presentation slideshows, and their unfascinating thoughts on library issues. I also visited two male librarian pages and they both had the DIYthemes Thesis WordPress theme. I guess they are seriously into blogging since they plunked down money on a theme that claims to be extremely customizable and SEO optimized. It seems a lot of people have bought that theme.
Here are two WordPress themes that I like and am currently using.
1. Swifthemes http://swiftthemes.com/
This theme is very simple to use and offers many fancy features. I don’t believe it’s extremely fast, but it’s probably fast enough for most people as the name claims itself to be swift. It has an easy to use theme option selection where you can customize colors visually and insert advertisements or adsense code in the most common advertisement placement areas of a webpage. There also is the option to have the blog frontpage be in magazine or traditional blog format. Customized menus can be created above or below the title along with inserting a background image. This theme is highly recommended for beginners who don’t know how to customize themes manually.
2. Thematic http://themeshaper.com/thematic/
This second theme is also highly customizable, but only for those who know how to use css and html. It also has child themes created by other users, which are easily downloaded and loaded into WordPress just like any other theme, but the original Thematic theme must be installed for them to work. The author encourages users to create their own child themes using CSS and their is a forum dedicated to assisting users customize Thematic for their own purposes. Right now it is primarily a 2 column theme with a 3 column version in the works.
Library Journal’s Star Libraries by state
Nov 17th
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6705870.html
It’s pretty interesting to see 3 Virginia libraries on the list. Williamsburg and Fredericksburg regional libraries are places where there isn’t really a whole lot to do so the library is a good destination. Fredericksburg has a lot of new housing developments, with a lot of young families with kids, since people move there to commute to Richmond or the D.C. metro area. Falls Church is right in the middle of a ethnically diverse area in a very populous and rich county.
Sometimes I tend to hate rankings and lists because there are probably hundreds of better libraries out there that do things right that really matter. Every library is different and every community or regional library has different resources and needs.
Top Ten Job Search Engines/Job Hunting Sites
Oct 31st
Looking for a job? Here is my list of the Top Ten (10) Job Search Engine/Job Hunting sites on the web.
Indeed.com – Indeed is a meta-search engine of most of the major job search engine sites. It generally brings up the best listing of jobs that I am looking for fast and conveniently.
SimplyHired.com – Simply Hired is another good meta-search engine job site. It seems to have maybe a few different sources than Indeed, but it is very similar.
Careerbuilder.com – Careerbuilder has been a very reliable job search engine for a long time. The search interface is very good and you can narrow searches down by category, company, city, and state.
Hotjobs.com – Hotjobs is Yahoo’s job search engine and has always been quite popular.
Craigslist.com – This is a good place to search for local jobs in the area you are living at or searching for jobs in specific states or metro areas.
Jobcentral.com – This is a decent search engine. I do not think it is licensing any other major search engines so you won’t be seeing the exact same thing.
Monster.com – Monster is a another good search engine, although I hardly ever go there. You can also search for their jobs using Jobs.com, since it’s part of Monster.
Dice.com – This is a good place to look for tech related jobs.
Oodle.com – This is another meta-search engine site with probably a couple different sources than Indeed and Simply Hired. It is a classified site and an alternative to Craigslist.
USAJobs.com – If you are looking for a Federal Government job this is the place to go.
News article from USA Today: School chooses Kindle; are libraries for the history ‘books’?
Oct 30th
Read this article today:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-26-kindle-school-library_N.htm
Basically a private boarding school is eliminating most of their book collection and going all electronic with an ebook collection using Kindle. The old collection was barely being used so they believe this is better. I don’t really think it’s necessarily bad or good. I just think if the students were not using the library, the collection wasn’t being updated very well and the school curriculum and teachers didn’t make their students use it to learn how to do normal offline research. Not all libraries can be substituted for ebooks. Not everyone has a computer or kindle or ever will have one. Reading text on screens is not for everyone either. Do they seriously think Ivy league schools will eliminate their huge collection of books in which students actually use for research? That’s one dumb prep school.
I don’t see why they couldn’t of just kept the collection or go through and thoroughly weed it to create some extra space for the new amenities. I can see why it may be beneficial for leisure reading and required readings, since they can order and read the latest bestsellers or classics. It sounds like the library got popular because of all the other changes besides the switch to ebooks. They aren’t there for the ebooks so it doesn’t make any difference if it was an ebook or regular book.
