Technology - who needs it?

We do! That's the answer. We, as librarians, certainly do. I have been pretty surprised at the aversion and downright ----- expressed about technology by many of my classmates...who are earning their masters degree in a technological science...via the internet. I love books just like the next librarian and bibliophile, but if there are technologies that will make our libraries better let's use them danget.

On a similar note, I had this idea the other day that I think would be awesome for a public library to implement. Keep in mind that I have no idea what kind of cost or man power or equipment this might require, it's just pie in the sky at this point. So, you know how you can personalize your google account and when you log in it will not only look like you want it to (personalized skins and what not) it will display information in a way that you want? If not try it out, it's awesome. Or how Amazon gives book recommendations when you log in based on your previous purchases?

What if you could log onto your library account and it would would display all of your hold information, RSS feeds about your favorite authors and their latest projects, personalized reading recommendations from librarians, "shelfs" that you could create "to read" lists on that could actually link to the catalog, the list is endless. Anyway, the more I think about it, the more awesome I think it would be. I'll keep working on it.

The Secret Russian Mafia Spy's One Eyed Baby's Scandalous Nanny

These are a couple of sweet romance Titles from the “Harlequin Presents” romance series. We all owe a big thank you to Wal-Mart for keeping these titles in stock!

The Mediterranean Billionaire’s Secret Baby
Claiming His Pregnant Wife (who knew being pregnant was this sexy?)
Aristides’ Convenient Wife
The Desert King’s Virgin Bride
Innocent on Her Wedding Night
Willingly Bedded: Forcibly Wedded (I’m not making this up)
The Brazilian Boss’s Innocent Mistress
The Greek Billionaire’s Baby Revenge

I have nothing else to say. It’s too easy, and it’s too depressing

For the Love of Food @ Your Library

So tonight is the first night of a new program that the Provo City Library is doing called "For the Love of Food @ Your Library". A woman from the Utah State extension center is coming in to give classes about food prep and stretching your food budget. When we talked about maybe doing it in programming meeting I was most excited about it, so they put me in charge of setting it up. So I arranged the program with USU and made all of the flyers (which was such a rush) and now we'll just see.

I guess the library has tried this in the past without a lot of success, so we just hope someone shows up. It's really exciting to have planned something and then see if come to fruition...or not as tonight will tell. Scary.

My Dirty LIttle Secret

Ok, so I’m confessing something here that is truly embarrassing…I buy for the Romance section of my library. I know, I know, I already know that I’m perpetuating all kinds of unhealthy relationship expectations and facilitating down right crap, but it’s my job. In fact, It’s one of (if not the) largest circulating collections at the library, so when they asked me to buy for it I was really flattered. I should tell you that when they asked me if I would buy for it they said “Now, you don’t have to read them… but would you buy for romance? Funny. It’s also funny to note that Romance is the highest circulating collection… in Provo? Huh.

One of the perks of buying for Romance is that I get to see ALL KINDS of ridiculous things aimed at Romance Readers and Romance Writer hopefuls (as most romance readers are). I mean really, sometimes I am horrified, sometimes outraged, and others I just can’t stop laughing. My favorite most recent one was when I came across an article on how to write better “love” scenes in your books without being cheesy or pornographic. The Irony! They always call them “love” scenes…and then fill the book with casual sex…Anyway, that’s a rant for another day. I usually give Max and earful when I get home about what new psychological conundrum I’ve discovered in the Romance World, but maybe if I post them here his ears can get a break and more people can share in my disgust, I mean laughter, I mean rage…

Yucky Romance Writer Quote of the Day

"In essence, I want to feel smart, not actually be smart."


Quoth a young Romance Writer/Romance Agent. She is referencing the type of reading she likes to do that will "teach her something...but not really"

She goes on to say "Take Grisham’s books, for example. Specifically, THE FIRM. That was an incredibly easy book to read, but he never spoke down to the reader. Grisham made people feel smart. As if they were “in the know.” A door was opened, and it was very welcoming. We could feel smart about lawyer stuff without having to have gone through any of that time consuming and headache inducing law school business." you know...learning something for real.

Snarky Snark Snark, I know. I'm all about easy access books, but not for the purpose of making someone "feel smart" but not have to actually deal with that pesky burden of learning something and actually "be(ing) smart". Awesome.

Oh my land. I just read this in the same article. Is this the height of stupidity?

"Often what makes me feel smart when reading is when I’m given tiny little pieces of insider language. {fair enough says brooke...go on } I don’t even need to understand the word or words, oddly enough, but if well-written and I get the meaning from the context, I feel smarter because I could actually use those words-I-don’t-understand in a sentence! {oh no she didn't} I could make other people feel dumb for not knowing those words! YeeHaaa! (Oh, sorry, did I type that last bit out loud?)" Yuck Yuck Yuck and double Yuck. It's an awful combination of vanity and idiotness - yes, that's a word.