Gift Ideas: Including gifts for library or book lovers

With Thanksgiving behind us I can now concentrate on the holiday season. (Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday since it is not commercial and is a day for “giving thanks” and getting together with family and friends.) So I starting thinking about gifts and listed a few ideas.

Gift ideas:

1. Gift of time* – spend time with some one or give them a helping hand
2. Homemade gifts – scarf, gifts from your kitchen, cards, book marks etc.
3. Gift certificate to Borders or another book store.
4. Plant in a terra cotta pot that you grew from seeds and they can watch grow.
5. Frame with a picture of you and that person or family.

*Gift of time article by Bonnie Moss

Next I was trying to think of gifts for library and book lovers and ran across the following site called “Gift Guide for Library and Book Lovers” (An Internet Hotlist on Gift Guide) which was created by Literacy/Library Advocate. It has a wealth of ideas.

EVENT: Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea will be at the Tsakopooulos Library Galleria to discuss and sign copies of his new book, Stones for Schools. For more on the book look at the following link: www.stonesintoschools.com

When: December 13, 2009 at 2:00 p.m.

Where: Tsakopoulos Library Galleria - 828 I St. Sacramento, CA

Tickets to Event: Borders provided all the details about the event.

DETAILS: “This is a ticketed event. All attendee's must purchase aticket prior to the event. Tickets will go on sale Tuesday Dec.1 at 9:00a.m. at the Sacramento Borders store located at 2339 Fair Oaks Blvd.Tickets will not be for sale at the Galleria nor at any other Borderslocation. A ticket will cost 28.00 and include one copy of Stones Into Schools. Tickets available while supplies last. Additional books may bepurchased if desired. Additional signing guidelines will be distributedwith the purchase of a ticket.”

Digital Photographer Boot Camp – October 24, 2009

This was one of the IL2009 Pre-conference workshops. Since I have little skill in this area it seemed like a prerequisite for my blog since I want to share photos as well. It promised to sharpen skills of the novice to the experience photographer. At the end of part 2 of my post you can be the judge. The presenters were Amanda Hollister, Web Services Librarian, State University of New York; Michael Porter, Communications manager, WebJunction; and Michael Sauers, Technology Innovation Librarian, Nebraska Library Commission. Be sure to check out SPL’s “American Museum of Photography” under Research Guides on our website.

Many of the presenter’s photos are on Flickr a photo sharing website. In their introduction they said photos can present powerful stories, they can be emotional, and we should use photos to market our library’s events. One of the basic points they stressed was to resave the original photo and do your editing in a copy. The reasoning behind that is that PNG and TIFF formats are “loseless compression files” but GIFs and JPEGs are not. What this means it that it is better to edit PNGs and TIFFs because when you do - it reduces file size without losing image data.

Michael Porter suggested using the 7 Basic Principles of Design when taking photos. I found and added links in case you wanted to view a little more about the terms.

Balance, Rhythm, Emphasis, Contrast, Unity, Proportion, Scale

He also uses the 7 Elements of Design in Art for his photos.

Line, Shape, Form, Light, Texture, Space and Color

Michael recommended using the “Rule of Thirds” to get the best focal point for the image. This works both vertically and horizontally. It is also called golden mean, divine proportion and golden proportion.

I found a good link on “Composition & the Element of Visual Design” by Robert Berdan to help explain the above terms. It is both informative and has nice pictures giving you a visual of the elements they are describing.

http://photoinf.com/General/Robert_Berdan/Composition_and_the_Elements_of_Visual_Design.htm

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Internet Librarian Pre Conference Day 1

I am attending the Internet Librarian Conference 2009 in Monterey, CA. This is my first conference as a new librarian! I arrived on Friday and walked to the Monterey Public Library to get my new library card. It’s a very comfortable library with a woodsy cabin feeling. I was impressed with all the teens that were hanging out in the library interacting with their friends and reading. Just about every day they have anywhere from 100-200 students using the library! The warm open atmosphere had a real welcoming feeling. Their mini gift shop even provided me with a shoppertunity to buy a beautiful silk type scarf with books on it.

Day 1 of the Pre Conference was spent at the Library Camp at Monterey Public Library. This is truly becoming an international event since I met librarians from as far away as Nigeria and South Africa. Today’s topics included Training Library Staff on Technology- the challenge of keeping up and Open Source Software on public access computers. Participants shared and interacted with others on what worked or didn’t in all types of libraries.

Why call it The Library Tree

Where did “The Library Tree Blog" get its roots? I decided to start a blog as part of the Sacramento Public Library’s “27 Things”. When thinking about a symbol for my blog a tree was the first thing that came to mind and the more I thought about it the more I realized that it had many similarities to a library. Besides I’ve always enjoyed people, libraries, reading, nature, outdoor activities and sports. Also, Sacramento is known as the “City of Trees” and since I live and work here it the library tree name is a good fit. A tree is to a forest what a library is to a consortium. Below I have listed many of the comparisons.

Tree picture courtesy of Dutton Tree Care .

Trees	Libraries
A tree is a growing organism.	..."The library is a growing organism." ~ Ranganathan
A tree is to a forest what a ...	... library is to a consortium.
Trees come in a wide variety of types, sizes & shapes.	Libraries come in a wide variety; public, academic, school, special & private in various shapes and sizes.
Roots are a network that anchor the tree and spread and give the tree strength.	Roots represent the community and taxpayers that support the library. The library serves the community. Win-Win.
Trunk supports the framework of the branches & is attached to the roots.	Trunk represents librarians, staff, Friends of the Library, volunteers & the Foundation.
Bark protects the tree from weather, insects and disease.	Bark represents the librarians that look after the collections.
Branches transfer nutrients to the leaves.	Branches represent branch libraries and/or consortiums. Receive and disseminate transferred materials.
Rings are a layer of wood produced each year showing growth.	Rings represent the archives.
Leaves make the food for the plant.	Leaves represent a multitude of books and materials in multiple formats offered to the community.
Gifts from types of trees: flowers, fruit, cones or seed pods.	Gifts from various types of libraries: free borrowing, classes, downloads, and programs.
Leaves falling off the tree	Weeding the library
Trees prevent erosion.	Libraries offer free resources, especially in tough economic times.
Offers shelter in poor weather.	Offers shelter for the preservation of knowledge.
Vital to the community and the environment.	Vital to the community and the environment.

Setting up my Library-Tree blog