Publishing Evolutaion #84: Writer Communities and Author Websites

I've never written to an author but I do enjoy visiting their websites. For this exercise I went to the websites of three of my favorite authors. The Anne McCaffrey website has a RSS feed and will receive emails to answer questions. The Nancy Atherton website lists the Aunt Dimity books in order and has all the recipes from each book. The Rita Mae Brown website has a newsletter that you can subscribe to. They all have biographical information, bookslists, mentions the new ones and book tours if planned. I enjoy learning a little about their lives and discover where they get their inspiration for the characters and stories.


I don't think that I have ever purchased or read a book that was published because it was voted most popular before it was "officially" published. That being said, a good book is a good book and it wouldn't matter to me if it went through that process.

Publishing Evolution#83: Paper to Pixels (or e-ink)

In general, I like the printed page. I spend so much of my working time in front of a computer that I prefer the printed page when I'm reading for pleasure. The book is portable. Yes, I know the Kindle and such are also portable but it's not the same. I like the feel and weight of the book, the rustle of the newspaper and the glossy pages of a magazine. The one thing I do like about the Kindle, I've only seen them, is that the font size and type can be changed easily without having to change the "binding".


I will sometimes choose a paperback over a hardback but since I don't have a digital reader, digital books are not an option. Maybe one day. As to the price, no I wouldn't pay the same amount for the digital copy. I remember some of the same arguments bewteen vhs and 16mm film titles. "Paying to content not format."


I looked at ifiction and found the selection very limited but I sorta liked the idea of previewing. It reminds me of something I do with books, movies and such; scanning the first few pages of books and blurbs and reading the back of the DVD case. I don't think I would buy them. I might look to see if they were available to request from another library. I found "Henry Potty and the Pet rock", a Harry Potter parody listed in Worldcat.

Publishing Evolution #82: Print on Demand

The various publishing sites look pretty much alike, the cost depends on what the author is will to pay. The cost of the books seems similar to traditionally published books. I looked at some of the titles that they offered but didn't find anything I would be interested in reading. We own one title from Author House. The author is a local man who calls almost every day to find out what his Amazon number is. It's been in the four million number range for a while. Barnes and Noble quit giving it a number several months ago.




I can see that these companies might be a good option for someone who as been trying to publish and has had a hard time finding a publisher. I know that on a rare occasion a self published book has found a large audience, Eragon comes to mind, but most of them don't seem to find one. I guess if I found a book that I really wanted to read and could get it from a reputable source, it wouldn't matter who published it.

Future of Media #81: Get Out Your Crystal Ball

Of the media and developments listed, I think the fact that Wal-Mart is buying Vudu will probably have a great influence on the field in the next few years. The technology is changing so fast these days that it's a real guessing game, but anything that Wal-Mart gets involved in seems to make a big effect on the consumers.

I'm not a early adopter of technology. I once had a new VCR in a box for weeks before setting it up. I admit, if I find something that I like and it's easy to use, I stay with it. I don't jump on the bandwagon at the first appearance of a gadget. I generally wait a bit to let the developers work some of the kinks out of it first.

In the last 1980's I got a video player that produced the best picture quality of anything available. It was called the laser disc player. What the "new" format known as CD was to music, the LD (laser disc) was for movies, etc. At the time I was at WTLS in west Texas and one of he county libraries I worked with was the Midland County Public Library. The film librarian there was Anne Trout and she had a big collection of LD's. One of the titles she sent me to try was a Sear's catalog. It was interesting to watch. In-between the various catalog pages of clothes were style shows of the outfits. There was a machine that would play the threes sizes available: CD, 8 inch music videos and the 12 inch movies. I thought about getting one but at $1000.00 it was a little beyond my budget. The movies/documentaries were recorded on only one side and were 1/4 inch thick. I still have some of mine and yes, the player works just fine.

Future of Media #80: Movies

The website Hulu was a bust for me. Neither my staff computer or a branch laptop could run any of the programs, movies or trailers because it need an Adobe Flash Player 10 update which I don't have and can't install. Hopefully Network Services will be able to update when they have the time. UPDATE: The Adobe Player was updated and I was able to watch part of a couple of movies and trailer. THANK YOU NETWORK SERVICES. I watched part of Star Trek VII: Generations and Ghostbusters. Over all I liked it but the one thing I wasn't fond of was that while watching the movies and trailers they would stop or slow down every few seconds to load more of the movie or trailer. One thirty second trailer took over three minutes to load.

I watched trailers on IMDB, Hulu and Youtube. They all did the same slow load but at Youtube it would replay at regular speed. I had mixed success on Apple Trailers, I was able to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid but not anything else. The other trailers would stall at 2 items remaining. I might visit the sites to see what is going but I would probably go to Google and search by title and see what the search found and then choose a site.

As of now, I'm not really interested in joining a fee-based service. I have a friend who is home bound and her really like the Nexflix service.

Future of Media #79: Television

I searched both Hulu and tv.com for West Wing and Highlander. West Wing wasn't listed at all on Hulu, whereas Highlander had all six seasons avalable to watch. Tv.com listed both but only had episode guides and forums.

My cell phone doesn't have the ability to view programs or movies. I've never watched a program on a cell phone and I don't think I would want to, the screen's too small.

I'm not really interested in watching a streaming program. The ones I looked at were too slow and didn't hold my interest.

Genealogy #70 Genealogy 2.0

It's been fun to play with the MyHeritage site. I started a tree to see how it would look and I find it more interesting than the classic pedigree charts. I didn't do the Look-alike meter because I don't have a picture of my parents to download but that's OK. The only difference between me and my mom's baby pictures are the clothes we were wearing. I did a celebrity collage and got some interesting results. Do I really look like Bette Davis (a 49% match) or Katherine Heigl (a 55% match)? The highest match at 67% was with Ophelie Winter. The collage is at the bottom of the blog.



The site, Footnote, is for the hard core genealogist in my opinion. I can see how it would be helpful and very useful. The ability to share photos, documents and other info via the Internet is one of the great things about how the Internet can help genealogists.

Genealogy #69: Database Researching

I did a search on members of my dad's family on Ancestry.com. I hadn't found much on LDS Family History Library which I thought was a little strange because I've found so much there in the past. On Ancestry.com I found census records from 1890 through 1930 that had various people and dates. I also found WWI military records and death records. It's not my first choice but it gave me some good information.

Genealogy #68: Detective Work

I've been having mixed results with my "detective work". I couldn't get any of the Tejano Voicies oral history stories to play. I enjoyed reading Betty Skelton Frankman's interview from the NASA Oral History Project. She was an aviatrix and participated in the same NASA tests and training as the Mercury astronauts. She flew in aerobatic shows and appeared in shows with the Navy's Blue Angels.



I had mixed results searching the Find-a-Grave site. I first tried cemeteries that I knew had family members. But the cemeteries were so big that they didn't list the people who are buried there. So I decided to try something else. Before I came to HCPL I was at WTLS (West Texas Library System) headquatered in Lubbock. WTLS is the library system that services 29 counties in west Texas. The county next to Lubbock is Crosby and its countyseat is Crosbyton.


The Crosbyton Cemetery was established in 1909 and the oldest grave is for Henretta Richardson. According to her gravestone she was born on Feb. 24, 1914 and died just 4 days later on the 28th of February 1914.

Genealogy #67: Genealogy Genesis

My family has been involved in genealogy work for decades. My mom's father hired a professional genealogist to work on his line back in the 1940's. My dad had several briefcases full of forms and charts for the various lines he was working on. After he retired he volunteered at a Family History Center and used the computer that connected to Salt Lake City to continue his search. He printed out every family chart he could find. I've done a little. We interviewed a couple of elderly sisters (one was 97 and the other 99 years old) and recorded their information. It was interesting to hear them talk. If one didn't remember a name or date the other one did.

As for advise, connect family members, there's a good chance that someone in the family may already be doing genealogy and would love to share. Be patience, it can go in spurts and just when you think the line's gone dry, something may happen and it starts flowing again. Keep good records and organize them. The more info you can get the better, especially if it included photos and stories. This helps the person to "come alive" and isn't just a name and some dates on a page.

Crafts and Hobbies #65 Coin Collecting

My dad was a coin collector and I remember seeing all sorts of coins, both singles and sets. He bought mint sets of ours birth years for each of us and gave them to us. He also bought commemoratives and mint sets.



I remember having a penny collection as a child. I never did completely fill that blue folder, but it was fun going through the change trying to find the ones I needed. I did keep a few of the Texas quarters as souvenirs.



Both my brother and sister have been world travelers because of their work and have brought back money from the various countries they have visited. I have always found it interesting to see the variety and craftsmanship that are displayed in both the paper money and coins. Some designs make the US designs seem a little dull.






According to Google maps there are three coin dealers in Humble. I went to one a couple of years ago when I sold some coins. They used to Red Book to determine the prices. they had quite a selection of coins to choose from.

Crafting and Hobbies #66: Knitting and Crocheting

It was interesting to read some of the history of both knitting and crocheting. I knew it had to have been around a while but I wasn't sure how long. I learned some of the basics as a child but the only person in my family who did either was a cousin that I rarely saw. I picked it up again while I was in Lubbock and knitted some scarfs and crocheted a couple of afghans. unfortunately I haven't kept up with it. This exercise has reawaken the interest.



We don't have a knitting group at Crosby and I'm not sure if we would have enough interest to start one. We have serveral women who do quilting though.

Pot Luck #57: TXT U L8R - Texting

My experience with texting is very limited, i.e. I received one text during Ike and wasn't sure how to answer it. So, the exercise has been very helpful. The instructions were pretty clear and I think that I could text if needed. As far as texting and walking or driving. Maybe its just me, but I can't think of anything that would need to be said that couldn't wait until the conditions were safe. The only possible exception might be during an emergency.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #54 Social Networking Through Books

We have had a book group at Crosby since 1994. It was started as an outreach project with the May Community Center in Huffman while it was still part of the Crosby service area. The Atascocita Branch opened in 1996. There was also a Ladies Book Group that met at the library but was not associated with it. Both groups continued to meet separately for a couple of years. The May Community Center group members would fluctuate but after a couple of years the numbers stabilized and for the most part not only were the same people in both groups but all of the ladies lived in Crosby. In 1996 when the May Community became very busy and had a hard time finding room for us, we combined the two groups and moved the group to the library. For the most part I've have lead the book group. Carolyn Allen lead it for a time but I took it back when her duties expanded and she didn't have enough time to devote to it. Personally, I like the opportunity to meet face to face to discuss the books.


The Crosby Book Group could almost be called a mystery themed group because that would cover the majority of the books. We have read in various genres from biographies, nonfiction, general fiction and classics, adult, young adult and children's but the most common genre is mystery. Suggestions are requested every month and I try to find books that will fill the requests. The one genre they will not read is romance, since most are widows I guess that makes a certain amount of sense. Sometimes they leave it up to me and I have used both NovelList Plus and ReadingGroupGuides for possible titles. For us, the book is always the starting point for the discussion. After that ... it could and often does goes anywhere.


For the last exercise I searched for the book Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey on both LibraryThing and Goodreads. In Librarything the book was owned by 3118 people and had an average rating of 4.02. On Goodreads, it was owned by 3554 and had an average rating of 4.09. The ratings are very similar with a comparable number of people which really didn't surprise me. Anne McCaffrey has been a very popular author for four decades and has a huge following.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online

Unfortunately, the last bookstore in Crosby closed a while back. So, the closest bookstores to visit for me are in Humble. The two main stores are Barnes and Noble at Deerbrook Mall and the Half Price Bookstore in Deerbrook Plaza. Both have websites. Barnes and Noble has a full range of materials from books, magazines, audios, DVDs, etc. Half Price Books has a combination of both new and used books along with used DVDs, VHS, audios, magazines, etc. Humble does have a couple of other used bookstores that I drive by on a regular bases, the Hard-to-Find Book Store and Ye Olde Book Shoppe, they are listed in the phonebook but only the basic information is listed on the web.


For the second exercise I choose the Anne McCaffrey book Dragonflight and searched for it on both Barnes and Noble and Amazon. At Barnes and Noble, the book was priced anywhere from $.01 to $13.95 depending on whether it was new or used. It was available in both abridged and unabridged audios with prices between $1.99 for abridged and used and $29.95 to $43.97 for unabridged. The MP3 on CD edition was $24.95. At Amazon, the prices were similar, anywhere between $3.88 to $13.05 depending on whether it was new or used. A leather bound copy is listed at $112.50. It is also available in both abridged and unabridged audios ranging in price from $9.98 to $49.95 and the MP3 on CD goes for $24.95. The Kindle edition is $5.95. There is also a limited graphic novel edition starting at $19.95.

For the third exercise I went to Bartleby.com and read part of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The site has a very limited list of titles and all can be considered classics. Pride and Prejudice was from the Harvard Classics series and included a biographical note, criticisms and interpretations by six people including Sir Walter Scott and Lord Macaculey. A list of characters preceded the individual chapters. I found the ads on each screen distracting and waiting for the screen to download the next chapter a little annoying. I did like the font, it was easy to read. I also read the same book on Project Gutenberg as a comparison. I looked at the plain text version of the book, which was in Times New Roman. I've never liked that font because it makes it hard to read over long periods of time. However, they did have a bigger and better selection. In general, I'm not fond of reading a book on a computer screen. I prefer the hard copy of a book. I like the ability of moving from location to location that a book offers. It's hard to cuddle up with a computer screen. Perhaps the Kindle would solve some of these concerns. It's portable and as near as I can tell, there are no ads moving on the screen. I was at the DPS recently and saw a woman reading from her Kindle as we were standing in line. She seemed to enjoy it. I used the plain text version because I couldn't download on the computers at work. I like the idea of downloading either to a MP3 or Kindle. I also like the idea of the Playaways. But, for now anyway, the selection is very small and the cost is similar to cd. Maybe one day...

Books, Readers and Beyond: #52 What to Read

The first exercise was to find a Read-alike for a book. I choose Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight. Novelist Plus gave me another book by McCaffrey. Also listed was Monster's Legacy by Andre Norton and Child of an Ancient City by Tad Williams. I next went to What Should I Read Next? After typing in my author, I got a short list of possible titles including some by McCaffrey and Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey and Heritage and Exile: The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley. On Fiction_L Booklists, I was able to select books in the following areas: Genres, Character, Setting, Author, Audience, "Best of" lists and Miscellaneous. I chose "Genres" and after reading through the list selected "Fantasy Fiction with a Female Protagonist" since the main character in Dragonflight is Lessa. The list was a nice length and McCaffrey was listed again as was another book by Marion Zimmer Bradley, this time it was Mists of Avalon but not Tad Williams. There was one by Andre Norton entitled To the King a Daughter. The easiest way for me to find a read-alike was through Novelist Plus .


I used Novelist Plus to find the books for both the fourth grade girl and her thirteen year old brother. When I got to the site I selected age range of "Older Kids" and choose dogs, I found over 2300 titles listed including both fiction and nonfiction. Two of the books are: a nonfiction entitled The Right Dog for the Job: Ira's Path from Service Dog to Guide Dog by Dorothy Patent and a fiction book entitled Fun Dog , Sun Dog by Deborah Heiligman. For her brother, after selecting "Teens" and ghost, I found Melvin Burgess' The Ghost Behind the Wall and All the Lovely Bad Ones: a Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn. Even though the site Read the Books was not listed in the posting, it is a database on HCPL. I was able to find various books for both of the siblings very quickly.


To find read-alike authors for the customer who liked Dean R. Koontz, I went first to Novelist Plus . After selecting "Author Read-alikes" I went to "Authors K-L" and clicked on Dean Koontz's name. I found a short article about him and some suggestions of other authors. Three of the authors listed are Dan Simmons, Greg Bear and Robert McCammon. The other site that I explored was What Should I Read Next? . After entering Dean Koontz's name I got a list of possible authors and titles. Three of those listed include: Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson and Phil Rickman.


For the final exercise I went to the Mid-Continent Public Library and searched for Tamora Pierce. The book, Alanna: the First Adventure is the first book in the Song of the Lioness quartet. The other titles in the series in order are: In the Hand of the Goddess, Woman who Rides like a Man and Lioness Rampart. The site Fantasic Fiction was real easy to use and gave me the info very quickly.

Spring Cleaning task #30: Take the load off Our Drives

Well, it taken awhile but the archives are cleaned and the P and Z drives are looking good. I got rid of some old files and folders from 2004. The oldest files to go were from 2000. I'm keeping the inbox down to a workable number as well. It was amazing how much I found. It was so easy to just move an email to a folder and forget about it. The numbers added up real fast.

Spring Cleaning task #29: Email

I have had a personal email account for a few years. In the past few weeks I've been in the process of reviewing my hcpl email account. I've forward some emails, deleted many and resubscribed to a few using my personal email . I still have a ways to go before my accounts are organized but I am making progress. I'm pretty good about keeping the current and recent email numbers to a minimum so my biggest project will be to go through the "archived" files.

Spring Clearing task #28: Don't Clutter

Well, I've read the Getting Things Done article and it sounds like a good program. I've already started to review and weed my emails. I think it will be a long process, but a much needed one. I also read two articles on email and online simplicity. The article about becoming an email ninja was interesting and I will use some of the suggestions as well as some ideas from the Zen of Tech and the 12 ways to keep online life simple and peaceful. Both articles were listed under the Technology link on the ihcpl blog.

I've added both Google Calendar and Remember the Milk links to my Google account. I've never used on online calendar before so it should be interesting to try to keep it up to date. I like the idea of having online do - to- list and signed up for RTM. I choose it because it will work with the Google calendar. I also like the idea that Google Calendar and Outlook will work together. We'll see how all of these work.

February 2008 Sound: Making or Listening Together task #26

I looked at several of the sites and frankly, I don't see myself using most of them. I'm not interested in creating a soundtrack or remixing songs. I refuse to use my cell phone as a radio. And I'm not interested in blogging with others about what type of music I listen to. I can see where these sites would be interesting and fun and I'm glade that they are available. I have enjoyed exploring imeem and pandrona. I've setup accounts and created playlists on both.