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February 27, 2009

What do my books say about me?

I realized that I've been checking out a lot of books from the library lately so I thought I'd take a look at what I currently have in my possesion and what, if anything that says about me so here they are in due date order.

Roach, M. (2008). Bonk : the curious coupling of science and sex. New York: W.W. Norton.

Hilarious yet very interesting book about the study of human sex. Makes me want to go back and read her other books: Spook: science tackles the afterlife and Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers. You wouldn't think this topics were entertaining, would you?

Raudsepp, E. (1980). Creative growth games. New York: G.P. Putnam.

Seventy-five short exercises to get you thinking outside the box.

Michalko, M. (2006). Thinkertoys: a handbook of creative-thinking techniques. Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press.

Another book on creative thinking. I thought the ideas in here might be useful for coming up with some active learning library instruction sessions as ways for students to think outside the box.

Moran, J. (2002). Interdisciplinarity. New York: Routledge.

I'm always interested in the idea of interdisciplinary research and how libraries can develop models for helping with that.

Keeran, P. (2007). Research within the disciplines : foundations for reference and library instruction. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.

This one's more the opposite of the previous book. It talks about research within specific disciplines.

Kroski, E. (2008). Web 2.0 for librarians and information professionals. New York: Neal-Schuman.

Books are not necessarily the best place for learning about cutting edge ideas for librarians now that we have the blogosphere but I thought I would see what was being published. This one seems pretty dated already...

Hasso, F.S. (2005). Resistance, repression, and gender politics in occupied Palestine and Jordan . Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press.

I'm updating the ACRL Women's Studies Section for a core list of books on Women and the Middle East. Want to see what's been published in the subject area recently.

Montague, Read. (2006). Why choose this book?: how we make decisions. New York: Penguin Group.

Who could resist the title of this book staring at you from the bookshelf? I was looking for another book on decision making but this one called to me.

Shenk, D. (1999). The end of patience : cautionary notes on the information revolution. Bloomington: Indiana University.

Just read an interesting article on journalism and information overload (see previous post) and this was one of the books mentioned by the author.

Kirsch, G. & Rohan, L. (2008). Beyond the archives : research as a lived process. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Hmmm, maybe it's time to return this book. I doubt I'll finish it.

Knepper, G. (2003). Ohio and its people. Kent, OH: Kent State University.

Getting back into genealogy and family history so there are a few books I've checked out related to that.

Lattuca, L.R. (2001). Creating interdisciplinarity : interdisciplinary research and teaching among college and university faculty. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

Interdisciplinarity goes along with the idea that everything is miscellaneous. I want to work on figuring out how to destroy the information silos libraries have created.

Klingberg, T. (2009). The overflowing brain : information overload and the limits of working memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Here's another book that was mentioned in the article I previously blogged about. Can't you relate to this title?

Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second life, and Beyond : from production to produsage. New York: Peter Lang.

Another one of those books on "emerging technology" in libraries. I want to experiement with podcasting and Camtasia tutorials so I was looking for some assistance from those that have done it. Again, blogs would probably be the better source here.

Kuhlthau, C.C. (2003). Seeking meaning : a process approach to library and information services. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.

A classic on information literacy. Maybe I should buy this instead of checking it out.

Krause, W. (2008). Women in civil society : the state, Islamism, and networks in the UAE. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Here's another book I'm considering for the core book list.

Simpson, J. (2008). Basics of genealogy reference : a librarian’s guide. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.

Another for the genealogy hobby. Probably should get this one back as it's pretty basic.

Jhumpa, Lahiri. (2003). The namesake. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Yes, there is some reading for pleasure involved in this list.

Watson, R. (2008). Future files: the 5 trends that will shape the next 50 years. Boston, MA : Nicholas Brealey.

Looks like an interesting take on the future. I especially like the guides he has on the book's website. I'm a little startled that he has libraries on his list of things that are going to be extinct. He estimates that will happen around 2018, right in there with free parking and size 0. Take heart, he also suggests that Google will become extinct by 2048.

Schwartz, B. (2004). The paradox of choice: why more is less. New York: ECCO.

This was the book I was trying to find when I also saw Why choose this book?: how we make decisions. It was also mentioned in the article in Columbia journalism review from the previous post. This would make an interesting subject related to libraries. Why do researchers choose one database over another? Google over ProQuest?

Lutz, L. (2007). The Spellman files. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Last one and most recent pick. I thought I needed some light, mindless reading after looking at the rest of the things I have checked out! A comedy/mystery.

Twenty-one books, eh? Guess I'd better get reading!

Posted by swortman at February 27, 2009 08:38 AM

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Posted by: juliew at February 28, 2009 04:58 PM

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