How to Buy a Book
May 11, 2011
So, recently I’ve changed my buying patterns when it comes to books. I decided it didn’t make any sense to keep giving Amazon money when there are bookstores in Richmond that are closing. Now when there’s a book I want, I add the title, author, ISBN and ISBN-13 to a note I keep in Evernote. Then I go to Barnes & Noble to buy the books.
Frequently they don’t have the books I want in stock. It doesn’t make sense for them to stock lots of books on higher education or specifically on teaching and learning. But if I go to the information desk, they are happy to look up the books, order them, and apply my member discount to the purchase. As a member, they ship the books to my house at a faster-than-standard shipping speed, for no extra cost. In the end the books are a bit pricier than Amazon, but the store gets credit for the sale (as opposed to purchases on the B&N web site), which will hopefully help to keep the store around.
I’m not bound to Barnes & Noble in particular: they’re just the closest bookstore. I want to find additional booksellers who might not be part of a big chain (suggestions from fellow Richmonders are welcome).
My goal is to help the stores in town. Amazon is great for making additional recommendations, but I still like browsing. And just as so many people enjoy libraries as spaces, my family and I love to hang out in bookstores, reading books while we have a little coffee. So I think it’s worth it to spend a bit more so the store can stay and the people working in the store can stay.
What I’m Reading – 8/8/09
August 8, 2009
- Newsweek – August 10/17 2009
- Israel’s Chief Diplomat Goes M.I.A. – Israel’s top diplomat takes a trip to South America when Obama’s Middle East envoy, defense secretary, and national security advisor come to negotiate. He’s ultra-right wing and apparently an embarrassment to Israelis.
- Iran’s Widening Fault Lines – Economic differences between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have the supreme leader reducing the president’s powers behind the scenes.
- No End to Earmarks – Despite Obama’s pledge to crack down on earmarks, the practice continues. Not a surprise to me – earmarks are a fundamental way to keep in good standing with your constituents and with lobbyists. What would the Congressional incentive be to stop?
- Russia’s Dry Well – While the world economy is starting to mend, the damage in Russia will take longer to recover from. $200 billion in debt, and businesses won’t be making huge profits in the coming year.
- New York Times
- Job Losses Slow, Signaling Momentum for a Recovery – The panic of this recession begins to subside as the number of eliminated jobs for July drops to 247,000 from a high in January 2009 of 741,000.
- U.S. and Pakistan Say Taliban Chief is Believed Dead – A drone has taken out the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. The war goes on.
- Conservatives Warn Ahmadinejad Not to Defy Ayatollah on Cabinet Picks – Two days after he is inaugurated, Ahmadinejad is told to stick to the conservative party line.
- MSNBC’s Olbermann and Fox’s O’Reilly Fire Up the Insult Machines Again – Just as I was getting hopeful, two networks disappoint. The battle between personalities continues, while American commentary suffers.
- Microsoft’s SharePoint Thrives in the Recession – “SharePoint is saving Microsoft’s Office business even as it paves the way for a new era of Microsoft lock-in,” said Matt Asay, an executive at Alfresco, which makes an open-source content management system. “It is simultaneously the most interesting and dangerous Microsoft technology, and has largely caught its competitors napping.”
- Richmond Times Dispatch
- Recession Hasn’t Cut Enrollment for Some Schools – The University of Richmond was aiming for 805 students this fall, an increase from last year’s 738. We now have 926 first-year students registered for the fall. It turns out other area schools had a similar enrollment experience.
- Guyland
- Chapter 5 – The Rites of Almost-Men: Binge Drinking, Fraternity Hazing, and the Elephant Walk: College life for young men is described, with one shocking episode after another. I continue to search for a rigorous approach to the subject, but the argument of the book continues without qualification or much quantitative information.
- Milton among the Philosophers
- Chapter 2: The Life of the Soul: The Cambridge Reaction – Just getting started with this chapter, which discusses Cudworth and More’s attempts to justify the ways of atoms to God.
What I’m Reading – 8/7/09
August 7, 2009
- New York Times
- White House Is Struggling to Measure Success in Afghanistan – What are the right metrics for success in Afghanistan? Congress (rightly) demands some measure of the progress of the war, but choosing the right things to monitor can undermine congressional or public support.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
- A Laboratory of Collaborative Learning – “Undergraduate libraries have never been revenue generators, but, if this pattern of declining use does not change, many of them may soon seem like costly anachronisms.” “Housed in separate buildings, with fewer occasions for interaction and mutual understanding, faculty members and librarians may develop a weak sense of solidarity regarding their complementary roles in the institutional mission.” I’m sorry to say, but MISO Survey data backs up these concerns. I hope the author’s experiment this fall is a successful engagement with his academic library.
- The Best 371 Colleges (Princeton Review) – Rollins College – Reading up on Rollins, having received news of a colleague who will be taking a position there in the coming weeks.
Short reading day today, as the University of Richmond closes at noon so employees can spend the rest of the day at Busch Gardens. Maybe I’ll get some additional reading done in the car, but don’t count on it.
What I’m Reading – 8/6/09
August 6, 2009
- New York Times
- For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics – Graduates with a statistics background are “finding themselves increasingly in demand – and even cool.” “‘The key is to let the computers do what they are good at, which is trawling massive data sets for something that is mathematically odd,’ said Daniel Gruhl, an I.B.M. researcher whose recent work includes mining medical data to improve treatment. ‘And that makes it easier for humans to do what they are good at — explain those anomalies.’”
- China Sees Progress on Climate Accord, but Resists an Emissions Ceiling – China says it will likely sign on to an agreement to reduce greenhouse gasses, but pushes back on capping emission of greenhouse gasses. “China now emits more carbon dioxide than the United States, although it remains well behind when populations are measured on a per-person basis.” Bilateral negotiations with the Obama administration are characterized as “quite fruitful.” Let’s hope.
- New Entry in E-Books A Paper Tiger – Barnes and Noble’s new e-book offering boasts almost twice as many books as Amazon, and gives you access on your PC or Mac. Their e-book reader won’t be available until 2010 (coming from Paper Logic). The catch is that most of the books at B&N are already available through places like Project Gutenberg. In short, they’re not the books you’re looking for. And the functionality of the various applications isn’t up to the good experience Amazon’s Kindle offers. Still, I’ll have to get a couple of books through B&N this weekend to see how it works for myself.
- Guyland
- Chapter 4: High School: Boot Camp for Guyland – High school boys learn to conform or be ostracized. Kimmel suggests a radical change of the culture around high school boys. I am sadly skeptical that so many different types of people need to change what they do: teachers, coaches, parents, peers. Culture rarely changes so drammatically, yet Kimmel makes it clear that broad changes are necessary.
- Chapter 5: The Rites of Almost-Men: Binge Drinking, Fraternity Hazing, and the Elephant Walk – In college, peers initiate peers into manhood, despite their lack of qualifications to do so. The anecdotes are extreme, and I find myself wishing for a more tempered argument in the book.
What I’m Reading – 8/5/09
August 5, 2009
- Creating an On-Demand Learning Experience – Echo360 presents a webinar on their new Building Block for Blackboard. 25 licenses for faculty to create videos using their laptop (screen capture, audio, webcam). Each account can post 10 presentations/3GB max. Intended to compliment classroom learning/video capture.
- Slashdot
- US Marine Corps Bans Social Networking Sites – This may explain why Fred has been quiet on Twitter lately. The Marine Corp implements a one-year ban on access to social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
- New York Times
- Bill Clinton and Journalists in Emotional Return to U.S. – Euna Lee and Laura Ling have returned from prion in North Korea. A happy ending to a troublesome story.
- ACRL Member of the Week: Lucretia McCulley – Boatwright Library’s own Lucretia McCulley is the focus of an ACRL profile.
What I’m Reading – 8/4/09
August 4, 2009
- Parabola
- Kosiya, the Buddhist Scrooge – The king’s treasurer learns that “Generosity makes space in the mind and heart, while hoarding creates an interior prison.”
- New York Times
- Giant Particle Collider Fizzles, Adding to the Mysteries of Life – Electrical problems with the Large Hadron Collider mean it will be years, if ever, before its most ambitious work can be attempted.
- Obama Administration Weighs In on State Secrets, Raising Concern on the Left – In a friend of the court briefing, the Obama administration inserts an argument that the state secrets law is constitutional, not based on common law. Hardly a settled opinion, many on the left are dismayed at the administration’s position given Obama’s statements “that he wants to limit the use of the state secrets privilege.”
- Radio Free America – In an op ed piece, Nancy Sinatra argues for broadcast radio performance royalties for performing artists. Rather than directly argue for her royalties, she cites the destitute Helen Forrest, a 1940s big band singer. I’m not sure how many big band radio stations are out there anymore, but I doubt that revenues are sufficient to pay performance royalties.
- Bill Clinton in North Korea to Seek Release of U.S. Reporters – In Bill Clinton’s first public mission since his wife became Secretary of State, he travels to Pyongyang to seek the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Disclaimer: my brother has been a big supporter of the movement to free the journalists.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
- New Web Site Compares Student Outcomes at Online Colleges – A grant-funded web site looks to explain the programs available through online institutions and assess the effectiveness of those programs.
- Augmenting Human Intellect
- Detailed Discussion of the H-LAM/T System – Just getting started with this section. Considering the abridged version of this in The New Media Reader for a New Media Studies course we hope to teach in the spring term, but reading the full document for myself.
- Slashdot
- Student Sues University Because She’s Unemployable – Having graduated from Monroe College in April, a student sues in July, charging that the school’s Office of Career Advancement didn’t help her. The Slashdot comment thread should be interesting.
- Richmond Times-Dispatch
- Victim Assistance Academy graduates hear from one who was helped – Joan Neff’s program just finished its second year at the University of Richmond. The Center helps the Victim Assistance Academy by supplying a handful of laptops. It’s always nice to be even a small part of a program that’s making a difference in people’s lives.
What I’m Reading – 8/3/09
August 3, 2009
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
- An Intellectual Movement for the Masses – Positive psychology fights off New Age approaches that detract from ongoing scholarship.
- Will Higher Education Ever Change as It Should? – Robert Zemsky proposes methods for bringing about systemic change in higher education. I’m not certain he does a thorough job of outlining the specific problems he seeks to correct. Zemsky focuses on the Bologna Process in Europe, which “has resulted in greater integration and cooperation.” Those are good goals, but I’m not certain they are what Zemsky finds lacking in US higher education.
- New York Times
- At Louvre, Many Stop to Snap but Few Stay to Focus – Fine art today is quickly browsed rather than considered. “So tourists now wander through museums, seeking to fulfill their lifetime’s art history requirement in a day, wondering whether it may now be the quantity of material they pass by rather than the quality of concentration they bring to what few things they choose to focus upon that determines whether they have ‘done’ the Louvre.”
- Google Chief Resigns as Apple Director – Eric Schmidt steps down from the Apple board in a move that’s been anticipated since Google announced their own operating system.
- The Puppy Whisperer – A nice article about training a puppy, perfect for sharing with my animal-enthusiast daughter.
- Slashdot
- Students Settle with Turnitin in Copyright Case – Just beating a deadline for a Supreme Court appeal, students who sued Turnitin have settled.
- Guyland: Chapter 3
- Masculinity is largely a “homosocial” experience: performed for, and judged by, other men.
- Noted playwright David Mamet explains why women don’t even enter the mix. “Women have, in men’s minds, such a low place on the social ladder of this country that it’s useless to define yourself in terms of a woman. What men need is men’s approval.”
- Ask Us! Boatwright Library Is Ready to Help! – A new video from my friends at Boatwright Library encouraging students to ask a librarian for help.
- Parabola – Imagination (Spring 2009)
- “The Heart Eater” – A story from Sierra Leone about a genie who eats the hearts of villagers. Translated from the Mende and retold by Ishmael Beah.
- Milton Among the Philosophers – Chapter One – Mechanical Life: Descartes, Hobbes, and the Implications of Mechanism – A much-needed introduction to the philosophical debates that informed Paradise Lost.
- “Science, or natural philosophy, was only then in the process of separating itself from what we call philosophy.”
- “To the extent that one accepted Epicurean atoms as a metaphysical first principle, one was brought into conflict with orthodox beliefs in the incorporeality of the rational soul, freedom of the will, and Genesis creation.”
Kenji Yoshino – Covering
March 26, 2009
Kenji Yoshino, author of the book Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights, came to campus last week. Yoshino is a professor at the NYU School of Law. He’s currently writing a book on Shakesepare and the law, which I plan to read.
Covering is part cultural argument, part memoir. In it he tells the story of his struggles with identity as a gay man, and as the son of Japanese immigrants. Yoshino describes covering as the third and last phase in the integration of any person (or group) with a stigma.
The first phase is conversion. An example would be how a gay man or woman would try not to be that way. It could also be a person of color who tries to be white. The second phase is passing, where conversion is no longer sought, but aspects of personality are hidden from others. The third phase, covering, takes place after a person has “come out,” but that they still conceal aspects of their identity to conform to the perceived mainstream.
In his talks on campus, Yoshino took pains to point out that while his story was a positive one, he acknowledges that there are significant chances for pain as others consider coming out or challenging the “mainstream” status quo. At the PETE lunch, he acknowledged that as a lawyer, he is fairly thick-skinned when he encounters pressure to hide his identity.
Others in the room said that they were not so thick-skinned, and a conversation ensued about the difficulty personally and academically when issues of orientation, race, or gender are picked on by students. Yoshino said that he discloses his orientation in his constitutional law or civil rights courses, but not in the literature courses he teaches, since orientation is not a topic in those courses. In explaining his orientation he identifies himself as a person coming from a particular point of view but he also emphasizes that he welcomes a vigorous debate.
Two of the big difference between Yoshino’s classes and those at a small liberal arts institution are the age of students (his are 23, undergrads closer to 18) and grading is anonymous in his (and most) law schools, but not in most liberal arts classes.
Yoshino’s solution to covering demands is cultural, not legal. He prefers a conversation focused on universal human rights rather than civil rights for a growing (and unmanageable) number of groups seeking protections. When a company or peer makes a covering demand, there should be room for a conversation about the reasons for that demand. If the reasons are rational, the demand to cover should be accepted. But reasons shouldn’t be accepted based only on organizational or “mainstream” cultural authority.
Kevin’s Test Post
May 1, 2007
hello. I am writing a post today just for fun. In a few minutes, I’ll delete it.
Now, Discover Your Strengths
July 22, 2006
Last summer at the EDUCAUSE Management Institute I won a challenge the faculty gave the participants. We had to think of five things to share about ourselves, share these observations with the group at our table, and then write up a list of everything we could remember about the others at our table. I don’t know if it was the caffeine or my interest in the challenge, but I won.
My prize was the book Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. I’d seen Buckingham speak at EDUCAUSE and was interested to read the book. But it’s been a busy year (no director and all) so it wasn’t until this past week, while on vacation, that I got the chance to read it.
The book is structured around Clifton’s work on positive psychology. There are two basic premises:
- Each person’s talents are enduring and unique.
- Each person’s greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength.
Most people feel that to improve, they need to build up their weaknesses; Buckingham and Clifton argue that to really excel you should develop your strengths and manage around your weaknesses.
A central part of the book is taking the Gallup Organization’s Strengths Finder survey. The survey identifies your top 5 strengths after you answer more than 100 Likert scale questions.
For the curious, my strengths turn out to be:
Thanks to Baylor for the linked descriptions. It’s also interesting that Baylor has given all of their employees the survey. The book makes a recommendation that organizations consider doing such a thing, but that’s an expensive proposition and I don’t know if I’ve had enough of the Kool Aid to invest so much in one instrument. Still, it might be something we could do on a smaller scale if anyone is interested…
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