Z666.7.L364 (www.jenniferlang.net)

As part of the Nineteenth National African American Read In and Black History Month, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association-New Jersey Chapter and the Princeton Public Library will be co-sponsoring a reading and book signing by veteran journalist Dominic Carter.

Mr. Carter will read from his memoir No Momma’s Boy at the Princeton Public Library on Sunday, February 3rd at 2:00 p.m. Copies of the book will be available for sale at the library, and after the reading Mr. Carter will autograph copies.

From a childhood of abuse at the hands of his mentally unstable mother to a meaningful career attending social events at the White House and interviewing Nelson Mandela, No Momma’s Boy recounts Carter’s tremendous highs and lows and how he survived to become a successful journalist.

A fixture at NY1 News since the channel launched in 1992, Dominic Carter hosts the nightly political show “Inside City Hall,” during which he has handled some of that station’s most challenging assignments and interviewed every major political player in the state. Carter also appears regularly on CNN and MSNBC.

Mr. Carter received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from SUNY Cortland and a master’s from the Newhouse Graduate School at Syracuse University before starting his career in radio.

The African American Read-In, sponsored by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English, urges citizens nationwide to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month by hosting and coordinating read-ins in their communities.

All Princeton Public Library programs are free and open to the public. If programs require registration, preference is given to library cardholders. The physically challenged should contact the library at (609) 924-9529, 48 hours before any program with questions about special accommodations.

The library is in the Sands Library Building at 65 Witherspoon St. in Princeton Borough. Convenient parking is available on neighboring streets and in the borough-operated Spring Street Garage, which is adjacent to the library. For more information about library programs and services, call (609) 924-9529 or visit www.princetonlibrary.org.

I started this book on Wednesday, so I’ve only read a little of it… the “Prologue.” I’ve never read anything by David Weinberger before this, but I have a feeling that this book will be very engaging. He begins by making observations about the way the physical world is ordered, based on his visit to the the Staples Prototype Lab, the “testing ground for making shopping at Staples easier for customers.” The lab is used to find ways to create an environment in which the customer doesn’t have to walk very far to get everything he or she needs.

Weinberger asserts that the limitations of the physical world are so much a part of our lives that we don’t even recognize them:

He gives an example of how these limitations hinder us in the physical world by pointing out that, in the case of a Staples store, no matter how well the store is organized, if he goes in the store looking for only a few items, all of the other items get in the way:

If I come in with a shopping list of fifteen items, the other 7,185 items Staples stocks not only are irrelevant, they hide what I’m looking for.

(Here comes the fun part!)

Weinberger goes on to say that there is an “alternative universe … the digital world,” and in this environment, it doesn’t matter how much stuff is out there; things get rearranged and sorted depending on each person’s needs. But there’s a problem, according to Weinberger. We have been trying to organize our digital world (i.e., the world of knowledge) according to what we know about the physical world. It is the limitations of the physical world that have limited how we’ve organized the digital world.

He finishes the prologue by suggesting that as we strive to move away from traditional ways of organization, we will discover not only that information wants to be free, but that it “wants to be miscellaneous,” too!

I can’t wait to continue reading!!! Stay tuned….

Jenny Levine, of The Shifted Librarian fame, wrote a very useful blog posting earlier this year about keeping current: Keeping up when you don’t have time.

Excellent advice! I always feel like I’m behind, so I updated my Bloglines subscriptions and arranged the feeds into categories. Here’s what I came up with:

Jennifer’s Blog Feeds

Today’s reading:

Danbury, CT kicks off LibraryThing for Libraries! from LibraryThing’s blog.

Keeping informed about current news and trends by Nicole Engard (What I Learned Today… ):

http://www.web2learning.net/archives/1034
http://www.web2learning.net/archives/1036

Formula for Academic Library Success by Steven Bell on ACRLog.

Notes from the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control meetings by Mark Lindner.

Diane Hillmann’s notes from the same meetings:

Part 1
Part 2

Some blog postings I found interesting this morning:

Sounds bring Google Earth to life - “Users of Google Earth may soon be able to hear the sounds found in some locations.” (via BBC News)

US DJ criticised over Obama song - “US talk show host Rush Limbaugh comes under fire for airing a racially charged song about Barack Obama.” (via BBC News)

Web 2.0 Awards - SEOmoz’s Web 2.0 awards for 2007 (via LibraryBytes)

Name, Rank, and Dewey Decimal Number - The new Central Library of the Amsterdam Public Library is opening this July, and its librarians will be wearing uniforms! (via Minerva Shelved) One other interesting thing I noticed while on the library’s site is that they use Aquabrowser, a really cool federated search tool. More information about Aquabrowser can be found here.

A summary, with additional links, of the LC Working Group Meeting, May 9 (via Minerva Shelved)