Sarah the Librarian

Last year, I just barely squeaked out my 100 books, so I'm going to do attempt doing the same this year. Total Books: 102 of 100 My year of reading in review on GoodReads As in previous years, I'd also like to focus on reading books I own that have been languishing on my shelves. I'll be a little more realistic in my goal, though, and try to make this year the first I actually reach this particular milestone. Books I Own: 16 of 25 The Elephants in My Backyard: A Memoir  by Rajiv Surendra Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story  by Jewel Suddenly One Summer  by Julie James On the Construction Site  by Carron Brown On the Space Station  by Carron Brown Secrets of the Seashore  by Carron Brown Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here  by Anna Breslaw Breaking Character  by Cameron Grey Finanicial Peace Junior: Teaching Kids How to Win With Money  by Dave Ramsey The Wedding Trap  by Adrienne Bell The 500 Hats of Bartholome...

I just barely got through my 100 book goal this year (and I'll admit, there were a lot of children's books padding that total), but I have to say I really enjoyed what I read. So now, without further ado, my favorites from what I read this year: The Holy Bible  - This was, without a doubt, my biggest reading accomplishment of the year. A feat I've attempted several times, but 2016 was the year I was successful. Reading this epic work as a whole helped me make sense of the less exciting parts and get a much better big picture view of the work as whole. Hamilton: The Revolution  by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jeremy McCarter  - Was there anything I was more obsessed with this year than  Hamilton ? That's why this annotated script interspersed with short pieces about the show that's revolutionized Broadway has to be on this list. In 2017, I have tickets to finally see the production in Chicago. White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America ...

It's funny, because I'm now in a position where I don't buy a lot of books, and even then they're more technical manuals and online reference materials than books you read from cover to cover for enjoyment. But my habit of reviewing what I read on my own time is certainly still in tact. And I do find the easy organization of what I've read in Goodreads to be a really helpful Readers Advisory tool, especially now that answering random questions at the reference desk is just about the only time I spend any significant time on RA. Anyway, I felt this milestone should be marked, but I'm out of profound organized thoughts on the subject.

As has become the norm in recent years, I'm going to try to read 100 books total, but I'm not going to get picky about counting them, so how ever many books Goodreads said I read this year is my total. Progress: 100 of 100 I really hated reading from a specific list of titles last year, so this year I'm going to go back to an Alphabet Soup Challenge. This year, I'll try to read a book written by an author whose last name starts with each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. Progress: 23 of 26 A: Alire, Benjamin Saenz - Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe B: Bradley, Anna - A Wicked Way to Win an Earl C: Cline, Ernest - Ready Player One D: Dickens, Charles - Oliver Twist E: Ellison, Ralph -   Invisible Man F: Faulkner, William - Absalom, Absalom! G: Garcia, Kami and Margaret Stohl - Beautiful Darkness H: Holm, Jennifer L. - The Fourteenth Goldfish I: Ishiguro, Kazuo - The Remains of the Day J: Johnston, Aaron and Orson Scott Card - Ea...

This year I'm squeaking in under the wire with 100 books in my Goodreads timeline, although I'll admit a lot of them are picture books I've read with my kids, but I guess the millions of times I read and re-read most of them covers about the same amount of time as a longer book. I tried to focus on reading classics of literature for my main reading challenge and I really didn't get very far. I'm glad I tried and I did find some new favorites, but the ones that weren't favorites were a real slog to get through and it really slowed me down. I still managed to keep up the trend of finishing a lot of series and I got better about reading the books I own, so that's something. Without further ado, my top 5 reads of 2015 and 10 honorable mentions (listed in alphabetical order) Daring Greatly  by Brene Brown (2012) I've heard about Brene Brown for years, but finally reading one of her books just crystalized in my heart a lot of things that I alrea...

I chose to attend a half-day postconference on using and understanding COUNTER 4 reports, which, if you know anything about stats collection for online resources, you know sounds like a potential torture session. Luckily Jennifer Leffler made it relatively painless. I think one of the most useful things about this session was the chance to slow down and just focus on the methods of stats collection. So often I'm trying to grab stats quick to answer a question or make a point and I'm focusing more on the end result instead of the process going into it. This helped me realize that it's important not to skip the process, that it's just that - a process - so it will take time to get it right. But, at the same time, if I take some time to set up the process correctly, then going forward it should be faster and easier and not require all that time for set up. I have done some of this with stats collection, but hearing someone else's process and a more in depth overview ...

The conference overload was starting to happen on Friday, but I soldiered on. At breakfast I talked to someone from a regional library council. Her background is in special libraries, but in her current position she works with a ton of teeny tiny public libraries, so I was excited to find someone with some common ground. As for the opening speaker, I was pleasantly surprised. The head honcho at Alexander Street Press talked about the future of open access publishing and the reception was mixed. First, he was surprised that librarians didn't think all scholarly publishing was going to be open access in the next decade. Then when he described how publishers were going to stay in business, basically by providing services that either make it easier for researchers to publish or to find what they're looking for in bare bones open access text, the crowd seemed ready to revolt and scream that that wasn't really open access. Maybe because I'm not in academia I'm not so up...