Books and Cataloguing

I once had all of my books catalogued and organised. I guess the ones I had up to that point still are – but now, with ebooks and other traditional book additions to my library, the number of books/ebooks I own has probably doubled at least. I should have continued to catalogue and organise them as I added to the library, but alas I did not. I have been working away at doing it now, on and off, for a little bit in recent months. I’ll get there eventually, but it takes a bit of time.

I use Goodreads online for cataloguing and a database on my computer for offline cataloguing. Both have their purpose, and one acts as a back up of the other. If I can get this done, it will be very helpful in using the library for research and study purposes, and also save a lot of time in the long run.

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From My Armchair: 4 August 2012

At the BookShelf

I am into my last days of annual leave, so it is doubtful I’ll be able to read anywhere near as much as I have this last week. I’ll probably have the Kindle out at lunch for a bit, so I’ll still be getting some reading in even while I’m at work. The Kindle has certainly made it a lot easier to have good reading material available no matter where I am. Loving the Kindle.

 

Social Networks, Web Applications & Other Tools

Not a lot has happened with the social networks in the book/reading niche over this last week, except that I have been updating Goodreads on a regular basis as to what I am reading, progress and cataloguing the books as I go.

I did do a quick addition to Quotista, which has a lot of potential but doesn’t appear to be being developed any further, which is…

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Diigo

Diigo has been about for some time, but I have only just registered an account. I use Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon and the other bookmarking and surfing web applications/social networks that I have posted about in recent weeks, yet diigo adds another element to my web adventures.

Diigo is a social network sharing site, in that you can share the bookmarks/favorites that you save. But the new element that diigo gives me in my surfing the net is that which I have at hand when I am reading a book or magazine offline – a highlighter and the ability to add notes to the written page (which in diigo is done via a sticky note that is attached to the page you are on). I can then return to the page I am reading with a bookmark as it were attached to where I got up to (by way of a sticky note), highlighted sections that were of particular interest to me and the ability to share what I have added to that page by way of my highlights and sticky notes. It is also possible to take a collaborative approach to this sort of online research by creating a group of users within diigo.

I can see diigo becoming a very important research tool that I will use for many years to come.

Visit diigo at:
http://www.diigo.com

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

One of the things I’m really into is genealogy. I have been researching my family history for at least 10 years now, probably longer. This is something I spend quite a bit of time on and at the moment I probably spend at least 6 hours a week on it.

By the end of the year I am hoping to publish a book on my family history, which will be about 700-1000 pages long. It will be quite an effort to have it completed by then (that is the information I have thus far compiled), though the research will continue after the book is completed and there will undoubtedly by further updated editions down the track. It is exciting to know that there is a major milestone not too far away.

BUSHFIRE SEASON HAS ARRIVED

On Friday I was visiting the Bulahdelah Cemetery in order to photograph headstones for my family history research. I decided to go up to Bulahdelah after work, it being only a short journey from Tea Gardens.

What I had noticed over the last week or so was that as the temperature had begun to rise so the number of bushfires and controlled burns had increased around the area dramatically. In fact, there have been quite a lot of bushfires burning around the area. Though this photo was taken on Friday, bushfires are continuing to burn around the place, driven by the very strong winds and dry conditions that currently exist. There is a massive fire burning over toward Nelson Bay by the look of it, as there are huge plumes of smoke in that direction.

This photo was taken from the Bulahdelah Cemetery toward Alum Mountain, where the fire was burning. The air throughout the area, from Tea Gardens to Bulahdelah, was full of smoke and there was a thick smoke haze. I wouldn’t say the air was choking, but every breath certainly had the taste of summer upon it.