Belated Swag Post

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the ALA Midwinter Conference in San Antonio. It was very productive. I got to meet many representatives of the companies that the library does business with while I was over there. I'm also glad I was at the conference because I had a chance to become aware of some changes going on with a major database company.

In addition to going to meetings and interacting with vendors, there was the opportunity to garner some swag, but not nearly as much as this person. I had a couple of bags filled with stuff from vendors and publishers. They fit in two bags that were pretty heavy for me to lug around, and so I decided to ship them UPS to the house.

The package arrived this past Tuesday evening,

I already mentioned in a couple of previous posts that Dark Horse representatives had given me some books on Will Eisner and Frank Miller. Those three books are in process in Tech Services.

I was given a few advance reader's copies of books. I thought my mother might like one of them, and so she has it.

These books look interesting. The first book has an interesting topic. The rest are fiction. I've always liked Dorsey and Feist. The Rash book looks interesting, and it's already gotten good reviews. I read some of Patterson, but not the first book in this series. I might read it first-- if I get a chance.

1. AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service-- and How It Hurts Our Country by Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer
2. The Big Bamboo by Tim Dorsey
3.. Flight of the Nighthawks by Raymond Feist
4. The World Made Straight by Ron Rash
5. Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever by James Patterson

In addition to being a librarian, I'm the faculty sponsor for the college's anime club. I talked to some manga and anime folks who were at Midwinter. I was given some manga-- about a half of them are like the third books in series I've not read. There's a couple books that are the first books in series that I've read through. There's also an issue of Usagi Yojimbo and an edition of Strangers in Paradise. I might just see if any of the people in the anime club would like to have some of the books-- or even a couple of comic books-- issues of Spiderman and Emily the Strange.

I promised Coppertop a button. I didn't see a superhero button like she had requested, but did snag a couple of Fantastic Four posters, two Emily the Strange posters, and a Serenity poster. One of the Fantastic Fours is hers-- the other was given to a colleague of mine. I like the Emily posters. I do have a spare anime-Death button though.

I also got a complimentary DVD. I signed up for the club to receive some free DVDs from Anime Advocates.

Wandering around, I saw a blast from the past. When I was a child, I used to read Cricket. It's still in publication and I've got a copy of an issue from last year.

There's also some catalogs. I may be going through them Monday evening at work. I need to order some more books for the library. I think I need to go through what Greenhaven and Bloom stuff is available first.