Is everyone ready for a vacation about now? I know I am. It is break week on campus and it is like a ghost town around here. On the one hand this means that I am able to get a lot of work done that gets shoved to the side during the academic quarter, but on the other hand it makes me even more anxious to be on vacation. Plus there are less than 3 weeks left in this year (and decade) which makes me feel like I should get about a dozen projects done both at the library and at home. So if you are like me, a feel the need to do something, then this is the post for you.
As anyone who reads this blog fairly regularly knows, I adore Lifehacker. I really do think it is one of the best sites for technology and life hacks. Also, they never fail to have great end-of-the-year lists of their popular posts. So if you feel like making anything this year, check out the Lifehacker article, Most Popular DIY 2009 Projects. Tons of fun projects and great gift ideas.
Speaking of gift ideas, if you haven’t yet gotten your favorite librarian (or librarian-in-training) a gift for the holidays yet, check out this great gift guide on Librarian in Black’s site: Librarian Gift Guide. No one can ever have too much librarian gear, right? Personally I’m rather fond of the canvas bag I received this year that says “got library card?”. And if you still can’t find anything that suits your librarian gift-giving needs, I highly suggest xkcd’s store, thinkgeek, or threadless for all your librarian, geeky, nerdy, and fun gift giving needs.
The holiday season also means that a lot of people will break out the cameras to capture all the great holiday moments. If you are one of these people, you’ll want to check out Lifehacker’s Most Popular Photography Hacks of 2009 for tips on taking and making better photographs.
Okay, okay, for those of you that are still in working mode, here is an article for you about online education. The latest issue of American Libraries had a short article, “The Fab Ten of Online Ed” (pg. 31) that I thought was interesting. If you teach online, or are thinking about teaching online, check out this article. It is a great list of what students need to know before taking an online class. I especially like point #5 “Your lack of planning does not constitute your instructor’s emergency. The class is available 24/7, the instructor is not.”
Have a great rest of your week. The Waki Librarian will be back after the new year with more fun technology, teaching tools, and random library news in 2010. Have a lovely, relaxing and peaceful rest of 2009 and a very happy new year.