Happy Friday, dear readers! Toady I’m going to share some links that I find helpful in the realms of communication, new data curation tool from California Digital Library, and some weekend fun. Let’s get right into it because the weekend is calling!

I really appreciate this article from Lifehacker: how to avoid awkward conversations when meeting someone new. So if you feel like this xkcd cartoon below in conversation, do yourself a favor and read the article. Just say no to awkwardness in conversations!

Also, check out this article on asking questions to determine if a manager will be a good boss. Always good to figure this out before you accept a job offer. Pass it on to those you know who are looking for employment.

I think Data Up is so cool and will be of great use to researchers who need to manage and preserve their data (in Excel format) because of grant requirements and wanting to share data with others. From the press release:

CDL partnered with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Microsoft Research Connections and DataONE to create the DataUp tool, which is free to use and creates a direct link between researchers and data repositories.

Please share the information with the researchers you know or work with at your institutions. I love seeing great products and tools created for digital curation and preservation. Even better, the code is open source so it can be improved, which is “strongly encouraged.”

Thank you to all who attended, volunteered, and presented at Library 2.012 this week. It was a lot of fun. I think my group’s presentation went well and I enjoyed listening to some fantastic talks on recent research and digital preservation work. If you want to listen to any of the recordings, you can find the links on this page.

And finally, to leave you with something fun, check out this wonderful parody video and share it with all the archivists you know. Many thanks to my friends for making me aware of this video!

Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be back next week with more. Allons-y!