Digital Archives, Productivity, and Having a Good Day

Happy Friday! Isn’t it just so lovely that it is almost the weekend? I think it is and so I have the usual random assortment of articles and thinking points. Today’s topics are digital archives (because, really, who doesn’t like talking about archives?), productivity (because I can’t seem to get away from the topic), and having a good day (because it is better than having a bad day). This will be a short post, perfect for a quick break from working on your important Friday work. So let’s talk archives!

I have admitted it before and I’ll admit it again, I love research and I love researching in archives. I really think you do get “archives fever” when researching in an archives, or maybe that’s just because the last archives I was at didn’t have air conditioning and I was there in the middle of a heat wave. Either way, you don’t have to worry about that if you follow the Library of Congress’ Guide to Finding and Using Online Primary Sources from the Manuscript Division. Online archives: they are wonderful and should be shared. Even if you disliked your history classes when you were in grade school, high school, or even college, trust me, looking through primary source documents will make you enjoy learning. (You may never want to become a historian, but you’ll probably find something that strikes your fancy in LoC’s vast online collections. If not, head over to NARA–they have an amazing photography collection online too.)

Oh, and check out Library of Congress’ Podcast: Conversations about Digital Preservation. A podcast series on digital preservation–really could life get any better for the library and archives geeks among us?

Why, yes, yes it can. NARA recently debuted its first wiki which will hopefully continue to be populated with wonderful archival information and discussions. Granted it isn’t the prettiest site on the web, but hopefully it will become one of the most useful and get more people interested in archives and archival research.

This article from WebWorkerDaily is fantastic: Passion as “the Ultimate Productivity Tool”. (Reminds me a lot of the advice that Seth Godin writes in his books and blog about work, productivity and shipping.) Read the article and be inspired to do great work–work you love–because then work isn’t something you have to slog through, it’s something you (usually) enjoy. And, unless you have a TARDIS, you’ll never get this day back so why not be passionately productive?

Finally, I want you to have a good day–a great day even. But if you are feeling the makings of a bad day, take a break (grab a cup of tea) and read through Lifehacker’s The Science Behind Having a Bad Day and How to Solve It. I hope it helps.

Of course, I can’t leave you without something fun on a Friday. So go over and check out ThinkGeek. If you’ve never checked out their site before, you are in for a treat. If you already have, you know why it is awesome, geeky shopping fun. Did I mention they have the Friendship Algorithm on a t-shirt?

Have a great Friday, a fantastic weekend, read a lot, and The Waki Librarian will be back next week with more library and technology fun.

Productivity, Hugs, and Communication

Hi, all. I’d say, “Happy Monday,” but that seems a little cruel. (Although I do hope your Monday is going, and continues to go, well.) I thought to myself that to make Monday a little better we’d talk a bit about fun stuff, like hugs, and useful stuff, like productivity and communication. So grab a cup of tea and take a break to read some of the interesting stuff going around the web.

In keeping with Friday’s post about back-to-school or, more specifically, back-to-college, I have this New York Time’s article, Failure to Communicate. Unfortunately, I can completely relate to having students who are unable to deal with conflict and only want to communicate via text messaging. And, truly unfortunately, I have been called by parents who want their students to get into my department’s classes. Really, I’m not making it up. This would all be slightly amusing, like the Threadless shirt about the art of conversation, if it weren’t so true. So really, get off your computer today and actually have a conversation with someone. If you teach, actually have your students interact with each other. Remember to connect and communicate. That’s all I have to say about that (although I’m always happy to continue the conversation with you later).

You want to be productive, you really do, but it is just so difficult with all the fun and distracting stuff on the web. I understand, and so do the people at Lifehacker. Check out their article on How to Deal with Distractions in a Web Worker’s World. Great advice and tips, as always, from Lifehacker.

Now we get to the super fun stuff. (I know, you thought I had forgotten about the hugs, didn’t you? As if I would do that.) Check out this guest post on Zen Habits, How to be Insanely Productive and Keep Smiling. I love this post probably because I like being productive and like being in a place (and headspace) where I feel like smiling. Also, it probably has to do with the introduction to the post, “You can be insanely productive–and still smell the freesias, savor a Pinot Noir, or enjoy a languid hug.” I’m a big fan of hugs; there should be more hugs in every day (Pinot Noir isn’t bad either, but I’d like to swap the freesias for roses, thanks for asking.) The advice, or lessons, in this post is great. I am very lucky in that I love what I do and definitely have a lot more days when I’m truly thankful to be doing what I do than when I want to pull my hair out. Granted I still get stressed, and I haven’t achieved perfect patience, but overall I know I’m on the correct path for me. And that is where I hope (and wish) that all of us are at in our lives.

So get out there and enjoy your insanely productive week. Give someone a hug and tell them they’re awesome (extra karma points if you also give them cookies). Walk over and actually talk to your colleague whose office is next door instead of sending another email. And finally, get outside and enjoy some fresh air (preferable on a break, with a book). The Waki Librarian will be back with more goodies on Friday.

Tips for College in the Middle of Summer

Happy Friday! I hope where you are living is having lovely weather and you will be able to enjoy it this weekend. The Bay Area is having fantastic weather and I am completely looking forward to the weekend. But first, we must get through Friday. I was walking into a store the other day and there were already back-to-school supplies out! It’s worse than having Christmas music being piped into the mall during October! (At least in my opinion, because I still feel my blood pressure rise every time I see stacks of back-to-school supplies, even though I’m on the other side of the student/faculty equation now.) Anyway, the blogs seem to be getting into the whole back-to-school thing too so I figured I’d post about some of the best tips. (And if you’re a student, feel free to ignore this post until it gets a little closer to the time you actually have to return to school.)

Some people worry about roommates, classes, and moving away from home when they go to college. Personally, I worried about technology. So for those of you who know someone going off to college, send them a link to Lifehacker’s Preparing for College: Tech Essentials for Your First Year. They’ll thank you for it. And if roommates will be involved, send them a guide on how to Hide Your Entire Operating System from Prying Eyes. Again, they’ll thank you.

Coffee and college students seem to be so enmeshed that you can’t walk through a campus without seeing at least 3 coffee carts and smelling coffee from one side of the campus to another. I mean, even libraries have gotten into the act and now have coffee shops. So why do you drink coffee? Do you even know what caffeine does to your brain/body? If you are a little fuzzy on the biochemistry of it all, check out: What Caffeine Actually Does to Your Brain. A nice, easy-to-understand overview.

Because everyone needs a break from studying once in a while, college students (and really anyone who uses Hulu) should appreciate: Top 10 Hulu Hacks and Power User Tips. Oh, Lifehacker, you make life so much easier.

Speaking of cool technology stuff, did you hear about Google App Inventor? It allows you to create Android apps without coding! This is just amazing–I love how one of the examples given is having students create quizzes to test their knowledge of course content. How geeky cool is that? Plus, with so many libraries without dedicated tech staff, this offers libraries a way to still get on the Android bandwagon and mobilize at least some part of the library’s services.

Finally, it is Friday, so we must end on something fun and slightly silly. Today’s video, which is now making its way through the bibliosphere, was brought to my attention by Megan, one of our former interns at the library. Thanks, Megan! So enjoy: “Study Like a Scholar, Scholar.”

If you aren’t smiling by now, go back and watch it again or take a nice, long vacation because you probably need and deserve it. So read a lot, enjoy your weekend, and the Waki Librarian will be back shortly with more technology and library fun.

Friday Thoughts on the Mobile Web, etc.

Hi all. Happy Friday! Aren’t you just so excited for the weekend? I know I am because it means I can get out of Los Angeles and head back to my beloved Bay Area. I’m in LA for a research trip (which is going quite well, thanks for asking), but it happens to have landed me smack in the middle of a heatwave, again–so if parts of this don’t make sense, it is because the heat has addled my brain. So when I’m not buried deeply in a Hollinger box, I’ve been thinking about the mobile web and dreaming about wifi (as the archives I’m doing research at doesn’t have wifi). The mobile web is a hot topic, kind of like Web 2.0 (or I suppose Web 3.0), as can be seen from looking at the programming at this year’s Internet Librarian Conference. So this Friday, is mainly about mobiles and libraries.

EDUCAUSE recently released a couple of very interesting articles. The first of which is Universities and Libraries Move to the Mobile Web. A quick look at the mobile web and how universities/libraries are (and are not) making use of the mobile web. Does your library have a mobile optimized website? I’m hoping my library will have one soon (thus one of the reasons that I’m so looking forward to the talks at Internet Librarian). The second, kind of related article by EDUCAUSE is fantastically titled, If You Twitter, Will They Come?. Great look at using Twitter in educational settings. I personally love Twitter and I’ve found that it really works well in certain teaching situations. For example, for getting notices to Frosh who refuse to check their school email but don’t mind having another text message (using Twitter’s fabulous Tweet to Text option) sent to their phone. Plus, it saves me typing out long emails–140 character tweets are definitely your friend once the craziness of the term sets in. But I can’t say I’m surprised that students don’t want faculty in their social networks–I don’t want students to be in my personal social networks, not because I don’t care about my students’ learning, but because I like to keep some boundaries between my work and personal life too. (And let’s be honest, with how easy it is to set up accounts, it really isn’t difficult to keep one for work/teaching and another for friends/family.) I think the way to go is by using these easy tools in ways that work for students (this means we should actually talk to the students). That way we can create or adapt the technology so that the university or library isn’t “invading” a social network so much as working with it.

Oh, and don’t miss out on the Pew Internet Report on Mobile Access 2010. Good read with interesting data–more support for creating applications that will reach mobile users (although, again, talking with users/customers first would probably be a good idea to see what they want).

I seem to be on the road a lot this summer and therefore I’m thinking about traveling a lot, specifically things that make traveling easier. One of the things that makes my life easier is using Lifehacker’s Top 10 thumb drive tricks. The humble thumb drive–so small and yet so mighty.

Another great post from Lifehacker, Jumping ship from iPhone to Android: A switcher’s guide. It is a good comparison of the two and perhaps useful for anyone who is trying to decide whether to stay/get an iPhone versus an Android phone.

And for fun on Friday, check on this comic from the wonderful xkcd.

Analogies Comic by xkcd

'Analogies\

Have a wonderful weekend filled with reading and fun! The Waki Librarian will be back next week with more good library and technology stuff.

Busyness and Priorities

Hi, all. I hope everyone is having a fantastic day and gearing up for a lovely weekend. I thought I’d take a little bit of time to write about busyness and give you some thinking points to mull over during your weekend between running errands and relaxing. I’ve been thinking a lot about this topics in the past few weeks as have a number of deadlines coming up in quick succession. So “allons-y” (let’s go)!

I think about about the links between busyness and priorities a lot. It is inevitable that the subject comes up at least occasionally in most people’s lives because everyone seems to be super-busy and have way too much to do. Until we come up with time-turners or a working replica of the TARDIS, we are still stuck with just 24 hours in a day.

I think about priorities and busyness more than I would like because people often ask me how I manage to get everything done. My answer is two-fold: I prioritize and I don’t multitask–I just work. Now I know that we don’t have total control over everything at work or in life, but for that which we do have control over–I say prioritize the heck out of it. And, like a lot of the self-improvement gurus say, if it is important to you it will get done. Just like making time for family, friends, and significant others/spouses/partners, we always have time for what is important to us (and it’s important to remember that nothing is written in stone and if something important comes up, the calendar can totally be cleared). So I just have a few resources to share today to maybe help you prioritize the tasks in your life and some fun stuff (because it’s Friday)!

Seth Godin has some awesome advice and thinking points over on his blog, as always. I am currently enamored of his post that validation is overrated. While I think it is human to crave validation (I mean who doesn’t like compliments?), needing validation before we do something is the way to stasis and not getting anything done. If you have a wacky idea (and it doesn’t hurt anyone), I say go for it. See what happens and maybe you’ll get validated later. And remember, there is a definite difference between needing to be told your idea is okay before you take action and liking the praise you receive after you’ve finished a project, plan, whatever. Oh, and if none of this makes any sense whatsoever, just watch the great Validation short below and smile.

Okay, are we all feeling better after that video? I know I always feel better after watching it.

I think we can agree that there is always too much to do in the library and archives. What are your priorities? What must get done in order for it to function? What would be wonderful but isn’t a priority? What do you know is a priority, but you don’t want to do it so you keep putting it off? If you can honestly answer these questions, you are well on your way to accomplishing tasks versus feeling (completely) overwhelmed with busywork. Also check out the lovely zen habits blog which has wonderful ideas for simplifying your life and getting rid of the feeling that you “need” to be busy just to be busy.

If reading RSS feeds from Lifehacker has you a bit overwhelmed, check out Lifehacker’s Newsletter. It’s a daily digest of their posts–fantastic for those who get stressed out by seeing lots of unread posts in their feed reader.

Oh, and for those of you that still have vacation time to look forward to, check out the Geek Vacation Checklist. And yes, I’m a bit obsessed with checklists and travel tips–I love traveling. Maybe a bit of a break will allow you to step back and re-prioritize your work life.

One of my priorities in life is baking. I know that sounds weird, but hear me out. I enjoy baking: I like how my kitchen smells when I’m baking cookies, I like trying out new recipes, I like that it is a task that can’t be rushed and gives me time to think, and I really like the smiles that come from sharing baked goods at work. I like to think I’m making my colleagues day a little brighter by bringing in some yummy, homemade baked goods. One of the recipes that is just too perfect for summer is Joy the Baker’s Strawberry Blackberry Shortcakes. Check her blog out, it is fabulous.

Finally, because it is Friday and now you have a lot to think about (re: priorities and being productive versus being busy), enjoy this video that has been making its way around the bibliosphere: “Zombies in their Natural Habitat.” What a creative way to ask for funding!

Have a wonderful weekend, read a lot, and the Waki Librarian will be back next week with more (productive) fun.

Digital Preservation

I want to take a bit of time today and talk about digital preservation for two reasons: 1. it is a subject close to my archivist/librarian heart and 2. I don’t think it is taken seriously. What I mean by not “taken seriously” is that while I think a lot of people are concerned about digital preservation and believe that something needs to be done, many fewer people actually take any concrete steps toward actually preserving digital data. For instance, when was the last time you backed up all your computer files? Do you have a back-up server in case the main one in the archives or special collections fails? Is the back-up server in another physical space than your main server in case of physical disaster? Do you understand and apply all those metadata schema, checksums, and other preservation measures with your collections?

I think one of the problems that advocates of digital preservation face is the fact that it is almost overwhelming to think about preserving digital materials. The sheer volume in terms of information and the complete intangibility of the records makes it very difficult to wrap one’s mind around preserving the materials. Not to mention the fact that so much of the actual data and records reside on obsolete media. Who hasn’t opened a box in the archives and sighed when a pile of floppy disks is in the box?

Luckily, there are resources out there to help with digital preservation. If you have any favorite resources, please leave them in comments. I’m not going to go into the nitty-gritty of preservation metadata or the controversy surrounding the argument of whether digitization is a preservation or access strategy. Instead, I’m just going to highlight some helpful resources to help you get started.

The Library of Congress has created a nice, short video titled, Why Digital Preservation is Important for Everyone (And they have a transcript! Yay, for accessibility!). It’s great to use to market the importance of digital preservation to those outside of the information professions. Maybe you could use it as part of your National Preservation Week events next year. Or use it in your information literacy courses when teaching about digital content and the importance of backing up your files (i.e. homework). Also, the Library of Congress is a fantastic resource for digital preservation information.

You can now access the iPres 2009 Conference Materials. This is a fantastic resource–full papers, videos, presentation materials, and more from the conference. If you want to delve deeper into the digital preservation quagmire, this is a definite must-read/view resource.

If you want to get an international perspective on digitization, check out the National Library of New Zealand: National Library Digitisation Strategy 2010-2015. It is always a good idea to see what other nations are doing with regard to digital assets, especially our fellow librarians and archivists from New Zealand (and Australia) who are quite advanced when it comes to theorizing and implementing digital preservation programs.

And something, just because it is fun: NARA launches new logo. Let me know what you think about it. It reminds me of some cartoon eagle, but I can’t remember from which cartoon. I think it is nice (and goodness knows it is difficult to design a good logo), though I would have liked the logo to incorporate some sense of the future and digital aspect of NARA’s work.

In other news, I thought I should highlight a Free Workshop: “Make a Connection! Librarians & Teachers Team Up for Student Success”. If you are in SoCal, you should check it out and blog about it. I, unfortunately, won’t be able to attend, but it sounds like a really interesting workshop.

I also thought I should highlight Lifehacker’s How to Downgrade Your iPhone 3G[S] from iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3 after talking with a few people who were unhappy with the “glacial performance.” So if you would like to downgrade, check out the article–make sure to read it all the way through before starting so you don’t lose any data (and good luck).

Before leaving you, dear reader, I just wanted to thank everyone who has checked out the new blog theme and told me they liked it. That makes me happy. And, if you are curious, the new header is a mashup of two photos I took of collections in the University Archives at my university.

The Waki Librarian will be back on Friday with more fun for your reading pleasure. Until then, enjoy your day, read a lot, and I’ll see you back here soon.

Books, Data Usage, and other Random Stuff

Happy Friday! I know, finally a post that is actually posted on Friday. I thought it would be a good idea to get back on schedule. So here is a Friday’s worth of random academic, library, and technology fun facts and tips. From textbook news to characters falling back into their books, it’s all here so let’s get going.

As an academic librarian (and a student myself), I’m super-excited about the news that universities receiving federal financial assistance must “provide students with accurate textbook information including retail price at the time a student registers for the course.” Read the full article on Campus Chatter. This should really help the students looking for textbook information and the librarians–maybe once students find out about this new requirement, there will be fewer panicking students at the reference desk during the first days of classes. (A librarian can always hope!)

If you’ve been reading this blog for a bit, you know how much I like productivity tips and articles about self-improvement. So obviously, I really like this article: Saying ‘I will do it in the future’ is an Excuse for Failure from the simple dollar. Great advice, and a kick in the pants, that should have you evaluating your to-do list and actually getting things done. (It also reminds me of an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon talks about his future self creating a time machine and giving it to him in the past so that it takes the pressure off working on the machine in the present. But really, I like the article because at it’s heart, it is simply and powerfully a call to just get started and then inertia will take over.)

My sister and I were discussing data plans for smartphones over dinner last night (yes, we are both geeks…moving on…) and it reminded me that I hadn’t shared this great Lifehacker article: how to keep track of your cellphone data usage. Check this out for simple ways to track your data usage so your carrier won’t have an excuse to slap you with data overage charges.

Also, speaking of Lifehacker and technology, check out this slightly older post on the top 10 privacy tweaks you should know about. You probably already know about some of these, but even so, the list is a great review and helpful for making sure you don’t overshare without knowing it and tips for keeping what you want to keep private. Very good information in this age of perpetual connection online.

If you haven’t seen this Flickr set by Lissy Elle yet, you really need to go see it now. Get Back in Your Book is a fantastic series of “a collection of characters who strive to stay in the real world,” but are falling back into their books. Really, the photographs are amazing so take a little break and thank me later.

Finally, let’s end with a fun Vlogbrothers video, Book Nerd PARADISE, from John’s time at ALA:

Have a lovely weekend full of reading and fun. The Waki Librarian will be back next week with more library and technology news.

P.S. I’ll be working on changing up the theme/layout of the blog over the weekend, so don’t get concerned if it looks a little bit strange for a bit. It will just be me and it will all be sorted out, promise.

Summer Technology and Relaxation

Hi, all. Well, after a couple of breaks and diversions from the regularly scheduled programming, we are back to library and technology fun with a summer twist. I love summer, don’t you? (And I really love summer in the Bay Area because it isn’t super hot and humid, but instead it is blessed with perfect warm days and usually lovely nights.) So in celebration of summer, I have some resources for relaxation as well as some for improving your use of technology.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the Best of 2009-2010 Scout Report. The Scout Report is one of my favorite digests of good stuff on the Internet. I always learn about something new reading the weekly reports and the “Best of” list is fantastic. (Though I might be slightly biased because the first resource listed is Xeno-Canto: Bird Sounds from the Americas.)

Speaking of lists of helpful stuff, check out 7 Things You Should Know About Open Educational Resources. EDUCAUSE creates great, short handouts; they are perfect for sharing with the instructors you know and hopefully you can get more people excited about OER (Open Educational Resources). At my library, we highlight various open educational resources in our presentations to faculty and encourage their use. Plus, lots of OER databases are also social networks where faculty members can come together and share their work, plus pick up new tips to use in the classroom.

Speaking of online resources, all my fellow bloggers out there should check out the Social Media Today article, Bloggers: 7 questions to ask before hitting “Publish”. Most of the advice is common sense, but it is still very worthwhile to give the article a quick review. Then stop putting it off, and update your blog already.

You knew I couldn’t possibly have a post without mentioning Lifehacker, right? Here is a great article on the Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks. As anyone can now get a Google Voice account, this article is particularly timely and has the usual great Lifehacker advice and tips.

For all my fellow West Coasters who are interested in technology, you’ll be pleased to note that registration is open for Internet Librarian 2010 to be held October 25-27 in Monterey, California. I’m hoping to make it this year (I missed last year’s conference). I was excited to see an entire track dedicated to mobile services in the advanced program. And come on people, it’s Monterey, in October and that’s as close to perfection on the coast as you’re ever going to get. (But I’m of course hoping to go for the professional development.)

Productivity tips of the day: How to Stay Organized when Life Throws You a Curveball. Great piece on organization that I think everyone will find handy–either now or in the future.

Now on to the summer relaxation fun! I love this article on Low or No Heat Meals Ideas for Easy Summer Cooking. Now in the Bay Area we can’t really complain about cooking in the summer because the weather is pretty mild, but I know for everyone living in the Central Valley, on the East Coast, and just about everywhere else, doesn’t want to cook and these ideas are perfect. (I can say from experience that I hardly touched the oven for cooking in the summer when I lived in Boston.) If you need more ideas and recipes, take a jump over to Joy the Baker who has tons of fabulous recipes (some not requiring an oven, but a lot do because, come on people, she’s a baker) including this recipe for frozen Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls. All I can say is “yum!”

I love vacations, don’t you? I love unplugging, unwinding, and generally relaxing (and contrary to popular belief, I don’t feel guilty about taking vacations). If you need some convincing to take your allotted vacation time, read this Psychology Today article on the Importance of Vacations. Seriously, take your vacation and not only will your body and mind thank you, all your colleagues will too.

So go forth and relax! I on the other hand need to get back to work scheduling the fall term’s information literacy classes, writing up some papers for a meeting in August, and finishing a grant proposal. Enjoy the holiday weekend for those of you in the United States, read a lot, relax outside (with sunblock and a nice floppy hat on, naturally), and the Waki Librarian will be back soon with more technology and library fun.

ALA 2010 Wrap-up

Hi, all. I know, once again I missed posting on Friday. I’m sorry, but with the flight to DC and the heat I really wasn’t in any shape to be blogging. So this post will serve as a wrap-up to my experience at ALA 2010. It was my first time going to ALA Annual and it was a very good conference experience.

After a rocky start of having my first flight delayed over an hour (and then miraculously landing only about 5-10 minutes late at the destination–don’t ask me, I don’t know–I think it involved use of a wormhole, a TARDIS or a time-turner), the rest of the trip was uneventful. I think about half of the flight from Detroit to DC consisted of librarians going to ALA! The rest of the day was spent being a tourist and having dinner with Nancy and Mary (Nerdfighter extrodinaires as well as librarian mother and future librarian daughter super duo).

Friday was the first day of conferencing (after a necessary trip to the National Archives, of course). I went to the PAIG (Preservation Administration Interest Group) meeting which was really informative. The talk on creating and maintaining sustainable preservation environments by James M. Reilley was fascinating and I look forward to reading the final reports on the results of turning off and on the climate control systems have on the environment and the collections. If the results are positive, it will be a boon for archives and libraries trying to preserve their collections while also being more environmentally friendly in terms of using energy. The presentation of some of the findings from the Ithaka Report was also interesting–although it was terrifying that some of the faculty agreed that it would be okay to discard primary source documents once they had been digitized. (yikes!)

Saturday was Library of Congress Day (a.k.a. let’s go and geek out over awesome digital forensic stuff). I listened in on the Library of Congress Twitter Archive talk in “The Stacks” (aka exhibit floor). Didn’t really hear anything new, but it was good to get confirmation on some information. Plus the two LoC speakers were engaging and drew a fairly large crowd for the tiny space they had set aside in their booth area for the talks.

In the afternoon, there was the amazing, awesome, fabulous (really I could go on and on geeking out over it, but I won’t) Digital Forensics talks and tour at LoC. Three research scientists in the preservation directorate (don’t you just love that name?) explained how they use non-invasive techniques to discover lost and obscured information in the documents in the LoC collection as well as creating baseline information and creating a research database of papers and pigment samples for conservation work. I’m so envious of the amazing tools they have at their disposal: electron scanning microscope, XRF (x-ray fluorescence), XRD (x-ray diffraction), and hyperspectral imaging, among others. While it was definitely cool to see all the amazing information they could uncover using these imaging techniques (like changes in speeches that can’t be seen with the naked eye and watermarks hidden by text), I think one of the best parts was the affirmation of the importance of the original document. As all the scientists said, the originals are so important because they can find out more information as the technology improves. So to them, like so many in the archives and preservation fields, digitization is an access tool, not a preservation tool.

photograph of librarians touring Library of Congress preservation lab

Librarians touring LoC Preservation lab

Another awesome part of their research is trying to create methods and techniques, not to mention tools, that librarians, conservators, and archivists at institutions with less resources than the LoC can afford. I am looking forward to their results because I can only imagine what great information there is to be found in the documents in other archives’ collections.

Sunday morning’s session on National Preservation Week was inspiring and it was great to hear about all the successful events held this year. I’m going to work with my library and some local community organizations to host at least one event for National Preservation Week 2011 (fingers crossed it all works out). And for those of you who like to plan ahead, National Preservation Week will be held April 24-30, 2011: “Pass it on”!

In the afternoon, Megan Oakleaf and I gave a presentation for the Instruction Section titled: “Question, Find, Evaluate, Apply: Translating Evidence Based Practice to Information Literacy Instruction” to an almost full room of around 450. (As an aside, I have to give props to The Litbrarian who was gracious enough to take me to brunch and put up with me stressing out before the talk–I get incredibly nervous before every talk I give, although I am fine once I start talking.) I think the talk went well; people participated, they laughed at our jokes, a lot of people knew about (and liked) xkcd and a good chunk of the audience watches Bones so they got my analogy using Dr. Brennan to explain evidence-based practice, and a number of people asked awesome questions during the Q & A. We even got tweeted about which I found pretty cool and a little strange as Clara Fowler, Chair of IS, told me that the tweets happening during the presentation were really positive. So yay! (Of course I had to go and look at the tweets and one of my favorites has to be from linkedlibrary: “Rules of EBL: Evidence=good; anecdote=bad; when in doubt, ask! Oakleaf and wakimoto are great.”) A huge thank you to the IS conference planning committee for inviting me to come speak–it was a blast and I’m so excited that so many librarians are interested in evidence-based practice! Our bibliography and links to the slides and resources can be found here: link to bibliography of suggested EBP resources. A review of our session was in Tuesday’s Cognotes (pdf) . How cool is that?

The final session I went to was “Emerging Research in Collection Management and Development.” Both Aline Soules, who is my colleague at Cal State East Bay, and Jeffrey Kushkowski, from Iowa State University, talked about their current research. Aline is comparing biographical databases to information found on the open web to determine which products, or combination of products, are best for use when researching authors. Kushkowski has, with the help of a team of graduate students, completed journal article citation analyses to determine journal rankings in the field of corporate governance. It was good to hear about research that is outside of my own research interests and specialties. But I can definitely say that the only way I would ever do a citation analysis study on the scale of Kushkowski’s study (analyses of over 15,000 citations) was if I had a team of graduate students too!

Overall, my first ALA Annual Conference experience was positive, although if the exhibits opened earlier on Friday I wouldn’t complain. It definitely helped to have a focus in order to sort out what tracks to attend (although there were about 3 other talks I really wanted to go to that were happening at the same time I was speaking). DC is an amazing city, but I’m with the other NorCal, Bay Area people who came to the conference: the heat and humidity were a little overwhelming. I do hope to come back to DC to see more of it because this was a bit of a whirlwind tour and hopefully I’ll also be able to attend more ALA Annual Conferences as well.

More technology and library fun to follow shortly, but in the meantime get back to your summer reading and relaxing.

More Travel Fun

So how’s everybody doing? Sorry for no post on Friday, but I was enjoying my vacation too much to plug into the computer to write. (Not that I don’t, of course, love you dear readers, but I promised myself no work during my one week of vacation and while I love blogging, it felt too much like work before today.) I mean, really, take a look at the photo below and tell me you wouldn’t be out enjoying the quiet of nature instead of staring at a laptop screen:

photograph of Deschutes River

Deschutes River

I thought, though, that I should share a few links that I read while waiting thunderstorms to pass that may be helpful for those of you going to ALA this week.

Don’t you just love Lifehacker? I sure do and this post on the top 10 strategies for surviving airports and airplanes couldn’t have come at a more opportune time than right before ALA. I’m so not looking forward to flying in from the West Coast–jet lag is not fun, but I’m sure the conference will be.

Lifehacker also has a post on 5 tactics for getting sleep on long distance flights. Definitely a fan of getting sleep on planes and these are a few excellent tips.

Finally the Lifehacker pack for Macs. I felt it only right that I include this link as I already linked to the Lifehacker pack for Windows and far be it from me not to alert Mac owners of a cool suite of software.

I hope everyone who is going to ALA has a very safe journey to DC and a fantastic conference experience. I’ll probably post about it as I’m excited for ALA (it’s my first time attending). Have a lovely week, read a lot, and I’ll be back with more library and tech fun soon.