Author: dwakimoto

Cool Deals and Free Software

/ dwakimoto

Well, it is freezing in my office and I am set to give my first final exam at noon today. And what, you ask yourself, does this have to do with cool deals and free software? Nothing, except that I want you to be impressed I actually posted something as my fingers are freezing off as I type this and I am worried about my students coming on time to their exam. Though I shouldn’t complain about cold as my poor friends in the Northeast are literally way below freezing.

So on to the actually heart of this post. Lifehacker has come to the rescue again for all of us who are trying to save and still need to buy gifts for this holiday season. Check out this awesome article on finding the best deals online. Definitely a little holiday gift from Lifehacker.

Here is another, slightly older, Lifehacker post on the free software we are most thankful for. And no, this isn’t about illegal software–it’s about great open source, free software. I have to say I am super-thankful for Gmail, VLC media player, Audacity, and Open Office. These rock and make my computing life so much simpler and more rewarding. Plus, I feel less like throwing my CPU through the window into the courtyard because I can use these programs (that don’t crash my computer!). So what software are you most thankful for? Yes, I know Thanksgiving is over, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop remembering what we are thankful for.

Check out the above articles and I promise something in them will help you and make the holidays and work a little less stressful.

Internet, Books and Graduation Rates

/ dwakimoto

No, I don’t think I’ll actually be able to link all the items in the post’s title together, but those are the topics to be discussed today. I saw a lot of random articles I had been saving and just had to add my 2 cents.

First, the article, Is the Internet the Start of History? This is a very interesting article and I give the author full-props for writing about how the Internet changes the very meaning of archives and archival appraisal (even if he doesn’t say it in this way). However, like so many that do not have a preservation background, he gets a few things wrong. Changing movies from analog to digital can help with access and can, sometimes, help with preservation. But preserving things on cds or dvds is really not a good idea as the media degrades quickly and formats change. Really, you don’t want to get a person who works in preservation or digital archives to get started on this topic. They could talk about it for days and days! It is a huge archival issue. But the concept of the Internet starting a new page in human history is a very cool one.

Here is another article on Google vs. the Libraries in the realm of the Google Books project. Interesting read and argument of private versus common good. That argument reminds me of the whole argument about the commons in England.

And, to end, an article about how the United States lags behind other nations in the graduation rate of students from universities. Interesting read.

And, so as to not end on a pessimistic note, it is a beautiful sunny day and we have the weekend to look forward to. Enjoy!

Why I Teach

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

Hi. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I feel rested and ready to take on the rest of the quarter.

Okay, so while I don’t have any great technology sites to share today. I thought I would just continue on the optimism theme and explain why I teach. Now the obvious answer is I teach because it is part of my job description and I have to. Well, yes, but that doesn’t really answer why I teach. I teach information literacy to freshmen which can sometimes be trying at best and life-draining at worst.

Today reaffirmed for me why I teach. I just had my focus group for my class. I am trying to figure out ways to improve the class and how the students see the class. The data is completely worthless for extrapolation, but still interesting. My best students came–thus I cannot extrapolate out even to the rest of my class. But they did reaffirm why I teach. I teach to try to reach the students, help them, inform them, give them the ability to have power over the flow of information in their lives, but really, I teach because of my engaged top-tier students. I teach for the students that take what they’ve learned to the next level, who take pride in their work, who truly learn to learn and really want more.

These students want more knowledge, they want more power and they want more out of life. These are the students that give me the energy to slog through the papers that are turned in late, that are turned in by students who obviously ignored the directions and who could care less about the class and who have a glazed over look no matter what we do in class.

I try to lift up all my students. I teach so that they can improve and learn and grow. I pull them kicking and screaming into active learning, into collaboration with others in the class, and into participating online. But that can be draining. My students that actually see that one can have fun and learn from anything are the ones who I teach for.

My students today ended with the suggestion that we have another library class. They actually wanted another class in their college career–later when they were in upper division classes in their disciplines. Really! They thought the class was helpful. They loved the YouTube videos, they liked the quotes used in class, they enjoyed helping others with their new knowledge and even saw the use of learning citations! How can one not feel blessed to have students like this in class? And I have more than one!

This, friends, is why I teach. Because these are the students that are going to change the world, one little step at a time. These are the students that make the time, the energy, the blood and the tears worth it. They are why I teach.

Tangentially, can I just say I am super-proud of my students? I am. Check out their online presentations here Library 1210 Presentations. These are presentations of the most interesting parts of their research projects. My students have made me proud.

Like the bumper sticker I picked up in Monterey says: “Those who can, do. Those who can do more, teach.”

Librarians and Optimism

/ dwakimoto / 7 Comments

Okay, so right up front I have to say that this is an optimistic post about what I am a grateful for in my library. I think that librarians need to hold on to the optimism even though it is definitely doom and gloom on the budget front and it is hard to be cheery when it is cold and dreary out.

But more than any tech tool I can promote here or any website I can hyperlink to showcase a new cool tool, it will be your optimism and confidence that will allow you to succeed. Librarians are great at doing a lot with a little and helping others. But in order to keep doing this day after day we need to promote optimism. Optimism is not the opposite of realism, but the outlook on the world that makes any of this worth living.

So why am I optimistic? Because anything else would just be too dreary to contemplate. Think about it: everyone has a ton of work to do, there aren’t enough hours in the day, or money in the budget and people still don’t get why we have graduate degrees to “put books on shelves.” Really, it is enough to get anyone down. But I think there are way more things to uplift us than get us down, really, even in a hyperlinked, Web 2.0 world.

So in honor of Thanksgiving (and because I don’t know if I’ll have time to post again this week) here is a list of my top 10 things that I am grateful for in my library:

1. Students–I love teaching and most of my students are fabulous and excited to learn. Did I mention that they are furious at book banning? How can I not love teaching students who are engaged?

2. Patrons at the Reference Desk–Yes, some are annoying but the vast majority are great. I love helping answer questions and always learn something new.

3. “Thanks!”–Even better, being thanked for helping a patron at the reference desk.

4. Creating workshops–I love sharing information and my colleagues are eager to learn

5. Freedom to try new things–I can start blogs, create gadgets and podcast at my work. I love this freedom to try new things

6. Colleagues–I have great colleagues who have a wealth of knowledge and are willing to share.

7. Research–I love being able to do research that I think will help my library and be able to share that research with others.

8. Connections–I think one of the best things is forming connections with the community, people and other librarians.

9. People using the library–At least at my library, we are usually overflowing with students using the library. I love the activity.

10. Career–Last but certainly not least, I am thankful to have a not only a job but career in librarianship. I love my work and never take for granted that I am employed.

So what are you thankful for in your library? It is always easy to complain, but sometimes hard to praise. But trust me, if you think about what rocks in your library you’ll not only be more optimistic but you’ll be more confident when you try out new Web 2.0 stuff too.

Until next time…have a great Monday!

Friday Stuff and Such

/ dwakimoto

I’m terrible with titles–doesn’t matter what kind–blog post titles, subject lines of emails, titles for term papers, theses–I just wasn’t made to name things. Luckily, or hopefully, my writing makes up a little for the lack of skill with titling things.

Well, it is Friday and yes, it means some random thoughts about trying to help and improve the library, yourself, the world even maybe. When I was teaching on Tuesday, I used a quote by Ghandi, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” So yeah, I believe that by changing yourself and actions you can change the world. Where am I going with this?

Well, I read this great post by the Free Range Librarian, K.G. Schneider. Whose blog you should really subscribe to if you don’t already. It is insightful, funny and all the things that a blog should be. I love this post because peer-review might be broken, but publishing anonymous bloggers is not helping things, and I am sick of all the talk about the Annoyed Librarian too. It is way too easy to be pessimistic; it takes a lot more work to be optimistic and try to improve things when the economy is tanking and libraries are feeling the hit. But I would way rather be spending time improving things, be it trying to improve peer-review process or helping my students finally get how to apply information literacy concepts to their lives outside the university, than spend time complaining about it.

Here is a report from Pew Internet that talks about users having trouble with technology. This is nothing new, but I wanted to point it out so the next time you feel bad for not knowing the latest online game, just remember it only feels like everyone else knows about it. Most don’t and most people are still having trouble with basic technology stuff. Librarians are cutting edge–just remember that and remember it’s okay to still be learning. Just remember to take a deep breath when explaining something new to a patron. Not everyone is a techie, and that is okay.

And, it is a beautiful, sunny Friday morning. Enjoy your day, enjoy working with people and have a great Friday and weekend.

Oh and has anyone tried SlideRocket? It looks really cool and I need to play around with it. It’s an online presentation application. Anyway, just thought I’d check.

Collaboration and the University

/ dwakimoto

Okay, so I’m very sorry for the lack of updates. My only excuses are that it is nearing the end of the quarter, enough said, and I took the weekend off to top off my energy tanks because exhaustion was taking over in a big way. So enough with that and on to the topic of the day–collaboration and the university. Yes, everything is about collaboration.

Now I really don’t care if this article says that the blog is dead and we should all move to twitter. People declared the death of the book years ago and I’m still borrowing and buying books. It is just now that there are multiple ways to deliver and receive information. Is twitter fun and a neat way to keep up with people, sure? But blogs are still a great way to deliver information and even if people don’t get famous off their blogs anymore, which seems to be one of the laments of that articles, blogs still offer a way to get your voice out there on the web and contribute to the building of community.

So what does this have to do with collaboration and the university? Well, this article says that Web 2.0’s big advantage to the college and university world is the ability to collaborate. You don’t say? 🙂 And what have we been discussing on this blog, why, collaboration. It is all about connecting people to people, information to people and people to the information. Collaboration is always what Web 2.0 is about and it is nice to see someone write an eloquent article on the subject. I think one of the things that will save online learning is the fact that it is becoming easier and easier to collaborate online, even asynchronously. One of my big concerns with online learning is the potential loss of interaction and synergy among students that happens during great group discussions and projects in face-to-face classes. But with Web 2.0 growing, improving and expanding the opportunities for collaboration each day, we do not have to sacrifice interaction when teaching online. And that, to me, is a saving grace because I don’t want us to become a bunch of pod-people who never interact and lose all social graces of conversation. Remember, it really is all about interaction, community and collaboration. Without interaction, we are all just screaming into the abyss of cyberspace by ourselves which, let’s face it, does not sound like a very appealing way to spend your life.

And, last but certainly not least, a post with a video clip from Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. The stop-motion film looks awesome and Gaiman’s take on other people expanding and adapting his creative works is so refreshing. Talk about being talented and gracious. This article and clip renewed my confidence in Mark Twain’s quote: “Stay away from people who belittle your ambitions, small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Have a great Tuesday.

Recipe for a Wednesday

/ dwakimoto

So, right off, this is nothing to do with libraries, unless you are like me and like to eat chocolate while reading books.

But I had to try to alert more people about Wired’s article on Baking a Cake in a Mug. I tried it this weekend and it turned out fabulously. 5 minutes, 1 mug and you get 1 microwave-baked cake of joy! Really yummy, I want to try the recipe with Peppermint hot chocolate. So if you don’t have time to bake a whole cake, try out this recipe and let me know what you think.

More on libraries later this week, I promise.

Connecting Generations

/ dwakimoto

So maybe I am just fixated on communication at the moment, or it might because I am prepping for my class on information and society, but all I can think about at the moment is how we can use technology to help others and create communities. Like my post on humanity, this is a call to use technology to come together and build understanding.

Now, I’m not sure if I agree with all of this, but you really should check out this video (thanks to Tame the Web blog for pointing it out):

So, how are we going to bring together these generations? What does it mean for the library and library profession? How do we connect?

I think reaching out into online communities, getting student liaisons for the library to talk with other students and always looking for ways to innovate in the library are great starting points. But we cannot forget that our greatest assets are not our technological ones, but our human traits and qualities. I still firmly believe that being friendly and helpful will connect us to others and keep the library at the center of the community.

So, what do you think?

Accessibility and Useless Gadgets

/ dwakimoto

It is Friday and, like always, my brain feels about fried so I think that it will come as no surprise that today’s ramblings and resources are a little off the wall. But really it makes sense, really! I’ll explain.

Yesterday was the fourth in a series of five technology brown bags that I have been hosting at my library. The topic was on accessibility and online resources. The CSU system is one of the great systems that is actually forcing compliance with Section 508. However, lots of people are confused about what they need to do to make, retrofit and use accessible resources. It was a great workshop and of course, lots of excellent questions raised. One major question was: how do we code accessible JavaScript and AJAX? I really need this as I want to make Google Gadgets for the library. So of course, I went digging.

Here are two resources that I am still reading, but look awesome, on accessible coding. First is Reading up on WAI-ARIA from 456 Berea Street. It links to a ton of resources on creating Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA).

The other great resource is this Accessible JavaScript post from Enpresiv Developers blog. I really need to work through this because accessible JavaScript is the only way to go.

And, because it wouldn’t be Friday without a slightly random article. Here is a Wired article on Five Useless Gadgets You Should Throw in the Trash Right Now. And can I just say, I am completely for getting rid of fax machines–those things hate me! And printer ink, don’t even get me started! So have a read, or at least a laugh at the photograph in the article.

Have a great weekend!

Humanity

/ dwakimoto

Alright, first off, a little bit on the elections before we get into the nitty-gritty library stuff. I promise I won’t get too into politics (but Rock on Obama!); I just wanted to share this great xkcd cartoon with you today. Seriously, go check out Election.

Now that you are back, let’s just admit it–everything we do is to further collaboration and connection. Humans are social creatures, no matter what people claim about being introverted. Yes, we differ on the level of social networking and interaction we want, but we are at our base social creatures. We want to connect and collaborate and this is where Web 2.0 tools come in so handy.

I found this blog post through Tame the Web and I too am hearting this post. Really, go check it out. Technology is just the means to connect and to reach out to others. We are using technology to recreate and re-invent public meeting spaces that are rapidly disappearing.

And last, but not least, here is an article from Educause about a phenomenon that fanfic writers have known about for years–collaborative work. These stories live online and many people contribute to them, respond, and comment on these stories. Storytelling is no longer limited to a few authors, but expanded to anyone who has an idea. Anyone can create something and post it on the web. And, no, I am not against everyone having a voice and I don’t think it is a crisis of quality of writing, reading, or any of that other stuff. Remixing, creativity, and passion live in this new world and if educators could harness the work that students do in this environment and transfer it to lessons and assignments in school, I think the results would be amazing.

Yes, I am unrepentant in my optimism about Web 2.0 applications, teaching and creative work. I believe that we can collaborate and connect online and in person because that is what we do. And as librarians, educators and blog readers we can all take part in these creative endeavors. Happy November 5th and rock on!