books

Signs of the Times

/ dwakimoto

I am really bad at making up blog post titles so please forgive the overused title of this post. So here is a round-up of some tips and articles all about saving money, time, and getting things done during our lovely recession.

So as we all know, being green is the new black. In honor of that, here is Lifehacker’s Top 10 Battery Hacks. Here’s to getting more out of your batteries and to using rechargeable batteries. I have to say I love rechargeable batteries. I use them in everything that I don’t plug into my computer to charge, except for the cell phone. So what’s your favorite battery hack?

Okay, so between the hysteria over swine flu and the real problem of the recession, the news has not been so uplifting lately. Here is an interesting approach to saving money on a college degree:saving money with no-frills college. Although I think the entire problem of tuition needs to be tackled, no-frills colleges are a viable option for saving money. What do you think?

Okay, so it isn’t all doom-and-gloom on the economy front as Trade Paperbacks are doing quite well and some publishers are opting to have titles go straight to trade paperback, bypassing hardcover altogether. This works for me as I rarely have the money to buy titles in hardcover, but can usually afford a paperback–and trade paperbacks are usually pretty nice & have a larger cover than mass-market paperbacks which appeals graphically. So yay for yet another article that rallies in the face of the naysayers who just keep saying that reading is dead.

Finally, here is another Lifehacker article about Smart Installer which sounds great. Smart Installer will save you time by loading all the software you like on your new pc. This would have saved me so much time during the week where IT changed out the computer in my office three times.

Have a great Monday and the Waki Librarian will be back later in the week with more tech fun.

Reading

/ dwakimoto

The library today is filled to the gills with people–not surprising considering this is the last week before finals. So in honor of that fact, I thought it would be appropriate to share some articles written about college life and reading habits.

First up is this article from the Washington Post about students’ reading habits. The author seems to bemoan the reading choices of today’s college students. This just reminds me of Betty Rosenberg’s quote, “Never apologize for your reading tastes.” I always hate getting into arguments that try to classify some books and reading materials as “inferior.” My opinion is, at least they are reading. And honestly, I don’t think we should make anyone feel bad about his/her reading preferences. I have to say that I have no desire to read depressing literature right now or so-called serious literature all the time.

Or at least if students are able to read a book they are probably not the ones discussed in this article on drinking habits of college freshmen. While, obviously, this research does not take into account all factors and definitely needs further investigating, seeing even a preliminary study showing that first year students are spending more time drinking than studying is slightly disheartening.

The most interesting part of this article, in my opinion, is the fact that Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy, executive direct or of NASPA — Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education was surprised at these findings because “because most literature describes the millennial generation as responsible, close to parents, focused on their careers and dedicated to service.” This just reminds me of the talk that millennials are so tech-savvy and forgetting the massive digital divide that exists not only in this country but around the world. I think a lot of people would be less surprised by findings such as this if they left the ivory tower and actually walked around where students congregate. Now the question is, how do you get students to spend more time on their studies and less time playing beer pong? Don’t forget to read the comments to this article–many bring up very important issues and some are just hilarious.

Because we simply can’t leave off on such a depressing thought, here is a great list of ridiculous reasons given for trying to ban books. I think it is ridiculous, period, to ban books, but this is list shows just how far people will try to reach to ban a book.

This is the Waki Librarian signing off. More library and tech stuff coming soon. Remember, reading rocks! Enjoy the rest of your day.

Musings on a Monday

/ dwakimoto

I hope everyone had a very nice weekend. Now it is Monday and we’re back at work. So I thought we might at least have an uplifting post for a Monday. So without any further ado, get ready to feel some love for the archives and libraries of the world: 

This is an article for all the archivists out there and historians who toil away in the archives. This is Eric Jager’s article, “Lost in the Archives”. This article to me is the one to point people to who think that everything is on the Internet. People often speak of the deep web, but few spend time thinking about the equivalent of the deep web in the physical realm of paper and books, manuscripts and letters. There is an entire world of archives, unprocessed collections and overlooked papers being processed, collected and cared for by the archivists of the world. And, for most collections, if you want to experience them, you must still go to an archives, sit down at a table with only pencils and sometimes a laptop to take your notes. It can be slow going, but the thrill of the find, as Jager notes, is what makes archival research so wonderful. So raise your glass to your neighborly archivist. And be nice to him or her, because only the archivist really knows what’s back in the archives!

Speaking of appreciating librarians and archivists, check out this article on“Using your Librarians”. So reference librarians rejoice! There is at least one human out there who appreciates what you do and how much you know. I love the last line: “reference desk librarians are the etymologists, the orthoepists, and the collectors of citations of the library.”

And finally, a wonderful xkcd comic to brighten your day. This is for the math people out there. If you don’t get it, go over and ask your friendly math librarian.

Correlation from xkcd.com

Correlation from xkcd.com

Thoughts for a Soggy Monday

/ dwakimoto

So, it’s Monday. All my Boston friends are snowed in and out here we are in quite a soggy state with all the rain. But I will not be complaining about the rain because: 1. we desperately need the rain and 2. I’ve always been quite fond of rain. However, with the rain comes the inevitable, slightly muddled brain so I’m only going to tackle one issue today, faithful readers, more will come later this week.

At my library, I’m often referred to as the library point person on accessibility. I don’t mind this in the slightest because I honestly can see nothing wrong with insisting on accessibility. If it wasn’t just that I work at a university that mandates accessible resources online, I would still be on team accessibility. I mean, I’m a librarian, librarians are all about access, and accessibility is just one facet on getting the greatest number of people to our resources and services. This is a very long way of saying that this article on Amazon allowing authors and publishers to disable Kindle’s read aloud function makes me sad.

I totally understand that we need to protect authors’ copyrights and the profitability of audio books. But getting a computer to read aloud text is not the same as an audio book as Neil Gaiman eloquently argues on his blog post. And this comes from a Newbery Award-winning author. Gaiman later followed up on this point with this post where he convinced his agent that read aloud was okay. I think if you can’t see the benefit of this feature after reading Brook McCall’s letter on Gaiman’s journal, well I really have nothing more to say about that.

Honestly, accessibility isn’t just a laudable goal. It should be a down on the ground, every day of your life commitment of not forcing some people to live as if they don’t deserve the same access as others simply because of a disability. I think this is especially relevant to librarians and, yes, I think that is all I have to say on that.

Have a great rest of your Monday. I’ll see you later this week.

Thoughts on a Friday

/ dwakimoto

Don’t you just love Fridays? Even if you have to work on Saturday, like me, Fridays are still great. Everyone is just in a better mood and it seems like everyone is more relaxed. So in honor of Friday, I have an assortment of goodies from Wired. Tech on a Friday; can life get any better?

So, just to be clear, I have nothing against Apple or Macs in general. I will give it up to Apple for running some of the savviest marketing campaigns ever–they’re so good that they make people forget that Apple is a huge corporation that has massive amounts of proprietary formats. I mean Apple is genius at marketing. Not to mention, they have some very nice products.

With that said, I have to now say that I love this article: “Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone.” It isn’t surprising in any way as, by and large, Japanese products sell better in Japan than products from other countries. Also, as the article notes, Japan is lightyears ahead of other parts of the world in advancing technology and using it in new ways. Stories on cellphones, anyone? I personally think this is a good challenge for Apple to come up with a cutting-edge, maybe even bleeding-edge, cellphone.

As long as we are on the topic of technology, we’ve got to talk about netbooks. I love netbooks. Although the keyboards can feel a bit cramped at times, nothing beats only having to carry around 2.5 pounds of netbook versus 6+ pounds of laptop. I take my Dell mini 9 with me to conferences and live blog sessions. It is so handy and allows me to do just about everything I need. If you are on the go a lot, and resist bringing a laptop with you because of the weight, get a netbook and I assure you it will change the way you work.

Now, in honor of the Comic Arts Conference at WonderCon 2009 being held in San Francisco (and our very own Doug Highsmith speaking), I had to include this article on the Secret Lives of Comic Store Employees. It is a great article that has interviews with numerous comic store employees. Maybe it’s just because I finished reading Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes last night or the fact that I just love graphic novels and comic art, but I totally think we need to be giving more attention to this format of literature.

Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend and the Waki Librarian will be back next week with more fun.

Friday's Trend Watch

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a great weekend planned. But before we get to the weekend, there is one more work day this week which leaves time for another post.

Today is all about the future. That came out sounding a lot more profound than I imagined, but really we all do need to be forward looking and thinking. And no, faithful reader, I am not going to launch into a rant about abusing non-sustainable resources and overconsumption. Today I am going to talk about libraries, technology and the future because that is what my work, and I’m sure a lot of your work, is all about.

First, from the wonderful Shifted Librarian is this post about choosing your social media drug. One, I just like the title of the article and two, it is a great look at why people choose different social media sites to use. I love how now that Twitter, Friendfeed, and Facebook have been around for a while, people are starting to write about not only the shiny, new factor of these sites but potential drawbacks. I have to completely agree that “FriendFeed is Twitter on speed, while Facebook is Twitter on Ritalin.” Like I always say, just step away slowly from your mobile device, laptop, desktop or other Internet equipped device, and go take a nice walk outside. Your overworked brain will thank you.

I am pretty disciplined about reading my feeds in the morning, keeping up with friends on social sites and trying out new applications when I hear about them, but a lot of people say they don’t have the time to do this. Yeah, it takes time to try to keep up with everything (and no one can keep up with everything!), but if it is important to you, or to your job, you have to make the time. Or, you could just read the wonderful Michael Stephens’ post on trendspotting and catch up on a whole lot of news for libraries and technology in 2009 pretty quickly. I told you we’d be talking trends today.

Finally, in terms of watching developments and trends in the digital library world, take a look at this New York Review of Books article on Google & the Future of Books that Peggy from my library alerted me too (a while ago too, but one can only blog so much). I love the scope of this article; it talks about the Google Book Project, the Enlightenment, journal subscription prices, the open access movement, and ties it all together at the end. A superb piece of writing which brings up many points to ponder on this Friday about what exactly are we gaining and losing in this new digital, digitizing world and what role libraries will play in it.

Now you know I can’t leave off a Friday post in a completely serious manner, because sometimes the brain needs a little brain candy because the heavy thoughts and issues can’t be processed on Fridays. Like I said before, step away from the computer. Or, watch my favorite Vlogbrothers video below: “How Nerdfighters Drop Insults.” Yes, a YouTube video about insulting with Shakespeare and cataloging home libraries. And yes, my students love this video almost as much as I do. Have a great weekend!

Sunday Fun

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

I’m at work today. I figured why not make a blog post today as I have seriously lapsed and not done a book review this week. I’m sorry, faithful readers, but I just couldn’t tape any reviews this morning before going to work. I promise to do another book review this coming weekend.

So, like I was saying, I’m at work and it is quiet as it is Super Bowl Sunday and all. So to celebrate, here is a Sunday edition of random fun.

First up is Tyealyzer. I think this is so fun. You just type in a blog’s URL and it will tell you what personality type is evidenced by the blog’s writing style. The Waki Librarian is an ISTP. Or as Typealyzer says, The Mechanics. Apparently that means my blog is independent, a quick thinker and problem solver who likes risks. Hmm… While that isn’t the result of the last Myers-Briggs test I took, I think it sums up this blog very well. This blog is all about problem solving, do it yourself tips and tricks. So have some fun and enter your favorite blogs into the Typealyzer.

Speaking of tips and tricks, it just wouldn’t be a post without mention of Lifehacker. In honor of it’s birthday, Lifehacker has put together a post of Lifehacker’s best posts 2005-2009. This is a really good look at where we’ve been and where we are going technology-wise. So have some fun with it.

Oh, and what has got to be the coolest thing to play with, only tangentially related to libraries, is this tour of Stephen King’s office. Yes, you can take a virtual tour of King’s office, with more on the way later this year. It if fantastic, especially if you like Stephen King’s novels and other writings. It is an interactive tour, so get ready to pick up the Wizard’s glass, see props from various movies and get attacked by Ben. Really, this is awesome. I can’t wait to explore it some more.

Last but certainly not least, here is SpeedCrunch, a calculator program that runs on just about any platform and machine. It’s way more powerful than the puny calculator that comes standard with Windows and helpful for those times when you just don’t have a scientific calculator handy.

Enjoy the day and I’ll see you again soon.

More Tips about Resolutions, Research and Book Accumulation

/ dwakimoto

Yes, I know, it is another post that is just a hodge-podge of information and articles. But, as always, I will attempt to make these seemingly random topics come together in a coherent fashion. After all, what are librarians good at doing if not collecting information, analyzing it and making sense of it all?

First up is this wonderful photography resource. Photography research is one of the most useful things I learned in library school. And now the Library of Congress has made photography research easier with there Researcher’s Toolbox. Check it out and be amazed at all the different photographic processes and information that can be gleaned from photographs.

Now, there are a lot of photographs of people online that you can find via Flickr, Google Image Search, etc. But that’s not all, you can also find a lot of personal information on just about everyone on the Internet too. Lifehacker’s article on data privacy is so relevant in today’s hyperlinked world. I’m always amazed how much you can find out on the Internet and how little people think about data privacy.

And finally, maybe, these will be the last articles about keeping New Year’s Resolutions: Lifehacker’s article on avoiding common mistakes and the Top Ten Tools for Sticking to your New Year’s Resolutions because you know I can never pass up a good list.

Lastly, here is an entire part of a wiki on how to stop accumulating books. Handy if you are moving, but really, who wants to stop accumulating books. I mean like Michel de Montaigne said, “When I am attached by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.” I have no problem with book accumulation, but I’m sure others do. My easy fix, other than patronizing your local library (which you should be doing anyway) is to buy another bookshelf–easy to find and IKEA has pretty, inexpensive ones in tons of colors.

See? Once again the Waki Librarian has solved your book, data, and resolution dilemmas! Never let it be said that I didn’t try to help.

Enjoy the day and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Rock on Neil Gaiman!

/ dwakimoto

Happy Tuesday! Yes, I am well aware of the fact that this blog post is late. I usually get a post up on Monday, but it has kind of been a crazy weekend and start of the week. So I apologize for the delay. But to make up for it, here is a post all about Neil Gaiman.

First off, congratulations to Neil Gaiman for winning the Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book. Read more about it in this page about the Newbery Medal from ALA. That is really cool and Gaiman is a fantastic writer so celebrate by getting one of his books and reading!

Also, Neil Gaiman happens to have a fantastic blog which you can find at Neil Gaiman’s Journal. Honestly I don’t know how he can write as much as he does on his blog and Twitter feed (follow: neilhimself) and still have time to write such amazing stories.

Also, the claymation movie Coraline, based on Neil Gaiman’s story, is coming to theaters February 6th. Did you like The Nightmare Before Christmas? Well, this has the same director, Henry Selick and looks fabulously creepy. I can’t wait.

Haven’t heard of this before? Check out the trailer below:

And just in case, for some reason, you aren’t into Gaiman’s work, here is a little piece you might be interested in: a post about how to embed almost anything in your webpage. This is great. I learned how to embed the high definition version of the Coraline trailer that you watched above.

Enjoy your day, more later in the week.

Reading and Audience Development Officers

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

I really enjoy being a librarian. I like teaching and doing reference work, playing with new online tools to see how I could apply them in the library and working with my colleagues. But sometimes I just sit back and scratch my head, because I just don’t get some of the things people do thinking it will better the library. 

Take this example about Edinburgh rebranding the librarians as Audience Development Officers. Okay, I am so missing why this is a good move. Yes, I understand that librarians do a lot more than people think we do and are reaching out to the community, in person and online, in multiple new ways, but audience development officers? To me this either sounds like the librarians are going to now be liaisons with the branch of the police force that deals with teenagers or they will become the opening act, like at a rock concert, and try to get the crowd moshing before the real show starts.

Branding good; audience development officers bad. I just don’t get why everyone keeps apologizing for being a librarian all the time. Librarians rock. Period. We don’t need a name change, but we might need some better marketing. What do you think?

In much better news, (because you knew I couldn’t bear to have a post without good news), people are apparently reading more fiction. That is a good thing. At this point, I don’t care if it is just a statistical blip or not, it is good news! But the gains are small and there is much room for improvement. So let’s get more people reading even if this article says there is nothing we can do to get more people reading.

If nothing else, read the two above articles to see just how different two takes on the same data can be. Very interesting, definitely a talking about about statistics, reading and librarians. And, just an aside, 100 books read in a year is a good number of books; that’s almost two a week. I think now I’m going to have to try to keep track of every book I read for a year and see how many I read. All I know is, it’s not as many as I want to read.

Final thoughts for this Wednesday: if you are a librarian, be proud of being a librarian and keep working to keep libraries relevant to your community. For everyone, keep reading. Reading is not an antisocial activity (I mean, way to put a negative spin on reading, right?); reading is a thoughtful activity that can be shared via reading to each other or afterwards by sharing how a book expanded your mind.

Have a great rest of your day!