Empowerment

Summer Technology and Relaxation

/ dwakimoto

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.

Hesitation, Shipping, and Libraries

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! It’s a long holiday weekend so feel perfectly free to wait until after the BBQ or beach fun of the weekend to read this post. It’ll keep; I promise. But if you do wait, please do come back and read this post because it is important. Like most posts it is part technology news, part library news, and part a weird amalgamation of the two first parts that seems important to me, and I hope you’ll agree. Today we’ll cover hesitation (and doubt), shipping (a la Seth Godin) and libraries.

First, the technology stuff. If I had to pick one web browser to love, it would be Google Chrome. I’m a sucker for fast page loads, clean interfaces and lots of screen real estate. Now with Lifehacker’s guide, fix the web’s biggest annoyances with Google Chrome, I can just about create the perfect web browser. That helps me get more done because I’m not worried about my browser windows crashing and can focus on more important things.

For example, do you subscribe to This is Indexed? If you don’t, you should. One of recent posts is, Maybe is in the Middle. I love the simplicity of this graph and also how it relates to the situation many libraries and librarians find themselves in today. Maybe is in the middle, but so is mediocracy (when mediocre, non-innovative, and safe ideas rule the day). The graph reminded me of Seth Godin’s admonishments about accepting mediocre work or trying something instead of doing something. We’ll get back to Godin’s work in just a bit, but first I wanted to highlight an article that generated a substantial amount of commentary this week: “Why closing more public libraries might be the best thing right now”.

So, did you read the article? I’ll wait if you want to hop on over and give it a quick review before moving on with our discussion.

While the commentators brought up many good points of contention with the article, what I want to focus on is the discussion about customer service and people skills in the library. I completely agree that people skills are not taught in library school (or at least I wasn’t taught them) and while often listed as required skills on job advertisements, the emphasis during interviewing, etc. was never on my people skills when I was job interviewing. I think this is tragic and something that needs to be fixed asap or we librarians, and our libraries, will be stuck in the trap of mediocracy, trying desperately to brand and market ourselves without changing the underlying, systemic problems that keep us from thriving without the “marketing.” I completely believe the old adage that we should show not tell people why we are great.

One of Godin’s latest posts was a 5 step plan. It’s simple: “go, make something happen, do work you’re proud of, treat people with respect, make big promises and keep them, ship it out the door.” While Godin writings are often marketed as marketing and business sources, they are just as relevant to libraries (which are businesses) and librarians. If we all follow this five step plan, we will build the tribes and be the linchpins that Godin talks about (read his books Tribes and Linchpin if you haven’t already) and the marketing/advocacy takes care of itself. While I no longer work in public libraries, but in academic libraries, and not in big business either, I believe this plan works and that doing–not talking–is the way to get things done. I’ll give you an example.

I teach information literacy to freshmen. It’s not a class they are particularly thrilled to take, but it is required so they (mostly) come. They think they’ll learn how to check out a book; what they come away with (if they pay attention) is the ability to research, to evaluate, and to make sense of the chaotic information world that surrounds them. I used Godin’s 5 steps, without knowing it at the time, in two different ways. First, in my teaching. I teach differently than the rest of my colleagues (who are also wonderful teachers); I interact with my students, we discuss, we watch YouTube videos, we use Twitter, we text and write and argue and figure out together how our class materials fit into their lives. It is about co-creation instead of lecturing. It is also work I’m extremely proud of. I treat everyone with respect (thanks, Mom, for that lesson) and students respond to it. I have high expectations for my students, but I also make promises to them to help them with this journey–and I keep them. I don’t make them wait 3 weeks (in a 10 week quarter) to receive feedback on their work. And then I ship it–which in teaching means I go with the wonky ideas (like using Twitter) that other instructors might baulk at and I try out stuff in class (like creating wikis together) which might fail and we use it as lessons in life. And guess what– it works.

I have former students who are now peer mentors and they push my classes when they talk to their mentees. They are my “marketers” and students are way more likely to pay attention and value their fellow students advice than mine or my colleagues. These peer mentors come by my office to just chat and to get advice on other classes and share with me their lives because they know I actually care. That didn’t happen because I paid lip service to improvement or change or caring, but because of my actions and doing work that I could be proud of.

Part two of the example is that in my first year teaching I also did research into improving student learning in the classes we teach. I didn’t wait around for permission, I wrote the application and got the research approval in the summer. I did my research during the year and respected the students because I asked their opinions about the class and learning and they told me because we actually trusted each other. I made promises to improve my teaching and have kept them. And I shipped it by presenting my research at a conference, writing a journal article, and now will be sharing the practical implications with others at another conference.

Was it all a lot of work? Yeah. Was it worth it? Completely. Would I do it again? Yes. Creating buzz works better when you have fans because they will do it for you, as Godin says. Librarians need to remember this. We won’t please everyone and we won’t be able to maintain some facade of perfection if we actually create tribes and do “crazy” new things. But isn’t it about time we drive the changes and become buzz-worthy (outside of the bibliosphere and our own conferences)?

Finally, in honor of all my friends who are coffee fiends, I though this was an appropriate way to end a Friday post: check out the Caffeine Poster. All I can say, is that’s a lot of caffeine represented in that poster.

Have a wonderful weekend. The Waki Librarian will be back next week.

Friday Round-up of Tips, Help, and Advice

/ dwakimoto

Today is a round-up of tips to browse through while you try to find motivation to make it through the Friday work day. I can’t believe we are coming into the last week in May, that it is still raining regularly where I live, and that ALA Annual is going to be happening in about a month. Where does the time go? In the interest of saving time, let’s get right to the productivity tips.

I think Lifehacker has some of the best summaries of productivity tips and hacks. Check out the Top 10 motivation boosters and procrastination killers. Great stuff, especially when it is Friday and all you can think about is the weekend.

Also, in the interest of productivity, check out the Top 10 ways to upgrade your morning routine. Personally, I’m a morning person (it has a lot to do with once working for a bakery and (unrelated) doing bird counts when you have to be up before the dawn chorus), but I know a lot of people aren’t and need a little motivation in the morning. Check out the tips and I’m sure you can have productive mornings, even if you don’t love them. I need a list of the “top ten ways to upgrade the middle of the afternoon when any sane person is taking a siesta”, but I digress.

Librarians, and savvy library users, already know that public libraries are great places to check for free passes to museums and events. However, a lot of people, probably the vast majority of people, don’t know about this great service. I was very excited to see this short piece on Lifehacker, no less, Check your local library for free museum, concert, and event tickets. I loved Boston Public Library had a great program, though I wonder about its viability given the massive budget issues it is now facing.

Finally, on the tip front, it is getting to be vacation time up here in the Northern Hemisphere so check out a savvy traveler’s guide to vacationing abroad. It completely makes me want to travel abroad this summer.

Oh, and some shameless self-promotion. For those of you dear readers who are going to ALA Annual, I will be speaking on Sunday, June 27th along with Megan Oakleaf from 1:30-3:30 in Room 146B at the Washington Convention Center. Our talk is titled, “Question, Find, Evaluate, Apply: Translating Evidence-Based Practice to Information Literacy Instruction.” Come by and say hi. We’d love a full house for our talk. Okay, shameless self-promotion is over, back to the Friday fun stuff.

And because, once again, xkcd did not fail to delight, we (almost) end with today’s comic strip:
Infrastructures comic strip by xkcd

My very good friend, Hanna, who writes the amazing …fly over me, evil angel… (extra bonus points if you know what song that’s from) has a custom/tradition/thing to have Friday blog posts sharing awesome YouTube videos. I think it’s lovely, and so completely riffing off of her (and giving you a nice, short break from all that productive work you are doing), we’ll end with this amazing video–seriously how do people do that with cards?

Have a lovely weekend (whatever the weather brings), read a lot (I happen to be enjoying Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad at the moment), and there will be more tips next week on The Waki Librarian.

Online reviews, website redesigns, and other stuff

/ dwakimoto

This post is a little of this and a little of that. It made sense when I saved the links, but like most things in this hyperlinked world–what makes sense one minute makes much less sense the next (especially as the smell of burned leaves permeates the library–generator issues, don’t ask and don’t panic). So on to the technology stuff and please forgive any randomness along the way.

First up, this post from Lifehacker on how to Hone your eye for fake online reviews. I teach freshmen in my classes how to evaluate online sources and I think I’ll include this in my next class. How annoying is it that we have to be on the lookout for fake reviews? So annoying, especially as Consumer Reports is not freely available online.

Okay, so this isn’t about libraries, but it is about technology and archives. If you care about the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) website, you might want to participate in Archives.gov redesign. I am so excited that the website will be redesigned and that NARA is asking for input. (Yes, I know this makes me an archives geek.)

I posted a bit ago about the exciting news of Library of Congress archiving public tweets from Twitter; this is a follow up by Resourceshelf: more information about Library of Congress and Twitter. Resourceshelf has done a lovely job of summarizing and explaining what will happen now that Library of Congress is archiving Twitter. There is also information about Google’s service, Google Replay, that allows for searching Twitter tweets.

And we end today with 6 proven ways to make new habits stick. I love easy ways to tackle new things.

Back soon with more technology and library news.

Clutter

/ dwakimoto

Do you accumulate clutter in your life? What about at your library? Just like we need to weed the collection at the library, sometimes we need to take a mindful, conscious look at the clutter in our lives and do some weeding too. We need to weed not only material clutter, but also mental clutter I think in order to be most effective in our work and have the space to think creatively. I find this especially important when I’m trying to create lesson plans, articles, or lectures. Today’s list of tips will help you decrease your clutter, find alternatives to Google (should you want them) and give you a fun video break.

How can you not like a blog called Unclutterer? This is a nice article: How much is enough. Some good tips about organizing and sorting through your stuff (and junk). The only caveat I have is that I don’t think one could ever have too many books. Of course one copy of each title may be more than enough.

Lifehacker never ceases to amaze me and if you are limiting the number of items in your house (see previous link) you may be interested in how to make your stuff last longer. This is a nice compendium of helpful articles and resources for getting the longest life possible out of everything from your clothes to your mp3 player. Helpful at home and good to share with the students in your library trying to stretch the life of their laptop batteries while cramming for final exams.

After you get done with all that organizing, you might want to take a break and check out Zenhabits’ article on Becoming Google free. Now I happen to be a fan of Google; I adore Chrome (best browser in my opinion) and Gmail (I was so excited when my university switched over to Gmail), but I can understand not wanting to have all your information stored with one company. I am waiting to hear an update on how it is working out for Leo before dropping Google’s applications.

Finally, when you need to take a break from organizing, watch this fantastic video; really, watch it to the end and enjoy.

Have a fantastic weekend. I hope your life becomes or continues to be uncluttered, that you take the time to read some books, relax, and come back next week for more tips and tech to apply in the library and in life.

Privacy

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

Happy Friday! This is just a very quick post and I promise there will be a more substantial post later in the day. I just wanted to quickly share this talk/post by danah boyd, Making sense of privacy and publicity. She gave it as a keynote at sxsw and it is really quite wonderful. If you haven’t heard danah boyd speak, I highly suggest you take the opportunity if she is speaking at a conference you attend in the future.

Photography and Simplicity

/ dwakimoto

Honestly, sometimes I think that the most difficult part of writing a blog post is trying to decide what the title should be. This post’s title was easy because I’m only going to be writing about two things today: photography and simplicity. Well, and I’ll be writing about what these have to do with libraries, but that is practically a given on this blog.

I happen to love photography and I love tips on self-improvement so I, of course, love this article: Use photography to overcome shyness. Another great, short post from Lifehacker. Plus, if you become less shy and good with a camera you can help out your library by taking great shots to use in publicity campaigns for the library. (Just don’t forget to get people to sign image release forms!).

If you want to improve your photography skills, either for taking photographs for your library or just for taking better vacation photos, check out the BBC Photography Masterclasses. Most of the Masterclasses focus on wildlife photography, but many of the techniques will help you shoot better photographs, no matter what your subject matter.

Now that you have a few more tools for taking great photographs and overcoming shyness, what does photography have to do with simplicity? Well, simplicity is usually best when creating a photography or any other image/graphic.

When I learn new techniques for Photoshop or photography or anything else, I want to layer and use every single technique into one image which usually ends up looking okay, but not great. Then when I start stripping away layers (in Photoshop) or extraneous objects (when framing a photograph), the image becomes more powerful.

It is in the simplicity of the image that it becomes memorable, which is a good thing to remember because, as librarians, we too often feel the need to tell people everything that could possibly help them in the library and want to share every tool and technique that we know. But this can lead to information and sensory overload. We need to remember that simplicity is key whether in explaining how to use a database or what images to use for a new campaign for library funding.

Simplicity in photography and in life frees up your mind to work better. And the use of simplicity in your work can spill over into other areas of your life. But, as we all know, not everyone is willing to take the time to organize and de-stress their lives. Zenhabits has a lovely post on 10 ways to deal with non-simplifying others. I think this is an essential read for anyone who wants to thrive in simplicity and not become separated from the world.

Get out there and start taking photographs, check out some Masterclasses, and remember that simplicity is beautiful. Have a lovely week, read a lot, and the Waki Librarian will be back with more technology and library stuff later this week.

Positive attitudes, creativity, and Fridays

/ dwakimoto

Some weeks make it easier than others to have a positive attitude. Luckily for me, this week was a great week and having a positive attitude really wasn’t that difficult. First, we got the overhead lights working again in the archives thanks to our awesome electricians. That was enough to keep me smiling all day (we haven’t had working overhead lights for months due to some truly interesting electrical wiring issues). Everyone liked the cookies I brought in to celebrate having lights in the archives and to thank the electricians. It is finals week on campus which means next week is break week and I’ll be able to get a ton of work done. The weather is absolutely glorious in the Bay Area this week. Plus, I just accessioned the first faculty collection in the archives which makes my archivist heart happy. But in case your week hasn’t been going as well, at least we can all be happy it is Friday!

I am really enjoying reading the blog, zen habits and thought the post How to be a positive person, in under 300 words was wonderful. Being positive doesn’t mean sticking your head in the sand and ignoring what is going on in the world; it means that you don’t get discouraged and cynical when setbacks and challenges occur. Besides, just as colds and yawns are contagious, so is a positive attitude. If for no other reason, go look at the post because it ends with my favorite quote about why it’s worth having a positive attitude.

I like reading books that are outside of my professional areas of interest and research areas and seem to read a lot of business and marketing books. I found out about this this book, Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity while reading Seth Godin’s latest, Linchpin. Hugh MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody is fantastic–short, funny, great cartoons, and even better advice. For a taste of it check out this snippet on his gapingvoid blog.

If you are finding it a little difficult to focus at work because of the lovely spring weather, check out Lifehacker’s Keep Your Daily Momentum Going with a 10/15 Split. I am a fan of taking a few minutes each day to organize what I need to get accomplished during the day. What methods do you use to keep organized and stay productive?

Another great way to keep your momentum going and actually get things done is to Keep Projects Manageable by Limiting Scope and Features. This post reminds me a lot of the Cult of Done Manifesto. Both give very good advice and it is freeing to “laugh at perfection” because “done is the engine of more.”

Before leaving you to watch a great cartoon, here is my one piece of shameless self-promotion: my first peer-reviewed article, Information Literacy Instruction Assessment and Improvement through Evidence-Based Practice: A Mixed Method Study, has been published! I’m very excited and just wanted to share. And I have to give public praise to Hanna over at …fly over me, evil angel… who graciously reviewed multiple drafts of the article and gave great feeback–thank you! Please check out the entire issue; this is a great publication that is truly advancing library and information science research.

Finally, here’s something to make you smile and give you a short break today (because you deserve it), the wonderful Simon’s Cat “Let me in!” short:

Have a lovely weekend and read a lot (and if you are looking for a quick, fun, library-related read, check out Pearl North’s Libyrinth).

Self-Improvement Friday

/ dwakimoto

I dislike self-improvement books whose authors take themselves too seriously, although I love finding out information about self-improvement if the authors are funny. But I do like the idea of self-improvement because, really, when you get right down to the crux of the matter you can only really improve yourself. This really isn’t as self-involved as it may seem (and yes I promise that it has something to do with technology and libraries, if you will bear with me for a moment) because improving yourself can be interpreted as broadly or as narrowly as you wish. I happen to believe that improving yourself includes helping others, being selfless in giving, and also learning to do the tree pose in yoga.

So for this Friday’s post, I decided to finally round up all the posts, feeds, and tidbits of information about improving yourself. Let me know what you find is the best advice for improving some facet of life–I’d love to hear about it.

Lifehacker has a nice write-up on the book Confessions of a Public Speaker. I just started reading this book and think it is fantastic–funny, engaging, and helpful. What more could one want in a book? I get stage fright every time I have to present in front of an audience, which some people find hard to believe considering I teach and often present at conferences. Therefore I find it a comfort to know that a lot of great speakers and performers also get nervous before performing, plus the advice in this book is spot on. So if you hate public speaking but have to do it, go read this book.

Before you get to the public speaking though, you’ll actually have to finish up a project or presentation to have something to present. To help you get to that stage, check out Work Awesome’s Stay on Track with an Idea Embargo. I love this advice, especially because people seem all too willing to give advice at the eleventh hour on projects. I implemented this on the last project I worked on at my library and it went rather well.

One of the endemic issues in librarianship (see I told you I would work in libraries) is the fact that so many librarians are professed introverts. Now, of course, not everyone who is a librarian, or archivist, is an introvert; however, the professions seem to have a great deal of introverts. As an aside, I thought I was a total introvert until I went to library school and suddenly discovered that in my new profession I was definitely one of the more extroverted people in the program. Part of the reason people don’t want to give public speeches and presentations is because they are introverts and some introverts are inordinately shy. So for those of you who are shy and want to push yourself out of your comfort zone, check out the article on How to Finally Overcome Shyness. Great advice.

I didn’t say it would be easy to change, but it is well worth it. As I’ve noted on this blog multiple times, getting over the need to be perfect will free you to do and be so much more than you are now. And if you’re thinking to yourself that is all well and good but does the Waki Librarian actually take any of her own advice, the answer is yes, I do. I’m so far from perfect at speaking in front of groups, or even just one on one at parties. I practice and I continue to present and speak, even though I stumble over words when I’m nervous (or excited), have a tendency to mispronounce words, and sometimes talk too quickly. Communication really is key and by becoming more comfortable (and less shy) you’ll find that you will be spending so much time trying new things and tackling new ideas, that you won’t have time to worry about if you’re perfect in your speech or what everyone else thinks.

If you want even more inspiration, check out this Interview with Linchpin author, Seth Godin. I am a fan of Godin’s work and his blog. His writing is remarkably jargon free and he has powerful ideas that can help, even if you are not in marketing. Be bold, even if your lizard brain is telling you to take the easy way out.

If you’ve heard the hype, but haven’t tried Google Buzz yet, check out Lifehacker’s Google Buzz Explained article. I freely admit that I activated Buzz on one of my accounts and 24 hours later switched it off. I didn’t see it adding to my productivity or ability to keep up with friends and it was making me anxious that there was yet more stuff I hadn’t read every time I opened up my Gmail account. Some people are finding it useful. If you are using Buzz and like it, please let me know in comments. I’m interested to hear what people think about it.

I promised somehow this post would relate to libraries, so check out: Top 10 Tools for Better Reading, Online and Off. I especially like that the first comment on this great Lifehacker post recommends going to a library for Reader’s Advisory! 🙂

Finally, I leave you with a great comic from xkcd:

comic strip of Science Valentine by xkcd.

Science Valentine by xkcd

Have a happy Chinese New Year on Sunday, read a lot, and the Waki Librarian will be back next week with more tips, tricks, and fun.

Friday's Bits and Bytes

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! Today’s post has the usual roundup of random library and technology goodies. Hopefully these links will help you in your work and play, or at least give you something to read when you need a break from work today.

When I was actually asked by someone at work how I get everything done and whether I actually sleep (Just for the record, I do sleep.), I decided it was probably time to take a look at my schedule and try pacing myself. I’ve never been really good at pacing myself or saying no to interesting projects or to people when they ask for help. But in the spirit of trying to improve, I checked out this post at WebWorkerDaily on the importance of creating buffers in your day and week. I quite like this idea and will try implementing it. I already create buffers when I go on vacation or travel for conferences, but I will have to try to create more buffers during my weekday. Now if only I could get people to stop scheduling back to back meetings…

On the topic of information overload, which I think strengthens the argument for buffers, have you seen this research that shows our brains can only handle managing approximately 150 friends? Interesting research that reminds me a lot of BJ Fogg’s research into persuasive technology and that while technology changes rapidly, basic human pyschology, or in this case the neocortex, does not. Thus another reason for not having thousands of “friends” on Facebook.

On a completely different subject, check out these 100 educational virtual tours. If you are going to be chained to your desk, you might as well go sightseeing virtually. I’m partial to the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History and the Rare Books Room.

Finally, check out the High Impact LIS Institutions based on citation ranking. Unfortunately my alma mater is not in the top 5, but unsurprising Harvard and University of Pittsburgh are number 1 and 2, respectively.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend full of time for reading. The Waki Librarian will be back next week with more library and technology fun.