Empowerment

Dropbox and the Cloud

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! I hope you are having a lovely day, dear readers. Today I’m going to share some great links to secure your Dropbox account. These would be great to share with your patrons as more and more people are going to cloud storage. Dropbox is great. Being able to use Dropbox and still have your files secure is better.

We’ve all heard about Dropbox accounts being unlocked for 4 hours, right? And if that isn’t enough to make you want to use encrypted zip file to secure files in Dropbox, I don’t know what will. I love cloud storage and being able to collaborate via the cloud, but I don’t like the thought of my data being unsecured. So take a break from the backyard barbecue this weekend and secure your data.

Lifehacker has had a ton of good articles about security and Dropbox including how to add a second layer of encryption. (Have you sensed an encryption theme in today’s post?) Once you’ve secured your data, you might want to also check out the article on how to free up disk space by deleting files in the hidden Dropbox cache folder. More disk space is handy.

Also, as we go forth into the cloud, you should check out Gizmodo’s article on bandwidth caps around the world. This may become an even bigger issue as more and more people start uploading their data to the cloud and streaming media from the cloud. If nothing else, it will give you something to talk about during your barbecue this weekend.

And while not technically about the cloud and Dropbox, AccountKiller is something you may want to check out if you need help deleting some of your unused accounts online.

Now for the Friday fun bits. If you are in the United States, today marks the start of the long 4th of July weekend. For those hosting/going to a barbecue, you may want to check out Joy the Baker’s bourbon orange coriander barbecue sauce. Also, you should really try strawberry balsamic flatbread. It’s delicious.

Finally, for a work break to make you smile. Check out this lovely Tangled video by Seduff. I just finally saw this movie on my birthday and loved it. Now I feel like I need a coloring changing chameleon from ThinkGeek.

Have a lovely rest of your day, a fabulous (relaxing) weekend, and I’ll be back next week with more tech, library, and archives tips and news. Allons-y!

Privacy and Security Checks

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having a lovely day. For today’s post, I want to share a few links that should be useful for checking on the security of your passwords, searching, and data. Then let’s finish up with some helpful tips for summer cooking.

Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and other techie websites have shared a bunch of great resources for increasing the security of your browsing, passwords, and checking for security compromises to your various online accounts in the past week or so. A few that you might want to share with your patrons are: Should I Change My Password? (super-easy to use, just type in your email account to see if it may have been hacked); Panopticlick (checks how “unique and trackable your browser is,” plus EFF provides information on how to make your browser less trackable); and web worker security: how to keep your data safe at a distance (great for anyone who travels a lot and/or telecommutes). Hopefully these tools will help you and your patrons, plus they are a great way to start raising awareness about privacy and security issues online. (Then you can go into the wonders of Google 2-step authentication and maybe even file encryption.)

After you’ve helped secure your patrons online accounts, find some great books, articles, and/or movies, they might also be thinking about lunch/snack/dinner. Luckily, we’ve got you covered for that stuff, too. Point them to Lifehacker’s guide on how to select fresh ripe produce so they are armed with knowledge the next time they go to the grocery store or farmer’s market. You might also want to suggest this delicious sounding recipe for grilled corn salad. Enjoy.

That’s it for today. I’m off now to the reference desk. Have a wonderful rest of your day. I’ll be back on Friday with some more news and tech tips to share. Allons-y!

You Don't (Always) Have to Listen to the Complainers

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! Isn’t fantastic to make it to the end of another week and have it be Friday? I quite like Fridays. To celebrate today, I thought we’d talk about ignoring complainers and end with something fun. How does that sound? Good? Let’s get into it then.

Again today I’m taking inspiration from Seth Godin, specifically his post on giving umbrage. I enjoy most of Godin’s posts, but I loved this post. The issue of what to do about vocal complainers, especially now that it is so easy to air every little perceived wrong online, and the weight that these complaints should have is one of the constant issues I think about in life and in my work as an instructor.

One place that this conflict of how much power and time to give to complainers is on evaluation forms filled out by students at the end of a course. Many institutions, including mine, place a good deal of emphasis on getting good student evaluations. But, as many of us know from firsthand experience (and also evidence-based studies), the evaluations reflect whether or not the students liked you, not whether the course was useful or your teaching style was effective.

Now I’m completely for listening to student feedback and thoughtful reflection. I encourage feedback from my students and incorporate a lot of their suggestions into my subsequent classes. And, for the most part, I receive mature, considered evaluations from my students. However, I’ve also been on the end of receiving immature, uncalled for expletives because I’ve refused to pass failing students or reported instances of academic dishonesty. These have been incredibly vocal students, but should these complainers be taken seriously?

I don’t think so. It’s like letting one canister of film with vinegar syndrome destroying the rest of the film in an archives. You don’t let that happen, just like you throw out outliers when doing statistical analyses. Especially as an instructor, if you try anything out of the ordinary and/or have high expectations, most of your students will react positively and do swimmingly. But you also have to be ready for the complainers, therefore you need to develop a thick skin and the ability to let your department chair or supervisor know why you are getting a few complaints amidst the heaps of praise (or at least neutral comments) from the rest of your students.

In life too, it seems like we spend a lot of time catering to those who are belligerent complainers. We see this in libraries, archives, and really all service professions. But we’ll never please everyone, so we should focus on being receptive and reflective, but not bending every (single) time someone complains. If we do, we’ll never get anything done and be constantly on defense, which isn’t fun. Be receptive to constructive criticism, not groundless whining and complaining.

Anyway, that’s my (more than) two cents on the matter.

Now on to some fun stuff for your weekend. It’s finally summer and it’s just turned quite warm in the Bay Area. I think it’s then the perfect time to try out Joy the Baker’s strawberry balsamic flatbread. It looks delicious and perfect with a salad.

And to end, one of my favorite Doctor Who videos (because yes, the 11th Doctor is fabulous, but I adore the 10th Doctor). So enjoy Seduff’s “Lonely Angel.”

Have a fantastic rest of your day and a glorious weekend. I’ll be back next week with more thoughts on archives, libraries, and tech. Allons-y!

Content Programming

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday, dear readers! I hope that your day is going well. I hope that this post goes up and is publicized via Twitter as scheduled considering I’ll be on a plane going to a friend’s wedding when this is supposed to be posted and who knows when I’ll be back online. Anyway, today I just want to riff on one of Seth Godin’s latest posts and what I think it has to do with archivists and librarians. So let’s get into the fun of content programming.

Seth Godin recently wrote this post, In Praise of Programming. It’s a nice, short, interesting read. I’ll wait here while you read it. See? Quite interesting, right? It reminded me immediately of the work that archivists and librarians do everyday. We constantly do programming, whether we are in a public library setting, academic setting, or community archives.

I think it’s important to remember that we are about programming and that programming is a social activity. It’s not that we are just data curators or content distributors, we are also about value-added programming. This may be in the form of recommending what to read next, explaining how to actually use that shiny new tech tool in a meaningful way in the classroom, or directing the researcher to that newly processed collection that hasn’t made it into the online database just yet. We create meaning and connections through programming. I think this is one of the most important things that we do each day.

It is also a reminder that we need to remember our audience in all that we do. We need to involve the users/patrons/researchers in our programming. This is a great time to flex your evidence-based practice muscles and gather some data from your users to improve programming at your archives and library.

It’s such an exciting time we live in, with tons of change and new opportunities. But instead of running around like kittens, cashing every new shiny thing in our path, we can thoughtful collect, curate, and program our services and resources to have maximum impact in our communities. It is an art and I think we are more than up to the task.

So that’s what I have to say about programming. Now let’s move on to something else that is super-interesting: Moveable Type! I’m excited about the Type Truck coming to my neck of the woods. A letterpress in a truck! How amazingly awesome is that? I’m very much looking forward to the demonstrations. So check out if the Type Truck is coming to your area and let me know what you think.

That’s all from me today, dear readers. I hope the rest of your day goes swimmingly and you have a relaxing evening. I’ll be back on Friday with more. Allons-y!

Communities

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you are having a lovely day and, if you are in the United States, have a lovely Memorial Day weekend planned. I plan on accomplishing a lot of relaxing during the weekend in order to have energy for the last bit of the spring quarter. I just want to talk a bit about communities today and how important archives and libraries are (or could be) in fostering communities.

Public libraries seem to get the lion’s share of press when it comes to libraries fostering spaces, resources, services, and events that increase community involvement and interaction. However, academic libraries and archives can also be extremely important places for fostering community spirit among library and archives users. But it seems that we are not as pro-active on the whole about demonstrating our value to the community as public libraries. I know that my library could do a lot better at reaching out to students and getting them involved with changes in the library. One of my projects this summer will be working on cheap (read: free) ways of doing outreach and getting students involved. Our library is “the heart of the campus” mainly because it is open when nothing else is on campus, but I don’t think that students really feel “ownership” of the library and that’s a problem for engagement.

In the latest issue of C&RL News there was a great article by Gfeller, Dutterfield-Nagy, and Grignon, Imagine: A student-centered library, which described the Fogler Library’s outreach and marketing campaign that heavily involved students. The graphics they produced were awesome, prominently featured students, and would be easy to replicate at other university libraries given a bit of time and a little bit of money for printing posters. Just think of the fun of having students involved with the photography and designing of the posters, as well as creating tie-in events using mobile technologies, QR codes, and other student-led, student-driven activities. There is so much room for engagement and increasing the interaction with users in academic libraries. We can foster community, but we need the time and support to do it.

While archives might seem like a world away from public libraries and academic libraries in terms of fostering community, I would argue that they can also be at the heart of communities. I study community archives and will hopefully be sharing some of my research in the near-ish future with a wider audience because I’ve not finished up all my work yet. But in the meantime, I can say that community archives are hugely important for community history, memory, and public programming. And, most community archives operate on a shoestring budget, so they have many ideas to offer libraries on how to get things done when money actually is a huge object.

Anyway, just some food for thought. How does your library or archives engage with your community members? How do you make sure that people feel connected and involved with your library or archives? I’d love to hear suggestions in the comments as I work with our community members over the coming months.

I wanted to share this photograph of a post-it note I found affixed to one of the water fountains on campus because it made me smile. Unexpected messages of kindness and positivity are always welcome.

Surrounded by True Friends Post-it

Also, for a short work break, check out anatomy of a mashup: Definitive Daft Punk for one of the coolest visualizations I’ve seen in a long while. Plus, the music sounds awesome.

Have a wonderful day, a fabulous weekend, read a lot, and I’ll be back next week with more thoughts on libraries, archives, and technology. Allons-y!

Librarians, students, and the Future

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday, dear readers! I hope you are having a lovely day. I can hardly believe we are to the middle of another week and I’m off on another research trip to the archives. So today, I just want to talk a bit about some of the stuff buzzing around the bibliosphere right now and leave you with some tasty recipes for your tea breaks.

So if you have been hanging around the blogosphere at all this week, you’ve probably already read Seth Godin’s, Future of the Library article. And hopefully you’ve also read the very well-written and balanced response by Agnostic, Maybe. I just have a few comments to make about Godin’s article that will hopefully not duplicate everything that’s already been written and why I think it is just as important for academic librarians to pay attention to what Godin wrote as it is for public librarians.

Yes, of course, Godin got some stuff about librarians and libraries wrong (in my opinion). Libraries are still needed, freely accessible resources are definitely needed, and the digital divide is still a real problem. But on the whole, Godin got it correct and some of his misconceptions about libraries can be chalked up to the failure of librarians and the library profession in general in marketing our services and resources.

Now some librarians do an excellent job in outreach and marketing efforts, but on the whole, we obviously don’t do enough. If we did, Godin (along with the majority of people) would realize that libraries subscribe to many online resources and databases that have the ability to blow Wikipedia out of the water and are able to make researching more efficient and effective. It’s not that we don’t have the resources, it’s that we don’t make people aware of them. I see this in my own library and in classes I teach where the instructor will tell me after that s/he had no idea we offered so much or could help in so many ways.

This ties into my last post about caring. We have to demonstrate that we care about our users and market our services, resources, and general awesomeness as librarians in ways that our users, be they a public library user or an undergrad in an academic library, find relevant. We are the awesome teachers, info curators, guides, and sages that Godin says we are and can be, but we need others to “get it.”

So instead of saying how Godin got it wrong, let’s use his post as a call to (more) action. He got some parts wrong, but so do most writers and people. His main message, that we need to use our talents to connect people with information to create value is right on the mark. I think that having people honestly write what they think about the future of the library and librarians is fantastic, especially by people outside of the profession. This makes us take a hard look at what we’re doing right and what we can improve on if we read such articles with an open mind and with an open heart looking towards improving ourselves and services instead of being defensive when obviously our message as librarians is not as clear, or as powerful, as some of us believe it to be. We need to become, in Godin’s words, a purple cow–something remarkable. I’m working everyday to make my work and interactions with people remarkable, are you?

Okay, that’s my two cents.

I just wanted to share one link from Lifehacker today on how clean up your digital life and manage information overload. Great article as always. Share it with your library users. They’ll thank you.

And finally, for some tasty fun, check out Joy the Baker’s post on love and sugar recipes. These are fabulous and, if all else fails in your marketing campaign for the awesomeness of librarians, bake ’em cookies. Everyone is a fan of cookies.

Have a great rest of your day, help someone out, read something lovely, and I’ll be back on Friday with some tech stuff to share with your friends (family, library users, students, etc.). Allons-y!

Work, Work, Work

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday! I hope everyone is having a lovely day. I can’t believe it is already May and it seems like we’ve gone straight from winter to summer here in the Bay Area. Today I just want to share a few links to help you at work or rather to help you do and feel better at work.

I decided today would be a good day to share these links because:

  1. I presented with three other awesome archivists on Saturday at the Society of California Archivists’ Conference on networking and employment, so it’s kind of on my mind. And, I’m sorry to report that the panel wasn’t taped for webcasting. I’ve got to get back into the habit of taping my talks for podcasting, but that’s neither here nor there.
  2. There have been a lot of useful and inspiring posts over the last week or so about work.

First, if you don’t already read Seth Godin’s blog or books, you should at least give his work a try. I find all of his work to be quick reads and very useful for giving me a swift kick in the pants to start doing valuable work. His post yesterday on Hard Work vs. Long Work is a great example. I love that his posts are usually short, pithy, and are like a little daily pep talk on getting out there and getting things done.

Lifehacker, of course, does not fail to deliver some good advice articles. I love this reminder to stay positive to boost your career. (Plus, it gives my officemate and me an excuse for our unrepentant optimism!) Lifehacker has a great summary on how to get respect at work (and you can read the full article over on the Art of Manliness and yes, it works for people who don’t want to be manly, too).

If you have any tips or advice for enjoying your work and being productive, please let me know in comments. I’m always interesting in hearing what works for other people.

And to end, check out this cool video of Festo’s AquaJelly robots:

Have a lovely rest of your day and I’ll be back on Friday (hopefully) with a report from the BayNet talk by Lee Rainie from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Allons-y!

Random (Helpful & Fun!) Stuff for Friday

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday and Happy Earth Day! I can’t believe we are at the end of another week. Luckily workweeks end on a Friday (for many people) which means helpful, fun, and random links of goodness are sure to abound in today’s post. So let’s get to it.

Next week I’m chairing a panel at the Society of California Archivists’ Annual General Meeting/Conference, so I’m in conference prep mode at the moment. Lifehacker, as always, had some great posts about conference worries in general over the last few weeks. First, if you have issues with public speaking, check out how to activate your go system. Also, Lifehacker had an interesting post on why one should carry blank business cards. Not sure that I buy the argument, but it was an interesting read. Personally, should you be at the conference, you will be handed one of my recently redesigned business cards that I’m rather fond of (complete with QR Code linking you to my about.me page because, yes, I’m that kind of person).

Oh, and because conferences can produce many discussions, in person and online, I think it is the perfect time to say, go read Stephen Abram’s piling on on the web post. Then reaffirm your commitment to disagreeing with others respectfully at all times. The world could use more kindness, or at least manners.

If you manage somehow to run out of things to do this weekend, may I suggest this project to you: add ground effects to your bed for gentle night lighting? I think this looks pretty awesome and useful. Hopefully in the next week or so I’ll have time to do this to my bed.

And because we all need a laugh on a Friday and I’ve been working my way through Top Gear (I swear it’s because my cat likes it, really!), I think you should watch watch Jeremy drive the world’s smallest car. It is hilarious. Or, if cars aren’t your thing, but cats are, take a break and watch Simon’s cat in ‘Hop It’:

Have a wonderful rest of your day, a fantastic weekend, and I’ll be back next week with more technology, library, and archives fun. Allons-y!

A Grant, a Break, and some Fun

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday, dear readers! I hope your day is going well. I’m enjoying the day so far, especially as we have tomorrow off in celebration of Cesar Chavez Day. Also, today is Anna’s birthday (happy birthday, Anna!) and you should really check out her blog because it is fabulous. So today I just want to talk about a few odds and ends before cleaning up my office and getting ready for a mini-break. So let’s get into the library/archives goodness.

So, those who know me well know I’m not big into giving myself pats on the back or bragging about my accomplishments. But I have to share one awesome piece of news because it is just, well, awesome so I’m making an exception. Our archives received an American Heritage Preservation Grant from the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) for the preservation of one of our collections: The Jensen Family Collection! If you can’t tell, I’m very excited about this grant (and it makes all the time we’ve spent this year writing grant proposals worthwhile).

We’ll be de-encapsulating hundreds and hundreds of letters that are currently in non-archival enclosures and rehousing the entire collection in order to stabilize and preserve the collection. I’m so psyched because the grant also allows us to provide much better access to the collection and hopefully we’ll be able to get more people interested in this collection and the archives in general. So expect some updates as we work on the grant in the coming months. Photo below is just a sample of the amazing materials from the collection.

Photograph of a confirmation book from the Jensen Family Collection

Confirmation book from the Jensen Family Collection

Now on to other news. As you know, I often refer to articles from Lifehacker, Gizmodo, WebWorkerDaily, etc. on productivity and other tips for getting more done. One of the best tips, and most frequently posted, is the need to take breaks and vacation in order to actually accomplish more (which can sometimes seem counterintuitive, but it works). We all need time off to recharge and actually get away from work, even if we adore what we do. So this is just a head’s up to The Waki Librarian readers that I’m actually taking a mini-holiday and will be off the Internet from tomorrow (Thursday) until next Monday. For the first time in years I’m taking a break and not bringing my laptop with me. I intend to enjoy some relaxing time along the coast of California and therefore there will be no Friday post and if you contact me during my break, don’t expect a response until next week. I hope you also have planned breaks and downtime into your days and weeks in order to recharge. Personally I can’t wait.

And, a bit of fun before leaving you to get back to work. If you didn’t check it out last week, you should take a look at Lifehacker Night School’s latest offering, The Basics of Video Editing. Watch the videos, read the lessons, and then apply what you’ve learned making awesome PR videos for your library and archives.

Finally, check out this great video (even if you’ve seen it before): 25 Years of Pixar Animation

Have a wonderful rest of your day and I’ll be back next week with more library, archives, and tech goodness. Allons-y!

Rainy Friday Fun

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

Happy Friday! I hope you are having a lovely day. I’m off on a research trip today at the Lavender Library in Sacramento. I think it’s a fantastic way to spend a Friday. But back to the post at hand, I have just a few things to share with you today before you get into your weekend. Mainly today is just a bunch of stuff to keep you occupied if you must be indoors because of the rather wretched winter weather that will not go away! Anyway, let’s get into the good stuff.

First, thank you to everyone who responded to my request on Twitter for examples of favorite online archives. I received links to some great archives to share with the history students when they come into the archives in a few weeks. So I thought I’d share just a few links today that you may find useful to share with your library and archives patrons, or just enjoy yourself. Of course there are the large online archives that are fairly well-known, such as the Online Archive of California, HathiTrust, and the Internet Archive. But you should also check out some of the smaller collections (and less well-known) online, such as First World War Poetry Digital Archive and the Medical Heritage Library. That should be enough online archives fun to last you through the weekend.

And speaking of fun stuff, check out this lovely article on the untapped power of smiling. I found this to be a fascinating and smile-inducing read. Just think of how much nicer the world would be if people genuinely smiled more.

As you can tell, I’m definitely ready for the weekend (especially since mine involves research at an archives and interviewing interesting people). I think no weekend is complete without some comforting food. So for some comfort food, check out Joy the Baker’s recipe for baked curry sweet potato fries. These fries sound delicious!

Finally, for your Friday enjoyment, check out this short TRON: The Next Day. I found it rather entertaining.

Have a wonderful rest of your day and a fantastic weekend. I’ll be back next week with some more tips, tricks, and news. Allons-y!