Libraries

Young librarians, technology, and language

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

Happy Friday! I hope you are having a good day. I’m enjoying a weekend break with my family before the fall term starts. I thought today I might write a bit about some intersections among librarians, technology and language. The first two concepts won’t be surprising to anyone who has been reading this blog for a bit, but the third might seem a little odd. Allow me to explain. I study changes in language in archives and libraries as part of my research; I’m slightly fascinating (okay, I’m actually super-fascinated) with how language shapes our perceptions and why this discourse matters to librarians and archivists. So that’s what is up for today.

Why young librarians and not just librarians for today’s focus? Mainly because I recently read get in the goddamn wagon and the associated comments. Really, go click through the link and read it, I’ll wait here. I agree with the main argument that younger librarians need to be the ones starting to push agendas and change in the slow-moving organizations. But I also agree that age is really just a number, and just because someone isn’t in the 22-35 year old demographic doesn’t mean s/he doesn’t have awesome ideas to contribute to the profession. The post plus comments remind me of one of the best definitions of “old” I’ve ever heard: you are old when you refuse to learn and refuse to change. I think that as soon as you utter the words, “I’m too old to change,” you are old. I’ve heard people my age (yes, I fit within the 22-35 demographic) who refuse to change and to learn and to grow and frankly, I want them out of the profession a lot more than the “old” colleagues I have that are cool with texting and tweeting students, write blogs, and can argue coherently with me about the pros and cons of iOS and Android.

I also thought about my fellow librarians, young and old, while reading Seth Godin’s post about whatever happened to labor? Just start changing and becoming irreplaceable and opportunities will open up. The up and coming generation of librarians (and archivists) can’t wait around for jobs to open up–because we all know how the supposed “glut of jobs on the market because of retirements” has played out. We need to work together, not in committees, but on small scale, local ways to help each other and get into positions of power to change the institutions and “way we’ve always done things” from the inside. And once you’ve “made it,” don’t forget to give back and to keep learning and growing so you don’t smother the possibility for changes in your institution (oh, and don’t form a ton of committees if you want things to be done rapidly). As Godin would say, race to the top, not the bottom.

Oh, and if you would like to see why age isn’t as important as a willingness to learn, check out the report on an increase in older adults using social media. Yay for adopting technology, making it work for you, and not fulfilling the stereotypes that “old” people can’t be comfortable with technology.

As we are on the topic of technology, I’d like you to check out the stream of digital consciousness photograph from a presentation. I direct your attention to the line that says “Don’t Obsess about Metadata.” Now from the rest of the points on the slide, I think this must have been a very interesting and wonderful talk. I even agree with a lot of what is said on the slide, but not worrying about metadata makes me twinge. I’m probably especially sensitive to talk about metadata as archivists have to worry about it when it comes to digital preservation, and we think about metadata, a lot. I also wonder if the presenter ever thought about metadata in the context of Google’s Book search. This article aptly points out the problems of having inadequate, inaccurate, and plain outrageous metadata. I especially like the line that says, “But books aren’t simply vehicles for communicating information, and managing a vast library collection requires different skills, approaches, and data than those that enabled Google to dominate Web searching.” Metadata is important, so let’s do it right (you can still be innovative and have good metadata.)

Metadata is a very structured type of language and all language shapes how we talk and think about life (at least in my opinion). Check out this incredibly interesting article on different languages and different realities. It’s interesting even if you aren’t a language geek, really, and something to keep in mind when you are writing for your library or posting signage.

In the midst of lots of reading for my research, I like to take breaks to read fiction, pop non-fiction, and assorted “popcorn” books as my friend, Hanna, calls them. One of the books I’m currently reading is The Power of a Positive No because, quite frankly, I’m really, really bad at saying no to people. So far the book is quite good and I’m looking forward to implementing some of the techniques the next time my gut reaction is to say no, but I’m waffling because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Find out a little bit about the concept through Lifehacker’s article on how to use the power of a positive no. Yet another example of the power of language and the difference between saying no without destroying the other person and saying no in a way that hurts people’s feelings (and makes you feel guilty). Connotations and discourse matter–a key principle that my fellow young librarians need to remember as we try to improve the library world (and get more people to see technology as a tool and not the enemy).

And finally, an extra for all the students that are back in school, tools and tips for better online reading. Save yourself some eyestrain because you know you’ll be reading a lot of articles online. You can thank me later.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Friday post without something fun, so check out some of the cool new stuff over at ThinkGeek and a clip from The Big Bang Theory.

Have a wonderful weekend with lots of time for reading and relaxing (and going outside to talk to people). The Waki Librarian will be back next week.

Technology for Friday

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! I’m so glad it is almost the weekend, mainly because I’ve gone through the last couple of days thinking it was Friday only to be rudely shocked by the fact that it wasn’t yet Friday. But that is neither here nor there, so let’s get into the fun technology stuff for today. Today’s technology links are a bit of this and a bit of that, some just for fun, some that you can use, and others that would be good to pass on to your library users.

First up, because I linked to Lifehacker’s guide to the best iPhone apps a few weeks ago, I thought I should link to the Lifehacker pack for Android for all those readers with Android phones. It really is a fantastic list of apps; I found a couple new ones to add to my phone that are very helpful (and I should probably add a couple more, but I need to do something other than play with the phone).

Speaking of technology and libraries, if you somehow forgot about it, registration is open for Internet Librarian 2010 being held October 25-27 in Monterey, California. If you work in the library field and love technology (I mean, really love to experiment with all the latest technology and are completely fine with being geeky), this is the library conference on the West Coast for you.

For a super helpful search tool, check out CloudMagic, a Gmail browser extension that improves searching for contacts and emails in Gmail. This is a definite must for those who have massive amounts of saved email or really anyone who wants to save time when they search.

For those who are fans of the show Bones (thanks Anna, for the reminder that this is totally something Angela would have in the lab!) or James Bond-like gadgets, check out this video on the Virtual Autopsy Table video. How amazing is that technology? The image quality and ability to work through different layers is great. I wonder if medical schools in the United States will adopt this technology.

Now step back from the computer and smell the delicious scent of fresh brewed tea after you read an article that says you should home brew your tea to reap the most polyphenols. Just another great reason to break out the kettle and brew a lovely pot of tea. Oh, and if you are ever in the Boston/Cambridge area, you must check out my favorite tea shop, Tealuxe in Harvard Square (the Newbury Street Location unfortunately is closed). Check out the creme de la Earl Grey–fantastic!

Now that you have your cup of tea (not too close to the computer of course, don’t want to spill it on the keyboard!), relax and take a peak at this example of using QR codes for marketing. (I thought I’d re-share this video because it explained to me how to use QR Codes and The Litbrarian’s post about QR Codes reminded me I need to use this video when I teach information literacy classes in the fall). Enjoy.

QR Codes in a Living Book

Have a fantastic weekend full of relaxation, soaking up the last bits of summer, and reading great books (but if you finish Mockingjay please don’t spoiler it for me!).

P.S. Anyone in Cambridge area see the Doctor around MIT?

Experience before text

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday (I don’t care that it’s the 13th–it’s still a Friday and that is a very good thing)! I hope you had a lovely week and are looking forward to an even better weekend. This week’s post is a bit of a departure from the normal (though there are some links to fun stuff, of course). I want to take some time to talk about experiences and some intersections among various aspects of my research and work interests.

So, I was re-reading the introduction to Alessandro Portelli’s The Battle of Valle Giulia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue when I came across a sentence that completely stopped me in my reading tracks and I knew I had to write about it. Portelli wrote, “Each interview is an experience before it becomes a text” (p. xiii). I just thought that the sentence is wonderful and so applicable to so much of our work in libraries and archives. (Portelli, for those who are unfamiliar with his work, is an amazing oral historian and considered one of the leading voices in the field. And yes, I am one of those people who reads and re-reads introductions–moving on.)

We too often forget about the experiences in life. Because we can now digitally track and count and monitor statistics so easily, we sometimes lose touch with the fact that each statistic is a person or group of people. We forget that humans are social creatures and (most) like at least some social interaction. We forget that there is wonder and can be joy in our work. We run from one meeting to another, from one project to the next with barely any time to look out the window yet alone stop for a break to actually just chat with someone. And I’m not saying that I’m the best person at stopping to smell the roses, but I think it is important to remember to experience things before we get into the analyses.

Which is pretty much what Portelli is getting at in the above quote. Interviews, or any interactions, are experiences before they become text–either literally with the transcription of oral history interviews or text in the more general term for a unit to be analyzed. We put off tomorrow the interactions we could have today because somehow we have separated the experience from the interaction and it is just another thing to get through, to survive. And that is just sad.

Now before anyone jumps on my case about this being completely divergent from my usual posts about evidence-based practice and evaluating new programs, please don’t get me wrong–evaluation and analysis are extremely important in our work BUT they should not come at the expense of losing the wonder of experiences. If we lose touch with experiences and just race through our work and our analyses, we miss opportunities to wonder and to actually connect with others. So just experience something, laugh, enjoy, and connect before getting into the nitty-gritty of analysis. Trust me, the connected experiences are what will propel you through the long hours of assessment and slogging through data while not losing sight of the goals of evidence-based practice and assessments.

Okay, so that is my soapbox speech for the day. I’m stepping down now and just want to share a couple of potential helpful links that have come through my feeds recently before leaving you to enjoy the rest of your Friday and the weekend.

First, from WebWorkerDaily, some Tips for Managing Social Media Information Overload. And if you are going to take the tip on checking social media streams on your iPhone, you’ll want to check out Lifehacker’s List of the Best iPhone Apps. For Android users out there, check out Lifehacker’s A Guide to Organizing your Android Home Screen and How to Turn Your Android Phone into a Fully-Automated Superphone, and How-To Geek’s Complete Guide to Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life.

For some help with job hunting in library-land, check out a collection of the best advice on finding a librarian job from around the web.

Finally, a tip for everyone from Lifehacker, Top 10 Tools and Tactics to Trim Your Bills.

And for the final bit of fun because it is Friday and also because a couple of my friends had really bad weeks and could use a laugh: “Big Bang Theory Moves Furniture”:

Have a wonderful weekend filled with reading, laughter, fun and enough time to enjoy the experience. The Waki Librarian will be back next week.

LoC and Digital Fun

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! So this will be short because I’m brain dead from this week, but wanted to share some interesting links about the Library of Congress and other digital stuff that’s been floating around online. So let’s get to the fun stuff and then we can get on to the weekend.

Check out the cool news about Library of Congress’ National Digital Stewardship Alliance. Yay, for more digital preservation standards and educational efforts.

Oh, and if you have an iPhone, check out Library of Congress’ iPhone app for a virtual tour of the library. Let me know if you like it. If you find one for Android, let me know too.

And, if you want to jailbreak your iPhone, check out the Jailbreak Matrix. Now that Library of Congress’ Copyright Office has deemed it legal to jailbreak your phone, you might want to know the best way. Oh, and if you have an Android phone and want to get more out of it (and use Twitter), check out completeandroid for lots of cool tips. (Thanks to litbrarian for pointing this out to me)

For something different and fun, check out How to Pick the Perfect Typeface. It is both a funny and useful flowchart. Even if you don’t do graphic design, check out the flowchart since it is fun, kind of like xkcd’s Tech Support Cheat Sheet.

Finally, check out xkcd’s “Still No Sleep” comic and then get some sleep this weekend (have fun and read too):

Still No Sleep by xkcd

Still No Sleep by xkcd

Tips for College in the Middle of Summer

/ dwakimoto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Digital Preservation

/ dwakimoto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

ALA 2010 Wrap-up

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

photograph of librarians touring Library of Congress preservation lab

Librarians touring LoC Preservation lab

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

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

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

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

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

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

More random stuff for ALA, etc.

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! Oh, my goodness am I ever ready for the weekend. And yes, I know that ALA isn’t for another two weeks or so, but I thought for those of you who like to plan ahead might find some of this week’s random stuff helpful. Plus, I’m leaving on vacation prior to ALA fun and might not post anything next week except lovely photographs from my trip because I am looking forward to being mostly unplugged for a week. So, allons-y! (let’s go) as the good Doctor would say (sorry, had to include that again as I’ve finally managed to persuade one of the interns that his life truly wouldn’t be complete until he’s watched the new Doctor Who).

Before delving into some of the really interesting, and or fun, stuff that may (or may not) be useful for your ALA trip, I had to share this wonderful post Intimidation that Hanna [link is to her awesome blog] sent to me. This is a fantastic post that sums up how I feel when people say I’m “intimidating.” I especially like this bit, “as a shy woman who stands all of 5’3″, I can’t say that I see myself as especially terrifying.” But then again, apparently Hanna and I were considered intimidating once people had a history seminar with us. There is a definite power dynamic in the instructor/student relationship no matter how much we try to smooth out the hierarchy so that we are all learning and teaching together which, along with shyness (that can be perceived as aloofness or intimidation), probably leads to the “scary” instructor effect.

Just goes to show that instructors can be misperceived as often as their students and really, in the end, we are all just people. And this may help you at ALA in all those receptions and mixers–just remember shy doesn’t equal antisocial. So just come over and say hi. Though perhaps, just so people don’t have to guess where you stand on the whole “social interaction thing,” you might want to get this shirt from xkcd.

I love traveling (well, actually I don’t like flying very much but I like how traveling is the means to the end which is seeing new places and meeting people). But sometimes those transatlantic and flights from California to the East Coast get really long and boring. So to the rescue, why don’t you check out one of the Top 10 Difficult Literary Works from your local library to ponder on the flight? Found via ALA Direct, it is lovely for the sheer hilarity of the descriptions of some of works. As soon as I told my office mate about it, he immediately asked if Tolkien’s The Similarion was on the list–it’s not, but I bet some of the books you were required to read in your studies are on the list. So what do you think is the most difficult literary work to slog through?

Here’s another great post from Lifehacker that will help you make the photographs you take at ALA really shine: Top 10 photo fixing and image editing tricks. Come on, you know you’ll take photographs at ALA, so why not take the time to take/make great photographs?

Oh, and while your at ALA, if you need to hook into a meeting happening back at your workplace, check out the Lifehacker guide to the Five best web-based conferencing tools and find something that will work nicely. I’m hoping to try out a couple of the free ones at my library for our meetings because we always have at least one librarian at another physical location during meeting times. Still, I’m just waiting for the holographic projections, or really good virtual reality, to make meetings more fun (and productive, of course).

This is amazing: locals and tourists flickr set helps you avoid tourists on vacation, find local favorites. What a cool use creation and use of data pulled from flickr images. Alas, it appears that just about everywhere in DC where ALA events are happening is tourist-central. It would be nifty to create a similar type map using data from all the photos by librarians attending ALA. Just a thought.

Finally, something fun to end another Friday post, a clip explaining the Friendship Algorithm (thanks to Hanna from the great idea of having Friday posts include videos and to my sister for basically forcing me to watch this show). It’s fantastic, nerdy fun.

Have a lovely weekend, read a lot, and the Waki Librarian will be blogging about the actual ALA Conference very soon.

Some ALA Fun

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

Happy Friday! Is it just me, or has it seemed like a really long week? I’m so glad that it is Friday and that the weekend starts very, very soon. But before the day closes, I wanted to share a bit of library fun that really does relate to ALA Annual.

First, I want to share this wonderful post by Mary (who just happens to be a Nerdfighter, future librarian, and daughter of the rockin’ librarian Nancy): Why ALA is going to be awesome. I am super excited that people, like Mary, with this much enthusiasm want to join our profession. Our levels of awesome will only increase with the inclusion of more Nerdfighters in the librarian ranks. (And if that made no sense to you, well, you need to become a Nerdfighter and watch the Vlogbrothers and it will.)

Also, Mary did the “Hi, Hank” introduction at ALA 2008 in Anaheim (note the Nerdfighter t-shirt). So if you just can’t wait for ALA Annual at the end of the month, get your quick fix here:

While we are on the subject of conferences, we might as well talk about how much the excitement and all can wreck havoc with a person’s sleep schedule. In order to get back on track before (or after) the conference, check out the Lifehacker guide on how to reboot your sleep cycle. [Even if you have no issues with your sleep habits, check it out for the adorable photo of the cat.]

While on vacation or being a tourist at a conference this summer, you will probably want to talk photographs of your adventures. And, if you are like me, when you are photographing a monument, you like not having people messing up the shot. But we all know that is difficult to do in high tourist season. (I once spent 15 minutes waiting for people to move out of the way so I could photograph Leeds Castle.) But now with digital photograph and a little Photoshop magic you don’t have to wait for people to move. Check out how from Shutterstock.

Also, on the tech front, check out the Lifehacker Pack 2010 for a downloadable software bundle of the programs Lifehacker has found to be essential for Windows. Never hurts to just check out the article to see if there is some bit of software that you’ve not heard of yet.

And to end, this fun video by one of our local Bay Area bands, Train. What can I say? This Friday simply needed people dancing around in chicken suits to a happy tune.

Have a fantastic weekend! Enjoy the weather, read outside in the sunshine, and I’ll be back next week with more library and technology fun.