Libraries

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.

Preservation Week

/ dwakimoto

Everyone, I have something exciting to share: it’s Preservation Week! The first ever Preservation Week by ALA (with lots of fabulous partners). And Preservation Week started on Mother’s Day–how appropriate because probably most people are interested in preserving memories of their families–and runs through this Saturday. Now, I’m probably geeking out a little bit about this because I’m an archivist in addition to being a librarian and think about preservation issues almost every day. But I think this is an awesome opportunity to raise awareness about preservation in your community and maybe even find some new information that will help your with preservation in your library, archives, and/or life. So let’s check out some of the highlights.

First, you must check out the Preservation Week: Pass it on: Saving heritage and memories website if you don’t do anything else. Tons of information, links to events and to organizations that have more information about preservation. I have to say that I’m especially fond of the Conserve O Grams by the National Park Service and the Preservation Leaflets by the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC). Both of these resources have helped me numerous times when I’ve been faced with preservation issues in the archives. As an aside, if you ever have the opportunity to take a tour of NEDCC (like say through a preservation seminar at Simmons College or whatnot), don’t pass it up. The conservators that work there are incredibly knowledgeable and the facilities are amazing (yes, sorry, geeking out again).

On the Events page of the Preservation Week website you can find links to webinars (both for fee and for free sessions are available) as well information about in person events happening around the country. Add your event if you are hosting one this week too.

So get out there and spread the word about Preservation Week. Help create a disaster plan for your collection, rehouse a fragile collection, help your family store its letters, photographs, and heirlooms in proper containers, and for goodness’ sake get your files off those obsolete floppy disks.

Have a fantastic day, a productive Preservation Week, and the Waki Librarian will be back soon with more library and technology fun.

Postscript to National Library Week

/ dwakimoto

National Library Week has been over for a bit, but I decided to use this post as a postscript (mainly so I could post some links to cool videos). My library once again had a fines amnesty in honor of National Library Week. What did your library do? Without further ado, on to some fun courtesy of this year’s honorary chair of National Library Week.

I love Neil Gaiman’s writing–short stories, novels, comics, graphic novels, children’s books, whatever form he wants to write, I’ll read it. It’s kind of equivalent to what my friend says about Jeremy Iron’s voice–he could read the phonebook and she’d listen. Well, Neil Gaiman could write a phonebook and I’d probably read it. The fact that he was the Honorary Chair of National Library Week (last week) just cements his coolness with the librarian crowd and bibliophiles in general. So from @your library, check out the two videos from An Evening with Neil Gaiman. He talks about Marquis de Sade, librarians, freedom of speech, alphabetizing his library as a child, happy horror writers, and how books are like sharks. Trust me, you will enjoy watching the two part interview. And if, for some strange reason you don’t, well I don’t know what to say about that.

If you don’t have two hours to spare for Neil Gaiman’s interview above, then at least check out the wonderful video below of Gaiman reading “Instructions” (you’ll find the text also in his collection Fragile Things) as you view Charles Vess’ wonderful illustrations. (The illustrated version showcased below will be released April 27th, by the way.) Absolutely lovely.

And, though it has nothing to do with National Library Week, I just had to share a link to Tagxedo. This is, as Lifehacker stated, “Wordle on steroids.” It not only generates gorgeous word clouds but has so many options for customization that even the pickiest, most exacting designer will be satisfied.

Finally, a lovely comic from xkcd that ties in nicely with yesterday’s Earth Day.
Desert Island Comic

Have a fantastic weekend, read a lot, get outside and enjoy the lovely spring weather, and the Waki Librarian will be back next week with more random fun.

Libraries, Tech, and DIY

/ dwakimoto

Back to our regularly scheduled programming of libraries, technology and a bit of do-it-yourself fun. Apparently some people consider Spring Cleaning to be an antiquated ritual, but I find that there is something about spring that makes going on a cleaning spree seem like the greatest idea since we turned scrolls into codices.

Before delving into the DIY and technology, we must talk about conference season. Conference season is upon us and that means purchasing airfare (unless you have a teleporter, in which case we must talk). Before purchasing your tickets, check out Lifehacker’s Frequent Fliers Guide to Finding Cheap Airfare for some hints on saving money. Remember money saved on flights equals more money to buy books!

If spring cleaning isn’t your thing in the physical world but you are up to spring cleaning in the digital world, check out Lifehacker’s Top 10 Ways to Declutter your Digital Life 2010 Edition. Don’t procrastinate, declutter your digital life today. Great tips, many of which I am going to implement this spring.

Multiple people have alerted me to the latest developments with the Library of Congress and Twitter. If you’ve not heard, the Library of Congress will archive all public tweets which is an amazing feat and awesome dataset. I look forward to seeing what research comes from using the tweets.

I think this looks like a fun project: Digital Copier & DIY Book Scanning, but I’m with the people in comments who wouldn’t use it to scan an entire book (and we won’t even begin to talk about all the possible copyright issues). Still this might be a good device in a pinch, especially if you don’t have money for a scanner.

And, of course, to end we have this wonderful xkcd cartoon which relates beautiful to the first link about airplane flights.
cartoon of selecting airplane seat

Have a wonderful weekend, have some fun reading and enjoy the last days of National Library Week.

Rationality

/ dwakimoto

Rationality is very important, but that doesn’t mean that everything we do in life or in the library is rational. I could write a long introduction but I think Seth Godin does a much better job than I could, so my rational decision is just to get to the rest of the information for this post. Allons-y!

First, check out Seth Godin’s post, Are you rational?. Godin nicely examines the difference between rationality and irrationality and that irrationality shouldn’t have the negative connotation that we’ve associated with it. If for no other reason, read it to figure out the context for my favorite sentence from this post: “If you need to hate on Copernicus in order to have more faith, something is seriously wrong.”

In one area of the library where we really should be rational is how we deal (or not deal) with library vendors. The Librarian in Black wrote a fantastic post against unethical library vendors. I hope the vendors are listening along with the rest of the library world so we can finally make progress on figuring out how to create a sustainable model for vendor relations–in my library’s case it is especially relevant to our database subscriptions. I know my library has had to make difficult decisions regarding database cuts because of our dismal budget and the fact that the vendors have priced their products out of our reach; this is a shame not only for our users but also for the vendors because they are losing business. In such a no-win situation, it is time to change the way business is conducted so everyone can benefit.

Do you like statistics to back up your rational decisions? Statistics are fun, confusing, and wonderful all at the same time. This video, State of the the Internet, is full of statistics about the Internet, especially social media. It is a good reminder of how hyperconnected much of the world is and how important it is for those of us who work in libraries to keep up with where our users are and what they are using online–not to mention keeping abreast of what they expect of the library in this changing Internet landscape.

And no, I didn’t forget that the iPad launched and this “magical” piece of technology is creating buzz all over the blogosphere this week. The iPad is a huge success in terms of sales and I think it will be very interesting to see how it will be used by librarians and how it will be deployed in libraries. If you want a nice FAQ about the iPad, check out Walter Mossberg’s The answers to your questions about the iPad and his review of the iPad. For a different take on the iPad, check out Lifehacker’s self-proclaimed rant from January, The Problem with the Apple iPad.

Finally, we end with this lovely interview with Neil Gaiman, the Honorary Chair of National Library Week (National Library Week runs from April 11th to April 17th this year). This is a great interview; Gaiman mentions Doctor Who and uses the word “hullabaloo,” so how could one possibly not enjoy this?

Have a fantastic week and don’t forget to read (and give your favorite librarian a hug [or cookies or at least say “thank you for being awesome”] during National Library Week).

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).

Videos, New Zealand, Internet Filtering, & Other Stuff

/ dwakimoto

I don’t really have a meaningful introduction for this post. I think the end of the quarter blahs have taken over. Here are the random thoughts for Friday.

Anyone who has spent any time talking with me knows I’m a fan of New Zealand. First country to give women the right to vote, it is nuclear-free, and has the most amazing speciation of birds because of the lack of mammals–what’s not to love?

I’ll tell you what isn’t to love about NZ, this: New Zealand’s internet filter goes live. Filtering Internet is such a slippery slope, as we’ve seen by the various fights over the years in the United States over filtering the Internet at public libraries. And even if the reason behind the filtering seems sound, we have seen the data that filtering doesn’t work. It doesn’t filter out what it is supposed to and filters out other websites that it shouldn’t. Obviously I’m against filtering the Internet and I’ll be interested to see how the library and archives community in NZ responds.

In other New Zealand news, here are a couple of articles about the plan to combine the National Library and Archives New Zealand under the Department of Internal Affairs: If it’s not broken then don’t fix it and Archives, Library merger turning back the clock. This is a bad idea. It certainly threatens the autonomy of the archives and the transparency that the archives is responsible for in terms of collecting and providing access to public records. Archives and libraries need autonomy in order to function effectively. Hopefully the outcry against these proposed mergers will stop it.

Since it is Friday, I couldn’t possibly end on such a depressing note. Here is a fantastic list of A Dozen Great Free Online Video Lecture Sites. Also, check out 20 Great Talks on the Future of Information. Both are great sources and very helpful if you teach information literacy. It is always nice to have a few more video sites to supplement the wonders of TED talks and YouTube EDU.

And, finally, something to make you smile:

Single Ladies

Single Ladies


Who knew xkcd would be so fantastic as to have a Lord of the Rings comic on the week I’m writing about New Zealand? Once again xkcd saves the day.

Read a lot, support your local library, and if you need a break from reading, go watch the new Alice in Wonderland because it is lovely. Have a wonderful weekend.