Libraries

Reading

/ dwakimoto

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

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

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

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

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

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

Making the Best of Bad Situations

/ dwakimoto

It is the last week in the quarter at my university. This means that students, faculty and staff are all running on low and are ready for spring break. Which means, of course, that this post must be a mixed bag of things and information that just caught my eye. Without further ado, faithful reader, here is to Tuesdays–they have the grand distinction of not being Mondays and being one day closer to Friday and the weekend.

What does any of the above have to do with today’s post? Well, I was thinking about the situation the world is in (which gets depressing awfully quickly) and the last-minute panicking students at the reference desk, and then I thought–well we definitely need something uplifting. And I have to say that this post,“We live in Shakespearian Times,” captures the undying spirit of librarians quite nicely. I love this part: “How do I stay optimistic? I realize first the issues I face are miniscule to the good I can do.” This is how I feel about all the obstacles we face and how I stay optimistic. And if you missed the 40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes video when I posted it the first time around, take a look at it now.

When people ask me why I stay positive, I simply tell them it is the best way to live. Why be all doom and gloom all the time? The world gives us enough of that. Or I just say one of my favorite quotes on being positive by Herm Albright, “A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”

Speaking of staying positive, it is very difficult when you read articles about more hard times for those looking for academic jobs. I think it is just wrong that we keep telling people to go further with their education, that it is the way to better jobs and security, when there aren’t many jobs at the top. It discourages me in the same way that all the debate over whether or not their will be a flood of openings in the library world when the Baby Boomers retire. Does this mean I’m against people getting doctorates or furthering their education? No way. But it is a loss when those with doctorates have no where to fully utilize their expertise. How do we fix this? I’m not sure, but investing more in education (at all levels) might be a start.

If this report is true, then Yelp is behaving badly. I love Web 2.0 and sites that allow people to interact and comment about places they’ve been, products they’ve bought, etc. But if a company is purposefully trying to skew reviews and ratings, that is completely ruining the experience and possibilities of We 2.0. It just goes back to the point I try to hammer home to my students–it doesn’t matter what you are reading or watching, always step back and evaluate where the information is coming from and how it might be biased.

Now for something completely cool, let’s celebrate NARA’s 75th anniversary. This site is full of information and news about the National Archives. Rock on archivists–the macho heroes of Washington!

Have a great rest of your day. More later in the week.

Musings on a Monday

/ dwakimoto

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

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

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

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

Correlation from xkcd.com

Correlation from xkcd.com

Security, Cataloging and Value

/ dwakimoto

Happy Tuesday, faithful reader. It is getting crazy here at work with the winter quarter coming to a close and all the students out in force trying to negotiate higher grades with less work. But I digress. Today, once again, I have a seemingly vast array of completely unrelated topics to talk about, but I assure you it all makes sense, or at least it should by the time we are finished.

Today I want to talk about security, not just because we are in the midst of a recession and security sounds like a good thing, but because we live in a technology-filled world and need to be able to properly secure our hardware and software. So here, from Lifehacker is a must read post on how to Properly Erase Your Physical Media. Really, take the time to read this post if you read nothing else today. It is amazing how lax people can be about wiping their data. I recently bought a refurbished cell phone and, lo and behold, all the old contacts, pictures and calendar were still on the phone. Luckily for the person, I’m nice and simply deleted everything, but someone else could have used the personal information. So be safe, not sorry and have some fun destroying your data before getting rid of your digital devices.

Speaking of security, one issue you don’t hear a lot about is security in Web 2.0 applications. Luckily for us, Librarian in Black has a post on the Top Web 2.0 Security Threats which links to a 15 page pdf on the topic. Just something good to be aware of, especially for any of us who are coding and editing Web 2.0 gadgets, widgets and other fun stuff.

So from security, we move to cataloging because even if you have really secure data, it doesn’t really do you much good if you can’t find what you want when you need it. Enter in Lifehacker’s 5 Best Movie Cataloging Tools. I love applications that make life easier, more organized and are pretty. And since many of these applications can be used for more than just movie cataloging, you can really get organized. And you’ll never be buy the same movie twice, saving money and those annoying return rituals.

So cataloging your home library or home movie collection is definitely helpful and adds value to your collection, but what about library value? I know that many libraries are trying to show that they are even more important in these, frankly, extremely bad economic times. So in case you didn’t see it the first time it was making its way around the blogosphere, check out the Denver Public Library Value Calculator. I really like the fact that this calculator converts value into dollar amounts which seems to be a good way of catching people’s attention.

Lastly, on the subject of value, here is an article on Tools for Landing a Better Job. No, I’m not looking for a job–I love my work, but for those who are, here is a list of 10 tools to help you with your job searching, interviewing and landing a new job. Most of the tips are pretty basic, but it is always good for review. And for those, who like me, are quite happy with their current positions, it never hurts to take a look at resume and CV tips so you can keep your CV current.

Have a great day and remember to step away from your computer at least once today. See you later this week.

Friday's Trend Watch

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

Online Northwest 2009 Wrap-up

/ dwakimoto

So I’m back at work and into the rountine now and I’m prepping for my next class. But I thought I should give a wrap-up, summary, last thoughts about Online Northwest 2009 before going back to Waki Librarian Land of fun and frolic. 

I thought that Online Northwest 2009 was a great conference. I really enjoy smaller conferences because they somehow make me feel more comfortable talking to people. The keynote speaker, BJ Fogg, was amazing which set a great tone for the conference. And, most importantly, I have to give props to the technology help guru that managed to hook up the projector to my mini-laptop when the conference laptop decided to freeze 5 minutes before my presentation. And thanks to everyone who came to my presentation and also asked great questions! I’m so glad that I didn’t seem to bore anyone to tears or put anyone to sleep.

I highly recommend Online Northwest as a conference for any librarian that is looking for concrete examples and tips for integrating or improving technology use and resources in libraries. I loved the useful tips ( Google Custom Search Engines anyone?) that I can implement in the library without spending money and without having to be the world’s best programmer. 

The only downside to the entire conference was the drive up on I-5. There was a chain control checkpoint past Redding which added 3 extra hours to my drive. But Shasta and the surrounding area looked beautiful under fresh snow. Here’s a picture I snapped while making a pitstop in Weed: 

 

View of Mountains from Weed, California

View of Mountains from Weed, California

So onward to other news that pertains to libraries, learning and teaching. 

Here is an article on how students use laptops during class lectures. This is so frustrating as an instructor when the students are paying more attention to their Facebook page than the lecture. I don’t mind students having laptops to take notes, goodness knows I do it at conferences when I’m live blogging a session. What I do mind is when students aren’t paying attention in class. I am a firm believer that whether a student engages with the class is his/her own choice, but I object to the distraction it causes for other students and the lack of respect it conveys when the student is clearly not paying attention at all to the lecture/class discussion. If they really care that little, don’t come to class.

This article also reminds me about a previous article I wrote about that considers the ability to concentrate the key attribute of successful people. There is so much competing for our attention, even in the classroom, that the ability to tune out distractions and actually get work accomplished is now a rare gift. How many of us know others that fritter away the day hopping from email to phone call to Twitter to Facebook without ever accomplishing work, only to become panicked and stay late to finish a task that should have only taken an hour? Remember, as Lifehacker says, geek to live, don’t live to geek and unplug yourself from distractions, even if your students are unable to.

One other thing that I completely adored about Online Northwest was the opportunity to chat with other people who fully embrace open source. I think open source rocks and was so excited to see this from a LibrarianinBlack post: Open Source Living. This is a wonderful collection/archives of open source resources. Yay, open source!

And, lastly, a funny look at the burden of trying to be involved in all things Web 2.0. So for everyone who feels a little bit guilty about not being an obsessive status updater on Twitter or Facebook, take heart–you are not alone. And like I always say, play with technology, test it and if it doesn’t fit in with your life or workflow, get rid of it.

Online Northwest: Library Services for Distance Learners

/ dwakimoto

by: Cass Kvenild, Distance Learning Librarian, University of Wyoming

Online enrollment is going up, more students taking online classes

Asynchronous Solutions
Adapt handouts
Create Videos/screencasts/vodcast
Participate in Discussion Threads on CMS, embedding the librarian
—this is the one that the presenter likes the best
Podcasting
Document delivery–deliver to everyone, stop wasting people’s time

Synchronous real-time solutions
Phone
IM reference services
Embed in CMS, tab for the library–lots of use because students have to use it
Students like text messaging reference service, very positive, lots of use from students

How do you evaluate your services?
Surveys online
Integrate your evaluations with other evaluations happening at your organization
Embedding evaluation in assignments

Take home message: Don’t waste your patrons’ time; make it easy for students to get the resources and help they need.

Online Northwest: Heck with HAL

/ dwakimoto

Open the Pod Bay Door to the Deep Web Yourself with Google’s Custom Search
by: Dale Vidmar, Southern Oregon University

Custom Search Engines (CSE)
Specialized Search engine–search select sites
You select the sites
Need a Google account
Control the results of a query: give priority to different sites, rank them, etc.
Adds human element to the algorithm

Why Bother?
Good Sites= value-added service, focus search on “good” sites
People are used to search engines
Make webliographies searchable
Search deep web
Effectively assist others find better information
Embed a search bo on your website
Can create a CSE without advertisement at no cost

9 Steps to Getting Started creating a CSE
1. Sign up for a Google Account
2. Go to Google Custom Search Engine
3. Create a CSE and provide basic info–title, description, keywords, and language
4. Select sites you want to search
5. Create the URL Patterns to search–taking root of site and add * (truncation)
6. Determine what you want to search–priorities of sites, what searching,, etc.
7. Choose the free standard version
8. Read Terms of Service
9. Create your CSE, test it out, and edit or alter as necessary.

After you create the CSE, get an email with all the code to your CSE

Creating URL Patterns
First Rule–keep it simple
ex. www.ous.edu/onlinenw/*
Add complexity as necessary
*.sou.edu/*

Pretty easy to do. Walked through creation of a search engine.

To me, very similar process to creating Google Gadgets, lots of the same options–Google has some great stuff, no wonder it is taking over the online world.

Get Help: Google Custom Search–Basics and Advanced, from Google

Take Home Message: Yay, Google Custom Search Engines! I guess I have something new to play around with now.

Online Northwest: 2, 4, 6, Great: Handouts They'll Appreciate

/ dwakimoto

by: Anna Johnson

Used to be a document designer, now an Instruction Librarian from Mt. Hood Community College

Crash course in document design, then differences between web and paper as delivery platforms, walk through of making handouts that are useful to users.

Goal: To have people want your handouts.

Edward Tufte (www.edwardtufte.com)
document design, design display
famous about attacking PowerPoint
Designers know less about the content than the average user of the content
But in libraries, librarians are content experts
Just need to learn basics of document design
Give handouts before hand so people can get the information and then you can discuss the points

Just referring to handout instead of going over the handout
Make handouts more content rich
More time for active learning

Johnson argues that more information is better, make longer handouts, mostly 4 pages long (11×14 paper with 4 faces)

Webpages should be interactive, paper doesn’t have to be
Paper handouts should stand alone
Need handouts to work longer, even with changes on the library website
Therefore paper handouts need be relevant longer if people keep them
Different reading styles online versus print

Presentation is a summary of your handout instead of your handout being a summary of your presentation. Give more information to take home with the handout.

Process:
90% of effort in making a Word document handout
Using Word because everyone has Word
Need to be sharable resources

Construction of Handout:
Design in tables to align text and graphics
Create hyperlinks from words, useful when turn Word document into a pdf for the web
Need colors that print correctly in black and white for photocopies
Page length: should be even number of pages so you don’t waste any paper

PDF is very important, locks in style, (but problem of accessibility)

Use color paper instead of color ink, more cost effective way of getting color into your handouts

Can adapt handout style to class syllabi too

Summary: This presentation was an ode to Edward Tufte and his design principles. I’m not buying all of this; but this is definitely food for thought.

Take home message: You want users to have content to use when you are not there. Design is important, as are handouts.

Online Northwest 2009 Keynote

/ dwakimoto

Keynote by Dr. BJ Fogg, from Stanford

Title: The New World of Persuasive Technology

Talking about technology and behavior change, especially online video
Computers and persuasion (captology, coined the term)

We can create machines that influence how people behave, changing human behavior

Europe and the US academics are working on persuasive technology

The web is a platform for persuasion:
Every website has a persuasive intent (key to teach our students)
All have a persuasive goal
You wouldn’t create a website unless you had a goal

Social networks are platforms for persuasion

Mobile phones will be platforms for persuasion

All about videos now. Bringing video into the context of your life.

Technology changes, but human psychology doesn’t change as quickly; it is stable.

How do you think clearly about behavior change?
Think about persuasion targets in professional life.
What behavior do you want people to do?

Fogg likes to do beneficial things with technology (therefore not in the school of business 🙂
Change the world in great ways.

3 core things that change human behavior: motivators, simplicity, and triggers

Target Behavior: Parting with your money (pledge money)
Question: When it comes to soliciting money, is personal video message better than generic email?
Email: 0% of people pledged
Video: 58% watched video, 82% of those pledged, overall 47% pledged

Why does this work? It is the experience that is persuasive–video.

Persuasion goes back a long way. (Fogg uses Wordle a lot 🙂
Goes back to Adam and Eve–what if there was facebook?

Facebook is #1 persuasive technology right now.
Did a class on Facebook
Student projects–making applications for Facebook
projects got 16 million users in 10 weeks
Secret: Think clearly & run many trials

Human Psychology:
What motivates people?
Humans are fairly predictable.
Motivators:
Pleasure and pain
Hope and fear
acceptance and rejection

Driver behind Facebook–social interaction, want social acceptance and avoid rejection

Mega-motivation: no, doesn’t get behavior change
Need more than just motivation to change behaviors

Other factors:
People need to be able to do what you ask them to do.
Easy to accomplish goals
Need motivation and ability
Simplicity is good. People don’t want to learn mostly.
People: Just give me a pill.
Make it simple and easy for people, if you want behavior change
Don’t require training

Simplicity has 6 elements:
Time
Money
Effort
Brain cycles
social deviance
non-routine

People are fine watching video; rather watch a video than read. Therefore instructional videos are great.
Demos

Humans are mostly lazy

Keypoint: reduce behavior to one choice, one step, one click.

People who like to think hard and challenge themselves are the outliers.

Add video to increase motivation for behavior change.

Either simplify or motivate in order to change the behavior if what you want to happen is not happening.

Must know which path when persuading people using technology. Code doesn’t adjust unlike people. Must think clearly about context when making videos and application.

6 Different flavors of web video (can find on the web)

Even when people have motivation and ability, you need to trigger the behavior.
Facebook has notifications, which is one reason why it is so successful

All 3 must be present at the same moment to have behavior happen (motivation, ability and trigger).

Focus on trigger and simplicity, usually have enough motivation.

Thoughts: Absolutely great speaker.

Take home message: Use more videos to trigger behaviors that you want.