Productivity

Relaxing and Planning

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope your day is going splendidly and you have a wonderful weekend planned. Today I have a few tools and articles to share with you on relaxing and planning. So let’s just get into the tips so you can get on with planning your weekend.

Yes, I want to share some Lifehacker links on planning, just in case you missed them. I find thinking about planning things anxiety-producing, but actually making and executing a plan very relaxing. Yeah, I’m that kind of person. Anyway, if you haven’t thought about retirement planning, you should, and Lifehacker has a great guide to retirement planning. Sometimes, the Internet is wonderful and the online tools in the article are super-helpful. If you have any other tools you recommend, please share them in the comments.

Also good for planning is Lifehacker’s article on creating a master information kit. I’m totally finishing this kit this weekend and making sure the important people in my life know where to find it and how to access it. Being prepared is good. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Another cool tip is this one from Gizmodo on how to get rid of Google’s black bar. Share it with your friends, family members, and patrons who don’t like the new look of Google. They’ll think you are awesome, really. When I told some of my colleagues how to turn off threading in Gmail conversations, they thought it was wonderful. (I happen to love threading, but you know, different strokes for different folks.) Customization of your online experience= brilliant.

I hope you have the time to take a true vacation this summer. As you get ready for vacation, consider implementing danah boyd’s email sabbatical. This is truly a great idea to avoid having to check email while on vacation and also avoid the dreaded email avalanche when you get back to the office. I find breaks away from work email truly wonderful and plan on implementing an email sabbatical when I go on my next trip, which hopefully will be in the not too distant future (*fingers crossed*).

Finally, I want to leave you with another wonderful photograph from beautiful portals. I hope you have some place similar to curl up with a good book this weekend.

Stairs and Doorway

Stairs and Doorway

Have a lovely weekend, full of relaxation, good food and good company (also, a good book and a cup of tea are always nice, too). I’ll be back next week with more tech, archives, and library notes and news. Allons-y!

End of the Term Tech Hits

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday! I hope your day is going well. We are in the penultimate week of classes at my university and, as per usual, the stress levels are rising along with everyone’s workload. So today I just have a few quick technology links to hopefully make your life a little easier.

First, something to share with anyone trying to make pretty diagrams to put in their final exam paper: diagram.ly. It’s a great little, intuitive, free diagramming website. Much easier to use than trying to wrestle with Word or something similar.

Also, in the realm of extremely helpful and useful are these two lists from Lifehacker of Google lab features to enable in: Gmail and Google Calendar. Google may be taking over the world, but we can take comfort in the fact that their lab features are fantastic. (Yes, that was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out the features and even use some of them.)

Finally, if you are like most people and summer makes you want to get out of the office and out in the world traveling, check out the 5 best cheap travel booking sites. Then, pack your suitcases and have a fantastic break.

And something fun to end: check out this trailer for the first season of Sherlock. I’ve finally been able to watch it and it is fantastic. Definitely check it out if you need a break and like clever, beautifully written and filmed mysteries.

Have a great rest of your day and do something fun. I’m hoping to be back on Friday with some thoughts from my recent research trip on the nature of communities and archives. Allons-y!

Ease of Archiving

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday! I hope you are well, dear readers, and are having a lovely week. Today I want to talk about digital archiving and the problem of actually getting people to archive their work. What I don’t want to talk about is the issue with Harper Collins as it has been tweeted by seemingly every librarian on Twitter and has even spawned the The eBook User’s Bill of Rights. So, yeah, don’t really have much to add to that conversation. Instead I have some bits of flotsam that have been rolling about in my head since coming home from the Personal Digital Archiving Conference last week. I thought I’d share and see what you think about it all. Allons-y!

One of the concepts that kept surfacing during the conference was the fact that people are lazy (unsurprising) and don’t want to work to back-up and then archive their work. Now this is not a shocking concept for anyone who has any contact with people, ever. We, on the whole, try to find the easiest and fastest way to get anything done. Now I’m not saying that this is inherently a bad thing. For example, I dislike grocery shopping so I appreciate stores laying out their products in logical arrangements so I can find what I need easily and get on with my day instead of spending 10 minutes trying to figure out on which aisle are the olives.

But when this desire to have everything done in one-step (or preferably without any intervention on the user’s part at all) makes digital archiving seem like a dream, I do have a problem. We heard updates on some amazing work by computer scientists and archivists on creating institutional repositories (IR) that can automatically generate metadata when digital objects are uploaded to the IR at the conference. We also heard about future projects to create one question surveys for users to complete that would generate more useful metadata about their digital objects. I think these advancements are wonderful because I’m not the kind of person who takes the ‘all or nothing’ approach to archival work. Some metadata is better than none and having some people take the time to upload their work to IRs or other digital archives is great. But what about everything we are losing? (And don’t get started on how we can’t save it all. I’m not calling for saving everything. I firmly uphold the principle and practice of appraisal.)

What if you can’t get a metadata form for users to fill out down to one question? Maybe you can’t get everything to be automatically generated in the background without the user contributing something to the metadata creation process. How easy does it have to be to get people to do it?

I wonder about this question not only in the context of archiving but in many facets of life. For example, how easy does searching a database have to be for the majority of students to use it? How much specificity and control over a search do you have to give up to make it “easy enough” to use? Not even talking about digital archiving, but just scheduling back-ups for your computer, how much easier does it need to be than clicking 2 buttons for people to backup their machines? Where is the line, in any case, that separates “good enough” from “results we won’t accept”?

I’d like to hear your ideas on the tensions between striving to make things easy and producing “good enough” results for whatever product or service you are creating. I’m all for good user design and experience, but am having trouble feeling any empathy for people who won’t take the time to at least name their files something intelligible. I have high hopes for the future of digital archiving, both in personal and institutional contexts, but I worry about making sense of it all if people don’t take the time to do (just a bit) of quality control on filenames, metadata, etc..

Or maybe I’m just having one of those days that make everything seem overwhelming and you don’t feel that this is an issue at all or you’ve found a way to solve it in your archives. I’d love to hear about any and all of it in comments.

Now, since it can’t all be doom and gloom on a Wednesday (and because anyone in the Bay Area could definitely use a bit of fun on this rather dreary day), we will end with Simon’s Cat in “Sticky Tape.” It’s short, cute, and funny. Use it for a quick break in your busy work day.

Have a wonderful rest of your day and I’ll be back on Friday with some tech, library, and archives news.

Civility and Tech Redux

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! I hope you are having a lovely day and have a relaxing weekend planned. I’m quite looking forward to the weekend as I’m going to go see cool books and manuscripts. If you are going to be at the Antiquarian Book Fair in San Francisco on Sunday morning, do stop by the ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section table to say hi. But back to the topics at hand. Today I just have a few articles, posts, and bits of information that connect to some of the conversations we’ve been having in the previous couple of weeks’ posts. So let’s get into the good stuff.

Touching back on the post on civility a few week’s ago, check out this interesting post on using airplane mode to silence your phone instead of mute or power. Personally, I don’t care what you do with your cell phone as long as you don’t pull it out every time it goes off while eating dinner with me. I’m probably very old school about this, but one of the most impressive things (and how sad is it that I find this impressive?) is when a person actually puts his/her phone on silent or airplane mode while we’re out to dinner or having coffee. I think it’s a sad comment on society that I was actually told by a colleague that he loved to talk to me because I would stop what I was doing and give him my full attention and he never had to wonder if I was actually listening.

Anyway, off the soapbox and onward to technology news.

This is a very nice article on the digitizing of Vassar’s Special Collections. It’s a concise look at many of the advantages and problems with digitizing special collections and archives. Issues of preservation, access, original v. digitized copy, and even microfilm all make an appearance. It’s a good article to pass on to those who either believe that “everything” is already available online or who complain that the entire archives’ holdings aren’t already online.

Speaking of articles that may be of use to archivists and librarians, take a look at The New York Times article on why some twitter posts catch on, and some don’t. For those archives and libraries using Twitter for access and marketing, this article brings up some points to consider–especially in the realm of hashtags.

Finally in tech news, it seems like there is always something interesting and useful to share about one of Google’s products and today is no different. Take a look at Lifehacker’s seven more easy ways to integrate your google apps. I really enjoy things that make my life easier and these hacks definitely make it easier.

This Friday we’ll end with this fabulous video someone made using Neil Gaiman’s reading of “The Day the Saucers Came.” I love this poem, but I hope, dear readers, that this is not how your upcoming Valentine’s Day ends.

Have a wonderful weekend filled with good books, friends, and fun. And if you feel inspired to bake this weekend, you might want to try Joy the Baker’s recipe for whole wheat chocolate brown sugar sugar cookies. I’ll be back next week with more musing on technology, libraries, archives, and other stuff.

A Chrome and Android Kind of Friday

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you have a lovely weekend planned. Did anyone know that this Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday? I surely didn’t when I planned to have a dinner party this Sunday. But enough about how I’m thoroughly unaware of what is going on in professional sports and back to what I am aware of–fun technology stuff. This week has seen some very exciting announcements, like demos of tablets running on Android Honeycomb, and news of how technology and revolutions interact, as in Egypt. Since those two have been written about extensively over the last week, I’m not going to repeat it here. Instead, I want to share a few good articles about Chrome and Android. Allons-y!

A quick postscript to Wednesday’s post on not working 24/7 (aka please have a life), check out Lifehacker’s article, “Find time for your personal life”. Okay, now we can move on to today’s fun tech stuff.

First up, two useful Google Chrome articles: one for snoozing your emails, the other with helpful tips. First, I think the ability to snoonze your email sounds like a good way to build in quick reminders to do things. I’m going to set it up for my work email as there are just too many emails that come in each day and it is easy for things to get lost in the mess. I’ve tried to keep a zero inbox policy and only check my email at certain times each day, but it just doesn’t work with my job so I think the snooze button would help.

Also, if you use Chrome (and really, why wouldn’t you be using Chrome), you’ll want to check out Gizmodo’s Google Chrome cheat sheet: 10 tips and tricks. You are probably already employing many of these tips and tricks, but it is a good list to share with your not so tech savvy friends and patrons.

Onward to the Android fun. Lifehacker has a great explanation on how to use the new web based Android Market. Yay for easier to use market! Also, check out Gizmodo’s list of the best Android apps. I’m more in favor of developing for the mobile web than native apps, but there are some great native apps out there so give the list a glance.

Finally, not really Chrome or Android news/tips, but may be of interest to all those currently looking for employment: how to use Twitter to help you find a new job. Again, this would be a great article to share with people you know who are looking for a job, but haven’t discovered the wonders of Twitter for news and employment opportunities.

Because it is Friday, we have to end with a fun video. Here’s the trailer for Series 6 of Doctor Who. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful rest of your day, a relaxing weekend, and I’ll be back next week with more random tech news and library/archives fun.

On Getting Stuff Done Without Working 24/7

/ dwakimoto

Happy Wednesday! I hope your week (and day) is going well. Today we’re going to talk about getting stuff done without working like a mad person 24/7. I think this is a good time to touch on the subject as it is still early in the new year and you may be experiencing the twin, somewhat dichotomous thoughts of 1. Oh, my goodness, who said it could be February? I have so much to do and so little time, while at the same time thinking 2. I have so much time. No need to panic, yet. So let’s talk about getting stuff done so you don’t panic and you do have time for a nap without feeling guilty (or needing a TARDIS or time-turner).

This isn’t expert advice on time management. In fact, I’m not sure what makes one an expert in time management. I suppose doing research studies. So I’ve not done any research studies, but I have been able to get quite a bit of work done without working 24/7, no matter how skeptical my work colleagues may be about that claim. So first a bit of context.

I’ve been at my current position for 2.5 years. It’s a tenure-track position so I’m expected to do research, publish, and serve on university-level committees. I also managed somehow to assume management of the University Archives during my second year on top of my position as one of the library faculty members. Oh, I also supervise SJSU Library School Student Interns who teach with us in the information literacy course that is mandatory for first-year students. My job also includes the usual things like reference and collection development, plus grant writing. I’m also, unsurprisingly, very into sharing my love and knowledge of technology with others so I often teach workshops for the Faculty Development Office. So, my work life is pretty busy.

With my workload, and the workload of librarians and people in general, it is easy to be sucked into the vicious cycle of working 24/7 because you need to be connected 24/7. I thought like that when I first started my current position, and I literally had no life. I worked through the weekends, developed a wicked case of insomnia, and basically was looking at burnout before my first year was up. Obviously something had to change and I’ll tell you what I did, and no, this isn’t one of those “happy thought” advice columns about giving up what you don’t like and only doing what you do like–that’s not realistic and I’m definitely a realist (or an insane optimist, it depends on who you ask). So here’ my advice for not working insane hours and still getting insane amounts of work done:

  1. Don’t even think about multi-tasking. Multi-tasking as a productivity tool is a myth. Except for listening to music when I work, I don’t multi-task. I single task. When I’m in hardcore writing mode, I basically shut down my internet connection and everything else, but my writing program. I refuse to bounce around among multiple tasks. I single task and it completely increases my efficiency.
  2. Be ruthless about your to-do list. I write my to-do list on a Post-it each day and then just get into it, no matter how much I don’t want to do something. I’ve gotten pretty good at estimating how much I can get done in a day and I find it satisfying to cross things off my list
  3. Get to work early. I admit that I’m lucky in the fact that I’m a morning person. (If we are being completely honest, I’m more of a siesta person–work early in the morning, take a nap during my slump time which is around mid-afternoon, and work later in the afternoon to the evening. But that schedule doesn’t work here, so let’s get back to getting to work early.) Most of my faculty colleagues aren’t morning people and don’t show up until around an hour or so after I’ve gotten to work. Without interruptions, I get a ton of work done. Plus morning hours are usually my most productive times of day in terms of creativity, writing, and other tasks that require a significant concentration level. Basically find the time that is most productive for you and safeguard it against interruptions.
  4. Don’t indulge in any perfectionist leanings or tendencies to procrastinate. If you want to ship work, as Seth Godin would say, you need to do the work and then get it out the door. In order to do excellent work, you need to do the work! Being a perfectionist will only keep you from getting work done and procrastinating will keep you from ever starting the work. Inertia can be a terrible or wonderful thing, dear readers.
  5. Leave work at work. I no longer stay at work for horribly long days as much as possible and I leave my work at work. I don’t take work home because if I can’t get it done in the 8-9 hours that I’m at work, it can just wait until tomorrow. Now, since I’m an instructor, I do have to answer student emails at home and sometimes work can’t be avoided. But my pretty firm rule is that work doesn’t come home with me.
  6. Say no to extra projects (and committees) when you don’t have time, have no interest, are able to say no and/or all of the above. Now I know you can’t say no to every unappealing project or committee that comes your way, but you should get used to flexing your “no” muscle on those occasions where saying “yes” will only increase your stress level and workload and not really help you in any way. It took me a while to be okay with saying no to people and raising objections to projects I knew wouldn’t work out. But flexing that “no” muscle is the surest way to keep your workload to at least a semi-manageable level.
  7. Get some sleep. Honestly, just get more sleep, it will help. Just listen to this video (it’s funny and makes a compelling case for getting more sleep). If you take nothing else away from this list of advice, please take away that you need to sleep. You will be more effective and efficient, not to mention feel better, if you get some sleep. Being sleep deprived isn’t a badge of honor, it’s bad for you and your health.
  8. Find something you are passionate about outside of work and someone(s) with which to share it. I don’t think it matters whether you are passionate about art, collecting coins, or finding the best tea shop in the neighborhood, as long as you have something fun to look forward to outside of work. And, hopefully, you have awesome people to share in your love of whatever outside of work. I love my work, and I’m hopefully that you do too. I love working with the students, doing my research, going to conferences, helping people, etc., but I also know that it’s important to get out of the archives and library mindset. Don’t forget your friends, your family, your hobbies, and having fun while you are climbing the professional ladder.

So that’s really all I have to say about that. I hope it inspires you to at least think about not working 24/7. If you have tips or stories about what has worked for you, I’d love to hear about it in comments.

And finally, to end, check out this interesting video by BBC Horizon, What is Reality?.

Have a fantastic rest of your day and I’ll be back with some tech news on Friday. Allons-y!

Tech Help for Yourself and Others

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! I hope you are enjoying your Friday and have a lovely weekend planned. Today I want to get back to our regularly scheduled programming of technology tips and advice. I have a bunch of links, lists, and fun bits of information to share with you so that you can share them with others. It’s a round-up of tips for getting more out of your smartphone, figuring out when to buy stuff, and one lovely app from NARA. Allons-y!

Lifehacker has some great articles on smartphones and I want to share a few specifically about Android phones. First is the article on how to speed up your old or sluggish Android device. This seems especially relevant now that it seems that for those who have a Samsung device (in the United States), and haven’t rooted their phone, will be waiting for quite some time to get an OS update. Makes you think twice about rooting and voiding your warranty, doesn’t it? This is also a good article to share with your patrons who complain about their Android device running slowly, but don’t know what can be done about it.

If you haven’t yet succumbed to temptation and purchased an Android phone, you might want to read the article on how to pick your next Android phone: the specs that matter and the ones that don’t. Refuse to be an uninformed consumer of tech goodness.

Now, leaving Android-specific land, check out the tips on how to secure your smartphone. At least make it harder for people to steal your phone and your data.

Also in the realm of security, check out Lifehacker’s enhance your security this weekend article, if you were too busy to deal with this over the holidays. Though I am sure, dear readers, that you already do most of this, but it might be handy to pass on to your library patrons. While enhancing your security, you may also want to look into 6 social media pain points (and what to do about them). Again, good information to share with others.

After you are done enhancing the security of your smartphone, you may want to load the new-ish app from NARA (National Archives and Records Administration). Check out the press release here: Today’s Document Goes Mobile. It is quite lovely and you get one document a day with links to more information, transcripts, the ability to browse collections, etc. Kudos to NARA embracing mobile technology on top of redesigning their website, their logo, their brand, etc.

And because I love lists (and good deals), I had to share this Lifehacker chart/calendar/list on the Best Times to Buy Anything in 2011.

To end our whirlwind tour of technology, enjoy viewing this video using Chameleon Circuit’s “Exterminate, Regenerate” and then go buy one of Chameleon Circuit’s albums over at DFTBA Records.

Have a fantastic rest of your day and a wonderful weekend. I’ll be back next week with more fun in library/archives/tech-land. Thank you, dear readers, for reading.

Middle of the Week Inspiration

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

Dear readers, it is a gloomy Wednesday morning here, so I thought we could all use a little inspiration for getting things done (especially as tomorrow is a holiday). With that in mind, I have a very short post on productivity, ending with an awesome video (courtesy of Hanna who wonderfully alerted me to its presence).

Do like Post-it notes? I happen to love them, as can be easily deduced from a quick look around my office. It should come as no surprise that I’m quite partial to this article, “If it won’t fit on a post-it, It Won’t Fit in Your Day” on managing your to-do list and getting things done. This is especially helpful for those of us who try to cram way too much into one day and feel a bit stressed when we don’t accomplish the 23rd item on our task list for the day. So say it with me, “Post-it to-do lists for the win!”

One of my favorite non-library blogs is WebWorkerDaily. I highly recommend subscribing to the feed if you don’t already. One of the recent posts is especially pertinent to any discussion about productivity: Top 3 Productivity Pitfalls Disguised as Work-Boosting Tools. I know for those among us that love what we do (and are probably slightly Type A by nature) could definitely do with taking at least some time off on the weekends from work. Give yourself permission to relax a bit and you’ll probably be more productive when you get back to work. Another tip: get over the myth of multi-tasking and just focus on one task at a time–you’ll get your work done faster.

Finally, not a tip on productivity, but just basic inspiration, check out John’s blog post over at Ink and Vellum on Getting back into Research Mode. (And, by the way, isn’t that a great name for a blog?) It’s a lovely post on the transitions John’s made from researching in the humanities to researching in the LIS field and a great read for those of us who are constantly researching and writing in this profession. And personally, I can definitely relate to needing to change my perceptions of research and translate my research skills when I began in the LIS/archives field; however, I came from a biological sciences background and not the humanities. Luckily, our field and profession is so interdisciplinary and broad that I think it is only strengthened by those of us coming from non-social science backgrounds who have chosen to apply our research skills to LIS/archival research.

Feel inspired to get up, get your Post-it to-do list finished, and start a research project? Or do you just really want that third cup of coffee? No worries, either way, let’s end with this fantastic trailer from TRON Legacy:

Have a great rest of your week and I’ll be back on Friday with some technology fun for the library.

Personal Content Management

/ dwakimoto

By Gary Price from ResourceShelf

Lots of information is out there: how can we share it with others, how can we save it, and what do we do with it? We need to think about the persistence of data and information.

Personal Information Management
Everyone defines personal information management differently and everyone wants information wherever they want it, when they want it. Hard to talk about generalities when talking about mobile information because there are so many different devices/platforms.

Need to get a mobile website first! Don’t go for a specialized app just for iPhone! (Yay!)

Backup, backup, backup your data!

Shout-out for the WayBack Machine and Internet Archive. If all else fails (and you don’t have a backup), check out the Internet Archives.

Either pay now or pay now when it comes to backing up your data. It is better to pay for the external storage and online backup now before your hard drive crashes. Example: Mozy, Carbonite. Think about how easy it is to restore your data when considering which service to use.

Bibliographic Managers
If you do a lot of research, bibliographic managers are vital to save you research time. Two free options:
Zotero: Zotero everywhere initiative is going on and soon will be able to use Zotero on Chrome, IE, and mobile in addition to Firefox. (This is fabulous as it will greatly increase the usefulness of Zotero.)
Mendeley: another bibliographic manager option.

Social Media preservation
Preserving Tweets: check out Twapper Keeper. It permanently archives tweets–you can even search for archives via keywords and hashtags (you can see tweets from previous Internet Librarian conferences via this service). You can also download the information to a database or spreadsheet and it is free. Very cool, especially for creating thematic archives.

Dropbox: great way to backup small amounts of data (for free) or you can pay for more storage space. Also a great option for sharing large files.

Instapaper: will optimize a page for mobile web so you can read articles/pages later. For iPhone
Read it Later: Similar service for Android

Summary
Take the time to think about how you are preserving your data before your hard drive crashes! If you want to know about digital preservation and digital standards, I highly suggest taking a look at recent research and white papers in archival science. This is another area where the two allied professions overlap a lot and is a great opportunity for collaboration so we aren’t reinventing the wheel but instead can move forward together in the preservation and curation of digital data. One of the most interesting facts about digital preservation is that while pages, links, content on the web are ephemeral (everyone has experienced linkrot), it is almost impossible to delete all evidence of content when it is published online. The eternal conundrum of the digital archivist!

Balancing

/ dwakimoto

Do you ever think about balancing? And while you’re pondering that question, I have another one for you: how do you define balance? When you hear the word “balance” what does it bring to mind? Work-life balance? A balanced ecosystem? A balanced checkbook? Harmony? Balance is a hot topic in the library world right now, even if few writers actually use the term. We are trying to balance service to our patrons with acknowledging that we cannot do everything with smaller budgets and overworked staff. We try to balance fostering a personalized learning experience for our students with ever increasing class sizes. Balance, in other words, seems to come up most often when we are talking about systems, people, lifestyles that are out of balance. So today I’d like to write about a few different types of balance and a few technology tools that may help with your productivity so you can attempt to find balance in your work and life.

This issue comes up at my library when people talk about workload issues, especially when we talk about our teaching load. I always find it interesting to talk about workload issues because I am definitely for drawing boundaries (see last week’s post), I’m also someone who believes you finish the task you agreed to or were assigned and don’t count the hours. My philosophy has usually been work until you’re done. That being said, one can easily get consumed by work so when the school year starts (which coincides with the restarting of committee work on the library and university level and therefore an increase in workload), I always think about how to achieve balance. If I ever figure out the secret, I’ll let you know. But I did find this article by Lifehacker, establishing boundaries between work and play, to be a good reminder about the importance of getting both physically and mentally “out of the office.” WebWorkerDaily also has a great article to help out with the issue of balance, time management beyond the task list.

I think one of the biggest issues is how to decide how technology can help create a balance in your life versus which just sucks away your precious time. Now, depending on how you use it, a smartphone can either be an intense distraction that breaks your concentration or a huge time-saver. For me, as long as I don’t check Twitter every couple of minutes, it has been a great time-saver. For those of you that have smartphones, check out two guides from Lifehacker, best Android apps for getting things done and best iPhone apps for productivity. (Never let it be said I didn’t give equal space to Android and iOS.) So how do you balance your use of technology or use it to facilitate productivity and allow you more time to relax or do whatever else you want to do in your life? How do you help your patrons navigate the ever-changing realm of technology and communication tools? If you need something to get you focused on using technology as the tool it is supposed to be (and not the ‘end all and be all’), check out this lovely article, Achieving Techno-Literacy.

Balance takes on another cast when we talk about instruction in the classroom and at the reference desk. How do we balance different learning styles and personalities in the classroom? How do we balance the time it takes to help someone at the desk when there is a line of other patrons who also need help? I think that this is where the side of our profession and training that is an art form comes in. I don’t think there is a formula that can tell you how to manage a class or exactly how many minutes to spend helping someone with a reference questions. (Of course there are books one can read and classes one can take to get better at teaching or inter-personal skills, but there is no magic key that makes everything work out smoothly.) I think everyone has to learn this kind of balance for themselves. It comes down to being human.

Learning balance, in all facets of life, is a process, a process I think that goes more smoothly (and with less falling) if we help each other. So let’s all try to not get caught up in the mentality that ‘more hours at work equals better work’ or that being up on email at 3am is a desirable activity. And if you have any techniques for balance, in any area of your life, I’d love to hear about it.

And for Friday’s fun, check out this wonderful promo for the BBC show, Being Human, and be thankful that no matter what you have to balance, at least you don’t have to pretend to be human.

The Waki Librarian will be back next week; enjoy your weekend and let me know what you’re reading. Thank you and namaste.