Technology

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.

More Travel Fun

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

So how’s everybody doing? Sorry for no post on Friday, but I was enjoying my vacation too much to plug into the computer to write. (Not that I don’t, of course, love you dear readers, but I promised myself no work during my one week of vacation and while I love blogging, it felt too much like work before today.) I mean, really, take a look at the photo below and tell me you wouldn’t be out enjoying the quiet of nature instead of staring at a laptop screen:

photograph of Deschutes River

Deschutes River

I thought, though, that I should share a few links that I read while waiting thunderstorms to pass that may be helpful for those of you going to ALA this week.

Don’t you just love Lifehacker? I sure do and this post on the top 10 strategies for surviving airports and airplanes couldn’t have come at a more opportune time than right before ALA. I’m so not looking forward to flying in from the West Coast–jet lag is not fun, but I’m sure the conference will be.

Lifehacker also has a post on 5 tactics for getting sleep on long distance flights. Definitely a fan of getting sleep on planes and these are a few excellent tips.

Finally the Lifehacker pack for Macs. I felt it only right that I include this link as I already linked to the Lifehacker pack for Windows and far be it from me not to alert Mac owners of a cool suite of software.

I hope everyone who is going to ALA has a very safe journey to DC and a fantastic conference experience. I’ll probably post about it as I’m excited for ALA (it’s my first time attending). Have a lovely week, read a lot, and I’ll be back with more library and tech fun soon.

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.

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.

Love/Hate Relationship with Technology

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! How amazing is it that we all survived another week?! This week has been insanely busy, yet productive, here at the library. I think it is finally sinking in with the campus population that we are coming up on the end of the spring term and it might be a good idea to actually start final projects.

Today I thought I’d post a few links and talk about our love/hate relationship with technology. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with computers, especially the ones at the library, with fax machines (nothing in the realm of clerical duties annoys me as much as using a fax machine–mainly because I almost always manage to load the document the wrong way), and photocopiers (the ones at the library time people out so quickly that double-sided photocopying is nigh impossible). I’m usually perfectly content and at easy with computers and online work, obviously since I’m a blogger and the online literacy librarian at my library. But some days I completely sympathize with people who want nothing to do with any of it. For example, last week I was ready to throw my computer out the window (provided I could find a window that actually opened) because I was trying to work with some videos from the archives that consistently crashed my video software and sometimes my entire computer. Other times, like when I’m making cool graphics for friends or finding out something new and shiny to use for class, I love computers. So without any more rambling on my part, on to the resources for this (hopefully) lovely Friday.

This is a wonderful read: I hate computers: Confessions of a sysadmin. Not only is it funny, but it also completely sums up how I feel about computers, and technology in general. They are tools; they are means to an end; they shouldn’t make me, or anyone else, feel stupid when they self-destruct.

If you’ve been keeping up with the hot technology news this week, you know that Facebook has been all over the news. If you didn’t know about the hullabaloo, check out Facebook’s gone rogue and a review of Facebook news and commentary to get up to speed. Then share the information with your friends, colleagues, and family and help them become informed about the privacy issues with using Facebook. Everyone should be able to make informed, uncomplicated decisions about what they want to share and what they don’t online and in first life (if you know jokes about Second Life, you’ll have gotten that joke. If not, don’t worry about it). In full disclosure, I was on Facebook for a few months and then killed my account because it just didn’t work for me. But to each, her own.

On things that are not a secret: it is no secret that I adore the Vlogbrothers. Their videos are funny, sweet, inspiring, and educational (sometimes not all at the same time). They, and Common Craft, explain concepts in ways that are understandable and entertaining to my students.

As this post is dedicated to love/hate relationships with technology, I thought that Hank Green’s video on Net Neutrality would be fantastic to share:

And finally, because I just think this Vlogbrothers’ video is so awesome (and I wish there had been a Nerdfighter community when I was in junior high/high school), we end with John Green’s advice video on dumb boyfriends, going to college, and more:

Have a wonderful rest of your day and fantastic weekend (filled with reading).

Spending Time Staring at the Computer Screen

/ dwakimoto

I know that I spend way too much time staring at a computer screen each day. It is funny, in an ironic sort of way, that a machine that was supposed to make our lives simpler has taken over so much time in our days. Of course, I’m not against computers or the Internet in any sort of way, but sometimes it is just lovely to have a computer free day. But as this is not possible very often at work, so this post is filled with tips and tools to make staring at your computer screen a little easier.

I’m sure a lot of people already know how to change the background color in Adobe Reader for eye-friendly contrast. But if you don’t, check out the steps and make your eyeballs happy as you start reading the tenth article online.

If you are reading online, you might as well make it something worthwhile. So check out the Foreign Service Institute’s extensive language courses and brush up on your French or learn Japanese.

I am not a huge fan of email. Yes, for certain tasks it is efficient and effective, but I get way too much junk in my inbox each day by people sending messages that are completely unnecessary. I think this should be required reading for anyone who uses email: 8 things I wish everyone knew about email. Really people, could we all agree to only use the “Reply All” button if it is really, really necessary?

If you decide to send less email you might have more time to do actual work. And if you are doing work, you should consider Who judges your work? A good reminder that not all opinions are created equal and should be given equal consideration.

Final tip for the day is comes from the Mashable post, 5 tips for creating the perfect profile pic. Great tips for anyone who wants to update their profile photograph or other online avatars and images.

And for your Friday work break, check out the latest Vlogbrother video made by Hank (& then figure out who is in your Hug Bucket):

Have a lovely weekend, read a lot, give lots of hugs, and the Waki Librarian will be back next week with more technology and library commentary and tips.

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.

Online reviews, website redesigns, and other stuff

/ dwakimoto

This post is a little of this and a little of that. It made sense when I saved the links, but like most things in this hyperlinked world–what makes sense one minute makes much less sense the next (especially as the smell of burned leaves permeates the library–generator issues, don’t ask and don’t panic). So on to the technology stuff and please forgive any randomness along the way.

First up, this post from Lifehacker on how to Hone your eye for fake online reviews. I teach freshmen in my classes how to evaluate online sources and I think I’ll include this in my next class. How annoying is it that we have to be on the lookout for fake reviews? So annoying, especially as Consumer Reports is not freely available online.

Okay, so this isn’t about libraries, but it is about technology and archives. If you care about the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) website, you might want to participate in Archives.gov redesign. I am so excited that the website will be redesigned and that NARA is asking for input. (Yes, I know this makes me an archives geek.)

I posted a bit ago about the exciting news of Library of Congress archiving public tweets from Twitter; this is a follow up by Resourceshelf: more information about Library of Congress and Twitter. Resourceshelf has done a lovely job of summarizing and explaining what will happen now that Library of Congress is archiving Twitter. There is also information about Google’s service, Google Replay, that allows for searching Twitter tweets.

And we end today with 6 proven ways to make new habits stick. I love easy ways to tackle new things.

Back soon with more technology and library news.

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.