Technology

Friday Tech Help

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! Today’s post is the usual round-up of helpful technology tips, some of which are from slightly older posts hanging around the web (mainly because I haven’t cleared out my feed reader for a bit). I am also apparently still thinking about travel because as I reviewed the links for today, most of them will be helpful the next time you are traveling and need to bring along your laptop or do anything on the Internet (which is, let’s admit it, just about every trip).

So the one item I want to bring to your attention and that isn’t really travel related is the new Friend of a Friend’s Group wiki, explained here. This is such a lovely idea, and I simply can’t believe this hasn’t been done before. Every library could use an extra influx of cash right now. If you have ideas or suggestions, please contribute to this wiki.

Now, on to the tech stuff for the day. Lifehacker has a great article stating that You’re Backing up Your Data the Wrong Way. Really, you have no excuse not to back up your data considering how easy it is and how cheap external storage has become over the last couple of years. Read this article and then go back up your data so if you do face the “blue screen of death,” you won’t lose all of your data.

I think I’m going to have my next Information Literacy class read this Lifehacker article, Internet Survival Guide for Traveling where Privacy isn’t Respected, when we talk about information and power. These are ways that you can protect your data and privacy, even while using Internet Cafes. I wish I had known more of these tips when I was living in South America. I love these tips and will use them the next time I’m traveling.

Finally in the traveling vein of tips, Find the Best Spots in New Cities with these Tools. I love that the first tip is to actually plan ahead, but the rest of the tips are very good too.

And, lastly, here is Lifehacker’s article on How to Put your PC to Good Use while You’re Sleeping. Lots of ideas for how to run maintenance programs while you are sleeping and they won’t interfere with your work.

Have a wonderful weekend, read lots, and the Waki Librarian will be back next week for more library and tech fun.

Resolutions and "Good Enough"

/ dwakimoto

It is January and it seems like everyone has gone resolution crazy. I’m not inherently against making resolutions and I’m especially not against self-improvement, but sometimes I think we get caught up in all the hype of resolutions that we try to strive for perfection. Perfection isn’t always the best resolution. Of course, there are times when perfection is called for, but for a lot of tasks and things in life, good enough is perfect.

Therefore, I bring to your attention this great post, Getting to Good Enough. Seriously, read this and try to apply some of the tips the next time you are feeling stuck and worried that your best effort won’t be perfect.

I am a really big fan of the concept of good enough. There are areas of my life where I want perfection, or I am willing to work a lot just to get a fraction of a percentage better. But, for the most part, there are a lot of tasks that aren’t worth losing sleep or hours of time over. Think of the Web 2.0 concept of prototyping and perpetual beta. It is okay to build, test, revise, and then let it go. In libraryland, this concept could help us get over our fear that our websites need to be perfect and set in stone before we open them up to the public. Or that we need to have agonized over a new program or service for months before seeing if our patrons actually use it. Think beta and get moving.

One of the most common resolutions I have heard this month is that people want to get more organized. Who can argue with that? Organization is key to being effective and efficient at your work and life, but don’t forget The Lost Rule of Organizing. Remember the law of diminishing returns and that good enough really is good enough. This post makes me feel a lot better about the junk drawer in my desk at work and in my kitchen at home.

Finally, because it just wouldn’t be a post without a list, here is Lifehacker’s The Best of 2009 Recap. Lots of great posts and tips in this list.

Remember that you don’t have to be perfect to be great and that if it really is about the journey and not the destination, then you better stop worrying about being perfect and start moving.

Have a very happy 2010, read a lot, and the Waki Librarian will be back next week with reports from the ALISE Conference in Boston (as long as the wifi is working).

DIY, Gifts, Online Education, etc.

/ dwakimoto

Is everyone ready for a vacation about now? I know I am. It is break week on campus and it is like a ghost town around here. On the one hand this means that I am able to get a lot of work done that gets shoved to the side during the academic quarter, but on the other hand it makes me even more anxious to be on vacation. Plus there are less than 3 weeks left in this year (and decade) which makes me feel like I should get about a dozen projects done both at the library and at home. So if you are like me, a feel the need to do something, then this is the post for you.

As anyone who reads this blog fairly regularly knows, I adore Lifehacker. I really do think it is one of the best sites for technology and life hacks. Also, they never fail to have great end-of-the-year lists of their popular posts. So if you feel like making anything this year, check out the Lifehacker article, Most Popular DIY 2009 Projects. Tons of fun projects and great gift ideas.

Speaking of gift ideas, if you haven’t yet gotten your favorite librarian (or librarian-in-training) a gift for the holidays yet, check out this great gift guide on Librarian in Black’s site: Librarian Gift Guide. No one can ever have too much librarian gear, right? Personally I’m rather fond of the canvas bag I received this year that says “got library card?”. And if you still can’t find anything that suits your librarian gift-giving needs, I highly suggest xkcd’s store, thinkgeek, or threadless for all your librarian, geeky, nerdy, and fun gift giving needs.

The holiday season also means that a lot of people will break out the cameras to capture all the great holiday moments. If you are one of these people, you’ll want to check out Lifehacker’s Most Popular Photography Hacks of 2009 for tips on taking and making better photographs.

Okay, okay, for those of you that are still in working mode, here is an article for you about online education. The latest issue of American Libraries had a short article, “The Fab Ten of Online Ed” (pg. 31) that I thought was interesting. If you teach online, or are thinking about teaching online, check out this article. It is a great list of what students need to know before taking an online class. I especially like point #5 “Your lack of planning does not constitute your instructor’s emergency. The class is available 24/7, the instructor is not.”

Have a great rest of your week. The Waki Librarian will be back after the new year with more fun technology, teaching tools, and random library news in 2010. Have a lovely, relaxing and peaceful rest of 2009 and a very happy new year.

Technology, Travel, & Blogging

/ dwakimoto

I can’t begin to describe how happy I am that it is Friday and the quarter here is just about over. The quarter has sped by and I can’t believe that we are almost halfway through December already. This, of course, means that a lot of people are gearing up for travel over the next few weeks to visit family and friends for the holidays. It also means that educators are getting ready to both relax for a couple of weeks and also gear up for the next term. This post, as promised, continues in the traveling and technology vein of a previous post this week and also includes some fun and free resources for teaching.

But first, some shameless self-promotion. The Waki Librarian has been nominated for a 2009 Edublog Award for Best Librarian Blog by Michelle Pacansky-Brock (whose blog MPB Reflections–21st Century Teaching and Learning is up for best elearning blog). So if you’re enjoying this blog and find it useful and feel so moved, I would greatly appreciate your vote. The link to the ballot is here: Best Librarian/Library Edublog 2009 Ballog. Okay, I promise that is the last of the self-promotion for the foreseeable future. Now on to the tech fun.

I love lists. I think it probably has something to do with being a librarian and organizing information. Anyway, here is a great list of 10 education technology products I am Thankful for. Most of these products are free, which is plus in these lean budget times. In addition to the products mentioned in the article, Twitter, Delicious, iGoogle & Google Gadget, Bloglines & Google Reader, and Web2Access top my list of online products that are valuable for my teaching and other work.

Twitter is fantastic because I can send announcements to students that they will actually receive because they can get it sent to their phones as a text message. They never check their email, so this has been a huge help.

I love Delicious because it keeps all my bookmarks organized and I can access it on any computer with an Internet connection. This is a huge help when I’m using multiple computers per day and because I’m a pretty bad at remembering sites unless I bookmark them.

Google’s suite of products keeps me organized and I am an especially huge fan of iGoogle–I love being able to have so many applications fed into one page through the use of Google Gadgets.

RSS readers, no matter which one you happen to use, are fantastic. I wouldn’t be able to keep up in the field without them.

And if you haven’t taken a look at Web2Access, you really should. These people are doing amazing work on accessibility in the online environment. You can search online resources and see how they score in terms of accessibility, download tools that will help you test the accessibility of your website and more. This is a truly helpful site.

While all the above resources are great for education, none of them will help you get the most out of your laptop while traveling. For that, you’ll have to check out Lifehacker’s article: Top 10 Downloads for a Road Warrior Laptop. Read this before you start traveling this holiday season and you’ll not only keep your laptop safer, but also utilize it more effectively.

That is it for the Waki Librarian today. Read a lot, let me know in comments what are your favorite online resources, vote for this blog if you feel like it, and next week the Waki Librarian will be back with more technology and tips for your library adventures.

Google Wave

/ dwakimoto

Google Wave is poised to be the next big thing to happen to online communication. Or at least that is how it is being marketed– “email if email was created today.” I think that it is like a lot of other collaborative, Web 2.0-like kind of tools in the fact that they are only fun and only really make sense if you can use them with other people. And since Google Wave is still in preview, it’s a little difficult to fully exploit all the awesome potential.

That was a really long way of saying that I have 10 Google Wave invites to hand out (amazingly, at least to my mind, only a handful of people at my work wanted them when I offered). I really want more people to try out Google Wave so the first 10 people to comment on this post will get the invitations. Just leave me your email address in the comment and say you would like an invite. Then let me know how you like “waving.”

More techie and library-related stuff later in the day after I finish posting the final grades for my students.

Technology and Travel

/ dwakimoto

Do you like to travel? I love traveling and am always excited when professional conferences are held some place interesting so I can combine some sightseeing with professional development. For example, I am completely looking forward to EBLIP6 in 2011 which is to be held in Salford, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom. However, I’m a little less thrilled about being on a plane for the approximately 10 hours it will take to get there.

Because the actual traveling part, at least for me, is less enjoyable than the “doing stuff when I actually get to where I’m going,” I love any traveling tips or tricks that will help make the journey smoother. (We can discuss the journey v. destination argument later–I’m all for journeys, just not when they include 3 hour delays in airports without free wi-fi.) Therefore, as promised, here is a post filled with tips and suggestions for making your travel experiences, a little bit better–especially when dealing with airport wi-fi. Use them the next time you are traveling and bookmark them to give to patrons who you help them with questions about traveling.

First up is this fantastic site called Luggage Limits. I don’t know about you, but I am pretty tired of all the extra fees that now accompany any flight. But I especially don’t like to pay for luggage. This site will tell you what your luggage limit is based on airline and departing/arriving airports–such a help and you don’t have to register to use this site. Now if I can only get all of my gear into 2 carry-on bags for the next winter trip to Boston, I’ll be all set.

The wonderful Lifehacker has a great article on the Top 10 Tactics for Protecting Your Stuff. This article is full of easy-to-implement advice for protecting your gear at home and when traveling. If you have any other tips to share, I’d love to read about them in the comments.

One of the most exciting notes for those traveling this holiday season is Google’s free airport wi-fi promotion. But, as all tech savvy travelers know, public wi-fi can be a bit dodgy when it comes to security of your data. However, PC World has come to our collective rescue with the article Google’s Free Airport Wi-Fi: Five Ways to Protect Yourself. Enjoy the holiday traveling a little more with free wi-fi and protect your data at the same time.

This has nothing to do with traveling, unless you are working on website development while traveling:
Browsera Simultaneously Tests Your Site in Different Browsers. Save time and frustration when checking your websites by using Browsera. This will definitely be a help as libraries continue to upgrade their websites.

That is it for today. Have a great weekend, read a lot, leave me some comments, and the Waki Librarian will be back next week with more techie library fun.

Digitalization and the Future

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

I hope everyone in the US had a lovely Thanksgiving and are now refreshed. I can hardly believe here at Cal State East Bay we are in the last week before final exams. The library is packed with students studying and finishing up final projects. Watching all the students work on projects reminded me of one type of project that is being undertaken by many libraries and archives–digitalization. Then I got a notice about a post on Things that are being killed off by digitalisation and decided that was enough of a sign to write a post about digitalization, the future and libraries and archives.

I think that the above post is very thoughtful; however, as I work in the library and archives field, I have to disagree with a few points. While I will agree that telephone directories, letter writing, and paper statements may be going the way of telegrams because of online alternatives there are other points on the list that I am not so sure I agree with, namely: memory, experts, and personal re-invention. So not to get on the soapbox too much I’ll only touch on those three on the list and hope you will share your thoughts about digitalization and future change.

I’m not sure if “memory” is referring to individual memory or collective memory, or perhaps just remembering what to pick up at the store, but I don’t think memory is being killed off. If we look at collective memory, which is one of my research interests, the online environment and digitalization efforts are actually strengthening collective memory and fostering areas where groups can share and remember without intervention from institutions. For example, there are many online archives created by community groups where people come together and share documents, photos, and memories of events or community. Just one example, check out Densho. Individuals’ memories can be supplemented by storage of photos and blog/diary entries online, but they do not replace people’s memories. But if we are talking about just remembering to-do lists or what to buy at the store, then yes, probably online resources are taking over–goodness knows I love the to-do gadgets on my iGoogle page!

Next up: experts. In a Wikipedia-driven world it may seem that experts are no longer needed or desired, but I don’t think they are being killed off. If this is true, then my job of teaching information literacy to college students is pointless, evaluation of sources is pointless, and trying to increase the level of scholarship in any field is pointless. Obviously, I don’t agree with this. While crowdsourcing is fantastic in some respects, there will always be a need for experts. I don’t want my medical treatment to be crowdsourced and I don’t want to rely on scientific papers written by high school students–I want experts. And if people actually think that there is no need for experts, then this presents a challenge and a opportunity for librarians and other information professionals to educate them.

I have to say that I’m most confused by how personal re-invention is being killed off by digitalization. I suppose we could say that it is linked into the privacy problem and how nothing seems to ever really be deleted in cyberland. However, it seems to me that the online environment is uniquely suited to foster change and re-invention. Perhaps it is just a difference in defining “re-invention”. Lots of people use Second Life, online communities and surfing the Internet to re-invent themselves or find new ways of expressing themselves. The only constant is definitely change.

So those are just a few of my thoughts. In this time of online, cyber-living, it is more important than ever for librarians, archivists, knowledge managers, etc. to work with others to make sure that people understand and evaluate information they are finding online. Digitalization is not the enemy; it is just another tool and it is up to the people to figure out how to best use it.

I have to say that I was excited though to see that public libraries top the list of things that aren’t being killed off by digitalization. Rock on libraries!

That is it for this post–I must get back to prepping for final exams now. Read a lot, leave comments, and the Waki Librarian will be back with some tech help for holiday traveling soon.

Teaching and Technology

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

I’m very sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of months. It has been an extremely crazy quarter–very busy and every time I think I’ll have time to post, I get something else dumped on my plate. However, here is finally a post for this month and it is about a topic I feel is quite important: teaching and technology, or teaching with technology. As more and more classes go online and students expect technology to be used in their classes, instructors need to become not only competent, but innovative, in their uses of technology. So here are a few links to get your brain juices flowing.

Really, everyone should read this article, “Students unimpressed with faculty use of ed tech”. Yes, faculty members should use technology, but it is almost worse to use technology poorly than to not use it at all. I think that we need to offer more opportunities for training faculty in how to use technology tools both from a nuts-and-bolts perspective and also from a pedagogical perspective. There are tons of great technology tools out there, but if you don’t use the right one for the job, it is kind of pointless.

And, if you need another instance of why being comfortable with technology is important, check out “Universities’ virtual campuses growing fast”. Many students are clamoring for online classes, especially when they are asynchronous, because of the convenience.

Speaking of cutting edge technology, check out Lifehacker’s article on Google Wave’s best use cases. If you haven’t gotten invited to Google Wave, try to get an invite because it looks very cool and I think will be really useful for online collaboration. Combining Google Wave with a class Google Site populated with Google Gadgets sounds like a pretty good way to create a dynamic and interactive online environment for teaching.

So get out there and try some new technology. Trust me, Twitter doesn’t hurt, Google Wave will not cause you to drown, and Ning is actually fun and useful. I’d love to hear about your favorite tools for teaching online.

I’ll hopefully be back relatively soon with another post on libraries, technology and other good stuff. Until then, have fun, read a lot, and, as the Vlogbrothers would say: Don’t forget to be awesome!

Thinking

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

I think my current mood can be summed up by the quote by Don Marquis that says, “If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you. But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.” Can we tell that it is the middle of the quarter here on campus? Sometimes it seems that thinking gets the short shrift on campus where frenetic movement and the appearance of busyness count more than actually taking the time to think and ponder before acting. I try to instill in my students, and those I help at the reference desk, the acknowledgement that thinking before action will ultimately save time in their school work and that this is a good idea to take out beyond the campus’ boundaries too.

But I hate to be gloomy so here are some great resources that will make you think and that might just be good conversation starters for those times when you can’t think of anything else to say.

Windows 7 is out, which is lovely. And, as always, Lifehacker is making our lives easier by its post on the Best Window tweaks that still work in Windows 7. Definitely a must read if you are considering (or already have) switched over to Windows 7.

This is kind of a scary article, but a definite must read for those of us who are teaching others how to evaluate sources: 1 in 3 kids think top search rankings most truthful. This is definitely a good talking point for a discussion on search engines and result rankings.

And, finally, because we all need a good laugh, here is a post on 100 hilarious college courses that really exist. Seriously, this is a fabulous list and great for a few laughs before getting back to work.

I hope everyone is having a terrific week and I’ll be back sooner rather than later (I hope) with more great tools and tricks for your techie, library-oriented life.

Climate Change and Libraries

/ dwakimoto

Happy Blog Action Day! Yes, that’s right, today is Blog Action Day and this year’s topic is climate change. In addition to being bastions of free speech, kingdoms of information and houses of technology, libraries are also places that are part of the Green Movement. Many of the libraries that are being built or retrofitted are being built with sustainability, for the planet and the library, in mind. I think this is a great development and yet another way for libraries to help the communities they serve. So below are some of resources to find out more about green library design and other ways you can help the planet. Climate change is everyone’s problem and therefore everyone can be part of the solution.

Library Journal’s LJ Design Institute Going event is this year in Dallas. As LJ says it is “an event series on sustainable building and design.” This one day event is being held on December 11th at the Dallas Public Library. Admission is free so sign up now because it is limited to 100 attendees. If you go, let me know how it went.

Also from Library Journal is the latest Library by Design, September 2009 issue. The entire issue is dedicated to “green” or “sustainable” design and also has some great information about limiting light pollution. I definitely learned a lot by reading this issue.

Obviously not everyone is getting ready for a library renovation or construction, but everyone can help create more sustainable library operations. Recycling, only printing out what you (or your users) need, and switching to more energy efficient products all help combat climate change. Of course whole countries, including the United States, need to get behind saving the planet by agreeing to not just trade carbon offset credits but actually decrease carbon output and start reducing waste and following more stringent sustainable practices.

Because, even though Photoshop is great, it is much better to see the Fall Foliage in person as shown by xkcd.

"Fall Foliage" by xkcd.com

Have a great day, go forth and help the planet (and your fellow human beings), and remember to read. More later from the Waki Librarian.