Technology

Graduate School and Reading

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

I think a lot about reading and college. This is not surprising considering I work at an academic library. However, I think that I just might be obsessing a little more than usual lately. At my library, we are trying to conserve paper and printer toner to a greater extent than we already do. So I’m sitting, staring at my computer screen even more than usual and pondering issues at the academy when my mind wanders as I try to read yet another pdf online.

So what does this have to do with today’s post? Well, I’m glad you asked.

To help with online reading, check out Readable which allows you to change the font, color and layout of what you are reading to make it easier to read. And you get to customize it to your settings. I think this is fabulous and definitely need to spend more time playing around with Readable. This is a free application and would be great for manipulating content for easier reading for those with vision difficulties.

Now, about college, more specifically graduate school. U.S. News just put out its new lists of the Best Graduate Schools. I was happy to see that my alma mater, Simmons College, got into the top ten for library science and ranked even higher for the archives and preservation program. Though not perfect, it is an interesting ranking list to check out. And who doesn’t like lists or checking out who’s who in the rankings?

This is an interesting opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal: So you Want to be a Professor. Just another look at the academy’s tenure versus adjunct professor debate and the fact that some universities are admitting fewer PhD students this year. Just some food for thought.

Hope everyone has a great day. More fun, interesting, and helpful news later this week.

100th Post

/ dwakimoto

Wow, I can’t believe that I am up to 100 posts on The Waki Librarian blog. I know that isn’t super impressive, but I’m amazed that I’ve written that much and that you, faithful reader, are still reading. I don’t have anything special planned for this post, just the usual assortment of helpful techie stuff and some library news.

First I need to do my public service announcement. ATM Skimmers have been making the headlines lately and I thought I would do my part to get people to pay attention when they are at the ATM. Thanks to the Consumerist, here is a great article (complete with pdf) on how to id an ATM Skimmer. Definitely check this out and protect your account. As I tell my students, identity theft can happen to anyone so at least make the thieves work for your information and don’t just give it to them!

In the vein of ridiculous challenges and bans to books that I wrote about a bit ago, here is ALA’s 2008 Top Ten List of Most Frequently Challenged Books. Although this came out a week ago, I wanted to offer the link just in case you missed it the first time around. And, for another year, And Tango Makes Three is the number one most frequently challenged book. Who knew that penguins could be so divisive?

Now for some fun, check out Unshelved’s Publisher Confidential, a very funny booklet of “frank feedback for publishers from librarians, booksellers, and readers.” Created in conjunction with BookExpo America, this is a superb comic booklet. Really, take a few minutes and have a laugh–it’s good for your health. Oh, and then RSS Unshelved if you haven’t already.

Now Prezi has been making the blog rounds lately. Thanks to Lori for the heads-up on this as I was buried in conference paper preparation and almost missed it in on my Lifehacker feed! Prezi is a web-based presentation tool with a difference. You create your whole presentation on one stage and use the cool zoom and path features to make sense out of your one master stage that holds all the information for your presentation. You can sign up for a free account and there are lots of helpful video tutorials on how to get started. As always, I suggest watching a couple tutorials and then diving on in. There is nothing like playing around with a new application to learn it. It is really fun and a time sink so you are now forewarned!

I think Prezi would be great for presentations at some conferences, but I have to admit that some of the zooming makes me a little sick. So one little hint: just because you can use a fast zoom while twisting your presentation in Prezi, doesn’t mean you always should. Remember when animated GIFs were all the rage? I rest my case.

Have a great Thursday, read a lot, get off the computer and outside at least once if you can, and the Waki Librarian will be back with more fun and helpful information soon.

Cool News

/ dwakimoto

Can you believe that it is already Thursday? Well, I have some fun news and tools to make the last few days of the workweek fly by too.

I love Cooliris. It is such a fabulous add-on and time saver when you are searching through a mess of images. And now, Cooliris is even better. Yes, that’s right, you can now do even more with Cooliris, check out their blog post about the new features. Too bad it still isn’t compatible with Chrome. The best part, in my opinion, is the fact that you can now use Cooliris to search through the images on your computer! How cool is that? Now you can quickly scan through all those photographs on your hard drive to find the perfect one. This is going to make me so much more efficient at sorting through the photos on my computer. And it looks just as beautiful as when you are searching Flickr or another online image site. Really, take the minute today to download Cooliris and you can thank me tomorrow for all the time you have been saving.

In other cool news, Peggy sent me this great link about how many great advances are happening for accessibility. I think this is just wonderful and the fact that the California State University is leading the way just makes me inordinately happy to be working at a CSU. Now if we could just get Ning to be fully accessible, I think this week just might be perfect. But we are making progress and that is good.

I’m off now to work on the reference desk. Have a great day and remember that cool technology and accessibility can go hand in hand. Let me know of any other cool news you’ve heard.

Technology Brown Bags: Learning Web 2.0 without the Stress

/ dwakimoto

So, yes, this is a little like cheating on a blog post because I had this written months ago. But I just got notice that it won’t be published so I figured I would share it on my blog and write something else for “mainstream” publication.

So for all of you that are excited, overwhelmed and just want a little more guidance on Web 2.0 fun, I give you technology brown bags. And, for those dear readers who are really sharp, you’ll notice that the brown bags talked about here correspond to the podcasts that can also be found on this blog. Enjoy, and as always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me or leave a comment below. Happy Tuesday!

Technology Brown Bags: Learning Web 2.0 without the Stress

Blogs, wikis, virtual worlds, social networking, widgets, gadgets, and podcasting: if this list of tools and technologies sounds like Greek or maybe Geek, you are not alone. Just because we work in a Web 2.0, hyperlinked, global world does not mean that anyone gave you a Matrix-like download on how to code, program and use these new tools. But luckily, there is a simple way for you and your colleagues to learn and to apply Web 2.0 tools, even if you have not completed the famous 23 Things challenge. So take a deep breath and I’ll tell you how holding informal technology brown bags to learn Web 2.0 without the technology stress helped my library and can help yours too.

When I started working at Cal State East Bay, I noticed that while some librarians had begun incorporating Web 2.0 features into their courses (we all teach a section of a two-credit information literacy course), the majority of the librarians had not. Most wanted to use Web 2.0 tools but felt that they did not have the time to learn or the skills to implement tools such as blogs, podcasts and Twitter in their classes. As we moved toward teaching more courses online, this was a situation that had to be remedied without causing more technology anxiety. When I first proposed the idea of having tech brown bags, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Armed with the positive response, I moved on to scheduling the topics and times of the brown bags. I made a survey to let those who were interested in the brown bags decide the topics.

Topics and Scheduling
The online topic survey was very simple and made for free through SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com). The survey listed various topics that we could cover and had places for respondents to suggest other topics that interested them. I used SurveyMonkey because it is easy to use, you can easily see the results and the surveys are Section 508 compliant. Based on the results, we held brown bags in the Fall Quarter on: Web 2.0 terminology, blogs and RSS feeds, Voicethread, podcasting, creating accessible online resources, social networks, and virtual worlds.

After determining the topics, I had to figure out times for the brown bags. Again, this proved to be an opportunity to share another new tool before the brown bags began. Instead of emailing out possible times, I used TimeToMeet (www.timetomeet.info). TimeToMeet is a web-based service that allowed me to “paint” my availabilities on a calendar and then email a link to my painted calendar to others for their consideration. Recipients of the link then “painted” in their availabilities on the same calendar. Once everyone responded, TimeToMeet emailed me the date and time that would work best for the majority of people. Another nice feature of TimeToMeet was that I could go back to my calendar at any time to find other times to hold the other brown bags. This tool eliminated the need for lots of email messaging and scheduling confusion.

Brown Bag Preparation and Facilitation
A tip that will help when you start up a brown bag program is the Web 2.0 idea of perpetual beta. This means that everything can always be improved and changed. Thinking of facilitating brown bags in this way will free you from believing that you have to know everything about Web 2.0. Instead, think of these brown bags as a way of learning and sharing information and having fun. And, trust me, your colleagues will be so happy that you are sharing your knowledge and that you are all learning together, they will be forgiving of any mistakes and technological difficulties you run into during these brown bags.

Preparation for the brown bags is simple and consists of: preparing handouts, refreshing your knowledge of or actually learning the topic of the day, and remembering to bring in a microphone and laptop to record the brown bag. Because the brown bags are informal and interactive, you do not have to create a lecture; you just need to be supportive, enthusiastic and have all the URLs for the resources you will go over ready when you start the brown bag in the computer lab. Enthusiasm is definitely the most important element in the technology brown bags.

Even though you will be playing with Web 2.0 products during the technology brown bags, people still love to get printed handouts of the main points on the topic you will be discussing. I posted the handouts to my blog and the library’s wiki so everyone would have access to them. This is especially important to provide access to information for those who could not attend the brown bag. I highly suggest making your handouts available online, who knows who else outside your library you might help.

Another tip I have is to start the brown bags with a cartoon or silly YouTube video. This serves two purposes: it will make everyone laugh and it will introduce the topic of the day in a humorous way that relieves anxiety about learning new tools. Try starting with a comic from xkcd.com, or use the Internet Overdose Song. Remember that the technology brown bags should combine learning with fun so that there is little to no technology anxiety in learning these new tools.

After the laughter has died down, just start in on the topic of the day and make sure everyone is comfortable with interjecting and asking questions at any time. In brown bags, it is perfectly okay to go off on tangents. In one of the brown bags I facilitated, there was a discussion about ways to improve the library catalog with Web 2.0 applications that bled into talking about tag clouds that led to a demonstration of Cooliris (www.cooliris.com, which is awesome by the way) and circled around to Wordle (wordle.net) before coming back to the possibility of using tag clouds in the library catalog. Tangents let you explore connections you might have missed otherwise. Just make certain that everyone understands where you are going—do not ever think you are explaining too much. Remember this is new ground for a lot of people, so explain everything and then explain it again.

Podcasting: Reaching Beyond the Brown Bag
Thanks to the ease of podcasting, people who missed the in person brown bags can still listen and benefit from the brown bags. Podcasting, in its basic form, is really quite simple; you record, edit, upload your mp3 to a server and provide a link to your podcast. You can get a microphone very inexpensively and you can use free, open source software for the recording and editing. For example, I use Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net). I recorded every brown bag and later edited them, which was the fun part because I could take out all the awkward pauses and “ums.” Then I uploaded the podcasts to the library’s server and made them available via my blog and the library’s wiki. In addition to making handouts available online, I highly suggest podcasting your brown bags as the podcasts are great resources that anyone can access anytime from a computer with Internet access.

Take Home Message: Have Fun and Share Knowledge
You too can help your colleagues learn new Web 2.0 technologies and tools. All it takes is a little planning, a little knowledge and a whole lot of enthusiasm. Informal brown bags are a great way to ease the technology anxiety that surrounds implementing Web 2.0 in your library. So whether you are a digital native or a reluctant technology newbie, you can help facilitate learning in a supportive environment with your colleagues. Remember, the idea is to play, to have fun and to learn. Who knows, it might even make you want to go further into the wild world of Web 2.0. If nothing else, it will give you a great opportunity to share your knowledge, connect with others and brush up on your techie skills. Because that is what it is all about in the end—sharing and growing together in an online world.

Websites & Libraries

/ dwakimoto

First off, I’m terribly sorry for the lack of updates on the blog. I’ve been in the black hole of jury duty for the past week and a half, but the trial is over and now back to blogging! So in honor of Friday, here are a couple of great presentations on websites, technology and libraries.

First from Librarian in Black is her presentation 10 LOL cat Laws of Web Services for Smaller, Underfunded Libraries. Well, I think that even if you work in a large library you can use some of this information as so many libraries are underfunded right now. I love the use of LOL cats (they were used in presentations at Internet Librarian this year too). I love the emphasis on interacting with patrons and actually creating a community in the library. Also, I love the fact that most of the suggestions can be done using free applications so all you have to do is put in the time. However, I’m still annoyed that a lot of the technology used in social networking is still not 100% accessible. I want to implement some of these ideas in the library I’m at, but as they aren’t accessible they can’t be implemented. I wish more of the Web 2.0 world would wake up and become accessible already!

And here is a pdf of the Michael Stephens’ Ten Tech Ideas Presentation. He presents on some great technology innovations and also covers some of the same ground that you can see in the LOL cats presentation. And, again, most of the technologies discussed can be used for free. One note, the pdf is huge and takes a bit of time to download. Also if you use Google Chrome, you might want to try to open it in another browser and it sometimes seems to get twitchy about opening in Chrome. (Why? I have no idea.)

And, after you get totally psyched to overhaul your website, or you feel overwhelmed, take a look at this great video that has been making its way around the internet. It will make you smile, promise. Have a great Friday and a great weekend.

Working smarter

/ dwakimoto

So it is Thursday and I’m feeling really bad about the lack of updates this week. But I have an excuse, really I do. Loathe as I am to make excuses, dear reader, this time I will. I’ve been at jury duty and now am on a jury for the immediate future. So that is my excuse–I truly am sorry for the lack of updates.

But enough of that, there are still hours in the morning before my reporting time when things must be accomplished, blog posts must be written, lectures must be finished and articles must be edited. So, you’ve guessed correctly, today we will be discussing, once again, how to get things done.

I have to admit, when I want to get serious writing or editing done, there is nothing like working at home for me. I don’t check my email every five minutes, I turn off my phone and just dive into my writing only to surface hours later to check communication with the outside world. And, amazingly, the world hasn’t fallen apart because I’ve not emailed anyone in the last couple of hours. That is how I get work done.

The lovely Lifehacker has this great post by Gina Trapani on reusable solutions to common productivity problems. This article has lots of links to other helpful resources and tackles productivity issues that are larger than say what a Google gadget hack will fix. I think this is fantastic and a very helpful read. Just remember, in the end, it is really all on our own shoulders to get the work done–in and outside of the library.

Here’s a site that will definitely help you with your productivity, in terms of learning a new language: Open Culture’s Free Foreign Language Lessons. Links to 37 different languages and each one offers links to iTunes, a feed and a website for each language so you can pick which way you are going to get your lessons. Just be careful as some of the lessons are free up to a point and then want you to pay for more advanced ones. But I’m happy, finally a site that has Swedish listed!

Finally, we have to end on a fun note, so here is a link to another great Unshelved comic strip. I just love it–rock on librarians for exposing people to new and different, even dangerous ideas.

Have a great day and with any luck, the Waki Librarian will be back with more techie fun soon.

People, Parking and Performance

/ dwakimoto

Sorry, just couldn’t resist a blog post alliteration on a Monday. The weekend is over and a new week is upon us, but luckily Mondays have something going for them that no other day has (well, actually, that is not entirely true, Wednesdays and Fridays have it too). What is that you say? A brand new xkcd cartoon. I thought we would start off with a cartoon before diving into the techie heart of this Monday’s post.

 

Parking from xkcd

Parking from xkcd

I could not resist this cartoon–haven’t you ever wanted to do that when someone has parked askew, taking up 2 spaces and there are no other ones in the parking lot? People really, really need to work on their parking skills. Or they could just save money, and help save the planet, by buying a smaller, more fuel efficient car. But enough on parking, off to the techie stuff of the day.

Have you heard that YouTube has a new YouTube EDU site. Yes, YouTube EDU, you heard that correctly. The site brings together videos from colleges and universities that have channels and post videos on YouTube, making it easier to sell teachers, professors and other instructors on the value of incorporating YouTube videos in their classroom or in assignments. Yay, for learning being interesting and in multimedia format! Check out the Compliment Guys at Purdue University. Rock on for making people smile! And nice job to all the universities producing such fun videos.

Have you checked out IE8 (Internet Explorer) yet? Here is a very nice review comparing IE8 to IE7. All I could think when reading the article was, that sure sounds a lot like Chrome. So if you use IE7 it sounds like it is time for an upgrade, if you haven’t already moved to IE8. I’m always fascinated by what browsers people use. I have to say that I’m a complete Chrome fan, but have Firefox portable to use whenever I’m doing research for Zotero since I no longer have access to EndNote Web. If you want to share what browser you use and why, leave a note in the comments.

Do you dread calling 1-800 numbers because of the annoyance of speaking to an automated system or pressing “1” so many times you’re afraid you might break the button on your phone? If so, check out 50-Plus Hacks and Tips to Get to a Real Person at Any Corporation in 10 Seconds or Less. This is a good list of tips and tricks, especially handy if you don’t already RSS and read The Consumerist. Because, as we all know, sometimes you just really need to talk to a real person–not a machine.

That’s it for this Monday’s edition of The Waki Librarian. Have a great week and the Waki Librarian will be back with more later this week.

Geek Stuff

/ dwakimoto

I’ve been thinking a lot about geeky stuff lately. Well, I guess that isn’t surprising, considering I write this blog. I think about gadgets, Web 2.0 stuff, science fiction and science fact all the time. But this week it has seemed like geeks are taking over the world–and I think that is a good thing. So here are some fun sites that allow you to embrace your inner geek.

This is a great post on the Ten Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse. I love this post. It is funny and so true. So have a chuckle and then look around the GeekDad blog and Wired’s website in general for more fun.

So many of you probably already know about ThinkGeek. But if you don’t, go take a look and find “stuff for smart masses.” From wacky t-shirts to awesome office supplies, you will find something for everyone who is a little or a lot on the geeky side of life. And just remember, as the Vlogbrothers say, there is nothing wrong with being a nerd–or a geek for that matter.

And finally, here is the link to Academic Earth. This is an amazing collection of video lectures and courses from some of the great professors from universities such as Yale, Stanford and MIT. So check out some videos and be prepared to learn. I think this is a great addition to the online video world of education and innovation–nice complement to TED talks if you are already using them.

Have a great day and have some fun. The Waki Librarian will be back with more later.

Making Mondays Productive

/ dwakimoto

Sorry about the delay between posts. With finals week and actually stepping away from the computer for a weekend, I feel like I’ve not blogged in ages. So, without further ado, here are some helpful sites and random fun for making Monday both productive and just a little bit fun.

I am a complete Google Chrome convert. I still use Firefox for the extensions and for those few sites that don’t translate well in Chrome, but for the most part I’m a Chrome fan. So I am so excited for this announcement that Google has released a new Beta version. Now maybe they’ll be working on a version that works on Macs so more people can experience Chrome. This beta version is supposed to be faster, so score one for productivity help on a Monday.

Next up is spring cleaning because it actually is spring (even if it still feels like winter in parts of the country). So what better time is there to clean up your office so you can work more efficiently instead of burrowing through piles of paper in the attempt to find the one report you need that was in hardcopy? Lifehacker has this article and before and after photos of some great office transformations. So get cleaning! Not only will you have a cleaner office but you just might have some more ideas after getting some physical exercise (via cleaning). I know I often get my best ideas when walking and think more clearly in a clean workspace, although when writing my office often resembles the aftermath of a paper tornado. Anyway, get a jump on spring cleaning by starting with your office.

If you use digital images in your work, then you will love this list of 30 free image resources. Yes, there are places to get free and legal images on the web. My personal favorite is EveryStockPhoto. So go grab some images and get creative–you’ll need an outlet for all the ideas you come up with after cleaning your office.

And finally, we can’t leave off a Monday post without having a little fun. So here is Surfline’s Top 10 Colleges for Surfing. Yes, here is a list of the best colleges to attend for surfing. California is well-represented and I can personally attest to the influence of surfing at UCSC. If the swells were good in the spring, classes would be (un)surprisingly, poorly attended.

Have a great, productive and fun Monday. More later this week.

Getting Things Done

/ dwakimoto

Since it is the end of the quarter, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to get more done in less time, mostly because of the fast turnaround time required between giving final exams and when the grades are due. So here are some articles that might help you get things done.

The first battle of the day is actually getting up. If you’re not a morning person, you probably need some motivation for getting up in the morning. That’s where this great article from Wired comes in–here’s tips for getting out of bed. Try a couple and maybe you’ll be a morning person too, or at least not as reluctant to get out of bed.

This Cult of Done Manifesto has got to be my favorite thing that has come over my RSS feeds this week. Made by Joshua Rothhaas (a.k.a. spatulated), licensed under Creative Commons, and just plain awesome. Become part of the Cult of Done and actually get things done. I love all the advice, but especially like the advice, “Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.” I’ve got it taped on my wall right about my computer monitor so I can remember that “Done is the engine of more.”

Okay, well, this might tie as my favorite thing to come over the RSS feeds recently. Microsoft might always get the label of big, bad corporation, but now it has a Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office. This rocks. Download and install this Add-in and get led through a few easy steps to create the Creative Commons license of your choice and easily insert the license into your Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation. How cool is that? I love it. Not only does this let you get done with your work more quickly, no more hunting around the Creative Commons site for the license you want, but it also allows you to disseminate your work and hopefully spark ideas for others so they can get their work done too. Isn’t technology and sharing great?

And finally, all this talk of working, getting more done and productivity might be making a few of you overwhelmed with all the things that librarians and information professionals need to get done, like, yesterday. Well, take a quick break with the comic strip Unshelved. Check out this comic about Twitter, have a laugh, and then feel better about getting back to work.

Have a great day, read a lot, and we’ll see you next time on The Waki Librarian blog. Thanks for reading.