Technology

Making the Best of Bad Situations

/ dwakimoto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Failing and Succeeding

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

I think a lot about failing and succeeding, probably because I teach first year students. And it is nearing the end of the quarter, so I’m thinking a lot about failure and success in terms of the course I teach. But furthermore, I’m thinking about it in life and work.

Lifehacker’s Ungeek to Live article, “Failure is the Highway to Success,” is a great look at the interconnectivity between success and failure. I think that in life, in our work and in learning that we have to be prepared to fail sometimes, but that doesn’t mean that we are failures. Those are two very different concepts and no where is this more apparent than with learning new technology, at least for me.

I’ve shared my undying love of Photoshop on this blog, but let me tell you that it wasn’t all good at first. I’d open up Photoshop, start editing my photos, click on something and suddenly have a gradient that seemed to eat half of the photo. It was a true trial-and-error learning process. But to me, giving up in learning something like Photoshop, or in anything I wanted to do in life, has never been an option. You never grow if you don’t risk failing and looking a little ridiculous every once in a while. I mean, I write a blog called The Waki Librarian, so I can definitely say that being okay with risk (and having a sense of humor) is the only way to move forward.

I think a lot about failing and succeeding when I teach my students. I want them to be comfortable pushing themselves, stretching their conceptions and perceptions of the world and discover more. This is why I am always so excited when students tell me that they thought they knew everything about information literacy but that they learned so much from my class. They share their frustrations with research, but ultimately they succeed in the class–or at least, most of them do.

So all I’m really saying is, have you pushed yourself recently? Have you moved past your own inertia to try something new?

And, because I have to leave you with some cool application of technology, check out FrameFinder. Upload a photo and try on glasses so you can buy them much cheaper online than in the store. Share it with all your friends who wear glasses.

Have a great rest of your day.

Thoughts for a Soggy Monday

/ dwakimoto

So, it’s Monday. All my Boston friends are snowed in and out here we are in quite a soggy state with all the rain. But I will not be complaining about the rain because: 1. we desperately need the rain and 2. I’ve always been quite fond of rain. However, with the rain comes the inevitable, slightly muddled brain so I’m only going to tackle one issue today, faithful readers, more will come later this week.

At my library, I’m often referred to as the library point person on accessibility. I don’t mind this in the slightest because I honestly can see nothing wrong with insisting on accessibility. If it wasn’t just that I work at a university that mandates accessible resources online, I would still be on team accessibility. I mean, I’m a librarian, librarians are all about access, and accessibility is just one facet on getting the greatest number of people to our resources and services. This is a very long way of saying that this article on Amazon allowing authors and publishers to disable Kindle’s read aloud function makes me sad.

I totally understand that we need to protect authors’ copyrights and the profitability of audio books. But getting a computer to read aloud text is not the same as an audio book as Neil Gaiman eloquently argues on his blog post. And this comes from a Newbery Award-winning author. Gaiman later followed up on this point with this post where he convinced his agent that read aloud was okay. I think if you can’t see the benefit of this feature after reading Brook McCall’s letter on Gaiman’s journal, well I really have nothing more to say about that.

Honestly, accessibility isn’t just a laudable goal. It should be a down on the ground, every day of your life commitment of not forcing some people to live as if they don’t deserve the same access as others simply because of a disability. I think this is especially relevant to librarians and, yes, I think that is all I have to say on that.

Have a great rest of your Monday. I’ll see you later this week.

Thoughts on a Friday

/ dwakimoto

Don’t you just love Fridays? Even if you have to work on Saturday, like me, Fridays are still great. Everyone is just in a better mood and it seems like everyone is more relaxed. So in honor of Friday, I have an assortment of goodies from Wired. Tech on a Friday; can life get any better?

So, just to be clear, I have nothing against Apple or Macs in general. I will give it up to Apple for running some of the savviest marketing campaigns ever–they’re so good that they make people forget that Apple is a huge corporation that has massive amounts of proprietary formats. I mean Apple is genius at marketing. Not to mention, they have some very nice products.

With that said, I have to now say that I love this article: “Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone.” It isn’t surprising in any way as, by and large, Japanese products sell better in Japan than products from other countries. Also, as the article notes, Japan is lightyears ahead of other parts of the world in advancing technology and using it in new ways. Stories on cellphones, anyone? I personally think this is a good challenge for Apple to come up with a cutting-edge, maybe even bleeding-edge, cellphone.

As long as we are on the topic of technology, we’ve got to talk about netbooks. I love netbooks. Although the keyboards can feel a bit cramped at times, nothing beats only having to carry around 2.5 pounds of netbook versus 6+ pounds of laptop. I take my Dell mini 9 with me to conferences and live blog sessions. It is so handy and allows me to do just about everything I need. If you are on the go a lot, and resist bringing a laptop with you because of the weight, get a netbook and I assure you it will change the way you work.

Now, in honor of the Comic Arts Conference at WonderCon 2009 being held in San Francisco (and our very own Doug Highsmith speaking), I had to include this article on the Secret Lives of Comic Store Employees. It is a great article that has interviews with numerous comic store employees. Maybe it’s just because I finished reading Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes last night or the fact that I just love graphic novels and comic art, but I totally think we need to be giving more attention to this format of literature.

Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend and the Waki Librarian will be back next week with more fun.

Productivity

/ dwakimoto

I’m always looking for gadgets, applications and add-ons that allow me to work more efficiently. If I have to be in front of a computer for almost a 1/3 of my day, I at least want to have my time spent wisely.

For those of us who are forced to use Outlook, here is a Lifehacker article on the Top 10 Outlook Boosters. If we can’t use Gmail, at least this makes Outlook a little easier and more convenient to use.

Do you use Google Docs? I like Google Docs for collaborative writing and editing. So if you also use Google Docs, check out Wired’s wiki on how to get more out of Google Docs.

Like I tell my students, you want to learn how to work faster, smarter, more efficiently and more effectively so you spend less time on work and more time doing whatever else you’d rather be doing!

More on Friday, hopefully.

Security, Cataloging and Value

/ dwakimoto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday's Trend Watch

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

Online Northwest 2009 Wrap-up

/ dwakimoto

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

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

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

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

 

View of Mountains from Weed, California

View of Mountains from Weed, California

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

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

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

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

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

Online Northwest: Library Services for Distance Learners

/ dwakimoto

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

Online enrollment is going up, more students taking online classes

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

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

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

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

Online Northwest: Heck with HAL

/ dwakimoto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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