Happy Friday! Stop the Work Madness!

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you had a great week. It was the last week of classes before final exams week on my campus, so it has been a busy week and I have a stack of final papers to grade. Today, I want to just take a few minutes to share some great resources about happiness and stopping the busyness cycle at work so we can both enjoy our work and be productive.

This TEDx Talk by Shawn Achor is in my top 5 all time greatest list of TED Talks. Every time I watch it I laugh and his book, The Happiness Advantage is just as insightful and funny. I highly recommend taking about 12 minutes out of your day to watch his talk and be inspired to make the small changes needed in your life to become more happy, which leads to more success (really!).

While happiness may lead to more success and productivity, we still need to have boundaries to stop work overload and obsessive busyness. This blog post over at HBR is quite good: Stop Work Overload by Setting These Boundaries. This is a great post to share with your colleagues and remember, it is healthy not to work every hour of every day.

If you are also feeling in a rut, the Daily Muse has a good post on How to Break Out of a Career Rut in a Month.

Also, because it is Friday, check out Penguin Classics Wallpaper. If I ever get a separate room for a library in my (future) house, I think I will need to get some of this wallpaper.

Finally, those who have read The Waki Librarian for a while know I love design and typography. Last weekend in fact I went to the Open House and Type Sale at M & H Foundry over in the Presidio. (It was fantastic and great to pick up some type and talk with others who are into letterpress printing.) So, it will come as no surprise that I absolute adore the Typographic Carousel workshop that was shared on I Love Typography blog. Fantastic stuff and something nice to end with for this week.

Have a lovely weekend and I’ll be back next week with more. Allons-y!

Thoughts about Publication Requirements and Open Access Journals

/ dwakimoto / 1 Comment

Happy Friday, dear readers. I hope that you had a lovely week and that you have a lovely weekend planned. It has been a very busy quarter here, wrapping up in the next few weeks. I’m almost finished with end-of-the-year reports, grading, and the like and am looking forward to summer. Summer is a great time to catch up on writing and work on research projects. But now that I’m looking to wrap up a few research projects and begin a new one, I’m left pondering the question of where to publish and how it affects my work as an academic librarian.

At my university, librarians have faculty status and go through the retention, tenure, and promotion process. Therefore, we are expected to complete research and publish in peer-reviewed journals. I actually like this requirement as I like researching and contributing to the knowledge base in the fields. But what I do have issues with is deciding to which journal I should submit my articles. And this is an issue, not because I don’t know the aims and scopes of the journals in my field, or which journals publish research that is along the same vein as my own, or even that I’m not aware of the prestige of different journals. It’s an issue because of the conflicting interests of publishing in a “publish or perish” environment that recognizes prestige of a journal versus my own desire to support open access journals by publishing my work there.

I support the open access movement and love that more journals, such as C&RL, have gone to an open access model of publication in our field. I have been a member of the Evidence Summaries team for a number of years for the journal, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, and love that anyone can read the journal and my work. I do think it is wrong that many publishers charge so much for journal subscriptions, both for libraries and for individual subscribers. I would love to publish all my work in open access journals.

However, I also recognize the reality that many of the top-ranked and well-regarded journals, with a large readership, in our fields of libraries, information science, and archives are not part of the open access movement. I also am aware that publishing in these journals is seen by many in academia as, if not a requirement, then a very important signal that your work is of value and at a high level of scholarship. And since my career is in academia and I am in a position to be tenured and promoted through the faculty lines, the prestige of journals is a consideration when publishing.

How does one then resolve these issues? What concern trumps the other? Publish in open access journals and hope the academia moves in time to see open access as a necessary change in the publishing model and valid? Or publish in journals with prestige that are not open access because of the pressures of academia?

So I suppose I’m wondering how others have resolved this dilemma for themselves. I’d love to hear about it in comments.

Thank you, dear readers, and I’ll write again soon. Allons-y!

Some Talks That Inspire Me

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope your week went well. It seems like at my university everyone is getting over a cold this week. Since we are coming into the weekend I just wanted to share some talks I’ve watched recently that have inspired me. These three talks, well one is actually a poem, demonstrate to me how powerful good speakers can be and why the binary we keep hearing in higher education of “sage on the stage” versus the now popular “guide on the side” is not as binary an issue as some would make it out to be. Great speakers can inspire us still, if we just take the time to listen. Enjoy!

This first video I just watched this week and is Angela Lee Duckworth talking about how grit is the key to success.

This video is another TED Talk (don’t you just love TED Talks?). I had my students watch this talk by Amy Cuddy about the power of body language (power posing). Most of my students found Dr. Cuddy’s talk very inspiring and I hope you do, too.

I adore Taylor Mali’s, “What Teachers Make,” and I love this version with multiple teachers performing the poem.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and weekend. I’ll be back soon with more. Allons-y!

Meetings

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope your week has gone well. I’ve had a very busy week of teaching. I’m very much looking forward to some relaxation this weekend. But before we get into the weekend, let’s talk about meetings.

No one seems to like meetings and it isn’t hard to understand why. Lots of meetings are poorly run, have no clear agendas, and no clear steps for follow-up after they finally are finished. But although books like The Org can tell us why meetings are a necessity of modern organizations, that doesn’t really help when you are stuck in a meeting that just keeps going and going. Instead, what does help is when you can run a meeting and do it well.

To that end, check out Lifehacker’s article on the simple equation to run great meetings. Then get out there and run great meeting.

As, in a meeting related vein, check out the article, again from Lifehacker, on what if you could truly be yourself at work? I am just in awe of this kind of community in a work environment and think it would be wonderful to implement. What are your thoughts?

Finally, I want to leave you with this lovely video that I finally watched and am so glad I did:

Have a wonderful weekend! Allons-y!

Tips on a Monday

/ dwakimoto

Hello, dear readers! I hope your Monday is going well. I just thought I’d share some quick tips and information that have come across my feeds that may be of interest today.

First, if you are like me (or most people, I’d imagine), Mondays can be stressful as you try to get back into the flow at work and organize yourself for the coming week. All of that can lead to stress and as we know, too much stress is a bad thing. Luckily for us Lifehacker has a lovely post on the top 10 instant stress busters. A good, quick read packed with usable tips.

If you need a bit of quirky fun and a short break, check out the lovely round-up of Doctor Who crafts over on the Make: Craft blog.

Finally, to share with all the geeks in your life, this lovely art piece via Gizmodo on old world translation for modern day social networks. It’s good for a laugh, or at least a smile.

Hope you have a fantastic week! Allons-y!

Paper, Books, and Other Fun for the End of the Quarter

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! It has been a busy week on campus, but it is finally winding down as final exams have wrapped up. I thought today I’d share some thoughts about paper, books, and some fun for the end of your week/beginning of your weekend mainly because these are the kind of things rattling around my head at the end of the quarter.

Yesterday I went to San Francisco Center for the Book to take the Introduction to Bookbinding class. It was a lot of fun (although I’m tired from the lateness of getting home after class via BART) and it was great to see such an interest in traditional arts. This was a great break from all the work I usually do on the computer and definitely rejuvenating after hearing all the time about the demise of print, especially print books, in my work as a librarian and archivist. If you live in the area, I highly recommend checking on SFCB as the instructors are really nice and knowledgeable and it is rewarding to make something tangible (and beautiful).

Speaking of books and ebooks, one of my colleagues sent around this article from Salon, Books aren’t dead yet. It is a nice read and confirms what I’ve seen that we have a thriving, 2 format ecosystem of books for readers at the moment. And considering we need to buy another bookshelf for the apartment, you can tell where I fall on the spectrum of buying print and ebooks (although I do really enjoy using my tablet, I still love the physicality of print).

This video is lovely, silly, and a great reminder, too, that paper isn’t outdated just quite yet. Unfortunately it won’t allow embedding, so head over to Vimeo to check out the video, Paper is not dead.

Finally, I leave you with a lovely photograph of a reading nook, hopefully to inspire you to curl up with a favorite book/ebook over the weekend for a bit of a break:

reading nook from Beautiful Portals Tumblr

reading nook from Beautiful Portals Tumblr

Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be back soon with more news and notes. Allons-y!

Google Reader (again) and Some Fun

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! We are winding down the quarter here at my campus and I am so looking forward to break week. But before we get to break week and some weekend relaxation, we need to chat about what has been buzzing around the tech and blogosphere this week–the upcoming demise of Google Reader. But I promise to also include some fun for your weekend, so let’s get into it.

If you’ve missed it, Google is killing Google Reader on July 1 of this year. So for all of us who depend on Google Reader as our RSS aggregator need to find a new one soon. I’m rather annoyed to have to move my subscriptions, again, but am looking into alternatives. Right now I’m playing with Feedly and I’ll let you know what I think of it after a few weeks. Gizmodo has a nice round-up of 8 Google Reader Alternatives and Stephen Abram also has a nice round-up of posts about how to move to another RSS aggregator. Lifehacker also has some useful articles on alternatives to Google Reader. If you have an alternative to Google Reader that you love, I’d love to hear about it in comments as I’m totally open to suggestions on alternatives.

In more fun news, hop on over to Neil Gaiman’s Journal to check out some cool stuff he’s been doing and see the latest video in the BlackBerry Keep Moving series. If you haven’t read his Calendar of Tales, you really need to–the stories are fantastic.

Finally a lovely photo to help you transition into a restful weekend:

by voiceofnature via Hobbit Houses Tumblr

by voiceofnature via Hobbit Houses Tumblr

Have a wonderful Friday and lovely weekend. I’ll be back soon with more news and notes. Allons-y!

P.S. I hope you had a wonderful Pi Day yesterday!

Advice and Randomness for Friday

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! This quarter has been super-busy and I can hardly believe we are already in March. I think someone must be speeding up time. Anyway, I wanted to share with you some of the articles and resources that have recently come across my screen that I think may be useful to you and to those you serve at your libraries.

We’ve been talking about UX (user experience) more at my library, thank goodness, and so I thought this infographic on How to test your landing pages was especially timely. I even like that the infographic is well-designed and easy-to-use. I’m looking forward to some usability testing and UX re-design happening on our library pages hopefully in the near-ish future.

Because I seem to be constantly running up against the clock this quarter, the Lifehacker article on Simple secret to time management: Jedi time tricks was a good reminder on how to prioritize what needs to get done. Plus, who doesn’t want to be more like a Jedi?

As we are nearing graduation time (seriously, it will be here before we know it), I thought this article on advice I wish someone had given me for my first job was timely. It is also a good reminder to those of us who have been working at our organizations for a while to help those who are adjusting to org culture and to also keep on the look for burnout in ourselves.

On to some timely practical tech advice: How can I stop losing and breaking my headphones? This is a great article for everyone to read and hopefully will save you time and frustration in using your headphones.

Also, do take the time to watch this amazing TED Talk by Amy Cuddy on how your body language shapes who you are. I found her talk incredibly insightful and moving, especially at the end. And Dr. Cuddy reminds us to not fake it ’til we make it, but “fake it ’til we become it.”

For your Friday fun, check out this post on how to repurpose some old hardcover books:how-t: hardcover book lamp. Then check out this lovely video talking about Neil Gaiman’s Calendar of Tales project:

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be back soon with more. Allons-y!

Life, Work, Change, and Art

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope your week has been lovely and you have a wonderful weekend planned. Today I just want to share some thoughts on various articles I’ve been reading, mostly having to do with work-life balance, in various forms.

I thought it was interesting that Lifehacker published these two articles very close together: why you should embrace work-life imbalance and don’t forget to live. I’d love to hear your thoughts on work-life (im)balance. I believe that we should all do work we love and have careers we enjoy because then the hours do go by more rapidly and are more fulfilling. However, I’m not for being a workaholic. I believe in working very intensely and with great focus in order to accomplish as much as possible, but not having career as the only facet of my life. Having time for friends and family, reading for pleasure (and not for research), baking, and simply being are important, too. Time might be wibbly, wobbly, but we have a finite amount and it seems like a shame not to enjoy life outside of our careers, however fulfilling and enjoyable we find them to be.

Also in the vein of work and life articles, Lifehacker published one on why you are afraid of change and what you can do about it. I think this is useful no matter where the change is occurring in your life. Life is change and it is nice to have some tips on making the most of it.

And since it’s that time of year when people in the United States are doing their taxes and cleaning up their records, I thought tips on what documents to shred and what to keep would be useful.

Finally, on to some beautiful fun. Check out the 2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge winners. Art in science is a truly wonderful thing to behold.

Also, I wanted to share the ongoing lettering versus calligraphy competition. Gorgeous, gorgeous lettering and calligraphy. Take a break and just enjoy how expressive lettering and writing can be.

I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing weekend. I’ll be back soon with more. Allons-y!

Some Tips and Fun for Friday

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope that your day is going well and that you have a wonderful weekend planned. Apparently the Super Bowl is happening on Sunday, so if you are excited about that, I hope your favorite team wins. For myself, I’m looking forward to a sunny weekend of catching up on reading and having a potluck with friends. Before we get to the weekend, I want to share a few things that have come across my digital dashboard that I think might be of interest to you and your patrons.

This quarter has been absolutely crazy busy. Between teaching, committee work, interns, and reference hours, I barely have a minute to pause during the week. It has made for very long days and less reflection time than I would normally like, but hopefully I’ll make it through the quarter without anything falling through the cracks. Therefore it is unsurprising that I found this post by Lifehacker on why you need more margin in your life particularly timely. I really do need to create more margins in my life, and I suspect that you do too, dear reader.

For those looking for ways to get ahead in the career department, I suggest taking a look at Lifehacker’s futureproof your job with a career insurance policy. Just don’t forget about building in some margins as you are building up your career.

Also, an article that would be good to share with all your colleagues, friends, and patrons: top 10 good tech habits everyone should have. I plan on sharing this with my students when we talk more about technology, security, and privacy in class.

Now, on to some fun, this Gizmodo article on 19 adorable animals using technology adorably is sure to make you smile. But if it doesn’t, perhaps you’ll have to break out some chocolate and make Joy the Baker’s chocolate and peanut butter pudding.

Finally, I leave you with this lovely photograph from Beautiful Portals Tumblr, which reminds me that I should really go get a cup of tea (and perhaps you should, too).

Teapots by Gloomtreehouse via Beautiful Portals Tumblr

Teapots by Gloomtreehouse via Beautiful Portals Tumblr

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and a relaxing weekend, dear readers. I’ll be back soon with more musings and useful links. Allons-y!