Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope that your day is going well. Back-to-school season makes me think of many things, but one of the things that is top on my priority list is productivity. Once fall hits, it’s just like a huge extra wave of work to do. So I’ve rounded up some recent articles on productivity for you to use and to share with others in our fight to not drown in the fall term’s workload.
I love lists. Anyone who’s read this blog knows this. So I had to link to Lifehacker’s 10 most important things we’ve learned about college list. As a teacher, I can totally second going to office hours. Teachers want to help, but we can’t if students don’t let us know they need help.
Also, I love to-do lists. They make sure I don’t forget to do important things, like buying food and writing articles. To-do lists that I finish I like even better, so I was quite taken with Lifehacker’s how to make your to-do list doable. Read it and then get to accomplishing.
Speaking of productivity, get to know the new Google Docs shortcuts and you’ll be more productive. And with all that new found time you can hop on over to Codeacademy and learn to code. Look how productive you are!
Finally, just look at this photo from Beautiful Portals and take a deep breath, you’ll feel better (and less stressed if all this talk of productivity is making you a bit frenetic).
passages8391 from Beautiful Portals
Have a wonderful weekend filled with friends and fun. I’ll be back next week with more fun tips and tools. Allons-y!
Happy Saturday, dear readers! You read the post title correctly–The Waki Librarian blog turns three years old today! I can hardly believe that I’ve been blogging for three years or that I’ve been at my current position for just over three years. Time really does fly (even if it’s a bit wibbly, wobbly).
I was thinking about what I should write about for my 3-year anniversary post and I had a lot of ideas. But the phrase that kept running through my head over the last few weeks is: “Momma was right.” So I thought I’d share some wisdom and things my momma taught me that have helped me in my first three years as a professional librarian and archivist because they might help you, too. So let’s get into the good stuff.
First, you have to understand that my momma is a pretty brilliant woman. Besides teaching me to bake a mean pie and replace a kitchen garbage disposal, she also taught me that we are in control of a lot more of our lives than most people want to believe. She sold her car to buy a motorcycle in order to afford the first payment for tuition to veterinary school at a time when women just didn’t become veterinarians. She doesn’t buy into the societal delusion that there are just some things that women don’t do. And, even though she’s not a librarian, she instilled in me an awesome appreciation for libraries and self-taught learning. And she was pretty much right about everything, not that this fact is at all surprising to her.
So what did my momma teach me that have been essential in my work? I’ll give you three things that are essential for success at work and in life that I still don’t see a lot of people doing.
Being kind is super-important
Being kind (aka being nice) seems to be a lost art on most people. But my momma impressed upon both her daughters that being kind is super-important. It’s what keeps us civil and makes the world a little nicer place. Everyone wants a little kindness and not only will being kind allow you to sleep with a clear conscious at night, it will help you in your work, too. People like to help the people who have been kind to them and who go (even a little) out of their way to be nice. So as you are fast-tracking your way to the top of the librarian or archivist heap, be nice about it. Say hi in the morning to everyone, remember that it was their niece’s birthday party over the weekend and ask them how it went, and even bring in cookies once in a while.
The great thing about being kind is that it makes the world a better place and it doesn’t matter if you are an introvert or an extrovert, you can still be a nice person. Being nice shifts your perspective and will get you through the chaos, trust me on this. But, if you are like some people I know, and need a concrete reason for changing your behavior so you get ROI, think of it this way: being nice will ultimately get you what you want. So if you can’t be nice just because it’s the right thing to do, be nice because it will help your career (although my momma might have a thing or two to say to you if she finds out this is why you are being nice).
Being kind is not the same thing as being a pushover
This is something my momma made sure we understood when growing up. Being nice doesn’t mean you have to be the pushover that some sections of society thinks you should be if you are kind (especially if you are a woman). I think this is one of the stereotypes that I’ve had the most trouble fighting most of my life. People need to understand that you can be both a nice, kind person and a strong person.
Especially when you start your career, there will be people because of your age, or your inexperience, or because you smile, who think that you’ll be easy to push around and use for furthering their agendas. Remain civil, but nicely say no to their machinations. You don’t need to put up with any of that. And, if you’ve been nice (and I mean sincerely nice and caring) to others at your work and in your life, they’ll have your back, too. See? Being nice creates an environment that allows you to be strong. It won’t be easy all the time, but it’s worth it. If being kind allows you a clear conscious at night, being strong will give you a happy state of mind and confidence.
Being yourself will ultimately make you successful
Everyone says this and they’re right, but my momma’s lived it and that makes her evidence stronger, in my mind, in support of being ones’ self at work and in life. I’m not an extrovert by nature and I’m definitely not someone who is comfortable with “tooting my own horn.” I also don’t promise pie in the sky to people, if I can’t deliver. And, while I love bright and shiny tech tools as much as the next person, I’m a private person by nature and so some social media and I don’t really get along. To some, especially if you read marketing blogs or professional development advice, this means I’m on the fast track to oblivion.
I beg to disagree. Hard work, as my momma would say, wins out in the end. If nothing else, us Waki women work harder and smarter than a whole heck of a lot of people. And this, over the course of say three years combined with being kind and slowly building relationships, will make anyone successful. Does it take more time? Yes. Is it as glamorous as blowing up on Twitter over night? Nope. But it is the way to building a lasting career? Totally.
I believe in continually learning and growing. My momma taught me that. But I also believe in staying true to what makes you unique and you because then you do your best work and hopefully find success and pleasure in your work and in your life.
So those are just a few of the life lessons my momma passed on to me and that I’m now doing the nice thing and passing them on to you. You’ve probably heard it all before, but have you taken the time to try being kind, being strong, and being yourself? Try it out and don’t forget to have a cookie once in a while, cookies are cool, too.
And whenever I get down or need to remember my momma’s advice, I hear this song in my head (really not surprising, if you knew my momma, even if it’s not quite about what we’re talking about now):
Have a wonderful rest of your weekend, give your momma a call, have dinner with some friends, and curl up with a cat and a good book (and a cup of tea or glass of cider, whatever wrinkles your prune). I’ll be back next week with our regularly scheduled archives, libraries, and technology programming. Allons-y!
Happy Friday, dear readers! I’m so happy that we are going into a three-day weekend. So today’s post is super-short and filled with some stuff to amuse you during your work break(s) today. Look for a special post on The Waki Librarian tomorrow (or save it to enjoy when you get back to work on Tuesday).
First, isn’t this just one of the coolest photos you’ve ever seen? I love it.
Dispatchwork "small repairs with legos"
You can see the rest of the photos over on the wonderful beautiful portals tumblr.
Now, to end and also shamelessly copy my wonderful friend Hanna who posted this a couple of weeks ago: sing along with Breaking Benjamin. You’ll feel better. Just better shut the door before belting out the chorus, if you are at the office, just saying.
Or, if you’re really not into singing and are more into bow ties, because bow ties are cool, check out this clip of the Doctor in action:
Have a fantastic weekend and I promise The Waki Librarian will be back soon with more tech, library, and archives news and notes. Allons-y!
Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope that your week has been peaceful and productive. I have a few links to share with you today that should be useful for yourself and for sharing with patrons during this back-to-school season. Speaking of back-to-school, as some of you eagle-eyed readers have no doubt caught from occasional references on this blog, I’m currently working on my dissertation. This means not only does my kitchen table look like it’s having a tiny book and paper sale (bonus points if you got The Big Bang Theory reference) due to the enormous stacks of research material I have on it, my wrists are also acting up from all the typing I’m doing trying to get a lot written before the start of classes and teaching at the end of September. This means The Waki Librarian will be updated once instead of twice a week until classes begin in order to save my wrists. I hope you understand, dear readers. So let’s get on to the good stuff.
First, because I teach in the university, I’m constantly thinking about the coming school year. And to me, that means thinking about social media because I use it in my classes and talk about it with my students. So this post from Stephen Abram on what not to do on social media is definitely going into my discussions of social media this year. While not everything is totally applicable to my students, it should give us some points of discussion.
Speaking of teaching, one of the most powerful things I’ve learned that has helped my teaching is knowing when to be quiet and just let people think. Too many people want to rush to fill silences and that doesn’t help in meetings or in the classroom. Check out and share this Lifehacker article on how to use the power of silence to be heard. It is really helpful and a good reminder that not every second has to be filled with noise.
And for those of you with a lot of gadgets, and who haven’t already seen this post on Craft (which was then picked up by ThinkGeek), check out the tutorial on how to turn a book into a gadget case. If you are going to cut up a book, it better be turned into something at least this cool.
Finally, an image from Bohemian Homes that most certainly will want to make you curl up with a good book (if not also a cat and a cup of tea):
Kitty with books from Bohemian Homes
Have a wonderful rest of your day and relaxing weekend. I’ll be back next week with more. I’m off now to write. Allons-y!
Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope your day is going well. Today I just want to talk a bit about balance and leave you with some fun for the weekend.
Now I’m probably not the person to talk to about finding balance in one’s work and personal life. I’m the first to admit that I often get too caught up in projects, research, and teaching and work some crazy hours. But I’m trying to be better and find some balance–even if that balance only shows up if you look at an entire month or year of my life and not on a daily or weekly basis.
Luckily there are others that have the balance thing down much better than I do. So if you need some help with balance, especially going into the weekend and end of the summer, check out Lifehacker’s great article, how to stop working and go home at night.
And for a librarian-focused article, check out Michael Stephens’ post, Finding Balance?. It’s a nice overview about the different facets of balance we should all try to achieve in our lives.
For me, one of the best ways to de-stress and find a bit of balance is in the kitchen so I love Joy the Baker’s post Summer 2011 as it goes for its great thoughts and recipes for summer. If you like cooking then you should check out this article from Lifehacker, eat like a foodie at home without breaking your budget. Getting good food while on a budget is great.
And we should end on something that will make you smile in an instant (instead of after an hour cooking in the kitchen), so watch and smile at this animated GIF from Beautiful Portals. I love it and it always makes me smile.
tumbling kitty
I hope you have a lovely weekend full of good reads, good food, and good friends. I’ll be back next week with more reflections on libraries, archives, tech, and life. Allons-y!
Happy Wednesday, dear readers! I hope you are having a lovely day. Hopefully the weather is even nice for your day. Today I just wanted to give you a quick update on our archives before getting back to all the emails that piled up yesterday.
I was hoping to find an announcement to link to, but I couldn’t, so you are just going to have to take my word for it: our archives at Cal State East Bay received a 2011-2012 LSTA funded Local History Digital Resources Project (LHDRP) grant! We are super-excited as this grant not only allows us to have 200 images of the beginnings of our campus digitized and made available on the wonderful Online Archive of California, we also get to attend trainings on digitization, metadata, and even copyright so we can continue with more digitization projects after the grant period. I think this is a wonderful program.
What I just wanted to say today (and give a shout-out) was that yesterday we had our first in-person training and it was an all-day workshop on copyright, formally titled “Minimizing Legal Risks in Digitization Projects.” It was put on by Infopeople and led by Mary Minow. And, this is the most important part, it wasn’t boring and I finally feel like I have a fair grasp on copyright, permissions, and digitization projects! This is amazing because I have sat in on my fair share of lectures on copyright throughout my graduate education and throughout my (short) professional career at conferences, but I’ve never really understood it.
So this is basically to say if you have a chance, definitely take a workshop on copyright with Mary Minnow. She’s fabulous. Also you can check out the blog she runs with Peter Hirtle at LibraryLaw Blog and their full website at Library Law.
I hope you have a great rest of your day and I’ll be back on Friday with some tech news and fun for you to share. Allons-y!
Happy Friday, dear readers! I’m sorry I’ve been away from the blog for almost a fortnight. It’s been a crazy two weeks. Last week was fantastic as I was in San Jose for my yearly residency with my fellow doctoral cohortmates. It was a week of thought-provoking fun (but exhausting) work. This week, though, has been insane to put it mildly and that’s my excuse for not having been back to posting on Wednesday. Also, due to the insanity, I only have a few fun things to share with you to get you in a good mood for the weekend.
And finally, take a break and watch this video. One of my lovely colleagues shared it with me and as multiple people have said (quite rightly) one cannot be in a bad mood when watching a baby laugh.
Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be back next week (fingers crossed) with library, archives, and tech news. Allons-y!
Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope you have a lovely weekend planned. Before you head out of the office to start enjoying your weekend, I wanted to share some cool articles (and an infographic) about old and new technology with you. So let’s get into the tech tips and then get you ready to enjoy your weekend.
So, this 100 things your kids may never know about list got me thinking about technology obsolescence. Combined with this infographic: evolution of storage, all I could think about was how many different recording and storage technologies there have been over the centuries and how they are only obsolete for most people. If you are an archivist, historian, conservator, or any other professional who deals with the past, these technologies are sometimes headache-inducing, but they’re not obsolete in terms of being of use or value. However, it is becoming more and more difficult to retrieve the data from storage formats such as U-matic tapes, open reel films, and floppy disks.
So that’s our quick look at something old and something new in the world of technology this Friday. If all that technology talk makes you hungry, check out Joy the Baker’s lovely recipe for double chocolate indoor s’mores.
I hope you have a great rest of your day and a fantastic weekend. I’ll be away next week, but will be back the following week with more library, archives, and tech fun. Until then, be well, read fun books, and enjoy your summer. Allons-y!
Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having a good day, dear readers. Many of you might be aware that it is the week in the life of the librarian (or something to that effect) this week. It’s kind of taking over Twitter (at least in the librarian bit) and the blogs. I don’t want to bore you with a recounting of my workdays, plus I don’t really have the time as I’m trying to get a lot of stuff done before being gone from the library for the first week of August. So today, I have a few very helpful links to share and then it’s back to work for me. So let’s get going.
First, as a small infographics redux, check out Stephen Abram’s Searching for and Making Infographics. I can’t wait to try out some of the infographic design tools. And who doesn’t like looking at well-designed infographics?
Then, if you’re like me and facing multiple piles (physical and digital) of stuff to do before the weekend, you’ll definitely want to check out Lifehacker’s article, Boost your Productivity, Cripple your Technology. It completely works. I got so much writing done this weekend by just shutting off my computer and getting out a notebook. I do need to go buy some more paper now, though…
For those of you who have completed spring cleaning and now have a pile of slides and negatives that need to be digitized on the cheap, check out an easy DIY option using cardstock instead of an expensive slide scanner.
Finally, when you need to figure out what to make for dinner, check out Punchfork. It’s another lovely recipe site, pulling in some of the best recipes from around the web.
Have a wonderful rest of your day and I’ll be back on Friday with more tech, library, and archives musing. In the meantime, don’t forget to read and submit your photos/recipes/etc. to League of Evil Baking Librarians. Allons-y!
Happy Friday! I hope you are doing well, dear readers, and are getting ready for a wonderful weekend. Today I just have a few lovely infographics and some fun to get you into the weekend mood. So let’s get to it, shall we?
First, before getting into the tech tip links of the day, I want to turn your attention to this lovely little post by The Art of Non-Conformity on Legacy Projects and the Love of True Friends. This post is absolutely fantastic and true. Every time you step out of your comfort zone, every time you are courageous enough to do something that matters, there will be people who don’t get it and want to put you down. But, luckily, there will also be wonderful people who will support you and help you and make you feel like you are joining a community of people who actually care about making a difference. Read the post. Bookmark it. And come back to it anytime people are making you doubt yourself.
Now on to the tech stuff of the day. First there has been a lot of talk about Google+ lately and if you have an account, you’ll definitely want to check out Lifehacker’s How Do I Make the Most of Google+?. (Also, if you want an invite, let me know in the comments and I’ll be happy to send you one.) You may also want to check out Lifehacker’s What your IM status says about you.
There have been a lot of cool infographics making their way around Twitter and the blogs lately, so I thought I’d share just two of my favorites on social media. First there’s this great Periodic Table of the Social Web. And then there’s this great one that let’s you decide Do You Need a Social Media Detox? If you happen to need a social media detox, may I suggest going outside without your smartphone and enjoying a nice hike or pleasant stroll by the beach? You may also find making some blackberry pie bars and taking them over to a friend’s house for tea relaxing and social engaging without every touching a status update. Just saying.
Or, if that doesn’t work, you could always make like the Doctor and dance as part of your social media detox routine. Enjoy the video clip from “The Doctor Dances”:
Have a wonderful weekend full of friends, good food, great books, and lots of fun. I’ll be back next week with more. Allons-y!
