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Month: November 2006

Mother May I Have Another Weekend?

Published by Iris on Sunday, November 5th, 2006

Last week was pretty rough, especially because it came after a previous rough week with a Sunday reference shift thrown in between them like a cruel joke. But this weekend I was adamant: No Work. Besides, this is only the second unscheduled weekend I’ve had all term, so I needed to make the most of it!

But the problem is, after two weeks of long days, working nights, and working weekends, there’s a lot of household stuff that needs to get done. For example, I only had yoghurt, milk, and shredded cheese in my refrigerator. I can’t live on that.

So now I’ve caught up on all the household stuff I needed to get done (well… the important stuff anyway, especially the food, in fact I’m in the midst of making my 6-hour pea soup right now), but now I need my weekend. I’m still completely drained. And it’s not like I’ve got a blow-off week coming. I’ve got to help write up an eReserves policy, help draft a document to submit to the college’s curriculum review committee on the importance of information literacy to student learning, read a book for a discussion group on campus, plus help all the poor students who are heading into their final research projects and struggling through their last full week of classes.

Meanwhile, I’ve really wanted to get back to my research and professional development. I’ve got three library-related papers I’d like to write and two non-library-related papers that are written but still need to be edited and sent off. Basically, it comes down to two problems: I’m busy, and I’m scared. I’ve never sent off a paper all by myself. My other papers have all been sent by my co-author. I realize I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m suddenly absolutely sure that nobody will be interested in my topics. Oh, and the third problem is that I could probably get over the second problem if it weren’t for the first. I’m just too busy.

p.s. For those of you interested in my knitting, I’ve finally taken some pictures and put them here.

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Woah! Meebo Got a Facelift

Woah! Meebo Got a Facelift

Published by Iris on Saturday, November 4th, 2006

I just logged in to Meebo (hoping to find a little human interaction) and almost didn’t recognize the new, spiffy interface. And according to their blog post, it’s not just the visual part that got an upgrade. Now you can pop a chat window out of the main browser window, drag and drop people into different buddy categories, more easily manage signing on and off of individual screen names, and more. Cool!

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Now We’re "Hip Techie Reference Librarians"

Now We’re "Hip Techie Reference Librarians"

Published by Iris on Saturday, November 4th, 2006

The other librarians and I are pretty tickled with some good press we just got. Last year we were named the “coolest librarians” by the Minneapolis St.Paul Magazine (see the bottom of this page in the “A List” section of the January 2006 issue). This year Carleton’s alumni magazine did a piece on Net Gen students called “plugged_in@edu” (Voice, 72.1, 2006, pp 16-21). In this piece author Patricia Miller writes:

Assignments in the syllabus eventually will lead students to Gould Library, where a host of services — along with hip techie reference librarians — await to help them do research and present their findings. (20)

The article then continues with a column and a half about how “plugged in” the librarians are, how plugged in the library is, and how this space and the new classroom spaces on campus are geared toward net gen students.

My discomfort with talking about students as if they’re alien life-forms aside, it’s fun to get such positive press. I just wish they’d also included a similar mention of the amazingly wonderful IT people who actually specialize in instuctional and collaborative technology.

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To Do Lists

To Do Lists

Published by Iris on Friday, November 3rd, 2006

I go through phases in my relationship to to do lists. I’m generally an organized person (at least on the surface), but I’ve notice that there are times when to do lists hold massive appeal and times when I can’t look at one. You’d think I’d know what triggers a stretch of the listies, but I don’t. I remember a time when I wasn’t very busy at work and it took a to do list to keep me focused in the face of not-much-to-do, and to help me understand that I really was working. (This was in my first months of work, before I had projects and before anyone on campus knew I existed. This seems like a distant dream from my current vantage point…) At other times I’ve been so busy that to do lists helped me remember what I’d promised people and what helped me managed the steps of multiple concurrent projects.

Right now I’m in a listing phase, so I went looking for an online to do list tool that would let me check in, add, and delete items from any of the four computers I use throughout the day. I tried several, and they all have good points. But here’s how they measured up for my purposes.

  • Ta-Da Lists: Nothing fancy, just to do lists and nothing else. I really like this one, and (for me) it’s runner up because the interface is so easy and it does just what I need. I also got my own URL when I signed up, which made me feel special. I could also share individual lists if I wanted.
  • Voo2do: If you need a project management tool, this is it. You can set deadlines, prioritize, take notes, set estimated times for each list item, categorize by project, publish tasks, add tasks by email, and probably a whole lot more. Frankly, this was too much for me. It meant that I had to do a lot more clicking when all I wanted was to make a list.
  • Bla-ha List: Very nice, but requires a pop-up window that can’t be opened in tabs. For my workflow, if it’s not open in my standard set of “I use them all the time” tabs, I’ll forget all about it and never use it. This would probably decrease the usefulness of the lists.
  • Backpack: My current favorite. It’s put out by the same people as Ta-Da Lists, so it’s really simple, but it also has space for note-taking. I can make separate “pages” for different categories of lists (right now I have “Work” “Personal” and “Copyright” to keep track of the main things I’ve got to do). Each page can have it’s own text, lists, and notes, and you can share pages individually with other people, or publish them to the web. If I want to pay, I could also add the capability to upload files and pictures, but I don’t feel like paying money. Even with the free version, though, I got my own URL.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish there were a Google To Do list that would work with my Google Calendar. I actually don’t want Google to take on another project before it finishes a couple of the ones it’s already juggling, but this feature would sure be nice.

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