You know when you take research classes at uni and they ask you to look at a published research paper and find all the flaws in it? I'm pretty sure I did that activity in research subjects as part of my psychology degree, and again when I studied librarianship.
Anyway, today I found myself doing a very similar thing at work, for real. I've become a 'research librarian' and what that meant today was that I joined a committee of academics (all of them with PhDs) and we looked over and discussed research proposals from other academics, looking quite closely at the proposed design, methodology, research instruments and so on.
I didn't participate much in this meeting, and actually felt a bit overwhelmed by it all (it was my first meeting with them!), but it was so interesting to see the research process from this angle, and to start to become aware of the some of the many steps involved in getting research from conception to published.
After the meeting, one of the other participants asked what I thought of it. I replied honestly and said it was all a bit over my head at this stage! It was the right thing to say because we ended up having a really good chat and I ended up feeling ok about the fact that it will take time to settle in to this role, to find my place in the team, and see just what I can contribute.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Originality and ownership
Recently I am absolutely loving podcasts. At work we had a Mindfulness in May program running which involved listening to daily mindful meditations with the idea of increasing our enjoyment of the moment, and to slow down the whirring mind. These listenings were pleasant, easy and left me feeling quite happy. While searching for podcasts on mindfulness, I started coming across podcast topics that, if I'm honest, interested me a lot more. Podcasts on IDEAS.
My favourite at the moment is the NPR TED radio hour, and I guess I've listened to about 5 of their one-hour podcasts. The latest one was on originality and it wasn't about libraries in any way, except that everything that came up had applications for libraries.
For example. There is no such thing as an original idea. Humans are not capable of an original idea. But we are genius at finding a new perspective or remixing ideas (especially comedians!). Yet we have this idea of copyright and ownership of ideas. How does that make sense, when every new idea is just a remix or re-imagining of an old one? The ownership of ideas doesn't make sense, but the acknowledging of sources does.
The things that stifle originality and creativity are things like patents and paywalls. If we ever wanted to speed up the rate of scientific discovery, or development, just get rid of patents and database paywalls, so that anyone can access the technology and information, combine it with their own area of expertise, and create something crazy and new! This is beauty.
I also loved how they said if you want to have great ideas, switch from alcohol to coffee (and there's a great story behind that, but you'll have to listen to the podcast).
Next, I'm listening to a Radio National podcast titled Big Deals in the Knowledge Business: How Scholarly Publishing Divides Academia on Rear Vision. I know the history and the story well, but listening to it just brings it to life more than reading about it, without losing any of the depth.
Do you have a favourite podcast?
So, I learned how to use on OPML file with Feedly today. Thanks person who set that up!
My favourite at the moment is the NPR TED radio hour, and I guess I've listened to about 5 of their one-hour podcasts. The latest one was on originality and it wasn't about libraries in any way, except that everything that came up had applications for libraries.
For example. There is no such thing as an original idea. Humans are not capable of an original idea. But we are genius at finding a new perspective or remixing ideas (especially comedians!). Yet we have this idea of copyright and ownership of ideas. How does that make sense, when every new idea is just a remix or re-imagining of an old one? The ownership of ideas doesn't make sense, but the acknowledging of sources does.
The things that stifle originality and creativity are things like patents and paywalls. If we ever wanted to speed up the rate of scientific discovery, or development, just get rid of patents and database paywalls, so that anyone can access the technology and information, combine it with their own area of expertise, and create something crazy and new! This is beauty.
I also loved how they said if you want to have great ideas, switch from alcohol to coffee (and there's a great story behind that, but you'll have to listen to the podcast).
Next, I'm listening to a Radio National podcast titled Big Deals in the Knowledge Business: How Scholarly Publishing Divides Academia on Rear Vision. I know the history and the story well, but listening to it just brings it to life more than reading about it, without losing any of the depth.
Do you have a favourite podcast?
So, I learned how to use on OPML file with Feedly today. Thanks person who set that up!
Monday, June 1, 2015
The Monday Meme
I'll join in the #blogjune Monday meme - thanks for getting us started Bun-toting Librarian and of course to Con for coordinating.
List 5 things you’re looking forward to about #blogjune
1. I'm looking forward to doing things in a different way to previous years where I blogged quite randomly about 'library' stuff (this will be my third blogjune). This time around I'll be blogging with the theme of 'Today's Aha! Moment' or 'What I Learned Today', in relation to library life. My posts won't be lengthy, but they will be reflective. I'm pretty sure I learn something new everyday (especially work days!).
List 5 things you’re looking forward to about #blogjune
1. I'm looking forward to doing things in a different way to previous years where I blogged quite randomly about 'library' stuff (this will be my third blogjune). This time around I'll be blogging with the theme of 'Today's Aha! Moment' or 'What I Learned Today', in relation to library life. My posts won't be lengthy, but they will be reflective. I'm pretty sure I learn something new everyday (especially work days!).
2. As the only librarian on my campus, I always enjoy connecting with library peeps in the wider world. Especially the variety of topics that people write about as part of blogjune, its always inspriring and sets me to dreaming of possibilities. June is a relatively quiet period at work with the students doing exams, so the timing is good for me to get reflective.
3. I'm looking forward to the challenge of writing every day. I seem to recall I didn't quite make it last year - hence the theme this year! This list is also turning out to be a challenge (FIVE things!)...
4. I'm looking forward to having my blog come to life again. Since I have a work blog (in Sharepoint), I haven't really been keeping up with this blog. Also, I've been spending every spare moment lately doing things that make me happy - reading, running, knitting and sewing clothes for myself. I'm feeling so content and settled at the moment, after so many years of travelling and changing jobs every couple of years. I've been in my current job for 3 years now and still happy!
5. Finally, I always enjoy reading everyone's blogs, whether they're writing about library related topics or not. And there seem to be some first timers who I'm looking forward to reading too - yay :)
Oh, and what I learned today - from reading everyone's initial blogpost for blogjune, I realised again just how beautiful diversity amongst people is. Thanks for your stories - they're what make us human.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
A Dip into Udacity
Over the last few nights I completed Lesson 1 of a Udacity course in Intro to Computer Science. I did it out of curiosity - I've been dipping in and out of various coding websites lately. This one introduced the programming language Python, which I had no experience in whatsoever, but none was needed. I actually really enjoyed solving the problems presented, which I can't say of my experience of high school mathematics! Here's an example:
# Write python code that defines the variable
# age to be your age in years, and then prints
# out the number of days you have been alive.
age = 38
days_per_year = 365
days_alive = age * days_per_year
print days_alive
13870
The goal to reach by the end of 7 lessons was to build a search engine and a social network. The first lesson also introduced 'string theory' and it was challenging to understand, but not impossible! The rest of the course was not free, but you could sign up for a 2 week trial. I don't think I will continue this course, but I enjoyed the intro!
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Thoughts on books and culture in small towns
It was interesting to see the Culture Minister of France point out the link between books and culture, as part of a story on limiting Amazon's ability to ship books for free to buyers, as reported by SBS news yesterday (Anti-Amazon bill adopted by French parliament).
The 'books in small towns' comment caused me to reflect on a passage in a novel that I'm reading at the moment - Babara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour, where a child's father berates him for enjoying reading a book because he is terrified that his son will be bullied at school for it. They live in a poor and remote Appalachian town in Tennessee. Books there are regarded as full of dangerous ideas, challenging the word of God, and distractions for people who should be working.
Which leads me to thinking about the divides - cultural and digital. It is so important to have libraries in remote regions and small towns for all of the reasons that have been written about before, but especially to bring culture. Just having the internet is not enough in my opinion. It is uncurated and I don't think anyone would say that the most popular sites on the internet are the pinnacle of human culture. It is more important than ever to have curated collections provided for free by our national institutions (libraries, galleries, museums), because the internet should never replace books, art and real life artifacts.
The SBS article also included another quote by the French minister to the effect that if they allow Amazon market dominance in France with it's free shipping, and dodgy policies (e.g. selling some books at a loss) then it won't be long before the independent booksellers all shut up shop and Amazon will be the only choice. And we really shouldn't be surprised when Amazon suddenly stop selling books at a loss and start charging what they will. I hope the Australian government institutes similar laws, even if it does mean paying slightly more for books now.
"France is proud of a network of bookstores it says is "unique in the world" and crucial for culture to reach small towns."The very real fear is that with Amazon selling books at a much lower price than the local bookstores, that the local bookstores will be wiped out.
The 'books in small towns' comment caused me to reflect on a passage in a novel that I'm reading at the moment - Babara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour, where a child's father berates him for enjoying reading a book because he is terrified that his son will be bullied at school for it. They live in a poor and remote Appalachian town in Tennessee. Books there are regarded as full of dangerous ideas, challenging the word of God, and distractions for people who should be working.
Which leads me to thinking about the divides - cultural and digital. It is so important to have libraries in remote regions and small towns for all of the reasons that have been written about before, but especially to bring culture. Just having the internet is not enough in my opinion. It is uncurated and I don't think anyone would say that the most popular sites on the internet are the pinnacle of human culture. It is more important than ever to have curated collections provided for free by our national institutions (libraries, galleries, museums), because the internet should never replace books, art and real life artifacts.
The SBS article also included another quote by the French minister to the effect that if they allow Amazon market dominance in France with it's free shipping, and dodgy policies (e.g. selling some books at a loss) then it won't be long before the independent booksellers all shut up shop and Amazon will be the only choice. And we really shouldn't be surprised when Amazon suddenly stop selling books at a loss and start charging what they will. I hope the Australian government institutes similar laws, even if it does mean paying slightly more for books now.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Digital detox photo gallery
I am so amazed - I made this gallery with html and css and it works! I tried out a few techniques I learnt on Codecademy and it's so satisfying seeing them come to life.
My Photo Page
I had a discussion with a couple of my colleagues today about digital detox. We're about a fifth of the way through the 23 Mobile Things course and we're nearing the end of blogjune, so it's probably about right that this topic has come up! I remember it came up in Twitter chats on the 23 course as well. So I curated a little list of readings around the topic. My colleague came up with the idea of doing some reading (no ebooks allowed!) at the end of the course to reflect on our involvement with all the digital things, so we'll maybe do something like have a book club where we all read a different book on the topic and report back with our reviews and thoughts. Fun!
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I had a discussion with a couple of my colleagues today about digital detox. We're about a fifth of the way through the 23 Mobile Things course and we're nearing the end of blogjune, so it's probably about right that this topic has come up! I remember it came up in Twitter chats on the 23 course as well. So I curated a little list of readings around the topic. My colleague came up with the idea of doing some reading (no ebooks allowed!) at the end of the course to reflect on our involvement with all the digital things, so we'll maybe do something like have a book club where we all read a different book on the topic and report back with our reviews and thoughts. Fun!
Monday, June 23, 2014
Tonight, Wimbledon
We're watching Wimbledon tonight. Tennis was my sport all through school, uni and my twenties. I played 3 or 4 times a week during those years - and I think it did me a lot of good. I'm sure, too, that it helped me develop certain personality traits - maturity, a sense of fairness, persistence, mental agility, social skills. I'd be a very different person without that influence. My cat, Mochi (that's rice cake in Japanese) is following the ball like it's an insect on the screen - so cute!
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