Interesting People, Interesting Blogs (Part 2)

I came across a few more bloggers that I believe are worth reading.

What I Learned Today... is a blog by Nicole C. Engard. She explains that her blog is about "Web 2.0 and programming tips from a library web manager." It covers "blogs, rss, wikis, php programming and more as they relate to libraries." A lot of good techie stuff.

For readers out there who speak and read French, I came across Figoblog, a blog about the Internet, librarianship, and "la confiture de figues." (Rough translation: fig jam.)

Figoblog appears to be based in France, but he/she is fully immersed in what's going on around the world regarding digitization and digital preservation (hey, Figoblog even linked to my post on the preservation of blogs.)

Aaahh, the power of blogs.

Interesting People, Interesting Blogs

In between scanning job sites and updating my resume this morning (ho-hum), I came across a blog by Eric Lease Morgan, Head of the Digital Access and Information Architecture Department at the University Libraries of Notre Dame (bio here).

Morgan's Infomotions, Inc. blog/consulting website offers some interesting insights--or musings, as he calls them--on library technology and its impact on delivering information.

More writings:

• Mass Digitization
• Introduction to Web Services
• Top Technology Trends, 2005
  

Career Reinvention

I read an interesting article in the Montreal Gazette's "Working" section the other day ( Saturday, April 22, 2006) called "Dive right in."

The article focuses on and discusses the points mentioned in a career planning book titled Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra, a former teacher at Harvard University, now a teacher at INSEAD, an international business school in Fountainbleau, France.

Ibarra's argument runs contrary to traditional career advice; she recommends that people wanting a career change or wishing to reinvent their career paths should go out there and do it rather than plan every little detail before acting (lest paralysis by analysis settles in, that's my additional opinion).

Considering the career roller-coaster ride that I am currently on (I resigned from my job in March, am now working as an independent web consultant and web designer at a downtown hospital, but still looking for better), I think the article, the book, and the thoughts the author puts forward are well worth mentioning in The DIGITAL Archive.

I suspect this blog may have a few library or archival studies students, as well as a number of established librarians, archivists, and information professionals, who may be seeking a (new) career direction or who are in the midst of reinventing their careers.

I think this post will be worth your time.

Before I dive in to the "Dive right in" article (no pun intended), I want thank one blogger by the name of Will Richardson whose educational blog Weblogg-ed: the read/write web in the classroom first shed light (to me at least) on the concept of reinventing one's career. Browse on over to his February 7, 2006 posting in which he announces his decision to leave his current job to pursue "(a)nother path, one that I hope leads to satisfying, engaging, urgent work. Urgent work."

I really like that line!

OK, now on to the Montreal Gazette article...I wish I could add a URL here, but unfortunately the Gazette has locked this article, making it only available to online subscribers.

For those with access to an online newspaper database, try searching for "Dive right in" and "Strategies to reinvent your career" by Donna Nebenzahl, Montreal Gazette, Saturday, April 22, 2006.

Herminia Ibarra, author of Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, suggests 9 "unconventional" strategies for reinventing one's career.

1. Act, then reflect - You cannot discover yourself by introspection. (I think French author Albert Camus made this point in his novella The Outsider).
2. Flirt with yourselves - Stop trying to find your one true self, she recommends. Test out your various selves, your various ideas, in the real world, where concrete behaviour and feedback give you new insights.
3. Live the contractions - A little unclear this one, but she suggests one allows oneself to oscillate between holding on and letting go of ideas when in the midst of transition.
4. Make big changes in small steps - Don't make big sudden changes, she argues. Like the construction of a sky-scraper, take one small step at a time in re-building your career.
5. Experiment with new roles - Try out new roles or styles of working by pursuing them as extracurricular activities. Vary experiments as much as possible to get as much feedback as possible.
6. Find people who are what you want to be - Look for role models.
7. Don't wait for a catalyst - Don't wait for some big event to reveal your true calling (dang, no Luke Skywalker moment, folks). Use everyday events to find meaning in your transition period and soon clarity will occur.
8. Step back, but not for too long - Take a break from the norm and away from that which is familiar. A day's hike or doing something that removes you from the usual surroundings are useful moments to reflect.
9. Seize windows of opportunities - Take advantage of windows of opportunities as they open.
   

Time for some R and R

I noticed that I have not been posting much lately.

Perhaps there's not a lot to say at the moment. Perhaps the DIGITAL Archive is undergoing some growing pains (the DIGITAL Archive was a project-based blog, detailing a specific project I once worked on while employed in the McGill University Archives).

Maybe that could be the reason.

Or perhaps it's just a slow news day, as they say in the journalism business.

Well, rather than filling this space with, well, filler, I think I will take some time to off - a break from the blogosphere.

Actually, make that a break from blogging - I will still find time to read other people's blogs since I find those I subscribe to interesting and informative.

Also, there is still work to be done: the medical library website re-design project continues. As well as my on-going job search.

It's been touch and go--the job search, that is--since March 3, 2006, the day I ended my time at McGill. Not sure why it's been so rough. It's been tough enough that I often wonder and question my future in the archival/library/information field. As far as I am concerned, librarianship is a difficult field to enter, a tough nut to crack.

Although I feel a little discouraged, I nonetheless hate ending a post on a negative note.

It's Spring out there, folks. The sun stays out longer, the grass is getting greener - at least in this part of the Western hemisphere.

Time to take some r&r: a little rest and relaxation.

Surely, summer--and brighter days--is right around the corner.

Blog Item: Health Problems Related to the Geek Lifestyle

If you suffer from the following health conditions, you might be a geek:

1. Poor Sleeping Habits
2. Headaches
3. Back Pain
4. Poor Attention Span

More >>

Health Problems Related to the Geek Lifestyle » Carotids.Com

...And we're back!

Yes, I am back, after several days away from the blogosphere; and I am back with a very good posting that I read on Jill Hurst-Wahl's Digitization 101 blog.

The posting focuses on non-traditional career paths for librarians. It's a nice piece, full of insight and information for librarians and information professionals who seek to pursue a, well, non-traditional career path.

Overall, the posting covers a lot ground, but it's all good.

With my university archives experience and now my web design work in a medical library, I definitely fit the description of someone wanting a career path that differs from the norm - one that realizes the value of information, embraces technology in its many evolving forms, and makes a connection with and helps people along the way.

I truly believe this library/information field is going through some major changes and challenges. On the one hand, the future of the field is dependent on it transforming itself to face new realities; but, on the other hand, are library school's across Canada and the United States teaching the next-generation set of skills, let alone aware of them?

I wrote about this in an article that was published in the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Spectrum magazine (October 2001). (Shameless plug.)

On a side note, the Digitization 101 posting also mentions an article in Searcher magazine (July/August 2002) called "A Resume that Works." That article (and the entire issue, for that matter), is one of the best information professional magazines I have read. Try and find a copy!

Rusty Gears Turn Slowly

CREAK!! HTML.....HEAD......TITLE.....

CREEEEAAAK!! #container {width: 770 px...

You hear those rusty web design gears turning? I sure did since starting a new web re-design project at one of McGill's affiliated teaching hospitals (part of the super-hospital entity known as the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)).

All last week they were slowly turning and shedding bits of rust in my head as I sat down I talked with the head librarian of the Medical Library and reviewed his website plans.

I will need to give myself a few days or even a few weeks to become re-acquainted with the technicalities and peculiarities of HTML and CSS.

Still, I cannot help but sense that same feeling, which prompted me to leave my previous job, slowly stirring in my gut, cautioning me that this project is but a pit stop on the highway I have chosen to take. This highway, unfortunately, has no Google Map available. It's just the road ahead.

Please note the bottom right column, where I have stationed a neat-o del.icio.us bookmark module. Keep an eye on as I continue to bookmark relevant digitization news that I come across.

Also, please check out archi.vi.us, my attempt at creating a social bookmarking blog about all things Archives 2.0 (yeah, I'm adopting the lingo, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, etc).

Archives 2.0? It's about digital archiving, digital preserving, digital collecting, digital sharing of archival information. It's a work-in-progress, so bear with me if updates over there are slow and far between.

Job Search Update

Thankfully, I will not have to dwell for much longer in this state of unemployment, which started back on March 3 when I decided to resign from my position in the McGill University Archives.

To make a long story short, I received a phone call a few weeks ago from the head librarian at one of McGill University's affiliated teaching hospitals in downtown Montreal. The head librarian, with whom I did some volunteer work in 2004, is re-designing the library websites under his direction, and he proposed a temporary contract position for me to analyze and evaluate the websites' current information architecture and then develop a newer, more flexible architecture along with a better navigation system and a cleaner design and layout.

I accepted and will start on March 20 (quite an auspicious date, considering I know of more than one person starting anew on this date as well), and I will be dividing my time between the hospital and home. In both cases, I have a respectable set up to run the necessary Web software applications such as MS Word, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop.

Fortunately, I will not have to dust off my college-level Biology 101 text books or earn a certificate in health informatics - his staff will be working on the content. But I will need to dust off my HTML and CSS text books, although nowadays it is XHTML\CSS, with CSS not only handling formatting but page layout as well.

Anyone know of a good CSS layout book, tutorial, or online resource?

It has been close to 2 weeks since I resigned, and I have been trying to focus on the proverbial long-term career plan, but all to no avail. I will take this new and very different job opportunity to open up more doors, more so in my mind than literally. Friends and colleagues have told me to rest my mind and not to jump into anything too quickly. I'll try to follow their advice.

Meanwhile, stay tuned - the DIGITAL Archive is working behind the scenes at the moment, tightening up a few gears and adjusting the vertical and horizontal controls.

We'll be back on the air soon.

Top articles of 2006 (so far)

According to the RLG bloggers at hangingtogether.org, the following are some of the best articles written on the topics of digitization, digital preservation, access, etc.

In no particular order, here they are:

• "Changing a Cultural Icon: The Academic Libray as a Virtual Destination" by Jerry D. Campbell
• "The (Digital) Library Environment: Ten Years After" by Lorcan Dempsey
• "Research Libraries Engage the Digital World: A US-UK Comparative Examination of Recent History and Future Prospects" by Clifford Lynch
• "Excuse Me...Some Digital Preservation Fallacies?" by Chris Rusbridge
  

Project Origami: Microsoft's Ultramobile PC Launched

I caught wind, or rather the tail-wind, of the hype surrounding Microsoft's newest product (code-named Origami) somewhat late, so waiting on its release date (March 9) did not take too long, thankfully.

Microsoft is launching today its Ultramobile PC (UMPC). The official Microsoft site is here. Meanwhile, the Flash-powered "Project Origami" hype site is here. USA Today's Tech Product section has a good overview of the UMPC.

I took some screen shots as well.



I can't say I am overly impressed by Microsoft's efforts. The UMPC has an uninspired design and a kind of bulky (read: clumsy) look and feel to it. Microsoft's main consumer product competitor, Apple, should not feel threatened.

However, I must give credit to Microsoft:

Like 'em or hate 'em, Microsoft is capitalizing on an ever-growing and paradigm-shifting trend: digital mobility.

We see this powerful trend daily in the cell phones people of all ages use; we see it in the number of wi-fi enabled laptops and notebooks professionals carry around; we see it in the iPods and other mp3 devices people listen to on the bus and commuter trains. The examples go on and on.

Personal, multi-function mobile devices that connect to wireless broadband service will transform the way in which digital content is created and transmitted...and ultimately preserved.

If Microsoft is interested in digital mobility, I believe information professionals should be as well.

Einstein's verdict

Thank you, Albert, I appreciate your endorsement.

It's not all serious business at the DIGITAL Archive...sometimes we come across a funny thing or two and make good use of it.

Make your own Einstein Chalkboard Comment here.

Last day, first day

Last week Friday (March 3) was my last day in the McGill University Archives. This past Monday (March 6) was my first day away from the job, a job that I had held for over 5 years. It's difficult to let go so suddenly. However, I know I still made the right move.

And speaking of which, I read on Ed Bilodeau's blog (a fellow McGill blogger) that he, Ed, has decided to leave his faculty lecturer post to pursue some real cool work at McGill's Web Services Group (WSG), which is the unit in charge of designing and developing McGill University's Gateway website. Sounds like a great gig. Good luck, Ed!

The WSG are a great bunch of smart and creative people. I've collaborated with them in the past, and I believe their plans and projects for the future will be impressive.

So much change going, it's amazing, especially since so many of these changes involve a McGill friend or colleague.

I think there comes a time--or perhaps, in these shaky days, several times--in one's personal or professional life when one realizes, either euphorically or painfully or most likely regrettably, that what one has invested so much time and energy in has not truly fulfilled one's hopes and dreams. There is contemplation and serious questioning. There must be more.

In reading Ed's posting, one line in particular struck me: "The rest of my life has taken a back seat for long enough!"

Well said.

It's time to get behind the wheel and drive.

Thank You

A special thank you to those who posted their well wishes and words of encouragement to the blog as well as to friends and colleagues who emailed me their support...including a few fellow McGill friends who stopped me in the hallways of the McLennan Library Building to wish me well.

Let me tell ya, folks - leaving a job is not an easy decision. But often, to move ahead, one must make these tough choices.

Once again, thank you all. I truly appreciate it, especially at such a moment when you're leaving something familiar and comfortable and embarking on something new and unknown.

Wrapping up

In the past 5 and a half years at McGill, I have certainly accumulated a vast amount of notes, paperwork, folders, files, not to mention megabytes upon megabytes of electronic files (Word docs, HTML files, PDF, Photoshop PSD, etc, etc).

And now it's time to put some final order to them all.

Most of the paperwork--my hand-written notes, web page printouts, article printouts, draft and final reports--relate to digitalpermanence, McGill's e-records management and preservation initiative. In flipping the folders and countless pages, I believe that we--the University Archives--covered a lot of territory, most of which was the 'great unknown' to us all at the time.

A quick glance at my folders reveal the areas covered:

• Email management (best practices)
  
• Email conversion to long-term file format (tests with sample inboxes)
  
• Electronic records transfer and access protocols (report)
  
• Enterprise-wide digital imaging (scanning) standards (report)
  
• Web archiving snapshot tool (application developed)
  
• Courseware information management and preservation (research)
  
• Institutional repositories information management and preservation (research)
  
• Strategies in digital preservation (research)

Besides this, there is the University Archives website I designed and maintained, plus virtual exhibits and web content I created over the years. They'll need some documentation, I suspect.

Back to the wrap up...

"Let's Go Exploring!"

Dear Readers:

A special welcome to those arriving here at The DIGITAL Archive for the first time and a warm welcome back to my casual/constant readers. This will be a short but important posting, one that will affect the future of The DIGITAL Archive.

After 5 and a half years working in the McGill University Archives, including 2 years working on digitalpermanence (the McGill University Archives' electronic records management and preservation project), I have decided to move on and explore other avenues.

While this marks the end of my time at McGill University (and marks the beginning of a hopefully short unemployment period and a major job search), the future of this blog is not in jeopardy.

It's amazing how this curiously named medium--blog--has given me a new perspective on technology and information, and on the evolution of sharing knowledge and exchanging ideas. It's amazing how bloggers that blog about libraries and archives and digitization and digital projects (and you know who you are) have broadened my horizon.

In a way, thanks in part to their enthusiasm and their daily commitment to post news and observations about the world of digital information, these dedicated bloggers helped me make the decision to move onward.

The decision to leave one's job is never easy, particular when the experience was positive. But sometimes the gut feelings and flashing lights are too strong and persistent to ignore, and the courage to make a tough decision surfaces and propels you forward. By chance, I even bumped into a few blogs about just that, here and here.

"OK, so what about The DIGITAL Archive?" you ask.

The DIGITAL Archive--in name, in URL, in design--will remain as such for now. But I will omit its affiliation to McGill University (actually, it was always ad-hoc and unofficial to begin with). Should readers wish to learn more about the McGill University Archives' digitalpermanence project, I encourage them to visit the University Archives' website.

The content of The DIGITAL Archive will change, however. One thing I've noticed about blogging is that content evolves as the writer begins to grow more confident, more focused, on his or her topic of choice. I would like to track interesting news stories that involve digitization projects, institutional and governmental digitization initiatives, digital preservation, the evolution of the Web, the dissemination of online information, RSS, podcasting, the future of archives and libraries, plus a few personal commentaries and observations, if I can squeeze those in as well.

Consider this blog as my connection to world of digitization. I'll use it to stay current as I embark on my job search into--surprise, surprise--the world of digitization.

I promised to make this posting short, but looks like I blew it.

In ending this chapter of this blog, I am reminded of the final instalment of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, in which Calvin, the boy with a gifted imagination that transforms his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, into a real but friendly tiger with a quick wit, steps outside with his sidekick into a world covered by freshly-fallen snow and exclaims, with toboggan in hand: "Let's go exploring!"

Technical Glitches

In reading The DIGITAL Archive, you may notice that the paragraph formatting has gone haywire.

I was tweaking settings over the weekend (and I suspect I fooled around with things I should not have) and there we go. No more paragraphs, just blocks of text.

Hang in there as we fix this technical difficulty.

Article: The End of the Internet?

Is the Internet as we know (and love) about to come to an end?

The Nation has an eye-opening article.

And just when I was getting used to this Internet thing...

Report: Digital Curation and Preservation

A document on digital preservation and strategies for the next decade.

It's a PDF document.

The Digital Preservation of Blogs

Many posts ago, I wrote a piece on whether archivists should digitally preserve blogs. I asked whether preserving blogs should be done, and how should archivists go about doing so, if the decision is made to do so?

The Rogue Librarian discusses this issue in a thoughtful manner. Quoting from RL's post:

"How will tomorrow'’s historians understand the development and impact of blogs? What evidence will future researchers turn to when they want to examine the influence that blogs had on Howard Dean'’s 2004 presidential campaign, or how a blog post disgraced 60 Minutes by revealing that what was believed by Dan Rather to be a legitimate memo about George W. Bush'’s military service was a forgery? What primary source material will show that it was a blogger who filed a Freedom of Information Act request and posted 361 snapshots of coffins of solders killed in the US war in Iraq?"

As a history grad, I can appreciate RL's perspective on the historical significance of blogs (as a communicaton and news & information tool as well as a cultural phenomenon).

The Rogue Librarian also mentions that a group of library school students were investigating the technical, social and legal problems posed by the preservation of blogs

Maybe some of you have some thoughts on this?

Google.cn: The Aftermath

In my last post, I talked about Google's presence in China and its decision to censor certain keywords at the request of the Chinese Government.

Andrew McLaughlin, Senior Policy Counsel at Google, wrote a post on January 27, 2006, called Google in China, that argues Google's decision and responds to criticism expressed by the public.

Granted, this and other news items that I have posted lately have no direct connection to digization or McGill's digitalpermanence project.

But I believe that in pursuing digitization and digital perservation we are in fact pursuing improving and increasing access to information now and in the future...something which Google's decision somewhat strays away from.