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Saturday, June 9
Link Dump Redux
by
Jason
on Sat 09 Jun 2007 03:24 PM CST
So after saying a couple entries ago that I never do link dump posts, here I am doing another one. Maybe I should give in and make this a recurring feature on the blog, just like the Friday Fun Links? Heck, I could have a whole week's worth of features and never have to come up with an original thought again!Sunday Photo of the Day (Flickr or From My Own Collection)MetaFilter MondaysYouTubesday Wikipedia Wednesday Thursday Download of the DayFriday Fun LinkSaturday Link Dump o' The Week Or maybe that would be incredibly dumb. 
But anyhow, (seeing as it's Saturday) here's a few more link dumps for you..."OMG! My mom joined Facebook" - NYTimes Facebook's recent facelift (ha!) is deeper than I initially realised. All those new widgets you can add to your profile are a big step in Facebook's attempt to become a "social operating system". They don't want to be bought out by Google or Microsoft - they apparently want to *be* Google or Microsoft. This could get interesting!"More Advice College Graduates Don't Want To Hear" - NYTimesLots of good tidbits here - I'm a big fan of "pay yourself first" along with "pay yourself 10% of everything you make" having read "The Wealthy Barber" while still in high school. The sooner you start saving, the better off you'll be in the long term. Chris Graves has a link to a site that explains compound interest in a very straight-forward manner. How do you save 10% when you're young and not making much or paying off student loans or whatever? It's hard but not impossible. Set up an arrangement with your RRSP company (you do have an RRSP, right?) to automatically withdraw 10% from each paycheque (or from your student loans even!) and adjust your spending accordingly. Don't buy Starbucks. Don't buy smokes. Don't buy booze, shoes or a CD of the blues if it means you won't be able to save that initial 10% every month.
Man, I have lots more to say on this - this should be a full post sometime (why do I have a memory that I already linked to Chris Graves' post on compound interest? It's taken a year but more and more, I feel like I'm repeating myself on this blog.)LIS757 Delicious Links PageThis semester's social networking class at FIMS has a page where students are required to submit links to stories about various aspects of Web 2.0. Lots of good browsing here! (Bonus to the person who can identify which submission here is a link back to my blog. Since Delicious only shows titles, not URL's, I'd have to scan through all of them to find out which person linked back to me - which is how I found this page initially.)The Loneliness of the Conservative Librarian"When David Brooks did some research into political donations by profession for his September 11, 2004, column in The New York Times,
he found that for librarians "the ratio of Kerry to Bush donations was
a whopping 223 to 1." By contrast, the corresponding ratio for
academics was 11 to 1. As one of those rarest of beasts, a conservative
librarian, I can attest firsthand to the stifling left-wing orthodoxy
of modern American librarianship."
Another anecdote which I think I've told before... I was walking out of our first day orientation and ended up walking beside Quinn (though I didn't know he was Quinn just yet!) and he noted that he'd recently read an article about how librarianship was the most left-wing, progressive profession by far. I was like "yeah, and..." Anyhow, that's a thought that's been going through my head lately - looking at Facebook profiles of colleagues who are brave (stupid?) enough to note their political and religious beliefs (not that these two are linked - I know there are progressive religious people and there are conservative ones.) Anybody looking for an RQ challenge? Do a search for any studies of the political leanings of librarians. Or use the Political Compass quiz and Survey Monkey to do an informal study on your blog. (I'd do these things but time does not actually exist for me right now!) Or do a full-fledged independent study at FIMS next term and send me the results!  Here's my results by the way:Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -8.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.74
Sunday, June 3
How To Give A Good Presentation
by
Jason
on Sun 03 Jun 2007 05:22 PM CST
This is a subject that's been on my mind as a possible topic for a post since probably before I started this blog and came back to the forefront of my thoughts after getting some very nice compliments about the eulogy I did for my grandfather last week.
I'm not a presentation expert by any stretch but, without a lot of formal training, I do think that I've developed the ability to give a decent talk when required (although I've also had a few clunkers in my life too!) So, what are my personal tips for giving a good presentation?1. Be original. I always like to attack my topics from a unique angle if possible. This was especially useful in a library school classroom where often many individuals or groups are presenting on the same or similar topics but also applies in other settings as well. It can be as small as asking to present on public library collection policies in my "Collection Development for Academic Libraries" course to taking on the persona of a young adult who is in a coma for my book talk in Children's Lit to trying to write eulogies that break out of the "The deceased was born here, lived here, got married when, had this many kids, this many grandkids, enjoyed pastimes such as and passed away then" template that so many people use mixed with glittering generalities ("He was a wonderful person." "She had a great sense of humour.") It can be risky - someday I'll post the obituary I wrote for my grandma where I talked about how she pretended to be an alien from another planet - but it can work. Not only did a lady come up to me after my grandfather's funeral to tell me they still had clipped and saved my grandma's obituary from nearly a decade ago but at the time, that unique obituary got my Grandma written up in the National Post. 2. Use humour.
It's tough to do this effectively and again, I've told some clunker-jokes that aren't much better than the crap you find in "1001 Jokes for Toastmasters". But in my opinion, effective use of humour is vital to keep your audience interested (or even just awake!)3. Be prepared.
Try to know your material inside and out. I'm not always the best at doing this (and it was hard to do in library school just because of how busy we were) but when I do know my stuff well, it really helps the confidence and reduces the public speaking stress we all feel. For example, I did ten drafts of the eulogy I was going to do for my grandfather all building on the previous one and so that was like an ongoing rehearsal. Then, when it was finalized, I read it over, both silently and aloud, probably another dozen times. At the funeral, I read the eulogy from a script but was comfortable ad-libbing a few comments and probably could've done it in a completely ad-libbed fashion if I had a cue card with a few main keyword reminders on it. 4. Don't Just Talk
It can be gimmicky but I'm a big fan of props, games or other elements beyond that which are spoken to make the presentation more engaging. One example - I started a presentation on digitization by taking a digital photo of the audience in front of me. Another eulogy example - my grandma was famous for enjoying mints and candies so before I got up to speak, I handed out a bag of wrapped candies to be passed around each section of the church. This also gave me an opportunity to add some humour as my first comment once I got to the podium was a joke about the punishment awaiting anyone who chose to litter in church!5. Be Concise
I stole this idea from Elisabeth Davies who taught us Cataloguing and Research Methods but if you use Powerpoint, I'm a big fan of very plain, simple slides without a lot of text on them. In the MetaTalk thread below, someone suggests you shouldn't have more than six words on a slide and that's a guideline I try to follow myself. Here's a couple other good resources:How To Save Your Butt When Giving A Presentation (via Citadel of the Blogs)MetaFilter "MetaTalk" Discussion About A Presentation Given By The Site's Founder Googling variations of "Presentation Tips" will lead to lots of other resources.
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