Article Series (4): Clear Coping Mechanisms for Dealing with Information Overload

Houghton-Jan, Sarah.  “Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to cope with Information Overload.”  Ariadne.  56 (2008): 1-13.  Web.  20 Sep. 2009.

Ah, the wonderful world of information overload!  We all experience it.  We all worry about it.  Most of us have no idea what to do about it.  (Boy is that soooo true!)  Well, here is a good article for those of you who want to try to do something about this.  This was recommended in a post by Maura Smale on ACRLog titled “Damming the Information Streams.”  So, lots of thanks and praise to Maura for recommending it.  And, upon reading it, I thought the article appropriate for my article series.  Although, I really suggest you read the article in its entirety if you can, as well as Maura’s post.  There is much more to the article than I am going to cover here.  Sarah does a much better job than I can in fleshing out her suggested strategies for coping with information overload.

At the risk of being boring, I am going to give you an outline that includes all of Sarah’s headings and subheadings from the article.  I will include some quotations with commentary for some of the sections (in italics).  But I think the outline is important if you want to pick out the sections you may find useful to you.  Not all of her advice is going to be useful to everyone.

A.  Introduction

B.  The History of Information Overload

“Information overload is not a new concept, believe it or not.  As far back as the sixteenth century people were complaining about the wide range of information they had to consume in order to contribute to society.  During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries an intellectual revolution occurred as books and written information became more widely produced and disseminated, while innovations and new relationships in economics and the sciences emerged.”  (1)

So, this isn’t a new concept/complaint.  Like so many things, this is an issue that has been around for a long time in a wide variety permutations.

C.  The Effects of Information Overload

“Information flowing in from the multitude of devices, organisations, and technologies distracts, pressures, and stresses us. And yet we continue to produce information for ourselves and for others. Every time we send out information, information returns to us, usually two-fold. We deal with both interruptive and non-interruptive information every day. When constantly interrupted with that information, we never have those periods of time when you can think, plan and ponder. As a result, our ability to push our lives and our institutions forward has been greatly compromised.” (2)

Should we stop producing so much information?  Should we make an effort to ‘unplug’ so that we can regroup on a regular basis?  Do you think that being plugged in all the time compromises our efforts to move our lives and institutions forward?  Well, I can’t speak for everyone but I will (sheepishly) admit that I am not as productive at work when I have Twitter and Facebook going throughout the day.  Don’t get me wrong, I think both have their uses, both socially and professionally, but on a daily basis I am more focused when I am a bit more unplugged.  I can multi-task just like most, but I do better and more quality work when I focus on one or two things at a time. 

D.  The Role of Librarians and Other Information Professionals

“So, how do we combat information overload, also known as ADT? Hallowell recommends face-to-face interactions every few hours (what he calls a ‘a human moment’), exercise, enough sleep, a good diet, keeping one’s workspace tidy, breaking large tasks down into smaller ones, and setting aside part of your day as ‘appointment and email free.’ But what really works? What do the people working in the field do to help themselves?” (3)

What works for you?  Maybe we should all try some of these ideas.  I have been trying a few of these things.  My take so far?  They are useful.  I actually have started to clear off the nightmare that is my desk, it keeps me from feeling so overwhelmed.  And I definitely work better when I get some face time with my colleagues each day.

E.  Ten Techniques to Manage the Overload

1.  General Organisational Techniques

a.  Make an Inventory of Information Received

b.  Make and Inventory of Your Devices

c.  Read Up

Some of the books recommended in this section could be useful, but I am a bit cautious because the most recent of these is from 2007.  And, as most things regarding information change so fast these days the content in these books might not be so timely.

d.  Think Before Sending

What is the best way to communicate with someone?  Do you prefer using email, IM, voicemail?  But what is the best way in relation to the information need and/or what is the most effective way to communicate with a particular person?  Maybe speaking to the person face to face is the best method.

e.  Schedule Yourself

f.  Schedule Unscheduled Work

g.  Use Your ‘Down Time’ to Your Benefit

h.  Stay Tidy and on Top

i.  Keep a Waiting List

This might be useful, but only if your list isn’t a mile long.

2.  Filtering Information Received

 a.  Weed, Baby Weed!

b.  Teach Others

c.  Schedule Unplugged Times

d.  Unplug at Will

3.  RSS Overload Techniques

a.  Use RSS When Applicable

b.  Remind Yourself

c.  Limit the Number of Feeds

Yep, I have too many feeds and not enough time to read them.  I think it is time to ‘weed’ some of them out.

d.  Organise Feeds

4.  Interruptive Technology Overload Techniques

a.  Use Interruptive Technology When Appropriate

b.  Check When You Want to

c.  Do Not Interrupt Yourself

d.  Importance of the Status Message

e.  Lobby for IM in Your Workplace

5.  Phone Overload Techniques

a.  Use the Phone When Appropriate

b.  Turn Your Mobile Phone Off

c.  Keep You Number Private

d.  Let It Ring

e.  Work=Work; Home=Home

6.  Email Overload Techniques

a.  Stop ‘Doing Email’

b.  Schedule Email Scanning Times

You got that right!

c.  Deal with Email by Subject

d.  Use Email When Appropriate

e.  Keep Your Inbox Empty

f.  Filter your Messages

g.  File Your Messages

I do some of this, but my problem I tend not to visit those folders very often.  Things get ignored.

h.  Limit Listservs

i.  Follow Good Email Etiquette

j.  Delete and Archive

7.  Print Media Overload Techniques

a.  Just Because You Can Touch It Does Not Mean You Have to Keep It

“Treat physical data the same way you would treat digital data: if you do not absolutely need it, throw it out.” (10)

Oh boy, this one is a lot harder than I can say.  I looove having piles of books around.  They definitely keep me company and provide me quite a bit of comfort.  I love ‘em!

b.  Cancel, Cancel, Cancel

c.  Weed What You Have

8.  Multimedia Overload Techniques

a.  Choose Entertainment  Carefully

b.  Limit Television Viewing

c.  Use Your Commute to Your Benefit

9.  Social Network Overload Techniques

a.  Schedule Time on Your Networks

“Allot yourself a set amount of time to deal with your social networks. Logging in at the beginning of the day can be very dangerous – the friend requests, messages, photo and wall comments, new status updates, blog posts, and fun applications can suck hours out of every day if you let them. Stick to whatever time you allotted yourself.” (11)

Oh . . . so true.  It is so easy for me to lose track of time when I log on in the morning.

b.  Pick a Primary Network

c.  Limit Your IM

10.  Time and Stress Management

a.  Use Your Calendar

b.  Take Breaks

c.  Eliminate Stressful Interruptions

“If you find yourself jumping at audio signals like IM notifications or phones ringing, then silence them. If you feel a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you look at your email, then do not look at it as often. Think about those stressors and do what you can to reduce them.” (12)

I turned off the sound on my computer a long time ago.  It is such a relief!

d.  Look for Software Help

e.  Balance Your Life and Work

“If you find yourself tapping at a keyboard next to your partner on the sofa while you are watching a movie, instead of sidling up next to him or her, you may have a work/life balance problem. Think long and hard about whether or not you have your priorities in the right place. If you know you do not, then you should seek help to re-balance your time.” (12)

I’m not sure I completely agree with this one.  Seeing as I am here, on the sofa, watching a movie, while sitting next to my sweetie.  And I am completely fine with that.  I just don’t do this all the time.

F.  Conclusion

“Consciously thinking about the effectiveness and desirability of each stream of information, and of ways to improve them, will help to get the best information to you in the best way.” (12)

Which is basically what this article can help you do.  It all boils down to this.

“I believe that, as information professionals, we are best equipped to recognise information overload and deal with its effects. We know information; it is our business. We are better positioned than anyone to deal with our own information load and to share those skills and techniques with those we serve. Make the topic of information overload a subject at a staff meeting, the topic of a customer training, and a topic of research for your organisation’s training or technology teams. Together we can help people in general to deal with this deluge of information. But first, we have to deal with our own flood. Happy sailing!” (12)

Well, I’m not sure I’m ready to give others advice.  But I’m certainly ready to deal with my own overload.  So, how about you?

Article Series (3): Lending e-books via interlibrary loan. When?

So the conversation seems to be picking up about e-books in the interlibrary loan community and how we can loan them.  I’ve been asking around for about the last  six months to find out if anyone knows how this is going to eventually happen.  I’m not getting much of a response.  This week the conversation popped up on one of the interlibrary loan listservs.  As part of the conversation someone posted the following article:

Vigen, Jens and Paulson, Kari. (2003)  “E-books and interlibrary loan: an academic centric model for lending.”  Proceedings of the 8th Interlending and Document Supply Conference, Canberra, available at: http://www.nla.gov.au/ilds/abstracts/VigenJ.pdf.  (10/26/09)

So, I read it, but I don’t really think that it is really that current.  And, the authors were really only promoting their particular project.  I’m also a bit reluctant to blindly accept the ideas in the paper because of the authors’ corporate connections (CERN and eBooks Corporation).  Those connections make me wonder if they had any agenda meant to serve their companies, some of what is in the paper makes me believe they did.  Yet, we also cannot dismiss that our vendors will play a role in our eventual solutions to this question.  And, despite any agenda and the age of the paper, about 6 years, some of the issues they address are still relevant today.  Although I have to say, it amazes me that these issues are still unresolved today in 2009.  As a result, I’m not sure this article is really that useful today.  But, I will share some of the more interesting quotes anyway because I think it is an important issue.  E-books will eventually be lent through interlibrary loan, it is just a question of when and how.

“Ebook library solutions have not yet fully made their impact in libraries mainly because of a lack of relevant content and a failure to create a library platform which satisfies librarians’ needs.  Ebook library vendors have also failed to embrace the kinds of new lending models and interactivity that technology makes possible.”  (2)

This quote addresses some of the major problems that keep us from lending ebooks at this point.  No, I have no solutions myself, but it would be nice to be part of the conversation as it moves forward.  I do wish I knew what publishers were thinking about this issue.  Do they even really care at this point?   

“Including functionality such as traditional interlibrary loan into an ebook lending model would no doubt be hard to sell to publishers. To suggest that making ebooks available for ILL would be like creating a librarian’s Napster would certainly be overstating their objection. But publishers do have valid concern about the vulnerability of content in digital format. While publishers may have control over who gets to their content initially, unless a contract governs what the user can do with the content afterwards, they have no control over what happens with the book after that. Without careful consideration of lending permissions, ebooks could threaten to cannibalize the already suffering print book. Publishers do not wish to find that, by making ebooks too accessible, they one day face a market where one ebook serves the need that was once served by ten print books.”  (3)

Maybe these are some of the same issues that they have today.  Maybe there are more.  But the authors make an interesting argument:

“Making ebooks available for ILL may not be appealing to publishers at first glance. However, the publishing industry has much more to gain by introducing an ebook lending model for ILL than by preserving the present situation which favours the courier and leaves the author, the publisher and the librarian out of pocket.”  (4)

So, what are the answers to this conundrum?  I don’t think we are even close to a solution, but there are definitely more people asking questions about how this can happen.  How soon before we start making progress?  Does the solution lie first with the publishers?  The aggregators/vendors?   Libraries?  Well, to start, I’m sure there are more recent blog posts and articles about this issue.  The search continues . . .  

               

 

Celebrating one year of blogging

A year ago I started this blog and really had no idea what I was going to do with it.  Well, of course I knew I was going to post stuff, but I had no overarching theme aside from writing about what it is like to be an academic librarian.  Now, I could write about what I have written in the past year, wax poetic about what my experience has been like this past year . . . nah.  I will say I am glad I started this blog.  But I’m still not sure what this blog is all about, I’m not even sure I have conveyed what it is like to be an academic librarian in the past year.  However, I think I am one year closer to defining what it is that I do here.  Can I convey that today?  Of course not.  But today, one year in, I am going to continue this blog and hopefully provide my few readers with something that may be constructive for them. 

So, thanks for reading and I hope you stick around for the next year.

ACRL/NY Symposium is Fast Approaching, 12.4.09

I will be spending the day at Aldephi-Mahattan with my ACRL/NY colleagues.  We will be going over the final preparations for the symposium on December 4th, at Baruch College right in the middle of Manhattan, and having an Executive Board meeting to reassess our technology needs as we move into the future.  It should be a constructive day. 

Hey, did you hear the symposium is titled “Emerging Leadership in Academic Libraries”?

So, are you going to the symposium?  I hope you are.

What are “Feral Professionals” in librarianship? (Part 2)

So I read the James Neal article from 2006 in Library Journal.  He certainly fleshed out the conversations surrounding the topic of feral professionals.  But I am still confused as ever as to what a clear definition of a feral professional is.  Maybe there isn’t one . . . Although, I am still waiting for someone else to weigh in on the topic.

Neal, James.  “Raised By Wolves: Integrating the new generation of feral professionals into the academic library.”  Library Journal.  131.3 (2006): 42-44.

What are “Feral Professionals” within librarianship?

I’m sure I am way behind a lot of you, but I heard the term “Feral Professionals” for the first time at the LACUNY Institute, held at the CUNY Graduate Center this past Friday, October 23rd.  The person who defined this group of people had a very distinct definition as to who/what they are.   But then based on some of the further discussions I got the sense that the definition wasn’t so clear.  I’m curious to know how others define them.  Please, share your thoughts.  Meanwhile, I’ll do some investigating of my own . . .

Article Series (2): Searching for answers in libraries via 1968

Taylor, Robert S.  “Question-Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries.”  College & Research Libraries.  29.3(1968):178-194.

Well, like my last article, I cannot say why I originally picked this one up.  It was on the same pile as my previous article, the next one in line really.  However, I’m sure it was recommended in a blog post I read in the past six months or so.  I certainly would give the recommender credit if I could recall who it was.  Now, before you question my choice of articles, let me defend myself.  I know this one is from 1968 (about six years before I was born), but having read it I will argue it is as timely and relevant today as it was in 1968.  The author broaches some of the most fundamental questions of librarianship and information management that we still struggle with today.  And, he also looks to the future.  Some of his ideas are today’s reality, others are still a dream.  This is an article I would definitely recommend all MLS students read, in fact, all librarians should read this one every year.  There is a lot in here that I can draw on to, hopefully, improve my skills at answering reference questions.

So, to the article itself.  Taylor brings this up himself, on a very basic level, some may argue that this article is an exercise in the obvious.  Many of the issues raised or described are not new to current information professionals.  Today, these issues are age old concerns that have been discussed, pondered, argued, and worked over for decades.  So, why bother with such an article?  The deeper I got into it, I found Taylor breaks down the information search into detailed steps.  The result is a scientific analysis of the information inquiry that sheds more light onto the challenges associated with reference questions and provides some fascinating strategies on how to approach such inquiries from the perspective of the librarian.  In the abstract it is stated that, “The author contends that research is needed into the techniques of conducting this negotiation between the user and the reference librarian” (178).  I would argue that Taylor began some of this research in this very article himself.

Now, for the sake of not boring you with an incredibly long post summarizing this article I will try to outline it enough to entice you to read it.  Or, I will succeed in truly boring you.  Following Taylor’s introduction, he launches into a section titled “Question Negotiation by Librarians,” which was borne out of a series of interviews of librarians.

A.  Question Negotiation by Librarians (Taylor analyses the approach the inquirer uses to get information.  He even includes a very interesting flow chart near the beginning.)

            1.  Once arriving at the information desk there are 4 possible levels of information need and questions:

                      a.  “the conscious or even unconscious need for information”

                      b.  “a conscious mental description of an ill-defined area of indecision”

                      c.  “an inquirer can form a qualified and rational statement of his question”

                      d.  “the question is recast in anticipation of what the files can deliver” (182)

             2.  Taylor defines these needs as follows:

                      Q1-the visceral need

                      Q2-the conscious need

                      Q3-the formalized need

                      Q4-the compromised need (182)

              3.  Each question posed at the reference desk goes through five general filters that allows the librarian to assist the inquirer.  Taylor delves into a great description of the obstacles associated with each of these filters:

                        a.  determination of subject

                        b.  objective and motivation

                        c.  personal characteristics of inquirer

                        d.  relationship of inquiry description to file organization

                        e.  anticipated or acceptable answers (183-188) 

B.  The next section of the article is titled “The Information Seeking Strategies of Users,” where Taylor describes an analytic study done of a group of users.  The study involved the users describing the steps they went through in their search for answers to a self-chosen question.  We have all read, or come across, similar studies of this kind that have been published since 1968, but if you are interested in such studies you might want to give this one a quick read too.

C.  Taylor’s final section, “Summary and Conclusions,” pulls together the issues he wrote of earlier through two sections titled “Negotiation” and “Self-Help.”  The final heading in this section is “Possible Systems and Devices,” and attempts to tie it to the information seeking challenges he is addressing in the bulk of the paper.  He writes of current (1968) innovations.  One such innovation we recognize as one of the precursors to the database.  The name is great: “Recordak Lodestar Microfilm Reader-Printer with an Image Control Keyboard.” (193). Seriously, if you read nothing else of this article, read about the Recordak system.  It is fascinating to read today, knowing what we know about databases. 

This article is very rich with a lot of great information and a great read for historical interest.  I could load up this post with tons of quotes, but I will finish with just one that I think will leave you all nodding in agreement and give you something to think about.  It is as timely today as it was then.

             “If libraries, at any level of service, are going to grow and evolve (and indeed exist) as integral parts of our urban techno-scientific     

               culture, then they must know themselves.  They must know themselves both as local and rather special institutions and as parts of very

               large, very dynamic, and very complex information and communications networks, which operate on both a formal and

               informal level” (194).

ACRL/NY Still accepting poster proposals until 10/27 for Symposium

Call for Poster Sessions

The 2009 ACRL/NY Annual Symposium, “Emerging Leadership in Academic Libraries” focuses on the importance of leadership in academic libraries today and the paths to achieving and sustaining it. This Symposium will address myriad questions of leadership: What does it take to be a leader? How do we mentor leaders within our institutions? How do we take charge of our own career paths? How do we move into leadership roles? We will open up discussions of leadership across the different stages of librarianship.

ACRL/NY invites you to submit a poster session proposal for the Symposium. It can address any issue related to this theme. Examples follow:

• Professional collaboration
• Management styles in libraries
• Motivating/inspiring librarians
• Getting yourself published
• Experience in leadership development
• Mentoring/mentoring programs
• Creating new roles
• Moving into leadership roles
• Promoting yourself

Please email a 100-200 word description of your poster session proposal to Symposium Planning Committee member Gloria Meisel at gloria.meisel@sunywcc.edu by October 27, 2009 (deadline extended). Include author name(s), email and telephone contact numbers, and the title of the poster session. Presenters will receive a reduced Symposium registration rate (maximum of two). The successful candidates will be notified by early November. You will be expected to set up by 8:15 am and stay through the final poster session time of 2:45 pm. There is no wireless capability and no availability for electronic sessions. Posters cannot be displayed on walls. Rectangular tables and two chairs will be provided.

We look forward to your submissions.

Register Now for the ACRL/NY Annual Symposium, December 4, 2009

Register Now for the ACRL/NY Annual Symposium 2009 

http://acrlnysymp09.wordpress.com/about/ 

Emerging Leadership in Academic Libraries Leaders inspire and motivate us. Leaders create vision and purpose. But what does it take to be a leader in today’s academic library? How do we mentor and sustain leaders within our organizations? How do we take charge of our own career paths and move into leadership roles? This symposium will address these questions while opening up a discussion of leadership across the different stages of librarianship. 

***Speakers will be Mary Carmen Chimato, Amanda Etches-Johnson, Damon Jaggars, and Brian Mathews***

Register online from the symposium’s web site (and find information for registering by check/mail):  http://acrlnysymp09.wordpress.com/about/  

Walk-in registrations will not be accepted.  

We hope to see you there!

The publication of our chapter is coming out this month

I am happy to announce that two colleagues and I have a chapter in a book that is coming out at the end of this month from IGI Global.  The title of the book is the Handbook of Research on Practices and Outcomes in E-Learning: Issues and Trends and comes in at a hefty 626 pages.  Our chapter is in Section IV: Professional and Disciplinary Implications and is titled “Librarian as Collaborator: Bringing E-Learning 2.0 into the Classroom by Way of the Library” (Chapter XVI or 16).

This book’s focus is on higher education, but does not cut it so fine as to only be about libraries.  We thought it would be nice to submit to a non-library specific, but academic, publication.  Happily, our proposal and eventual chapter was accepted.  I want to thank both my colleagues for allowing me to be a part of this project.  It was a great, although tough, experience that I  can now build on in the future.