Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 26 - Wrapping Up

This was the final instalment of the Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers year of posts. Thank you to the organisers for a really interesting and useful year. Next year I would like to put into practice some of the concepts explored in more depth.

Happy New Year!

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 25 - Sources Revealed

The 25th blog post in the Productivity series looks at useful sources on productivity techniques. I don't think I can do better than simply link to the post, as it's fantastically useful.

http://www.academicpkm.org/2013/12/09/year-productivity-session-25-sources-revealed/

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 24 - Characteristics of a Vibrant Personal Learning Network

Session 24 of the Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers programme looks at learning communities. It suggests choosing an online community and actively participating, discussing topics and sharing links. It's good advice and something I intend to try.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 23 - Productive Meetings

Session 23 looks at meetings. I actually like the way meetings are done at my workplace - at least as far as my own role in them is concerned (the meetings that management have do not look like fun!). My biggest tip for an effective meeting is: have an agenda and know exactly what you are going to talk about. This way you don't get bogged down in unnecessary discussion.

For longer meetings, tea and biscuits/cake are also very good for morale!

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 22 - Revisiting PLNs

Session 22 is about revisiting PLNs. I seem to have got rather behind on this, so I will keep this brief. I have really neglected Twitter of late so I will make an effort to get more involved once again. It was the main method by which I learned of and discussed interesting things, and I do miss it.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 21 - Blogs – Their Care and Feeding

Productivity session 21 looks at blogs. I have followed a number of blogs since before starting my own a few years ago. I've got to know several other librarians via their Twitter feeds and their blogs, and blogs offer opportunities for extended writing and exploration of ideas that Twitter doesn't.

I don't know if my blog network has changed all that much over the last couple of years. Which is a sign, perhaps, that I should look into expanding it a little.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 20 - Following Our Digital Footprints

Session 20 looks at digital footprints. Way back when I was doing the 23 Things programme I looked at this in more depth and edited my LinkedIn profile, blog page and anything else within my power. Googling myself, it seems my singing Sheffield-based namesake is still going and with her dominating Google searches, I'm safe until page 15. Despite this, I think it's definitely time to make some changes - I've been thinking about updating this blog for a while, and I suppose I should edit my LinkedIn profile too...

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 19 - Which Social Media Tool is Right for You?

Session 19 looks at social media and I found it interesting to explore the ways in which students and researchers can make use of Facebook and Twitter. Personally I've found Twitter extremely valuable in engaging with other librarians and information workers, and I think it's worthwhile to think about how social media networks can be utilised by library users.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 18 - What is a learning network?

Session 18 of Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers looks at learning networks. The PLN Starter Kit seems like a really handy resource, so I've bookmarked it for the future.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 17 - Cloud Storage

Session 17 (which I've come to a little late as I've been on holiday) looks at cloud storage. I use Dropbox and I love it, but I also have an external hard drive which I use for larger multimedia files such as my music collection (though I've also recently added this to Google Play). For everyday word processing and similar files, though, Dropbox is great - free, easy to use and reliable (or so I've found, anyway).

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 16 - Mindmapping Revisited

I'm not really a fan of mind maps; I'm not sure my brain works that way. However, I enjoyed reading this week's piece, and loved looking at the beautiful artistic mind maps on Mind Map Art. I also bookmarked the Five Best Mind Mapping Tools site for future reference.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 15 - Feed Readers

This Productivity session looks at feed readers - ironically appropriate given the recent demise of Google Reader. I can't be the only one who panicked when I found out it was going to be shut down, and I migrated my feed first to the Old Reader, then, when I found out that it too was going to be shut for public users, to Feedly. I haven't had a chance to investigate its functionality properly, but the fact that there is a mobile app available and it is compatible with IFTTT is promising.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 14 - Research Management

Just a quick post this week - the Research Management session cites this Wikipedia article on Comparison of reference management software, which I have bookmarked for easy future reference.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 13 - Annotation Software

Reading this session's blog post on annotation software, I was struck by how much things
have changed since I was a student doing research. Even as a postgraduate three years ago, I was still making notes by hand, a laborious process but one which I was used to.

I've come across resources like EndNote before but Qiqqa is something I'd not heard of. Having looked through the manual I am very impressed and it's something I will keep in mind if I need to do research in the future.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 12 - Choosing Software for Academic Workflow

Session 12 of the Productivity programme looks at software for academic workflow. The websites and links given looked really handy, and I bookmarked them to check them out in more detail later.

I took a closer look at the writing and transcription services on the Bamboo DiRT website. These in particular seem particularly useful for researchers and writers, and I made a note of some. I also found the data conversion section particularly interesting, notably the PDF to Word converter which I think could come in very handy!

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 11 - Academic Workflow

Session 11 of the Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers course dealt with academic workflow. I'm not currently an academic librarian as such, and I don't need to do a great deal of research in my job or life in general. However, I read through the resources listed and made a note of them for the future.

Workflow is important in my current role as I need to perform a number of tasks and keep on top of everything. All I do is, like the work of the rest of my team, recorded in process documents that are updated regularly as a record of what has been, and what needs to be, done.

I recently wrote an article and found Evernote very useful for recording my research and saving links. If I was to pursue any in-depth study in the future, I would probably use a specialist referencing app such as Zotero.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 10 - Task Automation

This week’s Year for Productivity post was on task automation. I signed up to IFTTT ages ago but never really used it as I couldn’t work out anything I particularly needed it for. Despite watching all the tutorials, I’m still not convinced that this is an essential service for me at the moment, even though I think it’s very clever and I can understand why some people love it.

I’ve decided to make a bit more of an effort with it, however, and spent some time looking around the site searching for inspiration. I activated a couple of recipes and created one too – perhaps if I spend some time on it, I’ll learn some useful tips.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 9 - Security In the Cloud

Session 9 of the Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers programme looked at Internet security in the cloud. I enjoyed reading the blog post: I had been vaguely aware of the risks of open WiFi and cloud computing, but never really thought much about it. Though I use both Dropbox and Google Drive frequently, I don’t keep sensitive documents there, so if someone DID get their hands on them, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

I looked for my workplace’s IT policy but could only find a fairly basic one. I wouldn’t use cloud computing via Dropbox for work purposes in any case, as I could access my work filestore by setting up my computer to do so. In practice, however, I’ve never needed to access work files outside of work.

I read Emma Byrne’s three-part series about cloud computing in Forbes, and while a lot of it went over my head, I got the impression that cloud computing can be as safe or safer than other storage methods if it is managed in the right way. This seems fair enough, particularly given the number of news stories (at least in Britain) about USB sticks containing sensitive data being left on public transport. Whatever method of data storage you use, it needs to be researched and managed properly.

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 8 - Habit Forming

The eighth session of the Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers programme is about habits. I found the blog post useful in getting me to question how and why habits form and how they can be made or broken. I have mixed experience with this. Some habits I attempt to form are successful, others not. Sometimes, simply forcing myself to repeat something until it becomes more of an effort to stop doing it than to carry on is enough to make a habit stick. At other times, despite my good intentions, I fail within a few days.

It helps if I can see a benefit to continuing the habit. I developed the habit of going to the gym a few years ago, and managed to stick to it for several years because I could really feel the benefit. Sadly through lack of time I've stopped going recently but I definitely intend to start again!

I've recently resolved to eat more healthily which will involve a lot of determination and concentration! I've made a good start by being organised and making lots of lists so I have time to shop for the right ingredients and cook well-balanced meals. Let’s see how that goes!

Productivity for Academic Librarians and Researchers: Session 7 - Notebook Software

Notebook software is the topic for Session 7 of the Year of Productivity programme. I'm a big fan of Evernote and use it constantly for so many things: rough notes, more detailed notes, conference notes, Christmas card and present lists, recipes, clipped web pages, lists... I wouldn't want to be without it. I have the desktop version on my laptop and netbook, the app for my phone and use the web version at work.

I wasn't able to read the article1 as I don't have access to the relevant databases, but I looked through the abstract. I read some of the other articles and blog posts and found several useful, particularly the post about using Evernote for genealogical research. I also looked at the Secret Weapon site and found some tips. I'd never thought of using Evernote to store emails: this looks like it could be a useful way of organising them.



1 Axford, M., & Renfro, C. (2012). Noteworthy Productivity Tools for Personal Knowledge Management. Online, 36(3), 33-36.