Stressing Out About Relaxation

I apologize to my loyal blog readers (and blurkers) that I haven’t posted as often as usual. I have been stressed with assignments for Information Literacy and Management classes at school.

Apparently I arranged for a workshop on relaxation techniques just in time for myself (and a lot of other people too!). The program was oversubscribed and I must secretly admit that I was totally stressed about the (stress) program! The waiting list was longer than the number of people who could attend the program and it snowed the day of the program so many people were unable to make it. In the end the people that came 32/40 were really happy about the event and learned a lot. I left the event with a sense of relief even though I have to do this again for 2 more weeks! I believe that I will be much more relaxed for the next two programs!

I strongly believe that it is difficult to admit feelings of stress in public and I personally applaud anyone who came out to that workshop and who signed up for the waiting list. We all experience stress in our lives and I think many of us could learn some techniques to better cope with stress.

It was well worth my time to rethink how my own personal outlook and expectations can cause me stress, to try out Progressive Muscle Relaxation (tensing up and relaxing each and every muscle in your body) and creative visualization.   Taking the time to stretch showed me just how much tension I hold in my neck! I also came to the realization that I am one of those people that feels guilty about making time for myself. It helps me to recognize this since I know that when I make time for me, I find that I am a better person not only to myself, but to others as well.

Some things we all can do to better cope with stress:

Ensure that you get a good night’s sleep, are eating nutritious balanced meals (try to avoid caffeine – I know that’s really difficult sometimes for me), getting regular exercise and taking time for leisure. Much of what the workshop discussed can be found at The Road to Well Being (a website developed by psychologists at the Department of Clinical Health Psychology, Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan).

If you are interested in learning more about this topic you might want to consider some of the following resources suggested:

The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook (5^th edition, 2000) by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman, and Matthew McKay. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.

The Relaxation Response (1975) by Herbert Benson. New York: Morrow.

Beyond the Relaxation Response (1984) by Herbert Benson. New York: Times Books.

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness (1990) by Jon Kabat-Zinn. New York: Delta.

Wherever You Go, There You Are (1994) by Jon Kabat-Zinn. New York: Hyperion.

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy (revised edition, 1999) by David Burns. New York: Avon.

The Feeling Good Handbook (revised edition, 1999) by David Burns. New York: Plume.

Ten Days to Self-Esteem (1992) by David Burns. New York: Morrow.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff … and It’s All Small Stuff (1995) by Richard J. Carlson. New York: Hyperion.

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (revised edition, 2006) by Susan Jeffers. New York: Ballantyne Books.

My Newest Favourite Book

Last week I read this article in the Toronto Star and just yesterday I picked up the book which the article refers to “Black Stars in a White Night Sky” by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Sherwin Tijia. The illustrations are simple and powerful. One of my favourite poems in the book is “Love” and I think part of what I really like about this poem is the illustration matches with it so well. As a graduate student I couldn’t help but relate to “Being Thoughtless” as sometimes I wish it were easier to set aside thoughts and worries. I cried and then laughed when reading Humpty Dumpty – I had thought he was hard-boiled! The words in “The Maple Leaves that Mabel Leaves” were wonderful to read aloud. Poems such as “The days have names” and “How without arms” really show how well JonArno can write and question things that happen in a way which children appreciate and often do themselves. Some other pensive poems I recommend in this book are “An Adventure Begins” and “I Practiced”. I love the Ontario element added to the book as well with the poems “Etobicoke”, “Pembroke” and “Music Lessons at the Hamilton Armouries”. JonArno’s poems are lyrical, nonsensical, often pensive, sometimes loving and much of the time funny. Poetical devices used include alliteration, rhyme, rhythm and repetition which roll off the tongue smoothly and in such a fun way that children are sure to love listening to and saying the poems themselves. For me this book deserves a place next to Alligator Pie – it is that good and definitely I love it more than Shel Silverstein’s poetry (which I hold pretty closely to my heart).

Congratulations to JonArno Lawson and Sherwin Tijia on winning the Lion and the Unicorn award – this book is most deserving of this award and I can’t wait to check out more work by both. To read some poetry by found in this book and to see other books by this Toronto author check out his website.

McMaster Library is Changing

iLibrarian has a post which refers to this article in the December 2007 issue of University Affairs, which talks about Jeff Trzeciak, a tech-savvy University Librarian at McMaster University who is at the forefront of change happening in academic libraries and academic library spaces.   Apparently the currently library “Thode”  is going to be a transformed and I quote:

“A café, diner-style booths, stand-up workstations, oversized ottomans, and even coffee tables with pillows on the floor will take their place, all equipped for online access. Interactive touch-screen monitors will line the wall.”

It sounds like Jeff Trzeciak has taken on an incredibly large advocacy project and done so successfully from this article.  I think that academic libraries need to change to continue to encourage students to use academic library spaces and access all the resources even for papers where there are more than enough e-resources available to gain a satisfactory grade.  My only concern is:  will there be any quiet study space or does the younger generation using the university not require quiet study space any more?

As a mid-20-something who is still studying at a university my thought is that I personally like to visit libraries with quiet and comfortable study spaces that allow wireless Internet access and allow lots of natural light into the building.  Also, it is especially nice when I can bring in my cup of tea – for me that is an absolute necessity on some days!  I find that more and more public libraries allow me to do that, but most academic libraries do not allow covered drinks in the library.  Allowing students to bring in covered drinks is a welcome convenience when students plan to study inside the library, at least in certain spaces within the library where computers and irreplaceable reference books will not be subjected to possible water damage from students who spill their drinks.

Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day. Many Canadians have not lived through war or experienced it first hand. Instead some of us play war games on the computer and video games but (and I think fortunately) this does not seem to give us any idea of the nightmare that many of our veterans have experienced first hand. We also catch glimpses of war through the media. I know that I personally feel really far removed from the war even though my grandmother was an evacuee in the Second World War. It is so important to remember that war has happened, can happen and is happening in our world. If we forget this than we have learned nothing from some of the worst attrocities in known human history.

This week I attended a library to hear this veteran talk about his experience in the navy during the Second World War. If you have never heard the first hand account of a war veteran and have never experienced war first hand it may be helpful to you to hear some of the stories of war that can’t be told through statistics alone. Below is a listing of websites with information on War from a Canadian perspective – mostly the focus here is on the First World War but there are some sites below with information on the Second World War.

CBC site – Lest we Forget
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/remembranceday/

Military and Personnel Records
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-909-e.html

Learn more about the poppy and the poppy campaign
http://www.legion.ca/asp/docs/rempoppy/allabout_e.asp

Virtual Museum of Canada and the Second World War – this includes veteran’s stories
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Militaris/

Jewish Holocaust Survivors tell some of their stories
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/orphans/english/

Oral Histories of the First World War
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/first-world-war/interviews/index-e.html

War Diaries of the First World War
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/020152_e.html

Mary Riter Hamilton (artist) on The Traces of War
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/traces-of-war/index-e.html

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

 Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Click here to see an artist’s representation of Flanders Fields.

Which Web-based Free E-mail Program to Teach?

I have been thinking a lot lately about FREE web based e-mail and which program to teach to the 50+ crowd, new moms, immigrants and construction workers – this is the typical make-up of those attending this computer classes which I teach.

For the past year and a half I have been teaching the email class using Yahoo but over the past few weeks I have noticed that Yahoo has totally revamped their interface. In many ways I prefer the new interface but when I teach groups to sign up for e-mail using the new Yahoo I can’t spend very long talking about each field on the sign up page. If you take too long than clients are automatically booted out and have to start over, except you don’t find that out until you finish the form.

I could teach my course differently so that I talk about the form and then have students fill it out, but I know that for the most part my students don’t listen well for long periods of time (they aren’t in school and aren’t used to listening to lectures) so it works far better if they can do what I want them to do right away. Does anyone know if sign up forms for different web based e-mail programs allow a longer time window for users to fill them out?

The programs I could consider switching to are Windows Live Mail (aka Hotmail) or Gmail. There are other free web-based e-mail programs out there, however I am not sure how stable they are. Also, many of the people attending my class will go home and practice and may then ask for the help of friends and family. If I use a popular program chances are that friends and family will be able to assist if required. Some of the other factors I have been weighing are:

Other Features:

Yahoo and Gmail both have chat built-in to the e-mail program. I do not have the time and students won’t be ready to learn IM chat during the course I teach so I end up leaving this feature out of my teaching. I am not certain whether or not this is a good idea, but I only have an hour and a half time frame and I think it is most important to students to get across the basics of e-mail without overloading students with too much information.

Advertising:

All three of these web-based e-mail programs have advertising, but Gmail does it in a very different way from the other two options. Although advertisements are unpredictable, with the way Gmail works — they put ads up based on the content of your email — this could be pretty offensive to some people so for this reason I am hesitant about teaching Gmail to new e-mail users.

Tabs vs. Separate Windows:

I initially thought it may be more difficult for new users to understand the difference between having separate tabs open which is how the new Yahoo! Mail works vs. the separate window effect which Windows Live Mail and Gmail utilize. I have found that new users are surprisingly quick to pick up the tabs using Yahoo so I don’t think this is an issue at all.

Folders vs. Tagging:

I am unsure whether it is easier for new users to understand the concept of tagging e-mails as Gmail allows or of putting emails into folders as Yahoo and Windows Live Mail offer. I think new email users will understand the concept of folders more easily than tagging, but I am unsure.

Any ideas or thoughts on this would be helpful! I would be curious to know which web based email other libraries teach and also about what you think would be easiest to learn as a new email user.

Advertising inside library books

I just read this article on the BBC news site that some county libraries in the UK will soon be putting insert advertisements into library books.

The article quotes Mark Jackson, of Howse Jackson Marketing, who says: “Library inserts are innovative, unique and offer audience segments which can be traditionally hard to reach.”

Although this may be so, I wonder if these inserts will really work for marketers and if the library is really going to be fully compensated for the amount of time it takes for staff to put the inserts into the books and to remove the inserts too. Will they end up like junk mail or those pieces of paper people leave on car windshields? It is sounding like that to me, but I could be wrong and only time will tell.

As a person working in a library, my concern is that this seems to go against customer service principles. It will hold up lines at the circulation (borrower services) desks when the library is busy. What about books that are being checked-out using self-checkout machines? I guess I must presume that the libraries incorporating this probably don’t use self-checkout machines and probably are closed stacks libraries as most libraries are in the UK.

One issue for me with this practice is the time staff would have to spend in dealing with complaints over advertisements in the books. In the beginning there would be many complaints, but as time moves ahead there would be less complaining done. Instead I think complaints would later become more focused around specific advertisements which could be seen as offensive. This will take up the time of staff at the information services/reference desk and people may end up stuck in longer lines when the library is busy. How much control would libraries have over which advertisements to put in books – would they have much choice? I wonder if some companies would say if you put in my advert I’ll give you more than the other advert pays. This might affect which advert gets placed in a book. Also, people hold libraries in a high level of esteem and trust, so if we put adverts in books they may trust that the library has agreed to put the advert in the book so there may be some truth to the advert or that it may be a better company to do business with than another similar company.

Finally, what about the environment? 3m inserts available per month would mean a lot of trees being cut down and a lot of ink being used.

Are these adverts in books really worth it for libraries? Maybe the money the library makes from the adverts will increase funding to improve the collection and programs. I have an inkling that it may instead require more staff be hired to replace inserts. Did anyone ever think that this could add to repetitive strain injuries in libraries? I really hope that it doesn’t, but suspect that it might. I guess only time will tell. I think this is definitely something to watch and wonder if and when it will be picked up on this side of the ocean.