Information Overload is the Devil

If you haven't seen this great presentation from Librarian in Black then here it is! She believes that we do struggle to keep up and control the amount of stuff that we try to read. As I sit here at home in the evening doing this post I am quite sure that she is so right! Why am I not playing the piano, watching tv or a host of other more healthy things? It's because it's so hard to find the time (no, schedule the time) and be disciplined. Do take a look at this - I will take note myself too!

Information Overload is the Devil

View more presentations from Sarah Houghton-Jan.

More about what students say about researching

Further to my post on 8 April about Head and Eisenbeg's report (University of Washington) about how students study derived from focus groups on 7 US campuses : there are also two YouTube videos called the InfoLit Dialogs :
No 1 is about Presearch and attitudes to Wikipedia (part of this could be used to preface a session on Wikipedia.

No. 2 is about Procrastination and how most students leave everything to the last minute (again could be useful as a discussion prompt)


Thanks to Facebook I spotted a reference to these videos by Susan Ariew, one of the book's contributors - so thank you Susan!

Keeping up and avoiding information overload

I can thoroughly recommend Librarian in Black's presentation on Slideshare for a two hour session at the Texas Library Association's annual conference in 2009 (held in Houston). It covers methods for dealing with information overload, ways to stay current, and tools/sites/resources for staying current in the field of librarianship. I've never seen such a comprehensive treatment. Guess what I remember most from it is : take charge ; weed ; don't be a victim!

Time to consider

With the weather marooning us the last few days it is quite appropriate that I recommend two bunches of resources to help us get things done!
100 powerful tools to help your organise your thoughts and ideas, from Alisa Miller who says "
Now you can turn to these tools found on the Internet that will help you with tasks such as note-taking, bookmarking websites, highlighting important text during online research, creating mind maps, tracking time, keeping up with appointments, collaborating with others, managing projects, and much more."
A fantastic list.

Cameron Chapman at Mashable has compiled a great list at GTD Toolbox : 100+ Resources for Getting Things Done. All aiming to help you be more productive and save time : once you've mastered the applications...

Thanks must go to iLibrarian for drawing these to our attention.

Having trouble managing your time?

Here are a couple of short articles on information overload and how to cope. They're short and might give you heart! I puzzle over how some people seem to write 20 posts a day, keep abreast of 100 blogs, multitask etc.etc.
Guess the key phrase in the second article is
"Want to eliminate your distractions, it's easy. Disable email alerts. Exit Twitter, sign out of IM or set yourself as "busy." Trying to write? Launch Darkroom, Notepad, or Windows Live Writer. Then just work...in peace."

Where I've been going wrong all these years??

I know it's not much to do with Information Literacy, but I know this post has travelled around the blogs a good deal and I want to share it with you : I tried it with my colleagues here and no-one has spoken to me since, so I hope it doesn't have a similar effect on you...
17 Unbeatable Ways to Create a Peaceful, Relaxed Workday may be the way to take the stress out of your day! Don't like the idea of an early morning run or bath though (playing the piano suits me better - maybe not my wife...), single-tasking (ha!), taking breaks and stretching (good idea) and mini-meditations...