kate davis

an apple a day... get well this august!

augustwellness 3 Responses »
Jul 312011

Another monthly challenge… but this time, one that’s totally good for you!

Along with a few of the people I hang around the interwebs, during August, I’ll be doing one positive thing for my wellness every day. We’re calling it the #augustwellness challenge, and you’re invited to play along.

When we say ‘wellness’, we mean ‘whole person wellness’ – mind, body, soul. It’s not about running 10km every morning; it’s about doing simple things that will impact on your overall wellness.

They don’t have to be big things. For example, I struggle to find time to cook dinner, so a positive thing I might do one day is actually cook dinner – and that simple thing is positive on so many levels… because it means I’m eating a proper meal; because it means I need to stop working at a reasonable hour; because it means I get to spend time doing something I love.

So play along, and document your daily achievement by tweeting about it with the hashtag #augustwellness. If you’re participating in #dailyimage2011 or #2011PAD, you might like to post a photo to Flickr to document each thing (I’ve created an #augustwellness group for you to add your image to) – but make sure you tweet it, too, for those who aren’t playing along with your image-taking challenge.

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redesigning evidence based practice for wicked problem solving

conference presentations, ebl, evidence No Responses »
Jul 052011

I spent the better part of last week at the Sixth International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference (EBLIP6) in Manchester, where I presented a paper co-authored with the wonderful Zaana Howard. Our paper was a conceptual one – it presented an untested model for evidence based practice (EBP), which is essentially a hybrid of design thinking and EBP models. This paper was born out of a discussion (or several discussions really) that Zaana and I had about the instances where EBP doesn’t cut it as a model for dealing with a problem – for example, situations where there is no existing literature, or situations that require innovation. We also had some doubts about particular aspects of the EBP model, including its reliance on published literature.

This presentation was a lot of fun to work on, not the least because it gave me an opportunity to get more familiar with Zaana’s field of design thinking, which I think has a lot to offer information practitioners. As always, it was a pleasure to work with Zaana, too!

Our presentation was well received – we got interesting questions during the session, and were pleasantly surprised to win both the delegates’ choice and committee’s choice best paper awards for the conference.

You can see our slides and references over at my other site, katedavis.info. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the hybrid model, too – we plan to write this up as an article, so all feedback is very welcome. You can either leave comments here or email us (davis.kate@gmail.com – I’ll forward feedback to Zaana).

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day 3: zen traveler fail

blogeverydayofjune 4 Responses »
Jun 212011

So I was inspired by some hardcore zen travelers like Fiona, Kathryn and Con to travel with only hand luggage. And much to my amazement, I actually managed to condense my stuff right down and fit it all into a cabin-sized wheelie. Yay me!

Alas, when I checked in at Sydney airport, the very clever ground staff weighed my bag and declared it too heavy to carry on. After all my hard work to reduce my stuff – only one pair of jeans and two pairs of shoes in that bag, people! And no GHDs! – I ended up having to check my bag in.

big gaudy suitcase

my new gaudy suitcase. see the sunlight in this pic? it was taken at 8.30pm!

After one afternoon of shopping in London (with my shopping haul now waiting for me at a friend’s place) and one internal flight with an overflowing hand bag that weighed a tonne, I have succumbed and bought myself a repulsively gaudy, enormous suitcase. All for the bargain price of 45 quid! (Reduced from 150!) So I’ll be sticking my carry on in there for the rest of the trip, leaving me plenty of room for shopping. And best of all, I no longer have to stress about fitting everything back in the way it was originally. That’s the problem with outsourcing your packing: it never goes back in the way it came out.

I admit defeat: I, Kate Davis, am far too much of a princess to travel with carry on only.

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day 2: luton is NOT london

blogeverydayofjune 6 Responses »
Jun 202011

Dear self. Next time you decide to fly anywhere out of London, thou shalt not fly on easyJet and thou shalt definitely not fly out of Luton. Kthxbai.

No seriously, have you ever been to Luton airport? It’s an absolute debacle to get to (so I forked out 63 quid for a taxi) and a debacle to get around. And seriously, if you thought flying on Virgin or Jetstar was uncomfortable, give easyJet a bash. Thank goodness Luton to Aberdeen by plane is a shorter trip than London to Luton by car. After a 4am wakeup (thanks screwy body clock!) I was pretty ready to get to Aberdeen and chill out.

I arrived in Aberdeen at about lunch time yesterday – the i3 Information Interactions Impact conference starts this afternoon (Monday). I picked up the keys for my student accommodation, realised there was no TV in the room (I have a thing about silent hotel rooms – I really need the TV on for company) and promptly headed straight into the city to grab some lunch and some DVDs to keep me company. I had a pub lunch and did a bit of shopping – picking up a pair of Vans because my feet are killing from wearing boots all the time, and season one of Glee on DVD – and pottered around to check out the sites of Aberdeen.

This is a beautiful city. But it’s kind of kooky too: rolling hills, full on ye olde town, and seagulls squawking everywhere! I really, really like it here though – cell-like student accommodation and all! Every one I talk to is super nice and it’s a really picturesque little town. After less than a day here, I know where all the important stuff is – the high street for shopping, Boots for all my pharmacy needs (essential knowledge for travelling with a chest infection), Sainsbury’s for bottled water and snacks, Starbucks for wifi and breakfast, Debenham’s to buy a bigger suitcase (yes, already)…

On returning to my room after dinner last night, I bumped into some other people who are here from the conference. They had a help sheet for the cabled internet in the rooms (didn’t even know there was any!) so I managed to get myself set up and connected. Having internet access makes such a difference. I’ve travelled on my own before and I feel a lot less isolated this time because wifi is ubiquitous. It’s nice to be able to log on to Twitter and say hi to my friends at home, and I’m managing to get a lot of work done using hot spots. This is awesome because it means I’m not going to return to a flooded inbox at the end of my trip. It’s also good because I never have this amount of free time at home, so I’m able to get things done that I wouldn’t at home.

Speaking of which… Better get back to work.

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day 1: london

blogeverydayofjune 2 Responses »
Jun 202011

I’m counting Saturday as my first full day of being away… Thursday was, of course, full of traveling, and Friday saw me exhausted after being awake for 40 hours with only about three hours of napping in between, and pretty emotional to boot. I coughed and sneezed the entire way from Brisbane to Sydney to Bangkok to London. Delightful. I had a nap when I got in on Friday and then met up with one of oldest friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant at Earls Court.

Speaking of Earls Court: I stayed at the easyHotel there (linked to easyJet). I was expecting small and economy style, but man was it small and economy style! If you had to imagine what a bathroom on a plane would look like if it had a shower in it, you’d imagine an easyHotel bathroom. The bathroom is a wet room – so no powerpoints in there for hair drying (queue bad hair days) and not enough room to turn around when in the shower. But the water was piping hot and the pressure good; it was really clean; and an awesome location. When I first got in I had a “oh my God what have I done” moment – it was freezing in the room and the bathroom was not so amusing to just-got-off-the-plane-and-dying-for-a-shower-Kate. There was also lots of road noise and I was in dire need of a nap. However, post shower and nap (which turned out to be quality despite the road noise), everything looked a bit shinier and it turned out to be a perfect place to stay.

Anyway, back to Saturday… I spent the first few hours of the morning working at Starbucks, where I had a decent coffee! Yes, at Starbucks! I was a bit stiff and sore after the flight so I got a massage, which was without a doubt the best one I’ve ever had, then headed off to London Bridge to meet my friend. We went to the Borough Markets, where we bought awesome chicken wraps and a bottle of prosseco. Then we found a spot out of the rain – on the side of the road at the base of a pylon! – and sat and ate and drank and caught up.

We spent the afternoon shopping, and I ended up with quite a haul for my nephew – clothes from the department store sales and Special Agent Oso merchandise from the awesome Disney store. We got served by an Aussie in a quintessentially British pub, downed a bottle of wine, and then headed off for awesome Thai for dinner. It was pretty much the perfect Saturday.

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go gadget go!

blogeverydayofjune 5 Responses »
Jun 152011

I’ve just finished packing, ready to fly to London tomorrow. The list of gadgets I’m taking compared to what I took on my last trip to the UK is a little bewildering. In my handbag alone, I have my MacBook Pro, iPhone (preloaded with books on the Kindle app), Sony Reader, digital camera, Flip video cam, MP3 voice recorder, Pain Pod (awesome little electro tens machine thingy) and iPod. And all the cables, USB power adaptors and Aus to UK adaptors. And the *ahem* dozen or so flash drives I usually carry.

I think I’ve got about 10 kilos of gadgets in my bag!

What gadgets do you take on your travels?

And before you say it – I know! Flash drives are so last millenium!

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five books meme

about me, blogeverydayofjune, memes No Responses »
Jun 142011

Thanks to Con for kicking of a nice, easy meme! I’ve added a note about what format I’m reading / read each book in, too.

1. The book I’m currently reading:

Michael Robotham‘s latest, The Wreckage. Love the pace, the familiar characters, and Robotham’s way with words. It’s intelligent crime/suspense. I’m reading this on my iPhone using the Kindle app.

2. The last book I finished:

Caleb’s Crossing by Gerladine Brooks. I have to confess, though I’m a big Brooks fan, this isn’t going to make my list of top reads for 2011. I enjoyed it, but I had to labour a little to get through it. Read on my iPhone using the Kindle app.

3. The next book I want to read:

The next book on my ‘to-read’ list is the young adult novel (YA) When you reach me by Rebecca Stead. I bought this recently in EPUB format (to read on my Sony Reader) on the recommendation of author Lili Wilkinson, who happened to tweet about the book while at a literary event.

4. The last book I bought:

I just preordered the YA novel Passion, the latest in the Torment series by Lauren Kate, in Kindle format. Pretty average writing in the previous two books, but the story is somehow still compelling. I’ll read this on my iPhone.

5. The last book I was given:

A colleague gave me Zombie felties: How to raise 16 gruesome felt creatures from the undead for Christmas. I’m yet to make any of them, but did help a friend’s daughter make one at a crafternoon. This is a print book.

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day off... and why i put up with a frustrating commute

blogeverydayofjune 1 Response »
Jun 102011

I took the day off today and spent the day with my sister, niece and nephew. It was the first whole day I’ve taken off in ages. Today was cold but gorgeous… Blue skies and sunshine – such a contrast to the dismal grey weather we had yesterday.

I spent the morning playing with play dough and practicing shape names with my nephew. Then we went to the park and had fish and chips for lunch. We played in the park and the twins rode their ride-on cars up and down the paths.

It was a good reminder of how energizing it can be to spend time with little people, who always make the world seem shinier. It was also a good reminder of what I often take for granted: the fact that I live in a beautiful part of the world.

20110610-090846.jpg

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the social classroom: presentation on teaching in social media spaces

blogeverydayofjune 3 Responses »
Jun 092011

Today I spoke at a QUT innovation in teaching and learning event called Making connections. I spoke about the way I teach INN333: Information Programs, which is a unit about information program, product and service development and delivery. With the influence of new and emerging technologies – particularly web based technologies – being such a huge player in this space, the unit also has a focus on web based technologies, and in particular, social technologies. I teach this unit using a WordPress install with BuddyPress and a whole range of other plugins. We also actively use Twitter, YouTube, Elluminate and other tools. Students undertake weekly ‘play’ activities to get them experimenting with a range of technologies and tools, as well as regular blogging to get them thinking critically about the applications of technology for information program, product and service delivery.

If you’re interested in finding out more, check out my slides from the presentation and a short video tour of the unit site. If social websites are your thing, you might also be interested in a presentation I did a while back on socialising websites for Social Media Club Gold Coast.

I’m indebted to the very awesome Michael Stephens for the idea to use WordPress and BuddyPress as a learning hub (I’m not going to call it a learning management system because that’s not quite how I kitted it out).

The social classroom

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cheating on my 8 june post...

blogeverydayofjune, eBooks No Responses »
Jun 082011

I blogged today over at ALIA Sydney’s blog on eBooks and how the eBook marketplace has matured in Australia over the last 12 months. Go read it!

And while you’re there, make sure you catch other awesome posts from library rock starts like Ellen Forsyth, Zaana Howard and Mylee Joseph! The clever clogs at ALIA Sydney have roped a whole bunch of very interesting people into posting on tech topics throughout June. Keep a look out for more to come.

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