Jennifer Vinopal http://vinopal.org Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:42:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.1 How to download multiple PDFs from webpages and prepare them for text analysis http://vinopal.org/2015/03/15/how-to-download-multiple-pdfs-from-webpages-and-prepare-them-for-text-analysis/ http://vinopal.org/2015/03/15/how-to-download-multiple-pdfs-from-webpages-and-prepare-them-for-text-analysis/#comments Sun, 15 Mar 2015 16:25:59 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=2040 Continue Reading How to download multiple PDFs from webpages and prepare them for text analysis]]>

I’m just picking up an old, neglected research project that involves downloading lots of individual article PDFs linked from webpages, stringing these PDFs together into yearly journal volumes, then turning the PDFs into plain text in order to run them through text analysis software. I’ve figured out a process for doing this relatively efficiently, so I’m sharing my process here in case it can be helpful to someone.

Downloading multiple PDFs by hand is a big pain in the neck. But if the PDFs are linked directly from the article citations on the webpage, you may be able to automate the download following the directions below. (Caveat: if Zotero doesn’t have a site translator for a website, Zotero won’t “see” the citations listed on the site <– see page 2 of the document linked here. This is a drag. You’ll need to download the PDFs by hand.) Here’s a screenshot from Project Muse that shows citations with links to PDFs that can be downloaded following my method.

Screen Shot 2015-03-15 at 12.16.22 PM

To automate the process, you need Firefox, Zotero, and a Firefox/Zotero plugin called Zotfile. Zotero is free citation management software that will run as a plugin to Firefox. Zotfile is a Firefox/Zotero plugin to manage your attachments (including renaming and moving them, which is what I describe below). I also include the steps I took to string the PDFs together using Adobe Acrobat Pro and then turn these into text files.

A. Export article PDFs from a webpage and save them to your computer hard drive:

  1. You will use Zotero to collect the files from the website and Zotfile to rename the files and export them into a folder on your hard drive.
  2. In Firefox > Tools > Add-ons, select Zotfile preferences:
    • a. Configure PDF export location:
      • under “General Settings tab, next to “Custom Location” select “Choose” and select the folder where you want the renamed PDFs to end up on your hard drive.
    • b. To make the article filenames human readable and consistent, use Zotfile to rename the files based on the information Zotero collects from the citations. Configure the PDF re-naming scheme this way:
      • select Zotfile’s “Renaming Rules” tab
      • under “Format for all Item Types except Patents” put in appropriate codes for the naming scheme you want to use. Mine was: {%y}_{%v}.{%e}_{%f}
        • translation: year_volume.journalIssue_pages (so following my renaming rules, a renamed filename might look like: 2005_66.1_84-85)
      • Note: you can find all your renaming options on the Zotfile website
  3. In Zotero, make a “Saved Search” with the rule “Date added is the last 1 day.” This will make it easy to find the files you are downloading.
  4. Go to the website with the files you want to download
    • a. Click on Zotero’s little yellow folder icon in the browser bar
    • b. “Select all” (or select whichever files you want from the list) and click “OK”
    • c. wait patiently until all citations + PDF files are downloaded
  5. For QA, count the number of articles on the website. Remember this number.
  6. Once the citations and PDFs are collected by Zotero, Zotfile should automatically rename the files and putting them in the correct folder on your hard drive. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn’t and then you need to do it manually.
    • a. check the destination folder to see if Zotfile automatically renamed the files and put them there. If so, go to #7 below. If not, follow these directions:
    • b. in Zotero highlight all the citations you just downloaded,
    • c. control click (or right click) and select: Manage Attachments > Rename Attachments
    • d. A dialog box will appear that says “Do you want to move and rename X attachments?”
      • X should be the number of articles that you downloaded from the website. If it isn’t, there was a problem with the download. Delete the Zotero citations/files and do the download again.
      • If the number of attachments matches the number of articles on the website, click “OK”
  7. Navigate to the export folder where you told Zotfile to export your files. Double check that the number of exported files is correct. It’s a good idea to look at the PDFs to verify that they’re OK and didn’t get corrupted during download.
  8. Delete the citations & files from Zotero (unless for some reason you want to keep them in your Zotero library)
  9. Repeat on a new webpage until you are done downloading all the files you need from the web.

B. Combine individual issues into journal volume PDFs:

Using Adobe Acrobat Pro’s “Combine Files into PDF” function, select all the PDFs for one volume, combine them, then save the file.

Note: I usually prefer to use free tools, but I happen to have Adobe Acrobat Pro on my computer. To find a free tool to merge PDFs, do a Google search for “combine pdfs free.”

C. Turn volume PDFs into text:

  1. Open TextWrangler. (If you want to maintain the original PDF’s line breaks go to Preferences > Editor Defaults tab and de-select Soft Wrap.)
  2. Open PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro or other PDF tool
  3. select all and copy (if your file is very large it may take some time for the data to be saved to the clipboard)
  4. paste into TextWrangler
  5. save as .txt

Now you’re ready to clean your data. I’m still learning how to prepare text data for analysis, so I have no cleaning tips for you yet. Stay tuned!

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Quick recap of Barnard’s Scholar & Feminism Conference XL: Action on Education http://vinopal.org/2015/03/04/quick-recap-of-barnards-scholar-feminism-conference-xl-action-on-education/ http://vinopal.org/2015/03/04/quick-recap-of-barnards-scholar-feminism-conference-xl-action-on-education/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2015 18:46:03 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=2026 Continue Reading Quick recap of Barnard’s Scholar & Feminism Conference XL: Action on Education]]>

sf-educationLast Friday and Saturday I attended the Barnard Scholar & Feminism Conference XL: Action on Education. The LX means it’s the 40th year of the this conference, but they also playfully reclaimed the “extra large” connotation as well. You can read through all the tweets at the #sfedu hashtag.

The conference, which I hadn’t heard about until this year, was terrific and everyone there was very open to talking to people they didn’t already know, which is uncommon.

Here are a few of the things I especially enjoyed:

Ileana JiménezTadashi Dozono on embedding social justice/feminism awareness and training into the high school curriculum.

Jennifer C. NashEmily Owens on the neoliberal university (and our troubled relationship to it as beneficiaries) vs. the pleasure of collaboration.

The Freedom School workshop by Rod Ferguson, Vani Natarajan, and Che Gossett in which we worked in small groups applying the concept fan brainstorming technique to create our own freedom schools. (I also met some wonderful women in this one).

The dynamic group presentation by the leaders of the Black Youth Project 100 on black girls and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Pam Phillips’s workshop on Access & Inequality in education in which we broke into groups to discuss how access to education does not necessarily equal equality.

I’m really sorry Tressie McMillan Cottom got sick and couldn’t make it because I heard about the conference from her and she was the reason I decided to go in the first place. Anyway, she was greatly missed and there definitely were more than a few “what would @tressiemcphd say?” moments.

I’ll see you there next year.

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A few games I played at year’s end http://vinopal.org/2014/12/27/a-few-games-i-played-at-years-end/ http://vinopal.org/2014/12/27/a-few-games-i-played-at-years-end/#comments Sun, 28 Dec 2014 04:32:53 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=1968 Continue Reading A few games I played at year’s end]]>
NothingToHideLogo

Logo from Nothing to Hide, made available by Nicky Case as open source code, zero rights reserved.

It’s the time of year when everyone comes out with their “best of” lists. One that came via twitter was the “forest ambassador 2014 games of the year” compiled by merritt kopas and friends. I spent an afternoon playing a good number of them (that’s what vacations are good for, no?) and here are a couple that I especially enjoyed.

To What End” is a very short, charming, browser-based experience that is intended to make you think about what’s important in life and the decisions you make along the way. It’s amazingly effective considering its brevity and the fact that you play as colorful, bouncing shapes. This game was created by Chelsea Howe and Michael Molinari for the 48-hour Global Game Jam 2012 in San Francisco.

how do you Do it?” is a short, browser-based game created by Emmett Butler and Nina Freeman about a little girl trying to understand a grown-up topic. Many of Freeman’s games are about young girls trying to cope with complex adult situations.

I really liked the demo of Nicky Case‘s “Nothing to Hide” (I love puzzle games). It’s still under development. Case also created the Parable of the Polygons (“a story of how harmless choices can make a harmful world,” which in this case leads to segregated neighborhoods), and The Coming Out Simulator 2014 (in which you play as a semi-fictional version of Case coming out as gay).

Other games I haven’t had a chance to play yet: Mountain, in which, incredibly, you “play” as a mountain; Broken Age, which features a young girl and boy leading separate but parallel lives and facing adventures; and Portal (I’ve played through Portal 2, but not Portal). Maybe I’ll get to them before the end of this vacation.

 

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CNI fall 2014, Dispatch #2: It’s all about relationships http://vinopal.org/2014/12/09/cni-fall-2014-dispatch-2-its-all-about-relationships/ http://vinopal.org/2014/12/09/cni-fall-2014-dispatch-2-its-all-about-relationships/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2014 01:27:29 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=1948 Continue Reading CNI fall 2014, Dispatch #2: It’s all about relationships]]>
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Image by Elco van Staveren used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

At CNI 2014, I decided to pick a topic and focus, rather than graze on all the various and interesting issues being discussed. So I attended all the sessions that had to do with linked data plus related technologies and standards.

Why linked data? It has the potential to radically change the way that library and other research data can be consumed, repurposed, discovered, and displayed on the web, through search engines, and in specialized catalogs and websites. But until yesterday, I didn’t really understand how it worked. Basically, linked data allows you to express relationships between and among things (or “entities”),  to make those relationships actionable (clickable, usable, sortable, displayable) by machines and humans. And, with enough linked data out there on the Internet, you can leverage and expose relationships among bits of information that are stored in different places. (I’ve found that most introductions to linked data can get pretty complicated pretty quickly. I’m happy for recommendations.)

At the update on the Linked Data For Libraries (LD4L) project, Dean Krafft (Cornell) and Tom Cramer (Stanford) shared their LD4L project use cases. This one is a good example of what linked data can do for scholars:

Example story: As a faculty member or librarian, I want to create a virtual collection or exhibit containing information resources from multiple collections across multiple universities either by direct selection or by a set of resource characteristics, so that I can share a focused collection with a <class, set of researchers, set of students in a disciplinary area>.

As you can see from this user story, linked data can connect things and facilitate discovery across the Internet in ways that we just can’t do without it.

In their session, Barbara Bushman and Nancy Fallgren described what they’re doing at the National Library of Medicine. See their GitHub repository of code and documentation for their beta MESH and RDF project.

In yet another linked data session, Kenning Arlitsch (Montana State University) underscored the need for libraries to mark up their data in ways that can make it more discoverable on the web (see schema.org and Google knowledge graph cards, for instance).

Another related technology is BIBFRAME, which is a new way to express library descriptive information (replacing MARC) and to leverage linked data to connect information. Karim Boughida (George Washington U) explained that the platform for library data is not just the library catalog anymore, it’s the web itself. BIBFRAME allows us to structure our data in a way that is ultimately consumable as linked data on the web.

Taking a break from linked data, I attended Jerome McDonough’s session on preserving our intangible cultural heritage (cuisine, dance, games, etc.), which requires that we stop thinking about archiving information and instead think about preserving knowledge. Jerry gave the example of archiving a game: to preserve it as an interpretable object you need to also preserve a body of information about and around the game (e.g., development documentation from the company, advertisements, collectables created in conjunction with the game, videos related to it). As well, preserved materials on gaming or cuisine will be stored in lots of places: libraries, museums, archives, etc. Jerry underscored that all the info you need for intellectual context is out there in the world, but the places where this context is stored don’t communicate with each other. So what do we do? Jerry suggests we stop educating people to be librarians, archivists & curators, and start training “librarchators” (his humorous word) who will think more broadly than we currently do about collecting and preserving knowledge. “To make progress we can’t just change the technologies we use, we also need to change the social side of our work.” (So relationships are important here as well).

I also saw a session by funders–the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (part of NARA)–that all emphasized their interest in engaging the public in our work. For example, the NEH’s “Public Scholar” grant program, and the National Historical Publications & Records Commission’s Literacy and Engagement grant. Kathleen Williams summed it up when she said that the nature of the relationship between historical records and users has changed, and that it’s time to think in new ways to engage the public.

So I would say that the theme of this conference for me was the importance of RELATIONSHIPS, including creating relationships using linked data, collecting metadata and context in order to preserve our intangible cultural heritage, and especially the relationships among all the people who came together at CNI fall 2014 to share what they know with each other.

 

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CNI fall 2014, Dispatch #1: 12/7 Executive Roundtable on Supporting Digital Humanities http://vinopal.org/2014/12/08/cni-fall-2014-dispatch-1-executive-roundtable-on-supporting-digital-humanities/ http://vinopal.org/2014/12/08/cni-fall-2014-dispatch-1-executive-roundtable-on-supporting-digital-humanities/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:21:45 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=1926 Continue Reading CNI fall 2014, Dispatch #1: 12/7 Executive Roundtable on Supporting Digital Humanities]]>

I’m here in Washington, DC for the Coalition for Networked Information‘s 2014 fall membership meeting. CNI meetings are typically attended by heads of libraries and heads of library or campus information technology. I came to participate in yesterday’s Executive Roundtable on Supporting Digital Humanities.

Cliff Lynch, Executive Director of CNI, kicked off the meeting by explaining that this topic elicited so many requests for participation that they created a second Roundtable to accommodate everyone. The discussion topics proposed ahead of time included:

  • Organizational models — institutional units supporting digital humanities and their roles
  • Supporting established projects vs. supporting new projects
  • Providing space, technology infrastructure, hardware and tools, staff expertise, exhibit space (physical and virtual)
  • Providing repository, research data management, and preservation services
  • Supporting digital humanities in teaching and learning
  • Staff skills needed
  • The realities of collaboration between information professionals and digital humanities scholars
  • Digital humanities and e-research in social sciences and sciences – one program or separate programs
  • Assessment strategies
  • Connections with institutional publishing strategies and programs
  • What happens when projects end
  • Funding models
  • Future directions

Cliff framed the discussion by reminding us that, while DH may have started at many institutions through grant funding, we need to think about how to make support for DH sustainable and an option for all scholars at the institution. In particular, he asked why we have such a hard time providing support at scale for digital humanities when we do it well for the sciences.

Since service scalability and sustainability are of particular concern to me and my colleagues, I was looking forward to hearing what others were doing at their institutions. Here is my summary of the discussion that followed.1

Rewards: There was consensus that tenure and review were a challenge for DH. Will untenured faculty risk doing DH work if they may not get tenure for it? How can we create tenure committees that can properly review DH and other cross-disciplinary work?

Funding: Those getting started in DH with grant funding wanted to know what happens once the grant money goes away. In order to develop institutional funding streams, how do you assess and demonstrate the value of this activity? Showing return on investment for the Humanities is not the same as for grant-funded science research? What is the payback?

Humanities Training and Departmental Support: Humanities majors don’t have project-based experiences during their studies (vs. engineers or scientists, who have a lab culture and would never get through their course of study without extensive collaborative project work). Humanities departments rarely have a culture of supporting this kind of work.

Library as Humanities Lab: Some noted that their libraries are well-situated to encourage and support DH on campus, saying that the library is more like a lab for the humanities than it necessarily is for sciences or social sciences. This confirms my own experience at NYU where, in numerous interviews with humanities faculty, they singled out Libraries as a trusted partner for humanities scholarship.

Integration of DH throughout the Library: As library engagement with DH grows, it’s important that it become more integrated within departments and services throughout the library. Library staff need to be more knowledgeable about DH and the services provided; subject liaisons should bring scholars into the center through their liaison work.

Encouraging Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: How can we encourage computer scientists and others non-humanities scholars to collaborate on DH projects, even though the data isn’t in their discipline? Some are looking for “technology threshold” issues, that hold cross-disciplinary interest. Someone observed that, to be successful at creating cross-disciplinary partnerships, humanists can’t think  “how can I use this technology in my research?” but instead should ask “what are the problems that I want to solve that can’t be solved in any other way but with technology?” These latter are the ones who can inspire excitement among others about their work.

Correlation between Status and Interest in DH: Who is driving support for DH on campus? In some places, it’s the graduate students. What impact does that have on funding? Planning?

As you can probably tell, there were many more questions than answers at this session.

Coincidentally, CNI just released their Digital Scholarship Centers report and web resource. This report is the outcome of an April, 2014 workshop to document the current centers and identify good practice. I haven’t had a chance yet to read the report, but will probably blog about it after I do.

 

  1. Meeting ground rules stipulated that we could talk about the content of the meeting, but that we should not attribute anything to any person or institution without permission.
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We have work to do: Minority Representation in US ARL University Libraries as of 2012-2013 http://vinopal.org/2014/09/10/minority-representation-in-us-arl-university-libraries-2013/ http://vinopal.org/2014/09/10/minority-representation-in-us-arl-university-libraries-2013/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2014 20:52:14 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=1839 Continue Reading We have work to do: Minority Representation in US ARL University Libraries as of 2012-2013]]>

ARL just came out with this poster Minority Representation in US ARL University Libraries as of 2012-2013: Taking a Closer Look at the Evidence. 24morrisposter

The two findings that stand out for me are 1) that women still make less then their counterparts who are men and, 2) despite minority staff increasing since 2002, minorities are still vastly underrepresented in research libraries compared to the breakdown of the US population by race and ethnicity. (If the embedded map below doesn’t work, see the US 2010 Census data page).

Upshot: We still have a lot of work to do.

 

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Using our Influence: Why I support the Ada Initiative http://vinopal.org/2014/09/10/using-our-influence-why-i-support-the-ada-initiative/ http://vinopal.org/2014/09/10/using-our-influence-why-i-support-the-ada-initiative/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2014 15:52:39 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=1823 Continue Reading Using our Influence: Why I support the Ada Initiative]]>

Update: Librarians donate over $10,000 to the Ada Initiative! On the first day of a 7-day challenge, librarians came through and met the goal. Now we’re looking at stretch goals. See the post above for details.

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Donate to the Ada InitiativeI haven’t been blogging for long, and I don’t blog as much as I’d like. But when I look back at what I’ve written over the past few years, when I look at the people and things I’ve been reading and tweeting, and when I think about the people who are really influencing me both personally and professionally, there’s a pretty clear red thread through all of it: a concern for how discrimination of all sorts infects our lives and a desire to do something about it.

Discrimination in libraries? Really? Yes. Women are underpaid vis-à-vis men; people of color and other minority groups are grossly underrepresented (and underpaid) in libraries; women and under-represented groups suffer from harassment at conferences and microaggressions (and other discrimination) at work.

What can we do about it? We can work from our strengths and personal interests, and we can start working where we are right now. For example: I’m a librarian working mostly in digital library technology, and I have leadership skills and a strong professional network. So I focus on influencing within my workplace and in professional settings where I know I will likely have an impact. And I support organizations (both financially and with my time) that do the kind of work that I believe in.

You can too! Donate to the Ada Initiative to help support women in technology, increase diversity, and fight discrimination.

The Ada Initiative supports women in open technology and culture through activities such as producing codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies, advocating for gender diversity, teaching ally skills, and hosting conferences for women in open tech/culture.”

For each dollar you donate via this Library Campaign link, the library community will match your dollar (up to $5120). And if you donate $128, you can get a pack of these nifty stickers to show the world that you’re not afraid to say the F-word, and declare that you support women in technology.f-word-sticker-final-transparent-bg-800px-300x176

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Questions about Project Management, for the 2014 SLA-NY Conference-Expo http://vinopal.org/2014/08/10/questions-about-project-management-for-the-2014-sla-ny-conference-expo/ http://vinopal.org/2014/08/10/questions-about-project-management-for-the-2014-sla-ny-conference-expo/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2014 15:46:27 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=1804 Continue Reading Questions about Project Management, for the 2014 SLA-NY Conference-Expo]]>

Update 10/11/2014: I was unable to participate in this conference as I had to go out of town at the last minute. But here NYU’s own, Eric Stedfeld, representing for NYU project management at the event!

I’ve been invited to speak on 9/18 on a panel about project management in libraries at the 2014 SLA-NY Conference and Expo (the New York chapter of the Special Libraries Association). In advance of the event, the organizers have asked panelists to provide brief answers to three questions, which will then run in their chapter newsletter. I figured others might be interested in the answers as well, so here they are.

1. What is one way to meet the challenge of getting library staff to understand how to do project-based work and how it differs from operational work?

Two related concepts: scope creep and the project charter. The most effective way to show people the benefit of project management methods is to talk to them about the dreaded “scope creep” (when projects morph and change and they’re never “done” because no one agrees on what “done” means and how to achieve it). Then you explain how the process of creating and agreeing upon a project charter–which clearly defines what the project will and won’t accomplish–provides a way to put the breaks on scope creep. It’s a powerful tool.

2. Communication is a key best practice for project success. What is one method, format or tool you use as part of the communication of projects that you would like to share?

It’s important to recognize that the people with whom we work on projects all have different communication styles and preferences: some prefer email, some prefer face-to-face, some prefer to communicate via issue tracking systems. Some only want occasional project highlights, some need day-to-day detail. To be effective project managers, we need to understand people’s communication needs, styles, and preferences, and design flexible communication strategies that will be most effective for the project team.

3. Can you describe in one sentence why librarians should develop project management skills?

Project management methodologies and practices provide effective tools and strategies to collaboratively define problems and initiatives, describe how you’re going to solve them, and then get that work done.

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What lies behind admonitions to be kind? http://vinopal.org/2014/05/22/what-lies-behind-admonitions-to-be-kind/ http://vinopal.org/2014/05/22/what-lies-behind-admonitions-to-be-kind/#comments Fri, 23 May 2014 00:37:28 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=1754 Continue Reading What lies behind admonitions to be kind?]]>

There was recently a conversation on a list that I mostly lurk on about the relationship between kindness and leadership. General consensus was that kindness is an essential aspect of leadership and should be cultivated. I took issue with this suggestion.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t have anything against kindness as a general practice. And as a lazy and lapsed practitioner of insight meditation, I recognize the great value in cultivating compassion in ourselves and our society. The world would be a much better place if we all practiced more compassion.

The problem I have with the appeal to “kindness” is that it tends to express itself in highly gendered (and other discriminatory) ways. In her contribution to the conversation, Chris Bourg emphasized the importance of looking at research on the topic and linked to an article entitled “The Dynamics of Warmth and Competence Judgments, and Their Outcomes in Organizations” (sorry, it’s paywalled).1 The authors equate warmth with friendliness, trustworthiness, empathy, and kindness; and competence with intelligence, power, efficacy, and skill. According to their research, judgements about these two personal qualities–warmth and competence–tend to be stereotyped and negatively correlated to each other:

Warmth and competence represent the central dimensions of group stereotypes, the majority of which are ambivalent – characterizing groups as warm but incompetent (e.g., older people, working mothers) or competent but cold (e.g., “model minorities,” female leaders), in turn eliciting ambivalent feelings (i.e., pity and envy, respectively) and actions toward members of those groups. (p. 73)

You would think, at the very least, that those groups who are expected “naturally” to be most kind would benefit from the inclusion of kindness as a job requirement. But, alas, women get the short end of that stick as well:

Stereotypes characterize women as generally warmer than men; therefore one might expect that adding warmth as a job qualification would favor female candidates. Instead, however, by demonstrating their competence, women elicit lower warmth evaluations in a way that men who demonstrate competence do not. When warmth becomes a legitimate evaluation criterion, the higher standard women are held to on this dimension can undermine their chances. (p. 77)

This point is particularly interesting to me, as I work in a highly gendered, “helping profession” where, from my experience, the expectation is that warmth and kindness will prevail. (To say nothing of the expectation that we–mostly women–librarians will always be available to patrons at their convenience, regardless of our actual availability; I’ve received requests for reference help when I was shopping for diner dinner in the grocery store.)

With these issues in mind I replied to the list:

I’m particularly concerned about perceptions about individuals’ expression of emotion, “EI,” competence, and leadership being strongly (and negatively) influenced by stereotypes. The authors [of The Dynamics of Warmth and Competence Judgments article] confirm as much:

Warmth and competence represent the central dimensions of group stereotypes, the majority of which are ambivalent – characterizing groups as warm but incompetent (e.g., older people, working mothers) or competent but cold (e.g., “model minorities,” female leaders), in turn eliciting ambivalent feelings (i.e., pity and envy, respectively) and actions toward members of those groups. (p. 73)

Which is why women are often counseled to ask for raises (or other perks) differently than men, lest their expression of competence and self-confidence be perceived negatively (whereas the same traits in men would likely be perceived positively). Women are encouraged to sound more “kind” when they ask for things they deserve (e.g., “make it sound like you’re asking for the team rather than for yourself”).2 I personally find this kind of advice both very realistic and oppressively sexist. I’m probably not the only woman who does.

So when we talk about kindness I wonder about things like:

  • Who is expressing the kindness (gender, race, ethnicity, able-bodied or no, parent or no, etc.)?
  • What are society’s typical expectations and stereotypes about how each of these groups may, do, or may not express kindness?
  • Are there different ways that people of different genders, races, ethnic groups, cultural backgrounds, classes, etc. express kindness? And are there things that one group thinks are kind and other groups might find offensive (e.g., touching, asking more personal questions)?
  • What do we mean by “kindness” anyway? Is this term a proxy for other things (like fairness, inquisitiveness, smiling a lot, gift giving, baking cookies, etc.?)

All of those things are cultural. So to say that expressing something labeled by some people as “kindness” is an unmitigated good and is a required component of good leadership might lead us down paths that are actually unproductive for certain people (both leaders and staff).

I wrote a blog post yesterday suggesting other ways to create a positive work environment and support staff to do their best. While I strive to practice compassion (and hope one day to experience equanimity!), I will continue to resist admonitions to adopt ostensibly positive behaviors and mindsets without examining the cultural contexts in which this advice is given, who is affected by it, and how.

  1. Cuddy, Amy J. C., Peter Glick, and Anna Beninger. “The Dynamics of Warmth and Competence Judgments, and Their Outcomes in Organizations.” Research in Organizational Behavior 31 (2011): 73–98.
  2. While not offered in my original post, which I wrote rather quickly, here is some typical advice for women who negotiate: don’t be threatening, legitimize your request: Moving Past Gender Barriers to Negotiate a Raise; show that you have a “communal” orientation: Why Women Must Ask (The Right Way): Negotiation Advice From Stanford’s Margaret A. Neale
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My job? Make it easier for employees to do their jobs well. http://vinopal.org/2014/05/21/my-job-make-it-easier-for-employees-to-do-their-jobs-well/ http://vinopal.org/2014/05/21/my-job-make-it-easier-for-employees-to-do-their-jobs-well/#comments Wed, 21 May 2014 20:54:23 +0000 http://vinopal.org/?p=1735 Continue Reading My job? Make it easier for employees to do their jobs well.]]>

Over the past few years I’ve been thinking about how I can be a better manager of people. That is to say, how I can be better for them. Sure, I’m concerned about the needs of the organization and institution. But the organization won’t really run very well if the employees who work there don’t feel valued and aren’t positioned to contribute their best.

I’m talking about a situation where I believe my staff will likely seek a certain measure of “self-actualization” at work. I realize not everyone seeks self-actualization through their employment; and it is a privilege not enjoyed by many who struggle to meet life’s basic life needs. Nor is self-actualization a prerequisite for doing one’s job well. But in my experience, the staff I work with typically desire some level of self-actualization (e.g., self-esteem, problem solving, creativity) from their work. I believe it is my job to facilitate and foster this level of engagement when I can.

Thus, I think one of the most important jobs of a manager is to create the professional atmosphere, the time, and the mental and administrative space for my staff to do their best work. This can include: encouraging a sense of accomplishment by making sure they understand their priorities and have enough but not too much work to do; letting them have the authority as well as the responsibility for getting their work done; encouraging them to contribute their ideas for what we should accomplish and how; and providing them appropriate professional development opportunities to the extent that I and the organization can. Simply put, my job as a manager is to make it easy for them to do their jobs well.

I meet regularly with my staff and always make sure to ask them these questions:

  1. What successes have you had since we last met?
  2. Are their any roadblocks preventing you from doing your work?
  3. What is your work balance like: too much/too little?
  4. Do we need to prioritize your work?
  5. What can I do to make your work more effective?

This last question is, from my perspective, the most important one. Not only so I can remove any organizational roadblocks to their work, but also to give my staff permission to tell me how I can do my job better. (From time to time I also ask my staff about their career goals and how I can help them achieve them. I typically ask “What does your next job look like and how can I help you get there?”)

A few years ago a number of us at NYU Libraries and ITS read the book Now Discover Your Strengths, which presents a test for learning about your personal strengths and a method for deploying them in the workplace. While amusing in a kind of Myers-Briggsy way, the part that interested me most was a brief section on how each manager can contribute to creating what they call a “productive culture” by evaluating the effectiveness of a manager’s relationships with their staff. The twelve questions that the authors suggest asking of employees seem like good bookends to the questions I regularly ask staff in our check-in meetings. Here they are:

The following twelve questions define the outcomes of a productive culture. We recommend asking each manager’s employees these twelve questions, using a 5-point scale (5 for “strongly agree,” 1 for “strongly disagree”).
  1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
  2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work properly?
  3. At work do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
  4. In the last seven days have I received recognition or praise for good work?
  5. Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?
  6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
  7. At work do my opinions seem to count?
  8. Does the mission of my company make me feel like my work is important?
  9. Are my coworkers committed to doing quality work?
  10. Do I have a best friend at work?
  11. In the last six months have I talked with someone about my progress?
  12. This last year have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

[…] Asked twice a year, [these questions] provide the most robust and the most relevant measure of a manager’s impact on his employees.1

Leaving aside the masculine pronoun in that last sentence, and the question about a “best friend” (which is a phrase I despise for reasons I won’t get into here), I do think this is a good list of questions to gauge the quality of my professional relationship with my staff, as well as their integration within the organization. I can’t control everything about the organizational culture in which I work, but I can and should be responsible for the work culture of the departments that I run, and how my staff and I manage our relationships with those around us. I want to know if my staff are frustrated or feeling hampered by something I can fix. I want to know if I’m doing enough to help them be productive and keep them learning. I want them to feel like their work and their ideas are valued. And I want to know how I can do all of this better.

  1. Buckingham, Marcus, and Donald O. Clifton. Now, Discover Your Strengths. New York: The Free Press, 2001. pp 232-233.
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