Yearly Archives: 2009

294 posts

TTW Mailbox: New Site for American Libraries

Hello, Michael— American Libraries is rolling out a newly redesigned website, tentatively scheduled to appear January 4. The site, which is live now but still carrying the “beta” label, is at www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org. We encourage you to take a look and update your bookmarks and any links to us in your blogs and websites. The AL Online RSS feed will relocate to www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/rss.xml. Making the switch to a new domain could be tricky—we could risk losing readers who are used to our old domain (of course, redirects will be in place, but it’s still going to be a bit confusing), so we wanted […]

Young Librarians Book Club

From http://blogs.tametheweb.com/younglibrarian/2009/12/07/young-librarians-book-club/ Carrie Straka is a 32 year old Adult Services Librarian at Vernon Area Public Library District in Lincolnshire, IL. She can be found on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/librarybug, or you can read her blog athttp://librarybug.wordpress.com. I’ve been searching for a book club for a long time. Since I haven’t been able to find one,I decided to establish a new book club for young librarians. The club will give young librarians a chance to connect and gain experience with book clubs. Here are my goals for the Young Librarians Book Club: Rotating Leadership: Different discussion leaders at each meeting will give everyone […]

An Unformed Thought

A few weeks ago the director of my library asked me to design and produce a website for a small community group, the  North Shore Business Development Foundation (NSBDF).  I was happy to be given the opportunity (I start getting the shakes if I don’t get to design a website ever-so-ofter). I had about a week to look over their logo, handouts, mission and vision statements, previous event flyers, etc. and around 7 more days to actually build the website. Time was short because of an upcoming program which the group wanted to use to make attendees aware of the […]

See you at Oak Park Public Library Staff Day!

I have one more local speaking engagement before Holiday Break – and it’s going to be fun! Next Friday, I’ll be joining my Dominican colleagues Dr. Karen Brown and Dr. Kate Marek for a staff institute with the staff of the Oak Park Public Library. We’ve designed an interactive 4+ hour workshop around transforming library service, emerging trends and dealing with change/transition. I am especially excited to see my colleagues present their “Drop Your Tools” material. If you’re an OPPL staff member and you read TTW, please say HI. And a shout out to the good folks at OPPL for […]

Thanks Rutgers Beta Phi Mu & SC&I

Before my trip to Darien, I got to spend a wonderful day with the good folks at Rutgers University School of Communication & Information. I presented the Fall 2009 lecture for the Beta Phi Mu, International Library and Information Studies Honor Society Omicron Chapter at the SC&I that evening, preceded by a reception. Students as well as local librarians attended. One thing I did with this talk was tap into the wisdom of part of my own personal learning network. Polling my Twitter followers for sage advice yielded some interesting and useful conversation starters. Read about it at ALA TechSource: […]

Thanks Darien Library!

Darien Library Spaces, originally uploaded by mstephens7. On the 20th of November I got to spend the day with the good folks at Darien Library in Darien, CT. I spent time with Louise Berry, Allan Gray and John Blyberg touring the incredible new building, meeting with staff over lunch and afternoon tea, and taking in all the wonderful things they’ve done with their service model. I just wanted to give a public shout out to everyone at Darien who welcomed me and shared their experiences. I can’t wait to visit again! My flickr set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/sets/72157622752235111/

Kyle Jones, Knowledge and Learning Services Librarian at Darien Library

Congrats to TTW Contributor Kyle Jones! http://thecorkboard.org/blog/time-for-change-im-off-to-darien-library Kyle writes: I’m very excited to announce that starting in January of 2010 I will be joining the award winning staff at Darien Library in Darien, CT as a Knowledge and Learning Services Librarian.  To say that it is honor to be afforded this opportunity at this time in my career is a bit of an understatement.  I look forward to getting to know the community of Darien. I just spent a full day with the folks at Darien Library, touring the new building, chatting with staff and learning all I could about […]

Open Conversation: Transparency

Jan: Hi Michael, I’ve read your beautiful and very inspiring series about the Transparent Library with Michael Casey in Library Journal. In the series’ first article you wrote: “What prevents a library from being transparent? Barriers. Roadblocks. Inability to change. The culture of perfect. The transparent library contains three key elements: open communication, adapting to change, and scanning the horizon. We’ll explore these ideas and offer solutions for those struggling with new models of service, technology, and a decidedly opaque climate. The web has changed the old landscape of top-down decisions.” “As the web becomes the greatest word-of-mouth amplifier in history, consumers […]