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Office Hours: Lackluster Online Programs?

My new “Office Hours” column is up at Library Journal:

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/05/opinion/michael-stephens/best-of-both-worlds-office-hours/

It’s a response to this letter last month in LJ by Krystal Taylor, an LIS student at IUPUI Indianapolis:

Something quite disturbing is happening to my LIS program…. As of next semester, the program is going almost exclusively to online courses. Due to low enrollment [...]

Office Hours: Lost Control? Not a Problem

My new column is up at the LJ site:

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/03/opinion/michael-stephens/lost-control-not-a-problem-office-hours/

In a discussion after a recent presentation, an educator stood to make a counterpoint to my take on participatory teaching. “I’m paid to have control,” she said. More than one person in the room gasped.

I should have directed her to the new Horizon Report. Among the key [...]

Office Hours: Essential Soft Skills

I for got to post last month’s LJ column here at TTW:

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/02/opinion/michael-stephens/essential-soft-skills/

I would add other soft skills such as intuition, political awareness, and a willingness to make and learn from our mistakes. Transparency is evolving into an even more clearly defined “full frontal” strategy for some corporations—putting it all out there. We should [...]

Office Hours: What Scares YOU?

What keeps you up at night?

I ask this question at some of my library conference presentations as a way to break the ice and get people sharing. The answers are usually in a similar vein: budgets, ebooks, and losing relevance. We might even call those answers the unholy trinity of librarian insomnia.

Relevance seems [...]

Office Hours Extra: A Reimagined Core by SJSU SLIS’s Robert Boyd

 

I wrote about working on re-evaluating our core classes at “Office Hours” last month. Robert Boyd, one of our faculty, continues the discussion at our CIRI Blog:

http://slisapps.sjsu.edu/blogs/wp/ciri/2012/12/17/a-reimagined-core/

I am also using some new-found time between semesters to read and reflect on two noted thinkers/practitioners, one old and one new.   The Idea of a University by [...]

Office Hours: The Evolving LIS Core

My new column is up at LJ:

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/11/opinion/michael-stephens/an-evolving-lis-core-office-hours/

User studies—research concerning patterns of information use in our everyday lives, in times of crisis, and as members of certain populations (students, the aging, etc.)—define the first part of this core. Appreciating the diversity of cultures in relation to library service should come early, as our grads [...]

Office Hours: Did You Miss the R-Squared Conference? It Was a Barn Burner

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/09/opinion/michael-stephens/did-you-miss-the-r-squared-conference-it-was-a-barn-burner-office-hours/

My new column is up online at LJ for this month – I wanted double word count so we went with the virtual for this one. The column is all about my experiences at R-Squared:

Over two days we explored creativity and curiosity, heard from keynoters such as Josh Linkner, author of Disciplined [...]

Office Hours: Little Free Libraries

My new column is up:

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/09/opinion/michael-stephens/little-free-libraries-office-hours

Scanning the recent news articles about the LFL movement reveals something else, too. More often than not, those interviewed acknowledge the sense of community and collegiality that grow up around the little libraries. From a Los Angeles Times piece on a local LFL: “It has turned strangers into friends and a [...]

UX Meets Office Hours 2: A Better Site Visit

Aaron Schmidt and I have combined our columns this month for a double length examination of the site visit assignment in LIS schools:

 The most responsive libraries would aim to make a change based on the suggestion of the student. The reports and other data would be shared with the staff and the recommendations for [...]

Office Hours: Our Common Purpose

My new column is available at LJ’s site:

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/06/opinion/michael-stephens/our-common-purpose-office-hours/

“Get a blog, launch texting, create a Facebook page” has been the rallying cry—from me, too—for some time, but the reasons for doing these things should be clear. They’re an extension of what we have always done, the foundational purpose of libraries. Service. Access. Context.

Many [...]