Note: This post has been updated with Carol’s updated percentages! Please follow LIS professor Carol Tilley for more on what’s been weeded at The Urbana Free Library! https://twitter.com/CarolGSLIS Follow #bookgate too! Barbara Fister writes about the kerfuffle at Insider Higher Ed: http://www.insidehighered.com//blogs/library-babel-fish/throwing-books-each-other
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This blows my mind! http://www.smilepolitely.com/culture/do_you_ever_read_any_of_the_books_you_weed/ Both UFL staff and the public (who were alarmed at the rapidly emptying shelves) spoke out, but the weeding continued until a library board meeting (and Mayor Laurel Prussing) was called. JP Goguen, a university library employee, was at the meeting, recorded it, and sent the recording to me (the board normally does not record meetings). The conversation at this meeting is alarming. Urbana Free Library’s director, Deb Lissak, made a unilateral decision to weed books in the print collection by date alone. It seems that the Adult Services staff’s expertise and knowledge of the […]
Johnson County Library contracted the services of Mindmixer for their strategic plan in March of 2013 and by April 9, 2013; the www.jocolibraryconversation.com site was live and active with input from members of the community. The goal was to expand the number of Johnson County citizens the library would be able to engage with during the strategic planning process. By May 15, just a little over a month from the launch date, 1,213 people visited the library site and in addition to responding to the topic questions, they submitted 117 ideas for the library staff and the strategic planning committee […]
In the last three months, I’ve been interviewed about information literacy by two students. One was working on her MLIS and taking her first instruction course. The other was working on a dissertation, and I was a participant in her study on information literacy programs. These interviews started me thinking about what I’d tell new librarians interested in information literacy instruction. Here’s my advice for new instruction librarians entering the profession: At least 50% of being a librarian is building connections with people. Instruction librarians thrive by connecting with faculty members and recognizing how they can help faculty members reach […]
Note from Michael: Elaine takes us through her work on the #transtech group project for Huntington Beach Public Library and connects to our course texts. i am happy to share this insightful reflection! This report outlines the unique experiences, challenges, and opportunities in developing a Learning 2.0 program for the diverse community served by the Huntington Beach Public Library. This project – called Links to Literacy – was accomplished virtually as a group assignment in Dr. Michael Stephens’s Transformative Learning and Technology Literacies course in Spring 2013. It involved seven learning technology modules aimed to introduce communication, job searching, […]
I am honored to guest write at Tame The Web – a lighthouse for positive librarianship – with Michael’s philosophy of encouraging the heart. We all have different things that encourage our hearts and give us inspiration to do what we do – and make the world better. For me music is a big inspiration, a shelter and a motivator. Being a library person deep down in my heart, I have a theory that a lot of artists have positive experiences with libraries from their lives and that they have been inspired by libraries in some way when they were […]
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 of our courses on campus, the school has decided to move online in an attempt to keep the program alive. I understand this need, but at what cost will this be to the library and information science field? From the column: Taylor writes, “Having taken […]
Personal Learning Network – Presentation “Developing”, as it pertains to my title of this blog, is defined as the ongoing development, utilization, and management of my personal learning network. It is not something that “is done” and then complete, it is something that will, with careful nurturing and management, follow me throughout the rest my learning life. The journey began years ago without realization when I signed up for Facebook, popped on (and then quickly off) Twitter, set up a LinkedIn account, and checked out various apps via my mobile phone. It wasn’t until taking Transformative Learning and Technology Literacy […]
One of my projects for the fall semester my library will be organizing a special, active-learning opportunity for students, staff, and faculty that is part of our One Book, One College program on Max Brook’s World War Z. The library with the support of Honors and Student Activities will be organizing a campus-wide game that we are calling, World War M: Humans vs Zombies, https://zombies.apps.morainevalley.edu/. Our game is loosely based on the Humans vs Zombies games played on campuses across the country. We have changed the rules a little bit and tried to give it a technological and academic twist. The goal […]
I am honored to be in Strathmore, Alberta today at the libraries’ workshop for Marigold Library System. My keynote presentation slides are here: For slides please Contact Michael