I zipped down to Carmel, Indiana last week and did two talks for the Indiana Library federation’s Public Library Association’s conference. Here are the slides: For Keynote and Trends & Tech slides please Contact Michael
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we love serving you!, a photo by Oak Park Public Library on Flickr.
Zombie Prom and Face-melting metal at your local library! Enjoy Prom like you’ve never experienced it before. Bring a can of food and join us in your Zombie worst or survivor best for an epic night at the Sweetwater County Library. All donations will go to our local Food Bank. The evening will begin with our annual Zombie Walk in which we will lurch down to the main street of town to Centennial Park where we will play a game of Zombies vs Humans, flag football style. We will re-group at the library for the Zombie Prom. This year our […]
That’s a quote from A New Culture of Learning – it illustrates well my thoughts about future libraries. I want to say THANK YOU to the good folks here in Wyoming who brought me in to speak at their annual meeting – I’m having a blast. Keynote Presentation: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/StephensKeynoteWyoming.pdf Trends & Tech Presentation: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/WyomingTrendsStephens.pdf
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 Dreaming, and each of us chose and completed our own immersive group experience. I chose Customer Curiosity, though other options included Creative Spaces, Culture, and Abundant Community. With John Bellina and Tasso Stathopulos from the Denver marketing firm Ricochet Ideas. Ricochet is the design group that helped […]
Note from Michael: Mace’s post echoes my own thoughts about the R-Squared conference. The opportunities for learning, collaboration and engagement seemed so fresh and exciting at the conference as they did while cycling. Cycling for libraries – one of infinite different ways to cooperate with colleagues A hypothesis: there are better, and more efficient ways to spend time with colleagues than to sit in an auditorium and watch powerpoints all day long. Sounds like common sense. But when you take a look at our profession, librarianship, you will quickly notice how much time, effort, money and kerosene we spend to send our best minds to […]
2012_09_11_165103, a photo by R-Squared Conference on Flickr. Check out all the pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsquaredconference/sets/72157627620430680/
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 sometimes impersonal neighborhood into a community. It has become a mini–town square….” This gets to the heart of what many of us in libraries know: knowledge shared within a framework of caring and familiarity can strengthen communities. Evidence of caring is present in the knowledge […]
Still on a “Rocky Mountain high” from the R-Squared Conference experience. Sorting my thoughts… but for now some videos from the Anythink Library folks:
Right now is our busiest time of the year. Last week was especially crazy. I hosted an author event featuring our One Book author Tony Horwitz (http://www.morianevalley.edu/confederates), I chaired a department meeting, co-chaired a cataloing meeting in prep for RDA, attended a House of Delegates meeting for our union, met with our director of assessment about our annual assessment plan, and taught a couple of classes. But, out of all of this, the coolest thing I did all week happened at the reference desk. I was doing my normal reference shift, and a student came up to the desk. He […]