Yearly Archives: 2010

237 posts

Video: “The Hyperlinked Community Library” from Leipziger Kongress für Bibliothek und Information

Michael Stephens “The Hyperlinked Community Library” from Zukunftswerkstatt on Vimeo. Thanks to my colleagues at the Zukunftswerkstatt for posting their video of my talk last year in Leipzig while I was in Germany speaking at the US Embassy. I’ve been reflecting on 2010 this week and the two back to back trips I took to Europe – one to Switzerland/Germany sponsored by the US Mission in Geneva and the Embassy in Berlin and the other for U Game U Learn – were highlights for me on many levels. Not only did I meet library folk from all over  but the […]

Integrating Staff Personal Social Media Presence into Library Web Site = Human Touch

I’m updating some slides and prepping for spring classes today. I was pleased to find this wonderful staff directory page for the Todd Library at Waubonsee Community College: https://library.waubonsee.edu/staff/ Not only do I get a photo of the staff member, I also get access to their social media presence as well. Frankly, I’d like to see more libraries do this. Wouldn’t clicking through to a staff listing such as the one above paint a clearer picture of the PEOPLE running the library beyond just a name and email address? I understand if some individuals were not interested in participating, but […]

Cycling for Libraries

http://www.cyclingforlibraries.org/ It’s the first cycling unconference for librarians! Cycling for libraries is a politically and economically independent unconference and a bicycle tour.  We are bicycling from Copenhagen, Denmark to Berlin, Germany via Gedser and Rostock from 28th May to 7th June 2011. Read more about the route. The tour will take about 10 days. At the moment we have confirmed only the day of the closing seminar, which will be on June 6th in Berlin. The official closing will be on the next day after participating the opening ceremony and the joint cycling event of the German Library Conference. It […]

Take Heart

Tony Tallent, Director of Literacy and Learning at the Richland County Public Library in Columbia, SC sends along a poem by bell hooks that speaks to me: …take hold take heart and enter here at this point where truth was once denied. Thanks Tony!

Are you a cynic or a builder?

This seems so appropriate for this time of year: http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/how-will-you-use-your-gifts-in-2011/ Jeff Bezos had some questions in a commencement speech given this year – they ring especially true to me: How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make? Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions? Will you follow dogma, or will you be original? Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure? Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions? Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize? Will you guard […]

Looking Back at TechSource: 5 Years of Blog Posts

I contributed my final post as a regular author this week at ALA TechSource. I must say it makes me a bit emotional but it’s time to move on to focus on other things. I thought I take this chance to point back to some of my favorite posts from the last 5 years of writing at TechSource. One of my favorite things to do was a “back and forth” interview/discussion style post. Here are some of the best of the best: John Blyberg: On the L2 Train | Information Experience Michael Casey: Where Do We Begin? | Better Library Services for More […]

Office Hours: Heretical Thoughts

My newest “Office Hours” column is up at Library Journal: Not all students are ready to take this on. Some can only operate within the constraints of their own limited assumptions of what library work is. To conclude last semester, my LIS701 class walked a local labyrinth, as Pink describes, to engage the left brain and free the right to explore new ideas. “Think about your professional practice,” I said before the walk. “What can you do to encourage the heart of your library users?” I caught up with one of the students from that class, Tara Wood, and asked […]