This post from Ben Lainhart inspires me to do everything I can to make online LIS learning and engaging: (emphasis mine) One of the worst things about being an online MLIS student is the lack of meaningful interaction with professors and students. Let’s face it, Blackboard is still stuck back in 2001. Ideas do not organically flow there. How can they when you have to make two insipid posts per week – 1 original, 1 response please! I am nearing the end of my program and though I am sure I have had more than a few classes with several […]
Yearly Archives: 2011
251 posts
A few of my coworkers (Ruth, Erika, and Matt) had some fun this April Fool’s Day. Check out the entire run of images here. You know, there’s something to be said to working with people who come up with fun ideas. Furthermore, there is many things to be said about working under leadership that allows/encourages this sort of fun creativity. Patrons/members/customers can sense when people like what they are doing, it makes a difference. TTW Contributor: Mick Jacobsen
Greetings from Istanbul! I’m giving this presentation three times over the next two days. Each will be slightly different depending on the audience. The slides are here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/SocialMediaAppEduStephens.pdf
http://ischool.sjsu.edu/about/news/detail/dr-michael-stephens-joins-sjsu-slis The San José School of Library and Information Science is pleased to welcome Dr. Michael Stephens as a new full-time faculty member. Stephens is a recognized scholar and teacher in the areas of emerging technologies and library services, Learning 2.0 programs, social software, social media, digital library services, virtual communities, user-centered planning for libraries, Internet users’ information needs and behaviors online, and future roles of librarians and libraries. Stephens has been a faculty member with Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science since 2005. Prior to joining Dominican, he spent more than 15 years working in public libraries […]
Much discussion has been made about librarians reaching out through social media to our communities and our patrons and rightly so. But, we often overlook the role that social media offers for us internally as a means to strengthen our organizations. One thing to remember is that libraries really do not participate in social networks. People do. In fact, your “library” doesn’t exist. You may have a building. You may have items on your shelves. You may have people who show up to do work. But, there is no “library.” Often, we speak of our libraries as if they are […]
Brilliant! Please take a few minutes and watch Peter Bromberg’s video from ACPL. I was honored to take part in this series in 2008: http://www.youtube.com/user/askacpl#p/a/5C3DEAAE3B8A1DBE/0/PzBC8q_hTHY
What challenge will you seek out today? How will you continue to learn? Maybe next to my “still learning” plaque, I’ll place a Post-it as another reminder: “Find your next challenge.” Last Thursday I accepted an offer to join the full time faculty at San Jose State University School of Library & Information Science. On Monday, I resigned my appointment at Dominican GSLIS effective in August 2011. This has been an incredible few weeks of pondering, making decisions, and seeking a challenge. Yes, I wrote “Seek a Challenge” for my Office Hours column at LJ about the decision to apply […]
Many technology policies are created out of fear. They are created to protect the organization from its own members. They present a laundry list of illegal activities from copyright infringement, to libel, to harassment, to intellectual property theft, etc. They “protect” the library from lawbreakers and heart breakers. Of course, policies have never done an hour’s worth of work…ever. Policies don’t do anything. People do things, and the best policies should offer guidance to the actions of organizational members. The goal of all policies should be to prevent problems before they occur, not act like “red light cameras” taking photos […]
I’m speaking this morning at the WNYLRC’s Library Innovation: Thinking Outside the Book meeting. The slides are here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/StephensWNYLRCTransparency.pdf
My new column is up at Library Journal: http://bit.ly/fAPW2s If you are on the fence about emerging technologies, take a look at the new Horizon Report (www.nmc.org/horizon). The 2011 report not only pre sents technologies to watch but offers a road map for planning and an ongoing dialog about change in education, learning, and libraries. Supported by research and evidence, it points the way to the future. This rich trove will spark your thinking, as it did mine. Here are some of my observations and ideas. Conversation-based reading Reading becomes social. While the ebook market continues to steamroll past libraries, the […]