Malcolm Gladwell famously defined the “tipping point” as that magic moment when an idea or practice crosses some invisible threshold, tips, and spreads widely throughout a culture or society. Lately I’ve been wondering if the practice and benefits of mindfulness meditation are hitting that tipping point. The many benefits of mindfulness meditation have been known to Buddhist monks and western scientists alike for many years. But it is only recently that mindfulness seems to be recognized in the workplace as a valuable practice worth promoting and fostering among employees. In the past few months there have been a flurry of […]
Monthly Archives: April 2013
24 posts
Being adaptable in a flat world, knowing how to “learn how to learn,” will be one of the most important assets any worker can have, because job churn will come faster, because innovation will happen faster.” Thomas Friedman
I am honored to be spending the day at my hometown library for staff development institute: Traverse Area District Library. Take a look at this page of stats they make available: http://www.tadl.org/stats/ Please take a look at their Web site and catalog – built on Evergreen. To me, this library is an outstanding example of making things WORK on so many levels. I’m speaking this afternoon – the slides are here: For slides please Contact Michael
I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Bibliotech Podcast. We talked about social media in libraries, library website design, libraries as loosely coupled systems and other topics. Social Media in Libraries (here’s a link to the show notes: Bibliotech 26 show notes) Troy A. Swanson is Department Chair and Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College. He is the author of the book, Managing Social Media in Libraries. You can follow him on Twitter at @t_swanson.
KICKSTARTING THE CIRCULATION Two years ago, I created the Circulating Ideas podcast, where I talk to cool, innovative librarians about the work that they’re doing to move the profession forward. Ultimately, I’d love if non-librarians listened and learned about all the great work that we do, but I’m thrilled with the fact that most of my audience are my fellow librarians, gleaning ideas and inspiration from my guests. I do the show on my own time, on my own dime, so upgrading and improving the show takes a personal investment, but I couldn’t do the show on my own. Without […]
When I left the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University and entered the profession, the faculty members did not leave me with answers. They left me with a question, which has driven my career. That question was simply, will libraries exist in the future? At the time, the web was fairly new, and many people argued that libraries had been displaced by this technology. As I entered the profession, this question pushed me forward. Based on the needs of my library, I have followed two paths to answer the question. First, when I started teaching information […]
THE AGE OF SCALE from Michael Edson You can tell a lot aboutsomeone’s dreams by what they choose to measure… and what they measure with. Michael Edson – Wow, just WOW….
I love highlighting cool things libraries are doing beyond the norm here on TTW. I’ve done it for years in the “Library Innovators” category. It’s easy to get stuck in our grooves…the same programs, the same services, over and over and over again. From Justin Hoenke: http://justinthelibrarian.com/2013/04/09/community-libraries-ukeleles-and-love/ All of my love, support, and thanks to Kirsten Cappy and Michael Whittaker. These people are the future of libraries. Got Uke? No? No worries, your library does. Portland, Maine library card holders can now check out ukuleles and equally hip young adult books from the Teen Room of the Portland Public Library. This is so in […]