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 […]
Yearly Archives: 2013
155 posts
The White Plains Public Library is doing some amazing things with their teens (claymation, LEGO catapults, and more) with Teen Librarian Erik Carlson at the helm. Recently, they finished up a minute long PSA about distracted driving. I’ll turn it over to Erik for more: This idea came from a film maker last year. He wanted to work with the library & the only money we had was from a grant from the Allstate Foundation. It was a large project where over a dozen teens worked on a PSA that lasted 5 minutes. We took that as a learning experience. […]
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
Yesterday I did the keynote presentation for the Embrace Change, Invent the Future conference sponsored by NORWELD in Ohio. Thanks to all who attended and for the great discussion afterward. The slides are here: for slides please Contact Michael
Brian Kenney’s new piece in Publishers Weekly is on Maker Spaces: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/56603-meet-your-makers.html I love his take: What’s radical about maker spaces in libraries? Pretty much everything. Maker spaces are messy in a library world that values order, disruptive in a culture run by schedules, chaotic in a profession that did, after all, develop the Dewey Decimal System. Hill, who has an empty floor she is using for her maker space, says it’s up to the community to determine how they use it. The library is there to provide support, but she has no idea what direction it will take. Maker […]
I am super excited about this – just heard from Mylee Joseph that 500 AUS/NZ new professionals have signed up. This is free learning folks created by library folk! http://anz23mobilethings.wordpress.com http://librariesinteract.info/2013/04/12/23-mobile-things-join-the-australian-new-zealand-course/ So what is the NZ/Australian Cohort for 23 Mobile Things all about? Read on. What are the 23 Mobile Things? Twitter Taking a photo with a mobile device: Instagram / Flickr app / Snapchat eMail on the move Maps and checking in: Foursquare Photos + Maps + Apps: Historypin / What was there / Sepia Town Video: YouTube and screencasts Communicate: Skype / Google Hangout Calendar QR codes Social reading: RSS […]
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 […]