A big AHA! moment about 21st century participatory librarianship came from an unlikely source: a book about ancient pueblos of the American southwest. The author observed that each pueblo was comprised of a collection of living spaces surrounding a large common area – first, the Great Kiva, and later, the plaza. Every living space faced into this common area, which was the hub of pueblo life and ceremony, because, as the author noted, every community needs a center (Scully, 1988). That’s it! I thought.That’s the 21st century library. The 21st century library is some combination of physical and virtual space […]
Monthly Archives: May 2014
14 posts
Context Book Assignment: Net Smart: How to Thrive Online Critics of modern social media and our emerging hyperlinked culture are abundant. So are cheerleaders and utopians, who praise the potential of new media and our always-on, always-connected, society. Critics warn us that Google might be “making us stupid,” as Nicholas Carr put it. They wonder, as Sherry Turkle has, “Why do we expect more from technology and less from each other?” They worry that we are becoming overloaded with information, unable to focus on sustained chains of reasoning, and “driven to distraction.” They express concern at the tendency for Facebook […]
Warren Cheetham’s final report and presentation about his 2013 VALA Travel Scholarship to the USA, to investigate libraries and broadband internet, is now publicly available. The report was presented at the VALA Library conference in Melbourne earlier this year. This page has links to the written report and a video of the conference presentation. The page linking to the paper seems to indicate that it’s not available yet, but scroll to the bottom and accept the terms and conditions to access the paper. The video link requires a name and email to register, but it should then play right away. http://www.vala.org.au/vala2014-proceedings/795-vala2014-session-6-cheetham […]
Note from Michael: Valarie Kingsland delivered the SJSU SLIS Outstanding Student speech at our convocation She graciously allowed me to publish her remarks here. Thank you, Dr. Hirsh, for your generous introduction. It’s a pleasure to be here with you and your loved ones. To share in the celebration of this special day, when we reflect upon our time as students, delight in our new titles as archivists, librarians, and information professionals…and contemplate our future. It’s an honor to have been chosen to represent you and share our story. Our Story Remember when you found out you were accepted […]
http://chattlibrary.org/events/night-out-kids-tweens-and-teens-2nd-floor I’m very excited to share our new NIGHT OUT program that we’ll be running next month at the Chattanooga Public Library. It’s a simple idea, but it is one of the best library programs I’ve put together. Why? Let me tell you. Basically it goes like this: while parents and guardians enjoy an evening at our June 5th event featuring New York Times Bestselling Author Jeff Shaara on The 4th Floor of the Chattanooga Public Library, their kids, tweens, and teens can hang out on the 2nd Floor (without their parents/guardians) and enjoy all that the 2nd Floor of the Chattanooga Public Library has to offer. Parents and […]
Slides are here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/239835/StephensKeynoteAmigos.pdf The slides are lean and feature shots from my Instagram – this was a fun deck to put together. Resources: Holding Us Back: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/04/opinion/michael-stephens/holding-us-back-office-hours/ Infinite Learning: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/10/opinion/michael-stephens/infinite-learning-office-hours/ Learning to Learn: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/06/opinion/michael-stephens/learning-to-learn-office-hours/ Mobile at the Library: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/11/opinion/michael-stephens/mobile-at-the-library-office-hours/ Notes from Some Small Islands: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/12/opinion/michael-stephens/notes-from-some-small-islands-office-hours/ Reflective Practice: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/01/opinion/michael-stephens/reflective-practice-office-hours/
Academic 15: Evaluating library and IT staff responses to disruption and change in higher educationby Michael Stephens, David Wedaman, Ellen Freeman, Alison Hicks, Gail Matthews–DeNatale, Diane Wahl, and Lisa Spiro.First Monday, Volume 19, Number 5 – 5 May 2014http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4635/3878doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i5. Academic 15 (A15), an interview–based research project, explores the perceptions of university library and information technology (IT) staff related to the challenges impacting higher education as a result of technological advances. Faced with disruption on many fronts, academic library and IT staff have adapted and adopted a number of tools and processes to cope with accelerating change. This includes seeking out […]
On April 25th, we held our 13th annual Information Literacy Summit in Illinois. This event is a partnership between Moraine Valley Community College Library and DePaul University Libraries. We are excited to share the keynote address on metaliteracy, information literacy, MOOCs, and threshold concepts featuring Trudi Jacobson and Tom Mackey. Changing Models, Changing Emphases: The Evolution of Information Literacy featuring Trudi Jacobson & Tom Mackey ————————– 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.
Put your library’s logo and barcodes on iPhone cases! This is some solid library pride / geek chic for your members, as well as a way for you to demonstrate that you understand. You do understand, right? 100 cases for $600 500 cases for $2500 1000 cases for $4500 Visit: http://weareinflux.com/library-barcode-iphone-cases/ What a wonderful idea!