I am a big fan of the Circulating Ideas podcast. Steve does a great job of enriching the discussions within our profession. Thus, I wanted to share info about his Kickstarter. Help out if you can! Circulating Ideas began as a podcast to share the innovative ideas and projects that librarians are creating to keep libraries vibrant and relevant in the 21st century. The show has spanned more than 60 hours of content with more than 100 librarians and library supporters and now I’d love to do more to make the show’s content more accessible and searchable. This Kickstarter campaign […]
Yearly Archives: 2015
73 posts
Thanks to the Alaska Library Association for the invitation and warm welcome to Juneau last week. I was honored to keynote the conference and spend time with the incredibly dedicated Alaskan librarians. I was also able to break away for the afternoon and hike around the Mendenhall Glacier. It was stunning! Download the Slides
On encouraging the heart…. This is important as we move into a more emotionally rich, experience-based world. Our networks enable us to extend the heart across cyberspace. User-centered planning, engaging and exciting creativity-focused spaces, and opportunities to follow one’s curiosity wherever it may lead are all part of the heart of libraries. The library should encourage the heart. The Hyperlinked Library word cloud by Fall 2014 #hyperlib student Sandy Chauvin.
When people ask me why I became a librarian, I offer them a two-part story. First, it’s so I could get married to my wife Haley. Her mom (who is an amazing librarian doing great things) told me that I would make a great librarian. Being that I really wanted to get married to her daughter, I took her recommendation and here I am today. The second part of the story was simply because of the fact that being a librarian allowed me to combine everything that I wanted in my life into a career: the opportunity to do really awesome […]
I am back from three great days in Toronto. Thanks to all at the Ontario Library Conference for such a wonderful conference experience. It was nice to see friends and colleagues and talk with the librarians from all over Ontario. My slides are from the two presentations are here: January 29: Hyperlinked Learning Experiences at Libraries: MOOCs & Beyond: Download the Slides January 30: MOOCs for Librarians: Key Takeaways from Two Large Scale Professional Development Courses: Download the Slides
Dynamic disruption: transforming the library Submissions deadline 15 April 2015 Val Skelton Programme Director Katherine Allen Conference Director Information Today invites you to submit your presentation ideas for this year’s Internet Librarian International (ILI) – the fast-growing innovation and technology conference that attracts hundreds of global library and information professionals each year. We are seeking innovative case studies and discussions on the ideas, strategies and practical implementations that are helping you make a difference to your organisations, clients and communities. ILI is all about the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience and this year we will also be exploring the ‘big questions’ […]
January 29: Hyperlinked Learning Experiences at Libraries: MOOCs & Beyond. Ontario Library Association, Toronto, Ontario. January 30: MOOCs for Librarians: Key Takeaways from Two Large Scale Professional Development Courses, Ontario Library Association, Toronto, Ontario. February 27, 2015: Keynote – Learning Everywhere: Transformative Power of Hyperlinked Libraries, Alaska Library Association Conference, Juneau, Alaska.
Don’t miss this new venture from Ellyssa Kroski and a great group of writers. It’s a great way to explore some of the ways libraries are reaching out to fan communities of all kinds. http://ccgclibraries.com Welcome to Cosplay, Comics, and Geek Culture in Libraries! This is an exciting time for geeks of all kinds to be involved with libraries as today’s savvy libraries have begun to embrace new ways to engage library patrons such as fandom events, comic book and graphic novel collections, comic cons, cosplay events, and more. The intersection of these interests with libraries is a perfect match […]
And my last column of 2014 – for got to post! http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/11/opinion/michael-stephens/its-about-time-office-hours/ Have you said this in a meeting or a discussion with a colleague? Has this rolled off the tongue when confronted with an unexpected change, a new technology, or another initiative? Many of us are stretched to our limits. I applaud the folks I meet who have absorbed more and more duties as staffing patterns have changed. Just recently, at a meeting of the Council of State Library Agencies in the Northeast in Cape May, NJ, I dined with librarians who were wearing many hats in their evolving […]
My new column is up at Library Journal: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/01/opinion/michael-stephens/actions-and-answers-office-hours/ The attitudes or reflective action, highlighted in an article by Grant and Zeichner (2001), includes open-mindedness, responsibility, and wholeheartedness. All are important and resonate deeply with me and my philosophy of what librarianship should be about. Approaching something with a sense of wholeheartedness means we are all in all the time, not just when it’s convenient. It means bucking the status quo to do the right thing at the right moment. It means owning our actions as professionals. I am most excited about this evolution of who we are and what we do […]