Tue, 05/31/2016 Contact: Rob Christopher Marketing Coordinator ALA Publishing American Library Association 312-280-5052 rchristopher@ala.org CHICAGO— Adaptation to change that’s based on thoughtful planning and grounded in the mission of libraries: it’s a model that respected LIS thinker and educator Michael Stephens terms “hyperlinked librarianship.” And the result, for librarians in leadership positions as well as those working on the front lines, is flexible librarianship that’s able to stay closely aligned with the needs and wants of library users. Stephens’ new book “The Heart of Librarianship: Attentive, Positive, and Purposeful Change,” published by ALA Editions, is a collection of essays from his “Office […]
Monthly Archives: May 2016
9 posts
Thanks to all the folks at RILA and the conference attendees. I have had a great time! Download my conference keynote slides. Image Providence Public Library: http://portals.provlib.org/2016/05/05/portals-candles-now-available-limited-edition/
What does it mean to be Mindful and Reflective? M.I.N.D.F.U.L Mistakes: “By not making mistakes, by not taking responsible risks, by waiting until someone else makes it perfect before we can adopt it, we miss an opportunity to benefit from any success of the project now.” Interact: “Connect and interact as an individual with your patrons as a human being. Treat them as humans and not as members of an anonymous crowd. Share your knowledge and stories with them, join the conversation.” Neat Things: Try neat things and see if they stick. Done: Find ways to overcome the “have always done it that way” attitude. Failures: Show […]
“Librarians must create new nostalgia,” urges Palfrey, former director of the Harvard Law School library and one of the planners behind the Digital Public Library of America. Though people still have a positive attitude towards libraries, Palfrey says this is based on nostalgia for the old model of libraries as places that collect and provide access to print materials. This nostalgia is dangerous because such a model cannot be sustained as more and more information goes online. The book presents Palfrey’s vision for the role of libraries in a brave new digital world. First, Palfrey thinks the physical library will […]
Thanks to all the good folks at the Fort Bend County Libraries in Texas. I had a wonderful morning talking and sharing ideas. We even had a super brief power outage during the talk. The featured image is one of the tables during my talk – staff members we’re coloring! Download the slides Selected “Office Hours” Columns cited: Talk About Compassion Hygge State of Mind Speak of the Devil
Greetings! First a shout out to the incredible group of students who worked with me to revamp Tame the Web this semester. You will see their work here visually with a new theme and structurally via improved categories, tags and site structure. It’s been a great semester. Thanks also to all the good library folk that emailed and sent pics of their canine companions in response to my column “Talk About Compassion” in Library Journal. The boys are doing well. 🙂 I have two more presentations this month and I hope to say hi to Tame the Web readers in Texas […]
Or whatever other dystopic future you can conjure up. Author Cory Doctorow, no stranger to the dystopic future, writes: “Public libraries have always been places where skilled information professionals assisted the general public with the eternal quest to understand the world.” Well, imagine the world you wished you understood up and vanishes one day – alien invasion, plague, zombie apocalypse… Perhaps these all sound like the unhinged ravings of someone who has consumed too much YA SciFi or bing watched the new X-Files. You would probably be right. But, let’s just imagine that world for a moment and how the libraries of […]
I was slightly embarrassed when I read Professor Stephens’ article “Stuck in the Past,” and his students’ responses when asked why they wanted to be librarians. When I decided to go to library school, it seemed like a logical choice, because (like those students) “I like books.” This is actually a bit of an understatement for me. I’ve always thought of myself as a book nerd and considered this a vital part of my identity. It is why I “followed my passion” and majored in English as an undergraduate. I got to read lots and lots of books, then write […]
Keynote from the 15th Annual Information Literacy Summit, hosted by DePaul University Libraries and Moraine Valley Community College Library (http://informationliteracysummit.org). Critical Pedagogy in a Time of Compliance | Information Literacy Keynote, Emily Drabinski —————– Troy A. Swanson is Department Chair and Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College. He is the co-editor of the recent book from ACRL, Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information. You can follow him on Twitter at @t_swanson.