“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 […]
Contributors Michael Stephens
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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 […]
I have been taking part in a leadership program for IT personnel within our university system. It’s a 9-month program, with 2-day workshops and on-the-job activities sprinkled throughout. One of the very first things we discussed was reflective practice: how it can be used to promote personal growth and how personal growth can benefit your relationships of all types. Have you ever done something and thought “man, I could have done that so much better”, or “next time I need to remember to do ‘x’”? Do you forget to actually follow-up on your own advice? Reflective practice help! The reflective […]
For me, the heart of librarianship is learning. It’s a cyclical process of support, engagement, and discovery with deep roots in the concepts of service, access, and freedom to pursue interests of all kinds. No matter what type of institution, someone is gaining knowledge, finding information, or creating something new based on our facilitation. And in my opinion, the role of facilitator and guide is best delivered with humanity and heart. (Fom the Preface) ALA Editions has gathered and published five plus years of my “Office Hours” columns from Library Journal as a book entitled The Heart of Librarianship. The […]
In recent years, the tiny house movement has gained momentum as more and more people are making the shift toward smaller spaces with fewer belongings. While purging clutter can be a freeing experience, learning to live without can also pose some challenges. Fortunately, mobile information environments and new models of library service mean that living small no longer has to mean going without. I’ve been a part of the tiny house movement since 2007. My boyfriend, our 4-pound Chihuahua, and I first downsized from a 600-square foot apartment to a 19-foot camper, then back and forth between a 33-foot sailboat and a […]
Jan Holmquist details an interesting way libraries have helped keep services open in the face of funding cuts: An “open library” is a library with a combination of hours staffed with professional librarians and hours with self-service. That combination has proved itself successful because the result is more loans and lots of more visits to the library. In Denmark we have a lot of happy library fans using open libraries. Some are people who now use their local library instead of the main library. We know a lot of people commuting to jobs now have a better opportunity to use the […]