Contributors Michael Stephens

4147 posts

“They can be checked out after Friday, July 6”

"They can be checked out after Friday, July 6" Originally uploaded by The Shifted Librarian Jenny discovers she can’t check out “exhibit books” at Downers Grove Public Library. Today is Friday, June 29, and I as a taxpaying resident with a valid library card cannot check out any of the books in this bookcase for an entire week. It’s insane. Do you know of *any* other institution that spends taxpayer money on new things, proudly displays them, and then keeps them from residents for a week or longer? I wonder if I request the title I tried to check out […]

Start a Revolution

OCLC Blog Salon Originally uploaded by cindiann If anything, ALA 2007 was flickr’d, twitter’ed and blogged from any and every angle. I was lucky to meet some folks whose work inspires me, including Cindi, who I blogged about here, and many others. Also, I appreciate the message of Cindi’s shirt. Can you feel something coming from the discussions, online conversations and conference chatter? I can.

Strictly Forbidden

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/strictly-forbidden/ Brian Kelly writes: As someone who used to work in a number of IT Service departments I’m aware of potential security implications. But the tone of this notice strikes me as inappropriate. And it also seems to be out of sync with the trend towards more user-focussed IT Service departments, articulated in the introduction to the UCISA IT Support Staff Symposium 2007 given by David Harrison, UCISA chair who argued that IT Services departments need to stop saying that they are user-focussed and actually mean it. Brian mentions the work of Michael Nowlan, Director of Information Systems Services at […]

First Monday Podcasts

First Monday Podcasts Originally uploaded by mstephens7 http://firstmonday.org/ First Monday is launching podcasts in August: Starting in August 2007, First Monday Podcasts will bring you the people and events behind the interesting and novel ideas related to the history, current use, and future of the Internet. Preview: http://www.firstmonday.org/podcasts/First%20Monday%20teaser.mp3

Letting Go of the Culture of Perfect

I’m home from ALA and trying to decompress. One thread of conversation at this conference was the notion that letting go of the “everything must be perfect” mindset might lead to more innovation and improvement in libraries. I think all the sessions I attended or presented included a mention of play and experience. Karen Coombs at our RUSA preconference said: “Question everything! And don’t worry about making mistakes..” in relation to planning, creating and implementing technology in libraries — and finding the time to do those things. Are we so caught up — like that unnamed librarian someone told me […]

The Death of Ideas

PAR-TIC-I-PA-TION, or 37 pieces of library flair (also a 365days shot) Originally uploaded by cindiann Read this: http://alreadygone.blogspot.com/2007/06/par-tic-i-pa-tion-or-37-pieces-of.html I am a “next generation” librarian, librarian 2.0 (1.5!), “young librarian,” whatever you want to call me, and I recently made the choice to get involved in ALA. I am currently attending the annual conference and having to make hard choices about what programming to attend and what to research later. Rather than continuing to believe that it’s hard to get involved, I chose to show up and agitate–ask people how to get onto committees, talk to those around me who are […]