Open!, a photo by mstephens7 on Flickr. Little Free Library #2099 – Library Steward: Michael Stephens The Little Free Library Balsam Circle at Spider Lake in Traverse City, Michigan is a neighborhood project spearheaded by Michael Stephens and Erin Henshaw. The library itself was built by Erin Henshaw and Steven Hoggatt and was built to match Stephens’ cottage across the street. It was dedicated for use by our lake community of Balsam Circle and Lakeview Trail on July 21, 2012. In the weeks since its dedication, the library has seen a lot of traffic and impromptu story times have occurred […]
Contributors Michael Stephens
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Ten Rules for New Librarians – How do they look 6 years later? Ask questions in your interviews. Hard questions, like “How many projects are on the library’s list right now?” or “What is the technology planning process like here?” Read this and remember! Pay attention to the answers and what the librarians interviewing you say about their users. Are they dismissive, bothered by them and their presence in the library? Run away! Read far and wide and immerse yourself in culture, pop and otherwise. It will help you know what your users are doing and into! Understand copyright and the Creative Commons very well […]
Ancient Library Signage, a photo by JenWaller on Flickr. 🙂
Aaron Schmidt and I have combined our columns this month for a double length examination of the site visit assignment in LIS schools: The most responsive libraries would aim to make a change based on the suggestion of the student. The reports and other data would be shared with the staff and the recommendations for improvements evaluated and implemented. The findings might also be shared externally or with the library’s governing body to promote not only transparency but the positive aspects of the library partnering with a library school. These partnerships should be encouraged and leveraged as much as possible. […]
My new column is available at LJ’s site: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/06/opinion/michael-stephens/our-common-purpose-office-hours/ “Get a blog, launch texting, create a Facebook page” has been the rallying cry—from me, too—for some time, but the reasons for doing these things should be clear. They’re an extension of what we have always done, the foundational purpose of libraries. Service. Access. Context. Many LIS programs include “how-to” technology classes. These are useful for providing the skills new grads need to be marketable. Along with those skill-based courses, however, we must give students opportunities to learn how to engage actively with people, facilitate people’s interests and conversation, and promote […]
Thanks to Warren Cheetham for sharing this via Twitter.
Say Cheese, a photo by Lester Public Library on Flickr. Summer Reading on the Road to Mishicot, Lester Public Library, Two Rivers, Wisconsin
http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/news/20071/congratulations-to-new-university-librarian UTS Library is pleased to introduce the newly appointed University Librarian, Mal Booth. Mal joined UTS in 2009 and has led significant changes in the way the Library organises and delivers the information and services it oversees. Amongst many initiatives he has been instrumental in introducing Radio Frequency Identity (RFID) tagging to the entire print collection, ensuring the Library is in a strong position to make best use of the new Library Retrieval System (that is currently underway) and for which he has led the design process. Before joining UTS, Mal was the Head of the Research Centre at the […]
Julia Bergmann writes: There is a new award for librarians and other knowledge-workers in German-speaking Europe. It’s called “Zukunftsgestalter in Bibliotheken” (“Pathbreakers in Library Science”), is sponsored by the German publishing house De Gruyter and is awarded in cooperation with the Journal “Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis” (BFP) as well as the Foundation “Zukunftswerkstatt Kultur- und Wissensvermittlung e.V.” The idea for this award roots in the observation that the current discussions of new developments concerning the library world, such as library 2.0, open innovation in libraries or the new role of gaming etc. is mostly academic, while the practitioners out there, […]
My Keynote, a photo by mstephens7 on Flickr. Uploading a bunch of pictures from South Africa! Thanks to all!