Contributors Michael Stephens
4147 posts
IN an “Office Hours” piece from early 2014 on Reflective Practice, I wrote about the human face of the library. PUTTING A FACE ON THE LIBRARY This reminds me that the library should be human. It means that behind the keyboard, behind the blog, and behind the Facebook page, there’s a person ready to have a conversation: ready to help, ready to listen. I’m always looking for good examples of this. So I was thrilled to see this cool project from the fine librarians at the University of Colorado Boulder. Shared via librarian Adam Lisbon on Facebook who was part […]
I come to this blog post with some concern in my heart. Deep in my heart I have a profound love and respect for public libraries. They are an essential part of any democracy. Access to libraries has increased over the history of democracies, and some who might not have had access in the past are now welcome. The maturity of civilization always seems to reveal itself as we become more inclusive through the growth of acceptance, the growth of respect, and the increasing understanding of the value of all human beings. Everything I’ve learned recently supports my devotion to […]
Over the last few years I have been inspired and impressed by all the fabulous programs I read about or heard about at conferences where libraries had “Makers in Residence,” “Artists in Residence,” etc. It never dawned on me until now that my place of work has had its own “Pilot in Residence” for over a year now. When the time came to expand our idea lab concept to a second branch in 2015, our director was looking for something innovative and fun that would fit our community and asked us to research the feasibility of a flight simulator. George […]
A slideshow presentation from SJSU School of Information student Arin Hailey Reese for the Hyperlinked Library course in Fall 2016. Arin’s focus was on the Hyperlinked Family, a model of technologically enhanced children’s library services that encompasses the entire family in learning.
Thanks to all who attended the Panhandle Library Access Network Annual Meeting, The slides from my keynote are here. Selected References Creative Classroom Model Model Programme for Public Libraries Selected “Office Hours” Columns cited: Talk About Compassion Dream. Explore. Experiment. Hygge State of Mind Speak of the Devil Color Me Curious Library as Classroom Live Long Day Library Emoji Learning to Learn Also of Interest: The Heart of Librarianship – New book from ALA Editions by Michael Stephens The Transparent Library – Free ebook from Michael Casey & Michael Stephens
It’s my last speaking trip of the year. I’m heading to Panama City, Florida tomorrow for the Panhandle Library Access Network Annual meeting. If you are attending, please say hi. 🙂
I have an article in the new issue of the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science on our student blogging platform at the School of Information, San Jose State University. This study investigates the benefits of a community blogging platform for students in an online LIS program. Using a web survey and descriptive content analysis methods, this paper empirically addresses how student blogging communities can be effectively foster connections amongst instructors and students, and enhance perceptions of learn- ing performance. Overall, students reported the blogging community and blogging as- signment created a positive impact on their learning performance, particularly […]
Thanks to all at Finger Lakes Library System. I keynoted their Annual Meeting October 14, 2016 and visiting Ithaca is always a wonderful time. Download the slides.
Note from Michael: We had an issue with TTW for the past few days that Blake fixed for me last night. Apologies for being behind! Here’s a shout out to all the folks who attended The Library Network Tech Forum on Friday in Bloomfield, MI. I was honored to present the keynote, especially to folks in my adopted home state of Michigan! As promised some links to follow up: Download the slides. Abstract: The Heart of Librarianship: Attentive, Positive & Purposeful Change The heart of librarianship is learning and supporting our users’ curiosity through every means possible. It’s a cyclical process […]