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 […]
Contributors TTW Editor
240 posts
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.
Check out Megan Bergeron’s informative post for students who may be new to the networking scene. As scary as meeting new people sometimes can be, the biggest favor you can do for yourself is get out there and just start saying hi to everyone you meet and learn a bit about what they do. Its a great way for you to learn more about yourself and help you learn to focus on the things you’re really interested in or passionate about. At the end of the day the only person who’s going to look out for your best interests is yourself, […]
Anytime someone asks me if they should go to library school, I want to give them an unconditional “Yes!” Since I’ve graduated, spent almost two years working as a full-time librarian, and started to pay back my student loans, I haven’t given one unqualified “Yes!” to anyone. I’d like to say something about why that is. * * * From 6:00 to 9:00 PM on Wednesday nights, I work at the information desk with one other employee, often a part-time library clerk. Recently, we were doing a little arts and crafts project to pass the time, and she asked me […]
One year ago I made the jump from a career full of youth services to a life as a director of a small public library. It was a jump that I knew I wanted to make for awhile and when I had the opportunity to work at the Benson Memorial Library in Titusville, PA I jumped right at it. YOUR COMMUNITY IS UNIQUE. UNDERSTAND THEM. We can’t rely on an article in a library related publication to spell out exactly what we need to do in our library. Every community is different, and with that you have to adapt to […]
Recent Tame the Web guest-poster Anna-Carin U’Ren was the lucky recipient of a REFORMA travel grant to attend the ALA annual conference in Orlando. Read about her adventures and the connections she was able to make at the conference in her community profile on the SJSU School of Information site. Way to go, Anna!
The book entitled “It’s Complicated: Social Lives of Networked Teens” by Danah Boyd offers various examples, explanations, and even contradictions to the “issue” of teens and social media. The book is broken into eight chapters: identity, privacy, addiction, danger, bullying, inequality, literacy, and searching for a public of their own. On a personal note, I loved the book! I found so much information that I have been craving from other resources and statistical data, but they rang loud and true throughout the book. I could write an additional post just on the book and my thoughts (and perhaps I will), […]
The following poem was inspired by Taylor Mali’s “What Teachers Make” and was created as a both a tribute to librarians and libraries and a summary of sorts of what I have learned in Professor Michael Stephens’ HyperLinked Library Course from San Jose State. I was invited to dinner one night recently and during the meal one of the guests said in a tone meant to get my attention … the problem with libraries and librarians is What’s a person going to learn from someone who decided her best option in life was to become a librarian? He reminds the […]
First of all, I should note that I am a newcomer to the idea and notion of transparency. The idea of transparency seems to me to be a common sense practice and therefore, I was surprised to have never heard this term before this spring. I have worked in different businesses and corporation (all customer service based) since my teens and have never had any training or staff development in this area. Thus, when I discovered the idea of transparency, I became enraptured by its possibilities and implications. “The transparent library contains three key elements: open communication, adapting to change, […]
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 […]