A new project explores and challenges traditional library dissemination. The tools are taken from gamification which intentionally uses game elements to involve and engage users. A virtual tour of a city uncovering hidden treasures, small engaging ways of improving existing services and a new digital experience at the library – this is what the joint project Gamification – activating cultural dissemination resulted in. A project taken on by three libraries: Guldborgsund Public Library, Aarhus Public Library and Hjørring Public Library in their attempt to involve users in their services more actively. Each library contributed with a sub-project exploiting gamification, […]
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It seems like I’ve been here forever, but as of this month I’ve been at the Chattanooga Public Library for 1 year, 4 months. In that time, we’ve accomplished a lot of great things for the Chattanooga community. At the same time, I haven’t been able to share as much because….well, things just got really busy in a good way! So this post is my Chattanooga catch up post….a way to share all of the positive things that have been happening around Chattanooga over the past few months. Management One of the big new things in my world is library […]
This past semester I had the opportunity to take part in Michael Stephens’s Hyperlinked Library course. The course, especially the readings and discussions on reflective practice, teaching, and learning brought together for me the professional and the personal. A little bit about my background: my previous career was in German Studies, but a couple years ago my contract as an Assistant Professor wasn’t renewed. My wonderful, supportive colleagues said again and again that it was due to budget pressures, but deep down and for quite a while I felt I had failed. What the experience offered me, though, was a […]
A big AHA! moment about 21st century participatory librarianship came from an unlikely source: a book about ancient pueblos of the American southwest. The author observed that each pueblo was comprised of a collection of living spaces surrounding a large common area – first, the Great Kiva, and later, the plaza. Every living space faced into this common area, which was the hub of pueblo life and ceremony, because, as the author noted, every community needs a center (Scully, 1988). That’s it! I thought.That’s the 21st century library. The 21st century library is some combination of physical and virtual space […]
Context Book Assignment: Net Smart: How to Thrive Online Critics of modern social media and our emerging hyperlinked culture are abundant. So are cheerleaders and utopians, who praise the potential of new media and our always-on, always-connected, society. Critics warn us that Google might be “making us stupid,” as Nicholas Carr put it. They wonder, as Sherry Turkle has, “Why do we expect more from technology and less from each other?” They worry that we are becoming overloaded with information, unable to focus on sustained chains of reasoning, and “driven to distraction.” They express concern at the tendency for Facebook […]
http://chattlibrary.org/events/night-out-kids-tweens-and-teens-2nd-floor I’m very excited to share our new NIGHT OUT program that we’ll be running next month at the Chattanooga Public Library. It’s a simple idea, but it is one of the best library programs I’ve put together. Why? Let me tell you. Basically it goes like this: while parents and guardians enjoy an evening at our June 5th event featuring New York Times Bestselling Author Jeff Shaara on The 4th Floor of the Chattanooga Public Library, their kids, tweens, and teens can hang out on the 2nd Floor (without their parents/guardians) and enjoy all that the 2nd Floor of the Chattanooga Public Library has to offer. Parents and […]
Here’s one of the neat little things we’re testing out on The 2nd Floor of the Chattanooga Public Library: using an Apple TV/Projector/iPad/blank wall combination to stream random things while the library is open. This morning, we used our streaming service Hoopla to show folks just how awesome your library card can be. Then we listened to some Daft Punk for a bit and finally switched it over to a complete walk through of The Legend of Zelda which is running as we speak. Why are we doing this? We’ve got a lot of wall space on The 2nd Floor and […]
Are you my mentor? An exploration of the intersection of Twitter & mentoring relationships. In the real world mentors are usually organic relationships without specific titles, goals, or responsibilities. Mentors are simply experienced people you get to know and look to for advice, informally and organically. They’re people you go to coffee with, people you ask for guidance, and people you call when there’s a big decision to make. (Barr, 2013, para. 14) Ideas about mentors and mentoring have changed a lot over the years, particularly with the advent of social media. As an avid Twitter user, I was curious […]
Context Book Assignment: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr For my context book assignment I admit that I picked my book solely based on its title. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr was my first choice as I found the title very thought provoking and I immediately asked myself “What is the internet really doing to my brain? Has it really done anything at all? How do I know if it has? I knew it was the book for me when it got me thinking before evening reading the first page. After reading The Shallows, I was […]
After completing Dr. Stephens SJSU online course in Fall of 2012, I was inspired to develop a personal blog on library innovations and social media in libraries. In many of our course assignments and projects, we explored and played around with Web 2.0 tools, and using templates developed by Professor Stephens, we trained on how to implement these tools in our libraries and personal lives. We learned how to talk about them with others, from our patrons to our administrators. Blogging about my two loves – social media and libraries – would become a worthwhile cause. The Social Media Plan […]