Perhaps I have been living under a rock but I just stumbled across the Idea Box from Oak Park Public Library, IL. Very interesting. TTW Contributor: Mick Jacobsen
Categories Creativity
65 posts
Last week, a poet was in my office. We had planned a poetry reading, but she was pitching me a new idea focusing on a book she was writing about her birth father. Before that, a geography faculty member was describing a lecture about how hedgehogs can be used to explain key concepts in geography. Before that, I was at our marketing department proofing publicity for our upcoming One Book series. Before that, I was in a meeting about training staff members to run our HD cameras. When I was in library school, no one told me that one of […]
Two years ago, I had the painful pleasure of coauthoring a textbook with three other colleagues. This textbook was written for first-year writing students, and I wrote the sections of the book that focused on research and information literacy. As we wrote the book, my thoughts went back to one of my former high school teachers, Michael McAvoy. This morning I learned through Facebook that he lost his battle with cancer. I have many memories of high school (most of them good), but out of all of them, Mr. McAvoy is the one person who rises above most of the […]
Dangerous ideas for libraries: ASLA 2011 View more documents from Mal Booth
Thanks to all the librarians at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City for inviting me to visit the campus library for a tour and lunch on Front Street a few weeks ago. We had a great conversation – including a discussion about the library’s “graffiti wall” – seen above. Each month, a statement goes up that students can answer on sticky notes. The above is an answer to “This semester I will…” Thanks to Stephanie DeLano Davis, Librarian at NMC, for organizing the visit. Below is a shot of us after lunch:
Josh Hadro provides coverage of the “Play, Learn, Innovate” Symposium: Guiding the event was the prevailing notion of integrating “playfulness in your life, career, and work as a whole,” noted opening presenter and moderator Liz Danforth, a freelance game illustrator, scenario designer, and game developer, and librarian at the Pima County Public Library. Danforth established the framework for the session, touching on “innovation, creativity, motivation, games, critical and strategic thinking,” all in an effort to spark positive change and overcome fearful reaction and resistance. As she noted and other panelists affirmed, activity flexibility and a positive, fostering environment are some […]
http://www.cyclingforlibraries.org/ It’s the first cycling unconference for librarians! Cycling for libraries is a politically and economically independent unconference and a bicycle tour. We are bicycling from Copenhagen, Denmark to Berlin, Germany via Gedser and Rostock from 28th May to 7th June 2011. Read more about the route. The tour will take about 10 days. At the moment we have confirmed only the day of the closing seminar, which will be on June 6th in Berlin. The official closing will be on the next day after participating the opening ceremony and the joint cycling event of the German Library Conference. It […]
Tony Tallent, Director of Literacy and Learning at the Richland County Public Library in Columbia, SC sends along a poem by bell hooks that speaks to me: …take hold take heart and enter here at this point where truth was once denied. Thanks Tony!
Warren Cheetham ponders the demise of AskNow in Australia and offers some insights into his view of the future of reference: I wonder if this is a good opportunity for the AskNow partners and participants to consider the idea of a proactive online reference service for Australians, that takes into account the changes in online behaviour and information seeking that has led to the decline in use of AskNow. In brief, online services like Facebook and Twitter, and specific answer services like Yahoo Answers are filled with people asking their friends, families and followers all sorts of questions. Some of […]
This is the second installment from the ILEAD U Project. Click here or on the category hyperlink to read more about it. – Mick Jacobsen Team Springfield Big Read includes Amanda Binder and Janelle Gurnsey from University of Illinois Springfield, Brookens Library; Julie Wullner from Lincoln Library, The Public Library of Springfield, Illinois; Amy Ihnen from Chatham Public Library District; and Sarah Garley from Rochester Public Library. Together we represent four of the 14 partners of The Big Read in Central Illinois. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute […]