If you can be in charge/start your/be part of a Digital Media Lab (DML) I highly recommend it… for you. Now, I think all the community building, etc. aspects of a DML are awesome and one of the futures of libraries – see a Library Journal article I co-authored for that all important aspect. However, this post is for those of you who are considering starting a DML and wondering if you will enjoy it as an aspect of your job. This is what my work life looks like being in charge of the Skokie DML ( I have other […]
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Also: Send all tweets with a SMiLE! -Post by Justin Hoenke,Tame the Web Contributor
A few weeks ago, I was doing one of my weekly reference shifts. I went to our lower level to see if students using computers down there needed any help. As I was walking along, I thought to myself that it was great that we had these computers. They were added to help ease the demand for machines. I thought, these students should feel so fortunate that we worked this out with campus IT. What a great service improvement! Every computer was in use. Success! Then, it occurred to me that we added these machines five years ago, and the […]
Thinking about the future has been very common for me in 2011. I’ve asked myself time and time again, “what is my place in libraries?” but I haven’t come to a final answer. I’ve had this feeling that I can’t be a teen librarian forever, but since it is the only position I’ve ever held I’ve had a hard time looking past it. Could I be an academic librarian? A self employed librarian? These ideas have come and gone, but no one answer has really stuck. Until recently… I started thinking about a possible future as a library director after […]
Legend has it that In 1532, Pizarro overthrew the Inca Empire with 168 men. Librarians have much to learn from history. I have been working my way through Charles Manns’ eye opening and complex book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Mann challenges us to rethink what we know about Native American culture demonstrating that pre-Columbian American culture was just as “advanced” as European culture. Mann also shows that the conquest of native society was made possible by many factors, especially the impact of disease. As you may have guessed, Pizarro did not overthrow the Inca Empire with […]
Christoph Deeg has been doing an amazing job touring libraries in Europe with the Zukunftswerkstatt Gaming Roadshow opening up discussion about gaming and libraries. This past week, the Roadshow made a stop at the Mannheim Library and held their program and panel discussion on gaming. If you’re interested, check out this write up of the event here. The roadshow panel discussion brought up a great question: We discussed how interactive games can be used specifically in the culture and knowledge of the role they play in society, which can help libraries, schools or other institutions to technology and how it even […]
Yesterday, a patron came to me for help with finding a book. She said she thought it was checked in, but she wasn’t sure. I looked it up, found it was checked in, so we went to the shelf and got the book. On our walk through the stacks, she said to me that libraries are intimidating. I simply reassured her, and said that they’re really not. WHAT?!?! That was the wrong response. I should have asked her “How can we make the library less intimidating?” I could have gained a lot of insight had I just thought to ask […]
Have you ever given your all for a teen program, only to feel less than spectacular about the end result? We’ve all been there. Maybe we don’t attract the attendance numbers we hoped for or that our well thought out plan didn’t go exactly as we expected it to go. It’s got me thinking about life in the library beyond programs. Programming is a great tool for libraries, but it can only get us so far. Real interactions, friendships, and something as simple as saying hello to our patrons is one of the best practices for a teen librarian to […]
Note from Michael : I am honored to have written over two years of The Transparent Library with Michael Casey. I am pleased he took me up on an offer to do a guest post about participatory service for the Salzburg Global Seminar week. I asked him to explore where we’ve come from 2005 and where we are headed. This was the topic of a blog he started in 2005 and a book he co-authored in 2007. But the world has changed a great deal since 2005. Perhaps the biggest change has been that of the economy derailing many initiatives and […]
http://youtu.be/phypScTE8zE What a great video. I especially like all the community leaders that came aboard for the video share their words about how important the library is to the fabric of the community. Thanks to Aaron Schmidt for originally sharing this video… -Post by Justin Hoenke,Tame the Web Contributor