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, […]
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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 […]
“Librarians must create new nostalgia,” urges Palfrey, former director of the Harvard Law School library and one of the planners behind the Digital Public Library of America. Though people still have a positive attitude towards libraries, Palfrey says this is based on nostalgia for the old model of libraries as places that collect and provide access to print materials. This nostalgia is dangerous because such a model cannot be sustained as more and more information goes online. The book presents Palfrey’s vision for the role of libraries in a brave new digital world. First, Palfrey thinks the physical library will […]
Or whatever other dystopic future you can conjure up. Author Cory Doctorow, no stranger to the dystopic future, writes: “Public libraries have always been places where skilled information professionals assisted the general public with the eternal quest to understand the world.” Well, imagine the world you wished you understood up and vanishes one day – alien invasion, plague, zombie apocalypse… Perhaps these all sound like the unhinged ravings of someone who has consumed too much YA SciFi or bing watched the new X-Files. You would probably be right. But, let’s just imagine that world for a moment and how the libraries of […]
I was slightly embarrassed when I read Professor Stephens’ article “Stuck in the Past,” and his students’ responses when asked why they wanted to be librarians. When I decided to go to library school, it seemed like a logical choice, because (like those students) “I like books.” This is actually a bit of an understatement for me. I’ve always thought of myself as a book nerd and considered this a vital part of my identity. It is why I “followed my passion” and majored in English as an undergraduate. I got to read lots and lots of books, then write […]
Keynote from the 15th Annual Information Literacy Summit, hosted by DePaul University Libraries and Moraine Valley Community College Library (http://informationliteracysummit.org). Critical Pedagogy in a Time of Compliance | Information Literacy Keynote, Emily Drabinski —————– Troy A. Swanson is Department Chair and Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College. He is the co-editor of the recent book from ACRL, Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information. You can follow him on Twitter at @t_swanson.
I have been taking part in a leadership program for IT personnel within our university system. It’s a 9-month program, with 2-day workshops and on-the-job activities sprinkled throughout. One of the very first things we discussed was reflective practice: how it can be used to promote personal growth and how personal growth can benefit your relationships of all types. Have you ever done something and thought “man, I could have done that so much better”, or “next time I need to remember to do ‘x’”? Do you forget to actually follow-up on your own advice? Reflective practice help! The reflective […]
In recent years, the tiny house movement has gained momentum as more and more people are making the shift toward smaller spaces with fewer belongings. While purging clutter can be a freeing experience, learning to live without can also pose some challenges. Fortunately, mobile information environments and new models of library service mean that living small no longer has to mean going without. I’ve been a part of the tiny house movement since 2007. My boyfriend, our 4-pound Chihuahua, and I first downsized from a 600-square foot apartment to a 19-foot camper, then back and forth between a 33-foot sailboat and a […]
One of the big themes running through my life as a student this semester is connecting, mainly through connecting to others in the profession through the Internet. When I recently read the quote from the New Yorker about “some of our closest friends and most significant professional connections are people we’ve only ever met on the Internet,” my heart jumped and my ears opened to listen a little closer–in other words it really resonated with me. As an English speaking, budding librarian living in Hungary, my ‘in-person’ professional network, at least with other librarians, equals zero, which means that all of […]
This week we held our own Human Library event at my library. The short video below is a quick overview. The Human Library as an idea has been around for a while now, but it is becoming increasingly common in libraries. We utilized it as a way for students from a range of classes to come together with our “books” to explore diversity and understanding within the context of their classes. Faculty members signed up by course section and built assignments that connected to the program. Books Come Alive at Moraine Valley Troy A. Swanson is Department Chair and Teaching […]