Library News, Reviews, and Views
Rebecca Miller (miller@mediasourceinc.com) is Editor-in-Chief, School Library Journal.
This is the complete version of the story included in LJ’s post-ALA coverage in the August print issue (with lots of photographs and analysis). The turmoil that arrived with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the late summer of 2005 lingers, with potent reminders throughout American Library Association (ALA) conference presentations and in conference-goers’ reflections on [...]
Photographer Robert Dawson is approaching the tail end of a journey anyone bit by the library bug would envy. With his son, Walker, he’s driving across the country, just slowly enough to stop and document many public libraries along the way (with a kickstarter campaign to help pay the way). This trip is the culmination of [...]
In a guest post, Alexia Hudson describes how she got invited to participate in the Tweet Up and the lessons she left with:
There aren’t many life experiences more exciting, surreal, and transformative than being an invited guest into the White House. Even more incredible than receiving the invitation, however, is the one small thing that led me to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on July 6.
The #askObama event and Alexia Hudson’s response to my blog post about it pointed me back to my ALA notebook, specifically notes from the Urban Libraries Council‘s excellent panel on Influencing Leaders with Stories (part of its annual conference held in tandem with ALA). Two city officials and ICMA‘s Ron Carlee were frank about what [...]
Yesterday, I was busy. So it seems were the rest of the passionate library activists and advocates that fire off ideas and brainstorm with one another on Twitter all day, every day. As Obama’s Town Hall on Twitter took off, pulling in over 65,000 questions for the President, libraries weren’t in the mix, even though [...]
The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) unveiled it’s second round of Top Innovators at its annual member meeting, held June 25 in New Orleans during the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual conference. The programs and strategies identified range from improvements and internal operations to outreach programs, partnerships, branding, and more. The 11 Top Innovators, by category, [...]
"Everybody stand up." That’s how Infopeople’s Cheryl Gould prompted over 300 librarians to their feet for the first of four exercises on building the people skills necessary for good customer service. And it transformed the all-too-expected conference panel into a robust learning environment. At "You Want Me To Do What? Innovative Training for Soft People [...]
There’s plenty of advice around for first-time conferencegoers, and it was flowing fast and furious at the New Members Reception Wednesday evening at the convention center in Portland. Among the standards (wear comfy shoes, thank the vendors, don’t wear the badge on the street) Sally Decker Smith gave to the almost 100 people gathered were [...]
Thank goodness for reader feedback! You’ve helped us bring back reviews of Spanish-language books. Over eight years ago, your requests spurred us to launch the original Criticas, our English-language source of coverage of the Spanish-language market that for the ensuing years, in various iterations, was the go to place for librarians needing to purchase materials [...]
I’d be eating up the funny, insightful, and plain-old true thread on Publib "You know you’re a rural librarian if…." (and its Kansas cousin)–but then, I’m not one, and I’m still loving it. From requests to ID a live snake to getting library deliveries at your home on the days the library is closed (or [...]
INFOdocket by Gary Price
