Author: rdlankes

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Day 45,626

“Day 45,626” NYLA’s 125th Annual Conference. Lake Placid, NY.

Abstract: This year NYLA celebrates its 125th anniversary (45,625 days). 45,625 days ago Melvil Dewey, one of NYLA’s founders, saw the future of libraries in standardization, efficiency, and industrialization. 45,625 days ago the future of libraries was in shared structures, shared methods, and librarians devoted to the maintenance of institutional libraries. On day 45,626 this is the formula for disaster. On day 45,626 the future of libraries is in librarians building libraries around the unique communities they serve. The success of the next 125 years is intimately tied to the success of the counties, cities, towns, and villages of New York. Our next 125 years is in the dreams and aspirations of New York’s citizens, students, and scholars not our stacks.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2015/NYLA.pdf

Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2015/NYLA.mp3

Screencast:

Day 45,626 from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

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The Boring Patient – Free to Download

Last year I published a book on my journey with cancer called The Boring Patient. Since That time I have received incredible and touching feedback on how the book was helpful in others’ cancer experience, or that of a loved one. I have heard from nurses that are giving it away to patients. This kind of impact is greater than any price I could put on the book.

So today I’m giving it away to anyone who can use it. Follow this link and you can download the ebook version for free. No strings attached.

I am also using this post to share the audio book version. I’ll post a chapter a week, and then update the download page.

Thanks to all who have been so supportive of the book, and of me as I went through diagnosis and treatment. The community of cancer survivors is the most loving and caring group you can imagine – with a really crappy entrance requirement.

The Boring Patient: Introduction

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Librarians as Agents of Transformation

“Librarians as Agents of Transformation” Informatie aan Zee 2015. Oostende, Belgium.

Abstract: What can be learned from the U.S. librarians’ response to the economic crisis, and the importance of hope and optimism in librarianship.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2015/Belgium.pdf

Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2015/Belgium.mp3

Major Points: Major points

Screencast:

Librarians as Agents of Transformation from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

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Expect More: What’s In It For the Information Professional?

ESIW15-dag-2-15092015-22“Expect More: What’s In It For the Information Professional?” European Social Innovation Week. Tilburg, Netherlands.

Abstract: Librarians have a chance to fundamentally change the profession at the local, national and international level. This presentation covers why the profession is ready, our members are ready, and the crises that demand more of librarianship.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2015/Tilburg.pdf

A video of the lecture:

Another video taken from the audience:

More information on the event: http://www.esiw.nl

A piece on the conference with an interview with me (in Dutch): http://www.cubiss.nl/sites/default/files/bestanden/actueel/ACTUEEL-Durf-SamenSlimmer.pdf

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IMLS Funds Community Profile System

16826031270_745f4698b7_oWe’re aiming to take “The Community is the Collection” from slogan to reality with a new National Leadership Grant from IMLS.

Co-PIs: Yun Huang, R. David Lankes, Jian Qin

Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies (iSchool) is partnering with Coulter Library at Onondaga Community College (OCC) and Fayetteville Free Library (FFL – an Onondaga county public library) to respond to the National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG) Program, addressing IMLS’s Learning Spaces in Libraries priority. This project can best be summarized as: the community is the collection. We propose to design a Community Profile System to expand library collections to include human expertise, particularly in the STEM fields. This system will enable librarians to collect communities’ learning needs, identify relevant community experts, and link the resources to serve the learning needs in a cost-efficient manner. This 3-year project will accomplish four activities: 1) assess community members’ learning needs and identify community experts’ interests and their availability in participating different libraries’ services through survey and interview studies; 2) build data models that capture the various needs and dynamic people resources as collection; 3) develop a workflow by identifying librarians’ roles in data collection, organization, and validation; 4) prototype and implement the system with user interactions and privacy protection features, as well as evaluate the system prototype via a system pilot study and diverse test cases.

Link to IMLS Announcement