I am excited to announce that I’ll be a keynote at the VALA 18th Biennial Conference February 8-11, 2016 in Melbourne, Australia! Watch the World Tour site for more details.
Join MidWinter Radical Conversation Virtually
By popular demand we’re going to try adding virtual access to the MidWinter conversation shaping the next new librarianship book The Radical’s Guide to New Librarianship. First the basics, then the disclaimer.
The Basics
When: 10:30-11:30 Central Time, Monday February 2, 2015 (this coming Monday)
Where: https://webconference.syr.edu/radical/
What: We’re using Adobe Connect
The Disclaimer
This is still primarily an in person event, so no virtual access was planned. That means it will be my laptop looking at the crowd and the conference center’s WiFi. It should of course work wonderfully, but please approach this as more of an experiment. Also know that these conversations are ongoing at https://davidlankes.org/?page_id=6461 and your input is always welcome there, on Twitter, or email.
Even More Disclaimer
This is intended as an interactive session where we are looking for input and discussion.
Use MidWinter to Shape New Librarianship
From 10:30-11:30, Monday February 2, 2015 at McCormick Place West W183a Kim Silk and I are having an open session for feedback on the follow-up to the Atlas of New Librarianship working title The Radical’s Guide to New Librarianship. You are invited.
Now everyone knows that invites only work when they are personalized or when they have direct relevance to someone (or involve pizza). So with that in mind, please skip to the heading you think bests fits you:
Atlas Lover
Come and provide input on the follow-on to the Atlas – be a part of the book. What gaps need to be filled? What areas covered? Hear the plans for The Radical’s Guide to New Librrianship and share your thoughts on making it more effective. What tools do you need for sharing the message and winning over colleagues?
Atlas Hater
I dare ya, DARE YA! Come tell the author exactly what he got wrong, what he needs to know, and just where he can put his next book…all in a civil and constructive environment. Seriously, the Atlas was meant to start conversations and the best ideas don’t come from an echo chamber. Talk epistemology, talk applicability to small libraries, talk unbiased, now’s the time to join the conversation.
Library Practitioner
The Radical’s Guide is intended for you. What do you need to implement the ideas of library as conversation, the community is your collection, and the mission of improving society through facilitating Knowledge creation in your community? Do you need more than a text? A MOOC? Slides? Videos? Please share your needs and insight.
Library Scholar
What do we know that needs to be shared? How do we teach these ideas to our library students, in the field practitioners, and those who support libraries like boards, provosts, and principle? How can we better tie current and cutting edge research into the framework of New Librarianship?
Library Student
Your fresh eyes and new perspectives drive innovation in the field. Share it. Be part of folks trying to make our libraries the best institutions for their communities. Besides, someone will probably make a library student read this at some point, and you can help prevent it from being deadly boring.
Please Join the Conversation
Please help us make a text that is of use to you. The more conversation and input librarians have, the better The Radical’s Guide will be.
ILEAD USA Joins the World Tour
I’ve mentioned ILEAD USA (born ILEAD U) several times in this blog, and for good reason. Put simply I think this is the best intensive continuing education for library professionals out there. I don’t say this because I am part of it. Rather I am part of it because I believe in the project so much.
Teams of librarians from across 10 states gather for three intensive residencies and multiple inter-session activities over a year (can I get an hallelujah for 10 state libraries working together on professional development). In that year these library professionals work in teams on projects and learn about leadership, technology, and what library service focused on communities looks like.
Not only do these teams of librarians learn, but the whole project is about building state-wide networks of awesome librarians. ILEAD USA has produced incredible projects like developing entrepreneurs in rural Illinois, region-wide digital repository systems, public/school librarian collaborations, life transition services for the unemployed, a law school library collaborative, circulating tablet training kits, evaluation systems for youth services, and much, much more. ILEAD USA and IMLS helped fund the development of The Atlas of New Librarianship.
It’s not too late to be a part. Either as a team member, a mentor, or an instructor. Check with your state library if you live in Delaware, Illinois (more info http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/libraries/ileadusa.html), Maine (more info http://www.maine.gov/msl/libs/ce/ilead_usa/index.shtml), North Dakota (more info http://ileadusanorthdakota.wordpress.com), New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, or Wisconsin.
If you’re not in one of those states, check out the keynotes and material the project provides: https://www.youtube.com/user/ILEADUIllinois
A VERY big thank you to IMLS for their continued support of this project and the continued development of awesome librarians.
Announcing the Expect More World Tour
This year I’m taking the message of how powerful librarians can lead to better communities through better libraries on the road. With keynotes in the UK, New Zealand, and speaking engagements in the US and Canada, I’m hoping to have a conversation about where libraries are going, and how important good librarianship is to good communities (schools, universities, businesses, governments, localities).
You can check out the confirmed dates here. I’m also working to nail down additional dates including in Italy (please let me know if you can help) for this summer.
Special thanks to the Syracuse University iSchool, Tech Logic, CILIP, LIANZA, the Toronto Public Library, and MIT Press for making this a reality. Please follow the World Tour Sites for new dates, and more details.
iSchool Announces MLIS “Expect More” Scholarship Program
From the iSchool press release:
By: Diane Stirling
(315) 443-8975
A new initiative at the School of Information Studies (iSchool) offers an enriched graduate education experience to students who want to become leaders in librarianship and to develop skills that are applicable to a wide range of 21st-century careers that are redefining what it means to be a librarian.
“The Expect More Scholarship program is designed to provide promising students with all the graduate education experiences that will lead directly to career success,” said Jeff Stanton, Interim Dean at the iSchool.
The program offers one-on-one pairing of students with iSchool library faculty, experts who are some of the profession’s most compelling and innovative educators; two years of applied, pertinent work/research experience; industry networking and professional development opportunities; and significant scholarship and financial support.
A select group of students in the entering class of Summer/Fall 2015 Master’s in Library and Information Science degree program will become the inaugural Expect More Library Scholars.
Shaping Innovation
This program is designed “to provide students with the opportunity to work with expert library educators who are leading and shaping innovations that are refocusing libraries – and librarians – in the 21st century,” said R. David Lankes, Professor and Dean’s Scholar for New Librarianship at the iSchool, and one of the library profession’s leading thinkers, noted speakers, and innovative voices in the field today.
He noted how the program’s structure comprises a unique educational experience that goes well beyond classroom learning alone. “What we’re talking about is involvement with active faculty who are creating the future of the field, and we’re inviting our students to join us,” Lankes explained. “This is a way of building a really close relationship with people who are changing the field, and students are going to be part of that change from day one. It follows a similar strategy to a doctoral program, very much the idea of really building a network of outstanding librarians and library educators with people who are out there changing the field. We have people here doing brilliant work in many areas, and our faculty are preparing better librarians for better libraries.”
The program features:
- Pairing of each “Expect More” Library Scholar to a specific faculty member, a mentor who is carefully matched to the student’s career field of interest, for the two years of the graduate education program;
- A 50% tuition scholarship award, funded by a generous bequest from the late Estelle Wilhelm, herself a librarian and MLS alumna of the school;
- A paid faculty assistant position – a job working directly with the paired faculty member, on projects in the student’s field of interest, for 20 hours per week during the academic year, over the two years of the program;
- A fund of $1,000 for student travel to library conferences, industry networking events, and professional development activities.
“The ‘Expect More’ program is intended for students from a wide range of interests and who are interested in a wide range of careers in business, government, communities, and academia,” said Lankes. In addition to the library degree itself, the iSchool offers a diverse set of graduate certificates – such as the Certificate of Advanced Study in Data Science – that can help library professional address the professional challenges they will face in the field.
World Tour
The iSchool’s “Expect More” initiative also includes efforts to raise awareness of the paradigm shift underway in library education, the librarian profession, the in-library environment, and the way libraries fit into their communities today through an “Expect More” World Tour, featuring Lankes as a keynote speaker.
As a noted author of three books that describe the “new librarianship” model, Lankes will address how libraries will become models of innovation for their communities and how librarians can lead that charge. The 2015 speaking tour will include events both in the United States and around the world.
Lankes’ “Expect More World Tour” begins at the Mid-Winter meeting of the American Library Association in Chicago on February 2, where he will speak on the topic, “Radical Conversations.” Other dates include the Tech Logic Showcase (Miami, March 20); the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Conference (July 2, in Liverpool, England); then will travel to Italy; New Zealand (November 7-11, at the Library and Information Association of New Zealand); then on to Australia.
The focus of these talks will be on how libraries and the field of librarianship are shifting focus from collections and buildings to communities and civic empowerment, and with this shift comes more hopeful and confident narratives around libraries and librarians. “In our cities, our schools, our universities, our hospitals, and our businesses, libraries are essential and can be so much more than what communities expect of them,” says Lankes. “Where once we looked to libraries to warehouse materials, we now look to them to help forward community aspirations through knowledge and learning.”
A Year to Expect More
Prepare yourself for a year of greater expectations!
This year I’m teaming up with some amazing partners to get out the message of Expect More. Namely that our communities should expect outstanding libraries, and we need to continue to prepare outstanding librarians to lead them.
Today you can read about Syracuse University’s iSchool launching an Expect More|Librarians Scholarship to help outstanding students work directly with cutting edge faculty at the school. Expect More Library Scholarships provide significant tuition support along with weekly stipends and a travel grant to work directly with a faculty member on areas like library advocacy, library assessment, gaming, and, of course, community engagement. Study advocacy right with former ALA president Barbara Stripling, or library assessment with Megan Oakleaf, school libraries with Ruth Small….or come work with me!
But wait, there’s more. Tech Logic is creating an Expect More Speaker Series. The series will be a set of regional events highlighting the future of libraries through community engagement, and freeing up librarians to work on the community as the collection. The series starts off at an invite-only event at ALA MidWinter and is coming to South Florida, California, Boston, and Texas. Keep an eye out for more details. I am thrilled to be working with Tech Logic and Lori Ayre, Galecia Group; Cheryl Gould, Fully Engaged Libraries; Juliane Morian, Associate Director at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library
The Tech Logic speaker series is also part of a larger Expect More World Tour. Over the next year I’ll be bringing the message of librarians engaged in radical positive change to Toronto, New Zealand, the UK, and Australia among others.
This year will also see the publication of The Radical’s Guide to New Librarianship, a follow on to The Atlas of New Librarianship we’ve been working on. You can already join in conversations and help shape the book through our Radical Conversations. Also, I’m going to use this year as input to creating a new edition of Expect More with hands on activities and planning guides for those who support libraries.
It’s going to be a very exciting and busy year. Stay tuned for more details, new dates on the World Tour (I’m looking at you Italy), and lots of support for librarians and communities demanding more from libraries in this complex world!
Want to get a head start? You can get your copy of Expect More right now.
Today. Today. Today.
This semester I am teaching a class in self-publishing (Publish or Perish: From Monks to MOOCs). This post is the result of my most recent self-published book, The Boring Patient.
There are a lot of reasons folks self-publish a book. Some for fame, some for money, some because they have something they want to share. In most cases it is a combination of all of these. Throw in the increasing ease of doing it yourself versus the difficulty of breaking into “traditional” publishing with agents and such and you have the amazing increase in self-publishing.
I’ll be honest, when I published The Boring Patient I was interested in selling books and making money in addition to simply wanting to share my message. It was nice to have a pretty paper book to give out to friends and family, but somewhat discouraging when I didn’t sell thousands of copies (yet). Then I was invited to do an interview on the book for a locally produced public radio show on health matters.
The interview was recorded (you can hear it here) in the same hospital where I had been diagnosed with and treated for my cancer. After the interview I went up to the oncology and bone marrow transplant ward. I had spent 25 days in the transplant ward walking 31 miles 42 steps at a time. I saw a nurse who remembered me. She have me a hug, and I gave her a book. Then I went to the general oncology ward where I had spent a month when first diagnosed.
As I turned the corner, a nurse I mentioned in the book saw me. This is the passage about her from the book:
Here is one of the most poignant moments I have had in my life, and frankly, if you take nothing out of this book but the following story, I would be very happy. As the fellow lowered the bed for more leverage to push into my skeleton she requested a steel needle to bore into the crown of my pelvic bone. A nurse who had been taking care of me came to the head of the bed, and with one hand gave the fellow the steel needle, and with the other took my hand.
For the next 10 minutes that nurse asked me about my job, my kids, my wife, where I liked to travel, anything to keep me talking. Meanwhile the fellow continued to lower the bed for better leverage. She was getting direction from another doctor…it was the fellow’s first bone biopsy – great. As soon as the fellow removed the needle, the nurse let go of my hand, walked down to the lounge where my wife was losing it, and told her, “You are planning his funeral, stop it.”
Now here she was, and before I knew what to say she hugged me. She proceeded to tell me that she not only heard about my book, but had given it to the head of medicine, her fellow nurses, and even patients. She asked if I would be willing to talk to patients and possibly be involved in some staff development. To say that she made my day is an understatement. I told her I was at her disposal. If she needed me to talk to nurses or patients or doctors, I would be there. It would be a pleasure to give back.
As I was leaving the floor, she found me again and asked if I had time to talk to a patient. So I was soon sitting next to – well – me really. Me from twelve months ago. Hair gone to chemo, port connected to a pole pumping in chemo. We talked for the better part of an hour about cancer, stem cell transplants, chemo, pain, family, drugs, dying, and getting through it all. After the better part of an hour I left. What hit me at that moment was that if I didn’t sell another copy of the book, it had already accomplished more than I could have hoped.
Which brings me to this post. Turns out my story has been used in an Italian course on “The Sociology of Health” (Google translation). I wrote a brief post for the class and received these questions:
Good evening, it’s a pleasure to talk to you. I have two questions.
How has this experience of disease changed your life? And how the narratives clinics can change the concept of care of and public health? Thank you for your availability.
That is not a set of answers I can easily squeeze into a Facebook comment. So with that very long preface, here are my answers:
On the matter of what clinics can change around the concept of public health, I think the short answer is that clinics don’t make you healthy. Doctors, drugs, and treatments don’t make you healthy…they are a crucial PART of your health. So, however, are you. It takes a team of committed professionals, patients, and caregivers to get and stay healthy. All members of that team are important, all must teach and learn from each other, and the key is knowledge. That nurse holding my hand was as important to my treatment as the steel spike piercing my bone. Me taking my pills was as crucial as the doctors writing the prescription, and the pharmacist who ensured the correct dosage.
How has this experience of disease changed my life? Wow. There are the expected answers. I have come to appreciate my family and friends more. I have seen how powerful the caring and contributions of even remote acquaintances can be. Meals, sitting with me, lottery cards, Christmas caroling form library students via Facetime, all can be overwhelming. They show that people care that you are alive.
Then there is the more truthful, and frankly painfully personal answer. I don’t know yet.
It has been nearly a year since my bone marrow transplant. While I was living that year it felt like a straight path of recovery. Every day feeling better than the day before. Every day stronger. Now I can leave the hospital, now I can leave the house. Now I can travel by car, now by plane. A first clean PET scan, then another, and another. Always getting better; always moving forward. That’s the way health is supposed to work. You get sick, then you get treated, then you get better. It certainly seemed like a straight line at the time. Feeling better, then joyous, then more work and more impact; always forward. Always joyous.
But looking back on my “first year” I do not see a straight path. Yes there is the forward path of my body, but all around it is the sometimes jarring emotional swerves and bucks and skids. Always joyous? Joyous and relieved and then depressed and lost. Is it my mind, my body or the latest drug side effect. Always forward always forward until you stop and breath and want to crawl back into bed for no reason. No reason. But you try and find one to explain the fear and anxiety and depression when yesterday was joy. You take out your mental checklist: Drug change? Insomnia (again)? Bad food? Am I sick – oh God am I sick?! Where’s the thermometer. How’s my breathing and my chest? There has to be a reason, it has to be physical right? I don’t get anxious, I don’t get depressed. I’m the brave one, the strong one, the cancer is gone. I’m better…right?
Then they are there. Your wife who hugs you. Your kids joke with you. Your friends and your mother are there. And it is not so bad. Sometimes it is still bad, but you force a smile, or a joke…and then you fool yourself too. Better. Out of bed. Then joy…thank God that in all that swerving and bucking, joy comes.
Today I am better. Today I have survived a year when many would have died. Today I have a chance for joy. Today I can have the straight path…or perhaps today I will once again skid and buck. But I can do that. And maybe today as I slide and skid I can also close my eyes to just feel the rush of wind on my face. And today as I look down and see hands that every day resemble more and more those of my dead father I can remember him. And today as I try something new I can applaud myself for courage – get out of bed – get out of the house – get out of my head and do the most sincere prayer I know: today I will make the world a better place. Today I will use my gift of life to help others. Today. Today. Today.
Charlie Hebdo
This morning in a Tweet Bredebieb asked me “what should public libraries do,” about the Charlie Hebdo attack. It was frankly a bit of a humbling and scary question. After all, I am not in Paris, and I cannot claim to know everything that French libraries do now. However, it would be an obvious act of cowardice to simply claim ignorance or to respond with some high level non-answer like “help the communities have a conversation.” So I provided some ideas:
“provide a safe place to talk about the attack and the reasons for the attack and free expression. Provide access to Charlie.”
“host talks and forums on free expression and democracy. Host a human library event with different faiths.”
“host sessions with therapists and parents on how to make kids feel safe.”
“above all use this as an opportunity to be a safe place to express feelings and help your community.”
“help your community compose a narrative and then project it to the world. Is it ‘we shall overcome?’ Or ‘we stand with Charlie?’”
and ended with:
“all libraries should provide safe place to recover and the tools to turn tragedy into action and understanding.”
Still, Twitter is not exactly a place to have a deep discussion of where these ideas come from, nor truly share what I think public libraries should do. So in this post I’d like to give a deeper answer to how I feel public libraries should respond to horrific acts like the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. I’d like to present three lessons I have learned.
The first lesson is to fight violence with information and understanding. On September 11th 2001 I was the director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology. I came in to work that day just after the first plane had hit the World Trade Center Towers. After the second plane crashed the entire clearinghouse staff gathered in my office with a TV watching the coverage. Horrified and a bit numb, I sent everyone home. This was a time to be with family.
Over the next week we met asking exactly the same question that Bredebieb asked: “What should we do?” At the time we ran a service called AskERIC that received hundreds of virtual reference questions each day plus a well trafficked website for educators. The answer we came up with was developing InfoGuides (think WebGuides/FAQs) on the attack that we updated as more was learned as well as other related topics. We posted them on the web and sent them out in email. The overwhelmingly viewed/used resource we develop was on Islam.
What I took away from that episode was that in the wake of tragedy, people look for understanding and knowledge of the unknown. So librarians need to inform their communities through FAQs, an archive of media coverage to create an accurate memory of the event, and lots of opportunities for interaction between cultures, races, and ideas.
The next lesson I have to offer I learned from the libraries serving Ferguson Missouri during the racial unrest this past year: help the community develop their own narrative. During riots and violence in Ferguson the public libraries (Ferguson Public Library and Saint Louis Country Public Library) not only stayed open and provided a safe place for children and citizens, it offered up an alternative narrative to violence. While much of the media focused on police versus the black community, the libraries took to social media, traditional media, and even signage outside the buildings talking about Ferguson as a family.
They highlighted how with the schools closed, educators, children and parents came together to create their own ad hoc school among the stacks and shelves of the libraries. Rather than allowing their community to be solely painted as angry black mobs fighting a militarized police, the libraries showed Ferguson to be a place of multiple races coming together around children, learning, and a desire for a better future.
The libraries did not diminish the conflict, nor ignore systemic racism. Yet the libraries did not close, and did not retreat. The libraries – no, the librarians did something and showed the world that Ferguson is not so different from Syracuse, or Seattle, or communities across the country…and that like those communities, they are more than the headlines. They humanized a narrative.
What I took away from Ferguson was that libraries not only provide a constructive space; they add depth of understanding to the world. Give the community a chance to breathe, morn, reflect, and then act and speak.
My last lesson comes from the librarians of Alexandria during the Arab Spring. In the midst of riots and civil unrest the protestors protected the library. Where many government buildings were torn down and looted, the library was protected. Why? Because for the years leading up to the riots and uprising the librarians did their jobs. They become trusted resources for the community because they provided real benefit to the average citizen of Alexandria and intellectually honest services.
So the lesson? Continue to be the resource for your communities. Continue to demonstrate the values of librarianship: intellectual honesty, intellectual & physical safety; openness & transparency; and the importance of learning.
What I hope the French libraries do is what I hope I would have the courage to do in their place: be a safe place to talk about and learn about unsafe issues. Invite in all faiths to talk about how to eliminate violence, and how to respond. Provide ready access to Charlie Hebdo, and controversial materials. Talk about (host lectures, town halls, and events) around the importance of free expression in a free society.
Help to craft the community narrative and project it to the world. What is the community thinking about and learning from this tragedy? What do you do as librarians and what works. What can other librarians learn about responding to these horrible events?
I have made it my mission to advocate for librarians to be active agents of transformative social engagement. In other words, I have made it my mission to have librarians make their communities better through active service. I believe it is crucial for librarians to actively try to change the world and make it a place for fewer abominations like yesterday’s attack. Doing that is scary. We were not trained as grief counselors and no one choses easily to run towards conflict. Yet if we believe that librarians and libraries should make our communities better (more knowledgeable, more capable, more empowered) than we cannot shy away from actively helping.
To my French colleagues I ask, how can I help?
Radical Conversations: The Value of a Collection
I’m running a day behind due to the holidays, but please join us for a conversation on the value of the collection in New Librarianship: https://davidlankes.org/?page_id=6892
Here’s the introduction to get you thinking:
Value of Collections from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.
As always you can respond on the page, or use twitter with the hashtag #NewLibValue