Author: rdlankes

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LIS Grand Challenges and the Death of the User

“LIS Grand Challenges and the Death of the User” iSchool Colloquium Series University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Abstract: Grand challenges are hard problems with solutions that have societal level impacts. They are as much rallying cry as research agenda, and are useful in promoting innovation in the field and building strong cross-disciplinary partnerships. What are the grand challenges in library and information science? This presentation will focus on efforts to define these grand challenges and the implications for research and education in the LIS field. Special emphasis will be put on moving past concepts of users to true participation and past information to knowledge.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2011/SIS-Pitt.pdf

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Expeditions: Improve Society

Folks seemed to enjoy the short Atlas Expeditions videos I posted, so I decided to post another. This one reacting to recent discussions on “improve society” as part of the mission of librarians found in the Atlas of New Librarianship:

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Announcing the Next Atlas of New Librarianship Reading Group

This Monday we will be starting a new Atlas reading group using a new forum, and with a new twist. The first year library students of Syracuse University will be moderating a weekly discussion of the Atlas on the blog of the companion website http://www.newlibrarianship.org/wordpress/?page_id=20. Each week a team of students will start off the conversation with a blog post, followed by discussion in the comments of that post powered by Disqus.

So grab your copy of the Atlas and join us Monday and start the conversation. Here is the schedule for the different threads:

Mission: September 19 – 25
Knowledge: September 26 – October 2
Facilitating: October 3 – 9
Communities: October 10 – 16
Improve Society: October 17 – 23
Librarians: October 24-31

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Cutting Back Speaking

I just wanted to let folks know that I will be greatly limiting my travel and speaking schedule for the winter and spring (don’t worry librarians of Kansas and Rome, you can’t get away from me that easily). My wife is having some foot surgery and will be pretty immobile for a couple of months. This will also give me a chance to focus on some new projects like a new book (think Atlas for provosts, principals, and public – much more on that later).

That said if you are looking for a speaker via the Internet (Skype, Adobe Connect, FaceTime, iChat) I’m your man (and at greatly reduced honoraria). I appreciate your patience.

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Expeditions

So I had this idea for doing little videos in the places I visit on themes from the Atlas of New Librarianship. However, it just didn’t pan out. Still I thought I’d share the two videos I put together (and good news, they are both under 2 minutes each).

The first one is on the changing nature of libraries as places:

The next is on the role of the library in relation to the aspirations of the community:

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Fulfilling the Potential: Digital Libraries and The Future

“Fulfilling the Potential: Digital Libraries and The Future” Visiting Lecture, Digital Library Learning (DILL) International Masters Program, Florence, Italy.

Abstract: The following screencast is a pretty long (2 hours and 45 minutes) lecture on ideas from the Atlas of New Librarianship and how they relate to digital libraries.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2011/Florence-DLL.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2011/Florence.mp3

Screencast: