Inventing the Future of Librarianship
“Inventing the Future of Librarianship” Keynote Knutpunkt 2009, Linkoping, Sweden.
Abstract: This presentation examines work to redefine librarianship not as a set of functions, or skills, but as a deeper mission rooted in how people learn and use knowledge.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2009/RealSweden.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2009/Sweden.mp3
Screencast:
Libraries in Action
Here is a great story (thanks for the find Shifted Librarian) about the impact libraries can have.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
William Kamkwamba | ||||
|
Beyond the Bullet Points: Einstein Joke
OK, so you enjoyed the first joke so much, I’ve included another I made up for some earlier presentations:
So Albert Einstein goes to a party. The host is keen to show off the world-famous physicist to his friends so he escorts Einstein around, introducing him.
The first guest asks Einstein, “So what is it you do Albert?”
Einstein replies, “I seek to understand time.”
“Wow,” says the guest, “We’re in the same business. I sell watches.”
The host introduces him to the second guest who asks, “So Albert, what is it you do?”
Einstein, trying to impress, replies, “I seek to understand how all the planets and stars in heaven move about the universe.”
“Wow,” says the second guest, “We’re in the same line of work. I build telescopes.”
A third guest asks Einstein, “What is it you do?’
To which Einstein replies, “I have discovered that light, magnetism, and electricity are all the same force.”
“Wow,” says the third guest, “We’re in the same business. I repair TVs!”
The host takes a now depressed and exasperated Einstein to meet a fourth guest.
“What is it you do Albert?” asks the fourth guest.
Now completely deflated Einstein says, “Nothing. I don’t sell anything. I don’t build anything. I can’t even repair anything. I’m useless.”
“Wow,” says the fourth guest, “I’m a tenured professor too!”
Beyond the Bullet Points: Library Joke
Here’s a joke I opened my last two presentation I thought I’d share. Consider it an open source joke…take and use it, but if you make it better be sure to share.
So God calls a meeting, and to this meeting he invites Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern classification (he’s the guy who gave out all the latin names we had to memorize in biology), Melvil Dewey, and Penny a rural library director who had just passed away the week before.
God says, “Well I’ve done it. I’ve called the rapture and brought up all the souls from Earth for judgement. In fact they’re all behind that door over there. The problem is, when I came up with this plan there were a lot fewer people on Earth – like two – and you folks have been busy. There are now a couple billion souls in that room and I need some help in sorting the saved from the damned.”
“No problem,” says Linnaeus who stride confidently through the door.
An hour goes by, then two, then 5. Finally at 7 hours Linnaeus crawls back out of the door. His cloths are torn and he is clearly shaken.
“I couldn’t do it.” He says. “I was doing OK until I came upon a goth Japanese teenager and I ran out of Latin. It can’t be done.”
“I’m on it,” says Dewey who strides confidently through the door.
An hour goes by, then two, then three. Finally, 8 hours later Dewey crawls out of the door covered in sweat.
“It can’t be done! I had all the Christian denominations all sorted out, then I ran into a Jewish family and a couple of Muslims and I ran out of numbers.”
Upon hearing this, Penny turns on her heals, marches through the door, and one minute later walks back out “Done,” she says.
“That’s great,” says God. “But how did you do it?”
“I just asked everyone who had ever voted to increase library funding to raise their hands and told the rest they could go to hell.”
NNYLN Presentation Now Streaming
They Named the Building after Us
“They Named the Building after Us” Northern New York Library Network 2009 Conference, Potsdam, NY.
Abstract: The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities. Through service, innovation, and leadership, librarians facilitate conversations in schools, communities, colleges, government, businesses, and beyond. It is this act of facilitation of knowledge in partnership with communities that makes a library, not collections, blogs, catalogs, or ivy on walls. This is the central premise of participatory librarianship. This discussion will explore the new role of librarians as a passionate and powerful force focused on the social good.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2009/NNYLN.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2009/NNYL.mp3
Screencast:
Michigan Library Consortium Keynote now Streaming
A Time of our Choosing
“A Time of our Choosing” Keynote for the Michigan Library Consortium Annual Meeting, Lansing, MI.
Abstract: An argument for taking a step back and reconceptualizing librarianship through conversation.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2009/Lansing.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2009/MichiganLansing.mp3
Lecture Notes: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2009/LansingNotes.html
Screencast:
Google and CCTVs = Real Time Maps
Below is an amazing video showing what a group out of Georgia Tech did by combining Google Maps with real time public CCTV data. Now you can see car going down the roads, clouds in the sky and people at play in real time. It is both really cool, and really scary at the same time. Who needs spy satellites?
To me this video is about a lot of things, but one that may not jump immediately to mind is information organization. I gave a talk at the last ALA on the Death of Documents. Part of that argument is that more and more of the data folks are going to use/create/look for is not bound and static like our current perceptions of documents.
Take a look at what these folks have down. They have mashed up (mind you with some very high-level programing) all sorts of geospatially encoded data (video, maps, etc) and even added real time interpolation (i.e., not all the data being shown is “real” data – some of it is simulated), to create a fascinating (and slightly creepy) information space for folks to navigate.
Does it make sense to put this in that catalog? How would you even do it? Not the paper they are presenting, but the actual system.
As librarians we must greatly broaden our concepts of the services we provide, and how we organize them. One could imagine a transportation library where this is the primary interface for members. Add to this real time world links to planning and environmental data (click on that road, up comes the construction records – click on that bridge and access the inspection schedule).
Anyway, plenty to think about.