Category: Events

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SLIS Pandemic Resources

We have been fortunate that as our university moves online, we were already there. We are, however, working hard to ensure that our students can access our courses online with a particular eye to emergent digital divide issues.

I spend a fair amount of time talking about how the School of Library and Information Science seeks to have an impact in the community. We don’t just want to teach change agents, we want to be change agents – faculty, students, staff, alumni.

To that end I am happy to announce some of our efforts to support our communities.

First up the South Carolina Center for Community Literacy has pulled together resources for parents with kids at home and teachers:

https://sites.google.com/view/scccl-resources-covid19/home

We also know that a lot of libraries around the world have closed their physical spaces and a lot of library staff are working from home. To support librarians using this time to work on skills and engage in professional development I am proud to announce SLIS has teamed up with Public Libraries 2030 to put together Librarian.Support, a site (and to be clear one we are building as we go) to highlight some professional development resources from SLIS. Our focus is on preparing folks for better libraries after the virus.

http://Librarian.SUPPORT

We are adding resources as we go including archives of webinars, lessons from our online courses, guides to good learning resources, and we want to add more. Once agin this is a fluid effort, so all are welcome to contribute and please be patient.

Starting this Tuesday, March 24th I will be doing open support sessions every Tuesday and Thursday at least through April. I’ll be inviting faculty, staff, and great librarians from the field to join me in a call-in-style class/show. I’ve already had folks like Erik Boekesteijn for the Royal Libraries of the Netherlands, Karen Gavigan SLIS Professor and genius in everything graphic novels, Marie Østergaard director of one of if not thee most innovative public library in the world Aarhus Public Libraries in Denmark, and Kim Silk Strategic Planning & Engagement Librarian at Hamilton Public Library agree to join me for shows. The idea is a real-time conversation that you can join to ask questions and join the conversation.

I’ll do a separate post this afternoon with details, but for now know the link will be https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/efd8f17225514d5f83dba12dcb50d7ae

9-10 Eastern Standard Time and archives of the conversations will be posted on the Librarian.SUPPORT site. It should be great to get a global view on librarianship. We can have up to 150 folks join the live sessions.

If you have a topic you or your library would be interested in, or want to be a guest, please email me at [email protected]

Folks, this is an extraordinary time. Borders are closed, National Guards activated, quarantines enforced. Everyone has every right to be anxious. I have found that in times of anxiety it is best to do something – anything. Let’s use this time, if we have the resources, to first take care of ourselves, and then teach each other.

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Remarks at Winter 2019 Hooding

The School of Library and Information Science hosts a hooding for those graduating in the Fall and Spring semesters. It is an important small gathering of graduates and family. I take the opportunity to give “one final lesson.” Here are remarks for this hooding.

Welcome to the last graduating class of the decade. I fear you’re not quite done yet. There is only time for one last lecture.

As I was preparing my remarks, I found myself thinking about global issues. Divided politics, monetizing privacy, the growing specter of artificial intelligence developed outside of social responsibility, growing economic disparity, dogs and cats living together – mass hysteria. A little Ghostbusters humor for you there.

I started to write the now formulaic doom and gloom and your job is to save it message. But, as I learned in a very personal way this semester, this is not how I need to send you into the world. Our communities don’t need you to save them – they need you to inspire them. Our students in the poorest and richest school need an ally to accept them as they are, lift what burdens you can, and let them know they are worthy and important. Our neighbors need a partner and a friend to learn and dream with them. The doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors, and public servants need an expert that not only serves but makes them better. Our elected officials need role models in integrity and trustworthiness.

Just as you don’t need to be reminded that the world can seem overwhelming, neither do our communities. They need a light to shine a way forward, not spotlight challenges.

So here then is my final lesson for you. Fight injustice, fight inequity, fight apathy, but do not be consumed in that fight. No one is served by a librarian lost in despair. 

In a recent interview Paul Bloom a Yale psychology professor made a distinction between empathy and compassion. Empathy, he pointed out, is taking on other’s emotions as our own. To be empathetic is to feel the pain of others as our own. Empathy can be exhausting and depleting. It can also be debilitating. Imagine, he pointed out, the oncologist that has to constantly feel the fear of her patients, or the social worker lost in feelings of hopelessness of his clients. 

Bloom argues that that doctor and that social work, need to be compassionate, not empathetic. You need to be compassionate and understand the struggles of those we serve but not be debilitated by it. Preserve your optimism and use it to lift up those around you. Your professional responsibility is not to suffer, but to prevent suffering. Your professional responsibility is not to despair, but to bring hope to the despondent. Seek out those in need and remember that what they need is assistance and support and celebration in addition to service and dedication.

Every great librarian I know has a story – a moment when they made a difference in someone’s lives. For some it is the glow in a child who has been shown the best book ever. For some it is the student who passed a class, or their part in a scientific breakthrough. They can be large moments or intimate connections, but they are all anchors. They anchor us to why we do this and an appreciation of the good we do.

Find your moment.

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Reception at ALA

Davis College

If you are attending this year’s ALA Annual Conference in D.C. or are in the area please join the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science for a reception celebrating great librarianship. Great librarianship exemplified by our alumni, faculty, students, and staff.

This year, we will also be celebrating the life of the great librarian and 2019 Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award winner Nicolette Sosulski, who passed away this year.

So, if you are an alumni, South Carolina librarian, friend of Nicolette, or just want to share some great company, please join us:

Friday June 21st. 6-8pm

The Loft at 600F 4th Floor (Retreat Room)

600 F St NW

Washington, DC  20004

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How you know you need a blood transfusion in the days and weeks after a bone marrow transplant

Here is how you know you need a blood transfusion in the days and weeks after a bone marrow transplant.

It will start at 3am when the cocktail of fluids and supplements from the previous day’s treatment will wake you up with a strong need to pee. However, no matter the urgency, you can’t just get up. If you don’t slowly sit up and wait; then make sure you flex the muscles in your arms and legs first, you will stand up with too little blood pressure to push oxygen to your brain and you will fall back into bed (if you are lucky- if you are not lucky it will be the floor). Your heart will not provide enough force to push blood up against gravity and so it will pool in your veins, waiting for your major muscle groups to provide pumping action.

Once you get to the bathroom, be sure to either sit down to pee or place a steadying hand on the wall so you don’t sway or make a mess. There is a good chance the effort of the 10 foot walk will also wind you.

Assuming all that goes well, you will need to wake at 7am for the daily drive into the clinic. This will mean you need to fight to wake up. I don’t me deal with being groggy, or wanting to go back to sleep. I mean feeling like you are at the bottom of a 30 foot well, and you have to climb up and will your eyes to open at the top.

Once you’re up, remember your nighttime routine to sit up slowly. Next, as you dress don’t forget the compression socks. It turns out that the cells and proteins in your blood determine the amount of fluid that stays in your blood vessels, and how much is pushed out to soft tissues. Your proteins are out of whack, so your body pushes fluid into your ankles, swelling them, and painfully engorging your muscles. The socks provide a temporary reprieve squeezing the fluid around.

Now that you’ve made it to the clinic you have a very important decision to make. You enter the building on the ground floor. There are two ways to get to the clinic one floor above. You can take the elevator (the blessed blessed elevator), or you can take the staircase in the atrium. The physical therapist who deserves sainthood for the evil glares she endures with a smile from you, has made it very clear that if you don’t do some exercise, you will have real trouble in walking. You will hear her voice in your head sweetly telling you that stairs are the best exercise you can get right now. You will also see in the face of your beloved caretaker, that she is hearing that voice too.

The stairs are split in two by a merciful landing. The first half is easy…you will only need to rest here for a minute or two. However, and this is very important, at the top of the second half, to your right is a bench. Do not stop until you are sitting on that bench. It is very important, because at the top of the stairs you will be suffocating, and don’t want to fall down the stairs. Suffocating is not an exaggeration. The deep gasps for air, the empty feeling in your lungs, and the panic you are feeling is real. Without enough red blood cells to take oxygen molecules to your brain and body, you can fill your lungs as many times as you like, but it will not make a difference. You might as well be drowning.

But, it will pass. You will stand, you will walk, and you will make it the 100 feet or so to the treatment area. The nurses (the blessed blessed nurses) will draw vials of blood from an external central line that leads from outside of your body, through your chest, up to your neck, and then down to a point just outside the heart. Then you start to hope for less than 8. It is not always a hard rule, but in your mind you are hoping the hemoglobin count is 7.9 or lower. 8 is the threshold for a transfusion of platelets – red blood cells. These are the cells you need to breathe. These are the cells you need to keep from fainting. These are the cells that will keep you awake for more than three hours at a time.

Without transfusions of red cells and platelets in the days after a bone marrow transplant, you die. Without these transfusions in the weeks after the transplant, when your new marrow is growing, you may not die, but you won’t enjoy living.

Today, from 12-6 at the Holy Cross Church at 4112 East Genesee Street in Syracuse there is a blood drive. The blood you give today may help a bone marrow patient like me. It may help several infants in hospitals around the area. It may save a life of a patient in surgery. No matter who it helps, it will mean that a father or mother or child or grandparent a cancer patient a hemophiliac a friend or a lover will live. Please consider giving a gift you hopefully never have to think about to a person or who can think of nothing else.

Thank you.

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Live in Central New York? I Need Your Blood

On June 4 from 12-6 is the 6th Annual Lankes Family Blood Drive at Holy Cross Church in Syracuse, NY. Ready access to blood has saved my life through my treatments for cancer. One pint of blood can save the lives of several people. Summer is also a high need time for blood donations.

There are spots still available for donors. The Syracuse community has been so supportive of me and my family. I am asking you to extend that love to cancer patients across the area.

Please call 1-800-RED-CROSS or visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter: LANKES to schedule an appointment. Also, there is good chance you can get a $5 Amazon gift card!

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My Remarks on Library Neutrality for the ALA MidWinter President’s Panel

Here are my remarks for Jim Neal’s Presidential Program was “Are libraries neutral?” I was on the “con” side of the debate. tl;dr version – no they are not.

The video of the session should be available soon, but some of the participants have posted their remarks (I’ll add as they come online here):

Chris Bourg (con): https://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2018/02/11/debating-y-our-humanity-or-are-libraries-neutral/

Jamie LaRue (pro): http://www.jlarue.com/2018/02/are-libraries-neutral.html

Emily Drabinski (Responder): http://www.emilydrabinski.com/are-libraries-neutral/

Kathleen McCook’s Booklist (Responder): http://hrlibs.blogspot.com/2018/02/neutrality-and-people-presidents-program.html

My Remarks

My fellow librarians I want to get up here and deliver an impassioned speech, full of alter calls and homilies on how you cannot be passionate advocates for the good of your communities and still claim to be neutral. I want to appeal to your emotions and throw out tweetable lines like “I’d rather be damned for honest efforts to improve the world, than lauded for my objectivity.” I want to point out that freedom of speech, that we take as a given, was once a treasonous concept and has never been equivalent to endorsing speech nor a guarantee from consequence of that speech. I want to remind you that you became librarians to make a difference, to uphold a core of values and that you are professionals, not neutral clerks in a library machine.

I want to do that, but I won’t. It would make us feel good. Well, it would make me feel good. But it would ignore the very real consequences of accepting that librarians, and the libraries that we build and run, are not neutral organizations. Nor will I have a philosophical debate on whether human neutrality is even possible as my colleague has already done so including citations to studies and better thinking than I am capable of.

Instead, I will make a single proposition, and ground it in the pragmatic nature of our profession.

Continue reading “My Remarks on Library Neutrality for the ALA MidWinter President’s Panel”

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Library Renaissance: Building the International Knowledge School

tl;dr version:

Two years ago I did a world tour where I talked about a librarianship based on knowledge and community engagement. I ended up doing a lot more listening than talking. I met amazing librarians, I found common cause, and ideas of how we all could work closer together. So, now it’s time to bring together those seeking a new librarianship into an emerging school of thought. We’re having a planning meeting in Florence, Italy on September 18th. If you are unable to join us in person, we will also be bringing in folks virtually. At that meeting a group of amazing librarians, library organizations, and partners will plan a sort of international progressive conference. Want to play?

Full Version:

There is an emerging school of thought around librarians, libraries, and their relationship to their communities. This school of thought seeks to go beyond data, materials, and information to knowledge, helping people make meaning in their lives, and focusing on communities making smarter decisions. A school of thought goes beyond a smattering of innovative services, or single lighthouse agencies. It is a comprehensive approach to a discipline that ties in theory and practice. The power of these schools of thought can be seen in architecture (modernism that transformed urban living with skyscrapers), economics (changing how countries see debt and how to build global financial marketplaces), to the arts (impressionism), and research (naturalistic inquiry, critical theory, postmodernism).

Right now, this new school of thought in librarianship can be seen in a FabLab driving through the Netherlands, an advocacy campaign in the United States focused on transformation, on new service models in the cities of Brazil, in an atlas of new librarianship, in the advocacy MOOCs of Canada, and a distributed digital library master’s degree in the European Union, and a new public square in Pistoia. It is being shaped in the field, the classroom, and the halls of academia. It is championed by an international cast of librarians, scholars, government workers, and library supporters. The work has resulted in numerous publications, videos, and Internet sites.

There is a loose and growing network of people across the globe working to push the field of librarianship forward. This network exists in email threads, Tweets, Facebook groups, and conference sidebar conversations. It is time to pull this network together, forge a common narrative for the future of libraries, and produce an actionable agenda to equip global change agents to enact new library service in communities across the face of the Earth. While this change will happen with and within existing associations, institutions, and agencies, there needs to for a separate conversation to share knowledge, tactics, and resources to make these changes possible.

To this end, I am proposing a series of national “inventories” leading to an international academy where delegates of the national events share and learn with colleagues to build a strong collaborative network. The shape and nature of this network will emerge from the process and is seen not as an organization or “place,” but rather as an inter-personal connection for projects, mentoring, and support. The ultimate goal of the network is to constitute the new school of thought around a librarianship of knowledge and meaning over materials and buildings. The ultimate goal of the school of thought, what in South Carolina we have been calling the Knowledge School, is to improve society through helping our communities make smarter decisions.

As you can see there are a lot of details to be worked out. However, we already have a number of resources developed from text books, to curricula, to project plans, to documentaries. We also have initial buy in of several international organizations. On September 18th we will be gathering (in person and virtually) in Florence, Italy to plan for the international events.

I’ll be keeping folks up to date here as details and concrete plans emerge.

If you and/or your organization are interested in helping organize this endeavor let me know: [email protected]

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Eisenberg to Give Deans’ and Directors’ Lecture April 3

Postcard for the event

iSchool movement co-founder to deliver annual lecture 

Dr. Michael Eisenberg, dean emeritus and professor emeritus of the Information School of the University of Washington, will deliver the 2017 Deans’ and Directors’ Lecture on Monday, April 3, at the South Carolina State Library, located at 1500 Senate Street. His presentation “South Carolina – Your Time is Now,” will begin at 7 p.m.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is hosted by the School of Library and Information Science.

Eisenberg served as founding dean of the Information School at the University of Washington from 1998 to 2006. Known as an innovator and entrepreneur, Mike approached the iSchool as a startup—transforming the school into a top-ranked, broad-based information school with academic programs on all levels, increasing enrollment 400%, generating millions in funded research, and making a difference in industry, the public sector and education.

Prior to the University of Washington, Eisenberg worked as professor of information studies at Syracuse University, where he created the Information Institute of Syracuse. A prolific author, he has worked with thousands of students, as well as people in business, government, and communities to improve individual and organizational information and technology access and use. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University at Albany (SUNY).

His address will make the case for the importance of the information and communications fields in every area of human endeavor. Eisenberg will challenge South Carolinians to embrace that importance by thinking and acting big and bold, broad and deep to make the world a better place through programs, research, services, and engagement.

The School of Library and Information Science Deans’ and Directors’ Lecture honors the previous deans and directors of the school. A reception and ceremony for outstanding students and the induction of new members into Beta Phi Mu, the national honor society in library and information science, will take place before the event.

For more information, contact Angela Wright at [email protected] or 803-777-3858.  Find more information on the School of Library and Information Science at http://sc.edu/cic.

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December Update

[As director of the University of South Carolina School of Information and Library Science I send out a monthly update to faculty, students, alumni, and partners. This month seemed like a good time to sharing them here a well.]

It is time for a December update on the school. Today marks the end of the Fall semester, and the halfway point for my first year as director. Given the end of the year and commencement is coming pardon me if I get a bit reflective in this update.

November and December have been busy months for SLIS. Here is just a taste of what have been up to:

  • Darin Freeburg had an article accepted to the Journal of Information Science.
  • Jennifer Arns presented at the Copenhagen Business School at the Design Conference.
  • Heather Moorefield-Lang had two proposals accepted at ALA Conference. By the way she is also running for AASL region 4 director, so if you are an AASL member in Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, or West Virginia please consider supporting her.
  • Cocky’s Reading Express continues to keep rolling and is the subject of a piece for ETV’s Palmetto Scene for their work with SCE&G. Also, our own doctoral candidate Liz Hartnett will join the South Carolina Center for Children’s Books and Literacy in the new year.

This month caps off a very busy semester for SLIS. Here is list of some of the things we’ve been working on this semester:

  • Began the search for 4 new members of the faculty.
  • Prepared for our ALA Accreditation by drafting a pretty hefty program study.
  • Celebrated the 10th Anniversary ALL Awards and recognized champions for literacy in South Carolina.
  • Raised the visibility of research at SLIS highlighting our research related to the 1,000 year Columbia Flood, our international work, and posting a major presence at conferences such as IFLA.
  • Built strong collaborations with the Honors program and the Schools of Education and Engineering.
  • Made improvements to Davis College including better lighting and an upgraded teaching lab.
  • Continued to work to grow our undergraduate program and improve all of our degrees with your feedback.

Not bad for a semester. And we have no plans to slow down in the new year.

I also had a great trip to Maine for the Maine Library Association Conference in November. A shout out to our Maine alums (and current students). I learned a lot about the history of bringing the South to the North.

At the conference, I talked about how these days of fake news and an unprecedented presidential election make it an extremely important time for librarians and librarianship. You can hear the whole thing here: https://davidlankes.org/?p=9050

We have all been doing a lot of thinking about these kinds of issues as we work through our Knowledge School Initiative. Through listening sessions and site visits to iSchools it is becoming more and more apparent that it is time to move the conversation of Library and Information Science as a field forward.

For too long we have participated in a semantic game with librarianship and information science. Are they separate? Is information science the evolution of library science or the transferrable parts outside the context of libraries?

Here is where I keep finding myself: library science is the soul of information science and must act as the conscience. It is the necessary question about why we organize and how we should use our knowledge, technology, and tools. It is the quest for social justice in social science.

The knowledge school we are envisioning at SLIS – that we are building in South Carolina with our students, staff, faculty, alumni, and partners – is one grounded in great scholarship that makes a difference in society. As a scholarly community, it is our obligation to identify important issues in our communities, to investigate them, and then to make our communities better with what we find.

That is the signature we have at SLIS. I am only the latest steward of a tradition that sees the role of academia to be an engine of optimism and positive change. It is a tradition that sees illiteracy and works to bring the right of reading to all. It is the tradition that sees the importance of faith communities to community knowledge and seeks to ensure those communities get beyond echo chambers of like ideas. It is a tradition that has examined the history of our profession in social movements and seeks to keep that spirit of activism alive. We marry statistics and data science with marches on the capital. We prepare students in a classroom and on the front lines. We use busses, and YouTube, and journal articles to not only hold up a reflection to our society, but to spur action.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or simply enjoy the bright lights in the dark winter day I wish you peace, and rest, and rejuvenation. Take this time to seek out and model the best of our values. You are part of an important movement and we have need of each and every one of you in the New Year.

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Announcing a School of Library and Information Science Listening Tour

headphones with cord isolated on white background

Greetings. My name is David Lankes and I am the new director of the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science. The staff, students, and faculty of the school have been busy over the past few months building and refining a growth plan for the school. We’re calling it the “Knowledge School,” and we need your input and help.

The plan covers ideas to improve the professional image of librarians, expand the undergraduate program in information science, and grow the national and international reputation of the school. It seeks to build on a strong foundation, but it requires your input. What are your thoughts on our current programs? What opportunities do you see for greater partnerships? How can we both support the library community, and expand our reach into industry and government all while retaining our core values of helping communities make better decisions? What tools do you need to better connect to the school?

I hope you can make one of the following sessions. Each one will layout our current plans as a starting point for discussion and input to move us forward.

Tuesday, November 8, 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
University of South Carolina’s Thomas Cooper Library
Hollings Library Program Room

Thursday, November 10, 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
South Carolina Library Association Conference
Columbia Marriott, 1200 Hampton St, Columbia
Palmetto Balllroom

Tuesday, November 22, 10:00 a.m. – Noon
Richland Library Main, 1431 Assembly St, Columbia
2nd Floor Theater

If you can’t make the meeting I hope you’ll still share your ideas with me at [email protected]. We are open to all your ideas and suggestions both now and in the future.

If you would like to host a session in your community please let me know.