Category: Presentation

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The Post Recession Library

“The Post Recession Library” PLA Virtual Spring Symposium 2011, Online.

Abstract: They say a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. How can libraries and librarians use the economic downturn to reintroduce themselves to their community? How can we restructure libraries and the work of librarians for the future? What entrepreneurial services can a post-recession library offer to their communities suffering from unemployment? This session will talk about conceptual approaches and concrete examples of emerging from the downturn.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2011/PLA.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2011/PLA.mp3 (Sorry for the clicking…I’ll see if PLA has a better audio source)

Screencast:

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Libraries and Broadband: Forging a New Social Compact

“Libraries and Broadband: Forging a New Social Compact” Delaware Library BTOP Launch, Newark, DE.

Abstract: The time for introspection is done. The time for trivia is done. The time for looking for the future of libraries in catalogs, and strategic plans is done. The needs of our communities is too great, and our promise for improvement to large. Our families worry about jobs and the ability to fight their way into a shrinking middle class. Our education system is broken – students unable to learn, or drowning under crushing debt. Our system of government increasingly polarized, our appetites for energy unsustainable, and the very memory of our society eroding behind walls of commerce and false scarcity and obsolescence. These then are among our grand challenges. 

And I know what you are thinking. I know that tomorrow you’ll be dealing with broken printers, and shelving backlogs, and the rising costs of subscriptions. But you must look up. You must never make what you do replace why you do it. And if you can’t link broken printers and shelving to the grand challenges of our society, then you ought to ask why you are doing them. We must stop reacting to the world around us and start inspiring it!

For too long have we defined the core of our profession – service – as standing ready to serve. No one ever changed the world by standing ready. We do it through action. This is the time – this is the place – we are the people.

Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2011/Delaware-Lankes.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2011/Newark.mp3

Screencast:

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Libraries and Broadband: Becoming Radical Change Agents in Our Communities

“Libraries and Broadband: Becoming Radical Change Agents in Our Communities” Vermont FiberConnect: The Library Link Summit, Stowe, VT.

Abstract: And so we come to the point. Why bring broadband libraries. We don’t do it as a means to bring facebook to the masses. We wire our buildings not as points of distraction or simply another service the library offers. Broadband is not a way to bring the world to the citizens of Vermont, but to unleash the passions and potentials of the citizens of Vermont on the rest of the world. Just as the roads of previous generations bound together empires and democracies We can use broadband to bring together the farmer and the lawyer, the entrepreneur and the student, the politician and the protestor in a grand conversation on the future of the state.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/Vermont.pdf

Due to conference setup I was not able to capture the audio and screencast. However, the session was video taped, so I hope to add these later.

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The Librarian Militant, The Librarian Triumphant

“The Librarian Militant, The Librarian Triumphant” NEXT: A Library Futures Symposium, The Alberta Library, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Abstract: What will kill this profession is not ebooks, amazon, or Google. It will be a lack of imagination. An inability to see not what is, but what could be. To see only how we are viewed now, but not how that is only a platform for greatness. Librarianship is not a building, or a collection. It is a conversation you are having. A conversation that has lasted over nearly three millennia. A conversation handed down from generation to generation, culture to culture, great society to great society, epoch to epoch. Librarianship only ends if we stop this conversation – set in stone, transfer practice to golden idols. It only survives if we, librarians and the communities we serve, take it up, renew, refresh it, and constantly engage in what is next. It is in that conversation that we find what a triumphant librarian is. Someone who wakes to see a better day for their community, and works to make the next even better, and the next day after that.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/Alberta.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Pod/2010/Alberta.mp3

Screencast:

The Librarian Militant, The Librarian Triumphant from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

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You Must Focus on Connection Management Instead of Collection Management

“You Must Focus on Connection Management Instead of Collection Management” Allegheny County Library Association, Pittsburgh, PA.

Abstract: A longer presentation of new librarianship
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/Pittsburgh.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2010/Pittsburgh.mp3

Screencast:

You Must Focus on Connection Management Instead of Collection Management from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

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Killing the User and Other Necessary Acts

“Killing the User and Other Necessary Acts” Keynote, Polaris Users Group Annual Meeting, Syracuse, NY.

Abstract: You are not a user, you are not a customer, or consumer – you are a participant in control of your world and able to shape your own learning and environment. So are those we seek to serve. Instead of looking at the members of our libraries as passive consumers we must see them as active constructors. What should our library systems look like to participants, not users?
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/PUG2010.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2010/PUG2010.mp3

Screencast:

Killing the User and Other Necessary Acts from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.