Category: Presentation

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Reference in the Crowd

“Reference in the Crowd” Trendy Topics Online Conference on Digital Reference, http://www.trendytopics.info/

This was a presentation done as part of the outstanding series of Trendy Topics Online conferences. The full archive of all the conference presenations plus past and future confernces can be found at http://www.trendytopics.info/. Special thanks to Tom Peteres and Lori Bell who put on the conferences and are doing a great service to the library community. Please support these and sign up for a future conference.

Abstract: Digital reference allowed us to escape the bounds of a building and any single collection. We have every right to be proud of transitioning reference from desks in the library to the desks of our members (and their phones). And yet much of this new digital freedom has carried over assumptions and policies developed in places and spaces. What we have built with software, cooperatives, and a mobilized cohort of reference librarians is not an end, but merely a platform for us to truly revolutionize reference. What does answering questions in an interconnected universe of expertise, members, resources, and freedom from the confines of the physical allow us to do? Can we create a whole new reference unrecognizable by our predecessors and infinitely better?
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/Trendy.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2010/Trendy.mp3

Screencast:

Reference in The Crowd from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

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Turn Right at the Obelisk

“Turn Right at the Obelisk” Keynote American Association for Law Libraries Annual Conference. Denver, Co.

Abstract: The future for librarianship is bright, but not if we continue to see our value in our collections and resources – instead of in ourselves. Librarians must take on a mission of facilitating knowledge creation where we configure our services and organizations around our members. Instead of focusing on tech services and public services we must focus on the goals and accomplishments of our communities – be they law practices, academia, or other agencies. The future of librarianship is in our hands, and we must be ready to fight for it.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/AALL-Lankes.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Pod/2010/AALL.mp3

Screencast:

*Audio is now much better. Sorry for the first time. You can also see a video of the presentation at AALL’s site for the next week or so here.

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You are the Future

“You are the Future” Alliance Library System Trendy Topics, Webcast.

Abstract: The future is bright for librarians, but not if we continue chasing trends and focusing on artifacts over knowledge and learning. This presentation looks at the future of librarians and their role in libraries and beyond in the future. We must shape the future starting today, and that future is about and by you, not your buildings or collections or institutions. You are part of an ongoing conversation about improving our communities through knowledge that has lasted over three thousand years…what do you have to say?
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2010/Alliance.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2008/Alliance.mp3

Screencast:

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Syracuse iSchool Library & Information Science program director R. David Lankes to speak at U.S. Embassy event in Rome, Italy

R. David Lankes, director of the Library & Information Science program at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool), will speak at the U.S. Embassy Rome’s spring event “Libraries in the 21st Century.” The event will be held Wednesday, April 21, 2010.

The day-long conference is being organized by the U.S. Embassy to Italy and the American University of Rome. The conference is an initiative to engage the Italian library community in a dialogue with American peers, with the aim of sharing the best and most innovative practices taking place at American libraries.

Speakers at the event will include professionals from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), NATO, Università degli Studi di Parma, Università di Roma “La Sapienza,” Università degli Studi di Cagliari, and Università del Salento. Topics covered will include libraries as participatory places, new librarianship, social media for libraries, catalog sharing, marketing libraries, and the future of books. Lankes’ presentation will focus on how to build a new librarianship.

In addition to speaking at the U.S. Embassy event in Rome, Lankes will also give a presentation the next day in Naples at the Palazzo Donn’Anna to approximately 70 local librarians.

Lankes is LIS program director at the Syracuse iSchool as well as associate professor and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS). The IIS houses several high-profile research efforts, including the Educator’s Reference Desk and projects related to the NSF’s National Science Digital Library.

Lankes co-founded the award-winning AskERIC project in 1992 and served as director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology from 1998 to 2003. He also founded the Virtual Reference Desk project responsible for building a national network of education expertise. In addition, he was also one of the architects of the Gateway to Education Materials, a standards-based system for describing and finding educational materials on the Internet.
Lankes has served on advisory boards and study teams in the fields of libraries, telecommunications, education, and transportation, including at the National Academies. He has been appointed as a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada and the Harvard School of Education. He was also the first fellow of the American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy.