Category: Presentation

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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.

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New Librarianship

“New Librarianship” Keynote Charleston Conference 2009, Charleston, SC.

Abstract: The best days of librarianship are ahead of us. However, to get there the field must step back, refocus, and reexamine our core principles. We as a profession have become so focused on the trees of standards and process that we are now at risk from missing the larger forest of opportunities. This talk will present a view of a new librarianship, one focused on knowledge and action instead of artifacts and collection. The presentation will look beyond the trends of today’s technologies to a durable new librarianship that focuses on innovation, leadership, and service.
Slides: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/Presentations/2009/Charleston.pdf
Audio: https://davidlankes.org/rdlankes/pod/2009/charleston09.mp3

Screencast:

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Beyond the Bullet Points: Job Security

The director of the university library called together her staff. “I’m afraid I have bad news. Tuition revenue is down, fewer parents are sending their kids to our university, and there will have to be budget cuts.”

A few hours later the director decided to walk the building and get a sense of moral among her staff. In rare books area she saw a group of librarians busily scanning books. “What are you scanning all of those books?” the director asked.

“We’re trying to increase the digital collection of the library so we can put a lot of great content on the website and make it more appealing to potential students.”

The director went to the acquisition area and saw the librarians surfing Amazon. “What are you doing?” asked the director.

“We are looking to see if we can save money by buying directly from online retailers.”

Finally the director went to the first floor where se saw the reference librarians pulling books off the shelf, tearing off the covers, and then randomly replacing them.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?” cried the director.

“Job security”

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Longshots #191: The Power of Participatory Librarianship

Here is a podcast I did with Sarah Long. Check it out. She also has a bunch of other great podcasts to check out as well:

Sarah talks with Dr. R. David Lankes, Associate Professor and Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse School of Information Studies at Syracuse University about the concept of participatory librarianship. They also discuss the mission of a librarian, learning as conversation, and the four major ways of facilitating knowledge and information.

http://www.librarybeat.org/longshots/play/191