Category: Publications News

There are 6 threads in the Atlas (in essence chapters) that come of the mission. Here is an introduction for the fourth on communities:

Next week I’ll finish posting the thread intros, and then videos about other things in the works related to the Atlas.

P.S.

There is now a Twitter account for the Atlas: AtNewLib

The entire Atlas is based on a mission of librarians:

The MISSION of LIBRARIANS is to IMPROVE SOCIETY through FACILITATING KNOWLEDGE CREATION in their COMMUNITIES

The threads take the major ideas in this mission and map it down to why that is part of the mission, and how librarians can fulfill it.

Here is the intro to the Facilitation Thread:

Teaser for the Knowledge Creation Thread.

The point of these little videos is to set a tone for the thread, not replace it. I’m also trying to capture the tone of the text – personal and conversational as opposed to scholarly third person passive voice. As you can also tell…it is cold in Syracuse.

The following video talks about the structure of the Atlas and how it works:

By the way, If you are wondering why the video is in portrait and not landscape – it has to do with their use on the iPad app.

The Atlas of New Librarianship will be officially announced (and sold) at this year’s ACRL conference in Philadelphia on March 31st at 2. If you have followed this blog you know what the Atlas is, and have been seeing the creation process of the book, the companion website, and the companion iPad app. To get ready for the launch, I wanted to take the next two weeks to give you a taste of the Atlas and the companion content.

Over the coming days I’ll post video clips introducing the different threads and section of the Atlas. Today I’d like to share the introductory video for the companion site:

I’ve done a quick screencast of the companion website and iPad app I’m working on for the forthcoming Atlas of New Librarianship. Please be kind, it is very much a work in progress:

A sneak peek at the coming web and iPad companions to the Atlas of New Librarianship.

For new readers of my blog, my new book, The Atlas of New Librarianship, is being co-published by MIT Press and ACRL this spring. You can follow the links in this post to more about the content of the book. This post is to give folks an update on where we are in production.
First, we have a cover! If you are reading this post, you are seeing it.

Secondly, we have a date! The book is being launched at the ACRL 2011 (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/events/national/2011/). It then will be on sell starting in April.

Thirdly, work has started on a series of Atlas companion pieces like a website and iPad app. To keep up and ask questions feel free to follow along at http://newlibrarianship.org. Half of the book will be available full text, plus places to keep evolving and discussing the Atlas and New Librarianship, plus new indexes and video. You can also join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=169908193049267. Both of these spaces are still very much a work in progress, so don’t expect too much life until March.

Lastly, a special shout out to MIT Press and ACRL. This is going to be a beautiful book 10″x10″ full color with a pull out poster/map and only $55 at about 500 pages. Also a special thanks to the literally hundreds of librarians that have been part of the process and ideas in the Atlas.

We’ve also already gotten some nice reviews:

“Deep thinking, beyond brands, down to the core concepts and competencies that define librarianship. Lankes creates thoroughly described verbal and visual explanations of the relationships between the many disparate parts that make up our professional whole.”
—Jessamyn West, community technology librarian, blogger, and creator of librarian.net

“The Atlas is not a book; it is a manifesto, a set of principles and convictions aimed at shaking new life and belief into a field that too often fears for its own future. Read it and be prepared to act.”
—Andrew Dillon, Dean and Louis T. Yule Regents Professor of Information, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin

So feel free to follow along and take a look at the MIT Press page for the book.

More soon.