Category: Publications News

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Expect More the Audio Book Now Available

infomercial

[TL;DR version: You can now buy the full audio book version of Expect More from Audible, iTunes, or Amazon…or continue to listen to it one chapter at a time from Circulating Ideas or Nerd Absurd]

{Cue Infomercial Voice} Tired of having to wait two weeks for a chapter of Expect More the audio book? Want the whole thing now with your Audible account? Itching to try audio books on iTunes? Tired of having to not pay for the audio version? Well go buy the Expect More Audio book right now!

That’s right, the full audio book version of Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries For Today’s Complex World is now available via Audible, iTunes, and Amazon. Hear the dulcet tones of a seasoned professor lay out the case for better libraries. Treat your provost, principle, board member, and/or taxpayer to the finest insights on librarianship collected from places such as Egypt, Columbia, Kenya, and Syracuse…New York!

You’ll have to pull to the side of the road as Lankes recites the importance of community, and rasps all philosophical like on fixing libraries trapped in their buildings. “Hey Dave,” you’ll ask your favorite audio device, “exactly how much did libraries return for every dollar invested in Florida libraries?” And you’ll find out…$6.54.

Sure you could buy an iPhone 6, or wait for your Apple Watch; or you can do what the cool kids do and BUY THE EXPECT MORE AUDIO BOOK!

So grab your Expect More the audio book…or listen to it on Circulating Ideas or Nerd Absurd…or download it for free…or buy the paper version. But whatever you do Expect More!

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Expect More…Audio

StereoFish[TL;DR version: Working with Circulating Ideas and the NerdAbsurb podcasts I’m making an Expect More Audio book.]

There are some great reasons for doing books with publishers. You get great editorial and design assistance. There is no way I could have done the Atlas of New Librarianship without MIT Press and ACRL. However, there also a lot of benefits to self-publishing. One of them is complete control of your intellectual property. So I can decide to make Expect More free to download: prioritizing reach over income (it also helps to have a day job). I can also use something like Expect More to try new things which brings me to today’s post.

I want to try and make an audio book. I want to learn about the whole recording/editing/publishing thing. I thought some of you might want to come along for the ride. So, I am recoding Expect More as an audio book. Based on suggestions from you folks, starting next week I’ll be releasing the book as a set of podcasts a chapter every two weeks.

Rather than starting a new podcast, I am lucky enough to partner with some fantastic sites. Circulating Ideas and the NerdAbsurd podcasts will be publishing the chapters throughout the fall. I also plan to compile all the recordings and sell it as an audio book through Audible.

Here’s the anticipated schedule:

Sept 9: Introduction and Chapter 1. The Arab Spring: Expect the Exceptional
Sept 23: Chapter 2. The Argument for Better Libraries: Expect Impact
Oct 7: Chapter 3. The Mission of Libraries: Expect More Than Books
Oct 21: Chapter 4. Facilitating Knowledge Creation: Expect to Create
Nov 4: Chapter 5. Improve Society: Expect Grander
Nov 18: Chapter 6. Communities: Expect a Platform
Dec 2: Chapter 7. Librarians: Expect Brilliance
Dec 16: Chapter 8. Action Plan: Expect More

Along the way I plan on posting some information on what I’m learning in the process.

Here is some more information on the Circulating Ideas and NerdAbsurd podcasts:

Circulating Ideas is the librarian interview podcast hosted by Steve Thomas. Since 2011, it has facilitated conversations about the innovative people and ideas moving libraries through the 21st century and beyond. Find the show online at www.circulatingideas.com and on Twitter @circideas.

NerdAbsurd started in September 2012 with some friends who met at the Dallas Makerspace. The podcast began with four members and was based on science, technology, and cultural topics from the standpoint of semi-hip 20-somethings.   Now, two years later, half of us are in our 30?s, and we still stand by our motto: Not in enough for the in crowd, not out enough for the out crowd.  We are NerdAbsurd.

Have other ideas or advice on an audio book, please share.

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A “Pre-Announcement” for My Next Book: The Boring Patient

So what the heck is a pre-announcement? Well, it is really a call for help as I continue to explore self-publishing. I am looking for advice, help, crazy ideas, and thoughts in general from the library community on how we can best use my next book, The Boring Patient.

What’s The Boring Patient about? It is the story of my journey with cancer. Here’s a short excerpt from the first chapter:

Dear Heroic Noble Inspiring Cancer Survivor

Boring Book CoverThe first line of the first pamphlet I read after my diagnosis of cancer told me I was a survivor. I didn’t have to be cured to be a survivor, I guess just be breathing. This struck me as a pretty low threshold. But as you have probably already found out, there are a ton of stupid metaphors and assumptions around cancer.

Take “fighting cancer”…yeah, that’s what it feels like to lie in a bed asleep for 16 hours straight…fighting. Or, I love it when folks tell me I’m heroic. If anyone was given the choice to take drugs to extend their life wouldn’t they do it? That’s not heroic, it’s common sense. I hope, like me, you have made the brave decision to try not to die.

So what’s in here for you? I hope some comic relief. Seriously, humor has been the best medicine– other than, you know, actual medicine (that’s Seth MacFarlane’s joke I stole). You’re going to hear a lot about the importance of a “positive attitude.” Screw that. You have cancer and could die from it. Feel free to cry, scream, piss people off, and flip the bird to God (he can take it). I do have to tell you, however, that gets very tiresome after a while. Tiresome not for everyone else, who cares, but to yourself. So why not confuse everyone and be happy…besides they all have to laugh at your jokes now.

For those who regularly read my blog, the book is a lot more than just a compilation of my cancer related posts, but has the same spirit.

Anyway, back to my call for help.

We talk a lot about how libraries can be friends to authors. Can we use this book to demonstrate that? I don’t have the ability for a multi-city speaking tour, but I have Skype and I’m always open to good ideas. Would this be a chance to publish the book serially with a chapter a week on library websites? Maybe team up with a newspaper and a public library? Let the creative juices flow.

Right now the plan is to publish this as both a reasonably priced paperback and ebook (with possibly an audio book to follow) as I did with Expect More (more on that soon), my previous self-published book on librarianship for non-librarians. 5”x8” and 145 pages.

Thoughts? Use the comment section below, or email [email protected]

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New Librarianship on Kanopy

I’m thrilled to team up with Kanopy to make the New Librarianship videos from last summer’s MOOC widely available to their customers. Kanopy, from their website, “is a leading distributor of online educational videos, offering colleges, schools, hospitals, corporates and other educational institutions a comprehensive, one-stop shop for all their streaming video needs.” http://www.kanopystreaming.com/about-us

Here is the press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

To celebrate National Library Week, Kanopy is offering a complimentary subscription to R. David Lankes’ New Librarianship Master Class Collection to all Kanopy customers. Lankes is a professor and Dean’s Scholar for the New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse. His book, The Atlas of New Librarianship won the 2012 ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature. Lankes is a passionate advocate for librarians and their essential role in today’s society.

Featuring 41 videos, the collection provides a foundation for practicing librarians and library science students in new librarianship. The collection seeks to generate discussion about the future direction of the profession. It is available to you courtesy of David Lankes and Kanopy in the spirit of creating a collaborative platform for librarians from around the world to debate and share in the key challenges and issues facing librarians today and into the future.
 
Topics include:

Overview and Introduction

• Introduction to the Series
• Introduction to New Librarianship

Librarians

• The Mission of Librarians: The Importance of Worldview
• Knowledge Creation: Introduction to Knowledge
• Facilitating: Access
• Communities: Environment
• Improve Society: Values of Librarianship

Libraries

• The Mission of Libraries: Expect More Than Books
• Video Mission Statements
• Why Libraries? Collective Buying Agent
• Library as Platform
• The Grand Challenges of Library and Information Science

Community

• Moving from Sharing to Lending and Back Again
• Kill the User
• The Deficit Model

To access the video collection, simply visit your Kanopy video portal and search for “New Librarianship”. If you are not a Kanopy customer, we would be happy to provide this resource at no charge to you. Please contact Shannon Spurlock to arrange this: [email protected]

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Free copies of Lankes book now available to ALA Members, Library Trustees and Friends of Libraries

Thanks to ALA for getting out the word and all of their support:

For Immediate Release
Tue, 02/18/2014

Contact:

Mary Ghikas
Senior Associate Executive Director
ALA
312-280-2518
[email protected]
CHICAGO — The American Library Association has consciously and vigorously embraced the position that libraries of all types are the locus of community engagement. As the facilitator of the first round of Midwinter Conversations, R. David Lankes, professor at Syracuse iSchool, knows first-hand ALA’s commitment to community engagement and to turning outward.

Through Lankes’ generosity, ALA members and United for Libraries members are being given the opportunity to access for free Lankes’ book “Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries for Today’s Complex World.” Download this book for free or read it through Medium by going to the following webpage: https://davidlankes.org/?page_id=4598. Also included are brief videos explaining specific concepts and providing practical examples.

R. David Lankes is a professor and Dean’s Scholar for the New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse. Lankes is a passionate advocate for libraries and their essential role in today’s society. He also seeks to understand how information approaches and technologies can be used to transform industries. In this capacity he 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 a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, the Harvard School of Education, and the first fellow of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy. His book “The Atlas of New Librarianship,” co-published by the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, and MIT Press, won the 2012 ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature.

For further information, contact Mary W. Ghikas, Senior Associate Executive Director, ALA, 312-280-2518 or [email protected].

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Save Big on Expect More

Looking for that last minute gift for your favorite library board member, provost, or principal? Look no further. Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries for Today’s Complex World is now just $12 from Amazon…over a 30% savings for the season.

What are folks saying about the book? From GoodReads:
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“An amazing little book that explicates what libraries should be and what we should all expect from them.”

“The author actually made this an interesting read about the future of libraries and what we should demand for them to be even better.”

“FANTASTIC”

“Library boards need to read it. Superintendents, principals, other administrators, teachers, parents, need to read it. Provosts, deans, faculty, and students need to read it. Community members, mayors, city councils, county decision makers need to read it. Library school faculty need to read it.”

4 out of 5 Stars on Amazon

4.5 out of 5 Stars on LibraryThing

Abstract of the Book:

Libraries have existed for millennia, but today many question their necessity. In an ever more digital and connected world, do we still need places of books in our towns, colleges, or schools? If libraries aren’t about books, what are they about? In Expect More, David Lankes, winner of the 2012 ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature, walks you through what to expect out of your library. Lankes argues that, to thrive, communities need libraries that go beyond bricks and mortar, and beyond books and literature. We need to expect more out of our libraries. They should be places of learning and advocates for our communities in terms of privacy, intellectual property, and economic development. Expect More is a rallying call to communities to raise the bar, and their expectations, for great libraries.

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Expect More at 1

We’re coming up to the anniversary of my latest book Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries For Today’s Complex World. It is also my first foray into self-publishing. A month or two after it was published I put up some statistics on how the book has been purchased (from where, in what format, etc) for those interested in self-publishing. II’m doing this post as a quick update.

First the breakdown of ebook versus print:

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Now the Sales Channels where the ebooks were sold:

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Now all the sales channels (ebooks and print combined):

allch

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Expect More at SXSW

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The Digital Public Library of America announced the availability of LibraryBoxes throughout the SXSW conference (and Austin). Folks can connect wirelessly to these boxes and download books, videos and other digital files. We’ve included my Expect More book for those attending the conference. Thanks to Rachel Frick and Margy Avery for making this happen. Enjoy.

More can be found on their blog post: DPLA, LIBRARYBOX AND SXSWI (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/dplaalpha/2013/03/09/dpla-librarybox-and-sxswi/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter)